Forensic Psychology and the Prison Service Essay

The two programmes mentioned above have similar objectives and use comparable methods. The curriculum includes teaching problem-solving skills, perspective taking and social skills, creative thinking, moral reasoning, management of emotions, and critical reasoning’ (Blud et al, 2003). To pass through the first stage of selection for a cognitive skills programme in HM Prison Service, offenders should either have a current or previous conviction for a sexual, violent or drug-related offence, or they should demonstrate a life-style factor such as serious drug abuse or poor family relationships which indicate they may benefit from the programme. One study conducted by the Canadian Correctional Service showed that there were modest outcome effects at best, with 47% of the sample being readmitted to prison. Critics of this treatment suggest that focusing on developing compensatory strategies to repair ‘deficits’ in thinking does not allow sufficient account to be taken of the predisposition, choices, opportunities and motivations of the individual, and that it would be more useful to design interventions which focus on providing opportunities to change and develop. There are alternatives to cognitive therapy within the prison system. One of these is the therapeutic institutional regime, which has the aim of ‘providing offenders with an institutional environment that will encourage their development as members of an effective community, which may then lead to more effective participation in their community on release’ (Howitt, 2006, p. 366). The effective treatment of sex offenders originated in the behavioural therapies common in the 1960s. The treatment of sex offenders was not a priority in prison services until the last few years. Sex offenders typically have both sexual and nonsexual problems (Blackburn, 1995), so assessment needs to cover social, cognitive, affective, and physiological levels of functioning. Treatment for sexual offenders differentiates between types of offence, such as child molestation, exhibitionism, rape, and sexual assault (Hollin, 1989). Behavioural therapists consider assessment of sexual arousal patterns to be necessary. Changing deviant sexual preference is a major target of cognitive-behavioural programmes. There are a number of ways of doing this, such as covert sensitisation, shame aversion therapy, masturbatory or orgasmic reconditioning and shaping and fading (Blackburn, 1995). However, there are a number of questions over their use. For example, the assumption that deviant preference predicts re-offending remains largely untested. There are also attempts to improve social competence. Cognitive distortions are targeted in this approach. These distortions include beliefs about sex roles, rape myths, the acceptability of child-adult sex, and the minimization of harmful effects of sexual assault. According to Blackburn (1995), offenders who commit serious crimes against the person are likely to display multiple psychological dysfunctions. Blackburn states that there are four types of murderer: paranoid-aggressive; depressive; psychopathic; and over-controlled repressors (of aggression). In one study, using the MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory), Biro et al (1992) found that 49% of homicide convicts were in the hypersensitive-aggressive category. This category consists of people with the characteristic of ‘being easily offended, prone to impulsive aggressive outbursts and intolerant of frustration. They are very rigid, uncooperative and permanently dissatisfied thing things. However, the causes of antisocial behaviour in psychotic offenders are often the same as those in the non-disordered. Psychological treatment for dangerous offenders is most frequently carried out in forensic psychiatric facilities. While pharmacological treatment is frequently the best strategy for treating acute psychotic disorders, psychological interventions are a more durable alternative for emotional problems such as depression or anxiety, and are critical in rehabilitation. There are few demonstrably effective treatment or intervention programmes for adult violent offenders in maximum-security prisons, particularly for those diagnosable as psychopaths. They have very high recidivism rates and are often involved in institutional violent behaviour (Belfrage at al, ).

Leadership Case Study: Steve Jobs Essay

1. Steve Jobs had an extremely high interest in being in charge, so to start off with his leader-follower element, he most definitely settles in better on the leader end of the spectrum. Jobs was so far in the leadership end of the spectrum that he had actually been removed from his CEO position in 1985 for being unmanageable. Being one of the most charismatic leaders in the industry has helped him develop his leadership traits through his time with Apple, NeXT, and Pixar. He has always been determined even when Apple took him out of the equation, where he went off to make some of our childhood staples such as Toy Story and gained an enormous share of stock with Disney, which was actually more than he ever owned with Apple. His influence spans across five different industries, which is more than almost any CEO can say that they have done in their entire life. His influence spanned across the computer industry, Hollywood and the movie industry, the wireless phone industry with the IPh one, the retailing industry, and my personal favorite being the music industry where ITunes has innovated the very distribution of music itself. To the point, Steve always seemed to get what he wanted when it came to influencing these many industries. As for organizational objectives, Jobs always wanted to create a product that the customer wanted but almost didn’t even know they wanted or conceive the product in a thought, the IPod being a prime example of this. If Jobs didn’t like the outcome of a product, he sent it back to the drawing board. Jobs and his members shared the goals to create new things they wanted, in the hopes that the customer would too. Change is a huge aspect of the way Jobs leads, all he wants to do is create technologically changing products that he and his customers really want. The constantly updating technology, yet always user friendly interface is Apples motto now a days. Steve’s people skills were apparently not the greatest, but as long as a subordinate shared in his vision of wanting to create and innovate like he did, then Apple would succeed. His people tended to respect him for the way he went about inventing new products and never wanting to fall short on anything. 2. The leadership skills that Steve Jobs possessed that made himself as well as his companies so successful were due his combination of the technical, interpersonal, and decision-making skills he possessed. Keeping up with the  latest technology in the tech industry is an absolute necessity, and Steve and Apple not only kept up with the industry but innovated it every step of the way, so his technical skills were very important. Steve’s interpersonal skills were not conventional in the regular sense of the meaning, but he had his own way of developing relationships and gaining the respect of his subordinates who wished to share in his vision of giving people products that they didn’t even know they wanted. He was sure to consistently communicate this point to his employees, and motivating was one of his key qualities, such as in his key note speeches to his customers to unveil new products every year. Lastly, and what I believe to be his most important skill that he possesses, is his decision-making skills. Jobs was able to come back to Apple and make the necessary decisions to bring it out of bankruptcy by changing the corporate culture back to an entrepreneurial environment to be the innovative company it once was. Critical thinking was a big part of his life, and Steve was known to take walks alone in an almost trance like state where he would be identifying problems and changes in the industry, know where opportunities lied, and would critically think to come up with creative ideas to be the leader and innovator in so many industries. 3. Under the interpersonal managerial leadership roles section, I believe that Steve fell under the category of figurehead and leader roles in this section. Steve was the go to speaker at the key note speeches of unveiling products, and he always had a sense of spirit about him that really made the customer believe in how much he loves the product they just unveiled, and how much Steve believed that the customer would love the product. Steve also continuously performed the leader role by giving instructions of the creation of products, why the company should head in a certain direction, or evaluating performance of research and development of new products. If Steve didn’t want to personally use it, chances are it was thrown in the trash and it was back to the drawing board. As far as the informational role category, I believe that Steve was in the monitor role as well as the spokesperson role. Steve was constantly gathering information and attending meetings in and out of the organization to create new and innovative products. As for the spokesperson role, as I have stated previously, he was the charismatic leader that was the face and spirit of what Apple was all about, and he had  the customer falling in love with a completely innovative product before they had seen anything like it before. As far as his decisional role, he was the company’s main entrepreneur as well as the main disturbance handler when Apple came to him on the verge of bankruptcy. New and improved products and services is Apple’s core belief thanks to Jobs, and his combination of these two roles saved the company single handed thanks to Steve’s enthusiasm and passion of innovation. His decisional roles that he played were by far his most important contributions since he not only saved the company from bankruptcy but also made it the innovative leader in technology for the last 20 years. 4. The primary level of analysis that this case focuses on is the organizational level of analysis. The focus is on how Steve Jobs can influence the entire organization of people to get on top of their game and to constantly be looking for change to innovate new products. He influenced the behaviors, work ethic, and productivity of all of his employees. He individually was able to completely turn the company around from bankruptcy because of the tactics he would use to influence perfection. His mind set was one way, always towards the next best product, and if he didn’t like it then the idea was scrapped. While some of his employees did not quite agree with the angry fits that Steve would have, even the employees that ended up quitting still said there was a sense of respect for what Steve was doing and his passion for it. Steve’s passion resonated throughout the entire organization, and the simple fact that his views of how the innovation culture at the workplace helpe d save it from bankruptcy shows his abilities. Saving Apple was not an easy task, but he was able to accomplish it. 5. The four leadership theory classifications that apply to this case are trait, behavior, contingency, and integrative. Steve’s trait paradigm involves how he acts in the environment of the organization, which included high energy levels at work whether it was anger or passion. It also included his appearance, which he appeared as an angry guy who wanted nothing but perfection, but also showed passion through it all. He was always able to persuade in his own ways, and he always showed his dominance in the workplace, which unfortunately ended up in his initial removal from Apple,  but proved extremely useful in his later years. The behavior paradigm applied in the way that Steve was extremely focused on certain tasks at hand, and the way he is always the biggest critic of any and all products being proposed or worked on in the company. The way that Steve Jobs contributed behaviorally in this case was by controlling his subordinates and demanding perfection every step of the way. The contingency paradigm shows that leadership style is situational, and even though people tended to dislike the way Jobs lead, he ran the organization into its most successful and profitable years, saving it from demise. The most relevant paradigm in my opinion is the integrative paradigm. Since it incorporates portions from the other three theories, I believe that it can be used to describe the charismatic, passion filled leadership qualities that Jobs possessed. He was able to inspire his employees and everyone was always enthusiastic once the levels of productivity they had put in resulted in a noteworthy product everyone will love. 6. Since the passing of Steve Jobs, this seems to be a question that is on everyone’s mind, from employee to shareholder to customer. While it is a scary thought, something tells me that the passion and vision that Jobs was able to give to the organization in the last decade he worked their contributed to the current mentality of a lot of the current top level managers still working there. It has become an atmosphere at Apple that they should only create products that would be worthy of a Jobs stamp of approval, and I personally do not think the organizational paradigm would shift after such an influential human being has put so much effort and soul into a company as Steve has done for Apple. Apple is the leading household name for so many different technologies, they have changed the music industry forever, and have an absolutely absurd amount of cash on hand to fund whatever types of projects they need to be sure they are constantly on top of the industry. While the technolo gy industry is one of the most fast paced changing industries with constant improvements in hardware and software, I do not see Apple falling behind to the point that they will not recover again.

