Problems in Setting Up and Running a Business Unit Essay

A business unit, sometimes called a strategic business unit or SBU, is a segmented group or department within a company that focuses on reaching a specific market or client. It may also focus on achieving a specific goal for the organization. While some businesses find success with this strategy, there are concerns and potential problems to consider before trying it at your company. Finances In business, money is usually a problem. It can be good to make money, but when you are just getting started with a business, it can be easy to lose money quickly. Before you start your business, develop a comprehensive list of the things you will need to finance and how much money you will need to make it happen. Discuss your business with others who have experience to try to cover as many costs as you can. When you have developed your startup budget, add 20 percent to it to cover the costs that you have not yet accounted for. When it comes to financing a startup, it is better to plan for more than you will need than to find yourself deep in debt right away. Employees Your employees can be your greatest asset and your greatest expense. It costs money to hire, train and retain employees. Your company needs to provide some sort of benefits package that includes health insurance, paid vacation days and paid sick days to attract and retain employees, and even then, you will have competition from other companies that may be able to offer better. As you delegate responsibilities to your employees, you begin to rely on them for your company’s success. A key employee leaving your company can have an effect similar to losing a major account. Space It is common for a new business owner to try to keep his office and warehousing costs down. When your company first starts out, a small and affordable space may be adequate. As your company grows, you will need more space, and you may realize that the facility you signed the one-year lease for is no longer sufficient. Have a backup plan available for warehousing just in case you outgrow your current warehouse. Offer sales employees the option of telecommuting to reduce the amount of office space you need. Become creative with your space, or you may find yourself spending money to remedy a space problem to which you are contractually bound for years. Problems Meshing Ideas When you segment your company in this way, you may find it becomes more difficult to get units to combine and work together. Though the separate units have different purposes, there may come a time when they need to convene in order to accomplish a goal for the organization. If your employees become too familiar with working in segmented groups, they may have problems working on joint projects with other units. Expensive Establishing business units can also be expensive. For one, you may have to create separate physical departments within the company. You may also need to create separate websites, mailing addresses and, in some cases, entirely new sub-organizations to properly establish these units. Finding a balance between efficiency and cost when maintaining these units can be challenging. Time-Consuming Setting up and running business units is also time-consuming. When you establish one, you must create a separate mission statement, budget, marketing plan and general business proposal. You must also set up technology and tools to support the department. You must then evaluate the functionality of the department before repeating the process with another business unit. If you decide to start all of your units at the same time and then determine that the formula isn’t working, you’ll also spend a significant amount of time dismantling or updating all of them. Social Responsibility Small businesses can encounter several problems related to Corporate social responsibility due to characteristics inherent in their construction. Owners of small businesses often participate heavily in the day-to-day operations of their companies. This results in a lack of time for the owner to coordinate socially responsible efforts.[9] Additionally, a small business owner’s expertise often falls outside the realm of socially responsible practices contributing to a lack of participation. Small businesses also face a form of peer pressure from larger forces in their respective industries making it difficult to oppose and work against industry expectations.[9] Furthermore, small businesses undergo stress from shareholder expectations. Because small businesses have more personal relationships with their patrons and local shareholders they must also be prepared to withstand closer scrutiny if they want to share in the benefits of committing to socially responsible practices or no t.[9] Job Quality While small businesses employ over half the workforce [10] and have been established as a main driving force behind job creation [11] the quality of the jobs these businesses create has been called into question. Small businesses generally employ individuals from the Secondary labor market. As a result, in the U.S. wages are 49% higher for employees of large firms.[11] Additionally, many small businesses struggle or are unable to provide employees with benefits they would be given at larger firms. Research from the U.S. Small Business Administration indicates that employees of large firms are 17% more likely to receive benefits including salary, paid leave, paid holidays, bonuses, insurance, and retirement plans.[12] Both lower wages and fewer benefits combine to create a job turnover rate among U.S. small businesses that is 3 times higher than large firms.[11] Employees of small businesses also must adapt to the higher failure rate of small firms. In the U.S. 69% last at least 2 yea rs, but this percentage drops to 51% for firms reaching 5 years in operation.[10] he U.S. Small Business Administration counts companies with as much as $35.5 million in sales and 1,500 employees, depending on the industry. Outside government, companies with less than $7 million in sales and fewer than 500 employees are widely considered small businesses.

Bentham’s Act Utilitarianism can be used in making

Explain how Bentham's Act Utilitarianism can be used in making moral decisions BY AltceReid20 Jeremy Bentham was a philosopher, economist, atheist and social reformer. Being a social reformer means that Bentham worked to make a gradual change to society. Being an economist meant that he had knowledge in the social science and discipline of economics. Bentham was a philosopher because he studied ways of thinking about the world. This all had an impact on the way his ideas were influenced. He developed the theory known as Act Utilitarianism.His version of Utilitarianism is referred to as Act' Utilitarianism because it states that the principle of utility should be applied to every act performed in each unique situation. Any act is Justifiable if it produces ‘the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number'. By the principle of utility Bentham meant the ‘usefulness' of a situation. The principle states that we should aim to achieve ‘the greatest happiness for the greatest number'. Act Utilitarianism depends on each action or each individual dilemma being calculated.According to Act Utilitarianism it is the value of the consequences of the particular act that counts. In 1789 he wrote the book ‘An Introduction to the principle of morals and legislation' He believed our main aim in life was to achieve ‘happiness' and to avoid ‘pain', he wanted to introduce this to society to maximise the amount of happiness produced in certain situations. His theory was made to drive a human being; pain v pleasure. As people are motivated by pleasure and pain is considered evil. As stated in his book: ‘Nature has placed mankind under the governance of to sovereign masters, pain and pleasure'.Jeremy Bentham's theory is considered as relativistic; this means that here are no universal norms or rules and that each situation has to be looked at independently because each situation is different. It is also thought of as a teleological the ory. This means that it is concerned with the end purpose or goal of an action in this case it should always be happiness. Bentham's theory was also considered to be consequentialist; this means that moral decisions should be based on the outcome or consequences of an action. Bentham felt that society needed a form of structure for making moral decisions influencing him to introduce ActUtilitarianism to help treat each moral decision as unique. He was very concerned with the social conditions of his day, becoming particularly involved with both hospitals and prisons. He also believed in women's vote and the decriminalisation of homosexuality. He developed the principle of utility in his theory which states that an action is right if it produces the ‘greatest happiness for the greatest number'. He had strong beliefs of maximising the quantity of happiness; he was not concerned about prioritising which form of happiness were superior to others. Bentham wrote in theRationale of R eward: ‘Prejudice apart, the game of push-pin is equal of value with the arts of sciences of music and poetry'. Bentham's position was that all pleasures are of equal value. From this he devised the hedonic calculus as a means of measuring happiness. Hedone meaning pleasure. There are 7 parts of the hedonic calculus being intensity, duration, certainty, remoteness, richness and purity which all link to measuring the amount of happiness that a certain situation will produce. An example be applied by using the hedonic calculus to help decide whether it is morally right.A scenario, of a 16 year old girl called Katy wants an abortion because she doesn't want to have a baby. However, her parents are Christians and do not agree with her having an abortion. Abortion is thought of as an ethical issue because people argue whether it is right or wrong. As Bentham's theory is concequentialist all Judgements made should be based on the outcome. Using the hedonic calculus can measure/estim ate the amount of happiness that will be produced. To decide upon the action taken on abortion the intensity of happiness will be produced.In this scenario, the strength of the happiness of the girl, the parents and society will be taken into to help provide the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest amount of people. The duration of the happiness will also be taken into account, to measure how long the happiness will last for. In this case, how long will the happiness of the girl last if she has an abortion? The certainty of the situation will be measured to determine whether happiness is guaranteed to be produced. Will having an abortion actually produce happiness for Katy and her parents?The extent of the happiness will be evaluated to decide how many people it will effect. In this example, will it affect her parents and society more than it'll effect her if she has an abortion? The remoteness of abortion will be checked to determine how soon the happiness will occur. It w ill be debated whether having an abortion will immediately make the girl happy straight away and/ or in the future. This links to the richness of a situation evaluating how much happiness it may produce in the future. In this case, will abortion still provide the girl ith happiness in the future? r will it affect her family and society more so? Again, this links with the purity of the situation which is the decision of whether it will provide unhappiness in the future. Will abortion cause unhappiness for the girl, her family and society. As you can see the hedonic calculus works towards bringing the greatest happiness to the greatest amount of people measuring the quality of happiness not the quantity. In this example, the hedonic calculus would help to decide whether abortion is morally right helping to make moral decisions.The edonic calculus helps you to weigh out what is morally right in a situation giving an objective view reducing opinions and biased options. It takes multiple choices into account excluding religion. In this case, the hedonic calculus would decide that is morally right for Katy to have an abortion. The hedonic calculus would conclude this because society may think that 16 is too young to have a baby which would provide them with more overall happiness of the girl having an abortion. However, having the abortion may cause unhappiness for her family but forgiveness is in the heart ofChristians, if they understand that having an abortion will create a very high amount of happiness for Katy and many people of society may agree with her having an abortion it outweighs the unhappiness of the parents. If Katy was to follow through with her abortion it would provide her more happiness in the meanwhile and future as having a baby may affect multiple aspects of her life. As you can see the hedonic calculus works towards bringing happiness to the greatest amount of people therefore supporting Bentham's beliefs and following Act Utilitarianism.

