Understanding Performance Management free essay sample

The mandate to operate at an optimal performance level and meet financial and organizational expectations are transforming the way organizations do business. This evolution is driving higher standards of competence in day-to-day operations and adding new pressure to increase stakeholder value. In today’s rapid-paced business climate, the agility with which a company manages performance can determine market position and company profitability. Defining Performance Management Performance management is the integrated process of defining, assessing, and reinforcing employee work behaviors and outcomes (Cummings and Worley 2005). Performance management focuses on understanding, optimizing, and aligning action and decisions and ensuring the collaboration and empowerment of all individuals across the business network. It includes practices and methods for goal setting, performance appraisal, coaching, employee development and reward systems. More than ever, organizations need broader measures of employee performance to ensure that (1) deficiencies are address in a timely manner through employee development programs that meet the needs of the organisation and its market, (2) employee behaviours are being directed toward performance of specific objectives that are consistent with the work unit and the organization strategy, and (3) employees are provided with proper and timely feed back to assist with their career development. We will write a custom essay sample on Understanding Performance Management or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page These practices jointly influence the performance of individuals and work group, and enables them to work across strategic, tactical, and operational levels to align actions to ensure optimal performance. In order for effective performance management to take place, the process must utilize information from three time periods to do so. It makes use of data from the past in order to gather information form past performance. This information is then utilized in the present for the establishment of work plans, goals and the setting of development opportunities. These objectives therefore allow for high levels of performance in the future. The Purpose of the Performance Management System The main purpose of performance management is to make sure that employee goals, employee behaviours used to achieve these goals and feedback information about employee performance are all linked to the corporate strategy. However there is no one way to manage performance. What ever system is adopted needs to be congruent with the culture and principles that pervade the organization. Most systems of performance management has three purposes- Strategic, Administrative, and Developmental. The strategic purpose- Defining Performance One of the ways in which strategies are implemented is by management defining the desired results, behaviours and employee characteristics necessary for carrying out strategy. They can then develop measurement and feedback mechanisms which will show hoe effectively results are being achieved and what to do to produce results. The organization can achieve this strategic purpose if it is flexible and amendable to changes in the goals and strategies which can occur, and also to recognise that if such changes occur, then there needs to be change in results, behaviours and characteristics of the employees, which must of necessity change to correspond with such organizational changes. The Administrative Purpose-Measuring Performance Performance appraisal information is one of the main instruments used by organizations for making administrative decisions, for example, salary administration, in terms of pay raises; promotions, retention or termination, recognition of individual performance and identification of poor performance. The Developmental Purpose- Feedback and coaching This aspect of performance management seeks to develop further, employees who are good at their jobs. In instances where employees are not performing up to standard, performance management also seeks to improve their performance through coaching. The feedback from the performance evaluation process indicates or identifies the areas of strengths and weakness in the employee performance. It is therefore critical to businesses that they recognise and fulfill the purpose of an effective performance management system as this is central to gaining a competitive advantage through the management of human resources. They also need to develop the measures by which performance can be evaluated. The discussion now turns to the development of the performance management system. It describes the major strategic decisions that must be put in place if the task force is to effectively design a performance management system. In order for a successful performance management to be established, the process must utilize five strategic decisions. 1. How the system will be used be used? 2. Who does the evaluation? 3. What areas are to be evaluated? 4. How should the evaluation be done? 5. What are the ways in which the evaluation can be done? How will the system be used Planned employee development should be one of the basic concepts of any organization’s performance management system. This is an attempt to state a broad policy which removes any option about people development by stipulating that developing people is a pillar of whatever system of management the organization espouses. This people development should be planned, not given mere lip service or expected to happen by itself. Adoption of this policy would guard against the simplistic way in which some supervisors consider themselves to be results oriented as opposed to people oriented, thus absolving themselves from people development. The major thrust of employee development will be to emphasize that the development of people as the best means available to achieve results for the organization. Three new thoughts are intended in this policy rec ¬ommendation. First, because development is different for everyone, there should be individual development plans. While there may always be areas of growth or development common to many at the same time, these ought not to be the sum total of the people develop ¬ing process taking place. It is often an easy excuse for supervisors point to plant–wide or company–wide â€Å"people† programs as a way of absolving themselves of their people developing responsibility. The second operable word in this policy state ¬ment is review. The supervisor is required to follow up on the people development plans. They are not to be spoken of enthusiastically for a brief period and then forgotten. If documented on company forms, they ought not to be forwarded to some staff office as though float ¬ing off into never–never land. They require monitoring so that progress can be checked periodically. Third, individual plans should be reviewed at least annually. This is an attempt to offer some time frame for periodic review, so as not to make the task too time–consuming. Furthermore, a lot can happen in twelve months, so that this time span is not too soon for considering new situations that might warrant chang ¬ing or updating the plan. Many practicing managers indicate a twelve month time frame as a practical one, especially when the development plan is discussed in the context of the annual performance evaluation. Each of my subordinates should work out a specific plan of personal development. Two thoughts are contained in this policy statement. First, each subordinate is to have a development plan. Again, we speak of the universality of develop ¬ment. This isn’t only for the weak, or only for those identified as shinning stars, or only for any select lucky or unlucky few. Everyone has developmental needs in order to help achieve the mission of the organization. Second, there is the question of who works out this plan for development. Some may immediately think of some subordinates who do not appear capable of working out their own personal development, hence this may prompt a negative vote (or â€Å"false† mark) on this state ¬ment. Clearly there will be some individuals less qualified than others to work out such a plan. But the intent is not to expect people to do it alone – quite the contrary. The real point of this statement is to fix on the subordinate a sharing of the development responsibility for which the supervisor is accountable. It becomes then a shared responsibility between the supervisor and the subordinate. I should require individual development plans from each of my subordinates Again many mangers can point to individuals who might state, or have stated, they are not interested in development. We’ve all encountered people like that. They readily assert that they have no interest in getting promoted; they know their job, they do it well, they simply want to work 9 to 5 and leave the jockeying for positions to someone else. This is precisely why the uni ¬versality of the need for development needs reinforcing. It ought not to be an option. The organization cannot afford to let people maintain that attitude. It is not what we want to people to think of promotion or becoming managers or anything they truly do not want to become, but in order to continue to perform well in the present areas of responsibility, people must keep pace with develop ¬ments in their field. Because no job stays the same, no jobholder can stay the same. â€Å"Future shock† is a concept with which we are all familiar. So much happens in the work developments around us that no job remains the same very long. Hence, if a worker is doing the job the same way he or she did a year ago, that person is less effective, if not completely wrong. Periodic on–the–job coaching is a major part of an individual’s development. The hope here is that the supervisor will feel at home with the statement and its implications. Periodic instruction or assistance on the job is an everyday occurrence. No one will deny the need for giving instruction or assistance on the job to those who need it, and some need it more that others. If we can begin to see this part of the warp and weft of individual development, then the universal change envisioned in these statements will not be so threatening to some. Who evaluates Performance appraisal of the employee should be done by immediate supervisor. The supervisor is the one who is usually in the best position to observe and evaluate his or her subordinates’ performance and he or she is responsible for that person’s performance. References I/O psych text Another approach that can be used is peer appraisals. According to kane and Lawler(1978), three techniques are usually used : (1) Peer nomination- each person nomoinates a specified number of group members as being highest in particular dimension of performance. (2) Peer rating- each group member rates the others on a set of performance dimensions using several kinds of rating scales. 