Thursday, October 31, 2019

Terms and Conditions May Apply (2013) Movie Review

Terms and Conditions May Apply (2013) - Movie Review Example He argues that the people are past the stage of understanding that the truth has been revealed and there is enough to move the people to action or educate them. He states that the people need the type of analysis that is usually given by the journalists. Ranging interviews that range from ACLU spokesperson to the Federal Protection Commissioner of Germany, Peter Schaar that explains what other third parties and the government can do in order to spy on an individual. The documentary is considered a provocative film rather than an informative film (Mortensen, 22). The movie employs a common mix of fresh taking head conversation and archival new clips that are enlivened by humorous animated sequences considerations from Ryan Kramer and Chris Allison to deal with two tightly knotted questions. 2) And can we, when the intentions of corporate turnover and national retreat align to affect forever more indiscreet modes of the numerical Peeping Tom Mage, hoping that they will roll the shutters back down another time? To provide the answers to the first question, Hoback provides a list of what can be considered as utter outrages or unfortunate overreach depending on the viewer’s perspective on the personal privacy. The Irish tourist with director Hoback sends a tweet message to their friend before going to a vacation in the United States insinuating that he wants to have some drinks and later â€Å"destroy America.† (Mortensen, 37). A target manager is criticized by a Minnesota father after a coupon mailing gives the daughter a discount on the maternity wear and on the baby furniture and later discovers that her daughter was already pregnant something he did not know. Another scenario is when a comic in the New York City is frustrated because of his experience at the apple genius bar. He takes this to Facebook to figure

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Ethics and the Airlines Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Ethics and the Airlines - Research Paper Example Organizations that fail to comply may be subjected to huge fines or other more severe consequences. Aviation stakeholders have fallen victim to violations of safety regulations among several carriers over the years. In 2007, the Federal Aviation Administration found that Southwest Airlines had not complied with safety regulations. The organization has gone for a record 59,000 flights without carrying out the proper inspections required for such flights. After realizing this problem, FAA officers augmented the problem by failing to report it and suppressing other similar evidence. It was only through interventions by two whistleblowers that the matter was put under investigation. A settlement was reached 3 years later, and the company had to pay 7.5 million dollars for flying unfit consumer airplanes. The above incident is one of many that have occurred over the past 7 years; another one involved American Airlines. In 2008 it was found that the organization had also not carried out maintenance of their aircrafts. They had put many passengers at risk and were required to pay a hefty sum of $ 15 million. Hawaiian Airlines was the most recent one, and can be a suitable case study for ethics and safety issues in aviation. In an FAA press release, it was announced that Hawaiian Airlines had been operating a Boeing 767-300 flight without conducting proper inspections of the parts. These requirements were outlined in a 2000 airworthiness direct (AD). This error was detected by the FAA in 2012 when the Airlines’ documents indicated that the particular AD under consideration was not applicable to the company. Approximately 5,000 flights had occurred on the flight without these inspections. Statutory and legal directives are highly critical in the aviation industry because without them, people’s lives could be placed at risks. Airworthiness directives are

