Causes of World War One Essay

World War One was a turning point in history. Many scholars study this event and what caused this huge conflict. Germany used to be the sole one responsible for this war, but many controversial debates later, the blame was gradually put on the other great powers of Europe as well. In this essay, I will be analyzing the main causes of WWI, especially targeting the long-term causes. Most of these causes and events may be classified into 4 main themes: imperialism, the alliance system, militarism & nationalism. Imperialism contributed greatly to the outbreak of WWI. Imperialism is when a country takes over other lands and subjects them to their rule to extend their power and influence. In the pre-WWI era, the great powers of Europe strove to expand their empires. Germany, who only became an united nation in 1871, desired a large empire like Britain’s, who at the time had an empire that stretched out over 5 continents and colonized about 1/3 of the world. However, Germany only had a few pieces of Africa. Soon, though, they decided they wanted more. In 1896, Admiral Muller said to Prince Henry of Germany, â€Å"†¦either we harness the total strength of the nation ruthlessly, even if it means accepting the risk of a major war, or we limit ourselves to continental power alone.† This shows how much Germany would do for more land and power. It clearly shows they prioritized developing their empire over suppressing war if it arose. In 1897, Prince von Bulow of Germany said, â€Å"We don’t want to put anyone else in the shade but we too demand a place in the sun.† It is suggested that Germany wanted more of Africa and Asia. The fierce competition over lands caused incredible tension between the great powers. Each country wanted to dominate more lands to increase their trades and power. This can also be seen in the First Moroccan Crisis. France and Germany had begun to motion towards war over the colonization of Morocco. France, assisted by Britain and Russia, wanted to colonize Morocco, whilst Germany, who was weakly supported by Austria-Hungary wanted to annoy France and create strain in the Entente Cordiale’s friendship, as well as keep Morocco independent so it would be easier to conquer and keep trading with them. This shows how easily countries may begin to consider war and attack to take over new lands. Another event that shows clear intent of imperialism is the Bosnian Crisis in 1908, when Austria-Hungary took over Bosnia, tension grew so thick between Austria-Hungary and Serbia that with one tiny trigger, war would be a possible threat. Another main cause of WWI was militarism. Britain, who had the strongest navy at that time, felt threatened when Germany decided they wanted to build their navy power as well. The Anglo-German naval race of 1906-12 started when Kaiser William II of Germany released the Tirpitz Plan, which was a plan to increase Germany’s naval size. The British brought out the HMS Dreadnought, a deadly battleship, in 1906. Though Britain eventually won, it was clear Germany posed a serious threat. There was also an increase of armed forces which created the mood and atmosphere for war. By 1900, Russia had the biggest army of 1.1 million, though the number had decreased to 0.8 million by 1914. The armies of Germany and France had more than doubled from 1870, though England’s army had not increased much as they prioritized the naval race over building their army. With this attitude to building their military power, it was inevitable that these thoughts would eventually lead to putting the m to use. The alliance system also contributed greatly to the war. An alliance is when 2 or more countries form a type of ‘friendship’ where if one country is in trouble, the other/others would step in and help. The two main alliances were the Triple Entente, which consisted of France, Britain and Russia, and the Triple Alliance of Germany, Italy and Austria-Hungary. The Triple Entente, formed in 1907, remained strong as ever even when Germany tried to sever their bonds in an argument with France over Morocco. Additionally, Russia and Germany signed unofficial secret ‘reassurance treaties’ though it was not renewed in 1890 when William II of Germany took over. This led Russia to search for a new ally. In the end, France and Russia formed an alliance in 1894. This was exactly what Germany had hoped to avoid as now they were sandwiched between the 2 countries, leaving them extremely vulnerable in the case of an attack. However, William II was young and felt no need to have Russia on their side. It should be taken into account that if there wasn’t an alliance system, WII might not have been a ‘world war’, just one between Austria-Hungary and Serbia after an immediate cause- the trigger event of the assassination of the heir of the Austrian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Bosnia on 28th, June 1914. The assassination of the Archduke was committed by Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian nationalist. He was part of the ‘Black Hand’, a secret Serbian nationalist society. This links to nationalism as the Serbs were tired of being ruled by the Austro-Hungarians, and in return, murdered Austro-Hungary’s heir. This shows how much they were wiling to do to make their point. This also links back to the alliance system. France, bound by treaty to Russia, found themselves at war against Germany, and by extension, war against Austria Hungary. Meanwhile, Britain who was allied to France, declared war on Germany. Once again, it should be mentioned that if it were not for the alliance system, perhaps not as many countries would’ve been involved in the war.

Brief Essay

In an upscale neighborhood, then perhaps it could argue that Its failure to provide security patrols Is reasonable. If the business Is located In a crime-ridden area, When briefing a case, your goal is to reduce the information from the case Into a format that will provide you with a helpful reference in class and for review. Most Importantly, by â€Å"briefing† a case, you will grasp the problem the court faced (the issuel the relevant law the court used to olve it (the rule)† how the court applied the rule to the facts (the application or â€Å"analysis†b and the outcome (the conclusion). You will then be ready to not only discuss the case, but to compare and contrast it to other cases involving a similar issue. Before attempting to â€Å"brief’ a case, read the case at least once, Follow the â€Å"IRAC† method in briefing cases: Facts* Write a brief summary of the facts as the court found them to be. Eliminate facts that are not relevant to the court’s analysis. For example, a business’s street address is probably not relevant to the court’s decision ot the issue ot whether the business that old a detective product Is â€Å"able for the resulting Injuries to the plaintiff. However, suppose a customer who was assaulted as she left Its store Is suing the business. The customer claims that her Injuries were the reasonably foreseeable result of the business’s failure to provide security patrols. If the business Is then perhaps the customer Is right. Instead of Including the street address In the case brief, you may want to simply describe the type of neighborhood in which it Is located. Note: the time of day would be another relevant factor in this case, among others). Procedural History* What court authored the opinion: The united States Supreme Court? The California Court of Appeal? The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals? (Hint: Check under the title of the case: The Court and year of the decision will be given). If a trial c ourt issued the decision, is it based on a trial, or motion for summary judgment, etc.? If an appellate court issued the decision, how did the lower courts decide the case? Issue What is the question presented to the court? Usually, only one issue will be discussed, but sometimes there will be more. What are the parties fighting about, nd what are they asking the court to decide? For example, in the case of the assaulted customer, the issue for a trial court to decide might be whether the business had a duty to the customer to provide security patrols. The answer to the question will help to ultimately determine * This applies to case briefs only, and not exams. use the IRAC method In answering exams: Issue,’Rule/Andlysls/Concluslon. hether the business Is liable for negligently failing to provide security patrols: whether the defendant owed plaintiff a duty of care, and what that duty of care Is, re key Issues in negligence claims. Rule(s): Determine what the relevant rules of law are that the court uses to make its decision. These rules will be identified and discussed by the court. For example, in the case of the assaulted customer, the relevant rule of law is that a property owner’s du ty to prevent harm to invitees is determined by balancing the foreseeability of the harm against the burden of preventive measures. There may be more than one relevant rule of law to a case: for example, in a negligence case in which the defendant argues hat the plaintiff assumed the risk of harm, the relevant rules of law could be the elements of negligence, and the definition of â€Å"assumption of risk† as a defense. Don’t just simply list the cause of action, such as â€Å"negligence† as a rule of law: What rule must the court apply to the facts to determine the outcome? Application/Analysis: This may be the most important portion of the brief. The court will have examined the facts in light of the rule, and probably considered all â€Å"sides† and arguments presented to it. How courts apply the rule to the facts and analyze the case must be nderstood in order to properly predict outcomes in future cases involving the same issue. What does the court consider to be a relevant fact given the rule of law? How does the court interpret the rule: for example, does the court consider monetary costs of providing security patrols in weighing the burden of preventive measures? Does the court imply that if a business is in a dangerous area, then it should be willing to bear a higher cost for security? Resist the temptation to merely repeat what the court said in analyzing the facts: what does it mean to you? Summarize the ourt’s rationale in your own words. If you encounter a word that you do not know, use a dictionary to find its meaning. Conclusion What was the final outcome of the case? In one or two sentences, state the court’s ultimate finding. For example, the business did not owe the assaulted customer a duty to provide security patrols. Note: â€Å"Case briefing† is a skill that you will develop throughout the semester. Practice will help you develop this skill. Periodically, case briefs will be collected for purposes of feedback. At any time, you may submit your case brief(s) for feedback.

