Death Penalty Essays (426 words) - Penology, Criminology

The death penalty has been far revered as one of the controversial issues to plague man kind. The recourse of both sides of the issue has been to prove that their viewpoint on the issue is the correct one, which almost certainly opens up the door for a full fledge controversy. Does the death penalty serve as a deterrent to crime? If so, why are crime rates in the United States comparatively high? What are some countries responses to the death penalty? Some would try to quantify that the death penalty does serve as a deterrent to crime but, evidence proves otherwise. There are several countries that agree with using the death penalty and do so, such as: Iran, China, and Sudan as well at the United States. In recent years there have been uproars for abolishment of such capital punishment. What is your position on the death penalty, should it be legal, or should it be abolished? Why? I do not agree with the use of the death penalty and believe that it should be abolished. I know in biblical days it was very known that it was ?an eye for an eye; tooth for a tooth?, which basically means the punishment should go hand in hand with the crime i.e. if you commit murder, then you should be put to death in the same manner. I do not agree with this today my approach maybe viewed as one that is very liberal. I see it as that even for the most heinous crimes that one should be sentenced to life in prison at the most. I believe that guilt will prevail in the end and what better way to invoke guilt than to give someone an ?extended timeout? to think about what the have done. Should youths who have been convicted of violent crimes be subject to the death penalty? Why or Why not? Since I do not agree in totality with the death penalty I do not believe that youths should be subjected to the death penalty. In most cases this is proven because unless they are tried as an adult the most youth can get is life in prison and depending upon the age when they are sentenced life is not always forever. Does an ?extended timeout? or life imprisonment always the answer? In most cases I would emphatically have to say yes. References: Sociology, A Brief Introduction, R. T. Schaefer (8th Edition) 2009 http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/OrnellasPaper.htm http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/deterrence-states-without-death-penalty-have-had-consistently-lower-murder-rates

Intonation Contour in English Speech

Intonation Contour in English Speech In speech, intonation contour is a distinctive pattern of pitches, tones, or stresses in an utterance. Intonation contours are directly related to meaning. For instance, as Dr. Kathleen Ferrara has demonstrated (in Wennerstroms Music of Everyday Speech), the discourse marker anyway can be analyzed as having three different meanings, each with its own distinctive intonation contour. (See Examples and Observations, below.) See also: Intonation and Intonation PhraseEmphasisParalinguistics, Phonetics, and PhonologyProsodyRhythmSegment and SuprasegmentalStress Examples of Intonation Contours Suppose a secretary would like to know if his or her boss has completed drafting up an important report. He or she might ask, Finish that report? or perhaps the same secretary is telling the boss the list of things he or she planned to do next. He or she might say, Call Frankfurt. Write the memo to Purchasing. Finish that report. Now, perhaps, the secretary is talking to his or her assistant who is word processing this same report. He or she might say, Finish that report.In all three cases, this same string of words, Finish that report, would be said with quite different overall tone contours. In the first case, it would be given a questioning intonation; in the second case, it would be said with a non-emphatic final intonation contour; and in the third case, it would be said with an emphatic intonation contour indicating an imperative. Any native speaker of English would recognize the difference in meaning among these three intonation patterns, though the exact description of such c ontours is far from being a simple matter. . . .The reason intonation contour is so important to spoken discourse cohesion is that participants use their reading of intonation contours in deciding whether or not it is their turn to take over the floor.(Ron Scollon, Suzanne Wong Scollon, and Rodney H. Jones, Intercultural Communication: A Discourse Approach, 3rd ed. Wiley, 2012) The Problem of Terminology One immediate difficulty in consolidating the literature on intonation is the lack of agreement on terminology. If I wish to talk about syntax, I can feel confident that most audiences will understand words such as noun and verb. However, with intonation, terms such as stress, accent, tone, and emphasis may mean different things to different people. Not only are the lay terms different from the linguists terms, but linguists themselves disagree on terminology. To make matters worse, there are even different schools of thought on what counts as a unit in an intonation analysis. Should the intonation contour of an entire phrase be interpreted as a single, meaning-bearing unit? Is it possible to identify smaller units as meaningful? Where exactly does a unit start and stop?(Ann K. Wennerstrom, The Music of Everyday Speech: Prosody and Discourse Analysis. Oxford University Press, 2001)A well-canvassed discrepancy between an American predilection for levels and a British preference for tu nes is only one aspect of the differences that exist concerning how the utterance should be segmented for the purpose of describing its intonation. There is a rough similarity between the categories referred to in the literature as sense units, breath groups, tone groups, and contours, but the similarities are deceptive; and the various ways of further segmenting into nucleus, head, tail, tonic, pre-tonic, etc., compound the differences. The important point is that, whether this is explicit or not, each formulation amounts to a starting assumption about how the underlying meaning system is organized.(David C. Brazil, Intonation. The Linguistics Encyclopedia, ed. by Kirsten Malnkjaer. Routledge, 1995) Intonation Contours in Text-to-Speech Systems In text-to-speech systems, the goal of the intonation component is to generate an appropriate intonation contour for each spoken phrase. An intonation contour is the underlying fundamental frequency (F0) pattern that occurs over time in speech phrases. Physiologically, F0 corresponds to the frequency at which the vocal folds are vibrating. Acoustically, this vocal fold vibration provides the energy source that excites the vocal tract resonances during voiced portions of speech . . .. Listeners perceive an intonation contour as a pitch pattern that rises and falls at different points in a phrase. The intonation contour emphasizes certain words more than others, and distinguishes statements (with falling intonation contours) from yes/no questions (with rising intonation contours). It also conveys information about syntactic structure, discourse structure, and the speakers attitude. Behavioral scientists have been instrumental in basic research demonstrating the importance of intonation in the perception and production of speech, and in developing and evaluating intonation algorithms.(Ann K. Syrdal, Text-to-Speech Systems. Applied Speech Technology, ed. by A. Syrdal, R. Bennett, and S. Greenspan. CRC Press, 1995) Intonation Contours and the Brain There is evidence that intonational contour and patterns are stored in a distinct part of the brain from the rest of language. When someone experiences brain damage to the left side of the brain that seriously affects their linguistic abilities, making them unable to produce fluent or grammatical speech, they often maintain the appropriate intonation patterns of their language. Also, when right-hemisphere damage takes place, the result may be that the patient speaks with a monotone. And when babies who have not yet acquired any words begin to babble at around 6 months of age, they often utter nonsense syllables using the appropriate intonation pattern of the language they are acquiring.(Kristin Denham and Anne Lobeck, Linguistics for Everyone. Wadsworth, 2010) Also Known As: intonational contour