Resource Based View Essay

The mid-eighties witnessed the emergence of a growing body of work collectively labelled the resource and capability-based view of the firm (RBV). In reality, Resource Competence View (RCV) first adopted an â€Å"economic† orientation. Pioneer studies (Wernerfelt, 1984) , Barney, 1986, 1991, Dierickx and Cool, 1989, Peteraf, 1993) focused on the type of resources and competencies that could offer to its owner a sustainable competitive advantage. Therefore, resources and competencies approach first appeared as a theory of competitive advantage or a theory of â€Å"performance of the firm† (Argyres & Zenger, 2007). It is only recently, in the last 20 years that organizations have started using the resource based view approach on strategy. Nowadays, they view it as the most important key development in international business research and strategic management, an approach that gives a coherent vision based on a firm’s capabilities to help determine the strategic reso urces necessary for the firm’s survival and growth within a particular market place. As Hitt et al (2001) stated, â€Å"the resource based model assumes that each organization is a collection of unique resources and capabilities that provides the basis for its strategy and that is the primary source of return.†. It suggests that in order for a firm to sustain competitive advantage, it must not only have resources and capabilities but also have a firm control over it and they must meet certain basic criteria such as being: valuable, rare, inimitable and non substitutable such that it is impossible to be copied or replicated (VRIN). Although a resource based view strategy sounds like the better way to go, others have wondered if this approach is at all necessary or bring any more insight than the traditional understandings into a successful strategy to survive and thrive into a competitive market, strategy that will allow the firm to have a good competitive advantage. In this review, we aim to elucidate the concepts behind the resource based view strategy and its use by managers. Furthermore, we aim to elaborate on its advantages but also disadvantages moving on to a critical analysis of this emerging approach to strategy and competitive advantage from the point of view of well known authors such as M. Porter (1980,1985) who believes that external factors mainly contribute to a firm’s competitive advantage and Jay Barney (1991)  who criticizes the narrow approach of a resource based view on competitive advantage, mainly the homogeneity it gives to firms resources. RESOURCE BASED VIEW : A CRITIQUE The RBV has emerged after the industrial work of Michael Porter and Rick Perry , who stated that companies must achieve a competitive advantage based on external factors. In fact, the RBV suggests that differences in profitability between firms in the same sector are much more important than inter sector profitability differences which was its founding idea. The resource-based view (RBV) has become one of the most influential and cited theories in the history of management theorizing. It aspires to explain the internal sources of a firm’s sustained competitive advantage (SCA). Its central proposition is that if a firm is to achieve a state of SCA, it must acquire and control valuable, rare, inimitable, and non substitutable (VRIN) resources and capabilities, plus have the organization (O) in a place that can absorb and apply them (Barney, 1991a, 1994, 2002). This proposition is shared by several related analyses: core competences (Hamel & Prahalad, 1994), dynamic capabilities (Helfat & Peteraf, 2003; Teece, Pisano, & Shuen, 1997), and the knowledge-based view (Grant, 1996b). Given its elegant simplicity and its immediate face validity, the RBV’s core message is appealing, easily grasped, and easily taught. 1 FUNCTIONAL ASPECTS OF THE RESOURCE BASED VIEW :Models based on resources and skills, Resource Based View and Competence Based View The resources and competences are expressed through certain knowledge (know-how , know-machine ,distribute knowledge) Resources are defines as assets owned or controlled permanently by the firm to develop and implement its strategy. There are six types: Financial Resources : CAF, debt ratio, volume TR ; Human Resources : number of employees, qualification, experience,intelligence ; Physical resources : production sites and their geographical location, land,stocks ; Organizational Resources : information systems, ISO standards,  procedures,coordination mechanisms ; Technological resources : know-how, patents ; Reputational Resources : brand, reputation ; The approach based on the resources considers that the company more than the industry, constitutes the relevant level of analysis to explain the performance (Barney, 1991; Rumelt, 1984; Wernerfelt, 1984). The organization is rehabilitated as an actor ; the firms are able to accumulate resources and competences which are transformed into advantage on the competitors if they are rare, creative of value, non-substitutable and difficult to imitate (Barney, 1991; Dierickx and Cool, 1989) see figure 1. 5 tests to assess the strategic value of competencies: Figure 1. Barney J.B. (1991), Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage, Journal of Management, vol. 17, pp.99-120 The firm is not designed any more like a wallet of products or markets, but like a wallet of resources. It is not the customer requirements who determines the strategy, but the resources and competencies which the company possess : the competing advantage is to be sought in-house (See Table 1). Competencies indicate the organizational capacity to deploy the resources in the form of combination to achieve a goal, which implies the idea of a training by combining several resources. 2 A CRITIQUE OF THE RESOURCE BASED VIEW APPROACH The Resource based view approach has been subject to several critiques ,some of which suggest that it is a very limited model , very hard to apply and its variables cannot be clarified. All of these critiques could be faced with more explanations of the (RBV)’s variables,boundaries,and applicability. On the other hand, some critiques are threatening the (RBV) model, these critiques are concerned with the limitations of the defining two concepts of the (RBV) model which are : resources and value which entail some problems and affecting the explanations of a firm’s competitive advantage. These critiques could be categorized as follow : Studies argue that (VRIN) criteria is not essential to the understanding of SCA as (Kraaijenbrink et al) (2010) mention (Foss and Knudsin) (2003) arguing that it’s mainly uncertainty is one of the basics to achieve SCA , Furthermore, stating that other conditions simply additional . These comments suggest ‘ fundamental disagreement about the nature of markets , individuals , and resources and the roles these play in generating SCA (Kraaijenbrink et al, 2010). Individual’s, entrepreneurs, and manager’s judgement and models are not sufficiently recognized by the (RBV) to the critique which argues that the (RBV) limits the entrepreneurial and managerial skills. This critique outlines the importance of a firm’s environment whilst arguing that (RBV) is mostly focused inward and dismisses the external environment which is important for assessing the main strength and weaknesses of an organization , which essentially leads to achieving competitive advantage ; it also leads to the issue of value creation , and environmental assessment , internally and externally , are essential to value creation and strategic positioning. Connor (2002) argues that the (RBV) is limited to large firms (with significant market power) , furthermore, SME’s cannot be sometimes assessed by their resources when it comes to SCA resulting in their fallout of the (RBV) . Finally , adding that (RBV) applicability can , in most cases, relate to firms pursuing SCA. 1 PORTER’S FIVE FORCES (P5F) AND RBV On one hand, the RBV model supports the idea that a firm can sustain competitive advantage by having highly superior resources and these  resources are represented in the VRIN criteria . In other words, sustaining a competitive advantage depends on the ability to integrate a group of extreme resources to provide the firm with its leading position . According to Barney (1991,1994,2002) â€Å"RBV central proposition is that a firm is to achieve a state of SCA , it must acquire and control valuable, rare, inimitable,and non-substitutable (VRIN) resources and capabilities , plus have the organization (O) in place that can absorb and apply them† , which would lead the firm to earn a massive surplus. On the other hand, Micheal Porter believes that for a firm to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage it has to focus on its external environments, have a strategic positioning in its industry or intended industry and this strategic positioning is guided by five industry-level for ces namely; Entry barriers, Buyers bargaining power, Suppliers bargaining power, Threats of substitutes and Rivalry among existing industry. He specifies that finding a strategic fit within an industry gives a firm an edge over its rivals and can lead to a sustainable competitive advantage. A company can outperform rivals only if it can establish a difference that it can preserve (Porter, 2000) and how can you establish this difference? By deliberately choosing a different set of activities to deliver a unique mix of value e.g. Southwest Airlines, IKEA. However, It is clearly noticed that one of the big differences between both models (Resource based view and Porter’s five forces) is that they differ in the approach used. The RBV focus only on the firm’s resources but the P5F model is based on the industry itself. Another similarity between both views are the description of resources in the RBV that it’s inimitable matching the concept of threat of new entrants in P5F . Also the threat of substitute in the P5F model sounds similar to the attributive of resources that it is non-substitutable in the RBV. Both models put the concept of earning superior profits as an objective of any firm, similarly both agree that the way to achieve that surplus is by sustaining competitive advantage , but when it comes to how to sustain this competitive advantage they differ ; P5F SCA by gaining a high profit on the long-term , contrarily the RBV considers SCA by preventing rivals or competitors to acquire the same advantage . At some point, both RBV and P5F may look contradictory , in reality both complement each other when integrated . 2 JAY BARNEY AND RBV According to Barney,Mcwilliams & Turk (1989) it is stated that a sustained competitive advantage has been defined as to be an advantage obtained as a result of a firm’s strategy not being implemented by other firms as well but that cannot be replicated but point out the fact that it does not refer to â€Å"how long† that advantage is in fact sustained. Porter (1985) and Rumelt (1984) said that the basis for sustaining a competitive advantage in the market is to understand its sources. Porter mostly believes that focusing solely on external factors (opportunities, threats of new intrants,etc†¦) gives a firm better chances of reaching a sustained competitive advantage. For Barney (1991), the basis to sustaining a competitve advantage is by formulating a strategy that is based on internal strenghts but acquired through responding to external factors such that there is synergy between internal and external factors and thus heterogeinity and immobility to the firmâ€⠄¢s resources (Barney & Hoskisson, 1989). He argues that a firm simply cannot rely on the even distribution of its resources (same strategic capabilities, human and organizational capital (Barney,1991)) throughout the organization (focus that gives homogeinity and mobility of resources) to achieve a sustained competitive advantage as any other firm with the same resources can have the same competitive advantage in the market. Also, efficiency and effectiveness can be improved to the same extend and therefore the competitive advantage cannot be described as â€Å"sustained† (Barney,1991). However, it can be argued that an homogenous and mobile set of resources can also lead a sustained competitive advantage on a â€Å"first come, first served† basis where the firm that has access to distribution channels, develop good will customers and a positive reputation first gains a sustained competitive advantage as they would have established themselves before other firms had a chance to do so. Barney (1986) also highlights the concept of â€Å"Strategic Factor Market.† He explained that according to the strategy, strategic factor market in which the company must draw differ. For example, for an innovation strategy, the factor to consider may be the competence in research and development. He added that if the strategic factor market is not perfect, it will not be possible for a firm to extract superior economic performance. Barney is therefore concerned with allowing  the firm to distinguish themselves from others, and it sets up the theory of competitive advantage â€Å"sustainable†. This type of benefit resulting resources respecting the criterion called â€Å"VRIN† (resources must be: valuable, rare, difficult to imitate and imperfectly substitutable to provide the firm a sustainable competitive advantage). 3 ISSUES FOR PRACTICING MANAGERS IN ADOPTING THE RBV APPROACH Having looked at the critique of the RBV one can undoubtedly say that practicing managers may encounter some issues in adopting this approach. The RBV is a very complex approach. Thus to attain or maintain a competitive advantage managers must often and extensively simplify (Russo & Schoemake, 1989). Managers are often faced with the challenges of identifying, developing, protecting and deploying of firm’s resources and capabilities such that they can gain a sustainable competitive advantage over rivals. What are the criteria for identifying? Often times they ask what resources or capabilities do we have that rivals do not have or cannot immediately imitate and how can we achieve a sustainable competitive advantage with it. They run the risk of retaliation from rival firms which can render their competitive advantage static or useless as it is sometimes impossible for them to know the level or worth of their rivals resources or capabilities. What capabilities to develop, what resources to deploy are issues which can result to intra organizational conflicts among various departments in the firm. In adopting the RBV approach managers are likely to face a considerable uncertainty and ambiguity arising from shifts in buyers’ preference or taste, social values, economic and political trends, recent/ upcoming technologies, rivalry in the industry (competitive actions) etc†¦ (strategic management Journal Vol 14,1993). CONCLUSION REFERENCES Barney, J.B. 1991. Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage, journal of management 17:99-120. Barney, J.B. McWilliams,A. , Turk,T. 1989. On the relevance of the concept of entry barriers in the theory of competitive strategy. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the strategic managemt society, San Francisco. Lieberman,M.B, & Montgomery, D.B. 1998. First mover advantages, Strategic management journal, 9:41-58. Porter,M. 1980. Competitive strategy. New York. Free Press. Porter, M. 1985. Competitive advantage. New York. Free Press. Porter,M. 2000. What is Strategy? Harvard Business Review. Rumelt,R. 1984. Towards a strategic theory of the firm. In R. Lamb (Ed.), Competitive strategic management: 556-570. Englewoods Cliffs, NJ : Prentice-Hall. Wernerfelt, B. 1984. A resource based view of the firm. Strategic management Journal. 5:171-180.