You Suck: A Love Story Chapter 1

For my readers, by request ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thanks, again, to the usual suspects: my agent, Nick Ellison, and Sarah Dickman, Arija Weddle, and Marissa Matteo at Nicholas Ellison, Inc.; Jennifer Brehl, Kate Nintzel, Lisa Gallagher, Michael Morrison, Mike Spradlin, Jack Womack, Debbie Stier, Lynn Grady, and all my friends at William Morrow; and, of course, to Charlee Rodgers, for putting up with the frozen turkey bowling. Chapter One Get Over It, a Lot of People Are Dead â€Å"You bitch, you killed me! You suck!† Tommy had just awakened for the first time as a vampire. He was nineteen, thin, and had spent his entire life between states of amazement and confusion. â€Å"I wanted us to be together.† Jody: pale, pretty, long red hair hanging in her face, cute swoop of a nose in search of a lost spray of freckles, a big lipstick-smeared grin. She'd only been undead herself for a couple of months, and was still learning to be spooky. â€Å"Yeah, that's why you spent the night with him.† Tommy pointed across the loft to the life-sized bronze statue of a man in a tattered suit. Inside the bronze shell was the ancient vampire who had turned Jody. Another bronze of Jody stood next to him. When the two of them had gone out at sunrise, into the sleep of the dead, Tommy had taken them to the sculptors who lived on the ground floor of his building and had the vampires bronzed. He'd thought it would give him time to think of what to do, and keep Jody from running off with the old vampire. Tommy's mistake had been drilling ear holes in Jody's sculpture so she could hear him. Somehow, during the night, before the bronzing, the old vampire had taught her to turn to mist, and she'd streamed out of the ear holes into the room, and – well – here they were: dead, in love, and angry. â€Å"I needed to know about what I am, Tommy. Who else was going to tell me if not him?† â€Å"Yeah, but you should have asked me before you did this,† Tommy said. â€Å"You shouldn't just kill a guy without asking. It's inconsiderate.† Tommy was from Indiana, and his mother had raised him to have good manners and to be considerate of other people's feelings. â€Å"You had sex with me while I was unconscious,† Jody said. â€Å"That's not the same,† Tommy said. â€Å"I was just being friendly, like when you put a quarter in someone else's parking meter when they aren't there – you know they appreciate it later, even if they don't thank you personally.† â€Å"Yeah, wait until you go out in your jammies and wake up all sticky in a cheerleader outfit and see how grateful you are. You know, Tommy, when I'm out, technically, I'm dead. Guess what that makes you?† â€Å"Well – uh – yeah, but you're not even human. You're just some foul dead thing.† Tommy immediately regretted saying it. It was hurtful and mean, and although Jody was, indeed, dead, he didn't find her foul at all – in fact, he was pretty sure he was in love with her, he was just a little embarrassed about the whole necrophilia/cheerleader thing. Back in the Midwest people didn't mention that sort of thing unless a dog dug up a pom-pom in some guy's backyard and the police eventually discovered the whole human pyramid buried under the swing set. Jody sniffled, completely for effect. Actually she was relieved that Tommy was now on the defensive. â€Å"Well, welcome to the Foul, Dead Thing Club, Mr. Flood.† â€Å"Yeah, you drank my blood,† Tommy said. â€Å"A lot.† Damn, she should have pretended to cry. â€Å"You let me.† â€Å"Again, being considerate,† Tommy said. He stood up and shrugged. â€Å"You just let me because of the sex.† â€Å"That's not true, it was because you needed me.† He was lying, it was because of the sex. â€Å"Yes, I did,† Jody said. â€Å"I still do.† She held her arms out to him. â€Å"I really do.† He walked into her arms and held her. She felt amazing to him, even more amazing than she had before. It was as if his nerves had been dialed up to eleven. â€Å"Okay, it was because of the sex.† Great, she thought, in control once again. She kissed his neck. â€Å"How do you feel about it now?† â€Å"Maybe in a minute, I'm starving.† He let go of her and stormed across the loft to the kitchen, where he pulled a burrito out of the freezer, threw it into the microwave, and hit the button, all in one smooth motion. â€Å"You don't want to eat that,† Jody said. â€Å"Nonsense, it smells great. It's like every little bean and pork piece is sending out its own delicious miasma of flavor vapor.† Tommy used words like ;miasma; because he wanted to be a writer. That's why he'd come to San Francisco in the first place – to take life in big bites and write about it. Oh, and to find a girlfriend. â€Å"Put the burrito down, and back away, Tommy,† Jody said. â€Å"I don't want you to get hurt.† â€Å"Ha, that's cute.† He took a big bite and grinned at her as he chewed. Five minutes later, because she felt responsible, Jody was helping him clean bits of masticated burrito off the kitchen wall and the front of the refrigerator. â€Å"It's like every bean was storming the gates of repressive digestion to escape.† â€Å"Yeah, well, being refried will do that to you,† Jody said, stroking his hair. â€Å"You okay?† â€Å"I'm starving. I need to eat.† â€Å"Not so much eat,† Jody said. â€Å"Oh my God! It's the hunger. I feel like my insides are caving in on themselves. You should have told me about this.† She knew how he felt – actually, she had felt worse when it happened to her. At least he knew what was happening to him. â€Å"Yeah, sweetie, we're going to have to make a few adjustments.† â€Å"Well, what do I do? What did you do?† â€Å"I mostly fed off of you, remember?† â€Å"You should have thought this through before you killed me. I'm fucked.† â€Å"We're fucked. Together. Like Romeo and Juliet, only we get to be in a sequel. Very literary, Tommy.† â€Å"Oh, that's a comfort. I can't believe you just killed me like that.† â€Å"And turned you into a superbeing, thank you very much.† â€Å"Oh, crap, there's burrito spooge all over my new sneakers.† â€Å"You can see in the dark, now,† Jody said cheerfully. â€Å"Wanna try it? I'll get naked. You can look at me in the dark. Naked. You'll like it.† â€Å"Jody, I'm starving over here.† She couldn't believe that he didn't respond to the naked persuasion. What kind of monster had she created? â€Å"Okay, I'll find you a bug or something.† â€Å"A bug?! A bug!? I'm not eating a bug.† â€Å"I said there'd have to be some adjustments.† Tommy had been dealing with more than a few adjustments since he'd come west from his hometown of Incontinence, Indiana – not the least of which had been finding a girlfriend, who, while smart, sexy, and quick-witted, drank his blood and tended to fall unconscious at the exact moment of sunrise. He'd always suspected that she might have just picked him because he worked nights and could walk around during the day, especially since she'd once said, â€Å"I need someone who works nights and can walk around during the day,† but now that he was a vampire, he could close the door on that insecurity and open another onto a whole new world of insecurities he'd never even considered before. The appropriate age for a vampire is four hundred years old – he should be a world-weary and sophisticated creature, his human anxieties long since overcome or evolved into macabre perversions. The problem with a nineteen-year-old vampire is that he drags all of his adolescent insecur ities into the dark with him. â€Å"I'm really pale,† Tommy said, staring at himself in the bathroom mirror. They'd figured out early on that vampires do, indeed, cast a reflection in a mirror, just like they could tolerate proximity to crucifixes and garlic. (Tommy had run experiments on Jody while she slept, including many involving cheerleader outfits and personal lubricants.) â€Å"And not just winter in Indiana pale. I'm, like, pale like you.† â€Å"Yeah,† said Jody, â€Å"I thought you liked the pale.† â€Å"Sure, it looks good on you, but I look ill.† â€Å"Keep looking,† Jody said. She was leaning against the door frame, dressed in tight black jeans and a half shirt, her hair tied back and streaming down her back like a flaccid red comet tail. She was trying not to appear too amused. â€Å"Something's missing,† Tommy said. â€Å"Something besides color.† â€Å"Uh-huh.† Jody grinned. â€Å"My skin cleared up! I don't have a single zit.† â€Å"Ding, ding, ding,† Jody onomatopeed, signaling that Tommy had hit on the correct answer. â€Å"If I had known my skin would clear up, I'd have asked you to change me a long time ago.† â€Å"I didn't know how to a long time ago,† Jody said. â€Å"That's not all, take off your shoes.† â€Å"I don't understand, I – â€Å" â€Å"Just take off your shoes.; Tommy sat on the edge of the tub and took off his sneakers and socks. â€Å"What?† â€Å"Look at your toes.† â€Å"They're straight. My little toe isn't bent anymore. It's like I've never worn shoes.† â€Å"You're perfect,† Jody said. She remembered finding out this condition of vampirism and being both delighted and horrified because now she felt that she'd always need to lose five pounds – five pounds that were preserved for eternity. Tommy pulled up the leg of his jeans and studied his shin. â€Å"The scar where I hit myself with a hatchet, it's gone.† â€Å"And it always will be,† Jody said. â€Å"You'll always be perfect, just like you are now. My split ends even went away.† â€Å"I'll always be the same?† â€Å"Yes.† â€Å"Just like I am now.† â€Å"As far as I know,† Jody said. â€Å"But I was going to start working out. I was going to be buff. I was going to have abs of steel.† â€Å"No, you weren't.† â€Å"I was. I was going to be an awesome hunk of muscular man-meat.† â€Å"No, you weren't. You wanted to be a writer. You were going to have little stick arms and get winded when you hit the back-space key more than three times consecutively. You're in great shape from working in the grocery store. Wait until you see how you can run.† â€Å"You really think I'm in great shape?† â€Å"Yes, I thought I made that clear.† Tommy flexed his chest in the mirror, which showed not at all through his flannel shirt. He unbuttoned his shirt and tried it again, with little effect, then shrugged. â€Å"What about the writer thing? Will my brain always be like this? I mean, will I get any smarter, or is that stuck in time, too?† â€Å"Well, yeah, but that's because you're a man, not because you're a vampire.† â€Å"You spiteful harpy.† â€Å"I think I've made my point,† Jody said. Jody had put on a red leather jacket, even though she could no longer feel discomfort from the cold fog coming in off the Bay. She liked the way it looked with her black jeans and a low-cut black lace camisole she'd rescued from a Nordstrom Rack Store before some slut got hold of it. â€Å"Come on, Tommy, we need to go find something for you to eat before we run out of night.† â€Å"I know, but I have something I have to do. Give me a minute.† He was in the bathroom again, this time with the door shut. Jody heard the zipper of his jeans go down, then a slightly breathless man-scream. The bathroom door flew open and Tommy, his pants and underwear around his ankles, bunny-hopped in two great leaps across the bedroom. â€Å"Look at this. What's happening to me. Look at this!† He was pointing furiously to his penis. â€Å"It's like I'm some radioactive mutant freak.† Jody went to him and grabbed his hands – held him steady, looked him in the eyes. â€Å"Tommy, calm down. It's just your foreskin.† â€Å"I don't have a foreskin. I'm circumcised.† â€Å"Not anymore,† Jody said. â€Å"Evidently, when you turned, it grew back, just like your toes straightened and your scars all went away.† â€Å"Oh. You don't find it creepy, then?† â€Å"No. It's fine.† â€Å"You want to touch it?† â€Å"Thanks. Maybe later.† â€Å"Oh, sorry, I freaked. Didn't realize. I – uh – I still feel like I have to finish what I was going to do.† â€Å"That's fine,† Jody said. â€Å"You're fine. You go finish up. I'll wait.† â€Å"You're sure you don't want to give it a quick fondle?† â€Å"If I do, can we get out of here?† â€Å"Probably not.† â€Å"Well then, back in the bathroom you go.† She spun him around and gave him a gentle shove. He bunny-hopped his newly recovered foreskin back into the bathroom and closed the door. Jody shuddered at the sound of the door closing. She hadn't thought about whether or not Tommy would retain his incessant horniness after he turned, she had just wanted a companion who could understand what she was, what she felt, what the world looked like through vampire eyes. If it turned out that he was going to be nineteen forever, she might end up having to kill him for real.

Introduction to Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Introduction to Leadership - Essay Example I realize much of this course, as well as the text book ( Northouse 2014) suggest that leadership is a phenomenon that resides in the context of the interactions between leaders and followers and makes leadership available to everyone (Northouse , 2014 p.8), but from my personal experiences, especially in a work context, trait theory appears to be the biggest contributor. Despite this it is obvious that one can only be a leader if there are those to be led, those who will interact with him and who share common aims, whether this is something as simple as making a profit , or , on a much grander scale, to improve the living standards of a whole population by acting as its government, or even to have some more negative aim such as the eradication of another people group as happened in Germany in the mid 20th century.   So leadership happens in many different areas of life – in business , in politics, in health care, in families   and in military life , to give just some of m any possible examples. A good leader must, by definition, be able to communicate his ideas to others, but there should also be two way communication , in that he listens to others , gets feedback for instance as to how a project is proceeding, or takes account of suggestions. My goal for my immediate future is not actually to become a leader, but more to understand the concept of leadership and how it can be done at its most effective. I have worked with those I considered to be good and successful leaders, as well as incompetent and ineffective ones.

