Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Predictors of Interracial Dating and Marriage Essay

Interracial relationships and marriages have long been in existence. It was an inevitable outcome of the migration of various other races to the United States since the time of the Mayflower. Such relationships have weathered the height of social discrimination way back during the human rights movements of the sixties and have evolved from the shadows to the forefront of today’s open and well-balanced relationships between a man and a woman. In the United States, it has always been people from the same social class or those financially equal who end up marrying, it is not necessarily out of love. These parings are usually done in order to preserve a certain social order and it works just fine most of the time. It becomes socially unacceptable therefore for someone of a lower or more inferior social position to â€Å"marry up† and make things unpleasant for the couple because their families and friends often get involved and make dating a living hell for the couple. My researches for this paper have proven to me that skin color has never been an issue for any of the interracial couple. Skin color and race have no bearing on their common interests, goals, ambitions, and beliefs in life. The aforementioned are the key predictors in whether their relationship will work or not and for how long in any normal relationship. Even though such relationships have to usually struggle for acceptance in society, the couples involved do not even notice it anymore because to them, they are simply normal human beings in love with one another. Although interracial couplings made up only 2. 9 percent of marriages since 2002 according to the United States Census Bureau, these marriages seem to last longer and seem to be very widely discussed amongst local populations. It is my opinion that 2 social norms, beliefs and traditions most often dictate who we should have a relationship with and eventually end up starting a family with, these very norms are also the reason why such traditional hook-ups fail. In the case of a relationship, the difference in race, traditions, and beliefs work to keep the pairing interesting since it becomes a learning experience for both parties. A marriage is a union of two souls that become one. It is also a life long learning experience for the spouses as they learn about their varied traditions and beliefs and work with each other towards making those clashing beliefs gel and work towards solidifying the union. The people of the 21st century have seemingly decided to turn a blind eye towards interracial couplings. This may be because the United States has become a melting pot for not only the African- Americans, but for the Asians and Hispanics as well. The greater predictor of whom one will most likely choose to love and marry is no longer based on social norms but on personal preferences regardless of skin color, race, and social standing. An estimated 46. 3 million Americans, with ages ranging from 14-24 compose the Millennial Generation, who no longer believe that race is an issue. Instead they set out looking for others who share common perspectives and interests with them. The modern relationships they are involved in are based in multi-cultural diversity and inclusions. Television programs such as Grey’s Anatomy further help to erase the great racial divide as they provide story lines with interracial couplings, such as the Korean Christina Yang and her immediate superior Preston Burke, who happens to be an African-American. Though different as night and day, their relationship simply works, and never 3 was their culture, race, or skin color called into question by their friends, relatives, and co-workers. Instead, they have had to struggle to make their relationship work because of their personal, not racial, differences; the fact that they are an interracial couple makes them interesting to get to know. In an effort to become a politically correct nation, we have become a race of people suffering from â€Å"color-mute syndrome†. It teaches us not to be a racist person by acknowledging a person’s color or race. We are all becoming involved in the process of learning to choose our friends, lovers, and companion solely on the basis of common ground. Race is no longer an issue these days. It is no longer a make or break factor in relationships because we have learned to see beyond color and race, and all the way into a person’s heart and soul. We no longer judge a person by his skin color. A man no longer carries a stigma because of belonging to a certain race or skin color. There are no longer limitations as to who you can be and whom you can be with. Karina Anglada, a 17-year-old High School senior in Chicago who hails from Puerto Rican roots says, † It goes beyond that to whom you get along with. † That in my own personal opinion, is the greater predictor of whom you might choose to love and marry regardless of social indicators. Works Cited: Sharon Jayson. February 8, 2006. New Generation Doesn’t Blink at Interracial Relationships. USA TODAY. February 8, 2006. Retrieved December 30, 2006 from http://www. usatoday. com/news/nation/2006-02-07-colorblind_x. htm Mary Ann Albright. Love Sees No Color. Corvallis Gazette-Times. December 11, 2004. Retrieved January 2, 2007 from http://www. gazettetimes. com/articles/2004/12/12/news/top_story/sunloc01. txt

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Research paper about Marijuana Essay

Marijuana marijuana or marihuana, drug obtained from the flowering tops, stems, and leaves of the hemp plant, Cannabis sativa (see hemp) or C. indica; the latter species can withstand colder climates. It is one of the most commonly used drugs in the world, following only caffeine, nicotine, and alcoholic beverages in popularity. In the United States, where it is usually smoked, it also has been called weed, grass, pot, or reefer. The Plant C. sativa grows as a common weed in many parts of the world, and drug preparations vary widely in potency according to climate, cultivation, and method of preparation. Mexico, Paraguay, and the United States are the top marijuana-producing nations worldwide. C. indica is a shorter, hardier variety with rounded blue-green leaves, grown in Afghanistan for hashish. Most marijuanas grown in the United States since the late 1980s are hybrids of the two and yield a much more potent product than the marijuana of the past. The resin found on flower clusters and top leaves of the female plant is the most potent drug source and is used to prepare hashish, the highest grade of cannabis. The bud of the female plant, called sinsemilla, is the part most often smoked as marijuana. The Drug The effects of marijuana vary with its strength and dosage and with the state of mind of the user. Typically, small doses result in a feeling of well-being. The intoxication lasts two to three hours, but accompanying effects on motor control last much longer. High doses can cause tachycardia, paranoia, and delusions. Although it produces some of the same effects as hallucinogens like LSD and mescaline (heightened sensitivity to colors, shapes, music, and other stimuli and distortion of the sense of time), marijuana differs chemically and pharmacologically. The primary active component of marijuana is delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), although other cannabinol derivatives are also thought to be  intoxicating. In 1988 scientists discovered receptors that bind THC on the membranes of nerve cells. They reasoned that the body must make its own THC-like substance. The substance, named anandamide, was isolated from pig brains in 1992 by an American pharmacologist, William A. Devane. Marijuana lowers testosterone levels and sperm counts in men and raises testosterone levels in women. In pregnant women it affects the fetus and results in developmental difficulties in the child. There is evidence that marijuana affects normal maturation of preadolescent and adolescent users and that it affects short-term memory and comprehension. Heavy smokers often sustain lung damage from the smoke and contaminants. Regular use can result in dependence. The Legalization Question With the increase in the number of middle-class users in the 1960s and 1970s, there came a somewhat greater acceptance of the view that marijuana should not be considered in the same class as narcotics and that U.S. marijuana laws should be relaxed. The Drug Abuse Prevention Act of 1970 eased federal penalties somewhat, and 11 states decriminalized possession. However, in the late 1980s many states rewrote their drug laws and imposed stricter penalties. Beginning in 1996, however, a series of states began enacting medical marijuana laws (two fifths of the states now have one), and in 2012 voters in the states of Colorado and Washington approved the legalization of marijuana. Opponents of easing marijuana laws have asserted that it is an intoxicant less controllable than alcohol, that our drug-using society does not need another widely used intoxicant, and that the United States should not act to weaken UN policies, which are opposed to the use of marijuana for other than possible med ical purposes. In 2013, Uruguay became the first nation to legalize the growing, selling, and use of marijuana, a move it undertook in part in an attempt to undermine drug cartels. Uruguay’s legalization, which was a source of controversy in the country, also was critized by international authorities for contravening treaties to which Uruguay was a party. Medical Uses Controversy surrounds the medical use of marijuana, with proponents saying it is useful for treating pain and the nausea and vomiting that are side effects of cancer chemotherapy and for restoring the appetite in people with AIDS. Its active ingredient, THC, was synthesized in 1966 and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1985; synthetic THC is available by prescription in pill form as dronabinol (Marinol) and nabilone (Cesamet). Proponents of medical marijuana say it is not as effective as the herb and is more expensive. In addition to THC, another cannibis derivative (or cannabinoid), cannabidiol (CDB), is an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant and also moderates THC’s psychoactive effects. A 1999 U.S.-government-sponsored study by the Institute of Medicine found that marijuana appeared beneficial for certain medical conditions, such as nausea caused by chemotherapy and wasting caused by AIDS. Because of the toxicity of marijuana smoke, however, it was hoped that further research might lead to development of new delivery systems, such as bronchial inhalers. A number of studies since 1999 have shown that smoked marijuana has pain-reducing effects when compared with marijuana stripped of its cannabinoids. The Office of National Drug Control Policy has opposed legalization of the medical use of marijuana, citing law enforcement issues and the possibility that some would use it as a pretext to sell marijuana for nonmedical use, and the FDA said in 2006 that, despite the 1999 report, that marijuana â€Å"has no accepted or proven use in the United States.† Proponents, disregarding the law, have set up networks for the distribution of the drug to people who they judge will be helped by it and continue to lobby for its legalization for medical use. In 1996 California enacted the first state law permitting the use of marijuana for medical reasons, and about one third of the states now have some sort of medical marijuana legislation. As a result of a Supreme Court ruling in 2005, however, these laws do not protect medical users with a prescription from federal prosecution. In 2009 Attorney General Eric Holder ordered that federal prosecutors not focus on persons who  clearly comply with state medical marijuana laws, but federal law enforcement officials have moved to close many so-called marijuana dispensaries despite compliance, arguing in part that many prescriptions for marijuana are not justified medically. Another, lower court ruling permits doctors to discuss medical use of marijuana with their patients but forbids them to help patients obtain the drug. A number of countries, including Canada, permit the medicinal use of the drug. History of Marijuana Use Marijuana has been used as an agent for achieving euphoria since ancient times; it was described in a Chinese medical compendium traditionally considered to date from 2737 BC It also has a long history of use as a medicinal herb. Its use spread from China to India and then to N Africa and reached Europe at least as early as AD 500. A major crop in colonial North America, marijuana (hemp) was grown as a source of fiber. It was extensively cultivated during World War II, when Asian sources of hemp were cut off. Marijuana was listed in the United States Pharmacopeia from 1850 until 1942 and was prescribed for various conditions including labor pains, nausea, and rheumatism. Its use as an intoxicant was also commonplace from the 1850s to the 1930s. A campaign conducted in the 1930s by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Narcotics (now the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs) sought to portray marijuana as a powerful, addicting substance that would lead users into narcotics addiction. It is still considered a â€Å"gateway† drug by some authorities. In the 1950s it was an accessory of the beat generation; in the 1960s it was used by college students and â€Å"hippies† and became a symbol of rebellion against authority. The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 classified marijuana along with heroin and LSD as a Schedule I drug, i.e., having the relatively highest abuse potential and no accepted medical use. Most marijuana at that time came from Mexico, but in 1975 the Mexican government agreed to eradicate the crop by spraying it with the herbicide paraquat, raising fears of toxic side effects. Colombia then became the main supplier. The â€Å"zero tolerance†Ã‚  climate of the Reagan and Bush administrations (1981–93) resulted in passage of strict laws and mandatory sentences for possession of marijuana and in heightened vigilance against smuggling at the southern borders. The â€Å"war on drugs† thus brought with it a shift from reliance on imported supplies to domestic cultivation (particularly in Hawaii and California). Beginning in 1982 the Drug Enforcement Administration turned increased attention to marijuana farms in the United States, and there was a shift to the indoor gro wing of plants specially developed for small size and high yield. After over a decade of decreasing use, marijuana smoking began an upward trend once more in the early 1990s, especially among teenagers, but by the end of the decade this upswing had leveled off well below former peaks of use.