The Recognition of the Faces Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Recognition of the Faces - Article Example However, whether skin color is the major contributor for the ORE has not yet been experimentally determined. In this article, the skin color of African and Caucasian faces was manipulated without changing the facial features and face-recognition task was employed to determine whether own-race and other-race recognition depended on skin color or facial features. The research design involved the identification of a set of faces in the initial task and these faces where then manipulated and in the test phase the participants were presented with both the old and new faces and were required to press a key to identify an old and the new face. Recognition of the faces presented constitutes the dependent variable of the study while skin color and facial features are the independent variables. 48 Caucasian students participated in the task and in the initial task they were shown 16 faces in random order. This was followed by the test phase in which the 16 old faces and the 16 new faces were shown again in random order. The total faces presented were 64 chromatic pictures with 16 original African and 16 original Caucasian faces and 16 whitened African and 16 blackened Caucasian faces. All of the faces were obtained from the Tel Aviv face database with females constituting about half of the faces in each category. All the external features of the face s were cropped and the skin color conversion was carried out by extracting the red-green-blue values (RGB) taken from 16 coordinates on each face that was to be converted and they were matched at the same coordinates of the other-race face. This was followed by filtering and color-curve adjustment to complete the color conversion and all the procedures were carried out through Adobe Photoshop CS2 software. The four versions created were presented to each participant only once in the initial study and test phase of the task and each face was shown as either old or new.

Early Medical Practices in the Neolithic Period Research Proposal

Early Medical Practices in the Neolithic Period - Research Proposal Example The objectives are to conduct a visual survey and then a targeted analysis looking for narcotic or other chemical traces, and to interpret the remains holistically including any new evidence found. Literature review There is a very extensive literature on the burial practices of Neolithic peoples, (Thomas, 1999) and indeed excavations of burial sites, especially in Egypt but also across Europe and in the Americas provide the largest sources of human bone material for analysis. The form of deposition human remains is, however, not without its problems because the bones are subjected to various processes ranging from burning, to de-fleshing, selected preservation of only parts of the body, and mummification. Various kinds of positioning in different types of ground leave traces on the bones which add layers of complication to scientific analysis. Incomplete samples survive, with uneven distribution due to geological rather than historical variation, which makes it difficult to form a c omplete picture. There are some Neolithic bone samples which show evidence of healing, but it is not certain that this is a result of medical intervention. The large number of trephined skulls found in Europe in Neolithic deposits, and somewhat later also in Peru, is however, incontrovertible evidence of medical activity (Ackerknecht, 1968, p. 8). McKenzie (1936, p. 895) theorizes that the purpose of scraping a hole in the skull was to cure giddiness or epilepsy but it is unclear what evidence can be drawn to point to this conclusion, other than that no trauma is evident in the bones, which could otherwise explain the hole. The Peruvian examples do show evidence of... This study is a great example of an investigation into Neolithic Doctoring practices via visual and chemical analysis. The Neolithic period from between 4000 and 2000 BC is widely recognised as being pivotal in human history because it marks the time when large populations of people shifted from a nomadic, hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a more settled existence dependent on agriculture as a major food source. Evidence for this has been gathered from several centuries of work in the field of archaeology. Often, however, the human artifacts do not provide complete answers to exploratory research questions, and so holistic techniques from the field of anthropology can be used to make sense of supplement sparse findings. The aim of the study is to explore the evidence in Neolithic skeletal remains in order to illuminate medical practices of this period. The majority of the material available from the Neolithic period consists of skeletal remains, and some work has been done on dental evidence and diet (Lubell et al., 1994). A combination of thorough visual examination and modern GC-MS testing of the bone material for chemical elements offers a new angle on medical practices because it will reveal both healing processes at work, and any potential use of medicinal narcotics. These testing techniques have been used on organic residues of 958 British prehistoric pots to trace dairy material and a similar method applied to Neolithic bone may bring to light significant information on medical practices of that time.

Legal Structure of Business Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Legal Structure of Business - Research Paper Example There is no limit on the amount of stock a C Corporation can generate and there is a limited personal liability for stockholders which are also beneficial. The Internal Revenue Service lists various approaches to the taxation requirements for a C Corporation, part of the benefits of using the C Corporation is that the profit of a corporation is taxed when earned, and taxed to the shareholders when distributed. (Corporations, 2011 p 1) The elements most necessary in a General Corporation or C Corporation are three tiers of power, stockholders, directors and officers. Clear separation of responsibilities and rights for each position, no limit to size, directors run the company, directors are elected by stockholder vote, stockholders own the company, minority stockholders are not responsible for the company (clarify exactly what reflects a minor stockholder) and can be subchapter S if all the qualifications are met. (Incorporating 101, 2011 np) Being a subchapter S is a positive thing f or companies with fewer than 100 stockholders. They are allowed tax relief in the form of avoiding the double taxation that occurs with many public companies. (Subchapter S, 2011 p 1) This means that instead of the taxes being directed at the C Corporation they are directed at the dividends or earnings of the stockholders.

