Saturday, August 31, 2019
Marginalization Effect Essay
Social exclusion (also referred to as marginalisation (British/International), or marginalization (U.S.)) is a concept used in many parts of the world to characterise contemporary forms of social disadvantage and relegation to the fringe of society. It is a term used widely in the United Kingdom and Europe, and was first utilized in France.[1] It is used across disciplines including education, sociology, psychology, politics and economics. Social exclusion refers to processes in which individuals or entire communities of people are systematically blocked from rights, opportunities and resources (e.g. housing, employment, healthcare, civic engagement, democratic participation and due process) that are normally available to members of society and which are key to social integration.[2] The resulting alienation or disenfranchisement is often connected to a personââ¬â¢s social class, educational status, relationships in childhood[3] and living standards. It also applies to some degree to people with a disability, minorities, people of all sexual orientations and gender identities (e.g., the LGBT community), to the elderly, and to youth. Anyone who deviates in any perceived way from the norm of a population may become subject to coarse or subtle forms of social exclusion. The outcome of social exclusion is that affected individuals or communities are prevented from participating fully in the economic, social, and political life of the society in which they live.[4] Material deprivation is the most common result of this exclusion. Ensuing poverty, emotional and psychological trauma, and its resulting diseases may result in catastrophic damage to lives, health, and psyche. Most of the characteristics listed in this article are present together in studies of social exclusion, due to exclusionââ¬â¢s multidimensionality.
Friday, August 30, 2019
Wade and Tavris
Two of the renowned authors in the field of psychology Carole wade and Carol Tavris have been vocal in delivering psychology books which are famed for their critical thinking ideals. The topic of motivation has been high on their agenda and the two authors borrow heavily from Abraham Maslow who was a humanist psychologist. Most of Abrahams work involved ideals such as ââ¬Å"self actualization and human potentialâ⬠. Most of his work revolved around the concept of gaining fulfillment and attempting to get it by rising through various levels of needs. This as Abraham came to describe is the ââ¬Å"hierarchy of needsâ⬠which is a pyramid. Abraham described it as one that provided ââ¬Å"motivational strivingsâ⬠for people to achieve its various stages. Maslow proposed a number of levels that make up the pyramid (Abraham, 1999). The bottom level contains basic needs; the second level contains security needs, with affection and belonging being in the third level. The fourth level contains self respect and self esteem needs while the last and fifth level is the self actualization (Wade and Tavris, 1998). Maslow emphasized the needs to fulfill the basic needs to some certain degrees before the other stages in the pyramid can be attained. Wade and Travis describe motivation as ââ¬Å"an inferred process within a person or animal that causes movement either toward a goal or away from an unpleasant situationâ⬠. The authors argue that a competent animal will obviously have motives to achieve. Thus people will generally have the tendency of going through the various stages in the hierarchy of needs and thus possess goals and aspirations. The two individuals assert their positions that goals will have the effect of improving motivation but they have to be pegged on certain conditions. The two argue that in order for the goals to improve motivation then some of the characteristics that they have to posses is that they should be specific, challengeable but achievable and framed in such a way that what is being wanted supersedes what is unwanted. Wade and Tavris go further to describe types of goals which are performance and mastery (learning) goals. The two describe performance goals as those that are framed in such a way that an individual has enhanced performance in front of others and thus is judged favorably with little or no criticism being directed in his direction. Masterly (learning goals) on the other hand are framed in such a way that the individual works towards increasing his competence and skills. With these the two authors suggest that an individualââ¬â¢s main motivation will be to perform well in front of others or learning the skill for the satisfaction of it. The two renowned personalities tend to argue that praise may not be a motivation and they show this by giving an example of how a child may loose the pleasure or motivation of learning if the child is being praised for being smart. Motivation is regarded as one of the powerful tools that has the capability of enhancing performance and when the right form of motivation is found then the individual will achieve higher. Self efficacy which is an individuals belief that he they are capable of attaining goals, being efficient and learning new skills is one of the best motivations that an individual can have (Bandura, 1997). However the motivation will only work when the goals that are desired are achievable and thus the expectation that is pegged to the motivation should coincide with the attainability of the goal.
Thursday, August 29, 2019
Post 9/11 Intelligence Reform Impact and the Way Ahead
Final Post 9/11 Intelligence Reform Impact and the Way Ahead Daniel Ratner INTL 444 Professor Mead October 8, 2012 Introduction After 9/11, an event so shocking, and humiliating to both the American people, and the U. S. Government, vast reforms were identified to ensure that an attack of this magnitude never happened again. From the ashes of this despicable act came two major pieces of Intelligence reform. These documents were the 9/11 Commission Report and The Intelligence Reform Act and Terrorist Prevent Act of 2004 (IRTPA).Both documents worked to reform the Intelligence Community (IC), and streamline current processes to improve the sharing of intelligence information, and products. With the sweeping changes mainly through the ITPRA the Intelligence Community is well on its way to being the major muscle group we need it to be acting as a single unit as opposed to separate and individual muscles all trying to lift the same heavy weight.With the findings of the 9/11 commission, th e implementations of the IRTPA have taken long strides, but what can be done better? We will look at the two pieces of legislation, and then compare and contrast the sweeping changes, and if the are going in the correct direction. The 9/11 Commission Report In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, a group of politicians both Republican and Democrats came together to identify shortfalls and introduce a call for reform. According the report, ââ¬Å"Our aim has not been to assign individual blame.Our aim has been to provide the fullest account of the events surrounding 9/11 and to identify lessons learned. â⬠When we as Americans have a major event in the United States, we always look for a scapegoat, the ideas behind the 9/11 commission was built as a bi-partisan group for just this reason. The report takes the events of 9/11 and attempts to paint a picture of a major lack of understanding of the threat we face from radical Islam, as well as other disenchanted with is around the world.Th e 9/11 report goes deep into the history of the events surrounding 9/11, but really only spends about 25 pages of the 450 pages report identifying the shortcomings, and way ahead. Now while this is a macro view of the reforms needed, it does leave much to the imagination. Post 9/11 Reform As we look at the reforms recommended we see that the commission broke the recommendations into major groups, they divided them into ways to give Overall Government Reform.This is subdivided into five categories, a new Unity of Effort between Foreign and Domestic operations in an attempt to mandate primacy in different types of operations to ensure the proper agency is doing the correct job, A Unity of Effort for the Intelligence Community, Unity of Effort in Sharing Information, Unity of Effort of in the Congress, and finally how to better organizing Homeland defenses. While these are all important, the major issue was the lack of ownership and sharing of intelligence between governmental agencies .As the 9/11 commission pushed for counterterrorism reform, it also pointed to a need for intelligence reform. the IC reform was aimed at the way we collect process and disseminate intelligence. The 9/11 commission struck to identify, ââ¬Å"whether the government is organized adequately to direct resources and build the intelligence capabilities it will need not just for countering terrorism, but for the broader range of national security challenges in the decades ahead. This viewpoint looks at the National Intelligence Agencies and strive to focus their power to be both effective, and balanced. Coupled with these factors the 9/11 commission identified six major problems, the structural barriers to performing joint intelligence work, lack of common standards and practices across the foreign-domestic divide. Divided management of national intelligence capabilities, weak capacity to set priorities and move resources, too many jobs, and too complex and secret. Structural Barriers To P erforming Joint Intelligence WorkAlong with the issues of trying to keep ahead of our enemies, we must also be able to share our information with other intelligence agencies, and our allies. As the 9/11 report shows: ââ¬Å"National intelligence is still organized around the collection disciplines of the home agencies, not the joint mission. The importance of integrated, all-source analysis cannot be overstated. Without it, it is not possible to ââ¬Å"connect the dots. â⬠No one component holds all the relevant information. â⬠While all agencies collect information, only through joint integration can we truly paint an accurate assessment of the facts.As a reference, the report cites the Goldwater Nichols legislation of 1986, in which Operations as a whole were better envisioned though joint co-operative training. It shows the strengths of these types of events and why we must incorporate more joint intelligence to be successful. Lack Of Common Standards and Practices Acro ss the Foreign-Domestic Divide This portion of the report goes on to show the issues we have in the cases of both database management and dissemination of information. In cases of information gathered both home and abroad, there are issues with integration and synchronization of this workflow.Many have cited and shown how across the IC there are multiple databases, of which there is no conduit to share information, multiple programs collecting the same data, but are not cross-matched, and in many cases redundant entries are made, and then not managed creating an abundance of information unable to be processed due to a lack of manpower. Divided Management of National Intelligence Capabilities As the IC swelled in the post World War 2 and Cold War eras, we saw the abilities of many agencies in collections dwindle and collapse.The report shoes the degradation of the CIAââ¬â¢s ability to collect IMINT, and SIGINT. As the NSA, NRO NGIA, and other have been created, the HUMINT, OSINT a nd other intelligence collected by the CIA has had issues being validated due to the inability to task other agencies assets. Some of these issues were solved through their acquisition of their own satellites and some reform, but again we see information that is collected by a sole agency, which is not easily shared or validated by an outside source. Weak Capacity to Set Priorities and Move ResourcesThe task organization of the IC and the way in which it is managed fell on the Director of Central Intelligence, giving the CIA free reign in many cases, and also in many cases too much ability to mismanage or squander resources. As they struggle to manage these resources, and ensure all members of the IC are covered for what they need, there was little oversight in the ability to prioritize collection efforts. Moreover, there was little though given to how to best manage , ââ¬Å"what they collect or the way they collect it. â⬠Too Many Jobs As of the time of the 9/11 report the DC I had three jobs.Running of the CIA, manage the other members of the IC, and head analyst for the President of the United States. Any one of these positions is a capstone to a successful career; in the days of 9/11 it fell on one person. As the report goes on to show, is the fact that, ââ¬Å"No recent DCI has been able to do all three effectively. Usually what loses out is management of the intelligence communityâ⬠¦Ã¢â¬ This overtasking of an individual is not only reckless, but in many cases gave too much power to the CIA. The report finds that the DCI has three major shortcomings.They find that the DCI lacks the ability to control the funds allocated to the IC, the ability to remove or replace agency heads, and the ability to set the quality control and standardization of collection efforts. Too Complex and Secret As if all the previous five findings were not enough, we also see the issue of a cumbersome and hidden group of organizations. At the time of the 9/11 report, th e IC was comprised of 15 agencies, mainly managed by a single entity. This coupled with no clear roadmap to how the groups interact, whom they report to, and how they fund operations.Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (IRTPA) Out of the ashes of the events of 9/11 and the reforms brought forth by the 9/11 Commission report, came the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (IRTPA). This legislation known as S. 2845à was introduced by Senatorà Susan Collinsà ofà Maine. The bill was enacted after being signed by the President on December 17, 2004. This legislation strove to take the 9/11 Commissions findings and implement them into law. As mentioned at the beginning of this paper, we mentioned six major problems the IC faced.Being that the IC was managed mainly based on the National Security Act of 1947, the IRTPA brought changes to the IC by taking the bad and refining the good of each item. The major change seen in the IRTPA was the crea tion of the Director of National Intelligence. As we had seen in the 9/11 report, the DCI was way too overtasked, and the need for an Intelligence Community to have a director. The Structural Barriers to Performing Joint Intelligence Work In the wake of 9/11 the Joint Intelligence Community Council.This council Chaired by the Director of National Intelligence, is comprised of all major Presidential advisors. It is chartered to ââ¬Å"â⬠¦assist the Director of National Intelligence in developing and implementing a joint, unified national intelligence effort to protect national securityâ⬠¦Ã¢â¬ This council also in the matter of advising the Legislative branch, may make recommendations to improve the IC. Lack of Common Standards and Practices Across the Foreign-Domestic Divide With the creation of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) came the call for a ââ¬Å"performance of common services. This charge stands to ensure that services previously not shared, managed, or understood are standardized. It also stands to provide a set of ââ¬Å"standardsâ⬠for the agencies to follow, and hence stay regulated. Divided Management Of National Intelligence Capabilities Under the National Security Act of 1947, the DCI was the head of the IC, but under the IRTPA, a new position was enabled. The new position Director of National Intelligence, appointed by the President of the United States. This change gave the DCI more oversight of the CIA, and gave the President a subject matter expert, one who had a single focus job.This also gives the DNI the ability to manage the tasking of national collection assets, a job not really performed before. Weak Capacity to Set Priorities and Move Resources In the case of the ability to set priorities, once again the charge goes to the DNI. He is charged to ââ¬Å"establish objectives, priorities, and guidance for the intelligence community to ensure timely and effective collection, processing, analysis, and disseminatio nâ⬠¦Ã¢â¬ This charge gives the DNI the ability manage resources, requirements, conflict resolution between agencies to include the use of assets, and collection platforms.The only person the DNI must concede to the President. Too Many Jobs While we had an issue of the DCI having too many jobs before, some might say that the DNO now has too many jobs. This is a misconception, since the DNI has no intelligence agency to manage, rather he has department heads to manage that job. He instead focuses on the seamless and integrated manager of the whole gambit of intelligence. Too Complex and Secret The final goal of the IRTPA served to take the mystery and lack of oversight out of the IC. The establishment of an Inspector General to the DNI was enacted under the IRTPA.This office serves to manage ethical matters, settle complaints of favoritism, and ensure civil liberties are upheld through the actions of the IC and concurrence with National and International Laws. Other Changes Dri ven by the IRTPA The four findings recommended by the legislation are the following: (1) Long-term success in the war on terrorism demands the use of all elements of national power, including diplomacy, military action, intelligence, covert action, law enforcement, economic policy, foreign aid, public diplomacy, and homeland defense. 2) To win the war on terrorism, the United States must assign to economic and diplomatic capabilities the same strategic priority that is assigned to military capabilities. (3) The legislative and executive branches of the Government of the United States must commit to robust, long-term investments in all of the tools necessary for the foreign policy of the United States to successfully accomplish the goals of the United States. (4) The investments referred to in paragraph (3) will require increased funding to United States foreign affairs programs in general, and to priority areas as described in this title in particular.By breaking these findings out, we can better see how the IC can transform and flex the major muscle it has the ability to do. While there were pages and pages of changes, and background these four findings standout as the major players in policy reforms. Long-term Success in the War on Terrorism To be successful in the war on terror, we must utilize all possible assets and allies assets to our advantage. To do this we need to focus our efforts by sharing information, and ensuring that agencies are receiving timely and relevant updates to collected intelligence to ensure overall success.This sharing is critical to both foreign and domestic interests. Balance of Diplomatic, Economic and Military Influences The even balance of lethal, non-lethal and Humanitarian actions must be monitored and controlled. Too much use of any of these can degrade the ability of the United States and itââ¬â¢s allyââ¬â¢s effects in foreign actions. It is also important to remember that even in an attempt to show ourselves as a â⠬Å"hard targetâ⬠we must show compassion and understanding to those less fortunate than us.This is a necessity if only because we must show the rest of the world that we are not so devoid of emotion that we can relate with their plights and ways of life. Overall Governmental Commitment to Success The war of terror is a marathon not a race. Only though the applied funding, legislative drive to ensure resources, and the executive branch push to allow success of the IC can we succeed in the war on terror. We cannot allow political infighting, election cycles, opinion polls, or other media-like reports to stop our drive for the end-state.While not always pretty, cost-effective, and popular, the needs of the IC to gather raw data must be protected. Added distractors such as political infighting in cases such as the passing, or re-authorization of the Patriot Act are great examples of the dangers the IC faces in achieving its goals. Commitment to Success and its Costs As stated abov e, this marathon is not always going to be cost-effective. Emerging technologies, payouts to sources, replacing of equipment, and other costs, not always made privy to the general public must be supported.Failure to the fund the IC can be detrimental to their success. While oversight is needed to ensure embezzlement is not a factor, the budget increases the IC requests should not be delayed or jeopardized by political adversaries, nor used as a talking point. This is currently seen in the $500 Billion defense cuts enacted by supercommittee legislations as face now. Conclusion As we see the changes made in the past 8 years since itââ¬â¢s inception, the IRTPA has helped the IC, but has not fixed it yet.While the DNI creation was a good thing, we do still see cases of the DNI have too much responsibility, and too much work. In some cases the added changes have brought more costs in bureaucratic startup, oversight, and staffing. While the need to separate the DCI from the rest of the agencies was important, the IRTPA has limited the CIAââ¬â¢s abilities an a variety of ways. Other advantages have been the information sharing of intelligence. The sharing has instituted policies and procedures as well as shared technology serves to better share information in a common platform.All things being combined, the IRTPA has been a game changer for the IC, only through reform, and through lessons learned will we strengthen and improve our practices, keeping our country safer. Bibliography 9/11 Commission. The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. Report, Washington, D. C. : U. S. Government Printing Office, 2004. Andrew, Christopher. For Presidentââ¬â¢s Eyes Only: Secret Intelligence and the American Presidency from Washington to Bush. New York: Harper Press. Beckner, Christian.Implementing the 9/11 Commission Recommendations: An Analysis. http://www. hlswatch. com/sitedocs/Implementing%20the%209 11%20Commission%20Recs. pdf (accessed October 03, 2012). Congress, 108th. INTELLIGENCE REFORM AND TERRORISM PREVENTION ACT OF 2004. December 17, 2004. http://www. nctc. gov/docs/pl108_458. pdf (accessed October 03, 2012). GovTrack. us. H. R. 1 (110th): Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007. August 3, 2003. http://www. govtrack. us/congress/bills/110/hr1 (accessed October 3, 2012). S. 2845 (108th): Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004.December 17, 2004. http://www. govtrack. us/congress/bills/108/s2845 (accessed October 03, 2012). Jr, Richard A. Best. Intelligence Reform After Five Years: The Role of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). June 22, 2010. http://www. fas. org/sgp/crs/intel/R41295. pdf (accessed October 03, 2012). Rosenbach, Eric. Organization of the Intelligence Community. July 2009. http://belfercenter. ksg. harvard. edu/publication/19145/organization_of_the_intelligence_community. html (accessed October 03, 2012). à ¢â¬âââ¬âââ¬âââ¬âââ¬âââ¬âââ¬âââ¬âââ¬âââ¬âââ¬âââ¬âââ¬âââ¬âââ¬â [ 1 ]. 9/11 Commission.The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. Report, Washington, D. C. : U. S. Government Printing Office, 2004. , p xvi. [ 2 ]. iBid. , p. 407 [ 3 ]. iBid. , pp. 407-410 [ 4 ]. iBid. , p. 408 [ 5 ]. iBid. , p. 409 [ 6 ]. iBid. , P. 409. [ 7 ]. GovTrack. , S. 2845 (108th): Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. , Website. , Washington D. C. accessed October 3, 2012 [ 8 ]. iBid. , Sec. 1031 [ 9 ]. iBid. , Sec. 1001 (r) [ 10 ]. iBid. , Sec. 1001 (i) [ 11 ]. iBid. , Sec. 7101
Wednesday, August 28, 2019
Taking a UK Public Service provider of your choice what might its Essay
