Captain America and the Golden Age of Comics - 1051 Words

The Golden Age of Comics was perhaps the greatest era in comic book history. Many people loved the comics during this time period because they were all stories about good triumphing over evil. Many of these stories reflected over historical events over the time period. â€Å"Pro-American characters were popular due to the time period occuring mostly during World War II.† (PBS) â€Å"The precise era of the Golden Age is disputed, though most agree that it was born with the launch of Superman in 1938.† (PBS) The tremendous success that Superman had created many spinoff superheroes such as Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and Flash, who had superpowers and secret identities. One of these spinoffs was Captain America. Part of Timely Comics and created by†¦show more content†¦He was the complete opposite of Captain America. In fact, he was the reason why Captain America was created, due to counter all of the havoc and chaos Red Skull was causing in Europe. Basically Cap tain America represented President Roosevelt and Red Skull represented Adolf Hitler, the two leaders of World War II. The two would clash for many issues throughout the war. In the final days of World War II, Captain America breaks into a Nazi Camp for his last battle with the Red Skull, where he defeats the Red Skull while the Red Skull ends up being buried under debris from a building. Even though the Red Skull was defeated and the war was coming to an end, Captain Americas job was not finished. â€Å"Nazi scientist Baron Zemo obtained and launched an experimental drone that had a nuke aboard the plane on the way to New York City.† (Marvel) It was Zemos and Red Skulls last ditch attempt to cripple America and win the war. Captain America and Bucky made it onto the plane, but Bucky accidentally triggers the nuke, killing him and sending Captain America into the dark waters of the Arctic, where he was put in a state of suspended animation and was frozen in the ice. This sig naled the end of Captain Americas run in the Golden Age, and he would not be revived until he meets the Avengers. Captain America did not fight on the battlefields during World War II. Rather, he was a counter-intelligence agent to counter Nazi propaganda from Red Skull. He also had to protectShow MoreRelatedHistory Of American Comic Comics Superheroes1191 Words   |  5 PagesHistory of American Comic Book Superheroes. Before they become significant box-office phenomena and debut for TV serious, superheroes were short stories in printed media. Supermen, Batman, Captain America, Wonder Woman †¦were comic books superheroes. The idea of superheroes was long existed. However, as many comic books historians agreed, The Phantom, published in February 17, 1936, is considered to be the first comic book costumed hero. Since then, comic books superheroes were booming. In the mid-1940sRead MoreHistory of Comic Books889 Words   |  4 Pages The distribution, audience, narrative style, and dramatic content, of comic books were the direct descendants of the pulp magazine. They were called pulp magazine because they were printed on the cheapest paper for non-costly mass distribution, these publications were as old as newspaper comic strips. Pulp magazines can be traced to their Civil War-era ancestors, called dime novels. Unlike the funnies, pulp magazines styles were outside of the mainstream and featur ed adventure, fantasy, and suspenseRead MoreOutline Of Marvel Comics Marvel 1161 Words   |  5 PagesMarvel Comics Specific Purpose: To inform the audience about the history of Marvel Comics. Thesis/Central Idea: To understand Marvel Comics today, it is important to understand the history of the industry and its name changes from Timely Comics, to Atlas Comics, and lastly Marvel Comics. Organizational Pattern: Topical I. Introduction A. Attention getter: Imagine yourself living in United States in a time that was considered less than peaceful. Hitler is spreading his rule across Europe andRead MoreThe First Appearance Of Batman Essay1890 Words   |  8 Pagesa mystery comic than a superhero comic book, Batman was inherently different from the pure and clean Superman. He was a gritty and depressing character that has been able to remain in print even to this day. Rather than using superpowers, Batman uses detective abilities that allowed him to solve cases and find perpetrators. (â€Å"The History of Comic Books.† TheComicBooks.com.) But not even Batman, Superman, or even Captain Marvel could brace themselves for the arrival of the Marvel comics. Read MoreAmerican Comics And Japanese Manga1048 Words   |  5 PagesWhen mention comics, everyone can think of America comics and Japanese manga. They are two big parts of world comics and represent western and eastern comics. So they will have some differences in style, content and development. America comics is mainly about superheroes and reflects individualistic heroism. Japanese manga has many genres. II. Introduction Comics is a kind of medium that uses drawing and writing to tell a story. Cartooning is the most common mean in comics. Comics can be dividedRead MoreCharacter Analysis Of Watchmen And Jimmy Corrig The Smartest Kid On Earth1669 Words   |  7 Pagesarchetype is traditionally a staple of the comic book medium. The Golden Age of comics, a period of comic publishing between the 1930s and early 1950s, was rife with larger-than-life super-human figures, who often served as an escape from the anxieties produced by war and everyday life. Superheroes like Superman, Batman, and Captain America function as cultural representations of idealism and the American Dream. However, representations of heroism in comic books has shifted significantly since theRead MoreVisual Print Media Propaganda During The Cold War1754 Words   |  8 Pagescommunism in European nations (Snead, 2003). Throughout the war, many forms of anti-communist messages underlaid Americans’ everyday lives, manifesting as propaganda. Found in such sundry items as posters, political cartoons, and comic books, propaganda affected people of all ages. The Cold War’s mutual distrust was fueled by these messages to the people, and created tensions that may not have otherwise existed (Prono, 2005). Of course, propaganda- or any type of media- cannot sustain its existence withoutRead MoreMarvel Case1083 Words   |  5 PagesEntertainment Industry Analysis Comic Book Industry: The comic book industry contains comic or comicbooks that contain narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes often accompanied by dialog boxes. The first comic book appeared in the United States in 1933 usually appearing in the earlier newspapers comic prints. The reason for the name â€Å"comic book† came from the use of humor comic strips in newspapers. However most modern comic books tell stories in a varietyRead MoreComic Books Are Important For The World1291 Words   |  6 PagesComic books are important to the world for the fact that they represent a portion of the population that like to fantasize that they can escape the hardships of everyday life. In comic books people can be a hero, a villain, or a bystander that learns an important lesson from observing the two (Bendis 2). Grant Morrison discusses his views on the difference of the ages and their views on comics: Adults...struggle desperately with fiction, demanding constantly that it conform to the rules of everydayRead MoreThe Superhero Effect: Idealism and Stereotypes in Comic Books1577 Words   |  7 Pagesthese paragons. In a medium such as comic books, however, these standards and perceptions are heavily distorted by the characterizations and settings. Particularly, the superhero genre absorbs the ideals we strive towards and regurgitates them in an extreme and unrealistic manner. The superhero genre is often reflective of societal changes in ideas and morals. These ideals are then molded into misleading representations that influence the behaviors of viewers. Comic books absorb elements of our society

Value Of College Education - 837 Words

In recent years, the rising costs of college education made many high school graduates question whether getting a degree is worth the price. However, there are several reasons why going to college is still a beneficial investment. A college education has value; it makes you more well-rounded, it increases your chance of success, and it makes you more prepared for adult life. A college education is a four-year bachelor’s degree received by living on a college campus. While there are other ways to complete a degree, this traditional experience is most valuable to the consumer. The value a student receives from this type of education is skills to improve their life. College is valuable because it makes you more well-rounded. Every college†¦show more content†¦Data from the U.S Department of Labor shows that college graduates have lower rates of unemployment. The rate of unemployment with a bachelor’s degree is 2.7%, while the rate of those with a high school educa tion is 5.2% (Employment Projections, Bureau of Labor Statistics). This depicts that those who earn a college education have a better chance at getting a job. Their data also shows that those with a college education have higher salaries. The median weekly earning for those with a college degree is $1,156 and the median weekly earnings for those with a high school education is $692. That’s a $464 a week difference and $24,128 a year difference (Employment Projections, Bureau of Labor Statistics). Not only are college graduates getting jobs and making more money, but they are also healthier and happier. Professor Phillip Trostel, reports college graduates are four times less likely than high school graduates to smoke and are more likely to exercise, wear a seat belt, be a healthy weight, and go to the doctor’s (Want to be Happy and Healthier, Merisotis, Jamie). A college education is valuable because it makes you more prepared for adult life. Many students go to colle ge and are living on their own for the first time. This comes with new responsibilities and obligations. These include; doing your own laundry, making healthy food choices, exercising, and cleaning up after yourself. All of these necessities come on top of school work. As a college student myself, IShow MoreRelatedValue of a College Education1226 Words   |  5 PagesJessica Rainey English 102-39 Anne Wilbourne April 16, 2013 Value of a College Education Education has come along way through out the centuries, unlike in the past; education is the key to opening the door to endless opportunities. College can provide a sense of security and desire towards a stable career. As easy as it sounds to obtain this life, the market gets more competitive each day, allowing employers to raise their standards. When investing into a degree one should keep an open-mindRead MoreThe Value Of A College Education928 Words   |  4 PagesI will discuss what the value of a college education means to me. A higher education will give me many physical benefits such as economic stability, a better quality of life for my family, more career choices, better job security, set a good example for my children at the same time, a college education will also give me many intangible benefits such as boosting my self-confidence, helping me to learn specialized knowledge, thinking critically, bringing me in contact with different people, learningRead MoreThe Value Of A College Education1173 Words   |  5 Pagesgrandparents. An increase in education is the reason we have been able to progress in such an accelerated way. The value of a college education lies in its ability to allow individuals to grow academically, by expanding their knowledge of various subjects, and socially, by being exposed to many different characters and beliefs. These skills ensure that they will have a better future because they will be advancing faster than those who chose other paths. A four year college education, although not for everyoneRead MoreValue Of A College Education1117 Words   |  5 PagesValue of a College Education In order to enlighten its audience on the value of a college education, the reading presents an analogy for further clarifying the way one may pursue the worth of higher education. It states that eliminating smoking would eradicate cost associated with providing care to the smokers who suffer from lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema, or diabetes. However, when one actually examines the whole and not just the particulars: it can be observed that by eliminating smokingRead More value of a college education Essay example1298 Words   |  6 Pages Value Of A College Education According to Lundberg (2003), â€Å"adult students are one of the most rapidly growing segments of today’s college student population, making up approximately 40% of all college students† (665). Having a college education is an important tool that contributes to several aspects of a person’s life. The areas that are impacted the most would be the professional and personal areas. It is important to learn the value of a college education in order to take advantage of whatRead MorePresent Career, Career Interest and the Value of a College Education967 Words   |  4 PagesPresent Career, Career Interest and The Value of a College Education Currently I am what some would call a receptionist, but at MD Anderson Cancer Center, my title is Senior Secretary. I am responsible for handling the front desk operations. I receive all the incoming calls for the administrative office. I take messages (paper and e-mail), distribute messages, page staff members when appropriate and assist callers in reaching the appropriate department when necessary. I greet, screen, and announceRead MoreTaking Yourself to the Next Level: The Value of College Education983 Words   |  4 Pageswork never ends, but college does†¦ (Tom Petty Quotes.).† -Tom Petty I would say Tom Petty believes in more of the laid-back style of college. However, in reality, one must bust their hump everyday to achieve a college degree. In the race of life, one must take whatever they can to exceed oneself passed their competitor. I believe college is worth it in the aspects of receiving valuable contacts, general skills, internships, and certain majors. However, the education itself is only valuableRead More Present Career, Carrer Interest, and the Value of a College Education2762 Words   |  12 PagesRolesnbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Description Initiatornbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Suggests new goals or ideas. Information Seeker/Givernbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Clarifies key issues. Opinion seeker/givernbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Clarifies pertinent values. Elaboratornbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Promotes greater understanding through examples or exploration of implications. Coordinatornbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Pulls together ideas and suggestions. Orienternbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Keeps groupRead More My Career, My Career Interest, and the Value of a College Education2289 Words   |  10 PagesMy Career, My Career Interest, and the Value of a College Education Abstract My career path has been chosen for me through heredity, as my length of time on Earth has been pre-determined by the Great Creator. How I choose to use this time will be referred to as my success statement of life. How I am remembered will depend on what I accomplish. In short, life is given, but not guaranteed. We all have the choices before us, which determine if life is easy or difficult. Many times, I had the optionRead MoreIs College Education Worth The Cost For Students?1385 Words   |  6 Pages The value of a college education is a topic that strikes debates across the nation. People wonder if the debt and time will be worth in helping them obtain a career to pay off the debt and generate a larger income for themselves than if they did not have a four-plus year college degree. My whole life, I have always valued a college education. At the same time, I know that the higher education is not as important to others. I never understood why someone does not want to obtain a colle ge degree,