See the istructions below Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

See the istructions below - Essay Example Net revenues from their company operated retail as well as from their speciality has been $6.36 billion up from $5.29 billion last year (Starbucks, Annual report, 16th Dec 2005). In 1996, Starbucks went international. The first overseas location was Japan. Currently apart from the United States which is the home market for the company, they also operate in 34 international locations both through direct company operated stores as well as joint ventures and licensed locations. In the United States, they have 4666 company-operated coffeehouses and 2222 licensed locations. Outside the US they have 1049 company-operated stores and 1734 joint venture and licensed locations. The company was listed in Fortunes best hundred places to work in 2005 (www.starbucks.com, 2006) India has been in the process since 1991 of opening up its markets to international competition and in general is taking steps towards loosening of control and gunning towards becoming a free market. Being a democracy in which (especially in recent times) coalition governments are the order of the day, the ruling party has to contend with partners which have left leanings. An issue which is the centre of a political debate is Foreign Direct Investment in retail. The left opposes it fearing that local small retailers will be hurt. But pundits agree that it is a matter of time before the government opens up the ceiling for FDI in retail beyond the 49% level and eventually it is expected to open up completely. Following the process of economic reforms India has seen an extremely healthy GDP growth in recent years. This growth has maintained a rate of 7% to 8% making India one of the fastest growing economies of the world. The middle class in India is itself more than the entire population of the United States making it a huge market. A survey of executives by a global consulting firm AT Kearney shows that India was ranked as

Personnel Planning and Recruitment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Personnel Planning and Recruitment - Essay Example In this paper, I will focus on job agencies in Canada. Their main objective is to offer a comprehensive directory of works agencies globally, spanning amount of employment specialists’ organizations. They do offer listing service that is free to each job agency and, through their sister site; StaffWanted.com. Asia Pacific Services is the job agency I have chosen to focus on. Their corporate hiring division, Robert Campbell as the head, will help individuals in getting the appropriate persons for their businesses (Mondy, Noe & Gowan, 2005). †¢ Project manager, Contract, Shipbuilder, Subic Bay, Philippines- will be responsible for studying and choosing options for handling air, refrigeration, and the HVAC systems for the following generation of cryogenic cargo carriers. The challenge is to produce systems for creating LNG cargo carriers, used to move compressed LNG from the Middle East to Thailand. †¢ International Broker-Dealer, Licensed, Contract (confidential client) the employee looks for international independent brokers-dealers who will do the job on a contractual basis from their initial office. The Asian Pacific Services would be a good source of professionals, technical, or managerial applicants since the agency offers adequate information concerning the job at hand and all the qualifications (Martin, 2009). The agency participates in advertising. Therefore, the interested persons will have or can have access to information perfectly. The Asian Pacific Services is of help since it highlights its places of expertise, this means that it perfects its job agency skills in the listed divisions. For instance, Robert Campbell who is retained recruiter offers employer-driven fee-paid finding services for customers who seek: It refers to the main origin where the job seekers will get to apply for an open or advertised position in a particular industry. For this job agency, their mode of application is through

What economic future are markets currently pricing in Essay

What economic future are markets currently pricing in - Essay Example Consistent actions such as quantitative easing in money market, though helped to control the money supply in the market, but it also hinted at the weakening of major currencies of the world also specially dollar. UK’s current debt situation and the debate on it during recent past indicated that there are subtle doubts within the minds of investors that countries like UK can default too. This was mostly due to higher budget deficit and faltering in the credit ratings of the country itself. It has been reported in the Bank of England (BoE) financial stability report that the markets have started to put strain on different markets including the sovereign markets. This clearly indicates the overall sentiments in the market and how market actually perceives the future risks. It has been discussed in the financial stability review of the BoE that the overall conditions are improving for the economy as a whole and the financial system of the country has been able to manage its essential activities. This signifies the slow recovery and stability which is emerging in the financial markets of the country and a such the sign of stability in the financial markets can also serve as one of the important indicators for the improved investor confidence and hence the correct pricing of risk of the assets. Financial stability review also indicates that the financial institutions have been able to cushion themselves against the losses which can erode their capital with the systematic increase of their capital base to meet the Basel II requirements. Thus the overall risk faced due to higher sovereign risk in cases of Greece and Ireland may be easily absorbed by the larger UK firms. (Bank of England, 2010) A closer look at the discussion and data presented in the financial stability report would suggest that the overall market sentiments are not good enough. The increasing level of sovereign risk especially in the wake

Marketing Plan Project Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6000 words

Marketing Plan Project - Research Paper Example United Arab Emirates has been enjoying modern, diversified and growing retail food sector over the years. Increasing development of new hypermarkets in last few years is the key driver for rapid growth in retail food sector. 90% of the total consumed food especially food ingredients s outsourced from markets and processed in this market. Therefore the domestic firm has huge opportunities in food market of UAE. Consequently, the people have high disposable income and for this reason they are very much reluctant to pay higher price for food if it is presented in a luxurious way and environment. Nevertheless, very few domestic businesses operate in retail food sectors as luxurious restaurant like multinational food chains present in this market. Therefore, future growth of this new business has been identified after detailed analysis of business environment, market trend and consumer behaviour. The main objective its marketing strategy would be to position the brand as luxurious restaur ant with a touch of western culture. ... Important macro environmental factors are political or legal, economical, social or cultural and technological factors of the market. Environmental analysis provides detail overview and understanding of a specific industry in a specific market. Economy Economy has substantial impact on this new food business. UAE is an emerging economy which driven by multiple strength areas of it like per capital income, consumption power and consumption trend, enrichment in living style of people etc. Though the country imports 90% of its annual food consumption from foreign markets but it can be neglected as weakness of the economy if it compared with the huge export of oil. Growth and opportunity of restaurant business highly depends on the positive economic factors of this market like income level and consumption trend. Significant growth in gross domestic product is the overall positive aspect of this economy. Economic growth of major cities like Dubai, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi is average 2.9%. This e conomic growth leads high income and rising trend of people to adopt modern and luxurious food habits (Rncos, 2010,p.1). Legal This company will operate restaurant food business which is very much sensitive category of business. Legal policies imposed in comparatively higher extend in food businesses than any other businesses in any economy. As a food processing business, it needs to follow the rules and regulations imposed by the government authorities regarding ensuring quality food to the people of the country. First, of all the company must need to have food licence from the government authority to operate its business in legal way. This is special legal requirements for this apart from other mandatory legal procurements. On the other hand, political disturbance and

Violence and its effects on children and families Research Paper

Violence and its effects on children and families - Research Paper Example Many video games these days are based on the theme of violence. Violence through media is a very silent yet a very effective way of changing the minds of the young generation especially children. â€Å"[T]he motion picture, music recording, and electronic game industries attempt to market the same products to children that they label as unsuitable for children† (Cornell, 2006, p. 117). Children are drawn toward video games in which they have to do target killing. Anything from rape to genocide and drug dealing can be the activity in a video game or a movie. In the present age, children spend a lot of time watching television and playing video games. Gradually, these activities become ingrained in their personalities. They develop a level of comfort with such activities. Television programs showing children kidnapping and murder teach them the ways and means to do these acts of violence (Freedman, 2002, p. 5). The more they watch it happen, the more the negative or at least, aw kward image of these activities fades away. Children become used to seeing violence and becoming part of it. This reflects in their behavior in the form of rudeness, lack of respect for the elders, lack of discipline, and physical and verbal abuse. Parents adopt different ways of counseling their children but not many get successful in disciplining their children after they have been spoilt. If parents take it too lightly, the chances of children getting spoilt are maximized. If parents take it too seriously and scold their children for such behaviors and activities, their relation with their children is distorted. Parents are perplexed and curious which affects their own lives as well. Family violence is commonly observed in the present age. Domestic violence is defined as â€Å"any violent or abusive behavior (whether physical, sexual, psychological, emotional, verbal, financial, etc.) that is used by one person to control and dominate another with whom they have or have had a re lationship† (Pearson, Hester, and Harwin, 2007, p. 18). Chances of family violence are maximized in distorted families. Family issues that often become the cause of violence include but are not limited to divorce, teenage pregnancy, and step-parenting. Usually, in these cases, at least one of the parents is not able to pay due attention toward the children. Children require care and love from their parents that they are deprived of in such cases. Divorce draws them away from one of the two parents. The emotional and physical gap thus created instills negative feelings in the children that are further strengthened with the passage of time because of lack of parental supervision. Likewise, children born to and raised by single parents are stereotyped and grow up with an inferiority complex. As they reach adolescence, they tend to join groups and gangs for identity. These groups make them part of their violent activities, and children develop into criminals. Many children are abu sed by their step-parents either physically or verbally or both. Many step-parents do not accept children of their spouses from their first marriages as part of their family. The hatred shows up in the form of verbal abuse. Many step-parents also abuse the children physically, thus leaving them with a life-long trauma and suffering. Some children share their experiences with their biological parents while others do not. In either case, the

What effect does the financial crisis have on the luxury fashion Essay - 1

What effect does the financial crisis have on the luxury fashion market - Essay Example Companies are looking forward to commence with some sort of strategies which would help them to retain their revenue and sustain in such economic turbulence. The predictions have been made that financial woes would continue for few years and will deflate consumer spending even more. (your statement) Â   The term financial crisis is largely used when the financial institutions lose a large quantity of their value. The financial crisis is allied with banking panics, stock market crashes, bursting of financial bubbles, currency crisis and sovereign defaults. The global financial calamity started in July 2007, when around the world stock markets collapsed, and the financial institutions plunged. The governments started to release some effective packages in order to save their financial systems. The investors became frightened by the abrupt decline in the stock market, which reduces their investments in the market. A luxury good is a good for which the demand of the consumer increases as the income level increases. Luxury goods have always been a symbol of prosperity and wealth for ages, for the spendthrifts, who desire and enjoy buying. Owning and wanting to be the owner of luxury items such as the latest designer clothes, jewelry, watches, is a pleasure on its own. Items that comes with a heavy price tag than ordinary items and have a known brand name is identified as luxury item. In economics, luxury goods have said to have high elasticity of demand, which means that when buyers become wealthier they would like to spend more and more cash on the luxury items. It also means that when there is a turn down in income level there will be a decrease in demand. Both income and demand are directly proportional to each other, if one increases the other rises as well and vice versa. Income elasticity of demand is not constant with respect to income, and the demand may changes at different income leve ls. That is to say, a