Taking a UK Public Service provider of your choice what might its Business Objective(s) be - Essay Example This is because it is going to support the macroeconomic structures of the country and this will ultimately improve lives in the United Kingdom. Macroeconomics is the performance, structure and behaviour of the entire economy of a nation and how it links to the wider global as well as internal economic units (Imrie et al, 2009). In order to assess whether the London 2012 Olympic Games is beneficial to the UK or not, it would be better to approach the whole situation through the study of trends in the macro economy. Expenditure It is noted that there is a budget of ?9.35 billion that was set aside for the London 2012 Olympics (Department of Culture Media & Sport, 2011). This amount is to be funded mainly by the International Olympics committee, thereby inferring that the funds for the games would be generated from the global community and not the British Government. This implies that there will be an injection of funds and capital that would help to develop the UK economy and add up t o the current infrastructural base of the country. Also there will be enormous injection into the economy that will boost the various economic units of the economy to enable the economy to make important gains that would help it into the future. According to PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the UK economy would benefit from the London 2012 Games from three main angles: 1. Global Economic Support 2. Business Support, Innovations & Diversification & 3. People Skills & Employment Global Economic Support The UK will benefit from the concentration of foreign investment in the country. This is because the International Olympics Committee will be involved in funding the budget of ?9.35 Billion which would be used to develop the various components of the economy to enable the nation to meet all the necessary requirements of the Games. This money will provide various levels of financial and economic support to important elements of the economy. This will enable the country to report gains and this is likely to improve the standards of living in the UK on an aggregate level. The Gross Domestic Product is a measure of the worth of output in a given economy in monetary terms at a given point in time. It is a concept that seeks to evaluate the net worth of economic activities of the various sectors in a given economy at a given point in time. PriceWaterhouseCoopers reports that the Gross Domestic Product of the UK will enjoy about ?2 billion increase between 2005 and 2016, which can be linked directly to the London 2012 Games and the corresponding investments made by the international community in the country. Out of this figure, London alone will get an increase of ?0.5 billion which can be directly attributed to the event. Secondly, the London 2012 Games is to inject much needed infrastructure into the nation's economy. This is through the building and renovation of stadiums, sporting facilities, accommodation, airports and other important facilities throughout the country. Out o f this, it is expected that the infrastructural base of London will increase by a total of ?0.6 billion whilst infrastructure in the rest of the UK will increase by ?0.2 billion. The increase in infrastructural units attributed to the London Olympics is a major addition and economic injection into the country's economy. This is because these infrastructure will add up to the asset base of the country and long after the games are over, the
Advance organizational behaviour Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words
Advance organizational behaviour - Coursework Example Thus, one of the most important contributions of romanticists is the creation of the inner self. The creation of the deep interior is common among mankind. All of us have capacities or capabilities or habits which are built deep inside us in our consciousness. These capacities are neither so visible nor so prevalent that they can be understood easily. Deep inside us in the interior there is a major constituent known as the soul. It is this soul which created more value and charm amongst the humans thereby, portraying them as powerful holding the ability to accomplish many tasks. The romanticists believed that the inner self of people had great potential and it was this which they discussed. For the romanticists today, people should try to spread love and moral values should be upheld. One should try to find the meaning of life and should figure out the importance of human life. Lately romanticists have been on the decline and even though there vocabulary and ideas still exist their i nfluence has mostly been from the sidelines. It has been the modernists that have taken over the position of the romanticists. Modernist ideas can be said to be a revival of the enlightenment beliefs of reason and observation. These relate to Darwinist ideas that there should be evolution and evolvement of the theories for its survival in the modern world. Also there are many truths hidden in this world that are yet to be discovered and therefore, there should be a search for these fundamentals or important truths. Along with the above two, modernism has other assumptions as well such as the faith in progress and the absorption of ideas into the way of life in the society. These assumptions have been largely encouraged by the scholars and have been implemented broadly when the societyââ¬â¢s organization theories have been formed. As years have progressed modernism and romanticism have been studied, researched and analyzed in detail. However, when it comes to the application of th ese theories in the real world today these theories seem livid or impractical. As a result, people tend to look towards other theories and this is where post modernism comes in. People tend to look towards post modernism as a relevant theory because it tends to discuss those topics such as culture and intellect which the people are interested in. Postmodernist view, objective, universal, recognizable as the truth is the mythical, all we have ever found in the search for truth is painful ââ¬Å"truthsâ⬠that the only compelling in their own time and culture, but of course the truth is not has never been ours. Also, if we make a mistake to claim to know the truth, there are misleading at best and dangerous at worst. A personââ¬â¢s sense of identity is a complex designed by the forces of the surrounding culture. Individual consciousness ââ¬â a vague ââ¬Å"decenteredâ⬠the collection of conscious and unconscious beliefs, knowledge and insight of themselves and the worl d ââ¬â is malleable and arrived at through interaction with the surrounding culture. Postmodernism, then, as opposed to modernity is the dissolution of self. The postmodern perspective, we should not regard ourselves as unique, unified, confident, independent individuals. The language of our culture (visual and verbal cues that we use to represent the world to ourselves), literally ââ¬Å"buildâ⬠what we consider ââ¬Å"realâ⬠in our daily lives. In this sense, the reality is a ââ¬Å"textâ⬠or ââ¬Å"compositeâ⬠of texts and the texts (rather than God created reality) is the only reality we can know. Our sense of self ââ¬â who we are, how we think about ourselves and how we see and interpret the world and give us a sense in it ââ¬â
Tuesday, August 27, 2019
Review of a Research Document about Physical Education Literature
Of a Research Document about Physical Education - Literature review Example Review of a Research Document about Physical Education In this regard, a database search was carried out using the keywords / phrase, ââ¬Å"assessmentâ⬠ââ¬Å"motivationâ⬠and ââ¬Å"physical educationâ⬠using the Education Resources Information Centre (ERIC), where a direct link was provided. The link, however, contained only an abstract similar with the one provided at ERIC and not a full-text paper. Another search was conducted with Google Scholar using the same keywords / phrase. The second phase of the search yielded the full-text article by Standage, Duda and Ntoumanis (2006) in portable document format (PDF). 2. Description of paper Standage, et al (2006) ventured to evaluate the association between the motivational processes among secondary school students of physical education (PE) and their teachersââ¬â¢ ratings of their effort and persistence. Some 394 British students of a secondary school and nine PE teachers voluntarily participated in the study. The study addressed the following research problems: 1. In vestigation of a model of motivational processes predicated on the self determination theory; 2. Verification of the adequacy of confirmatory factor analysis of the measurement model; and 3. Performance of structural equation modelling on the following hypotheses: (a) perceptions of an autonomy supportive environment would positively predict autonomy, competence and relatedness; (b) autonomy, competence and relatedness would positively predict self-determined motivation; and (c) self determined motivation would positively predict positive teacher ratings of student effort and persistence.... theory (SDT) of human motivation in the individual ââ¬â level, which asserts that ââ¬Å"humans are innately oriented toward growth and healthâ⬠(Deci and Ryan, as cited in Fortier, Williams, Sweet, and Patrick, 2009, p.156; Deci and Ryan, 2007). SDT impinges on the assumption that the social context influences individual outcomes, including motivation (Weiss and Amorose, 2008; Standage, et al., 2006). In this regard, the social environment can either nurture or hinder an individualââ¬â¢s active, integrating nature as a human being. One such component of the social environment in this study is the PE teacher. Data was gathered from two different state schools in southeast England after ethical requirements have been complied with, based on the standards set by the British Psychological Society. This includes the use of students (i.e., human subjects) in the study, and consent from the high school principals in their capacity as in loco parentis, among others. A multi-sect ion inventory was administered to the student-participants after the researcher has discussed, among others that: responses in the inventory are neither correct nor wrong; the PE teacher will not be able to view their responses to the inventory; and the respondentsââ¬â¢ anonymity and the confidentiality of their responses will be safeguarded. Teachers provided their ratings for each studentââ¬â¢s motivated behaviour in the PE class in terms of effort and persistence. Self-reported responses were compared with the teacher ratings through a coding system devised by the researchers. The multi-section inventory measured the following variables: autonomy support, autonomy, competence, relatedness, motivational regulations (i.e., intrinsic motivation, identified regulation, introjected regulation, external regulation,
Monday, August 26, 2019
Organizational Behaviour Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words
Organizational Behaviour - Essay Example However, soon afterwards Ali was assigned larger and difficult projects that he was supposed to complete on his own. From the above figure it is apparent that there is a strong interrelation between tensions arising out of a desire to achieve personal advancement (as has been observed in Ali), and a corresponding resolution of the same in the form of credit given against individual performance (that Tony failed to deliver). Furthermore, the motivational capability of Tony was suspect because he was never too serious about catering to Aliââ¬â¢s queries and it was evident that the latter was gradually being demotivated. ââ¬Å"Maslow suggested that there are five needs systems that account for most of our behaviourâ⬠and as is evident from the figure appended above, he theorised that ââ¬Å"there is a natural trend in which individuals become aware of and therefore are motivated by each of these needs in ascending orderâ⬠(Montana & Charnov, 2008, pp.238). As the case revealed that Ali was looking forward to gain a learning experience during his tenure at WD Inc., and in this context it may be mentioned that his extrinsic needs required motivation in the form of a prospect to earn a good grade, and his intrinsic needs called for motivation in the form of challenges as well as accomplishment in association with learning. On the other hand, Tony himself was not sufficiently motivated in order to be able to motivate his subordinates and he exhibited a major deficiency in the area of multi-tasking as well. Consequently, he could not offer any significant supervision and guidance to Ali, there by resulting in the frustration of the latter. As has been opined by Bennis & Goldsmith (1997) ââ¬Å"in addition to being important to organisations, communication is critical to the leader, manager, or supervisorâ⬠(Harris, 2002, pp.14). The importance of this organisational function can be comprehended from the fact
