Leonardo Da Vinci Essay

Leonardo da Vinci was inarguably a great mind of the Renaissance, a period of European civilisation where revival of classical learning and wisdom took place after a long period of cultural decline and stagnation. He was an Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer whose talents reflected the diversity of achievements of the Italian Renaissance. With his outstanding versatility, Leonardo has often been described as a universal genius of the Renaissance, the fame that has remained undimmed as a result of his great desire for knowledge. His Last Supper and Mona Lisa are among the most widely popular and influential paintings of the Renaissance, and they gained worldwide fame only after his death. However, he was far from prolific, as only 17 of his paintings, many of which remained unfinished, have been identified. In addition to art, Leonardo studied a wide range of scientific topics including anatomy, geology, botany, hydraulics and aerodynamics. His science was expressed through art, and his drawings and diagrammes show how he understood the world. Leonardo used an observational approach to study science. In this approach, he considered his eyes to be his main avenue to knowledge, and sight alone could convey the facts of experience immediately and correctly. Leonardo also considered a painter as the person best qualified to achieve true knowledge because he could closely observe, understand and then carefully reproduce the world around him through art. Leonardo once said, â€Å"Whatever exists in the universe, a painter has first in his mind and then in his hands.† In addition to Leonardo’s unique approach and concept, his superb intellect and mastery of the art of drawing to study nature itself allowed his dual pursuits of art and science to develop. Leonardo’s scientific and technical observations are found in his handwritten notebooks or manuscripts, the greatest literary legacy he left to the world. The notebooks also equal the importance of his paintings as the pages reveal his inventions of machines such as the bicycle, airplane, helicopter and parachute. His findings of anatomy, which were among the most significant achievements of the Renaissance science, are also portrayed in the famous anatomical drawings in the notebooks. Leonardo also shared his thoughts on the nature of painting which has become a contribution to later generations of artists. More interestingly, what he wrote and sketched also gave an insight into his approach to life because in these notebooks, he also wrote his grocery lists and even the names of his debtors.One special feature that makes Leonardo’s notes and sketches unusual is his use of mirror writing. The handwriting is so peculiar that the task of deciphering the notes would requi re great effort. The aid of a mirror in reading reversed handwriting appears to be available only for the first experimental reading. The persistent use of it is impractical, considering the enormous mass of manuscripts to be read. Leonardo’s handwriting, which runs from right to left in inseparable writing, is illegible, and this unusualness in the writing is not the only obstacle in mastering the text. Leonardo also joined several short words into a long one or divided a long word into two short words. This arbitrary way of writing is not aided by punctuation to regulate the division and construction of the sentences; therefore, it is not surprising that some attempts to understand Leonardo’s handwriting would fail. Why was such odd handwriting used by Leonardo? Although a popular belief is that Leonardo intended some amount of secrecy, it might also be due to Leonardo’s left-handedness. Another unusual feature in Leonardo’s manuscripts is the relationship between words and pictures. As Leonardo emphasised, drawings are superior to words. Leonardo strove passionately for a language tha t was clear yet expressive. The wealth of his vocabulary was the result of intense study on his own and represented a significant contribution to the development of scientific terms in the Italian language. Despite his articulateness, Leonardo gave absolute preference to the drawing over the written word in his own approach. The drawing does not illustrate the text; rather, the text serves to explain the drawing. Leonardo’s work was a pioneer of modern scientific illustration. His notebooks reveal a spirit of scientific inquiry and a mechanical inventiveness that were centuries ahead of their time. However, he neither taught nor published his findings, and almost none of his inventions were built during his lifetime. If his work had been published in an intelligible form which others were able to understand, Leonardo’s place as a pioneering scientist would not be questioned. If his inventions had been built, they might have revolutionised the history of technology. The wealth of Leonardo’s anatomical studies that have survived also shapes the basic principles of modern scientific illustration. From observing the static structure of the human body, Leonardo continued to study the role of individual parts of the body in mechanical activity. He drew parts of the human body in three-dimensional diagrammes. He became the first person to accurately draw a child in the womb. His aim was to record the birth, life, and death of man in his Treatise on Anatomy which begun in 1489. However, his work was never published. Adapted from Heydenrejch, L.H. (n.d.). Leonardo da Vinci. Retrieved from http://www.history.com/topics/leonardo-da-vinci.| 1510152025303540455055606570|

Evaluating HRM’s contribution to Organisational Effectiveness Essay

Human Resource Management is a key component in the maintenance and utilization of an effective workforce. HRM includes myriad activities ranging from recruitment to training and even the development of compensation systems. HRM has evolved significantly since the early 1900s. The need to deal with labor unions and the human relations movement has increased the need for competent human resource professionals (Dessler, 2002). 3. Reasons for Measuring Human resource managers are required to balance the requirements of management against those of the organization to ensure staffing requirements are consistent with the overall organizational objectives. There is always a focus on results and measurement, the benefits from such analyses are numerous. Some of the key reasons for measuring HRM are (Phillips, 1996) 1. To identify HRM’s contribution to organizational effectiveness 2. To determine whether HRM is accomplishing its objectives 3. To identify the strengths and weaknesses of HRM processes 4. To calculate the return on investment in an HRM program 5. To determine if an HRM program or policy justifies investment of resources 6. To establish a database that can assist management in making decisions about HRM 4. Indicators of HRM The main impacts of HRM to the organisation can be gauged from the following key indicators (Frost et al, 2001) Figure 1: 4 Quadrants of HRM Indicators 5. Measuring HRM The influences and impacts mentioned previously provide an indication of the relative success of HRM within the organisation. As is evident, there are a number of indicators and their measurements and applications are quite varied. Some of the more common ways of measuring HRM are Surveys There are myriad proforma surveys that are available to HRM Managers to review and measure the feedback from employees and customers. OPM’s (Office of Personnel Management) Organizational Assessment Survey was created to assist organisations in the assessment and improvement of their performance and has since become an industry standard. The survey contributes to organizational performance improvement by: 1. â€Å"assessing organizational strengths and weaknesses; 2. providing a basis for effective action-planning to determine training and organizational change strategies; and 3. establishing measures for benchmarking and evaluating change in organizational performance over time.† (Fitz-Enz, 2000) Financial Analysis Cost- Benefit and ROI Analyses Return on Investment (ROI) is a cost-benefit analysis that offers HR managers a way to explain, in financial terms, how HR contributes to the bottom line. This helps in boosting HR’s credibility in management circles. To date, a major obstacle HR professionals have had in becoming full partners with senior agency management teams is proving its value to business discussions. Historically HR has not had the statistical data or business cost benefit analysis to prove its influence and impact on the organisation. However, using ROI to show that human resources management is an investment, rather than an expense, helps move HR further in the direction of becoming a strategic partner. Activity Based Costing (ABC) ABC is a process of estimating the costs associated with each step of a process. It has been used to identify the costs of HRM programs and processes. â€Å"It is an accounting system that assigns costs to products based on the resources they consume. The costs of all activities are traced to the product for which they are performed. Overhead costs are also traced to a particular product rather than spread arbitrarily across all product lines† (Albrecht, 2000). The breakdown of costs increases the visibility and transparency and proves how effectively resources are being used, which in  turn can help improve strategic decision-making. Several organisations have successfully used ABC to reveal the true cost of HRM, either to inform the overall budgeting process or to help benchmark HRM costs against other key industry players. Benchmarking â€Å"Benchmarking is a systematic process of measuring an organization’s products, services, and practices against those of a like organization that is a recognized leader in the studied area† (Phillips et al, 2001). Organisations across industries and geographical boundaries are using this practice to discover ways of improving service and increasing business efficiency and profitability. Strategic Analysis Balanced Scorecard/Balanced Measures The Balanced Scorecard is a strategic measurement approach that provides a method of aligning business activities with the organization’s strategic plan and monitoring performance of strategic goals over time. A set of balanced measures is used, rather than focusing on the single, traditional bottom line. The original scorecard developed by Kaplan and Norton (2004) was divided into five perspectives (or measurement areas): 1. Financial: Demonstrates how our initiatives, activities, and actions contribute to the organization’s bottom line, or how they provide value for the money spent. Cost and revenue are the main measures for this perspective. Labour costs expressed as a fraction of revenues is a common financial measure. 2. Customer: Tells us what we must do to meet the needs of our internal and external customers. Time, quality, performance and cost are the main areas in which customers are interested. Good government is accountable to the customer. 3. Internal Business: Shows where we must excel internally to succeed in accomplishing our mission. Cycle time, quality, employee skills, and productivity are examples of internal measures. 4. Learning and growth: Illustrates how the organization can continue to improve and create value. This includes how we sustain the growth of our people. The ability to innovate, improve, and learn are key characteristics of this perspective. 5. Human Resources Employee Empowerment: Tracks how leadership and working environment enhance HR employee’s job performance. The Malcolm Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence The Malcolm Baldrige Criteria are a framework based on a set of core values and concepts that any organization can use to improve overall performance. â€Å"They integrate key business requirements into a results-oriented framework and reflect validated, leading-edge management practices against which an organization can measure itself† (Becker et al, 2001). Organizations are assessed, using a scored point system, on approach, deployment, and results. The Criteria are recognized nationally and internationally as a model for performance excellence and therefore represents â€Å"a common language for communication among organizations for sharing best practices† (Kaplan & Norton, 2004). 6. Conclusion The history of HRM has been characterized by a continues attempt in justifying its impact and influence within an organization. The rise of unions along with the expansion of companies into foreign markets has made efficient HRM critical. HRM has moved from the position of justifying its position in an organization to adding to the organizations profits by â€Å"managing its most important asset – its people† (Dessler, 2002). 7. Bibliography Kaplan, R. S. & Norton, D. P. (2004) Strategy Maps: Converting Intangible Assets into Tangible Outcomes, Harvard Business School Press. Becker, E. B., Huselid, M. A. & Ulrich, D. (2001), The HR Scorecard: Linking People, Strategy and Performance, 1st Edition, Harvard Business School Press. Phillips, J. J., Stone, R. D. & Phillips, P. P. (2001) The Human Resources Scorecard, Butterworth-Heinemann. Albrecht, M. H. (2000) International HRM: Managing Diversity in the Workplace, Blackwell Publishers. Fitz-Enz, J, (2000) The ROI of Human Capital: Measuring the Economic Value of Employee Performance, American Management Association. Frost, P. J., Nord, W. R. & Krefting, L. A, (2001) HRM Reality, 2nd Edition, Pearson Education. Phillips, J. P. (1996), Accountability in Human Resource Management – Improving Human Performance Series, Gulf Professional Publishing. Dessler, G. (2002) Human Resource Management, 9th ed., Prentice Hall.