Romanesque art- art history Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Romanesque art- art history - Coursework Example As a result, the form is a simple Romanesque architecture with two large arches intersecting each other to form a unique pattern. To understand the Pre-Romanesque and Romanesque art, it is necessary to critique different books which will illuminate on the effectiveness of the books in expounding on Pre-Romanesque and Romanesque art. It is imperative to critique the literature on the zodiac in pre-Romanesque and Romanesque art by analyzing the sorts of artworks used, the circumstances under which they were used, their physical arrangement and the related subjects. The most common construction material in the Romanesque period was stone which was constructed into a multi- storey entrance faà §ade that appeared to have a geometrical inspiration. Typical structure had huge vaults and arches. The reason for analysis of Romanesque art using the churches is because the structures designed for Romanesque churches were different from other buildings which were being set up at that time (1). For instance, other structures never used vaulting for large structure but only for structures that were relatively small scale. However, the Romanesque churches utilized masonry vaulting that entailed massive barrel vaults which made it mandatory to provide reinforcement necessary to push the lateral outward thrust on the load-bearing walls. Simona Cohen, The Romanesque Zodiac: Its Symbolic Function on the Church Faà §ade will be used to analyze the Romanesque art, the sculpture and the associated subjects in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of pre-Romanesque and Romanesque art. The Romanesque Zodiac: Its Symbolic Function on the Church Faà §ade is the fifth chapter in his book, Transformations of time and temporality in Medieval and Renaissance art. The book has been presented in a rather simple way with a blend of literature and art. The art used in the book are the

Moslem Converts and Born Moslems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Moslem Converts and Born Moslems - Essay Example Islam, like the other monotheistic religions, was born in the Arab Middle East but unlike Christianity or Judaism, is regarded as an alien and obscure faith. The reason for the stated difference lies in that while both Christianity and Judaism were Westernized and, in more instances than not, informed and shaped Western culture, Islam, with some exceptions, remained fixed in the Middle East. Added to that, Islam was surprisingly resistant to trans-cultural transferences. For centuries, Islam, largely represented by Egypt's Al Azhar, maintained that the religion was fixed in language, culture and tradition, with the implication being that people came to Islam and Islam did not go to them. Hence, translations of the Quran were deemed misrepresentative of the faith because much was lost n translation and it was, consequently, expected that people learn Arabic as a prerequisite to their learning the faith itself, let alone embracing it. It was only upon the relaxation of the aforemention ed strictures that understanding Islam became somewhat easier, although not easy. The West, however, has only recently met Islam and the circumstance of the meeting were fiery, to say the least. The September 11th terrorist attacks only confirmed the Western perception of Islam as an incontrovertibly alien faith, a "Green Menace" and an "ancient" belief system (Esposito, 1994). Descriptors which inspire fear and suggest a persistent failure to modernize, to become part of the contemporary world (Esposito and Piscatori, 1993; Esposito, 1994). Indeed, the misunderstanding and stereotypes which surround Islam, largely instigated by the 2001, September 11th terrorist attacks on the United States, have enabled the propagation and proliferation of Islamophobia. Paradoxically, however, even as Islamophobia grows, so does the number of converts to Islam, not only in the United States but across Europe. Converts to Islam and the attitudes of these converts to the religion they have embraced, is an interesting topic of exploration, because converts to Islam differ in significant ways from those who were born into this faith. While the belief system, as in the five pillars, rituals and principles have remained the same, Western converts have, largely as an outcome of the manner of induction on the one hand, and the reasons for conversion, on the other, have adopted a paradoxically usouli (traditionalist) and modernizing interpretation and conceptualization of Islam. This argument is supported by both the literature on the topic and the results of a limited survey which I carried out on 5 born Moslems and 5 moslem converts Terrorism Westerners who embrace Islam are largely regarded as having betrayed their cultural heritage, their traditions and their national ethos. Such perceptions are expressive of popular condemnation of converts and the very prominent and real fear that converts have adopted, or have rendered themselves vulnerable to the later adoption of, a militaristic, antagonistic and destructive interpretation of Islam. Objectively speaking, a minority does but the majority does not, with the difference largely determined by the reasons for c

Moving towards a cashless society Essay Example for Free

Moving towards a cashless society Essay In history there was no money but people used to evaluate commodities in monetary terms. People used to make trade of goods for goods that could be estimated to have same monetary value as waved. The person who wanted to buy some commodity could make estimates of the commodity the seller has and compare its value in terms of worthiness to the commodity of exchange. Money was later invented as a tangible form that includes paper and coin. Transactions were all handled in monetary value and different currencies were also put in place for different nations. Different rates were also set up to be able trade efficiently on different currencies. Cash became the day to day ways of trading were one had to have paper money so that they could be able to acquire whatever they want. Banks were developed for easier and safe storage so that no one could get hold of in illegally. Cash or money has the following advantages like that the mode of payment is easier and simple because no so much transactions are made. Counterfeit money is also easy to detect and systemic risks are hardly a problem. There is no paper trail and is a peer to peer mode of payment. It also introduced lots of problem like theft and counterfeiting of paper cash. This led to the revolutionary of cashless society by introduction of cheques where people no longer carry cash but writes cheques that authorizes withdrawals and payments in terms of cash. (Thorndal, 1994) Traditionally deposits have been used for payments at a distance. Deposits can be transferred in a number of ways: payer initiated transfer, direct debit, standing order, check, credit card. With distance to distance payments or mode of trade the demand for are more fast and effective ways of communication and trade came into place. The introduction of ATM card was introduced by the banks to enhance trade. People no longer had to carry cash but could make withdrawals through these cards. The electronic cash system came into place where people can buy things over the internet using cards as a form of electronic commerce. This electronic cash system involves use of cards that have been categorized as credit cards, electronic cash and smart cards. The credit cards involve creating an encrypted channel for use of cards for internet like VISA or MasterCard. Electronic cash uses specially designed software where customer buys electronic cash for digital wallet then sends as payment to merchant. Examples are DigiCash and CyberCash. Smart cards include contact less and swap cards like MasterCard, Visa, Quicklink, VisaCash, Protonn and Danmont. The growth of payment cards reflects their attractiveness to consumers over other forms of payment and credit. Payment cards offer consumers numerous benefits, including better management of one’s expenses, improved recordkeeping, greater shopping convenience, reduction of the risk of theft, float for those who do not revolve balances, rewards from use of cards that are available for additional purchases, and, especially for debit cards, convenience in obtaining cash. I first discuss these benefits and then consider the benefits of payment cards when used to obtain credit. (Wallace, 1983) Payment cards allow consumers to manage their money better by making it possible to anticipate, plan, and match their obligations to their available funds. The payment cards allow consumers to smooth out unexpected expenditures such as car repairs or family emergencies . Payment cards also reduce the costs of record keeping and retaining individual receipts. Checks also offer this advantage but payment cards do not require the additional inconvenience of recording in and then rebalance a checkbook. Payment cards can also reduce the time and transaction costs associated with shopping. Advances in technology have dramatically increased the speed of processing card transactions which are now substantially faster than writing checks. If the ATM is outside of the consumer’s network the consumer must pay a fee to withdraw the money. In contrast transactional users of payment cards pay nothing to use their card. Transaction errors, such as receiving too little or too much change, are also probably higher with cash than with electronic payment card transactions. Another advantage of payment cards is that payment cards can be used in a wide variety of outlets hence helping both consumers and merchants. (Krueger, 1999) Some Debit cards, PIN or online cards allow consumers to withdraw additional cash beyond the price of the purchase for which the card is used thus saving the use of ATM. Unsecured personal finance loans are expensive with much higher initiation fees than credit cards. Credit cards are attractive for consumers for both cost and convenience. General purpose credit cards have also substantially displaced retail store credit. We have also so many disadvantage of using payment cards. One of this disadvantage in that they are risky for customers because they cay be incur fraud easily. People can use your card and pin number once known to withdraw or use your money. Credit cards are also expensive to acquire because they are costly. Payment cards are only acceptable by registered merchants and hence are not applicable everywhere. Card users also incur high interchange fee and cost while transacting using this payment cards. (Prinz, 1999) Specific regulations need to make a cashless society of cards work smoothly. Regulation in the payment card need to be set due to the claim of interchange fees are too high and as a result reduces consumers to overuse payment card. Interchange fees arose from the structure of the Visa and MasterCard networks. Visa adopted a fixed interchange fee which was not linked to the merchant discount charged by individual acquirers. A uniform fee reduced the transaction costs of negotiating separate interchange fees between acquirers and issuers and eliminated the difficulties that issuers faced in monitoring in the merchant discount set by the acquirers. Visa and MasterCard reduced the interchange fees charged to supermarkets hence reducing the merchant discount. Some regulations were also imposed on regulating card frauds that many banks face. Fraud card detectors have been setup and laws governing the enactment of the card fraud have been set to punish those fraudsters. The winners of the cashless society are the consumers or users of the cards because they have been absorbed from the risk of physical theft of money. Even though there are fraudsters, the users are not exposed to so much risk of theft. Card users can effectively purchase things online regardless of the distance because all transactions are done to the and at a very high speed. The losers are the merchants or company providing this services because the have to incur all the expenses of setting up this technology and infrastructure. Lastly they incur the problem of making all transactions possible regardless the distance and parties involved. The merchants incur all this cost and expenses in this cashless society. (Buiter, 2005) Reference Buiter, W (2005): New developments in monetary economics: Economic journal, Vol. 115 Thorndal, J. (1994): Prepaid cards and monetary Review: Danmarks Publishers Krueger, M. (1999): Towards a Moneyless world: Dept of Economics and finance: University of Durham Press Prinz, A (1999): Money in the real and Virtual World: Netnomics journal. Wallace, N (1983): A suggestion for oversimplifying the theory of money: Economic journal