Sunday, August 25, 2019
Gender and Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words
Gender and Culture - Essay Example This tendency was mostly drawn from the ancestral parents who used to be disciplinarians on their families. Through the frequent harsh and physical punishments, in the later days, the children develop to be resilient to their parents. The children normally have no right of negotiation but to follow their parentsââ¬â¢ instructions (Shaw & Tuch, 2007).à The African Americans mostly use commands and punishments in order to instill discipline on their kids as compared to counseling and negotiations like the majority of other ethnic parents. Child beating is usually seen as the appropriate way of correcting the child in case of disobedience, than just talking. These methods originate from the ancient beliefs of instilling independence among the children, molding spiritual wellbeing, emphasis on the extended and family relationships, self racial pride and perseverance in times of hardships (Shaw & Tuch, 2007).à However, most of the defiant children come from the African American families. That can clearly be proved by relatively high numbers of them receiving social support from friends and extended families and high numbers of the homeless children. Despite the setbacks and no matter how wealthy the African American parents are, they still push their kids to achieve more. Through the tough love, the children learn to be emotionally strong even in times of hardships (Shaw & Tuch, 2007).à The extended family may live within the family and they may give discipline or care when situation arises. It is reported that the African American children are twice as much likely to be raised by an extended family, grandparent or single parent due to the frequent cases of divorce among the black families. Grandmothers are the frequent care givers for the abandoned or runaway children. The runaway children usually escape the violence or brutal treatment within the family. This can depict the dysfunctions
Saturday, August 24, 2019
Survey of a Public Building Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words
Survey of a Public Building - Essay Example It is said that the building was presided by one Tower 42 and surpassed by the Shard London Bridge. The cost of the building then is said to have been ? 500 million (London Architecture, 2012). During the construction of the building, some prominent personalities were of the contrary opinion with the then prime minister Margret Thatcher opposing its construction. I. Identify and comment on the structure and construction of the various components, which make up the primary and secondary elements associated with your chosen building. From 1991 to 2010, one Canada square remained the tallest building in the city of London with 50 storey floors (Emporis, 2012). The with such magnificent features the building involved high level engineering works given the nature of the building in terms of height and the weight. The building utilized almost 16,000 pieces of steel used to constitute the exterior cladding and the structural frames of the building. Within the floor of the building, there is the composite construction that consists of the compact steel core that also involved the perimeter columns that surrounds the outer perimeter. 130 feet pyramid weighing 11 tons is also used to for the capping of the building (39.6 meters) (London Architecture, 2012). The building also prides of being the first to be clad in stainless steel. In this regard, the building consumed approximately 370,000 of the material Pattern Hyclad Cambric in square feet. The material is used to clad the entire building. The weight in metric tones that is used to make the building is 27,000 metric tons of steel reinforced by over 500,000 bolts (London Architecture, 2012). This is in the consideration of the whole building. There is also the lobby clad that is used in the building. The lobby clad is 11 meters (36 feet) high and about 90,000 square feet origin of the marble were imported from two countries Guatemala and Italy in the construction of the building (London Architecture, 2012). The buildin gââ¬â¢s foundation was reinforced with a number of stainless steel with motor and concretes to provide firm support for the buildings enormous weight. The stainless steels used in the building were all bolted for the required firmness of the building. Further protection of the steel was achieved by the use of mortar in-fill. The buildings floor area is 28,000 square feet. The building also has installed at the top a pyramid. The building is capable of handling about 108, 000 deliveries in a single year. Aircraft warning are also fitted in the building and flashes 40 times every minute (NCE, 2012). The picture above shows a cross section of the architectural design of the buildingââ¬â¢s wall, the position of the stainless steel used in the building can be seen in the figure. The integrated composite construction that constitute the floor and the steels that forms part of the wall were designed in such a manner to provide proper anchorage of the building owing to the mass of the materials used in the building and that of the pyramid at the top. The use of stainless steel was to provide the required strength and to eliminate the possibility of corrosion in the building. The steels connection are all done by use of fastening bolts for the provision of extra support. II. Give consideration to the period and date of the construction, the type of the dwelling, its expected design life at the time of construction and the state of its structural
Friday, August 23, 2019
Organizational behavior Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words
Organizational behavior - Essay Example Motivation has always been considered a stronghold of the human resources department but lately organizations have realized that line managers are constantly in contact with the employees and for most of the employees, their immediate superiors represent the management of the company (Brewster & Larsen 1992). If these managers have the responsibility and authority to control and reward the employees directly under them, it could enhance productivity and effectively work out better for the organization. The personnel specialists have practically negligible interactions with the employers and it is felt that line managers are appropriate to handle the issues relating to staff under them. They are suitable to motivate and being out the best from the staff. Motivation to work can come from external factors or from within. According to Maslowââ¬â¢s Hierarchy of Needs, the physiological needs have to be satisfied for an individual to be motivated to work for the next need. In this hierarchy the self-actualization arises when all other needs have been satisfied. According to Herzberg two factors act upon the motivation of employees ââ¬â the hygiene factors and the motivators. Hygienes are the intrinsic entities while motivators are intrinsic (Tietjen & Myers, 1998). According to Herzberg motivators cause positive job attitudes because they satisfy the workers need for self-actualization, which according to Maslow is the need for self-actualization, which is an individualââ¬â¢s ultimate goal. These motivators include recognition, achievement, growth prospects, responsibility and the work itself. Most employees are not clear about the roles and responsibilities, no role clarity, which leads to no satisfaction of job as the motivators according to Herzberg (cited by Tietjen & Myers, 1998) are not present. These factors can have a lasting impression on workerââ¬â¢s attitude,
Thursday, August 22, 2019
Fitzgerald the Misogynist Essay Example for Free
Fitzgerald the Misogynist Essay At first, the female characters in Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby seemed to be rather dissimilar. Daisy was the angelic and innocent beauty, Jordan was the androgynous golfer, and Myrtle was the sensuous and vivacious seductress. One was from the holy heavens above, another from the sinful depths below, and the last from the neutral in between. Seems like a good balance, however, as the story progresses, we see more and more that the angle is a fallen one, and that the human is a demon in disguise. All three women in this novel use men in some form to get what they want. Looking at the depictions of the female sex in this novel, I believe that, yes, Fitzgerald was a misogynist. Daisy is a careless siren who uses everything given to her by birth to win what she loves, namely attention, adoration, and social status. The only thing that will give her the three is wealth, and the only thing that can give her wealth is Tom Buchanan. Despite having supposedly change her mine (Fitzgerald 74) just prior to their wedding, Daisy still married Tom Buchanan without so much as a shiver (75), and very eagerly uses her new-found money and power to buy her way to the top. It is evident that, from Daisys point of view, true love cannot compare to the money and adulation she craves. Upon her reunion with Gatsby, the first in five years, she breaks down into tears because shes never seen suchbeautiful shirts before (89). The beautiful shirts owned by Gatsby have proven to Daisy that he is even wealthier than Tom, and this fact sends Daisy into a deep lament. That is, if she had just stayed with Gatsby from the beginning, shed be receiving even more attention and adoration than the already considerable amount she possesses at present because Gatsby could have offered her even more than the immense fortune she already holds. Poor, poor girl. Jordan is the least female of the three females, and I believe this is the reason why Fitzgerald did not have her meet an untimely death, destroy familial relations, or come to any other end she could have at the mercy of a woman-hater. Jordan is representative of the wives and daughters who emerged from WWI as androgynous, self-esteemed, and slightly misandric new women. When Nick first meets Jordan, she was perceived as balancing something on it [her chin] which was quite likely to fall (14). Though it isà not directly stated, I think Jordan is balancing men on her chin. New women like Jordan dont need men, and thus they must use men to prove just that. Myrtle is the home wrecker of the novel. As a direct result of her affair with Tom, she gets herself killed, which leads Wilson into shooting Gatsby, which obviously puts an end to the Gatsby and Daisy affair, the result of which leaves Nick disgusted and breaks it off with Jordan. Besides ruining the lives of everyone around her, Myrtle also meets the most tragic end of all the females in the novel. She is killed on impact in a gruesome car accident, while both Daisy and Jordan are at least left with the prospect of a fresh start. I believe this is because Myrtle is the most feminine of the three. Nick describes her as sensuous, and despite possessing no facet or gleam of beauty, there was an immediate perceptible vitality about her as if the nerves of her body were continually smouldering (28). If Fitzgerald was not a misogynist, then how could someone whose vice is simply being too much of a woman deserve an end as graphic as a left breast hanging loose like a flap (131)?This nove l is certainly not one of happily ever afters, and I believe the fact that women are portrayed as the causes of all the tragedies within this novel is reason enough to proclaim Fitzgerald as a misogynist.