Monday, July 29, 2019

Accountant in Private or Public Sector Should Remain Impartial

Accountant In Private Or Public Sector Should Why Remain Impartial? An accountant in private or public sector should remain impartial and also loyal to ethical guidelines when preparing and reviewing the company’s financial statements for reporting purposes. Some of the contemporary issues that affect an accountant in the workplace emanate from outside or forces within trying to ensure that financial records are manipulated to make the company appear as if it is making profits when this is far from the truth(Anandarajan and Simmers, 2002). This leads to both criminal and ethical violations. The balance from the legal point of view can be considered as the assets and rights in favor of the company in a given moment of time (assets), the obligations contracted at that date (liabilities) and, as a difference, the property belonging to the owners (Bowie and Werhane, 2006). From the economic point of view, the balance sheet shows the sources of financing that existed at any given time, both from third parties outside the company, as well as from the owners of the company (liabilities and assets) and the investment or application that has been given To that (active) financing. Some of the work place problems include: the goal of makeup or "beautification" of the balance sheet is to make the company's liquidity situation appear more favorable. From this point of view, it is customary to practice transferences of securities or feigned transactions in books, aimed at taking sums from accounts considered as not realizable to other accounts held by more liquid, before the balance sheet is drawn up. Irregularities to records or accounting reports for any fraudulent purpose may be "employee fraud" or "management fraud". Employee fraud refers to dishonest acts done against the company by its employees. Examples include asset theft, charging lower sales prices to "favored" customers, receiving money from suppliers, overestimating hours worked, filling expense accounts, and embezzlement (theft of assets that Is hidden by falsifying accounting records). Management fraud refers to a deliberate misrepresentation made by top management of a business to outsiders, tending to mislead investors or creditors, concealing the truth, and to this can be added the rudeness between partners, as well Such as the fraudulent management of Directors and Directors, which may consist of misappropriation of funds or distortion of Balance Sheet. This naturally entails having to make false entries during the course of the business year, which will alter the time of the statement of the balance when it is being drawn up. The most common is that such false seats take place during the inventory; Excessive wages to managers and / or their families which allows management to use them for personal purposes; Fraudulently structured business transactions between the company and members of its senior management; Transfer of accounts to another that have nothing to do with the origin of the operation; Seats that have been embroiled in order to maintain or introduce certain values not included in the balance sheet, as in the case of value depreciation in the "goods" account when part of the goods is damaged; Fictional sales; Fictive existence of assets; False overvaluation of the Asset; Omission of commitments; Indication of a major change to the real, among many others.   According to the manner and time of its execution, the accounting offenses of the employers are broken down into three categories: those committed in the course of the exercise(Bragg, 2001). Those that are made when formulating the inventory with repercussion on the balance sheet and the offenses of balance proper, in the most limited sense, which affect the accounts of the Major to obtain the balance sheet. Management that wants to hide the situation of their business can do it in two directions: up or down. In the first case there is the purpose of making the commercial capacity appear in the books and vice versa in the second; The final effect is to distort the general situation, according to the interest that may exist according to the prevailing circumstances. The above risks are commonly handled in risk management of companies, but how could we translate them into an accounting firm? Perhaps we could handle them as quantitative, qualitative risks, risks arising from the management of the business and results of recent audits. The quantitative risk should be evaluated by aspects such as the sufficiency of the cash flows of the business, the amount of capital of the firm itself, the sufficiency of the fees to collect the financial situation of the business, and so on(Careers in accounting, 2008).The qualitative risk of the business should be given by aspects such as the industry in which the firm is immersed with its main customers, its number of customers and suppliers, management experience in charge of the business, number of products on the market, personnel Key in the operation, and so on. The problem arising from the operation of the business, by the administration in charge, results from such issues as the pressure of the partners to generate profits or positive cash flows, financing needs, additional capital, reserves not to recognize (Or recognize) inadequate income, very high administrative compensation based on results. Indications of unhealthy accounting practices may also result in a risk, only comparable to the lack of sincerity (to hide information) of the administration towards the partners of the firm. The results of recent audits of our own accounts and controls can point us to the risks that other Accounting professionals have detected in the recent past. The pressure to impose ideas, unreasonable dates of reporting, detected frauds, unexplained departures from the firm's staff, and so on. Litigation is also a source of risk for the firm, as well as operations or contracts unnecessarily complex with parts of the firm, etcetera(Weetman, 2016).As can be seen, trying to convert traditional general risks into landed risks for the accounting profession (specific industry) is complex and it is only after a careful evaluation of them, their weights and their balances that can lead to knowing Whether the risk you are taking with your contracts is acceptable or not. One suggestion to carry out such an assessment of the total risks of the firm is the development of one or more risk matrices in which the different types of risk to which the firm is subject are evaluated by assigning values of each of the different risks Noted above. Once the analysis was developed through a matrix with weighted data, the result would be a scheme, perhaps as follows With limited exceptions, issuers may not extend or maintain credit, extend credit arrangements, or renew an extension of credit, in the form of a personal loan for any of their senior managers or executives(Test of professional competence in management accounting, 2013). An existing credit extension will not be subject to this prohibition if there is no material modification to the credit extension or renewal after the enactment of the law.   This fraud strongly impacts the financial statements. It can include asset theft, concealment of debts, manipulation of income, manipulation of expenses, among others.     Alteration of information: change of information before or during computer entry. Anyone who has access to the process of creating, registering, transporting, encoding, examining, converting information that enters the computer can do so.   Trojan horse: It consists of placing additional instructions in a program so that, in addition to its own functions, it performs an unauthorized function. It can be done by anyone who has access to any file normally used by the program. It's easy to hide among hundreds of program instructions. It can also be hidden in the operating system. They are introduced preferentially by adding the unauthorized change when implementing an authorized change to the program. Salami Technique: Theft of small amounts from a large number of records through fraud in the program. The funds thus obtained are applied to a special account. Control totals do not change. The person equipped with this course are   considered to be trusted advisors to managers who did not have a leading and driving role, much less control and monitoring, since their role was confined to making recommendations on the progress of the company and the management of its executives , Validating with their presence and their signature the acts of those, to such an extent that in business language a radical line was made between what was management and those who called themselves directors, in a denomination that was above all honorific(Test of professional competence in management accounting, 2013). This reduces ethical issues in the accounting and management profession. This eans that their performance is exclusively in the interest of society and associates and are subject to a catalog of functional prescriptions that makes them active subjects of business management, not only as drivers of their objectives but also as Vigilantes of the implementation and of the results of its policies, strategies and programs, assigning them a joint and unlimited liability to the damages caused by deceit or fault to society, partners or third parties, unless there is no knowledge Of the action or omission that generates responsibility or has been voted against, provided that those who oppose the act have not executed it. How accounting degree can be used to solve workplace problems To determine the location of accounting in the field of knowledge, assuming for the present work, the different definitions of some work that relate it to the economy, regardless of whether or not they belong to the Economic School of Accounting, which was published in the virtual International Accounting and Social Responsibility of Organizations, Accounting is a social science of an economic nature whose purpose is, by means of a specific method, a way to produce information in quantitative terms, relative to the economic-patrimonial reality that occurs in an economic unit so that the users of the information can make decisions In relation to the expressed economic unit(Management accounting, 2010). Accounting is an economic science that serves the explanatory, predictive and control information of the measurement and aggregation of the value of wealth and of the income generated in the exchange of private and public subjects Research problems and accounting research problems are needed, which lead to the diagnosis and description of aspects that generate obstacles in research. As an example, research in order of the major research topics is presented through the most representative academic journals with the intention of evidencing the global accounting research. The problem that guides the argument is the need to distinguish two problematic axes in accounting research that makes this exercise an activity that historically marches slowly, seeking to understand that with the conceptual and analytical clarifications in the conceptions that govern accounting knowledge, Could contribute to the disruption of this issue. It is established that problems are not the same as motivators of research, that the problems that revolve around research as a human activity. This writing has been thought with two purposes, which are meant to mean in the title(Management accounting, 2010). On the one hand, it is implied th at there are research problems in the science or discipline of accounting, which are those that by nature move to a field of knowledge; That is, that through the accounting an investigator could explain an own fact of such discipline. This first approximation leads to linking the problems of investigation in the plane of what can be called accounting ontology, as it refers to the object of accounting study, to the facts of which accounting is concerned. On the other hand, it is understood the problems of accounting research, as the result of an accounting epistemological analysis, in the sense of outlining the main axes that lead to problematic situations in the process of accounting research as a social activity. For this first part it is necessary to make precision about what can be understood by research problem. Traditionally it has been understood that a problem is a situation of conflict, where there are two aspects that do not correspond with each other, either the reality and the explanation of it; On the other hand, a problem is understood as the absence of an explanation about aspects of reality that have not yet been addressed and / or finally that in the face of a problem the available explanations are not coherent. The above three causes are the sources of problems in science. It is important to emphasize that problems are not exhausted in the abstraction presented here, but that many problems can be generated by confusions in language, in thought, these problems would be philosophical, however, To the extent that philosophical approaches to accounting problems exist, these ways of understanding them can significantly guide researchers in providing solutions(Management accounting, 2010). The latter aspect provides a path that is not entirely unexplored, but which has been insufficiently exploited for the benefit of accounting discipline. Accounting as a scientific discipline can be approached from any of these models of science. Whatever it is, accounting research is needed from two planes; the pure and the applied. On the applied side, research becomes pragmatic, instrumental and technological, seeking concrete solutions to specific information problems derived from empirical research, inductive, starting from the state of things that exist, without trying to transform it. This investigative exercise revolves around recognizing - measuring - disclosing the accounting fact, through an information system, to generate information useful in economic decision making, within the framework of the market logic. On the "pure" side, research in accounting is based on the search for new theories, methods, techniques, to know the accounting reality through an interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, multidisciplinary or multidisciplinary conception. The center of this type of research is the expansion of the frontiers of accountin g knowledge based on the idea that accounting is a socially, economically, politically and culturally constructed discipline. The link between these investigations and accounting practice for many is diffuse, but it must be considered that for a theory to be accepted by the scientific community it has to be recognized, tested and proven, which does not happen in short periods, even more so in The accounting field must go through the recognition of regulatory bodies and relevance to social needs. There are multiplicity of fields in which you can do accounting research either applied or what has been called here pure research, within these we locate some that are representative to give an idea of each category. The problems that are indicated in the plane of accounting epistemology are the diagnosis of the main causes of why accounting as a scientific discipline does not achieve greater developments and socio-technological impact as a social science. They belong to sociology because they detach themselves from the human relations that construct the accounting phenomenon and, therefore, it is incumbent to explain them from this perspective; Are all a consequence of the effects that variables external to the accounting science itself determine their situation. Recommendations Scientific community: the main problems around this category, is whether accounting researchers share minimum elements of methodology and there is agreement on what is or should occupy accounting? For many years there has been debate and writing on this subject, without finding any exit, given the high ideological component that occurs in the answers and proposals. Is there any consensus as to object and method? In thi s sense, apparently basic questions, but with little real impact in both research practice and academia, consensus should not necessarily be imperative. What is really required is clarity in relation to what is investigated and is intended to intervene with the investigation, in order not to invade spaces that other disciplines and sciences already of tradition do much better(Management accounting, 2010). Does the formation of the accountant support the same purposes and share the same literature? The tension in the formation of the counter, inheritance of several decades, more than diversifying approaches, alternatives and generating plurality, has been a dissociating element. What is relevant in this aspect of the problem is whether there is an understanding and understanding of opposing approaches and postures that enable academic debates of scientific rigor that contribute to a dynamic of progress. Does the community handle the same language? The semantic differences within the accounting community are evident as it arises, the distance in the members of the accounting community is not only in the language, but in the valuation and importance of the research activity and the Impact that this must have. Market: the space where accounting functions and the accounting profession properly imposes challenges on us to be able to understand the relationships that must be established between science and economics. It is an external variable of consideration because it conditions the educational system and thus the type of training that is privileged. Is accounting education contingent on the needs of the market? Is accounting research important to the market? Is there research, more for the disciplinary need than for meeting quality standards? The problems of research in accounting are a sample of the potential possibilities of disciplinary development, and are evidence that it is possible to speak of research in workplace accounting. Not only from the application of methodologies of scientific rigor, but also from the perspective of building knowledge about realities built and understood interdisciplinary, on objects and phenomena in the world that revert human, economic and social importance, from accounting as a discipline social, to build forms of recognition, measurement and accounting representation that facilitate society a much more comprehensive understanding of economic and social reality. However, the difficulties jump immediately, but they are the ones that motivate from an epistemological vision, the possibilities, the scope, the character and utility of the same, difficulties that also are object of investigation(Bowie and Werhane, 2006). This situation permeates the relationships in the accounting community, the institutions, the market and the practical utility that derives from it. The, far from being discouraging, invites us to think of research not as a problem in itself, but rather to understand it as the articulating axis that allows us to develop accounting as a dynamic social knowledge and discipline, useful to mankind, not only professionally, But in a sense of understanding of the world and of society that re-establishes it in its social value Anandarajan, M. and Simmers, C. (2002). Managing web usage in the workplace. 1st ed. Hershey, Pa.: IGI Global (701 E. Chocolate Avenue, Hershey, Pennsylvania, 17033, USA). Bowie, N. and Werhane, P. (2006). Management ethics. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell. Bragg, S. (2001). Cost accounting. 1st ed. New York: John Wiley. Careers in accounting. (2008). 1st ed. San Francisco, CA: WetFeet. Duska, R., Duska, B. and Ragatz, J. (2011). Accounting ethics. Chichester, West Sussex, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell. Jeffrey, C. (2004). Research on professional responsibility and ethics in accounting. Bingley, U.K: Emerald. Jeffrey, C. (2008). Research on Professional Responsibility and Ethics in Accounting. Burlington: Emerald Group Pub. Jeffrey, C. (2010). Research on professional responsibility and ethics in accounting. Bingley, U.K.: Emerald. Jeffrey, C. (2014). Research on professional responsibility and ethics in accounting. Bingley, U.K.: Emerald. Jeffrey, C. (2016). Research on professional responsibility and ethics in accounting. Bingley, U.K.: Emerald. Management accounting. (2010). Wokingham, Berkshire: Kaplan Financial Ltd. Professional ethics in accounting and finance. (2012). London: BPP Learning Media Ltd. Test of professional competence in management accounting. (2013). 1st ed. London: BPP Learning Media Ltd. Weetman, P. (2016). Financial and management accounting. Harlow: Pearson

