Monday, September 16, 2019
The Pearl Epilogue
The Pearl Epilogue It has been five years since Kino and Juana through away the pearl back into the deep blue sea. Kino, has been having many dreams about the day Coyotitoââ¬â¢s head had been blown off of his silk skin body. From that day, they knew that it was time to enter a period of hiding. A new King of Spain was chosen because of the old one being assassinated. It was the previous Kings son who was bloodthirsty to find where Kino and Juana were hiding because since Kino had killed a man, he was also pinned for the murder of King Aurellious; which was not a crime he had committed.The King of Spain had searched the nativeââ¬â¢s entire homeland to hopefully capture them, but the King was thinking to smart. For five years, Kino and Juana have been hiding in a dark black cave that was as cold as a freezer. They were feared of being ripped to shreds as if they were real animals being skinned. Kino and Juana have grown apart from purposes long ago, but they realized they needed each other for the problems they are encountering now. Although Kino and Juana had their differences in seeing each other, they each had moments over the years where they loved each other very much.It was enough for Juana to reach a stage of being pregnant once again. With a new baby on the way it certainly kept Juana occupied for many months. Kino for months found food, water, and enough things to call a cave somewhat of his home. No matter how many animals Kino had skinned it wasnââ¬â¢t enough to keep him or Juana warm. Juana was growing very sick because she was losing energy from caring the baby in her stomach. When the time came for the baby can come out of Juanaââ¬â¢s whom, she was on the edge of dying.They both knew that the baby would have to be cut out of Juanaââ¬â¢s whom, so Juana insisted to do anything to her to get the one thing Kino and her wanted the most, their beautiful baby daughter. Kino had to kill Juana for she wouldnââ¬â¢t have to suffer the pain of being sliced like a butcher slices meat. The new born girl had finally come. Kino and Juana always remembered the wonderful years they had with Coyotito, so Kino decided to name his new born baby girl; Coyotita. But, as soon as Kino had Coyotita wrapped around his arms, a million thoughts came pouring into his brain; from how the baby will survive with no ursery, to finding food and watching Coyotita at the same time. Kino soon realized that he really needed Juana while he did the rest by getting resources to stay alive in the cave. Kino was truly living like a caveman. He had no education, he is wanted dead or alive, and he has a new baby that might die because of him not being able to support her. He is running out of time to feed himself and his baby, so he is coming up with a plan to get his life back together. He is deciding on returning to his village with the baby wrapped in white tiger skin placed in a weaved oval shape basket, with a note on the left side of him.Kino was p lanning on bringing Coyotita to his brother for a while so Kino can turn himself over to the King. But, Kino does not know that he was also accused for the murder of their former King of Spain. Kino was completely confused like an orphan trying to understand that his parents werenââ¬â¢t his birth parents. He was about to enter the gates of the Kingââ¬â¢s Kingdom as hundreds of soldiers ran towards him screaming in Spanish to stay down and not to move. He was immediately taken to the King for his sentence.The King was screaming at Kino for what he has done. Kino apologized for killing a man, but the king began again to scream because he was explaining to Kino that King Aurellious was not just a man. From there on Kino knew that he was going to be punished with a murder that he had never committed. He was not aloud to say anything after he was given his life long sentence or the choice of being executed. Kino chose to be executed. Ten years later, Coyotita was living a very well educated life with her uncle watching over her.
