Human Resource Management and Personnel Management Essay

Introduction 1. This report discusses the historical development of Human Resource Management (HRM), identifies the role and purposes of HRM, and also to distinguish between personnel management and HRM. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) defines personnel management as â€Å"the part of management concerned with people at work and with their relationships within an enterprise. It aims to bring together, and develop into an effective organisation, the people within an business, having regard for the welfare of the individual and of working groups, to enable them to make their best contribution to its success.† HRM may be defined as â€Å"a strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organisation’s most valued assets: the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of its objectives for sustainable competitive advantage†. The Nature and Development of Personnel management 2. HRM obtained acknowledgment in the late 1970’s in the USA, as a label for the way companies such as IBM were managing their people. These companies applied the principles outlined by David Guest (1989) to gain a competitive edge over their competitors. These four principles are listed below. a) Strategic integration -â€Å"the ability of organisations to integrate HRM issues into their strategic plans, to ensure that the various aspects of HRM cohere and for line managers to incorporate a HRM perspective into their decision making†. b) High commitment – â€Å"people must be managed in a way that ensures both their genuine ‘behavioural’ commitment to pursuing the goals of the organisation and their ‘attitudinal’ commitment, reflected in strong identification with the organisation†. c) Flexibility – â€Å"HRM policies must be structured to allow maximum flexibility for the organisation, so it can respond to ever changing business needs: for example, by encouraging functional versatility in employees and by creating ‘an adaptable organisational structure with the capacity to manage innovation†. d) High Quality – â€Å"The notion of quality must run through everything the organisation does, ‘including the management of employees and investment in high-quality employees, which in turn will bear directly on the quality of the goods and services provided†. Personnel management can be traced back to second half of the nineteenth century when Victorian workers were hit hard by the industrialisation, and urbanisation of Britain. Companies such as Cadbury and Rowntree, initiated programmes for their employees managed on their behalf by ‘industrial welfare workers’, the philosophy behind these people was that in the welfare tradition, the work and responsibilities of the personnel officer was directed to the employees, rather than to the strategic concerns of the organisation and its management. The programmes included facilities such as company housing, health care, education for workers’ families and so on. The motivation for these measures included, that they reflected a wider social reform, led by political and religious groups. In the USA groups like Quakers were abolishing slavery, and striving to increase business performance by the moral and social enhancement of their employees. Moreover, as more motivation to convert to these programmes, improved health and education for the workers and their families meant that these employers would have a better reputation with employees and consumers, employees would be more committed and motivated, also there would always be great demand for a job within the company. This can be linked to Maslow’s theory on the hierarchy of needs, in which he states that workers are motivated by five different needs. Physiological- pay, holidays (lower order need) Safety – Health and safety measures, pensions (lower order need) Social – formal and informal groups, social events (lower order need) Self-esteem – power, promotion (higher order need) Self-actualisation – challenging work, developing new skills (higher order need) These programmes and jobs would provide something for each of the lower order needs, therefore increasing motivation throughout the workforce. Furthermore, consumers would feel morally better as they were buying products that were helping the working classes. This could be considered very similar to the ideas linked with the popularity of fair trade products in modern day society. The demise of the working class was outlined at this time when the British government had problems recruiting troops for the Crimean and Boer wars, as many people failed the medical, and the health of the nations labourers was brought into the limelight. The need for negotiation, conflict resolution and the management of relationships between labour and management occurred in 1871 with the legislation of trade unions. This was recognised politically, with formation of the aptly named Labour Representation Committee in 1900, which was renamed in 1906 as the Labour party, which was largely funded by the trade union development. In 1911, the National Insurance Scheme created the first welfare provisions for workers in the result of illness, or unemployment. The establishment of the Ministry of Labour to address wider issues and representations quickly followed this in 1916. In the 1930’s and 40’s management theorists changed attributes of their theories, as scientific management which was in current use came under scrutiny for dehumanising employees. This is when the HRM approach began to appear, being backed by Maslow, Herzberg, and McGregor who shifted their attention to the higher order needs, as shown above on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The new key to motivation of the workforce involved ‘job satisfaction’, which it was then believed, could not be achieved just from ‘maintenance’ factors like pay and working conditions. The governments influence on industrial relations, and the workforces continued until the mid 1970’s in conjunction with social reforms in health and education. After this time the UK government did not interfere in collaborated relationships between the employer and employee, with the exception of trade union reform. In spite of that the latter half of the twentieth century saw extreme legislation in all sectors of employment. It was during this era that the industrial relations tradition suggests that the work and the responsibility of the personnel officer was to mediate and even arbitrate between the sides in industrial disputes, to facilitate collective bargaining, negotiation and compliance with the current industrial relations laws. As a response to the escalating speed of organisational expansion and alterations, the control of labour tradition suggests that the work and responsibility of the personnel officer is to support management by regulating the range of workplace activity. This includes job allocation, performance, absenteeism, pay, communication, training, and so on. The CIPD have endeavoured to establish personnel management as a career, by providing a programme of learning resulting in a qualification. However, many personnel managers do not posses this qualification and this is rarely seen as an obstruction within the career. It is safe to say that all personnel managers will use remnants of the welfare, industrial, and the control of labour traditions to become part of the professional tradition that is occurring today. The Role and Tasks of the Personnel Function 3. Personnel specialists can take various roles like line mangers, advisors, service providers, auditors, Co-ordinators and planners and in today’s modern world of rapidly developing technology, ethics, and growing organisations in any business there is need for specialist advice on personnel matters, whether it is internal or external. This is because the practise of personnel management needs to be consistent, impartial, proficient and on course with organisational goals, as there are constant developments in this field that require expertise in the area of personnel management. The need for this specialist has several contributing factors including the need to comply with changing regulation and legislation, for example the personnel specialist may be used to recruit staff to avoid sex or racial discrimination. Constant changes within the labour market have also meant that policies need to be designed by someone with current knowledge on the matter. Moreover, trade unions, industrial tribunals, and the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) have a continuous role in employee relations; therefore having some one who is familiar with the legislation amongst other things that is used would be very useful. However, since there the existing role of the personnel manager is so diverse there are different models derived by different theorists. A popular model is that suggested by Tyson and Fell (1986). The three roles that they suggest are: * The clerk of works model – all authority for actions is with line managers. Personnel policies are formed after the actions that created the need. Policies are not integral and are short term and ad hoc. Personnel activities are routine and involve day-to-day administration. * The contracts manager model – Policies are established, often implicit, with heavy industrial relations emphasis. The personnel department will use fairly sophisticated systems especially with regard to employee relations. The personnel manager is likely to be a professional or experienced in industrial relations. They should take on the role of policing the implementation of policies, but does not create them. * The architect model – Explicit corporate personnel policies exist as part of the corporate strategy. HR planning and development are important concepts. The head of the function is likely to be on the Board of Directors, and is therefore seen as a professional, making an important contribution to the business. Policies are often formed to assist in the personnel function to make sure that people are treated equally, and that laws and regulations are met. These can include equal opportunities, disciplinary policies, and safety policies. The policies are based upon legislation put in place by the Government and the EU in certain areas like safety. The values and philosophies of the business about how the employees should be treated and what kind of behaviour will enable them to work most effectively on the organisation’s behalf. The needs and wants of employees, and the organisations need to attract and retain the kind of employees it wants by its reputation of practice as an employer. The Shift in Approach Which Has Led to the Term HRM 4. Throughout history the social change has been reflected in personnel management, and which also changes in conjunction with the social needs. This is shown by the implementation of legislation and rules, to stop discrimination and aid safety measures, as the social climate becomes more morally aware of the workforce. In the late nineteenth century it would not have been unheard of for people to die at work, even into the twentieth century there were still accident that occur to labourers working in primary industries, but this became more shocking, as with the development of technology it was publicised by the media and made safer by improvements, as a company realised that its image was very important. A political and economic change is also evident through out history, for example in the 1970’s when the government would no longer interfere with some matters between employer and employee relations, this is because it was realised that full employment was not as important as controlling inflation and other economic factors. Also HRM has become common through out the business world and is thoroughly integrated into the organisational structure of a business. This is because it has been found that companies use this approach in different strengths to achieve a competitive edge over their rivals. Today companies like Marks & Spencer, McDonalds, and even public sector businesses like British Gas are using various strengths of HRM. Recommendations 5. To draw conclusion, it is my recommendation that Phoenix Tannoy Ltd. consider establishing a HR department as it is shown in history that the use of HRM does give a competitive edge over rivals, by motivating employees. The reality is that by moving to a HR department Phoenix Tannoy will motivate its workforce by implementing policies and procedures that benefit all the staff. Motivated staff are then more committed to the organisation, and motivated into doing the best they can to help the business achieve its goals. Moreover, a HR department would remove the depersonalised face of the personnel department and make the company less bureaucratic.