Compare and contrast two opposite cases where Web 2.0 tools have been Essay

Compare and contrast two opposite cases where Web 2.0 tools have been used to build an identity and encourage participation, and explain why you think one was successful and the other wasnt - Essay Example What is common in both the viewpoints is the idea that the new developments in information and communication technologies certainly change the way we interact, civic engagement and community creation. The participation has the ability and potential to make the difference. The awareness about the possibilities of participation is a defining feature of the present democratic societies. â€Å"The crisis of political participation† is the product of the dilemmas of this awareness on participation (Bryan, Tsagarousianou and Tambini, 1998, p. 3). However, more electronic democracy could only be achieved through universal availability of internet and open discourses on internet. According to Bryan, Tsagarousianou and Tambini (1998), although access to information network is a public right, the cost and private ownership of such infrastructure and technologies lead to a tension between both. Bughin, Chui, and Johnson have asserted that â€Å"companies will need a combination of incentives of encourage customer participation† (2008, p.28). In the case study of Coloplast’s web supported community of health care practitioners, it has been found that â€Å"web communities in the professional market build on preexisting communities, enabling community members to intensify the activities of the community to expand its reach† (Andersen, 2005, p. 49). It could be seen as an example of identity building and community creation. In the content analysis of the sites and blogs for the 10 Democratic candidates in the 2004 US presidential election, it has been revealed that â€Å"candidates promoted interactivity online through technical means such as enabling asynchronous feedback in blog comments as well as fostering an environment of participation through textual appeals and strategy† (Trammel, 2006, p.42). Here, there in no actual participation, just networking for the purpose of vote

Blackhole Exploit Kit Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Blackhole Exploit Kit - Research Paper Example It can deliver various malware depending on the operating system and geographical location of the victim or depend on the time of day or other criteria that the attacker has identified (Howard, 2012). Often, a user would visit a compromised though legitimate website that had been outfitted with an external or iframe reference that point to the Blackhole exploit site. Because of this invisible call, malware and exploits would be delivered silently while the user is browsing on a legitimate but compromised website. The victim would not be redirected forcibly as there would be no external sign and the user is likely to remain on the legitimate website and it is likely that he or she would be unaware that malware is loading in the background (International Business, 2012). In order to have a better understanding of this topic, this paper will discuss in more details what Blackhole exploit kits are and how they work. In recent times, the Blackhole exploit kit has gained wide adoption and it is one of the most common exploit frameworks that are used for delivery of web-based malware (Ouchn, 2012). This type of crimeware Web application was developed by a Russian hacker known as HodLum to take advantage of exploits that are unpatched to hack computers through malicious scripts that are planted on legitimate but compromised websites. The first Blackhole exploit kit appeared in the market in August 2010 (Howard, 2012). Since then, there have been newer releases, as well as a free version of the kit. The Blackhole exploit kits are based on a MySQL and PHP backend and incorporate support for exploiting the most vulnerable and widely used security flaws with the purpose of providing hackers with the highest successful exploitation probability (Rajaraman, 2011). Typically, these kits target the Windows operating system version, as well as applications that have been installed on Windows platform. The most famous Blackhole exploit kit attack was in April 2011 that targeted t he website of the United States Postal service’s Rapid Information Bulletin Board System (RIBBS) (Wisniewski, 2012). There are various versions of the Blackhole exploit kit including v1.2.2, which was released in February of the year 2012, and it is the most recent version and v1.0.0 version, which was released in late 2010 and was the first version (Ouchn, 2012). The Blackhole exploit kit is made up of various PHP scripts series that are designed to run on a website or a web server. These scripts are protected using the commercial ionCube encoder presumably to prevent other miscreants against stealing their code and therefore hindering analysis (International Business, 2012). The Blackhole exploit kit has general characteristics that enable them to deliver exploits through compromised websites. These characteristics include configuration options for the usual parameters such as redirect URLs, file paths, query string parameters, passwords, and usernames.

Horror dark fiction essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Horror dark fiction - Essay Example But Stephen King as well as Lovecraft use many times the dangerous character that cannot be described it’s something that even author cannot tell, but this fact frighten a reader even stronger. All people have fear of something unknown and strange and this fear can be considered to be the main acting part of such type of fiction. Fear of something unknown is stronger than of people or animals. Desperate position with unknown creatures or things can produce more effect on the reader than the equal situation with people or animals. But some authors are used to use people like a characters and in the work of Lovecraft â€Å"The Colour out of space† we can see something indescribable. Some creature or even substance that came from the space. One cannot identify for what reason it came and what it will do, but the effect on the people was terrible, as well as on the land. â€Å"  It must, I thought as I viewed it, be the outcome of a fire; but why had nothing new ever grown over these five acres of grey desolation that sprawled open to the sky like a great spot eaten by acid in the woods and fields† (Lovecraft). People became mad of something that was like an as teroid and animals began to do some strange things. â€Å"It was a little before this that the horses had stampeded. Something had aroused them in the night, and their neighing and kicking in their stalls had been terrible. There seemed virtually nothing to do to calm them, and when Nahum opened the stable door they all bolted out like frightened woodland deer. (Lovecraft)† There was one description of something that landed and it was some object that was constantly warm and has the colour that one cannot describe. Some people called it â€Å"Color of the space† (Lovecraft) â€Å"They had uncovered what seemed to be the side of a large coloured globule embedded in the substance. The colour, which resembled some of the bands in the meteors strange spectrum, was almost impossible to describe; and it

HOW USEFUL IS A HUMAM RIGHTS DISCOURSE TO THE STUDY OF GENDER AND Essay

HOW USEFUL IS A HUMAM RIGHTS DISCOURSE TO THE STUDY OF GENDER AND CRIMEDRAW ON EXAMPLES TO SUPPORT YOUR AGUMENT - Essay Example person is always seen to be more aggressive than his female counterpart (Bess, 2005), and thus according to a stereotyped mindset, it is very natural to associate violent crimes exclusively with male criminals. Criminologists from times immemorial have been dealing the issue of crimes without keeping the gender perspective in focus. There is no doubt that there have always been women who committed crimes, but no importance was relegated to them, marking them as just as an aberration. The general feeling was what Wootton more than 50 years earlier, had expressed, â€Å"If men behaved like women, the courts would be idle and the prisons empty† (1959, 32). However, in modern times, specially starting from the 1990s, perspectives have changed and many recent studies pertaining to crime have been made, keeping the gender differences in mind. More than thirty years ago Carol Smart had published her book Women, Crime and Criminology, where she had mentioned that criminology is Ã¢â‚¬Ë œgender blind’, and therefore as a subject, the study of criminology remained incomplete and unconsummated (Smart, 1976). In fact, before the second wave of feminism came in around 1960, the argument put forward by the poststructuralists that the sociology study till then had been predisposed to generalise the male forbearance, is correct to some extent. A look at the past legal records will reveal that the number of women who came to the court as a defendant, or a witness, or an overseer, is surprisingly ambiguous (Beattie, 1974-5), the exception being for cases that were looked upon as typical feminine ones. Such a mindset arose mainly from the cultural and social stereotypes that were prevalent during the nineteenth, and a greater part of the twentieth century, which led to the court records being interpreted and maintained according to these pre conceived assumptions. This article will take a look at this topic of the deviances in gender crimes and their varying patterns, and will explore

Establish the topic from the paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Establish the topic from the paper - Essay Example In the second treatise Locke presented his ideas of the nature, function, authority and origin of government, as well as the roles of its various branches. Locke began the second treatise with his analysis of the (then popular) concept of the ‘State of Nature’. The ‘State of Nature’ is the natural state of being of mankind. In this natural state the government is either non-existent or highly ineffective. Locke maintained that in the state of nature men are, â€Å"perfectly free to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and themselves, in any way they like, without asking anyone’s permission—subject only to limits set by the law of nature† (2nd Treatise, 4). Since in the state of nature men’s actions are limited by the â€Å"law of nature†, hence, even though it is a state of ‘liberty’ it is not a state of ‘license’. No one is allowed to harm the â€Å"life, health, liberty, or poss essions† of another (2nd Treatise, 6). The law of nature is nothing but reason, which aims at the preservation of mankind. It creates obligations for everyone alike (everyone who consults it, is aware of this fact). The state of nature is also a state of equality, in which all have equal authority and power. A person who abides by the ‘law of nature’ can harm another person only if that person has broken the law of nature by committing a grave offence. Even so, the punishment meted out to the offender must not be extreme or irrational, but must aim only at â€Å"reparation and restraint† (2nd Treatise, 8). Therefore, everyone in the state of nature has the right to use force to protect his life, liberty and possessions. However, since everyone in the state of nature is equal, there are no means for resolving conflicts. Also, a number of people either do not strictly follow, or misapply the law of nature. This is why the state of nature is a dangerous state, wherein the life, liberty and possessions of individuals are in constant peril. Therefore, it is only natural that people living in such a state come together to constitute a political body, namely the government. The members of a society enter an agreement whereby they cede power and authority to a political entity, whose functions it is to ensure the protection of their life, liberty and possessions (Locke gives these assets the general name of Property). This agreement is known as a Social Contract (a device used frequently by philosophers). Locke wrote, â€Å"I take political power to be a right to make laws—with the death penalty and consequently all lesser penalties—for regulating and preserving property, and to employ the force of the community in enforcing such laws and defending the commonwealth from external attack; all this being only for the public good† (2nd Treatise, 3). This statement illustrates clearly what Locke saw as the role of government. Notice, however, that all the actions of the government are to confirm to a regard for the public good. The Social Contract only justifies the authority of a government that acts in the best interest of its subjects. Moreover, the government cannot usurp the property of a subject (unless the subject himself breaks the Social Contract). The right to property not only existed prior to the formation of the government, but it was also its sole purpose. Therefore, the subjects have the right to rebel if the government does not honor the Social Contract, and damages their property. Locke’