Ideal Work Environment (Iaps) Essay

Compensation: Our employees will be compensated by receiving a good compensation package for both the benefit of the company and the employee. The compensation package will include: †¢20% more income than the average salary per month †¢Guaranteed raises and bonuses based on job performance and/or time with company †¢Paid Volunteer Days †¢Time off unpaid †¢Vacation Pay †¢Health Insurance †¢Use of the company car Also, our company awards bonuses based on merit, these are non cash bonuses known as ‘Employee of the Month’, bonus day off, or a good parking space. Management: There are many qualities that make a good boss. At Honda Automotive Design Engineering, we have hired a boss that respects and has acquired all the expectations to lead this company to success and help improve the work environment in the building with weekly interactions with the employees. An effective boss will: 1. Set clear expectations 2. Coaches (someone who educates and encourages his employees as well as leads the company) 3. Gives feedback 4. Is inclusive 5. Gets to know employees 6. Works fearlessly 7. Is open and truthful (communication is essential) We view The Discussing Style as an effective management style because it promotes learning through interaction. In this style the manager encourages  critical thinking and lively discussion by asking employees questions about the problem, opportunity, or issue that must be resolved. The manager is a facilitator guiding the discussion to a logical conclusion. This style is effective because it’s based on communication, coaching, decision-making and recognition. Conflict: As executive officers, we manage workplace conflict by playing the role as an integrator. We seek to hear a variety of reasonable opinions and have an exchange of information before making a decision. This style of managing workplace conflict encourages creative thinking and is effective at problem-solving when issues are complex but it does take time. Hiring: This company hires employees that are compromisers when it comes to either conflict-management styles or working at this company in general. When compromising at this company, we force taking something from all parties involved and giving up something in return. When all parties to a decision are knowledgable and have good suggestions, this style results in good decisions. But when some parties contributing to the discussion are not fully informed, the final decision can be weak and we do not tolerate alienation, avoiding or domination. We are looking for 3 types of positions: Architects, Mechanic/Engineers, Designers (All must have a designing degree). Culture: At Honda Automotive Design Engineering, we create a community feeling in the building. Our offices are designed for employees to have lots of space, freedom and wide communication with the other employees. To prevent worker alienation, we have created our offices to be a happy and comforting atmosphere and in order to do that we changed plain, boring, simple office spaces into warm colourful walls and more open space for communication but  also providing separation walls so the room does not becoming loud or chaotic, enough for a functioning workplace. Recruiting the best employees possible will be simple giving them special accommodations, for engineers we provide them with tons of space in the building and utilities. For designers, we provide all the utilities, essentials, workspace and organization products (files, compartments etc.). Equity: To meet the needs of a diverse worker population, we aim for employees with different ethnicities and personalities. We ensure that the work environment is a safe space free of harassment by 24/7 security on building grounds, employees have the right to complain and/or notify authorities and the manager, and we hire employees that are open-minded about gender, race, religion and sexual orientation. We do not tolerate any kind of harassment in the workplace and we also provide rules towards that topic. The Honda Automotive Design Engineering is redesigned to maximize productivity and employee satisfaction for the work environment. On the graph 7.6 (page. 206), we think that our employees would rate their job/workplace regarding economics fairly well because we provide job security, fair/reasonable pay, health plans and a paid vacation. Also, Contribution and involvement would be rated excellent because we allow employees to work the way they want in their office space, they can make a difference to improve the companies growth and production as well as participate in decision-making.

Causes Of World War II And Holocaust Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Causes Of World War II And Holocaust - Essay Example The paper talks about how the quote mentioned in the thesis statement relates to the events of WW II. There were many causes of WW II which fall under the broad categories of the Treaty of Versailles, the after-effects of WW I, the Great Depression, Europe’s deep resentment after WW I, failure of the League of Nations and numerous other political and nationalistic forces. Two particular events that acted as catalysts were the invasion of Poland by Germany and Russia and the invasion of China by Japan. The drivers behind these decisions were Hitler and the Nazis from the German side and Kwantung Army in Japan. The Treaty of Versailles was putting extreme pressure on Germany to accept blame for WW I and to pay the damages caused by the war. German land was taken away and many restrictions were put on it. Around this time Hitler was coming to power. Once in power, he built a secret army for Germany and provided it weapons. Hitler also created alliances with Japan and Italy who we re aggressors in WW II. Hitler’s approach was also aggressive and kept breaking pacts made with other leaders and taking violent actions by invading countries he had expressly stated he wouldn’t and thus was a source of constant instigation. In the 1920s, the Great Depression hit and the conditions of the people worsened. Trade levels plunged, along with prices and business incomes while unemployment and despair shot up almost simultaneously. In the face of the Great Depression, the only thing that was holding these different countries together-The League of Nations-failed. It had no army and thus negligible power and the worst part was the aggressor countries like Germany and Russia were not even part of it.

The Problem of Induction Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Problem of Induction - Assignment Example The argument is valid because the sun has never failed to rise. However, critics may argue that the usual observations that the sun has always risen cannot be a claim to justify that it would rise the following day. The claim that a particular vegetable is green does not validate the assertion that future vegetables of a similar kind would be green. The claim becomes untrue if there is a significant change in nature that affects the vegetables’ genetic pattern to alter the green color to another. The problem of induction has raised concerns in the field of philosophy with some scholars supporting the claim while opposing it. The article herein will analyze the various aspects of the inductive methods and the different justifications set forth by scholars. The article will further determine the appropriateness of the method and attempt to justify solutions to the problems associated with the inductive methods. Philosopher Hume formulated an inquiry to the problem of induction and claimed that it is insoluble. John Stewart Mill responded and gave a more explicit formulation of another important class of inductive problems. J.S. Mill inquired why some methods just required a single inference to be true while others could not prove as true after numerous inferences (Ladyman 35). For instance, meteorologists have used the inductive methods to forecast the weather in some regions of the world, and it worked. Scientific research has enabled an improvement of technology. The medics have invented new drugs that treat diseases that could otherwise killed many individuals. In this respect, the inductive methods are valid and useful in human reasoning. However, the method lacks rational justification. The successful conclusions justify the methods. Furthermore, it is not always necessary to prove a method or belief to validate its applicability to be accepted as evident in the religious domain. Â  

Assignment1 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Assignment1 - Assignment Example This is one important aspect of today’s global organizations since in the recent past employees have won the tag of being the most important resource any organization has. Recent surveys and researches by different scholars have also revealed that the only left way for organizations to achieve competitive advantages over their competitors is only through proper utilization of the human resources. How can such human resources be properly utilized if the employees are not getting along well with their colleagues or superiors in their places of work? Different scholars have therefore developed different models to try and device means of promoting trust in different work places. Such scholars include Dr. John H Estes and Dr. Ralph M. Criss in their article ‘Building trust in the workplace’. According to Estes and Criss (2003), professional development is a process involving different stages. It begins with establishment of professional relationships where two individual come together and share their common encounters which are mainly things such as training, work experience or even education. Such individuals normally have never worked together and at this point they tend to make assumption of one another. For example what the other person does or knows. These individuals develop a mutual expectation. As the time progresses and there lacks to be violation of the developed expectations between the individuals after the establishment of the professional relationship, these individuals further develop some level of respect and more understanding in one another. This is the second stage which is a stage of professional respect. Further, when the respect is maintained and the level of understanding further becomes deepened between the parties, the respective members develop trust on one another such that each party now feels free to leave any task for the other party to undertake. This is the

The Heart Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Heart - Essay Example The arterial supply of the heart is built from the right and left coronary arteries, which arise from the aorta. The cardiac muscle is composed by specialized cells: cardiac myocytes. Kumar et al. (2005) describe five major components in the myocytes: cell membrane (sarcolemma) and T-tubules; sarcoplasmic reticulum; contractile elements; mitochondria; and nucleus. The sarcolemma and T-tubules enable impulse conductions, and the sarcoplasmic reticulum is a calcium reservoir needed for contraction. Mitochondria are crucial components, since they are involved in cardiac contraction by providing a constant supply of ATP to the sarcomeres. Mitochondria are abundant in cardiac tissue, constituting 20% to 40% of cellular volume in energy-demanding zones (Marin-Garcia 2005). Cardiac muscle is composed of sarcomeres, which are the contractile units with an arrangement of thin and thick myofilaments. The myocytes are composed of many parallel myofilaments arrays of sarcomeres in series, which are responsible for the striated appearance (Kumar 2005). Thin filaments are composed of various proteins named actin, tropomyosin, and troponin. Myosin is the thick filament, and possesses the cross-bridges that can attach to the actin. Au (2004) has described the various components of the sarcomere in great detail. Since cross-bridges possess ATPase activity, contraction may be explained as a continuous cycling of cross-bridges. Moreover, cardiac muscle fibers are joined together by junctional complexes called intercalated discs (Dunn 2004), so that the action potential is spread. The role of Calcium Calcium (Ca2+) regulates mechanical contractions and Vandenboom et al. (2005) have shown that "cross-bridge attachment increases thin filament activation dynamically and that this increase is proportional to the level of activation first established by Ca2+"; during membrane depolarization, a small amount of Ca2+ enters through specialized channels, and the influx triggers calcium release of the sarcoplasmic reticulum. Intracellular calcium binds to troponin C, which induces activation of the myofilaments and muscle contraction. Relaxation is initiated by dissociation of Ca2+ from troponin C, followed by its reuptake into the sarcoplasmic reticulum and removal through sodium/calcium exchangers (Chakraborti et al. 2007). Structure and Function Ventricular muscle contracts during systole and relaxes during diastole. The sarcomere length and sliding mechanism has been described by various researchers (Pollack et al 2005). The Frank-Starling mechanism depicts the relationship between structural components of the heart and its function: shorter sarcomeres have considerable overlap of actin and myosin filaments, reducing its contractile force, whereas longer lengths enhance contractility. In a normal heart, moderate dilation increases the subsequent force of contraction. With progressive dilation, however, there is a point at which effective overlap of filaments is reduced, and the force of contraction is reduced (Kumar 2005). The clinical consequences of

Justice process in the USA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Justice process in the USA - Essay Example It is a law in the United States of America that the first appearance of the defendant should occur within detention hours; the amount of time varies depending on a specific state. It is during the first hearing that the court will settle on whether the defendant is eligible for release or should post bail in the first step. In case bail is required, the court decides on the amount the defendant is to part with depending on several factors that include:  It is a law in the United States of America that the first appearance of the defendant should occur within detention hours; the amount of time varies depending on a specific state. It is during the first hearing that the court will settle on whether the defendant is eligible for release or should post bail in the first step. In case bail is required, the court decides on the amount the defendant is to part with depending on several factors that include:  Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ Crime severity†¢ Possibility that the defendant may flee†¢ Criminal records that have been in existence in prior court will move to appoint an attorney to stand in for the defendant in the event that the defendant has no counsel.  The following hearing is called the preliminary examination/ hearing. During this hearing, the presiding judge will have a look at the evidence or exhibit availed by the prosecution and decides on a determination whether there are a committed crime and enough evidence available to defend the assertion that the suspect committed the crime. The evidence should be availed to a grand jury; the grand jury issues an indictment or in other terms –a formal accusation- before the procession of the trial.  Upon issuing an indictment by the grand jury or the prosecutor decides to proceed, the court will set a hearing session to establish whether a bail may be set and the cost of the same.  Considering the kind of offense, the defendant can be arraigned in a court of law. An arraignment right may be waived by th e defendant.  