Strategic Management and Competitive Forces

COMPETITION IN THE GOLF INDUSTRY (WEEK 7) 1. What is competition like in the golf equipment industry? What competitive forces seem to have the greatest effect on industry attractiveness? 2. How is the golf equipment industry changing? What are the underlying drivers of change and how might those driving forces change the industry? 3. What does your strategic group map of the golf equipment industry look like? Which strategic groups do you think are in the best positions? Which are in the worst positions? 4.What recommendations would you make to Callaway Golf to improve the company’s competitive position in the industry and its financial and market performance? NINTENDO (WEEK 7) 1. What is competition like in the video game console industry? Do a five-forces analysis to support your answer. Which of the five competitive forces is strongest? Which is weakest? Would you characterize the overall strength of competition in video game consoles as fierce, strong, moderate to normal o r weak? Why? 2. What is Nintendo’s strategy? Which of the five generic strategies discussed in Chapter 5 is Nintendo using? 3.Is it fair to characterize Nintendo’s introduction of the Wii as a blue ocean strategy? Why or why not? 4. What recommendations would you make to Nintendo to improve its competitiveness in the video game console industry and to maintain its favorable positioning vis-a-vis Microsoft and Sony? GOOGLE (WEEK 8) 1. Discuss competition in the search industry. Which of the fi ve competitive forces seem strongest? weakest? What is your assessment of overall industry attractiveness? 2. What are the key factors that define success in the industry? What are the key competencies, capabilities, and resources of successful search engine companies? . Have Google’s business model and strategy proven to be successful? What are the company’s key resource strengths and competitive capabilities? What competitive liabilities and resource weaknesses doe s it have? 4. What recommendations would you make to Google’s top-management team to sustain its competitive advantage in the search industry? How should it best capitalize on its strategic initiatives in mobile search, cloud computing, and its auctioning system for traditional media ads? RESEARCH IN MOTION (WEEK 8) 1. What is competition like in the wireless phone industry? Which of the five Competitive forces is strongest?Which is weakest? What competitive forces seem to have the greatest effect on industry attractiveness? 2. What strategic approach has Research in Motion chosen to employ in international markets? Would you characterize its strategy as a global strategy or a localized multicountry strategy? How has it utilized location to build competitive advantage? 3. How important is it for Research in Motion to increase the size of its pool of software developers? What are the different options for substantially increasing its R&D staff? 4. Which option for increasing t he number of software developers should Research in Motion pursue?Explain how your recommended course of action is consistent with Research in Motion’s resources, organizational capabilities, and management preferences. APPLE (WEEK 9) 1. What are the chief elements of Apple’s overall competitive strategy? How well do the pieces fi t together? 2. What does a competitive strength assessment reveal about Apple’s computer business, as compared to the leaders in the personal computer industry? Does it appear that the company’s competitive positions in personal media players and smartphones or stronger or weaker than its position in computers? 3.Does it make good strategic sense for Apple to be a competitor in the computer, personal media player, smartphone, and tablet computer industries? Are the value chain activities that Apple performs in computers, personal media players, tablet computers and smartphones very similar and â€Å"compatible† or are the re very important differences from product to product? 4. What recommendations would you make to allow Apple to strengthen its position in its most important markets? KOMATSU (WEEK 9) 1. 1. Briefly identify the various strategies that Komatsu used in the different stages of their internationalization process. . What were the implications for Komatsu’s management policies as they responded to changing domestic and global market conditions? 3. To what extent the leadership and management of Komatsu responsible for its success or failures? Why? 4. What strategic action should Komatsu take to bring back an sustain the leadership position of Komatsu? ADIDAS (WEEK 10) 1. What is Adidas’ corporate strategy? Was there a common strategic approach utilized in managing the company’s lineup of sporting goods businesses prior to its 2005-2006 restructuring? Has the corporate strategy changed with restructuring? . What does a 9-cell industry attractiveness/ business strength matrix displaying Adidas’ business units look like? 3. Does Adidas’ business line-up exhibit good strategic fit? What value-chain match-ups exists? What opportunities for skills transfer, cost sharing, or brand sharing are evident? 4. Based on your analysis of adidas businesses, did the restructuring undertaken in 2005 and 2006 make sense? Does it appear the acquisition of Reebok International will produce higher returns for shareholders? PEPSICO (WEEK 10) 1. What is PepsiCo’s corporate strategy?Briefly identify the business strategies that PepsiCo is using in each of its consumer business segments in 2008. 2. What is your assessment of the long-term attractiveness of the industries represented in PepsiCo’s business portfolio? What is your assessment of the competitive strength of PepsiCo’s different business units? 3. Does PepsiCo’s portfolio exhibit good strategic fit? What value-chain match-ups do you see? What opportunities for skills tr ansfer, cost sharing, or brand sharing do you see? 4. What strategic actions should Indra Nooyi take to sustain the corporation’s impressive financial and market performance?

Fungal genetics assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Fungal genetics assignment - Essay Example Some of the fungi are a good source of food, like some mushrooms. At the same time out of these mushrooms are very poisonous and an individual who eats these mushrooms s/he may end up to death if untreated appropriately. At universal level, as fungi are found almost in all types of environment and so they are an imortant component of the ecosystem where they take part in the decomposition of the deaying material. Initally, fungi were placed in the plant kingdom because of their resemblance. Later on, it was found that they are closer to animals instead of plants. But they have been separately grouped in their own kingdom (Fungi, 2006). The Ascomycota also known as sac fungi or ascomycetes because of their morphological resemblance. Mmbers of this division form meiotic spores called ascospores, which are enclosed in a special sac-like structure called an ascus. Sseveral ascomyctes have been used for elucidating principles of genetics and heredity, one member of the group is Neurospora crassa. In 1927, Shear and Dodge gave a very comprehensive account of fungus Neurospora. They called it with this name because of its resemblance to nerves; the striations which develop on the wall of ascospore are like nerves. They discovered the mating types A and a of this genus Neurospora and further described the life histories of three species, two eight-spored heterothallic species named N. crassa and N. sitohila and one four-spored homothallic species N. tetrasperma. (Perkins, 2002) Their explanation of the characteristics related to thallism was based on their work on nucleus of these species. In fact, there is programming of ascus development in N. tetrasperma in a way that each of the four ascospores encloses two nuclei of the opposite mating type. So there is self-fertilization of single-ascospores (Raju, 2003). While in eight-spored N. crassa, the situation is a bit different and which is expected, as it is eight-spored as compared to the four-spored species. In N. crassa, the ascospore pairs are aligned themselves in linear fashion and exhibit genetic events during the process of meiosis. The process of crossover, which occurs at the four-strand stage during the meiotic division, becomes visually obvious. In N. crassa, the segregation of alleles during meiotic division is not fixed but it varies depending upon the relation between the gene marker and the centromer

The Importance Of Netpulses Technologies For Beach Bum In Relation To Essay

The Importance Of Netpulses Technologies For Beach Bum In Relation To The Basic Lessons Learned In The Readings - Essay Example In the strategic planning process, information technology (IT) can enable a company to ensure that its products are of utmost quality and its services are user friendly consequently increasing customer retention and contentment. The discussion aims to recognize the importance of IT related services provided by Netpulse for Beach Bum, a gym facility providing organization. The strategies will be illustrated with the help of the implemented information systems. Assessment of the Importance of Netpulse’s Technologies for Beach Bum in Relation to the Basic Lessons Learned in the Readings Beach Bum, a business initiative to operate gym facility on the beach has desired to create a value driven partnership with Netpulse, a technological solution providing organization in order to augment customer contentment with the provided facilities. Netpulse’s technology can enable members of the gym to design their experience while they are working out. It can enable members to select t heir options from various available programs provided by Netpulse such as movie trailers, music videos and television shows among others. With reference to the context, it is assumed that Beach Bum will introduce Netpulse’s technologies as a tool of strategic planning.

Reading Assignment #3 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Reading #3 - Assignment Example mation may be in the form of several ways, and people may not be aware such as kindness and offering comfort to a relative of the dying person (Hawkins, n.d ). Transformation is therefore by those who are very close to the dying person or their relatives, and it is necessary to give it out when desired. Transformation can occur to the person trying to provide care and compassion rather that the one suffering especially when one opens his/her heart to those that are in the greatest need for comfort. Humans have the mandate to provide the quality care that can transform the worst moments into tolerable ones or make a person accept a loss. In addition, suffering can be turned into peace through transformation. The case of the Pope John Paul II was a form of transformation as during his last moments his caregivers and health providers kept the rest of the world hoping that the Pope would recover. In fact, they gave him the best care and attended to every change in his health trying to keep him alive. They never reported that the Pope was dying yet his condition was very serious. When he finally did all tests to confirm death starting with the medieval and the modern medicine through an electrocardiogram were carried out. The Pope’s medical team could have informed the world that the Pope was dying instead of describing his conditions with such words as serious, grave, or

