Punctuality Speech Essay

Before I give out my speech, I want to ask all of you a question. How many of you have never been late? Odds are none of you! This is because in our nature we see punctuality as flexible. In my speech I’m going to talk about whether punctuality is an important matter in our daily lives or not. Firstly, what is punctuality? Well†¦ punctuality is the act of being on time and being able to do a task in the required time. Picture the situation: imagine yourself sitting in a court waiting for your lawyer to arrive. He arrives late and due to their lack of punctuality you are left without a lawyer. The court session begins and you are being grilled by the opposing attorney and in the end you lose the case and the judge gives you a harsh sentence. And to think, all of this is because of your lawyer’s lack of punctuality. A punctual person is appreciated because he is aware that time is precious. â€Å"Time and tide wait for no man†, how true is it!? If a person is unpunctual, it shows that either the person is unprofessional or that he has no value for the other person’s time. This spreads to his reputation also. A punctual person is valued and respected. Remember, it is the difference of only a few seconds in catching a train or missing it! Therefore to catch the train of life always be on time. Punctuality is not strictly a matter of one’s busyness; the busiest people are often the most punctual, while those with the least to do sometimes struggle the most with being on time. For instance, when you are set to go to a meeting and you know that you have quite some time ahead of you before the meeting, you end up taking more time to get ready and inadvertently end up arriving late. Being punctual strengthens and reveals your integrity. If you tell someone that you will meet them at a certain time, you have essentially made them a promise. And if you say you’ll be there at 8:00, and yet arrive at 8:15, you have essentially broken that promise. Being on time shows others that you are a man of your word. Being punctual shows you are dependable. If a man is punctual know they can rely on such a man – if he says he will be there, he’ll be there. But if a man is not punctual, others cannot depend on him- they don’t know where he will be when they need him.  His associates will begin to feel he cannot organize his own time and will raise the question â€Å"if he is careless about time, what else is he careless about?† Being late is a form of steeling. That’s a tough truth, but it’s a truth nonetheless. When you make others wait for you, you rob minutes from them that they’ll never get back. Time they could’ve turned into money, or simply used for something else. In coming to meet you at the agreed time, they may have made sacrifices- woken up early, cut short their workout – and your lateness negates those sacrifices. If you wouldn’t think of taking ten dollars from another man’s wallet, you shouldn’t think of stealing ten minutes from him either. Last but not least, being punctual builds your self-confidence. Showing up on time not only tell other people you are dependable, it teaches you that you can depend on yourself. In my opinion, Punctuality should be a priority and should not be lessened. When you are always on time, you keep the promises you make and in this way the more your self-confidence will grow, and the more in control of your life you will be.

Employee Empowerment and Motivation Essay

Employee empowerment is â€Å"the process of enabling or authorizing an individual to think, behave, take action, and control work and decision making in autonomous ways. It is the state of feeling self-empowered to take control of one’s own destiny† (Heathfield, n.d., 1). In other words, giving the employees the power and ability to make decisions that affect not only their department but the company as a whole as well. Empowerment has become an increasingly used human resources (HR) catchphrase when analyzing the corporate world of today. Empowerment of the employees can increase employee morale, improve company performance, and improve employee relations, however is not an overnight process. All levels of employees, supervisors, and executive management have to work together and be properly prepared in order to make an empowerment program successful. Improving Employee Morale In many corporate organizations, the lower level employees often feel unappreciated and underutilized. Often, employees can feel like just another number, destined to do the same thing day after day with all decisions being made by upper management. When companies adopt an employee empowerment approach, these feelings can be reduced or even eliminated. Allowing, and even mandating employees to have a say in company decisions makes them feel important to the success of the company. Employees want to be heard and they want their opinions to matter. The most effective morale booster is for an employee to see his or her idea become a company policy. When this happens, the employee feels more valued and being recognized as an important contributing part to the company. Improving Company Performance Another benefit of employee empowerment programs is usually a noticeable improvement in company performance. The simple explanation for this fact is that employees who are most familiar with the day-to-day processes have the best hands on knowledge to be able to implement educated changes and improvements to those processes. Often, many members of management and the corporate officers are hired into their jobs based on education and experience with other companies; they often never worked their way up within the current company and have therefore, never experienced the day-to-day processes. Therefore, decisions made by those officers are often solely based on hypothetical situations and projected  profits; they are often so focused on the bigger picture that they overlook the details. However, when the employees performing the job are asked to make decisions, they look at from the bottom and up and take those forgotten details into consideration. Improving Employee Relations When employees are not involved in company decisions, often they operate within their own confined department. Often, the employees take actions without thinking about the repercussions of their actions to other departments; this is done mostly out of lack of communication of what those repercussions might be and not understanding how each process inter-relates. When employees are given the empowerment to make company decisions, it encourages open communication. Once employees know that they are going to be held responsible for their decisions and that those decisions will impact the whole company, they will take the time to work with other departments to investigate how things affect the company as a whole. This serves to not only achieve better decision making but also opens lines of communication and strengthens the company feeling of being more of a family unit. Making Preparations For Employee Empowerment Although employee empowerment seems like a simple concept, it cannot be implemented without preparation. All levels of employees within the company must be prepared and in agreement with the idea in order to make it work. Expectations must be communicated from the top most levels of management down to the base employees and vice versa in order for empowerment to work. Flat OrganizationOne of the first steps in successful employee empowerment programs is the flattening of the organization structure and its organizational chart. When the organization has too many decision makers and not enough line employees, conflict is inevitable and empowerment will not be successful. This change in organization may include the restructure of elimination of jobs to eliminate the dictatorial chain of command and bring all employees closer to the result. This transference of responsibility to the employees allows management to focus on other things such as researching new ideas and processes that are presented by the employees. Employee and Management ResistanceWhenever a company adopts an employee empowerment program, resistance from all levels is expected. Supervisor and Management level employees will often resist empowerment programs because they feel are giving up control that they worked hard to achieve. The human nature to enjoy a feeling of control and empowerment threatens that control. Supervisors and managers must be counseled in advance to make sure that they understand that their input is still crucial and important and that empowerment of their employees will be for the betterment of all parts of the company. One would think that employees would jump at the chance to participate in employee empowerment programs. However, many employees often balk at the opportunity. They often lack the self-confidence to make decisions they know will affect the whole company. Others believe that empowerment is just another word to justify piling more responsibility on the employees. According to Abrahamson (2004) in which he discussed how organizations can go through change overload and how employees can experience change fatigue and burnout. To prevent this, employees must be convinced of the positive effects of employee empowerment. The company must strive to make the employees understand that the program is being implemented because the company values their experience and opinions and truly values their input. EducationOften, both management and employee resistance is caused by the feeling the employees do not have the knowledge needed to make the proper decisions for the company. Education is the key answer to this fear. By educating the employees about the company as a whole and the operations of those outside of their own department, confidence in the employees’ decisions is heightened. Education about the empowerment process in general will also help to quell fears by clearly defining everyone’s role within the company following the changes so that everyone knows what is expected of them and is confident with their future within the company. Conclusion Employee empowerment is an important part of the successful operation of today’s organizations. By allowing the employees to have in an  input in company decisions not only lifts their morale, but more use of their experience and knowledge with day-to-day operations to make better decisions. This allows the company to service their clients better and ensure the continued success of the company within their market. Companies looking to start empowerment programs should take the time to educate employees completely and discuss the program benefits with all employees at all levels. This will help ensure that all employees are committed to the program and to ensure its success. â€Æ'References Abrahamson, E. (2004), Change Without Pain. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, Retrieved April 4, 2009 from http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Tr-Z/Trends-in-Organizational-Change.html. Heathfield, S.M. (n.d.). Human resources: Employee empowerment. Retrieved April 4, 2009 from http://humanresources.about.com/od/glossarye/a/empowerment_def.htm.