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Workers Motivation

Workers Motivation Since this day many theories have been developed trying to identify what lies behind the motivation of workers. What is it that pushes workers to improve their performance, increase their effort and ultimately feel part of an organisation? Motivation is a conscious decision to perform one or more activities with greater effort than other competing activities (Roberts and Corbett, 2009, Understanding Organisational Behaviour IB1230 p.240). It could be interpreted that motivation being a conscious decision cannot be forced, but only be triggered by managers using certain methods. However, even today many managers refuse to give up Taylorism and the use of the scientific management. As a result the idea of the rational economic man still exists and managers still treat the workers as cogs in a machine presumed that they are motivated only by pay. This essay will argue that today job has come to be a way to make a living, and pay is just the mean for a better living but not what motivate s people to work (Gostick and Elton). Pay itself does not motivate people to improve their performance or increase their effort. What people desire beyond their material well-being, that pay can offer, is self-fulfilment and a sense of belonging. To begin with, the effectiveness of the scientific management has been challenged many times but the first blow was the Hawthorne Studies conducted by Elton Mayo in the 1920s. Until then workers had mostly no saying on the decision-making or work process, and based on McGregors Theory X, were seen as genetically lazy, with no real ambitions. With his experiment Mayo wanted to show the relation of productivity and the poor working conditions and how this could be controlled by alternating some factors of the working environment. However, productivity was increasing whatever the working conditions, leading to the conclusion that workers wanted to perform better in return of the interest that the managers had shown to them. The results of this study challenged the established conception of the rational economic man and brought the era of the social man and McGregors Theory Y. Workers are still human beings when they enter the factory door with feelings and ambitions, in search of self-a ctualisation. So this leads to the conclusion that motivation is affected by social factors as well, and sometimes workers place more importance to these than pay itself. Self-actualisation needs were what Maslow considered to be the highest level in his Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow supported the view that people must firstly satisfy each before they can move on to the higher-order needs. It is believed that self-actualisation is what continuously motivate workers as it is never fulfilled but always pursued. However, what managers must understand is that once they offered to workers the taste of self-achievement and freedom it is difficult to then remove them.   Also self-actualisation is not only achieved through work and individuals progress in this pyramid. It is achieved at different times by individuals and using different methods by their managers (Fincham and Rhodes). FIGURE 1.1-Source: Lecture Notes Herzberg further developed this idea in his Two Factor Theory where he presented job satisfaction to be a result of the motivators and job dissatisfaction as a result of the hygiene factors. Therefore it was assumed that different factors let to either job satisfaction or dissatisfaction.   Ã‚   Motivators Hygiene Factors Achievement Company Policy Work itself Supervision Responsibility Work conditions Advancement Pay FIGURE 1.2-Source: Lecture Notes It can be argued that there are similarities with Maslows Hierarchy of Needs as motivators satisfy the top needs of the pyramid whereas hygiene factors fulfil the basic human needs. Pay here is assumed to be a factor that leads to job dissatisfaction when is not met and thus included in the hygiene factors. It is broadly believed that workers with a satisfied pay will not necessarily be encouraged to perform better but only manage not to be dissatisfied. On the other hand, if the work itself is challenging and there is a potential of recognition, this is more likely to keep workers motivated and devoted to the organisation. That is why Herzberg talks about job enrichment, a means to encourage motivation by building greater responsibility and variety into a job (Roberts and Corbett, 2009, Understanding Organisational Behaviour IB1230 p.248). After all, as he argued, the very nature of motivators, as opposed to hygiene factors, is that they have a much longer-term effect on employees a ttitudes (Herzberg, 2003, One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees? p. 70). Therefore it can be assumed that pay is just a short-term solution to the motivation problem since when they reach a satisfies economic position then they will turn their attention to the social factors. However, Herzbergs Theory did not come about without criticisms that compromise its effectiveness in motivating the workers. It is argued that his research was not objective as it only included accountants and engineers, occupations that were considered to be profitable. In addition, as it is clearly illustrated by Heiders Attribution Theory people tend to attach successes to internal factors and externalise any failures. As a result the interviewees blamed the managers for feeling dissatisfied from their job and on the other hand, recognised themselves as the main factor leading to job satisfaction. Another strong criticism involves the fact that the workers may not have been honest of what really motivates them, offering therefore a reason why pay is included as a hygiene factor (Fincham and Rhodes). It was argued that this behaviour may exist because workers want to be socially accepted and thus portrait themselves to be motivated by a more noble factor than pay (Rynes, Gerhart an d Minette). Recent studies still draw the same conclusions as the one carried out by Herzberg more than 50 years ago. Workers are more likely to contribute to the work process if they feel comfortable in the work environment, close to their managers and have a sense of achievement. Once more, pay did not play a major role in motivating people since the pursue of self-actualisation remains the major concern of workers and their ultimate goal (Bassett-Jones and Lloyd). Moreover, pay has a major role in Adams Equity Theory where workers are presented to be motivated by pay   in relative terms rather than in absolute. Money can be measured and thus it allows comparisons to be made leading to the importance of equity and fairness as a factor of motivation. Therefore it is argued that workers are more likely to improve their performance if they consider their pay to be fair relative to the effort they had put and the effort of the others. This idea is supported by the experiment held out by Adams where the students who they receive higher pay relative to their efforts were motivated to work harder in order to restore equity in the exchange (Fincham and Rhodes, 2005, Principles of Organisational Behaviour p.203). However, there is the risk that conflict maybe arise because workers and managers have different perceptions of what the effort the workers must be and the pay that is considered to be fair for that effort.      