Hope Focused Marriage Counseling Essay

Unlike other explorations insinuated in the context of research, marriage counseling has been one of the unspecialized fields emerged with theoretical assumptions and practice (Stuckert, 2003). This however, has been the challenge to psychologists and practitioners in defying the thought that marriage cannot be taken into research since its hypotheses and results of practice have been acclimated, nevertheless the volume available for study is accumulated. Everett L. Worthington Jr. , a psychology professor and the proponent of over 150 articles tackling issues on marriage, forgiveness and reconciliation was able to find standard procedures on how to keep marriages anchored on Christianity based marital therapy. More specifically, through the light of his year 1999 published book, Hope-Focused Marriage Counseling, couples are to be taken to a self rehabilitation which will give hope to individuals who are living in a room full of skeptic viewpoints about marriage and eventually open a realization that his substantial research shall lead them to a path where â€Å"miracles do happen in the real world. † (Worthington, 1999) Overview Marriage is a shadow of the relationship that we are expected to have with Jesus—permanent, loving, committed. (Eph 5:32) Everett L. Worthington begins his book with a verse in the bible which depicts the meaning of marriage in the most moral and Christian way thus giving a connotation that helping troubled couples is not an easy task. However, she points out the fact that the extent of healing relationships is through developing a character of Christ embodied in every individual’s personality and manifest such with one’s relationships to his or her social network as well (Worthington, 1999). Further, he stresses that when a relationship has Christ as vanguard, life will be inhabited with the verity of love, faith and hope and that then is the start of a bright thing. Strengths What makes his book amazing falls on the grounds of analytic and realistic situations as the core of the gist of the whole scenario. Initially introducing theories then later putting the theories into practice makes readers able to divulge their selves in the dimension that the author intends them to live with. His strategies (advices, so to speak) draws out a hysteria which will make readers know their respective state in life at first, hence, for having been given the momentum to realize what is happening in their lives, they will seek for answers on how to save them from their presumed agony. Further, his approaches through exercises which are efficient to exhibit (Worthington, 1999)—drawing fundamental values, the promotion of confession and forgiveness, communication intensification, aiding conflict resolution, alterations of the pattern of thinking, intimacy development, and the cementing of commitment—gives grandeur to the book as readers can implement these exercises with their partners or core groups. Realistically crafted, he gives marriage counseling a twist by inculcating his own experiences which gives conviction to the statements and recommendations written in his book. One fascinating fact on the book is its distinctiveness in course, since unlike other books on marriage counseling, typically establishing manuals which synonymously suggest divorce or annulment so as not to complicate the situation, this book thinks otherwise. Though the author admitted that is hard and rarely possible in the contemporary society—divorce is legal and other forms of law that allow couples to â€Å"live† without the need of marital rites—still, he fervently believes that the sacred matrimony must be preserved even if others no longer accept as true the tradition and the essence of spiritual intimacy. These ideas represented in the book will coin back the integrity, accountability, prudence and proper teaching among couples. Weaknesses â€Å"Hope-focused rather than problem-focused† (Worthington, 1999) this is the toweringly hopeful campaign of the author. Thus, because of globalization, cultural diversity and the differences of every individual, there may be some who may not appreciate the book for reasons that inhibit the issue on dissimilarity of character, viewpoint in life, tradition and environmental influences. It is evident that the target audiences of the book are Christians—although optimistic individuals would also be interested in reading the book—hence this leads us to a remorseful realization that it will not drive â€Å"naysayer† or a pessimist to read it. Still, fingers are crossed on the intent of the book, and that is to spread the thought that â€Å"change is possible† and in the long run, every couple will be given a new outlook on their marriage for the benefit of their family. Conclusions and further remarks The functions of the husband and the wife bear a multifaceted blueprint of expectations of the responses which are to come from one another. Hence as humans, challenges and trials are inevitable aspects in life and must therefore be taken with full accountability after having vowed under the sacred matrimony and under the blessing of the church. However, in the present era, where several factors influence every person’s character and personality, asking for help and intervention from one who truly understands the quintessence of love and marriage is a an ideal act to do (Stuckert, 2003). Communication mostly is the main problem of couples and Worthington is able to help by producing a masterpiece which, with confidence, he believes will save troubled marriages. Forgive. Reconcile. Change can happen if one will listen while the other speaks. References Stuckert, R. P. (2003). Role Perception and Marital Satisfaction. A Configurational Approach. Marriage and Family Living, 25(4), 415-419. Worthington, E. L. (1999). Hope-Focused Marriage Counseling: A Guide to Brief Therapy. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Michel Foucault

Michel Foucault, generally in his philosophy, has created a system wherein he  examines the relations of power as they are transmuted down in a society (not one  that it is held by individuals—and, indeed, it is not so perpetuated), wherein the  refinement of discourse over time allows for the normalization of behaviors and then that  individuals are encouraged, as docile bodies, to adhere to this program of normalization.  Foucault locates the origins of this process in asylums and prisons, and considers them an  Enlightenment technological development, which he calls â€Å"technologies of the self†: But I became more and more aware that in all societies there is another type of technique:  techniques which permit individuals to affect, by their own means, a certain number of  operations on their own bodies, their own souls, their own thoughts, their own conduct,  and this in a manner so as to transform themselves, modify themselves, and to attain a  certain state of perfection, happiness, purity, supernatural power. Let us call these kinds  of technologies technologies of the self. (Foucault â€Å"Sexuality and Solitude 367) Foucault locates these technologies of the self at the center of the process of  normalization that has shifted the process of punishment from an outward display of  power as in medieval executions to an internal process in which the prisoner becomes  complicit in his own punishment. By employing these technologies of the self an  increasingly analytical and ever more refined manner power is able to normalize almost  all of life and make the distinction between punishment and education trivial. In attempting to diagnose the evolutionary trend of the manner in which  punishment has been historically meted out throughout the ages, Foucault suggests that  there has been a gradual evolution from tactics of raw displays of power to more subtle  forms of control. While this might suggest a certain amount of progress in that it is a  progressive movement towards a less obvious brutal form of maintenance of the status  quo it is nonetheless   a pervasive manner of social control and thus the obfuscation of  means of social control over the passage of time, especially since the enlightenment,  should not be mistaken for true liberation or the work of real progress toward a deeper  goal of recognize some eternal truth about human rights. Whereas medieval society  employed the public display of punishment in intricate and executions of the most  excruciating form (such as beheading, drawing and quartering, hanging etc.) to help  maintain social order by showing the direct result of a failure to comply with law,  contemporary society uses more indirect and less overt methods for encouraging its  subjects to adhere to the traditional social order. Indeed, where medieval societies used  overt displays of brute force, modern society prefers processes of normalization, which  are less intrusive:  Another instrument used to achieve discipline is the normalizing judgment. Instead of punishing offenders for wrong doings, the administrators with power choose to  rehabilitate them to attempt to normalize problem individuals and make them a functional  and law abiding.   This type of corrective attempt is used through training techniques  including the use of repetition.   This could be used in the classroom for a student that  could not write cursive well enough to pass to the next level.   For a punishment, they  could be required to write cursive sentences over and over again.   Additionally, to  provide the society with this normalization or conformity, rewards become more frequent  than penalties. For those students that tend to fall behind, the prospect of a reward could  be more appealing to do well than the threat of yet another punishment.   This gives  individuals something to strive to achieve and creates incentives for being disciplined. â€Å"What Is Discipline?† Here, we see the ideas of punishment couched in the language of teaching and  rehabilitation. What is a deviant behavior is simply a mistaken approach to learning basic  social rules that can be corrected and analyzed and subjected to extensive discourse. Moreover, in this instance, there is not only the issue of negative reinforcement via the  coercive measure of the threat of punishing action in response to a putative misdeed, but,  moreover, there is the extension of a metaphorical â€Å"carrot† being extended to the  perpetrator of a violation should he manage to conform to the exact processes that the  captors. In this movement, this ability to make the punished complicit in his own   punishment, is the real power of the indirect method revealed because not only does it not  require an exercise of power, but allows those being punished to aid in their own  punishment. This idea of creating â€Å"docile bodies† by means of indirect punishments that seek  to examine and to â€Å"rehabilitate† rather than to torture is their chief use. Indeed, for docile  bodies are effective because they are given the illusion of freedom, in being offered a  choice between two possibilities they have the trappings of volition but when it has been   ordained ahead of time for them to choose one of the options of the other this merest veil  of volition is quickly revealed as just another discursive element rather than an  effectively â€Å"real† choice with meaning and consequence. Docility is a major advantage  because it allows the docile body to assist in his own rehabilitation and normalization  and, by extension, his own punishment per se: The term docility, or to be docile, means to  have a certain amount of control exercised over you. Foucault says; â€Å"a body is docile that  may be subjected, used, transformed and improved† (Foucault Discipline and Punish,  136). Docility was the way in which someone was trained, a way in which someone cold  be molded like clay to fit the needs of those that are in control. This was done in the  army, the schoolhouse, basically anywhere people were subjected to control on an  everyday basis. Docility is nothing more then discipline, where â€Å"discipline is a political  anatomy of detail† (Foucault Discipline and Punish, 139). The body was no longer beaten  and abused rather it was explored, broken down and rearranged.   Rather then being  destroyed the body was being entered into a political machine that produced docile  bodies. Foucault talks about docile bodies because he is trying to explain the shifts that  took place from the practice of torture and the spectacle to the building of the prisons.  Thus, the issue here is that by this method the body is forced to undergo a process  that, while substantially different from an experiential perspective than torture, has, as its  object, a surprisingly simple aim, which is of course the same ends of enforcing the  stability and standard of behavior that is normative and therefore beneficial to the  institutions of power. Through the creation of such docile bodies who no longer need to  be tortured but instead can be subtly goaded towards the process of rehabilitation and  ergo normalization, the standards of normalcy can be entertained and reinforced within  the individual by the individual. Indeed, even more ingenious is that, by such a method,  in which punishment is rehabilitation, the very distinction between the two begins to  break down. Punishment becomes a sort of identical with the very processes of   identification, analysis, and education. Part of the reason for this is that possibility of an  end telos of this process, of any sort of true enlightenment, per se, becomes an  impossibility, because such refinement and enlightenment leads only further into the  constricting web of discourse. Indeed, since the entire project of enlightenment refuses to end in any categorical  liberation (which is indeed an improbability if not an impossibility) that can be  demonstrated, this should be no surprise. Advances in rationalization and logic only serve  to further refine the methods by which processes like normalization take place, allowing  them to be now couched in doctrines of ethics, psychology, and criminology where they  can be used for the creation of docile bodies when in the past the only recourse would  have been the use of raw and terrible amounts of force: The enquiries have their  methodological coherence in the at once archaeological and genealogical study of  practices envisaged simultaneously as a technological type of rationality and as strategic  games of liberties; they have their practical coherence in the care brought to the process  of putting historico-critical reflections to the test of concrete practices. I do not know  whether it must be said today that the critical task still entails faith in Enlightenment; I  continue to think that this task requires work on our limits, that is, a patient labor giving  form to our impatience for liberty. (Foucault â€Å"What is Enlightenment?† 50) Here, we see that the capital-E Enlightenment has resulted in little more than a  refinement of the â€Å"strategic games of liberties,† which, of course, serve to do little else   to confine one to the rules of the game rather than allow for the possibility of a true  exit, and, similarly the possibility of little-e enlightenment for the individual is equally  impossible when each enlightenment only furthers the discourse and increases the  process of education which is the form of expiation in the principle order of things  anyway. Thus, enlightenment is an increasingly remote quantity whose value remains  unknown and unknowable, while the reality of the increasing and encroaching science of  punishment is advanced in discourse in such a way that the process of discipline is  reinforced through the further and stronger normalization of every single social act, since  the discourse about these acts also multiples, creating possibilities for discourse where no  such possibility even existed before. Thus, the teleological goal of the penal system then seem to be one in which it is  almost impossible to distinguish between education and punishment and, indeed, prison  and the outside world. Through the creation of bourgeois docile bodies, prisons  increasingly do not require walls because the normalization of every activity makes it  such that the mere examination of the entirety of one’s existence links one to the very  concept of the punishment that looks less and less like a punishment:   The ideal point of  penalty today would be an indefinite discipline: an interrogation without end, an  investigation that would be extended without limit to a meticulous and ever more  analytical observation, a judgment that would at the same time be the constitution of a  file that was never closed, the calculated leniency of a penalty that would be interlaced  with the ruthless curiosity of an examination, a procedure that would be at the same time  the perman ent measure of a gap in relation to an inaccessible norm and the asymptotic  movement that strives to meet in infinity. (Foucault Discipline and Punish 227) Thus, the conclusion we reach at the end is that the goal of increasing discourse  since the enlightenment is to make power’s reach ever more diffuse but ever more  pervasive—the inclusion of discourse into previously verboten areas allows for the  normalization of those areas and with that normalization comes control such that the  ideas of punishment and rational consideration seem to come within a hairsbreadth of  merging at the distance of an infinite regress. References Foucault, Michel. â€Å"Sexuality and Solitude.† On Signs. Marshall Blonsky ed. Baltimore: John’s Hopkins Press, 1985. Santos, Tomas. â€Å"Foucault and the Modern Day Panopticon.† Retrieved January 05, 2008, at http://www.spelunkephobes.4t.com/foucault_and_the_modern.htm Foucault, Michel. â€Å"What is Enlightenment.† The Foucault Reader. Paul Rabinow, ed. Catherine Porter, trans. New York: Pantheon Books, 1984. Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of Prison. Alan Sheridan, trans. New York: Vintage, 1979.                              