Causes of over Eating

The doctor told her that she was eating too much junk food and not enough health foods. The food she was eating wasn’t giving her enough energy. This is just to show how over eating unhealthy foods can affect you over all health. Over eating unhealthy foods cause serious health problems such as, heart problems, diabetes, and high blood pleasure. First, over eating can be so dangerous towards a person’s health. Heart problems are the worst sickness a person can have; in fact it’s one of the leading causes of death due to unhealthy eating. Whereas to avoid having heart problems by eating health and exercising. Greasy food causes fluid to crowd around the heart other body organs. It’s important to take care of the body so that there wouldn’t be health problems like this. Because who wants to have heart problems they get old in age no one does. Heart conditions are major issues. Second, diabetes comes from eating a lot of sugar, not burning calories, and fried foods. People with diabetes have to watch what they eat at all times. A person might look health on the outside but is unhealthy on the inside. Diabetes is a huge responsibility to withhold. A person with diabetes have to give there self a shot at least twice a day in the stomach, that’s very painful to go through. It’s obvious that people who find out that they have diabetes can’t leave a normal life anymore. Third, high blood pressure is one of the major causes of over eating. People seem to eat their pain away and its causes them to have all kinds of health problems. Dealing with high blood pressure and eating unhealthy food can really make a person have a nervous breakdown. In addition, high blood pressure it causes stress makes a person want to just eat more and more. The stress of this over eating make a person blood pressure goes up so high that it causes them to be hospitalized. Over eating isn’t good for a person with high blood pressure. Most seem to beat themselves down or just eat their hearts out because of their health problems. When people over eat the foods that they know is bad for them, in contrast its makes them have health issues. Heart problem are no good for those who have over eating addictions. Diabetes can get worse if a person continue to over eat unhealthy food. High blood pressure is very hard to deal with knowing that self is the cause of this bad health condition. Overall the cause of over eating has its down falls on a person’s way of living there life on a day to day bases. Causes of over Eating The doctor told her that she was eating too much junk food and not enough health foods. The food she was eating wasn’t giving her enough energy. This is just to show how over eating unhealthy foods can affect you over all health. Over eating unhealthy foods cause serious health problems such as, heart problems, diabetes, and high blood pleasure. First, over eating can be so dangerous towards a person’s health. Heart problems are the worst sickness a person can have; in fact it’s one of the leading causes of death due to unhealthy eating. Whereas to avoid having heart problems by eating health and exercising. Greasy food causes fluid to crowd around the heart other body organs. It’s important to take care of the body so that there wouldn’t be health problems like this. Because who wants to have heart problems they get old in age no one does. Heart conditions are major issues. Second, diabetes comes from eating a lot of sugar, not burning calories, and fried foods. People with diabetes have to watch what they eat at all times. A person might look health on the outside but is unhealthy on the inside. Diabetes is a huge responsibility to withhold. A person with diabetes have to give there self a shot at least twice a day in the stomach, that’s very painful to go through. It’s obvious that people who find out that they have diabetes can’t leave a normal life anymore. Third, high blood pressure is one of the major causes of over eating. People seem to eat their pain away and its causes them to have all kinds of health problems. Dealing with high blood pressure and eating unhealthy food can really make a person have a nervous breakdown. In addition, high blood pressure it causes stress makes a person want to just eat more and more. The stress of this over eating make a person blood pressure goes up so high that it causes them to be hospitalized. Over eating isn’t good for a person with high blood pressure. Most seem to beat themselves down or just eat their hearts out because of their health problems. When people over eat the foods that they know is bad for them, in contrast its makes them have health issues. Heart problem are no good for those who have over eating addictions. Diabetes can get worse if a person continue to over eat unhealthy food. High blood pressure is very hard to deal with knowing that self is the cause of this bad health condition. Overall the cause of over eating has its down falls on a person’s way of living there life on a day to day bases.

American History reconstruction Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

American History reconstruction - Essay Example The next mentionable event in the Reconstruction era was the Wade-Davis Bill in 1864. Republican dominated Congress passed it declaring that Southern States should be run by military governors and Secession and Slavery would be outlawed with the consent of the fifty percent of a state’s voters. Congress passed the 13th Amendment and established the Freedmen’s Bureau in order to provide the formers slaves and black communities with the opportunities of education, employment, medical service, and economic facilities. Indeed the Republican dominated Congress’s attempts complementary ones to a great extent, though they were more stringent and punitive than Lincoln. Reconstruction under Johnson’s Presidency took the same course that Lincoln started. But President Johnson’s lack of foresight made Reconstruction less effective. Consequently the Congress passed the 14th Amendment in order to protect Black people’s civil right and full citizenship in 1866 and the 15th Amendment in order to give constitutional protection to black suffrage in 1870. But along the passage of time, the reconstruction zeal began to wane.

Human health Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Human health - Essay Example The development of stress related heat diseases will continue until they become epidemic if adaptation and remedies to the problem are not put into place. As a result of increases in overall temperatures on the surface of the Earth and increase radiant effects from the sun, the increases in non-communicable disease caused by global temperature elevation will continue to increase as human life begins to change in relationship to the effect. Climate change is about the sun. The way in which the radiation of the sun is distributed by the complex systems that prevent the Earth from scorching or freezing from the balance between radiation and the gasses that radiate into the system is essential to understand in order to understand how temperature affects the human body. It is also essential to understand how the sun’s rays affect the overall nature of human health both through giving vitamins, but also in creating damage to the skin, which is the body’s way of regulating tem perature. ... biodiversity loss, changing timing of growing seasons, coastal erosion and aquifer salinisation, permafrost thaw, ocean acidification, and shifting ranges for pests and diseases†. In other words, the entire natural world is at risk for changes that can be detrimental to existing ecological balance and will result in a shift in the way in which disease and pestilence is spread. The UK government is in a constant effort to pass and implement Bills that will require the reduction of greenhouse emissions because of the importance of this problem (Great Britain 2007). The greenhouse effect is defined by the way in which thermal radiation is absorbed by gases in the atmosphere and then re-radiated into a variety of directions. Some of it is radiated towards the Earth. This re-radiation is being increased by the accumulation of gasses in the atmosphere which in turn is increasing the temperature of the Earth’s surface. The natural greenhouse gasses help the Earth to make human life possible by creating the optimum temperature at which life can thrive. Human activities are now putting that balance in jeopardy as deforestation and burning fossil fuels are putting the effect out of balance (Porteous 2008, p. 314). Human activity has created an anthropogenic influence on the ozone layer which impacts the greenhouse gasses and radiation of the sun since the 1950s, but the debate about its existence still rages on (Muller 2010, p. 12). 2.1 Affects of Climate Change The surface effects will be drought, the inability to grow grains, about 25% of the worlds species will be at risk for extinction, and communities will suffer from heat stress that will result in a number of different manifestations (World Bank 2011, p. 78). Industry capacities will change, meaning that work may

How has Iranian Cinema Destabilised the Political Structure Dissertation

How has Iranian Cinema Destabilised the Political Structure - Dissertation Example From the research it is clear that Iranian cinema has survived complicated transformation and oppressive restrictions that corresponds with the tumultuous socio-political experiences of the country itself. Emerging from one restrictive regime and entering yet another era of restriction, Iranian cinema has suffered through various degrees of oppression ranging from rejection by Islamic clerics on the grounds that Iranian films are instruments of Western corruption to simple rejection on the grounds that Iranian films do not portray Iran in an idealistic light. At the same time, Iranian cinema has also been utilized by Islamic clerics and regime leaders as a propaganda tool to influence popular thought and behavior. Despite the socio-political challenges, Iranian cinema has gained a reputation characterising it as among the world’s â€Å"most innovative national cinemas†. The success of Iranian cinema is largely attributed to its advanced artistry and its socio-political narratives. Contemporary and more especially, post-revolutionary film-making in Iran presents a mirror image of daily life and social and political issues in Iran. Thus the new Iranian Cinema has been described as capturing and sharing an â€Å"open image† of Iranian society and politics. Thus it has been argued that contemporary Iranian cinema has essentially humanized the people of Iran for both national and international audiences. ... nema 31 The Green Movement 42 Arab Spring 45 Bibliography 48 Filmography 50 Introduction Iranian cinema has survived complicated transformation and oppressive restrictions that corresponds with the tumultuous socio-political experiences of the country itself. Emerging from one restrictive regime and entering yet another era of restriction, Iranian cinema has suffered through various degrees of oppression ranging from rejection by Islamic clerics on the grounds that Iranian films are instruments of Western corruption to simple rejection on the grounds that Iranian films do not portray Iran in an idealistic light. At the same time, Iranian cinema has also been utilized by Islamic clerics and regime leaders as a propaganda tool to influence popular thought and behaviour (Gregory, 2008). Despite the socio-political challenges, Iranian cinema has gained a reputation characterising it as among the world’s â€Å"most innovative national cinemas† (Blankson & Murphy, 2007, p. 14 4). The success of Iranian cinema is largely attributed to its advanced artistry and its socio-political narratives (Ridgeon, 2000, p. 3). Contemporary and more especially, post-revolutionary film-making in Iran presents a mirror image of daily life and social and political issues in Iran. Thus the new Iranian Cinema has been described as capturing and sharing an â€Å"open image† of Iranian society and politics (Chaudhuri & Finn, 2003, p. 38). Thus it has been argued that contemporary Iranian cinema has essentially humanized the people of Iran for both national and international audiences (Zeydabadi-Nejad, 2010, p. 1). It can therefore be argued that the humanized image of the people of Iran by the aesthetic and realistic representations of social and political issues have worked together to destabilise

Technology and HRM Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Technology and HRM - Research Paper Example Completion of this paper is made successful due to immense contribution made by Mr. Smith Zaid who is the HR manager at SEHA. SEHA Hospital is located in Abu Dhabi. Never before in SEHA hospital’s history has any manager or leader tried to implement the tool of HIT to improve the performance of HRM like Mr. Zaid has. It was the interview conducted with Mr. Zaid which helped to clarify how HIT can be used to solve many challenges encountered by HRM department in the healthcare facilities. He first mentioned several issues which were plaguing the reputation of his organization in the past. Then, he went on to explain how he used innovation technology-based solutions to address each of those issues. Following discussion aims to establish how technology and HRM are inextricably linked to each other in the light of knowledge shared by Mr. Zaid, the HR manager at SEHA hospital. Patient care delivery operations form an important part of those services in the healthcare field. Mr. Smith was having a lot of trouble in this particular area prior to depending on technology. As he became interested in new horizons introduced by technology, he came across the idea of HIT. He thought that it would be best to use technology to answer the puzzling questions and improve the quality of patient care delivery operations. Another problem encountered by SEHA was that medical information which used to be delivered to patients often lacked propriety and credibility. The patient records held by HRM often used to be breached which generated the problem of patient trust and privacy. HIT helps to ensure that all medical information is absolutely trustworthy and clear. This requires many imaginative innovations in information-sharing technology, but it also ensures security to patients and takes care of their concerns in an optimally effective manner. Securing patients’ records is a

Strategies for Building Effective Relationships Assignment

Strategies for Building Effective Relationships - Assignment Example Therefore, in order to have a rebranding strategy and to see it succeed, the company needs an internal reboot, rather than just a mere brand make-over. My endeavor shall be to ensure that past records of rough behavior or disagreements are erased from the working memory of peer managers and subordinates. A new project lead faces the brunt and dissatisfaction of employees left behind by the previous manager and my task would be to ensure that the interpersonal relationships amongst all these sections of the team are established. Here is a step by step process of how we would go about it. Before we begin understanding how to go about rebuilding relationships within this company, it would be more important for us to understand why we need to do so. If the revenues on the already launched products have been going down over the past three years, then even before we plan a new launch, we need a rehash of ethical and management practices to bring back the unity and quality. Once all the employees of the company are on the same page, it becomes easy to plan a new launch and see it succeed, since every employee would collaborate and come up with ideas that the company benefits from. To check and correct product performance, we need to check the quality of products being released in the market, the audience niches targeted, and the market predictions. And to get all these things working, we need a great team. In my new position as a project manager in my uncle’s company, I am looking to follow a three-step approach to reviving the company’s spirits and sales. Firstly, there needs to be a whole lot of interactive exercises which cross out behavioral differences and make the team players more transparent to the existing problems or notches in the working of the different sections of the company. Secondly, we need an ultra-dynamic team that recognizes the risks, potentials, and vulnerabilities.