Merger and Acquisitions Theories in Management

Merger and Acquisitions Theories in Management Management theory and practice Mergers and acquisitions are a main means by which single and individuals are able to grow and then enter the new markets. After this happens, the competitive structure of the whole industries may alter radically in a span of a short time. Mergers are the unifications of two or even more firms into forming a new one whereas acquisitions are the companys purchases of the majority of the shares from another. Mergers and acquisitions can also represent a major mechanism through which the firms that are national are able to become multinational firms. The cost and benefit analysis of the mergers and acquisitions affect the decision by the managers and the shareholders of whether to take up a specific merger and acquisition. The decision by the employees also can lead to the acceptance or refusal of the merger and acquisition (Paul Simon 2). In this paper, I am going to research on why the employee-related issues prevent the succeeding of a merger or acquisition. The modern business environment is characterized by change that is continuous in nature. Every organization is considered as a system where work, process, system, people are all aligned in order to ensure that the unit of the individual, individual and overall systems are well fit to deliver the strategies of the organization. The objective of the integrative process is to integrate people, processes, technologies and strategy without interrupting service, quality or product and not only to combine financial standing of any two companies. Employees issues in relation to the integration phase always relate to the human capital related integration issues such as integration of the culture of the organization, leadership, organization structure and design, processes and systems and retention of the key talent. The other important issues are effective planning for the purpose of integration, employee communications, and the selection of good leaders to manage the business combination and the creation of practices and policies for knowledge sharing and learning and also the transfer. The failure to address the issues that concern merger and acquisition impacts the new and current organization very negatively at the stage of post-merger in two levels. One of these two levels is the individual level and the reactions of the individual employees are insecurity, powerlessness, alienation, a drop in productivity, loss of energy and the rise in absenteeism which increases turnover and profits. Other stress factors include the performance evaluation criteria, the loss of control over the life of the professional and also the alterations in the reporting relationships which would also impact the merger or the acquisition adversely or negatively. There are also many other psychological impacts which result from the merger activity. These are lifestyle instability, loss of confidence, depression, anxiety among others and these symptoms may lead to large-scale industrial strikes at times (Nilanjan and Bhattacharya 143). From this we can find that due to these impacts, the employees can resist the mergers and or acquisition in their companies. The other level is the corporate level and at this level the impacts are long-term in the cultural integration, organization structure and design, processes and systems. The failure to tackle these issues in the phase of planning of the merger process can lead to outcomes such as benefits integration, high financial costs, incompatible HR plans and policies, inadequate communication to the employees, insufficient provisions and reserves for risks that had not been discovered and/or improperly evaluated, inefficient financial accounting for the integration costs, the loss of loyalty of the employees leading to the high turnover rates, the dilemma of the workforce reduction, reduced productivity and finally leads to lowered employee morale (Nilanjan and Bhattacharya 144). These issues are the ones that drive the employees to be against and protect the mergers and acquisitions. The strategic combinations of the mergers and acquisitions have a dramatically greater chance of success in terms of providing the added value to all employees, and shareholders. The success could also be experienced in justifying of the acquisition premium when they are led, designed and implemented with these four elements. The first element is the integrative perspective in which the mergers need to be seen as combinations that try to balance the interplay of the organizational architecture and organizational strategy with the guiding principles of the management of the change. The second element is the designed integration which is the scope, intensity and degree of the integration and should be driven by elementary business case for the merger or acquisition which defines integration process. The third is the differential leadership because leadership is very vital and different leaders have different roles. The leadership roles should be considered and assigned at the initial stages because this could bring confusion at the late stages. Lastly, the expanded due diligence factor is considered where the organizational issues are discussed. In this case, the organizational diligence is made a crucial part of the merger and the acquisition chain of events as is the due financial and legal diligence. An example of the job losses caused by mergers and acquisitions and also the reduction of salaries of the members of banks is the European banking sector. Since the start of 1990s, the European banking sector has witnessed massive job losses and the decrease of the salaries of the employees who were left. The impact of these job losses has been greater in the Northern Europe rather than in the southern Europe. The employment in the sector of insurance has also been affected as a result of mergers and acquisition. The nature and quality of the employment has greatly changed from the year 2000 in Europe (Paul and Simon 2002: 45). The reductions of employment have affected the branch administrative and networks functions. The older workers with the conventional banking skills who do not qualify and therefore not transferable easily to the new developed and centralized functions, for example those that work in the call centers, are affected adversely. These are the people who may rise ag ainst any mergers and/or acquisitions and also the banks may consider these people and reach a decision not to accept any mergers and acquisitions. Mergers and acquisitions have been known to accelerate corporate practices because the enterprises tend to review the whole cost structure entailing the mergers and acquisitions with the aim of identifying the very maximum savings that are possible. The job losses have increased greatly from 17.5% to 24% due to many