I’m the King of the Castle Essay

Qn: In her after word, the writer talks about â€Å"the evil – for I think I evil-of Hooper†. What do you think the novel says about the nature of evil in people? In my perspective, I do not believe that people are born evil. â€Å"Evil† is undisputedly an arbitrary term whereby different people have different scope of what evil is. Susan Hill’s definition of â€Å"evil† is that of Hooper -being sadistic and afflicting harm in others, as seen in Hooper. Yet, I feel that Hill’s definition of â€Å"evil† is rather cynical and biased. Hill should not even relate Hooper to â€Å"evil† in the first place, as the child is still growing up and does not know how to differentiate between good and bad, and the fact that he does not receive any love and care sort of make him an â€Å"emotionless† person. Thus purely describing him as evil is somewhat biased. I think better adjectives to describe him are probably contumacious and unfeeling. In my essay, I’ll first prove that Hooper’s cruelty is due to his lack of fundamental love and care and that it is due to some circumstances that drove him to be who he is. Secondly, I’ll prove that Hooper cannot be really blamed for his evilness, and lastly, I’ll counter opposing arguments put across and further reinforce on my motion. Firstly, the fact that Hooper is cruel cannot be denied. Yet, one must take into consideration that it is the environment and external influences that led him to be evil. Hooper is born into a dysfunctional family. His mother died when he was very young, and that deprived him of mother-love, which is often thought to be very important and influential during a child’s growing phase. In addition, Hooper’s situation is made worse due to lack of father’s care and understanding. Hooper is thus deprived of any love and care, which any other normal child would have gotten. Thus, he could only turn to being evil, probably to attract attention from his only kin, which is his father. Hooper’s hostile attitude towards Kingshaw indeed makes readers feel indignant. However, the crucial point here, which I feel, is why Hooper is so mean towards Kingshaw. It is a fact that all living beings need companionship. Hooper’s cruelty towards Kingshaw could be a way he shows affection. Well, we never know for sure how some people choose to show affection. And cruelty could be how Hooper chooses to show. Furthermore, Hooper has never ever experienced the true feeling of love and care. So most probably, he doesn’t know anything about love. So, that explains why he thinks cruelty is a form of affection. Taking for instance the case of ailing pets. Veterinarians and pet lovers, in a bid to stop their precious pets from suffering more pain, put them to sleep. This, irrefutable, is a cruel thing, but it is a way pet lover show their affection towards their pets. Now, are their actions really evil and inhumane? I, basically, think this action is not a cruel thing, but rather, something piteous as it helps to alleviate the pet’s pain. Basically, this sentence sums up that the fact that I do not believe that people are born evil, but rather it is â€Å"nurture†, rather â€Å"nature†, that turns people evil. In addition, Hooper’s actions, to me, can be justified as being selfish rather than evil. We all know that Hooper is possessive. He wants Warings to himself and does not waste any attempt drive away â€Å"redundant people† living in Warings. His actions are certainly more of Selfishness than Evilness. The fact that Hooper is merely a young child further accentuates and explains why he is so selfish. Afterall, young child are more self-centered and possessive. This can be illustrated by the fact that a young child only accepts their parents’ full, unscattered love and concern, and more often than ever, news of the arrival of another child, only make them fret about the amount on concern they would receive. Thus, Hooper’s selfishness is somehow understandable. On the other side of the coin, Kingshaw is undoubtedly kind. Critics have commented on Kingshaw as having â€Å"natural goodness†. Now, the question is, if people are born evil, then why is Kingshaw still so kind? Kingshaw has been inundated with taunts and torments from Hooper. Yet, there is still this tinge of kindness inside him that made him remain good right from the start, albeit he did harbour some ill intentions of harming Hooper initially (â€Å"had only to move his hand†¦so that he would topple through the well of the staircase†, chapter 2). So, if people were to born evil, then, why is Kingshaw still benevolent? Therefore, my motion, that people are not born evil, is further reinforced here. In conclusion, I’d like to state that it is nurture, not nature, that made Hooper evil, and that people are certainly not born evil. Perhaps one simple analogy one to reinforce my point is that when an adopted child commits a crime, the ones he would blame are definitely his foster parents and not his natural parents. Why? Because it’s nurture rather than nature, that makes one who he is. With this, I end my essay.