Binge drinking Essay Example for Free

Binge drinking Essay ?Binge drinking, especially among the youth, has been on the rise in Singapore. explore some of the reasons why youths resort to binge drinking and the consequences. What is binge drinking? This happens when someone drinks excessive amounts of alcohol. To drink alcohol socially is one thing, For instance, at parties and at gatherings. Conversely, when alcohol is heavily consumed over a short period of time, also commonly known as, binge drinking, it brings about undesirable health effects to the body. Binge drinking has been discovered to be more common among youths aged 18 – 29 years old in Singapore. Statistics show that 18. 7% of them have been found to be men and 12. 2% of them women (â€Å"Binge drinking among†, 2013). Peer pressure, affluence and stress are some reasons why youths engage in binge drinking. It is crucial to explore reasons why youths revel in binge drinking despite its obvious dangers. Binge drinking can be described as excessive drinking which can be hazardous to one’s health. This essay will discuss the reasons why youths enjoy binge drinking and its destructive consequences. Peer pressure is one of the essential drivers of binge drinking. Teenagers are often influenced when they see their friends drinking while some simply do not want to feel left out at parties and gatherings (Dowshen, 2013). Who would really want to stand out from the rest of their friends? It is normal and common for teenagers to want to fit in. Many a times, teenagers find it difficult to resist their friends’ invitations and hence, end up indulging in binge drinking with their friends. This is to a great extent common among teenagers with friends who consistently drink. Affluence is another cause of binge drinking. It is often stereotyped that youths of low-income families are more likely to resort to drinking and substance abuse due to financial and emotional problems. However, findings have proven otherwise. Youths from affluent families are highly inclined to engage themselves in binge drinking due to the pressure that is placed on them by their parents to excel well in school and all other areas (Luthar, 2014). Apart from that, with the accessibility to easy money, loads of free time and lack of parental supervision, affluent youths result to binge drinking because of the carefree and luxurious lifestyle they live in (White, 2007). Stress is a popular reason why teenagers resort to binge drinking. Teenagers are often stressed out with school. Case in point, when they are loaded with huge amounts of homework and given almost no time to finish them. They view alcohol as a way to get themselves ‘high’ and relieve their stress (Cyhlarova, 2010). This frequently brings about binge drinking. Apart from the stress they get from school, teenagers can also be stressed due to relationship issues. They heavily depend on alcohol to dispose of their worries and stress. Binge drinking can result in both long term and short term health effects. Some long term effects are liver disease and kidney damage. Alcohol poisoning is one of the most deadly short term effects of binge drinking (Burke, 2012). At the point, when an individual consumes alcohol excessively, their pharyngeal reflex and breathing gets affected. The pharyngeal reflex is known to help to prevent one from choking. Therefore, if the reflex does not function well, one might die of choking on their own vomit. In conclusion, parents play an enormous role in being a good role model to their children. They are responsible for educating their children from young on the impacts of binge drinking and why they should not engage in it. In addition, parents can be vigilant and keep an eye over their children. For example, keeping track of their daily activities and the people they hang out with. Research has shown that when parents go the extra mile and put in effort to be more involved in the lives of their children, it reduces the likelihood of their children drinking. Teenagers can also play their own part in protecting themselves from falling into the trap of binge drinking. They can do so by wisely choosing their circle of friends. They should avoid having friendship ties with friends who consistently pressure them to drink along with them and instead make good friends with those who lead them in the right path. Binge drinking is a behaviour that comes with a heavy price to pay. However, with the right prevention measures put in place, teenagers can stay safe, away from this deadly habit. (620 Words) References Binge drinking among young adults remains a concern, say doctors. (2013). Retrieved from http://news. xin. msn. com/en/singapore/binge-drinking-among-young-adults-remains-a-concern-say-doctors-1 Burke, D. (2012). Alcohol overdose. Retrieved from http://www. healthline. com/health/acoholism/overdose#Overview1 Chavez, N. (2004). Preventing adolescent binge drinking. Retrieved from http://www. youthbingedrinking. org/you/parents. php Cyhlarova, E. (2010). Alcohol: a cure for stress? Retrieved from https://www. drinkaware. co. uk/check-the-facts/health-effects-of-alcohol/mental-health/alcohol-a-cure-for-stress#adverse Dowshen, S. (2013). Binge drinking. Retrieved from http://teenshealth. org/teen/drug_alcohol/alcohol/binge_drink. html# Luthar, S. (2014). The problem with rich kids. Retrieved from http://www. psychologytoday. com/articles/201310/the-problem-rich-kids Wilkins, E. (2008). Teens, alcohol and binge drinking: why kids are drinking hard alcohol at a younger age. Retrieved from http://www. empoweringparents. com/Teens-Alcohol-and-Binge-Drinking. php# White, P. (2007). The dare side of wealth: risks associated with growing up in an affluent family. Retrieved from http://www. drpaulwhite. com/the-dark-side-of-wealth-risks-associated-with-growing-up-in-an-affluent-family-%E2%80%93-risk-1-drug-alcohol-abuse/.

A strategic analysis of jetblue airways

A strategic analysis of jetblue airways The US airline industry trends have caused airline companies, including Jet Blue to struggle for survival. Retirement has caused a shortage of pilots and instructors. Flying schools experience less instructors and hours needed to train new pilots. In 2008, crude oil prices increased to a record $140 per barrel (Thompson, Strickland, Gamble, 2010). Increased prices of fuel allowed the airlines to charge passenger fees for fuel surcharges, baggage fees, and beverage and snack fees. Airlines continue to charge fees with increasing fuel prices to generate an airline strategy. After 9/11, Congress passed the Aviation and Transportation Security Act (PDF), by issuing this Act; federal employees were tasked to handle all airport security. Increased screening for baggage and passengers, size limits on fluids and x-ray inspections. With the additional security measures, came financial burdens to the airline industry. Jet Blues strategic intent When Jet Blues was founded, David Nelleman wanted air travel to compassionate and fun. The strategic intent was to offer customers a low discount airline carrier with the comforts of home. As the first airline to offer electronic ticketing, Jet Blue wanted to delay its flights instead of canceling them. Agents were allowed to work from home and customers enjoyed gourmet snacks, coffees, in-seat televisions with satellite radio and movie channels. Jet Blue began to look into increasing the shareholder and customer values with the expansion of New Yorks JFK Airport with 8 am and 9 am flights. This was hopeful to Jet Blue executives; they wanted to appeal to younger customers, affluent New Yorkers, and those traveling to New York City. Opening up this new terminal has saved $50 million in labor, fuel, and vouchers. Now, the company serves more than 53 destinations (Thompson et al., 2010). JetBlues financial objectives success in achieving Although Jet Blues stock dropped by 50% in the five years, revenues grew 185% between 2003 and 2007, their operating expenses grew 222% during the same period. The loss in revenue was blamed on the cost of fuel (532% increase) and interest expense (658% increase). Jet Blue decided to take a conservative financial strategy in which they maintained high liquid ratios relative to the other major airlines (Thompson et al., 2010). Jet Blue was millions behind the competitor but developed new equity capital and credit, which was needed to keep the company, and allow them to maintain strong liquidity. Assessment of competitive advantage Cost. JetBlue operates at a lower cost than its competitors. According to Thompson, Strickland Gamble (2010), JetBlues total operating expenses were 12.17 per revenue passenger mile in 2008 versus $18.18 for American Airline, $18.18 for Continental, $20.95 for Delta, $13.85 for Southwest, $19.13 for United, and $21.45 for US Airways. Its planes, such as, the Airbus A320, tended to be newer than those of its competitors resulting in lower maintenance costs and no maintenance-related fines. The company increased flying time by minimizing turnaround time. Reservation agents worked at home resulting in cost savings as compared to a traditional call center. These measures paid off creating a major competitive advantages in the form of low operating costs that other airlines did not achieve. Organizational culture. JetBlues organizational structure was created based on five steps. First, the companys values were determined. Then, hiring managers selected employees who mirrored the companys values. Next, the company ensured that the company exceeded employee expectations and to listen to customers. And, finally, the company created a plan to drive excellence. The values established by JetBlue were safety, caring, integrity, fun, and passion. As an example, George Forman grills were set up at the JFK terminal to allow employees to have fun. By only hiring employees that mirrored those values, the company could encourage hiring managers to be creative during the hiring process and to weed out those that would not be a fit. By making these steps an active part of getting work done, JetBlue developed a strong organizational culture. Human resource practices. JetBlue is a company with a strong focus on people. In anticipation of airplane pilot shortages they implemented Aviation University Gateway, partnered with universities to identify exceptional candidates, and implemented internship programs. They addressed a lack of confidence in JetBlues leadership by providing leadership development training. They developed an airline training center at the Orlando International Airport. To make up for paying employees a lower base salary than its competitors, they offered health coverage, profit sharing, and 401k retirement plans. They also avoided layoffs through voluntary packages and attrition. This focus on meeting the needs of its employees, growing talent, and creating a talent pool was essential competitive benefits that were very difficult to imitate. JetBlues strategies for 2008 beyond and likelihood of success. In 2008, JetBlue adapted new strategies to re-evaluate the way its assets were used, reduce capacity, cut costs, raise fares, grow in select markets, offer services for business travel, form strategic partnerships, and increase ancillary revenues. JetBlue formed an alliance with Lufthansa to enable the company to use their terminals at JFK and signed a contract with Continental to provide LiveTV (Thompson et al., 2010). JetBlue reduced their capacity by selling nine aircrafts and reduced costs by delaying the delivery of 21 new aircrafts (Thompson et al., 2010). They reduced aircraft utilization rates, suspended service in some cities, and cancelled plan service in order to cut costs. After choosing Orlando to become a target market, they then raised prices but to lower fares than competitors. Furthermore, they provided incentives to corporate travelers, entered into agreements with Expedia for leisure travelers and Travelocity for business customers, and with Aer Lingus to expand t heir reach internationally. To generate revenue, JetBlue created new fees, including a fee for a second bag and for select seats. Even with these strategies, the airlines financial performance shows that they are falling short of expectations during the first six months of 2008 (Thompson et al., 2010). However, 2009 was a successful year for JetBlue. The company was one of only a few to report four consecutive quarters of profitability in this year (JetBlue, 2010). A net income of $58 million was generated with an operating margin of 8.5% which was an improvement of more than $140 million compared to 2008. They continued to have one of the strongest liquidity positions in the U.S. airline industry relative to our revenues. In addition, JetBlue generated positive free cash flow for the first time in its history. According to JetBlues 2009 annual report, these results demonstrated the benefits of JetBlues disciplined growth strategy, its focus on managing capital expenditures, rationalizing capacity, maximizing revenue, and controlling costs. Given that the company is prosperous in challenging times, it is likely that the companys sound strategies and cash-rich positions will give the company longevity over the long term. Conclusions The purpose of this report was to examine JetBlues business strategy. Trends in the U.S. airline industry impacting crude oil prices, pilot shortages, and 9/11 aviation security measures. Overall, these trends, combined with a weak economy, caused airlines to struggle to survive. JetBlue has survived by a focus on bringing humanity back to air travel at low fares. They focused on providing value, customer service, and unique extras for customers. Employees benefit from training and a strong organizational culture. The business benefited from measures to cut costs and form lucrative partnerships. Presently, the financial reports of JetBlue showed that the company was outperforming its competitors in a recession making the company highly likely to be successful over the long term.