How managers in international companies have been affected by recent, Essay

How managers in international companies have been affected by recent, radical changes in the economic situation - Essay Example Multinational companies in order to survive in the foreign market developed several strategies during the crisis situation. Multinational companies which operate in emerging economy of developing nations took certain steps in order to handle the situation. A drastic change in economic situation in a worldwide basis has created an impact on various business sectors around the countries. The boom in economy may result in growth and benefit in business and slump down of economy may lead to loss in business. When the economic situation is favourable, i.e. in low interest rate and in rising demand, there is a huge growth in economy (The Times 100, 2011). There were two current issues of economic crisis: one was financial crises and the other was related to production and employment. The financial crisis emerged from the US and it had an impact on almost all of the developed nations. The government performed the fiscal stimulus package to fill the gap of demand slowdown of public sector (W ray, 2009). Lehman Brothers Investment Bank had led to huge loss of several billions of dollars in the mortgage market of the US. The stock market of the US fell down due to collapse of Lehman Brothers and the banking shares were hardly hit. The failure of Lehman Brothers had adversely affected the stability of global financial system (BBC, 2008). The policy makers are failing to address the structural reforms as well as regulatory changes which are essential in order to make certain that a repeat of the crisis does not take place and international policy coordination is proving to be insufficient to the task. German, French along with British banks hold the debt of the bordering countries. By the end of 2011, it is predicted that there will be European banking crisis due to sovereign debt defaults (Carnegei Endowment, 2010). The economic along with financial crisis will be affecting the global business time-to-time. The US has been under the threat of pressure of economic downturn. The growth of the country has turned to be negative again from the end of 2010. The unemployment rate is also rising as 2 millions of American workers were laid off within six months (Global Europe Anticipation Bulletin, 2010). In this paper, various economic crises that had cropped up in the global market will be described by analysing the worldwide financial crises. The crises which have occurred in relation to economy and finance have greatly affected the multinational companies. The paper will also highlight different difficulties faced by managers while handling issues related to different people during financial crisis. 2.0 Impact of Economic Changes on Managers The financial crisis in the US from the period 2007 to 2010 had resulted in liquidity shortfall. It has led to ‘collapse of large financial institution’ and also ‘bailout of bank’ by means of national government along with downturn in the stock market worldwide. This crisis can be considered as one of the major economic crisis after the Great Depression which occurred in the year 1930. The managers associated with such organisations were in great hardship. The economic deficits had become a challenging factor for them. The economic downturn had also affected both developed multinational com

How did the womens rights movement of the 19th century emerge out of Essay

How did the womens rights movement of the 19th century emerge out of abolition activism - Essay Example The history to acquisition of rights to vote in America intertwines with the American women acquiring other rights as well. The major pioneers of American enfranchisement include Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony and Chapman Catt among others. The women considered the suffrage as their number one priority since the moment they are granted the right to vote, and then other rights would have followed (Cappiello 56). In the United States, women suffrage was attained gradually at both state and local levels during the 19th century, and culminated from the passage on the constitution that stated that right to vote by citizens in United States was not to be denied by the state on basis of sex. On June 1848, liberty party comprised of entirely men. In 1850s, Women Rights Convention under leadership of Lucy stone organized suffrage petition campaigns for women in various states. Stone was the first person to make appeals for women suffrage before law makers. In 1853, she addressed Massachusetts Constitutional Convention. However, agitation was suspended during Civil War but in 1865, everything resumed as the National Women Rights committee petitioned to the congress to amend the constitution so as to prohibit states from the move towards disfranchising the citizens on basis of sex. This triggered a disagreement among the movement leaders on whether to support the ratification of 15th amendment that gave a vote to black men and ignored black women. This enhanced formation of rival organizations that campaigned for amendment that gave the women the right to vote at both local and national levels. However, the two groups led by Lucy Stone and Susan Anthony merged to form the American Women Suffrage Association in 1889. The movemen t campaigned for reforms for the progressive era (Cappiello 57). Women who took part in early abolitionist movement started demanding for equality in rights, both in their experiences and general