The Rise Fall of Nero Free Essays

Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus whose birth name is Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus was born December 15th, 37AD and died June 9th, 68AD. Commonly identified as Nero, he ruled as Roman Emperor from 54AD until his death in 68AD. Of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, he was the last emperor hailed. We will write a custom essay sample on The Rise Fall of Nero or any similar topic only for you Order Now Claudius who was Nero’s great-uncle adopted him to turn into his heir and successor. In the year of 54, Nero succeeded to the throne in the event of Claudius’s death. Even though accounts alter entirely, many historians state that Agrippina, Nero’s mother, poisoned Claudius.What isn’t known is how much that Nero knew or got involved in with his death. At the age of 16, Nero became emperor of Rome, this was the youngest up until that time. Ancient historians depict Agrippina, his tutor Lucius Annaeus Seneca, and the Praetoriant Prefect Sextus Afranius Berrus, as Nero’s strongest influences in his early reign, particularly in the first year. Very early in Nero’s rule, situations occurred from competition for influence between his main two advisers, Seneca and Burrus, and also his mother, Agrippina. In 54AD, Agrippina tried sitting next to her son Nero. This was while he met with an Armenian envoy. Yet, Seneca had her halt and prevented a disgraceful tantrum. This is due to the fact that back in those times, it was inconceivable for a woman to be in the same room as men executing official business. Personal friends of Nero suspected Agrippina and informed Nero to take caution of his mother. While still young, Nero was discontent with his marriage to Octavia and engaged into an affair with Claudia Acte. Acte was previously a slave. A year into his rule, Agrippina unsuccessfully attempted to interfere on Octavia’s behalf and called for Nero to disregard Acte. With support of Seneca, Nero resisted the intervention of his mother when dealing in his personal affairs. With ties between Agrippina and her influence on her son destroyed, rumor has it she reportedly started pushing for Nero’s stepbrother, Britannicus, to become emperor. Tacitus states that Agrippina desired that with her support and the fact Britannicus was the blood son of Claudius, that he would be noted as true heir to the throne by state over Nero.Nevertheless, still in his youth, Britannicus all of a sudden died on February 12th, 55AD. This was the day before his annunciation as an adult was to been set. Claims came from Nero that Britannicus died from an epileptic seizure, yet ancient historians differ and believed the death was on account of poison from Nero’s behalf. After his death/Murder, Agrippina was suspected of slandering Octavia and Nero arranged her to be out of the imperial residence. In time, Nero continued becoming more powerful in freeing himself of his advisors and did away with rivals to the throne.In 55AD, he removed Marcus Antonius Pallas, an ally of Agrippina, from his duties as treasury. Seneca was suspected of having relations with Agrippina and for embezzlement. Luckily, Seneca succeeded in having himself, acquitted. In 58AD, Nero became romantically attached to Poppaea Sabina, who was the wife of his friend and forthcoming emperor Otho. With his mother Agrippina alive, it seemed a marriage to Poppaea and a divorce from Octavia didn’t seem politically possible. Nero figured in order for this to happen that his mother had to be murdered in 59AD. Modern historians theorize that Nero’s execution of Agrippina was commanded by her plot to set Rubellius Plautus on the throne. Another theory is that Nero tried killing his mother through an arranged shipwreck but she survived. He had her executed and made it look like a suicide. Over the run of his reign, Nero was criticized as being obsessed with being popular and often made rulings that would please the lower class.From 55AD-60AD, Nero was consul four times. This was since he took a more active role as an administrator. Many ancient historians spoke well of him and contrast it with his later rule. Under Nero, restrictions were put on the amount bail and fines could be set to, also the lawyer fees were made limited. Imitating the Greeks and their culture, Nero built many theaters and gymnasiums. Gladiatorial shows were held and Nero set up the â€Å"quinquennial Neronia† which was a festival that included games, theater and poetry.In 64AD, there was a great fire in Rome and it burned. Nero ordained a public relief effort and also substantial reconstruction. Throughout the late reign of Nero’s, came a number of other major construction projects. Nero put up the large Domus Aurea. In 67AD, he attempted to have a canal dug up at the Isthmus of Corinth. Ancient historians state that this projects and other idea’s of his drained the State’s budget. Between 62AD and 67AD, according to Seneca, Nero promoted an expedition to find the sources of the Nile River.From Europe, it was the first exploration of equatorial Africa in history. Nero died on June 9th, 68 AD. Nero chose to commit suicide rather than face the decree of the Senate. They sentenced him to be flogged to death because of his atrocities and loss of power over his own armies and allies. Suetonius writes that Nero fled Rome on the Salaria road, stabbing himself with the assistance of his secretary Epaphroditos when the praetorium guard caught up to him. His last words were: â€Å"Qualis artifex pereo† which translated reads â€Å"What an artist the world loses in me. How to cite The Rise Fall of Nero, Papers

