You Can Have It

Philip Levine writes as though he is from a hard working middle class family geared toward the more highly educated class. Levine directs his poetry towards the higher class, through personal relationships and by showing pride and respectability in manual labor. Levine wants the more educated to know that even though the lower class may not have the most respectable jobs, they still take pride in their work because it supports their family. By using personal relationships, Levine emphasizes the how much pride the working class takes in their jobs. Levine writes as though he is from a hard working middle class family, who works day after day just to make it through life and support the family. Although he is writing from this prospective, his work is actually geared more toward a more highly educated group. Levine wants the higher class to know just how lucky they are. Most people of high stature have never really had a hard manual-laboring job. Its true that most people of this class do not know what hard work is or how it feels to have to struggle to find a job and care for themselves and a family. In the poem, What Work Is, Levine writes, â€Å"if you're/ old enough to read this you know what/ work is, although you may not do it. / Forget you. † In these lines, Levine is saying that the more educated group may know the definition of the word work but the have never really experienced it. This is even further shown in the last line when the man says, â€Å"you don't know what work is. † The man in the poem You Can Have It, is relating to us college students and remembering for himself what it was like to be twenty. We were twenty/ for such a short time and always in/ the wrong clothes, crusted with dirt/ and sweat. I think now we were never twenty. † Twenty year-olds are living the life that this man never had but wishes that he could have had it. He wants the higher class to realize what other people go through and just how easy life really is. In the last line, he says â€Å"You can have it. † Here he wishes to give back everything from the past thirty years just to be twenty one more time, not work and just have his youth back. In all of Levine's poems, the narrator is proud of his work no matter what job he has. In Starlight, a four year-old boy is watching his father relax on the porch and smoke a cigarette after a long rigorous day of work. The father after seeing the child and the beautiful things that he works for, he can proudly answer that he is happy with a head nod, â€Å"Yes! oh yes! oh yes! † He is proud to work hard to support his family. Every child looks up to its parents. In the beginning of this poem the son seems to be timid about bothering his father while he is relaxing but by the end, the son feels right at his fathers level â€Å"among the stars. He is proud to have his father and know that he is an honest hard working man and looks up to him as if he were a the brightest of all stars. The poem You Can Have It also describes the pride that another man takes in his job even if it is only in a factory. In the third stanza of the poem Levine talks about a man and his brother saying that â€Å"they are only one man/ sharing a heart that always labors, hands/ yellowed and cracked. † Their heart is in their work, even if it is not the most respectable job. Although they talk about the hands being yellowed and cracked, I think it is in a good way. They are proud to have these marks of their hard work to support themselves. This is what they have to do to make it through life and they are proud to do it. In many of his poems, Levine uses many personal relationships to highlight the themes in each poem. In Levine's poem, What Work Is, the man is waiting in line trying to get a job. He is very upset refusing to give in but â€Å"waiting, / to the knowledge that somewhere ahead/ a man is waiting who will say, â€Å"No, / we're not hiring today. He has been in this place before and although he is annoyed at the fact that he cannot get a job, he is also proud to be standing there waiting to get a job. He would be proud to have a job working in a factory or anywhere. Whereas this man would be proud to have a job in a factory, his brother is working at the Cadillac factory but is trying to gain a higher status and have what he would consider a respectable job. The brother is not proud to be working in a factory and is therefore studying German to be an opera singer, in which he would be highly regarded. Levine brings out the father and son relationship in Starlight to show a sense of not only pride in his work but also happiness and an escape from the daily struggles that the father faces. After a long day of hard work, the father finds an escape in returning to his family and being away from his job. Just holding his son up there with him for that one minute gives him a sense of happiness and helps him to forget all the troubles of that day. Seeing his son happy and admiring him so much makes the father feel a sense of worth and pride in his job. Philip Levine writes as though he is from a hard working middle class family who works very hard just to make it through life and support the family. He wants the higher class to know how lucky they are and what struggles the less educated go through. In all of the poems, the narrator is proud of his work no matter what job he has, even if it is only in a factory. By using personal relationships throughout his poems, Levine highlights the fact that all the people take pride in their work.

12 Literary Piece

12 Literary piece that have Influenced the World 1. The Bible or the Sacred writings: This has become the basis of Christianity originating from Palestine and Greece 2. Koran: The Muslim bible originating from Arabia 3. The Iliad and the Odyssey: These have been the source of Myths and Legends of Greece. They were written by Homer. 4. The Mahabharata: The Longest epic of the world. It contains the history of religion in India. 5. Canterburry: it depicts the religion and customs of English in early days. This originated from England and written by Chaucer. 6.Uncle Tom's Cabin: written by Harriet Beecher Stowe of US. This depicted the sad fate of slaves. This became the basis of democracy. 7. The Divine Comedy: (A Dante of Italy). This shows the religion and customs of early Italians. 8. El' Cid Comedy: This shows the cultural characteristics of Spaniards and their national theory. 9. The Song of Roland: This includes the Doce Pares and Ronces Valles of France. It tells about the Golde n Age of Christianity in France. 10. The Book of the Dead: This includes the cult of Osiris and the Mythology and theology of Egypt. 1. The Book of the Days: This was written by Confucius of China. This became the basis of Christian Religion. 12. One thousand and One Night of the Arabian Nights: from Arabia and Persia(Iran). It shows the ways of government of industries and of society of Arabia's and Persians TOP 20 epics of the world 1. The Iliad by Homer (Greek) – Iliad is one of the most celebrated and well known epics of the world. It is believed to be written by in 9th century BC by Homer. This poem is based on the legend of Trojan war. Iliad means the tale of ilios or the tale of troy.It narrates the story of the Greek struggle to rescue Helen, from Trojans, the wrath of Achilles and subsequent destruction of Troy. 2. Mahabharata by Vyasa (Sanskrit) – Mahabharata is one of the great Indian epic compiled around 8th century BC. This epic poem has about one lakh cou plets in Sanskrit and it can be considered as the longest epic poem of the world. This ancient epic deals with the rivalry between cousins – Kauravas and Pandavas – of a great ruling family of India . The armies of the two groups meet at the battleground at Kurushetra in which the Pandavas can destroy the Kauravas.The epic consists of thousands of mythical and historical stories 3. The Odyssey by Homer (Greek) – Odyssey is believed to be written in 9th century B. C by Homer the great Greek poet. It describes the exploits of the Odysseus during his homecoming after the fall of Troy. This great epic follows the Aristotelian conventions of epic poem. The poem describes the obstacles faced by Odysseus, varied tests of gods that he had undergone, his affair with nymph Calypso on the homecoming voyage, and his return to his kingdom. 4. Orlando furioso by Ludovico Ariosto (Italian epic) Orlando Furioso is a famous epic with full of supernatural, allegorical and romanti c adventures. The main theme of the epic is the war between Christians and pagans. Even though Ariosto, the writer, has depended much on the Graeco -Roman literary tradition of earlier writers for characters and incidents, it is a great epic poem due to his smooth versification and technical facility which make the poem vigorous and brilliant, with ironic and humorous contrasts. 5. Ramayana by Valmiki (Sanskrit) – Ramayana is a great Indian epic poem written in 5th century BC.It is the oldest and most popular epic of Indian sub continent, believed to be written by Valmiki. It is written in Sanskrit, one of the earliest Indo – European languages, and has around 2400 couplets in seven sections. Ramayana means â€Å"the journey of Rama†. It depicts the conflict between Rama, the incarnation of God Vishnu, and Ravana who can be taken as the representative of evil forces and the final victory of the God incarnated Rama in safeguarding the Dharma (Universal moral orde r). 6. The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (Italian epic) Divine Comedy is a celebrated epic poem written by Dante in 14th century. The narrator is lost in a forest. The poet narrator meets Virgil who guides him through the world after death. Virgil takes him through Hell. They go through the base of the purgatory and he can see the terraces of it where the sins of those who are ultimately to be saved are cleansed away. Then Beatrice guides him to the ultimate heaven. The poem ends with his moment of illumination and the vision of trinity. 7. Beowulf Anonymous (Old English) – Beowulf, one of the earliest epic of the world, is based on a Scandinavian legend.It was written around 750 AD by an anonymous writer and it has about 3000 lines. Beowulf, the great warrior hero, saves Horthgar, the king of Danes, from the attack of Grendel, a terrible monster, by killing it. Grendel's mother attacks him to avenge the death of his son. In the fight, Beowulf kills the mother – mon ster also, but he gets a mortal wound in the fight and succumbs to it. This epic, the most celebrated survival from Old English  literature, is also the earliest extant poem in a modern European language. 8. Paradise Lost by John Milton (English) Paradise Lost is one of the greatest English literary epic based on the theme of fall of man given in the old Testament and it was written in 17th century by John Milton. The great poet wrote it † to justify the ways of god to man†. The epic poem begins with the the Satan's devilish plans to to take revenge against god for his expulsion from heaven. Some critics has opined that Milton's Satan is the hero of the epic poem due to the excellent depiction and exposition of that character. This epic is celebrated for Milton's grand style, his interpretation of Biblical myth and Christian doctrine. . Shahname by Firdousi (Persian) – Shah Name is great Persian epic based on the historical and mythical accounts of around fifty Persian kings. Shah Name means â€Å"book of kings†. The epic begins the mythical creation of Persia and ends in the narration of the stories of historical kings. The most famous story of Shah Name is about the legendary king of Rostam and Sohrab, his son. 10. Aeneid by Virgil (Latin) – Aeneid is a great epic which is based on the legend of Aeneas. It is Roman nationalistic and patriotic poem which narrates the evolution of great Roman mpire. This poem shows great dramatic skill of high order and power of description. Aeneas decides to establish a secure kingdom for his people in Italy. During the long and perilous voyage for it their ships are wreaked on the coast of Africa. The Dido of Carthage invites them which prolongs their voyage. In the next voyage, they reach Latinum, ruled by Latinus. Aeneas marries his daughter Lavinia after killing Turanus, another suitor of her. He establishes a city of lavinium which becomes a base for great Roman empire later. 11. Theogo ny (Greek mythology) Theogony is a Greek epic poem which describe the mythical cosmogony. It can be used as a sorce book of Greek myhology which tells about the origin of cosmos and it evolution. 12. The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser – The Faerie Queene is considered as the first epic poem in modern English literature. This allegoric poem is arranged as a story for a twelve day feast, held by the queen of the fairyland. It is a national epic of England aimed at glorifying Queen Elizabeth. 13. The Epic of Gilgamesh – The epic of Gilgamesh is one of the earliest epic poem of the world.It tells the story of Gilgamesh, the ruler of Uruk and his companion Enkidu whose exploits are the described. The epic is equally fascinating for the window it opened to the ancient Sumerian and Babylonian cultures. 14. Buddhacarita by Asvaghosha (Indian epic poetry ) – Buddhacharita is considered as an authoritative work on Buddha's life. It describes the birth, early life , renun ciation, and teaching of Buddha. It is written in Sanskrit and has originally 28 cantos in which only 13 have been properly preserved. 15. Pharsalia by Lucan (Roman history) The Pharsalia is a celebrated Roman epic poem based on the Battle of Pharsalus which was occurred in 48 B. C. It depicts the civil war between forces led by Julius Caesar and the forces of Pompey the Great. This historical poem is considered as one of the greatest epic poem in the Latin literature. 16. Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe – The theme of this great work is man's desire to transcend his physical limitations and his search for answers for eternal questions of mankind. 17. Raghuvamsa – Raghuvamsa describes the lives of the kings of the solar dynasty.It consists of 19 cantos. The epic chronicles the life of Rama and his ancestors. It is considered that Sanskrit epics have attained perfection in Raghuvamsa. 18. The Paradise Regained – The Paradise Regained is an epic poem from the master writer John Milton. It is not a sequel to Paradise Lost. The theme is the story of three temptations as revealed in the gospel of St. Luke. This epic is composed at the suggestion of Thomas Edward. 19. Don Juan – Don Juan is a the most effective and vigorous satire in the English literature.This poem reviews the social , political and economic condition of the Europe. It is a a kind of picturesque novel written in verse. The hero, don Juan ,wanders from one place to another and records his six adventures. Don Juan has visited Greece, Turkey, Russia, and England. 20. The Tale of Heiku – This is one of the most renounced Japanese epic poem based on the Buddhist law of impermanence. It tells the feud between two Japanese clans with elements of traditional folk narrative. Taira and Minemoto are the two clans mentioned in this great classic of medieval Japanese literature.

Cereal Aisle Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Cereal Aisle Analysis - Essay Example My observations are compiled in short statements in this report. First of all, there were ten different brands on display, out of which I could easily recognize three. These were Kellogg’s, Malt-O- Meal, and Cheerios. Among the Kellogg’s brand, and in the Breakfast Cereal category, there were 27 varieties of Breakfast Cereals, ranging from All- Bran to Mini – Wheat. Each one of them had their name and specialty prominently displayed on its cover. They were of distinct flavor and were available in five different sizes. The packets were specially designed to attract children. The focus on packing and labeling was such that many children were fascinated with them. (Kellogs, 2011) The second observation was that of brand Malt-O – Meal .The packing of Malt-O – Meal was very attractive and the shelves were segregated in two parts, cold and hot cereals. There was another category named Natural Cereal. On closer examination I found that they do not put artificial colors and used only natural preservatives. It gave a feeling that the company cares for the health of its customers. This made the choice easier, especially for the parents (MALT-O-MEAL, 2011) The third prominent brand which I observed was Cheerios. They had varieties for kids, parents, families and adults. I found it very interesting and observed that in the aisle only products meant for kids were stored. The packets were very well designed and as the name suggests, the labeling and packing conveyed the meaning of having fun (General Mills, 2011). I also observed the behavior of shoppers very minutely and there were six distinct behaviors which are worth mentioning here. In some cases, the children saw the displayed packets and took permission of their parents to go and have a look. Once they liked it, they took it out from the respective shelf and put it up for their parents to approve their choice. This type children were very well behaved and I did not find a singly parent declining the request of their children. The second behavior was different from the first one, in the sense that the children left their parents hand and simply grabbed the brand of their liking, In this case also, the parents were in agreement with the children’s choice but before they agreed, they did have a look at the brand and its label and read the nutritional value of the contents. In the third case, some children first grabbed the brand which they liked and then asked their parents for approval. This behavior was frowned upon by the parents. In the fourth instance, the children saw the brand, liked it but their parents were simply aghast with the choice and refused to buy it for them. Later on, after a lot of persuasion they did ask the

Business Ethics and Deontology SLP Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Business Ethics and Deontology SLP - Essay Example I am the chief accountant of the company and so responsible for payments of these tenders. My work involves processing of payments and writing of cheques for these suppliers. In the process of doing my work, I realized that some of the tenders were awarded against the company rules, and this is considered to be unethical (Barry, 2000). The ethical problem here is that a supplier was given a tender for supplying computers in our company. When you look at the price quoted, you realize that it is much higher than other suppliers. The question is how did it happen? Why did it happen? Who were responsible for the process of awarding the tender? What was the objective of awarding the tender? As an accountant, I demanded to get all the answers for the above questions (Barry, 2000). This made me stop the payment process and start making inquiries. Management meeting was called very first and the main agenda was computer supply allocation. As a business entity, our main objective is to reduce cost and maximize profit. We realized that of all applicants, the person who supplied computers were the most expensive. One of the senior managers of the company gave an explanation that the person was given the tender because of the quality goods he assured the company. When you compare what the company had previously with the new computers, no difference was realized. That is when I realized that there was some vested interest by some of the managers to award tenders to their friends so that the suppliers can inflate the prices. Deontology refers to moral obligation and undertaking of duties with the right motives (Darwall, 2003). In this case, the deontological implication of this problem is poor management relations. This is because as a company, we have managers responsible for each department within the organization. It is the managers’ duty to give directions on what is expected. For our case, a group of managers decided to go against the company rules