Beyond the theories the managers can put in practice, they must firstly realise that the workers are individuals with different needs, values, experiences, that have an impact on what finally motivates them. As said before, people are on different levels on the Hierarchy of Needs pyramid and place different value on different hygiene factors and motivators (see figures 1.1 and 1.2). In order for this obstacle to be overcome the managers must concentrate on the individuals who work in the organisation. What drives the motivation of the each worker may change, because of different circumstances. Known the worker on a personal level gives the advantage to change the behaviour towards them. It is true that with the current crisis and the growing fear of the unemployment many workers do not have the feeling of security in their job. Thus this is their motivation for the specific time and what the managers must try to restore. However it could be argued that in this decision-making process the workers must have the chance to be heard and a compromise decision to be reached in order for any organisation to have a brighter future. On the other hand, inter-group conflict may be aroused because of managers expectations concerning certain groups. What managers expect of subordinates and the way they treat them largely determine their performance and career progress (Livingston J.S, 2003, Pygmalion in Management p.176). Therefore if a manager expects a group to perform baldy and not be able to reach a certain target, this demotivates the individuals of the group and their performance is declined as expected. However, this may not always be the case since the individuals desire to prove the manager wrong may drive them to improve their performance and thus raise the expectations which the manager previously had. It could be argued that the conflict is sometimes desirable as it changes the behaviour of the workers to the best which it is in line with the interactionist approach. In this example pay did not play the major part in motivating workers even though it could be claimed that the individuals improve their pe rformance in order to receive a better reward. However Herzbergs followers would argue that what really motivated the group was the job that became more challenging and gave the opportunity of self-achievement and recognition. Of course, the behaviour of the workers is affected by the organisations structure and culture. According to Maslow workers pursue their self-actualisation through work and therefore it could be argued that the organisational performance will depend ultimately on the extent to which individuals are provided with the opportunity to satisfy their own goals by contributing to the goals of the organisation (Mullins J., 2008, Essentials of Organisational Behaviour p.355). People are more likely to be motivated and feel part of an organisation when they share the same values, beliefs and attitudes. Therefore the organisation policy may focus on the pay as a measure to reward better performance and to the individual needs of the workers. It is true that some workers will be motivated through this but for the wrong reasons. The organisations structure encourages them to behave unethical in order to gain a raise in their pay or a promotion (Luecke, 2006). Indeed the ideas that people work for money and that more money rewards mean better performance are only just myths. As argued before, people look for something deeper in doing their work and managers who ignore that and continue to bribe their employees   in fact they pay the price in a lack of loyalty and commitment(Pfeffer J., 2003, Six dangerous myths about pay p.99). Of course the policy of the organisation and its structure depends on which country it operates as there are different perceptions of what motivates people. This is evident from a survey in 2000 where among eight countries   U.K valued good pay the highest. However, this is a result of the different methods used in these countries from which British companies may learn in order to rely less on pay to motivate their workers. In conclusion, pay does motivate people but this will not last in the long-run. Money is the means for a better life but is mostly seen as a condition to work rather than related to particular effort (Handy C., 1993, Understanding organisations p.52). Once the workers achieve their material well-being they will try to satisfy their desire for self-fulfilment. As a result pay does motivate to some extent and mostly at the beginning of someones career but then he/she will pursue recognition, achievement and finally self-actualisation. Therefore managers must strive to learn their workers on a personal level, consider their worries and needs in order to discover what ultimately motivates them to give their best effort. The Tandem Computer took this step, and moved away from offering money for better performance to being more concerned of keeping their workers satisfying through the work itself. Therefore it would not even tell you your salary before expecting you to accept the work (Pfe ffer J., 2003, Six dangerous myths about pay p.93). More organisations must take this difficult step in order to depend less on money and offer their workers greater opportunities for personal growth. Bibliography Roberts, Ashley and Corbett, Martin,2009. Understanding Organisational Behaviour IB1230 Warwick Business School: McGraw-Hill Custom Publishing Fincham, Robin and Rhodes, Peter,2005. Principles of Organisational Behaviour Fourth Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press Mullins Laurie J.,2008. Essentials of Organisational Behaviour Second Edition. Harlow: England; New York: Financial Times/Prentice Hall Timpe Dale. A, 1986. Motivation of Personnel. Aldershot: Gower Publishing Company Limited Gostick Adrian And Elton Chester, 2009. The Carrot Principle. London: Simon Schuster UK Ltd Handy Charles, 1993. Understanding Organisations Fourth Edition.   London: England; Penguin Group Grey Chris, 2009. A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book About Studying Organizations Second Edition London: SAGE Publications Ltd Herzberg Frederick, Mausner Bernard, Snyderman Barbara Bloch, 1993. The motivation to Work Second revised Edition. New Brunswick: New Jersey; Transaction Publishers Latham Gary P., 2007. Work Motivation: History, Theory, Research, and Practice. Thousand Oaks: California; Sage Publications, Inc. USB!!!!!!!!!!! LECTURES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Manville Brook and Ober Josiah, 2003. Beyond Empowerment: Building a Company of Citizens Harvard Business Review, 81(1), pp. 48-53 Fryer Bronwyn, 2003. Moving Mountains Harvard Business Review, 81(1), pp. 41-47 Herzberg Frederick, 2003. One More Time: How to you motivate Employees? Harvard Business Review, 81(1), pp.86-86 Luecke Richard, 2006. Harvard Business Essential: Performance Management. Boston: Massachusetts; Harvard Business School Press Kerr Steve, 2003. The Best-Laid Incentive Plans Harvard Business Review, 81(1), pp.27-37 Nicholson Nigel, 2003. How to motivate your problem employees Harvard Business Review, 81(1) pp.57-65 Livingston Sterling. J, 2003. Pygmalion in Management Harvard Business Review, 81(1) pp.97-106 Levinson Harry, 2003. Management by whose objectives? Harvard Business Review, 81(1) pp.107-116 McClelland David C., Burnham David H., 2003. Power is the great motivator Harvard Business Review, 81(1) pp.117-126 Goleman Daniel, 2000. Leadership that gets results Harvard Business Review, 78(2) pp.78-90 Manzoni Jean-Franà §ois, Barsoux Jean-Louis, 1998. The Set-Up-To-Fail Syndrome Harvard Business Review, 76(2) pp.101-113 Pfeffer Jefferey, 1998. Six Dangerous Myths About Pay Harvard Business Review 76(3) pp.109-119 Goffee Rob, Jones Gareth, 1996. What holds the modern Company together? Harvard Business Review, 74(6) pp.133-148