Islam and Jihad free essay sample

Ian Netton defines it as â€Å"holy war† in his book A Popular Dictionary of Islam and he also writes: â€Å"The word derives from an arabic root meaning basically to strive all muslims are obliged to wage a spiritual jihad in the sense of striving against sin and sinful inclinations within themselves; this is the other major sense of Jihad. † Both of those definitions are similar to the American definitions. Jihad is broken down into two parts; a greater and a lesser. The greater jihad is seemed to be spiritual. Jihad of the heart. It finds a rough parallel in the christian command to put to death the sin nature. Jihad of the mouth aims to undermine opposition to islam through speech. A war of words is prefered over a war of violence. Jihad of the pen applies the written word to Islam’s defense. Jihad of the hand seeks to promote the cause of Allah through through praiseworthy deeds. We will write a custom essay sample on Islam and Jihad or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The lesser Jihad would be that of the Jihad of the sword. This is the one seen throughout the history of Islam. Is Jihad a synonym of Holy War or does it portray a broader concept that suits the general ethos of Islam? Today Jihad is mostly seen as the greater one, and in the past the lesser one played a big role in Islam. I would like to start with the history and origins of Jihad and then move on to who believes and practices it, then lastly talk about a Jihad that has happened in the past. Jihad was introduced by the last prophet Muhammad. Before Muhammad came into ruling there were pre-islamic bedouin arabs who had their own society and was highly matriarchal. They believed in many gods. These ancient people did not accept muhammad and his teachings from the quran. On the other hand there were people who were Christian and Jewish and the followers of Muhammad did not accept those people. One day Muhammad had a revelation. The messenger angel for god, Gabriel, came to Muhammad and told him to read. Muhammad can’t read, so Gabriel told him to write. Muhammad being illiterate can’t do either of those so he ran home to his wife Khadijah and told her he thinks he is crazy. She wrapped him in a blanket and explained to him that he isn’t crazy that he is gods messenger to the arabs. This was when Muhammad started spreading the word about Allah, the only god. The Jews and Christians see Muhammad as a false prophet. Muhammad had many obstacles to face while spreading the word of Allah. It was then when Jihad was introduced to Muhammad to help spread the word of the religion. Again Jihad means Holy War. Jihad is only supposed to be used if you are fighting for your religion. While it says in the Quran to kill Christians and Jews at the same time it welcomes good relationship and peace between them. This is stating to harm the ones that will not allow Islam to spread and get in the way with trying to get others to follow. Muhammad trained his followers as warriors as well and fought throughout the middle east to spread his faith like he was told to do. There have been many jihads throughout the history. To name a few that were important to spreading Islam were the Jihad against the Byzantine Empire, the Jihad against the Turks, the Crusades, and the Jihad against the Mongols. Again that was just a few Jihads from the past. All muslims believe Muhammad is a prophet and all believe in Jihad since it is the Quran, but different groups believe in different ideas of Jihad. Like I just said, all muslims believe in Jihad. Since there are different ‘types’ of jihad different muslim groups believe in different ideas of Jihad. The Concept and Practice of Jihad in Islam states: â€Å"Jihad was generally understood not as an obligation of each individual Muslim (known as fard ’ayn) but as a general requirement of the Muslim community (fard kifaya). Only in emergencies, when the Dar al-Islam comes under unexpected attack, do all Muslims have to participate in jihad. † Dar- al Islam was known as the territory under Islamic rule. Most of the different groups of Jihad divide it into two groups like I explained earlier: lesser and greater. An Islamic reformist movement, Ahmadiyya founded in 1889, believe Jihad is one’s personal inner struggle and should not be used violently. The Sunni which account for eighty five to ninety percent of all muslims classify Jihad as either lesser or greater. They also believe there are four different kinds of Jihad in the sense of struggle in the cause of God. There is a group of muslims called Jihadists which focus only on war. Along with the Sunni, the Shi’as and Sufis believe Jihad should be in two categories: lesser and greater. Some leaders like Taqi al-Din Ahmad Ibn Taymiyya believed if you did not strictly enforce the Sharia, including Jihad you were to forfeit your right to rule. The Sharia are the moral codes and religious laws of Islam. Taymiyya strongly advocated jihad against the crusades and the mongols. Finally I’d like to focus on examples of Jihad that have happened in the past. One that most people know would be the Crusades. Since Muhammad there have been many caliphs. All of these caliphs over time have occupied certain areas of land that they gained and lost. They were just trying to follow in the steps of Muhammad and spread the word of Islam and if something got in their way Jihad would happen. The second caliph, Umar oversees a massive expansion of the lands he controls. Jerusalem was taken in the seventh century. Over time and after a few caliphs have been in power the Buyids take over Baghdad from the Abbasids but do not claim caliphate. They start to hand out land grants called iqtas to turks to guard the border and in return they get the land. Eventually these iqtas become ancestral and empires form. First the Ghaznavids but then they are taken over by the Seljuks. The Seljuks spread into the middle east all the way to Turkey. The Byzantine Empire, controlling Anatolia, see the Seljuks coming so they ask Pope Urban the second for help. This is the launch of the first crusade. The Christian knights go into the holy land and fight in effort to reclaim what was theirs from the Fatimids. It was successful and the christians take back Jerusalem. The second Crusade is led by the King of France Louie the Ninth and Holy Roman Emperor Conrad the Third. Both armies passed through the Balkans and pillaged through the Byzantine Empire. Both armies were eventually defeated by the Seljuks and thus the second Crusade was a win for the Muslims. That is just a little section of what had happened during the Crusades. It shows how Muslims used Jihad to protect their religion and to spread it across the Middle East. That is just a brief story of the Crusades. It goes into a lot more detail. Also that is only one example of how Jihad was used, there are multiple other examples but I just wanted to focus on the empires and rulers using Jihad to gain land, spread the word of the lord, and protect their faith. The Muslim faith over all is very peaceful. Jihad translates into the word struggle, and is seen as ‘Holy War’ but that is not the only case. When Muhammad came into caliphate he used Jihad to spread the word of Islam like he was told to by Gabriel. He used violence to protect the faith, and that was seen a lot throughout the history of the Middle East. Jihad is also broken down though into a greater Jihad and a lesser Jihad. The greater being more spiritual and the lesser being the violent act. To answer the question from earlier, Is Jihad a synonym of Holy War or does it portray a broader concept that suits the general ethos of Islam? I would conclude that in the past Jihad was definitely a synonym of Holy War, but now it is more about spirit, peace, and coming together.

The Birthmark Essays - Fiction, The Birth-Mark, Imagination, Skin

The Birthmark How does Hawthorne in the Birthmark use Irony, Ambiguity, Paradox, and Symbol? Ambiguity: Two different interpretations can be used to describe Georgiana's character. At first she seems to be a strong confident women who is very self assured. Only after the constant focus of her husband's attention to her birthmark, does she begin to willow away. When Aylmer gives her the elixir to drink, Georgiana has submitted to doing whatever in necessary to relieve her husband from his misery caused by her birthmark. Irony: The removal of the birthmark was an event in irony. Aylmer and Georgiana did not know that the mark provided the life blood to his wife. After the removal of the birthmark, Aylmer's wife was perfect for a short few moments, only to die. Paradox: A statement that seems contrary to common sense. Georgiana states during a discussion with her husband let the attempt be made at whatever the risk. Danger is nothing for me; for life, while this hateful mark makes me the object of your horror and disgust... Common sense would allow Georgiana to tell Aylmer that if he did not like the beauty mark, he should leave her for a women who would be perfect in her eyes. Instead, Georgiana is demanding he do whatever necessary to remove the birthmark no matter what the consequences. Symbol: The actual birthmark is one of the most prominent uses of symbol in his story. The birthmark has references to life, death, beauty and disgust. In much of his fiction Hawthorne treats Pride as an evil. Is an evil type of pride evident in the Birthmark? Following are two examples of where I found a reader could interpret Aylmer's pride as evil. Aylmer states Even Pygmalion, when his sculptured woman assumed life, felt not greater ecstasy than mine will be. Aylmer is already feeling the evil pride of his upcoming sculpture, regardless of the consequences. His confidence could be interpreted as a cocky pride. I am sure if the removal of the birthmark was successful, he would have opened a circus type show to display his great work. The other reference to Aylmer's evil is Is the Birthmark morally ambiguous? The momentary circumstances was too strong for him; he failed to look beyond the shadowy scope of time, and, living once for all in eternity, to find the perfect future in the present This statement could be interpreted morally in many ways. The most commanding part of this sentence to me was to find the perfect future in the present. This sentence alone has a powerful meaning. If only Aylmer had followed his own thought, the story would have had an entirely different ending. Hawthorne writes I have sometimes produced a singular and not unpleasing effect...by imagining a train of incidents in which the spirit and mechanism of the fairyland should be combined with the characters and manners of familiar life. What fantastic elements does Hawthorne use in the Birthmark? Hawthorne uses many magical words a few are listed with definitions below. Spectral - supernatural alchemists - wizard elixir - magic potion There is many references to a fairyland in the reading, especially when referencing the elixir Aylmer was preparing for Georgiana. When Georgiana noticed the liquid inside of the globe, she said It is so beautiful to the eye that I could imagine it the elixir of life. The beauty of the potion's color was strong enough to attract attention and curiosity. Another reference to the fantasy world in the Birthmark was Aylmer's statement to Georgiana when he caught her reading his large folio containing all of his potions. Aylmer said It is dangerous to read in a sorcerer's books.

Respiratory Therapy essays

Respiratory Therapy essays The field I wish to pursue is that of respiratory therapy. When I was a child was when my first interest in respiratory therapy was aroused. As a child I was sick a great deal with various lung ailments that required frequent hospitalizations. I would always revel in the fact that how intelligent and courtesy the respiratory therapist were that took care of me. They were so good at what they did and they always made me feel better. I wanted to be like them. That thought had never deviated since I decided that was what I wanted to do. (1)Respiratory therapy is a result of specialization trends of the late 60s in health care. At first referred to as inhalation therapy, respiratory practitioners did very little. They were initially one the job trainees, trained by nurses, who did medial chores that nurses didnt have time or didnt want to do. This consisted of a lot of the time consuming activities such as setting up oxygen, delivering IPPBs, ultrasonic nebulizers, chest physiotherapy and setting up machinery such as croup tents and ventilators. These technical chores involved no interpretation of the reasoning behind these mechanisms but only how to monkey the steps involved in performing them. This early practitioner had absolutely no autonomy as they had only technical skills and other employees such as nursing normally surpassed those skills. (2)The field of respiratory care has since evolved a great deal. Beginning in the seventies formal respiratory programs were initiated. This formalized training would not only teach an individual the technical aspects of the field but also a moderate amount of the theory behind them. As in most fields, this increase in education was shortly followed by credentialing exams to certify the respiratory practitioners. These exams were used to prove the skills and information that the practitioners ...

Models of Change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Models of Change - Essay Example In addition, the team also wanted to use the human performance improved methods to promote success. Initially, the team’s department had developed a long term goal which frequently inconvenienced the team members, especially when there was a new project. Historically, training on the projects was being focused for the clients. The incoming projects were also beyond the team members’ capacity to handle them. The team needed a training that would promote an individual’s capacity to handle more work, rather than an individual’s skill on a specific topic or area. Additionally, all projects were monitored individually rather than collectively (Van Tiem, Moseley & Dessinger, 2012). There is a clear relationship between the company’s change program and the HPT model in implementing change. The company significantly wanted to expand its operations capacity and its employee’s level of service by using non training methods in order to realize the projects value (Binder, 1998). The HTP models were used to improve the employees’ performance in order to enhance effectiveness in the organization. The HPT model recognizes the importance of the organizational and the individual factors in influencing an employee’s performance. The individual’s factors include capacity, knowledge and motives. The organizational factors include incentives, its instruments and data. The company hopes to improve its capacity and employees skills which are linked to the HPT individual factors of influencing behavior (Binder, 1998). The company’s change initiative is interrelated with the HPT model, such that the organization will not achieve its goal unless it changes the HPT individual factors. The company will need to equip its employees with the right knowledge in order to explain to the customers effectively. Through the employees acquiring the right skills and knowledge, the problem of over burdening

How convincing is Porters model of national competitive advantage in Essay - 3

How convincing is Porters model of national competitive advantage in explaining the characteristics and performance of the business systems of major economies - Essay Example There are some critical factors within this model such as demand and factor conditions, firm’s strategy, competition and structure, chance factors, supporting and related industries, and government intervention. Porter’s model of national competitiveness is regarded as an appropriate framework for evaluating firm’s competitive position. On the contrary, this model is not considered as a suitable framework from economist’s perspective. It is stated as a model that helps to determine competitive position of a company rather than a country or nation. This study would reveal real world scenarios where Porters model was beneficial enough to analyze competitive position of nations. The study has been divided into various subsections where theoretical model will be elaborated along with its application on nations. Michael Porter designed a new model to analyze the reason behind firms belonging to specific nations happen to design better strategies in comparison to other firms. Porter took into consideration ten countries such as UK, Germany, USA, South Korea, Japan, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Singapore and Switzerland (Davies and Ellis, 2000). The main objective for designing this model was to identify why some regions possesses competitive advantage compared to rest. Diamond model was designed by Michael Porter was to predict sector’s or country’s competitive advantage. This particular model has been elaborated in figure1. As per figure1, this model helps in designing a structure required for achieving competitive position in a sector. The factors of this model play a significant role in context of achieving competitiveness for long-term (Smit, 2010). All the factors represented within diamond model are determinants of sectors. These factors encompass skills and assets which are important for competitive advantage of an industry. It even consists of information that provides guidance