HW Math Problem Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

HW - Math Problem Example b. 1. What is the estimated adjusted mean difference in hourly wages for females as compared to males, adjusting for age, union membership, and job type? When age, Union Membership and type of job were taken into consideration, it was found that women earned approximately 1.9 dollars lesser per hour then men did in 1985. 2. Report a 95% confidence interval for this difference. The 95% CI for this difference ranges from -2.76 to -1.04. 3. Write a sentence interpreting both the adjusted mean difference and the corresponding confidence interval. When considering other variables like age, union membership and job type, women in 1985 earned approximately 1.9 dollars less than the men did; and 95% of the times, the actual values for this estimate would fall between 2.76 dollars to 1.04 dollars less then what the men earned on an average. 2. Comment on any disparities in the estimated mean difference in hourly wages between males and females in the four models whose results are listed above . Does it appear from these results that the wage/gender relationship in confounded by other worker characteristics such as worker age, membership in a union, and job type? Why or why not? Across the four models; it is evident that woman did earn lesser than men did per hour in 1985. This effect was seen regardless of the variables included in the study. Adjusting for age increased the discrepancy slightly; while adjusting for job type and union membership in addition to age decreased the discrepancy between the average wages of men and woman slightly. In spite of this, it is difficult to say that these variables play a very significant role; since the differences seen were quite small; and the confidence intervals for the four models overlapped quite a lot. It may be said that variable like age, union membership and job type did affect the discrepancy in the average wages of men and women; but this effect was quite small. 3. Use the results from Model D to estimate the mean differe nce in hourly wages for females, age 42, who are union members with manufacturing jobs, as compared to 42-year male union members with manufacturing jobs. (Note that you have already done this in a previous portion of the problem – I am just trying to â€Å"drill into you† how to interpret multiple linear regression coefficients.) After controlling for Union membership, type of job and age, it was found that women earned on an average, 1.9 dollars less than men in 1985. 4. 1. Does the given information allow you to assess whether the relationship between hourly wages and sex is modified by age? By itself, the data available is not enough to assess if the relationship between hourly wages and sex is modified by age. 2. If not, what additional results would you need to see? We would need information on the significance testing of the F values for the regression analyses in order to estimate whether age does truly affect the relationship between hourly wages and sex; or w hether the observed effect is simply a function of the sampled data. 2. Question two a) 1. What is the estimated adjusted association between Diastolic Blood Pressure (DBP) and

Define war or peace. Your argument is that definition. Your thesis is Essay

Define war or peace. Your argument is that definition. Your thesis is that - Essay Example Some synonyms of the word war meaning relatively the same thing are: battle, bloodshed, conflict, contention, contest, enmity, fighting, hostility, police action, strife, strike, struggle, attack, and combat. There are many different kinds of wars. There is a civil war, which is a war between different sections or parties of the same country or nation. There is a holy war, which is a crusade; an expedition carried on by Christians against the Saracens in the Holy Land, in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, for the possession of the holy places. And there is public war, which is a war between independent sovereign states. But there all war, F. W. Robertson once said, "Men will ever distinguish war from mere bloodshed". In my research paper war, will mean armed conflict, between nations; hostility or struggle. But will also: battle, bloodshed, conflict, contention, contest, enmity, fighting, hostility, police action, strife, strike, struggle, attack, and combat. Because in my dictionary war is war. Organized crime is not relative. It is universally condemned, because most right-thinking individuals realize that such activity is detrimental to the human race as a whole. War on the other hand refuses to be evaluated objectively, because it is an act of violence sanctioned by the state, an amorphous entity claiming to represent the views, beliefs and morality of its citizenry, and that is why war is far more insidious than organized crime. "Crime" is a word that brings to mind acts of selfishness, antisocial acts that disrupt the functioning of society, that cause hurt or suffering. It is always evaluated while bearing in mind fairness, and thus what is unfair is often a crime. Stealing relegates property that rightfully belongs to its owner to someone else. Murder deprives an individual of the right to live. It is this innate moral compass that helps the majority of men to be able to judge what is crime and what is not, and therefore crime appears to us as a cut-and-dried subject, easily defined and identified. What about war Indeed, there are still many men in this modern world who in their great wisdom proclaim that war is an amoral tool, which can be used for good, or for the greatest evil. Genghis Khan, the Great Mongol Conqueror (if conquering through bloodshed accrues greatness) once said, "Let him who desires peace, prepare for war." His enemies all agreed with him on this point, yet perished underneath the unshod hooves of stocky Mongol ponies. Our leaders today tell us that war must be an option made available to the nation-state, lest we should lose our peace. Some primal instinct that makes us uneasy with war must still flow through our veins, for men to have to keep thinking of new, pallid platitudes and aphorisms to justify war. Could it be that this primal instinct is related to the innate moral compass that helps us identify what is criminal Let us look at the similarities between crime and war. The former involves taking property belonging to someone else; the latter involves taking territory belonging to someone else because you believe it rightfully belongs to you. Crime sometimes involves killing; war requires you to kill, to defend your nation. Once again we see the constant need to justify war. It is, in the eyes of

Positive and negative externalities Research Paper - 1

Positive and negative externalities - Research Paper Example It will also highlight solutions to mitigate these externalities. It will finally analyze the different stakeholders involved in the externalities and their role regarding the externality There are negative externalities related to environmental consequences. An example of a negative externality with environmental consequences is pollution. There are different forms of pollution; air, water and noise. Air pollution has public health implications, and causes damage to buildings and crops. Water pollution has the potential to cause harm to humans, plants and animals. Noise pollution on the other hand might cause disruptions, both mentally and psychologically, to people and animals. Public goods are an example of a positive externality. These are goods whose benefits people cannot be excluded from enjoying. Public goods include clean water, public defense, law enforcement, social amenities and so on. These goods are accessible to most people in the society (Tulkens & Chander, 2006). If businesses start accepting payments online for the services and goods they offer, these actions can lead to a negative externality. This means that clients no longer need to buy paper cheques in order to pay, a situation which means that cheque printing firms will lose revenues. This can also result into unemployment especially for employees charge with the role of processing cheques. In the course of the operation of a company, there are byproducts created. These by products make their way into the environment and cause pollution. Air pollution results from the burning of fossil fuels in industries. Water pollution occurs when industrial wastes are deposited into water sources. Noise pollution occurs in situations where the production process emits destructive sounds that get into the atmosphere. Public goods exist for the satisfaction of the needs of the entire society. These goods exist so that everyone in the society can benefit from them. If such goods did not

Diversity in the Workplace Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Diversity in the Workplace - Research Paper Example America is viewed as a land of opportunity and that is something to be proud. This is the reason that America has a great deal of cultural diversity in comparison to other countries. â€Å"The workplace is an extremely important juncture where culturally diverse, first generation employees attempt to immerse and make the transition into the American culture† (Botbol, 2012). Cultural diversity in America has affected the environment in the workplace in many positive and some negative ways. Positive effects of cultural diversity in the workplace in America include but are not limited to variety of cultural, social, and religious perspectives, and the resulting competitive advantage for the organizations while the negative effects include interpersonal conflicts, occasional incidents of racism, and increased load of training and education of the employees on the employers. ... of consumers belonging to their respective cultures and religions so that the top management can have a deeper insight into their needs and address them through their products. For example, Indian employees may suggest the top management to provide separate space for families in the restaurant since Indian families like to dine in privacy. On the other hand, Muslim employees can not only make the top management aware of the importance of offering Halal foods at the restaurant because of its value among the Muslim customers, but also suggest various ways in which Halal foods can be made. In addition to that, â€Å"team members with knowledge of multiple languages can be an asset in a internationally based business or in communicating with certain segments of the domestic population† (Feigenbaum, 2012). Cultural diversity provides the employers with the opportunity to use the more talented employees to train and educate the others which proves more economical as compared to outs ourcing the training and educational services. The organization gets most of the knowledge in-house which saves the time, energy, and money of the business-owners. Competitive Advantage Success of an organization depends upon the popularity of its product among the potential consumers’ population. As America has become more and more culturally diversified over the years, so has its workplace and this generates a positive message to the consumers. Consumers feel like buying the product of an organization when they see their representation in the organization’s workforce in terms of similarity of culture, religion, and social values. Recruiting workers belonging to different cultures and religions has enabled the organizations to gain the trust and confidence of the culturally diverse consumers,

Sports And International Laws Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5250 words

Sports And International Laws - Essay Example Sport has coexisted with the existence of man. From the very simple to advanced levels sports are played by individual of almost every age. A formal definition from Dictionary.com quotes sport as, â€Å"An activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others.† More than just a leisure activity, over the years, sport has evolved as a means of progress and development. The international face of this physical activity becomes a source of development and coordination among different factions and nations. The present face of sport has evolved such that teams have been founded at both local and international levels and have developed and matured into the game of sport being acclaimed internationally. The international awareness of sport has bought many meanings to the game. The professional issues associated with both domestic and international sport have taken many turns over the years. It is across these levels of modification that the globalization of sports has evolved. Moreover, the issues of marketplace in an era of global prominence have also been looked upon. Professional and amateur sports, both, are affected by a number of controversial issues. The examples of these issues could be the abundant use of performance enhancing drugs, the migration of athletes and coaches, the impact of sports on the environment, the production of sportswear and sport as a potential market for the workforce of the developing countries. (Tahibault, 2009) The commercialization of sports in the society is also one of the global effects of sports in the it. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE: The historical perspective of the field of sports dates back to the 14th century when the game of croquet was played. Moving on to the French and then noticeably to the English sport then evolved into a field just as significant as any other in the corporate sector. The official history of the Olympic Games however dates back to the 776 B.C. The Greek calendar was itself based on the Olympiad which was to be held every four years. Though scholars agree that these were not the very firs t games but they unanimously affirm that they were substantial games that took place between city states such as those of Elis and Pisa. The founding of the Olympic games has been traced back to King Iphitos of the Eleans. This realm of ancient Olympics continued over 1170 years. Then after a gap these games were again revived in the in the 19th century. This was done by French Baron

Economics - Supply and Demand of Beef in the United States Essay Example for Free

Economics Supply and Demand of Beef in the United States Essay Imagine a life with no hamburger or milk. How would this make you feel? Do you think you would be able to survive? I know I wouldn’t be able to. Both milk and red meat are important in a daily diet. These two items come from cattle. Cattle and beef in general are a necessity to everyday living. â€Å"The importance of beef cattle in the agriculture of this country rests chiefly upon their ability to convert coarse forage, corn, grass, and other products of the land, wither unfit or not wanted for human consumption, into a valuable and much-desired food. Lets face it, we aren’t going to be eating grass or grain pellets anytime soon. Cattle eat grain pellets, grass, forage, and other stuff that humans don’t consume. The cow has a much more desirable flavor inside. Can you picture now eating a juicy prime rib sandwich? This is just one of the many items a cow produces. Local farmers in rural communities are working hard to produce the high demands for beef. â€Å"Hamburger meat from one steer would equal 720 quarter-pound hamburgers, enough for a family of four to enjoy hamburgers each day for nearly six months. They are looking ways to produce higher quality beef. The cattle producers are now artificially inseminating the cattle with better genetics to help make the quality of beef higher. According to Present and Future Applications of DNA Technologies to Improve Beef Production, substantial improvements in production efficiency and quality of beef and dairy products have been made possible through manipulation of bov ine genetics. Milk comes from cows and that’s what gives you strong bones and lower carbohydrates which are essential for everyone’s daily diet. Also beef is the number one source of zinc in the human diet. The meat is filled with nutrients that help your body get what it needs to stay healthy. It is an excellent way to keep your immune system going strong and not feeling sick, weak, or tired all the time. Being healthy not only makes you look better on the outside, but also on the inside. Being healthy helps with depression, and eating red meat and getting the essential nutrients helps with all of this. Being a cattle raiser myself, I know that there are many factors to consider when producing the cattle that produce the meat. Many people say that cows are wasting the land and that their waste is filling up the land space and causing the manure to destroy the land. This is false. The manure that the cow lets out is extremely vital to the pasture. It is a great fertilizer and gives the nutrients that land needs most. This helps with growing crops as well as flowers and plants.