3) Peer ranking- each member ranks all others from the best to worst on one or more performance dimensions. The Appraisal of an employee by his or her peers can be effective in predicting future management success. One problem however is log rolling; that is all the peers simply get together to rate each other highly. Also many group members donot like to evaluate one another, so part of the method hinges on impressing participants with its values. There is also the rating committee which is usually composed of the employees’ immediate supervisors and three or four other supervisors. This type of rating is useful and advantageous because while there may be discrepancies in the rating \s made by individual supervisors, the composite ratings tend to be more reliable, fair and valid. Another advantage is that several raters can cancel out problems like bias and the halo effect on the part of the individual rater. Employee evaluation can also be done by employees assessing their own behaviour. This is known as the self assessment technique. The basic problem with this is that employees usually rate themselves higher than they are rated by their supervisors or their peers. Meyer(1980) reorted a study in which engineers rated their own performance against their views of the performance of other engineers in the company. On average, each engineer thought he or she was performing better than 75% of the rest of the engineers in the study. Statically, it is quite a trick to have a 100% of the workforce be in the top 25%b of job performers. This underscores the biggest problem with self- assessment: positive leniency. Most people have higher opinions of their own performance than others do. There is also the other form of appraisal which is appraisal by subordinates, otherwise known as upward feedback. In this situation, subordinates are anonymously asked to evaluate their supervisor’s performance. When this type of appraisal is conducted throughout the firm it really helps the top managers to diagnose management styles, identify potential people problems and take corrective action with individual managers as required. Appraisal may also be conducted through performance feedback from all the persons with whom the employee has to interact; this interaction is referred to as 360-degrwee feedback. The appraisal can take place between coworkers, subordinates, and internal and external customers. The Performance Appraisal Interview and the Coaching Process The appraisal interview is one in which the supervisor and subordinate review the appraisal and make plans to remedy deficiencies and reinforce strengths. For many supervisors the formal performance appraisal interview is one of the most dreaded activities of the role. Of course, supervisors often have no problem evaluating the outstanding performer. The problem is with everyone else. They are put in the position of providing information to a subordinate that often runs contrary to the subordinates own self-evaluation or self-image. This can lead to a number of outcomes that many managers would prefer avoiding. In conducting appraisal interviews effectively there are four major things that supervisors must do in preparation for interview: 1. Spend a lot of time preparing; go over the subordinates performance, your own interactions, the history of the employee; if the employee reports to a number of supervisors, make sure you have input from all relevant sources 2. They must assemble data, study the person’s job description, compare the employee’s performance standards that would be evaluated against, and review the files of the employee’s previous appraisals. 3. Supervisors should also prepare employees, that is , give them at least a week notice to review their work, read over job description, analyze problems and gather their questions and comments so that the interview can be a two-way conversation. 4. A mutually agreeable time should be choosen ofr the interview. Enough time time should also be scheduled for the intertview. Having prepared for the interview there are four important things that supervisors need to cognizant of: ? Supervisors should attempt to be direct and specific all times. They should speak in terms of objective work data such as absences, tardiness, qulit records, inspection reports, productivity records and cost reduction. This is done so that employee is aware of all the areas that he or she is being appraised on. ?The supervisor should also encourage the appraisee to talk. Stop and listen to what the person is saying. The supervisor should ask opened questions such as â€Å" what do you think we can do to improve the situation ? ? Do not get personal. Supervisors should try to compare employees’ performance to given standards and not to othe performance of other people. This can help to avoid confrontation or misunderstanding between the appraiser and appraisee. This also ensures that the person know what they are doing wrong and what they are doing right. The supervisor s hould ensure the persons understands , and get agreement before he or she leaves on how things will be improved and by a give n date . An action plan shoud also be developed showing steps and expected results. For: Clive Williams Problem: Parts inventory too high Objective: Reduce plant parts inventory by 10% in June Action Steps When/TimeExpected Results †¢Determine average monthly parts inventory 02/06†¢Establish base from which to measure progress †¢Review ordering quantities and parts usage 15/06†¢Identify overstock items †¢Ship excess parts to regional warehouse 20/06†¢Clear stock space in plant †¢Set new ordering quantities for all plants 25/06†¢Avoid future overstock †¢Check records to measure where we are now 01/07†¢To see how close we are to objectives Providing Feedback on Performance Feedback is most effective when it is †¢http://www. google. tt/preferences? q=tell+and+sell+interview+hl=enlr=safe=activesa=Ftimely-as close to the critical behavior as possible †¢descriptive and specific †¢objective †¢aimed at solving problems and action Conducting a Performance Appriasal Interview †¢set aside enough time †¢begin open ended †¢do not allow the appraisal form to dictate the interview process †¢try to balance inquiry (asking questions) and advocacy (pushing your ideas) †¢agree on the next steps for action Coaching: Some General Guidelines be as specific as possible take advantage of critical incidents-for example after a major project, sit down and reflect with your subordinate about lessons learned identify specific developmental agendas identify resources available to subordinates adapt your coaching style to the individual Link to compensation Many people may argue that a performance appraisal is little more than a tool for managers to use in wringing as much work as possible from individuals without adequately rewarding them. This perception is difficult to deny if you have ever been the victim of such exploitation. Indeed, it must be recognized that a dishonest and secretive performance appraisal system will only exacerbate poor employee relations. However, if employees believe that the system can assist them in furthering their own careers and economic prospects, performance appraisals can actually boost employee morale. Performance appraisals are particularly useful in facilitating equitable decisions about salary if the agency uses a merit pay system as the basis for salary progression. A merit pay system requires a method for translating judgments about work quality into appropriate salary actions. Pay increases of varying sizes must be rationally explained if a merit pay system is not to seem arbitrary. If an organization has an automatic pay system, with scheduled salary increases, performance appraisals will help identify (and justify the termination of) unsatisfactory employees who demoralize others, since they receive the same salary increases as good workers. Recent research (Bannister Balkin, 1990) has reported that appraisees seem to have greater acceptance of the appraisal process, and feel more satisfied with it, when the process is directly linked to rewards. Such findings are a serious challenge to those who feel that appraisal results and reward outcomes must be strictly isolated from each other. Methods for performance appraisal In order to effectively appraise employees the appropriate many writers have pointed to different methods which can be used in conducting a performance appraisal .