Friday, October 25, 2019

Symbols of Steinbeck’s Social Commentary Essays -- Literary Analysis

People in the 1930s were fighting a losing battle with themselves. They were approaching a depression, facing the eyes of war, and trying to stay on their feet with what little resources they had. Most were farmers and made a living by manual labor. The majority of what they owned, they made themselves. Such is the setting in John Steinbeck’s critically acclaimed short story â€Å"The Chrysanthemums†. In this story, Steinbeck set out to paint a portrait of what the conditions of the people were really like, but in a different light. Instead of focusing on technicalities, he focused on what the heart of America was going through—the struggles between what social standards expected and what individuals desired. In â€Å"The Chrysanthemums†, Steinbeck uses the characters Elisa Allen, the Tinker, and Henry Allen to exemplify the different personas of the time, and to reveal certain truths of society associated with each. Elisa Allen lives a peaceful life, but is fighting a constant battle with the prejudicial, parental society against her as a female. As Kenneth Kempton, author of Short Stories for Study, notes, â€Å"whether it is freedom suggested by the nomadic life of the tinker, or children symbolized by her care of the young plants, or manliness as indicated by her delight in her strength and her masochist scrubbing of her body in the bath, or a normal sex life hinted at by her tenseness with when with her possibly impotent husband, or merely her lost youth as implied at the end†, Elisa is struggling inwardly. Beginning with a detailed description of the Salinas River Valley, which is enclosed in fog like a pot, the physical surroundings echo Elisa’s lifestyle. In fact, â€Å"the chrysanthemum stems seemed too small and easy for her ene... ...n the â€Å"bright direction† of the Tinker. Had the Tinker been better able to support himself, perhaps he would not have had to throw Elisa’s chrysanthemums on the side of the road. Opportunity, although presented to each of the characters, was never fully grasped, and so it remained, that â€Å"fog and rain did not go together†. Works Cited Kempton, Kenneth Payson. "Objectivity as Approach." Short Stories for Study. Cambridge [Mass.: Harvard UP, 1953. 120-24. Print. Palmerino, Gregory J. "Steinbeck's THE CHRYSANTHEMUMS." Rev. of "The Chrysanthemums" Explicator 62.3 (2004): 164-67. Literary Reference Center. Web. Price, Victoria. "The Chrysanthemums." Masterplots. 4th ed. Pasadena, CA: Salem, 2011. 1-3. Print. Sheets-Nesbitt, Anna, ed. "The Chrysanthemums." Short Story Criticism. Ed. Anja Barnard. Vol. 37. Detroit: Gale Group, 2000. 320-63. Print.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Discrimination and the Arts Essay