Cross cultural awareness

Cross cultural awareness Cross Cultural Awareness For The International Manager Successful Cross Cultural Management And The Anticipated Characteristics Of France And Brazil Introduction It has been commented that to minimise or resolve conflicts between different cultures they should first be grouped or categorized to measure their differences (Trompenaar, 2006). The UK scores fairly low in the uncertainty avoidance index, suggesting that people in these cultures are less risk averse and feel relatively secure (French, 2008). In terms of the workplace, this can be reflected in a high employee turnover and managers encouraging risk taking and to expect change (Overby, 2005). When taking Trompenaars dimensions of universal or particular (the extent to which rules are followed regardless of the situation and people involved) into consideration, it may help to explain further where this behaviour or reasoning comes from. Products and services are being offered on a global scale, posing a serious problem when a universalist culture engages in business with a particularist society, where the importance of relationship is ignored. Trans-cultural effectiveness is not only measured by the way one culture values another but also by the ability to reconcile the dilemmas, resolving them promptly, and the extent to which both values are synergised as one (Hemple, 2001). Hemple emphasises upon the importance of such an understanding in the current globalisation era. At present, when companies become global, there is predominantly an inevitable move towards the universalist view (Hemple, 2001). In order to go about such a task, Trompenaars dimension of universal v particular is a helpful tool to signify the importance placed upon relationships and people compared to individual needs (Trompenaars F. H.-T., 1998). Trompenaars Neutral V Affective Trompenaars dimension of neutral v affective describes the extent to which a culture displays emotion, either openly (affective) or in a restrained manner (neutral) (Gooderham, 2003). A cross cultural venture will involve communication between a variety of groups and people. The way in which people communicate is diverse and consequently the manner in which behaviours and actions are inter-operated also differs, leaving room for miscommunication. For example, people from a neutral culture may perceive displays of emotion in the workplace as unprofessional behaviour whilst the lack of emotions displayed by those from a neutral culture may be perceived as deceitful behaviour from the affective cultures point of view (Snodgrass, 2002). With the display of emotions in affective cultures, it maybe that communication is not just seen as a verbal exchange, rather, value is placed upon gestures. Although, minimal or indirect speech is made; facial expressions, actions, and body language may prove to be more influential than words. Without the knowledge of such cultures and their practices, there is a possibility of miscommunication. People from a neutral culture may interpret the lack of verbal communication to be impolite, rather than picking up on the meaning behind gestures such as body language. Halls description of high and low context cultures is reminiscent of neutral v affective, but primarily focuses on the communication styles of such cultures, specifically, on how they communicate (French, 2008). Trompenaars Specific V Diffuse This aspect is useful in providing an insight into how employees perceive their position in the workplace. Those from the diffuse culture value their work and do not separate their responsibility in the workplace from their personal life. In fact, both facets of their life are integrated and are an essential element of who they are. Whereas, those from the specific culture clearly separate their work life from their personal life. They deem their work to be a means of acquiring a valuable objective, such as earning an income in order to achieve a better quality of life. The insights obtained from this dimension may explain any variations in commitment over time amongst employees. Although, neither culture is inaccurate in their thinking, it may still present differences that lead to conflict. For example, those of the diffuse culture may feel obligated to stay behind outside their contractual working hours or work during their lunch break in order to complete a task, as opposed to those of the specific culture who may take their full lunch break and sign off at the end of the day upon completion of their contractual working hours. In turn, those of the diffuse culture may feel unappreciated as they might consider themselves to be earnest whilst viewing their colleagues as insincere. As well as giving an insight into employee behaviour, the specific v diffuse dimension can also elaborate on how employees work and how their interaction with colleagues translates into their personal life (Binder, 2007). France France scores highly on Hofstedes uncertainty avoidance index which is reflected in the emphasis placed upon rules in the workplace with managers endorsing rules, regulations and control of employees. Employees in return seek job security and significant benefits such as health insurance and extended holidays (Overby, 2005). This has an impact on the internal work culture in that managers closely supervise and guide their employees and as a result employees often have little autonomy in their job role. This brings about the issue of HRM practices in a cross cultural venture; whereas performance related pay, individual appraisals etc. are common practice in UK organisations they may not be as successful in French organisations where guidance and control are valued as being a sense of security due to low uncertainty avoidance. French employees value team work and to stand out or receive individual recognition from the rest of the team may be seen to demean or show up others in contrast to being seen as individual achievement. This is also related to the customers perception of an organization when buying products/services; they would prefer to build up relationships carefully and to maintain them as opposed to a quick sale (Trompenaars F. H.-T., 1998). However, similarities are apparent between the UK and France in the use of goal setting (in a HRM context) but with an emphasis on joint goal setting as opposed to individual. This demonstrates the indirect effects of uncertainty avoidance, initially it may be thought of as a resistance to change and enhanced caution towards new people and new procedures. However, the way in which work is organised needs to be adjusted in order to get the most out of employees in a mutual context. For example, (Trompenaars F. W., 2001) research highlights an example of the French nature when change is to be implemented into an organisation: â€Å"†¦..The French, in turn, were so much worried about the unions and how to keep their people motivated†¦..When I came back some three months later to check how the implementation was going, I noticed in France and Germany nothing had started yet (Trompenaars F. W., 2001).† This should therefore be something to consider when UK managers communicate, organise and develop people and organisations from different cultures. Not only for a smooth transition but also for the impact it can have on achieving corporate objectives. Inter-Relational Dimensions BIRTISH TENDENCIES FRENCH TENDENCIES Universalism: rules Middle Universalism / Particularism: rules, relationships Individualism: focus on individual Collectivism: focus on group Neutral: reserved with emotions Affective: demonstrative with emotions Specific: distance in relationships Specific: distance in relationships Achievement: doing/merit Middle Ascription / Achievement: being/status, doing/merit (Parsons, 1951) Trompenaars Neutral V Affective Research shows that France has an implicit culture in which communication is often indirect as opposed to being concise and clear as of the explicit culture and communication methods of the UK. The French manner of communication and importance resulting from an affective culture can impact their approach to analysis. It is often the case that these implicit societies will â€Å"think more diffusively or holistically, making decisions more on intuition than on facts and figures. They can often seem indirect and ambiguous (Overby, 2005).† Therefore in the workplace it may be apparent that a high concern is given to the needs of people in and around the organisation and ensuring those needs are being met as a priority over getting the job done and spending time discussing factual impersonal information (Overby, 2005). As a result when UK and French employees and managers are together it will be important to address the issue of emotions; taking into consideration the Frenchs attitude towards uncertainty as well. Suspicion, doubts and caution maybe demonstrated in a highly effective way rather than the culture often found in western organizations such as the UK, where suspicion, doubts and a sense of unease is often only apparent amongst small groups as opposed to sharing these feelings or making them known in a more outward manner. Trompenaars Specific V Diffuse For those in specific cultures such as the UK, clear differences and separation is given in terms of their status and persona portrayed between work and social lives. In contrast diffuse cultures like France withhold the same persona in work and outside of work and believe that their work status plays a significant role in their perceived status in society. This can bring differences in how colleagues interact with each other (if at all) without the confinement of the workplace. Workplace social events or gatherings are commonly viewed in the UK as being an opportunity to really get to know and speak to the real person without the confinements of position, status or duties to influence a persons behaviour or actions. However, in a diffuse culture such an occasion may not be perceived in the same way; such people may find it difficult to speak with or associate with others without giving respect to the status or position they have in the workplace. In this instance diffuse cultures look to the status or position of an individual as a way of dictating who the individual is and thus how others should interact with them. This dimension closely relates to the significance and importance given to status across cultures. As mentioned previously, the UK can distinguish between work and social life and thus a manager in the workplace regardless of achievements, experience and qualifications will not necessarily be given the same respect and admiration outside the workplace. In contrast France (diffuse culture) maintains the same respect and status of that person which can often bring privileges and favours outside the workplace purely from the respect given to their status. For example, those who have graduated from Grande Ecoles (the French elite of universities) go on to hold top positions within organizations and government (Earley, 2002). However, the respect and status awarded to them holds the expectation amongst society that they will ensure the well-being of the community within the organization. Brazil Brazil scores quite high on the uncertainty avoidance index which is indicative of its culture where structural order is sought to reduce uncertainty (Hofstede, 2009). Strict procedures are implemented in order to reduce ambiguity and avoid conflict (Hofstede, 2009). Alternatively, the culture in U.K embraces ambiguity and thrives on conflict. There are flexible structures in place and risks are endorsed without fear of failure. For the British, failure is another step in the way towards success whereas the Brazilian, perceive it negatively. Both perceptions are a reflection of their respective flexible and structured hierarchical societies. Therefore, it is important in Brazil, to avoid confronting one about an issue concerning others and putting them on the spot about an opinion (Trompenaars F. W., 2001). The Brazilian tendency to avoid risk may affect how business is conducted with U.K as both differ severely in this regard and it will be important to consider this as it might aff ect future joint business ventures or trade partnerships. Inter-Relational Dimensions BIRTISH TENDENCIES BRAZILIAN TENDENCIES Universalism: rules Particularism: relationships Individualism: focus on individual Collectivism: focus on group Neutral: reserved with emotions Affective: demonstrative with emotions Specific: distance in relationships Diffuse: involvement in relationships Achievement: doing/merit Ascription: being/status (Parsons, 1951) Trompenaars Neutral V Affective People from affective cultures like Brazil tend to show their emotions, whereas someone from a neutral one like the U.K will appear more reserved and refrain from demonstrating emotions (Trompenaars F. H.-T., 1998). The style of interrelating is different in Brazil as compared to the UK as eye contact, touching, and personal spaces are important to them. Therefore, it is important to consider these interpersonal elements of interaction when engaging in business with the Brazilian since they can build or deter trust, understanding, and likeability of clients. Awareness of these subtle differences can help in avoiding embarrassing situations or offending someone. The Brazilian, have transparency and expressiveness in release of tensions and may seem dramatic in delivery of statements as emotions flow vehemently and without inhibition (Earley, 2002). Its different from the British culture where emotions are concealed and there is a lack of physical contact, gestures, or strong facial ex pressions along with a monotone style of oral delivery. Trompenaars Specific V Diffuse In a diffuse society like Brazil, closeness and confidence between those working together will be more important than a fancy sales presentation of a product or service as might be the case in the U.K. The final decision of signing a deal will reflect the relationship building that has taken place during the negotiation process. This concept of diffuse is exemplified in the treatment of clients arriving in Brazil. According to the video series â€Å"Doing Business in Brazil† (Boulder, 1977), visiting business people are usually picked up in person by a driver or some representative from the company for all appointments and are invited to meals and social events. In the case of the specific relational category reflected in the U.K., clients basically must fend for themselves by taxi and relationships are kept strictly to business. The main point in this video is that in Brazil, the key to doing business is building personal relationships and integrating oneself into the local n etwork. The idea of private versus public space also correlates with the diffuse versus specific context. Trompenaar (Trompenaars F. H.-T., 1998) cites the example of a situation where if a manager or director were to encounter a subordinate in a social context completely separate from work. In a specific-oriented culture like the U.K., the two individuals would be on equal ground, the levels of professional hierarchy less significant. However, in a diffuse- oriented society like Brazil, the hierarchical space and the superiority of the higher rank would permeate more noticeably into every situation, work-related or not (Trompenaar, 2006). Therefore, even in an encounter outside of work, the subordinate must still defer to the authority. Caution must be taken to heed the local system of hierarchy in Brazil when dealing with the social levels and status even though it is less egalitarian than the U.K. It could be offensive to a Brazilian to not respect the social distance between one self and an inferior. Appendices Power Distance Index (PDI) that is the extent to which the less powerful members of organizations and institutions (like the family) accept and expect that power is distributed unequally. This represents inequality (more versus less), but defined from below, not from above. It suggests that a societys level of inequality is endorsed by the followers as much as by the leaders. Power and inequality, of course, are extremely fundamental facts of any society and anybody with some international experience will be aware that all societies are unequal, but some are more unequal than others. Individualism (IDV) on the one side versus its opposite, collectivism, that is the degree to which individuals are integrated into groups. On the individualist side we find societies in which the ties between individuals are loose: everyone is expected to look after him/herself and his/her immediate family. On the collectivist side, we find societies in which people from birth onwards are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups, often extended families (with uncles, aunts and grandparents) which continue protecting them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty. The word collectivism in this sense has no political meaning: it refers to the group, not to the state. Again, the issue addressed by this dimension is an extremely fundamental one, regarding all societies in the world. Masculinity (MAS) versus its opposite, femininity refers to the distribution of roles between the genders which is another fundamental issue for any society to which a range of solutions are found. The IBM studies revealed that (a) womens values differ less among societies than mens values; (b) mens values from one country to another contain a dimension from very assertive and competitive and maximally different from womens values on the one side, to modest and caring and similar to womens values on the other. The assertive pole has been called masculine and the modest, caring pole feminine. The women in feminine countries have the same modest, caring values as the men; in the masculine countries they are somewhat assertive and competitive, but not as much as the men, so that these countries show a gap between mens values and womens values. Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI) deals with a societys tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity; it ultimately refers to mans search for Truth. It indicates to what extent a culture programs its members to feel either uncomfortable or comfortable in unstructured situations. Unstructured situations are novel, unknown, surprising, and different from usual. Uncertainty avoiding cultures try to minimize the possibility of such situations by strict laws and rules, safety and security measures, and on the philosophical and religious level by a belief in absolute Truth; there can only be one Truth and we have it. People in uncertainty avoiding countries are also more emotional, and motivated by inner nervous energy. The opposite type, uncertainty accepting cultures, are more tolerant of opinions different from what they are used to; they try to have as few rules as possible, and on the philosophical and religious level they are relativist and allow many currents to flow side by side. People within these cultures are more phlegmatic and contemplative, and not expected by their environment to express emotions. Long-Term Orientation (LTO) versus short-term orientation: this fifth dimension was found in a study among students in 23 countries around the world, using a questionnaire designed by Chinese scholars It can be said to deal with Virtue regardless of Truth. Values associated with Long Term Orientation are thrift and perseverance; values associated with Short Term Orientation are respect for tradition, fulfilling social obligations, and protecting ones face. Both the positively and the negatively rated values of this dimension are found in the teachings of Confucius, the most influential Chinese philosopher who lived around 500 B.C.; however, the dimension also applies to countries without a Confucian heritage. Bibliography 1. Binder, J. (2007). Trompenaars dimensions. Retrieved December 16, 2009, from Global Project Management: http://www.globalprojectmanagement.org/index.php?option=com_contenttask=viewid=23Itemid=32 2. Boulder, C. (Director). (1977). Doing Business in the Americas-Brazil. [Motion Picture]. 3. Brake, T. a. (1995). Doing Business Internationally: The Guide to Cross-Cultural Success. NewYork: Irwin Professional Publishing. 4. Earley, C. G. (2002). Multinational Work Teams: a new perspective. Erlbaum Associates. 5. (2008). In R. French, Cross Cultural Management in work organisations. (p. 97). London: CIPD. 6. Gooderham, P. N. (2003). International Management Cross Boundary Challenges. Blackwell Publishing, 141. 7. Hemple, P. (2001). Differences between Chinese and Western managerial views of performance. Personnel Review, 30,2. 8. Hofstede, G. (2009). Geert Hofstedeâ„ ¢ Cultural Dimensions. Retrieved December 15, 2009, from ITIM International: http://www.geert-hofstede.com/hofstede_france.shtml 9. Overby, J. (2005). An integrative review of customer value management and national culture: France and the United States. International Journal of Management, 168. 10. Parsons, T. (1951). The Social System. New York: Free Press. 11. Snodgrass, C. S. (2002). Human Factors in Information Systems. IRM Press, 78. 12. Trompenaar, F. (2006). Resolving International Conflict: Culture and Business Strategy. Business Strategy Review, 7(3). 13. (1998). In F. H.-T. Trompenaars, Riding The Waves of Culture. 2nd edition (p. 5). London: Nicholas Bealey Publishing Limited. 14. Trompenaars, F. W. (2001). A new framework for managing change across cultures. Journal of Change Management, 368.

Alchemy :: Expository Essays Research Papers

Alchemy The science by aid of which the chemical philosophers of medieval times attempted to transmute the baser metals into gold or silver. There is considerable divergence of opinion as to the etymology of the word, but it would seem to be derived from the Arabic al=the, and kimya=chemistry, which in turn derives from the late Greek chemica=chemistry, from chumeia=a mingling, or cheein, 'to pour out' or 'mix', Aryan root ghu, to pour, whence the word 'gush'. Mr. A. Wallis Budge in his "Egyptian Magic", however, states that it is possible that it may be derived from the Egyptian word khemeia, that is to say 'the preparation of the black ore', or 'powder', which was regarded as the active principle in the transmutation of metals. To this name the Arabs affixed the article 'al', thus giving al-khemeia, or alchemy. HISTORY OF ALCHEMY: From an early period the Egyptians possessed the reputation of being skillful workers in metals and, according to Greek writers, they were conversant with their transmutation, employing quicksilver in the process of separating gold and silver from the native matrix. The resulting oxide was supposed to possess marvelous powers, and it was thought that there resided within in the individualities of the various metals, that in it their various substances were incorporated. This black powder was mystically identified with the underworld form of the god Osiris, and consequently was credited with magical properties. Thus there grew up in Egypt the belief that magical powers existed in fluxes and alloys. Probably such a belief existed throughout Europe in connection with the bronze-working castes of its several races. Its was probably in the Byzantium of the fourth century, however, that alchemical science received embryonic form. There is little doubt that Egyptian trad ition, filtering through Alexandrian Hellenic source\s was the foundation upon which the infant science was built, and this is borne out by the circumstance that the art was attributed to Hermes Trismegistus and supposed to be contained in its entirety in his works. The Arabs, after their conquest of Egypt in the seventh century, carried on the researches of the Alexandrian school, and through their instrumentality the art was brought to Morocco and thus in the eighth century to Spain, where it flourished exceedingly. Indeed, Spain from the ninth to the eleventh century became the repository of alchemic science, and the colleges of Seville, Cordova and Granada were the centers from which this science radiated throughout Europe.