Literacy Narrative Essays

Literacy Narrative Essays Literacy Narrative Essay Literacy Narrative Essay Literacy Narrative The anticipation of knowing whether we were going to be champions or not was very high as we played our hearts out on the court. Everything wed practiced for was being put to the test in this one moment. It all came down to this last lay-up. Did we get the point? When I was eleven years old I played recreational basketball with a nearby playground called Susan Park. Me and my little brother both were involved in almost every sport they offered. My favorites were volleyball and basketball. Going to practice was the highlight of my day. I really put my heart into these sports. Our basketball team this particular year was undefeated. As a post player and shooting guard there was a lot of pressure on me to get the ball to the goal at any cost and thats ultimately what I did in every game. It was our championship game and the heat was on like never before. Recruiters from the All-Stars team were there to watch us and pick their favorites so the pressure was definitely on for the players who were looking to take it to the next level. The game starts and were all basically in the warm-up stage of the game wed score, theyd score, nothing too intense. All of a sudden we start getting into the climax of the game, only about five minutes left. We were only two points away from beating them and it was up to one person on our team to step up and go for the game winning lay-up, that person was me. There were a few seconds left of the game and we still had to get up the court and to the goal. As the referee blew the whistle my heart sank but I knew what I had to do. The ball was passed to me and with no hesitation I ran down the court as if I was the only person out there and went up for the lay-up like a pro and I made it! This was definitely the best day of my life. The crowd rushed towards me and picked me up just like in the movies, I felt like a star! After the crowd and everything calmed down and came to an end a recruiter from the all-star team came up to me and extended invitation for me to tryout and hopefully being a member of the team. I was ecstatic about the opportunity and I did make it and went on to play for the Kenner All-Stars. This was definitely a memorable moment in my life and taught me to always go for even the things in life that you may doubt or be nervous about. Not all things are impossible.