mergers and acquisitions. A merger and/or acquisition also referred to as a takeover invalidates in many ways the employment contract. The employee works for someone else without having taken the required steps to change his or her employers. This brings into clear view in an emphatic manner the one-sidedness of the employment relationship and also the idea that the employees do not have any control over the decision of who their employers are. The mergers and/or acquisitions are described as the legitimate means for breaking the implicit contracts in the view of restructuring (Paul and Simon 2002: 183). The mergers are seen as avenues to disrupt job security that the employees have held for long periods and therefore are bound to disrupt the process of mergers and/or acquisitions. These mergers and acquisitions appear to the employees as deliberate strategies to violate the internal norms and also as a hard, brute exercise of powers and therefore they can prevent the succeeding of the mergers and acquisitions. The integrating of the different company procedures and systems requires the harmonization of the different aspects of terms and conditions that apply to the employment signings. These include job titles, pay scales, job descriptions, entitlements and benefits, supervisory and reporting lines are all subjected to revision in order to ensure that there is common practice in the new mergers and acquisitions. These changes may make the employees to reject any mergers and acquisitions. The mergers and the acquisitions upset the links between explicit and implicit contracts in accompany that was in the past based on trust between workers and managers, they are presently founded on assumptions and beliefs regarding mutual responsibility between employees and employers. The integration, merger and acquisition also requires the harmonization of the different aspects of conditions and terms of the employment to ensure that common practice in the combined organization which may alter the existing practices of the human resource and management of either or even both of the organizations. Workers or employees have also considered the lack of incentives due to mergers and acquisitions. There is no transparency in the reward systems and the mergers also lead to contradiction between performance assessments that focus on personal contribution and the objectives that require team-based work. The employees therefore call for better balanced team-based and individual rewards. This is supported by trade unions where they argue that the alterations to the psychological contract which include erosion in the job security are not well reflected in the enterprise reward systems after the mergers and acquisitions. This decreased job security, increased workloads, stress and anxiety are other significant consequences of the heightened merger and acquisitions activity. These factors coupled with lowered morale and also a deterioration of the organization performance has led the employees to be against the implementation of mergers, takeovers and acquisition. This human side of the acquisitions and mergers is all about the overall impact that mergers and/or acquisitions have on the employees in a certain company. These impacts on the psychological difficulties that the employees experience, the culture clashes which may emerge in companies during the post-merger integration period. Finally the ways in which these outcomes manifest themselves that include communication breakdowns, there is also the we-they mentality that occurs between the inclusive organizations in the merger and acquisitions, minimized commitment, reductions in productivity, organizational struggles for power and also office politicking and at last the loss of the key and main organizational members. All these factors combined include the employee issues that affect the realization of mergers and acquisitions (Anthony and James 3). Through research through face to face interviews, a writer concluded that the employees were an important asset to the companies and that they should be considered when the management decides on mergers and acquisitions. Through an interview with an employee of a company that had undergone acquisition, Hayes was told that the employees would not make any move because they were told that their methods were outdated and that they would have to readjust to the new companys way of conducting their activities. He indicated that when he tried to complain to the corporate about the situation, he was warned that if he squawked too loud, his position would be in jeopardy. This resulted to the destruction of the company morale and with time, the main people started leaving and it did not take much time before he also resigned (Hayes 1981: 131). If the company had taken into consideration all complains of their employers, they would have retained their experienced workers and this would increas e the productivity levels. Acquisition and mergers can adequately transform the organizational processes, systems, structures and also cultures of one or both of the companies involved that the employees will often feel confused, frustrated, frightened, stressed or even frustrated and therefore whenever the employees of a particular company here of any merger and/or acquisition they are ready to prevent the realization of the same. On the personal level, these feelings often lead to psychosomatic difficulties, sense of loss, marital discord and at the extreme level, they can lead to suicide. On the level of organization, these feelings are manifested in lowered productivity and commitment, increased disloyalty and dissatisfaction, increased turnover among the key managers, power and leadership struggles especially among the managers who remain in the organization and finally an increase in the dysfunctional work-related behaviors at all the levels of the hierarchy. These impacts on the employee and by the empl oyee are issues that negatively affect the mergers and acquisitions. It is reported that in the 3000 and above mergers that occurred in the year 1985, so many employees estimated to be more than ten thousand lost their jobs and others were forced to accept early retirement (Kanter and Segger-man 1986: 17). It was also estimated that by the year 1990, there will be 2500 savings and loans and 5400 banks that would be involved in mergers and these would affect more than 900, 000 people in the United States. In the year 2009, it was noted that there were decreasing mergers and acquisition activities and that also the credits were tightening. One of the reasons of a successful merger and transaction activity is the compensation which is never done and if it is done it is only given to the executives. The compensation can be a powerful tool to motivate the management and its team to influence positive outcomes in the activity involving mergers and