Sexual Selection: Fact or Fiction Essay -- Biology Essays Research Pap

Sexual Selection: Fact or Fiction Darwin's theory of sexual selection is an intriguing one because it offers an explanation of human striving and cultural value systems. The theory is that humans who are more sexually desirable will have more offspring and thus their traits will be passed on to future generations to a greater extent than those of less sexually desirable humans. As opposed to Darwin's other theory, natural selection, those who are the best adapted to their environment will be more likely to pass on their genes, or, "survival of the fittest", you might call sexual selection "survival of the sexiest." The theory is intended to in part explain why, when humans diverged from other primates, the human brain tripled in size in just two million years. At first glance, this theory also seems to explain much of the motivation behind human culture and achievement. Upon closer inspection, there are some fairly conspicuous problems with it, especially when it is extended to describe not only human evolution in th e distant past but it the present, but it may still be the most plausible explanation available to explain why humans mental capacities have expanded so far beyond those of our primate relatives. It makes complete sense that we would be biologically driven to prove our sexiness. At the most basic level, this could explain the plenitude and popularity of fashion magazines for young women and the emphasis on being good at sports in school for both genders. Beyond this, it could also explain why men and women are driven to succeed at their various careers, or to be perceived to be successful, smart, witty, fun-loving, good-looking, responsible, or any of a number of things that human aspire to be which are also s... ...corded history. Even if this theory was once true, it does not appear to hold true anymore, because those who we consider the most successful and desirable are not producing the greatest number of offspring, and so, the traits that are being selected for future generations may be entirely different. Ironically, we may be spending our lives trying to prove we have traits which evolution is actually selecting against. References 1) Creativity, Evolution and Mental Illnesses http://jom-emit.cfpm.org/1997/vol1/preti_a&miotto_p.html 2) Evolution, Creativity, and ADD http://borntoexplore.org/evolve.htm 3) Sexual Selection and the Mind: A Talk with Geoffrey Miller http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/miller/miller_p2.html 4) The Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature http://www.cogsci.ecs.soton.ac.uk/cgi/psyc/newpsy?12.008

How Fairuz can increase productivity without neglecting service quality

Introduction Service quality is defined as the gap that exists between customer expectations and their perception of the service. Service productivity, on the other hand, is defined as the effectiveness with which resource inputs are transformed to produce value for customers (Barnes, 2003). In the hospitality industry, customer satisfaction is achievable through ensuring that they are provided with the best possible service quality. This will not only determine their satisfaction, but also their possibility to return or recommend the company to other potential customers. Just like quality is paramount, it is also vital to ensure that productivity is at its optimum so as to cater for all customers, especially during peak seasons (Grigoroudis & Siskos, 2009). In this regard, companies are expected to ensure that service quality does not compromise productivity, and vice versa. This report presents a proposal for Fairuz, a Lebanese restaurant that operates in London, on the approaches that can be used to increase their service quality without overlooking productivity. The restaurant serves Lebanese food, and has a seating capacity of 75 clients at any given time (Fairuz, 2014). By applying the strategies that are suggested in this proposal, the company will be able to increase customer satisfaction and reduce operation costs. Proposal There are several aspects of Fairuz that ought to be addressed in increasing service quality and the overall productivity of the restaurant. As this proposal aims to make these improvements at Fairuz, it will focus on improving the position of the restaurant in the market by making it more competitive than other restaurants of its level.Improving ProductivityThis section presents the approaches that Fairuz restaurant needs to use in order to increase its service productivity. Though there are many approaches that can be used to achieve this, this paper suggests three approaches that Fairuz can use. These include improving employee productivity, using key performance indicators to measure productivity and utilization of technology (Assaf et al., 2011).Employee productivityProductivity of employees in service companies is largely dependent on human resource practices or policies used. The collective efforts that are made by employees towards the attainment of organizational objectives vary with the effectiveness of the human resource department (Bratton & Gold, 2012). The most appropriate way in which their productivity can be increased is through applying different employee motivation strategies. These include offering reasonable remunerations, bonuses and rewards (Hartnett et al., 2011). Employees at Fairuz can also be made more productive by standardizing all processes, procedures and policies in the organization to create a sense of order. This saves time and maximizes efficiency (Medeiros et al., 2012). Even though these can be achieved at Fairuz, they may be hampered by high employee turnover because Fairuz’s budget may not allow it to compete with larger companies in terms of employee salaries. Small restaurants are always faced with the risk of losing employees to larger organizations.Measuring performance through key performance indicatorsPerformance indicators that can be used by Fairuz to measure its performance, to establish flaws and make impr ovements, vary with the different departments. In regard to staff, the restaurant has to ensure that it has a sustainable wage cost (Sainaghi et al., 2013). This can be done hiring small but sufficient number of employees to cater for the 75 guests that the restaurant targets to serve. This will reduce the wage burden in the company and also make it possible to remunerate them well. Labour or wage costs can also be minimized by ensuring that employee turnover is minimized, given that it is nearly impossible to completely eliminate it, especially in restaurants. Costs that could be used in training new staff members monthly or weekly can then be directed to more productive activities in the organization (Choi et al., 2012). Other key performance indicators that can be used by Fairuz to determine its performance include seating efficiency, stock value, costs of food and profitability (Sainaghi et al., 2013).Using Technology to increase ProductivityMost of the companies in the services sector, which include restaurants, are fast adapting to the technological changes taking place in the industry to increase productivity and efficiency in service delivery (Tzeng & Chang, 2011). Fairuz can use technology in all its departments to achieve an increase in productivity. For instance, it can acquire modern ovens or stoves for its kitchen that can be used to prepare more of food in a shorter time and on less energy. This not only makes it possible for the company to cater for many customers, but also increases its efficiency (Sloan et al., 2009). Technology can also be used to ease communication among employees within the restaurant. In this case, one of the technological equipment that Fairuz should acquire is the kitchen display system. This system provides real-time updates and information about food orders that have been made by clients and also monitors the speed of service (Katsigris & Thomas, 2008). This is quite effective and time-saving than the traditional appro ach where servers had to take orders from clients then go to inform chefs in the kitchen. This consumes more time and is prone to human error. Whilst it is expected that technology will contribute towards an increase in efficiency and productivity, Fairuz has to consider that the initial costs to be incurred in setting up these technologies and training employees on how to use them is quite high. Therefore, an analysis needs to be done to establish the most ideal technologies to implement, which will assure it of a good return on investment (Allen, 2011).Improving qualityEven as Fairuz strategizes to improve its productivity, it is also vital for it to ensure that the quality of service is not compromised. Thus, this section explains approaches that the restaurant can use to increase the quality of provided to its clients.Ensuring employee competenceRestaurants have different departments that require different skills and competencies in executing their respective responsibilities. T hey can be classified into managers, chefs, servers and miscellaneous employees (O’Fallon & Rutherford, 2011). To ensure quality, Fairuz has to ensure that it hires employees that have the required qualifications and experience needed in delivering their required duties. In addition to this regular training sessions have to be organized to improve their competencies. If employees are competent, the chances of substandard service quality are greatly reduced (O’Fallon & Rutherford, 2011). The fact that the restaurant serves Lebanese food means that the majority of clients are Lebanese. Thus, the company needs to ensure that a section of its employees are familiar with the Lebanese culture, foods and other dimensions that may affect their service perception. Being a small restaurant that mainly targets the Lebanese population, it may be challenging to hire the best talent since people with skills in this industry often target to work for larger organizations (Jang & George, 2012). Therefore, Fairuz may be limited to selecting low-income people who may not be quite competent and provide them with on-job training to improve their competence. This approach can mainly be applicable for selecting employees in positions that do not require special skills, like waiters.Utilizing quality measurement toolsIt is quite vital for organizations to ensure that they have an ideal framework that they can use to gauge their quality of service. This involves benchmarking the companyâ₠¬â„¢s current progress, identifying the problems that might exist, predicting future outcomes and using key quality indicators that are applicable in the restaurant business to establish their position in terms service quality (Barnes, 2003 ). For Fairuz restaurant, measuring service quality should be done by comparing customer expectations and their perception of service. Whereas all restaurants work to meet or exceed customer expectations, there are several factors that may limit their capabilities to attain this objective. It is thus vital for Fairuz to collect regular client feedback to enable it establish any flaws that may exist in its service delivery and make the necessary changes (Grigoroudis & Siskos, 2009). One of the most convenient ways that Fairuz can do this is through requesting waiters and receptionists to ask guests whether the meals met their expectations. The company also needs to link its website to a third-party review website like Tripadvisor, which will be vital in monitoring any customer feedback any time a review about the restaurant is made. Other approaches that can be used to do this include sending follow-up emails to clients and engaging more with clients over social media avenues. Positive feedback is an indicator of good service, while negative feedback indicates that the service offered is substandard and appropriate measures need to be taken to improve. One challenge that can be associated with this approach is that some clients’ views may be biased or in some cases, clients may provide conflicting feedback.Making comparisons with competitors in the marketPerception of services at Fairuz is relative to clients’ perceptions of services in other neigh bouring restaurants. In this regard, Fairuz will only be the preferred choice if its service quality is considered to be netter than that of its competitors (Grigoroudis & Siskos, 2009). To obtain a competitive edge over other restaurants, Fairuz has to ensure that it utilizes customer feedback so as to align its services with the customer preferences. Due to the fact that customer tastes and preferences are prone to regular change, Fairuz also needs to carry out regular customer research by collection of customer feedback to decide on what changes it should consider making (Barnes, 2003). Through tertiary monitoring websites or by visiting its competitors’ social media sites, Fairuz can be able to identify the core strengths and weaknesses of its competitors. These will be instrumental in ensuring that makes its services better than those of its competitors (Kalluri & Kodali, 2013). However, whereas it is assumed that Fairuz is only in competition with restaurants of its lev el, there could be other bigger restaurants with unmatched capabilities that may be targeting the same clients. This poses a great threat to Fairuz.Using Technology to Improve Service QualityService quality in restaurants can be improved through incorporating several technological solutions. Whereas food is a major part or determinant of customer satisfaction, the whole experience of customers in the restaurant is also dependent on several factors (Tzeng & Chang, 2011). For instance, Fairoz can ease the process of making reservations by providing an option for it on its website. In addition, free Wi-Fi can be provided in the restaurant for clients who are interested in surfing the internet when having a meal at the restaurant. Technology can also be used in the collection of customer feedback, which is vital in improving the service quality at Fairuz. The most appropriate cost-effective approach that is relevant to the present-day customer is social media sites like Facebook and Twi tter (Tuten & Solomon, 2012). Fairuz has to consider subscribing and increasing its activity on social media to monitor customer feedback. Point of Sale (POS) systems are also ideal feedback collection systems for restaurants. Though the mentioned technologies improve the service experience of customers and can also be used by the company to improve its service production, there are certain disadvantages that may arise. For instance free Wi-Fi might expose some clients to internet threats, especially those who may be unaware of how to secure their information when online (Cheema & Papatla, 2010). Conclusion Service quality and service productivity are both vital for service based companies, which include restaurants. Therefore, as companies strive to increase their productivity, it is also necessary for them to ensure that service quality is also improved, and vice versa. This proposal has provided suggestions of approaches that can be used to improve service production and service quality at Fauruz, a small scale Lebanese restaurant that is based in London. The suggestions that have been presented include effective human resource management approaches, utilization of quality and production measurement approaches, and incorporating technology in the restaurant’s operations. Though these recommendations have a high potential of increasing service quality and productivity, some of the limitations associated with them have also been provided. Whereas this proposal has provided suggestions for Fairuz, they can also be applicable to other companies in the industry. References Allen, K.R., 2011. Launching New Ventures: An Entrepreneurial Approach. Mason: Cengage Learining. Assaf, A.G., Deery, M. & Jago, L., 2011. Evaluating the performance and scale characteristics of the Australian restaurant industry. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 35(4), pp.419-36. Barnes, J.G., 2003. Establishing Meaningful Customer relationships: Why some Companies and Brands Mean More to the Customers. Managing Service Quality, 13(3), pp.178-86. Bratton, J. & Gold, J., 2012. Human Resource Management: Theory and Practice (5th edition). London: Palgrave. Cheema, A. & Papatla, P., 2010. Relative importance of online versus offline information for Internet purchases: Product category and Internet experience effects. Journal of Business Research, 63(9), pp.979-85. Choi, S., Cheong, K.K. & Feinberg, R.A., 2012. Moderating effects of supervisor support, monetary rewards, and career paths on the relationship between job burnout and turnover intentions in the context of call centers. Managing Service Quality, 22(5), pp.492-516. Fairuz, 2014. About Us. [Online] Available at: http://www.fairuz.uk.com/pages/about_us.htm [Accessed 29 April 2014]. Grigoroudis, E. & Siskos, Y., 2009. Customer Satisfaction Evaluation: Methods for Measuring and Implementing Service Quality. London: Springer. Hartnett, H.P. et al., 2011. Employers’ perceptions of the benefits of workplace accommodations: Reasons to hire, retain and promote people with disabilities. Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation, 34(1), pp.17-23. Jang, J. & George, R.T., 2012. Understanding the influence of polychronicity on job satisfaction and turnover intention: A study of non-supervisory hotel employees. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 31(2), pp.588-95. Kalluri, V. & Kodali, R., 2013. Benchmarking the Quality Function Deployment Models. Benchmarking: An International Journal, 20(6), pp.6-13. Katsigris, C. & Thomas, ?., 2008. Design and Equipment for Restaurants and Foodservice. New Jersy: John Wiley & Sons. Medeiros, C.O., Cavalli, S.B. & da Costa Proenca, R.P., 2012. Human resources administration processes in commercial restaurants and food safety: The actions of administrators. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 31(3), pp.667-74. O’Fallon, M.J. & Rutherford, ?.G., 2011. Hotel Management and Operations. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Sainaghi, R., Phillips, P. & Corti, V., 2013. Measuring hotel performance: Using a balanced scorecard perspectives’ approach. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 34, pp.150-59. Sloan, P., Legrand, ?. & Chen, ?.S., 2009. Sustainability in the Hospitality Industry. New Jersey: Routledge. Tuten, T.L. & Solomon, M.R., 2012. Social Media Marketing. New York: Prentice Hall. Tzeng, G.H. & Chang, H.F., 2011. Applying importance-performance analysis as a service quality measure in food service industry. Journal of technology management & innovation, 6(3), pp.106-15.