About Uranium-Lead Dating

About Uranium-Lead Dating Of all the isotopic dating methods in use today, the uranium-lead method is the oldest and, when done carefully, the most reliable. Unlike any other method, uranium-lead has a natural cross-check built into it that shows when nature has tampered with the evidence. Basics of Uranium-Lead Uranium comes in two common isotopes with atomic weights of 235 and 238 (well call them 235U and 238U). Both are unstable and radioactive, shedding nuclear particles in a cascade that doesnt stop until they become lead (Pb). The two cascades are different- 235U becomes 207Pb and 238U becomes 206Pb. What makes this fact useful is that they occur at different rates, as expressed in their half-lives (the time it takes for half the atoms to decay). The 235U–207Pb cascade has a half-life of 704 million years and the 238U–206Pb cascade is considerably slower, with a half-life of 4.47 billion years. So when a mineral grain forms (specifically, when it first cools below its trapping temperature), it effectively sets the uranium-lead clock to zero. Lead atoms created by uranium decay are trapped in the crystal and build up in concentration with time. If nothing disturbs the grain to release any of this radiogenic lead, dating it is straightforward in concept. In a 704-million-year-old rock, 235U is at its half-life and there will be an equal number of 235U and 207Pb atoms (the Pb/U ratio is 1). In a rock twice as old there will be one 235U atom left for every three 207Pb atoms (Pb/U 3), and so forth. With 238U the Pb/U ratio grows much more slowly with age, but the idea is the same. If you took rocks of all ages and plotted their two Pb/U ratios from their two isotope pairs against each other on a graph, the points would form a beautiful line called a concordia (see the example in the right column). Zircon in Uranium-Lead Dating The favorite mineral among U-Pb daters is zircon (ZrSiO4), for several good reasons. First, its chemical structure likes uranium and hates lead. Uranium easily substitutes for zirconium while lead is strongly excluded. This means the clock is truly set at zero when zircon forms. Second, zircon has a high trapping temperature of 900Â °C. Its clock is not easily disturbed by geologic events- not erosion or consolidation into sedimentary rocks, not even moderate metamorphism. Third, zircon is widespread in igneous rocks as a primary mineral. This makes it especially valuable for dating these rocks, which have no fossils to indicate their age. Fourth, zircon is physically tough and easily separated from crushed rock samples because of its high density. Other minerals sometimes used for uranium-lead dating include monazite, titanite and two other zirconium minerals, baddeleyite and zirconolite. However, zircon is so overwhelming a favorite that geologists often just refer to zircon dating. But even the best geologic methods are imperfect. Dating a rock involves uranium-lead measurements on many zircons, then assessing the quality of the data. Some zircons are obviously disturbed and can be ignored, while other cases are harder to judge. In these cases, the concordia diagram is a valuable tool. Concordia and Discordia Consider the concordia: as zircons age, they move outward along the curve. But now imagine that some geologic event disturbs things to make the lead escape. That would take the zircons on a straight line back to zero on the concordia diagram. The straight line takes the zircons off the concordia. This is where data from many zircons is important. The disturbing event affects the zircons unequally, stripping all the lead from some, only part of it from others and leaving some untouched. The results from these zircons therefore plot along that straight line, establishing what is called a discordia. Now consider the discordia. If a 1500-million-year-old rock is disturbed to create a discordia, then is undisturbed for another billion years, the whole discordia line will migrate along the curve of the concordia, always pointing to the age of the disturbance. This means that zircon data can tell us not only when a rock formed, but also when significant events occurred during its life. The oldest zircon yet found dates from 4.4 billion years ago. With this background in the uranium-lead method, you may have a deeper appreciation of the research presented on the University of Wisconsins Earliest Piece of the Earth page, including the 2001 paper in Nature that announced the record-setting date.

Health Care Incident Reported in the News Essay

Health Care Incident Reported in the News - Essay Example Courtois is a diabetic patient who was treated in Redding Hospital in 2010 did not consent to the decision of the hospital’s chief executive and medical officer in disclosing her treatment information. This followed allegations that the hospital was involved in overbilling Medicare. The officials of the hospital also failed to report the violations of the patient’s privacy as postulated by the HIPAA. Courtois daughter said that â€Å"we are appalled by the number of people they shared the information with" (Terhune, 2012). Among the journalists into whom the patient information was disclosed were those from the Times. It is reported within the news article that Prime Healthcare Inc. is to face up to $ 250 000 fines for these violations (Terhune, 2012). This essay is based on this story and aims at examining and evaluating how governance, organizational structure, culture and lack of social responsibility led to the violation of the patient’s privacy by the hospi tal. The essay also presents recommendations on resources and changes that would help to preventing future violations of patient privacy in relation to the ethics of patient care. The health care situation that is described within the Los Angeles Times is a case where the rights of patients for confidentiality and privacy of treatment information are violated by a health care system. ... It is in this regard that it is apparent that the hospital is obliged to take responsibility for its legal and ethical misconduct. Nonetheless it is important to note that the violation of HIPAA provisions for patient privacy is legally wrong regardless of the number of people with who patient information is disclosed (Moore, et al, 2009). Darlene Courtois’ case however received the attention of the media and the legal system because many health care providers and journalists got access to the patient’s treatment records without consent. The organizational structure at the Redding Hospital’s hospital is topped by the chief executive. This official is followed by the medical officer. Below these officials are the medical health records officers and other workers. The fact that private patient information was disclosed to the journalists by the chief executive and medical officer reflects that they had direct influence on the medical health officers from whom this information was obtained. This reveals an organizational culture where the top executives exercise roles beyond their lines of duty. Moreover, the health records officers were coerced to provide the patient information to the senior executives. This demonstrates that the health records officers failed to adhere to the ethical and legal requirements for confidentiality and privacy of all patient data. This case also reveals an organizational culture where workers fail to take legal responsibility by reporting medical misconduct in relation to patient data. This is revealed that the health care workers who were emailed the patient data failed to report the violation HIPAA provisions. This case came into light of the legal system because it was featured in