Cause and effect Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

Cause and effect - Essay Example This paper explores the causes and effects of high rate of divorce. The causes of high divorce rate include but are not limited to changed gender roles in marriage and change in laws whereas some of the effects of high divorce rate include distorted family system, single parenthood, and depression. Gender roles in marriage have changed under the influence of media and this has caused an increase in the divorce rate. The soaps, commercials, and movies have inculcated the concept in the minds of the audience that in order to be modern and successful, it is imperative that both members in a couple work. The media has especially placed emphasis on the work of women. More job opportunities have been created for women in order to make it easy for them to find work. As a result, women have started paying more attention toward their careers and professions than their homes. In the past, men worked and assumed the responsibility of earning bread for the family whereas women stayed at home and took care of the children. â€Å"Women feel caught in the middle, burdened by increased demands from both work and family† (Clarke-Stewart and Brentano 34). More and more women are giving up in their struggle to strike a balance between family and work and are eventually heading for divorce . Before 1970, couples needed to justify their attempt to seek divorce by proving at least one of the partners guilty of something or being at fault. Reasons that made divorce seem justified in the eyes of the law included but were not limited to cruelty, abandonment, intoxication, cheating, and adultery. However, some states introduced the option of no-fault divorce in the 1950s. Under the changed law, the need for couples to prove one of the partners being at fault was obviated. Instead, they could simply state that their marriage was not working. Nearly all states had allowed no-fault divorce by 1970. In the past,

Blue Mountain - Kandinsky Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Blue Mountain - Kandinsky - Research Paper Example The paper "Blue Mountain - Kandinsky" discusses the famous painting by the artist Vasilii Kandinskii. As I already mentioned, the city is located in Germany. It the capital city of the famous German Bavaria. Bavaria, in its turn, is famous for its bear and sausages that are served to it. Munich is an old city that combines modern architecture with historic buildings. The entertainment possibilities are great – discos, cinemas, theatres, classical music and opera venues, music clubs, art galleries and, of course, beer halls. The city is not far from the Alps, has two rivers - the Isar and the Wà ¼rm, and enjoys a continental climate somewhat modified due to the city’s closeness to the mountains. â€Å"Blue Mountain† I am interested in is pained by oil. This picture is not too large – 41 3/4 x 38 inches, but contains three horse rides on a background of trees and a blue mountain. Instead of using actual texture Kandinskii uses color to create the impression of the presence of texture. The picture was created in the era of Abstractionism. Romanticism, Impressionism and Expressionism of the 19th century Europe and America contributed to the popularity of Abstractionism. It was also greatly impacted by the mysticism and mystical teachings that became extremely popular at that time in the world and did have some influence on Kandinskii too. That is why Kandinskii, just like many other artists of that time, turns to the religious theme in his works. â€Å"Blue Mountain† pictures some kind of a procession.

Pricing and Costing Methods Essay Example for Free

Pricing and Costing Methods Essay Organizations today more than ever before must ensure that they reduce costs as well, as the time used to avail products and services to the market. Since planning as well as the estimation of costs are critical to businesses it is important that organizations chose the best pricing and costing techniques. (Seonen, 2006). The implication here is that the fundamental goal of any business concern is to minimize its costs of operation while maximizing its returns to the shareholders. In order to achieve this, there is need to put in place the best pricing policies as well as the most appropriate costing techniques. This paper will attempt to examine the various costing as well as pricing methods that are available for use by business organizations. Traditional costs estimation methods like marginal and absorption costing will be looked at. Equally the newer costing method, the activity based costing will be discussed alongside other pricing methods. (Seonen, 2006) Pricing Methods Average cost pricing One example of pricing methods is the average cost pricing. Average cost pricing as a cost method involves the calculation of average costs per unit. To obtain this, the total cost of goods available for sale is divided by the total units available for sale. The weighted average approach is applied to all the closing inventories. (Duffie, 1992) The disadvantage with this method is the fact that it ignores the effects of cost increases as well as decreases. This is usually due to the fact that cost of closing inventory calculated under this category is usually affected the prices paid in the entire year as well as the cost of the opening stock. The method thus ignores more recent costs which are more reliable in income determination and decision making. Pricing methods Cost plus pricing: this is one of the pricing methods where by the price for a given product or service is the sum of the actual cost of the product or service plus a profit margin. This method of pricing is mostly used as an interim contractual measure. (Lintner 1965) The major advantage of this method is that it’s easy to calculate and need little information in computing the project costs and thus mostly used in pricing government contracts. The other hand this method has come under sharp criticism for encouraging wasteful expenditures in government contracts coupled by corruption. The other pricing method is the option pricing method that is commonly used in the motor vehicle industry. (Birge, 1997 ) option pricing method is basically where by an organization prices its products in a way that it provides a base price for its products which in most cases is always low to attract customers who upon visiting the store find other product accessories that can be purchased and added to the product. For example most vehicle manufacturing companies will provide a base price for their cars and use their showrooms to market other product parts like the car music systems, alarms e. t. c. Capital asset pricing model (CAPM) is another pricing approach that can be used in the financial sector, (Lintner 1965, pp. 12-39) it basically based on the investors ability to invest in many other fronts (divest) without additional costs, this approach is advantageous in that any future cash flows can easily be monitored with only knowing the investments correlation with the market, market risk premium as well as the risk free rates. Comparable uncontrolled price method(CUP),this is a method that seeks to establish the ALP, through comparing the controlled and the uncontrolled transaction in relation to the asset or service that has been transferred, (Duffie,1992) this method is mostly used in provision of loan by financial institutions as well by other organizations that sell intangibles. Resale price method, this is a method that seeks to evaluate the process of activities performed or done rather than the eventual output (product) (Lintner,1965,pp. 2-37)its commonly used in instances where the reseller do not add any meaningful value to the finished product and no physical changes are made on the product, the eventual resale price is determined by the resale price of a commodity then subtracting the gross profit margin achieved from the resale as well as all the expenses incurred, before arriving at the resale price of the commodity Bid pricing: This is a method of pricing that is commonly used in the stock exchange markets. it basically involve the respective clients placing bids or prices they would like to purchase the stocks of shares, and with the buyers and the sellers, with the highest bidder purchasing the property, price movements at times in the stock market always leads to the uncertainty in the market prices. (Sharpe,1964,p. 425-442) Target pricing: This is a method of pricing where business organizations price their products differently basing on the different market segments that they target with their products, the products may not necessarily have diverse differences to justify the difference in prices but the underlying idea is to maximize on profit in market segments that can pay higher prices for the product as this helps to cover on the lower segment, where the product may be priced lower. (Dominick,2008,p. ) The basic advantage of this pricing method is that it enables a company to earn higher profits without necessarily increasing production costs since it’s the same product that is sold to different target markets, Target pricing is generally common in the mobile phone industry where the same gadgets with minor modification are actually sold to different target markets at different prices Costing Methods Marginal costing This method also known as the direct coasting method has the main characteristic of charging all the manufacturing or product costs to the product irrespective of whether the costs are variable or fixed. Lucey, 1993) This method is useful in pricing decisions that are short term in nature in determining the least price that can be charged to a product below which losses will occur. The implication here is that marginal or direct costing as a traditional costing method suffers from the major drawback of oversimplification because it tends to employ only the volume of the product. Job costing is the method of costing where the coast of a product or service is determined by allocating costs ton a particular unit, a batch or even to a lot of the product or service. It is more or less the same as batch costing. Precisely, job costing method is applicable where good and services are produced as a result of a series of continuous operations. It is thus considered a product costing technique in which case emphasis is laid on the determination of the cost of a unit product. (Sobngwi, 2007) Absorption costing It has been the practice of many firms to charge manufacturing overheads on the basis of direct costs like direct labour. The technique used tended to differ in terms of details as well as allocation bases. Some systems employ a single base like total direct cost while others use several bases like direct labour and raw materials. Absorption costing as a method of costing allocates all the costs to the objects of the cost. This usually happen based on direct costs or even physical output measures. Marginal cost allocations are important for many managerial decisions like the valuation of stock as well as calculation of profits. (Sobngwi, 2007) The method may however not be very appropriate for product range decisions since the net profit figure from this technique tends to be unsatisfactory base for product range decisions. Allocation of expenses between two departments may be difficult. One department may for example have a fully developed product which could require only a little development resources while the other department could be in need of full development. In such a case dividing the costs will thus be inaccurate. This has the implication that there is uncertainty as to whether dropping one product line would lead to a reduction of the total expenses allocated to that product. (Bjornlund Rossini 2005). Activity Based Costing (ABC) The activity based costing (ABC) was developed as a reaction to the shortcomings of the marginal and absorption costing methods. This method gives a description of the activity in overhead departments which can be recognized by both the departmental managers as well being driven by cost factors. The cost factors are usually the characteristics of the products s well as other cost objects. ABC is usually a two step process. First, the costs of similar activities in various overhead centers are collected. In this case the total direct cost of each department is then charged to each activity based on its use of total capacity as well as the total of all the costs of all activities collected from all the departments in activity cost pools. Seonen, 2006) Second, the cost drives of each cost pool are identified after which cost drivers are quantified and the allocations to product costs derived. (Seonen, 2006) There are usually many varieties of cost drivers to choose from in an attempt to explain the costs of an object. The bottom line however is that they have to be capable of being quantified in terms of both the cost pool as well as the cost objects. Conclusion There is always need for consistency as well as standardization of the methods of financial pricing and costing methods have been recognized. Adam et el,2003) This has led to the innovations of many sets of guidelines for both economic evaluations and costs. In the final analysis therefore, variations in cost methods that are usually used in business organizations have raised many questions resulting into the inability to compare the results of various costing as well as pricing methods. However in order to achieve both the transferability as well be able to generalize results there is need to apply uniform cost pricing and estimation methods in order to minimize any chances of variations.