acquisition. This has not been the case in the recent past and the employees are laid off without being paid well leading to the negative feelings that they experience shortly afterwards. This can explain the reduction of the merger and acquisition activity because the employees through their managers are able to prevent the realization or completion of a merger and/or acquisition owing to the fact that they are not compensated. In the recent past there was the acquisition of Merrill Lynch by the Bank of America, there was a problem in the executive pay and compensation and this led to a very expensive roadblock to the desired transaction. A report by the PricewaterhouseCooper indicates that the merger and acquisition activity has decreased 86 percent from the year 2008, the previous year. In addition to these statistics, when the High Court approves the schemes of arrangement of a merger, it takes into account the workers interests. The scheme of arrangement must provide for adequate protection for the employees service benefits and conditions. If the scheme shows otherwise, the High court does not agree to the terms and conditions of the merger and therefore we find that the issues of the employee are considered. The organizational behavior is always reflected by acquisition behavior, the relative size and the cultural compatibility. Global mergers and acquisitions are the main corporate strategies which the multinational corporations use to diversify, expand or even consolidate their businesses. In the year 2006, there was a recorded worldwide annual value of the acquisition transactions exceeded US $ 4 trillion (Larsen 2007: 23). This trend was also recorded in the year 2007 where the worldwide transaction value of the acquisitions in only the first 3 months ranged at US $ 1.13trillion which was the highest busiest recorded quarter ever in history (Saigol and Politi 2007: 145). However, almost 83%of these transactions were unsuccessful (KPMG, 1999; Sirower 1997). A considerable amounts of research developed that the failures were caused by the absence of a national cultural fit which is the cultural distance of the workers and employees (Rottig and Reus 2006: 340). This may lead to cultural problems and clashes among the involved workforces. This in return lowers the employee cooperation and commitment, cause voluntary turnover of the acquired top managers and could also complicate the process of post-acquisition integration (Very and Schweiger 2001:22). The cultural distance might have some positive results but it is among the high points that lead to the failure of the mergers and acquisitions and it is an employee-related issue. The organizational culture which is defined as the interdependent and interrelated system of practices, beliefs, norms and assumptions that the members of the organization bear collectively should be put into consideration before a merger and/or acquisition because when they are altered extensively after the merger, the employees will tend to work against them and this will not promote success of the merger and/or acquisition. The assumptions, norms and practices could be unconscious which are learnt through the socialization of the organization and often reflect the shared perceptions of the daily practices and also determine the things that are carried out within an organization (Gertsen, et al. 1998: 123). An example is the acquisition of the Tokyo Bank by the Mitsubishi Bank in the year 2003. These two organizations had very dissimilar organization cultures. The employees of the Mitsubishi Bank shared a common cultural norm of being to work on time, wearing only white shirts while at work and also thanking their department supervisors and managers in person for any monthly pay checks. But in contrast, the employees of Tokyo Bank were not used to strict dress code and being reprimanded for getting to work late and they also had no duty to carry out a thanksgiving ceremony as they collected their monthly salaries. After the acquisition activity, a huge number of the employees of the Tokyo Bank were alienated by the strict culture of the Mitsubishi Bank and they left the combined company voluntarily. This was in the United States. This is an example of how the employee-related issues could lead to unsuccessful mergers and acquisitions. Poor communication between the employees of the same company after a merger or an acquisition could lead to problems of integration in both the domestic and the international mergers and/or acquisitions. This may cause unsuccessful mergers and acquisitions and it is an employee-related issue. On the other hand, the international acquisitions are characterized by ethnocentrism; nationalistic attitudes; xenophobia and language barriers (Vaara 2003: 864) and these could lead to the failure of the mergers and acquisitions. Work cited Nilanjan Sengupta and Bhattacharya Mousumi. Managing change in organizations.PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd. Anthony Buono and James Bowditch. The human side of mergers and acquisitions: managing collisions between people, cultures and organizations. Chicago: Beard Books, 2003 Kanter, R and Seggerman, T. managing mergers, acquisitions, and divestiures. Management review, Oct 1986, pp 16-17. Hayes, R. what happens to my people after I sell? The human side of acquisition. In S. J. Lee and R. D. Colman (eds.), handbook of mergers, acquisitions and buyouts. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1981. Paul Temple and Simon Peck. Mergers and Acquisitions: critical perspectives on business and management. : Taylor Francis, 2002. Thomas Straub. Reasons for frequent failure in mergers and acquisitions. Germany: DUV, 2007. Rottig, D. Reus, T.H. Organizational and national cultures consequences for acquisition performance: A meta-analysis, Paper presented at Southern Management Association, Clearwater Beach, 2006. Saigol, L. Politi, J. MA volume tops $1,000bn, Financial Times, March 30: 13, 2007. KPMG. Mergers and Acquisitions: Global Research Report 1999. London: KPMG, 1999. Gertsen, M., Soderberg, A.M. Torp, J.E. Cultural Dimensions of International Mergers and Acquisitions, Walter de Gruyter: Berlin, 1998 Gertsen, M.C., Soderberg, A.M. Torp, J.E. Different concepts of culture, in Gertsen, M. C., Soderberg, A.M. Torp, J. E., editors (eds.) Cultural Dimensions of International Acquisitions, Walter de Gruyter: Berlin, 1998. Vaara, E. Post-acquisition integration as sense making: Glimpses of ambiguity, confusion, hypocrisy, and politicization, Journal of Management Studies, 40(4): 859-94, 2003 Very, P. Schweiger, D.M. The acquisition process as a learning process: Evidence from a study of critical problems and solutions in domestic and cross-border deals, Journal of World Business, 36(1): 11-31, 2001. Sirower, M.L. The Synergy Trap: How Companies Lose the Acquisition Game, Free Press: New York, 1997.