Compare and contrast A Fistful and Dollars(1964) and Shane(1953) in Essay

Compare and contrast A Fistful and Dollars(1964) and Shane(1953) in both stylistic and thematic terms - Essay Example ovie, two rival families, which include the family of Rojo Brothers and the family of John Baxter, battle against each other not only to show superiority but also to express the feelings of pride, greed, and revenge to each other. In this movie, the stranger wants to make both parties fight against each other. The stranger, though comes to the town to earn money by making the two rival families fight against each other, yet he proves himself to be a good man as he frees Marisol from the prison and makes her leave the town along with her husband and her son. He not only provides them with the way to leave the town but also gives some money to them in order to tide them over. â€Å"Clint Eastwood redefined the notion of a hero in this film, a man who seems to operate by a code but doesnt feel the need to explain it† (Fairbanks, 2003). I think that the atmosphere of this movie is much more interesting and attractive as compared to the main story of this movie. The unexpected camera angles and the close-ups add to the great atmosphere of the film. The way the actors performed in this movie is excellent. They never make the audience feel tired of something. The movie keeps the attention of the audience intact and does not make the audience lose their concentration. I think the scenes of this movie have more appeal as compared to the story. Leone’s filmmaking style is a very innovative one and it is really a fun to watch on the screen. Leone is very expert in creating complex characters for his films and the character of the stranger in A Fistful of Dollars is one of them. The sound of gunfights and the suspense in the scenes are two of the basic elements of the film. â€Å"The strengths of A Fistful of Dollars relate to style, not storyline† (Berardinelli, 1999). A Fistful of Dollars is just a 100 minutes film which is a very short duration as compared to Leone’s other films which include The Bad and The Ugly and The Good. In A Fistful of Dollars, a very simple plot

Does “Assassin’s Creed” Influence a Teen’s Mind Essay Example for Free

Does â€Å"Assassin’s Creed† Influence a Teen’s Mind Essay Imagine a world where everything that happened was secretly controlled by a large organization of people. Every day you are constantly recorded and monitored. Everything that you do is secretly planned out in advance, yet you think that everything you’re doing is by your own free will. Everyone including your family, your friends, and the government are all controlled by this organization, and you can’t even tell. While you blithely and involuntarily follow the path planned out for you, another organization is secretly and quietly trying to put a stop to the evil plans of the organization that wants to control your every move. This is the plotline of a very popular videogame known as Assassin’s Creed. Assassin’s Creed is a great game that has influenced and challenged people’s view on government and democracy. The game Assassin’s Creed influences people’s minds by making them think more outside the box, and by aiding there curiosity of conspiracy theories. Assassin’s Creed take places in 2012, following the life of Desmond Miles, a bartender who is a descendant of several Assassins. Although Desmond was raised as an Assassin, he fled his nomadic family to seek out a more common lifestyle. While enjoying his freedom he is kidnapped by an evil company known as Abstergo Industries, the modern-day face of the Knights Templar who are aware of Desmonds ancestry. Templars want to control everyone, and they believe in absolute order similar to totalitarianism. Desmond is forced to use a device known as an Animus which allows him to experience his assassin ancestral memories. Abstergo is seeking to discover the location of several artifacts, known as Pieces of Eden, in order to obtain great power and control mankind and alter its fate, bringing humanity into a single unified group. Later Desmond escapes Abstergo due to the help of some modern-day Assassins who he later ends up working with. Desmond uses their version of the Animus (Animus 2.0) to continue to re-live the memories of his ancestors and discover the locations of the Pieces of Eden before Abstergo can do so. Desmond relives the events of his Assassin ancestors who live in worlds full of chaos, injustice, and indirect captivity. Doesn’t this seem similar to the way the world is today? Several countries have yet to establish a government system where people have a say in what they want the government to do for them. There are even more countries that have yet to abolish their governing laws on slavery. Our own government is hiding secrets from us (trying to protect us), yet causing more accidents and tragedies that could be avoided if only we had access to their classified information. Assassin’s Creed is a completely made up story, but it has a lot of interesting and intuitive facts to its plot. In fact, the majority of it seems plausible, and many others within my age group seem to think the sa me after playing this game. Along with the several games that my peers play that can relate to Assassin’s Creed, there are also several books that are similar. Assassin’s Creed got its inspiration from the novel Alamut written by a Slovenian writer Vladimir Bartol, which is what inspired most of the first game’s plot. Another story very similar to the plotline of Assassin’s Creed is The Traveler written by John Twelve Hawks. The book takes place in the future and lays out a world where the power lies not with people or governments, but in the hands of a secret organization who call themselves â€Å"the Brethren.† Their enemies refer to them as â€Å"the Tabula†. The Tabula are an ancient secret society who thinks that control and stability are an absolute necessity, similar to extreme Utilitarianism. The Tabula gets the majority of their influence from the ideas of philosopher Jeremy Bentham. The Tabula wish to enforce a Virtual Panopticon which is a society where all i ndividuals become accustomed to being watched and monitored and they act at all times as if they are being observed; making them more afraid to do immoral things. The Tabula’s sole objective is to kill all Travelers. Travelers are people with the special ability to â€Å"cross-over†, which is often inherited from an ancestor. Crossing-over can be defined as your spirit leaving your body and going off to another realm, and then returning. Upon this return, most Travelers would have experienced a different perspective of our world. Many Travelers become religious prophets, or enemies of the Tabula who have hunted them almost to extinction. Harlequins are a warrior group sworn to defend the Travelers from the Tabula. The Harlequins are opposed to the Tabula, and the two sides spent centuries fighting over control and power which allowed the Tabula to gain control and almost completely exterminate the Travelers and Harlequins. Despite the nobility and self-sacrifice of their cause, the Harlequins are cold and cruel figures who dedicate their lives to fighting and killing without remorse or hesitation. Sound familiar? Due to its graphic, plausible, and suspenseful storyline, Assassins Creed has become a big hit to gamers, historians, and conspiracy theorist alike; causing them to have a current series of five games in all, selling millions of copies worldwide. The series has been a big success and has won a number of awards. All of the Assassin’s Creeds make an adolescent see the world they live in differently. I wouldn’t even have considered governmental control, Templars Tabula, or Assassins Harlequins as being realistic, but now I’m starting to have second thoughts (I also know of several friends in the same state as me). Reading books similar to The Traveler and playing videogames similar to Assassin’s Creed makes one think a little more outside the box and take into consid eration other conspiracy theories and stories.