Strategic Plan of WalMart Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Strategic Plan of WalMart - Case Study Example Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is both a domestic enterprise, as well as a national discount retailer. They operate retail stores domestically in the US and various international markets. Wal-Mart operates on an "Every Day Low Price" philosophy because they are able to maintain their low price structure through complete expense control. With this philosophy they have proven to be extremely profitable domestically. Their primary task is buying from suppliers at a low cost and then reselling the goods to customers at a low price, to achieve their company philosophy of low prices and great customer service (Nelson Lichtenstein, 2006). Being in the retail industry, Wal-Mart can choose from many suppliers that provide its various stores with inventory, general buyers, and competition; including Kmart, Sears, Target, Costco discount stores also the local mom and pop stores in various neighborhoods. Wal-Mart is spread all over the Europe and this chain running successfully. But Wal-Mart in the city of Bentonville facing is some problems. Although it has many strengths but it has been facing many threats. Evaluating Wal-Marts situation in terms of the SWOT Analysis, where we will view where its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in terms of its place in the retail industry. Let’s look at what makes Wal-Mart such a dominant force and would break Wal-marts dominance both here and globally by analyzing its position in terms of the SWOT; let’s start by looking at the first part of the SWOT analysis which is the strength of the company. Strengths The strengths of their existing circulation patterns and linkages are good pedestrian orientation around the square and accessibility from other areas of the city. The buildings on the Square are built up to the sidewalk which enhance the pedestrian character. Several entries into downtown help reduce congestion. Also, the schools downtown are within walking distance of a large number of residential areas and walking to school is an option. The redevelopment of the square has provided a central place for community gatherings. The fountain, the confederate soldier statue, the benches, and traditional street lights add to downtown's identity. The statue is a part of the heritage and culture and has been stated as being "a conversational piece". The square is the center for several community activities, such as the Farmer's Market, Pickin' on the Square, and the Art Walk (Weldon Nicholson, 2006). The Wal-Mart General Office brings thousands of people downtown during the week. The Wal-Mart Visitors Center serves to bring people, (approximately 80,000 annually) especially tourists, downtown. Also, Wal-Mart Shareholder's Week provides an economic surge in the spring. Another economic strength is the presence of public services and facilities. The county and city administration offices, especially the courthouse and Bentonville being the county seat serve to anchor the downtown as a place to conduct business. Also, quasi-public businesses, such as Main Street Bentonville, the Chamber of Commerce and the Bentonville Advertising and Promotion Commission have all selected a downtown location. There are also several personal services that are beneficial to the downtown economy, such as the bank, grocery store, and dry cleaners. They serve area residents as well as the thousands of employees working downtown. Recent development activity has sparked an interest in development and location downtown. Two new brick two and three story buildings at SW A Street and SW 8th Street offer office, retail and residential space. The Bentonville Plaza, just south of the Wal-Mart Genera