The Cycles of International Conflict Essay -- International Conflict

Wars have been waged for decades creating the world we live in today. Charles Tilly observed, â€Å"the state made war and war made the state† (qtd in Sernau, 2009, 147). However, these battles have been destructive and bloody resulting in the deaths of countless individuals. These grave consequences lead us to ask the ever problematic question, what could possibly motivate a state to engage in warfare? Fundamentally, some believe war is linked to a conflict of political and economic interests rooted in power struggles ranging from territorial and humanitarian to ideological and ethnic while others argue that war has become ingrained in our societies and economies resulting in this tenacious cycle of confrontation. Territories are the bases of states. Accordingly, Joshua Goldstein and Jon Pevehouse explain that â€Å"Most of today’s borders are the result of past wars (in which winners took territory from losers) or were imposed arbitrarily by colonizers† (Goldstein and Pevehouse, 2009, 25). Territory is precious to states and is rarely yielded voluntarily for any incentive and lost territory is not quickly forgotten (Goldstein and Pevehouse, 2009, 133). For example, disputes were the consequences of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I and the Middle Eastern region being colonized by England and France through the Sykes Picot agreement (Singh, 2003). Eventually these colonies gained their freedom but several territory disputes arose the most prominent being the Israeli-Palestinian conflict linked to the Oslo Accords (Singh, 2003). The concept of irredentism which is â€Å"The goal of regaining territory lost to another state† (Goldstein and Pevehouse, 200 9, 133) is a problematic result of this dispute with Palestinians belie... ...tions." Bint Jbeil. 1993. Web. 9 Apr. 2012. . Kent, John. "Cold War and the Periphery." History in Focus. Institute of Historical Research, 2006. Web. 9 Apr. 2012. . Nikitin, Alexander. "Political and Economic Causes of War." Proc. of 50th Pugwash Conference On Science and World Affairs: Eliminating the Causes of War, Queen's College, Cambridge. 2000. Print. Sanchez, Peter. Class Lecture. International Politics. Loyola University, Chicago, IL. 26 Mar 2012. Sernau, Scott. Global Problems: The Search for Equity, Peace, and Sustainability. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon, 2009. Print. Singh, K. G. "Treating the Symptoms Instead of the Cause." Asia Times Online. 31 July 2003. Web. 5 Apr. 2012. .

The White Umbrella

The White Umbrella The narrator of The White Umbrella is ashamed of her mom because she works. Throughout the story, she begins to have a different perspective of her mom. In the end of The White Umbrella, she respects her mom and realizes that her mom likes to have a job. One of the things that helps her to realize that is she sees how much she loves working. Her mom says on page 332, â€Å"â€Å"A promotion already! † she said finally. † Her mom likes her job.The narrator learns that she loves her mom no matter what she does when they get in a wreck. The narrator says â€Å"†Mom! † I screamed. â€Å"Mom! Wake up! † Luckily, no one was hurt and she comes to realize that she does not care that her mom has a job. Back in the beginning, she is ashamed that her mom works even though she does not know where she is working. The narrator explains this when she is having a conversation with her mom; â€Å"†Lots of people’s mothers work. † â€Å"Those are American people,† I said. † In addition, she does not mention her mom’s job to her piano teacher because she is so ashamed and she and her sister have to walk to practice because of this. â€Å"â€Å"I don’t think so,† said Mona as we walked to our piano lesson after school. In the middle of the story, her mom tells her where she is working, but is even more disappointed. She still thinks it is like being poor. The narrator asks her mom to quit. Another reason why she does not want her to work is that the mom forgot them at practice. â€Å"† My mother’s almost here,† I said â€Å"she’s on her way. †Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"†¦You’ve been out here an hour already. †Ã¢â‚¬  She was ashamed of her mom working but now does not mind that her mother has a job as long as she is happy. The narrator of The White Umbrella reconsiders her mother working throughout the story.