Blocking rehearsal time with an interference task Essay

The theories of memory and how much, or how long we can remember things, and why, is a greatly studied area of Psychology as a science. Psychologists have created and recreated numerous tests and research methods in order to prove that their particular theory is correct. There are two main theories of memory: Levels of Processing (L.O.P.) and the Multi-store Model.  The L.O.P. approach was pioneered by two psychologist Craik and Lockhart (1972), who believed that the mind will remember things better if the information is processed on a deeper level, ie. thought about more, taking into account the amount of ‘work’ that is put into processing the information received. From research they discovered that the deeper the processing required the longer and more durable the memory is likely to be. They also identified what they believed to be three levels of processing: Structural – What something looks like.  Phonetic – What something sounds like.  Semantic – What something means.  From experiments and tests carried out, they found that the deepest level was semantic, and their reason for this, they argued, was because in order to extract the meaning from a word, and to consider it’s relevance in a sentence of words, requires a lot of processing. They decided that hearing a word and then trying to visualize it also requires some extensive cognitive processing, but not as much as semantic processing, and the least amount of mental work was required for structural processing, ie. what the letters look like. A test carried out by Craik and Tulving (1975), ‘Depth of processing and retention of words in episodic memory’ supported their theory. Another model which is highly regarded as one of the most influential theories of memory is the Multi-store model, in particular the two-process model, designed and tested by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968, 1971). Their theory was that information received by the senses is primarily stored in the sensory store for a very short period of time before it is transferred to the short term memory. Atkinson and Shiffrin believed that when the information is in the short term memory (STM), it could either be rehearsed for a certain amount of time and then stored in the long term memory (LTM), or alternatively lost. Figure 1.1 illustrates the theory in an easier to understand way. Perhaps this is also an example of how the L.O.P. theory is flawed as although the diagram is seen to be structural information, it will probably provoke strong visual imagery. Atkinson and Shiffrin believed that ‘chunks’ of information received by the sensory store could be held in the STM for around 20 seconds, but only 5 to 9 (on average) chunks of info can be remembered without rehearsal. However, if rehearsed the chunks of information can be transferred into the long term memory and more items can be remembered. The theory of the rehearsal loop interests me, so I decided to look further into it and found that psychologists: Brown (1958) and Peterson and Peterson (1959) independently discovered a method for testing the existence of the rehearsal loop called the Brown-Peterson technique. This basically involves a list of trigrams (three letter words made up of consonants with no immediate meaning ie. BKD, as apposed to WHY) shown to subjects for 20 seconds, rehearsed for 25 seconds and then recorded in order by the subject as well as possible. The same list is then shown to another subject for the same amount of time, however this time the 25 seconds rehearsal time will be interrupted with an interference task ie. counting backwards in threes from the number 58. This is the technique I will use as a basis of my mini-cognitive research project. AIM:  To test the existence of the rehearsal loop by preventing it from its task with an interference task during the rehearsal time.  RATIONALE:  I will be re-creating the Brown-Peterson technique for testing the existence of the rehearsal loop, although my study will use slightly different trigrams, and obviously a different set of people. I’m interested to check whether the results of my study will support the results found by Brown-Peterson or not. I will use a set word list for both groups of people studied and I’m expecting the results of my study to support the results of previous tests, thus supporting the theory of existence of the rehearsal loop. HYPOTHESIS:  When asked to recall the list of trigrams in order after a period of 25 seconds rehearsal time, the subject will remember significantly more trigrams if the rehearsal time is not interrupted by an interference task.  NULL HYPOTHESIS:  Subjects taking part in the experiment will not recall a significantly greater number of words whether their rehearsal time is interrupted with an interference task or not. Any difference found is purely down to chance. METHOD:  The method I chose to use in order to obtain the clearest and most reliable data was the laboratory experiment. The reason for using this method is to reduce the amount of extraneous and possibly confounding variables which could interfere with the results; also it becomes very easy to repeat the same test over and over without change. I will use the independent groups design to ensure that different participants are used for each test in order to avoid the chances that the participants will skew the results through rehearsal. The first set of participants will be shown a list of 15 trigrams for 20 seconds, after which time they will be asked to rehearse these for a period of 25 seconds. After that time they will then be asked to write out as many as possible in the correct order (if the trigram is BHD then the participant must write BHD, no mark will be given for BDH). The results will then be recorded.  The same set of trigrams will then be shown to a different set of participants for the same amount of time. This time however during the 25 seconds rehearsal time, the participants will be asked to perform an interference task, which will be counting backwards in sets of 4 from the number 295. After the 25 seconds, they too will be asked to recall the trigram list and their results will also be recorded.

Privacy and Internet Policy Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Privacy and Internet Policy - Research Paper Example Everybody person has the right to privacy of personal information which is private in nature. George Reynolds, in his book â€Å"Ethics in Information Technology,† argues that â€Å"Privacy is the right to be left alone – the most comprehensive of rights, and the right most valued by a free people† (Reynolds, 2010). People prefer to keep their private information secret because they do not want it to be misused by others. So they safeguard it with the help of laws as also with the help of software etc. The concept of consumer profiling is also relevant in this context. It deals with sketching of important psycho-graphical and demographical information concerning the user of a product. Such data consists of details like gender, age group, education, place of living, profession, income scale, marital status etc. Some companies explicitly gather personal information about the users of internet when they register at their websites by way of making them fill certain forms. The threat in this case is that personal data is collected and certain companies sell this information to other firms without the consent of consumers. Thus, the internet exposes individuals to the threat of leaking their private information. Therefore, protecting consumer data is a significant concern while using the internet for various purposes. Though all companies have a privacy statement, explicitly given on their websites, one cannot rule out the possibility that â€Å"existing privacy enhancing technologies fail in the event of a vendor operating against their stated privacy policy†. , leading to loss of customer privacy and security† (Pearce & Bertok, 1999, para. 1). Personal information transacted through online can be misused, which will lead to failure in safeguarding customer privacy. There are some laws to prevent the misuse of personal data, but these are not sufficient to fully safeguard privacy. Therefore, there is an urgent need to enhance or supplement the existing regulations to completely

Management Practices ETC Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Management Practices ETC - Term Paper Example ETC Group fundamentally deals with the issues related to agriculture (ETC Group, n.d). They especially measure the international affairs pertaining to the field of agriculture which includes maintenance of agricultural biodiversity and securities along with developed and modern technological impact on agriculture. ETC group is a non-profitable organization and it majorly sustains on the donated funds. They generally focus on the process of developing a greener environment. The working procedure of ETC Group signifies that it works as a research team in order to collect particular information on a specific region for protecting the environment (Brodhead, 2001). From the performance and progress made by the ETC Group it is assumed that they manage their operational process systematically in order to conduct their research and education to collect proper and sufficient information with regard to a particular environment. With reference to the context, it can be stated that ETC Group mak es certain of the persuasion of the management practices throughout its operations. ETC Group has considered the processes of planning, leading, organizing, staffing and controlling which are considered to be few of the fundamental rudiments of management practices. Management practice can be defined as the process of managing the specified process systematically. Planning can be defined as the process of considering certain measures for framing a structure in accordance with the operational process.... From the performance and progress made by the ETC Group it is assumed that they manage their operational process systematically in order to conduct their research and education to collect proper and sufficient information with regard to a particular environment. With reference to the context, it can be stated that ETC Group makes certain of the persuasion of the management practices throughout its operations. ETC Group has considered the processes of planning, leading, organizing, staffing and controlling which are considered to be few of the fundamental rudiments of management practices. Management practice can be defined as the process of managing the specified process systematically. Planning Planning can be defined as the process of considering certain measures for framing a structure in accordance with the operational process which requires to be pursued. The facet of planning has been known to entail certain forms with the assistance of which the functions of an organization ar e executed. The types of planning are corporate planning which is referred as a process in which the organization thinks of the long term organizational or future goals along with formulating strategies to attain the intended organizational objectives. Functional planning can be defined as the procedure in which the higher officials of the organization focuses upon the chief internal functions as well as deciding on the organizational structure which is believed to help the organization to perform its operations systematically. Strategic planning is described as the measure which is designed with the aim of facilitating the growth in relation to the organization along with it future development. Operational planning generally involves

Assessment Performa Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Assessment Performa - Essay Example The paragraph surrounding that diagram looks a little sloppy; it should perhaps have been on the left side. But that does not at all weaken the context of your paper. The paper had a good format and was very well written; there were a few times when the sentences were a bit long and confusing. (i.e. from Permeability: "A study by Mason et al. (1997) of the correlation of the relative size of the fine sand fraction and reduction of permeability of a mixed beach showed that a medium sand content of 20% reduced the permeability of the shingle by 65% by filling the voids between the coarser particles.") A well researched and informative paper. It addresses the topic of shoreline evolution's review. The chart provided concise yet qualitative data. It was well formatted as well: the subtitles narrowed and focused the paper to its objective. However, the paper had some indented paragraphs and some paragraphs were without proper indention. This weakened the look and appeal of the paper overall. It should be taken into consideration that a paper should flow well so the reader can follow well with the structure of the paper. What made up for that was the attractive, yet informative, diagram of the Coastal Evolution Model. The information, abstract, conclusion and references were all very well maintained.