The Office Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Office - Movie Review Example The Office is a documentary on the day-to-day undertakings of the employees the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of a fictitious firm Dunder-Mifflin Paper Company. The show is presented as a humorous look at the different issues and foolishness that happens in the workplace. The branch is run by the single, middle-aged and boastful Regional Director Michael Scott who also serves as the host in the documentary. With his huge passion for business, Scott sees himself as the "office funnyman, a fountain of business wisdom and his employees' cool friend" (About the Office 4). However, his painstaking effort to be liked by his colleagues is in vain as he only appears pathetic and absurd. Other notable main characters are: Pam Beesly, the office receptionist; Jim Halpert, a sales representative; Dwight Schrute, the assistant to the regional manager; and Ryan Howard, a temporary employee. Economically speaking, opportunity cost is defined as "the cost of something in terms of an opportunity forgone or the most valuable forgone alternative" (Opportunity Costs 1). In The Office it is apparent that Jim Halpert foregoes the opportunity of securing better working alternatives when he continued working for Dunder-Mifflin Paper Company. The economic hegemony of the United States is currently being tain... It is estimated that the budget allocated to the war reaches $1 trillion which could have been used to finance economic and social projects such as livelihood, housing, and education. Thus, the opportunity cost of going to war can be stated as the social and economic benefit which could have been derived from the investments in socio-economic projects. 2. Law of Supply and Demand The issue of downsizing has been recurring in the episodes of the TV show. It should be noted that downsizing stems from the fact that the supply of labor in the economy is much higher than the actual demand requiring some adjustments through employee lay-offs. The same issue is faced by employees in the nation. The trade liberalization has eliminated national boundaries facilitating the mobility of job and investments. Business process outsourcing has become a trend channeling jobs to other countries where the cost of labor is lower like China, India, and Philippines thereby lowering the demand for labor in the United States. Recently, the customer service department of large business organizations like Dell, HP, and IBM has been deployed in these countries lowering the demand for US labor. This movement in demand changes the equilibrium by decreasing supply through downsizing. Works Cited "About the Office." NBC Website. 2007. April 18, 2007 "The Office." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 2007. April 18, 2007 "Opportunity Costs." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 2007. April 18, 2007

Journal Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Journal Report - Essay Example She went to school for her masters in education and while in school, the educator position was vacant so she applied and she was hired. She said she normally starts her day-by-day work in the unit to see how everyone was doing. Then she at times goes to meetings or works on educational projects. Some of the things she does as an educator include attending to quality control meetings, making sure all the staff members in the unit are up to date on their skills, and plans and organizes programs such as yearly competency skill days. She teaches preceptor classes for the hospital staffs, NRP and pere-natal classes. As a nurse educator she works very close with the unit manager and the other educators in the hospital. She also helps provide the OB unit with Researches on best practice to help improve their patient care. My preceptor is modeling the role of MSN or APN which is to influence the practice of the nurses/care providers by disseminating evidence through education and training, to facilitate the clinical nurses to give evidence-based care to their clients and based on my observations; I believe I can see myself transitioning into that role by the end of graduation in my program. At this point I would not know what kind of strength I would need to develop or anything I would like to do differently since I just started my practicum. 2. Placenta Ingestion: Is there Evidence-based on any health benefits of eating a placenta. Is it best practice or safe to give patient their placenta to take home per request and if so what measures should a hospital take before releasing the placenta to

People Have Become More Overly Dependent On Technology Essay

People Have Become More Overly Dependent On Technology - Essay Example â€Å"The technologies that started out as aides to our existence have become vital to our everyday lives† (Digitaltrends, 20003). The use of technology has become an integral part of a person’s life. It all starts in the morning. A lot of working adults rely on the use of an alarm clock to get up in the morning. A house needs electricity to run the different electrical devices that people have in their homes. Electricity and water are the two most utilities. Other important technological services that people rely on as part of their everyday lives are cable or satellite television, telephones, and the internet. Television has been engrained into American society since its introduction in the U.S. marketplace. Today there are approximately 115 million households that view television programming which account for 292 million people above the age of two (Nielsen, 2009). Technology has been ingrained deeply into our society. The most important technology that transformed the lives of people in the 20th century was access to reliable electricity. Electricity is needed to run most electrical appliances and gadgets. The majority of electricity in the United States comes from fossil fuels. The demand for crude oil has been on the rise during the last couple of decades which has spiral its price upward. Access to electricity is extremely important for our everyday lives. Most kitchen appliances such as ovens, microwaves, stoves, and can openers are run by either electricity or propane gas. The use of technology is imperative for people to able to cook food. A technological advancement that changed the behavior of businesses and people was the computer. The first home computer was introduced into the marketplace in 1975 by Ed Roberts (Computerhope, 2012). The computer became extremely popular during the 1990s, an era often referred to as the computer age. The reason that the

The knights Galahad and Gawain Essay Example for Free

The knights Galahad and Gawain Essay These two came from rather different backgrounds, yet there are similarities in that they both spent considerable time in search of the holy grail – a vessel or plate used a the last supper. Nowadays if we say we are looking for the holy grail we mean the almost unobtainable , perfect solution, but these were looking for a real, in their eyes at least, object, that really could be found if one’s character was perfect. Galahad was the illegitimate son of Lancelot and Elaine, and grew up in a nunnery. Merlin prophesied that Galahad would outdo his father’s deeds of bravery. In Malory’s   ‘Le Morte d’Arthur he is considered to be very pious and to this is imputed his success. He does not speak much to others, is totally chaste and must have seemed aloof, almost inhuman too good to be true. He eventually finds the grail, and because of his sinless life is   taken up to heaven. Gawain is a much more human character that we can better understand According to Welsh sources he was the son of king Lot and younger brother of Galahad, who has a rather different personality. He is portrayed as loyal and brave, helpful to others, but also rather brash. He is a ladies man, unlike the celibate Galahad. He is also said to have been a great healer and defender of the poor. For some reason his strength was said to vary considerably – perhaps this reflects the idea that his life wasn’t always pure. His character varies from a pure knight in the 12th century stories to an altogether more unpleasant version in later stories such as ‘Gawain and the Green knight’ from the second half of the 14th century, in which he is said to be a philanderer and one who doesn’t keep his word. Despite this he is associated in Welsh with the ancient Celtic sun god. Whether or not there really was an Arthur and his knights we cannot tell, but reading the stories we all know people like Gawain, complex characters, who vary in their personality from time to time. The saintly Galahad, man apparently without fault, is a much rarer find. Bibliography Drabble,M. editor, The Oxford Companion to English Literature, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996 Malory,T.   Le Morte d’Arthur first published   Caxton, 1485 Electronic Sources Arthur and Arthurian Legend http://membres.lycos.fr/pfv/ukversion.shtml Early British Kingdoms, found 2nd May 2007 at http://www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/bios/gwalchgn.html