Communication Strategy In Obesity Awareness Health And Social Care Essay

Communication Strategy In Obesity Awareness Health And Social Care Essay Communication is a procedure that is basically concerned with the transmission and acceptance of messages which may either change peoples perception or not (Tones and Green, 2005). This delivery of information and counsel is fundamental to strategies in a well being programme development (Naidoo and Wills, 2009, p.185). This procedure and the result of its accessibility, presents impulsive responses that affect the attitudes and opinions of many people. Therefore, communication strategy means the use of conventional media support to pass across important information to the populace so as to enhance a change in peoples way of life (Naidoo and Wills, 2009, p.185). The communication strategy for this assignment will focus on the issue of obesity among college students in Newtownabbey area of Northern Ireland, how to raise awareness about its risk, and how to combat it through informed knowledge by reducing the havoc it can cause later in life to young adults if proper strategies are not put in place. Rationale In the western world most especially in the UK and the USA an outbreak of diet associated ailment is affecting the general public, which had led to an exceptional increase in the occurrence of obesity and its related ailment, that have led to imperative intervention for its eradication (Department of Health, Chief Medical Officer, 2003). It was also estimated by the (World Health Organisation [WHO], 2002) that roughly 58% of type 2 diabetes, 21% of CVD and 42% of some kind of cancers are ascribed to surplus adiposity in the body. This data was supported by a report written by the National Audit Office (2001) stating that over 9000 premature mortality is recorded each year in England due to obesity related disease, which causes a reduction in life anticipation by about 9 years. The consequences of obesity can have a serious impact on peoples health and wellbeing especially teenagers by affecting them socially, psychologically and physically. This impact of obesity was summarised by (DHSSPS, 2002; Fit-future, 2006) as Socially causing a reduction of life expectancy by roughly nine years. Physically causing a major increase in the risk of Northern Ireland leading destructive ailment like cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and cancer. Psychologically causing a major impact on teenagers self-esteem and emotional well being. Physically predisposing overweight children to becoming obese adults in future. In Northern Ireland it was reported that obesity was said to be causing 450 deaths every year which is equal to more than 4000 years of misplaced life (DHSSPS, 2002). Also it was gathered that this pandemic always lead to a 260 000 wasted productive years, which is equivalent to around  £500 million economic lost (Fit-future, 2006). Background Obesity in children has drastically increased in England from 11% in 1995 to 19% in 2004 among boys of ages between 2-15 years old while the same trend also affected girls of the same age range by a radical increase from 12% in 1995 to 18% in 2004 (Department of health [DH], 2005). Fit-future (2006) also reported that the level of obesity in children in Northern Ireland is increasing every year resulting in about 20% of boys and 25% of girls being overweight or obese in primary one. This has resulted into more than a quarter increment in overweight and obesity in the last 10 years among 12 and 15 years old teenagers residing in Northern Ireland (Watkins and Murray, 2005). This is why this communication strategy intervention needs to be promulgated to ensure that young citizens are fully aware of the consequences of obesity and its predisposing factor. Management and Theoretical Opinions Peoples way of life in relation to their health has been regarded as the origin of several current diseases, which can be controlled by exploring many models in health that recognizes the reasons for behavioural transformation (Naidoo and Wills, 2009). Kobetz et al. (2005) claimed that a well constructed and strategic propagation of a theory based health communication and identifying the relevance of the theory is a major input to achieving a successful communication. In order to have a valuable communication strategy that is well managed to combat the pandemic of obesity in childhood, the health promoter has sourced the help of a model called the Health Belief Model (HBM) (Becker, 1974). Janz and Becker (1984) declared that this model was previously developed to envisage precautionary health behaviours. The model looks at how beliefs impact on behaviour (Abraham and Sheeran, 2005), .i.e. what a person put into practice depends on how defenceless they recognize themselves to be to the ailment, their idea about susceptibility to the ailment (obesity) and its predisposing factor, the anticipated severity of that incidence, the advantage of implementing self-protection, and the barrier to its implementation. Where such health beliefs are understood from health education or perceived symptoms, it can help in stimulating healthy behavioural change (Naidoo and Wills, 2009). This is why a college is chosen to propagate and increase the awareness of obesi ty pandemic among children and to suggest a solution that could be of help to teenagers. Prochaska et al. (1992) also brought the idea of another model that suggests that individuals change their actions at some specific stages in life rather than making a single revolution. This model identifies that an individual move through several ladder to attain a healthy living only if they are aware of the necessity to make corrections. Empowerment as related by (Tones and Tilford, 2001) was pointed out to be the major goal of health message propagation, because it help to develop individual autonomy and ensure they gain more power over their daily lives. It focuses on a bottom-up programme development technique (Laverack, 2005), because it tends to appraise peoples necessities before a strategy that will suit their condition is planned. An empowered and independent individual who recognizes that being obese can results into a lot of life threatening diseases later in life, which could make life miserable would tend to be cautious about the kind of lifestyle they adopt. This empowerment approach is viewed from the micro and macro perspectives, which are the self-empowerment and the community development approach (Naidoo and Wills, 2009). The former shows the extent at which individuals have authorities over their relationship with the society (Berry, 2007), while the latter encourage groups in the community to colle ctively discover their needs. Therefore, an approach that empowers, inform and enhance change in conduct is required for an effective health campaign. In planning a health communication programme whose overall goal is to increase the awareness of obesity, it is very crucial that the establishment work collectively together and coordinate themselves in the same direction. This combined work is evaluated by using the idea of the SWOT analysis which considers the interior and the exterior component of an environment as a very important part of the premeditated planning process (Jackson et al., 2003). This assesses the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats involved in planning the strategy. This assessment includes: Strength: The help of some of the staff of the institution will be requested for volunteering role to reduce the finances of the plan, and to make student have a sense of belonging, since some of their tutors will be involved in impacting the messages. Weaknesses: Problems might arise from encouraging food vendors to change the kind of food they prepare , because they might be reluctant in making changes due to an anticipated reduction in their sales and profit. A conflict problem might also arise when trying to create partnership among the department that would be involved. Funding of the strategy might also create a hindrance. Opportunities: This strategy might help to reduce students thought of choosing to eat food that are life threatening. Threats: This can lead to reduction of students purchasing power on foods that are high in cholesterol, which could affect the shops that need to make profit. All effective organisation routine relies on the triumphant management of the prospects, challenges and the risks presented by the outside atmosphere. A well recognized technique for analysing the general environment is the PEST analysis .i.e. the Political, Economic, Socio-cultural and Technological influences (Harvard Business School Press, 2006). The key issues pertaining to the current strategy are explained below: Political: The existing nation policies will be sourced to ensure the effectiveness of the new strategy by checking whether there are surviving political issues on obesity, and to exercise how this new intervention will add more to the knowledge of the public. Economic: An approximate idea of the student finances will be identified, to assess if they will be able to afford the healthy food, so as to ensure compliance. Socio-cultural: Student belief about the kind of food they eat their environmental and peer group influence on the choice of food they purchase will be examined. Technological: Effort to provide weighing machines for Body Mass Index (BMI) check on campus and in the hall of residence and also provision of healthy food transaction machines. In an organizational system it is of utmost significance that the manager and the leaders in charge of the success of an organization are well equipped with the traditions and personality of the people they work with. An effective leader and manager must ensure that they play a dynamic role, designate people and resources to the right avenue, and promote success all the time (Young and Dulewicz, 2009). A manager duty was summarized by (Stewart, 1999) as someone that makes a decision on how an establishment should be run by laying good examples in practice, cultivating the act of motivating the staff, encouraging good interpersonal interaction and communication, as well as ensuring improvement of staff skills and knowledge through different improvement programmes. It was also stated by Hargie and Dickson (2004, p.8) that managers at all levels must engage in four major activities to ensure the success of an organisation, this includes: planning, organising, leading and evaluating. There are different management theories that can be used in planning this strategy, but the contingency theory is the best (Donaldson, 2001). It was claimed by (Vecchio, 2000) that the technique and systems of running an organization bulge down to the incentive given to the staff and the dedication of the staff to the company. Leadership was also described by (Mullins, 2002) as the value that can be introduced into a profession which is not designated to a particular person but comes as an impulsive reaction. In achieving an effective management technique, maintaining a conflict free team work must be the ultimate duty of a leader as well as a good manager. A management skill that will ensure acknowledging the ideas of all team members must be established to avoid conflict, because a victorious team must have an apparent goal, good interpersonal relationship, excellent communication skills and must be up to the task. This idea was supported by Hargie and Dickson (2004) when they highlighted the four major skills that must be exercised to shun conflict. Martins and Rogers (2004) stated that to properly deal with a team conflict, a manager must adopt the ability to negotiate and bargain, which is very important in tackling a team problem. This help to create a rapport among the team members which will ensure reaching a compromise by finding solution to the conflict. Martin and Rogers (2004) also suggested that for a manager to be in full control, he must be calm, logical in his thoughts and be able to control his emotions. To meet the overall aims of this strategy, Martin and Rodgers (2004) pointed out that it will be important to adopt a coordinated partnership approach. This will involve statutory sectors, particularly health and education, local, voluntary and community sectors such as Health and Social Trust, as well as Healthy Living Centre. Such organisations could be involved in supporting and providing information to increase awareness. Communication Strategy The chosen venue for the proposed communication strategy is the Northern Regional College (NRC) in Newtownabbey area of Northern Ireland, since early years of children and teenagers has been described as a period when they tend to acquire long term behaviours and attitudes (Naidoo and Wills ,2009, p.206).The NRC is an educational and learning institution where skills can be impacted in a secure and compassionate environment ,which made it a perfect place for propagating a health message ( Xiangyang et al., 2003). In view of the fact that teenage years are characterized by peer group influence, the school surroundings provides a chance to communicate with adolescent and provides learning opportunities and a secure environment to perform latest skills (Naidoo and Wills, 2009, P.207). This strategy will focus on young children of both sexes in a college setting of age range 14-16 years old through the adoption of a classroom-based method of delivering lecture that will enlighten the students on the proper dietary habit and the kind of healthy food they can lay their hands on. This educational intervention will comprise of about five lectures, which will be accomplished in a week. Different materials like visual aids, slides and transparency that have been pre-tested in the pilot study will be used by the volunteers and the health promoter involved in propagating the messages. The visual aid will contain important information on diet and health, many food deficiency disorders, and importance of physical activity and the various kinds that will suit the student daily life. Interpersonal interactions, small group discourse and group work, as well as workshops that will comprise of the use of the slides to convey healthy eating messages to increase the awareness of ob esity, that is tips that will assist them to eat well will also be show cased to augment the stuff of the message being delivered (Parrot, 2004). A follow up pamphlet containing all the messages delivered will be provided for the college students to upgrade the information they have heard during the intervention. Posters displayed at every corner of the school will also be involved to ensure students are well informed. Overall Goal The overall aim of this communication strategy is to inform and raise the intensity of consciousness among college students about the risk of obesity. Objective The purpose of this proposed strategy will centre on enlightening student by creating alertness, which will result in healthy way of life from the scrash by catching them in their juvenile years. The objective is adapting the term (SMART), which means the aim must be Specific for the programme, Measurable, Achievable in its totality, and Realistic to the target group as well as Time conscious (Mullins, 2002). The learning objectives are To create awareness about the kind of healthy food that can promotes healthy living among teenagers. To guarantee teenagers disseminate the message received from school to other members of the families for optimum health. To enlighten students about the kind of lifestyle they need to instill to avoid the risk of having the ailment. To establish whether student have a prior knowledge of the ailment and its consequences. To prevent obesity and overweight by promoting attitudes, knowledge and communication skills that makes healthy eating practices realisable. Time Frame The anticipated time for the programme would be within a three months period. Which means the strategic planning should start roughly in May 2010 and execution of the plan should begin in June and end in July 2010. During this period the pilot study that is incorporated into the plan will be undertaken, to provide an opportunity to appraise and monitor the effectiveness of the strategy, so as to make amendment where necessary. Implementation of the Strategy To achieve a success in carrying out this strategy an ethical issue must be considered, since the target group are among the vulnerable groups of the society. This view was declared by (Beauchamp and Childress, 2001) where they highlighted the four famous ethical principles that need to be put in place when organising any health promotion campaign. This include respecting peoples autonomy and confidentiality, being beneficence, causing no destruction to people, and making good justice as at when necessary. Considering all this ethics the message to be delivered must be free of ambiguities, threat free, and must also be from an authentic source to avoid misinformation. Evaluation The appraisal for this strategy must be in line with measuring the goal set down during the planning of the strategy. Since evaluation is done mainly to assess the development and the usefulness of a programme, it is fundamental to gather information during the commencement and closing of an intervention program (Naidoo and Wills 2009, p.296). The type of data considered necessary for this anticipated strategy will involve the use of the two means of gathering information .i.e. the qualitative and the quantitative method of data collection (Parry-Langdon et al., 2003). An impact assessment method of evaluation will be incorporated into the sessions by distributing questionnaires to the college students to fill in furtively before each session and instantly after the session to assess their knowledge about obesity ailment and its risk before and to measure the impact of the strategy on the college students after the intervention. A focus group dialogue will also be held amo ng students and their tutors to establish if the modus operandi used for the programme execution was a good idea. This is needed to prove the quality of the future programme that will be executed (Nutbeam, 1998). Conclusion Obesity is regarded as one of the key health predicament facing both the developed and developing society today, and it is fundamental that society are provided with all the essential information and support required to improve and sustain high-quality health. The role of communication in enabling and empowering the populace to make intelligent decisions about life is vital to changing behaviour, and the approach in which knowledge is assimilated goes a long way in effecting change. The effectiveness of communication depends on the authenticity of peoples daily lives and their present practices, as well as their perception towards existence. To attain prolong success in health promotion; it is very crucial that work is motivated by using the bottom up approach (Naidoo and Wills, 2009), and to ensure all management issues are taken into consideration.