Learning Organization Essay Example for Free

Learning Organization Essay The evolution of Organizational Learning has started in 1938 when John Dewey, in his book Experience and Education, publicized the concept of experiential learning as an ongoing cycle of activity. But, how did this concept emerge? Or, what does it really mean for the businesses? In order to understand this, we have to analyze the problems and needs. The core idea behind learning organization is that organizations of all kinds will not survive, let alone thrive, if they do not acquire an ability to adapt continuously to an increasingly unpredictable future. Or in other words, in order to survive and succeed for businesses, it is essential to establish or build stronger relationships with customers, where there are rapidly changing, turbulent and/or highly competitive market. Through learning, organizations may be better equipped to meet the challenges caused by continuous environmental turbulence. In addition, where products and processes can rapidly be copied, according to Arie de Geus, head of strategic planning department of Royal/Dutch Shell, the only real source of competitive advantage is to stimulate learning by employees. This may allow these individuals to identify new ways of working more closely with customers, which in turn permits the organization to differentiate itself from competition. However, the style of learning has to reflect the operational needs of the organization. For instance, a manufacturer which has adopted a transactional marketing style would probably choose to operate in a relatively stable market, produce standard components and focus primarily on offering adequate quality goods at a competitive price. In such circumstances, assuming that the organizational systems are based around repetition of routine procedures, the firm would probably be well advised to focus upon creating a single-loop learning environment as the most appropriate way fur sustaining employee development aimed at organizational efficiency. 2 On the other hand, in market situations where firms face periods of significant, discontinuous change and/or there is a desire to differentiate  the firm from competition through the adoption of a relationship marketing style, then possibly an incremental, more adaptive learning style, which is called double-loop learning may be more appropriate, so to involve the exploitation of new knowledge to evolve new practices, perspectives and operational frameworks. Figure 1: Single- vs. double-loop learning. II. DEFINITION OF LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS Keeping in mind what we have so far discussed, now let us check some definitions of the Learning Organizations. Peter M. Senge, who is also named as the father of this concept, describes learning organizations as organizations where people can continuously expand their capacity to create results which they truly desire. In such organizations, new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, and collective aspiration is set free. Individuals learn to learn together. He declares Deep down, we are all learners. It is not only our nature to learn, but we love to learn. Chris Argyris and Donald Schon defined the concept of learning organizations through the help of the definition of organizational learning: where the process of detection and correction of errors rules. 3 Moreover, how de Geus defined learning organizations is very remarkable: Forget your tired old ideas about leadership. The most successful corporation of the 1990s will be something called a learning organization? The ability to learn faster than your competitors, may be the only sustainable competitive advantage. One last definition might be the one of Kim, D., a learning organization is one that consciously manages its learning process through an inquiry-driven orientation among all its members. III. FIVE DISCIPLINES OF SENGE I have already mentioned that Senge was called as the father of the concept of Learning Organizations. When he first published his book The Fifth Discipline: The Art Practice of The Learning Organization in 1990, he caught a significant attention from academics and the business world. Peter M. Senge (1947- ) was named a ? Strategist of the Century by the Journal of Business Strategy, one of 24 men and women who have ? had the greatest impact on the way we conduct business today. Moreover, Senge has founded the Center for Organizational Learning at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1991 while he is also the founding chairperson of the Society for Organizational Learning (SoL) and a senior lecturer at MIT. Being maybe the most important, namely the person having the most influence in Learning Organizations I will study his so called five disciplines in my project. 4 3. 1 PERSONAL MASTERY 3. 1. 1 Introduction to Personal Mastery  Senge says, Organizations learn only through individuals who learn. Individual learning does not guarantee organizational learning. But without it no organizational learning occurs. The people are the main active force in every aspect of the business. Since, people have their own will and mind, and their own way of thinking; it is essential that they be sufficiently motivated to challenge the goals of growth and complexity. In todays practices, the manager should not be willing to dominate controlling, planning and organizing the workers activities. Instead they should be enabling the people in the business have their own enriching lives through establishing and maintaining the conditions needed. One should be living his own life from a creative viewpoint, so as to turn the life into a creative work. Personal Mastery is the phrase Senge and his colleagues use for the discipline of personal growth and learning. People with high levels of personal mastery are continually expanding their ability to create the results in life they truly seek. From their quest for continual learning comes the spirit of the learning organization. 3. 1. 1. 1 Mastery and Proficiency. There are two main underlying movements when personal mastery becomes a discipline, one of which is always continually making clear what is important for oneself, whereas the other movement is to continually learn how to see the current reality more clearly. It is vital to know where you are now in moving toward a desired destination. People with a high level of personal mastery share several basic characteristics, one of which is that they have a special sense of purpose that lies behind their visions and goals. 5 For such a person, a vision is an aspiration rather than simply a good idea. One other characteristic is that they live in a continual learning mode, where they never arrive. They know that personal mastery is not something one possesses, but is a process, a lifelong discipline. Those with a high level of personal mastery are acutely aware of their ignorance, their incompetence; and they know, or better to say truly believe that the journey itself is the reward. 3. 1. 1. 2 Why We Want It We want it because people with high levels of personal mastery are more committed, take more initiative, have a broader and deeper sense of responsibility in their work, and learn faster. Kazou Inamori, founder and chairman emeritus of Kyocera Corporation and president of the Inamori Foundation, who holds a bachelor of sciences in applied chemistry, says that Our employees agreed to live in a community in which they would not exploit each other, but rather help each other so that we may each live our life fully. 3. 1. 1. 3 Resistance One of the issues against the personal mastery is the resistance, which in turn is a valid fear for companies in which the managers couldnt build a shared vision along with shared mental models. It is useless to have personal mastery as solely without other disciplines of the organizational learning. Thats why we always have to keep in mind that personal mastery must go together with a shared vision and the other disciplines. 6 3. 1. 2 The Discipline of Personal Mastery 3. 1. 2. 1 Personal Vision Most adults have goals and objectives, but these are not visions. Thus, we can say that most have little sense of real vision. When asked what they want, many adults will say what they want to get rid of, as if they delineate themselves as given-ups, rather than grown-ups. Senge points that The ability to focus on ultimate intrinsic desires, not only on secondary goals, is a cornerstone of personal mastery. Vision is different from purpose, since purpose is similar to a direction, a general heading, whereas vision is a specific destination, a picture of a desired future. Vision is the image of your desired future. It shouldnt be confused with competition; it shouldnt be isolated from the idea of ones purpose. It is something which has personal aspects along with material aspects, such as where we want to live and how much of savings we want, or issues like health or freedom contribute, relatively. 3. 1. 2. 2 Holding Creative Tension One testimony of Senge says that there is something called the creative tension which is the source of energy derived from the gap between ones vision and where it stands in reality. This gap can push someone forward to get closer to the vision; however it might also discourage some other people, so as to leading to feelings and emotions associated with anxiety. Imagine a rubber band, stretched between your vision and the current reality. When stretched, the rubber band creates tension, representing the tension between vision and current reality. What does tension seek? Resolution or release. There 7 are two possible ways for the tension to resolve itself: pull reality toward the vision or pull the vision toward reality. Which occurs will depend on whether we hold steady to the vision. Figure 3: Creative Tension Negative emotions caused by anxiety of the creative tension, shouldnt be realized as the creative tension itself. What Senge argues, is that after some time what we call emotional tension will arise due to the negative emotions. In such cases, we feel deeply discouraged about a vision that is not happening and tend to lower the vision as an immediate so called remedy. It is clear that escaping emotional tension is easy; but what we really pay against is giving up something what we profoundly want, our vision. In the context of organizations we can say that goals are slowly lowered because of low tolerance for emotional tension. What we have to do is to understand thoroughly what the creative tension is and allow it to operate without lowering our vision; only then the vision becomes an active force in personal mastery. The gap in between should be used to generate energy for change. 8 Mastery of creative tension transforms the way we judge failure. It is simply an opportunity for learning. 