Sunday, September 15, 2019
Book Review: Leading Change by John P. Kotter Essay
Leading Change by John P. Kotter. Harvard Business School Press, 1996. In light of the increasing rate of change in the business environment due to factors such as technological advances and globalization, the need to be able to make successful transformations within an organization becomes more imperative than ever before. In Leading Change, Kotter identifies an eight-step guide for making successful organization changes. These eight steps stem from avoiding common mistakes made during organizational change efforts seen in the past , such as: too much complacency; failing to create a powerful guiding coalition; underestimating the power of vision; under-communicating the vision; permitting obstacles to block a new vision; failing to create short term wins; declaring a victory too soon; and neglecting to anchor changes firmly into the organizational culture. To avoid these mistakes, leaders of an organization requiring changes should consider the following steps: 1. Establishing a sense of urgency 2. Creating a guiding coalition 3. Developing a vision and strategy 4. Communicating the change vision 5. Empowering broad-based action 6. Generating short-term wins 7. Consolidating gains and producing more change 8. Anchoring new approaches into the culture In establishing a sense of urgency , it is hoped that a leader of change will be able to direct stakeholdersââ¬â¢ drive towards a common purpose and reduceà complacency. Common causes of complacency include : the absence of a crisis, low overall performance standards, wrong performance measurement indexes, too much happy talk from management, and lack of sufficient performance feedback from external sources. It is suggested that a leader creates a sense of purpose allowing weaknesses to be exposed, setting performance targets that are too high, analyze current opportunities and highlight the organizations inability to pursue them, and cut-down on the ââ¬Å"happy talkâ⬠and listen to disgruntled customers. Very often, committees of employees devoted to making organizational change are ineffectual because they do not have the any influential, senior managers who can make changes happen and reinforce the urgency of the committeeââ¬â¢s purpose to all levels. Kotter suggests careful selection of committee members to include senior management and influential people, with care taken to avoid those employees he labels ââ¬Å"egosâ⬠and ââ¬Å"snakesâ⬠(i.e. those employees whose egos may take precedence over the committees agenda and those people who may undermine the trust necessary to build strong committee relationships) By developing a vision, a leader creates ââ¬Å"a picture of the future with some implicit or explicit commentary on why people should strive to create that future.â⬠(p. 68) It not only clarifies direction but helps in motivating those people who will be affected and/or implementing change. Kotter gives examples of good and bad visions and suggests that a perfect vision should be clear and simple enough to explain within five minutes. A vision should also inspire people to force people out of their comfort zones, it should be challenging but attainable, and usually takes advantage of fundamental trends such as globalization or technological changes. In communicating the change vision, Kotter argues that in this day of information overload, talk of vision and strategy takes up only a small fraction of employee time and the ideas are often lost. Using analogies, repetition and the use of multiple forums for conveying change vision will help employees to understand and remember the ideas. Clear concise language is a must. To empower employees for broad-based action enables much more flexibility within an organization to adapt to a changing environment. Barrier to empowerment however exist in i) the organizational structure where resources are so fragmented that timely delivery of objectives is nearly impossible , ii) the skills of employees, iii) systems of the organization such as HR systems which advocate antiquated measures of performance which contradict new changes, iv) supervisors who are reluctant to change from the traditional command-and-control style of management. Despite the long-term nature of many organizational changes, Kotter suggests that the generation of short-term wins is of utmost importance and not necessarily at the expense of long-term benefits. He cites examples of CEOs who have implemented long term change initiatives but the failure to create short-term wins and tangible benefits made stakeholders impatient resulting in disenchantment. He reinforces the clear difference between management and leadership and their importance in the pursuit of short-term and long term goals (leadership being more long-term vision and strategy-oriented, management being more concerned with the pursuit goals in the immediate future). The achievement of short-term goals not only reinforces that scarifies made for long-term goal achievement are paying off. They also help to reward change agents and undermine cynics/anchors to change, they build momentum and can help fine-tune vision and strategies. After a short-term win, Kotter warns that it is all too tempting to relax and even regress in some cases back to old ways. All momentum of change is lost. To be able to consolidate gains and keep producing more change, he suggests that management increase urgency levels, and learn to understand and appreciate that interdependencies with in the organization dictate that when changes are made in one area, they often require further changes to be made in other areas or departments. Once changes have been made, it is then important to anchor them into the corporate culture. It is observed that culture is not easily manipulated so this should be done when all changes have been made. Changing ââ¬Å"the way we doà things around hereâ⬠is imperative so that regression to old practices is not experienced. To summarize, Kotter reinforces that an increasingly changing business environment is forcing decisions to be made quicker and organizations to become more flexible to external changes than ever before. Only with increased flexibility, teamwork and leaner organizations can a leader ever hope to make changes in response to these pressure. The leadership qualities of the change agents very important because they set the vision for others to follow. The importance of continual learning is also emphasized because leaders who are constantly changing themselves and going out of their comfort zones arguably are more able to leave those comfort zones in order to adapt to a changing environment.