Strategic Audit Michael Hill Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Strategic Audit Michael Hill - Essay Example The Porters five forces model measures the firms’ profitability in the various markets irrespective of the external forces fighting against the success of the firm. The five forces model analyzes the forces that affect and limit the profitability of the firm in the industry and how the firm is able to counter these forces, thus maintain a stable profit margin over the years (Ahlstrom & Bruton, p.131). The five forces include: buyers, suppliers, new entrance, substitutes and rivalry. The profitability of the firm will thus depend on how well the firm handles these forces. If the firm is able to conquer these forces its profitability remains constant or goes higher over the years. Value chain management is another tool to be used in the audit. Value chain analysis gives the auditor information on what the company is best at, that is what it produces the lowest possible cost and is profitable to the firm (needles, powers and Crosson 2011, p.805) the result of the value chain will help the firm concentrate more on the efficient products while eliminating the inefficient ones or possibly outsourcing what is cheaper to outsource than to produce. The information required includes the sales of the firm for the period for every specific line of product, the cost of production of that line and the profit earned from the product. This aids in comparing the profitability of each production line, thus showing the firms strong point in production. Moreover, financial ratios are important tools in internal audit. Among the ratios to be assessed include the leverage ratio and liquidity ratio. Liquidity ratio measures the firm’s ability to meet its current obligations while the leverage ratio measures the firm’s ability to cover long term financial debt obligations. A high the liquidity ratio is an indication of the firm’s ability to meet its current financial obligations thus is an indicator of the firm’s short term

Women during the American Revolution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Women during the American Revolution - Essay Example Many Indian women favored a British victory since they knew a new American nation would usher in: â€Å"land speculators and settlers into Indian territories and governments that backed unfavorable treaties with threats of military force.† 1 Enslaved women faced an unstable family life and often faced having their children or husbands sold from them. Both the British and Americans viewed slaves as chess pawns rather than genuinely believing in their freedom. In seizing loyalist camps, black women were sold for profit. Black women who served the rebel camps were treated as slaves, used for manual labor, and they were also sold to rebel armies. 2 Many black women also faced fraud and trickery by so-called emancipators who promised freedom. Black women faced assault and starvation from the confusion and chaos of the revolutionary war. Those who were fortunate enough to escape were still bogged down by discrimination and lack of advancement. Those who were not fortunate enough to escape, or remained behind due to fear of their children being hurt or reprisal from British and American camps, remained in perpetual bondage in the south and parts of the north. Free, black women n usually worked as domestic servants and were barred from establishing their own households. In European tradition, a woman's place was in the home, but she retained power and respect in running the home. Through racial and economic oppression, free black women would have no such role in having any measure of power or authority. Such status was traditionally reserved for white women. 3 For white, American women, their roles took a slight shift from strictly domestic house maidens to working in the fields and helping in the shops of male family members. In times of conflict, especially in the outskirts of far settlements, women protected their families and communities when their husbands were away or to simply contribute to protecting their homes.     

A Jazz Song Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

A Jazz Song Analysis - Essay Example Her vocalization, diction, and delivery are extraordinary, with a slight touch of a Southern drawl; her tenor is slow but steadfast, crude but charming, childlike but sophisticated. The song’s texture is significant all the way through, particularly at the moments when Holiday is chanting. The song starts with a unique sound but moves back when lyrics come out, and the singing of Holiday surfaces to the center stage. Hence the distancing of the arrangement of the vocal and musical components emphasizes the words that are being spoken (Kaplan 78). An instrumental sound dominates at first and then weakens a bit, and then the lyrics and the singer’s voice become the focal point for the listener. The quality of the vocals’ sound and their stable poetic rhythm further strengthen the impact of the words on the listeners. The deep-toned singing of Holiday generates a haunting and gloomy atmosphere. Likewise, the low pitch of the combined sound of the trumpet and piano produces a sad melody. Strange Fruit was composed by Abel Meeropol, a union advocate and Jewish educator, who was resentful after having a glimpse of a picture of a dreadful lynching in a magazine dedicated to the civil rights movement (Greene 58-59; Clarke 163). The photograph was an image of two Black men victimized by lynching and dangling from a tree in Marion, Indiana in the 1930s. These two men are what the ‘Strange Fruit’ symbolizes. This song was performed by a group of black musicians in an antifascist campaign (Margolick 6). In 1939, race relations in the U.S. were as terrible as before. It was nearly two decades before the civil rights movement began to bring about any actual improvement. It was at the most desperate point of the Great Depression and the public pushed Holiday to create a positive atmosphere through her lively attitude (Albertson 21; Pramuk 358). Such is

The theme of three pomes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The theme of three pomes - Essay Example The three poems selected to elaborate the theme of Bridget Keating Red ceilings are â€Å"When I was a Child†, â€Å"How to Make Peace with Yourself† and â€Å"Frogs†. The basic theme of all the three poems is the study and observation of human behaviors. The behaviors described by Bridget Keating are quite diverse and cover the happiness, sorrow, myths and dark shades of human nature. The poem â€Å"When I was a Child† describes the memories of the past and Keating tried to remember the old good days during the present days of darkness. The poem â€Å"How to Make Peace with Yourself† is focused on finding the peaceful place after bearing and observing the behaviors of individuals crossed by the way to peaceful place. In the third and the last poem â€Å"Frogs† the lady learned from the behaviors and movements of the frogs that how to survive together even in the tough situation and despite of even more tough situation than that of the lady, the frogs still strived to survive together. A brief overview of all three poems to elaborate the theme of the Bridget Keating book Red Ceiling is described in the remaining part of the paper. In the Poem â€Å"When I was a Child† Bridget Keating elaborated the memories of her past days and remembers the golden days when she was a child. She Said â€Å"I swam in the Slope Coulee† (Keating 1) refers to the spring water or waterfall where she swam during her golden days. She felt the depth of the water and moved with the flow of water and remembered the natural light, inhaled seeds and under water flowers. She remembers the beauty of nature and felt a snake against her bare feet while moving with the flow of water while touching the moist. She describes the beautiful feelings of life, which she had in the past. She also misses the presence of an old lady may be her mother and the old lady’s attitude and behavior,

The Madness of John Brown Essay Example for Free

The Madness of John Brown Essay Historians are not the only ones that can elucidate history. History is a extensive puzzle that can be solved by anyone who has an educated diploma on certain subjects. Historians are the main disposition to solve the uncertainty of history with their useful, quality skills of making theories to conjoin loose ends of history, motivation of repeated research, and their undying love to learn new history, but a psychologist can solve history too with their forte. Even though it may seem absurd to believe that this occupation who assesses a mans personality to solve problems; a psychologist can solve an dead mans prospective in life. A letter is a common communication device in the old days and can be read by anyone. A historian would try to find key words in the letter to guesstimate the situation, but a psychologist knowing the mysteries of attitudes and behaviors of people would look at double meanings in passages. Two perceptions are better than one and knowing the true motivation of a persons mind than their careless actions can give an different outlook of a case. Other specialists can help historians find the gist of John Brown rationale of being insane in the terms of slavery and why he killed five men in the open. Although John Brown never underwent a psychological examination about his childhood, he had left a letter with important information of his childhood into a story. Psychoanalytic insight has helped to reveal some of Johns most intense personal conflicts from this letter; his ambivalence toward his fathers strict discipline, the paradox of Browns struggle to internalize and accept his fathers authority in order to become independent himself, and his main concern with property and pets as a means of defining his independence. This ambivalent father-son relationship suggests that Browns intense life-long identification with black slaves might well have sprung from the struggle he experienced with paternal discipline. Helping slaves was ultimately a means of helping himself without consciously recognizing the source of his emotions and convictions. He could have channel the repressed hostility toward his father toward the slaveholders. In conclusion, psychologist has added the tool of psychoanalysis in the study of history. This tool has helped historians to go beyond rational motives in understanding people who have changed society and history in either a good or bad way. History has somewhat gotten more clearer and truthful thanks to psychologists.

PlayStation 3 VS Xbox 360 Essay Example for Free

PlayStation 3 VS Xbox 360 Essay Although PlayStation 3 are both great systems, PlayStation 3 the better buy. Both consoles have awesome features such as 3D motion gaming, unlimited music, and online play. Only one of these consoles can be consider the best of the best. The PlayStation 3 is by far the superior console with its Blu-ray integration, amazing cell processor, and rechargeable wireless controller. The first difference is The PlayStation Network is free, whereas Xbox Live Gold charges a gamer yearly to use their services. After making one PlayStation purchase, a gamer does not have to worry about internet again. A person gets all the same features on PlayStation 3 for $250 dollars, plus forty extra gigabytes of memory. However, Xbox 360 costs $249 dollars plus fifty dollars for a one-year membership. Not including the fee of fifty dollars a person does not obtain the full features because they always have to worry about renewing their membership. Another difference is the PlayStation 3 controllers are rechargeable, while Xbox 360 controllers need batteries or other attachments. With the PlayStation 3 a gamer receive one controller with a chord to charge it. Also when the controller dies a gamer can hook it up to their PlayStation and it will still play as it charges. In contrast, a Xbox 360 does not come with a rechargeable controller, a gamer constantly has to buy batteries or pay extra for attachments. With the Playstation3 having the rechargeable controller gives a gamer more gameplay. Last but not least, PlayStation 3 graphics seem more defined, but Xbox 360 graphics are often unrealistic and cartoonish. The PlayStation has Blu-ray player for better graphics and watching movies. It’s very crisp and smooth because of the quick cell processor. On the other hand, Xbox 360 does not have Blu-ray capabilities and its processor is much slower. That makes the game’s and movie’s resolution much lower. The PlayStation 3 has faster and  more efficient technologies and that leads to better gaming experiences. Finally, with the free network that the PlayStation 3 has it will save a person more money than Xbox 360. Also having the rechargeable wireless controller with the PlayStation 3 a gamer is able to have more gameplay without worrying about paying for batteries or extra attachments. Last, even though Xbox 360 has an unlimited amount of games, its graphics are not as realistic as the PlayStation 3. In conclusion, the PlayStation 3 is by far the better gaming system to buy.