3. 1. 2. 3 Structural Conflict: The Power of your Powerlessness A research done by Robert Fritz has shown that practically all of us have a dominant belief that we are not able to fulfill our desires. This in turn, is an obstacle one should get rid off. These beliefs, which are mandatory as a child to survive, were taught us so that we learnt our limitations. Most of us hold one of two contradictory beliefs that intrinsically limit our ability to create what so called we really want. The more common belief is in our powerlessness, namely our inability to bring into being all the things we really care about, whereas the other belief focuses on unworthiness, that we do not deserve to have what we truly desire. Fritz uses a metaphor to describe how contradictory underlying beliefs work as a system, which he calls the structural conflict, the metaphor counter to achieving our goals, through symbolizing the concept by another rubber band example. Figure 4: Effect of structural conflict to the creative tension. Later on, he identifies three generic so called strategies to cope with the forces of structural conflict, each of which has its own limitations. Accordingly, one is letting 9 our vision to erode. This strategy will lead to the sacrifice of what we truly want as discussed earlier. The second strategy is to conflict manipulation which is actually the strategy of people who mostly worry about failure. What they do is to focus on avoiding what they do not want to happen. This strategy makes one to spend his/her life in worry and fear. For those following this strategy, which is also called the negative vision, there is little joy in their life, even when they achieve their goals because this time they immediately tend to begin worrying about losing what they have gained. The last and most favorable strategy is defined as the willpower, where we simply psyche ourselves up to overpower all forms of resistance to achieving our goals. Simply saying, motivating through heightened will. In the next section, we will discuss Senges strategy for dealing with structural conflict: telling the truth. 3. 1. 2. 4 Commitment to the Truth People often want a technique that they can apply to solve the problem of structural conflict. But, in fact, being committed to the truth is far more powerful than any technique. So, what does it actually mean? It means a relentless willingness to root out the ways we limit or deceive ourselves from seeing what is, and to continually challenge our theories of why things are the way they are. The first critical task in dealing with structural conflicts is to recognize them, and the resulting behavior, when they are operating. This helps us to develop so called internal 10  warning signals, such as when we find ourselves blaming something or someone for our problems. What Senge suggests in this context is that we have to work on developing skills to discuss such situations with the people involved without producing defensiveness. We shouldnt always act in a manner where we always think of what others have done in the situation, rather we have to concentrate on what we can do. This in other words, relates to the fact that we have to understand, or better to say, realize the situation, the current reality in which we are, so to use this as a generative force. This has even been concluded in religions like Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Jewish, Buddhism. One example might be the statement of The truth shall set you free. 3. 1. 2. 5 Using the Subconscious One of the most fascinating aspects of people with high levels of personal mastery is their ability to accomplish extraordinarily complex tasks with grace and ease. But, how does this come to happen? It is through the subconscious that all of us deal with complexity. What distinguishes people with high levels of personal mastery is they have developed a higher level of understanding between their normal awareness and their subconscious. Even the daily activities of us like walking, talking, eating or putting on your shoes are enormously complex tasks, for which we have learned the required skills of the tasks, which in turn led that the whole activity gradually shifts from conscious attention to subconscious control. People with high levels of personal mastery focus on the desired result itself, not the process or the means they assume necessary to achieve that result. This allows the person in focusing on the artistry of the result as well. 11 In other words, we can say that we must work at learning how to differentiate what we truly want, from what we think we need to do in order to achieve it. In order to develop a subconscious understanding it is also important to commit to the truth, because when not telling the truth, most people create some level of internal stress. The principle of creative tension recognizes that the subconscious operates most effectively when it is focused clearly on our vision and our current reality. One effective way to focus the subconscious is through imagery and visualization. For instance, world-class swimmers have found that by imagining their hands to be twice their actual size and their feet to be webbed, they actually swim faster. Mental practicing of complex tasks has become a routine psychological training for professional performers from different areas of interest. A strict reliance on only conscious learning could never have achieved this level of artistry, even if there was all the willpower in the world present. Contradictorily, it had to depend on a high level of subconscious understanding. 3. 2 MENTAL MODELS 3. 2. 1 Introduction to Mental Models  Mental models can be described as the views and assumptions we hold in our minds about how things are and how things work. A mental model is like ones way of looking at whats happening in the world. In other words, it determines how we think and act. Mental models depend on the past experiences, and the perception as a result of those experiences, and observations. In the introduction I had introduced the experiential learning, which was the style of learning through past experience and some other elements 12 like concrete experience, observation and reflection, and forming abstract concepts. Accordingly, a child without knowing that it might cut his hand might take a knife in his hand and try to push it in his hand. This in fact, will hurt him a lot. However, grown ups already know how to deal with a knife, so they wont do the same mistake as the child does. All the experiences learnt are added up so to form or build up the mental models. 3. 2. 1. 1 Why the Best Ideas Fail? From the business point of view, one thing which is known by all managers is that many of the best ideas never get put into practice. Even brilliant strategies fail to get translated into action. New insights fail to get put into practice because they conflict with deeply held internal images of how the world works, images that limit us to familiar ways of thinking and acting. That is why the discipline of managing mental models ? surfacing, testing, and improving our internal pictures of how the world works- promises to be a major breakthrough for building learning organizations. Our mental models determine not only how we make sense of the world, but how we take action, namely they shape how we act which puts them into an active sense. But, why are mental models so powerful in affecting what we do? In part, because they affect what we see. As psychologists say, human beings observe selectively. Mental models also exist in the organizations, and also in management. Mental models could cause big losses in the business world as it can also prevent us from seeing the current situation. Loosing Americas car market share to German and Japanese countries was a result of the mental models of the management, where they are prevented to see the situation because of their models in mind, and perceptions. 13 The problems with mental models lie not in whether they are right or wrong-by definition, all models are simplifications. The problems with mental models arise when the models are tacit-when they exist below the level of awareness. 3. 2. 1. 2. Overcoming The Basic Diseases of the Hierarchy In the traditional authoritarian organization, the dogma was managing, organizing, and controlling, whereas in the learning organization, the new dogma will be vision, values, and mental models. In addition, in traditional organizations, merit means doing what the boss wants, openness means telling the boss what he wants to hear, and localness means doing the dirty stuff that the boss doesnt want to do. However, in learning organizations these concepts will get new understandings. 3. 2. 2. The Discipline of Mental Models Developing an organizations capacity to work with mental models involves both learning new skills and implementing institutional innovations that help bring these skills into regular practice. 3. 2. 2. 1 Managing Mental Models Throughout An Organization A concept of scenarios should be adapted in pursuit of mental models, so to force managers to consider how they would manage under different alternative paths into the future. This offsets the tendency for managers to implicitly assume a single future. When groups of managers share a range of alternative futures in their mental models, they become more responsive to those changes. 14 Mental modeling should be implemented as a philosophy. It is important to note that the goal in mental modeling is not agreement or congruency. Many mental models can exist at once. What is important is that we have to consider all of them and test against situations that we confront. Only after the process works it leads to congruency. 3. 2. 2. 2 Managing Mental Models At Personal and Interpersonal Levels The learning skills of action science practitioners such as Chris Argyris fall into two broad classes: skills of reflection and skills of inquiry. Where skills of reflection concern slowing down our own thinking process so that we can become more aware of how we form our mental models and the ways they influence our actions, inquiry skills concern how we operate in face-to-face interactions with others, especially in dealing with complex and conflictual issues. Reflection skills start with recognizing leaps of abstraction, which mean that our minds move at lightning speeds. Ironically, this often slows our learning, because we immediately leap to generalizations so quickly that we never think to test them. Namely, leaps of abstraction occur when we move from direct observations to generalization without testing. Here it is important to distinguish direct observation from generalizations inferred from the observation itself. To distinguish it, explicitly separate it from the data which led to it. A second technique from action science is the left-hand column, which in turn is a powerful tool for beginning to see how our mental models operate in particular situations. It reveals ways that we manipulate situations to avoid dealing with how we actually think and feel, and thereby prevent a counterproductive situation from improving. The most important lesson that comes from seeing our left-hand columns is how we undermine opportunities for learning in conflictual situations. Here, a process called balancing inquiry and advocacy comes into action. 