Saturday, September 14, 2019
Behavioral Genetics Essay
When Iââ¬â¢ve learned about Behavioral Genetics in Chapter 8, the first thing that came across my mind was the fantasy of having a twin. Itââ¬â¢s crazy but it occupied my mind for quite some time. What if I had a twin? Would she be like me? Iââ¬â¢ve always believed that identical twins share the same qualities and traits. So I surfed the net and came across Minnesota Twin Family Study (MTFS). Conducted at the University of Minnesota by competent researchers, it is by far the largest twin study in the US. One particular case of the MTFS caught my attention: ââ¬ËThe Jim Twins Studyââ¬â¢.à The twins were separated four weeks after birth to different adoptive parents who live 45 miles apart. Reunited 39 years later, the twins (both named Jim) find uncanny similarities. This incident, among many others, supports the theories of Behavioral Genetics. It couldnââ¬â¢t have been mere coincidence that the twins married twice, left love notes to their wives, and even suffered from migraine. Because they were raised in different adoptive families, it couldnââ¬â¢t have been the environment that shaped the Jim twins to have the same preferences and behavior, even ailments! Time magazine cites that in a study of 44 twins reared apart, ââ¬Å"a high of 61% of what they call ââ¬Ësocial potencyââ¬â¢ (a tendency toward leadership or dominance) is inheritedâ⬠(Leo & Taylor, 1987). The biological aspect of the Jim twinsââ¬â¢ personality has played a great part in the development of these resemblances. If I had a twin separated from me at birth, Iââ¬â¢d like to think that she is compassionate and enjoys music and golf as well as I do. Itââ¬â¢s in the genes, as they say. However, as much as I believe on Behavioral Genetics, I must also note that the environment also plays a central role in the development of personality. With regards to my own, it is a blend of nature and nurture. I want to be a nurse since I was a kid because I want to help people. I always thought itââ¬â¢s innate in meâ⬠¦that compassion for other people. But later on as I learned things in Psychology, it made me realize that it could have also been the environment Iââ¬â¢m living in. I remember my mom taking in three extra homeless people into our household during the economy spiraled down. I am surrounded by loving and compassionate people. Another would be my love for golf and technology. My father does too, and I think he must have influenced me unconsciously to develop these preferences. Now I understand that yes, it might be the genes but likewise, it is the things that I see and observe in my everyday experiences that made the desire to help people a trait in me. Both nature and nurture have been working in me. I believe personality in general is a mix of both genes and environment. Meanwhile, there is this one particular line from Chapter 11 that I need to quote. It goes, ââ¬Å"A joke is not funny when the forbidden impulse it disguises is not shared, or the disguise is insufficient. It is written technically but gives me a learning I will remember. Sometimes, when we joke about things, we have to make sure that the forbidden impulse must be known and shared by the listener because we might end up either sounding a loser or hurting the person concerned. I must also point out one last thing about the controversial Sigmund Freud. Sir Freud, as Iââ¬â¢ve known him through researches and from the discussion in class, should be given due credit for his accomplishments in the field of Psychology. His theories may be controversial but there is no denying that these same thoughts helped shape, in one way or another, modern Psychology. We also have to understand that the controversy behind his sexually-oriented theories can be justified because the psychological problems of his time (early 20th century) mostly had association to sexuality. From what Iââ¬â¢ve learned, apparently most patients who came to him had marital problems of infidelity and sex life. His encounters with these patients perhaps helped shape his theories. It would be very unfair to refer to him as an ââ¬Ëancient history well forgottenââ¬â¢. In fact, I find it surprisingly interesting to read about his theories that contradict some things I believe in because it opens me up to possibilities and good learning. I even think that the idea of using Freudââ¬â¢s theories and techniques in present day will be much useful and less controversial if there is more emphasis on the human personality rather than sexuality. The techniques of psychoanalysis, concepts of ego & id, and life & death drives, among many others are major contributions in the field of Psychology and no matter the controversies and all, we all should be thankful for Sir Freud.
Anti-cataract Activity of Abies Pindrow & Luffa Cylindrica
Anti-cataract Activity of Abies Pindrow Luffa Cylindrica ââ¬Å"Evaluation of in-vitro anti-cataract activity of Abies pindrow P
Friday, September 13, 2019
What does the use of the Term Equality infer to in the Context of Essay
What does the use of the Term Equality infer to in the Context of Employment - Essay Example This is regardless of their individual race, sexual orientation, needs, belief or religion, age or gender. Equality has also been variously described as not only attempting to try and treat everyone in a right and equal manner, but trying to treat various individuals in a manner that will ensure that the general outcome will be found to be similar for all the concerned individuals (Dautrich and Yalof 2012). Importance of Equality Equality is seen to not necessarily mean that that women should now be assigned more duties pertaining to construction labor or that their male colleagues should be assigned more secretarial functions. Equality is perceived to be critically important as most individuals are seen to be not contented to be perceived as being second class citizens as a result of there being some inequality in an organization. Without proper inequality in an organization, the employees who are seen to be given