1. W.E.B Du Bois makes a strong and persuasive argument about â€Å"double consciousness† and racial struggle in America. ANSWER THIS QUESTION: Do you agree that â€Å"art†Ã¢â‚¬â€broadly defined—can be an antidote or a form of resistance against certain kinds of discrimination? 2. Take a position on this issue by first exploring at least three of our course texts, starting with Du Bois and leading through several of our other readings (Martin Luther King, Alice Walker, bell hooks, or any of the other writers we’ve read in this unit or the previous unit on disability). IN OTHER WORDS, you must use Du Bois and at least two other authors in Cultural Conversations. Is there, for example, an art to the practice of nonviolence such as King describes, or to the use of language discussed in Linton and Slackjaw? 3. Ultimately, your exploration of these connected ideas should lead to a clear position of your own, and you must demonstrate in this paper that you can synthesize a number of differing ideas in the pursuit of your own argument. We will discuss strategies to do so in class. 4. Provide an example from contemporary culture of people resisting (or not resisting) discrimination. Use this example to demonstrate your position on art as resistance. Consider questions such as: would art have helped the less empowered people fight back? Did art play a part in the arguments against discrimination? In what ways does art address discrimination in your example? You may use print or web sources for this example as long as you document these carefully. In addition, you must define what you mean by â€Å"art† in order to construct a strong argument. 5. Include in your paper an acknowledgement and rebuttal of an opposing or counter-argument. This section of your paper may be short, but it is a vital aspect of your paper, so don’t forget to include it. IN OTHER WORDS, give the other side of your answer to the top question about art as an effective form of resistance and then argue against it. If you answer â€Å"yes,† then say how people could argue â€Å"no† and argue against them. 6. You will need to use at least five sources for this paper: THREE from Cultural Conversations (Du Bois plus two others) and TWO related to your example (they can be nonscholarly). 7. GRADING BASED ON: forming a thesis, showing originality, constructing and organizing your argument, using textual evidence, showing you understand the main themes of the course/unit, meeting stylistic and grammatical standards, and finding and using sources. 8. Use MLA format and citation style. Also use 1 inch margins and Times New Roman or similar font. No cover page please. Number your pages and include a header with your name and my name on it. Staple your paper. Don’t forget a title. Proofread. W.E.B. Du Bois Marcus Garvey Booker T. Washington Langston Hughes Anna Julia Cooper Frances E.W. Harper Anonymous Reviewer Lifting the Veil of Ignorance, B.T. Washington Memorial at Tuskegee University From Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man (1952): â€Å"Then in my mind’s eye I see the bronze statue of the college Founder, the cold Father symbol, his hands outstretched in the breathtaking gesture of lifting a veil that flutters in hard, metallic folds above the face of a kneeling slave; and I am standing puzzled, unable to decide whether the veil is really being lifted, or lowered more firmly in place; whether I am witnessing a revelation or a more efficient blinding.† Bob Marley â€Å"Redemption Song† â€Å"Emancipate yourself from mental slavery None but ourselves can free our minds.† Langston Hughes â€Å"I, Too, Sing America† Frances E.W. Harper â€Å"The Burdens of All† From W.E.B. Du Bois’ Criteria of Negro Art: PAGE 160: â€Å"The apostle of beauty thus becomes the apostle of truth and right not by choice but by inner and outer compulsion. Free he is but his freedom is ever bounded by truth and justice; and slavery only dogs him when he is denied the right to tell the truth or recognize an ideal of justice†¦ Thus, all art is propaganda and ever must be, despite the wailing of the purists†¦ I do not care a damn for any art that is not used for propaganda. But I do care when propaganda is confined to one side while the other is stripped and silent.†