House Of The Seven Gables :: essays research papers

How does an author’s personal history or cultural background influence what he or she writes about? Are history and literature related? I believe that many authors a very influenced by their own background and the subjects they write about. Authors write about what is familiar. Authors write about something that they feel strongly about or love. I also feel that history and literature are closely related. Many great novels of this world have their basis in stories of the past, true stories taken from history. For one thing, authors usually write about what they already know about or what they see, or what they experience in life. They often write about the history of their family, town, or whatever place they live in. Books where the author understands his subject and feels comfortable and passionate about it are the most interesting. When an author’s writing has been influenced by his or her personal history and cultural background, the writer understands it. It’s also much easier for an author to write about something having to do with their personal history or cultural background. If we are familiar with a subject it is much easier to convince our reader of the ‘experience’ or ‘story’ that is being written about. Although Nathaniel Hawthorne’s allegory, The House of Seven Gables, was not entirely true, the incomparable part of it had to do with his personal history and his cultural background. His relation to the house was from his cousin Phoebe and the ideas about the witch trials were because he was living in the very time they were taking place. Therefore, I do think that the personal history and cultural background affect what the author writes about whether the book be fiction or non-fiction, but most of the time, non-fiction. An example of an author I can come up with where I strongly think their personal history and cultural background significantly influence what she writes about is Amy Tan. I have read two of her novels, The Joyluck Club and The Kitchen God’s Wife. She wrote about Chinese Americans living in San Francisco. A subject she knows much about and has lived through. Her books are so fascinating because she knows her subject well. They are novels yes, but we can trust that in many ways this is what a Chinese mother living in San Francisco may have behaved like or said. History and literature are also linked by way of story.

The Effect of Cohabitation on Marriage Essay -- Compare Contrast Essay

Abstract The Effect of Cohabitation on Marriage Several published studies look at the increase in premarital cohabitation and the effect of premarital cohabitation on the traditional marriage relationship from the 1960s to present. Issues considered are marital satisfaction, marital stability, marital communication, and incidents of divorce within each group. Contrary to common perceptions, studies on couples who cohabitated prior to marrying indicate marriages that are less satisfactory, less stable, report poorer communication and higher incidents of divorce when compared to couples who did not cohabitate prior to marriage. Factors that attempt to explain these results are explored. The Effect of Cohabitation on Marriage Finding a compatible partner and getting married is the dream for the majority of people in America. Statistics show that approximately 95% of all people will be married at some point in their lives (Cherlin, 2002). However, marriage is coming to be considered more of a short-term and an economic arrangement by many and less of a life-time commitment (Risch, Riley & Lawler, 2003; Seltzer, 2000). It is true that divorce is becoming less stigmatized and is a more frequent event with a current divorce rate of approximately 40% for first marriages (Risch, Riley & Lawler, 2003). It is also true that cohabitation is becoming a more common and accepted way to live. It is estimated that between 50% and 60% of all people will live together before marrying (Cherlin, 2002, Seltzer, 2000; Teachman, 2003). Cohabitation is defined as the sharing of a household by unmarried persons who have a sexual relationship (Cherlin, 2002). Many couples make the decision to cohabitate in order to see if they are compatible and ... ...: Quality or commitment? Journal of Marriage and the Family, 54: 159-267. Treas, J. & Giesen, D. (2000). Sexual infidelity among married and cohabiting Americans. Journal of Marriage & the Family, Vol. 62, 48-60. U.S. Bureau of the Census. (2000). Statistical abstract of the United States: 2000. Washington, CD: U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved on March 14, 2004, from http://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/p20-537.pdf Watson, R. E. L. (1983). Premarital cohabitation vs. traditional courtship: Their effects on subsequent marital adjustment. Family Relations. 32, 139-147. Wineberg, H. (1994). Marital reconciliation in the United States: Which couples are successful? Journal of Marriage & the Family, Vol. 56, 80-88. Wu, Z. (1999). Premarital cohabitation and the timing of first marriage. Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, 36, 109-127.

Comedy Newspaper Aricle about Smoking -- Spoof Joke Anti Smoking

A Smoking Spoof The Daily Smoker Funded by the Institute for Smoking and Hacking and by the makers of FLEM: "Stay happy while we get rid of the nasty." The Smoker's Perspective Nicotine: The Supreme Drug for Supreme Health Staff Writer: Jo "The Butthead" Khamel For many years, anti-smoking groups, such as the American Cancer Association, and government agencies, like the Food and Drug Administration, have confused and mislead the public by incorrectly concluding that smoking is bad and unhealthy. Nonsense! In fact, there are several articles that would support nicotine as a drug that promotes perfect health. For instance, and article by Doug Levy of the USA Today discusses nicotine's power of promoting alertness. Nicotine speeds up the communication between brain cells and stimulates areas of the brain tied to alertness and memory. Mr. Levy also writes about nicotine's relationship toward Parkinson's disease. Levy also writes that cigarette smoking can lower the risk of Parkinson's disease. Researchers claim that something in smoke lowers the levels of an enzyme known as MAO B. Smokers have about 40% less MAO B than nonsmokers or ex-smokers, according to Joanna Fowler of the Brookhaven National Lab in Upton, NY. Because reduced levels of MAO B result in greater amounts of dopamine, smokers may have a lower risk of Parkinson's, a nerve disease aggravated by dopamine shortages. In another article by the Associated Press in the USA Today, researchers suggested that cigarette smoking sharpens short-term learning and memory among young people. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, tested young smokers and nonsmokers at a word game that required rapid memory and quick recall. The 12 electrodes attac... ...JR Renolds, Inc., and The Council for Smoking and Hacking Research. References Begley, S. "Memories Are Made of...." Newsweek. November 4, 2007. 68. Associated Press. "Research suggests smoking sharpens thinking." USA Today. November 19, 2007. Levy, D. "Nicotine's power on brain tied to smoker's alertness." USA Today, August 8, 2007. ......"Smoking, lower Parkinson's risk linked." USA Today. August 8, 2007. Disclaimer: The odd names (FLEM, Flip Moris, JR Renolds, Institute for Smoking and Hacking) are not real in any form. For certain purposes, those odd names are meant to be comical and should not be affiliated with actual tobacco institutions and companies. However, the cited references in the essay are reported facts found in newspapers and magazine articles. Jo "The Butthead" Khamel is not a real person. If it is, then the use was unintentional.