Wilfed Owen :: biographies bio biography

My essay is about Wilfred Owen and his astounding ability of communicating the horrors of war. Wilfred Owen was born in Oswestry on 18th March 1883. Although he had previously thought of himself as a pacifist he enlisted in the artists Rifles and was commissioned a 2nd lieutenant joining the Manchester regiment in France 1917. Whilst "serving his duty" in France he began to write poetically about his experiences and perceptions of war and its consequences. The creative aspect of his work is engendered from the intense personal experiences he was subject to during the war and are masterfully portrayed with brilliance through his poems. He has the ability to reach out and grab the reader and bring them back to his world, let them feel the atmosphere of how it was in no-mans land when the men where slowly dieing in ?exposure?. Or have their heart rate increase as they realize the panic of a gas attack in ?Dulce Et Decorum Est?. This is one of the techniques that show his brilliance as a poet, just one of the many ways he communicates the horrors of the First World War. Upon his arrival in France one of Owens first tasks was to hold a dugout in no-mans land ? an ordeal that is later described in poems ?The Sentry? and ?exposure?. These experiences I think add realism and emotion to his poems but further most an artistic licence and obligation to express his anger and disgust at poets and authors glorifying war. He shows with ease the reality of war, giving us a perception of its barbaric nature not available in a text book, an honest insight into futility at its best. One of the main purposes of my essay is to focus on four different poems of the author Wilfred Owen. One of his most famous poems ?Dulce Et Decorum Est? is a personal insight into the futility of war Owen endured. It is an ironic reminiscence unto a moment of chaos, to which a life is lost due to a gas attack. The poem tells how Owen and his men were walking back to a trench when a gas attack is brought upon them. ?Exposure? explains how the men are situated in a trench and just waiting for the weather to kill them. In this poem we are observing the process of dieing. The next poem I am analysing is

buddhism Essay -- essays research papers

Zen; Buddhism's trek through history, politics, and America Zen, or Zenno (as it is known by the Japanese word from which it derives), is the most common form of Buddhism practiced in the world today. All types of people from intellectuals to celebrities refer to themselves as Buddhist, but despite its popularity today in America, it has had a long history throughout the world. "Here none think of wealth or fame, All talk of right and wrong is quelled. In Autumn I rake the leaf-banked stream, In spring attend the nightingale. Who dares approach the lion's Mountain cave? Cold, robust, A Zen-person through and through, I let the spring breeze enter at the gate." -Daigu (1584-1669, Rinzai) (DailyZen) Zen Buddhism's history begins where Buddhism's history began. It originated on the continent of Asia around 500 B.C.. The founder of Buddhism; Gotama Siddhattha, a former price in what is now known as India, is known as "The Buddha," which roughly translates to " o ne who is awake" (Merit 102). "At the age of twenty-nine, deeply troubled by the suffering he saw around him, he renounced his privileged life to seek understanding. After six years of struggling as an ascetic he finally achieved enlightenment at age thirty-five" (DailyZen). In 475 A.D. a Buddhist teacher, Bodhidharma, traveled to China and introduced the teachings of Buddha there. In China Buddhism mixed with Taoism, and the result was the Ch'an School of Buddhism, and from there Ch'an spread to Japan where it is called Zen Buddhism (DailyZen). The Buddhist Religion has always been passed down from teacher to student, and through the use of books and sacred works such as the Malind-panha, Pali Tipitaka, and the Pitaka series (Merit 102). These books and teachers taught students of the religion the philosophies of the practice. They taught of Satori, or enlightenment, which is the main goal of the Zen Buddhist, which is to achieve peace of mind despite external turmoi l ( Archer ninety-six). One way to reach enlightenment is through meditation. Zaren is sitting in meditative absorption as the shortest yet most steep way to reaching enlightenment (Zen 233). The Buddhists stressed the fact that existence is painful. They believed that suffering was a result of false human attachments to things that were impertinent, "including the attachment to the false notion o... ...inly Christian population of the time. It also came as a shock because women were welcomed to join. America was in a chaotic state during the 1960s. The country was basically torn apart, and highly tormented by the controversy over the Vietnam war. People were breached by the traditional American ideals of serving the country, and heroic nationalism, and new ideologies and beliefs systems. More Americans were open to try different things. The Hippie era, trials of free love, and experimenting with fresh cultural aspects, all probably led to a sort of flourishing of spiritual awareness. As the cultures' curiosity and confusion led to a blossoming of new religious forms, or at least new to the Americana. Zen Buddhism was among these ideas, that was grasped at by Americans seeking new spiritual enlightenment. Zen went from India to China to Japan to Western civilization, and made a variable impact in each place it traveled to. The ideas, customs, beliefs, and philosophies of the Zen Buddhist religion spread globally due to its universality. From politics to poets, Zen impacts all aspects of life, and forms ethics through guideline, and basic philosophies of human nature and spirit.

Sample Article Opinions :: essays research papers

Fillion, P. (2002) Postmodern Planning. pg. 265-285 Quote: â€Å"Planning discourse is becoming increasingly disconnected from implementation.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This quote is from the first paragraph of the article by Pierre Fillion. As a matter of fact, it is the first sentence he uses. It is a very strong sentence that sets up his article beautifully. While after reading his article, I do not agree with all of his statements or points, but this one, his main one, I do agree with strongly. Pierre lays out why he believes that planning discourse is becoming increasingly disconnected from implementation. He states that the public is becoming more involved in the planning aspect, many different ways, including advocacy groups, community based groups, and public general meetings. He also states that it is becoming harder to implement the plans that they do come up with. I believe that this is happening for a multitude of reasons. First and foremost, the main reason that the implementation aspect is lacking is because almost all areas of the western world have become obsessed with financial stability as well as have become qu ite fiscally conscious. Therefore getting the financing for these plans has become increasingly difficult over the past so many years. Cities, individuals, businesses, provinces, states and governments cannot freely spend on items just because someone or a group wants something planned. People are becoming more conservative, and therefore less is being accomplished now, than once was. Another reason, that I believe that things are not always accomplished is because of the planning that goes into them. I feel that people have become more conscientious of the advocacy groups and public groups that want things planning and accomplished a certain way. With the rise in public input, it is possible that the planned projects lose some credibility, and therefore when it gets to the implementation stage, those involved are less open to proceeding with the project. These two things, the publics’ opinion and the financial timidness, have led to a gap to be created between the two, and w ith each passing year, that gap seems to be widening. Qadeer, M.A. (1997) Pluralistic planning for multicultural cities. Pg. 481-494 Quote: â€Å"The cultural and racial diversity of citizens bears on the planning process in three ways.† Following this quote the article goes on to explain in three ways how these three things affect the planning process. Without reading those three paragraphs, I am going to give my opinion on how I believe that in three ways the topic affects the planning process.

Assessment Portfolio and Analysis Essay

The purpose of assessment. b.Your plan for including assessment when working with children. c.How you can use assessment to document children’s work. d.How you will use children’s interests and ideas when assessing. Assessment Portfolio and Analysis The mission is to help children/students to better themselves and be able to finish any task that they have started to the fullest. The goal is to determine where the child is at developmentally/educationally. I will learn where the child stands, what they already know and how farther they can be pushed to achieving our goal. According to the text, â€Å"Assessment is the process of gathering information about children from several forms of evidence, then organizing and interpreting that information† (Wortham, S.C. (2012). I know that it is the teacher’s responsibility to test the students, from that the teacher will be able to understand where each individual child stands. My plan for including assessment when working with children is to be able to carefully be assess the child and take my time. I will make accurate decisions regarding the child and will include the child’s parents as well for their input. One way that I can use assessment to document the child’s work is through portfolio. According to teacher.scholastic.com, â€Å"These purposeful collections of children’s work illustrate their efforts, progress, and achievements over time. Teachers and children can compile the collections together from work completed in the classroom. As they talk together about the child’s interests and progress, they develop new activities for the child to focus on.† (http://teacher.scholastic.com/professional/assessment/perfassess.htm)

Change through Events in a Novel Essay

In many novels, characters experience first hand the challenges they must go through as the transition from who they portrayed to be in the beginning as opposed to how they change their personalities, actions, and life style in the end. In the novel, The Guardian by Nicholas Sparks, the author uses certain events from the novel to change the characters personalities and ways of life. This is demonstrated through the main characters Julie Barenson who changes from a nice, loving woman to an afraid and unstable woman because she finds out Richard is stalking her and Richard Franklin who changes from nice and an at times jealous person, to a crazy, possessive stalker because Julie doesn’t love him. By exploring these two characters, it is evident that change in characters through different events in the novel is depicted through how they change their lives, ways of action and personalities. During the early years of Julie’s life, she has many problems and is not stable. Julie’s mother is an alcoholic and they live in a trailer. Her father moves away to Minnesota when she is two year old. She runs away when she is sixteen and lives on the street until she meets Jim, who takes her to Swansboro and marries her. At the beginning of the novel, the author portrays Julie as a woman who has been through a lot, but does Ankoma-Mensa 2 not let that stop her from being a nice, loving person. Julie also moves on after Jim’s death, because it was a hard time for her, with regards to her past: â€Å"Now when she thought of Jim, she remembered him with a smile, thankful that he’d been part of her life.† (Sparks 1) She always helps other and does the best she can to be respectful and sincere to other characters. Unfortunately, Julie does not stay so nice and caring throughout the whole novel. This transition from being nice to becoming a scared is demonstrated when she realizes that Richard is stalking her. Julie becomes very afraid after she is informed that Richard is stalking her and she starts to act paranoid: â€Å"So she did again and come up with the conclusion that Richard wasn’t lurking by. But is still didn’t help. She began to hyperventilate.† (442) Even though Richard deserves the insults he receives from Julie, the reader does not expect her to try and hurt him in such means ways: â€Å"‘I don’t want to talk to you.’ She said, hating her plaintive tone. ‘Why can’t you get that through your head?'†(448) Julie ,herself, does not like how she is sounding and the way she is acting but she feels that the only way to get Richard to leave her alone, she has to be rude to him. Julie transforms from her regular personality beca use of what Richard is doing. Not only is Julie’s transformation in personality a big difference, but Richard’s transformation is even larger than expected. Richard, whose real name is Robert Bonham, is a man from Cleveland and is Julie’s boyfriend at the beginning of the novel. Richard, also, has been through a lot in his life just like Julie has. His father and mother were alcoholics, his mother is beat every night from his father and he hates his parents. Richard struggles because his parents die and he goes from house to house in search of a Ankoma-Mensa 3 family. In the beginning of the novel, the author portrays Richard as a caring and at times manipulative man, who has been through many struggles in his life, but unalike Julie, Richard allows his past to resurface in his future. Richard’s mothers’ struggles get to him and he allows them to interfere with his concept of how he and Julie should live: â€Å"If Julie stayed, he knew she would grow weak, just as his mother had grown weak. And in time, there would be nothing to respect.† (175) Richard feels that if Julie stays in the country, she will end up like his mother and he despises his mother. As well Richards manipulations are demonstrated when he tries to get Julie to feel guilty because she did not wear his necklace: † Manipulated, as though he’d wanted her to promise that she’d always start wearing the locket to work again and that she would feel guilty that she hadn’t.† (143) Even though Richard personality is not perfect, he worsens near the end of the novel. Richard becomes obsessive and the reader finds out that he is a murderer. Richard kills his mom; dad, wife and the real man named Richard Franklin to steal his identity. As well, the reader finds out the Richard is abusive because he hits his wife: â€Å"‘stop acting crazy’ ‘What did you say?’ ‘Ow†¦let me go†¦you’re hurting me†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ ‘WHAT DID YOU SAY?’ ‘Ow†¦please†¦Ow!'†(432) Richard hits his wife because he is a controlling person and wants her to do what he says. He also feels that he is the best thing for Julie even thought he is not and treats all women as if they are his mother, who is beaten by her father, and tries to control or change them to prevent them from his mother’s way of life: â€Å"Just like his mother. The victim. Always the victim.† (175) Richard becomes a stalker when Julie dumps him and starts to date Mike. Richard is goes crazy and Ankoma-Mensa 4 convinces himself that Julie’s hatred is love: â€Å"Yes, he knows she cared for him, for weren’t anger and love opposite sides of the same coin? Great anger wasn’t possible without great love†¦and she’d been so angry† (433) Richard uses his mothers life as a bad example of how he wants to live not knowing that he is causing the women he loves to be like his mother: subject to abuse by a controlling man. Richard changes from how he was at the beginning of the book because Julie does not love him, farther demonstrating the change is characters through events in a novel. Like in many novels, The Guardian uses events in the novel to demonstrate how each character changes their personalities, actions and ways of life. This is demonstrated through Julie’s transformation from a nice, loving, stable woman to an afraid, hate-filled, vulnerable woman because Richard is stalking her, and as well, through Richard’s transformation from a nice, controlling at times man to a sick, twisted, crazy and controlling man because Julie doesn’t love him. Characters in novels either change for better or for worst depending of the events that have taken place. In The Guardian’s case, one of the characters transform into a hate-filled ,scornful person, whereas the other transforms into a evil criminal because the events were not positive ,but were negative.