Shawshank Redemption | Organizational Behaviour

Shawshank Redemption | Organizational Behaviour The movie I have chose in doing this assignment is Shawshank Redemption. This is a movie based on hope, friendship and strength. The Shawshank Redemption stars Tim Robbins as Andy Dufresne, he is the lead character and Morgan Freeman as Red. The original story is based on the book Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption written by Stephen King . Frank Darabont wrote the screenplay and directed the movie in 1994. This movie was released on September 1994. The purpose of doing this assignment is to relate the movie Shawshank Redemption and apply it in the field of study which is Organizational Behavior. In doing this assignment, we have to examine the main characters and their differences, personality type and attitude. We also need to observe their emotions and mood portrayed. Apart from that, we need to identify if there is any perceptual bias in this movie and whether or not they are using the decision making process model when there is a need for important decision making. Motivational theories application, teamwork effectiveness, leadership style and power tactics are also crucial subtopics in relating it with the movie. The last two part of this assignment is to study if there is any conflict in this movie and the last part is about the change tactics implemented. Analysis of Movie The director of the movie Shawshank Redemption has establish a specific quality of his work as evident in the movie. The genre of this movie as stated in internet movie database is a combination of both drama and crime thriller. This is because the movie is based on prison life and how the hero adapt to the new situation which is in the prison life after been accused of murdering his wife and her lover and this is also classified as crime thriller because the storyline of this movie centered about criminal behavior of not only the inmates but the misconduct of guards and warden as well. The Shawshank Redemption was directed by Frank Darabont based on the nove Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by author Stephan King. This movie was made in 1994 and this movie was a 1994 motion picture adapted. This movie use a formlistic style which focused on the formal, or technical, elements of a film: i.e., the lighting, scoring, sound and set design, use of color, shot composition, and editing. The director of this movie try to make audience slowly and gradually noticed each personality or traits of each character in this movie instead of aggressively show to audience their distinct traits. The position of the camera or the angle chosen in this movie was not from a usual perspective or angle. Shawshank Redemption is one example of classical films. The cinematography of this movie is by Roger Deakin. The movie had create a dramatic impact towards the audience by their options of color filter, the color chosen for example like the scenery outside the prison covered with walls and brick enhance the colour brown and when they are in the prison cell wearing their blue uniform, the color blue appeals more attractive. This movie plays a lot with darkness and shadow. This is especially the scene when there is a violence involved for example the scene when the guards beats up the prisoners, though we cant really see it because of the low light, we can still sense the presence of violence. When the guards walks or passed by the shadows followed, this reflects their dark side characters which is violent, harsh and have no mercy. The climax of this movie does not give direct understanding to audience until the later scene, It gives audience the sense of suspend ,and the final part of this movie gives audience a feeling of surprise and excitement, after Andy had successfully escaped from the prison. Lesson Learnt from the Movie Shawshank Redemption Persistence Andy is someone who is persistent and patience in reaching a specific aim or goal. Unlike many others, Andy do not easily give up even if there is a small obstacle stopping him. Andy keeps on trying and without fail to follow up with the authorities whom he asked for the fund to expand the library until it got approved. He wrote a letter a week for many years. He tried despite the fact that the warden told him they might not give him any money and finally Andy request was granted. Another good example that can be shown from this movie is when Andy requested a rock hammer in which he intend to make a hole at his cell wall to escape through the sewage tunnel. Even though he knows it might take years or maybe decade to accomplish it he determinedly and persistently commit to it because that is the only way he could escaped and he had ,managed to do so without anybody suspicions. This is to say patience has a virtue. Look out for Opportunities make the best out of situation In this movie, Andy had used his experience as a banker to gain trust from the guards and warden so it will be easier for him to get his plan accomplished if he had already established a basic foundation which is trust from them. In one of the scene, Andy overhears the captain guards complaining to his colleague about taxes that he has to pay for upcoming inheritance that he will get. Andy then takes opportunity from this situation by offering him advice about managing the taxes so he can avoid paying the tax for the inheritance. Later on, all the guards in the prison look up for him for advice. This situation gives him advantage as he is assigned to a special task when everybody came to see him to seek advice. Andy also gain warden trust in dealing with his illegal financial matters. This gives Andy advantage as it is easier to execute his freedom plan The lesson that can be learned from here is we must look for opportunity in any difficult situation. Even in very bad circumstances, there is a way to get out of it by looking up for the options available to make the best out of the bad situation. Hope and faith Andy did not lose faith even when he was accused of murdering his and her lover and was sentenced to life imprisonment. He knew there is still hope for him that he would get out from the prison even if it took decades. Andy spent his time mostly hoping for a better future;to be free, escape from jail. He has his vision clear in mind and had planned it thoroughly. Andy starts working towards his vision the moment he first step into the prison. Andy has faith in what he is doing, this can be seen when he commits in executing the plan without anyone suspecting him. Andy also sparks hopes for Red. This is because before Red met Andy, Red has lost his hope accepting that he will never see freedom again however Andy has change Red and that he then he now have some light of hope and the sense of possibility for him to be free. Andy does not only have faith in himself but also with Tommy. Tommy is the new con that just gets in to Reds group. Tommy approaches Andy because he wants to get his GED and have heard that Andy had helped few inmates before. Andy then spends a lot of time teaching Tommy because Tommy doesnt even know how to read. It can seen clearly from this situation that Andy have faith in Tommy otherwise he wouldnt teach him and Andy hopes the best for Tommy in taking the test and at the end Tommy did pass the test with C+ though at first Tommy feels he will not pass the test and that has let Andy down after all the hard work. Hope is a fundamental basis for all future plans and dreams. Without hope, one can never believe that life can change better. Hopeful people will not easily gave up on their mission to improve the life circumstances even when there is an obstacle. Andy has also mentioned in letter he wrote to Red Remember, Red. Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies. I will be hoping that this letter finds you, and finds you well. Your friend, Andy Dufresne. Success is a reward for hardship Andy is rewarded with freedom after decades of hardship. Andy had spent 19 years digging a tunnel every night to escape prison. He had carve a chess piece from the rock and the Andy hides the residual rocks in his pants and safely dispose then on the prison ground during outdoor activity. Andy quest for freedom had made him determined in doing the task given to him with hope that he get to take advantage out of every situation. When Andy had escaped from the it is like a payback for all the hardship he went through in the prison, the excitement that only a free man can feel after a long journey in which the outcome is not certain. Islamic Perspective In the movie Shawshank Redemption, we could see that there a number of Islamic values that is upheld especially by the main character Andy Dufresne. We could also see some opposing values that is highlighted in this movie. From Islamic perspective, the Islamic values that is visible are we must help those who is need and patience has a virtue. The discouraging act in this movie on the other hand is in a total disagreement with the Islamic values and principle, for example, we should not give up in life by committing suicide, we must not get involve in corruption, bribe or swindling money, we should not take someones else life on purpose. Values that is accordance to Islam in this movie ; We must help those who is in need In Islamic perspective, Allah wants us to be kind and help those who is in need without expecting any return from them. In this movie, Andy had willing to teach Tommy who is illiterate until he passes his exam. Andy is someone who is kind hearted and willing to help his friend. Patience has a virtue Patience is to be said as a condition for success and prosperity. It is shown from this movie that Andy patience is rewarded with freedom. This shows the importance of being patient and how patience can make us be a better person. Andy is patient and even in a bad situation, he remains calm. We should not give up in life by committing suicide In this movie Brooks gone crazy after known that he will be set free soon. This is because he had institutionalized. After few days out from the prison Brook had commit suicide by hanging himself with a rope because he couldnt handle freedom and think there is no life for him out there because he was in prison almost all his life. From Islamic point of view, suicide is forbidden and we must not give up in life and must have faith everything has a way out. We must pray to Allah and zikir so can find peace in our self and that can lead us in rational state or mind We must not involve in corruption Allah had forbid us from practicing bribery and swindle money. The practice of bribery involves power abuse or profit gaining which contradicts to human law and moral. In this movie, the warden is corrupt and takes bribes. The Warden makes a plan to send the prisoners out on a community service program. The warden then takes bribes from other construction companies because the inmates are taking job away from these companies. He then asked Andy to launder money for the warden by setting up many account in different banks using a false identity he create. From Islamic point of view accept a bribe in any form and in any circumstances is forbidden. It is also haram to give a bribe to someone else as this is to get something which is the right of someone else. Therefore it is our interest to avoid involving in corruption Do not involve in killing or murder It is not allowed to murder anyone who is innocent of any crime. In Islam if we kill someone who ids innocent we are committing a huge sin. In this movie, the warden had killed Tommy because Tommy is a key escape for Andy as he knows the real person who actually murders Andys wife and her lover. Tommy had heart his previous cellmate told him about shooting a couple in a club house and later on his husband gets blamed. Andy than told the warden what he just knew , warden then had Tommy shot to death and tell everyone he got shot when he was trying to escape. The rationale behind his action is he dont want Andy to release and tell the authority about the money laundering and murder in the prison. The main storyline about this Shawshank Redemption The story is about a banker named Andy Dufresne that works in Maine. He has been convicted of murdering his wife and her professional golfer lover. He was announced guilty and sent to the dangerous Shawshank Prison. He feels lonely and isolated at first. He then befriends a fellow inmate that had been convicted for a long time named Red. Red befriend with him because Red can sense there is something in Andy. Red has the capability to smuggle in things into the prison. Andys first request made to Red is a rock hammer and he said that he like to collect rocks and sculpting as a hobby but Red thinks that Andy will use the rock hammer as a tool to escape from the prison. Next, he requests a poster. Overtime, Andy befriend prison guards and give them his skill in financial as an advisor to them. One particular guard has an eye for him to use Andy for his benefit which is to use Andy bookkeeping skill in order to organize a money laundering scheme for him, so that he can use the laundered money after he retires. Andy takes up project expand the prison library by writing letters to Maine state senate for funds. When the library has more resources and materials, he also helps the other fellow inmates to get their high school diplomas. One day, a new and young inmate, Tommy, arrived at Shawshank. He tells Andy that in other prison he overhears that there is one prisoner has killed a bankers wife and her professional golfer lover. Then the murder was framed on Andy. Andy tells the warden about the new information but the warden is having a doubt about it. Norton Warden shot Tommy to death because he afraid that Andy will reveal the laundering scheme that he and Andy are doing together. Since Andy does not have a new witnessed for his new trial, he does not want to help Norton Warden with his scam anymore but the he is trying to threaten Andy by destroying the prison library. Next thing, Andy is gone from Shawshank prison. He had escaped by digging his way out of the wall using his rock hammer and the escape hole has been hidden behind a poster. Andys escape took around 20 years for him to be free from the prison. Then, Andy takes money from Warden Nortons scam under the named registered for Randall Stephens and leaves the town. Norton Warden commits suicide by pulling a trigger up to his chin after he found out that Andy used him. Red received an empty postcard from Fort Hancock, Texas and Red interpret it is from Andy that has made it into Mexico and gain his freedom. Furthermore, red passes his parole board and he works at a grocery store and lives in a halfway house. One day, he bought a compass from a pawn shop and follows Andys instructions for him to find a small box under a large black stone. The box contains a huge amount of money and direction to find Andys current location. Red bailed his parole and leaves the halfway house and he takes a bus to Fort Hancock, crosses Mexico and reunited with his friend, Andy again. The main character of the Shawshank Redemption The main characters for this movie are Andy Dufresne and Ellis Boyd Redding or also to be known as Red. The differences among the main characters of this movie All of the two main characters are male as portrayed in the movie and they are all having different character. Andy Dufresne is white people and Red is black or African American. There are no statements in the movie that show each of the character age. The descriptions of each character are as follows. Firstly, Andy Dufresne possessed the banking skills since he works in a bank at Maine. It has been shown at the beginning of the movie. Since he has the skill in the banking field, he also helps the prison guards by giving financial advice to them. He also is being in charge to get the fund for the expansion of the prison library by writing the letter to the Maine state senate. Besides that, he does not mind to lend a helping hand and it can be shown when Andy helps one of the guards, Warden Norton in laundering Nortons money. Furthermore, he helps fellow inmates to gain their high school diplomas. It can be seen that Andy has a kind heart when it comes to help others. Moreover, Andy is a creative person. It is because he uses only the hammer rock that usually used by the geologist for collecting rocks and sculpting as his escape to freedom tool. He also hid his escape hole using the poster that he request from Red. So, it is one of his creative ways to escape that he kept it for himself. Secondly, Red is the second main character in this movie. Red is seen to be gaining some respect by others because he has the capability to smuggle thing into the prison. He is also one of the first Andys friends in the prison because he sees something in Andy when he first meets him. Besides that, when Andy escaped from the prison, he misses Andy. It shows that he values the friendship that he has with Andy. He is a secret keeper for Andy as an example, Andy launders money for Warden Norton by creating a fraud account under the name Randall Stephens and Andy only shares this information with Andy alone. What are attitudes can you identify in the main characters? Andy Strong minded Andy is said to have a strong minded because he has his plan in mind and stick to it until the end. He knows that any action or plan he makes have a consequences and he is willing to take the risk. It also means here that Andy is a determined person. He is determined to escape from the prison and have had plan everything for it, waiting only for the execution. Self control Self control is when someone can control his emotions, attitudes and behavior .Andy has a high level of self control. Though he was convicted for crime he did not commit, he did not portray any attitudes or behavior that is rebellious. He only obeys to what he is commanded to do and show no sign to opposing it. One example , is when Andy first night at Shawshank, he did even make a sound, means, he does break into tears despite knowing the fact that he will be spending his life as prisoners. Caring and empathetic Andy is someone who is kind and concern for others well being. Andy cares for the people around him including Red and Brooks. When Red was rejected for parol, Andy gave him a harmonica as a present for him and to encourage him not to lose hope. This shows that he cares about Red and wants him to have a sense of hope to be freed. He also cares for Brooks when Brooks go crazy after knowing he will be released from Shawshank, he calm Brookds down when Brooks was so down. This shows Andy concern for Optimistic Andy is an optimistic person. He is hopeful and has faith in his future. Andy not only instills this hope to himself but to others around him as well, especially Red. He is confident that he will have a better future by escaping the prison and he is optimist that his plan will succeed. Kind Andy is warm and kind hearted person. He helps out the new inmates named Tommy to go through a exam. Andy is willing to spend his time teaching Tommy how to read. Determined Andy is a very determined person. We can see his determination throughout the entire movie. First he is determined to escape from the prison with the plan he already have on mind. Secondly, he is so determined, that he actually, digs out tiny piece of wall every night. Andy did not gave up when he tried to ask for donations and fund for the library even it was rejected many time, he persistently, wrote a letter to the authority until it was approved. Red Friendly Red is seen as a friendly person, as he has a bunch of friends whom he always hangs out with and he also approaches Andy, Red and Andy slowly become friends. Red