The Ecological Impact of the Destruction of Wetlands Research Paper

The Ecological Impact of the Destruction of Wetlands - Research Paper Example Wetlands crop up in places ranging from elevated altitude heap ranges (seeps), throughout to mid-catchment places (mainly marshes), via estuaries at the shoreline. A number of wetlands are continually drenched, but others provisionally dry up. The marshland type present centers mainly on the soil types, precipitation, typical weather and topography. Wetlands are significant to the present biodiversity, and the guarding of wetlands is necessary. Before investigating the consequences of wetlands loss, it is significant to give a description of wetlands and offer the idea of what they are, the locations of wetlands, and the grounds for their importance. With the exemption of Antarctica, these water bodies can be established nearly ubiquitously and are commonly located in the structures of bogs and fens. Even though, wetlands could vary extensively as a consequence of environmental, climactic, and geological differences, commonly speaking, wetlands are termed as domains where infiltratio n with water is the overriding feature formative of the scenery of soil progress and the kinds of life form communities existing inside and also on its exterior. Wetlands are habitats to many earthly and amphibious creatures. They are frequently key locales during propagation seasons as representative genus from transversely the food chain being composed in the soil and swampy land. Several disparities of plant existence survive merely in wetlands and numerous varieties of itinerant birds reproduce and relax in these prolific areas. In wetlands, minute shellfish, and additional marine life flourish and are consumed by land-dwelling animals. Overall, wetlands act as a mini ecological unit and devoid of such areas; numbers of countless genus would be in danger. The wetlands loss poses risks to wildlife in addition to human existence both in stipulations of defense of landscape and an extensive economic sense. Even though endeavors to discontinue the speedy wetlands loss have been a co mparatively current development, it is imperative that efforts carry on or, troubles already encountered could be augmented worse. In any debate concerning the loss of wetlands it ought to be affirmed that a chain effect is going to frequently exist. The spoil or loss of a single feature of wetlands does not merely have a consequence on that scrupulous issue, but possesses more comprehensive penalties that have immense and habitually devastating outcome on human and animal existences in addition to the entire ecosystem. Until lately, there were numerous motivation for wetland drainage, chiefly for industrialized and undeveloped purposes. Widespread actions for instance dredging, building, the conception of levees and dams, in addition to basic chemical pollution have promoted to an enormous diminish in the quantity of wetlands. In the period of 1600s, more than 220 million wetlands acres are contemplated to have subsisted in the subordinate 48 states. Ever since, wide-ranging losses have cropped up, and more than half the innovative wetlands have been exhausted and rehabilitated to other applications. In the last 50 years, anticipated 60, 000 wetlands acres of wetlands were lost. This destruction, predominantly ever since the 1950s has by now outcome in augmented flooding and problems of drainage in addition to the additional unsurprising effects on inhabitant wildlife existences. Besides the human aspects affecting the destruction of wetlands,