Mangement and Leadership

Management and Leadership Cortnie Edwards MGT/330 December 19, 2011 Alecia Cummings Management and Leadership Habitat for Humanity was founded in 1976 by Millard and Linda Fuller. The couple had a dream of following their Christian lifestyle and helping others in need. They wanted to help families living in poverty and build new homes. The idea was they would build housed with no profit and charge no interest. â€Å"The concept that grew into Habitat for Humanity International was born at Koinonia Farm, a small, interracial, Christian farming community founded in 1942 outside of Americus, Ga. , by farmer and biblical scholar Clarence Jordan.Building would be financed by a revolving Fund for Humanity. The fund's money would come from the new homeowners' house payments, donations and no-interest loans provided by supporters and money earned by fund-raising activities. The monies in the Fund for Humanity would be used to build more houses† (â€Å"Thrivent Builds With Habitat For Humanity â€Å",  2011). The organization took off with unbelievable results. The Fullers took their organization internationally and have now since built over 400,000 homes. Leading and managing an organization such as Habitat for Humanity involves a multitude of diverse ideas, visions, and people. What is the difference between management and leadership? It is a question that has been asked more than once and also answered in different ways. The biggest difference between managers and leaders is the way they motivate the people who work or follow them, and this sets the tone for most other aspects of what they do† (â€Å"Leadership Vs. Management†,  2002-2011). Habitat for Humanity starts with the board of directors. Habitat for Humanity International board members oversee the direction of Habitat’s activities worldwide as the organization works to eradicate substandard housing.Directors are elected to two-year terms that may be renewed four times. They r eceive no compensation for their voluntary service. The board of directors is responsible for affiliate policies and procedures, program development, financial stewardship, supervision of volunteer staff, fundraising, public relations, and legal matters. There are global directors that â€Å"represent the Asia-Pacific region in the global Habitat communications team in the creation and implementation of worldwide brand building, marketing and advocacy initiatives and campaigns.This includes devising Asia-Pacific roll-out strategies; liaising and sharing with peers in other Habitat regions; and coordinating and collaborating with the HQ communications team on global strategies and initiatives† (â€Å"Alertnet†,  2011). The organization is made up mostly of volunteers and describes different levels among the organization as committees. The development, site selection, and public relations committees are just a few of the different leadership levels Habitat for Humanity has. The development committee is responsible for raising funds and for introducing people to our work.This committee is also responsible for special events and outreach to businesses. The site selection committee works with town officials and developers to identifying and evaluating potential sites for new Habitat homes. This committee is always looking for new members with insight into the local real estate market and the inner workings of town government. The public relations committee is responsible for raising awareness of Habitat for Humanity in our service area. Responsibilities include media relations and publishing a quarterly newsletter.In a non-profit organization there is often very little direction offered to volunteers, leaving them with many decisions to be made on their own. There is a lot of focus on the bigger picture, which in this case is to provide as many families as possible with shelter. However, the steps to achieving the overall goals or mission are not as clearly defined as would be in a profit-seeking company. According to the McKinsey Capacity Assessment Grid, Habitat for Humanity exemplifies effective governance.This offers a competitive advantage because the managers’ decisions are aligned with the stakeholders’ interests since the managers may very well be shareholders themselves. The managers definitely devote their time and energy to improve the financial position of the organization so that it can offer assistance to those that require it the most. Habitat for Humanity is such a large organization; it is broken up into chapters, representing different regions of the world. Each chapter consists of different levels of leaders. At the top of the chain is the President. The President is esponsible for setting and distributing agendas for meetings, setting and distributing calendars of events, maintaining a working relationship with the local affiliate, coordinating an open communication with the Office of Student Activities, and keeping chapter focused on its goals. The vice president follows. His responsibilities consist of serving as project manager of chapter build, serving as chapter chaplain, keeping an open communication with the Construction and Horticulture Club, and overseeing family liaison, volunteer coordinator, superintendents, and tools management.Family liaison pursues a relationship with the family that they are building for. They also keep all other members informed of the family's needs. Brainstorms ideas for gifts to family, plans family gatherings, and makes scrapbooks for the family. Volunteer Coordinators are responsible for keeping track of the number of volunteers designated for the build days. Tools management maintains volunteers on the work site through a sign in/out sheet. They may also assign designated tools to each volunteer as needed through sign in/out sheet.Superintendents maintain a close relationship with the VP during the build day. They will often be one of the most experienced on site and will help the Project Manager decide how to go about construction. They may also help educate and designate groups through construction. â€Å"The ability to implement strategies in an organization is one of the most skillful managerial requirements and knowledge that we need in critical aspects to run an organization† (â€Å"Strategies That Organizational Managers and Leaders Can Use to Create and Maintain a Healthy â€Å",  2011). Leaders and managers in an organization can use some factors to create a healthy organizational culture, such factors are social factors, physical setting, technology, organizing arrangements and individual behavior. Leaders and managers are required to have increased resources, perceptive knowledge, and superior talent and enhanced capabilities to continue facilitating processes toward attaining the ultimate objectives, discovering and commercializing safety of the organization.These multiple activities re quire managers and leaders who have the significant of strategies implementation and core competencies and organizational capabilities that create values to changes of the organization† (â€Å"Strategies That Organizational Managers And Leaders Can Use To Create And Maintain A Healthy†,  2011). A strategy is something an organization uses to help it reach its vision and mission. Habitat for Humanity’s global strategy, asks what markets it should be operating in. As a resource based organization, however, this question is less important.The organization is not looking for opportunities to enter new industries and therefore develop new competencies. Rather, it is looking for ways to use its internal strengths and competencies in the market place. Habitat has chosen a global strategy that has them participating only in one type of non-profit industry – mainly the zero-interest mortgage and home building market. If they were to diversify into other non-profi t markets such as non-perishable foods for example, the organization’s few resources may become too spread out and its core competencies would be stretched rendering all activities less effective.If there was a business-level strategy category for Habitat for Humanity, it would definitely have to be one of cost leadership. The land, supplies, and labor are all acquired at low cost or free of charge. This strategy requires a centralized functional structure so that there can be higher rates of efficiency and better methods of meeting the objectives determined. Habitat incorporates this strategy through and through although its focus is on increasing efficiency so that more families can be helped – not to increase profits.Adapting to different cultures, religions, languages, and people are just a few obstacles volunteers face when working with the globalization within Habitat for Humanity. Globalization makes a huge impact on volunteers. The United Nations has designated the first Monday in October as annual World Habitat Day. According to Habitat International, World Habitat Day’s purpose is to call attention to the current global state of the human habitat and push toward adequate housing for all. By raising awareness and advocating for universal decent housing the systems that reinforce and entrench poverty housing can be altered and even changed.Habitat builds dignity through providing a shelter bringing a family closer together, it builds relationships throughout the world, and it builds community. Habitat for Humanity does all of this through globalization. They are helping people all over the world helping people become part of the globalization. Sustainability and Green building are two ways that Habitat is addressing globalization issues. Based on the research I have done on this organization, I found that there are a couple of strategies the organization an use to help obtain more volunteers and build credibility. The first option is partnering up with more trade schools. Students would be able to obtain hands-on experience and at the same time have the opportunity to add valuable volunteer hours to their resume. It would build a lifelong relationship with the institutions in addition to securing help and perhaps setting the tone for students to keep volunteering after graduation. The second strategy would be to obtain a Better Business Bureau Charity Seal to gain credibility.Obtaining a Better Business Bureau Charity Seal would allow Habitat for Humanity to gain credibility in addition to getting more recognition. A lot of community members look to the Better Business Bureau when making decisions as to which businesses to get involved with or which charities to donate to. There may be people that have not heard of Habitat for Humanity but may learn about the organization through the BBB Website. Joining forces with and obtaining recognition from organizations such as the Better Business Bureau could benefit Habitat for Humanity by providing them with the opportunity to acquire even more volunteers.As with any company or organization, there are always opportunities and risks involved. Making the best decisions for the families that are in need is the only way for Habitat to continue with their success. Strong leadership and management will continue to help the organization prosper. Many of the leaders of Habitat had to overcome their own struggles to get where they are today driving them to make the issue of poverty so much more of a priority. Skill, hard work, and their belief in living out God’s word have built this organization to where it is today.References Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity. (2011). Retrieved from http://www. thriventbuilds. com/partnership/habitat/history. html Leadership vs. Management. (2002-2011). Retrieved from http://changingminds. org/disciplines/leadership/articles/manager_leader. htm Alertnet. (2011). Retrieved from http://www. trust. org/al ertnet/jobs/2011-08-26-1458/ http://www. articleclick. com/Article/Strategies-That-Organizational-Managers-and-Leaders-Can-Use-to-Create-and-Maintain-a-Healthy/997166