is also the one who knows most of the inmates there though he may not necessarily befriend with them. One example is when Red they labeled Red as a man who can gets anything from anybody. This indicates that he has many connections and friends inside Shawshank Helpful Red is a helpful person as he often helps Andy whenever Andy needs something such as when he needs rock hammer and poster of Rita Hayworth. Andy does sometimes seek opinion and advice from him. Red too often helps Andy in whatever Andy is doing, such as when they renovate the library and when Andy provide financial assistant to the guards, Red was his assistant. This shows that Red is a very helpful person. Loyal Red is a loyal friend and supporter of Andy. Red is always there for Andy to shares stories, talk about their past and future. Red has become Andy friend throughout Andys life in prison. Towards the end of the movie, one evident shows that Red is loyal is when he went to the place mentioned by Andy to collect what is left by Andy, he then visit Andy in Zihuatanejo . They then happily reunited. Humour Red can be considered as a person who has a sense of humor. When they gather among them, there will be laughter and giggling. This is an important trait as it will reduce boredom and tense among one another. What emotions and mood can be portrayed in the movie? Were the emotions and mood easily to see or did you have to guess from the evidence from the scene? Explain your answer. There are few emotions and moods portrayed in this movie. Some of the emotions can be detected easily while some have requires an interpretation and deep understanding. There are emotions portrayed in this movie have high negative affect such as tense, and nervous. The first emotion that I would like to highlight first is tense. There were quiet a number of scene of beating violently. The first scene is when the new inmates broke into tears and plead to release him, the guards, drag him out of his cell and beats him till he dies. This scene is very emotional. There is also a scene where a man gets shot by the warden. This emotion was not so easy to perceived, as when the new inmates got beaten, the others can feel the sense of tense hearing him screaming for his life, though it does not show their expression directly, we know they acknowledge presence of tense by the look in their eyes. Emotion such as worry and suspend can also be found in this movie. The scene when the warden did a spot check in every cell to check if there is any illegal item they keep, when it was Andy turns, though he does not show it obviously, there is a presence of worry in him, worry that his illegal item will be found by the warden, the climax of this part is when the warden asked him for the book he holds, Andy then passed the book to warden, this is when Andy looks worried, because he may have hid his rock hammer inside the book, which he actually did, shown towards the end part of the movie. Upset is another example of high positive affect. Andy was very upset when Tommy was killed, because that is the only chance he could get escaped but the warden killed Tommy so Andy will have no chance to be released. Andy frustration can also be easily detected when he expressed it in his face. Low negative affect emotions such as relaxed can also be found in this movie. The emotions relaxed is when Andy and his friend get to drink cold beer at the roof top given by the warden as a compensation for the advice Andy gave to him. This emotion of relaxed and calm can easily be seen by their action and behavior which is laid back, chilling and relaxed enjoying their free beer. Low positive affect emotion is also visible such as depressed. This can also be easily seen when Andy got lock up in the isolated and dark cell for weeks. When he was in there he look depressed. This depression can easily be perceived. What sort of personality type can you identify from the character in the movie? Andy personality type in the movie Shawshank Redemption can be classified into Introverted, Intuitive, thinking and judging (INTJ). Andy is an introverted person. Andy is a a private and quiet person. Andy is someone who is concerned of the inner world of his mind. He does a lot of thinking, exploring his own thought and emotions. Moreover, he is not really a outgoing person, he is often around his group of friends and especially with Red. Andy is an intuitive person. Andy focus is on the big picture. For example, Andy believes that will get out from the Shawshank prison even without having any reason or evidence for that belief. This shows that Andy rely on his intuitions. Andy is also a thinking type of person. We can see that he often analyze the situation before executing any of his plans. Andy is often cool, strong minded and analytical, this attitude is consistent with his thinking personality type. Judging. Andy preferred to have a control of things that is going on around him . Based on these personality types we can say that Andy is independent and brilliant. He is often innovative and creative. The dark side of this type of personality is INTJ person are a very private person and less likely to share ideas to other. This exactly reflects Andy Dufresne character. Red personality type is total opposite from Andy which is extroverted, sensing, feeling and perceiving (ESFP). Red is an extroverted person. He is friendly and can easily make friends. He has a lot of friends in Shawshank. As evident from the movie, he is the one who first approach Andy. Red is someone who only cares or concern about what is going on at present. Therefore we can say that Red is sensing type of person. Sensing is a type of person who prefers routine and order. In the movie Shawshank Redemption we can see that Red is comfortable with the routine activities he did every day. Red is also a feeling type of person. Red is a person who makes decision based on what he thinks people care about. For example, in Red parole interview he often answers to the interviewer based on what he thinks the interviewers wants to hear. Red is a perceiving .He is flexible and spontaneous. Based on Red personality type we can conclude that Red is a person who is fun to be with, friendly, warm and love to make others happy. Perceptual bias Yes they were perceptual biases in this movie Availability Bias Availability Bias is a tendency for people to based judgment on information that is readily available to them. In the movie Shawshank Redemption, the availability bias scenario is when Red visit the authorities of the prison for a parole interview. When he was asked by one of them whether he already feel rehabilitated Red answered to them Yes, I am honestly feeling a changed man, I am no danger to society, and thats Gods honest truth and I am absolutely rehabilitated. However his parole was rejected twice by the officer. This indicates that the authorities interview Red was making decision based on availability bias, they make decision based on what is readily available at that time which is in this case how Red answered their question. The authorities do not consider the fact that he has been doing good and well behaved in prison all this while. Decision making process In the movie Shawshank Redemption, they are some important decision were made but the decision was not made based on the decision making process primarily based on Intuition. Intuition is instinctive and unconscious knowing without reasoning. In the movie Shawshank Redemption, there are few scene showing how Andy make instant or unconscious decision based on his guts feeling, for example in the scene when Andy was trying to carve his name on the cell wall, and later large piece of wall breaks off and fell and at that tim Andy start formulating his plan to escape. When Andy gave an advice to the guards Captain named Hadley, later on Hadley noticed that Andy was good in numbers and that will benefit all the other guards. Andy might not know this would be a good opportunity for him to execute his plan without suspicions. It is based on Andys own gut feeling or intuition for seeking out opportunities, even though he does not know where his plan is going to lead. Andy does what he needs t o do and are not afraid of taking risk in everything he does. Motivational theories Self-determination Theory Self-determination Theory is a theory concerned with beneficial effect of intrinsic motivation and harmful effects of extrinsic motivation. Self-determination theories propose that people prefer to feel they have control over their action. In the movie Shawshank Redemption we can see that Andy is portraying a character of a self determined person, however Andy in this movie is motivated by both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. Intrinsic rewards is when a person enjoy in doing what he is doing and does not concern about praising or rewards. Evident from this movie that shows Andy is motivated by intrinsic effects is when he help the guards by giving them advise, we can see that he clearly sincere in doing it because it is his expertise though we know Andy have hidden intention behind. Evident based on extrinsic rewards is when he become the accountant for the warden and he help warden in swindling money by creating account with different names, he did this for extrinsic rewards that i s his hidden intention to reveal the warden practice of corruption when he escape from the jail later, by obeying to warden order, he knew he will gain trust from the warden which will benefit in executing his plan. x. Was teamwork applied in the movie? If no, why do you say that? If yes, do you think the team was effective? Yes, we can see that they had applied teamwork in this movie. The teamwork can be seen clearly when they are trying to smuggle illegal item from outside. Moreover, in this movie, their teamwork very effective and efficient because they do not get caught when smuggling illegal item from outside into the prison. However, Ellis Red Reddings who is the leader of smuggler have good relationship with the officer and have friends who is cooperate with him very well. We can conclude it as the successful team when the teams are assertive and a trust among them. This team also shows individual with technical expertise as well as most of them are conscientiousness and openness. When they are trying to smuggle the illegal item, they have members who fill the role and prefer to be part of their group. They are able to complete the task without get caught or knowing of the warden. Apparently, when Andy Dufresne asking about the photo of one of popular artist, Ellis Red Reddings trying hard to smug gle the photo and pass through the one of their friends who do the books keeper every week. Clearly, they have developed a good team and effective. It gives exciting and satisfying also trust for the each member of the teamwork. On the other hand, there is one thing that Andy Dufresne wants to bring different in the prisoner. He tries to renovate bookstore into library which is first and foremost library in the prisoner. They cooperates each other and the team work efficiently and successfully build a new mini library as they believe they can succeed. However, they are facing many difficulties to build the library. All the teams contribute their physical and technical expertise to make it work. When all of them succeed to make a mini library with their effort, they have opportunity for personal development of itself and there are very satisfying and get rewarding experience. From Islamic perspective, depending upon their teamwork, clearly they are practicing good moral valu How Effective is Metadata? How Effective is Metadata? ABSTRACT: In a highly growing technological world, large organizations deal with huge amount of information. With this rapid growth the retrieval of historical information has become a compulsory task for the decision makers. Here is where data warehouse comes into play. Data warehouse is a collection of integrated databases designed to support managerial decision making and problem solving functions. Metadata is one of the most important feature available in data warehouse. In this paper we are going to explain how effective is metadata in data warehouse and how it helps in improvising the performance measures of the data warehouse making it highly efficient. INTRODUCTION: Retrieving the required information from data warehouse without metadata will be a daunting task. metadata is a small piece of data which tells the decision making analysts what kind of data is it and where it is stored. Thus making the task easy and time saving. Metadata has a significant role in data warehouse. There are of two parts front room and back room metadata. The back room metadata helps in extraction, cleaning and loading. the front room metadata is descriptive type helping in smooth functioning. While creating the data warehouse for large organizations one or more meta data has to be stored, for this meta model is been created. Meta model is a conceptual model for metadata database where meta data of a warehouse are stored. It renders detailed description of metadata units and their relationship existing between them. The metadata type and their abstraction level has a direct impact on building a meta model. Meta data management system mostly follows the federal structur e (i.e.) combining the advantages of both centralized and distributed structures enabling a variety of meta database for storage. Meta model should be highly scalable so that when the application requirements change the users can customize the application specific component of metadata. EFFECTS OF METADATA ON DATA WAREHOUSE: Metadata and its management play a very important role in data warehouse system. When a user needs to access a data in data warehouse, he first looks into the metadata for where it is located in that cluster of information. What if the metadata is not present, the user has to skim through the whole information to find out his required information which is practically an impossible task. Thus metadata showing up to be highly efficient in data warehouse. In context with data warehouse, metadata is majorly classified as business, technical and operational meta data. Business metadata explains about business definition, policies and others. Technical metadata has all technical information such as db. system names, tables, columns names, data types and values. Whereas operational metadata shows the currency of data. Meta data also ensures code reusability, accuracy, consistency and integrity of the system. It highly supports the development, maintenance and upgradation of Data warehouse. LIMITATIONS: When different layers of metadata fail to communicate and update successfully, the users will land up in wrong search of data. SOLUTION: A proper maintenance should be done on a timely basis and a notification mechanism should be initiated whenever such updating does not take place to ensure that metadata has updated and works fine. A good quality data warehouse should ensure good performance measures such as quality control, confidentiality of data, integrity, availability etc. Here we are going to see how metadata is playing a vital role in improvising the performance measures of data warehouse. QUALITY CONTROL BY METADATA: Implementation of data warehouse is a most efficient solution for decision makers. In some cases, data warehouse fails to meet the requirements due to lack of data quality. The major area where the data quality fails is while integrating the input sources. In a metadata quality control system, initially the demands for quality are gathered from the user and then convert these requirements into specifications. These specifications are added to metadata. Along with this metadata, total data warehouse architecture is combined so the data is examined along the dataflow. This security mechanism is implemented in metadata since the metadata repository is responsible for each and every characteristic of data present in the warehouse. Hence applying quality demands in metadata helps to rectify the quality issues in data warehouse. ADVANTAGES: The quality demands of the user are satisfied, efficiency is improved, performance measure is boosted. LIMITATION: Firstly, though the quality control measure is applied in the initial stage, the data after stored in the warehouse do not guarantee the same quality. secondly, there is a slight modification in the warehouse architecture in accordance to the quality control model which may affect the performance of the warehouse. SOLUTION: A proper quality check should be carried out even after the data is stored in warehouse by involving quality maintenances in warehouse and also before involving modification in warehouse architecture the performance measure is to be checked so that it does not affect the efficiency. SECURITY MEASURES BY METADATA: A high quality data warehouse should have highly confidential storage system. Security is more important in this competitive world where hacking of information no more a big deal. Data warehouse is an inaccessible system providing huge of amount of data easily available for users. Security aspects are considered before building the data warehouse and inserted in the metadata in the architecture.so the user will be restricted to only a particular area where the access is provided, the rest data cannot be accessed unless proper authentication is provided. Inserting security measures after developing data warehouse will not be that effective and cost efficient. We apply security measure in metadata since applying it to the other parts will affect the performance of data warehouse and also it wont end up in an efficient way. ADVANTAGES: Confidentiality of the data is maintained, illegal authentication is prohibited, increases the performance. LIMITATION: This security model is advantageous for those kind of data whose content is described by metadata and also it restricts the access to users, so the users end up making decision with the available decision thus indirectly affecting the performance of data warehouse. SOLUTION: Rather than giving authentication to a area, security system should be designed in such a way that only highly trusted users are let in the warehouse and are allowed to migrate throughout the system and make the better decision by considering all the available data. CRITICAL REASONING: For large organizations, metadata management is of great importance and great potential. Metadata not only provide information about the data in warehouse but also, helps in boosting various performance measures by which the user requirements are satisfied. By improving the quality of the data, consistency and efficiency is maintained in warehouse. By providing a secured data to the users as per their demands increases the performance of the warehouse. Other security measures and quality control measures involves more complexity than that of one involving metadata. So, using metadata would be a simple and prudent choice. CONCLUSION: In this goal, driven business environment, it is important to serve the demands of the user rather than giving them a comprehensive result. Metadata is a small part in data warehouse architecture but in turn provides huge effects in functioning. Meta data gives meaning to data and adds clarity to the users. hereby we summarize the effects of metadata in data warehouse and how it helps in improving the performance measures of warehouse. This performance improvement techniques using metadata is not widely followed because of lack of understanding of importance of metadata and, the metadata management has higher degree of complexity. So, by this we get to know that metadata is essential and highly effective in data warehousing.