Oriental Food as the Cultural Other Essay

In Coco Fusco’s â€Å"The Other History of Intercultural Performance†, he promotes the idea that â€Å"racial difference is absolutely fundamental to aesthetic interpretation† while giving an explanation of how Western civilization has viewed the cultural Other—meaning, the so-called primitive people often stereotyped as savage and lacking in â€Å"discipline, civilization and industry† (Fusco). From the Western perspective, Oriental food is considered as the Other. The American staple typically consists of processed foods that are readily available such as pizza and burgers. These Western dishes can be found in almost all major cities and towns of the United States which have created a cultural appetite for anything that is ready for consumption. Oriental food, on the other hand, is viewed mostly as an alternative, albeit oftentimes costly, for the average Westerner (Counihan, p. 58). As with most Asian meals, the principle is to cook food from the freshest ingredients available. Typical vegetable dishes are prepared using vegetables that are picked fresh whereas seafood meals are cooked using the freshest fish and seashells for instance. Every food is prepared carefully regardless of the duration of the process, thereby creating the impression that each serving of Oriental food is a handiwork, so to speak, that can hardly be rivalled by fast food chains. Although there is hardly any single ingredient that unifies all the rest of the Oriental cuisines, there are similarities that can be pointed out. For instance, the â€Å"Tom Yum† soup of Thailand, a taste of hot and sour flavours using aromatic herbs, is a mix of spices and leaves of plants that are abundant in the country. As for the more general Thai cuisine, dishes are basically hot and spicy and are prepared using a balance of its five key flavours: salty, sweet, sour, spicy and the optional bitter flavour. Fresh herbs and spices are preferred over dried ones which is perhaps one reason why Thai dishes have that distinct taste. In addition to these single whole dishes, rice is also served as part of each meal with the inclusion of fish sauce such as â€Å"nam pla† and other complementary dishes. Japanese meals are another example of Oriental cuisine. Perhaps the most fundamental and unique characteristic of most Japanese meals is that each dish is served using raw ingredients. For instance, the popular Japanese food â€Å"sashimi† is raw seafood coupled with a dipping sauce. Aside from seafood, meat can also be prepared raw in Japanese meals such as Basashi, a raw horse meat delicacy. â€Å"Sushi† is also one of the more popular dishes in Japanese cuisine. It basically includes vegetable, meat and fish which can be rolled inside dried sheets of seaweed or placed over a bowl of rice. Philippine cuisine as an example of Oriental dishes also includes rice as part of the whole course of every meal. However, most Filipino dishes are prepared using the milk from coconuts and the sauce from tomatoes. Examples of these dishes are â€Å"kaldereta† (goat in tomato stew), â€Å"afritada† (beef or pork simmered in thick tomato sauce) and â€Å"ginataang manok† (chicken in coconut milk). In a way, Philippine and Thai cuisines are similar in the sense that they make use of the ingredients that are naturally found in the surroundings and that these ingredients are harvested and cooked almost the same day. There is the preference for everything fresh instead of dried spices, herbs and main ingredients. Fresh fish and meat is also preferred over frozen ones although the option to make use of the latter is available. More importantly, the techniques involved in preparing these Oriental dishes are unique in their own ways. The way Japanese sushi or sashimi is prepared is different from the way Thai tom yum is prepared. And yet while there are differences, there are also semblances which seem to connect all these Oriental food. Apart from the fact that most Oriental meals include rice as part of the course, these dishes also include spices and herbs which strengthen their flavours. Westerners who have travelled all the way to the Eastern parts of Asia often encounter the strong aroma from Oriental dishes that are distinct from those of Western dishes. It is not surprising that most Americans, for instance, would rather depend on fast food restaurants for their meals. For people living busy lives in the dense urban areas of the United States, time is a precious commodity that should not be wasted in exchange for sumptuous meals in cosy Oriental restaurants. Moreover, Westerners barely have a full idea of how to prepare Oriental meals for themselves without learned skills or the help from other skilled individuals. The knowledge of preparing Oriental food is simply beyond the inherent or immediate environment of Westerners. The fact that not all ingredients for Oriental cuisines are readily available in Western societies adds to the seemingly inaccessible or at least hardly accessible nature of Oriental dishes for Westerners. In general, there are more reasons to believe that Westerners are more inclined to settle for what they have in their immediate surroundings than to learn things outside of their reach as far as cuisines are concerned. What does Oriental food mean? For the most part, Oriental food reflects the culture of Oriental people in many ways. The ingredients used in these dishes reflect the kind of environment that the people have in which they have no other choice but to survive. Every piece of vegetable or leaf of plants in each delicacy indicates the available and usually abundant resources in the people’s native land. In effect, the unique ingredients in Oriental dishes create the identity of these dishes that are distinct and entirely different from Western dishes. Moreover, the very presence of these ingredients easily helps in identifying what is Oriental from what is Western. From a Western perspective, these Oriental dishes appear to be entirely different from the food delicacies which they are accustomed to, creating the impression that what is â€Å"alien† to their taste buds, so to speak, are either exotic or rare. By attributing these qualities of exoticness and rareness to Oriental dishes in a general manner, Westerners have showed the tendency to suffuse some of the ingredients founds in these dishes into their own meals. Moreover, Western societies have found ways to establish food chains that provide supposedly genuine Oriental dishes in their menus. In the United States, for instance, numerous restaurants serving Oriental meals have been put-up primarily for profit. Through the profit-seeking motives of business-minded individuals, Oriental dishes in Western markets have been characterized oftentimes as luxury delicacies or â€Å"alternative† dishes to the more predominant pizza, burgers and other Western meals. In contemporary times, the effect is that Oriental dishes are stereotyped as the cultural â€Å"Other† when in terms of food. The ways in preparing Oriental dishes also reflect the behaviours of individuals and groups in these Oriental regions of Asia. They indicate a â€Å"performance† done in order to create the distinct flavours and tastes of these dishes, the knowledge of which has been passed-on from one generation to another. The skills involved in preparing these dishes have been practiced and perfected through the generations of families that have continued the legacy of preparing Oriental food. For them, preparing these meals is nothing but an ordinary routine that has become a part of their daily survival. From the viewpoint of Westerners, Oriental dishes are rarely part of their daily survival or not at all. That is, they can continue with their lives even if they are not able to relish the taste of Oriental food. These meals that are foreign to Western societies are, in effect, taken for granted or are simply considered as alternative viands to their regular course of Western meals. That attitude reinforces the notion that any plate of Oriental dish is just another â€Å"Other†. It can be said that Western societies can only get as close to so-called authentic Oriental dishes by replicating them through food establishments. Whether consciously aware or not, Western societies are public outlets for contributing to the notion espoused by Fusco; they reinforce the stereotype of â€Å"the primitive† and the Western â€Å"ability to exert control over and extract knowledge from the ‘primitive’ world† (Fusco). Restaurants in Western societies that feature Oriental dishes are not simply established from almost everywhere in these societies without first studying these culinary delicacies. On the contrary, Westerners tend to â€Å"extract knowledge† from such â€Å"primitive† dishes as if Western meals are the bases for identifying a dish as whether a part of civilized world or otherwise. Like Fusco’s public experiment—one that sought to bring into realization the often disregarded observation that â€Å"a substantial portion of the public believed that our fictional identities were real ones† as though these beliefs have never been challenged and has sit firmly well in the collective consciousness of the people—so-called Oriental restaurants in Western societies reinforce the many illusions about Oriental dishes and, more generally, Oriental culture. One of these illusions is the belief that there are Oriental dishes that do not fit well with the palate of Westerners. For instance, there are Oriental delicacies which make use of several animal organs which are rarely used for preparing Western meals. There are even insects that are part of the ordinary Oriental dishes. Westerners tend to develop an aversion towards Oriental dishes with these animal organs and become branded as either exotic or primitive. The larger consequence of such an aversion, apparently, is an aversion towards the people who take pride in preparing and eating such dishes (Smith, p. 486). Nevertheless, the fact that there are restaurants in Western societies that serve Oriental dishes signify that there are attempts to bring these dishes closer to Western societies even if such attempts are only secondary to the intent to profit. Moreover, a notable characteristic of Oriental restaurants situated in Western societies is that they slightly redefine the Oriental dishes that they serve in order to attract potential customers and maintain the patronage of the buying public. They add a Western â€Å"touch†, in a manner of speaking, to these foreign dishes. In consequence, Oriental dishes are given the impression that they are merely subjects of Western consumption and can be subject to change depending on the needs of the Western clients. To a certain degree, it goes to show a form of cultural subjugation or assimilation that distorts the original nature not only of the dishes but also of the Oriental culture from a Western perspective. The dishes that are presented to the Western public are no longer faithful to the original dishes as they were in Oriental countries. Western societies become unknowingly unaware of the original nature of such dishes, thereby treating their false impressions of these Oriental dishes as the so-called â€Å"Other†. On a personal note, I can say that there is a great deal of knowledge that can be derived from studying Oriental dishes as they serve as windows into the cultural aspects of several Asian countries. An awareness of Oriental dishes in terms of their distinct ingredients and unique methods of preparation can help the Western perspective look beyond that false impression that veils the genuine. If we are able to comprehend a significant portion of the stories behind each of these Oriental dishes and the whole array of Oriental food in general, there is a chance that we can gain substantial cultural knowledge of what has been called as the â€Å"Other† (Mintz, p. 104). As the saying goes, you are what you eat—if you know what the â€Å"Other† eats, it is likely that you get to know the â€Å"Other†. Works Cited Counihan, Carole M. â€Å"Food Rules in the United States: Individualism, Control, and Hierarchy.† Anthropological Quarterly 65. 2 (1992): 55-66. Fusco, Coco. â€Å"The Other History of Intercultural Performance†. 1994. November 21 2008. . Mintz, Sidney W. , and Christine M. Du Bois. â€Å"The Anthropology of Food and Eating. † Annual Review of Anthropology 31 (2002): 99-119. Smith, Monica L. â€Å"The Archaeology of Food Preference. † American Anthropologist 108. 3 (2006): 480-93.

The sun’s ray’s play on my face – Creative Writing

The sun's ray's play on my face, I manage to open my eyes and see the house bathed in a pool of light, making the old house's white walls glow. Between the walls, the windows with their mysterious sheen give the patina of age, reflecting the whole house. It has a rustic feel about it with a few pieces of outdoor furniture made by a skilled craftsman many years ago. It is an old white house with a red roof and a large porch from where lots of sunflowers in their vessel's smile at the sun. Looking through the windows made utterly impossible with the glorious morning's sunlight. The garden seems heavenly, with its extraordinary colours and vibrancy. The sun's rays reflect of the flowing water of the stream alongside the river, almost painful to look at if it weren't for its rare beauty. The aroma of flowers and various strange plants waft through the air creating a summer feel. In the painted pots, geraniums enchant my sight with a large palette of colours, creating a peaceful feeling. The sun is up in the blue sky, birds are singing on the trees and the air is filled with the fragrance of the flowers. The little pathway leading up to the house is very quaint with its meandering cobblestone formation, its tiny gate and the fences surrounding them. I glide my fingers over the front of the door, feeling every fine texture and ripple of the mature oak. I return to the house deep into the evening. The sun finally let way for the moon and in doing so has changed the sense of the house entirely. It's small gate and fences reassure me that it is the same house yet so much seems altered in some way. The bright sparkling blue stream running down the garden had become a dark mysterious crawling creature. The house is now purple with moonlight tainting the beautiful white that it previously was. The furniture's silhouettes show distorted figures watching over the garden. Furthermore, the sunflowers appear as scarecrows with their tall thin body and wide spanned leaves imitating the arms. The moonlight has jaded the house's rustic charm and made it an object of unsettling nature. The garden has also been distorted with its lack of colour and texture, everything seemingly taking a troublesome form in it's silhouette status. The once beatiful smeel of plants has now been frozen out by the chill of the air. The beams of sunlight have vanished, replaced with the dull smolder of the moon catching everything in its wake and not allowing even a fragment of colour to reach my eye. The bees and the birds have left and with that comes the sinister silence of the shadowy darkness. The dim snake that was the pathway curls and coils its way to the doorway where I had once stood, nonetheless the house seems unrecognisable without the colours, sounds and smells that once made it such a special place.

Bachelor of Arts Community development Essay

The unit explores the power of ideas to change the world and ourselves, focusing on their birth, transmission, evolution, and personal and global impact. Through the study of selected themes, students are introduced to the knowledge and approaches central to the arts, social sciences and humanities, and are invited to reflect on competing moral and social arguments. The development of writing and critical thinking skills are a core focus of the unit. The unit is arranged around four different topics, each of which is allocated five or six lectures and three tutorials. Each topic consists of an organising theme which is used to focus a set of contrasting disciplinary perspectives from within the arts, social sciences and humanities. For 2014, the four organising themes are: ââ€" ¦The individual and the community. ââ€" ¦Violence ââ€" ¦Truth and representation ââ€" ¦The good life The key aims of this unit are as follows: ââ€" ¦To introduce students to a range of methodological, conceptual and theoretical appraoches to the main discipline areas covered in the Bachelor of Arts degree. ââ€" ¦To show how social and moral issues may be examined from diverse perspectives, so as to result in differing evaluations, each offering potentially valuable illuminations. ââ€" ¦To provide students with the conceptual tools to become more articulate and reflective in their examination of social and moral issues. The majors which comprise the Bachelor of Arts in 2014 are: ââ€" ¦Asian Studies ââ€" ¦Australian Indigenous Studies ââ€" ¦Communication and Media Studies ââ€" ¦Community Development ââ€" ¦Criminology ââ€" ¦Education Studies ââ€" ¦English and Creative Writing ââ€" ¦Games Art and Design ââ€" ¦History ââ€" ¦Indonesian ââ€" ¦Interactive Digital Design ââ€" ¦International Aid and Development ââ€" ¦Japanese ââ€" ¦Journalism ââ€" ¦Legal Studies ââ€" ¦Philosophy ââ€" ¦Photography ââ€" ¦Public Relations ââ€" ¦Politics and International Studies ââ€" ¦Radio ââ€" ¦Religion ââ€" ¦Security, Terrorism and Counterterrorism Studies ââ€" ¦Social and Developmental Psychology ââ€" ¦Sociology ââ€" ¦Sound ââ€" ¦Sustainable Development ââ€" ¦Theatre and Drama ââ€" ¦Tourism and Events ââ€" ¦Web Communication