less than equal treatment will eventually shut down, distance themselves and reduce their overall productivity much to the detriment of the concerned organization (Academic, 2008). In the event that a given organization fails to implement measures designed to promote equality, there can naturally develop a subsequent exclusion of some of the employees as a result of some of their working in some of the marginalized situations (Kornblum and Smith, 2012). These employees are se en to tend to feel as if they are unable to function as an active part of the organization even if this was not the organizationââ¬â¢s original intention. Organizations can be able to achieve a measure of equality by ensuring that the employees have been ably supported to be able to easily access the organizational resources and decision making. This can be further enhanced by ensuring that the employees are valued, recognized and adequately respected within the organization. Models of Equality There are a number of different models of equality that have been develop to aid organizations in ensuring that they implement policies and procedures that will ensure that they maintain utmost equality. Some of these Equality models are seen to variously include: Equal Opportunity as Equal Share (Radical Approach) Equal Opportunity as Equal Access (Liberal Approach) Equal Opportunity as Equal Treatment (Reactionary Approach) Equal Opportunity as Equal Share (Radical Approach) The equal op portunity as equal share approach that is popularly termed as being the radical approach is seen to try and seek to make a direct intervention in the workplace practices with the sole objective of attempting to try and achieve some form of a fair distribution of rewards among the organizationââ¬â¢s employees as is primarily measured by some established criterion of worth and moral value. The radical approach emphasizes on justice and freedom being the collective responsibility of all the individuals involved within the organization. It can thus be see the radical approach is primarily concerned with the eventual outcome of the contest as opposed to the established rules of the game (Kumra, Manfredi and Vickers, 2011), it is characterized with being more concerned with the fair distribution of the rewards achieves as opposed to being more concerned with the actual fairness of the procedure. In line with this approach, Jewson and Mason (1986) are keen to argue that although discrim ination tends to mostly affect specific individuals, it can nevertheless only be identified at the group level. In this respect, it is generally found to
Thursday, September 12, 2019
Compare the neighbors in Mending Wall and The Ax-Helve- Robert Frost Essay
Compare the neighbors in Mending Wall and The Ax-Helve- Robert Frost - Essay Example The structural background of the neighborhood in the two stories appeared to indicate like attributes. There is a rural sense in Frostââ¬â¢s two poems, with illustrations ââ¬Å"in the woodsâ⬠(ââ¬Å"The Ax-Helveâ⬠pt. 3) to ââ¬Å"beyond the hillâ⬠(ââ¬Å"Mending Wallâ⬠pt. 12). Common pieces are the provincial atmosphere in which their physical conditions are anchored on. Neighboring values can also be observed, as protagonists enact suspicious stance towards the intentions of their neighbors. With ââ¬Å"The Ax-Helve,â⬠the protagonist deemed in necessary to ââ¬Å"judge if what he (Baptiste) knew about an ax. That not everybody else knew was to countâ⬠(pt. 44). On the other side, doubts on otherââ¬â¢s motive led the protagonist in ââ¬Å"Mending Wallâ⬠to issue an order to ââ¬Å"Stay where you are until our backs are turnedâ⬠(pt. 19). Such emotions, as explained in naturalism concept, possess internal aspects of uncontrollable in fluence, manifesting itself in the wary way protagonists proceed.
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
Argument for or against the ramifications of buying products from your Research Paper
Argument for or against the ramifications of buying products from your own country - Research Paper Example In relation towards the activities of the consumers, the purchasing decision of a consumer seems to be influential towards the success of a companyââ¬â¢s strategy especially in domestic and foreign markets. In addition, consumer liking regarding foreign and domestic products could be influenced by their utmost trust and faith regarding the products and conception of consumer ââ¬Ëethnocentrismââ¬â¢ among others (Torres & Gutierrez, ââ¬Å"The purchase of Foreign Products: The Role of Firmââ¬â¢s country-of-origin reputation, consumer ethnocentrism, animosity and trustâ⬠). The idea of globalization represents significant challenges and opportunities especially for the marketers and the consumers. The various modernizations particularly in the trade policies have offered more foreign product options towards the consumersââ¬â¢. In this connection, one of the factors that may affect upon the decision of the consumer in order to buy domestic product that is own countryââ¬â¢s product or foreign products is consumer ââ¬Ëethnocentrismââ¬â¢ (Ranjbarian & Et. Al., ââ¬Å"Consumer Ethnocentrism and Buying Intentions: An Empirical Analysis of Iranian Consumersâ⬠). Consumer ââ¬Ëethnocentrismââ¬â¢ signifies the universal liking for the people in order to realize their own group as the centre of the world and is defined also as an attitude that oneââ¬â¢s own group is superior compared to others (Riefler, ââ¬Å"Advanced Topics in International Marketingâ⬠). From the perspective of ââ¬Ëethnocentricââ¬â¢ consumers, purchasing products from foreign countries is not useful for them because it weakens the domestic economy, causes lack of employment and considers being disloyal or non-nationalistic among others. In other words, consumer ââ¬Ëethnocentrismââ¬â¢ provides an individual a sense of uniqueness, emotion, a proper understanding and feelings of belongingness among others (Shimp & Sharma, ââ¬Å"Consumer Ethnocentrism: Construction and Validation of the CETSCALEâ⬠). In the
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