Identify And Describe Types Of Business Entities Business Essay

Identify And Describe Types Of Business Entities Business Essay Business can be defined as an organization that provide goods and services to others, who want to do or need them, when people think of business careers, they have to think of job in large wealthy corporation, there are wide verity of career areas in business line. Definition of business Entities: Business Entity is an organization that possesses a separate existence for tax purposes. Some types of business entities include corporations and foreign corporations, business trusts, limited liability companies, and limited partnerships. Types of Business Entities; A business entity is the vehicle  a person or group of people use to carry on a trade or activity. There are fore main type of Business Entities, sole trader partnership limited liability partnership limited liability company reference:- http://www.completeformations.co.uk/companyfaqs/business_entities/types.html Business entities are the things that are stored and maintained by a business component, such as customers or orders. It may be helpful to think of business entities as the nouns in the application. Entities always contain data, and may contain processing capabilities that can act on that data. Each of these business entities has its own particular benefits and its own set of drawbacks, such as limited liability ease of set-up and the level of bureaucracy, which is required to run them When choosing a form of business entity, compare the tax, liability and management impacts of a sole proprietorship, corporation or flow through to see which will work best for your arts / crafts business. Reference:-http://artsandcrafts.about.com/od/startingyourbusiness/tp/compareentities.htm Note; The structure your business assumes is important in determining your limitations and liabilities. Depending on the type of structure you choose, additional paperwork may be necessary to establish the business, may your accountant help you to decide what type of business structure best fits your needs. Q2) Describe the Accounting Process in the terms of a) Recording b) Analysing c) Interpreting Financial Data Ans: Accounting Process: Accountings process is an overview of the step of the accounting cycle, beginning with a transaction and ending with the closing of the book and reversing, book keeping is the actual recording of the companys transaction, The recording process in accounting is the process of summarizing, classifying, and recording analysed transaction data in the journal in a systematic and chronological order and posted those to the ledger. The process of Recording transction in the journal is call journalizing. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_recording_process_in_accounting When the accounting process is complete a set of financial statements is issued. Financial statements are crucial for investment decisions, tax assessments, and conflicts resolution, Analysing a transaction grant reliance and relevance to the financial information, accounting information must be reliable and relevant, When analysing transactions the following questions should be posted and answered: 1) what are the accounts involved in a transaction? 2) What are the classifications of the accounts involved? Are they Assets, Liabilities, Owners Equity, Revenue, or Expense accounts? 3) Are the accounts increased? 4) Are the accounts decreased? http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art48482.asp Business transactions are events that have a direct economic impact on an entity and are expressed in terms of money. Interpreting performance of the business to the management and its owners, The purpose of financial accounting statements is mainly to show the the financial position of a business at a particular point in the time and show the how the business is going on, Financial information is always prepared to satisfy in some way the need of various interested parties, The process by which accounting information is collected,reported interpreted and and actioned is called finacial manegment, Q3) Explain the term Accounting and the 3 purposes discussed earlier Ans:- Accounting is a business discipline that allows companies to record, analyse and retrieve critical financial information that can be used to determine a companys financial status and provide reports and insights needed to make sound financial decisions, The primary purpose of accounting is to identify and record all activities that impact the organization financially, that will help the various external and internal parties of the business to appraise the profitability as well as the solvency of the business. The three main financial statements that are prepared for the purpose of accounting information are as follows http://www.ehow.com/about_4679149_purpose-accounting_. Him There are three purposes of accounting, the first one is to make sure the that all you have everything that you need to run a successful business that include that you have the right stock, which is recorded its means keep stock the business, The second purpose of accounting is for score keeping its meaning is to make sure the business has the right stock to make profit,,, Third purpose of the accounting is to analysing the information about the business profit and lose, to help the business direct area, where is the best profit can be made, For example; to buy the things that sale the most to make the business profit The above three purpose of accounting are important to run your Business, Q4) Describe the range of Organisational Structures Ans: Organisational are a variant of types of Entities. An organization can be structured in many different ways and styles, depending on their objectives and ambience, Organizational structure allows the expressed allocation of responsibilities for different functions and processes to different entities such as the branch, department, and individual. Individuals in an organizational structure are normally hired under time-limited work contracts or work orders, or under permanent employment contracts or program orders. Director Manager Assistant Manager Front Line Staff Main Staff For example another diagram. Board of Director Chief Executive General Manager Financing Manager Front Line Staff Finance Administration General Line Staff This is a diagram about organisation and structure in business. Q5) Explain the importance of budgeting Ans; Importance of Budgeting. You dont have to over spend, to keep control of your finance shows that you dont over spend. If you spend you going to debt, it means business loss. So you have to control your budgeting in business. It also has record keeping that records how much money you have. If you dont control budgeting your business will not grow successfully. It is also to keep better control of all your finances so that you can buy the right amount of stock which will earn the business a better profit and keep the business going for longer. It helps to keep agreements on all your money for longer periods, for example if you keep a budget plan for 5 years then you have control of not spending the profits that you make. End of assignment

Reusability of Object Oriented Interfaces in UML Diagrams

Reusability of Object Oriented Interfaces in UML Diagrams I. INTRODUCTION In recent years, computer software is the single most important technology in the world. Software developers have continually attempted to develop new technologies due to the growing importance of computer software. In these developments some of them focused on a technology domain i.e. object oriented system/programming [22]. Metrics are difficult to collect and may not really measure the intended quality measures of software. Empirical validation is must to verify the usefulness of a metric in practical applications. A. Software Engineering Software engineering started with a humble beginning and it has slowly come into existence. Now, software engineering is the best solution to the software problems. Most of the programmers/developers view the software engineering as an engineering approach to develop the software [21]. B. Software Measurement If you cant measure its not Engineering community is a common quote by the engineering community [10]. Measurement is the basis for all science and engineering. Good measurements are necessary for successful process. Software measurement is still considerably less than optimal in terms of measurement techniques and the volume and reliability of published data [2]. Software measurement plays an important role for finding the quality and reliability of software products. The measurement activities require appropriate tools to calculate relevant metric values. At present large number of metric tools are available for software measurement [1]. The main objective of this paper is to find the reusability of interfaces in object oriented programming. 2. MEASUREMENTS AND METRICS Measurement is the technology that allows the software professional to make visible progress for improving the software related factors. Measurement is not only a performance factor that leads to behavioural changes but it is used to improve the factors that are being measured [2]. It is a clear note that measurement is necessary for the software development process to be successful. A. Traditional Metrics From 1976 traditional metrics have been used in software measures for measuring the software complexity. Nowadays, a large number of software metrics has been proposed to measure effort and quality. Traditional metrics are important to measure non object oriented programs [18]. Metrics are used as a controlling method in development and to measure either the process of development or various aspects of the product [10][14][26]. Traditional metrics are used to measure the complexity of the program and comment percentage of the program. B. Object Oriented Programming and Metrics Object oriented software is a more recent and important quality software than that of the old-style procedural software/program [24]. With the wide spread object oriented technology the subject of software engineering has received much attention over the last two decades [20][25]. Object oriented design and development are very important and popular concepts in todays development environment. Object oriented design and development requires a different approach to design, implementation and to the software metrics compared to standard set of metrics. Metrics are very essential and important to measure object oriented software programming [13]. The development of software metrics for object oriented technology / programming has received more attention. A large number of metrics have been developed by researchers and numerous tools are available to help assess design quality and to collect metrics from software programs, designs, quality and maintenance etc [5][19][23][24]. Many object oriented metrics proposed in literature survey lack theoretical proof and some have not been validated. The metrics that evaluate the object oriented programming concepts are: methods, classes, coupling and cohesion. Very few metrics are presented for object oriented interfaces. In this paper, a measurement has been proposed to calculate the reusability of interfaces in object oriented programming. 3. OBJECT ORIENTED INTERFACES The concept of an interface is old. Software engineering has been using interfaces for more than 25 years. Nowadays interfaces are heavily used in all disciplines especially in object oriented programming [7]. With interface construct, object oriented programming features a good concept with high potential code reusability. Interfaces are used to organize code and provide a solid boundary between the different levels of abstraction [17] [4]. It is good to use interfaces in large type of applications because interfaces make the software/program easier to extend, modify and integrate new features. An interface is a prototype for class. With the construct of an interface java allows a concept of high potential for producing a reusable code. Interfaces in object oriented programming just contain names and signatures of methods and attributes, but no method implementations. Interfaces are implemented by classes. The inheritance hierarchy of interfaces is independent than that of class inheritance tree. Therefore object oriented languages like java gives higher potential to produce reusable code than abstract classes [15] [9] [16]. 4. REUSABILITY Reusability is always an interesting topic with shining promise. Reusable code is an effective combination 2 concept. * Properly defined interface definitions and * Efficiently defined class structure and inheritance. In this paper, the authors followed the first concept of reusability and measured the metric for interface reusability by giving a new formula. One benefit of defining interface is that every class that implements an interface must be inline with the interfaces functional requirements. Large amount of code sharing occurs within each implementation classes. Based on the class structure designed at the development time the implementation classes are organized according to their interface group type and inheritance allowed to access common logic. Reusability is an important factor for the software community people because it is the ability to reuse a number of software artefacts in terms of requirements, architecture, plans, cost estimates, designs, source code, data elements, interfaces, screens, user manuals, test plans and test cases. Software reusability is an experimental one under the impact of new tools and programming languages. The measurement of software/program and the software development process are much needed for software professionals attempting to improve their software process. Reusability of software increase productivity and quality and reduce the cost [2][3][6]. So in this paper, the reusability is measured for object oriented programming interfaces using the new formula. 5. BACK GROUND SUPPORT PROPOSED APPROACH Measurement is not just a software activity. A good measurement process is an effective method for demonstrating new tools and process improvements. An accurate measurement is a prerequisite process for all engineering disciplines and software engineering is not an exceptional one for calculating the accurate results. There is no significant work on the design of human computer interfaces. In literature, relatively little information has been published on metrics. Those metrics would provide limited insight into the quality and usability of the interface [12]. So the proposed approach is to derive a formula for calculating the reusability of interfaces accurately [23]. Deeper an interface in hierarchy leads to greater the reusability of inherited methods. When the depth of inheritance (DIT) of an interface increases the reusability of an interface also increases. So DIT of an interface has positive impact with the reusability of an interface. Reusability of interfaces are calculated by the following two ways: 1. Reusability of interfaces is calculated by using the formula: (RI) = Total No. of links to interfaces No. of interfaces. RI Total Reusability of interface diagram. 2. The reusability of interfaces in a diagram is calculated by using the formula:- Total Reusability of a diagram: RI = R (I1) + R (I2) +.R (In); R- Reusability and I1..In are Interfaces In each diagram the reusability of an interface is calculated by using the formula and all interface reusability must be added to find the total reusability of interface diagram. In both ways i.e. according to formula 1 and 2 the values are equal. This is shown in table 1, 2 and 3. 6. EMPIRICAL STUDY To validate the formula empirically three object-oriented diagrams are used to calculate the values for reusability of an interface for each diagram. Figure 1 shows object oriented design diagram shapes interfaces. Table 1 shows the values of reusability of each interface and total reusability of interfaces using the above formula. TABLE 1. REUSABILITY OF INTERFACES FOR SHAPES RI = Total Reusability of a diagram L-I = Reusability of an interface I=1 since reusability is calculated for each interface. No. of interfaces = 1. In the above table 1 RI is calculated by using the formula 1 and 2. TABLE 2. VALUES OF INTERFACE REUSABILITY 7. CONCLUSION Many simplistic metrics do not capture the importance of whatever it is that it has to measure. Many developers and software engineers are experiencing the benefits and uses of reusability in completion of the project with in the time and cost. Many other programmers and developers believe that software reuse will help in reducing cost and provide other benefits in software development. Object oriented programming software is more reusable than functionally decomposed software. Software reuse increases production and quality of software and reduces software development cost and time. Reusability is an attribute of software quality. By measuring reusability we can measure software quality. The authors have proposed a new metric to measure the reusability of interfaces in object oriented programming. As software is being developed, it is very good and important to keep an eye on the various parameters. The authors used three UML object oriented diagrams to validate the formula. Hence, this approach is an eye-opener to measure reusability of interface diagram. REFERENCES [1] Bakar N.S.A.A. Boughton .C,Using a Combination of Measurement Tools to Extract Metrics from Open Source Projects, Proceedings of Software Engineering and Applications of 2008. [2] Capers Jones, Applied Software Measurement-Global Analysis and Productivity Quality, 3rd Edition. [3] Christopher L. Brooks, Christopher G.Buell, A Tool for Automatically Gathering Object-Oriented Metrics, IEEE, 1994. [4] Dirk Riehle and Erica Dubach,Working With Java Interfaces and Classes-How to Separate Interfaces from Implementations, P.No:35-46, Published in Java Report 4, 1999 [5] El Hachemi Alikacem, Houari A. Sahraoui, Generic Metric Extraction Framework,IWSM/Metrickon, Software Measurement Conference 2006. [6] Etzkorn W.E., Hughes, Jr W.E. and Davis C.G. ,Automated reusability quality analysis of OO legacy software, Information and Software Technology, Volume 43 , Issue 5, April 2001,P.No:295-308. [7] FriedRich Steimann, Philip Mayer, Andreas MeiBner,Decoupling Classes with Inferred Interfaces , Proceedings of 2006 ACM, Symposium on Applied Computing, Pg.No:1404-1408. [8] Hector M. Olague , Letha H. Etzkorn, Senior Member, IEEE, Sampson Gholtson and Stephen Quattlebaum ,Empirical Validation of Three Software Metrics Suites to Predict Fault-Proneness of Object-Oriented Classes Developed Using Highly Iterative or Agile Software Development Processes,IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Vol. 33,No.6,June 2007. [9] ISRD GROUP,Introduction to Object Oriented Programming through JAVA,TATA Mc Graw Hill, Pg.No:109. [10] Ivar Jacobson, Magnus Christerson, Patrick Johnson, Gunnar OverGarrd,Object Oriented Software Engineering-A Use Case Driven Approach, P.NO:468, Pearson Education @ 2001. [11] Ken Pugh, Object Oriented Design, Chapter 5, Inheritance and Interfaces, The Pragmatic Programmers, LLC, 2005. [12] Khan R.A., K.Mustafa And S.A.Ahson, Software Quality Concepts And Practices, P.No:140. [13] Linda H. Rosenberg,Applying and Interpreting Object Oriented Metrics, Presented at the Software Technology Conference, Utah, April 1998. [14] Madumathi I. B.Palaniappan,A Tool for Extracting Object Oriented Metrics,International Journal of Computing and Applications ,2007. [15] Markus Mohenen, Interfaces with Default Implementations in Java, Aachen University of Technology. [16] Markus Mohnen,Interfaces with Default Implementations in Java,Technical Report, RWTH Aachen,April 2002. [17] Matthew Cochran,Coding Better: Using Classes Vs. Interfaces, January 18th, 2009. [18] Nachiappan Nagappan, Thomas Ball and Andreas Zeller, Mining Metrics to Predict Component Failures, Verification and Measurement Group , Microsoft Research, 2005, Redmond, Washington. [19] Neville I. Churcher, Martin J. Sheppered, ACM Software Engineering Notes, Vol.20, Issue 2, P.No:69-75, April 1995. [20] Pradeep Kumar Bhatia, Rajbeer Mann, An Approach to Measure Software Reusability of OO Design , Proceedings of 2nd International Conference on Challenges Opportunities in Information Technology,COIT-2008,RIMT-IET,March 29,2008. [21] Rajib Mall ,Fundamentals of Software Engineering, Chapter 1, Pg.No:1-18,2nd Edition, April 2004. [22] Roger S. Pressman,Software Engineering a Practitioners Approach, 6th Edition. [23] Rudiger Lincke, Jonas Lundberg and Welf Lowe,Comparing Software Metrics tools,ISSTA 08,July 20-24,2008. [24] Santonu Sarkar, Member, IEEE, Avinash C. Kak, and Girish Maskeri Rama, Metrics for Measuring the Quality of Modularization of Large-Scale Object-Oriented Software, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Vol. 34, No. 5, Sep-Oct 2008. [25] Terry .C. and Dikel .D.,Reuse Library Standards Aid Users in Setting up Organizational Reuse Programs,Embedded System Programming Product News,1996. [26] Victor Laing and Charles Coleman,Principal Components of Orthoganal Object-Oriented Metrics, Nov.20th 2008,