Information Technology on Individuals, Organizations and Societies

Part VI Implementing and Managing IT 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. Chapter 17 IT Strategy and Planning Information Technology Economics Acquiring IT Applications and Infrastructure Security Impacts of IT on Individuals, Organizations, and Society Impacts of IT on Individuals, Organizations, and Society Movie Piracy Learning Objectives 17. 1 Perspectives on IT Impacts 17. 2 IT Is Eliminating the Barriers of Time, After studying this chapter, you will be able to: Space, and Distance Understand the changes that take place in the workplace and the lives of individuals when information technology eliminates geographical and spatial barriers.Describe some of the major impacts of information technology on individuals, organizations, and society. 17. 3 Information Is Changing from a Scarce Resource to an Abundant Resource Discuss the positive and negative effects associated with the abundance of information made available by IT. 17. 4 Machines Are Performing Functions Identify the issues that arise du e to uneven diffusion of information technology across countries and socioeconomic classes. Previously Performed by Humans 17. 5 Information Technology Urges People to Reexamine Their Value Systems Understand the complexity of effects of technological rogress on labor markets and individual employees. 17. 6 Conclusion 17. 7 Managerial Issues Discuss the impacts of information technology on the quality of life and interpersonal relationships. Recognize the legal, ethical, and moral issues that become particularly critical due to proliferation of information technology. Minicases: 1. Megachurches 2. RFID for Consumer Products Integrating IT ACC FIN MKT POM HRM IS SVC 663 MOVIE PIRACY The Problem Generations of moviegoers went to movie theaters to enjoy the latest films. They accepted the idea of paying for their movies. However, movie piracy, which has been reatly accelerated by information technology, is challenging this notion. Now, movie pirates are bringing the latest motion pictu re releases to an Internet-connected computer near you. For years, movie studios suffered minor losses due to high-tech piracy (theft of digital content) that was carried out by people duplicating videotapes and DVDs. The need to produce and distribute physical media presented a number of technical and logistical difficulties for movie pirates, which limited the scope of their operations. Thus, picture studios largely ignored these activities. When Napster. com and other sites began to se the Web and peer-to-peer technologies to share pirated music, movie producers felt reasonably immune to this trend. After all, it would take more than a week to download a 5-gigabyte DVD-quality movie using a 56-kilobits-per-second modem. Some individuals argue that piracy does not hurt film studios but, rather, makes movies available to those people who would not be able to enjoy them otherwise. Information technology that enables movie piracy raises a number of significant issues, such as intelle ctual property rights, fair use, and the role of government in regulating these issues.Furthermore, information technology makes it easier than ever to cross national borders, adding international implications to the issue of movie piracy. The Solution To deal with movie piracy, picture studio executives attacked several aspects of the problem simultaneously. First, media companies tried to shape public opinion in a way that would discourage movie piracy. For instance, to raise public awareness of the issue, filmmakers launched an advertising campaign with the slogan â€Å"Movies. They’re worth it. † Second, the movie industry performed a number of ctivities that made it more difficult to copy and distribute pirated movies without being noticed. For instance, 664 enhanced physical security at movie theaters, which may include the use of metal detectors and physical searches for recording devices, helps the film industry deter piracy at â€Å"sneak previews† and movie premieres (Ripley, 2004). Technology plays an important part in this process. The Results Hollywood had several high-profile wins in its fight against Internet movie piracy in 2005 and 2006. The film industry’s trade organization, the Motion PictureAssociation of America (MPAA), slapped hundreds of people with lawsuits for illegally downloading and trading films online. The U. S. departments of Justice and Homeland Security shut down Elite Torrents, a popular Web site that spread copies of Star Wars: Episode III— Revenge of the Sith before the movie officially opened. Even Bram Cohen, creator of BitTorrent (a peer-to-peer file-sharing program responsible for an estimated 65% of illegal movie downloads in 2005), agreed to cut links to MPAA-pirated content off his Web site (Leung, 2006). Yet the problem seems to be getting worse.According to London-based research firm Informa, illegal movie downloads cost the industry U. S. $985 million in 2005, up from U. S. $860 million in 2004. Growing access to broadband likely played a role, as higher Internet speeds made downloading large movie files faster. Studio executives realize that enforcement is only part of the solution. As in the music industry, many believe the best way to prevent illegal downloads is to offer legal alternatives. Warner Bros. turned a technology used by Internet movie pirates to its advantage. In March 2006, in Germany, Austria, and parts of Switzerland, the company aunched In2Movies, a peer-to-peer file-sharing network that lets users download movies for the price of a DVD or less. Kevin Tsujihara, the president of the Warner Bros. ’ home entertainment group, said Germany has all the right ingredients for such a service: high rates of piracy due to high levels of broadband penetration, a tech-savvy population, and consumers willing to pay for downloaded movies. Sources: Compiled from Leung (2006) and Ripley (2004). Lessons Learned from This Case Obviously, information technology is not the cause of movie piracy, just as it is not the cause of music iracy. (See Online File W17. 1 for a discussion of music piracy. ) However, it is the tool that tremendously heightens the importance of legal, ethical, and regulatory issues related to this phenomenon. Copyright, trademark, and patent infringement, freedom of thought and speech, theft of property, and 17. 1 fraud are not new issues in modern societies. However, as this opening case illustrates, information technology adds to the scope and scale of these issues. It also raises a number of questions about what constitutes illegal behavior versus unethical, intrusive, or undesirable behavior.This chapter examines these and numerous other impacts of information technology on individuals, organizations, and society. Perspectives on IT Impacts Concern about the impact of technology on people, organizations, and society is not new. As early as the 1830s, English intellectuals expressed philosophical argumen ts about the effects of technologies that had given rise to the Industrial Revolution some 60 to 70 years earlier. Samuel Butler, in his 1872 book Erehwon (an anagram for nowhere), summarized the anxiety about the disruptive influences of technology on the lives of people.The book described a society that made a conscious decision to reject machines and new technology; in it, people have â€Å"frozen† technology at a predetermined level and outlawed all further technological development. While there are many philosophical, technological, social, and cultural differences between society at the start of the Industrial Revolution and the society of the middle of the Information Age in which we now live, there are, nevertheless, people who continue to believe that humankind is threatened by the evolution of technology. Overall, however, our society has not rejected technology but, rather, has embraced it.Most of us recognize that technology and information systems are essential t o maintaining, supporting, and enriching many aspects of the lives of individuals, operations of organizations, and functioning of societies. Humans are involved in a symbiotic relationship with technology. All the same, we must be aware of its effect on us as individuals and as members of organizations and society. Throughout this book, we have noted how information systems are being rationalized, developed, used, and maintained to help organizations meet their needs and reach their goals.In all these discussions, we have assumed that development and implementation of information technology produce only positive results and leave no major negative consequences. However, is this really true? Abundant evidence unmistakably points to potential negative effects of technology in general, and information technology in particular. Information technology has raised a multitude of negative issues, ranging from illegal copying of software programs to surveillance of employees’ e-mail. The impact of IT on employment levels is of major concern, as are the effects on sociability and the quality of life. A more critical issue, however, involves questions such as: Will proliferation of technology cause irreversible changes to the society as we know it? Will humans benefit from the new capabilities of information technology, or will they be harmed by machines playing more and more prominent roles in the society? Who will investigate the costs and risks of technologies? Will society have any control over the decisions to deploy technology? 665 666Chapter 17 Impacts of IT on Individuals, Organizations, and Society This chapter will discuss several major themes that can be identified among the countless effects of information technology. We will discuss how information technology removes spatial and geographic barriers, transforms information into an abundant resource, enables machines to perform â€Å"human† tasks, and forces people to reconsider their value syste ms. Each of these trends is comprised of the effects of multiple technologies and has far-reaching implications for various groups of people. 17. 2 IT Is Eliminating the Barriers of Time, Space, and DistanceOne of the most noticeable developments precipitated by information technology is the elimination of numerous barriers that traditionally separated individuals, organizations, and societies at different geographic locations. In essence, information technology is redefining the entire concept of time, space, and distance. Proliferation of high-speed data communication networks that span the globe enables companies to integrate geographically distant manufacturing and research facilities, link international financial markets, and even provide customer service from halfway around the world.GLOBALIZATION Offshore outsourcing is one of the manifestations of the trend toward globalization— blurring of geographic barriers—that is accelerated by information technology. Well -educated English-speaking employees residing in countries like India and the Philippines can perform services demanded by firms based in the United States, Great Britain, or any other country. In fact, outsourcing of white-collar services has already become mainstream, with software development and call-center operations being among the most prevalent.Furthermore, the outsourcing trends are naturally expanding into such activities as processing of insurance claims, transcription of medical records, engineering and design work, financial analysis, market research, and many others (â€Å"The Remote Future,† 2004). From a macroeconomic perspective, the effects of offshore outsourcing are quite positive: It facilitates a more efficient allocation of human resources by removing the imperfections introduced by geographical boundaries. On a microeconomic level, numerous companies will benefit from lower costs of outsourced activities.For example, by outsourcing back-office work to Costa Rica, the Philippines, and Great Britain, Procter & Gamble was able to realize $1 billion in cost reductions (La Londe, 2004). Nevertheless, outsourcing, as any other impact of information technology, raises an array of complex interrelated issues that are not always positive. For instance, outsourcing may be advantageous to some groups of people, but detrimental to others. Nasscom, the Indian IT industry lobby, forecasts that employment in the â€Å"ITenabled services† industry in India will grow from 770,000 in 2004 to 2 million in 2008 (â€Å"The Remote Future,† 2004).Yet, employees and trade unions in Western nations are expressing concerns about job losses resulting from offshore outsourcing. The U. S. federal government and the majority of individual states are already considering laws that would prevent government agencies from contracting their services out to foreign firms (Schroeder, 2004). As the volume of sensitive data processed offshore increases, o utsourcing will raise the questions of privacy and confidentiality.Privacy standards in a country where data originate may vary dramatically from the privacy laws and privacy safeguards in the country where the data are processed. An incident in which a disgruntled worker in Pakistan threatened to post medical records of U. S. patients on the Internet highlights the seriousness of this issue (Mintz, 2004). 17. 2 IT Is Eliminating the Barriers of Time, Space, and Distance 667 The remarkable communications capabilities delivered by IT promote globalization not only through offshore outsourcing but also through enabling firms to distribute core corporate functions around the globe.TELECOMMUTING Broadband Internet access, secure virtual private networks, and mobile computing technologies are making it possible for many professionals to telecommute, or work from outside the office. According to some estimates, by the year 2010 more than half of workers in the United States will spend 2 o r more days a week working away from the office. However, experts estimate that even in 10 years it would be uncommon to find workers who telecommute 5 days a week, suggesting that telecommuting would not fully eliminate the need for central office locations.From 1990 to 2000, the number of those who worked more at home than at the office grew by 23 percent, twice the rate of growth of the total labor market. Since 2000, telecommuting has continued to increase. Approximately 4. 5 million Americans telecommute a majority of their total working days, with some 20 million commuting at least some days each month and 45 million telecommuting at least once per year. Telecommuting offers a plethora of benefits, including reducing rush-hour traffic, improving air quality, improving highway safety, and even improving health care (see IT at Work 17. ). Among the large metropolitan areas in the United States, the largest amount of telecommuting occurs in Denver, Portland, and San Diego. The pr ojected growth of IT-related jobs is on the rise. Five of the top ten highest-growth jobs are IT-related, including computer software engineering for applications, computer support specialists, computer software engineering for systems software, network and computer systems administrators, and network systems and data communication analysts (Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook; see money. cnn. om/magazines/ business2/nextjobboom/), and the rates of telecommuting are expected to grow even higher. Many of these IT-related jobs can now be effectively performed from home, thanks to excellent bandwidths and improved technologies to support telecommuting. IT at Work 17. 1 Telemedicine Helps Indian Tribe Get Better Health Care The Alabama Coushatta Indian Tribe Reservation, located 45 miles outside of Houston, Texas, in Livingston County, has experienced an outmigration of its people to more metropolitan areas in search of better education, jobs, and health care.Wanti ng to preserve its race and culture, the 300-member tribe sought ways to make living on the reservation more attractive to its young members. In partnership with Sam Houston State University (SHSU) and with $350,000 in funding from the Rural Utilities Services, a network called RESNET was created to bridge the information and communication gaps for residents of Livingston and surrounding counties. A fiber-optic network links the medical clinic on the reservation to the University of Texas Medical Branch in Polk County as well as to the Tyler County Hospital. Tribal members can ow receive more specialized care as two-way consultations between the clinic on the reservation and the hospital in Polk County or Tyler County are now possible. Individuals with ailments that might require hospitalization, but about which they are not sure, such as a diabetic with a concern about a swollen limb, can first check with the medical clinic on the reservation. Vital signs can be taken and radiology images shared with the specialist physicians at one of the hospitals, and then informed decisions about whether the patient needs to travel to a hospital can be made.This helps improve the quality of care as well as saves time both for patients and for medical staff. Source: USDA (2006) and shsu. edu (1997). For Further Exploration: What are potential legal problems associated with telemedicine? What are some trade-offs to be considered? 668 Chapter 17 Impacts of IT on Individuals, Organizations, and Society The typical telecommuter is well-educated, financially stable, has children, works in management and/or sales, and had worked in his or her current position for several years face-to-face before starting to telecommute Balaker, 2005). Likewise, as the percent of service-related jobs increases—by 2002, 82 percent of the U. S. workforce worked in service-related jobs—the potential for more telecommuting also rises. It is simply not possible for factory or agricultur al laborers to telecommute, but many service-related jobs do offer the potential for telecommuting. One area where telecommuting is having a promising impact is that of telemedicine. For instance, in 2001, doctors in New York performed the first successful crossAtlantic telesurgery on a patient in Strasbourg France.The removal of the patient’s gallbladder was conducted via a robotic arm that was remotely controlled by the surgeons. A fiber-optic cable operated by France Telecom enabled the high-speed link so that the images from the operating table in France were on display in front of the doctors in New York, with an average time delay of only 150 milliseconds (Johnson, 2002). Other areas of medicine are experiencing surges in telemedicine as well. Replacing the couch with a monitor and video feed, telepsychiatry in particular is becoming popular, fueled in part by the need to serve rural patients and the need to service prison populations.Data from the National Conference o f State Legislatures indicates that as of 2006, six states in the United States required private insurers to reimburse patients for telepsychiatry. Impacts of Working from Home or Virtual Office. All forms of telecommuting— working from home (WFH) or a virtual office—give employees greater flexibility in their working locations and hours. Working in a virtual office is one way an employee can telecommute by completing job duties virtually anywhere—a car, hotel room, airport, or any hotspot.Telecommuting (or telework) played a significant role in business continuity and continuity of operations planning. Companies who had employees in New York City on 9/11 or New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina relied on telework. Their employees were able to work immediately after these tragedies because of the telework programs they had in place. The Telework Coalition (TelCoa. org), a nonprofit membership organization that promotes virtual and distributed work, conducted a be nchmarking study of employers in public and private sectors with large telework programs. Employers represented roughly 00,000 employees and 150,000 teleworkers and mobile workers. The 2006 study, sponsored by Intel, looked at how these large organizations resolved problems to create successful programs that benefited the organization and employees through reduced real estate costs, increased employee retention, and a higher rate of employee satisfaction. The survey was valuable because it examined details such as benefits, costs, challenges, and unexpected consequences experienced by managers. Most participants emphasized the importance of the mobility that telework enables when dealing in a global economy.To read the Executive Summary of the telework survey, visit telcoa. org/id311. htm. An interesting finding was that telework was being regarded as â€Å"just work† and not an unusual form of work. As long as employees had a phone, laptop, high-speed Internet access, and fa x, they are in business wherever they are. With the convergence of technologies, such as a wireless-equipped laptop with a VoIP phone, or a new-generation PDA, work can be done from almost anywhere. Telework is also of great importance to the local community and society because of effects on the environment, safety, and health.For example, the strength of a society depends on the strength of its individuals and the strength of their families. Other potential benefits 17. 