Creation Science Essay

Creation science is a controversial nature study founded on principle that the existence of the cosmos is as a result of supernatural causes (Browning, 1997). Also referred to as scientific creationism, the study combines creation concepts mainly from the Christian and Islamic understanding with scientific discoveries. The creation accounts described in the book of Genesis from the Holy Bible and the Qur’an are supported by â€Å"Creation Science† programs taught in some universities. These programs attempt to show how scientific discoveries are more consistent with creation accounts than they are with evolutionary theories suggested by earlier scientists such as Darwin (Browning, 1997). While such creation science concepts sometimes create some controversies, there should be no such problems and science and faith should be allowed to mingle. The most astounding problem is that science relies on empiricism while faith depends on believing on the unseen. However, science should be understood as man’s endeavors in understanding his universe and it is not unscientific to believe in deliberate creation of life. There are a number of evidences in the Holy Bible that can be used to study the modern Earth. For instance, the Great Flood in the story of Noah provides an understanding to the geological features in today’s Earth (Browning, 1997). In general, creation science should be supported to realize a large number of scientists supporting the paradigm that God creatively designed and formed the Earth while applying the scientific methods in gaining a deeper understanding to the question on the origin of life and the universe. The fields such as biblical archaeology and chronology, cosmology and philosophy of science are all the product of creation science and thus the thinking of creation science should be upheld to find answers to some of the questions pure science and pure religion fail to address. Reference: Browning, J. D (1997). Noah’s Ark: A feasibility study. Retrieved July 21, 2010 from http://mall. turnpike. net/C/cs/ark/allnotes. doc

Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest Essay

1. What does the play say about marriage? The play says many things about marriage.   One is that marriage can be quite complicated when there is deceit even if the feelings involved are genuine.   Another is that there are so many trivial things that society considers â€Å"important† that disregards the true meaning of marriage.   Another is that parental consent and money still play an important role in matrimony. 2. What is the significance of the names? The word Earnest means sincere. However, the play showed how that sincerity is downplayed by the many trivial things that society expects from individuals.   Ms. Prism’s name is also significant because it was her character that finally shed light on the true background of Jack – who later became truly Earnest. 3. Suggest some of the things that Wilde is poking fun at in this play. Wilde made fun of the way women can be so assuming of relationships as can be seen with Cecily’s account of how she and Algy became engaged and how Gwendolyn fled from her mother to go to Jack.   The author also made fun of the way society can be deceived by many aspects of a person beside his true self (e.g. names and money).   This was especially evident in the way the name Earnest became so important that Algy and Jack had wanted to be re-baptized with it. Marriage was also funny because it gave too much importance on money and family background before it considers the true person. 4. What is your favorite character and why? I loved the character of Ms. Prism because at first she seemed to be only a minor character but in the end, the story actually centered on her misgivings.