Sunday, July 28, 2019

Strategic Alignment Model Written Analysis Research Paper

Strategic Alignment Model Written Analysis - Research Paper Example a result of an investigation process consisting of research and validation of information gathered from various sources, including interviewing with key stakeholders, reviews of Ellucian’s web site, and subsequent analysis utilizing all appropriate Ellucian personnel. The overall outcome of this report is to identify gaps in the five key areas with respect to the strategic alignment model of Ellucian, identify areas for improving Information Technology value, aligning with business drivers, objectives and the Ellucian vision. Lastly, provide recommendations to close the gaps and improve the value of Information Technology resources. Ellucian is a product of combination between Hellen & Freidman and SunGard Higher Education (SGHE). This happened in the year 2012. Formerly, the two were existing as distinct entities: Datatel and SunGard Higher Education. Success of Ellucian is traced back when it was started in 1968. Since then Ellucian has developed to be a global leader when it comes to servicing the education sector (Bentley, 2003). The Ellucian provides service in the education sector. These services are provision of expertise in the education sector; developing technologies to serve the education sector and providing other services that are related to education. The company develops software that helps in the integration of computing system (academic) in the administrative level. This software serves approximately two thousand four hundred high education institutions. Ellucian has over thirty one distinct products. The role of these products in general is to manage information in relation to students, grades, financial aid, overall finance and advancement. These products help in the streamlining of processes such as enterprise resource planning, electronic recruitment, information technology and communication among the alumni. From this one can tell that Ellucian has a strong and broad product line that is getting stronger. Services offered by Ellucian

Saturday, July 27, 2019

Healthcare Workforce Shortage in Hospice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Healthcare Workforce Shortage in Hospice - Essay Example And there is an estimation that in the coming years it will increase at a rate of 31% per annum. In terms of patients the number is increasing daily, but the one who has take care of them like Doctors and the Hospital staff is decreasing day by day. More and more people are opting subjects that are not related to medical stream. Thus increasing the gap and resulting in the shortage of skilled medical staff. One feels that the job is very stressful and needs to put his/her concentration on the job completely. A slight negligence could be result a very serious situation. So some people think its better to lose a job in other sector than in Hospice because in latter you may lose job and endanger a patient's life for negligence. So you are accountable for every patient you are assigned to. The scholarships awarded by the Universities are not enough and the recruitment is very limited. No one is going to recruit a medical student until and unless he/she has some experience. So students end up as interns or junior doctors while pursuing their Masters that is a very essential degree, without it no one is going to consider them for a job. So it's again work and work nothing but work, then how come an average person want to join in a medical stream. This is one of the reasons that affecting the organizations like Hospice. According to Center for Health Work

Friday, July 26, 2019

Does Leadership Affect Safety Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Does Leadership Affect Safety Culture - Essay Example This is a crucial topic in every work environment particularly the industrial set up where operational risks are higher, involves a high level of regulation & rules and work is mostly of physical nature. The definition of safety culture by the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (ACSNI, 2010) is the result of the group and personal values, mindsets, acuity, aptitudes and blueprints of demeanour that establish the commitment to, and the approach and expertise of, a firms health and safety running. Safety culture associate with salient attributes such as job satisfaction, responsibility both at personal and management levels, style of leadership, communication methodologies, risk and business continuity plans. Safety culture can be said to be a part of organizational culture; meaning that the latter determines how subordinates view or perceive safety in an organization (Elkins and Keller, 2003 p. 590). Although there are some ambiguity and vagueness in defining safety culture, there is no doubt over the importance or worth of the conception. The happening of incidents, accidents and disasters at the workplace is highly dependent on three key factors namely; human, technical and organizational. The focus of controlling or managing safety concerns has largely been addressed from the technical and human perspectives disregarding the organizational aspect that involves leadership, policy and procedures and is equally key in improving work place safety (Reason, 1997, p.37). The cha llenge of leadership, in this context, is the ability to create and manage culture as well as perceive the shortcomings of a certain culture with an aim to grow it and appropriately manage change as it happens. It is necessary for the organization to uphold sound positive safety culture because substantial losses in finances, lives, and resources (such as time) would occur if safety values at the workplace fail the prioritization test. It also helps

Thursday, July 25, 2019

Handling Difficulties with Speech Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Handling Difficulties with Speech - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that It goes without saying that people, being social creatures, need communication. They need to articulate their ideas and listen to other opinions. It is always frustrating for people to be deprived of the possibility to share their ideas. For instance, modern globalized world presupposes communication among people pertaining to different cultures. Language barriers often become quite a considerable obstacle for such communication. On the other hand, some people have certain speech peculiarity (e.g. stuttering) which makes it more difficult to express their ideas fluently. Nevertheless, people overcome these speech difficulties in different ways since it is essential for them to share their ideas. It is possible to consider two examples of two individuals’ triumph over speech difficulties. Nowadays many people face the need to communicate with people speaking other languages. The easiest way to overcome this problem is to learn th e necessary language. However, the process of learning the language can be much more difficult than it may seem. For instance, David Sedaris when learning French was unlucky to have a really strange teacher who humiliated her students for not knowing something. Notably, Sedaris did not have any troubles with learning until he attended the first class: before â€Å"beginning school, there’d been no shutting† him up, but soon the author â€Å"was convinced that everything† he said was â€Å"wrong†.... He became confident and started talking. Even though he still made mistakes he started trying and this was the most important. In his essay Sedaris provides a valuable tip for those who are only try to overcome their speech difficulties: talk, make mistakes, but talk, if you have something to say. Admittedly, as for speech difficulties concerning foreign languages it is possible to state that they are quite easy to deal with. One only has to work hard and master the necessary language. It is much more difficult to overcome such speech difficulties as stuttering. In many cases stutterers are being laughed at, misunderstood and even ignored. Some people do not have patience to wait until a stutterer complete his/her sentence. Edward Hoagland depicts some of unpleasant moments which stutterers often have to live through. For instance, Hoagland claims that he was often embarrassed to talk because of his stuttering. He used to get nervous and in those cases he stuttered even harder. The w riter defines stuttering as something similar to â€Å"trying to run with loops of rope around your feet† (Hoagland 158). It is quite difficult, but still possible. Thus, Hoagland states that it is possible to take control of oneself and refine one’s thoughts and words. In fact, stutterers can have a kind of advantage over other people since they learn to control what they say â€Å"measuring the importance of anything† they â€Å"have to say† (Hoagland 158). Hoagland continues: â€Å"You can stutter till your tongue bleeds and your chest is sore from heaving, but so what, if you haven’t any thing to say that’s worth the humiliation† (160). The writer claims that stutterers should not be embarrassed, instead they

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Should Project Managers Behave Like Prima Donnas Article

Should Project Managers Behave Like Prima Donnas - Article Example The balancing act is about taking the different stakeholder requirements together and then ensuring that everything falls together for the common purpose of meeting the project deliverables. This then is the bottom-line guideline for project managers. The practice of management for the express purpose of delivering customer delight and stakeholder value. This paper looks at the components of project management and the way in which the project manager has to ensure that conflicting and competing demands on his or her time and bandwidth are managed to ensure optimal success for the project. I answer the question of whether the project manager must be a Prima Donna by referring to the situational and contextual aspects of project management. The contention of this author is that project managers and the art of project management is highly contextual and situation dependant that theory can only point the way and it is up to the individual to make the decisions and tread the path accordingly. Real world scenarios often have a way of surprising the most experienced project manager and hence theory can only help to a point in making decisions that affect real people. Thus, one way of looking at the question is that project managers have to combine the science of project management with the art of people and process management to achieve optimal results. Project Management combines statistics and people skills in equal measure and it is incumbent upon the project manager to plan their strategies accordingly. According to the PMBOK 3rd edition, A project is defined as a â€Å"temporary endeavor with a beginning and an end and it must be used to create a unique product, service or result†. Further, it is progressively elaborated. What this definition of a project means is that projects are those activities that cannot go on indefinitely.