Effects of Family Responsibilities and Discrimination on the Career Pro

Introduction Writh noted that despite women becoming increasingly active in economic activities they are still under-represented when it comes to senior management position. She supported this argument by pointing out that 40% of the labour force comprise of women. However, when it comes to top management position; only 20% are women (Writh 2001). This is as a result of a number of barriers which prevent women from function effectively. Family responsibilities, stereotypes that have led to gender discrimination, are perhaps the most notable factors. Despite this negativity women can still perform exceptionally well as senior managers; especially if effective work/life balance initiatives are undertaken. Family Responsibilities Family responsibilities-such as childbearing, rearing and other common household duties which have traditionally been place on women- play are major role in hindering their career progress. These responsibilities reduce the competitiveness of women by adding to them other unpaid responsibilities that men usually do not face (Writh 2001; Adler & Izraeli 1994). This has had profound effect on the ability of women to pursue their career ambitions. Similarly, most employers have resulted in perceiving women as incapable of giving their employment full attention. Actually, evidence point out that women exit the workforce and/or accept part time job at higher rate than men in an effort to balance between the paid (employment) and unpaid (family responsibility) (Kochanowski 2009). Based on Kochanowski (2009) argument, this inability of women to consistently participate in career without breaking off to attend to other family responsibilities hinders them from gaining the necessary skills an d experience needed ... ...Erlbaum, New Jersey. Kraiser, G 2009, Analyzing the Occupational Sex Segregations, McGraw-Hill, New Delhi. Metz, S & Desile 2007, ‘Managing the Diverse Workforce: is Gender Discrimination a Major Issue’, The Public Forum Journal, Vol. 5, no. 12, pp 34-60. Mullins, LJ 2005, Management and Organisational Behaviour (7th ed), Prentice Hall, New Jersey. Moss, N 2002, ‘Choosing Between Family and Career Advancement: Tough Decisions Facing Women’ Gender Management Journal, Vol. 12, no. 20, pp 142-58. Smith, L & Collen 2007, Work-Life Balance and Productivity, Rutledge, London. Shapiro, L & Worcester, S 2008, Gender Differences in Personality and Leadership Traits: A review for Business Leaders, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham. Wirth, L 2001, Breaking Through the glass ceiling; Women in management, International Labour Office, Geneva.

School Year Round Essay -- essays papers

School Year Round Year Round School: An Annual Mistake Throughout time education has been considered a process that every so often must be improved. The education quality in the U.S. has declined over the years and people have been looking for a way to make improvements. A more recent proposal has been to go from a traditional nine-month schedule to an all year program. Supporters of year round school claim it gives the student a better education. However, the prospect of year round school is not beneficial to the taxpayers pocket, to the education a student receives, or to the people involved with the district. All year school ends up costing the school district and surrounding community more money than a traditional nine-month schedule. "More funds would be needed to cover the costs of paying the teachers and staff for one full year instead of for 180 days work." (Stevenson 2). "Teachers currently make an average of $37, 000 in the United States. However, the costs would increase to $53, 000 to keep the teachers for a full year." (Somersby 8). Currently, a district uses a lot of its budget on paying teachers. Once the increased costs are put in place, the budget depletes rapidly. Yet teachers must be paid, as they are the cornerstones of education. Also, it takes additional funds to run the school all year, due to things such as air conditioning in the summer (White 28). Many schools due not currently need AC systems to be used. However, AC is a costly ame...

Philosophy Life Examination

My Life Examination First of all, my previous essay was a part of my life examination. I am glad you caught me on plagiarizing because now I really know that you read all of our essays. Unfortunately a few of my classmates and I did have doubts about it. Also, I feel like I can argue a lot for plagiarizing, but that is not what this assignment is about. Even though I agree with Sergey Trufanov’s ideas about life in general, I do not feel like I can explore them further and simply reciting them would also be considered as plagiarism.But I do have my own conclusions about life examination, disappointments, and death. I cannot say that I am a philosopher, just like I cannot say that I can speak English. In order to claim that, a person needs to be comfortable using his tools to be considered a professional, which unfortunately, I am not, but I do believe that my ideas deserve to exist and to be explored in philosophical ways. Life examination. To examine life you need to test it, challenge it. Everyone knows that you won’t know till you try, but for some reason not everyone does it.In my opinion it is better to do something and regret it than not do anything and regret not even trying. It refers even to the smallest things, like a new flavor of ice-cream. How would you know that you do not like it unless you taste it? Trying things is the only way to figure them out. I have so much of personal experience about trying new things, and it proved itself every single time. Like when I came to United States five years ago; I did not speak a word of English, I did not know how to drive, I was scared beyond belief, but trying new things got me to where I am.It is okay to be scared, but it is not okay not to challenge your fears and examine life in every way possible with everything that raises questions. Here I agree with Socrates â€Å"The unexamined life is not worth living. † Disappointments. Disappointments are worthless. They are based on our exp ectations of results. If you do not want to be disappointed, stop waiting for things and people to meet your expectations. We all are our own people. We do not live to please everyone around us. Why expect everyone around me to please me, if I am not doing it for everyone else?Why expect a sunny day and get disappointed if it rains? I am not the center of the universe, so why should it be sunny for me? We are causing things to upset us and at the same time we are blaming everyone and everything else. Of course people are selfish, it is just a human nature, but if we are selfish, why do we let things ruin our lives simply by expecting good things to happen? Everyone is trying to do whatever makes them happy and feels good. Why get disappointed if it upsets us. People are so controversial. Death.I agree with Arthur Schopenhauer on the subject of death. Crying for dead is like crying for someone who was never born. Why we are so scared of death? We all know that we are going to die, so I believe that being ready for it is more important than being scared of it. But how can we be ready? Well, examining life to its fullest would do the trick. Doing new things, answering questions, exploring the unknown, all of that makes death just one of the projects. Possibly one the last ones, but we do not know, till we try.We are scared of death because we do not know what is waiting for us after we leave this world and this life. But exploring everything here and now makes it easier and simpler to move on and accept the fact that we are done. Thinking that after we die the world will not be the same is just another example of human selfishness. How many people have died before us? How many will die after? And the universe is still here, it is still growing, it is still alive. One death is just one drop in the ocean; it will not change the world.And Schopenhauer’s quote â€Å"Matter, which now lies before you as dust and ashes now, dissolved in water, will settle as cr ystal, will shine in a metal, scatter electric sparks in a galvanic voltage show the power, that by expanding the strongest connection, turn the earth mass into metal; and not only that: by itself it will embody in plant and animal, from its mysterious womb will produce the very life, the loss of which you are so afraid of in your narrow-mindedness† shows that we never die completely, therefore being afraid of death thinking that without us the world will not be the same is very much silly.As you can see, in this essay I did not use any philosophical terms, but this is My Life Examination, in my life I do not use terms, I use simple language because like Einstein said â€Å"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. †