15 Managers are mostly trained to be advocates. In many companies, being a competent manager means, being able to solve problems, figuring out what needs to be done, and enlisting whatever support is needed to get it done. In such organizations, employees are rewarded according to their ability to debate forcefully, and influence others, where the inquiry skills are unrecognized. Those rewards unfortunately can bring the employees to managerial positions, where they suddenly face the fact that they do not learn while they should learn. Advocacy without inquiry between two people can end up in vicious circle. The more vehemently one argues, the more it creates a threat to the others position, so that the latter argues vehemently, which causes a threat to the first ones position, therefore, the first one argues even more vehemently. This reinforcing advocacy can be stopped by inquiring. Then it gives a chance for the both parts to understand each others conflicts, and reasoning. When in pure advocacy, people do not want to show the weak parts of their reasoning, and discard them. Definitely it does not bring any learning to us. Instead it brings polarization within the group. When operating in pure advocacy, the goal is to win the argument; however, when inquiry and advocacy are combined the goal is no longer to win the argument but to find the best argument out of all. This combination allows us to discover completely new views. What we have to keep in mind is that practicing inquiry and advocacy means being willing to expose the limitations in your own thinking, namely the willingness to be wrong. 16 3. 3 SHARED VISION 3. 3. 1 Introduction to Shared Vision 3. 3. 1. 1 A Common Caring A shared vision is not an idea, it is rather a force in peoples hearts, a force of impressive power. It may be inspired by an idea, but once it goes further ? if it is compelling enough to acquire support of more than one person? then it is no longer an abstraction. It is tangible. People begin to see it as if it exists. Few forces in human affairs are as powerful as shared visions. At its simplest level, a shared vision is the answer to the question, What do we want to create? Just as personal visions are pictures or images people carry in their heads and hearts, so too are shared visions pictures that people throughout an organization carry. When people truly share a vision they are connected, bound together by a common aspiration. Shared vision is one of the vital fundamentals of learning organizations, because it provides energy and also focus for learning. People should have something that really matters to them, something that makes them excited. A shared vision is not one dictated by that top management; it only exists when people are personally committed, since it is their personal vision. 3. 3. 1. 2 Why Shared Visions Matter? In an organization, a shared vision changes peoples relationship with the company. What they so far called as their company, becomes our company. It helps to create a common identity. Only this way, a learning organization can really succeed. You cannot have a learning organization without shared vision. 17 How can a commitment to the long term be fostered is the key question in efforts to develop systems thinking in management. People do not focus on the long term because they have to, but only because they want to. 3. 3. 2 The Discipline of Building Shared Vision Shared visions emerge from personal visions. This is how they derive their energy and how they foster commitment. The management should encourage individuals so as to let them create their own visions, as was told earlier in this project. However, these visions are not the shared vision itself. This is needed so that it will be easier for the individuals to accept visions of others and work in the same manner. In this way, the synergy which will be established is needed for the organization indeed. The shared vision shouldnt be written and taught to employees because this will establish a fear. Instead, everyone should adopt this vision and commit itself to the whole vision of the organization. 3. 3. 2. 1 From Personal Visions to Shared Visions To make it clearer, lets imagine a picture of a landscape. When you cut this picture into smaller parts, you will not be able to see the whole sight. However, if you have a picture of an ocean in which all the organisms, like fish, plants, etc. live, and you cut it into pieces, you will still be able to see the whole sight because the vision of the ocean is the same in that part. Its like the shared vision. When you take the shared vision person by person into consideration youll see that they match each other and reflect the whole image. 18 So, it is the fact that when more people come to share a common vision, the vision may not change fundamentally. But it becomes more alive, more real in the sense of a mental reality that people can truly imagine achieving. Writing a vision statement, which is often a one-shot vision, can be a first step in building shared vision but, alone, it rarely makes a vision come alive within an organization. Another problem with the so called one-shot vision that was prepared by the top management is that the resulting vision does not build on peoples personal visions. Contrarily, it only reflects the personal vision of one or two people at the top. The last problem might be explained in the manner as the vision is not a solution to a problem. Building a shared vision must be seen as a central element of the daily work of leaders. It is ongoing and never-ending. It is not truly a shared vision until it connects with the personal visions of people throughout the organization. Moreover, visions that are truly shared take time to emerge. They grow as a by-product of interactions of individual visions. Experience suggests that visions that are genuinely shared require ongoing conversation where individuals not only feel free to express their dreams, but also learn how to listen to each others dreams. 3. 3. 2. 2 Spreading Visions: Enrollment, Commitment, and Compliance There is a big difference between compliance and commitment. The committed person brings energy, passion and excitement, which in turn brings the synergy; he does not play by the rules of the game, instead feels responsible for the game, and will not hesitate to change the rules of the game if they stand in the way of achieving vision. On the other hand compliant followers only accept the vision, but do not have a personal desire. They may want it in order to keep their job, or to get a promotion etc. , but they know that its not their vision at all. For an organization to survive, it must ensure that a shared vision with the commitment of the individuals is established. 19 However, there are the types of genuine compliant followers, which may often be mistaken for enrollment or commitment. What then is the difference between being genuinely compliant and enrolled and committed? The answer is deceptively simple. People who are enrolled or committed truly want the vision, where genuinely compliant people accept the vision. They may want it in order to keep their job, or to get a promotion etc. , but they know that its not their vision at all. 3. 4 TEAM LEARNING 3. 4. 1 Introduction to Team Learning 3. 4. 1. 1 The Potential Wisdom Teams In order to understand team learning, it is important to understand what teams are. The word team can be traced back to the Indo-European word deuk (to pull); it has always included a meaning of pulling together. (The modern sense of team, a group of people acting together, emerged in the sixteenth century) We define teams as any group of people who need each other to accomplish a result. This definition is derived from a statement made by former Royal Dutch/Shell Group Planning coordinator, Arie de Geus: The only relevant learning in a company is the learning done by those people who have the power to take action. Team learning is a process of aligning and developing the capacity of a team to create the results its members truly desire. It builds on the discipline of developing shared vision. It also builds on developing personal mastery, for talented teams are made up of talented individuals. But shared vision and talent are not enough. The world is full of teams of talented individuals who share a vision for a while, yet fail to learn. 20 Here we can discuss the terms unaligned and aligned teams. The fundamental characteristic of the relatively unaligned team is wasted energy. Individuals may work extraordinarily hard, but their efforts do not efficiently translate to team effort. By contrast, when a team becomes more aligned, a commonality of direction emerges, and individuals energies harmonize. There is less wasted energy. In fact, a resonance or synergy develops, like the coherent light of a laser rather than the incoherent and scattered light of a light bulb. There is commonality of purpose, a shared vision, and understanding of how to complement one anothers efforts. Individuals do not sacrifice their personal interests to the larger team vision; rather, the shared vision becomes an extension of their personal visions. In fact, alignment is the necessary condition before empowering the individual will empower the whole team. Team learning is possible in every area, sports, business, performing arts, science, etc. It can even have extra ordinary results where the teams can be coordinated and even intelligence of the team can exceed the intelligence of its members totaling. In such an environment, team members can also show a rapid growth, than they could gain individually, namely constructing the synergy. With the changes in the organizations, team learning has never been that important. No matter if its a product development team, management team or cross-functional task forces. As they are teams, they are the people who need one another to act. The three critical dimensions of Team Learning can be described as; 1. Insightful thinking is necessary for complex issues. Teams must learn to end up with one more intelligent solution when compared to each of the participants solutions. 2. Innovative and coordinated action is vital.