Parallel trade (import) in pharmaceuticals in the UK Dissertation

Parallel trade (import) in pharmaceuticals in the UK - Dissertation Example One of the most common problems of these practices is their failure to fully meet the standards related to the relevant activity. Furthermore, it seems that the willingness of the state to support business initiatives in various industrial sectors is not standardized. The above problem has resulted to the development of practices, which can help businesses to minimize the risks of loss and increase their competitiveness; parallel trade is such practice. Despite its value in increasing business performance, mostly through decreasing prices while the quality of offered products is not affected, parallel trade has been often negatively criticized as of its effects on the economy. On the other hand, there are industries more appropriate for parallel trade and others where parallel trade practices are difficult to be established. In the pharmaceutical industry of Britain, parallel import was used in order to control prices, which are already at a high level – compared to the averag e prices of similar products in other EU countries. The use of parallel trade in the pharmaceutical industry has been initially related to the reduced prices for patients; however, through the years, the specific activity has been also found to help towards ‘the reduction of costs for the social security system of the importing countries’.1 In practice, it has been proved that the use of parallel trade in the specific case did not manage to significantly support the particular industry – at least, not at the level expected by its initiators. However, important benefits were resulted for the British economy. The effects of parallel trade on the British pharmaceutical industry are examined in this paper. Emphasis is given on the policies used by the British legislators to control parallel trade regarding the pharmaceutical products and minimize relevant risks. It is concluded that parallel trade in the British pharmaceutical industry has helped the industry in incr ease its competitiveness against its rivals – referring mostly to the pharmaceutical industries of other member states; however, in terms of the performance of British pharmaceutical firms, the benefits of parallel trade are not clear, a fact indicating that additional measures need to be taken in order for the parallel trade in the specific industry to be more effectively controlled. 2. Parallel trade – description, characteristics and benefits Due to its nature, parallel import cannot be clearly defined; rather, reference could be made to its characteristics, as identified in the literature published in the particular field. In accordance with Cheng et al. (1995) the key characteristics of the parallel import are the following ones: ‘a) it relates to goods protected by trademark/ patent or copyright and b) the importer is not the rightholder of the said right but obtained and exported’.2 In terms of their legal status, parallel import goods have been cha racterized as ‘greymarket goods’, meaning that they are not fully legal;3 this issue is judged each time by reviewing the conditions of the local market but also the economic benefits to which parallel import is related in a particular market.4 In practice, this means that in countries where parallel import highly supports the national economy, its potential alignment with the law (referring to the legal status of the parallel

INTRODUCTION TO HUMANITIES Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

INTRODUCTION TO HUMANITIES - Essay Example The ancient Egyptians believed that real life began after the death of the body. It is for this purpose that so much deliberation and concern went into organizing the places where bodies would be brought to rest at the moment of death. The rich had the walls of their tombs carved exquisitely, and rich foods and jewels as well, were left there along with the body. The walls of the tombs also depicted Egyptian gods leading the person’s soul through judgment, and finally to his allotted area. Poor Egyptians were buried in the sand, but also made efforts to ensure that their bodies would first be mummified. (Bishop, 1999) The preservation of the body was very important to ancient Egyptians. They believed that a soul would need it in the next life and so took measures to ensure its maintenance. Mummification, an embalming process that took 70 days, was done to dry the body. Large amounts of natron were also employed to hasten the drying process. Canopy jars were then utilized to hold the mummified remains of the body parts that had been removed. The early Minoans in northern and eastern Crete were also seemingly preoccupied with the dead. They carved out in caves, elaborate house tombs for their dead, a norm that suggests that they considered that the deceased person would go on with a new life in death and that he would need his house (Bishop, 1999). Even in ancient China, the populace believed that the soul of a dead person continued to exist in another form once it left the body. It was deemed that it would require everything it possessed in earthly life to be comfortable. The ancient Chinese slaughtered the livestock and actual family of the deceased so that they could accompany him in his new existence. This was a practice observed by many ancient cultures inclusive of the Egyptians (Bishop, 1999). Today’s death practices in various parts of the world involve morticians

Managing Innovation and Change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 5

Managing Innovation and Change - Essay Example According to the article â€Å"Employee Environmental innovation in the firms: organizational and Managerial† propagates ethical competence where collective organizational efforts are required to instill values of different employees. Formidable decisions and their outcomes are positive and reflect in the organizational behavior that ignites and maintains the firm’s standards for creativity and quality innovations. Businesspersons require being visionary people who are both original and goal oriented. According to â€Å"Managing Innovation and Change† by David Mayle, Encapsulates Competency in communication where capabilities to incorporate viable methodologies in transmitting new ideological proposals are upheld to the uttermost. This relies heavily on individual communication skills, pinpointing relevant information and ideas and the ability to give direct examples of behavioral causes and their effects. Therefore, modern technology revolutionizes communication and the management of the business. According to â€Å"Organizational Behavior† by Don Hellriegel and John W. Slocum, Expounds on competency in diversity whereby a firm should recognize the importance of its employees as well as identifying organizational strengths and weak points.There should be unity among firm employees regardless of their backgrounds and traits. Strategic positioning of employees in different geographical areas is also important in order to develop quality ideas and products. Based on the â€Å"Organizational Innovation: studies of program change in community Agencies† emphasis is put on the usefulness of excellent and reliable communication channels and skills among employees working in a firm’s production line. Efficiency and effectiveness of the firm are dependent on formidable communication skills. â€Å"Organizational Behavior: from Theory to Practice† defines organizational behavior as the studying of people, processes, and pra ctices that affect individual and organizational operations. Trait differences should not compromise employees’ unity working in the firm. According to the article â€Å"Organizational Behavior: Integrating Individuals, Groups, and Organization† embracing information technology connects a firm to its suppliers, employees, clients, and the world in general. Advertising of products is objective plus the organizational and employees’ interests are all catered for excellently.

The Social Internet Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The Social Internet - Essay Example One of the oldest institutions that we have used as a place of social gathering and interaction has been the church. While church membership has fallen slightly in recent years, the Internet has been a revival for religious organizations. Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Greenville SC downloaded 80,000 Internet sermons last year from their site (Hills, 2003). Many of these surfers would probably have never set foot inside a church. According to The Barna Group, by 2010 as many as 50 million Americans will rely on the Internet as their sole religious contact (as cited in Hills, 2003). Though the Internet has the power to move more people toward religion, it is clearly moving them away from the church and away from the social setting that was important for conversation and local news in previous decades. Just as the Internet can deliver religion to the people, it also has the capacity to deliver people to politics. Political contributions, debate, and interaction have soared in recent years. The Internet has made vast quantities of information instantly available for anyone who cares to search for it and has the potential to create a new form of electronic democracy. Yet, with all this information available, it is still incumbent upon the user to seek it out, read it, and digest it. Polat (2005) suggests that we are suffering from information overload and says we "[...] may become dependent on others to evaluate the available information" (p. 438).

Gilmans “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Steinbecks “The Chrysanthemums Essay Example for Free