Macro Economics Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Macro Economics - Research Paper Example Macroeconomists create models that clarify the connection between factors such as national income, consumption, output, unemployment, savings, inflation, investment, international finance, and international trade. In contrast, microeconomics mainly focuses on the proceedings of individual agents, like firms, and consumers, plus how their actions determine quantities and prices in specific markets. Macroeconomics, on the other hand, is a wide field of research. There are two areas of study that are exemplary of the discipline. They are the effort to comprehend the causes and penalties of short-run fluctuations in national income, as well as the attempt to comprehend the determinants of long-run economic growth. Long term economic growth refers to the increase in national income. Macroeconomic patterns plus their forecasts are applied by both large corporations and governments to help out in the development and assessment of business strategy and economic policy (McConnell, 2011). This paper will discuss the basic concepts of macroeconomics. Macroeconomics takes in a variety of variables and ideas, but there are only three essential topics regarding macroeconomic study. Macroeconomic theories normally relate the phenomena of output, inflation and unemployment. Outside of macroeconomic theory, these areas are also extremely vital to all economic agents including consumers, workers as well as producers (McConnell, 2011). ... t can be considered as total income, or, it can be seen from the production angle and considered as the sum of all value added to the economy or the total value of final goods and services. Macroeconomic output is normally calculated through national accounts but mostly Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is applied in calculating macroeconomics (Hubbard, 2009). Progress in technology, addition of machinery and other assets, and improved education and human capital all bring about increased economic output ultimately. However, output does not at all times increase constantly. Business cycles can bring about short-term drops in output referred to as recessions. Economists search for macroeconomic plans that prevent economies from falling into recessions and that leads the economy to a faster and long-standing growth. Unemployment The sum of unemployment in an economy is calculated by the unemployment rate, the fraction of workers lacking jobs in the labor force (Abel, 2010). The workforce on ly consists of workers actively searching for employment. Individuals who are retired, still undertaking education, or discouraged from looking for employment by a lack of job prospects are not included in the workforce. Joblessness can be separated into a number of types that are correlated to diverse causes. Classical unemployment takes place when salaries are too high for companies to be ready to employ more staff. Income may be too high due to union activity or minimum wage laws. In harmony with classical unemployment, frictional unemployment takes place when suitable job vacancies exist for an employee, but the span of time needed to look for and get the job leads to an episode of joblessness. Structural unemployment, on the other hand, covers a number of possible reasons for

Current Health Care Reform Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Current Health Care Reform - Essay Example Under this plan, the government will increase the amount of money taxed to people, and insurance companies will also play a crucial role. The plan is to be fully implemented in 2014, and several legal specifications indicate that it would influence the most of people in a good way as compared to a variety of issues which they normally reject since they assume they are costly. For those who cannot get insurance, there will be a sliding scale of subsidies created to help pay their premiums (Miranda, 2010). Under this plan, pre-existing conditions will not be used by insurance firms to refuse to pay up on health claims. The government will fund Medicare even more by adding 250 dollars to be used in covering prescriptions. Pursuant to this, it is projected that those who paid 100 percent will only be required to pay 25 percent by the year of 2012. This is projected to cost the government the excess of 938 billion within the next 10 years (Andrews, 2012). Furthermore, under the Patient Pr otection and affordable Care Act plan, more lavish benefits of Medicare, such as gym membership, hearing aids and the likes, are not planned to have been cut. Increases in taxes can also be seen in the fact that, for instance, couples making 250,000 annually will be taxed 1.45 to 2.35 by the year 2013. People with higher incomes will be taxed at the rate of 2.8 percent on the income that is not earned, such as interest and dividends (Miranda, 2010). Those enjoying indoor tanning facilities will be compelled to pay 10 percent more in taxes. The main influence behind the health care bill was, of course, President Barrack Obama whose administration has been instrumental in pushing for and promoting these health reforms. In congress, the bill has not been popular but the Democrats have put their weight behind the bill, since they insist it aims at ensuring all citizens will access to health insurance. In 2011 the final vote was 220 to 207 with all the Republicans voting against, but the bill eventually passed (Andrews, 2012). It actually makes employers play a greater role in the provision of their employees with health insurance. As a matter of fact, passing the bill was not an easy job as the process was fraught with political interferences and parties’ politics. In 2011, the Senate repealed the bill but the Supreme Court overturned this appeal. In an unexpected move, Justice Roberts voted for the bill justifying his reasoning by saying that the Constitution allows Congress to, whether based on actions or inactions, assess taxes. This had great influence in saving the plan from the opposition of the Republicans. In the Senate, the bill has been favored by the majority of Democrats who have supported the bill. While the Republicans consider it an unnecessary and expensive tax, the supporters of Democrats claim that it should not be repealed, since it would take away medical care for millions. Public opinion is divided and is expected to be reflected in the November elections. Republicans are using the opposition for this to rally people against Obama in the re-election. In fact, the plan is tailored to fit with the majority’s requirement and, since it will provide cheaper insurance and health cover for millions, a sizeable number will support it. When Romney tried to tell an audience of voters that the Republicans would do away with Obama’s health reforms, he was booed. This is the evidence that quite a

Indication of Ability Speech or Presentation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Indication of Ability - Speech or Presentation Example It is evidently clear from the discussion that students get one, single day to prove that they understand the necessary concepts of the course material. It doesn’t matter if they might be having an ‘off’ day, or maybe they are coming down with the most recent virus. Schools, even universities, are breeding grounds for viruses and bacteria of all kinds. When one student gets sick, more usually follow.   What about no sleep before the exam? Statistics say that a large number of students get little to no sleep before their exams. Tired brains do not function as well as awake ones, and a certain level of alertness is required in order to complete an exam. How well a student performs throughout the semester sounds like a far better way of deciding who understand the course material and who doesn’t. There is far less stress, which allows the students to act as they normally would. In a study done at the Harvard Medical School in Boston, 128 students were examin ed over a 6-week period. 63 students out of the 128 had special group training sessions to help increase relaxation and reduce stress. At the end of the 6-week period, it was found that the students who received the training had significant reductions in stress and anxiety. The 65 students who did not receive the training had no significant reductions in stress and anxiety. Like everything, there are alternatives and exceptions. Project-based courses are always an option that could be considered as an alternative to exams. The projects can last for the entire semester, giving students plenty of time to do research and put everything together. Because there is such an extended period of time, the stress is minimal, and the learning process continues. There is no cramming or worrying, and the student can actually get the sleep that they need in order to learn in a healthy way.  

Strategy Intent Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Strategy Intent - Essay Example The concept of â€Å"strategic intent† was propounded by Hamel and Prahalad in 1989, which produced rippled effect in the galleries of corporate and strategic management. The over ambition of companies to succeed in all departments of business made them obsessed with the concept of global leadership irrespective of their capabilities; Hamel and Prahalad had given a different name to this desire of corporations to lead worldwide as â€Å"strategic intent†. Different conglomerates phrased their strategic intent like Komatsu gave the title â€Å"Encircle Caterpillar†, Canon initiated â€Å"Beat Xerox†. All these titles show the strategic intent of the companies. Interesting thing perceived in the description of the term by Hamel and Prahalad is elaborating the concept through examples of such companies having a strategic intent. Another important element of the concept is that it is a continuous active management process by corporations with the intention and focus straight on the winning spirit by inspiring employees for attaining targets by communicating with them; it is creating the stimulus for emotional and intellectual exercise to prepare for the future. A comparison between the strategic architecture that Prahalad and Hamel (1990) have discussed in ‘The Core Competence of the Corporation’ with the strategic intent by Hamel and Prahalad (1989) becomes natural. The strategic architecture on the one hand adds new functionalities, new competencies, transformation in current competencies and restructuring of communication with customers while strategic intent is symbolic of the heart of the components of strategic management of corporations. It enlarges to meet the challenges within limited available resources and capabilities. For getting competitive advantage managers are trying different strategies and go to the extent of partnering with

Organizational Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 4

Organizational Analysis - Essay Example Moreover, there are select Nordstrom stores that have furnishing and wedding departments and it is known as one of the most popular fashionable stores in the United States. Nordstrom Inc Company is big in size and has a variety of operating stores in different states. It has 252 stores which function in 34 states which consist of 117 full line stores and 132 Nordstrom Racks (Spector and McCarthy, 2012). The Nordstrom Company has future plans of opening 5 stores in Canada by 2014. The company competes with a number of luxury retailers such as Marcus, Lord and Taylor, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdale’s, and Dillard’s are in competition with Nordstrom’s, but do not carry the same high quality merchandise (Spector and McCarthy, 2012). Nordstrom has the largest number of stores and the largest geographic footprint. All of these retailers offer items such as jewelry, cosmetics, perfume, clothing, shoes, and accessories. Nordstrom is rated as a chief department store in the United States. According to Spector and McCarthy (2012) Nordstrom’s mission statement values the prosperity that diversity contributes to the workforce; thus, efficient service to the clients (Spector and McCarthy, 1996). Nordstrom’s mission is all about supporting their employees in order to give their customers quality services. They are focused in providing outstanding services to their client in order to remain on top. They hire and train the best staff in order to realize their mission of provision of effective service at all times (Spector and McCarthy, 1996). They value both their clients and employees and that is why they will always remain on top of their competitors. The role of the HR in fostering the organization’s mission statement is by hiring qualified staff and equipping them with the right knowledge in order to serve their customers excellently (Spector, 2005). Moreover, the HR can also train the staff occasionally on how to handle their cli entele and treat them with due respect and this will create conducive environment for them to serve the clients well. Moreover, the HR should make sure that the Nordstrom employees are well paid and this will make them feel valued an appreciated and they will do their work of serving customers outstandingly. Nordstrom serves wealthy customers in the United States. It has a highly trained staff that provides customers with superior customer service that no other store can compete on their level. They strive to make every customer’s experience enjoyable and upscale, so that the customer feels as if they are treating themselves upon every visit to the store. Nordstrom’s stocks are inclined to be more fashionable and upscale for their exclusive customers. Nordstrom also offers exceptional delivery on products upon request from a customer. Nordstrom’s carries a wide-ranging inventory on its floor, offering choices for men, women, and children (Spector and McCarthy, 2 012). Nordstrom faces challenges just like other retailers face in the current retail climate. Their number one challenge would be the downturn in the economy particularly because Nordstrom sells high end products. Nonetheless, Nordstrom is able to meet this challenge head on by making a customer’s experience rousing and fashionable, so as the clients feel owned y the organization’s management (Spector, 2005). One big challenge being faced by Nordstrom is the economy. This is forcing the HR department