Wednesday, August 21, 2019
The Shawshank Redemption Essay Example for Free
The Shawshank Redemption Essay The following paper will focus on the ethical issues that occurred in the 1994 film Shawshenk Redemption directed by Frank Darabont. Focus will be made on specific scenes that represent clear ethical violations of not only the criminal justice system, but as well as the corrections system here in America during the 1940ââ¬â¢s through the 1960ââ¬â¢s. Several ethical issues involving Andy Dufrense, the main character, arise involving him, his friends (other inmates), the guards, and the warden. Ethical principals of concern and importance identified and portrayed in the film are as follows: financial loop holes for guards, creating false accounts, slave labor, abuse of power, and money laundering, and murder. Shawshenk Redemption focuses around Andy Dufresne, a banker wrongfully convicted of two murders; his wife and her lover in 1947. Andy is sentenced to two consecutive life sentences at Shawshenk Prison, in Maine. Once at the prison Andy becomes best friends with another inmate named Red. Red has been in prison for a long time and is repeatedly denied parole again and again. Chief Guard Bradley is another important character. He is the head guard at the prison who evokes fear in the inmates and frankly treats the inmates like animals. Ultimately the most important character when it comes to the topics of ethics is the Warden at Shawshenk Prison, Samuel Norton. When Andy fist meets the Warden, he tells Andy there are two principals in the prison, the bible and the Warden. ââ¬Å"I believe in two things; discipline and the Bible. Here youââ¬â¢ll receive both. Put your trust in the Lord. Your ass belongs to me. Welcome to Shawshankâ⬠(Warden Samuel Norton). Andy was an accountant before he was falsely convicted and he was able to get respect from the guards and the warden because he was able to give financial advice. The power that he gained by giving financial advice he used for good, not evil. Andy was able to obtain library books for the inmatesââ¬â¢ and build on the prisons library. Andy was an honest, decent man that tried to make life bearable in prison. Andy states in the movie, ââ¬Å"On the outside, I was an honest man, straight as an arrow. I had to come to prison to become a crookâ⬠. Andy was violently beaten and sodomized several times by a group of men in the prison called, The Sisters, before the Chief Guard Bradley and Warden Norton found out about his financial background and frankly the ââ¬Å"worthâ⬠of Andy. Once they were aware of his financial background and how it could benefit them, Chief Guard violently attacked the leader of The Sisters and demanded they never bother Andy again. Andy had protection, and once Andy realized this, he then began to use his power for documenting false reports for Warden Norton. Of course, Warden Norton was unaware that Andy was keeping a second set of books. Andy was in fact laundering money into an account only he had access too. Yes, Andy used his power to help the inmates build up their prison library by getting books. He assisted a young inmate in getting his GED. Andy also uses the Wardens financial schemes to build a case to bring him and the entire corrupt prison down. To me, the money laundering is payback for the years he falsely sat in prison. Andyââ¬â¢s best friend, Red, is the leader of their little group in prison. As an older man, he has adjusted to immorality of prison life. He sees the suffering and wrong doing of the other inmates, Chief Guard Bradley, and he seems to understand the evil power of the Warden and does what he has to do to survive in prison. He is a good guy and a good friend and his only downfall seems to be cigarettes, posters, and magazines from outside of the prison. All of those items are considered contraband and are illegal in any prison. Red laughs when Andy asks him to obtain a pick hammer and a poster of Rita Hayworth. Andy needs these items for his great escape however Red has no idea about it. Redââ¬â¢s freedom comes by skipping parole. Red, like Andy, abuses how power with people in a more positive way, He helps others have a more bearable time in prison amongst total chaos and corruption. Red committing the small unethical act of skipping parole was on rder to fulfill the greater food, seeing his friend Andy and living a good life of freedom. Chief Guard Bradley abused his power to instill fear and the respect he thought he deserved as the head guard in the prison. It was necessary for him or his staff to commit the crimes they did against the inmates. He committed most of his unethical acts in order to gain the respect, not of the inmates, but of Warden Norton. Warden Norton has to be, without a doubt, the most unethical character in the movie. I guess that should be expected since he was the character with the most power. He allows the guards to beat and intimidate the inmates and uses prison labor for public works. He received kickbacks from this scheme which unbeknownst to him, Andy sets up in his name in a secret account. I feel the most unethical thing Warden Norton did was commit murder. The inmate that Andy helped get his GED, presented evidence that his former prison cell mate committed the murders of Andyââ¬â¢s wife and her lover; not Andy. Warden Norton needed Andy, and he feared he would be found out about the kickbacks. He needed Andy financially, so the inmate with the information to free Andy had to die. Even in the face of fear, Warden Norriton uses his power to keep Andy in his place. Ethical Implications It seems as though Shawshank Prison functioned as a hierarchy of ethics. If the top leader, the warden, is unethical, it seems to stream down in a scandal of unethical actions by many. If the leadership in any organization is unethical, many will function unethically in order to stay in their positions. Recognizing unethical behavior can sometimes not be easy; people try to rationalize and try to justify their actions as excuses for their behavior.
Creation of Traffic Light Circuit
Creation of Traffic Light Circuit Introduction Traffic lights or traffic signals is used to control the traffic and to supervised motorist and pedestrians. The lights alternate accorded to users by displaying green for go, yellow signal that the light will change to red and red for stop. Without traffic lights there will be a lot of road accidents and traffic congestion. This experiment shows how traffic lights work using Arduino. Materials with Description 5 MM LED (5) Used as an output in the circuit and to know if the code is working. Resistor (220 ohms) (6) An electronic device used to control the current in the circuit. Jumper Wires M/M (13) Used as the connector to different pins in the prototyping board. USB cable (1) Used as the connector from computer to DFRArduino Uno R3. DFRArduino Uno R3 (1) A programmable circuit board. This hardware reads the code uploaded in the computer. Computer (1) Used to write, compile and upload the code to the circuit. Procedure (self-explained) Place the LEDs to the board. Traffic lights for pedestrians, green(1) positive pin at pin J17 and negative pin to pin J16, red(1) positive pin at pin J14 and negative pin to pin J13. 2.Traffic lights for motorist, green(2) positive pin at pin J8 and negative pin to pin J7, yellow positive pin at pin J5 and negative pin to pin J4. red(2) positive pin at pin J2 and negative pin to pin J1. 3. Plot the push button switcher at pin E10,E12, F10 and F12. Place the resistor(1) from D2 to G2, resistor(2) from D5 to G5, resistor(3) from D8 to G8, resistor(4) from D14 to G14, resistor(5) from D17 to G17, resistor(6) from C7 to C10 Connect the jumper wires, wire(1) from A2 to DP 12, wire(2) from A5 to DP 11, wire(3) from A7 to GND, wire(4) from A8 to DP 10, wire(5) from A10 to DP 9, wire(6) from A14 to DP 8, wire(7) from A17 to DP7, wire(8) from C12 to PP 5V, wire(9) from I1 to I4, wire(10) from H4 to H7, wire(11) from I7 to I13, wire(12) from H13 to H16, and wire(13) from I16 to GND. 6. Connect the USB cable to the computer and the circuit, compile the code then upload. Circuit Diagram Code Code Analysis int carRed = 12;, int carYellow = 11;, int carGreen = 10; this is the initialization of pins for motorists traffic lights. int button = 9; the initialization of the pushbutton connected to the Arduino. int pedRed = 8;, int pedGreen = 7; the initialization of pins for pedestrian lights. int crossTime = 5000; sets 5 seconds for the pedestrian LED to lit. pinMode(pinType,OUTPUT); pinType sets what pin to use, LEDs in this circuit serves as output. pinMode(button, INPUT); the input in the circuit came from the push button switcher. int state = digitalRead(button); reads if the push button switcher is pushed/pressed or not. if (state == HIGH) (millis() changeTime) > 5000){à ¢Ã¢â ¬Ã ¦} a condition that checks if the push button switchern was pressed 5 seconds and then call the method changeLights(). void changeLights(){à ¢Ã¢â ¬Ã ¦} in this method, it indicates the sequence lights when it will lit and shows how car/motorist and pedestrian traffic lights work. delay(2000); delays for 2 seconds before it the green light changes to yellow light and delay(1000); delay for a second before it goes red. changeTime = millis(); this stores the current time in milliseconds to changeTime by calling millis(). Comparison of Code vs. Hardware Output The code manipulate, manages and provides the output for the hardware. In this experiment if you push or press the push button switcher it changes its lights in a of set time and this shows how traffic lights works. Recommendation/Enhancement We can use this traffic light experiment to create mini traffic lights inside the car or motor. In that case the motorist farther on the traffic light will also know the signal.
Tuesday, August 20, 2019
Mothers Smoke Less around Their Children after Counseling :: Essays Papers
Mothers Smoke Less around Their Children after Counseling In Melbourne F. Hovellââ¬â¢s article: ââ¬Å"Effect of Counseling Mothers on their Childrenââ¬â¢s Exposure to Environmental Tobacco Smoke: Randomized Controlled Trial,â⬠the author persuades the reader effectively through showing evidence about the dangers of second hand smoke. He also introduces the effectiveness that counseling has on mothers who smoke in front of their children. The article presents a study of the effectiveness of counseling for smoking mothers, and shows the decline of children's exposure to smoke in their environment. The article states many valid points, and backs the evidence with statistics to insure that the reader is persuaded by the articleââ¬â¢s points. The article begins by introducing the problem of second hand smoke to children, and has a delayed thesis which states his main point about the effectiveness of therapy. The author then explains the methods and who participates. Many statements backed up with evidence co ntinue throughout the article. The article also shares individual stories of mothers who have gone through this type of therapy and how it has helped them. Hovellââ¬â¢s article was believable because it included statistics as well as success stories. His research is also believable because he displays it with credibility and logic, and he appeals to the readerââ¬â¢s values. There are numerous reasons as to why smoking should be banned around small children, specifically in the United States. Hovell addresses these reasons with statistics. The World Health Organization estimated that half of the worldââ¬â¢s children are in danger due to second hand tobacco smoke (1). In the United States, 43% or about 15 million children live in homes polluted with tobacco (1). This is a higher percentage compared to other countries across the globe. Many of these children will suffer from asthma, repertory tract infections, otitis media, and sudden infant death syndrome (for fetuses whose motherââ¬â¢s smoke) because of their exposure. The article states that counseling tends to decrease childrenââ¬â¢s exposure and motherââ¬â¢s smoking while increasing the number of quitters (1). The study done for this article involved recruiting of certain mothers and families who would undergo the counseling process.
Monday, August 19, 2019
Fly Away Peter by David Malouf Essay -- David Maloufs Fly Away Peter
`Fly Away Peter' by David Malouf - To what extent is Jim's understanding of self enhanced by his contact with those around him? 'Fly Away Peter' is essentially a story about life. Through the life of Jim Saddler the reader becomes aware of the ideas posed by the author, David Malouf. Jim's life, if anything, is indeed a journey, unfolding through various broadening experiences that lead to Jim's eventual understanding of the world and his own self. However, to simply say that this understanding is enhanced solely by his contact with those around him is only true to a certain extent. Jim's journey of life exists on many levels, just one of which is the lessons he learns through his contact with others. A strong note emphasised throughout the novel is Jim's detachment. During the establishment of his relationship with Ashley, and his decision to join the war, 'Jim existed in a world of his own, not withdrawn exactly, but impenetrably private'. Ever the lone wolf, Jim keeps the events in his life at arm's length, remaining distant and observing his world in his own unique way. The retiring, introspective Jim notes he has no close friends, though calling Clancy a 'mate'. Even the horrors of war fail to make Jim see the world as others do. He admits his naivety, confessing that'he had been living, till he came here, in a state of dangerous innocence'. Jim acknowledges how his new experiences have indeed opened his eyes to the real world, but as yet he has not reached his ev... Fly Away Peter by David Malouf Essay -- David Malouf's Fly Away Peter `Fly Away Peter' by David Malouf - To what extent is Jim's understanding of self enhanced by his contact with those around him? 'Fly Away Peter' is essentially a story about life. Through the life of Jim Saddler the reader becomes aware of the ideas posed by the author, David Malouf. Jim's life, if anything, is indeed a journey, unfolding through various broadening experiences that lead to Jim's eventual understanding of the world and his own self. However, to simply say that this understanding is enhanced solely by his contact with those around him is only true to a certain extent. Jim's journey of life exists on many levels, just one of which is the lessons he learns through his contact with others. A strong note emphasised throughout the novel is Jim's detachment. During the establishment of his relationship with Ashley, and his decision to join the war, 'Jim existed in a world of his own, not withdrawn exactly, but impenetrably private'. Ever the lone wolf, Jim keeps the events in his life at arm's length, remaining distant and observing his world in his own unique way. The retiring, introspective Jim notes he has no close friends, though calling Clancy a 'mate'. Even the horrors of war fail to make Jim see the world as others do. He admits his naivety, confessing that'he had been living, till he came here, in a state of dangerous innocence'. Jim acknowledges how his new experiences have indeed opened his eyes to the real world, but as yet he has not reached his ev...