Gilmans â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† and Steinbecks â€Å"The Chrysanthemums Essay â€Å"The Chrysanthemums† by John Steinbeck and â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper† by Charlotte Perkins Gilman are short stories which have a female protagonist struggling through a suffocating marriage and living in a society that says that women can not exist outside of marriage. The Chrysanthemums written by John Steinbeck is a story about a woman worn and oppressed by a male dominated world. A world which breaks a womans will, strips away their humanity, and obscures who they really are and what they really want out of life. Eliza, a married woman forgotten by her husband and the world, has found a bit of happiness in her garden. It is here that she finds solace and comfort. The flowers are her companions. Similarly, in The Yellow Wallpaper, written in the century before The Chrysanthemums, is also about the oppression of women in society by men. On the surface it was the story of a woman who has a child and suffered from depression. Her husband, who is also her doctor, prescribed the â€Å"The Mitchell Treatment†. This was a standard treatment for all mental disorders during this time which consisted of isolation and rest. The woman, the main character, was placed in an attic for a month of recovery. Her only companion was the peeling yellow wallpaper. In the end, both women find, brief as it may be, freedom. Though written decades apart, both Steinbeck and Gilman use symbols and character development to develop a theme of female oppression and survival. The major symbol in Steinbecks short story is the Chrysanthemum flower. Chrysanthemums are hearty flowers which need specific care, patience, and tending. Like children, they must be cared for daily, treated with delicate and gentle hands. Within her garden paradise she hides herself, as a woman. Steinbeck describes her as a woman that wears a man’s black hat pulled low down over her eyes, clodhopper shoes, a figured print dress almost completely covered by a big corduroy apron†¦ (1). Eliza, who is childless, takes pride and comfort in her ability to grow these amazing flowers. They represent for her the children she was never able to have. She is extremely protective of these flowers caring and feeding them like mother nursing her baby. She creates a crib of wire to ensure that [n]o aphids, no sowbugs or snails or cutworms are there. Her terrier fingers [destroy] such pests before they [can] get started (1). Like pointy corners of tables and light sockets, Eliza protects her children from the hazards of life. She cares for this flowers like she wishes someone had cared for her gentle fingertips caressing her own blooms. These flowers inspire the only intimate moments that occurred between Eliza and her husband in the entire short story. He husband stops by her garden and tells her how lovely her flowers are. She blushes and Steinbeck observes on her face there [is] a little smugness(1). Eliza gives birth to these amazing creatures which bring so much beauty to the world, and supplies Eliza with her only taste of motherhood (Demott 3). Similarly, Gilman uses the symbol of yellow wallpaper. The Yellow Wall-Paper is a small literary masterpiece. For almost fifty years it has been overlooked, as has its author, one of the most commanding feminists of her time. Now, with the new growth of the feminist movement, Charlotte Perkins Gilman is being rediscovered, and The Yellow Wall-Paper should share in that rediscovery. The story of a womans mental breakdown (Gilman 37). A major symbol in The Yellow Wallpaper is the wallpaper itself. The Yellow wallpaper was a familiar character in realist fiction and was often found to be distasteful. (Roth). The narrator is annoyed and eventually repulsed by her only companion, the yellow patterned wallpaper. The evolution of what the wallpaper symbolized parallels the mental state of the narrator. When the narrator first settled down to her months worth of rest in the attic of her house, it is the wall paper she hated most. It was old, tattered, and a dirty yellow color. She commented that the worse part of the wallpaper was the dull pattern. She pondered about the wallpaper : It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicideplunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions. The color is repellent, almost revolting; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight (Gilman 24). The pattern became the focus of much of the narrators time. She attempted on many occasions to figure out what the pattern was with no success. She is mad, of course, by this time, reduced to a paranoid schizophrenic who writes, Ive got out at last in spite of you and Jane. And Ive pulled off most of the paper, so you cant put me back! (36).(Bak). After several days of trying she began to see a sub pattern which can only be seen at certain parts of the day depending on the amount of light being filtered through the windows. She decided that the sub pattern is that of a woman who is creeping along the floor on her knees, not even being able to stand. She states â€Å"There is a recurrent spot where the pattern lolls like a broken neck and two bulbous eyes stare at you upside down† (Gilman 25). This woman was imprisoned by the main pattern and wished only to escape her cage. The main pattern became clear to the narrator. She believed the main pattern were heads of those women who attempted to escape but were caught between the bars. It was clear that as the month passed the mental state of the narrator became increasingly unstable. The wallpaper and its pattern also represented the societal chains (treatment, family, and marriage) which have imprisoned her for so long. The yellow wallpaper has become synonymous with the domestic bars which trapped women in their inferior roles as wives and mother in the 1800s. Through the use of both symbols, Steinbeck and Gilman track the internal conflict of their respective protagonists. In Steinbecks short story, it is the Chrysanthemum which are indirectly responsible for Eliza awakening. The chrysanthemums create a situation in which Eliza meets a man which stimulates and re-ignites her female sensuality, that has been long forgotten. Steinbeck describes Eliza stripped of her female side and like her home, that she was hard-swept and hard-polished (1). Henry fails to notice and takes for granted the feminine qualities which Eliza brings to the relationship. His love for her did not exist anymore. The couple lives like strangers. Eliza, submissive and loyal, does not addresses her discontent with her husband and their relationship remains empty. He remarks, to her about her chrysanthemums, I wish youd work out in the orchard and raise some apples that big (1). She is resentful and unhappy which causes her to hide in her garden. One afternoon while she is attending to her flowers she meets a traveling salesman who stops and admires her flowers. Steinbeck describes the stranger in the following way: Elisa saw that he was a very big man. Although his hair and beard were graying, he did not look old. His worn black suit was wrinkled and spotted with grease. The laughter had disappeared from his face and eyes the moment his laughing voice ceased. His eyes were dark, and they were full of the brooding that gets in the eyes of teamsters and of sailors. The calloused hands he rested on the wire fence were cracked, and every crack was a black line. He took off his battered hat. (1) When he flirts with her indirectly, she melts. She is thirsty for the attention a man gives to a woman. The stranger visually caresses the flowers, commenting that the flowers were like delicate quick puff[s] of colored smoke,(243) and she can feels his fingers like they were on her skin. Chrysanthemums represent Eliza long last sensuality and her need to be fulfilled physically and emotionally. Eliza quickly responds and [tears] off the battered hat and [shakes] out her dark pretty hair(1). The cold Elisa suddenly becomes the image of perfect femininity soft and flowing, contrasting against the strong male. She is attracted to him and offers him the only gift she can, a singe red chrysanthemum a symbol of her sacred femininity. Through this stimulation, Eliza is inspired to again get in touch with her body and soul (Wilson 34). After a dinner eaten in silence with a man who does not love her, Eliza is forced to endure the car trip home. Weeping, and staring out the window she sees her bloody red chrysanthemums tossed on the side of the road, and she feels her soul die once again. Gilman utilizes her symbol of the yellow wallpaper in the same way, her protagonist is first imprisoned and then awakened by the wallpaper. Gilman actively asserts through her use of symbolism and the mental deterioration of the narration that women, at the turn of the century, suffering from mental illness were mistreated. Her husband, who is also her doctor, prescribed the â€Å"The Mitchell Treatment† (Hume). This was a standard treatment for all mental disorders during this time which consisted of isolation and rest. The woman, the main character, was placed in an attic for a month of recovery. Her only companion was the peeling yellow wallpaper. Slowly the unnamed narrator slipped into deep depressive psychosis. It is not until she shirked off the treatment and the invisible societal chains that she becomes well again. The theme of oppression is overwhelmingly present in both short stories. Elizas gift of the chrysanthemum represents the physical interaction between a man and a woman. After the stranger leaves, with quicken breath, she almost floats into her house and draws herself a hot bath. She finds her little block of pumice and literally scrubs her body legs and thighs, loins and chest and arms, until her skin was scratched and red(1). She urgently washes, symbolically bringing blood back into her lifeless body and soul. She dresses slowly finding her best lingerie and dress. She applies makeup and prepares to go out on a date with her husband. She patiently awaits for her husband to come in from the fields. She hopes her husband will feel romantically toward her again. She hopes that he provide her with the same sensual stimulation that those few brief moments with the stranger. Unfortunately, her hopes are not fulfilled. When Henry finally sees his wife, he casually comments You look strong enough to break a calf over your knee, happy enough to eat it like a watermelon (1). Eliza laments her husbands lack of charm, as if he is intentionally trying to crush her soul. She slowly loses the woman that she had found hours before. After a dinner eaten in silence with a man who does not love her, Eliza is forced to endure the car trip home. Weeping, and staring out the window she sees her bloody red chrysanthemums tossed on the side of the road, and she feels her soul die once again. Gilmans narrator is also mistreated by her husband and society in general. John, her husband, a wise man of medicine, inflicts a loutish and gender-biased cure on herand this tale, as Gilman claims, exposes such boorish barbarism. However, Gilmans mad narrator unveils not only the ills of the rest cure treatment and a repressive domestic culture filled with Johns and Jennies, but also her hatred for a domestic (and maternal) role she has no desire to assume. The Yellow Wall-Paper not only rejects, as Gilman intended, the gender-biased rest cure of the nineteenth-century, but also indicts, less successfully, gender-biased definitions of mental illness. Married women during this time were â€Å"freed from the necessity of contributing to society outside the home, presumably because marriage befit her for motherhood and motherhood required all of her energies.(ODonnell). Despite her triumphant unmasking of medical (predominantly male) gender bias in this tale, Gilmans narrator falls apart so completely in the end that she tends, unfortunately, to reinforce the common nineteenth-century gender stereotype of the emotionally and physically frail nineteenth-century woman. Steinbeck through the use of chrysanthemums asserts that women are oppressed and imprisoned by world that was built for men. Through intricate detail, wit, and symbolism Steinbeck breathes life into the story of a woman completely controlled by her husband, and suffocated by world. She experiences momentary awakening during a brief interaction with a stranger. Steinbeck uses chrysanthemums evoke the feeling of rebirth, renewal, autonomy, and femininity. Eliza completely broken down and she crumbles crying weakly-like an old woman(X). Her husband takes her granted and does not notice that she is woman with needs and desires. Not only does her husband ignore her but so does the world. The stranger which seemed to admire all of Elizas qualities represents the world. Just as that man tossed away Elizas beautiful flowers because they were unnecessary. Steinbecks point is that is exactly the male dominated world views and treats women. Society is oppressive to women, allowing them not to bloom, keeping women submissive and docile. Eliza is not valued by the world because she is female. She meant only to exist for her husband and family. Eliza tries to be a woman in world where her womanly charms are ignored by her husband and the world in general. To survive she forgets about who she truly is and finds happiness in her garden. When she is briefly re-awakening, she attempts again to find her true self. However, her husband and the world will not let her and she must once again, for the last time, suppress who she is and what she wants. Through the use of similar literary devices the theme of female oppression and liberation is explored differently in â€Å"The Chrysanthemums† and â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper.† The oppression of women in a male dominated world has plagued society for centuries. The stories of women are often left untold and considered unimportant. To fully explore this theme both authors use symbolism and careful character development. The main symbol found in The Yellow Wallpaper is that of the decaying yellow wallpaper that is in the attic where the narrator is sent for isolation. Its decay parallels the decay of the narrator. In addition, Gilman details this decline and explores the inner workings of the narrator through the character development leading up to the narrators decision that she did want to live. Similarly, Steinbeck uses the symbol of the Chrysanthemum to represent Elizas life, isolation, liberation, and emotional death. There is only a small set of literary tools available to authors, of any genre, through which themes like oppression can be examined. It is through the unique manipulation of these tools, and the intense expertise of great American authors that such a varied approach to survival can be interrupted, demonstrated, and shared. Works Cited Bak, John S. Escaping the Jaundiced Eye: Foucauldian Panopticism in Charlotte Perkins Gilmans The Yellow Wallpaper.. Studies in Short Fiction 31.1 (1994): 39+. DeMott, Robert. Steinbecks Typewriter: Essays on His Art. Revised ed. Troy, NY: Whitston Publishing, 1997. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wall-Paper. Revised ed. New York: Feminist Press, 1996. Hume, Beverly A. Managing Madness in Gilmans The Yellow Wall-Paper. Studies in American Fiction 30.1 (2002): 3+. ODonnell, Margaret G. A Reply to Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Reassessing Her Significance for Feminism and Social Economics. Review of Social Economy 54.3 (1996): 337+. Roth, Marty. Gilmans Arabesque Wallpaper. Mosaic (Winnipeg) 34.4 (2001): 145+. Steinbeck, John. â€Å"The Chrysanthemums.† Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts and Henry E. Jacobs. 4th Compact ed. New York: Prentice Hall, 2007. Wilson, Edmund. The Boys in the Back Room: Notes on California Novelists. San Francisco: Colt Press, 1941. Questia.