Stupid Friday Night Shit :: essays research papers

All week long, the only thing everyone can talk about is Friday night. â€Å"What are you doing this weekend?† And the first thing you’ll hear out of any college student’s mouth is â€Å"getting shitty-faced.† Sounds like we got a plan. So Friday night rolls around, and there is a thick and definitely noticeable electricity in the air because everyone is pumped up to go out and drink the week away. All of them say they drink because they â€Å"like the taste.† That’s bullshit. If they really like the taste, they wouldn’t have to play ignorant little games to coax them into drinking the crap. So they’re playing this game now and it’s getting really fucking boring. Now they are all looking at their cup like it’s their enemy and groaning every time they end up having to take a swig. The gulps that everyone started the night out with are slowly turning into tiny little slurps, and the night is dying fast because every one has passed the point of fun-cool-drunk to not-coherent-enough-to-sit-up drunk. Eventually, someone has the bright fucking idea to have some sort of contest to see who can drink the most, the fastest. Joe Dumbass wins, and everybody cheers at how cool he is. Boy does he look real fucking cool two minutes later when he’s sprawled out on the floor puking in a punch bowl, babbling some gibberish shit because he forgot how to fucking talk. Now Mr. Dumbass gets his second wind and discovers that, all of a sudden, he’s the most handsome guy at the party and can stick his meat to anyone at the party he so chooses. Unfortunately, these same beer goggles that made him look so much better, also make the 400-pound heifer in the corner look just as good. Heif knows she’s hideous, and the only reason she comes to these parties it to wait for someone to get drunk enough to think she’s pretty so she can get some good ol’ loving drunken style.

A Bumpy Road for Toyota

Just-in-time philosophy, focused on consistent quality improvement, propelled Toyota to become a leading global car manufacturer. However, its global expansion and limited number of experts relative to its global operations weakened this focus in North America.While Toyota remains a competitive automobile manufacturer, it experienced recurring periods of decline in its quality standing. Now, it has to strengthen its JIT philosophy.Toyota’s focus on quality is consistent with the just-in-time philosophy. JIT means eradicating or decreasing to the least possible level wastage in the production process. By doing so, the company can pursue a range of outcomes including decrease in inventory, cost reduction, error minimization, and high quality. Quality is an outcome of implementing JIT while the focus on quality is a path to implementing JIT.Toyota’s achievement of a high quality standing during its peak periods is a testament to the focus on quality as a possible means of implementing JIT (Bozarth and Handfield 547). It is also possible to implement JIT without a strong quality focus. Reducing inventory, minimizing cost and eradicating error could also be paths in implementing JIT. However, these paths including quality are interrelated and reinforcing so that the focus on other paths still require the achievement of a certain level of quality especially in minimizing errors and reducing costs.The quality focus of Toyota worked because of its coordinators. These coordinators are mid-level managers in the manufacturing plants in Japan with decades of experience of the car company’s JIT philosophy called Toyota Production System (TPS) (Bozarth and Handfield 546).These coordinators played a key role in promoting TPS to Toyota’s employees because these oriented and trained the shop-floor managers and workers in the American manufacturing plant on ways of addressing actual issues emerging from the production line (547).This practical approac h encouraged innovativeness and responsiveness to lower wastage. Coordinators are difficult to replicate because their deep knowledge emerged from decades of experience. Time to develop coordinators is a luxury given the current need of Toyota to expand and boost production to meet growing demand.Hajime Oba differentiated Toyota’s TPS with the JIT strategy of the three automobile manufacturers in Detroit. He claimed that the JIT approach in Detroit is superficial since the intention was only to reduce inventory without really getting into the essence of JIT (Bozarth and Handfield 547).There is some truth to this. American car manufacturers operate more through textbook theories of efficiency, which implies using the least possible input in maximizing output, and with formality or impersonal management highlighting distinctions in task assignments, processes and systems. This necessarily leads to a different JIT approach relative to the Japanese perspective of JIT.The tenet â €˜haste makes waste’ captures the situation in Toyota’s Georgetown plant. In the 1990s, Toyota received recognition for high quality through automobile quality surveys (Bozarth and Handfield 547). Through the work of its coordinators, the Georgetown plant even received recognition as the second best in terms of the quality of cars manufactured in the plant (547). This propelled sales of Toyota cars in North America.The spike in demand pushed the plant to speed up production until it came to a point when quality suffered. With a limited number of coordinators for a large plant and language barriers, there was movement away from the TPS (547).In releasing the Camry, the company received many quality complaints from customers leading to the plummeting of its quality standing (548). Toyota is attempting to reassert the TPS in its Georgetown plant by recruiting a Japanese TPS expert to motivate middle managers to work the floor again.Toyota’s quality focused TPS h as worked and it still works. However, the automobile manufacturer needs to adjust implementation to consider its growth and expansion. Toyota needs to have sufficient coordinators and this time more American coordinators for the North American plant trained in its quality-based JIT philosophy.Work CitedBozarth, Cecil, and Robert Handfield. Introduction to Operations and Supply Chain  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Management. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2007.   