Answer 4 discussion questions as instructed below Assignment

Answer 4 discussion questions as instructed below - Assignment Example The advantages of placing the C-arm fluoroscopy at different angles with regards to the patient, for example, either under/over/lateral, is that it offers an appropriate way to facilitate minimal exposure to the radio waves. The level of success in any C-arm fluoroscopy procedure performed is contingent on the proficiency of the doctor involved and the pathoanatomic characteristics of the patient. The benefit is that it offers minimally invasive procedures for the treatment being carried out. Reducing occupational exposure is achieved via the use of garments having components of lead metallic elements. Lead metal is known to be effective in shielding from radioactive components, for instance, like in this case x-rays. The TV monitors and control cart are utilized for cross sectional examination of two images to provide a comparison for the technologist. The equipment are flexible in hardware structure and can be rotated or flipped to provide a preferred view. Mobile fluoroscopy with supported digital imaging which offers still images is essential for therapists to analyze and compare data collected. The foot pedal allows the physician or any approved equipment operator to have hands-free operation of the C-arm machine. A completely equipped and automatic foot pedal has added functionality to offer flexible operations and movement within the examination room. Radiation safety is essential for all the individuals involved or affiliated to the operations of the portable x-ray machines. It is advisable for all the persons and staff who remain in the radiography room to wear a lead apron. A minimum distance of 6 feet (approximately 2m) is suitable for all operators involved to minimize the exposure that comes with the procedures. Delicate organs like the gonads ought to be protected from the radioactive elements. The level of exposure is greatly dependent on the distance from exposure point, thus,

Reviewing Films Depicting Supremacy of Artificial Intelligence Essay Example for Free

Reviewing Films Depicting Supremacy of Artificial Intelligence Essay There is without a shadow of a doubt that we are now living in a time when there is almost nothing we cannot accomplish. The outbreak of high technology all around the world is soaring, and day by day, improvements on what is already highly intelligent devices are being developed. From computers, to cellular phones, to MP3 players, everything has been made accesible to man. Because of this technology, man can bask in his creations and marvel at the genius that he has invented through the years. Half a decade ago, todays technology wouldnt have even been deemed as possible. Yesteryears most advanced technological developers probably wouldnt have even dreamed of the possibilities of what we now have today. But such is the development of the human mind: our intelligence is further developing and increasing, being able to establish new concepts and ideas to be used for our own benefits. Indeed, with this highly advanced technology, we are further establishing ourselves as the dominant species of the planet. For us, we are in charge of our own destinies, and no species of another kind can tell us otherwise. But one is lead to ponder about the marvels of our own creations. What if the articifial intelligence we created were able to evolve themselves? What if these computers suddenly became self-aware, and starts acknowledging its own existence? It is true that we are the one who controls the technology, but what if the technology were able to control itself? If it became self-aware, what if, all of a sudden, it starts to refuse to follow its human creators? And if not the computers themselves, what if one person controlling these technologies started using them for their own ulterior motives? With our main defenses relying on technological advances, what if these advances were suddenly used against us? Would the humans still be able to lay its claim as the rulers of the earth when a something else establishes themselves as more intelligent and dominant? Such is the fear that some of us have: the fear of having our own technology turned against us. We fear the idea that perhaps someday, these computers that we have in our homes would become intelligent enough to start recognizing its own existence. In the early nineties, technophobia became rampant among the adults, although this fear was largely based on the misconceptions on computers being too overly complicated. Still, for some people, the advancements in technology is reason for them to be cautious about our own inventions. Creating Technopobia in Movies Since early in the 1980s, there have been a string of movies depicting highly advanced technology being used woefully and without any regard towards others. These movies often show state-of-the-art gadgets or creations, which are used against the protagonists to further cause ruin and devastation. Oftentimes these gadgets are used for the wrong reasons, and with its infinite possibilities, it creates the fear that maybe what we have created may not be totally beneficial to us, and could possibly create more harm than help in the long run. Perhaps the most popular among the movies that came out during the eighties that depicted this theme was the 1984 movie Terminator, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as a human cyborg sent back in time. In the future, Skynet, a computer system fights a losing war against the humans who built it, and who it nearly exterminated. Just before being destroyed, Skynet sends a Terminator back in time to kill Sarah, the mother to be of John Connor, the Leader of the human resistance. The terminator can pass for human, is nearly indestructible, and has only one mission: killing Sarah Connor. One soldier is sent back to protect her from the killing machine. He must find Sarah before the Terminator can carry out its mission (MGM. com). This movie portrays Skynet as a super computer, one that is capable to making decisions for itself. The super computer becomes self-aware, and recognizes the human race as a threat to its existence. It therefore wages a war against all of mankind, which almost led to the anniliation of the entire planet. In 1998, the movie Enemy of the State provided a different insight on abusing highly advanced technology. Robert Dean, the main character of the story, is just a successful and gutsy labor lawyer when he runs into an old college friend who was a big hurry. Unknown to him, that friend secretly drops a disc and viewer containing footage of a political assassination overseen by the senior advisor to the National Security Agency. Unfortunately, that politician soon learns what Dean has in his possession and secretly uses the vast resources of the NSA to find, investigate and stop him before he goes public. Soon, Dean finds himself on the run, with his assests frozen, his loved ones watched and actively hunted by NSA agents using all the survellience technology they have available. Not knowing what is going, Dean must stay one step ahead while trying to figure out the cause of this mess (Yahoo! Movies). This movie dwells on the idea of government surveillance and the invasion of our personal privacy by the government. We see from the movie that these technological advances could be easily used against us, and just as it could make our lives easier, it could also make it extremely difficult. We also find that if technology were to be used the wrong way, then those in power could have a commanding control over our very lives. Another movie that depicted computers going against humans was the highly acclaimed The Matrix. Thomas A. Anderson is a man living two lives: by day he is an average computer programmer and by night a malevolent hacker known as Neo. Neo has always questioned his reality but the truth is far beyond his imagination. Neo finds himself targeted by the police when he is contacted by Morpheus, a legendary computer hacker branded a terrorist by the government. Morpheus awakens Neo to the real world, a ravaged wasteland where most of humanity have been captured by a race of machines which live off of their body heat and imprison their minds within an artificial reality known as the Matrix. As a rebel against the machines, Neo must return to the Matrix and confront the agents, super powerful computer programs devoted to snuffing out Neo and the entire human rebellion (Whatisthematrix. com). The movie is almost identical to the concept of the Terminator, in which there is a computer mind that becomes self-aware of its own existence. Knowing that it has the power of technology, it sees the human race as disposable, and decides to take over and control the entire world. When Neo met Morpheus, he was awakened to the fact that they were being used by the computer systems as mere batteries to continue sustaining their own power. And it was up to them to reawaken the rest of the world from this nightmare that is the Matrix. The Fear of Control What these three films had in common was theme of technology taking over the human lives. The films shared similar highly advanced technology that in one way was very helpful, but at the other end caused problems that were catastrophic. This is what we are afraid of; that maybe perhaps at some point, our own creations would backfire on us and cause a lot of harm towards society, and it would perhaps be unstoppable when it happens. Perhaps what motivates the persistence of these kinds of themes is the fact that we all know that this fantasy that they try to present could and might become possible in the future. Fifty or so years ago, our technology today wasnt even thought of as possible. A lot of things are being developed today that our predescessors couldnt have possibly dreamed of back in the day. Nowadays, the sky is the limit. The human race is making every dream come to life, developing newer and better technology every single day. So deep inside, we know that this threat of computers taking over is not a long shot. We see that perhaps someday, artificial intelligence would become this advanced as to be self-aware. And if this happens, whats gonna stop them from taking over the world and eliminating the human race? In terms of humans going against fellow humans using technology, we ourselves could be comparable to this technology. Donna Haraway mentions how we are like the cyborgs, which are both part machine and part organism. She further states: In short, we are cyborgs. The cyborg is our ontology; it gives us our politics. The cyborg is a condensed image of both imagination and material reality, the two joined centres structuring any possibility of historical transformation. In the traditions of â€Å"Western† science and politics—the tradition of racist, male- dominant capitalism; the tradition of progress; the tradition of the appropriation of nature as resource for the productions of culture; the tradition of reproduction of the self from the reflections of the other—the relation between organism and machine has been a border war (Harraway, 516). With the peer-to-perr capabilities of networked computer communication today, it is likely to have a major impact on both the film and music business. Depending on how this technology is used, it could have either a postive or negative effect on these industries. Everything could be made easier with technology, films and music could be produced with relative ease, and everything to be made more accesible. On the other hand, changing the sytems could mean doing things a lot different, which could cause a chain reaction among those who are involved. Business could be done more efficiently, but it could leave people out of jobs. Human work might be replaced by much more efficient computers doing their jobs, and that could have an effect on the economy of the country. Looking back, technology has certainly come along way since back in the old days, when all of this conveniences didnt exist. It is easy to picture people being intimidated by these advancements, due to its infinite potential. Depending on how it is used, it could be very good for all of us, or it could be catastrophic to all. Only time will tell whether these technological improvements would come back to haunt us in the long run. Works Cited Enemy of the State. Yahoo! Movies. Retrieved 3 June 2008 from http://movies. yahoo. com/shop? d=hvcf=infoid=1800021531 Haraway, Donna. â€Å"A Cyborg Manifesto. † The New Media Reader (1985). pp. 515-541. The Matrix Trilogy. Whatisthematrix. com. Retrieved 3 June 2008 from http://whatisthematrix. warnerbros. com/ The Terminator. MGM. com. Retrieved 3 June 2008 from http://www. mgm. com/title_title. php? title_star=TERMINAT