Sunday, August 18, 2019
The First Monster at Heorot in Beowulf :: Epic of Beowulf Essays
The First Monster at Heorot in Beowulf When Grendel monstrously bursts into Heorot, tears down the heavy door with his beastly hands and instantly devours a Geatish warrior, it immediately tells us that the first climax of the epic Beowulf has arrived. As Beowulf carefully watches Grendel take action, Grendel reaches out to snatch Beowulf as his next meal. Surprised, Grendel becomes extremely frightened to discover that there is another being stronger than himself when Beowulf, using his vice-like grip, pulls Grendelââ¬â¢s arm from his socket. The monster, Grendel, howls with pain and runs out of Heorot leaving his blood-spattered arm still in Beowulfââ¬â¢s hands. An enormous celebration is thrown to record Beowulfââ¬â¢s victory by reciting and singing stories about the past kings. A Danish scop recites the story of Sigemund, a great hero who slays a horrible dragon. The dragon is a keeper of a treasure chest that Sigemund wins by slaying the dragon. The treasure won by Sigemund resembles the gold rewards earned by Beowulf from the ring-giver, King Hrothgar. This Norse myth is obviously recited at Beowulfââ¬â¢s celebration to compare both Sigemundââ¬â¢s and Beowulf's heroic acts. The Danish warriors want to show their appreciation to Beowulf with such mythology: ââ¬Å"This man undertook with his art to recite in turn Beowulfââ¬â¢s exploit, and skillfully to tell an apt tale, to lend words to itâ⬠(Tuso 16). What is so remarkable about the epic Beowulf is that the narrator contrasts Beowulf's super-heroic accomplishments with Heremod. Heremod is known as an evil Danish king who turns against his own people. This is clearly a symbol of the reverse of Beowulfââ¬â¢s characteristics. By comparing and contrasting Beowulf to two different kings, the narrator is indicating that Beowulf will be king later in the epic. Yet we readers shouldnââ¬â¢t immediately think that Beowulf will be an evil or a good king. This leaves us to carefully observe more of Beowulf's character throughout Beowulf. During the celebration, King Hrothgar delivers an appreciation and dedication speech to Beowulf and his victory. From Hrothgarââ¬â¢s speech, we understand that he feels himself to be bound in a new relationship with Beowulf by his great service. He states, ââ¬Å"Beowulf, best of men, in my heart I will love you as a sonâ⬠(Tuso 17). Beowulf readers should start taking careful notice as King Hrothgar gradually becomes a mentor and a father-like figure to Beowulf. To some extent, Hrothgar even gives advice to Beowulf about how to act as an intelligent ruler through his own experience.
Saturday, August 17, 2019
Howard Schultz Essay
Howard Schultz was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1953. With little money, both parents worked long hours to support the family. To escape being ââ¬Å"poorâ⬠young Howard turned to sports and played football, baseball, and basketball. He went to Canarsie High School, from which he graduated in 1971. He did so well in high school that he was awarded an athletic scholarship to Northern Michigan University. When he left New York to go to college, Shultzââ¬â¢s father was a broken man. He had never gotten ahead in any of his low-paying jobs and was rarely shown any respect by his employers. Because of his familyââ¬â¢s financial troubles, Schultz made the most of his college days, both athletically and academically. He received a bachelorââ¬â¢s degree in business and marketing in 1975, proud to be the first member of his family to attend college. In 1981, Howard Schultz, vice president and general manager of U.S. operations for Hammarplastââ¬âa Swedish maker of stylish k itchen equipment and housewaresââ¬ânoticed that Starbucks was placing larger orders than Macyââ¬â¢s was for a certain type of drip coffeemaker. Howard Schultz joins Starbucks in 1982. While on a business trip in Italy, he visits Milanââ¬â¢s famous espresso bars. Impressed with their popularity and culture, he sees their potential in Seattle. Heââ¬â¢s right ââ¬â after trying lattes and mochas, Seattle quickly becomes coffee-crazy.But back in Seattle, the Starbucks owners resisted Schultzââ¬â¢s plans to serve coffee in the stores, saying they didnââ¬â¢t want to get into the restaurant business. Frustrated, Schultz quit and started his own coffee-bar business, called Il Giornale. It was successful, and a year later Schultz bought Starbucks for $3.8 million. In 1998 Howard Schultz had ample reason to be proud of what Starbucks had accomplished during his past 11 years as the companyââ¬â¢s CEO. The company had enjoyed phenomenal growth and become one of the great retailing stories of recent history by making exceptional coffee drinks and selling dark-roasted coffee beans and coffee-making equipment that would a llow customers to brew an exceptional cup of coffee at home. The Starbucks brand was regarded as one of the best known and most potent brand names in America and the company had firmly established itself as the dominant retailer, roaster, and brand of specialty coffee in North America. It already had over 1,500 stores in North America and the Pacific Rim and was opening new ones at a rate of more than one per day. Sales in fiscal year 1997 were a record $967 million and profits reached an all-time high of $57.4 million. The companyââ¬â¢s closest competitorà had fewer than 300 retail locations. And since going public in 1992, Starbucks has seen its stock price increase nearly nine fold. He is best known as the chairman and CEO of Starbucks and a former owner of the Seattle SuperSonics. Schultz co-founded Maveron, an investment group, in 1998 with Dan Levitan. In 2012, Forbes magazine ranked Schultz as the 354th richest person in the United States, with a net worth of $1.5 billion.
Friday, August 16, 2019
Google Brand Strategy Essay
This paper will give you an inside look as to how Google Inc. has evolved into a multi-billion dollar empire since it was first developed in 1996 by two Stanford University graduates working out of a garage. The paper will also compare Google to its strongest competitors in the search engine, web advertising and mobile phone industries. The paper will also reveal what the key elements to success are in those industries. The paper will also detail the resources and key competencies that Google has to make them the leading internet search engine with over 60 percent of market shares. The paper will also discuss the business model and strategies used by Google to help them become one of the fastest growing companies in history. The paper will also touch briefly on some of the threats and weaknesses they face in the marketplace. The paper will also include a recommendation to Googleââ¬â¢s top management to help them sustain its competitive edge and financial success in the industry. Background History and Company Growth In 1996, Stanford students Larry Page and Sergey Brin teamed up to develop a new search engine they named BackRub. They chose this name because of the engines ability to rate websites in relevancy based on metatags and keywords. Backrub was quickly gaining popularity and in 1998 Yahooââ¬â¢s cofounder, David Filo talked Brin and Page into leaving school to put their focus making Backrub a major part of Yahoo. Backrub was later named Google, which was taken from the word googol. Googol is mathematical term for a number represented by the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros. The founder of Sun Microsystems was the first person to invest in Google with $100,000 in August of 1998 which raised $1 million by the end of September. Google was named ââ¬Å"Top 100 Web Sites and Search Engines for 1998â⬠by PC Magazine and was recorded successes at record pace. Google saw potential for profits in other segments of the market and made innovative ideas to gain market share. In 2000, their innovations included wireless search technologies, search capabilities in ten languages, and Google Toolbar browser. Google expanded its product line again in 2004 with the launch of Google News, Google Product search, Google Scholar and Google Local. Googleââ¬â¢s index of web pages also grew to more than 8 billion and increased its country domain to more than 15. Google then entered the mobile phone market in 2004 when they created a feature allowing users to text a search request and Google would provide results to the search. Google Earth was created in 2005, which was later enhanced in 2010 when it included an Earth View mode allowing users to view 3D images of various locations at ground level. Between 2005 and 2010, Google also added Book Search, Music Search and Video Search. Google created features for its website to include Gmail software, web-based calendar, web-based documents, spreadsheet applications and language translations to accommodate 51 languages. Discuss competition in the search industry. Which of the five competitive forces seems strongest? Weakest? What is your assessment of overall industry attractiveness? Google has been able to sustain its competitive advantage because of the strong relationships they have built with Internet users, advertisers and websites. In 2010, Google was the most visited website with more than 147 million internet users visiting their site on a monthly basis to search for information. Googleââ¬â¢s management believes its strongest rivals are Microsoft and Yahoo, although market share rankings from June 2006, June 2009 and May 2010 showed Google has more than twice their competitors combined. Yahoo was first founded in 1994 and in 2010 held the top third position for most visited search engine site. Almost any information available on the web can be viewed through Yahooââ¬â¢s portal. Yahoo has many of the same features as Google such as, personal calendar, email, news, weather, television listing and online photo albums. Yahoo has also partnered with mobile phones allows users to search from their mobile devices just as Google has done and the searches performed through Yahoo accounted for 35 percent of the market in 2010. Yahooââ¬â¢s many features and services have generated revenues from many sources. Yahooââ¬â¢s relationship with Google goes back to 2000 and has at times been cooperative and other times adversarial. In fact, Yahoo was one of Googleââ¬â¢s first customers, but in 2002 they parted ways when Yahoo purchased other companies to develop search engines and since then they have been considered rival companies. Another of Googleââ¬â¢s top competitors is Microsoft whose revenues in 2009 were approximately $58.4 billion, with $14.6 billion net income. They were able to make these impressive profits through sales of computer software, consulting services, video games hardware and online services. Microsoftââ¬â¢s computer software Windows 7 and Microsoft office raked in half the companyââ¬â¢s revenues in 2009 and most of its operating profits. Their online sales of $3.1 billion showed a loss of $2.3 billion during 2009. The online services generated income came from banner ads on the companyââ¬â¢s MSN web site and other affiliated sites, as well as search-based ads displayed with Bing results. Microsoft entered the search engine industry during 2004 in an effort to compete with Google. This happened because Microsoft noticed job postings for Google were nearly identical to Microsoft specifications. Microsoft believed Google was attempting to design software applications that compared to Microsoft office such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Google is well aware of the competitive pressures created by its rival and they fully understand what it takes to hold the competitive edge. They created a strategy that would allow themselves to hold their own against its rivals. In their mind, if the competition could do it, so could they. Competition stems from all sorts of directions for Google. They must compete against their rivals like Yahoo and Microsoft in the search engine industry, new entrants to this industry, the product innovations of their rivals, as well as the bargaining powers their rivals may have that they do not. One of the biggest forces of competition is website traffic. If Google can get more internet users to visit their site over MSN or Yahoo, they will have more bargaining power with advertising sales. Google must also obtain qualified employees with the capabilities to compete with the new and innovative products that Microsoft continues to create. Because the search engine sites are so alike, this causes the