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Socially Desirable Merit Goods Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Socially Desirable Merit Goods - Essay Example Merit goods are normally provided by the state because of the feeling that citizens tend to under-consume them, as well as the fact that they need to either be subsidized or provide freely to the people at the point of consumption so that its consumption is not tied to an individual’s ability to pay for the good. There are quite a number of merit goods that can be provided by the government namely health services, public libraries, education, inoculations for children, work training programmes, and Citizen's Advice Bureaux among others (Grant and Vidler 70). The National Health Services (NHS) is a good example of a merit good provided by the U.K. government. NHS is considered a merit good because the services received from the hospital confers personal benefit to the person receiving the services since there is personal satisfaction in becoming healthy or being healed of a disease. In addition, being healthy allows people to engage in development activities such as getting emp loyment that enables one to earn a living and live a decent life (Grant and Vidler 70). This is because an individual cannot work when he or she is sick. Being healthy also has certain social benefits attached that prompted the establishment of NHS. Firstly, healthy people tend to be more productive than unhealthy people are in the workplace. Unhealthy people are normally not able to perform certain jobs because of their unhealthy status, thus making them less productive ((Riccardo and Tryphon 1367). Healthy people, on the other hand, can perform different jobs in an organization including jobs that require the use of a lot of energy. Furthermore, healthy people are able to work longer hours thereby improving productivity in an organization they work for. Economists agree that many organizations prefer productive workforce to unproductive workforce because it enhances economic growth that increases the national income (Grant and Vidler 70). This statement can be proved by comparing the GDP of countries where health care service provision is poor and those with good health care services like the U.K. In this regard, it can clearly be seen that the GDP of the U.K. is higher than that of developing countries in the word that are still struggle with the proving of quality health care services. Role of the government in providing this merit good to the public Grant and Vidler note that the government plays a big role as far as provision of merit goods is concerned (71). NHS is an example of a merit good that the government of the U.K. has provided for its citizens in order to increase access to health care services in the country. The government took this initiative for a number of reasons. Firstly, the government introduced the NHS for the U.K. citizens to ensure that there is universal health care in the country for all regardless of status. This is because the government felt that leaving the provision of health services solely to the private sectors would make it had for low-income earners, the old, and the disabled in the country to afford this valuable service. The reason being most private health care providers charge high prices for their services to the people and would only be affordable to the rich in the country. Therefore, the provision of this valuable merit good by the state is a means of promoting the consumption of merit good so as to achieve positive externalities attached to

Conflict Management Essay Example for Free

Conflict Management Essay Conflict management refers to the long-term management of intractable conflicts. It is the label for the variety of ways by which people handle grievances — standing up for what they consider to be right and against what they consider to be wrong. Those ways include such diverse phenomena as gossip, ridicule, lynching, terrorism, warfare, feuding, genocide, law, mediation, and avoidance. Which forms of conflict management will be used in any given situation can be somewhat predicted and explained by the social structure — or social geometry — of the case. Conflict management is often considered to be distinct from conflict resolution. In order for actual conflict to occurr, there should be an expression of exclusive patterns, and tell why the conflict was expressed the way it was. Conflict is not just about simple inaptness, but is often connected to a previous issue. The latter refers to resolving the dispute to the approval of one or both parties, whereas the former concerns an ongoing process that may never have a resolution. Neither is it considered the same as conflict transformation, which seeks to reframe the positions of the conflict parties. Scientific studies Scientific study of conflict management (also known as social control) owes its foundations to Donald Black, who typologized its elementary forms and used his strategy of pure sociology to explain several aspects of its variation. Research and theory on conflict management has been further developed by Allan Horwitz, Calvin Morill, James Tucker, Mark Cooney, M.P. Baumgartner, Roberta Senechal de la Roche, Marian Borg, Ellis Godard, Scott Phillips, and Bradley Campbell. Utilizing a multidisciplinary approach and avoiding semantic discussions, we could also state that the father of conflict management is Thomas C. Schelling, an American economist and Nobel Prize winner, who authored the Strategy of Conflict in 1960. Schelling’s main goal was to lay the foundation for a theory of conflict that would include the fields of economics, psychology, sociology and the law. Conflict is an omnipresent trait of human societies since it is almost impossible to find two parties with entirely overlapping interests, thus a general theory for bargaining and negotiation to address conflict is useful not only in the field of international politics or business management, but also at the personal and intimate level. Counseling When personal conflict leads to frustration and loss of efficiency, counseling may prove to be a helpful antidote. Although few organizations can afford the luxury of having professional counselors on the staff, given some training, managers may be able to perform this function. Nondirective counseling, or listening with understanding, is little more than being a good listener — something every manager should be. [1] Sometimes the simple process of being able to vent ones feelings — that is, to express them to a concerned and understanding listener, is enough to relieve frustration and make it possible for the frustrated individual to advance to a problem-solving frame of mind, better able to cope with a personal difficulty that is affecting his work adversely. The nondirective approach is one effective way for managers to deal with frustrated subordinates and co-workers.[2] There are other more direct and more diagnostic ways that might be used in appropriate circumstances. The great strength of the nondirective approach (nondirective counseling is based on the client-centered therapy of Carl Rogers), however, lies in its simplicity, its effectiveness, and the fact that it deliberately avoids the manager-counselors diagnosing and interpreting emotional problems, which would call for special psychological training. No one has ever been harmed by being listened to sympathetically and understandingly. On the contrary, this approach has helped many people to cope with problems that were interfering with their effectiveness on the job.[2] References 1. ^ Henry P Knowles; Bà ¶rje O Saxberg (1971). Personality and leadership behavior. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co.. Chapter 8. OCLC 118832. 2. ^ a b Richard Arvid Johnson (1976). Management, systems, and society : an introduction. Pacific Palisades, Calif.: Goodyear Pub. Co.. pp. 148–142. ISBN 0876205406 9780876205402. OCLC 2299496. Kellett, Peter M. Conflict Dialogue. London: Sage Publications, 2007 External links †¢ Conflict Management Articles A collection of Conflict Management Articles †¢ Peace Forge -A wiki dedicated to best practices in peace and conflict resolution †¢ Search For Common Ground One of the worlds largest non-government organisations dedicated to conflict resolution †¢ CUNY Dispute Resolution Consortium- The Dispute Resolution Headquarters in New York City. See also †¢ Conflict resolution †¢ Conflict atlas †¢ Conflict style inventory You cant avoid conflict in your life, at home, at work, and even at play. Wherever people interact, there is a potential for conflict. Thats not bad news because good things can arise, and relationships can improve through conflict, provided conflict is managed with thought and attention. The bad news is that most of us are fairly limited in how we manage and resolve conflict situations, often throwing gasoline on the fire. It doesnt have to be that way. Weve gathered together the best and most useful free online resources and tools to help you manage and cope with conflict more effectively. Whether you want to learn about conflict at work, between siblings, within the family, or any other context, youll be sure to find help on these pages. Originally created for our own research purposes, we decided to publish the directory so others could use it. New conflict material is added weekly, so make sure to subscribe to our update newsletter. Customer Service (75) new A major part of providing good customer service involves dealing effectively with angry, dissatisfied, or just plan difficult customers. Here youll find suggestions about how to deal with those tough customer service, and customer conflict situations. (Call Centers) (Suggested Books) Difficult People (53) new Difficult people can drive you nuts, and if youre difficult, you may be driving others nuts. Learn more about what makes difficult people tick, and how to deal with different kinds of difficult people behaviors. (Discussion Lists) (Suggested Books) Diversity and Multicultural Issues (73) Learn about diversity and culture, how to create diverse organizations, and increase your understanding of the links between diversity, culture and conflict. Practical suggestions about resolution of conflict that is linked to culture. (Suggested Books) (Doing Business Abroad) Emotional Intelligence (37) Free articles and papers related to Emotional Intelligence, Goleman, and others. Facilitation (21) new Articles about the faciliating process in groups and dyads and about facilitators Family Conflict Parents and Children (35) new Parents and children often come into conflict over large and small issues, regardless of age of the children. Learn more about dealing with conflicts between parents and children from these resources. Family Conflict Sibling Disagreements (20) new Conflict with brothers and sisters is a natural process, and occurs in every family. Learn more about conflict between siblings and sibling rivalry and how to deal with it. Fighting Fair (16) Sometimes its not whether you win or lose an argument but how you act during an argument that dictates a positive or negative outcome. Learn to fight fair during disagreements and conflict. Labor Law (23)

Monday, July 22, 2019

Motivational Factors Toward Pursuing a Career in Special Education Essay Example for Free