Bowen Family Therapy Essay -- Psychology

Introduction Murray Bowen was born in 1913 in Tennessee and died in 1990. He was the oldest child in a large cohesive family. He trained as a psychiatrist and originally practiced within the psychoanalytic model. In his practice he involved mothers in the investigation of schizophrenic patients. He thought that the cause of schizophrenia begun in mother-child symbiosis which created an anxious and unhealthy attachment. His devotion to his own psychoanalytic training was set aside after his move to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in 1954 as he begun to shift from an individual focus to an appreciation of the dimensions of families as systems. He began to include more family members in his research and psychotherapy with schizophrenic patients. In 1959, he moved to Georgetown University and established the Georgetown Family Centre where he was a director until his death. It was here where his theory was extended to less severe emotional problems (Nichols & Schwartz, 2004, p. 120). In 1962, he undertook detailed research into families across several generations. Rather than developing a theory about pathology, Bowen focused on what he saw as the common patterns of all ‘human emotional systems’. With such a focus on the qualitative similarities of all families, Bowen was known to say frequently that there is a little schizophrenia in all of us. In 1966, Bowen published a presentation of his developing ideas and around the same time, used his concepts to guide his intervention in an emotional crisis in his own extended family which he described as a spectacular breakthrough (Kerr & Bowen, 1988). Theory concepts Bowen introduced eight interlocking concepts to explain family development and functioning. ... ...stems.ca /bowen theory and research/bowen theory Bowen, M. (1971). Family therapy and family group therapy. In Comprehensive group psychotherapy, H. Kaplan and B. Sadock, eds. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins. Bowen, M. (1978). Family therapy in clinical practice. NY and London, Jason Aroson Brown, J. (1999). Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (ANZJFT) 20(2), 94-103. Retrieved : http://www.familysystemstraining.com/papers/bowen-illustration-and-critique.html Guerin, P.J. (1976). Family therapy: Theory and practice. New York: Gardner Press Kerr, M., & Bowen, M. (1988). Family evaluation. New York: Norton Nichols, M.P. & Schwartz, R.C. (2004). Family therapy: Concepts and methods (6th ed.). Pearson Education Inc. US Rabstejnek, C. (2010). Family Systems and Murray Bowen theory. Web. 13 August 2015. http://www.houd.info /bowenTheory.pdf