Cognitive psychology, retention and learning transfer

Cognitive psychology, retention and learning transfer The way information has been retained and transferred into meaningful output has baffled the minds of Cognitive Psychologists for decades. It is in an effort to discover how this becomes possible that various Cognitive Psychologists have developed hypotheses and presented models. Estes, (1975) posited that some learning theories support hypotheses that are based on instruction that leads to learning outcomes that he regard as a two element paradigm. He however, supports a three element paradigm which involves instructions, memory structure, and learning outcome. If there is not a three structure paradigm how might one account for the retention and the processing that must take place if there is no memory structure? But the structure of the memory system is still a source of controversy. According to the modal model there is not only a memory structure but there are different kinds of memory. But most contemporary researchers assume that there are three types of memory; a sensory memory structure or register, a short term store, and a long term store. There is also support for a two structure model. This is regarded as a two storage system and this is where the emphasis lies. Support for a storage system was highlighted from (Mulner, 1959) research. Her research supports the hypothesis that if the hippocampus was removed it would be difficult for new learning to take place. Eichenbaum, (2000) states that the Hippocampus is seen as critically involved in the rapid encoding of events as associations among stimulus elements and context, in the encoding of episodes as events, and in linking episodes by common features into relational networks that support flexible inferential memory expression. Mulner, (1959) further posited that although items of learning could be held in short term memory, there is no evidence that they were transferred to Long term memory. Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) supported (Mulner 1959) findings. Zechmeister and Nyberg (1982) posited that information enters the memory system through a sensory register that records information impinging on the sense organs. The concept of working memory has been introduced as a part of the short term memory (Bradderly and Hitch, 1974; Hastie and Carlston ( 1980). Short term memory takes information as concepts from the sensory register and maintains activated knowledge drawn from long term memory. Long term memory is comprised of semantic long term memory and episodic long term memory. Semantic long term memory stores structural information. This is information that is not dependent upon a particular time or place. Episodic long term memory stores contextually dependent information. That is information about specific events or episodes. Klatzsky (1980) purports that Episodic Long term memory is constantly changing. This is so because as (Conway, Cohen, and Stanhope, 1991; Semb, Ellis, and Aroujo, 1993) stated, although some of what is learned is lost, the amount is not significantly great. Bahrick, (1984); Bahrick, Bahrick, and Wittingler (1975), Bahrick and Hall (1991); Conway, Cohen, and Stanhope (199 1) reported retention intervals as long as fifty years. From their research they discovered that persons retained a substantial amount of the Spanish, Algebra, and psychology that they were taught in school. Research carried out by Cane and Willey (1939) and Hovland (1940) supported the hypothesis that persons who are given multiple opportunities for learning had better retention. But if one is merely interested in assessing what students have learned over a period of time, the focus will be merely on assessing remembering. However, meaningful learning supersedes mere remembering. Bransford, Brown and Cocking (1999); Lambert and Mc Combs (1998) stated that meaningful learning is recognized as an important educational goal. For meaningful learning to take place instruction must go beyond the simple presentation of factual knowledge and that assessment task should require students not just to recall or recognize but they should be able to construct meaning from what is learned. Hence, students should be able to understand what is learned, apply knowledge, analyze, evaluate and use knowledge to create. If the objective of the teacher is to assess the degree to which students have learned some subject matter content and retained it over some period of time, the focus would be on just one class of cognitive process, namely, those associated with remembering. Mayer (2001) posited that two of the most important educational goals are to promote retention and to promote transfer (which, when it occurs, indicates meaningful learning). Retention is the ability to remember material at some later date in much the same way it was presented during the instruction. Transfer is the ability to use what is learned to solve new problems, answer new questions, or facilitate learning new subject matter (Mayer and Wittrock 1996). In other words retention requires students to remember what is learned, where as transfer requires not only retention but also the application of knowledge to old and new situations (Bradford, Brown, and Cockling, 1999; Detterman and Sternberg, 1993; Heskell, 2001; Mayer, 1995; McKeogh, Lambert, and Marini, 1995; Phye, 1997). Remembering is therefore the sole ingredient of retention. On the other hand transfer involves remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. If the retention of information is the focus then the main focus of the cognitive process is remembering. However, if the focus is transfer it shifts to the other five cognitive processes; understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. Mayer, (2001) stated that students understand when they can associate old knowledge with new ones. In other words if students are able to make connections as they formulate new concepts ideas, and create new schematic formulations, they have demonstrated that they have learned. At the application stage (Mayer, 2001) students are able to use what is learned to execute procedures. In other words they are able to carry out tasks based on that knowledge. For example if instruction is based on how to bake a cake, the student should be able to bake the cake. Therefore the bass for application are remembering and understanding. As (Mayer, 2001) continues to review Blooms Taxonomy, he states that to analyze involves breaking ideas, concepts, and schemas into their component parts and demonstrate how the parts are related to each other and to the whole structure. The bases for analysis are; remembering, understanding and applying. In order to evaluate students must be able to remember, understand, apply, and analyze. Evaluation is the ability to make judgment that is based on a given criteria. Mayer (2001) states that the standards may either be quantitative of qualitative. Evaluation is further described as judgment about internal consistency and critique which is external consistency. At this level of transfer students should be able to detect inconsistencies between an operation and some external criteria. The final stage is that at which students are able to synthesize aspects of what is learned to produce a whole, a concept or a schema or something that is tangible such as a machine or a work of art. It is that which enables one to develop hypotheses with a view to solving problems. Therefore in order to create, one must be able to remember, understand, apply, analyze, and evaluate. Chandler and Sewell (1991); Mayer (2001, 2005); Mayer and Moreno (2003); Sweller (1999, 2005) posited that meaningful learning requires learners to engage in appropriate cognitive processing during learning. These cognitive processes include attending to relevant information, mentally organizing the selected information into a coherent structure, and integrating the incoming information with existing knowledge. This is regarded as the triarchic theory of cognitive load and it postulates three kinds of cognitive processing during learning. The first is extraneous processing in which the learner engages in cognitive processing that is not related to the instructional goal or in some instances there are no instructional goals. It is just learning for learning sake. The other is essential or intrinsic processing in which the learner mentally represents the material and which is determined by the inherent complexity of the material. The third is the generative or germaine processing of material such as organizing and integrating the selected material with the desire to understand the lesson. Generative processing is similar to transfer of learning that produces the ability to create. According to (Mayer ,2005; Mayer and Moreso, 2003; Sweller, 2005) line texts can be converted into a graphic organizer through selected relevant text and organized into a coherent structure. When the scaffolding of graphic organizers is provided, learners are less likely to waste precious cognitive capacity on extraneous processing which thereby reduces cognitive load and frees up capacity for essential and generative processing. De Jong (2005); Kirsner, Sweller, and Clark (2006); Klahr and Nigane, (2004); Lillard, 2005); Mayer, (2003, 2004) forwarded that activity theory is based on the idea that deep learning occurs when students are encouraged to engage in productive learning activities. Constructing a graphic organizer can be considered a productive learning activity because the learner must engage in an activity that is related to the instructional objective selecting relevant ideas from the text and organizing them in a coherent structure. Activity theory purports that learner generated graphic organizers do. However three experimental researches carried out by Stull and Mayer (2007) proved the opposite. Below is the full text of experiment 1. The summaries of the other two experiments along with the summary of experiment 1 are included in the appendix. Experiment 1 (Highest Complexity) The purpose of Experiment 1 was to test whether students better understand a scientific passage when they are asked to generate graphic organizers (following pretraining in how to generate hierarchies, lists, flowcharts, and matrices) in spaces in the margin or when the passage contains author-provided graphic organizers. In Experiment 1, participants read a 1,133-word passage about a topic in biology that was augmented by 27 author-provided graphic organizers (author-provided group), participants constructed their own graphic organizers from scratch (learner-generated group), or participants did not receive or construct graphic organizers (control group). Our primary focus is on comparing the author-provided group and the learner-generated group on measures of understanding. Method Participants and design. The participants were 156 college students recruited from the psychology participant pool at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The study was based on a between-subjects design, with three levels of graphic organizer use (author provided, learner generated, and control) as the single factor. Fifty-one students served in the author-provided group, 51 students served in the learner-generated group, and 54 students served in the control group. The mean age was 19.4 years (SD =1.5), the percentage of men was 29.5%, and the mean SAT score was 1184.5 (SD =161.4). Materials. The paper materials consisted of a participant questionnaire, two pretraining documents (author-provided and learner generated versions), three reading passages (i.e., author-provided, learner-generated, and control versions), six short-answer test sheets (one retention and five transfer questions), and eight sentence-completion (all retention questions) test sheets, each printed on an 8.5 x 11 in. (21.25 x 27.5 cm) sheet of paper. The participant questionnaire solicited basic demographic information, including the participants age, sex, and SAT scores. The full version of the pretraining document was developed for the author-provided and learner-generated group, and the control version of the pretraining document was developed for the control group. The full version of the pretraining document consisted of a two-page document printed on facing pages. The left page described and illustrated four types of graphic organizer (concept list, concept hierarchy, concept flowchart, and compare-and-contrast matrix). The right page contained a four-paragraph reading passage laid out in a two-column design. The left column contained the biology text, and the right column contained each of the four types of graphic organizer, horizontally aligned with the matching type description on the left page. The reading material was extracted from a popular college-level general biology textbook, then edited slightly to meet the desired page format as well as to remove external references, but without altering the book like style or the authors voice in the source material. The passage described three biologically important polysaccharide molecules-starch, glycogen, and cellulose. The control version of the pretraining document contained the identical biology text from the left column of the right page but not the left page describing and illustrating the graphic organizers or the integrated graphic organizers from the right column of th e right page. These modifications were made without alteration to the text layout, so the right column was empty. The control version of the reading passage consisted of six pages containing 1,133 words organized into 12 paragraphs, with three figures containing four black-and-white photographs. The three figures with four photographs were required to augment the written descriptions and to maintain the book like character of the material. The page layout matched the two-column design used in the pretraining document. The material was extracted from the same textbook used for the pretraining to maintain a consistent voice and character between the readings. The material described eight reproductive barriers between species (temporal, habitat, gametic, behavioral, mechanical, hybrid inviability, hybrid sterility, and hybrid breakdown) and was divided into two barrier groups (prezygotic and postzygotic). The author-provided version used the identical text, figures, and illustrations but included 27 graphic organizers, each placed in the margin near the corresponding text. One concept hierarchy graphic organizer augmented the introductory paragraph. Each of the eight reproductive barriers was described by a single paragraph and augmented with three graphic organizers (one hierarchy, one list, and one flowchart). A hierarchy graphic organizer and a matrix augmented the conclusion. The learner-generated version was identical to the author-provided