Motivational Factors Toward Pursuing a Career in Special Education Essay This study investigated factors which motivated individuals to initially pursue careers in special education, factors which contributed toward their plans to remain or leave the field, and their perceptions of school districts effective and ineffective recruitment and retention practices. The sample comprised of 15 individuals employed in public schools throughout north Texas who initially pursued careers in special education. Data were collected through the form of audio-recorded semi-structured telephone interviews. Empathy towards students, family, and opportunities to fill job vacancies were factors that participants cited the most for initially pursuing careers in special education. Furthermore, most of the interviewees reported satisfaction within their jobs, but noted excessive demands and lack of administrative support as contributing to job dissatisfaction. Motivational Factors toward Pursuing a Career in Special Education. Chronic shortages in the field of special education continue to pose challenges for public schools across the United States (Billingsley, Carlson, Klein, 2004; Boe, 2006; Billingsley McLeskey, 2004; Brownell, Hirsch, Seo, 2004; Singh Billingsley, 1996; Strunk Robinson, 2006; Thornton, Peltier, Medina, 2007). The limited number of individuals entering and/or remaining in the field of special education has resulted in school districts inability to fill the necessary teaching positions; such shortages have been linked to difficulties in the recruitment and retention of qualified individuals (Olivarez Arnold, 2006). Although difficulties with the recruitment of teachers, low retention, and high attrition rates are evident across all teaching professions, it is much more prevalent among special educators. Specifically, teachers of students with emotional/behavioral disorders exhibit the largest shortage, followed by those serving students with severe/profound disabilities, and learning disabilities (McLeskey, Tyler, Flippin, 2004). Our national school districts are in a crisis. Specifically, districts are scrambling to find qualified special educators to fill the vacant teaching positions. According to Plash and Piotrowski (2006), a projected 611,550 positions in special education will need to be filled by the year 2010. However, the inability to recruit the necessary number of eligible individuals to fill positions continues to be a major problem for school administrators. An infinite number of research studies have been conducted in an attempt to identify barriers which deter people from entering the field (Billingsley, 2004; Gersten, Keating, Yovanoff, Harniss, 2001; McLeskey et al., 2004; Olivarez Arnold, 2006; Thornton, Peltier, Medina, 2007). Studies have identified perceptions of low social status associated with being a special educator, poor working conditions, high rates of stress, excessive paperwork, and low salaries with the decreased number of individuals entering the field of special education (Barmby, 2006; McLeskey et al. , 2004; Rice, Goeling, Peters, 2005). A vast amount of research also exists regarding factors which have contributed to the decisions of individuals to leave the field of special education (Billingsley, Carlson, Klein, 2004; Singh Billingsley, 1996; Thornton, Peltier, Medina, 2007) and consequently contribute to the shortage of and high attrition rates of special education teachers (Barmby, 2006; Fish Stephens, in press; McLeskey, Tyler, Saunders, 2004). According to Plash and Piotrowski (2006), 13. 2% of special education teachers leave their position each year. While six percent of special educators leave the field of education altogether, 7. 2% transfer to general education positions. Prevalent variables identified as contributors to the exodus from the field include occupational stress, burnout (Botwinik, 2007; Greiner Smith, 2006), weak support by administrators, unreasonable caseloads, large class size, low salaries (Darling-Hammond, 2003), testing and accountability pressures (Tye OBrien, 2002), and ineffective in-service programs (Kaufhold, Alverez, Arnold, 2006; Plash Piotrowski, 2006). A study conducted by Brownell, Smith, McNellis, and Lenk (1994) investigated the contextual variables related to teacher attrition. Findings indicated that those teachers who decided to stay in the field of special education were more committed to teaching students with disabilities, had a higher sense of efficacy, felt more prepared by their pre-service and initial teaching experiences, and exhibited more effective coping strategies than those who decided to leave the field. Two international studies were identified which focused on the motivating factors of individuals initially pursuing careers as general educators (Barmby, 2006; Watt Richardson, 2007). Based upon a study conducted in England and Wales, Barmby identified intrinsic (e. g. , the activity of teaching children) and altruistic (e. g. , desire to help children succeed) reasons which contributed to the teachers decision to pursue careers within the field of education. Similar findings (e. g., working with children, shape future of children, and make a social contribution) were reported by Watt and Richardson who investigated the motivational factors which influenced Australian individuals to initially pursue a career in general education. In addition to investigating special educators job satisfaction and decisions to remain in the field, obtaining an understanding of individuals motivations for entering the field of special education have implications which may assist in the increased recruitment and retention of special educators. Such findings would contribute to enhanced teacher educational planning, curriculum design and policy decisions. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to obtain perceptions of special educators with regards to factors that contributed toward their (a) initial pursuit of special education careers, (b) job satisfaction and/or dissatisfaction levels and (c) decisions whether to remain on the special education career path. Participants were further asked to provide recommendations that school districts could take to effectively recruit and retain special educators. Design of Study Qualitative methodology was utilized in this study in the form of audio-recorded semi-structured telephone interviews to obtain the perceptions of special educators. Qualitative research is appropriate in dealing with potentially multiple realities, mutually shaping influences, and value patterns (Lincoln Guba, 1985). Interviews serve the purpose of obtaining here-and-now constructions of persons, events, activities, organizations, feelings, motivations, claims, concerns, and other entities (p. 268). According to Bogdan and Biklen (1998), semi-structured interviews encourage interviewees to expand upon ideas, which provide the researcher opportunities to generate abstract ideas through descriptive material. Participants Respondents participating in this study consisted of 15 educators employed in public school districts throughout the north Texas area. This purposive sample was comprised of 11 special education teachers, three diagnosticians and one former special education teacher currently serving as a high school principal at the time of the interviews. Four of the 11 special education teachers within this study were previously general education teachers. Data Collection and Analysis The interview questions conducted for this study focused on factors which contributed toward special educators initially pursuing careers in special education in addition to conditions that would contribute toward them remaining in or leaving the field. Interviewees were additionally asked to provide feedback pertaining to their school districts special educator recruitment and retention efforts. The following open-ended questions were asked to each of the 15 participants.