What Is Video Conferencing

Video conferencing is a newer tool available to individuals and businesses, which allows people to communicate between two separate locations, via software that combines video and voice. This can be done as simply as a web camera and having conversations with friends and family. Businesses use this tool to improve many areas of the company. Travel expenditures, time, rentals, hotels, entertainment, etc, are all costs of traveling somewhere to conduct business. By using video and voice solutions, companies enable their geographically dispersed workforces to communicate and collaborate more effectively and productively over distances. Employees can collaborate from offices, meeting rooms, and even mobile devices. A variety of organizations are using these standards-based solutions to: ⠝â€" Gain a fast return on their investment as their teams easily collaborate â€Å"face to face† wherever they are ⠝â€" Cut the time, cost, and carbon emissions associated with gathering the right people in one place to solve problems ⠝â€" Apply saved resources, time, and energy to primary business and organizational challenges Businesses will sometimes use , simultaneous videoconferencing, which is having conversations among three or more remote points. This is becoming more popular now that DSL and broadband internet is widely available to the public. How this technology is used where I work This form of communication is not used widely in the housing industry as of yet; however, our company started using video conferencing when gas prices climbed past three and four dollars. This company has 37 properties, which it manages within a 200-mile radius. When gasoline prices climbed above $3.00/gal, with no end in sight, this company took steps to eliminate costs, and one-step is video conferencing. Since the implication of video conference, our regional manager shows up once a month (versus weekly) and there is a video conference every Tuesday. The company did not opt to change the methodology after gasoline prices subsided because the savings are very high. Because of this, the company has taken the monies that it has saved and invested them into improving areas of the company. Since the regional manager has the time available to him that he once spent driving, he has more time to address and review further issue that arise and project that need to want to be completed. This is the only work place that I have worked where such technology has been available. In one previous place (fast food), there was a thief, so the company installed video cameras that could be viewed remotely. In the maintenance field, it is necessary for the manager(s) to have visual reference of the items discussed. The electronic age has that made the communication end of my job easier. I am able to take a picture with a camera phone or digital camera and send that to a manager for visual representation. For example, my manager can print out a picture of what I sent him, turn his back to the camera in a video conference, and have a conversation about the issue at hand almost as if we are in the same room. Another benefit is I can get a faster response time than before, because I can send the information, and then discuss the situation shortly thereafter rather than whenever the next scheduled conference is. Message Types The message type that is in play here is face-to-face communication, in a digital form. All the characteristics that one has in a traditional face-to-face conversation are all present within video conferencing. One can see the body language and facial expressions the other person has and have the ability to compare that with the individual’s tone just like a typical conversation. Just as in a typical conversation, one is able to judge the appearance and level of professionalism of the other person. Because of the video conferencing, even when sending an email the level of professionalism is still there because of communication with these individuals in a digital and internet manner. I feel that video conferencing has improved my daily, weekly, and monthly life where I work. This innovative manner of communication has sped up response time on issues, saved the company thousands of dollars, and improved the work environment within the company. Employees, managers, regional manager, and owners now are able to know who is on the other end of the line when they are having a conversation; this adds a level of respect towards the other individual. Improving the quality of communication within an organization has been a benchmark for this company.

American History In A Global Context Essay

America has been at the centre of the history of the world as much as the history of the world has been at eh centre of the formation of the American nation. This makes it important for anyone looking at and trying to understand America make it his or her business to look at the histories of the world and that of the United States of America as one entity with different faces and phases rather than two distinct entities (Baud, 158). Many historians have implied that it is the isolation policy of the United State that helped her industrialize. However it is worth noting that America interacted with the other European nations in the earlier years of her republic. This isolation however helped develop without interference the economic, cultural, industrial and political thoughts of the nation in the intervening years between colonization and the world wars of the twentieth century. America went in to small wars with the French and Mexicans as well as the Spaniards but these wars never had a significant impact on the direction America was taking (Bender, 257). Historical context and world history American history dates back to the days of exploration by Columbus. She managed to transport in to her industries orient goods by water and whale trading became a booming business. America at the moment was at the centre of this trade. The discoveries of the nation strengthened world trade with the industries in America becoming big centers for trade (Bender, 178). Turning to the American Civil War one might be tempted to think that this was an isolated case for the American people. Deep down the revolution was a strong feeling and tide to end the reign of slavery in the world. These were the seedling of freedom planted in an attempt to end slavery. Bender says that the American Civil War is â€Å"a larger history of†¦ conflicts over nationalism and freedom and the proper balance of central and local authority. † This has more often than not repeated itself in other parts of the world at a smaller or larger scale (Bender, 218). From colonialism it was the centre for migration and voyages that marked the advances of the world powers in conquering other nations. Later America becomes the centre of slavery. As central as the tide of slavery is to the world, so is it to American history and development (Baud, 58). Later on in the following years America was at the centre of civil rights movements. It set the trends on civil and human rights for the rest of the world to copy. The modifications on child labor laws, civil rights, better working conditions and many social changes have been driven from American struggles and reformation (Bender, 105). At one point America was said to rag behind in other social issues. Baud suggests that it is the openness of the rest of the world and the American feeling to catch up with the rest of the world that have driven her to make the many and significant changes and strides n the medical and food security and health issues. The feelings and advances of the world have driven America to follow suit and to set the pace on such issues affecting her population. This has gotten the United States of America in to the ring of global influence (Baud, 79). Industrialization in America and the whole world brought with it many challenges and social issues. While the industries had to make profit, they had to look at the interest of the workers. As the labor laws activists fought for better conditions for the workers, they were responding to a global tide that. This was in all nations that had industrialized. Bender in fact says that some of the laws that exist in the American system could be traced in other countries long before the surfaced in America. Among these laws are some insurance laws, laws on child labor as well as better working conditions (Bender, 289). The integration of the immigrant races will also play a central role in shaping the history of American and consequently that of the world. A nation built on migration rising to the status of a world super power is a nation to watch even as other nations open up to immigration (Adas, 34). Further in his analysis Adas, looks at the later influences that the so called ‘ideals of the American people have shaped and influenced the world after the coming to being of the American state. While the Americans moving from Europe wanted a nation built on freedom and very strong ideals, the Germans had an almost similar idea. It may seem like years after but it is the same idea of purity and nationalism that informs the activities of the Germans later (Adas, 32). Bender is categorical on the place and the role of America as a military empire in the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century. America is seen to intervene in global wars between empires. All this time she has not only been watching but preparing herself though for no war in particular. Even when America goes to war it marks her place in the history of the American nation as well as that of the world (Bender, 229). One of the most common influences America has had on the world’s political landscape is the concept of democracy. Other nations have found it comfortable to adopt the American system of political interaction. According to Bender this concept has not only influenced the political but the social systems of the world. It was hard for America to sell the concept of freedom and democracy to the other nations while slavery existed on her south. This forced her abolish slavery in order to easily sell the democracy idea. Its adoption meant freedom for many other marginalized groups of the world (Bender, 256). Conclusion One can only be splitting hairs trying to differentiate the history of America with that of the world. It is a fact undeniable to any one that America has her history grounded and similarly identical to that of the world. The many changes the world has witnessed have been influenced and at the same time they have influenced the world outlook. This is an assertion that finds home in the ideas of great scholars as discussed above and at the same time very verifiable and logical. If proper understanding of the history of America is to be achieved it has to be grounded squarely on the history of the world. Works cited 1. Adas, M, (2001) `From settler colony to global hegemony: integrating the exceptionalist narrative of the American experience into world history`, American historical review, The University of Chicago Press: Indiana. 2. Bender, T, (2006) A Nation Among Nations: Americas place in world history, introduction. (6), Hill and Wang: New York. 3. Baud, M, and W Van Schendel, (1997) `Toward a Comparative history of the borderlands` in Journal of world history, University of Hawaii Press: Hawaii

Psalm 1, 23, 32

Psalm 1, 23, 32 Psalm 1, 23 and 32 is from the bible and these Psalms praise to the God by people. It is also the worship to God and shows that another way for pursuit of happiness is singing the Psalms or praising the God because people who believe in God think that they can be protect from troubles and forgiven their sins by God. By trusting that the God, they believe that they will be safe and not need to worry about their starvation or survival. They believe that God will provide them with all needs and even protects from their enemies.Psalm 1 describes about the three characteristics of a blessed man, and how he mediated with the law of the lord. The blessed man compared the God with a tree panted by the rivers of water, which yields its fruit I season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prosper. † The blessed man also compared the ungodly in the fourth sentence. He also mentions that the ungodly will not stand in the judgment and the sinners will not stand in the congregation of the righteous.He mentions that only the God know the way of the righteous. Psalm 23 is about the God is our shepherd, and describes about where the God lead us (2,3). It also describes about how the God restore the blessed man’s souls and guides him in the way of righteousness. In the fourth sentence, the blessed man describes about how people do not have fear when they walk through the valley of death and the fifth sentence describes that God has always prepare for us.The last sentence describes about how goodness and love follows us all the days of our life by God. Psalm 32 is about who is blessed (1,2) by God and describes about the result when one does not confess his sins (3,4). It also talks about the psalmist deal with his sins (5) and how the God would guide him (8). Finally, the ninth sentence mentions about what we are not to like as horse or mule (9).