Foundation Degree in Accounting and Finance Essay

Introduction There is a radical change after the privatisation of Atlantic Water. The change not only affects the organisation’s objectives and strategic planning, but also its structure and culture. B Burnes (1996: 115) cited writers such as Handy (1986), Allaire and Firsirotu (1984) argued the issue as follow: ‘†¦to operate effectively and efficiently, an organisation’s culture need to match or be appropriate to its structure. Given that an organisation’s environment can change rapidly, as can its structure, situations will arise in the environment, structure and practices of the organisation.’ Observing organisational behaviour is not enough, we need to understand the meaning of the behaviour, and therefore, it is important to identify the culture and structure of an organisation, to enable management to react quickly for any external or internal change. 1. Defining Culture It is difficult to define culture, usually it is defined as ‘how things are done around here’ or ‘this is how we are’. Culture within an organisation is influence by the personality of an individual, pattern of communication, work performance, behaviour of management and subordinate as a role. Schein (1983) defines organisational culture as: ‘†¦ the pattern of basic assumptions that a given group has invented, discovered or developed in learning to cope with its problems of external adaption and internal integration and that have work well enough to be considered valid, and, therefore , to be taught to new member as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems.’ Schein views culture as not being over behaviour or values, but the assumptions that underlie them. Here are the views based on three level of culture: * Level 1: The visible artefacts and creations, which are easy to observe, but do not explain why a group behaves the way it does. * Level 2: The values which can be inferred from interview, but which manifest the espoused reason for behaviour, not the underlying unconscious reason. * Level 3: The underlying assumptions which are typically unconscious, but which actually determine hoe people perceive, think and feel. The meaning of Organisational Culture was also defined in Oxford Dictionary of Business (2003) as follow: ‘Organizational Culture: The values, customs, rituals, and norms shared by all the members of an organization, which have to be learnt and accepted by new members of the organization.’ Culture impacts most aspect of organisational life, such as how decision are made, who makes them, how rewards are distributed, who is promoted, how people are treated, how the organisation responds to its environment etc. This particular set of values, beliefs, customs and systems are unique to the organisation. 1.1 Organisation culture R Harrison suggested that there are four main types of organisation culture. They are the following: Power Culture is where the authority and control within the organisation are centralised. The control is passing from the central to key individuals. The power of members is based on control over resources and personal influence with the centre. Role Culture is where work within and between departments is controlled by procedures, role descriptions and authority definitions. Job position is central to this, not necessarily the job holder as a person. People are appointed to a role based on their ability to carry out the functions and to satisfy performance of the role. R Harrison (1972: 119-128) cited Role Culture as follow: ‘Role culture often referred to as a bureaucracy, it works by logic and rationality.’ Task Culture is job or project oriented and the main purpose is to complete the task or project. This might involve getting the right people to work as a team, giving them decision making power to complete the task. Person Culture is when the individual is focus on. This includes their personality and personal feeling etc. For example if a group of people decided to do their own thing and other members of staff help, this is a person culture. It only existed for the people concerned. Many organisations have a mixture of the above culture, it is important to understand the concept of each of the above culture and to establish an appropriate structure. 1.2 Culture of the old Water Authority The old Water Authority had a complex grading framework, narrow spans of control and more level of authority, this resulted in a high hierarchical structure, and this indicated that the organisation had a strong power culture. It was mentioned in the case study that the old Water Authority called their managers ‘officers’ and administered the organisation and ran almost along a military line, where the authority and control were centralised. The employees were job oriented where they can only carry out the job they were originally employed for, there was no need to re-organise their position, where they just followed the day to day procedures. Management saw their jobs as minimising external interference rather then seeking for some change to improve the performance of the employees. Employees in the old Water Authority had a certain level of job security where they could work extra hours where needed, which would give them an extra income. Due to the high hierarchical structure of the organisation, there would be a difficulty for employees’ career progression, this affected those who are seeking for career improvement and lower their motivation and morale within the organisation. Management did not offer new training skills nor did subordinates look for self improvement. From these evidents the old Water Authority had a mixture of the all the culture which R Harrison suggested. 1.3 Culture of new Atlantic Water Plc In the new Atlantic Water Plc, they re-structured their grading framework, the spans of control reduced the level of hierarchical structure and the result of this, employees had more opportunities to progress within the organisation. The organisation also decided to empower their managers to take more responsibility, the decentralization enabled decisions to be made closer to the operation level of work. In the result of job cuts after privatisation, Atlantic Water offers their employees a chance to gain qualifications and ensured they are cross-skilled. Not only the employees offered to gain new skill, managers are also sent on a training course, where they will have a clearer focus on the organisation’s objective and to create a new relationship within the organisation. Since Atlantic Water had a large number of jobs cuts, employees suffered from the job insecurity after the privatisation. Although the organisation encouraged them to gain new skills, the main reason will probably be for them to keep their job rather than looking for self improvement. On the other hand, the organisation introduced a new salary structure leaving many employees worse off financially. Since the employees are not gaining any benefits financially and suffering from job insecurity, this impacts the employees’ morale and their commitment to the organisation. 1.4 Comparison of the old Water Authority and Atlantic Water The old culture of Water Authority was inappropriate to their competitive needs. Atlantic Water changed the culture by shaping the value, beliefs and attitudes of their employees. They started by changing the recruitment, selection and redundancy policies. Managers were recruited from private sector, this effected the composition of the workforce so that promotion and employment prospects are dependent on those concerned possessing or displaying the beliefs and value the organisation wishes to promote. The introduction of the flatter hierarchical structure and decentralisation is an advantage of a private company. The managers can work closely with the working operational level and it will reduce the time it takes to make decision. This also demands a greater involvement of the staff and creates opportunities for employees developing their career. The encouragement of staff training is vitally important to the change of an organisation, this will not only benefit the organisation’s productivity, but will also improve the level of employees’ morality and to make them understand their value to the organisation. 2. Defining Structure P Drucker (1974: 52) defined structure as follow: ‘Structure is a means for attaining the objectives and goals of an organization.’ An organisation existent is to achieve its goal and objectives, the work within an organisation has to be divided among its members. It provides the framework of an organisation and makes all process and application possible. The effectiveness and efficiency of the organisation will be influenced by the structural design and the behaviour of the people who work within the structure. 2.1 Organisational Structure An organisation’s structure is designed to ensure that rules and procedures are used and followed, it contains four frameworks of relationships within an organisation: the individual’s job description, job specialisation, its lines of communication and its hierarchy. Organisational structure can be layered into three hierarchical structures: the technical level, the managerial level and the community level. It is important to have clear objectives within the organisation, good communications both horizontally and vertically can enable an organisation to perform effectively and efficiently. The correct grouping of individuals and work is also important to maintain a high level of performance. 2.2 The old Water Authority’s structure The old Water Authority was a public service organisation, its main objective was to provide a service to local communities. Job description was clarified to individuals and the working pattern was not flexible. The division of work was based on the employees’ skills, i.e. operation of clean water side and the dirty water side. It had a narrow span of control and more level of authority, this result in a ‘tall’ hierarchical structure and there are a few problems with this structure. It restricts the decision making process and information is difficult to pass on from either level to another. It is not cost effective since there are more middle managers within the organisation and there could be a conflict between management if the objective was not clarified between departments. The old Water Authority was a centralised organisation where the decision making retained in the top level of management. There are advantages of centralisation, some of which applied to the old Water Authority. The decisions are fitted to broad organisation’s objectives and it is easier to coordinate the activities within the organisation. But the problem occurred when the decisions were not made close enough with the operational level, it might not be appropriated to the lower level of hierarchical structure. ‘Line and staff management: A system of management used in large organizations in which there are two separate hierarchies; the line management side consists of line managers with responsibility for deciding the policy of and running the organization’s main activities, while the staff management, and its separate staff managers, are responsible for providing such supporting service.’ Oxford Dictionary of Business (2003: 300) This explanation suited the structure of the old Water Authority, each operational department running parallelised and having advisory department across them (See Diagram 1). The mechanistic organisation theory applied to the old Water Authority, where employees had specified roles and definitions of the authority within the hierarchical structure. Communication and interaction are vertical, the structure of the old Water Authority was appropriate as the external environment was stable. 2.3 Atlantic Water’s Structure The privatisation changed the Water Authority from a public service organisation to an economic organisation. The objective is no longer just to provide service, but to make a profit and to survive in the competitive market. Atlantic Water re-structured their grading framework, it reduced the level of management, the wider span of control resulted in a ‘flatter’ hierarchical structure. It reduced the bureaucratic costs, i.e. less middle managers, less coordination problem and reduced the chance of information distortion. Decentralisation is another result of down-sizing the hierarchical structure, this allows decisions to be made closer to the operational level and reduces information overload on upper managers. Managers have more free time to do something else, i.e. provide personal care for its subordinates. The line and staff organisational structure also changed, it became a matrix structure, where there is more than one critical orientation to the operations of the organisation, such as they introduced the pay negotiations in house and fixed-term contractors. Atlantic Water encouraged their employee to gain qualification to enable them to be cross-skilled, so they can be deployed by their manager where and when they are needed, the flexibility of the working pattern is essential. The mechanistic organisation is no longer applicable in the lower level, it combined both the mechanistic organisation at the top of the hierarchy and the organic organisation at the bottom of the level. Organic organisation has a flexible system and structure which is characterised by the adjustment and continual redefinition of tasks. Communication and authority does not necessarily coincide with positional authority. 3. Organisational Change L Mullins (2002: 798) suggested organisation development is a key to organisational change. ‘Organisation development is concerned with the diagnosis of organisational health and performance, and the ability of the organisation to adapt to change.’ In order to change the organisation effectively, organisation development is essential to have the correct strategies: survey research and feedback, T-group and team building. Survey and feedback involves using questionnaires to help identifying the attitudes of individuals within the organisation. Top management can analysis the feedback and discuss the problems, and the action to be taken to help to improve performance. T-group is also known as sensitivity training, it involve informal groupings to discuss the individuals’ feeling toward the organisation and to understand their abilities in themselves. Team building is identifying the task procedures and the pattern of interaction within the work group. The aim of this function is to improve overall performance of the organisation through the effectiveness of the team. Organisational development is not only about improving the organisation effectiveness and efficiency, but also improve the morality and commitment of individuals. 3.1 Strategies for Change and Innovation There are different strategies approaches to changes in the organisation, however it has to be carefully design and apply. From the strategic management point of view, organisational change has four main facets which need constant re-appraisal and planned action: * Human resource implications – This involve training, personal skill development, the culture needed to be accepted. The organisation needs to encourage and motivate their employees by providing opportunity for improvement. * Functional implications – Communication need to be improved between departments, the understanding of how the department works is also important, different area of organisation has their own way of working method. Decentralise the authority and appraisal system should be introduced. * Technological implications – Increase use of technology can improve the productivity and administration of an organisation. Although there is a cost of the installation and operational cost, but it actually reduce overhead cost in long term, i.e. less manual labour and improve accuracy. * Organisational implications – This involve change of relationship, work groups, routines and practices. There will be a new requirement of communications between departments and the management skills need to be improved to compromise within the organisation. 3.2 Atlantic Water’s Approaches After the privatisation, Atlantic Water applied the organisation development techniques. They are role analysis, life and career planning, quality of work life and counselling. Role analysis – Employees are trained to be cross-skilled so they can be deployed by their manager where and when they are needed, so their tasks are more flexible than before. Life and career planning – The organisation encourages their employees to gain qualifications, this will not only benefit the individual, but also the performance of the organisation. The organisation also invested heavily in management development so the managers have a clearer commercial focus and a new relationship with its workforce. Quality of work life – The new grading framework of the organisation creates opportunity for many employees who wish to develop their career. The organisation introduced a new salary structure, but it leaves many employees worse off financially, Atlantic Water failed to provide a better quality of work life. Counselling – There is a programme to help individual to deal with stress which are caused from job insecurity. This will help and assist individual to attain their goal and to re-build their confidence. Atlantic Water has improved their performance in general by investing in training programmes for both the management and their staff, but they did not consider their employees’ feeling. The morality and commitment level had dropped significantly due to the amount of work load and insecurity of their job. Although they offered a counselling programme, their employees are not being awarded for the extra efforts they put into the organisation. The low level of morality and commitment has major influence on the level of work performance. Atlantic Water should try to re-build the relationship with their employees by re-viewing their salary structure. The employees should be informed at a reasonable level of the activity within the organisation, sharing the success of the organisation will also boost the level of confidence for the individual. The management training should not be limited to the knowledge within the industry, it should includes counselling, coaching and leadership skills. Managers have a major influence on the motivation and behaviour of employees. 4. Conclusion The change has a massive impact upon Atlantic Water, the structure, culture and organisational climate had changed significantly. They have taken a certain level of approach but the results are not all positive, they need to carefully re-build relationships with its employees. The organisational climate is an indication of the employees’ feeling and beliefs, obviously Water Atlantic’s climate needs to be improved. It must develop new ways to increase the loyalty and commitment of employees. This includes attention to reward strategies based on recognition of contribution rather than status or position. The management of organisational climate is an important means of improving productivity and standard of work performance. Diagram 1    Bibliography Burnes B. (1996) 2nd Edition, Pitman Publishing, London Drucker P. (1974), ‘New templates for today’s organizations’, Harvard Business Review, London Huczynski A. & Buchanan D. (1991), Organizational Behaviour, 2nd Edition, Prentice Hall, London Mullins L. (2002), Management and Organisational Behaviour, Prentice Hall, Essex Schein E. (1997), Organizational Culture and Leadership, Jossey Bass Wiley, London Schneider S. & Barsoux J. (2003), Managing Across Culture, 2nd Edition, Prentice Hall, London Reference Burnes B. (1996), Managing Change, 2nd Edition, London, Pitman Publishing, Drucker P. (1974), New templates for today’s organizations, Harvard Business Review, London Mullins L. (2002), Management and Organisational Behaviour, Prentice Hall, Essex Schein E. (1997), Organizational Culture and Leadership, Jossey Bass Wiley, London Oxford University Press (2003), Oxford Dictionary of Business, 3rd Edition, Market House Book Ltd, London