Security Plan

Security Plan Scenario : Widget Warehouse is a medium sized e-commerce company that supports 200 customers daily. The student has been hired to assist in the development of a new security policy. An assignment has been received to analyse the current network of Widget Warehouse. The Widget Warehouse network is comprised of an intranet with 200 users, and a public Web server that processes the company e-commerce traffic. The internal network is logically divided into an information technology (IT) department branch, an accounting branch, a customer service branch, a sales branch, and an inventory branch. Step 1 Create a list of various attack intruders: a. The IT department for Widget Warehouse has a general understanding of security but they are very inexperienced with the various attacks an intruder can use to exploit their network resources. Create a list of various attacks intruders can use maliciously against the Widget Warehouse network. Also, provide a brief description of possible attacks, including their purpose. Attack Name Attack Description Brute force attack This attack uses a specific character set (such as A-Z, 0-9) and computes the hash for every possible password made up of those characters. Eavesdropping When an attacker is eavesdropping on our communications, it is referred to as sniffing or snooping. The ability of an eavesdropper to monitor the network is generally the biggest security problem that administrators face in an enterprise. Without strong encryption services that are based on cryptography, our data can be read by others as it traverses the network. Denial-of-Service Attack The denial-of-service attack prevents normal use of your computer or network by valid users. After gaining access to the network the attacker can send invalid data to applications or network services, which causes abnormal termination or behaviour of the applications or services, attacker can flood a computer or the entire network with traffic until a shutdown occurs because of the overload, attacker can Block traffic, which may result in loss of access our network resources by the users. Data Modification After an attacker has read our data, the next logical step is to alter it. An attacker can modify the data in the packet without the knowledge of the sender or receiver. Even if we do not require confidentiality for all communications or we do not want any of the messages to be modified in transit. For example, if one is exchanging purchase requisitions, he does not want the items, amounts, or billing information to be modified. Identity Spoofing (IP Address Spoofing) Most networks and operating systems use the IP address of a computer to identify a valid entity. In certain cases, it is possible for an IP address to be falsely assumed— identity spoofing. An attacker might also use special programs to construct IP packets that appear to originate from valid addresses inside the corporate intranet. After gaining access to the network with a valid IP address, the attacker can modify, reroute, or delete your data. Password-Based Attacks A common denominator of most operating system and network security plans is password-based access control. Thus the access rights to a computer and network resources are determined by the person, the user name and the password. Older applications do not always protect identity information as it is passed through the network for validation. This might allow an eavesdropper to gain access to the network by posing as a valid user. Sniffer Attack A sniffer is an application or device that can read, monitor, and capture network data exchanges and read network packets. If the packets are not encrypted, a sniffer provides a full view of the data inside the packet. Even encapsulated (tunnelled) packets can be broken open and read unless they are encrypted and the attacker does not have access to the key. Man-in-the-Middle Attack The man-in-the-middle attack occurs when someone between you and the person with whom you are communicating is actively monitoring, capturing, and controlling your communication transparently. For example, the attacker can re-route a data exchange. When computers are communicating at low levels of the network layer, the computers might not be able to determine with whom they are exchanging data. Trojan horses and worms Trojan horses are often associated with viruses which are they are dangerous programs that masquerade as benign programs. Step 2 Make a List of Security Requirements: a. One of the first steps in creating a security policy is gathering the requirements for the company. Create a list of questions to ask the Widget Warehouse executives, in order to better understand their security requirements and business goals. 1. Widget Warehouse requirements: a) What are the specifications required for the network operation? b) What access controls are needed to be applied on the users? c) Which departments are needed to be interconnected? d) What are the login policies and to which extent are they needed to be applied? (day, time range etc) e) A list of various applications which are required for the different branches? f) To what extent the policies are to be applied on the users? g) How group policies should be applied on the server which allows the users to access information? h) What are the policies to be implied on the web access? i) Specifications of file policies to all the users? j) What are the password policies needed to be applied on the users? Step 3 Identify Security Implementation Options a. Based on the questions, it is discovered that mission-critical information is passed between remote departments in the company over the LAN and the Internet. What security implementation could be used to keep this information out of unauthorized hands? Provide a brief explanation with each answer. Company will have the information about their employees, customers, products, sales, and financial status. Most of this information is now collected, processed and stored on electronic computers and transmitted across networks to other computers. Should confidential information about businesses customers or finances or new product line fall into the hands of a competitor, such a breach of security could lead to lost business, law suits or even bankruptcy of the business. Protecting confidential information is a business requirement, and in many cases also an ethical and legal requirement. In the company one department is needed to access the information of another department. We should maintain a firewall to the server. And we have to give the access between the departments where it is required. Authorization: Authorization addresses the question: what can you do? It is the process that governs the resources and operations that the authenticated client is permitted to access. Resources include files, databases, tables, rows, and so on, together with system-level resources such as registry keys and configuration data. Operations include performing transactions such as purchasing a product, transferring money from one account to another, or increasing a customers credit rating. Virtual Private Network ‘VPN One of the most important solutions to viruses and hackers threats is VPN [4] that makes the network between companies and users secured; it is also authenticated and encrypted for security. VPNs provide the ability for two offices to communicate with each other in such a way that it looks like theyre directly connected over a private leased line. Basically, a VPN is a private network that uses a public network usually the Internet to connect remote sites or users together. Instead of using a dedicated, real world connection such as leased line, a VPN [11] uses virtual connections routed through the Internet from the companys private network to the remote site or employee. IPSec: IPSec [3] is defined as a set of standards that verifies, authenticates, and encrypts data at the IP packet level. It is used to provide data security for network transmissions. IPSec is a suite of protocols that allows secure, encrypted communication between two computers over an unsecured network. It has two goals: to protect IP packets, and to provide a defense against network attacks. Step 4 Create a Description of the Security Wheel a. The Widget Warehouse executives do not completely understand the continual process of security. They appear to be under the impression that once a security policy is implemented it will be sufficient for an extended period of time. Create a description of the security wheel and discuss the benefits of such a model. Sol: The network security wheel is a methodology of how the network security of an enterprise is maintained. Here the notion of ‘wheel is a depiction that says that network security is a continuous process. In other words, in order to keep the wheel rolling have a continual security policy, the security engineers in an enterprise should always maintain four steps: Step Name Step Description 1. Secure We have to secure our networks. This is the step where we implement our security solutions in the enterprise. Firewalls, authentication, encryption are included in this step 2. Monitor This is the step where we monitor our security solutions implemented in the previous step. We should monitor if a security breach exists. We can think about IDS or IPS in this stage. This step can also be used to validate our security solutions. 3. Test This is the step where the security engineers/specialists try to break their own security solutions. We can think of this step as penetration testers kind of job. 4. Improve This step is a continuation of the previous step. Once we find a breach or something that hinders employees productivity, then we can improve it here. This step may also be a good place to change our security policies. Step 5 Passive Monitoring a. The management of Widget Warehouse wishes to see some of the available options in security monitoring. As the consultant, suggest that a passive monitoring scheme may be an option they should pursue. Write a description of passive monitoring that is to be presented to Widget Warehouse management. Sol: Security monitoring focuses on the activities and condition of network traffic and network hosts. Activity monitoring is primarily performed to assess policy compliance, identify non-compliance with the institutions policies, and identify intrusions and support an effective intrusion response. Because activity monitoring is typically an operational procedure performed over time, it is capable of providing continual assurance. Through passive monitoring, a security admin can gain a thorough understanding of the networks topology: what services are available, what operating systems are in use, and what vulnerabilities may be exposed on the network. Much of this data can be gathered in an automated, non-intrusive manner through the use of standard tools, Step 6 Explain Using a Security Policy a. Explain to the IT Department how using a security policy can provide advantages to the company as a way to secure sensitive information. 1. Developing a security policy. †¢ By using a security policy, we can achieve confidentiality, integrity and availability over the network. †¢ The security policy addresses constraints on functions and flow among them, constraints on access by external systems and adversaries including programs and access to data by the users of different branches. †¢ Information will be protected against unauthorised access. †¢ By using access control lists and password policies, certain important data can be protected from unauthorised users. †¢ All breaches of Information Security, actual or suspected, can be reported and investigated. †¢ Retaining confidential and proprietary information. †¢ Securing applications †¢ Assuring standardization and consistency †¢ At the network level, we can minimise the spread and impact of harmful worms †¢ and viruses. †¢ Business requirements for the availability of information and information systems will be met.