version except that all graphic organizers were removed, which left space for learners to construct their own graphic organizers. The version used by the control group was identical to that used by the learner-generated group. Example pages of the three versions are shown in Figure 1. The six short-answer test sheets and the eight sentence -completion sheets each had a question printed at the top of the page, and at the bottom of each sheet were printed the following instructions: Please keep working until you are asked to stop. Do not go back to any previous questions. The eight sentence completion questions (eight retention questions) are presented at the top of the Appendix, and the six short-answer test questions (one retention and five transfer questions) are presented at the bottom of the Appendix. Procedure. Participants were tested in groups of 1 to 5 and randomly assigned to one of the three graphic organizer treatment groups. Each participant was seated in an individual cubicle. First, participants were asked to read and sign an informed consent form, followed by a participant questionnaire to be completed at their own rate. Then they were given oral instructions to carefully read the pretraining document (with control participants receiving the control version and all other participants receiving the full version). In the author-provided group, participants were instructed to compare the descriptions and illustrations of the four types of graphic organizer with the illustrated example on the facing page. In the learner-generated group, participants were instructed to compare the descriptions and illustrations of the four types of graphic organizers with the illustrated example but also told that they would be asked to construct their own graphic organizers. The training la sted approximately 5 min and was intended to familiarize learners with each of four types of graphic organizers-list, hierarchy, flowchart, and matrix-by providing definitions and examples. In the control group, participants were only asked to read the passage but were not provided with or informed about graphic organizers. Participants were asked to stop reading at the end of 5 min, which proved to be more than adequate for the task. Next, participants were given further oral instructions that described the reading assignment, which they could complete at their own pace. These instructions asked the participants to read the material carefully and to be aware that questions about the reading would follow. In the learner-generated group, participants were told that they could construct their own graphic organizers in the margins of the page as they read the material and were informed that this might help them understand the material. Participants in the author-provided group and the control group were not instructed to generate graphic organizers during reading and did not generate any graphic organizers. The time to complete the reading was recorded for each individual. When all participants were finished reading the material, the stack of six short-answer test sheets was passed out. Participants were given oral instructions to work only on the top sheet, to keep working until they were asked to stop, and not to turn to the next sheet until asked to do so. Participants were carefully monitored for compliance. At the end of 3 min, participants were asked to immediately stop working on the current question, turn that sheet face down onto a finished stack, and begin the next sheet. After the last short-answer question, participants were given oral instructions that described the sentence-completion questions, which followed the same procedure as the short-answer questions except that participants were given 1 min to answer each question. The short-answer and sent ence-completion questions were presented in the order listed in the Appendix. After the last sentence-completion question, all material was collected, and the participants were debriefed and excused. Results and Discussion Scoring. We computed the retention score for each participant by tallying the score for the first short-answer question (worth a maximum of 4 points) and the score for each of the eight sentence completion questions (worth a maximum of 16 points). On the short-answer retention question, participants received 1 point for mentioning each of four concepts: (a) prezygotic barrier with (b) before fertilization and (c) postzygotic barrier with (d) after fertilization. On each sentence-completion question (worth a maximum of 2 points each), the participant received 1 point for writing the correctly spelled term for the appropriate reproductive barrier and 1 point for the correct prefix for the barrier subgroup- prezygotic or postzygotic. The correct answers to the eight sentence-completion questions listed in the Appendix are (a) temporal and pre, (b) habitat and pre, (c) gametic and pre, (d) behavioral and pre, (e) mechanical and pre, (f) hybrid viability and post, (g) hybrid sterility and post, and (h) hybrid breakdown and post. Partial terms (e.g., hybrid or sterility instead of hybrid sterility), parallel concepts (e.g., time instead of temporal or geographic instead of habitat), and incorrect spellings (e.g., pro instead of pre) were not acceptable answers. Partial credit was awarded if participants provided only one of the two correct terms. Each participant could earn a maximum of 16 points on the eight sentence-completion questions and 4 points on the short-answer retention question, for a total possible of 20 points on the retention score. We computed the transfer score for each participant by tallying the individual scores on each of the five short-answer transfer questions-short-answer questions 2 through 6 are listed in the Appendix. We scored each question by counting the unique concepts presented in the reading that were used appropriately by the participant to address each question. Acceptable concepts included the 10 specific reproductive barrier concepts: (a) prezygotic, (b) postzygotic, (c) temporal, (d) habitat, (e) gametic, (f) behavioral,(g) mechanical, (h) hybrid inviability, (i) hybrid sterility, and (j)hybrid breakdown. In addition, two general concepts were also counted: (a) crossing organisms to test whether reproduction was possible or recognizing that two species might have crossed to form a hybrid, and (b) mentioning that reproductive barriers maybe relevant to the explanation. Participants were allowed to describe the concepts with partial terms and parallel concepts, and misspelled terms were not counted as wrong. One point was awarded for each of the 12 concepts, for a maximum of 12 points per question. A second person scored all material. The interrater reliability measure was significantly correlated between these two scores (r =.826, p < .001). Discrepancies in the scores between these two scorers were individually evaluated in a blind, third review, which was used to determine the final score. Data analysis. Data were analyzed with one-way analyses of variance comparing the performance of the three treatment groups on each of the dependent measures-transfer score, retention score, and study time. Our major focus was on comparing the author-provided and learner-generated groups, so for each dependent measure we conducted planned contrasts on the mean scores of these groups and computed the corresponding effect size on the basis of Cohens d (Cohen, 1988).2 Table 2 lists the mean and standard deviation of each of the three treatment groups on each of the three dependent measures. Do readers who generate their own graphic organizers while reading a scientific passage learn better than readers who are given author-provided graphic organizers? The top left portion of Table 2 summarizes the mean transfer scores of the three groups in Experiment 1. There was not a significant effect of treatment on transfer scores, F(2, 153) = 1.32, MSE = 10.15, and the author- provided group did not differ significantly from the learner -generated group, t(153) = 1.30, d = 0.24. There is no evidence that constructing graphic organizers or even studying author- provided graphic organizers results in deeper learning. The top middle portion of Table 2 summarizes the mean retention scores of the three groups in Experiment 1. There was not a significant effect of treatment on retention scores, F(2, 153) = 0.210, MSE = 21.38, and the author-provided group did not differ significantly from the learner-generated group, t(153) =0.56, d = 0.11. There is no evidence that constructing graphic organizers or even studying author-provided graphic organizers results in better memory for the presented material. The top right portion of Table 2 summarizes the mean study times of the three groups in Experiment 1. There was a significant difference among the groups in mean study time, F(2, 153) = 82.86, MSE = 9.99, p < .001, and the author-provided group required significantly less study time than did the learner- generated group, t(153) =8.97, p < .001, d = 1.51. Although constructing graphic organizers did not result in better retention or transfer performance, it did require considerably more study time. Although the main focus of this research was on comparing the test performance of the author-provided and learner-generated groups, the types and number of graphic organizers produced by the learner-generated group were also examined. The author-provided group received 27 graphic organizers containing 506 words, whereas the learner-generate group produced a mean of 5.1 graphic organizers containing a mean of 84.2 words. The mean number of graphic organizers produced fell from 2.0 on page 1 to 0.5 on page 5; the mean number of words produced fell from 34.8 on page 1 to 10.0 on page 5. Although the number of graphic organizers produced in the learner-generated group was lower than that given to the author-provided group, all but 2 of the 51 participants in the learner-generated group attempted to construct graphic organizers. Exclusion of these 2 participants from the analysis did not alter the statistical results. These results are contrary to the prediction that graphic organizers facilitate learning. Furthermore, there is no evidence that generating graphic organizers resulted in better learning than simply viewing them on the page, although there is evidence that more study time was required when students generated their own graphic organizers. The open-ended nature of the learner-generated treatment might have been too demanding and confusing for the learners. Although a majority of participants in the learner-generated group attempted to construct graphic organizers, these graphic organizers varied greatly in form and quality. Participants might have been overwhelmed by the requirement to both select and implement appropriate graphic organizers, both of which might have contributed to extraneous cognitive load. For participants in the author-provided group, the margins of the pages were densely crowded with graphic organizers, which were potentially confusing to interpret as participants attempted to compare the concepts in the text with the appropriate graphic organizer. This might also have contributed to additional extraneous cognitive load. To address these issues, we reduced the complexity of the treatment in Experiments 2 and 3 by offering fewer graphic organizers to both groups and partially completed graphic organizer templates to the learner-generated group. Knowledge of how memory works is important to teachers and Cognitive Psychologists as they seek to discover ways and means to enhance learning. But it is possible that the brain can become so inundated with ideas that much of what comes to it simply decay. Bahrick, (1979) stated that much of what is learned in classrooms is lost soon after final examination. Higbee (1977) posited that people forget what they learned in school (usually within a short time after an examination). Never-Benjamin (1990) forwarded that if this is the case it is very serious. Neisser (1982) expressed that there is a difficulty in finding studies that support retention of academic instruction. But Nesser (1982) might not have been searching wide enough. In fact the literature that is available is replete with the suggestion that much work has been carried out. Wert, (19370 suggested that studies in the area of zoology, biology, and psychology, found retention from a few months to three years. It has also been put forward that (keller, 1968) personalized system of instruction and (Blooms, 1968)learning for mastery often include a measure of retention. Studies by (Gaskey and Gates, 1985; kulik, Kulik, and Bangert- Drowns, 1990) posited that students in all conditions retained much of what was taught. Conway, Cohen, and Stanhope, (1991); Semb, Ellis, and Aranjo (1993) stated that although forgetting does occur, the amount loss is not as great as expected by popular belief. Farrs ( 1987) opinion is that the most important variable in long term memory retention is the degree of original learning. Evidence from laboratory studies shows that increasing the number of learning trials enhances retention. Research has also proven that retention often depends on the instructional strategy that is used. A comparison of studies by ( Austin and gilbert, 1973 ; Breland and Smith 1974, Cooper and Greiner, 1971; Corey and Mc Michael, 1974; Glasnapp et al. 1978, Lu, M., 1976; Lu, P. 1976; Schwartz, 1981; Semb et al., 1993; Sharples et al., 1976) advanced that course objectives, content , length, and tests were the same for all the groups in the stu dies. The only difference was the instructional delivery strategy and mastery criteria. All the studies show that mastery conditions produce superior academic performance at the end of the course. Mckenzie and White (1982) observed high levels of retention for students actively involved in learning. In their study three groups of students learned geographical facts and skills. One group was given a learning program which includes pictures, slides, worded examples, sample test items, indications of relevance of information to subsequent application, and transfer of verbal proportions to maps, diagrams and slides. The remaining two groups were given learning program and field excursion. Treatment groups were formed from eight and ninth grade classes from two different schools. The classes were not ability tracked, and class assignments to treatment groups were random. Students in the excursion classes were assigned to either a traditional excursion or a processing excursion. For the traditional excursion students were given an explanatory field guide designed to reinforce the learning program content. The teacher pointed out the geographic areas of interest, and the student veri fied the information by referring to the guide. Students did not do any recording neither di