The Ethical And Social Issues Of Systems

The Ethical And Social Issues Of Systems Information system has revolutionized the way information is being transferred and the way information being passed from one person to other. They provide speed, efficiency, dependability, quality, accuracy, reliability for the information and help the organization to achieve the objective of the organization. Ethics is an important aspect in information system. The fact is that business which does ethically will remain for long in the market and ensures steady growth and great acceptance of the products or services from the customers. There are many organizations which are unethical has caused a social outcry and intervention from authorities and didnt prove favorable and created problem for the future of the company. Innovation, efficiency, effectiveness, the ability to utilize market potential optimally, recognize the signs of the times , and the art of saving costs and expenses in the right place at the right time will continue to be of greatest importance alongside all the other corporate virtues. However, an additional element will gain in significance: applied business ethics. It will become more and more a new, solid basis for competitive ability, breaching the limits of classical markets. The more affluent a society is, the more significant non material values become. Corporations that act in a visibly ethical will be preferred by informed consumers more and more. This fact will become a problem for those corporations that ignore moral aspects, and for others it will become a problem for those corporations that ignore moral aspects, and others it will be an opportunity to get the very top GOOD ETHICS ARE GOOD BUSINESS Something which directs the behavior of the company is its ethics. The worst conceivable result of high moral standards would be competitive or other tangible detriment because the special efforts to cost a company attaches to ethical consideration result in net disadvantage for it. The information system is considered as one of the major functional area of business. It is an important contributor to the operational efficiency, employee productivity, morale, customer service and satisfaction. It is a major source of information and it helps in decision making. Information system is a vital ingredient in making our products and services more competitive in the global environment or in the global market. It is a dynamic and more challenging career opportunity and it is a key component of todays networked business. It emphasizes on the quality, strategic business value and security of an organizational information system. It helps to control cost hence helps in cost reduction. It helps in the easy flow of information from one person to other or helps in passing information from the top level managers to the operational level managers When a strategy is adopted to use information technology what people think is how it can be utilized to earn extra income so that they can earn more money Managing Ethics Everybody has the responsibility to be ethical in areas wherever they are and whatever they do. According to Webster dictionary, ethics is defined as the discipline dealing with what are good and bad. Thus ethics is concerned with doing business with truth and justice and other aspects such as fair or healthy competition, meeting the expectations of the society, public relations, social responsibility, consumer autonomy and corporate behavior. When we speak about managing ethics of an organization mainly there are three theories coming to mind. They are: UTILITARIAN THEORY THEORY BASED ON RIGHTS THEORY OF JUSTICE Utilitarian theory suggests that plans and action can be evaluated by their consequences or results. The idea behind this is that plans or actions should have to yield good to large number of people. Theory based on rights tells that people have basic rights an organization should consider and should value the rights of the people and the organizations do not have the right to hinder their rights. Managers have the right to initialize ethics in the organization so that they survive for long. That really means we have to integrate ethical concepts in our daily actions. Ethics can be bring to an organization by establishing an appropriate company policy by using forming an ethics committee and by teaching and by training to the managers to be ethical in their activities. The most important thing is that they have to establish a code of conduct in the organization. FACTORS THAT RAISE ETHICAL STANDARDS The important factors thats raise are the public disclosure and increased concern of a well informed public. These factors together with government regulations and highly educated professional will bring ethics in to the organization. Necessary provisions have been made to enforce ethics in an organization. Privileges and benefits should be withdrawn and have to apply sanctions. Unethical mangers have to be held responsible and should be terminated from the organization. Another important aspect is that we should use code of ethics to solve our problems .The reason is that when a problem arises people try to solve the problem by any means. But if there is a good code of conduct for our organization we need not have to be unethical for solving the problems of the organization. Another important fact is that if people have to be ethical he should have to learn it from the schools and universities. He has to learn to be ethical in every activity or in every code of conduct from the fami ly. He has to understand the importance of ethics and should learn values from their family. Whistle Blowing is a very good way for encouraging ethical behavior in an organization. It means making aware what the unethical practices are. The managers have the responsibility to make necessary changes according to global competition, customer expectations, and the need to respond quickly according to the changes in environment. The main objective is to protect and prevent persons from doing unethical practices.In olden days there where trust, integrity, loyalty, caring and keeping promises were there in an organization and focused on maintaining the culture of the organization with trust, but now a days now people will do anything as there only motive is profit generation. In that case techniques such whistle blowing helps to enforce environmental laws and works for accountability of business. TECHNOLOGICAL ASPECTS IN ETHICS Technology has got many advantages as well as disadvantages. The managers are operating in a complex environment. Based on the environment the management takes necessary decisions. Thus organizations are concentrated on establishing an environment which is favorable to business and the society. Every organization has some responsibility towards the individuals and the society. So now a days what corporate are focusing to establish social responsiveness relating to corporate operations and policies to the social environment in ways that are beneficial to the company and the society. Ethics thus deals what is good as well as with moral duty and obligations. Technology has helped to simplify the operation, to achieve economies of scale and to establish value for the product manufactured. It has helped to reduce the cost of production hence made the organization to receive huge profits for the products manufactured. In case of increased profits what an organization can do is to work for the development of the society, providing more employment opportunities, providing products which give value to the customers, and preventing from emission of wastages to the nature thereby preventing from environmental problems. ETHICAL ASPECTS OF INFORMATION SYSTEM The spread of information has been revolutionized by new computer technology by the way they gather information, manipulate and communicate data. The use of information system with high speed and efficiency is obtained by the use of local and global networks and software, hardware, people and resources has provided new responsibilities to the people who use information system. It is a source of power. Thus when we speak about the ethics of information system we should say that it has to involve social and political relationships. The most important thing is how information has been used such as whether it has been used for good or bad. A certain code of conduct followed in the organization will explains how information system has been used ethically. It helps to bridge the gap between need of the organization and the rights of every one. A network refers to one system which can share information with other system. It is referred as a reliable source of sharing information .The networ ks participants have recognized the value of information system and has combined humanity. ORGANISATIONAL ISSUES IN INFORMATION SYSTEM The organizations and corporate were rocked by the accounting scandals at Enron, Tyco and WorldCom. This scandal understands the lack of ethical content among the individuals. The technology has been misused by the people who are well aware of the technology. Computer virus affect the computer and people who are well aware of technology spread virus which harm peoples computer and they themselves produces the antivirus softwares to prevent computers from virus. Thus they make huge profit out of this. It is truly unethical. Apart from this there are hackers who r intended to destroy the data and softwares and can disturb computer services. Phishing has been done by people who are well aware of technology. What they do is they acquire sensitive information such as password, credit card details etc. It is done through email or messaging and offer directs to people to unsecured sites. Criminals usually acquire informations of the financial data and used to steal money. Some of the other practices have made the system very slow computer process and make pop ups taking over..Due to this reason pirated versions of software are available for every product. People are cheated by selling the pirated version and they will have to face trouble in future and cause serious issues to the computer when it is being caught by the company. This always happens because people always focus on low cost rather than quality of the product. Thus the victim is subjected to loss of funds. The issue related to personal or organizational ethics, privacy, information security, and protection has been made understand by technology by the managers. Spyware, adware, and phishing attempts have grown in sophistication and prominence. This has to be seriously identified and should be prevented so as to have a good code of conduct. LEGAL ISSUES IN INFORMATION SYSTEM The Legal Issues in Information Technology is designed for technologists and managers responsible for creating and implementing policies for protecting IT resources within private corporations or government agencies. Surveys are conducted for understanding the leading privacy, criminal, intellectual property and regulatory laws that establish liability and boundaries related to enterprise information systems. It focuses on the practical implications of these laws and the issues that should be covered in an enterprise security policy. People working in the organization are asked to spot issues and suggest standard practices to reduce risk. It ensures preliminary look at the legal issues and the surrounding and activate cyber defenses. The information system which is used the individuals have to thus use the originals to protect themselves from trouble in future. It is a serious problem if we use unauthorized versions or pirated versions of software and all. The firewalls or the securi ty system wont be effective in such systems so these system can be affected seriously by hackers, spammers etc. So to get maximum protection and safety we should use only originals so that we can claim for damages if anything happened in future. SOCIAL ISSUES IN FORMATION SYTEM Information system has lot of social issues same as any other issues. The unethical behavior of people creates several social problems .It has a great impact on the culture. Spreading of vulgar activities have increases in largely and people are more prone to sex and other activities like video chats. Several cheating cases have been reported Multiethnic issues in organizations refers to one of the most often discussed underpinnings in accumulation systems search throughout the term of the IS business. Cultural issues are those which are most allied with the hominine bourgeois in damage of collection systems, use and utilization of message systems and technologies. The conceptualization of particularized sociable issues and their related constructs, planned designs and infrastructures, falsifiable determination of cultural models, and circumstance studies illustrating socializing success and failures would be important. Whatsoever key topics may allow: (1) Ethics (2) Culture (3) Relationships (4) Human interaction (5) Security (6) Design. Whatever of the research topics that would fit within this minitrack comprise: 1. Ethical issues: electronic monitoring of employees, data utilitization, and morality in entropy systems survival; 2. Cultural issues: education of nascent technologies, developing trust, commonwealth asymmetry, insurance feat, and multiethnic environments; 3. Human interaction issues: recruitment and retainment of foul department, motive, societal presence, and organizational champions of info systems; 4. Relationship issues: development partnerships, realistic teams, set cohesiveness, cooperation, unit facilitation, networking, and buyer-supplier linkages; 5. Security issues: expend of aggregation, virus/worm commencement, Intranet assail, collection security, dupery with systems use, and standards and regulations. CONCLUSION Information Technology has greater importance in an organization. It is necessary for an organization to achieve competitive advantage and to achieve the goals of the organization. The same technology can be used to cheat people also. It all depends on the users of information technology. The management has the sole responsibility to check how the information technology has been utilized by the individuals so that it yields good result for the organization. The management has to ensure that the resources are utilized for doing ethical activities. They have to ensure that no fraudulent activities have been done with the information technology. For that the organization or company should have some values and principles. The company should follow some code of ethics so that the employees are aware of the company policies so that it yields good name to the company also a good reputation among general public. Also the company or organization have to ensure that the company is working as p er the rules and regulations of the government and it activities are based on the laws and regulations enforced by the local jurisdiction. Therefore it is important to have a very good knowledge of ethics and the corporate has some responsibility towards the society. Every individual who uses information system should have to understand the importance of ethics and should inculcate a good code of ethical conduct in all his activities. Some of the codes of conduct which an organization or an individual has to do are the following:- Contribute to society and Human well being Avoid Harm to others Be Honest and trust worthy Be fare and take action not to discriminate Honor property rights including copyrights and patents Give proper credit for intellectual property Respect privacy of others Honor confidentially Only if there is a good ethical theory we can take a good others ethical decision. Treating others with respect is very important and vital for every individual. As per saying give respect and take respect. Today we live in an information society and in order to gain the greatest advantages in the modern market place, we need to be able to access the available information effectively. Every technological innovation, from paper through to the modern computer, has broadened the spectrum of learning necessary to attain peak literacy levels. In our current information society, the minimum requirements for true literacy are: intellectual skills; technology and access. Intellectual skills are the result of education, and include reading, writing and comprehension skills as well as the ability to reason, calculate and solve complex problems through the application of analytical thought processes. Information is of no use if one has not the intellectual skills to unlock its potential. Only thing is that everything has to be used ethically should be capable of developing the society.

Depravity and Destruction in Blood Meridian Essay -- Blood Meridian Es

Depravity and Destruction in Blood Meridian Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian is a passionate, lyrical, and ugly novel of depravity and destruction of life in the Old West. It is a story of a hellish journey where violence and corruption are currency in a life of murder and treachery. Contrasting scenes of scenic beauty, poetically described by McCarthy, are negated by his gruesome accounts of despicable scenes of human cruelty in the examination of evil. Like all of McCarthy's earlier novels, Blood Meridian (1985) had a lukewarm arrival to the literary world in the sense of sales and publicity, in part due to McCarthy's own aversion to self-promotion (Woodward 28). Yet critics and scholars were captivated by the mindless violence of the story and its tale of deceit, genocide, and gruesome realities set around the US-Mexico border in the 1840's (James 31). Blood Meridian, McCarthy's fifth book, was received with a variety of reactions from critics. Terence Moran, though finding McCarthy's writing to be "evocative," believed the author "failed in Blood Meridian to retell a simple Western in his haunting, original voice" (37). Conversely, Steven Shaviro wrote, "Cormac McCarthy, the solitary poet of his exultation, is our greatest living author...[this novel] manifests a sublime visionary power that is matched only by a still more ferocious irony" (144). This novel, due to its candid narration of barbarous events, prevails as one of a few books which challenge traditional molds of literature. Not a story of the redeemable antagonist or the helpless victim, Blood Meridian blurs the lines of sanctity and depravity in this lawless and demoralized land. This examination of the most unimaginable e... ...stence in a world of depravity that seems foreign to the reader, but is all too normal in the world created in the book (147). As the novel tells of the kid's appalling journey, much of the action seen is centered around Judge Holden. The mysterious, malignant man varies in interpretation from godlike to child-like. Many critics have commented on Holden's manipulative power, ability to remain unchanged by years, and his appearance in several places at what seems the same time. Many lines are drawn between Judge Holden and the devil (Wallach 125). Though not a literary success in terms of book sales and overall recognition, Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian tells and intriguing story in a light in which the Old West is rarely seen. Conscienceless violence, devil-like characters, and breathtaking scenery fill this novel uninhibited by morality or rectitude.