Most Common Form Of Sexual Activity Essay Example for Free

Most Common Form Of Sexual Activity Essay Introduction As depicted in Salvador Dalis The Great Masturbator, masturbation is a fascinating and complex topic that affects each of us differently. Despite almost universal agreement by medical doctors that masturbation is a normal, safe, and common practice, masturbation continues to be associated with embarrassment, shame, and guilt, primarily due to societal perceptions of the act. Yet masturbation is a common and natural function that is practiced by individuals of all sexual orientations, genders, and ages. Masturbation is defined as sexual self-pleasuring that involves self-stimulation. According to recent studies, 97% of men and 83% of women have masturbated at some point in their lives. That is an increase from the 1950s Kinsey Report, which reported that 92% of men and 58% of women have masturbated. Although masturbation is statistically quite prevalent, it is still viewed by society as a taboo subject. Historical Background While there are no direct references to masturbation in cave paintings or other prehistoric artifacts, the practice of masturbation by Bonobo chimpanzees, which share 98.4% percent of our DNA, provides some confirmation that masturbation has likely been practiced since the dawn of mankind. The Ancient World In the ancient world, depictions of male masturbation are relatively common. The Egyptians, for example, celebrated masturbation as the process by which the sun god, Atum, created the first Adam and Eve equivalents, Shu and Tefnut. With the hand of God, Atum masturbated and brought forth the first pair of souls. The Sumerians, who invented the first written Western language, make reference to the Mesopotamian god Enki masturbating, his ejaculation filling the Tigris River with flowing water. Condemnation of masturbation is as old as fertility-worship and is probably based on early man’s realization that there is safety in numbers. A bigger tribe is more likely to gain new territory and expand its power base. In theory, this is this reason that any form of sexual pleasure unlikely to result in a population increase (e.g. masturbation, homosexuality, oral/anal sex) has routinely been denounced as wrong. While in today’s overpopulated world this rationale no longer makes logical sense, this belief structure continues to drive the moral attitudes of many people. In the Judeo-Christian tradition prevalent throughout Western society, the main Scripture quoted by Christians to denounce masturbation is Genesis 38. In biblical times, under Jewish law, a brother was required to procreate with his brothers widow. Onan of Judah refused, and spilled his seed (i.e. ejaculate), on the ground instead. This is the origin of the term Onanism (The Sin of Onan) which is incorrectly used in place of masturbation — in fact, what really happened was premature withdrawal (i.e. coitus interruptus). 18th 19th Centuries It was primarily during the 1700s and 1800s when masturbation was first associated with mental and physical deficiencies. Some prominent physicians, scientists, philosophers, and religious leaders believed that illnesses such as insanity, vision and hearing problems, epilepsy, mental retardation, and general health problems were caused by self-stimulation. In fact, over 60% of medical and mental illnesses were blamed on masturbation. The fear of masturbation was so great that throughout the world, extreme preventative measures were instituted including the use of mechanical restraints, genital surgery, and physical discipline. By the 19th century the cereal magnate John Harvey Kellogg declared sex for anything but reproduction to be sexual excess. Kellogg and others began advocating routine circumcision of males as a deterrent to masturbation. 20th Century In the 20th Century, individuals within the medical community began questioning whether or not masturbation was independent from the various psychiatric and medical illnesses to which it was historically linked. During the 1950s and 1960s, with greater discussion of sex and sexuality and lessening conservative social attitudes along with greater medical research on the topic of masturbation, the thought that the act of self-stimulation is associated with medical and mental illnesses dissipated. Beginning with the Kinsey Report of 1948, masturbation was demystified and even discovered to be beneficial. In 1966, Masters Johnson (see photo) revealed the practice to be virtually universal in North America, cutting across all boundaries of sex, age, race, and social class. In 1971 Goldstein, Haeberle McBride determined masturbation to be the most common form of sexual activity among humans. Today It is clear that masturbation has had a dynamic and varied history. It now almost universally accepted by the medical community that masturbation is a common, safe, and normal practice which occurs in infants, teenagers, and adults. Despite this new attitude, the actual practice and discussion of masturbation continues to be a social taboo within most societies. Former Surgeon General Jocelyn Elder was immediately dismissed by President Clinton in 1994 after she stated that masturbation â€Å"is something that is part of human sexuality and its part of something that perhaps should be taught.† Facts and Figures 1. Masturbation is not evil, dirty or harmful it will not make you go blind, drive you insane, turn you in to a pervert, stunt your growth, give you an STD, make you sterile or get you pregnant. 2. Both guys and girls masturbate, it is a normal and healthy part of sexual development. 3. Masturbation is a very personal thing and should not be done in public places or around people who are not willing partners (think safer sex activity). 4. You are normal if you masturbate, normal if you wonder about it but dont do it, and normal if you never give it a second thought and dont do it it is one of the few things in life that is normal if you do and normal if you dont. 5. Masturbation may make sexual intercourse more enjoyable because you will already know what it takes to please you. 6. Masturbation alleviates stress and releases endorphens (the pleasure hormones) in to your system making you more relaxed. 7. Masturbation as exploration of the body is common in children between the ages of 3 and 6, in teens masturbation becomes more sophisticated and sexually motivated. 8. Surveys have shown that 80% of males and 59% of females have masturbated by age 18. 9. Many experts believe that masturbation is more prevalent in the teen years due to a strong fluctuation of hormones; masturbation alleviates the strain of this build up and is a necessary part of development. 10. The only real problems that come with masturbation are psychological and are the result of unhealthy or weary attitudes toward doing it (if you do it but are ashamed) or abnormal practices (for example, public masturbation). Biblical View. One of the most prevalent rationalizations that people use is that the Bible never mentions masturbation and that it must therefore be alright. Is that logical? Is child molestation alright then? Its not specifically forbidden in the Bible. How about shooting heroin? Or how about torturing someone? Not mentioned! You see how illogical the argument quickly becomes. The most obvious biblical principle that is applicable to masturbation is found in Mt 5:28 where Jesus indicates that lusting after someone in the heart is the same as actually doing it. I am violating whomever I am picturing in my mind during the act of masturbation. It really doesnt matter whether it is a picture from a magazine, (Those are real people!), or someone Ive met or a memory of some act committed in the past. And if I can discipline my mind to think of no one, what of that? Attainment of such focus only serves to make obvious the desperation and obsession that drives us to such lengths. The principles found in 1 Cor 6:12; and Rom 6:14 clearly emerge as foundational to our plight that we are slaves to whatever masters us. When we get truly honest about the habit of masturbation, it is clear that it is a behavior that controls us one that we use to medicate pain, to alleviate stress or to forget rejection. In that way, it is similar to a drug habit just one more vehicle to avoid turning to God. Why wont we turn to God? We may be ashamed. We may believe that Hes going to judge and punish us. We may not trust Him. Or, it simply may never occur to us. We dont normally see God as being involved in the fulfillment of our sexual lives. Hes a Spirit after all and we are physical creatures. And yet, He is in fact the answer to every problem. He can quench our unholy desire and He can teach us to respond to problems by working through them rather than from running from them. Masturbating cultivates yearnings for sensations that differ from those generated by intercourse. Ju st how destructive to heterosexual relations this becomes will vary from person to person. Even in the mildest case, however, it would seem inevitable that masturbating when single will detract from one’s future enjoyment of, and appreciation of, the uniqueness of heterosexual relations. It is not uncommon for people to find themselves so addicted to solitary sex that they actually prefer it to heterosexual relations and it is even more common for people feel they at least occasionally need the unique