Chris mccandless and timothy treadwell

That the path you are supposed to travel is set in stone and the choices you're faced with weren't yours to be decided. Is it true? Are we really Just a small part of something that a higher power thinks we're too feeble-minded to understand? No, we make our own choices; we are In charge of our lives and have the ability to change our lives If we want to. And that's exactly what Chris Mishandles and Timothy Treadwell did. They weren't happy with the life they had so they lied, changed their names, and abandoned the lives they had for meeting they wanted.One of the big things that Chris Mishandles and Timothy Treadwell had in common was that they had troubled pasts, lied to the people they met, and changed their name. Although on a larger scale they changed and lied for different reasons, on a smaller scale they did it to get away from life they didn't want so that they could finally live the way they really wanted to. They were both smart, Mishandles went to Memory and Treadwell went to Bradley on a swimming scholarship, only to lose It because of a back Injury.A point in their pasts where they differ is in substance abuse, Treadwell had a terrible drinking problem and referred to his life with the bears as Is â€Å"13 year sobriety plan†, Mishandles never had any problems Like that. Although It may not have seemed Like It, they both had purposes for doing what they did. Treadwell wanted to protect the bears and educate people about them, but he still wanted to be involved with people. Mishandles did it for himself, he wanted to escapes from society and his family who he felt he could no longer trust.Whenever Mishandles felt people were getting too close he left, it was a defense mechanism, he didn't want to be hurt by others like he was by family. Treadwell had only been hurt by alcohol and women that didn't want him, but he still loved to be around people and experiencing life. But whatever the purpose or the outcome, they followed their dreams. Mishan dles wanted to go to Alaska and live off the land and journal, and he did, Treadwell wanted to educate people and tape his Journeys and he did. They both may have died, but It was doing what they loved, and at the end of he day Isn't that what we all want for ourselves?Something that seemed unlikely for both of them, but turned out to be true was that people liked them. Whether they wanted it or not, there was something about them drew people in and made them want to know more and be a part of their lives. But it wasn't that easy, Mishandles didn't trust people and If he started to let himself get close to people he pulled away and left people and himself to wonder why. Treadwell on the other hand kept many friends and visited people when he wasn't paving with the bears; he still wanted to have relationships.They weren't happy with the hand they were dealt, so they changed the game. People say that they were crazy, and deserved to die, but I think the opposite. I respect and admire them, even though their travels TLD necessarily end the way they wanted, they TLD let what people thought stop them, They were proving to people that Just because you're given a few bad cards In the beginning, doesn't mean you're going to lose the game. Chris mishandles and timothy Treadwell By Charlotte feeble-minded to understand?No, we make our own choices; we are in charge of our lives and have the ability to change our lives if we want to. And that's exactly what Chris Mishandles and Timothy Treadwell did. They weren't happy with the life they on a smaller scale they did it to get away from life they didn't want so that they could Memory and Treadwell went to Bradley on a swimming scholarship, only to lose it because of a back injury. A point in their pasts where they differ is in substance bears as is â€Å"13 year sobriety plan†, Mishandles never had any problems like that.Although it may not have seemed like it, they both had purposes for doing what he did. They both may have died, but it was doing what they loved, and at the end of the day isn't that what we all want for ourselves? But it wasn't that easy, Mishandles didn't trust people and if he started to let himself respect and admire them, even though their travels didn't necessarily end the way they wanted, they didn't let what people thought stop them. They were proving to people that Just because you're given a few bad cards in the beginning, doesn't mean

Case – Unilever

This meant that each subsidiary was responsible for production, marketing, sales, and dilutions of their own products. Milliner felt that by allowing each subsidiary to be accountable for Its own performance would strengthen the overall company structure. Managers were able to develop their own marketing strategies to match their clients and region. By the mid-asses, Milliner fell into issues of cost, global brand expansion, and product release. With the current decentralization structure, Milliner determined that there was too much duplications, a lack of scales economies, and overall too high of costs.In 1 996, Milliner set forth with a new structure strategy based on regional business groups. These groups were introduced in order to drive down operating costs and speed up the process of introducing and developing new products/brands. For example, Lever Europe (one of these regional business groups) would consolidate all detergents in Europe, which proved to reduce production costs and speed. With this new structure, new costs of transportation and storage would need to be taken into account. However, this new strategy did Identify costs, but also Increased uniform ranging In packaging and advertising for unlived.With this change. Statistics suggest Milliner saved an estimated $400 million a year from just this change in the European detergent structure. By 2000, Milliner was still a step behind the competition. Milliner decided to cut brands and develop more centralized or global divisions. The development of the food division and home & personal care division allowed a global branding focus and unification. Not losing the importance of Individual preferences and differences, Milliner added region business as headquarters of a larger area.In the mid-asses, Milliner was attempting to build a unified brand, reduce production costs, and eliminate production lag time by introducing a new structure based on regional business groups. Milliner needed to change from Its previous decentralized business model because It would not keep up with a rapidly changing competitive market environment. Success from competitors such as Nestle and Procter &: Gamble allowed Milliner to see their faults. Duplication in manufacturing, lack of scale economies, and overall high costs left Milliner behind its competition.For example, with 17 different European operations it would take four to five years togged all 17 groups to launch/adopt a new product. This significant lag time left Milliner behind and struggling to develop any market share for its product. For these four to five years, competitors were rolling out different variations of these structure was a number of divisions focused on a different but specific category of products. These groups coordinated the activities of national subsidiaries to decrease costs and increase the speed of development, production, and implementation.By doing so, individual subsidiary companies let go of autonomy to execu te a unified Milliner strategy. One key aspect was the decrease in production costs. Jeans (2011) helps to expand our view on the total cost of production that Milliner was initially battling from 17 different groups. Total cost includes: setup cost for production, reordering and processing costs, quality costs from lack of quality and product defects, product shortage costs, material costs, and carrying costs Nonage, 2011). All of these costs, multiplied by 17, were hurting the bottom line for Milliner n Europe alone.The new structure identified this and cut manufacturing from ten plants down to one or two. This eliminated the size of the many discussed costs and allowed product sizing and packaging to generate uniform brand recognition. The movement toward this business group model saw big gains, as an estimated $400 million was saved in the European detergent operations alone. REFERENCES: Jeans, A. (2011). Economic production order quantity and quality. International journal Of p roduction Research, 49(6), 1753-1783. Don. 1080/00207540903555528Although Milliner saw financial success in its business group structure, it still lagged behind its main competitors. This structure failed to answer all of Milliner's issues by remaining to different organizational and too expansive in its product mix. To answer these issues, Milliner changed its model again toward a global structure. In some ways even with the business group structure, Milliner was still dealing with 17 different subsidiaries in Europe and various amounts in different countries around the world. There was no global division that stressed/organized similarity across the lobe.From this, timing issues and brand reputation was unable to translate world- wide. Milliner acknowledged this fact by the early asses and developed two global product divisions: food and home ; personal care. These were developed to centralize their company and vision. The second issue was Milliner's over extensive brands. With ov er 1,600 different brands it was difficult and costly to be competitive in any one certain area. They needed to think about quality over quantity in order to focus efforts on developing, manufacturing, and marketing for their most profitable brands.