Microsoft Xbox Essay -- essays research papers

Microsoft targets numerous segments of the population of many countries through advertisements of its Xbox. Microsoft, one of the most successful companies in the world, is using its innovations to take over the machine gaming market. Sony and Nintendo have been the gaming powerhouses for many years now, but are now starting to become overshadowed by the success of Microsoft’s Xbox. As long as gaming machines have been available, teenage boys have been the targets of the companies. One new strategy that Microsoft is using is the targeting of all ages and both sexes of consumers. While other companies continue to stay in the young kids and teenage market, Xbox is revolutionizing the target market of gaming systems.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Microsoft is in the process of producing games aimed at young and teenage girls as well as male and female adults. Microsoft is planning to have all types of games available for the Xbox as they are for the computer. As any computer owner knows, a game of any genre can be purchased for the computer. There are tens of thousands of games available for people of all different ages, races, and sexes who all have different interests. Microsoft, unlike the other gaming machine companies, has experience with producing software of this caliber, and is completely prepared for the innovations. With the vast amounts of funds that Microsoft has available, these goals are in no way out of reach.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are already abo...

PET Scans Essay -- essays research papers fc

Positron Emission Tomography Positron Emission Tomography is a scanning technique that allows us to measure in detail the functioning of distinct areas of the human brain while the patient is comfortable, conscious and alert. PET represents a type of functional imaging, unlike X-rays or CT scans, which show only structural details within the brain. The differences between these types of imaging don’t end there. In both X-rays and CT scans, a form of radiation is emitted and travels through the body, and a detector receives the unabsorbed rays and transmits them to a computer. The physics behind PET scanning is quite different. Basically, a person is injected with a radioactive substance. This substance begins the process of radioactive decay inside of the person and interacts with the tissue to produce gamma radiation. These gamma rays are detected by scintillation crystals and transmitted to a computer, where images are produced. But how does this all take place? The description of PET scans in detail requires the understanding of the radioactive substance injected into the subject. First, a small amount of a biochemical substance is tagged with a positron-emitting radioisotope. A positron is an â€Å"anti-electron.† Positrons are given off during the decay of the nuclei of the radioisotope. When the positron emitted collides with an electron in the tissue of the subject, both the positron and the electron are annihilated. When this happens, the collision produces two gamma rays having the same energy (511 KeV), but going in opposite directions. These gamma rays, produced by the annihilation of a positron and an electron, leave the patient’s body and are detected by the PET scanner. The detection of positron-annihilation events forms the heart of any PET scanner. In most systems, the Gamma detector is a BGO (bismuth germinate oxide) crystal, a high-density scintillator. When it is combined with high performance photomultiplier tubes (PMTs), the detection of 511 KeV gamma rays is possible. These BGO crystals are arranged into 64 distinct segments so that the scintillation light from each of the segments can be distributed onto the photocathodes of four photomultiplier tubes to be amplified. These â€Å"block detectors† are placed into modules of four arranged as eight columns of 32 rows of crystals each. A ring of these detectors surrounds the patient during... ...kinson’s disease, or schizophrenia. Recently, new advances have been made in PET technology. A pair of American scientists working in Switzerland came up with a combination PET/CT scanner, which effectively pairs the two techniques. This new combination will be very useful in cancer diagnosis. With the PET/CT, both anatomical and functional imaging can be done and reproduced on the same image. This will be helpful in pinpointing the location of tumors, and also for the early identification of tumors too small to be of concern in CT scanning. Works Cited Jaroff, Leon. â€Å"A Winning Combination.† Time 156:23 4 Dec 2000. Mullen, Robyn J. â€Å"Positron Emission Tomography.† 5 Dec 1995.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  http://www.bae.ncsu.edu/bae/courses/bae590F/1995/mullen/. Yahoo.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  25 Mar 2001. â€Å"PET Scans.† 15 Jan 2001. http://www.lifeimage.com/techdata.htm. Yahoo.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   25 Mar 2001. â€Å"UIHC Positron Emission Tomography Imaging Center.† 14 Aug 2000.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  http://www.pet.radiology.uiowa.edu/. Yahoo. 25 Mar 2001.

Genetically Modified Foods/What You Need to Know

Genetically modified foods (GM foods) have made for big talk in the public lately. Public interest groups have been actively protesting against GM foods for months. In response to the up swelling of public concern, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have held meetings to solicit public opinions and, begin the process of establishing a new regulatory procedure for government approval of GM foods. I would like to research and maybe, explain the reasons why I feel that GM foods are not humanity's solution to our food consumption problem. What are Genetically Modified Foods?Genetically modified foods are foods produced from organisms that have had specific changes introduced into their DNA using the methods of genetic engineering. These techniques have allowed for the introduction of new crop traits as well as a far greater control over a food's genetic structure than previously afforded by methods such as selective breeding and mutation breeding (Wikapedia.com). To date most ge netic modification of foods have primarily focused on cash crops in high demand by farmers such as soybean, corn, canola, and cotton seed oil.These have been engineered for resistance to pathogens and herbicides and better nutrient profiles. GM livestock have also been experimentally developed, although as of November 2013 none are currently on the market. There are many reasons to not be a fan of GM foods but, before I explain the reasons not to consume GM foods, let me tell you some reasons why scientists and so-called, â€Å"experts†, are pushing to have  developers and, manufacturers of GM foods make sure, that they are various advantages of consuming these foods, as well as, persuade the public to purchase these products. Are there advantages to GM Foods?One advantage to GM foods is that they help to control certain diseases that can cause people to have an allergic reaction to certain foods. With GM foods the DNA system is modified to eliminate the properties causing these allergies (http://www.buzzle.com/articles/genetically-modified-foods-pros-and-cons.html).Another advantage to GM foods is that they are said to be high in nutrients and contain more vitamins than traditionally grown food. They also claim to have a longer shelf life than traditionally grown food, which means less waste. Now that we have heard why developers, manufacturers, and scientists want GM foods massively produced, let's hear about some of the reasons why most of the population is not so accepting.ThreatsThe biggest threat caused by genetically modified foods is that they can have harmful effects on the body (http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/gmfood/overview.php). It is believed that consumption of these foods can cause the development of diseases which are immune to antibiotics. According to experts, people who consume these foods have high chances of developing cancer (http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/gmfood/overview.php).Because these are new inventions on food, the re's not much known about the long-term effects that genetically modified foods will have on humans. Foodstuffs made of genetically modified crops that are currently available (mainly maize, soybean, and oilseed rape) have been judged safe to eat, and the methods used to test them have been deemed appropriate. These conclusions represent the consensus of the scientific evidence surveyed by the International Council for Science (ICSU) and are consistent with the views of the World Health Organization (WHO). However, the lack of evidence of negative effects does not mean that new genetically modified foods are without risk.The possibility of long-term effects from genetically modified plants cannot be  excluded and must be examined on a case-by-case basis. New techniques are being developed to address concerns, such as the possibility of the unintended transfer of antibiotic-resistance genes. Earlier, I mentioned an advantage to GM foods that allows them to be modified to eliminate properties within certain foods, so that people do not have an allergic reaction to them. My question is, â€Å"what in the world makes these developers think that we want to eat anything that has been modified†? Not to mention, knowing that the long-term effects are not certain if I consume one of these products. That's not comfortably sitting on my stomach! ResponseThese developers and, manufacturers claim that GM foods contain more vitamins and nutrients, along with a longer shelf life than traditional foods. The way the public sees it is the genetically modified anything, cannot be better for you than the real thing. Throughout my research, I have found that most of society's response to GM foods is, â€Å"why fix something that's not broken†? Most of society throws criticisms towards genetically modified foods, criticizing agribusinesses for pursuing profit without concern for potential hazards, and the government for failing to exercise adequate regulatory oversi ght(http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/gmfood/overview.php).ConcernsThe most concerns about genetically modified foods falls into three categories: environmental hazards, human health risks, and economic concern. Environmental hazards are causes of unintended harm to other organisms. For example; the pollen blown around by the wind off of a GM plant, stands a chance of becoming involved with the milkweed plants that often grow near these crop fields. The concern is for the monarch butterfly, monarch butterflies eat milkweed plants and, if the butterflies eat the milkweed plant with the pollen from the GM plant on it, the butterflies then stand a chance of dying if they come in contact with this pollen. This could create a huge problem for the monarch butterflies extinction rate.Human health risks contain allergencity, which are allergies to things like peanuts and other foods. The possibility still remains that introducing a gene into a plant may create a new allergen that will caus e someone to have an allergic reaction and, they could possibly die from that. Economic concern is the most talked about category out of all three. Things like, putting farmers out of business and bringing this product to the market is a costly process, as well as the tech companies wishing to turn a profit on their investment. Consumer advocates are worried that patenting new plants will raise the price of seed. When the prices of seed goes up, the farmers in third world countries cannot afford to purchase the seeds each year. No seeds means no crops for the farmers, no crops means no money.ConclusionConsumers may wish to select conventional foods on the basis of several criteria such as methods of production (e.g. organic or fair-trade food), religious principles (e.g. kosher food), or the presence of known allergens (e.g. groundnuts). Labeling of foods as genetically modified or non-genetically modified may enable consumer choice as to the process by which the food is produced. H owever, it conveys no information as to the content of the foods, and what risks or benefits may be associated with particular foods. More informative food labeling, explaining how food has been transformed and what the resulting changes in food composition are, could enable consumers to assess these risks and benefits (http://www.greenfacts.org).Genetically modified foods is a big deal in today's society, many people have a very strong opinion about GM foods. Many people are also unaware of what a genetically modified food is. Most people consume genetically modified foods on a daily bases and do not even realize it. Nor is the government obligated to inform you that you are consuming genetically modified foods. Throughout my research, I have found out why I feel that GM foods are not humanity's solution to our food consumption problem. Throughout my argument, I have tried to explain the good and, the bad things associated with genetically modified foods. I have come to the conclus ion that genetically modified foods are not for me or my family. There are too many health issues and, risks that I am not willing to take because my family's health may lay in the balance.