Decision Making and Enron’s Control Essay

Introduction – Students, analysts and critics of modern business practice will always consider the colossal Enron collapse as an important text book case about how a lot of different things inside the company can trigger a nearly overnight downfall of a once prestigious company. If there was any Cinderella story in the world of blue chip trading and high portfolio business, Enron was the ultimate opposite, if not the witch herself who was killed by her own lethal potion. The Enron collapse resulted in the formulating of many different opinions pointing to the many different possible reasons why Enron – with all the promise and potential that it has a few years before it went south – made the nosedive that made it one of the worst disasters in the history of trade, commerce and business. There is no doubt that most of the opinions that surfaced explaining the reason why such an eventuality befell Enron placed the blame on the wrong things that the top management echelon did for the company; they are after all the one which is responsible for the present and the future of Enron. Critics looking at the Enron debacle scrutinized what happened leading to the collapse using many different perspectives and considering many different factors, both in the professional capability of the company’s leaders as well as the impact of the surrounding factors beyond Enron’s control. One of the most important facets in the debate regarding the fall of Enron is decision making. Evidently, a lot of wrong decisions were made, with one every wrong decision acting as a building block that eventually became an insurmountable wall of consequences all borne out of wrong or faulty decision making processes that yielded results that did the company more harm than good. Indeed, the decision making linchpins significant to the establishment of the case that the Enron collapse was due in some extent to the decision making aspect of the leadership strata of the company can be identified easily as it is scattered throughout the timeline of Enron’s very near and not so distant past leading to the eventual fall of the company that hid behind the faà §ade of the building the ugliness created by the qualities of its leaders that caused the chaos that burned down Enron down to meager, worthless ashes. This paper will pick the significant moments wherein the decision making capabilities and abilities of its top management leaders were at play and use these moments to establish the ethical and other considerations coming to play during the analysis of the decision making efforts of the leaders and why the outcome of such exercises led to the fall of Enron and not towards the company’s betterment, which is the main task of the company’s top executives. The paper will utilize these occasions to stress its argument regarding the role of effective, ethical and sound decision making of top executives leading to either the success or bankruptcy of companies, in this case that of Enron, and discuss key aspects of this line of thought. The paper will not criminalize the actions of the executives of Enron; rather, it will infuse inputs from other professionals regarding important aspects in the discussion of corporate decision making (ethics, result-orientation, etc). Background – Various angles have already been explored by many different individuals every time the topic of analysis is Enron and its collapse. Because of this, the paper is moving to focus on an aspect that is focused more on Kenneth Lay and the rest of his top executive clique’s personal characteristic that could have played an important role in the outcome of Enron’s operation. Decision making is both a personal characteristic as it is a professional credential, even an asset. Some people are being paid handsome amounts of money for their ability to transform decision making moments into an opportunity that provides a positive result and expected outcome for the company. Ehringer (1995) puts it simply: ‘The ability to make good decisions is the defining quality of our lives’ (Ehringer, 1995, p. 1). When Lay, Skilling, Fastow and other Enron bosses were placed in their respective positions, they were expected to exercise a high level of intuitiven ess, business acumen and professional foresight so that every decision making opportunity is met with the company’s best interest long term and short term in mind. They were where they were because those who placed them there believed that they can make decisions to which the company can benefit from. When Enron collapse, many people and organizations criticized the questioned the decision making capabilities of the top executives – was the collapse an effect of the result of the decision that they made? Was the decision made putting the benefit of the company and the employees first, or are the decisions shaped so that it benefited them first? How bad was the breach in the ethical considerations that a professional should take every time he or she makes a decision that puts the future of the company on the line? These are just some of the questions that may also be present in the minds of those who followed the Enron case. Sure there were varying degrees of deception and fraudulent acts from the part of many select individuals who sinned against Enron and its employees, but these cases would have been minimized or even averted altogether if the important decision making privileges was limited to a select few, or if the future-altering decision making capability is disseminated largely among a huge group of people that can provide a check and balance system for Enron. Roberts (2004) explained that ‘ if it is possible for others to make the decisions for a unit, then new options arise to design the decision-making process as well as the incentive schemes to get better performance on both dimensions. For example, the design might specify that a decision about a project arising in one unit that affects another would be implemented if and only if both units agree to it,† (Roberts, 2004, p.151). Enron is an energy trading firm which was performing well in the early part of its existence. By the s tart of the 21st century, the problems that the bosses were trying to hide from the public and from the employees started to stank. Soon, events unfolded like dominoes falling one after the other as a consequence of information spilling out into the public’s attention. Before 2004, the public already had a clear idea about how Enron bosses were supposedly the one responsible for the defrauding of the employees and their company shares and other benefits, as well as the one responsible for the bankruptcy of Enron. One by one, key company officials stepped out of the light and implicated a new name, which will in turn implicate a much bigger name, until the dragnet sent out to see who was accountable for the fraudulent acts in Enron caught its top bosses, including Lay, Skilling and Fastow. Many individuals faced criminal charges, and many more simply went home not just jobless but are robbed of lifetime investments which Enron bosses manipulated and soon lost because of the wrong decisions they made on how to run the company and make it prosper and grow. Examples of how Enron management made wrong decisions during decision making moments abound in the history of the company. Take for example what happened in 1987 – instead of declaring the $190 million loss the company experienced, they concealed it instead, leading to criminal charges. This habit of Enron for opting to conceal losses instead of declaring it became a dangerous vice; when Fastow was aboard Enron, the same outlook affected the decision making of Enron, leading to increase in pile of cases wherein Enron through its top management consciously made actions that defraud the employees and the public. There was also the case of poor public relations by Enron which fanned the flames of panic that removed any possible opportunity for Enron to remedy the financial situation without creating hysteria that saw many stockholders selling their stocks due to the continued falling of the stock value of Enron. Statement of Problem – The most important decision that Enron’s executives faced was not the decision on whether or not to publicly announce about the bankruptcy; in fact, there was no decision making factor during that instance since the predicament of the company has already been decided regardless of what the top executives might have opted for: they were flat out broke and the public needs to know about this, that was the situation. The true decision making moment for Enron’s bosses was the time when they were deciding what the best option to take is with regards to the financial aspect of the company, including taxes, earnings and financial loses. It was a matter of facing a decision making task that provided the Enron bosses with two options – to do the right thing, or to opt for something that is morally and ethically inappropriate. The decision reached in this particular decision making instance was laced with the hope that the option they took would be free from serious repercussions and give them enough time to fix it all up again. Unfortunately for Enron, things did not work out as planned, and the criminal liability of the Enron bosses stemmed from the fact that they decided to do something which they consciously knew was detrimental to the welfare of the Enron company and its employees. During that particular instance, Lay could have opted to do the right thing and faced the consequences – by coming clean, he may have a more sympathetic public to support him in whatever efforts he may wish to undertake to revive Enron, and not be faced with the collapsing stock value since those who can sell theirs sell it in a frantic phase to rid themselves of the stock of the company which is nearing imminent bankruptcy. This showed how the people do not give second chances to those who squander their decision making privileges by making decisions bereft of the consideration of the good of the greater many. Decision making – John Hintze (2006), in his discussion about making smart decisions during decision making, used the case of the Enron collapse to open his discussion and establish the fact that problems are something that is foreseen, something that happened nonetheless owing to bad decision making. Hintze wrote, ‘should we have seen 9/11 coming? What about the Enron collapse? The Signs were there; people pointed them out, but the appropriate steps were not taken by those in a position to do something. Why is this? Politics? Greed? Those certainly contributed, but there was something else at work here, too: A failure of common sense in decision making’ (Hintze, 2006, p. 123). Enron: Bad decision making – Nothing can prove more about how bad the decision making went inside Enron camp more convincingly than the fact the company transformed from prosperous to poor overnight. This was the general characteristic of Enron through the traits shown by its leaders that reflect the Enron personality. There were earlier discussions in the paper about snippets on instances pointing to Enron’s penchant for making bad decision or for going to the resolving of a problem utilizing an option that is more questionable. Fox (2004) explained that ‘Enron believed that its expansion into international projects were positive initiatives simply because they put the company in more potential markets. In truth, Enron made bad business decisions that weren’t supported by the deal’s economics. The bad business decisions piled up, stretching from India to Brazil, pressuring the company to do something about its finances’ (Fox, 2004,p. 307). At least at this point, Fox is not pointing at the unethical aspect of the Enron decision making machinery, just the fact that they made decisions that were bad for the future of the company, but not to the extent of deliberately sabotaging the company or putting the company in danger with all known risk for personal gain. For Fox, it was a bad call plain and simple. But the matter of the fact is that not everyone sees it the way Fox does, and there are those who believe that there were ethical breaches in the decision making in Enron among its top bosses. The (absence of) Leaders in decision-making – Decision making in retrospective is one of the common line of thinking used when investigating events that led to growth or debacle. It is because decision making played an important part in shaping the future of the company; it is here where the foundation, or lack of it, was created via the decisions the bosses made or failed to make. To trace the problems or mark significant actions resulting from decision making which eventually resulted to either the success or failure of the company, it is not only the decision making events that are looked back to; the persons that made them were also put under the microscope, and among the qualities scrutinized is their decision making ability and their other characteristics that affect their decision making attitude and behavior. Professionals debate about the idea of a good decision, a bad decision, good intentions and bad intentions and how the good and bad effect that comes into play afterwards account for the overall accountability of a person wielding the power to make decisions that will have a tremendous impact on the future of the company, something which happened in Enron via Lay, Skilling, Fastow and the rest of the top figures of the company. Acuff (2004) explains that ‘if they make a decision that might not have been the decision I would have made, and the y come and talk to me about it, we look at it and discuss it. There are a lot of different ways to skin the horse. I don’t go saying my idea is the only one that will get you where you want to go. I hold people accountable for good decision-making. If a bad outcome results from a bad decision – that’s a problem. But if a bad outcome results from a reasonable decision, then that’s business, and it could happen to anyone† (Acuff, 2004, p. 187). This was the predicament of those who are trying to evaluate the decision making actions of Enron top executives – did they make decisions, even bad decisions – with the sake of the company in mind, and gambled with their careers because they know that if their plans and actions go well, it is extremely beneficial for the company, in a very Machiavellian approach towards getting things done regardless of the means by which they did it, or were they just plain guilty of fraudulent actions? People who are burdened by the decision that impacts a lot of people is not always amenable to taking the high and moral grounds, that is why the adage about the end justifying the means, about getting things done at what ever cost, about delivering against the odds became popular because of people like the Enron bosses who (probably) acted upon their decision making duties by risking what can be a popularly bad decision. Indeed, it may be easy or even convenient for most people adversely affected by the Enron collapse to attribute the colossal corporate debacle to the top management figures of the company by criticizing their decisions as well as their faculty for sound decision making. While it is true that Enron’s top executives are responsible for the collapse of the company, it is not that easy to measure the level of ethical decision making attributes of Enron’s top brass. Goethals et al (2004) pointed out that â€Å"the complexity associated with ethical decision making and behavior, especially as it applies to leadership and the workplace, makes the construct extremely difficult to research†, adding that â€Å"Measuring an individual’s level of ethical decision making is challenging, particularly because the measurement instruments that are available have problems with priming and social-desirability effects; that is, questionnaires or other similar modes of data collection cue respondents to give answers that they believe are socially acceptable rather than answers that truly reflect their own actions or opinions (Goethals et. al., 2004, p. 461).