Sunday, July 21, 2019

Assessing The Strategic Human Resource Management Preferences Business Essay

Assessing The Strategic Human Resource Management Preferences Business Essay Number of growing organizations believes that Human Resource (HR) provides them competitive advantage. It was understood by many organizations that competitive advantage can be obtained by quality work force/employees and culture. Approach of linking Human Resource Management to Strategic objectives of an organization is called as Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) (Bratton and Gold, 2001). It was cited by Bratton and Gold (2001, p39) strategic management is defined as that set of managerial decisions and actions that determines the long-run performance of a corporation. Strategic HR ensures that employees/human capital of an organization contributes to its achievements with their skills and performance. Traditional HR is concerned with implementation of policies and techniques like recruitment, staffing, remuneration, assessment etc (Klabbers, University of Bergen). But linking the general HRM and the organizations strategy gives HR department more scope to enhance the abili ties of their workforce and concentrate on the vision and mission. This connection is made to improve the organization performance and develop organizational culture which in turn facilitates innovation and flexibility. Overall the key principle of Strategic HRM is to achieve organizations vision and mission. Bratton (2001) describes SHRM as a continuous process that requires constant adjustment in three major areas namely Value of Senior management, the environment and the resources available. Fig 1: Three major poles in strategic planning (Adapted from Bratton and Gold, 2001) Some authors believe that Strategic HRM is an Outcome and some believe that its a process. It was cited by Bratton and Gold (2004) that authors like Ulrich (1997) and Snell et al had different opinion on Strategic HRM. Snell et al believed that its an outcome designed to achieve sustained competitive edge through quality workforce. Ulrich (1997) also stated SHRM as an outcome of mission, vision and priorities of HR department. HR strategies are more concerned about matching the Five Ps that stimulates the employee roles for competitive strategy (Bratton and Gold, 2004, p46 and Cerdin and Ashok Som, 2003). It was cited by Cerdin and Ashok Som (2003) that Strategic HRM is identified in three levels namely Strategic, Managerial and operational level. Strategic level looks to the long term future, Managerial level looks at the mid term and the operation level looks at the short term focus. Different models and approaches were discussed in this assignment to understand the functionality o f strategic HRM and how far the organization able to implement it. Models and Approaches There are several approaches and models by which Strategic HRM can be applied but basic strategic HRM model is widely accepted by many authors, researchers and even critics as well (Kane and Palmer, 1995). This basic model is based on the external and internal environment and basic organization strategies. Fig 2 Basic Model of Strategic Human resource Management (Adapted from Kane and Palmer, 1995) Strategic HRM models demonstrate how an organization links its business strategies and HR function to achieve it goals. Though SHRM adopts resource based philosophy, there are three different models defined by authors (Bratton and Gold, 2004, p49). These models are Control based, Resource based and Integrative model. Control based approach generally deals with control of work place and direct monitoring of employee performance. According to this approach, HR strategies and management structure are used as instruments and techniques to enhance labour productivity and there by increasing profitability. Resource based approach satisfies the human capital requirements of the organization (Armstrong, 2006, p117).It was observed by Bratton and Gold (2004) that sustained competitive advantage is not achieved by external market position but careful assessment of their own skills and capabilities that competitors cannot copy. Main objective of this approach is improving resource capability and effective utilization of resources to achieve the goals set by the organization. Within this model there are three different approaches by which organization can implement strategic HRM practices (Armstrong, 2006, p117) High Performance management approach High commitment management model and High involvement management model High Performance model helps in developing several processes by which employee performance is improved and impacted. This in turn directly effects the organization growth. This model believes enhancing the employee skills and encouraging them to learn continuously. This model involves rigorous recruitment and selection procedures, learning development activities and performance management system. Kemin nutritional technologies in India adopted similar model in implementing their strategies human resource. Kemin is a manufacturer of animal feed ingredients and human food ingredients. Their head quarter is located in Des Moines, US and having operations in over eight countries. Kemin have more than 4000 employees world wide. Kemins vision is to improve quality of Life by touching half the people of the world every day with its products and services. In order to achieve this vision Kemin strategically aligned all its divisions to contribute to the vision. HR division developed strategies to improve workforce capabilities and bring quality workforce into the organization. They have made certain changes in their recruiting process that will indirectly lead them to the vision of the organization. Now their selection process is complex and specifically looks for individuals who are matching to their core values. The recruiting process involves three stages with the initial screening is made to identify the ability of the individual to adapt to the situations and show high levels of resilience. Individuals integrity is also tested during this process. This process is fallowed by the technical assessment of an individual by the concerned department and finally personal interview is done by the HR to speak about his growth in this organization, performance analysis, incentives and learning prospective. Once the strategic planning is done for the year, senior management roles out the goals and responsibilities to the concerned departments. They constantly monitor the proceedings of their departments and analyse how far they have come. For example, Customer Lab Services (CLS) come under the marketing department. This department is evolved to support the marketing department technically. All the employees in the CLS have clear job responsibilities which will contribute the organizations strategic goals. If the organizations (Kemins) strategic plan is to improve one particular product group in this year, all the employees in CLS will have their SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time bound) goals related to that product category. This SMART goals system is implemented by Kemin to align organizational strategy to the HR practices so that they have a competitive edge to their competitors. These goals are set during the beginning of the year and monitored regularly by the senior management/supervisors. These goals are agreed mutually with the concerned supervisor regularly and employees are committed to deliver them. Kemin in 2005 introduced 360 degree appraisal system to analyse the employee performance in the place of regular one to one appraisal system. In 360 degree feedback system, employees are asked to select colleagues, peers or supervisors to rate them in the aspects of adoptability, development, learning, team work and technical etc. Again selection of the ratters should be discussed with the employee and his/her supervisor. All the employees are encouraged to participate in team meetings, ask questions regarding the approach of the organization to achieve certain task. Employees are also encouraged to submit ideas which will lead to a new product or a new business opportunity. Employees are provided with career ladders to understand about the hierarchies and their future growth. This will enable employee to focus more and contribute to the organizational growth and there by obtaining personal benefit. Kemin also identified few employees interested in taking new job roles and provided them with horizontal promotions (Lima and Pereira, 2003). For example an employee who was found efficient in serving customers was identified and offered to serve in marketing department where the employee originally belongs to CLS (Technical). Kemins HR department also incorporated developmental goals in their regular SMART goals so that employees make an effort to develop some personal capabilities which in turn help organization or help the individual to perform the job better. Kemin regularly conduct strategic meetings with the HR personals to understand their core capabilities and competencies. Some of the key points are listed below. Finally all the employees who are leaving Kemin are interviewed in process called Exit interview (Arnold, 1995) to find out their experience with Kemin and know possible areas of improvement. A clear vision and mission Clear job description and SMART Goals Rigorous recruitment/interview process 360 degree appraisal system Developmental trainings Horizontal promotions Encouraged to learn and develop continuously Exit interviews One of the main strategic plans of Kemin is to maximise utilization of resources without increasing the cost structure. Kemin HR had built a strategy to cope up with this task. HR hired few internship students to conduct market surveys and research in different locations so that they avoid cost bared by regular employees and their time and travel expenses. These small things contributed in a big way to companys performance. All the departments worked parallel to each other to achieve the same objective saving time and money. Overall by implementing these strategies Kemins Strategic HRM function aligns with the companys objectives, vision and mission. These strategies deliver high performance environment for the employees and for the management. Kemin also provided opportunities for its employees to work globally and allowed them to participate in seminars, conferences etc where ever they were held. Kemin also made a strategy to retain employees by giving them benefits for staying lon g years. Once the employee of Kemin stays longer than 15 years he/she will join the presidents elite committee which plays a major role in taking key business decisions. The High commitment approach is defines as a focused approach which concentrates on development of career goals and trainability and commitment of employees (Armstrong, 2006, p119). Key points of this strategic approach are developing ownership where employees are given opportunity to speak and involved in decision making. The second aspect is providing clear communication to the employees about the goal they are committed to achieve (Armstrong, 2006, p279). And the initiative of this approach is to develop leadership skills. Commitment can be increased or enhanced by making leaders inside the organization. From this theory it is understood that Kemin also practiced such type of strategies to improve the commitment of the employees. Kemin provide employees with useful trainings like SALT (Strategic accounts and leadership Program) and Project Management (e.g. Stage Gate process).So it seems Kemin strategic HRM is a mix of the two approaches discussed above. The High involvement approach involves treating employees as partners in the organization. In this approach employees are given opportunity to communicate with the managers continuously about the organizations mission, vision, values and objectives. Integrative model characterized by two dimensions namely acquisition and development and the locus of control (Bratton and Gold, 2004, p53). Bratton and Gold explained that Bamberger and Meshoulam (2000) integrate two main models of SHRM. Whatever strategy or approach fallowed by organization it is the aim of the SHRM to obtain competitive advantage and achieve organization objectives. TASK TWO HRM Practices , horizontal and vertical integration Introduction Organization now concerned about their human capital and their competitive advantage. Human resource management (HRM) largely replaced the term Personnel management. Personnel management deals with managing people in the organization who contributes to the organizations performance. Human resource management can be defined as a strategic and coherent approach to the management of people. HRM operates in a coherent way to help organization perform better and achieve target. HR philosophies, strategies, policies, processes, practices and programs are the processes by which Human resource function works. Values and guidelines of principles of people management (Armstrong, 2006, p4) are described in the HR philosophies. HR strategies define the path of the HR function in achieving organizations vision. Key functions of HR department are Improve organizations effectiveness Human capital management Knowledge management Rewarding and employee relationship management All the goals and policies are made by the HR department are finally helps to improve stakeholder value by putting the customer in the first place. HR function will play a major role in creation of an environment for the employees that enable them to utilize their capabilities maximum and benefit the organization (Armstrong, 2006, p54). HR function also supports the management to achieve its vision through the people. HR function also aligns with organizations strategies to achieve vision and it can also be described as vertical integration. Concept of coherence can be described as Horizontal integration which defines developing HR employment and development policies and practices. Different theorists defined several models Human resource management. Some of the models include Matching model, Harvard frame work model and conceptual model. Matching model include four generic processes namely selection, appraisal, rewarding and development. The Harvard frame work model was developed by Beer et al of Harvard University, hence called as Harvard model. s Kemins HR function employed effective policies to serve employees and the organization with benefits. By providing benefits to the employees it is eminent that organizations performance is improved. HR function in Kemin operated in organized way by both horizontal and vertical integration. To integrate HRM successfully its is observed that people in that department should have a good idea about how HRM is different from personnel management (Cathy, 2005). Kemins vision states that Improve the quality of life and touching people, and their mission states that they provide nutritional solution to the customers by continuous improvement in their people, process and products. Every department in the company has been provided with a quality policy for which the department is committed to achieve certain tasks. Kemin HR quality policy is to provide best man power, improve organizational culture, reduce cost to the company, provide healthy and safe environment to the employees and provide c ompetitive edge to the company. Some of the key HR policies and practices adopted by Kemin are listed below. Code of Conduct Appraisal and promotions Internet and email policies Selection of employee and referral program Dress code and corporate clothing Salary increase, increments and incentives Leave and transfer policies Equal opportunities These policies make sure that HR function deliver best value to the employees. Horizontal integration of HR policies in Kemin was done with precision so that employees feel satisfied about the efforts of organization in treating them. Selection of employee was done with great importance. The interview process includes analysing the persons ability to adjust to the culture, capability to deliver job and respect the vision of the company. Salary negotiations were done in the HR interview to meet the organizations requirements. Important HR policies regarding transfer, promotions, transfers, relocation were circulated to the employees to make them aware of the organization policies and avoid any kind of confusion. It is important for the HR function in Kemin to protect and preserve companys valuable information within. The code of conduct and internet email policies serves as the protective strategies for Kemin. All the Kemin employees were asked to maintain professional relationship w ith internal and external customers and maintain the organization culture. One more basic function which was employed by Kemin was providing trainings to the employees for defined hours in a year. All the employees are eligible for the trainings and the trainings were selected based on the department and job roles. These training are provided to employees for their personal development and to make employee take care of his own career instead of looking for promotions (Ben, 1998) Employee referral system was found to be effective in Kemin. Every employee can refer a friend, past colleague or any he knows for any available position in Kemin and when the referred persons is successful and joins the company, employee will get a monitory benefit. This will encourage employees to bring new talent to the organization. Kemins HR department takes good care of the new employee in a way that he/she will get familiar with the organizations flow, roles and responsibilities of the job. An induction program will be provided for the new employee and mentor for the new empl oyee also assigned to monitor the progress. All the employees were provided with career ladder so that employee knows where he stands and understand the organizations hierarchies. Employees performance was measured twice in a year. Performance was measured in terms of SMART goals. Every goal set was given with some weightage and employees bound to achieve those goals. Performance will be measured in ratings/marks gained on the scale of 5. For example if an employees performance was analysed as meets the requirement, it means he/she achieved 3 on the scale. If the employee exceeds expectation it is measured as 5 on the scale. If the employee attains 5 on the scale, he/she will be eligible to climb up the career ladder. Increment and incentive schemes were rolled out to all the departments to reward the employees according to their performance. Vertical integration of HRM deals with the alignment of HR strategies with business strategies. This kind of integration encourages everyone in the organization to take responsibility of HRM, not just the HR department (Cathy, 2005). It was cited by Cathy (2005) that HR role also requires a business partner role along with the HR manager. Kemins HR manager was effective in delivering tasks related to people and controlling business process as well. Kemins HR manager was involved in many operation meetings and board meetings and developed ideas to achieve the strategic goals. This can be explained by an example by which HR manager made a difference in reducing cost to company and helping the strategic goal achievement. Kemin wanted increase the customer retention and satisfaction by 5 percent, increase the product sales by 25 percent during the year 2005. To achieve the task all the product managers had to work collectively in mobilizing the sales force. But achieving 25 sales growth was something difficult without the help of HR manager or department. It was difficult for the sales people to travel all over India as it consumes lot of time money. HR manger then employed internship students from different backgrounds to serve different departments in different location. This saved enormous amount of time and money for the company. The other concept of HRM vertical integration is to provide organizational learning/work based learning. Every employee has been provided with 40 hours training. It was cited by Bratton and Gold (2001) that formal and informal trainings can act as lever for the organization in terms of sustained core competencies. Trainings such as SALT (strategic account and leadership trainings) and Project management trainings make the difference in the employees in terms of competency and leadership which are most important for the organization. Kemins strategy is to produce innovative products with best processes. One of the Kemins HR policies includes Idea generation by which employees can submit an idea to improve, develop a product or a process. Each Idea will be considered after a careful investigation and analysing the feasibility. If the idea is unsuccessful initially, it is recorded for future use or reference. Once any idea is successful, idea generator is recognized and rewarded so that it motivates the other employees to contribute in the same way. Retaining the quality staff always been a difficult task for organizations. Reducing employee attrition rate/ worker turnover ( Ing-chung Haung et al, 2006) was one of the important goals for Kemin. Kemins HR employed a new strategy to retain the skilled employees. Kemin offered overseas assignments to the employments where they can work for sometime out side the country of origin. This lead to belief and trust of the employees on Kemin and lot of employees anticipated and shown positive approach to it. To improve the performance analysis of employees Kemin incorporated 360 degree feed back mechanism by which employees are rated based on their performance and behaviour. One of the main functions of the HR is to manage change in the organization. Change management is the process of continuous renewal of organization structure, direction and capabilities (Moran and Brightman, 2001). To improve the working condition Kemin even changed its office location to Chennai (India) city from a r ural area. HR played a major role in facilitating the change. He handled the people resistance (Waddel and Amrik, 1998) to the change in way that it had a very little impact on the organization performance. This change was anticipated by Kemin to achieve corporate goals and improve working conditions for the employees. Kemin seemed to effectively integrating its HR strategies to its business strategies. Recommendation Although Kemin appeared to be functioning well in the area of HR management, there are some areas of concern for the Kemin. Its is suggested that Kemin could use best fit model or the mix of culture fit and best fit models to manage the strategic HR function. Kemins employees had a dissatisfaction regarding the company salary policy and employee welfare. Though Kemin appear to be well function strategically, its bit neglected the Horizontal integration part. Kemins employees were unsure about the increment and incentive packages. In their policies it was mention that how and who are eligible for incentive and increments but it was not clearly mentioned that what is the percentage of raise they will get if their performance is above expectation. Few of the recommendations are listed below. It is suggested to document and communicate the reward and incentive policies accurately. Conduct regular audits to improve HR function and performance. It is suggested to Kemin that it employs strategies to improve employee satisfaction in terms of salary and compensation policies. Kemin should continue its practices in analysing the performance of employee and look for continuous improvement of the process. Kemins recognition system also needs improvements as they does not involve lower level employees. Often people from those levels hesitate to come forward and submit an idea. Kemin is suggested to have some strategies to motivate the lower level employees and come forward to participate in developmental programs. Kemin also should engage employees in some cultural activities that enhance team building and group working culture. Kemin also should employ job rotation (Huang, 1999) policy to enhance the learning capabilities and change to routine job responsibilities. These recommendation might help Kemin in improving the quality of life of their employees and help organization to perform better. Overall Kemin seem to be in good condition in employing HR policies and practices both in horizontal and in vertical integration. REFERENCES Armstrong Michael (2006), A hand book of Human resource management practices, 10th edition, Cambridge University Press, London. Arnold Kransdorff (1995) Exit interviews as an induction tool, Management Development Review, Volume 8  · Number 2  · pp. 37-40,  © MCB University Press Ben Ball (1998), Career management competences the individual perspective Librarian Career Development, Vol. 6 No. 7, pp. 3-11,  © MCB University Press Bob Kane and Ian Palmer (1995), Strategic HRM or managing the employment relationship, International Journal of Manpower 16,5/6, pp. 6-21, © MCB University Press. Bratton J, Gold J, (2001), Human Resource Management: Theory and Practice, Routledge, Publications. 2nd edition. Cathy Sheehan (2005), A model for HRM strategic Integration, Personnel Review Vol. 34 No. 2, pp. 192-209 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited Cerdin Jean-Luc Ashok SOM (2003),Strategic Human Resource Management Practices: An Exploratory Survey of French Organisations, Strategic human resource management practices: exploratory surveys on French organization, Groupe ESSEC CERNTRE DE RECHERCHE / RESEARCH CENTER, ESSEC Working Papers DR 03024 Huang, H. J. (1999). Job Rotation from the Employees Point of View, Research and Practice in Human Resource Management, 7(1), 75-85. see at http://rphrm.curtin.edu.au/1999/issue1/rotation.html, accessed electronically on 14th May 2008. Ing-chung Haung, Hao-chien Lin, Chih-Hsun Chuang, (2006) Constructing factors related to worker retention, International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 27 No. 5, pp. 491-508 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited Klabber Jan H.G, Enhancing corporate change: The case of strategic human resource management, University of Bergen, Norway, KMPC Netherlands, See at   http://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/mcn/pdf_files/part9_1.pdf, accessed electronically on 8th May 2008. Lima F and Pereira P T (2003), Careers and wages within large firms: evidence from a matched employer-employee data set International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 24 No. 7, pp. 812-835 q MCB UP Limited Moran J.W and Brightman B.K (2001), Leading organizational change, career development international, vol.6 No.2, pp 111-118, MCB University press. Ulrich, D. (1997), Human Resource Champions: The Next Agenda for Adding Value and Delivering Results, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA, . Waddell Dianne and Amrik S. Sohal (1998), Resistance: a constructive tool for change management Decision, Management decision, 36/8, MCB University Press, pp 543-548