Legalization Of Weed :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In this country, we are locked in a war we simply cannot win. We strive to protect over 10,000 miles of border, against enemies who are driven by the lure of a huge profit. We fought a version of this war before with prohibition, and we lost that one. All that has really resulted from this war is the overcrowding of prisons, the expansion of law enforcement’s ability to infringe on the personal lives of ordinary citizens, paranoia and distrust. If its not obvious already, I am referring to the war on drugs, marijuana in specific. Why spend millions of dollars fighting a war that can not be won? Legalizing marijuana would not only make the government money, but also improve society as a whole.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  To most the financial reasons for ending the war are the most convincing. For example, it costs over $30,000 per year to house a prisoner - this does not include processing and legal fees. There are over 1.5 million non-violent drug law offenders in prison right now, and this number is increasing daily. That means we are spending a minimum of $45 billion per year keeping former tax-paying citizens locked up with murderers and rapists. When these people get out of jail, they will have criminal records which will make it nearly impossible to get a decent job. Most of whom had jobs and were contributing to the economy in some way.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The United States spend $37 billion per year funding police efforts to fight the war on drugs.. Recent evidence suggests the CIA has been involved in drug-trafficking to fund its own private wars. Currently there is over $150 billion worth of drug traffic that remains untaxed. If you figure a tax rate of 15%, that is a total of $22.5 billion of taxes that America doesn't see. The U.S. Treasury estimates America wastes a minimum of $104.5 billion per year fighting a war that can not be won. Meanwhile crime rates continue to rise (because of the huge profits made possible by the risks involved in the drug trade as drugs remain illegal), and the quality of education, medical care and environmental protection falls due to lack of money in the budget.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The problem with drugs is not their effect, it is the corruption that is tied to the huge profits that doing illegal business commands. Increasing penalties for drug crimes will just increase the prices and thereby the profits for people willing to take the risk. Along with these profits will come increasing war in our neighborhoods as gangs and

Matching You with Your Mate :: essays research papers

Is it really better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all? Some of the couples today make that statement seem to be the ultimate truth and others make it questionable. Some appear to be perfect for each other, and others can cause you to wonder just what it is that they have in common. From a girl’s point of view, there are many different types of boyfriends with various behaviors out there. Some go for the typical shy guy, others for the ticking time bomb, the twenty-four seven frisky friend, the little puppy its way, or even the searched for soul mate. Just to think that the next guy you meet may turn out to be just the opposite of what you’re looking for creates a risk that no girl can seem to refuse.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The guy sitting next to you in your summer English class appears to be your typical shy guy because he never has much to say. Imagine yourself a month from now dating him and picture how he’d be as a boyfriend. Now you’re not only spending time in the classroom, but you’re also devoting and sharing everything you have with him. You find yourself waiting for the moment for him to come out of his shell, but it just never seems to come. This proves that the shy guy never really changes much over a period of time, relationship or not. There will always be an awkward moment of silence with him that may cause things in the relationship to become a little unsteady. For example, when you both attend your company’s annual picnic, he comes off as being an unsociable date that seems to be attached to your hip because he never makes the effort to converse in your conversation nor his own. For some people a shy guy isn’t so bad, but for those who are looking for a long-lasting relationship, it’s not recommended.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Moving up a step or two from the shy guy brings you to the ticking time bomb that some girls just can’t seem to get enough of. These are the guys that make it hard for you to take them out because it’s unpredictable when that bomb that you’re holding hands with will go off. Fortunately for these guys, some girls will put up with the edginess that these easily irritated guys seem to possess.

Arthur Millers The Crucible :: Arthur Miller Crucible Essays

Arthur Miller's The Crucible Arthur Miller individualises characters through their style of speech in many ways. Abigail Williams, one of the main characters, is a very attractive young lady, as portrayed in the text. However, her personality is bitter spiteful and vengeful. This has been shown by the way Miller individualises her, through her speech. Abigail is very bossy and has a lot of authority; "Uncle, the rumour of witchcraft is all about: I think you'd best go down and deny it yourself. The parlour's packed with people, sir. I'll sit with her". She seems to take control in a stressful situation, and hence controls people through their fear: "I think you'd best go down". Miller uses this sentence, in order to portray Abigail as a very manipulative and some-what controlling person. Miller also exposes the fact that Abigail is very spiteful and demanding. This is shown when Abigail is having an argument with her uncle, Parris. "She hates me, uncle; she must, for I would not be her slave. It's a bitter woman, a lying, cold, snivelling woman, and I will not work for such a woman!" This shows how Abigail puts everyone down, and tries to make out that she is the innocent victim in all the chaos. Another way Miller individualises Abigail, is the way she blames other people to get her self out of trouble- "Not I, sir- Tituba and Ruth". This shows how Miller puts across to the audience, the 'real' Abigail. Yet again, Miller reveals Abigail as being manipulative and controlling. "I have been hurt, Mr Danforth; I have seen my blood runnin' out! I have been near to murder every day because I done my duty pointing out the Devil's people- and this is my reward! To be mistrusted, denied questioned like a-". This also shows how Abigail is making everyone else feel sorry for her, as she has been doing the right thing. This is effective as it again brings out the 'real' Abigail, a cunning, sly, deceiving person. Abigail Williams wants to protect herself, and hence confesses, as she wants the same attention as Tituba, not to suffer, This shows her selfishness as she doesn't want to get hung and therefore follows Tituba's lead. "I want to open myself! I want the light of God; I want the sweet love of Jesus!" Miller uses the word "open" to emphasise the fact that Abigail doesn't want to just reveal herself, but "open" her. This then shows the audience how overdramatic Miller makes Abigail. In conclusion, I feel that Miller has effectively individualised Abigail, as a self-centred, overdramatic, deceiving woman. Mr Hale, another one of Miller's characters, however he is not as

High School Drop-Outs Essay

When one out of three students fails to graduate in the nation, there has to be a main issue, a source of frustration or maybe hopelessness, causing students to give up on their educations when they had an opportunity to go further. When people feel that there is no hope or chance, they will give up. This is what is happening to high-school students leading them to drop-out of school despite the fact that a high-school diploma could be so beneficial to their lives and the fact that it can be prevented. In the article â€Å"High School Dropouts Costly to American Economy†, Sarah White said, â€Å"The teachers didn’t care, the students didn’t care. Nobody cared, so why should I?† I believe that in order for students to want to work in high school to achieve their diplomas, they need emotional support and a motivational backbone. When I made a good grade when I was little or even now, my parents and my teacher were there to praise me and push me to do even better and work toward higher educational goals. Because of their support, I want to do well in school and aim high in school and towards college. Without their support, advice and expectations, I probably wouldn’t care about school; this is what high school-dropouts need and are lacking. Just earning a high school diploma can improve the standard of living for a person significantly. The article â€Å"By the Numbers: Dropping Out of High School† says, â€Å"The average dropout can expect to earn an annual income of $20,241, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s a full $10,386 less than the typical high school graduate, and $36,424 less than someone with a bachelor degree.† With numbers as drastic as this, schools need to not only work to get students to graduate, but desire to work for at least a bachelor’s degree in higher education for the benefit of the students. Many successful programs to improve this situation are have already been created; more schools simply need to work them into their systems. The Boys & Girls Clubs of America was created solely to serve kids in crisis, kids who are at risk for many things including not graduating on time. This club’s self-professed mission states that it serves to create, â€Å"A safe place to learn and grow, ongoing relationships with caring, adult professionals, life-enhancing programs and character development experiences and hope and opportunity.† In other words, this club serves to provide kids with the support they need in a safe environment. These clubs have many local chapters and already serve many kids, and they are easy to create. Other solutions for the drop-out crisis include creating mentors or buddies for at-risk students in school and students getting paid for good grades; each are effective in different ways. By pairing at-risk students at school with other students who have high education goals, a support system is created where a friend can set the example and be the support. Paying students for their good grades creates incentive for students to not only stay in school, but to do well. These solutions and many others can be easy to implement and are very effective. With drop-out rates so high, more action needs to be taken by school and community to improve the futures of many children and many steps can be taken to do so. As Benjamin Franklin once said, â€Å"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.† An investment in a high school diploma is in the best interest of everyone.