Right Stuff :: essays research papers

The Right Stuff   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As one advances in their educational process it becomes apparent that some of their instructors were a significant cut above the rest. These few individuals are inevitably viewed as master craftsmen. But why is it that some instructor’s posses the â€Å"right stuff† for being effective with their students while others do not? When one analyzes their educational experience, those instructors that were extremely effective appear to them as makers of fine wine, turning grapes into a drink which is pleasurable to the pallet. All instructors’ careers starts out in much the same manner as a trade’s apprentice. First, they must go to school themselves. Then, they must observe experts in action. And finally, they have to exercise their newly acquired skills. The instructors that eventually become effective quickly realize there is much more to the fermentation process than this. They realize that to be effective with a student there are additional requirements that must be adhered to. To make a fine wine they must learn to delicately blend the right ingredients of personality, motivation, and above all patients.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The initial ingredient required to becoming an effective instructor is of personality. The personality of the instructor affects each and every student they are in contact with. An effective instructor will develop a personality that conveys humor into the learning process. It is only natural that what one finds humorous, one tends to remember longer. Additionally, if an instructor to be a cut above the rest, their personality must be of fairness and equality for each student. Students feel that, if their instructor really doesn’t like them much anyway, there isn’t much use in trying as hard as they would otherwise. As the apprentices of the instructor trade begin to integrate a warm, humorous, and friendly personality into their instructional style, the first process in fine wine making is achieved.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Secondly, the instructor then adds motivation to their students’ behavior. When an instructor motivates a student to do well, the student usually tries to succeed beyond that point. This can most easily be done by the positive reinforcement of the students’ abilities and through constructive criticism. When an instructor portrays to their students that they believe in their abilities, the student unknowingly starts believing that they do posses the same abilities. Through applying the second ingredient to becoming an effective instructor, motivation, the grapes start to ferment and the apprentice now becomes a journeymen of the wine making trade.

Software Piracy Essay -- Computer Software Copyright Violation

Software Piracy Software piracy is the copying and selling of copyrighted software. There are many types of software that can be pirated including operating systems, application programs, internet downloads, including music, software, or movies. Many people do this knowing that they are partaking in something illegal; however some people have no clue that they are breaking the law. In some cases a person may have inadvertently purchased pirated software. The consequences of having or distributing pirated software can be serious in some cases. Software piracy is a common practice that can be easily avoided. Software piracy is an equal offense to downloading of music, movies, books, magazines, or any other copyrighted material. It is as simple as downloading a program from the internet, or using a friend’s copy of Office. Software piracy can also be as complex as a computer store re-selling software with a fake or counterfeit product key or registration code. To avoid this look out for software that seems less expensive than it should be or software that comes with a key generator. If you suspect software piracy you can contact, The Software & Information Industry Association, on their website http://www.siia.net/piracy. On their website they are actually offering rewards of up to $50,000 to any person that reports a company that is using pirated software. People partake in software piracy because it as an easy way out of purchasing software. Some software programs can cost over a thousand dollars, whereas some only cost twenty or thirty dollars. Software piracy has said to have begun around the 1960’s. Over time it has grown and it accounts for â€Å"25% - 50%† of software curr... ... 83% Tunisia 82% Kenya 80% Thailand 80% Nicaragua 79% El Salvador 79% Bolivia 78% Guatemala 77% Lebanon 74% Romania 73% Morocco 73% Honduras 73% India 73% Philippines 72% Venezuela 70% Works Cited "Learn About Piracy." Prevent Software Piracy. 2005. Intuit. 8 November 2005. . "What is Piracy?" Anti Piracy. 2005. The Software & Information Industry Association. 8 November 2005. . "Massachusetts Man Pleads Guilty in New Hampshire Software Piracy Conspiracy." Software Piracy. 2005. U.S. Department of Justice. 8 November 2005. .

A Fading India :: Journalistic Essays

On the dawn of a June morning, I wait outside the Vasant Kunj residential buildings in New Delhi for a tour bus to the Taj Mahal. It is not yet six but India is never quiet. Nearly a billion people live in this country and need all twenty-four hours to live their hopes, fears, and dreams. The cows from the neighboring dairy farm are moaning wildly in anticipation of being violated to produce milk. Men sit on verandas and read newspapers while women calm whistling tea kettles and fussy babies. On the street a traffic policeman waits to direct the morning commute, fiddling to center his beret and smoking a cigarette from the corner of his wrinkled mouth. I am waiting for the Regal Taj when another bus, advertising itself as the â€Å"premier deluxe air-conditioned Taj Express,† arrives, its seats apparently filled completely with people. I climb up the creaking steps as the driver stretches his hand for a 10 rupee note for the pleasure of this upgraded ride. There is a reason why the bus is â€Å"air-conditioned†; two of the windows are broken. A makeshift cellophane sheet stuck with duct tape over the open space keeps coming undone and rattles angrily against the ledge. This is not a bus for the country club crowd. Men show deep creases of labor and worry on their foreheads and women balance four or five children, on their laps and pressed against their bosoms. But they are Indian, and they have a birthright and an obligation to respect their history. This is the country where spontaneous monuments sprout up in honor of Shivaji, the Hindu warrior who lost his friends, family, and then his life in resisting the conquering Moguls. This is the country where people invoke the name of Gandhi at political rallies, â€Å"Long Live Mahatma,† as if his placid face lingers as a ghost on the stage. The Mahabharat, mostly mythical but historically based, was adapted for television a few years ago and remains the highest rated series of all time. So, as overworked and overburdened as the masses may be, the Taj Mahal beckons to reveal the glory of India’s past to them. The back of the bus has an empty seat, next to a foreign tourist, which I claim as my own.