Compare and contrast arguments for and against belief in life after death Essay

) Compare and contrast arguments for and against belief in life after death (20 marks). 26/01/03 One initial problem with studying the belief in life after death is that there are a vast number of theories stating what they believe ‘life after death’ actually is. Therefore in order to effectively ascertain arguments for and against this idea, it is necessary to deal with each individual theory separately. Plato’s theory of dualism1 argues that it is the mind that determines our personality and that the body is an outer shelf for the real self. The body is contingent and therefore destined for decay but the mind is associated with the higher realities such as truth, goodness and justice and is immortal. Plato believed that the soul continues after death. Plato said that there was a perfect idea/form for everything in existence. The idea of the thing is prior to the individual instance of it and so it must be more real. Ideas are not physical things so they must belong to a spiritual realm of reality, which is more real than the material realm. According to Plato the telos2 of the body is to be in the physical world and receive sense-impressions whereas the telos of the soul is to travel into the realm of heavenly ideas and understand them. Before our immortal souls became imprisoned in our bodies they were acquainted with these heavenly ideas and so our soul wants to break free of our bodies and spend eternity in contemplation of the true, the beautiful and the good. In this realm the thinking being would survive without the physical body, the body would not survive death, but the soul – the real essence of the person would continue. Plato terms this ‘soul’ as our personality identity. According to Davies, although the arguments may seem ingenious, in actual fact they are severely misguided. Things may have opposites, but it does not follow that if something comes to be, there is something which is its opposite from which it comes. Nor does it follow that if something ceases to be, something comes to be which is opposite to something existing earlier. Davies adds that Plato’s second argument does not work because it mistakenly assumes that if all who have lived come to be dead, it follows that everyone has come to be dead. It is true that someone who has gone to sleep has not awoken but it is not true that nobody is awake.3 Aristotle developed a similar theory of dualism for life after death, he considered the ‘soul’ to be the part of the body that gives it life. It is what turns the physical form into a living organism of its particular type. Therefore a human will have a human soul. Aristotle defines the body and soul as being inseparable. The soul develops the person’s skills, character or temper, but it cannot survive death. When the body dies, the soul ceases to exist, as they are one. This would appear to be materialistic at first but Aristotle believed that the body and soul were different. Human beings have a soul or self that is capable of intellectual life. Only humans can reflect on feelings and sensations and grasp ‘universals’. In this way we come to understand eternal truths and in doing so we move on to achieve a higher level of existence. It seems evident here that Aristotle’s argument is guilty of confusing spiritual fulfilment that occurs on an entirely physical level, involving emotions and cognitions with life after death and so it seems we must reject his argument. Bernard Williams raised concerns that the separation of body and mind raises questions for discussion. Williams argues that memories are not a good guide to identity. Memories and personality can be fabricated and personal identity cannot be proved through mental activity alone. He believed that identity comes from physical characteristics as well. Personal identity depends on the way in which we recognise each other and without our bodies we cannot be fully identified. However, one could counter this by saying that the recognition of each other is irrelevant as it is more the manner within which we recognise ourselves that is important. Furthermore, Williams speaks of recognition on an entirely materialistic level as it is merely the physical person they are identifying. Given that one might say that we make judgements through the form of our physical selves and not our souls to recognise something non-physical by this means does not seem rational. Williams also highlights the causal affects between body and mind. For example the use of alcohol and drugs affects cognitions and changes personality.4 We can argue against this by distinguishing between the mind – a non-physical entity, and the brain – a physical entity by which the mind operates. Modern science has shown links between the mind and the brain. Surgeons are now capable of splitting the brain and effectively creating two minds. It is possible to argue that dualism was only invented as a philosophy as a means of explaining what, at that time science could not understand. Finally there is the argument that if the mind is a non-physical object how can it cause anything to happen in the purely materialist realm of the world. Arguments have been put forward to counter this – some philosophers for example have highlighted parts of the brain by which they believe the mind connects to the physical realm. However, modern science has once again defeated this argument and shown how they serve other purposes. It seems that the argument was little more than unfounded opinion and guesswork. Rene Descartes is also greatly associated with dualistic arguments for life after death. He states that if human beings are not to be identified with their bodies, then the view that they can survive death seems a plausible one. We normally think of death as the end of a persons bodily life. But if people are distinct from their bodies, then the fact that their bodies die does not entail that they die. Another modern advocate of a distinction between persons and their bodies is Richard Swinburne. According to him it is coherent that a person can exist without a body. Swinburne asserts that if X (the body) can be without Y (the mind), then X and Y are distinct. Since I can be without my body, it follows, says Swinburne, that I am not my body. Through Descartes’ and Swinburne’s arguments it becomes entirely possible to attack the premise of a dualistic interpretation of life after death by attacking the premise of dualism itself. On the other hand, although our language seems to involve subscribing to a distinction between body and mind this does not show that they are separate things. Furthermore we often talk about ourselves as being distinct from our minds also, so it seems this argument does not work. There are a number of arguments, however, which work in favour of this approach. For one thing, there is the fact that we often naturally talk about our real selves as though they were distinct from our bodies. Another factor is that we also have privileged access to many of our thoughts. We can think about something without displaying that fact by our bodily behaviour. However what does the fact that we have privileged access to many of our thoughts actually tell us. It certainly does not mean that only I can know what I am thinking as it is entirely possible for someone else to know what you are thinking by an observational analysis of your physical responses and even for them to be thinking the same thing at the same time. Unfortunately this counter-argument does not work either as although it is entirely possible for someone to work out roughly what you are thinking, they will never be 100% accurate, nor will they ever be able to think with the perceptions, cognitions and interpretations which you do. Another argument put forward by Descartes to uphold dualism is his statement: â€Å"I know I exist†. He also states that he can say that he is essentially a thinking thing. Therefore this perception of the physical seems to imply that there is something else apart from the body with regard to being a human.5 However in this case it is possible to argue that appearance may be deceptive, as sometimes our senses can be mistaken regarding the physical world. Why should we be an exception? For example a drunk man may perceive himself to be sober when actually this is not the case. However, we may point out that this analogy is at fault because if a man is drunk then his perception and mind have been distorted by alcohol and has little to do with appearance as the appearance which has been perceived is not a truthful one. Unfortunately this line of argument seems to fail when we ask why should drunkenness be any different to other distortions of perception which may occur naturally without our awareness. In fairness, it is not. Furthermore, Immanuel Kant would argue with Descartes over this issue stating that – the human mind imposes order on our experiences and in reality we do not know with certainty the source of the sensations that the mind organises. An alternative to dualism is materialism or behaviourism, which is the view that so called mental events are really physical events occurring to physical objects. Emotion for instance is just the interacting of chemicals in our physical body. Gilbert Ryle (1949) dismissed dualism as a theory about ‘a ghost in a machine’. That is the ghost of the mind inside the machine of the body. Ryle called the notion that the body and mind are separate entities calling it a category mistake. He uses the analogy of an overseas visitor who is shown around a collegiate university town and sees the college, libraries, and so forth, only at the end of it to ask â€Å"but where is the university†. Failing to appreciate that the university is not something separate from its constituent parts; failing to see the ‘wood for the trees’ as some may say†¦ Ryle advocated something known as philosophical behaviourism – all mental events are really physical events interpreted in a mental way. Thus our mind is not a separate entity but just a term meaning what we do with our physical bodies. Some critics have suggested that this does not explain all mental behaviour. If we are for example wishing for something, this does not mean we are behaving in a particular way. You could counter this by saying that the number of subconscious thoughts we have are numerous, and they often can manifest themselves through behaviour without our knowledge, who is to say that conscious thoughts are any different. In fact it seems highly likely that they are not. Ryle’s behaviourist theory can be assigned to a mode of thought known as materialism. There are two forms of this – hard materialism and soft materialism. Hard materialism refers to a mode of thought that does not accept that an individuals characteristics are anything more than physical ones. Any idea of consciousness is nothing more than brain activity. The mind cannot be separated from the body. When the body dies, then so does the brain. Soft materialists do not accept that all characteristics are physical ones. Consciousness is more than just a brain process. The mind and body are related to and do not act independently of each other, but the body often displays inner emotions. A physical symptom may be caused by something that is troubling the mind. There is nothing that we can do independent of our bodies and therefore our personal identity must involve our bodies. They believe that when the physical body dies, so does the mind. These views seem particularly strong as to oppose them would be to suggest that there are bodiless people capable of being defined as human beings, when surely having a body is part of the definition of being human. Not all materialists accept that death is the end, instead, some believe that there is life after death. As the physical body cannot be separated from the ‘soul’ (mind), there is only one way this could happen and that is if the whole body continues after death. The survival would have to involve the resurrection of the body. This belief is known as re-creation theory and is held by Christians. One flaw with this theory is that if we survive as both body and mind, then what state is the body in – are we old/young, sick/healthy etc. The question ultimately refers to the identification of the ‘self’ and who we really are. If a person was born with a terminal illness it would not seem just for them to be resurrected as a person with such an astounding deficiency, yet would they not so, it would not be truly them. The only plausible way around this would be to resort to a dualist style of argument separating the body from the soul. Unfortunately however this is not cohesive with creation theory. The theory also does not take into account personal development, if we are resurrected as a younger person of ourselves then it ignores part of what it is to be human – the ability to develop and change in order to achieve self-actualisation. The development of the self is not compatible with the arguments stationary grounding. Therefore it would seem necessary that we be resurrected in the form that we were just before we died. Yet if the person had contracted a painful illness or indeed was in a coma then this would seem non-sensical. The reason for this being that if (as in this world) suffering and pain is random and universal then the whole point of an afterlife (to reward and punish) is negated. Furthermore if a person were to be ‘cured’ as it were, then they would have had a very real aspect of their character and development removed from them (as undoubtedly the ailment would have changed them as a person, however small the change) and so it would not be the actual person that was carried on. John Hick would counter-argue and state that it would be entirely plausible that the dead could exist after death as themselves, if an exact replica of them were to appear. This replica could be identified as being the same person who had died, and therefore, according to Hick, would be the same person. If this replica will be complete with all the characteristics and memories of the individual then it would be the same person re-created. It is possible to counter-argue this point and ask the question: Would this replica not merely be an exact copy of ourselves but not really us. The individual atoms of which we are composed would differ to those of our copy. We are contingent beings and given that there must be some gap in time in between us ceasing to be and our replica coming to be, then surely it cannot be the same person. Hindu and Buddhist traditions hold the view that we have lived many lives before and that on death we will be reborn again. The condition of our present lives are believed to be a direct consequence of our previous lives. According to Verdic tradition, there is an ultimate reality – Brahman. Everything else is maya – a temporary and finite illusion. Within maya there is a limitless number of souls who all seek union with Brahman. The theory of karma and rebirth is concerned with the soul’s journey from illusion to reality6. The soul continues from life to life, being reincarnated, until it finds the eternal truth; after this the soul is not reborn any more and is united with Brahman. Thus when an individual dies, their mental aspects live on and the next birth is determined by how good or bad their karma was in the last life. Evidence frequently cited for this is the fact that many people seem able to remember fragments of their previous lives, sometime under hypnotic regression. However, although evidence for recall can sometimes be damning, why would it seem to suggest evidence for reincarnation, it could be interpreted as a number of things. Possibly, you could argue that we are all merely cells in one great organism and that these people have just happened to find interconnections between cells. If we removed the cultural-related feasibility of reincarnation then this argument would appear no less likely. In addition, it is possible that there is a rational explanation for this apparent ‘recall’. Firstly, the individual might simply be recalling information gained in childhood and attributing it to a past life. Secondly there could be a ‘cultural’ gene that passes down information from our ancestors. Or thirdly, that some memories may result from psychological problems and be manifested as memories of earlier lives when in fact they are suppressed events from this life. These three explanations seem relatively weak and unable to explain the multitude of ‘regressions’ which have taken place. David Hume would call into validity the nature of the people who make and verify these claims, stating that either they are religious and seek to prove their beliefs to be true, or are mentally unbalanced and cannot be relied upon to make accurate claims. Furthermore, hypnosis is a very unreliable source of evidence. Numerous psychologists have conducted studies showing that not only are only 33% of the population susceptible to in-depth hypnosis, with 33% being not at all susceptible, but also that false memory syndrome can occur quite regularly under hypnosis, where the patient wrongly ‘remembers’ an event to have occurred even though it actually has not.7 Although this argument does successfully call into doubt the reliability of hypnosis, the majority of other physical explanations seem relatively weak and fail to affectively account for something – which in all fairness we cannot explain. Yet the fact that we cannot remember why we know something should not provide proof that we have had previous lives, moreover that there are things which we know that transcend our sensory experiences. Philosophically, however, there are problems with this style of argument. Human beings seem to require three things to make up their individuality – body, memory and psychological patterns (personal identity). If we apply these to reincarnation, when we are reborn, continuity is lost. If we cannot remember our previous lives then our memory is lost. With only psychological pattern remaining it would be impossible to determine if one person is the rebirth of another since, unless they displayed identical characteristics, all we could say is that reincarnated people are ‘similar’ to those who went before. Therefore given that reincarnation argues not for life after death, just for life per se, it seems irrelevant to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of its arguments. Another argument for life after death arises through ‘spiritualism’ and communications between the spirit world and the living is regarded as evidence of life after death. Many ‘mediums’ have passed on messages from departed spirits that contain accurate information which was previously unknown to the medium. However, investigations of a number of mediums have proved that they are frauds. Others appear to be genuine and are able to demonstrate that something extraordinary is happening when they pass on messages. This could be communication with departed spirits or some form of telepathic access to the minds of the living. Once again however, the question is introduced as to whether we can trust the testimony of another human being without actually witnessing the occurrence for ourselves. Given the frequency of unexplainable occurrences such as these they do seem be a reasonable argument for life after death. There have been a number of ‘sightings’ of dead people, which also constitute as arguments for life after death. Dr Deepak Chopra stated that bodies are comprised of energy. They may appear to be solid, but the truth is that they are in reality just an impulse of energy. When an individual dies, the energy field may retain his/her image and may be perceived as a ‘ghost’. He considered the ghost to be an individual’s consciousness manifesting itself through the remaining energy. However there are a number of explanations for the phenomenon including hoaxes or elaborate tricks, which could convince people they had seen a ghost whereas in actuality they had not. Secondly there is the ‘stone tape’ theory which suggests that just as a magnetic tape is able to record events and play them back, in certain conditions, stones will record events and ‘play them back’ when the same conditions are present. Finally there is the fact that ghosts could be the result of a case of mistaken identity, or the power of suggestion could lead to the mistaken belief that a ghost had been sighted. The ‘stone tape theory’ is quite ludicrous as it takes upon a scientific argument to prove a theory when the main differentiation between science and philosophy is empirical verification. In this case there is no evidence to support the theory. Aside from this theory, the other two seem quite believable in that they are quite feasible and explain the frequency and variety of times such an occurrence has taken place. Furthermore, the fact that a bundle of energy continues to exist, showing something that once did exist does not mean that life after death exists. Indeed if the energy is little more than a reflection of what once was, it fails as an argument intended to prove what know is. In addition can a bundle of energy really be constituted as ‘living’, if not then once again the argument is invalid. The argument of near-death experiences also puts forward an argument for life after death. Dr. Raymond Moody has studied many cases of people who had, to all intents and purposes died (during a surgical operation) and subsequently been resuscitated. Many claimed similar experiences – floating out of their bodies, travelling down a tunnel where they emerged into a world of light. However, these accounts have problems. Firstly, these accounts may be merely the result of people dreaming or experiencing some subconscious phenomena. Given the clarity of these dreams the first account seems unlikely, the second more plausible yet still is devoid of scientific evidence to support. Some have suggested that a lack of oxygen to the brain resulted in this hallucination. The main problem once again is verification in that it is impossible for us to experience the phenomena ourselves and judge its reliability accordingly. In addition, the types of experiences are often largely dependent on culture and society and so whether or not they are genuine or merely a manifestation of what the person may expect to see, or in the case of non-believers, expects not to see. One can counter-argue this however by saying that God may not actually be a fixed being but more of an interpersonal one varying from person to person and so the culture argument may not be relevant. The arguments discussed here are numerous, but generally do not hold a great deal of weight. The philosophical arguments are flawed and in places not logical, and the empirical arguments are generally unverifiable. However, given the sheer number of empirical arguments and the fact that some of them (near death experiences and regression to previous lives for example) are apparently otherwise unexplainable – we must realise that it is highly plausible if not possible that life after death does occur in some form or another. Bibliography: Religious studies, by Sarah K. Tyler and Gordon Reid. Philosophy of religion for A level by Neil Lockyer, Anne Jordan and Edwin Tate. An introduction to the philosophy of religion, by Brian Davies. The puzzle of God by Peter Vardy Religious Education notes from R.S. conference 1 â€Å"Any view that postulates two kinds of thing in some domain is dualist; contrasting views according to which there is only one kind of thing are monistic† – Simon Blackburn Oxford Dictionary of philosophy pg 248 2 Greek word meaning ‘purpose’ 3 The Puzzle of God – Peter Vardy 4 The puzzle of God – Peter Vardy 5 Religious Education notes from R.S. conference 6 Also known as a state of ‘Nirvana’. 7 The puzzle of God – Peter Vardy