Organizational Behaviour – Case Study

Consider the case: â€Å"Job satisfaction at Omega Technical Services Ltd† by D. Adam-Smith and L. Littlewood. In Adam-Smith, D. and Peacock, A. (Eds), Cases in organisational behaviour (pp. 151-162). London: Pitman and Prepare a report that addresses (i. e. , explains) the situation in the case (i. e. , high job turnover among professional staff) taking the perspective of work motivation and employee attitudes. Word count: 3000 Module: Organizational Behavior Introduction to Omega Technical Services Ltd. A labor intensive medium sized firm â€Å"Omega Technical Services Ltd† was established in mid 1950s. The main focus of Omega was to provide technical services to the different clients mostly from engineering sector. Omega consists of 180 full time staff which is dispersed in eight different regional offices. Main services provided by Omega were to provide documentation service in the form of manuals for operations and maintenance. In 1984 as a result of increased competition and falling profit margins in the field the company planned a cost reduction plan and changes to its management style to improve the efficiency of the organisation and to remain competitive in the business sector. But at the same time board of directors were concerned about the low morale of the employees and its impact over the performance of the company. There were increased incidences of low quality work followed by high turnover i. e. 33% over the last full year. After going through the provided case study and the relevant study materials, it is established that Directors of the Omega was trying to find out the main reason for low morale within the organisation and to find the recommendation which will improve the job satisfaction of employees which will ultimately improve the productivity of the staff and create new knowledge. To full fill this objective a formal attitude survey was conducted by the personnel manager of the Omega ltd. with the help of anonymous questionnaire. The questionnaire was designed by using both open ended questions and closed questions. The final questionnaire was consists of 83 questions, out of which 68 were closed questions and 12 were open ended. Closed questionnaires were conducted to address five main areas including, general satisfaction, communication, fairness/supervision, and involvement/identification. Matters relating to other jobs and companies which included some pay issues. KEY CURRENT AND FUTURE CHALLENGES The overall response rate of the survey was 42%. Based on that analysis of the result of the questionnaire and supportive reading from the available literature, now we will look at some of the most important current and future challenges which Omega is facing, and which can affect the overall performance of the group in the near future in the strong competitive and innovative market. The key challenges facing Omega can be summarized as follows: 1. Understanding Culture and Employees Management Relationship 2. Lack of Communication within the Organisation 3. Creating Organizational Knowledge ( lack of investment in Research and Development) 4. Attracting, Motivating and Retaining workers in Omega 5. Rewards system Creating a Knowledge Sharing Culture Gordon (1996) defines an organisation’s culture as the part of its interior atmosphere that includes a set of postulations, values and principles that organisational associates share and use to direct their execution. Omega also has the need to create a strong culture to build relationship among organizational levels. Hence one key challenge for Omega is the need to build a knowledge culture that facilitates and inspires people to generate, split, and exploit knowledge for the advantages and lasting accomplishment of the organization (Oliver and Kandadi, as cited in King, 2007). Organisational culture is argued as powerful input for effective and efficient management and organizational learning (Janz and Prasamphanich, as cited in King, 2007). In Omega the idea of knowledge sharing needs to be implemented into its organizational culture. The following facts highlighted in Table 1 below by Gurteen, (1999) illustrate why sharing knowledge is important. Table 1: Why knowledge sharing is essential to the survival of almost all businesses Intangible products| Ideas, processes, information are taking a growing share of global trade from the traditional, tangible goods of the manufacturing economy. | Sustainable competitive advantage| Increasingly the only sustainable competitive advantage is continuous innovation is the application of new knowledge| Increasing turnover of staff| People don’t take a job for life any more. When someone leaves an organization their knowledge walks out of the door with them. | Accelerating change| Technology, business and social. As things change so does our knowledge base erode – in some businesses, as much of 50% of what you knew 5 years ago is probably obsolete today| Source: adapted from Gurteen, G, (Feb 1999) Creating a Knowledge Sharing Culture, Knowledge Management Magazine, 2(5), www. gurteen. com/gurteen/gurteen. nsf/id/ksculture Culture is important in shaping assumptions about what knowledge is worth exchanging; when we are creating an environment for the knowledge sharing in Omega, making it means that knowledge sharing the norm and it also motivates the people to work in the team, provides such sort of knowledge which will be fruitful for the organization and employees. Hansen and Oetinger (2001) explain a new T shaped management where a new kind of executives operates breaking away from the conventional chain of command to split knowledge without stinting across the organization. While the systems are good at transferring explicit knowledge direct personal contact is needed for effective transfer of implicit knowledge which is needed for business solutions and is crucial for innovation. Hence implementing a open structure in Omega the company can apprehend the reimbursement of multi department learning and teamwork without having to establishment top down looms that could undermine the liberty and answerability needed to create exceptional entity unit performance. Trust As the result of the questionnaire concluded that employees have very little trust on their leaders as they feel that favoritism play a significant role for the growth in the company. Lack of trust on the upper management also plays a vital role on the motivation and commitment of the employees towards organization, which can further results into more people leaving their jobs and increased number of absenteeism. For a sharing culture Omega need to build an environment of trust so that it will establish customs about cross-functional associations and communication. For example, Gold et al. as cited in King 2007) concluded that organizations with open and supportive value orientations are predisposed toward constructive knowledge behaviors. Interpersonal trust in the workplace has been shown to have a strong and robust influence on a variety of organizational phenomena including job satisfaction, stress, organizational commitment, productivity and mostly to knowledge sharing (Mooradia n, et al, 2006). Hence Omega needs to create a culture that facilitates the willingness of people to participate meaningfully in its development and trust of the organisation. Attracting, Motivating and Retaining knowledge workers in Omega In Omega the turnover for the company is 33% over the last full year which means roughly one out of every three employees. Omega faces the vital challenge of retaining and motivating their knowledge worker. From the results of questionnaire we can establish that inequality and favoritism at the work place is one of the main reasons for high turnover, as approximately 70% of the respondents mentioned that they have applied for other jobs with in the last year time period. The main reason for this because employees at Omega feels that they were not treated fairly and their was lack of respect from their managers. Employees also mentioned that they feel that due to the current economic situation they felt underpaid as compared to the skills, knowledge and value they are generating for the company It is evident from the case that the traditional employment contracts may no longer be effective in bonding knowledge workers and retain their loyalty. Furthermore, still practicing de-centralized management system, clearly there is lack of any formal communication policy with in the Omega Technical Services ltd. According to Thompson and Heron as cited in (Horwitz, at al 2003) the employment relationship between the worker has changed to a new psychological contract where individuals are seeking market sustainable employability and organization require high work commitment rather than job security and loyalty. Research carried by Horwitz, et al( 2003) supports that that turnover is usually higher in knowledge workers than non knowledge workers as they try to seek new challenges from more progressive companies. Motivation is argued to be a very individual phenomenon where what motives one doesn’t necessarily motivate the other worker. Understanding individual needs at work helps management to better match rewards with motivation. Much of the motivation theories try to explain what (needs) and how (process) to motivate employees (Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, Hertzberg Two factor theory, Equity theory and Goal theory). And most of these theories identify generally that extrinsic (satisfied externally, physical objects) and intrinsic reward (satisfied internally like status and recognition) as the basis of motivating employees. Hertzberg’s two factor theory of motivation in the year (1959) distinguishes between hygienic factors and motivators; the hygienic factors have only the potential to eliminate dissatisfaction, while only motivators have the potential to increase satisfaction. In the case of Omega they were lacking both the hygiene factors and motivators. For example, employee of the Omega were not very satisfied with the working condition with in the company and also reported that they were not treated fairly on work place and showing their concerns about lack of respect from their managers at work. Horwitz et al (2003) proposes a diagram for attracting; inspiring and keeping of personnel which can be a useful framework that Omega (refer to diagram 2 in Appendix). Most favored retention strategies are those that are focused on portfolio of practices where top management support and leadership is important. While to motivation includes providing more extrinsic rewards like challenging work, creative working culture with autonomy, celebration of success and developing intelligence of purpose, course and enthusiasm. To attract workers the cultural fit is seen as important in Horwitz et al’s schema. Selective employing put into practicing have constructive effects on learning and in relative to organizational learning is the staffing and preservation of esteemed employees (Davenport, as cited in Lopez, et al, 2006). Omega is a service industry business that runs on the ideas, knowledge and knows how of the people who are working in it. Because of the people focused business this is the demand for the Omega that every individual working in the company should be educated, well motivated and inspire to deliver high performance. But due to the limiting budget for research and development and freeze on the benefits package at Omega, there was very limited opportunities for managers to invest in the research and development and to creat new knowledge for the organisation. Davenport et al. have acknowledged eight data management success features such as (1) technology infrastructure; (2) organizational infrastructure; (3) balance of lexibility, evolution and ease-of-accessibility to knowledge; (4) shared knowledge; (5) knowledge-friendly culture; (6) motivated workers who develop, share and use knowledge; (7) means of knowledge transfer using various information technology infrastructure; and (8) senior management support and commitment (Davenport et al. (1998) sited by Chong (2005) Overall knowledge management has become a people-centric because it is the network of the competent peoples which makes an organization successful. So, now the question is, what are the sources of motivation for these individuals within the company and also outside of the organization, and is individual motivation is aligned with the overall organizational goals and objectives? Omega needs to develop a reward system which is based on the performance and quality contribution of the employees. First, company has to identify that what are the motivation factors which effect different levels of their employees with in the company. The motivation factor that attracts and engages the young employees, For example, moving to the top of the hierarchy level was very important for the previous years but this is not the case today, and definitely there will be some resistance to these motivational factors from the different levels of the company. But it does not mean that it shows the absence of motivation in that particular level, but rather the presence of inappropriate will or motivation (Smith and McLaughlin, 2003). Every organization has some sources from where employee motivation sprouts (Amar and Hall, 2004). So, now it depends upon the management of the Omega that how they loads these sources with the factors that motivate, energize and direct the employees towards the achievement of the organizational goals. These factors may be intrinsic and extrinsic and in contrast to aiming at fulfillment of employees cognitive needs, these factors connect with their psyches (Amar and Hall, 2004). Reward and Recognition System Omega must design a reward and recognition system in such a way that it encourages and motivate the workers to the sharing of vision and task. The purpose of this system should be made very clear and visible to employees. In addition it is important for Omega to involve and encourage employee participation into the reward system and must measure the level of employee satisfaction with the system in order to design the correct program. Hence one of the key challenges for managers in Omega is to understand what actually motivates individuals to excel in their work and more importantly how to influence what others are motivated to do. According to Kerr (1995) it is of utmost importance that managers or the senior management recognize the type of activity they are rewarding because the reward and recognition scheme may be ineffective if they are rewarding an activity that they are trying to discourage. Also Cameron and Pierce (1997 cited by Milne, P. , 2007) suggested that verbal and tangible rewards do help in increasing efficiency among the employees, higher level of job satisfaction and overall enhancing motivation. Praising people personally and sincerely for their hard work can actually help create a sense of belongingness. Employees would feel that their work is being recognized, valued and appreciated. This way employee’s maybe intrinsically motivated to perform and be admired by other colleagues for their contribution. I believe that the partners or the senior management in Omega should not only praise perfection but also praise employees who are showing signs of improvement in their work. Moss Kanter (1987) pointed out that these reward systems can actually motivate individuals to perform effectively only for themselves and not for the organisation. According to Moss Kanter the amount of reward one gets depends on the position or status in the organisation. Higher the status, higher the rewards. Hence individuals will try their level best to get promoted quickly in order to get higher rewards. Omega must try to develop a reward programme were the reward itself is not the main driver for contributing and sharing knowledge but could be used as a tool for giving directions and purpose to what employees do. Money is normally considered to be the major motivation factor in the organizations, but this is not the only case in the Omega. In management industry money can be a good source of motivation if it is designed properly and establish a clear linkage what management wants and what its employees can do in their jobs that is with in their control (CEO Sounds-off, 1997) As Omega is facing problems in motivation of employees from different level of employees, it should announce certain goals and targets for the improvement of performance and then relate it with the different rewards for completing these goals and target. This kind of rewards will give the employees a sense of achievement. Incentives As we discussed above that money is not the only motivating factor in the firms, so the rewards should be expanded to the non-financial incentives, like introduction of some work benefits, promotion and further training opportunities for the personal development. In Omega, these kinds of incentive will be helpful for the future growth of the company, because in case of further training and personal development, it will leads towards the better and improved performance from that employee in the future and will keep him /her motivated to play his/her part. This behavior is supported by the Maslows theory of â€Å"hierarchy of Needs† in which Maslow talks about the need of the self actualization. According to Maslow, if all of these needs are satisfied, we can still expect that there will be development of another need, â€Å"unless the individual is doing, what he, individually fitted for† (Mahesh 1993 sited by Amar and Hall 2004). Training Strategic training is a fundamental tool that facilitates communication among employees, by providing a common language and shared vision and is argued to be one of the most significant HR practices for the organizational learning process (Nonaka and Takeuchi 1995, Ulrich et al 1993 as cited in Lopez et al, 2006). In the case of Omega, questionnaire results shows a clear amount of respondents shows their interest in learning new knowledge and shows their willingness for further training by which they can improve their effiecincy. A clear understanding of Omega’s missions and values will help to ensure the right direction for the learning processes. Training should be orientation towards developing culture of commitment to learning and should demonstrate to employees and management framework link to the company strategy. Training should be practical support for organizational goals and work related technologies (Bassi and McMurrer, 2007). The training programs should also favour the sharing of ideas and best practices improving the level of openness to new ideas thus promoting flexibility in acquiring critical skills needed for effectively responding to competitive challenges ( Lopez, et al 2006). There is empirical evidence to indicate (DiBella et al, 1996; McGill and Slocum, 1993 Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; Ulrich et al 1993 as cited in Lopez) the idea that training plays a critical role in maintaining and developing the capabilities both individual and rganizational and also substantially contributes toward the process of organizational change. Job Description In Omega, it is recommended that job should be the first motivating factor for the employees. Company need to redesign the job descriptions of the employees, so that they can attract and retain the best people. While designing a job responsibility, company can include the factors that attract and motivate the employee’s interest and mind and glue them t o put effort in their respective jobs towards the achievement of the organizational objectives. This will leads towards the improved loyalty with the firm and motivate people to do their best and it will also reduce the loss of knowledge by people leaving the Omega. In case of young employees this approach frees their minds, which allows them to engage them in the activities which brings innovations to the company, which is very important for the Omega. According to Amar and Hall, companies should allow the people to think innovative ideas while managers patrolling the boundaries (Amar and Hall, 2004). Another important point which also needs to be considered is family-friendly working schedule. Employees prefer those jobs and job schedules, where they can adjust their family and social life with out any significant impact on their job responsibilities. CONCLUSION In this assignment we discuss about the different challenges to Omega and what are the possible recommendations to address those challenges both for the current and future time. Clearly there is struggle by Omega management to keep staff motivated and there is no actual implementation of motivational theories. Due to the shortage of funds as 80% of the company’s funds are already allocated to employee’s wages, management needs to consider non-monetary incentives and rewards as we discussed in the main body of the assignment. It is concluded that in a knowledge intensive service firm, individuals are the most valuable asset and technology can only provide the relevant support for the creation and management of the business. So it is the peoples who need to be motivated to give maximum output for the company. We have looked at the different motivation factors and how to create the work environment that’s helps to achieve the rganizational goal. Based on the observations and the supported study material it is recognized that there are different sources for the motivation for the Omega employee, like how to define the job description, rewards, incentives and use of the technology to support individuals. So the combination of these factors will result in the working environ ment where every individual is performing his duties up to the best of his potential with the sense of responsibility and putting his/her share in the progress of the company. REFERANCES: Alton C, Ngee A, Polytechnic, (20001), â€Å"Relationship between the Types of Knowledge Shared and Types of Communication Channels Used†, Journal of Knowledge Management Practice, October 2001 Amar A. 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