Analysis of the Warehouse Automation Failure at Sainsbury’s

Abstract All organizational departments play a collective role in ensuring that the intended goals and targets are achieved. It is vital that they work together because the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Because of the connection that exists amongst different departments, failure in one department may have a detrimental effect to the entire organization. In this regard, this report addresses the case of warehouse failure at Sainsbury’s. It provides an in-depth discussion of the failure and utilizes Porter’s value chain analysis model to explore how failures in primary and supporting activities from the model might have contributed to this. Introduction One of the responsibilities of managers is ensuring that all components or departments within the organization work effectively. This is because success in organization is dependent on the contributions made by different departments. There have been several cases where failure in a single department has adversely affected all operations of the company. This paper seeks to address this management issue by focusing on the failures that occurred in the warehouse automation strategy at Sainsbury’s in 2004 (Double Loop, 2013). It is based on the view that there are many operational failures or disasters occur due to managers’ lack of understanding about the whole organization. This leads to problems in the synchronization of different organizational functions. An Overview of Sainsbury’s Sainsbury’s is one of the largest supermarket chains in the United Kingdom, with a current market share of 17.7%. Apart from running the supermarket business, the brand also deals in the banking and property industries. Since it was founded in 1869, the company has undergone a phenomenal growth. Currently, it runs more than 1,106 convenience stores and supermarkets, and has more than 150,000 employees. The company operates both as a wholesaler and as a retailer (Sainsbury’s, 2014). It has stores that comprise of supermarkets, convenience stores, and pharmacies. In the supermarkets’ category, the company runs Sainsbury’s cafe and Sainsbury’s fuel. It also has an online business referred to as Sainsbury’s online, and comprises of Sainsbury’s Energy, Entertainment, Compare and Save, and Sainsbury’s gift cards. There are also banking and mobile businesses that are run by the company. Even with this level of success that the company presently enjoys, it has also undergone a number of challenges, some of which have led to heavy losses. Key among these was the warehouse project failure in 2004 (O’Brien, 2004). Warehouse automation failure at Sainsbury’s The warehouse automation project commenced in 2000 and had originally been meant to improve the efficiency of the company’s supply chain. The project was under the â€Å"business transformation programme†, whose key planks were Electronic Point Sale (EPOS), supply chain management, and outsourcing of its IT projects to Accenture. The warehouse automation project was intended to overhaul and improve supply chain management of the company. The company had originally intended to make installations of automated fulfilment systems in one of its distribution centres, Waltham Point in Essex. This is the company’s biggest depot, and distributes stock around London and southeast England. By implementation of a barcode based fulfilment system though this project, it was projected that it could make the company’s warehousing operations more streamlined and efficient (Double Loop, 2013). Three years into the launch of the business transformation programme, the CEO who had launched the project reported that it was on the right track, and had saved the whole organization a total amount of ?700 million. However, it was later realized that automation system had developed technical issues, mainly errors in reading barcodes. Not only did this failure affect the company’s operations, it also caused contractual rows between Sainsbury’s and Accenture, financial losses and undue attention from media. With reference to O’Brien (2004), implementation of this project led to a pre-tax loss of ?39 million in the first half of 2004, the worst that the company had ever recorded in its 139 years of operation. This also made the company lose ground to its competitors in the market, which included Asda and Tesco (Double Loop, 2013).Causes of the failureThis failure can be attributed to several management issues in the company. One of these was the situation on whic h IT projects, which were to facilitate the automation project, were outsourced to another company (Abdullah & Verner, 2012). Even though the company being outsourced to might have had a good reputation in implementing such projects, the lack of involvement by parent company managers in the monitoring and evaluation of the project can affect the attainment of the intended objective (Alexander & Walker, 2013). The minimal involvement by Sainsbury’s management in this project explains why it took three years and a change in leadership to realize that the project was not likely to attain its set objectives (Alexander & Walker, 2013). Another possible cause, which has also been identified by Double Loop (2013) is that there was insufficient engagement between the company’s CEO and its IT suppliers in projecting the possible key business and IT risks. For this reason, no delivery strategy that could tackle these challenges was promptly designed (Chermack, 2011). This can also be considered as the lack of sufficient preparations by the then CEO (Sir Peter Davis) before the initiation of the project. Insufficient preparation exposes projects to the risk of possible failure and over-expenditure (Kardes et al., 2013). There was also a communication problem, which can be mainly blamed on Sir Peter Davis. Whereas it must have been known to him that the project could probably fail to serve its intended objective, his presentation about the project to the public was that its progress was as planned and that by 2003, it had saved the company ?700 million. Had the issues been frankly and promptly pointed out, necessary measures could have been undertaken to avert the heavy loss that was later incurred (Aula & Siira, 2010). Given that this failure was associated with the warehouse automation exercise at Sainsbury’s warehouse automation project, it is also worth noting that the failure might have been partly caused by automation challenges. The fact that automated system failed to operate as it was intended to, indicates that all the inputs in terms of time, money and resources were lost (Kardes et al., 2013). Porter’s Value chain Analysis of the Failure Porter’s value chain model can be used to identify the primary and supporting activities which contributed to the failure at Sainsbury’s According to Porter (1985), generic value added activities can be divided into two. These are primary activities and support activities. Primary activities comprise of inbound and outbound logistics, sales and marketing, services and operations. Supporting activities, on the other hand, comprise of firm infrastructure, senior management roles, internal culture, procurement, outsourcing and technological developments. The model is represented in the diagram below, in which the functions that contributed to the failure at Sainsbury’s have been marked. Fig. 1: Sainsbury’s value chain components that contributed to the failure in warehouse automation The functions marked in the value chain model above have been identified as the contributors towards the identified failure. They are explained in more detail below: Outbound logistics: in the value chain, outbound logistics are referred to as activities that mainly relate to transference of goods to customers through warehousing. The automation of the warehouse at Sainsbury’s was being done so as to facilitate this primary activity in the organization. The failure of the warehouse automation to effectively take place thus affected the activities in outbound logistics (Zott et al., 2011). Senior management Roles: There was a failure by the senior management, led by the company’s CEO to effectively make an exhaustive plan of the warehouse automation project, which could have identified the potential risks and contributed to the formulation of possible strategies to overcome these challenges (Kardes et al., 2013). Another failure by the management was in terms of their involvement in the implementation of the project, only to identify issues three years after implementation of the project (Double Loop, 2013). Internal Communications: This function refers to how effectively and accurately information is passed within the organizational precinct (Wright, 2012). The failure was due to the miscommunication by the CEO, where he purported that the project was on the right track and had in fact saved the company a reasonable amount of money. This shows that he was either being given the wrong information by the contractor company or he was presenting wrong information about the project. Technology developments: It has to be acknowledged that the company’s agenda was to improve its service delivery to its customers through technological innovation. However, given that the entire automation project failed to materialize, it can be argued that there was a technological development failure. According to Porter’s (1985) model, technological development comprises of all activities that relate to the processing and management of information. It also involves the activities undertaken in ensuring that the organization keeps up with the latest technological changes. Outsourcing: The IT automation project was undertaken by Accenture, an outsourced IT company, which failed to deliver the intended automation results, and ultimately led to the cancellation of the contract (Double Loop, 2013). Conclusion This paper has presented a case of warehouse automation failure at Sainsbury’s in 2004. With the help of the Porter’s value chain model, several primary and supporting activities that might have contributed to the failure have been identified. The identified primary activities are inbound logistics and outbound logistics. Supporting activities are outsourcing, technology developments, internal communications and senior management roles. The fact that all these activities affected and were also affected by the warehouse automation failure at Sainsbury’s proves that many operational failures or disasters that occur because there is lack of understanding of the whole organization, resulting in problems in the synchronization of different organizational functions. References Alexander, A. & Walker, H., 2013. Sustainable supply chain management: towards a systems theory perspective. Dublin: EUROMA conference. Double Loop, 2013. Sainsbury’s Warehouse Automation Project. [Online] Available at:http://www.doubleloopconsulting.com/sainsbury-warehouse-automation [Accessed 6 March 2014]. Kardes, I., Ozturk, A., Cavusgil, S.T. & Cavusgil, E., 2013. Managing global megaprojects: Complexity and risk management. International Business Review, 22(6), pp.905-17. O’Brien, L., 2004. Digital disaster. [Online] Available at:http://www.supplymanagement.com/analysis/features/2004/digital-disaster/ [Accessed 6 March 2014]. Porter, M., 1985. Competitive Advantage. New York: Free Press. Sainsbury’s, 2014. About us. [Online] Available at: http://www.j-sainsbury.co.uk/about-us/ [Accessed 6 March 2014]. Zott, C., Amit, R. & Massa, L., 2011. The business model: recent developments and future research. Journal of Management , 37(4), pp.1019-42. Abdullah, L.M. & Verner, J.M., 2012. Analysis and application of an outsourcing risk framework. Journal of Systems and Software, 85(8), pp.1930-52. Aula, P. & Siira, K., 2010. Organizational Communication and Conflict Management Systems: A Social Complexity Approach. Nordicom Review, 31, pp.125-41. Chermack, T.J., 2011. Scenario Planning in Organizations. California: Berrett-Koehler. Wright, M., 2012. Gower Handbook of Internal Communication. Burlington: Gower Publishing.

In what ways have various forms of visual entertainment media shaped American culture and its values Essay

Media has evolved constantly in the last century. There is a new source or outlet of media being invented. Our nation has moved from newspapers and radio broadcasts to internet and cell phones to receive the news of the day. Radio and newspapers are losing popularity as quick as it gained popularity in the beginning. People can now be updated with news stories and global news on the go. There is no longer the need to flip through a paper or wait through commercials, the news is as easy as a click away. There are some disadvantages to this new form of media delivery, however. Traditional media outlets like newspapers, radios, and television are widely available to everyone, where as internet access has a smaller audience due to expense rates/plans. Although, the media is changing daily news is either broadcasted or by word of mouth in America. I believe that there have been many television shows and movies that have displayed the culture of times in them. People have been influenced by these movies and television shows because some individuals can really relate to the lifestyles or actions of the people in these movies or shows. Especially with videos out there for learning things, I think that can really help with teaching people rather than just trying to get them to read materials to learn. It gives a different view of the materials and what is supposed to be learned. Visual learning become global and many people are taking advantage of it while its here. The internet provides visual entertainment to all that have access to it. The media is all around us and what surrounds us will have an effect on any and everyone in the world. For example: Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube and made an impact on media in the past couple of years. However, I think that these different forms of visual entertainment media have shaped American culture and its values by influencing people to act differently because of what they see on television or in movies. I believe that celebrities can have a large impact on how people say and do things. I am a male R&B artist and the message in my songs inspire others to change the way they act and think.