Doing Business in China Essay

China is an evolving economy that offers lot of market prospects for foreign venture. It is an independent country located in East Asia. Currently China is the world’s most populous country, with its population of over 1. 35 billion. China’s land size is approximately 9. 6 million square kilometers and it is the world’s second-largest country after Russia. In contemporary eras, China plays an important role in calling for free trade areas in the Asia Pacific Region. China proposed a new East Asia Summit (EAS) framework as a forum for regional security issues in 2004. The EAS, which includes ASEAN along with India, Australia and New Zealand, held its first summit in the year 2005. Since 1978 with the introduction of economic transformations, China today has turn out to be the world’s rapid-growing key economy. China is the world’s second-largest economy together in term of its nominal total GDP and purchasing power parity. As of 2013, China ranked at number 91 at ‘Doing Business’ provided by the World Bank. Its GDP per capita currently stands at $6,075, while the total GDP sums up at $12. 05 trillion. Although the country has a huge potential for economic progression offering access to a huge market and significant savings in labor costs, cautiousness must be used due to differences in the political and cultural environment that create risk and pose uncertainty for foreign investors. In addition, China is also the world’s biggest exporter and importer of products and goods. China is also a member of WTO, APEC, the G-20, and many others. Not to forget, China has been considered as a probable superpower up to this date. Regardless of achievement made by China, it encounters a range of obstacles to China’s future economic advancement. To overcome such obstacles, it must maintain a great growth rate, improve the economic system, uphold better international support, and transform the responsibility of China government in its system of economy. As stated in the World Bank recently, China is the world’s third largest trading country, right after the United States of America and Japan. Economic Issues In recent years, China has become one of the primary selection of the world’s destination of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), and among the figures counted in its FDI are 27% of the value added production, 4. 1% comes from its national tax revenue, and another 58% or so comes from its foreign trade. This has been proved where more than 190 nations invest in China, and according to a survey done by Member Priorities Survey, most of the multi-national corporations do their FDI in China is because they want to serve its domestic market and the local consumers, not to export back to each of the MNC’s home country. The Chinese National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) developed a plan to improvement the foreign direct investment, back in 2006, which stressed the correlation between national safety and foreign investment. NDRC proposed to government of China to slowly decrease its restrictions and limitations on MNCs. MNCs also are being asked by the NDRC to intensify its investment and production in China. The aim of this move is to heighten innovation’s liberation for Chinese corporations. In addition, foreign investment must be directed at high-technology and manufacturing industries, infrastructure improvement and not to forget the environmentally friendly protection. Figure 1 : Regional share of GDP & resident population in year 2009. Although China’s economy has been liberalized since 1980s, the country still hurts from insufficient number of mode of transportation, communication’s variety, and energy capitals. China also commence the construction of a major highway to link cities in China, in order to provide a world class infrastructure in the coming years. From this, we can see, it might be costly in term of land transportations for MNCs to conduct its businesses in China. Moreover, currency manipulation undergoes by China back in 2008 is disturbing its own economy. Gladly, the condition has improved by years, and the Treasury Secretary said that the appreciation of the Yuan (Chinese currency) might be a win-win situation for the global’s economy. Figure 2 below shows the Yuan per dollar rates and how China’s currency has moved from 2009 until this year. Figure 2 : Value of China Yuan to US Dollar In trade, the major industrial exports for China are manufactured products, fabrics, clothes, together with electronic appliances. Thus, if you want to invest in China, these areas are the most profitable for any MNCs to do their business in China. Furthermore, the prominent export materials are magnesium, mercury, tungsten, tin, salt, and antimony. Currently, China is the world’s largest manufacturer of aluminum based on data from China trade. Participation of China in World Trade Organization (WTO) has made China ompetitive in the world’s market. Political Issues As stated in the Chinese Constitution, â€Å"China is a socialist state under the public’s democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on alliance of workers and laborers. † The government of China contained a system of congresses of the people and multi-party collaboration and soundings of politics under the guidance of Communist Party of China and this following political system in China ensure that CPC maintain its power as the only party in China, which based of the socialist system. Proceeding into the political risk, the chance of nationalization of industries needs to be taken into account, as this has already happened in 1949. Thus, any MNCs that want to invest in China have to think twice, in which industries are opened to investors, and which industries are closed and prohibited for investors to invest in it. Figure 3 will sum the opened and closed industries for foreign investors. Another unique political risk in China is the continual clash between China’s central government and the regional governments over applicable laws. The outcome of this conflict, is making it challenging for MNCs working in China to recognize and identify which rules are applicable, and which rules are not. Moving on towards the political stability in China, it still remains a big question to the foreign investors as the Tiananmen Square massacre has scared of foreign businesses and a big drop in many areas can be seen, which include foreign investment and tourism. At the same moment, China’s improvement in its economy since 1978, the lives of its citizen has improved drastically, an increase in social movement, and stretched the area of personal freedom. What this meant is that people can enjoy wider travel’s freedom, more and more employment opportunity, and access to information, although it is not very opened yet. Moreover, in latest years, China has passed new laws which include the criminal and civil laws to protect citizens and foreigners. Cultural Issues China’s population is estimated to be around 1,360,691,561 as of this year, and expected to be increased rapidly in times. This rapid growth of population in China is because the death rate among its citizens has dropped drastically in recent years. To cater this increased population crisis, the central government has encouraged the one-child family program. Advice of family planning and birth-control are provided by the government itself. Although most of the world see Chinese culture as an extremely complex one, but most scholars around the world come up to an agreement that even though it is diverse, many Chinese shared the same characteristics. These same characteristics are based of the Confucian philosophy influence which becomes the core of most Chinese today living in China. One of the most significant values in its culture are the importance of family, classified structure of common life and the importance on hard work along with accomplishment. The Chinese culture can be sorted as collectivist, since in many ways, the family unit takes superiority over its individual members in a family and the children must not answer back to the elders. Looking into Hofstede’s cultural factors which are measured on five dimensions, which are power distance, individual versus collectivism, masculinity versus feminity, uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation versus short-term orientation, tables below are the results of China’s assessment. Cultural Dimensions| Results| Power Distance| The less powerful members of organizations and institutions (like the family) accept and expect that power is distributed unequally. On the collectivist side, we find societies in which people from birth onwards are combined into strong, cohesive in-groups, often extended families which includes uncles, aunts and grandparents which continue protecting them in exchange for absolute loyalty. China rank 10th in the Individualism ranking. This may be attributed, in part, to the high level of emphasis on the collectivist society imposed by the communist rule compared to the values of individualism. The low individualism ranking also demonstrates a close and committed group orientation, either the family, extended family, or extended relationships. The society fosters strong relationships where everyone takes responsibility for fellow members of their group. Masculinity vs Feminity Hofstede’s study revealed that women’s values differ less among societies than men’s values and men’s values from one country to another contain a dimension from very assertive and competitive and maximally different from women’s values on the one side, to modest and caring and similar to women’s values on the other. Ranked at 66th, China is a masculine society –success oriented and driven. The need to ensure success can be exemplified by the fact that many Chinese will sacrifice family and leisure priorities to work. Service people (such as hairdressers) will provide services until very late at night. Leisure time is not so important for them. An example is the migrated farmer workers will leave their families behind in faraway places in order to obtain better work and pay in the cities. Uncertainty Avoidance It indicates the extent to which a culture programs its members to feel either uncomfortable or comfortable in unstructured situations. Unstructured situations are novel, unknown, surprising, and different from usual. Uncertainty avoiding cultures try to minimize the possibility of such situations by strict laws and rules, safety and security measures, and on the philosophical and religious level by a belief in absolute Truth. People in uncertainty avoiding countries are more emotional, and motivated by inner nervous energy. The opposite type, uncertainty accepting cultures, are more tolerant of opinions different from what they are used to; they try to have as few rules as possible, and on the philosophical and religious level they are relativist and allow many currents to flow side by side. Ranked at 30th, China has a low score on uncertainty avoidance. Chinese are comfortable with ambiguity; the Chinese language is full of ambiguous meanings that can be difficult for Western people to follow. Chinese are adaptable and entrepreneurial. At the time of writing the majority (70% -80%) of Chinese businesses tend to be small to medium sized and family owned. | Long-term orientation vs short-term orientation| Both rated values of this dimension are found in the teachings of Confucius. However, the dimension also applies to countries without a Confucian heritage. Ranked at 118th, China is a highly long term oriented society in which persistence and perseverance are normal. Relationships are ordered by status and the order is observed. Nice people are thrifty and sparing with resources and investment tends to be in long term projects such as real estate. Traditions can be adapted to suit new conditions. Chinese people recognize that government is by men rather than as in the Low LTO countries by an external influence such as God or the law. Negotiation At negotiating stage, both buyer and seller have to come to an agreement on how the deal ended and what will the price be. MNCs should decide if they want to set up a new joint venture or wholly-foreign owned enterprises to take over the seller’s business in China, or to purchase equity interest of the business. The deal structure is particularly important from tax perspective. The tax costs bear by the buyer and seller vary significantly which have a big influence on the final cost of the deal. During the negotiating process, an excellent advisory team can be a strong asset, which is to manage the financial, legal, tax and valuation issues that will determined the right price and structure of the deal. The main reason why deals did not go well in China is the incapability to link and associate the price expectations between foreign buyer and local seller. In this situation, an adviser will come in handy to manage valuation and contract term negotiation. For closing the negotiation, buyers need to ensure that all require approvals have been issued all relevant supporting documents are correct and agreed upon by both buyer and seller. Both parties in this negotiation need legal advisers to draft and finalize the sales and purchase agreement. This document is a detailed contract that contains the transaction details during the due diligence process. For example, it contain rights to protect the buyer from any unexpected post-negotiation results. Business Ethics In order to have a very successful FDI in China, MNCs must apply this business ethics in their daily business life, or else, they will have a big problem upon them. The important practices to be a business standards within China, is by having a local Chinese employee to be the face of your company’s code of ethics. Secondly, make sure the code of ethics are translated into the native language in China. Double check the translation to ensure it is fully accurate and correct. Next, is by having a common ground. Most of the values, for example the significance of family are common in Chinese culture, where you must respect the elders or seniors in the organization. During the training sessions, discuss scenarios that could happen in China. Don’t just translate any cultural situations into the local language. Consider reframing some of a large, international company’s core values to align with local cultural values. For example, in a culture that values community, focus on the community aspects of the company’s values. Not to forget, focus on the sustainability of the company, so employees understand the advantage of following the code of conduct. What works and what doesn’t work in China? What works are MNC’s can simply translate the company’s code of conduct into the local language. The CEO and other leaders should mention the code of conduct in everyday discussions about business, not just in one annual training presentation. Local management too should understand that the corporate code of conduct is part of their everyday job. What doesn’t work is a code of conduct that is written in English and not translated into the local language, or that has a lot of references to other countries’ laws and regulations, will not be effective overseas. What partially works is that it is vital for a high-level official from headquarters to visit the company’s Chinese offices and introduce the code of conduct. But this is only a first step. Without follow-up from local managers, employees may receive the code politely, then revert to old ways of doing business as they are not being forced upon and opt for a status quo since they are comfortable with it. Core values are important in China, but it’s also important to remember that people in different cultures may interpret them differently. MNCs can try separating core values, such as fairness or integrity, from the specifics of how those values are implemented. The values themselves are probably shared among cultures, but how they are put into practice may vary. Conversation is critical to making sure your shared core values create an ethical culture. Regularly engage both managers and workers in overseas offices in discussions about how to best implement the core values. The most effective processes and procedures to detect ethical and compliance problems are to remember that despite what MNCs intend in their policies, being a whistleblower is frequently very difficult. Consider separating the reporting process for whistleblowers from the HR and legal departments. Allow employees to report concerns to someone with direct access to the board of directors. In addition, a few MNCs create a regulator position that is filled by a senior manager for a year. This person helps resolve concerns about company practices. For a code of conduct to work for MNCs in China, it requires a quick yet thoughtful response to complaints. A â€Å"ready, fire, aim† approach will be just as harmful as not taking complaints seriously. Have investigations conducted by people with experience and training in conducting complex investigations. Lastly, try to understand the business model and being willing to ask questions, which is one way to catch problems early. An executive who knows the business well will know to ask, for example, how the business just landed a big contract it had never before been able to get, or why business in a particular region increased so much ore than in others. If it looks too good to be true, start asking questions. It may not be true. Conclusion Leading business in China can be difficult due to the many indecisions and differences in the economic, political, and cultural environment. The Chinese prefer doing business with MNCs they know, so working through an intermediary is crucial in China. Business relationships are built formally. It is important to be persistent as it takes an extensive amount of time to build business relationship which is also bound with enormous government bureaucracy. The Chinese see foreigners as representatives of their company rather than as individuals. Rank is extremely important in business relationships and you must keep rank differences in mind when communicating. The Chinese prefer face-to-face meetings rather than written or telephone communication. Meals and social events are not the place for business discussions but social etiquette is important to follow. Some of the cultural values that govern business practices relate to setting up appointments one-to-two months in advance and preferably in writing. The Chinese view punctuality as a virtue. Arriving late is an insult and could negatively affect your relationship. It is important to pay attention to the agenda as each Chinese participant has his or her own agenda that they will attempt to introduce. You are also advised to send an agenda before the meeting so your Chinese colleagues have the opportunity to meet with any technical experts prior to the meeting. To conclude, it is important is to learn about cultural and political differences and their impact on business practices and business conduct in China.