Computers Essay †La computadora es muy beneficiosa

Computers Essay – La computadora es muy beneficiosa Free Online Research Papers Computers Essay La computadora es muy beneficiosa Discuss the changes computers have made in our lives. What impact is they having today and will have in the future? La computadora se inicio como sà ³lo un avance tecnolà ³gico, pero paso a paso y a travà ©s de su perfeccionamiento comenzà ³ a formar parte de nuestras vidas. Actualmente la computadora es indispensable en nuestra cotidianidad. La computadora es muy beneficiosa al momento de facilitarnos muchas cosas. Por ejemplo anteriormente realizar una investigacià ³n era mucho mas complejo porque una biblioteca era la referencia obligada. Sin embargo, actualmente podemos realizar cualquier investigacià ³n desde la comodidad de nuestras casas, esto gracias a la computadora. Eso entre muchas otras comodidades que ofrece la computadora como entretenimiento y facilidades para la trascripcià ³n. Por todo esto es que se habla de las computadoras como un aparato tecnolà ³gico indispensable en nuestras vidas. Claro est tambià ©n que no todo es tan beneficioso. Porque ha sido la computadora y todas sus facilidades la creadora de generaciones enteras dependientes de una computadora e incapaces de realizar cualquier accià ³n antes nombrada sin contar con la computadora. Estamos corriendo el riesgo entonces de convertirnos en seres inà ºtiles. Es imposible estar en contra de los avances tecnolà ³gicos, sabiendo adems que ese avance es continuo y progresivo. Pero es necesario limitar un poco los posibles impactos negativos que esos avances tecnolà ³gicos puedan tener en nosotros. Corremos el riesgo de que en el futuro sean las maquinas computarizadas mas à ºtiles que nosotros. Es este el riesgo de seguir dndole crà ©dito a las facilidades que nos otorga la computadora pero la tecnologà ­a es como una marea que nos arrastra. Es cuestià ³n de saber limitar la tecnologà ­a sin oponernos a ella. Solamente de esta manera estaremos evitando las posibles causas que lleven en un futuro a la humanidad a ser desplazados por estas maquinas con cerebros artificiales. Research Papers on Computers Essay - La computadora es muy beneficiosaThe Project Managment Office SystemCapital PunishmentEffects of Television Violence on ChildrenGenetic EngineeringHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows EssayTwilight of the UAWThe Fifth HorsemanAnalysis of Ebay Expanding into AsiaIncorporating Risk and Uncertainty Factor in CapitalMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever Product

Writing activities Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Writing activities - Article Example as a role in influencing corporate activities and consumer spending is good for the economy, but, on the other hand, I disagree that shopping is good for the soul all the time if it becomes the predominant end of a materialistic life. I agree with Livingston that purchasing power is a tool by which consumers can influence firms to become more environmentally-conscious and responsive to consumer demands, and that consumer spending can improve the economy by driving demand that influences employment and investment. Consumers, by choosing what to buy and not to buy, can definitely impact corporate activities. An example is when consumers stop buying certain brands that the media exposes as coming from firms who conduct harmful environmental practices. By boycotting these products, the consumers directly affect corporate decisions, such as when companies stop these harmful practices and change them to regain consumer trust. Aside from forcing corporations to be environmentally-conscious, consumers are also compelling companies to care for what the former care about. Consumers are now using their purchasing power to change unethical corporate practices. For instance, when Americans knew about the sweatshops of Nike in Indonesia and China, consumers forced Nike to change their contractors’ workplace conditions and wages when they boycotted the company’s products (Nisen). These are only some of the many examples how consumer power is social and political power too. Furthermore, consumer spending is a significant component in affecting economic growth. Personal consumption is currently 70% of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (Mathews). Clearly, consumption has a large impact on economic performance because it increases demand that drives investment and jobs. Aside from these points, I no longer agree with Livingston that shopping is good for the soul all the time if it becomes the principal end of life, instead of a means to better ends. Livingston argues that

Travel in South Africa Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Travel in South Africa - Essay Example The country is characterized by world class infrastructure, friendly citizens as well as spectacular scenery. This sector received a major boost during the 2010 world cup when it received the highest number of visitors in history. There are various benefits associated with the industry in South Africa. Tourism and travel provides foreign exchange for the country. This gives the governments enough money to offset the foreign debts, allows the South African Rand to remain at par with the US dollar. It also allows the government to pay its employees (Walker and Keith 15). This means that governments have money that is dedicated towards constructive projects such as education, infrastructure as well as health care. The South African citizens that go for shopping sprees abroad have the money to buy goods and services as long as the foreign currencies are readily available in the economy (Walker and Keith 22). Finally, tourism and travel facilitates exportation of goods into the country. Tourism and travel leads to the direct and indirect creation of jobs. When tourists visit the country, it leads to job creation for jewelry trades, drivers and vendors that are directly involved in the sector (Walker and Keith 33). Tourism and travel also has an indirect impacts on landlords and other traders. The sector plays a key role in ensuring job creation in the hotel and entertainment industries. As earlier stated the tourism and travel sector employs one out of every twelve individuals in the economy. The tourism sector contributes towards infrastructure development as the government works towards developing roads, electricity and communication networks in the country to attract tourists. This results into an infrastructure improvement in the country (Walker and Keith 67). The tourist and travel sector results into cultural preservation through economic and cultural incentives. Finally, it results