Saturday, July 20, 2019

Aristotles Tragic Hero in Shakespeares Macbeth Essay examples -- Mac

Aristotle's Tragic Hero in Macbeth      Ã‚  Ã‚   Aristotle and Shakespeare lived ages apart, but Aristotle had a great affect on Shakespeare's plays. In Shakespeare’s tragic play, Macbeth, the character of Macbeth is consistent with Aristotle's definition of the tragic hero.    Aristotle's tragic hero is a man who is characterized by good and evil. He is a mixture of good characteristics and bad characteristics. For example, Macbeth was an honorable Thane of Glamis. He was a valiant fighter who had protected his country of Scotland well, but he wanted to be king. His "vaulting ambition" caused him to kill King Duncan which ended up in his fall.   Aristotle's tragic hero has a tragic flaw, or harmatia, that is the cause of the downfall. Macbeth's vaulting ambition, though it is what brings him to his height of power, it is also what leads him to his downfall. Vaulting Ambition is Macbeth's only flaw; it disables him to achieve his utmost goals and forces him to face his fate. Without this ambition, though, Macbeth never would have been able to achieve his power as King of Scotland or have been able to carry out his evil deeds. In these instances, ambition helped Macbeth do what he wanted to do. But, consequently, Macbeth's ambition has another face and is what leads him to his tragic downfall. Had he not been so enveloped with becoming King and remaining powerful, he would not have continued to kill innocent people in order to keep his position. It was because of these killings and his overbearing attitude that caused him to be overthrown and killed himself.      Ã‚  Ã‚   Macbeth, at the beginning of the play seems to be a very noble person. He is characterized as being very loyal and honorable. He fights in the battle against ... ...o his tragic death. Had it not been for Macbeth's obsession with power, he would have been able to remain powerful, but it is because of his ambition that causes him to become less powerful and leads him to his downfall.    Works Cited and Consulted:    Brooke, Nicholas, ed.   Macbeth. Oxford: The Oxford University Press. 1990.    Coursen, H.R.   Macbeth-A Guide to the Play. London: Greenwood Press.1997.    Elloway, David. Tragic Ambition in Macbeth Macmillan Education Limited. 1985.    Nostbakken, Faith. Understanding Macbeth. USA: Greenwood Press. 1997.    Shakespeare, William.   Tragedy of Macbeth . Ed. Barbara Mowat and Paul  Ã‚   Warstine. New York: Washington Press, 1992.  Ã‚  Ã‚      Slethaug, Gordon. "Lecture Notes" for ENGL1007. Online posting. November 2000. <http://ws.bowiestate.edu/archives/1996/0807.html>.   

Comparing the Struggle for Power in 1984, Fahrenheit 451, Invisible Man and Julius :: comparison compare contrast essays

The Struggle for Power in 1984, Fahrenheit 451, Invisible Man, Julius Caesar, and Lord Of The Flies If you delve into the content of almost any novel, there is almost always some kind of struggle for power. It could be for rightful integration into society; power over an island; power over a country; or in some cases, even power over the minds of others. These not at all uncommon struggles for power are what keep us interested in the plot of a book. The ongoing battle between a character and his cause makes it impossible to put down a good book. For instance, the novel 1984 by George Orwell is about the struggle of a man and a woman to somehow find a way to get out of the constant barrage of cameras and mind control conducted by their government. Although the two of them eventually lost the battle, there was still a victor in the struggle for power: their government. In the novel Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, the main struggle for power deals with the government. This overly oppressive, almost Orwellian style bureaucracy, tries to make sure there is no interaction with books at all. They believe that books permeate their society and corrupt the minds of the people. Unannounced searches of property by "firemen" are not at all uncommon. At the slightest inkling of this futuristic contraband, these firemen will rummage through all of one's property, at times, destroying everything in their path. On the opposite side of that spectrum, there is a struggle for power by the people as well. There is the woman who hid several thousand volumes of books in her house. She loves these books so much that when the firemen ransacked her house, she went down with the books without hesitation. In another example of this ongoing struggle for power, some people's lives were actually transformed into books. Their names changed to the title of the book, and they had to memorize every single written line of text. These people were so determined to fight for what they believed, that it would be impossible to say that some kind of struggle for power did not exist. They were struggling for the power of freedom. There is not only one kind of freedom you can have. Some peoples struggle for the power of freedom might be just to be allowed to exist at all.