Corporate Bond Market in India Essay

Foreword In the rush to produce urgent policy documents and briefing notes that any government has to do, it is easy to let matters that may not be quite as urgent to go unattended. However, the not-so-urgent often includes matters of great importance for the long-run well-being of the nation and its citizenry. Research papers on topics of strategic economic policy fall in this category. The Economic Division in the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, has initiated this Working Paper series to make available to the Indian policymaker, as well as the academic and research community interested in the Indian economy, papers that are based on research done in the Ministry of Finance and address matters that may or may not be of immediate concern but address topics of importance for India’s sustained and inclusive development. It is hoped that this series will serve as a forum that gives shape to new ideas and provides space to discuss, debate and disseminate them. Executive Summary: In this paper, we examine the factors behind underdevelopment of corporate bond market in India. We assess that one of the major bottlenecks to the development of this market lies in relatively larger costs of financing which dissuade the firms to raise finance from this avenue. We argue that the lack of transparency, inefficient market making and illiquidity of the instrument not only lead to such extra costs of financing that hampers investment in the real sector but can trap the bond market in a low level equilibrium. To alleviate such problems, we prescribe policies that ensure better production of information and increased volume of transactions that will lessen both liquidity and transparency problems and ensure efficient market making. A combination of such policies include mandatory disclosure of ratings by firms and assignment of multiple agencies for rating an issue at different points of time, minimum size of placements of (infrastructure) bonds, establishing stop loss thr eshold, among others will help breaking the trap and improve quality of issues and would eventually lead to a vibrant bond market with reduced costs of financing investment. Structure of the paper: The paper is structured in three parts. The first part, section 3 and 4 analyse how corporations finance themselves and how does the corporate bond market contribute in this process. Section 3 delves into how large Indian firms evolved in their financing pattern over the past decade. We further analyse what are some of the key drivers of such financing pattern when it comes to corporate bond markets in section 4. In section 5, we offer an analytical construct and mode that shows how liquidity, transparency and informational problems contribute not only to higher costs of financing but may create low level equilibrium trap in the bond market where few issuers, investors and market makers participate. In section 6, we summarise the policy implications of our findings and analyse what it would take for the corporate bond market to move from the current state (of low level equilibrium) to a higher level equilibrium. We examine where the policy maker might have a role to play and where th e market will respond to address its concerns spontaneously. 2. A review of how large firms in India finance themselves Our analysis about the debt market in India begins with a review about how firms in India finance themselves. Our information is necessarily restricted to the largest firms of India, those that are observed in the CMIE database. We focus on non-financial firms, so as to avoid the measurement problems of accounting data for financial firms. The `sources and uses of funds’ statement, which is the first difference of the balance sheet, yields important insights into the financing structure. Table 1: Structure of sources and uses of funds Ended 2000-01 35.2 5.7 29.5 64.6 17.2 14.4 3.5 0.5 25.5 Ended 2010-11 30.8 21.1 9.7 67.5 13.8 17.8 3.9 3.2 24.2 Component Internal Retained Earnings Depreciation External New equity Banks Bonds Foreign Current liabilities Table 1 shows the structure of the sources of funds, comparing the latest available year (2010-11) against one decade ago (2000-01). The first feature of interest is internal financing. We see a substantial reliance on internal financing: from 35.2% a decade ago to 30.8% today. To the extent that internal financing is important, it acts as a barrier against new firms who do not have pre-existing cash-flow. The hallmark of a sophisticated financial system is a substantial extent of external financing. From a normative point of view, to the extent that external financing is greater, this is likely to induce superior resource allocation and competitiveness. Turning to external financing, one important component – equity financing which was at 17.2% in 2000-01 and 13.8% in 2010-11 – is in relatively sound shape. The Indian equity market was the focus of policy makers from 1992 onwards, and substantial progress has been made. One key element – stock lending – i s as yet absent. Barring this, all sophisticated features of the worlds top equity markets are now found in India. The two Indian exchanges, NSE and BSE, rank 3rd and 5th in the global ranking by number of transactions, that is produced by the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE). The problems in India today lie in debt. Banks accounted for 14.4% of the financing of large firms in 2000-01, which went up to 17.8% in 2010-11. The bond market stagnated, with 3.5% in 2000-01 and 3.9% a decade later. Despite considerable interest in bond market development, the corporate bond market accounted for only 3.9% of the sources of funds of large Indian companies. Finally, foreign borrowing rose sharply, from roughly nothing in 2000-01 to 3.2% in 2010-11. To some extent, borrowing abroad has served as a way for Indian firms to overcome the difficulties of obtaining debt financing domestically. From a normative perspective, the picture that we see in the sources of funds is one of an excessive reliance on internal financing, a surprisingly large role for banks, and a miniscule and stagnant bond market. The next issue that we turn to is the role of secured versus unsecured borrowing. The hallmark of a sophisticated debt market is the presence of unsecured borrowing. Secured borrowing is the mainstay of a simple-minded financial system: The lender does not have to analyse the prospects of the borrower for he lends only against collateral. In contrast, unsecured borrowing requires that the lender has to understand the prospective cashflow of the borrower, which determines the extent to which the promises about future repayment may be upheld. We analyse secured versus unsecured borrowing by size quintiles, once again amongst all the non-financial firms seen in the CMIE database. In the smallest quintile, in 2001, secured borrowings were at 76.7%. A decade later, there was a small decline, to 65.37%. This shows the stubborn domination of secured borrowing, when it comes to the smallest firms. Similar patterns are found in other size quintiles also. In the fourth quintile – from the 60th percentile to the 80th percentile – secured borrowing was 84.7% in 2001 and had dropped slightly to 80% in 2011. This domination of secured borrowing suggests a debt market that has a highly limited ability (or incentive) to actually understand borrowers. Even in the top quintile of firms – roughly the 680 biggest companies of India – we do not see a meaningful extent of unsecured borrowing. In 2001, secured borrowing was 65.8%, and this dropped to 60.7% in 2011. In other words, even for the biggest firms of India, only 39% of borrowing was unsecured. The debt market was not able to analyse the prospects and give debt, based on assessment about the future, to a substantial extent to even the biggest firms in the country. This evidence shows a highly malformed debt market. The bond market is practically nonexistent in corporate financing. Forward-looking assessment is weak; even the biggest firms tend to rely on secured borrowing. 3. Key issues with Indian corporate bond market functioning The presence of corporate bond market in India is barely perceptible as compared to other economies. Despite of multiple endeavours by the government in the recent past, to revive the market, neither investors nor issuers showed any tangible interest. As a result, at least 80% of corporate bonds comprise of privately placed debt by public financial institutions. The following graph confirms inadequate growth of the bond market in India relative to the countries like US, Japan and China. Illustration – Share of Corporate Bonds in Total Debt (Source: BIS) Bond markets as well as equity market owe their difference to inherent characteristics of the instrument that underlies respective markets. The following summarise how the markets are different – Intermediaries – Market intermediaries in both bond and equity markets ensure liquidity. However the intermediaries in the bond market at present need to hold a larger amount of capital than their counterparts in the equity markets because of the larger volume of trade in each transaction. Subsequently the need to hold large inventory position is more for bond market intermediaries as compared to equity market intermediaries who have the option to do electronic limit order matching. Hence, intermediaries in the bond market are exposed to greater risks due to liquidity partly due to the absence of a secondary market where retail investors can participate along with large players. Investors – Bonds’ payoff are attractive to those who prefer predictable returns for known time horizons. As a result, bond market attracts institutional investors cautious of protecting their principal e.g. pension funds, insurers, banks, etc. This also results in relatively risk averse retail investors willing to invest in the bond market. However, casual empirical observations suggest that the share of retail investors in corporate bond market is very small. Lack of liquidity and transparency are the key reasons driving lack of investor participation in corporate bond market including retail investors. Another reason why the market for corporate bonds did not take off earlier was large scale default that undermined the system and safeguards in place. While this paper addresses how to alleviate problems of liquidity and transparency, other measures must also be adopted to reduce probability of default and increase the amount as well as speed of recovery in the event of bankruptcy. For example, it is well known that firms have a tendency to adopt excessive risky projects financed by debt due to limited liabilities. While banks can prevent such activities by placing covenants, public debt holders are powerless to do it because each owns an insignificant amount of the total debt. Many a times, the seniority of debt is debatable. On the other hand, the magnitude of the recoveries also depends on bankruptcy law which in India is very weak. Hence, strong legal systems that prevent excessively risky activities and also ensure faster resolution of bankruptcy are also preconditions for the emergence of a strong bond market. Though there might be a combination of factors that impede the growth of a vibrant corporate bond market in India, we will argue below that the lack of transparency, less liquidity and inefficient intermediation in the process of market making contribute to the current state of the market. The bullet points below succinctly summarize the impact of these three factors on the development of bond market in India. Efficiency in bond market is driven by transparency that allows bonds to be priced for all available information. Transparency in the bond market refers to the dissemination of information conveyed to all market participants 1regarding pre and post trade issues ranging from order interests to price and volume after trade is executed. Liquidity in bond market is driven by volume of bonds offered by issuers in the primary market on an on-going basis as well as the circulation of bonds in the secondary market with active investor participation. A greater the participation of investors reduces search costs of both buyers and sellers and ease liquidity problems leading to a lower discount of the bond. Liquidity problems here refer to the ease of selling the bond in a secondary market. ï‚ · Intermediaries quote both buy and sell side prices and hold inventory to enable market making. Any inefficiency in this process will be automatically reflected in the pricing of bonds and thus will adversely affect costs of borrowing of the issuers. 3.1 Transparency The Indian corporate bond market lacks both pre-trade as well as post-trade transparency. Factors limiting transparency of both primary and secondary corporate bond market are: (a) Systemic flaws in the credit rating process by the Credit Rating Agencies (CRAs) enhance risk and also reduce transparency due to a constellation of a number of factors articulated below: ï‚ §Ã¯â‚¬  Right to rate the issuers of bond is not confined to entities registered as CRAs (Credit rating agencies) and currently ratings are being done by entities not registered as CRAs. These unregistered agencies rate in a manner that is not calibrated to CRA rating standards and offer rating to not just instruments but also issuing organisations. This infuses additional noise in the production of information which may force retail investors to shy away from the bond market. For example, the SMERA which rate instruments as well as organisations for small and medium industries in a manner that very often do not mee t criteria of proper rating standards.