sensations that solitary sex offers, despite having an eager sex partner readily available. Nevertheless, suppose your marriage partner somehow manages to fluke giving you sensations so like what masturbation has trained you to crave and expect that you do not actually find yourself preferring solo sex. Even then, your mind has been trained to connect those feelings not with intimacy with your marriage partner but with having sex with yourself. Want it or not, masturbation programs your mind to think of sexual feelings not as a precious gift from your partner, but as something you have generated yourself. So what will come flooding into your mind when your partner lovingly gives you those feelings will tend to be not thoughts of how wonderful your partner is, but of how much pleasure you used to give yourself. Despite what is actually happening, your mind will tend to register the sensations not as coming from your life partner but as if they were produced by yourself. Feelings that should be binding you to your marriage partner have already been locked in your mind as being associated with having sex with yourself. When making love, your mind will consciously and unconsciously flit from what is currently happening between you and your partner to what used to happen when you had solitary sex. For example, if your past history of masturbation had trained your mind to associate sexual feelings with fantasizing about an imaginary partner, that is what your mind will drift to, even though you now have a real partner who does not correspond exactly to your imaginary partner. Even if your partner somehow manages to exceed the heights of what you used to experience in solitary sex, masturbation will have cheapened the most precious sensual gift your partner could ever give you, to being something only ten or so percent more pleasurable than what you used to give yourself. Past masturbation will have robbed you of so much of the â€Å"magic† and bonding power of marital relations, thus weakening your marriage. Church View Roman Catholic The Catholic Church teaches that Masturbation constitutes a grave moral disorder and that both the Magisterium of the Church—in the course of a constant tradition—and the moral sense of the faithful have declared without hesitation that masturbation is an intrinsically and seriously disordered act. Although it is said that psychology and sociology show that masturbation is a normal phenomenon of sexual development, especially among the young, this does not change the fact that it is an intrinsically and seriously disordered act and that, whatever the motive for acting this way, the deliberate use of the sexual faculty outside normal conjugal relations essentially contradicts the finality of the faculty. For it lacks the sexual relationship called for by the moral order, namely the relationship which realizes the full sense of mutual self-giving and human procreation in the context of true love.' This is because the deliberate use of the sexual faculty outside of marriag e is, according to the teaching of the Church, contrary to its primary purpose of procreation and unification of the husband and wife within the sacrament of marriage. In addition, the Church teaches that all other sexual activity—including masturbation, homosexual acts, acts of sodomy, all sex outside of or before marriage, and the use of any form of contraception or birth control—is gravely disordered, as it frustrates the natural order, purpose, and ends of sexuality. To form an equitable judgment about the subjects moral responsibility and to guide pastoral action, one must take into account the affective immaturity, force of acquired habit, conditions of anxiety or other psychological or social factors that lessen, if not even reduce to a minimum, moral culpability. The traditional view of masturbation has been consistent for almost all of the Catholic Churchs 2,000-year history. Early Catholic theologians universally condemned both masturbation and contraception as sinful. One such example is Clement of Alexandria, considered a saint and a Church Father, who said of masturbation, Because of its divine institution for the propagation of man, the seed is not to be vainly ejaculated, nor is it to be damaged, nor is it to be wasted.. St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the most prominent Doctors of the Roman Catholic Church, wrote in the 13th century that masturbation was an unnatural vice which is a species of lust as bad as bestiality, sodomy, and pederasty, and that it by procuring pollution , without any copulation, for the sake of venereal pleasure pertains to the sin of uncleanness which some call effeminacy However, after a study commissioned by the Catholic Theological Society of America in 1972, a number of dissident Catholic theologians have come to hold that an act of masturbation should not be judged as an objective moral evil, but assessed within the life context of the person involved. Protestant Theologians toward the middle of the 20th century began revising previous teachings, and some today even take pro-masturbation viewpoints. Some view it as an act of self-indulgence and even a sin of the flesh, and believe that the practice is principally considered a sin because of its invitation to lust. Those who view it within the range of allowable sexual behavior encourage it as guard against adultery, pre-marital sex, or other forms of non-allowable sexual behavior, and as a method of balancing differing libidos between spouses. Arguments Masturbation decreases rather than increases vice. Objection 1: Masturbation is a squandering of human time and physical energy that could otherwise be used for Godly worship, self-improvement, or good works. Objection 2: Masturbation inflames carnal lusts, leading to worse sexual vices. Objection 3: As an indulgence of physical appetite, masturbation encourages indulgence of other appetites, such as gluttony. Reply to Objection 1: It is said that idle hands are the devils workshop. Insofar as masturbation occupies the onanist, it prevents him from engaging in vicious or destructive acts. Reply to Objection 2: Rather than inflaming carnal lust, masturbation dissipates it by a harmless release of sexual tensions. In doing so, it removes, rather than proliferates, the driving force that motivates acts of sexual vice. Reply to Objection 3: Pent up libido will seek relief through other channels, and without the relief of masturbation, might well find its expression through the satiation of other appetites such as gluttony, gambling, and other material vices. Masturbation is a salutary use of the reproductive organs and does not conflict with reproductive sex. Objection 1: Masturbation enervates the sexual organs. Objection 2: In the male, masturbation wastes sperm that would otherwise be used for conception. Objection 3: By providing an alternative release of sexual energies, masturbation cheapens and may even diminish the physical gratification to be found in reproductive intercourse. Reply to Objection 1: Masturbation exercises the sexual organs and assures that they are in good working order. It prevents stagnation of fluids and atrophy of tissues, and in the male, increases the quality of sperm by stimulating the production of fresh gametes. Reply to Objection 2: Science has shown that regular and frequent ejaculations increase the quality of a males sperm by stimulating the production of fresh and healthy gametes. Therefore men who masturbate regularly are more likely to father a child. Thusly, the spilt semen is but a sacrifice toward a more favorable chance of achieving conception. Reply to Objection 3: Especially in the case of women, by demonstrating the range of possible sexual pleasure that one is capable of experiencing, masturbation encourages one to enter into a sexual relationship with confidence in ones own sexuality, and with the expectation of a positive experience. Masturbation makes a positive contribution to human society. Objection 1: Masturbation is most often a solitary, private and antisocial act, and is therefore contrary to human interaction and community. Objection 2: As a act of self-gratification and self-indulgence, masturbation encourages selfishness and promotes the tendency to put ones own needs first above others. Objection 3: As a form of self-love, masturbation engenders narcissism, pride, and self-regard, which are detrimental to forming human relationships. Reply to Objection 1: Masturbation is an activity in which all sexually mature humans may engage, therefore it can serve as a commonality upon which to build understanding amongst those of differing nationalities, viewpoints, etc. Reply to Objection 2: After engaging in masturbation, an individual will be in a relaxed, fulfilled, and pleasant mood, and therefore more apt to extend charity and good will toward others. Reply to Objection 3: The act of masturbation can give a sense of mastery, self-confidence, and ownership of ones body. Healthy self-esteem and a clear sense of self are necessary for healthy emotional bonds. Bibliography * http://www.afraidtoask.com/masturbate/Introduction.htm * http://www.afraidtoask.com/masturbate/History.htm * http://teenadvice.about.com/library/bl10thingsmasturbation.htm * http://www.net-burst.net/christian-help/christian-masturbation.htm * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_on_masturbation *