2 IT Is Eliminating the Barriers of Time, Space, and Distance TABLE 17. 1 669 Potential Benefits of Telecommuting or Virtual Work Individuals Organizational Community and Society †¢ Reduces or eliminates travelrelated time and expenses †¢ Improves health by reducing stress related to compromises made between family and work responsibilities †¢ Allows closer proximity to and involvement with family †¢ Allows closer bonds with the family and the community Decreases involvement in office politics â € ¢ Increases productivity despite distractions †¢ Reduces office space needed †¢ Increases labor pool and competitive advantage in recruitment †¢ Provides compliance with Americans with Disabilities Act †¢ Decreases employee turnover, absenteeism, and sick leave usage †¢ Improves job satisfaction and productivity †¢ Conserves energy and lessens dependence on foreign oil †¢ Preserves the environment by reducing traffic-related pollution and congestion †¢ Reduces traffic accidents and resulting injuries or deaths Reduces the incidence of disrupted families when people do not have to quit their jobs if they need to move because of a spouse’s new job or family obligations †¢ Increased employment opportunities for the homebound †¢ Allows the movement of job opportunities to areas of high unemployment of telework to individuals, organizations, and communities are listed in Table 17. 1. There are numerous potential negative effect s of telework, including a sense of isolation when working from home even though such work often requires a lot of telephone contact with people in the office.Growth in telecommuting raises the questions of whether the benefits of working from home outweigh the costs, and whether telecommuting is appropriate for everyone or only for workers with certain qualities and personality types. Few of us want to work around the clock, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, but the pressure to do so could be considerable if the facility exists. Another pressure may be to work antisocial hours—night shifts, for example, or weekends—which can adversely impact the quality of social interactions and interpersonal relationships. For more on teleworking, see Online File W17. 2. ) Globalization and telecommuting are only two examples of how information technology removes the barriers of time, space, and distance. Far-reaching results of this trend are changing the way we l ive, work, play, and do business, bringing both improvements that we can enjoy and the challenges that we need to overcome. In the context of organizations, these changes have important implications for structure, authority, power, job content, and personnel issues. STRUCTURE, AUTHORITY, POWER, JOB C ONTENT, AND PERSONNEL ISSUESThe IT revolution may result in many changes in structure, authority, power, and job content, as well as personnel management and human resources management. Details of these changes are shown in Table 17. 2. In addition, other changes are expected in organizations. IT managers are assuming a greater leadership role in making business decisions. The impact goes beyond one company or one supply chain, to influence entire industries. For example, the use of profitability models and optimization is reshaping retailing, real estate, banking, transportation, airlines, and car renting, to mention just a few.These and other changes are impacting personnel issues, as shown in Table 17. 3. Many additional personnel-related questions could surface as a result of using IT. For example: What will be the impact of IT on job qualifications and on training 670 Chapter 17 Impacts of IT on Individuals, Organizations, and Society TABLE 17. 2 Impacts of IT on Structure, Authority, Power, and Job Content Impact Effect of IT Flatter organizational hierarchies IT increases span of control (more employees per supervisor), increases productivity, and reduces the need for technical experts (due to expert systems).Fewer managerial levels will result, with fewer staff and line managers. Reduction in the total number of employees, reengineering of business processes, and the ability of lower-level employees to perform higher-level jobs may result in flatter organizational hierarchies. The ratio of white- to blue-collar workers increases as computers replace clerical jobs, and as the need for information systems specialists increases. However, the number of profess ionals and specialists could decline in relation to the total number of employees in some organizations as intelligent and knowledge-based systems grow.IT makes possible technology centers, e-commerce centers, decision support systems departments, and/or intelligent systems departments. Such units may have a major impact on organizational structure, especially when they are supported by or report directly to top management. Centralization may become more popular because of the trend toward smaller and flatter organizations and the use of expert systems. On the other hand, the Web permits greater empowerment, allowing for more decentralization. Whether use of IT results in more centralization or in decentralization may depend on top management’s philosophy.Knowledge is power, and those who control information and knowledge are likely to gain power. The struggle over who controls the information resources has become a conflict in many organizations. In some countries, the fight may be between corporations that seek to use information for competitive advantage and the government (e. g. , Microsoft vs. the Justice Dept. ). Elsewhere, governments may seek to hold onto the reins of power by not letting private citizens access some information (e. g. , China’s restriction of Internet usage).Job content is interrelated with employee satisfaction, compensation, status, and productivity. Resistance to changes in job skills is common, and can lead to unpleasant confrontations between employees and management. Change in blue-towhite-collar staff ratio Growth in number of special units Centralization of authority Changes in power and status Changes in job content and skill sets requirements? How can jobs that use IT be designed so that they present an acceptable level of challenge to users? How might IT be used to personalize or enrich jobs?What can be done to make sure that the introduction of IT does not demean jobs or have other negative impacts from the w orkers’ point of view? All these and more issues could be encountered in any IT implementation. TABLE 17. 3 Impacts of IT on Personnel Issues Impact Effect of IT Shorter career ladders In the past, many professionals developed their abilities through years of experience and a series of positions that exposed them to progressively more complex situations. The use of IT, and especially Web-based computer-aided instruction, may short-cut this learning curve. IT introduces the possibility for greater electronic supervision.In general, the supervisory process may become more formalized, with greater reliance on procedures and measurable (i. e. , quantitative) outputs and less on interpersonal processes. This is especially true for knowledge workers and telecommuters. The Web has the potential to increase job mobility. Sites such as techjourney. com can tell you how jobs pay in any place in the United States. Sites like monster. com offer places to post job offerings and resumes. U sing videoconferencing for interviews and intelligent agents to find jobs is likely to increase employee turnover.Changes in supervision Job mobility 17. 3 Information Is Changing from a Scarce Resource to an Abundant Resource 17. 3 671 Information Is Changing from a Scarce Resource to an Abundant Resource Few people disagree with the notion that information is a valuable resource and that increased availability of information can be beneficial for individuals and organizations alike. However, information technology’s capability to introduce ever-growing amounts of data and information into our lives can exceed our capacity to keep up with them, leading to information overload.Business users are not suffering from the scarcity of data; instead, they are discovering that the process of finding the information they need in massive collections of documents can be complicated, time consuming, and expensive. The impact of information overload is felt not only in business circles b ut also in many other parts of the society, including the military intelligence community. At the onset of the Information Age, intelligence professionals acquired never-before-seen data collection tools, including high-resolution satellite imagery and versatile sensors capable of penetrating natural and manmade barriers.Furthermore, information technology enabled the intelligence community to establish high-speed communication links to transfer the data, build vast databases to store the data, and use powerful supercomputers with intelligent software to process the data. Clearly, information technology has greatly increased both the amount of information available to the intelligence community and the speed at which it can analyze this information. However, existing computer systems and human analysts are unable to deal with the increasing volumes of data, creating the information-overload problem.For instance, according to MacDonald and Oettinger (2002),â€Å"information that mig ht have prevented some of the September 11 attacks apparently existed somewhere within the vast quantity of data collected by the intelligence community, but the systems for using such information have lagged far behind the ability to collect the data. † To be effective at solving the problem of information overload, information systems must differentiate between the data that can be safely summarized and the data that should be viewed in its original form (DeSouza et al. , 2004). INFORMATION OVERLOAD INFORMATION QUALITY FINAs organizations and societies continue to generate, process, and rely on the rapidly increasing amounts of information, they begin to realize the importance of information quality. Information quality is a somewhat subjective measure of the utility, objectivity, and integrity of gathered information. Quality issues affect both the simple collections of facts (data) and the more complex pieces of processed data (information). To be truly valuable, both data and information must possess a number of essential characteristics, such as being complete, accurate, up-to-date, and â€Å"fit for the purpose† for which they are used (Ojala, 2003).The value and usability of data and information that do not satisfy these requirements are severely limited. Issues relating to information quality have become sufficiently significant that they now occupy a notable place on the government’s legislative agenda. The Data Quality Act of 2001 and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 impose stringent information quality requirements on government agencies and publicly traded corporations (Loshin, 2004).For example, one of the provisions of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act makes chief executive and financial officers personally responsible and liable for the quality of financial information that firms release to stockholders or file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This rule emphasizes the importance of controlling and measuring data qualit y and information quality in business intelligence, corporate performance management, and record management systems (Logan and Buytendijk, 2003). Information quality problems are not limited to corporate data. Millions of individuals face information quality ssues on a daily basis as they try to find information 672 Chapter 17 Impacts of IT on Individuals, Organizations, and Society online, whether on publicly available Web pages or in specialized research databases, wikis, blogs, or newsfeeds. Among the most common problems that plague online information sources is omission of materials. A number of online â€Å"full-text† periodicals databases may omit certain items that appeared in the printed versions of those publications. In addition, online sources of information leave out older documents, which are not available in digital form.Thus, one cannot be assured of having access to a complete set of relevant materials. Even materials that are available from seemingly reputab le sources present information quality concerns. Information may have been reported wrong, whether intentionally or unintentionally, or the information may have become out of date (Ojala, 2003). These and other information quality issues are contributing to the frustration and anxiety that for some have become the unfortunate side effect of the Information Age. SPAM THE DIGITAL DIVIDESpamming, the practice of indiscriminately broadcasting unsolicited messages via e-mail and over the Internet, is one of the most widespread forms of digital noise. Spam is typically directed at a person and presents a considerable annoyance, with 70 percent of users indicating that â€Å"spam makes being online unpleasant† (Davies, 2004). Bulk unsolicited electronic messages—spam—accounts for more than 66 percent of all e-mail traffic on the Internet. Some 25. 5 billion spam messages were sent in 2004 (reported by Defacto, 2005).This volume of messages significantly impairs the ban dwidth of Internet service providers and places excessive capacity demands on mail servers. In electronic commerce, spam can delay transactions and can cause problems in supply chains where business data are exchanged through specially configured e-mail accounts (Davies, 2004). Spam hurts businesses even more by lowering the productivity of employees who have to deal with unwanted messages. Spam can originate in any country, making the anti-spam legislation of any given country largely ineffective in keeping spam out.The 2004 Ferris Research Study on spam found that the average amount spent on anti-spam products was $41 per user per year, so for a company with 10,000 employees, this would total $410,000 for the company per year. Thirty-four percent of the respondents in the Ferris study indicated that between 50 and 74 percent of all incoming messages were spam. Fortythree percent reported that managing spam was a major managerial concern. Of the approximately 500 organizations stud ied, 56 percent had already implemented antispam software with another 30 percent planning to.For the 14 percent that did not plan to implement spam software, the major reason was the fear of â€Å"false positives†Ã¢â‚¬â€ that is, the concern that messages that are quite important will be filtered as junk. In fact, unless employees occasionally browse their junk mail, they might very well miss important messages. Thus, in addition to the cost of the software, there is no way around the fact that spam costs organizations in terms of employee time. See Online File W17. 3 for discussion of the U. S. Can-Spam Act.Internet service providers and software companies have embarked on a technological campaign to eradicate spam. Mail-filtering software and other technologies have made it more difficult for spammers to distribute their messages. However, spammers have responded with creative new schemes to defeat the anti-spam solutions. The battle of innovations and counterinnovations between spammers and anti-spam companies continues. Some of the major anti-spam software providers include SpamAssassin, Symantec, Network Associates McAfee, TrendMicro, GFI, SurfControl, and Sophos.Technologies enabling access to information are not distributed evenly among various groups of people. For some people, information continues to be a scarce resource, which puts them at a comparative economic and social disadvantage. The gap in computer technology in general, and now in Web technology in particular, 17. 3 Information Is Changing from a Scarce Resource to an Abundant Resource 673 between those who have such technology and those who do not is referred to as the digital divide.However, by 2003, nearly 100 percent of the public schools in the United States had Internet access (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2005). Not only has the divide in terms of access per se been reduced, but the divide in terms of the quality (or speed) of access has been reduced. By 2003, 95 percent of public schools used broadband connections to access the Internet, as compared with 80 percent in 2000 and fewer than 15 percent in 1996. Greater access in public schools is helping break the racial digital divide that has been noticeable since the Internet first emerged.The New York Times reported in March 2006 that a Pew national survey of people 18 and older found that 61 percent of African Americans reported using the Internet, compared with 74 percent of whites and 80 percent of English-speaking Hispanics (Marriott, 2006). However, what these studies do not indicate is the purpose of the Internet use, the frequency of it, or the benefit of it. Nor do the studies provide evidence that the divide is shrinking across households. Poorer households remain less likely to have Internet access from the home than do wealthier counterparts (Marriott, 2006).Moreover, even as the divide lessens in regard to mature technologies, it continues to exist for newer technologies. Fo r example, some schools with sufficient resources are now making iPods a tool for all students (see IT at Work 17. 2). IMPACTS ON I NDIVIDUALS Together, the increasing amounts of information and information technology use have potential impacts on job satisfaction, dehumanization, and information anxiety as well as impacts on health and safety. Although many jobs may become substantially more â€Å"enriched† with IT, other jobs may become more routine and less satisfying.Dehumanization and Other Psychological Impacts. Many people feel a loss of identity, a dehumanization, because of computerization; they feel like â€Å"just another number† because computers reduce or eliminate the human element that was present in the noncomputerized systems. Some people also feel this way about the Web. On the other hand, while the major objective of technologies, such as e-commerce, is to increase productivity, they can also create personalized, flexible systems that allow individua ls to include their opinions and knowledge in the system.These technologies attempt to be people-oriented and user-friendly (e. g. , blogs and wikis). The Internet threatens to have an even more isolating influence than has been created by television. If people are encouraged to work and shop from their living rooms, then some unfortunate psychological effects, such as depression and loneliness, could develop. Some people have become so addicted to the Web that they have dropped out of their regular social activities, at school or work or home, creating societal and organizational problems.Another possible psychological impact relates to distance learning. In some countries, it is legal to school children at home through IT. Some argue, however, that the lack of social contacts could be damaging to the social, moral, and cognitive development of school-age children who spend long periods of time working alone on the computer. Information Anxiety. Another potential negative impact is information anxiety. This disquiet can take several forms, such as frustration with our inability to keep up with the amount of data present in our lives. Information anxiety can take other forms as well.One is frustration with the quality of the information available on the Web, which frequently is not up-to-date or incomplete. Another is frustration or guilt associated with not being better informed, or being informed too late (â€Å"How come others knew this before I did? †). A third form of information anxiety stems from information overload (too many online sources). 674 Chapter 17 Impacts of IT on Individuals, Organizations, and Society IT at Work 17. 