rivalry between competitors to increase because the products are less differentiated. What are the key factors that define success in the industry? What are the key competencies, and resources of successful search engine companies? Success in the search industry can be defined by looking at several different factors. One of the most obvious signs of success is revenue growth. Googleââ¬â¢s revenues from its websites have grown from $792,063 in 2003 to $15,722,486 in 2009 as stated on its 10-k reports. Revenues from licensing have grown from $45,271 in 2003 to $761,759 in 2009. However the value of their stock reached the high point in 2008 at just over $700 per share and has dropped to below $300 in 2008, gained a little in 2009 and dropped again in 2010 to around $450. Some analysts believe Googleââ¬â¢s recent decline in revenue and earnings stemmed from their decisions to increase stock prices in order to achieve revenue and growth earnings that pushed the boundaries of their corporate philosophy of making money without doing evil. In order to be successful, Google must continue to develop innovative products at features to better meet the needs of its customers. They need to offer these products at lower prices than their competitors as well. Have Googleââ¬â¢s business model and strategy proven to be successful? Should investors be impressed with the companyââ¬â¢s financial performance? How does the companyââ¬â¢s financial performance compare to that of Microsoft and Yahoo? Googleââ¬â¢s innovative products and business acquisitions have all played a part into their strategy directed at increasing the companyââ¬â¢s market share in internet advertising. The addition of these products has increased traffic to Googleââ¬â¢s website, and therefore, has given them more opportunities to advertise to Internet users. The strategy to dominate the internet advertising market was designed to be worldwide. China was a market that they were particularly interested in taking over since they have more than 300 million users. Unfortunately for Google, China was not as interested in this and they were faced with challenges from their local search provider, Baidu and the Chinese government. As of 2009, only 31 percent of Chinaââ¬â¢s internet users searched using Google and 64 percent used Baidu. Googleââ¬â¢s business strategy included creating new products and features for the mobile phone industry. In 2010, 234 million people owned mobile phones, with 30 percent having internet access from their devices. Google first introduced its Android operating system in 2008 free of charge to any phone manufacturer marketing mobile phones with internet capability. The applications included the operating system had Wi-Fi capability, email, web-based calendar, Google Earth maps, and GPS. T-Mobile was the first to use Googleââ¬â¢s Android operating system with the launch of G1 in September 2008. The G1 had many of the same features as Appleââ¬â¢s iPhone, but much less expensive. The Android operating system was extremely successful with its market share, increasing from zero in 2008 to 13 percent in May of 2010. Another area of Googleââ¬â¢s business strategy focused on computer software programs used by businesses. Senior management believed the programs would move from local hard drives to the Internet. These is referred to as cloud computing. The market was believed to grow to as much as $95 million by 2013. The move would offer many benefits to corporate users such as lower software acquisition costs, lower computer support costs, and easier collaboration amongst employees in different locations. Google first launched its beta version of free word processing and spreadsheet in 2006 and later relaunched in 2008 to compete with Microsoftââ¬â¢s Office products. In 2008, Google launched its Chrome Browser and Chrome operating system, specifically to accommodate cloud commuting applications. The Chrome browser was created with a multiprocessor design that allowed users to operate spreadsheets, word processing, video editing and other applications simultaneously. Each tab opened a new window so if one crashed the other applications running would not be affected. Also in 2009, Google made agreements with Acer, Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo to start production of netbooks that used Chrome OS and Chrome browser to access cloud-based Google apps software. Googleââ¬â¢s business strategy also included expanding into the television market. In 2010, Google teamed up with Intel, Sony, Logitech, Best Buy, DISH Network, and Adobe to develop Google TV. Google TV was built on the Android platform, running the Chrome browser to search live networks and cable programming that streamed videos from providers such as Netflix, Amazon on demand videos, and YouTube. Google TV users would be able to use their televisions to browse the web and run cloud based applications. Googleââ¬â¢s business strategy also focused on the addition of targeted advertising placed alongside search results on its website. Google Adwords increased annual revenues from $220,000 in 1999 to more than $86 million in 2001. These ads were prices using an auction system, where uses bid on keywords that described their product or service. What are the companyââ¬â¢s key resources and competitive capabilities? What competitive liabilities and resource weaknesses does it have? What opportunities exist? What threats to its continued success are present? In order for Google to have continued success in the search engine industry, they need to have resources and capabilities to create competitive advantage over its rivals. Many of theses resources needed for success are intangibles. They included human assets and intellectual capital. This means having employees with experience, education, creativity and innovation to develop new products and features to compete with its rivals. Another important resource is their company image. Googleââ¬â¢s 10 principlesââ¬â¢ of Corporate philosophy includes ââ¬Å"You can make money without doing evilâ⬠. Their image is different from many other businesses. Google believes in conducting business in unconventional ways. They believe their work should be challenging, but fun. The company puts emphasis on team achievement and individual accomplishments that contribute to the companyââ¬â¢s overall success. They work in a place where there is great communication and camaraderie in order to have the tools necessary to produced Google users with the information they are seeking. Google also believes being great will not make them successful. They must anticipate the future needs of its user and develop innovate product and services in order to be successful in the search engine industry. Building relationships or alliances with suppliers is another key component of success. These relationships can help to reduce costs and enhance product quality and performance. A perfect example of this relationship is Google offering its Android operating free of charge to mobile phone providers or its collaboration with Sony, Logitech, Best Buy and DISH network to develop Google TV. Some of the tangible resources needed for success include financial assets, technological assets and organizational resources. Google must have cash and marketable securities in order to finance new products and investments as well as pay dividends to its stock holders. Some technological assets are its copyrights and production technology. Production technology refers to the processes used to develop new products to compete with its competitors. Organizational resources included the companyââ¬â¢s workstations and servers used in developing these products. Some of the threats that Google faces in the industry include new entrants in the market and product innovations from its competitors. Overall, Google has done a relatively good job in competing with the development of competitors products. They created the Android operating system in order to enter the mobile phone industry and they are developing new applications for cloud commuting to compete with Microsoft office software. They need not worry too much about the entrance of new businesses as they have developed a brand and corporate image that has already earned loyalty from many consumers. What recommendations would you make to Googleââ¬â¢s top management team to sustain its competitive advantage in the search industry? How should it best capitalize on its strategic initiatives in mobile phones, cloud computing, emerging markets, and other venues? Because Googleââ¬â¢s rivals are competing with relatively the same products, I would suggest to Goggleââ¬â¢s top management to focus in conducting business in an ethical manner that conforms with the business philosophy. They have received much criticism recently because of their impressive revenues growth during the recession. They need to focus on building their brand image that consumers are appealed by. I would also suggest finding ways to offer products and services at a lower price to its consumers in order to dominate the market. With products being so comparable and easily substituted they need to compete on price. It would be in Googleââ¬â¢s best interest to focus on the markets in the United States and Canada , rather than in China. China does not want them competing there and they are spending too much time and money trying to get in when there is plenty of opportunity here. The only thing they are gaining from this is bad publicity. It would be in the best interest of the company to put much of their focus on the thing they do best and that is the search engine. Google should stay with the industries they have performed well in, such as search engine and mobile phones. Their biggest competitor, Microsoft, is the leader in innovative products and they will most likely be more successful than Google in the cloud commuting market because businesses are familiar with their products and have already created a following where Google has not. They should focus on the areas they do well in and leave the other markets to competitors. Management needs to add features to make their current products more appealing to consumer rather than looking for new markets to enter. References Thompson, A., Peteraf, M., Gamble, J., & Strickland III, A. J. (2012). Crafting and executing strategy. (18 Edition ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Thompson, A. A., Peteraf, M. A., Gamble, J. E., & Strickland, A. J. (2012). Cases m for crafting and executing strategy. (19 ed., Vol. 1). The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Thursday, August 15, 2019
Evidence Based Health Promotion Essay
Health promotion has emerged in the last decade as an important force to improve both quality and quantity of peopleââ¬â¢s lives. Sometimes termed ââ¬Ëthe new public healthââ¬â¢ it seeks to support and encourage a participative social movement that enables individuals and communities to take control over their own health. (Bunton,R & Macdonald,G 1992) Health promotion plays an important part in everybodyââ¬â¢s life and the lives our children and our childrenââ¬â¢s children. The purpose of this assignment is to discuss and give justification for evidence based health promotion, some people may ask why we need evidence based health promotion and practice, this paper goes some way to identifying the answer to this question. Health promotion can be defined in may ways, as defined by the World Health Organisation health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over and to improve their health. (www. who. int accessed November 2007) Tannahill (1985) defined health as ââ¬Ëthe process of enhancing health and reducing risk of ill health through the overlapping spheres of health education, health protection and disease control,ââ¬â¢ ultimately they all accept that lifestyle and ecological elements play a critical part in any health promotion strategy. The topic of evidence based health promotion is a timely one given the resolution of the World Health Assembly that all members state: ââ¬Ëadopt an evidence-based approach to health promotion using the full range of quantitative and qualitative methodologies. WHO, 51st World Health Assembly, Geneva, 1998) (www. who. int accessed November 2007) In the past few years significant advances have been made in health promotion to generate readily accessible systematic reviews of evidence on the effectiveness of interventions and programs. The influence of this evidence on policy and practice has, however, been unpredictable and