Criteria For Performance Excellence Business Essay

Criteria For Performance Excellence Business Essay The Baldrige framework benefits any organization whether it is starting a journey toward performance excellence or fine-tuning its current improvement efforts. Use of the Baldrige framework leads organizations to identify industry best practices guided by feedback provided by experts. Thus organizations using the this framework improve and align processes, go for measurement and analysis, and strategic planning, further leading to better decision making, stronger leadership, and greater organizational alignment and success. Criteria for performance excellence The Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence provide a systems perspective for understanding performance management. They reflect validated, leading-edge management practices against which an organization can measure itself. With their acceptance nationally and internationally as the model for performance excellence, the Criteria represent a common language for communication among organizations for sharing best practices. The Criteria are also the basis for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award process. The Baldrige criteria form an excellent model of Total Quality Management (TQM). The criteria are divided into seven key categories: Leadership Strategic Planning Customer Focus Measurement, Analysis, and Knowledge Management Workforce Focus Process Management Results Each category is scored based on the approach used to address the category, how well it is deployed throughout the organization, the cycles of learning generated, and its level of integration within the organization. An excellent way to improve your TQM maturity is to use the criteria as a self-assessment and then compare your organizations methods and processes with winners of the Baldrige award. An integral part of the Baldrige process is for winners to share non proprietary information from their applications so you have a ready-made benchmark for your organizations TQM maturity. As part of our assignment we would focus on the category 4 that is Measurement, Analysis and Knowledge Management and category 5 which is Workforce Focus. Category 4: Measurement, Analysis and Knowledge Management The Measurement, Analysis, and Knowledge Management category looks at how an organization uses data to improve its operations. This includes how data is gathered, analyzed, managed as well as the use of information technology. This category holds 90 points. These 90 points are further divided into two parts which are Measurement, Analysis, and Improvement of Organizational Performance (45 pts.) that is how do you measure, analyze, and then improve organizational performance? And Management of Information, Knowledge, and Information Technology (45 pts): that is how do you manage your information, organizational knowledge, and information technology? The division and sub- division of category 4 can be illustrated in the diagram below: 4.1: Measurement, Analysis, and Improvement of Organizational Performance: This item examines your organizations selection and use of data and information for performance measurement, analysis, and review in support of organizational planning and performance improvement. It serves as a central collection and analysis point in an integrated performance measurement and management system that relies on financial and nonfinancial data and information. Its aim is to guide your organizations process management toward the achievement of key organizational results and strategic objectives, to anticipate and respond to rapid or unexpected organizational or external changes, and to identify best practices that may be shared. Performance Measurement Here it is mostly about how the organisation select, collect, align and integrate data fro tracking daily operations and overall organisational performance. These include progress related to strategic objectives and action plans. They should identify the key organisational performance measures, both long term and short term financial measures. The frequency of tracking these measures as well as how they use this information to support corporate decision making and innovation should be included. Alignment and integration are key concepts for successful implementation and use of your performance measurement system. They are viewed in terms of the extent and effectiveness of their use to meet your performance assessment and improvement needs and your strategy development and execution; it also include how the performance measurement requirements are deployed by senior leader to track group work and process- level performance. Baldrige also lays emphasis on the use of comparative data and information to know the organisational needs to know where they stand compared to competitors and the best practices. Comparative performance projections may reveal organisational challenges as where innovation is needed. It may also support business analysis and decisions relating to core competences, partnering and outsourcing. Another point is customer data. Here it is about how the organisation makes use of the voice-of customer data and information to support operational and strategic decision making and innovation. The goal is to achieve customer engagement. Voice of customer can be in terms of customer complaints and feedback for services to improve offerings. Measurement agility is about how you ensure that your performance measurement system is able to respond to fast pace growing, unexpected, or external changes. Performance Analysis and review Here it is about how the organisation reviews and analyses organisational performance and capabilities. How they use these information to assess organisational success, competitive performance, financial health, and progress relative to strategic objectives and action plans. Also how the organisation uses the information to assess its ability to respond quickly to the changing organisational needs and challenges in the operating environment. Performance Improvement Here is about how the findings from reviews are used for lesson learnt and best practice sharing across departments to improve performances. It also includes how the competitive and comparative data is used to project future performance. Also, how these information are used for continual improvement and identify opportunities for innovation. How these are deployed to workgroup, functional-level operations, suppliers, partners and collaborators to ensure organisational alignment. 4.2: Management of information, Knowledge, and Information Technology This item examines how your organization ensures the quality and availability of needed data, information, software, and hardware for your workforce, suppliers and partners, collaborators, and customers, normally and in the event of an emergency. It also examines how your organization builds and manages its knowledge assets. The aim is to improve organizational efficiency and effectiveness and to stimulate innovation. Data, information , and knowledge management This section lays emphasis on the different properties that the organisation should focus on. That is, how do they manage organisational data, information and knowledge to ensure accuracy, integrity and reliability, timeliness and security and confidentiality? Also how you make data and information available to your stakeholders that is workforce, suppliers, partners, collaborators, and customers. MBNQA also lays emphasis on knowledge management that is how do you manage organizational knowledge to accomplish the collection and transfer of workforce knowledge, the transfer of relevant knowledge from and to customers, suppliers, partners, and collaborators, the rapid identification, sharing, and implementation of best practices, the assembly and transfer of relevant knowledge for use in your innovation and strategic planning processes Management of information resources and technology It deals with how you ensure that hardware and software are reliable, secure, and user-friendly. In the event of an emergency, how do you ensure the continued availability of hardware and software systems and the continued availability of data and information to effectively serve customers and business needs? Category5: Workforce focus 5.1 Workforce Environment 5.2 Workforce Engagement Research has brought evidence that high level of psychological well-being and employee engagement play a central role in delivering some of the important outcomes that are associated with successful, high performing organisations. (Robertson and Cooper, 2009). In an interview by Bob Gorman from Robert E. Gorman Communication, Ray Baumruk from Hewitt Associates (2006) talks about three interesting general behaviours that characterise engaged employees. These are: Say: the employee advocates for the organisation to co-workers and refers potential employees and customers. Stay: the employee has an intense desire to be a member of the organisation despite opportunities to work elsewhere. Strive: the employee exerts extra time, effort and initiative to contribute to the success of the business. Workforce Performance. To achieve workforce performance it is vital for managers or leaders to firstly understand the elements inhibiting engagement within employees through workforce surveys and focus groups for instance. An organisational culture that works towards achieving workforce engagement should be created to eliminate those inhibiting elements. In an article written by Krugel (ManpowerGroup Russia CIS) published by the Moscow Times (February 2013), four areas of action are recommended for immediate managers to enhance workforce performance: Communicate! Help your people understand change. Conversations make change management possible since they clear out doubts and confusions employees may have. Managers cannot assume that employees understand; employees should know what exactly is expected from them, what is the organisations mission, how they contribute to meeting customers needs and what is the business strategy. Provide learning and development opportunities. Employees may feel less secured and frustrated by a sudden reduction of workforce or by major changes in the workplace. Hence they worry about their future in the organisation. The same situation is faced by employees who are asked to take on new responsibilities. A solution to this could be to show such employees you are committed to them by providing them with learning and  career development opportunities. Empower your people. Managing change often means learning to  manage differently. This implies changing the traditional command and control modes of management to respond to the needs of a diverse workforce and to retain employees with specialised skills. According to  ManpowerGroup Surveys, engagement is positively impacted when employees are empowered to  succeed. Therefore everyone should be treated with respect, their opinions counted, encouraged to  take ownership of  their work and  provided with the  authority they need to  do their job well by managers or leaders. Organise work processes to minimize stress. Engagement impacts on productivity and empirical evidence from the ManpowerGroup Russia CIS research shows that engagement is strongly impacted by the appropriateness of  an employees workload, by  the pressure he or she experiences at  work, and  by his or her ability to  balance work with family life and  personal interests. Hence too much pressure on employees and high demands from them will lead to their low engagement and poor productivity. Managers should play a  significant role in  engaging their employees. They should at least recognise that emphasizing balance could actually lead to  higher productivity. This could be achieved by optimizing work processes. Assessment of Workforce Engagement. Organisations should make use of indicators showing workforce engagement to assess how engaged their employees are. For instance, the institute for employment studies (IES) carried out extensive research on defining and measuring engagement and identifying engagement drivers. In 2004, the IES came out with a report on the Drivers of Employee Engagement and according to the report, an engaged employee: believes in the organisation works to make it better understands business context and the bigger picture respects colleagues and helps others is willing to go the extra mile Therefore the latter brings business benefits. Moreover, according to Smythe (2007 cited in Certificate in Internal Communication, 2008) engagement is quite a recent development of older theories of motivation and communication which originates from social psychology. Hence classic theories of employee motivation such as McGregors Theory X and Y (1960), Hertzberg Two Factors'(1966), Alderfer s ERG Theory (1969) and Maslows hierarchy of needs (1943) could be used as indicators of engagement. Others, such as absenteeism rate, workforce retention, grievances, safety and productivity could also help to assess employee engagement. All these factors should be linked to business results and analysed so as to make improvements to workforce engagement and business results. Workforce and Leader Development. Each organisation may have its own workforce development, learning and career development systems. Nowadays knowledge is a critical business asset, hence organisations should do their best to capture and retain that knowledge which is significantly stored is employees minds. A set of core and complementary HR practices were proposed by Evans(2003) namely competency framework, recruitment and selection, induction, performance management, reward and recognition, resource management, learning environment, training and development, career development, and retention. In fact all these HR aspects are essential to achieve organisational performance. Training and development needs of both the leaders and the employees should be identified. Self-directedness in learning has been recognised by various authors as having an important role to play in the competitiveness of enterprises in the 1990s (Smith et al. 2007) and hence should not be ignored. According to a recent BusinessWeek.com/Hay Group survey, the twenty best companies in leadership share some common characteristics. They address leadership development from various dimensions, from articulating how leadership behaviour needs to change to meet the challenges of the future to managing their pools of successors for mission-critical roles and make leadership their top priority despite of bad situations. Baldrige and Other models There are different alternatives to achieve the Total Quality Management implementation for instance, the ISO standards, the Malcolm Baldrige model and the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Excellence Model. The first quality model was established in Japan. Business Excellence model is a crucial mechanism for refining the performance of organisations, along with national competitiveness. The EFQM model The EFQM is a non- profit foundation created in 1988 by fourteen leading European organisations with the aim to become the leading force of excellence in Europe. Nowadays, EFQM has a population of 30000 members across the