Horace Miner’s Body Ritual Among the Nacirema Essay

Abstract: Horace Miner’s point throughout the entire article of â€Å"Body Ritual Among the Nacirema† was to prove to us, Americans, that we are not superior to anyone else or any other culture, society, or religion. We are all the same, and we just to need to keep in the back of our minds that everyone does everything differently. Whether it is a dramatic difference, or barely noticeable, each person does everything different from the next person. Throughout this essay willbe examples on how Miner’s article went to prove how ethnocentric Americans through the use of sociological imagination. Abstr Anthropologist, Horace Miner, wrote an article on a tribe called the Nacirema, who originated from Between the Canadian Cree, the Yaqui and Tarahumare of Mexico, and the Carib and Arawak of the Antilles. This specific tribe is so superficial, and focuses so much time on their bodily appearance. The people of this tribe go through many daily rituals to stay healthy, clean, and as perfect as possible. This tribe that is spoken of is the American. Nacirema is American spelled backwards. Throughout the article, Miner, strived to prove how ethnocentric we, Americans, are through sociological imagination. Reading the article without knowing it is about Americans will put a person in the point of view of an outsider from a different culture. We think the tribe, Nacirema, thinks that the human body is ugly and its natural leaning to weakness and disease is an awful thing, and that their only hope to avoid these characteristic of the human body, is to keep up with their daily rituals. Americans are always trying to come up with new ideas to prevent natural aging, the deterioration, and weakness of the body. We feel so  ashamed of our supposed weak bodies that the rituals performed in our families’ shrines (bathrooms) are kept completely private and should not be shared with anyone. Just because of our shamefulness, we have already proven that we are not a perfect people. Americans can alter their appearances in simple, almost no effort ways. â€Å"†¦Professor Linton referred in discussing a distinctive part of the daily body ritual which is only performed by men. This part of the rite includes scraping and lacerating the surface of the face with a sharp instrument.† (Miner Paragraph 12) This ritual described the process of men shaving their face with a razor and along with the ritual is a possibility of cutting the face. â€Å"Special women’s rites are performed only four times during each lunar month, but what they lack in frequency is made up in barbarity. As part of this ceremony, women bake their head in small ovens for about an hour.† (Miner Paragraph 12) This ceremony is talking about women going to get their hair done to improve their looks. The small ovens are old fashioned hair dryers, which would dry their hair into the style that woman wanted it to be. Another ritual that the Nacirema people go through is to find a holy-mouth man (dentist). The holy-mouth man pokes and prods at the client’s teeth, and it is not always a pleasant experience. The holy-mouth man likes performing uncomfortable and slightly painful rituals on the client’s teeth. The client allows for the holy-mouth man to whatever he or she likes with their teeth. The man ritual of shaving, woman ritual of getting their hair done, and going to see a holy-mouth man at least once a year all have sadistic and masochistic qualities. The specialists that complete these services like seeing their client uncomfortable and in pain on some level. The people of the Nacirema tribe continue to return these specialists and continue the rituals, proving that in some sort of way that they must like being uncomfortable and in pain. People of the Nacirema tribe can also physically change their appearance by having a special medicine man alter parts of the body. Mainly the women of the tribe are the ones who see the specialist. These specialists can make a woman’s breasts larger or smaller if needed. Other surgery, besides on the breasts, can be performed, such as the face, stomach, and arms. To view all these rituals that have been aforementioned, from an outsider’s point of view can make the American people look barbaric, weird, and not natural. The people of the American culture are so wrapped up in self-image that it is almost sickening to look at it from another view point. The people will go to almost any length to look better and stay looking young that they will go through many painful and uncomfortable rituals. Talking about sexual intercourse is a not something to talk about openly, especially in public. To avoid pregnancy â€Å"the use of magical materials or by limiting intercourse to the certain phases of the moon.† (Miner Paragraph 19) Birth control is taken to avoid becoming pregnant, and when women do become pregnant they wear loose clothing as to hide the fact that there are carrying a child. Other cultures see intercourse as a natural thing to reproduce, and that pregnancy is a beautiful thing. They see us not talking and being open about sex as taboo. We, Americans, are not superior to anyone else. That is what Horace Miner wanted to get across to all of us. He wanted us to think outside of the box. We need not to look at other cultures as strange, but just as different and unique because the other cultures look at us and think we are the weird ones. References: http://jihunkmla.blogspot.com/2013/05/review-on-nacirema-colored-glasses-i.html https://www.msu.edu/~jdowell/miner.html

Life

Unique super shop is going to be launched as a partnership super shop business. The company owns and operates an industrial plant and is engaged on the business of making food products and is marketed through its own show room and agents all over Bangladesh.. Here we all will work as a group & contribute capital and management expertise to the business enterprise and perform Joint responsibility for the operation of the business and for its debts.Unique Super Shop's principal ctivities are to collect cow milk from dairy firm, manufacture it by value change through proper process and modern technology so that it can meet the existing demand of milk among consumers. We are going to launched our business in urban area where people can not get fresh food particularly milk. Day by day they are losing their health stratus by taking unhealthy food. Our aim is to provide fresh food (Milk) to them which will be collected from various rural firms.To serve its customer with highest level of sat isfaction the company always give emphasis on meeting latent emand of the customers by introducing new and innovative products in the market. This is first time in Bangladesh we are introducing a super shop where all types of milk product or food is available in a single platform. Business description General description of the venture: for making a profit, we are some friend launching Unique Super Shop so this is the general partnership business. Our business can be based on written contact and legal oral agreement.Where included name of the partner, Purpose of the partner duration of the business, how profit and loss will be istributed, salaries, absence contribution of each partner to the business etc. The Reasons of Choosing Partnership: – Ease of formation: A partnership is fairly easy to start. It is nearly as free from government regulation as a sole proprietorship. The cost of starting a partnership is low. It usually involves only a modest legal fee for drawing up a written agreement. Which in a highly desirable. An oral agreement is sufficient but not recommended.And that will be easy for us to establish our business. So we have chosen partner ship business. 2. More funds available: – In a sole proprietorship, the amount of capital is limited to the personal wealth. ; credit if the owner. In a partnership the amount of capital may increase significantly. A person with a good idea but little capital can look for a partner with the capital and lor credit standing to develop and market the idea. And we all have brilliant ideas with a little capital. So we have chosen partner ship business 3.Combined managerial Skills: – In a partnership, eople with different talents and skills may Join together. One partner may be good at marketing; the other may be expert at accounting ; financial matters. Combining these skills could provide a greater chance of success. So we have chosen partner ship business. 4. Tax Advantage: – It has som e potential tax advantages over a corporation. Ina partnership as in a sole proprietorship, the owners pay taxes on their business earnings. But the partnership as a business does not pay income tax. So we have chosen partner ship business.