Sample Autobiography

When I sit back and consider the significant events in my past, the important aspects of my current life, and my future goals, the underlying theme is one of appreciating diversity, especially across ethnic and socioeconomic class lines. I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, the product of a Catholic father with roots in Italy and a Jewish mother of Russian and Austrian ancestry. In my early years of education, the frustration with teachers mispronouncing my last name seemed as though it might never end. I remember how my father would approach the administrators of my elementary school before Honor Roll ceremonies to be sure they would pronounce it correctly as I walked across the stage for my moment of glory. The terror did not end until the seventh grade when I had my first course in Spanish, at which point my teacher had some experience with â€Å"exotic† names and got â€Å"you-zee-nee† correct on the first try. I believe that I grew more, emotionally, socially, and intellectually, during my four years of high school than during any other period of time thus far. Midwood High School at Brooklyn College attracted students from every part of New York City. Indeed, it provided a rigorous academic environment, and with one college advisor for each graduating class of nearly 700 students, I managed to learn some important lessons about dealing with â€Å"the system. Midwood continues to prepare its students well; it has consistently placed among the top 50 in national rankings of high schools. It was at Midwood that I found my academic strengths and was given the tools to pursue them to the fullest extent possible. Because I was placed in a situation with few of the resources many students had in other better-funded schools, I learned how to make the best of the situation. I began to search for a way to address my own concerns about the racial tensions. Within a few years I would find myself at Texas A&M University, bringing another drastic change in my lifestyle and the culture I would have to adapt to. The past few years have been a very enjoyable experience, satisfying all of my intellectual and social needs. I have focused the next few years on developing a solid research program dealing with I have also put forth as much effort as possible in attempting to diversify the future of our profession. social psychological approaches to social issues, especially racial and ethnic relations.

Freedom †Short Story from Tkam After Tom Robinson’s Trial Essay

As I sat outside watching the other inmates, a gentle breeze caressed my face, providing relief from the sun’s hot rays. I was used to the heat, but maybe it was the circumstances that I was in that made it unbearable. I could see that my fellow inmates felt the same as they lazed about, their skin glistening with sweat, their shirts clinging to their backs. ‘Guilty until proven innocent’ rang angrily in my mind when I saw the number of Negroes compared to white people incarcerated. The amount of court cases, as well as families, jobs and lives, lost due to our colour was innumerable. Half of us didn’t even commit a crime worth being sent to jail for, but here we are! I wiped my forehead with an already sticky hand and surveyed my surroundings in an effort to shake off the contemptuous thought. The dirt oval consisted of some simple worn out exercising equipment, their hinges squeaking in protest with very movement; a few withering trees dying in the midday heat, two lookouts sitting on the inside of the perimeter where the prison guards patrolled the prisoners and a barbed wire fence which enclosed the space in an ominous hug. I thought pensively about my situation as I kicked the dusty ground vehemently, scuffing my already torn prison boots in the process. The rising hopelessness that I had kept bottled up throughout the court case, believing that with Mr Finch on my side I would definitely be acquitted, quickly vanished, much like the specks of dirt that I had kicked up had disappeared, carried away with the breeze of reality. I observed the bluejays on the nearby trees, warbling their little hearts out with not a care in the world, unaware of the injustice that had occurred. I was being punished for a crime that I had not committed, accused by a woman whom I have assisted for nigh a year! The court case didn’t just affect me – it affected my family as well and I don’t want them to suffer because of it. What will they do? How will Helen watch the chillun’ and work? They don’t deserve this! My family needs me. It was already a struggle to bring food to the table everyday, and now with most of our income ripped away, I can’t bring myself to fantasise what my family would have to suffer. Would Helen have to starve to keep the chillun’ physically satisfied? I’ve prayed for them every night confined in the dungeon, praying that God would help them through this adversity. Ms Mayella obviously doesn’t realise that her decision to accuse me affects my family just as much as it affects me. She used the only ticket that would guarantee her victory over the court case, which would prove her innocent from the despicable crime that she had committed – her race. The inequity displayed towards Negroes always perplexed me. We came from the same ancestors, Adam and Eve, but somehow, white people were born having more rights than others, perceived as superior to others, more moral than others. I should’ve conceded that I was a black man living in a white man’s world, and no matter what I did to prove myself innocent, there would be no justice for me. I hate how all white people acrimoniously conclude that all Negroes lie, all Negroes are basically immoral beings and all Negroes aren’t to be trusted around women, as Mr Finch mentioned. How can people be so shallow, so malevolent and so blind? They’re living a lie! How dare America call themselves a democracy when they can’t even treat their own people equally, lowering our rights, our standards and our lives! The act of incarcerating all black people for almost everything that we do is a paradox to their self-proclaimed government. It is overdue to set things straight, but there is no better time than now to change the way Negroes are treated. I am not going to wait for someone else to take justice, as God knows when that is going to come. Justice is in my hands. The only possible way that I can achieve this is to run. They’re going to kill me nonetheless so I’m already a dead man walking, but I’m not dying knowing that I just sat there letting them persecute me while knowing that I did nothing to prevent this precedent from occurring again to other Negro families. I must run. I quickly rose from the bench which I was seated on and began jogging the perimeter of the oval, keen to find an escape route to freedom. I took a quick glance at the patrollers- they were watching us inattentively, their faces impassive and eyes glazed over, contenting themselves in their current daydreams. I scrutinized the fence for any weakness. There were several places where the fence sagged, but all seemed intact. I searched for other possible escape routes, my eyes slowly taking in every detail of the oval, but when failing to find any, I approached an oak tree to ponder over my next move, when flashbacks of my family and previous life overwhelmed me. There were many oak trees in my life – in my backyard, on the sidewalk, at work – but I never knew until now that they were so prominent in my life. There were oak trees that my children loved to climb on, loved to hide in, loved to have mini adventures in. There were oak trees that I watched from my kitchen window as their branches were softly tickled by the wind, which Helen used to sit under and pensively think about life’s uncertainties, which grew and thrived with my family. There were oak trees which provided me a job, which I spent countless hours climbing up and down laboriously picking acorns, which earned me money to support my family. My heart ached with sadness when I thought back to those wonderful memories, making me miss my family even more than I originally did. Helen would probably be working strenuously to support the children now without my help. What this event has put my family through is unthinkable. I can’t prevent what I am currently putting them through, but they must understand that if I do no try to get free I will be killed nonetheless. Everyone deserves to have equal rights, and I am going to be the person bringing justice. I am not going home after my jail sentence knowing that I did nothing to prevent further injustice from occurring to thousands of other Negroes. I want to be able to tell my chillun’ that I didn’t just sit there being persecuted, allowing other Negroes to be persecuted as well, as the pain that discrimination puts us through throughout our lives is unbearable. I want to be a role model for them; to be an example for fighting for what is right. Even though doing so may be dangerous and may lead to death, bringing justice to every race is worth losing a life for. In a sudden burst of adrenaline and surprising confidence I sprinted as fast as my legs could carry me to the barbed wire fence and began climbing. I almost leaped backwards in surprise as my bare skin came into contact with the burning metal that had been basking in the sun all day, but my mind was set on my goal, and so I ignored the acrid pain and scaled the fence. Consecutively, shouts of surprise and disbelief spread through the prisoners, and, as if my actions brought them back to life, the angry voices of the prison guards soon followed. Hollering warnings and portentous threats, the patrollers showed no evidence that a few seconds ago they were practically lifeless, but their efforts were wasted as it proved completely futile. With my prior experience climbing trees for Mr Deas, I quickly adapted to my situation and climbed, my hand and feet working simultaneously to make up for my deprivation. My eyes darted to elusive spaces between the barbs and my hand quickly followed suit, with my legs climbing after them. The barbs clung and sliced at my arms and clothes as the patrollers’ threats became more ominous, their cries climbing to a climatic forte, ineffective at impeding my pilgrimage. The word justice was repeated over and over in my mind, instilling a new hope in me, encouraging me to continue climbing. This failed when a gunshot shattered my tranquillity. A bolt of pure panic shot through me, causing my heart to thrash against my ribs as I realised the severity of my situation. I lost my footing, dangling in mid-air for a second, but immediately found another foothold and scaled the fence even faster than before. Seeing that the gunshot failed to stop me, several more shots were fired into the air, counterproductive as it only made me move twice as fast. ‘Quicker! Quicker! ’ my body seemed to holler at me, dissatisfied with the speed that I was travelling. My stomach started to twist with despair, my newfound hope abandoning me, slowly overtaken by doubt – then a bullet whistled past my ear inches from my face. My hand began shaking uncontrollably from pure fear. My lungs were screaming for air, the spikes were screaming for blood, but my scream for justice overpowered them all. More deathly bullets whistled past, when one successfully tore through my leg. An explosion of pain raked my leg, and immediately I felt warm blood gush out of my pulsing wound. I was almost over the fence though! Clenching my teeth, I reached between the razor wire. The screams and hollering of the prisoners were vociferous, but nothing mattered as the second bullet hit my crippled shoulder. It immediately burst into flames as I started sweating uncontrollably, the back of my shirt soaked with blood, clinging to me. In a last ditch effort, I hauled myself between the razor wire to the other side of the fence leading to freedom. A third bullet tore through my thigh, sending me rolling to the ground in a bloodied heap while other bullets whizzed past and wounded me. The shrill roar in my ears gradually ceased to a dull hum, and dizzying black splotches began crowding my vision. The last thought that left my mind was: Freedom.