† Proof of which is the fact that all of these executives in question are career corporate leaders even before they joined Enron; their credentials played an important role regarding their selection for a corporate position as high as theirs. Because of this, as well as the factors that affect the credibility of the ability for identification of the real public pulse regarding the persons involved in the issue, ethical decision making levels of the persons involved is hard to ascertain, making claims for questionable ethical decision making consideration of the people lose important ground and stand on insufficient set of stable legs for proof and justification. Still, there are those who believe that the level of ethics that influences the decision making capabilities of the Enron bosses are without a doubt questionable, and this includes Mimi Swartz and Sherron Watkins who was quoted in the book edited by Kathy Fitzpatrick and Carolyn B. Bronstein. In the article, it mentions about how Swartz and Watkins â€Å"blame Ken Lay, former CEO of Enron, and other company executives for privileging greed and arrogance over ethical business decisions† (Fitzpatrick and Bronstein, 2006, p. 179), the gist of the published work co-authored by the two individuals. Nalebuff and Ayres (2006) wrote that ‘the problem often arises because people ignore the costs and benefits that their decisions have on other people. We call this approach â€Å"Why don’t you feel my pain?† The more technical term for these effects is externalities. Decision makers who ignore externalities are bound to make bad decisions† (Nalebuff and Ayres, 2006, p. 67). This explanation greatly tarnishes the ethical value of the decision making ethics of Enron bosses because it shows that they are prone or inclined to make decisions even if the result of such decisions lead to negative effects that other people will experience. Niskanen (2005) believes that Lay, one of the top bosses of Enron, â€Å"should be judged on the basis of his personal actions, directions to subordinates, or the actions of subordinates that he implicitly condoned by knowing about it without attempting to correct – not on the basis of what he should have known† (Niskanen, 2005, p. 6). Lay’s condoning of actions is a result of a personal and professional decision that he made – or failed to make – and because of that, Niskanen believes that Lay is answerable for any criminal charges that would result from that particular action (or inaction). Watkins was thinking of the company and its employees and their future and hers as well, when she made the decision to let her superiors, particularly Lay, know about the possible accounting problems and the making public of the current and real financial and trade status of the company. This clearly illustrates the difference in ethics when it comes to decisio n making. Decision making, ethics and public perception – Decision making in business is not merely a power or a privilege that one can use at will without thinking of the consequences that might happen should the decision resulted into something that is considered as adversely negative and detrimental to the welfare of the employees, their jobs and the company they work for. Those who are provided with such amenity to go along with their job description should consider that it is also their responsibility to make sure that their employees and subordinates do not think that they are squandering away their decision making privilege and everything that goes along with it. This was the prevailing attitude or outlook of the Enron employees especially nearing the imminent collapse of the company. The absence of ethical consideration resulted to the losing of the credibility of the bosses of Enron because they were not careful with how they undertake their decision making tasks. While bankruptcy is something that is very difficult to accept and impacts greatly in the lives of the employees especially the rank and file blue collar workers, there is a sense of adding insult to injury during occasions wherein the employees are starting to realize that all of the unfortunate things that happen in the company and in their careers are all a result of the faulty, incompetent and unethical decision making of the top management echelon and not because the company was helpless in the onslaught of a devastating economic problem, like how companies closed down during the Great Depression despite the efforts of American businessmen to keep the different industries alive and breathing. During the collapse of Enron, the US is experiencing a very stable economy far from that which characterized US economy during the Great Depression, and is shielded securely from the impact of whatever it was that was happening in the global economic and business landscape, and so during the Enron collapse, the collective finger was pointing an accusing index digit to Enron bosses and majority of the cause of their indignation originates from the sloppy decision making capabilities of Enron bosses who lost their credibility the moment they lost Enron. Brazelton and Ammons (2002) wrote in the book they co-wrote: â€Å"The Ethics Resource Center conducted a survey in 2000 in which it learned that 43 percent of respondents believed that their supervisors are generally poor examples of honest managers, and the same number were pressured to compromise their own integrity or that of their organization during decision making. The survey also identified a strong connection between employees’ perceptions of their supervisors and their own ethical behavior (Brazelton and Ammons, 2002, p. 388).† Enron decision making: the two-pronged factors – It can be pointed out that one of the problems that happened to Enron is the ineffective of decision making among top executives – first, their top executives failed to make correct decisions when they are required to do so, and second, Enron was not fully complimented with a set of professionals which could have contributed to the decision making process, and in the process provided the possibility of infusing new or different ideas that could have altered the outcome of the decision making process. Fitzpatrick and Bronstein (2006) did not look exclusively on Enron’s bosses and the decisions they made in the management of Enron and the company’s money and asset, rather, the two editors focused on the absence of a key top managem ent personnel and took the presence of such a void as a sign that Enron is not even prioritizing the welfare of the company and its employees. The book Ethics in Public Relations: Responsible Advocacy, which includes the Enron case as one of the important case studies to point out the importance of the role of public relations, explains that â€Å"perhaps the governance of these companies was such that they did not care about their publics, and did not want the advice of senior-level public relations officer playing an active or dominant role in organizational decision making† (Fitzpatrick and Bronstein, 2006, pg 179). Conclusion – Niskanen (2005) summed up the Enron case on its characteristic of thriving in bad decisions made by its corporate leaders by saying in the book that ‘the most important lesson from the Enron collapse, however, is that Enron failed because of a combination of bad business decisions, not because its accounts were misleading’ adding that ‘the major business decisions that most contributed to its collapse were a series of bad investments, most of which were in the tra ditional asset-rich industries; the failure to reconcile two quite different business models; and the decision to focus management objectives on reported revenues and earning rather than on the present value of future cash flows’ (Niskanen, 2005, p. 6). Are they poor in decision making, or was the decision making adversely affected by other concerns and priorities outside of Enron that the results of the decision made for Enron looks like those who made the call did not even think about how this course of action will affect Enron? There are no sufficient proofs to point that the case was the latter; for a company that became seventh all in all in the Fortune 500 at least once, it is unthinkable how there will be conscious efforts to sink the company by making wrong decisions, deliberately or not. The point of the paper is not the assertion of the guild of Skilling, Lay or even Fastow, it’s the establishing of the point that decision making, when not handled properly, can turn even the most profitable company into a nose-diving wreck in a short period of time, that decision making plays an important role in how a person defines his or her life and how he or she leads a company and that because of these factors, no one should have an excuse why decision making was taken lightly and without much thought or care. All the people can see is a group of people who made wrong decisions several times, the resulting web and how they got trapped in that web, that is assuming that there was no malice or hidden agenda that the bosses perpetrated in lieu of Enron’s collapse. In the end, only Lay (now deceased) and the elite circle of the Enron executive clique will be the ones who would really know about the truth regarding ethics and the decision making in Enron leading to th e collapse of the company. Many would ask, and some would presume, the reasons as well as the level of guilt of these leaders when it comes to breaching the ethical requirements needed when undertaking decision making for a company. Regardless, the decisions they made created far reaching ripples and altered the lives of many individuals who invested not just their time, strength and life’s savings into the company but as well as their but as well as their faith and trust, which are not in shattered pieces because of the bad decisions that Enron executives made. Crawford (2006) further elaborated on the pointed by explaining that ‘bad decisions by a major company, however, cause major disruptions for all of the company’s stakeholders’. He pointed at the case of Enron as one of his examples, saying that ‘the Enron disaster, as one example, certainly had devastating impacts on the lives of most of Enron employees (including the middle managers and professionals who invested in the company-sponsored Enron 401[K] plans) and also caused suffering for many individual investors who purchased Enron stock on the open market. Thousands of other Enron stakeholders, including Enron’s suppliers and customers, also suffered,’ (Crawford, 2006, p. 26). Indeed, Enron’s decision making had a hand in how the company turned out to be. References: Acuff, Jerry and Wood, Wally (March 2004). Relationship Edge in Business: Connecting with Customers and Colleagues when It Counts. Wiley, John & Sons, Incorporated. Brazelton, Julia K. and Ammons, Janice L. (September 2002). Enron and beyond: Technical Analysis of Accounting, Corporate Governance and Securities Issues. CCH, Incorporated. Crawford, Curtis J. J. (November 2006). Compliance and Conviction: The Evolution of Enlightened Corporate Governance. XCEO, Incorporated. Ehringer, Ann G. (June 1995). Make up Your Mind: Entrepreneurs Talk about Decision Making by Ann G. Graham. Silver Lake Publishing. Fitzpatrick, Kathy, Bronstein, Carolyn B. (May 2006). Ethics in Public Relations: Responsible Advocacy. SAGE Publications. Fox, Loren. (2004). Enron: The Rise and Fall. Retrieved May 12, 2008, from http://www.wiley.com. Fusaro, Peter C., Miller, Ross M. and James, Tom (2002). What Went Wrong at Enron: Everyone’s Guide to the Largest Bankruptcy in U.S History. John Wiley and Sons. Goethals, George R., Burns, James MacGregor and Sorenson, Georgia (March 2004). Encyclopedia of Leadership. SAGE Publications. Hintze, John. (May 2006). Making Smart Decisions. Harvard Business School Press. Nalebuff, Ian Ayres (November 2006). Why Not?: How to Use Everyday Ingenuity to Solve Problems Big and Small. Harvard Business School Press. Niskanen, William A. (June 2005). After Enron: Lessons for Public Policy. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Roberts, John. (May 2004). The Modern Firm: Organizational Design for Performance and Growth. Oxford University Press, USA.