world. This model is similar to excellence models used in Japan (the Deming prize) and America (the Malcolm Baldrige). EFQM is a model used for self-assessment that an organisation of any size can use by applying the criteria. EFQM provides assistance to understand the gaps and to find the appropriate solution. This model is updated every three years to ensure if it corporates with the current environment. The European Quality Award (EQA) was established in 1992 with the aim to encourage and access the development of quality improvement activities and also to identify the business excellence companies in Europe. The EFQM provides for guidance through 3 important components: The Fundamental Concept of Excellence The Criteria The Radar The Fundamental Concept of Excellence Achieving Balanced Results It is a must for any organisation trying to achieve excellence to meet their mission and progress towards the vision set and also to meet both the short and long term needs of stakeholders. Adding Value for customers Due to fast moving trend customers will be attracted to innovating and creative organisation. Leading with vision, Inspiration and Integrity The leaders must act as role model to shape others so as to achieve the targeted aim. Managing by processes The main vein of organisation is the processes. It must be managed in a structured manner to generate stable and continuous results. Succeeding through people The organisation must value the talents of its employees and encourage them to participate in the empowerment projects for the company to achieve organisational goals. Nurturing Creativity and Innovation Organisation generates increased value and levels of performance through continual improvement and systematic innovation by joining the creativity of their stakeholders. Building Partnerships Organisation maintains good relationship with various partners that can contribute to success. Taking responsibilities for a sustainable future A good culture must prevail and processes must be ethical as consumers are attracted to such company. The Criteria The Enabler Criteria: Leadership This relates to the behaviours that the leaders adopt to facilitate the achievement of mission and vision. People The organisation helps to improve the skills of the employees and promote justice and equality. In addition they cater for the proper communication and rewarding people. Strategy The organisation reviews its mission and vision and implements it with the concept of continuous improvement. Partnership and Resources It refers how the organisation manages and develops its external partnerships and internal resources so as to accomplish the mission. Processes, Products and Services This is related how the organisation designs, manages its processes with the intention of satisfying its stakeholders. The Results Criteria: People Results Excellent organisations systematically measure and achieve outstanding results that meet or exceed the needs and expectation of their people. Customer Results Measures what the organisation is doing to meet the expectation of its targeted customers. Society Results It is concerned with what the organisation is achieving in satisfying the needs and expectations of relevant stakeholders within the society. Key Results This determines the success of the organisations strategy and the satisfaction of stakeholders. The Radar This model can be used to assess the current capabilities of the organisation. Meaning that, the organisation can know its strengths and opportunities by performing the RADAR. The application of the RADAR logic helps an organisation to: Determine the Results it is targeting to accomplish as part of its policy and strategy making process. Plan and Develop an integrated set of sound Approaches to deliver the required results both now and in the future. Deploy the approaches in an efficient way to ensure implementation. Assess and Review the approaches by monitoring and analysing the results achieved through ongoing activities. Comparison between the MBNQA and EFQM: Both are results oriented awards Both the awards give maximum weight to customer satisfaction results The European Quality Award include the impact of society as one of its criteria while Baldrige covers this point in the leadership criteria The Baldrige Awards does not include the financial performance whereas the European Awards in broad-based due to the inclusion of financial performance. Analysis The 4th criterion of Baldrige which is the Measurement, Analysis and the Knowledge Management is similar to the Radar which is the Assess and Review approaches and their deployment. Both models lay emphasis on measuring and analysing past performance in order to improve their processes to achieve the desired results. Besides, the Knowledge Management focuses on the knowledge that employees will need to increase their performance together with the improvement of the processes so as to bring innovative solutions. Moreover, Baldrige and EFQM criteria help the organisation to know where it actually stands compared to its rivals and also where there is scope for improvement to reduce the gaps in their processes and performances. The Workforce focus criterion of Baldrige can be compared to that of the People criteria in EFQM. The similarity between both is that they take into consideration the importance of an effective working environment for supporting their personnel. The crucial concept is to have a motivating workforce for the achievement of organisational and personal goals. Both models lay emphasis on compensating and rewarding the workforce. Such actions will motivate people which will result for benefiting the organisation as many studies have shown that motivated employees generate positive impact on the organisations performance. ISO 9001:2008 ISO 9001:2008 Certification has been in place for over a decade now. Both customers and companies use ISO 9001:2008 as a method of controlling their quality. ISO 9001:2008 is an international standard for quality management system. The standard provides a framework to manage your business and ensure a common sense approach to the management of your business activities to consistently achieve customer satisfaction by providing a set of principles to the company. The eight principles are: Customer focus organization It is where the organization depends on their customers and therefore the organization need to shape activities around the fulfillment of market need. Leadership Leadership is needed in order to provide unity of purpose and also a direction. Involvement of people The organization should create an environment where people become fully involved in achieving the organizational objectives. Process approach In order to achieve organizational objectives, resources and activities need to be managed as processes. Systems approach to management The effectiveness and efficiency of an organization depends on a systemized approach to work activities. Continual improvement An organization key objective is to adopt continual improvement as a part of everyday culture. Factual approach to decision making Effective decisions are based on the logical and intuitive analysis of data and factual information. Mutually beneficial supplier relationships Such relationship between an organization and its supplier will enhance the ability to create value for both of them. The above eight principles are structured into the following 5 major section with reduced documentation requirements with high emphasis on continual improvement and customer satisfaction. Quality management system Management responsibility Resource management Product realization Measurement, analysis and improvement ISO 9001:2008 and Baldrige Just like baldrige provides a category on workforce, in the same way ISO 9001:2008 provides a section on resource management. However the main difference is that baldrige provides quantifiable data whose weightage is 85 points and it allows an organization to self-assess itself whereas ISO does not allow to self-assessment and also ISO allows you to have part of your organization to be ISO certified because of economic reason whereas with baldrige this is not possible. Section 6 of ISO 9001:2008 Resource management Section 6 of ISO 9001:2008 consists of resource management which relates to resource needed for an organization which includes human resource, hardware and software. However baldrige talks about assessing your workforce capability and capacity needs. Section 6.1 provision of resources, here resources can be in terms of manpower or machine. The organization must determine and ensure that the determined resources are available. It should be ensured that the implantation maintain and continually improve the effectiveness of ISO 9001 system and make sure that customer are satisfied whereas baldrige focus on how to recruit and retain your workforce. 6.2 human resources; is another critical resource for an organization and therefore ISO 9001 emphasis on human resource competency and training but baldrige makes sure that you organize and manage your workforce. According to the general requirement people who are performing the task will directly or indirectly affect the conformity of product requirement. Therefore the workforce must be competent base on education, training, knowledge, skills and experience. However in order to handle this requirement the competency must be well defined. In baldrige there is workforce change management which emphasize on changing your workforce capability and capacity needs. The next section which is based on competence, training and awareness makes sure that an organization must identify the training needed for each job or task and review the gap between the people who perform the job to the requirements. Baldrige however focus on exceeding performance expectations by organizing and managing your workforce. Moreover the organization must identify, provide and maintain the facilities needed to ensure to achieve conformity of product. This includes facilities like equipment, building, transport, communication method and so on. The last section argues that organization must determine and manage the work environment needed to achieve the conformity of product requirement. One example can be the availability of enough lighting. Section 8 of ISO 9001:2008 Measurement, analysis and improvement ISO 9001:2008 provides a requirement for measurement, analysis and improvement. The standard now requires that measurement and monitoring activities needed to ensure conformity. Moreover the achieve improvement must be defined, planned and implemented. In order for this to occur there must be appropriate measurement methods. Baldrige also focus on performance measures which will collect information on the overall organizational performance. Section 8.2.1 which is customer satisfaction states that organization will monitor information on customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction. There must be a system in place which will address customer complaints and general feedback. Baldrige also ensure the effective use of voice-of-the-customer data and information to support operational and strategic decision making and innovation. Section 8.2.2 which is internal audits argues that organisation should review their internal audit procedures to ensure the inclusion of responsibilities, requirements and methodologies for conducting the audits. However Baldrige focuses on benchmarking. Furthermore organisations are required to determine the measurement and monitoring methods which will be used in order to ensure that both processes and product requirements are met. Baldrige also review the performance and capabilities of the organization. Organisations must take action related to the consequences of non-conformity owing to the requirement control of nonconforming product. Baldrige also has a criteria on best practice sharing where the lessons learned are shared. Section 8.4 consists of analysis of data where organization must collect and analyse data to determine system sustainability and effectives so that improvements can be made. Baldrige focus on future performance. Based on the section on improvement organization must facilitate continual improvement through the use of the quality policy, objectives, audit results, analysis of data, corrective and preventive action and management review. ISO 9001:2008 clearly establishes top management responsibility for an organization improvement. It also states that actions taken must prevent recurrence. When reviewing actions taken over time, organization must ensure that repeat occurrences are addresses on the other hand Baldrige focuses on continuous improvement and innovation. To conclude, Baldrige and ISO are quite similar, the only difference is that with baldrige you can do benchmarking but with ISO it is not possible. Organisations who applied the Baldrige Performance Excellence Framework The Baldrige framework is uniquely different than any other framework for organizational excellence and management. It contains criteria that relate to any organization in any sector which are as follows: Manufacturing Service Small Business Nonprofit Education Healthcare The Baldrige Criteria are recognized globally as a premier excellence framework, and approximately 80 international quality or performance excellence awards either use the Baldrige Criteria or a derivative of it like for example the Japan Quality Award. The award is presented to Japanese companies displaying excellent overall management qualities that continue to create new values through the continuous improvement process. The Fukuiken Saiseikai hospital in Japan is the recent winner of the Japan Quality Award 2012. There are many organisations who have won the Baldrige National Quality Award in the United States. We shall take examples of some companies having won this award which are as follows: Motorola Inc. which was the first company to have won the first edition of Baldrige award in year 1988 and in 2002 made it twice. Employing approximately 99,000 employees in 53 different locations in the world, it aims at having the highest sales volume in world markets for electronic components and equipment. The only thing that counts is quality improvement leading to total customer satisfaction. In order to achieve this, the company made use of some techniques such as the six-sigma quality which aims at reducing the defects rate in the processes and manufacturing consistent products. Second one is the reduction in total cycle time where the time a customer placed and order and the time at which it was delivered to him was reduced. Another concept adopted is the benchmarking programs that were used to compare the processes, resources, performance and products of rivals with that of the company. The company had what they called Participative Management Program where the employees had the opportunity to participate in the decision making process of the company helping in analyzing the past performances and results in order to set strategic objectives for the future. Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company is another big company that has applied the Baldrige Framework. It has 23 business and resorts hotels in United States and 2