2 The Dog Ate My iPod Schools and universities are finding new ways to keep up with technology, such as the emergence of iPods on campuses.All levels of education are using this brand of portable media players, designed and marketed by Apple Computer, as a learning tool. Duke University was one of the first to embrace thi s technology. Duke’s provost, Peter Lang, said, â€Å"the direct effect of iPods is they learn better in the classroom. † Duke was awarded a grant to give their freshmen 20-gigabyte iPods—enough storage for up to 5,000 songs. The results are mixed; about 75 percent of those surveyed at Duke said they use their iPods for academic work. Half the time, they use the device in ways recommended by the professors.The positive feedback is that the iPod is similar to the old recording devices used in the past, but with the ability to store, organize, and access with a click of a couple of buttons. Students do not have to attend the class to download the materials online or from a fellow student. Some schools feel that students will skip out on classes and rely on each other’s recordings, or even use the device to cheat. According to Don McCabe, a Rutgers professor who surveyed nearly 62,000 undergraduates on 96 campuses over four years, two-thirds of the students admitted to cheating.That is a concern, especially with the compact size, wireless earpieces, and the ability to hold podcasts—audio recordings that can be distributed over the Internet. But with an abundance of electronic gadgets, including handheld email devices, wireless access in classrooms to the Internet, calculators that are preprogrammed with formulas, and pensized scanners used to copy text or exams for other students, universities have to stay ahead of the curve. Some other concerns are: How will the lecturer’s words and actions be used for unknown purposes and when/where is copyright eing infringed when students and faculty make their own recordings? In spite of the worries of skipping class, personal use, and cheating, Apple Computer is behind the iPod in the education field. Six schools (Duke, Brown, Stanford, the University of Michigan, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and the University of Missouri School of Journalism) recently participated i n a pilot program called iTunes U (apple. com/educastion/solutions/ itunes_u/). The program was so popular that Apple began to offer the program to all colleges for lectures, notes, podcasts, and information in a library for students to download.Other schools, such as Brearley School, a private school for girls on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, use iPods predominantly in interactive exercises, such as foreign language classes. Katherine Hallissy Ayala, the head of the computer education department, says â€Å"the hope is that if students are interested in this, they’ll download and explore on their own without being told to. † And Jacques Houis, a French teacher at Brearley, feels that â€Å"listening to many different types of French, not just the teacher, is very important. Students have said that the iPod has helped their foreign language skills by listening to playbacks, music, and other sources besides what is taught in the classroom. One thing is for sure, th e iPod is changing the academic field and schools will have to stay ahead of generations born in the ever-changing world of technology. Sources: Ferguson (2005) and Moore (2005) For Further Exploration: How does the use of iPods shift responsibility from teachers â€Å"teaching† to students â€Å"learning†? What excuses might a student use for not completing an ssignment correctly or submitting it on time? Impacts on Health and Safety. Computers and information systems are a part of the environment that may adversely affect individuals’ health and safety. To illustrate, we will discuss the effects of job stress and long-term use of the keyboard. Job Stress. An increase in workload and/or responsibilities can trigger job stress. Although computerization has benefited organizations by increasing productivity, it has also created an ever-increasing workload for some employees.Some workers, especially those who are not proficient with computers, but who must work wi th them, feel overwhelmed and start feeling anxious about their jobs and their job performance. These feelings of anxiety can adversely affect workers’ productivity. Management’s responsibility is to help alleviate these feelings by providing training, redistributing the workload among workers, or by hiring more individuals. Repetitive Strain (Stress) Injuries. Other potential health and safety hazards are repetitive strain injuries such as backaches and muscle tension in the wrists and fingers.Carpal tunnel syndrome is a painful form of repetitive strain injury that affects the wrists and hands. It has been associated with the long-term use of keyboards. 17. 3 Information Is Changing from a Scarce Resource to an Abundant Resource 675 Lessening the Negative Impact on Health and Safety. Designers are aware of the potential problems associated with prolonged use of computers. Consequently, they have attempted to design a better computing environment. Research in the area of ergonomics (the science of adapting machines and work environments to people) provides guidance for these designers.For instance, ergonomic techniques focus on creating an environment for the worker that is safe, well lit, and comfortable. Devices such as antiglare screens have helped alleviate problems of fatigued or damaged eyesight, and chairs that contour the human body have helped decrease backaches (see A Closer Look 17. 1). A Closer Look 17. 1 Ergonomic and Protective Products Many products are available to improve working conditions for people who spend much of their time at a computer. The following photos illustrate some ergonomic solutions. Wrist support Back support Eye-protection filter optically coated glass) Adjustable foot rest 676 Chapter 17 Impacts of IT on Individuals, Organizations, and Society 17. 4 Machines Are Performing Functions Previously Performed by Humans One of the distinguishing traits of humankind is the continuous quest to find tools and techniqu es to replace human work and manual labor. Information technology greatly accelerates this process and allows machines to perform a variety of complex functions, which, in the past, could be performed only by humans. Robotics offers a clear example of information technology eliminating the need for human labor.Computerized transaction processing systems, automated teller machines, intelligent scheduling software, and voice recognition systems illustrate information technology’s capability to replace administrative and clerical work. Moreover, artificial intelligence and expert systems are now able to perform the work of white-collar professionals. As functionality of machines and computer systems continues to evolve, it will transform societies by influencing such critical factors as the quality of life, the dynamics of labor markets, and the nature of human interactions. QUALITY OF LIFE GOVQuality of life refers to measures of how well we achieve a desirable standard of livi ng. For example, the use of robots in uncomfortable or dangerous environments is one of the primary ways of improving the quality of life with information technology. For decades, robots have been used to replace physically demanding or tedious activities in manufacturing plants. Robots and other quasi-autonomous devices have become increasingly common on farm fields, in hospitals, and even in private homes, improving the quality of life of numerous people. A type of robot works at the University of California Hospital at San Francisco.The five-foot-tall machine, which can drive down the hallways and call an elevator to travel to other floors, carries medicine and blood samples around the building (Stone, 2003). Specialized robots that can relieve people of the need to perform certain household tasks are becoming commercially available. For instance, robotic vacuum cleaners capable of finding their way around furniture and other obstacles in any room are already sweeping the floors in thousands of homes around the world. Military applications of robotics hold the potential not only to improve the quality of life but also to save the lives of soldiers.The Pentagon is researching selfdriving vehicles and bee-like swarms of small surveillance robots, each of which would contribute a different view or angle of a combat zone. In March 2004, DARPA, the research arm of the U. S. Department of Defense, held a race of fully autonomous land vehicles across a challenging 150-mile stretch of the Mojave Desert. Thirteen entrants designed vehicles that could navigate and drive themselves without humans at the remote controls. This race ended without any winners. The machine that traveled the farthest—12 km—was built by Carnegie Mellon University (â€Å"Robots, start your engines,† 2004).These initial results suggest that significant advances in IT will need to be made before robots can handle complex, unfamiliar situations and operate entirely autonomou sly. Somewhat less obvious, but very noticeable improvements in the quality of life arise from the ability of computers to â€Å"make decisions†Ã¢â‚¬â€an activity that used to be in the exclusive domain of human beings. Although such decisions are typically limited in scope and are based on rules established by people, they are successfully employed in a variety of practical applications.For example, automobile navigation systems may be incapable of guiding a vehicle across the unpredictable desert terrain, but they are quite adept at finding the optimal route to the desired destination using a network of existing roadways. Global positioning systems (GPSs) integrated 17. 4 Machines Are Performing Functions Previously Performed by Humans SVC 677 with geographic information systems (GISs) available in many modern vehicles allow the driver to hand over navigational decisions to the computer, thereby offering an additional level of safety and convenience.Expert systems used in the health-care industry offer another example of quality of life improvements that follow from machines’ abilities to perform â€Å"human† work. For instance, some systems can improve the diagnosis process by analyzing the set of symptoms experienced by the patient. Other systems can supplement a physician’s judgment by analyzing prescriptions for dosage and potential drug interactions, thus reducing the frequency and severity of medication errors, which translates into a higher quality of life for the patients. Partners HealthCare System, Inc. for example, reported a 55 percent reduction in the number of serious medication errors following the implementation of such a system (Melymuka, 2002). Whether robots will be of the quality of R2D2 (the Star Wars robot) is another issue. It probably will be a long time before we see robots making decisions by themselves, handling unfamiliar situations, and interacting with people. Nevertheless, robots are around that can do practical tasks. Carnegie Mellon University, for example, has developed self-directing tractors that harvest hundreds of acres of rops around the clock in California, using global positioning systems combined with video image processing that identifies rows of uncut crops. Robots are especially helpful in hazardous environments, as illustrated in IT at Work 17. 3. IT at Work 17. 3 The Working Lives of Robots Laying Fiber-Optic Cables. Cities around the world are transforming themselves to the digital era by replacing copper wires with fiber-optic cables or by installing fiber optics where there were no wires before. Because fiber-optic cables are a choice method to deliver high-speed voice and data ommunication (see Technology Guide 4), demand for them is expanding. Cities know that in order to attract and hold on to high-tech business they must provide fiber-optic access to all commercial buildings. You may have seen this activity many times without realizing it: Workers cut up the street, creating noise, dust, and traffic problems. But the worst part of it is that the disruption to people may take weeks, or even months, just to complete one city block. Now, robots are changing it all. One company that invented a technology to improve the ituation is City Net Telecommunications (citynettelecom .com). The idea is to use the existing sewer system to lay the cables. This way no trenches need to be dug in the streets. Pioneering work has been done in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Omaha, Nebraska, and Indianapolis, Indiana (in spring 2001). How do the robots help? Robots are waterproof and do not have noses, and so they are not bothered by working in the sewer. They do not complain, nor do they get sick. As a matter of fact, they work faster than humans when it comes to laying the fiber-optic cables inside the sewer system. POM GOVWhat does it cost? The company claims that laying the fiber-optic cable with robots costs about the same as the old method. The major ad vantage is that it can be done 60 percent faster and without disruption to people’s lives. Cleaning Train Stations in Japan. With growing amounts of rubbish to deal with at Japanese train stations and fewer people willing to work as cleaners, officials have started turning the dirty work over to robots. Since May 1993, the Central Japan Railway Company and Sizuko Company, a Japanese machinery maker, have been using robots programmed to vacuum rubbish.A railway official said the robots, which are capable of doing the work of 10 people each, have been operating at the Sizuko station in Central Japan. The robots measure about 1. 5 meters wide and 1. 2 meters long. The railway and Sizuko spent 70 million yen to develop the machines and are planning to program them for other tasks, such as sweeping and scrubbing. Sources: Compiled from the New York Times (March 6, 2001); from the Wall Street Journal (November 21, 2000); and from â€Å"Robots Used to Clean Train Station in . . . à ¢â‚¬  (1993). See also â€Å"The Robot Revolution Is on the Way† (2000).For Further Exploration: If robots are so effective, what will be the impact on unemployment when more tasks are robotized? What will people do if robots take over? 678 Chapter 17 Impacts of IT on Individuals, Organizations, and Society IMPACT ON L ABOR MARKETS One of the most prominent concerns is the fear that due to technological advances, machines will replace millions of workers, leading to mass unemployment. Robots and office automation systems are effectively competing with humans for blue-collar and clerical jobs. It is important to note that white-collar occupations are not immune to the impact of information technology either.In fact, machines are beginning to challenge scientists, interpreters, computer programmers, lawyers, aircraft pilots, and other professionals in their jobs. Researchers in Great Britain, for instance, have built a robot-scientist capable of performing simple genetic exper iments. The computer-controlled robot independently formulated hypotheses about the functions of unknown genes, designed experiments to test them, manipulated laboratory equipment to conduct the experiments, analyzed the results, and accepted or rejected hypotheses based on the evidence it obtained.The robot’s performance was comparable to the performance of graduate students working on similar tasks (Begley, 2004). Translators and interpreters also face competition from information technology in the form of speech- and text-based machine translation systems. While existing machine translation software cannot rival the accuracy, clarity, eloquence, and vividness of human translations, it is typically able to convey the gist of the message and comply with the major rules of grammar and syntax (Schwartz, 2004). (Visit online-translator. com, google. om/language_tools, and world. altavista. com to review several online translation services. ) Legal professionals may discover som e unusual contenders, eager to take over their jobs. Some software packages used by law firms rely on artificial intelligence to analyze facts, determine applicable regulations, and prepare drafts of appropriate documents—all of which are activities traditionally performed by entry-level lawyers and paralegals. These and other examples illustrate a valid threat that information technology presents to workers in numerous occupations.In addition, they prompt the question of whether you should be concerned about the prospects of computers acquiring the capabilities of doing your job more effectively and efficiently. Following the introduction of new technologies that mimic the functions of human workers, it is common to observe some job losses as old jobs are replaced by computerized equipment. However, this negative impact on employment levels offers a very simplistic and incomplete picture of the chain of events associated with technological advances.One of the more straightfo rward positive side-effects of technological advances is the creation of new jobs, which takes place in other sectors of the economy that produce and operate the new equipment and computer systems. Furthermore, introduction of new information technologies results in more efficient allocation of scarce resources, such as labor, capital, and raw materials. As the production processes become more efficient, they apply downward pressure on price levels, which leads to higher demand, as consumers respond to lower prices.To satisfy the growing demand, producers tend to increase the output of goods and services, which is frequently accomplished by hiring more workers. Other entities in the affected supply chains react to increased demand and instigate further employment growth. Thus, from the macroeconomic perspective, technological progress generally increases the aggregate level of employment (Soete, 2001). Fluctuations in unemployment rates are generally associated with business cycles and do not indicate that information technology is likely to displace a large number of workers (Handel, 2003). IT at Work 17. demonstrates one of the impacts of information technology on employment in the retailing industry. Although the net effect of information technology proliferation is generally positive for the economy as a whole, on a personal level, IT-induced job displacement 17. 4 Machines Are Performing Functions Previously Performed by Humans 679 IT at Work 17. 4 Do-It-Yourself Retailing The concept of allowing shoppers to scan and bag their own items at retail stores has been around for quite a while. In the 1980s, technology necessary to implement self-checkout systems was already available.However, at that time, the costs of such systems were prohibitively high, and consumer acceptance was extremely low. As this technology continued to evolve and mature, self-checkout registers turned into attractive propositions for supermarkets, grocery stores, and other retailers. In winter of 1997, Wal-Mart was among the first merchants to test the self-checkout systems in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and other selected markets. The self-checkout machines were developed by Optimal Robotics based in Montreal, Canada.Each register included a holding area with a conveyer belt, a barcode reader, a touchscreen display, and a voice synthesizer to provide the customer with vocal and visual instructions, as well as a bagging area, which rested on scales that checked whether the weight of the scanned item corresponded with the weight of the item placed in the bag. The checkout stations also included currency readers and equipment to accept credit and debit cards, which allowed the customer to pay for the goods. The results of the initial tests were quite encouraging; thus, in 2002 the company began a large-scale rollout of selfcheckout units.Wal-Mart is installing self-checkout machines in most new Supercenters and Neighborhood Market Stores. A significant number of exis ting stores were also retrofitted with the new technology. Typically, the company installs from four to eight self-checkout stations in a store, depending on its size and sales volume. The main reasons that persuade retailers to adopt the new systems include the desire to provide a better customer MKT experience and the need to control costs. Self-checkout stations occupy 25 percent less space than traditional registers, which allows retailers to place more stations within the same floor space.Furthermore, with only one employee overseeing four machines, the store is able to keep a sufficient number of registers open while driving down labor costs. A set of four registers, which costs $80,000 to $100,000, has a payback period of only 6 to 12 months, if implemented correctly. Consumers enjoy shorter lines, faster service, and greater control over the checkout process. As self-checkout machines gain the capabilities to perform the functions of human cashiers (with some help from shopp ers), they gradually displace store employe