proponents of evidence based health practice are identifying ways to increase the use of research in decisions about health promotion interventions. www. oxfordjournals. org) Health promotion is a process directed towards enabling people to take action and control over their own health, it is not something that is done on or to people, it is done by, for and with people either as individuals or as groups. In Choosing Health (DOH, 2004) the Government insist a positive way forward is to promote and to motivate the nation to make healthier lifestyle choices. Ewles and Simnett (2003) state that health promotion is about raising the health status of individuals and communities ââ¬â this means improving health, advancing, supporting, encouraging and placing it higher on personal and public agendas. The purpose of health promotion is to strengthen the skills and capabilities of individuals to take action and the capacity of groups or communities to act collectively to exert control over the detriments of health and achieve positive health. Evidence based health promotion assists people in this aim. The response to the current need for evidence has been two fold, on the one hand we have witnessed an increase in the number of published systematic reviews, together with more robust evaluations from the field. On the other hand there has been considerable debate about the nature of evidence and how we can assess effectiveness. Concerns about the possible dominance of a positive methodological agenda and its limited applicability to health promotion have been more fully discussed elsewhere. Signs are emerging that these concerns are being beginning to be addressed. There is increasing recognition of the broad epistemological basis of health promotion research, the value of methodological pluralism and the particular capacity of qualititative methods to provide illuminating perspectives. (www. oxfordjournals. org) Evidence based health promotion asks us, how do we know? who says so? , it is based on inspiration, values, experiences, statistics, data, samples and research. Research is about proving and disproving and is completed to ensure data is valid and reliable; we depend on evidence based health promotion to contribute to the development of our knowledge. It is a crucial means of producing evidence which informs practice, offers guidance and prescription, It makes the practitioner an informed individual who practice is less likely to be questioned as unsafe or unreliable. Government documents are increasingly emphasising the importance and their support for evidence based health promotion such as the document better health Wales in 1998 which covers many areas of health, although some years ago the content is still as relevant today. The dominant model for reviewing health care interventions is that established by the Cochrane Collaboration (1994). This is a bio-medical model, in which the ultimate effectivness of interventions is expressed as ââ¬Ëhardââ¬â¢ outcomes such as changes in mortality and morbidity and behavioural outcomes. Accumulating scientific proof of the effectiveness of a clinical intervention can be complex and can involve randomized controlled trialââ¬â¢s meta-analysis and undertaking systematic reviews. ( Webb,D 1999) So what are these trials and why are they used? A randomized controlled trial is an experiment with a group of patients which seeks to determine which outcomes are obtained with a particular intervention. Of course it is always possible that a clinical outcome may be a consequence of some factor other than the intervention This possibility is ââ¬Ëcontrolled forââ¬â¢ by incorporating into the design of the trial a second group, the ââ¬Ëcontrol groupââ¬â¢ who do not receive the intervention. Patients are randomly assigned to either the intervention or the control group through randomising the allocation of patients to intervention or control groups it becomes likely that factors which might influence an outcome, for example socio economic differences are equally distributed and therefore cancel each other out. The random controlled trial provides the best assurance that outcome differences can be attributed to the intervention and not to extraneous factors. ( Webb,D 1999) Randomized controlled trials are the most rigorous way of determining whether a cause effect relation exists between treatment and outcome and for assessing the cost effectiveness of a treatment. They are used to establish efficiency of a treatment as well as frequency of side affects. This is meant to address issues such as, effects of treatment may only be small and therefore undetectable except when studied methodically on a large scale, also biological organisms are complex and do not react to the same stimulus in the same way, which makes influence from single clinical reports very unreliable and generally unacceptable as scientific evidence. Finally, it is also known and has been proven that when administering the treatment it can have psychological effects on a person this is known as the placebo effect. There are some limits of a randomized controlled trial such as ethical concerns, some might say it is unethical to expose a patient to treatment that is inferior to one already currently available, however some might say how can we progress until these trials are performed and results are found. It is widely acknowledged that random controlled trials are not well suited to explaining how something happens, rather than what happens (Pawson & Tilley, 1997), However, understanding how something was implemented and what effect this has on outcomes, is absolutely crucial to health promotion. Since the late 1970ââ¬â¢s Meta analysis has emerged as a powerful tool for synthesising the results of independent trials. In essence, it is an overview of clinical trials in a particular area of treatment, in which the results are presented in the form of numeric summary. ( Webb,D 1999) There are some weaknesses of using this method, one is that sources of bias are not controlled by this. Even if you have a good design of meta analysis if you have a bad study you will get bad results, it can be argued that only methodologically sound studies should be used in meta analysis, a practice called by Robert Slavin as ââ¬Ë best evidence meta analysisââ¬â¢. Systematic reviews of the literature on clinical effectiveness are being undertaken to provide clinicians, managers and policy makers with a more efficient means of accessing information about effective interventions. Systematic reviews are intended to provide a synthesis of research findings in given areas and present the results in ways which are manageable, Systematic reviews can seek to establish whether research findings are consistent, can be generalised across target groups and settings or determine whether they vary by particular sub sets (Mulrow, 1995). In addition to the need for systematic reviews to incorporate less stringent inclusion criteria for research designs is the criticism that they have been predominantly concerned with the quality of the research design and have not considered in detail the range and quality of the interventions in each study. (Speller & Webb 1997) Both quantitative and qualitative research test on rich and varied traditions that come from multiple disciplines and both have been employed to address almost any research topic you can think of. To put it simply qualitative data typically consists of words while quantitative data consists of numbers. Although there are clear differences between to two anything that is qualitative can be assigned meaningful numeric values, these values can then be manipulated to help us achieve greater insight into the meaning of the data and to examine specific hypotheses. (www. socialresearchmethods. et) Qualitative data is extremely varied in nature it can include almost any information that can be captured that is not numerical in nature such as interviews, observations and written documents. Another difference between the two is that in quantitative research, the researcher is ideally and objective who neither participates in nor influences what is being studied. In qualitative research, however, it is thought that the researcher can learn the most by participating or being immersed in a research situation. These basic underlying assumptions of both methodologies guide and sequence the types of data collection methods employed. (www. writing. colostate. edu) Research in several countries provides consistent evidence of a ââ¬Ëtheory practice gapââ¬â¢ in health, clear disparities have been demonstrated between the best practice ideals and values that are taught and those actually encountered in everyday practice. (www. eprints. soton. ac. uk) Larsen et al (2002) said it is obvious that almost everyone spontaneously experiences a gap between theory and practice. Theory and practice exist in their own right as two kinds of knowledge, theoretical knowledge and practical knowledge. This statement of relations between theory and practice challenges not only theorists and practitioners but also basic thinking in modern, western cultural circles that has been in place since the enlightenment. The experience of a gap is a social construct, it is a product of history and society. While most of the literature on the subject of theory practice gap sees it as a problem it has been suggested that a positive benefit of the gap is that it can provide you with an opportunity to develop problem solving skills. Eraut et al (1995) offers a more precise typology of theory practice gaps, focusing on different types of knowledge and its implication for use in practice. The ideal and the real world for care delivery, the difference between generic and specific application of theory, the problems of translation and implementation (transfer of learning) and the need to identify the relevant from the irrelevant ( often dependent on the setting and the resources available) Research has shown that there can be many factors involved in causing the gap, such as rapid changes in the clinical setting that affect the nature and setting of care delivery, sequencing of theory and practice, lack of recent clinical experience by nurse educators, lack of collaboration between clinical areas and educational institutions and the need to be an educational generalist who can cover a wide subject range whilst clinical areas are becoming increasingly specialist and even super specialist. (www. who. org) Solutions that have been suggested to bridge the theory practice gap such as an innovative curriculum allowing closer sequencing of theory and practice, improving collab oration between clinical areas and educational institutions. The creation of joint appointments (between education and services) where the role is to facilitate the application of theory to practice, promote effective collaboration between the two services and education: promote research based practice: and facilitate the development of nursing practice. And by using the use of tools such as the skills grid that sets out the knowledge, skills, behaviour and outcomes are linked and supported by research evidence. ( Knight C M et al) Then role of evidence based practice in health promotion has amplified over the years, this is due to the increased amount of evidence available and the willingness of the specialistââ¬â¢s and practitioners, also the need for precision when it comes to health promotion. Evidence based health promotion is an aide to health promotion and an essential part of advancement in the health field. Health promotion, in order to be effective needs both quantitative and qualitative research to best inform practice, even with all the methods of research it still depends on the rigour and the extent to which the investigator is methodical in the collection and analysis of the data and its limitations. Qualitative approaches are able to explore the different meanings that individuals attach to health and to the different variations, given that health promotion is committed to the idea that there are many different definitions of health and that the role of health promotion is to help meet some of the diverse needs and aspirations of different communities as can be seen in the Ottawa chart. (Webb 1999) Evidence based health promotion starts from skills and qualities which many health promoters have already. It complements reflective practice by adding the experience of others, presented in various forms.
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