Three Stages of Celtic Art essays

Three Stages of Celtic Art essays The Three Main Stages of Celtic Art Remnants of the Celtic people have been around for at least 4,000 years. Archaeologists mainly interpret Celtic history and art from relics left over in graves and garbage dumps. Roman documents are also a source for scholars yet they can be one sided description of the Celts. Many of the elements in Celtic art are not totally Celtic. Many of the relics and Artifacts that are found are borrowed from many parts of western Europe. The Celts picked up some of these styles from other areas that they may have been trading with or even attacking at the times the artifacts were constructed. Scholars divide Celtic art into three stages. These three stages consist of Hallstatt Culture, La Tene, and The age of Celtic Renaissance. The first stage that was identified was the Hallstatt Culture. This culture lasted from two-thousand BC to six-hundred BC. Artifacts found from this time period were named after a small town in western Austria. Artifacts from this era stretch from Austria to Brittany in France. The art found from this time period is believed to have influence from the Mediterranean. The Hallstatt zone was split into a eastern section and a western section. Pottery found from the western part of the Hallstatt strictly showed geometric designs, whereas the eastern part some narrative scenes where found along with many geometric designs. During the Hallstatt time period, central Europe artists started experimenting with abstract representations of forest wildlife and waterfowl. One specific example I found was: The horse was in a way a symbol of the rise and expansion of the Celtics. (Finlay 31). By putting horses in pictures and on different artifacts leads us to believe that they were and important part of the Celts culture. There were many forested valleys which limited the numbers of horses that they had. This points out why horses played such a main role because they were not very a...

5 Ways to Shake It Up Without Changing Careers

5 Ways to Shake It Up Without Changing Careers Feeling stifled? Desperate for a major change? Want to chase your dream to another continent, or to another career altogether? Feel any or all of those desires, but realize with a pang that you simply can’t just up and totally change your career? There are still ways you can get back in a groove and get excited about your job again without throwing the baby out with the bathwater.Try these five strategies first before decided on changing careers.1.  Start from withinIf things are really stale, you always have two options that aren’t the nuclear one. First, you can change your role within your own industry. Or, you can keep your job but change to another field. Try switching from corporate law to entertainment law. Or from serving and bartending to managing. Or from at-home nursing to ER nursing. These feel like big changes, but they don’t involve scrapping your entire career!2. Try your hand at consultingThis word covers quite a bit of ground. The nutshell of t his strategy is to figure out what you know because of your career so far and figure out who needs that knowledge and skill. Could you teach? Develop textbooks or manuals or training guides? Recruit? This keeps you squarely in your wheelhouse, where you’ve been successful, but doesn’t require you to learn a whole new set of skills.3.  Think about how your role could changeThere’s always the option of sticking with your current company, but changing jobs within it. Have a think about your colleagues- is there anything they do that you think would be more fulfilling to you? Ask questions. Chat with your boss about shifting your responsibilities and taking on new challenges. Figure out what you need to brush up on and prove- if only to yourself- that you can learn new things.4. Find joy in extracurricularsSo maybe you can’t change even your job in a significant way, for whatever reason. You can still do more, and different, things! Try volunteering, or tak e a guest bartending gig, or start a blog, or join forces with friends or colleagues to work for a foundation. Doing a bit of good in the world, or a bit of freelance work, can give you the breath of fresh air you need to put your work in better perspective.5. Keep honoring that little voiceMaybe you’ll follow these strategies and still can’t deny that overwhelming desire to chuck it all and do something totally different with your life. If that voice just won’t go away, no matter what else you do or how you tweak the margins, that might be the sign you need. Check in with yourself from time to time and see how you feel. You’ll know when it’s time to light the match.Five Easier Alternatives to Totally Changing Careers

Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis - Essay Example The populations most at risk are those suffering from acute or chronic severe renal insufficiency, from acute renal insufficiency of any severity due to the hepato-renal syndrome, and those patients in the peri-operative liver transplantation period. For all of these patients it is recommended that health care professionals simply avoid the use of GBCA; the only exception being when it is determined that the diagnostic information to be obtained is absolutely necessary and unavailable through the use of non-contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging. In addition, as a precautionary measure, it is recommended that health care professionals conduct a screening for all patients for a renal dysfunction by either obtaining a history or carrying out laboratory tests. These screening measures are fundamentally precautionary, however, because "the risk, if any, for developing NSF among patients with mild to moderate renal insufficiency or normal renal function is unknown" (Gadolinium-Based Contrast Agents, 2007).