Crowdfunding: Revolutionizing the Investment Essay

In April 2012, President Obama signed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act into legislation, (potentially) allowing small startup companies to gain investment from private individuals through crowdfunding. This case study explores the viability of crowdfunding as a means of investment, its advantages and disadvantages, its utilization thus far, and its potential success going forward. Features and benefits * MarketLine Case Studies describe topics such as innovative products, business models, and significant company acquisitions. * Fact-based and presented in an accessible style, they explain the rationale of commercial decisions and illustrate wider market and economic trends. Highlights In recent years, crowdfunding websites such as Kickstarter have seen a dramatic increase in activity as the trend has gained momentum. As a result, the number of crowdfunding platforms is on the rise, and such enterprises are beginning to see their business models change in accordance with the future direction of this burgeoning new industry. Advantages of crowdfunding include the fact that it offers a much larger pool of investors from which startups and entrepreneurs are able to raise capital. Additionally, crowdfunding lessens the risk of bringing a new product to market, and enables startups to benefit from large-scale brand and product exposure. Crowdfunding ventures, such as the Pebble Watch, which launched on Kickstarter, have shown the potential rewards of a successful crowdfunding campaign, although this example also serves to exemplify the drawbacks of such a means of raising capital. Your key questions answered * What are the potential implications of the JOBS Act? * What are the advantages and disadvantages of crowdfunding initiatives? * How successful have crowdfunding initiatives been thus far? * What impact is crowdfunding likely to have on the traditional investment landscape

Hamlet’s First Soliloquy Essay

The tone of Hamlet’s first soliloquy begins as sad and depressed as Hamlet contemplates suicide. The tone changes to angry and bitter while Hamlet ponders the relationship between his mother and his uncle. Through Shakespeare’s use of diction and syntax he shows Hamlet’s disapproval of this relationship. In the first section of this soliloquy Hamlet is considering suicide but does not follow through with his thoughts because of religious reasons. This is apparent through Hamlet’s words, â€Å"or that the everlasting had not fixed his cannon ‘gainst self-slaughtered!† Shakespeare’s use of words such as flat, stale, and weary contributes to a tone of sorrow and sadness. The long, drawn out sentences also create a tone of distress. As an actor performing this soliloquy, I would act out this first section until â€Å"†¦seem to me all the uses of this world!† as a despondent tone. In the next section of the soliloquy Hamlet is angry with his mother because she married Hamlet’s uncle so soon after his father’s death. This section should be performed as incensed and bitter. It should demonstrate to the audience Hamlet’s disapproval of the relationship between his mother and uncle, as it is throughout this soliloquy. As Hamlet says, â€Å"So excellent a king that was to this Hyperon to a satyr.† he compares his uncle to his father. He also reminisces about the relationship between his parents when he says, â€Å"so loving to my mother†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Although Hamlet remains angry with his mother, he becomes sad as he remembers his father’s gentle and loving ways. This should be performed as thoughtful and reminiscent. The remaining of the soliloquy up until the last sentence, Hamlet becomes bitter as he says the marriage between his mother and uncle is founded on lust and sex. With Hamlet’s words, â€Å"she would hang on him†¦Ã¢â‚¬  informs the audience of his mother’s dependence upon men. Hamlet then compares his mother to a beast. This metaphor enhances the point of how quickly she was  able to recover from her husband’s death. The phrase, â€Å"incestuous sheets† suggests Hamlet’s knowledge of what had gone on between the two even before his father’s death. This section would be best performed as extremely acrimonious and angry. The purpose of this soliloquy is to notify the audience of Hamlet’s awareness of both his mother and uncle’s guilt. While he may not accuse his mother of murder, he does indict her of having an affair with his uncle before his father’s death. He claims their relationship his based solely on lust and sex. Hamlet concludes his soliloquy with his frustration in saying he cannot say anything nor do anything about his knowledge and disapproval of his uncle’s actions and relationship with his mother. This is a tone of not only frustration but perhaps even disappointed because he can not act on his feelings of anger.

An Enemy of the People

Contemporary social universal issues are reflected in common themes that are evident in extensively appreciated texts. Written by Henrik Ibsen, An Enemy of the People is a prominent example of a text that incorporates universal topics which are those of integrity and environmental damage. Similarly, the film Erin Brockovich, directed by Steven Soderbergh, reflects these themes. Due to the variant mediums the techniques used to portray these themes to the audience are vastly different. Integrity is essential if corrupt forces in society are to be constrained or abolished. In An Enemy of the People, the protagonist, Dr. Stockmann, sacrifices everything for his moral beliefs to assist in eliminating the corruption: Id rather see it ruined than prospering on a lie! This emotive language reinforces that he values honesty, and would rather suffer financial hardships than dishonestly gain from a hazardous industry like the baths. The Doctors fierce dedication stands out in contrast to many of the plays secondary characters who seem to compromise their supposed beliefs: I should be slow to accuse the mayor because hes your bother. But I know you think as I do – the truth should come first The high modality language emphasises that Hovstad is manipulative and duplicitous as he accuses the mayor of lying to start with, but ultimately supports him, a result of his lack of integrity. Moreover, the play exemplifies the consequences that are sometimes presented to those who have a strong sense of integrity. Dr Stockmann strives diligently to expose the sordid condition of the baths so that people do not fall ill. Eventually, however, Peters machinations turn the public against him. Emotive language is used to portray the publics hatred towards the doctor: Hes an enemy! He hates us, thats what he does! Shame! Boo! Enemy of the people! The irony of this play is that the good person, Dr. Stockmann, is the one labelled as the enemy of the people. The play reveals itself as a sharp examination of the terrible price that society often demands of an individual who stays true to his or her principles. Erin Brockovich reflects the same issue of needing integrity to eradicate social ills. The protagonist, Erin Brockovich, acts in a manner motivated by morals. Fighting to sustain her life with her three children as a single parent, she is concurrently fighting for the rights of people who cannot fight for themselves. Her boss, Ed Masry, initially lacks integrity to take the case on. Brockovich, who is in rage at his moral deficiency screams at him: I don’t know shit about shit! But I sure do know the difference between right and wrong! The strong colloquial language and high modality of this statement highlights the fact that ethics do not have to rely on formal education. Furthermore, through the close up shot of Masrys stunned face the audience sees that an appeal to a persons conscience can sway a persons decisions. Consequently, Masry supports Brockovich and they ultimately win the case. This demonstrates that the virtue of integrity can lead to overcoming corruption within society. An Enemy of the People reflects Erin Brockovich in that integrity is still vital for an ethical society as both their protagonists stood up for what they believed in. Stockmann was still maintaining his stand against the solid majority and the socially corrupt institutions they support. However, Brockovich, according to the films epilogue, continued to pursue other social injustice. Hence, both texts reveal that upholding integrity is imperative. Damage to the environment can lead to grave social problems within society. In An Enemy of the People, the contamination of the environment is not only the vehicle for the plays plot but also the catalyst for the conflict that is palpable during the play. Peter Stockmann is primarily motivated by greed and power, whereas, his brother, Dr. Stockmann has passionate ethical beliefs. When the doctor tells his brother about the polluted baths and that they must be fixed Peter is deeply concerned about financial loss: We should probably have to abandon the whole thing, which has cost us so much money – and then you would have ruined your native town. The emotive language used here reinforces that in Peters unethical perspective the town and its visitors health is secondary to the fact to what the town will endure economically. The circumstances of the play highlight how money the key motivation in society and demonstrates the on-going social dilemma about balancing the needs of a community with the needs of the environment, if this balance is out the effect s on society will be detrimental. Erin Brockovich also reflects the universal theme of environmental pollution. In Erin Brockovich the reason for the environmental damage is corporate greed. The multi-billion dollar company Pacific Gas and Electric, is portrayed as socially corrupt, because they did not enact policies to keep the water contaminate free, and therefore compromised the future of Hinkley. The companys deceit about the effects of chromium in the water is revealed in dialogue: So you say this hexavalent chromium Well, its poisonous? Well, its just gotta be different than whats in our water, cause ours is okay. The guys from PGE told me; I mean they sat in my kitchen and told me. They said it was fine. This underlines the companys stance, that the suffering of the environment and society is secondary to making money. The scene in which Brockovich is collecting evidence juxtaposes the close up shot of the small dead frog with a long shot of the huge power plant nearby, to raise audience awareness of the enormity of the deleterious effect of unethical behaviour. Furthermore it encapsulates the necessity of each individual opposing such behaviour. In conclusion, An Enemy of the People depicts universal themes which are relevant to contemporary society today these themes are reflected in Erin Brockovich. Both texts illustrate to the audience how integrity is an imperative element when eradicating corruption and that a tarnished environment can have an injurious effect on society.