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

College Participation Essay

One of the best things we can do after high school is to continue our education by going to college. During a high school career fair, students may find themselves asking: â€Å"Why is it important to go to college? † Well, it is important because at college, students try new things, meet new people and expand their knowledge of the world. Higher education also improves their chances of having the lives and the job they always wanted. However, it is not as easy as they think. Students can get distracted by different things in college, which can prevent them from success and achieving their goals. In most cases, lack of class participation is one of the factors that could directly affect their education and increase their chances to quit college. Boring instructors and time management could be the obstacles for students to not participate in class activities. â€Å"My class is so boring†, â€Å"My instructor talks all the time†, â€Å"I fall asleep in my class†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ are popular sayings from college students. Why should students go to class when everything from the lectures can be found easily from the book? When the lectures are so boring and the instructors basically just represent the information from the book, students would think that it is not necessary for them to go class, so they skip. Moreover, there are instructors who just go to class with a mission: talk. They keep going on and on without any class activities for students to participate in. This makes class participation even harder for students who attend class regularly and have questions or topics they want to discuss. As a result, students easily fall asleep during the lectures. Next, time management could be considered one of the biggest barriers that prevents students from class participation. Part-time jobs, friends and school activities can occupy most of the time if students do not know how to manage their time well. College students may vary where they come from. They could be high school graduate students or people who come back after years to have higher education in order to achieve their goals. But, they all cannot fully function as well as normal if they had to work until 12 the night before and then go to class at 8 in the morning. Since some have to earn money for tuition, their jobs occupy most of their time rather than finishing their homework and preparing for classes in the next day. On the other hand, in college, students always meet new friends and new people, so hanging out with them will just be a part of a student’s schedule. It can put them in trouble if they cannot balance themselves between spending time on school work and friends. It is even harder for those who are school athletes. It is impossible for them to be able to finish their homework and to prepare for class after hours of sport practices. With unfinished homework, lack of sleep and no class preparation, students will just attend classes with empty brains. Despite great lectures from the instructors, they all will just fall asleep during class or hardly join class activities. As a result, lack of class participation would prevent students from deeply understanding the lectures, increasing their chances to fall in the path of getting bad grades on exam. Class participation helps student to interact with each other and with teacher. It is an opportunity for students to practice in-class problems in order to deeply understand the lectures. It also helps them to better prepare for the assignments and exams. Unlike in high school, in college, students may have to finish a book in a short quarter. Dealing with large amounts of information in the short time, students may find it difficult to memorize details from the lectures and the book if they do not understand the lectures in depth. If so, it becomes difficult for them be able to score high in the exam because a test in college usually covers at least three to four chapters. Thus, it would not be strange if they got bad grades in the exams. On the other hand, in some classes, participation in class could be counted as a participation grade which can affect the student’s grade in general. One more important thing is that the instructors sometimes use the discussion questions for the upcoming test, so it would be a big disadvantage for those who attended class but did not actually participate in class activities. By having too many bad grades, students will just drop out of class or, the worst thing could happen, they quit. Approximately three million students enroll in some form of college every year; however, 33% drop out each year. From lack of class participation, students will feel alone and school becomes the most boring place they have to go to every day. They do not see the importance of going to college. Students will just quit to find a job that can fit them in. In order to have students participate in class, instructors should have some strategies to make their lecture more interesting to students and create interactive activities such as rolling dice to have students answer question or group discussions†¦ However, students also have to actively prepare for classes and participate in class activities. Checklists and to-do lists can be a student’s best friends if they have trouble with managing their time. By doing so, students can balance their time on school works and outside activities more effectively and have more spare time for themselves. When students find it more interesting to participate in class, it means they are one step closer to be successful in college. Because the more time students participate in class, the more knowledge they can gain and the more successful they can be.