Something That Changed My Life

Frank Tsiboe Ms. Brooks 9th Honors LA 21 November, 2011 A Word To The Wise Is Enough: Look at me now, you see a student but no one will have ever thought I was just someone adding up to the number of students at school. I was once the person who didn’t care about my education or future because I thought I would always have my parents, but I grew up and understood they won’t always be there for me. I remember I hardly had a B or an A until my mom told me what I didn’t know. I didn’t know I had a chance a lot of people didn’t have, I didn’t know I had a chance a lot of people wish they had. Once I brought my report card and it wasn’t good at all. Then my mom sat me down and told me something that changed my life. She told me she didn’t have the chance I was getting and she wished she had completed school but her parents were never there for her. My mom lived with her grandmother who took care of her and saw her through her school but unfortunately she couldn’t complete school, unfortunately she had to drop out because there was no money to support her through school. she had to struggle to get It’s funny because my mom actually had the same problem as I had but then she realized she wasn’t hurting anybody but herself, but nobody had to sit her down to talk to her she realized it by herself. She later changed her attitude her school and started putting an effort.

Existentialism: Does Life Have Meaning? Essay

Most people would like to think that their life has some kind of meaning or purpose. However how this meaning in life is obtained can cause some differing views. One may believe that they were born with a purpose in life and the other may believe that it is their own responsibility to give their own life meaning. While the first belief may be the preferred option, it doesn’t seem very practical. Existentialists believe that one must give meaning to their own life, which in all reality seems to be the truth. In the novels Their Eyes Were Watching God, Crime and Punishment, The Awakening, The Stranger, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, the existential view that the individual is responsible for giving their own life meaning is confirmed through the character’s actions, pressures of society, and the overall meanings of the works. The behaviors of the characters in these various novels help explain their search for meaning in life. In the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God by Nora Zeal Hurston, the main character Janie is on a search for her true purpose in life. She spent her whole life being controlled by her grandmother and her first two husbands, and now that she is living her life with her third husband Teacakes, she is beginning to discover her true potential. Janie is always trying to serve the men in her life so much to the point that she belittles herself into having no meaning to her own life. Janie began to try to find her own meaning in life early in the novel. In chapter two it states, â€Å"Janie was stretched on her back beneath the pear tree soaking in the alto chant of the visiting bees, the gold of the sun and the panting breath of the breeze when the inaudible voice of it all came to her. She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage! She had been summoned to behold a revelation. Then Janie felt a pain remorseless sweet that left her limp and languid. † At this point Janie realizes that it is her own responsibility to create her own purpose in life and she sets out to do so. By the end of the novel, Janie realizes that she can only depend on herself to be happy and she must put her own needs before the needs of others, thus finding her meaning of life. The actions of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in the play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard, seem to be a constant search for the meaning of life. In Act Three, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have a conversation after they realize that their mission they were sent on is now useless. They say, â€Å"Guildenstern: We’ve travelled too far, and our momentum has taken over; we move idly towards eternity, without possibility of reprieve or hope of explanation. Rosencrantz: Be happy—if you’re not even happy what’s so good about surviving? We’ll be all right. I suppose we just go on. † Guildenstern has clearly determined that life has no meaning to it at all and that he is just waiting for death. However, Rosencrantz recognizes that they must make their own meaning of life. Rosencrantz indicates that the fact that life as a whole does not have any obvious meaning does not mean that it is impossible for any individual life to have meaning. Rosencrantz’s response is an attempt to find meaning and purpose on precisely this individual level. When faced with the chaos of life, Rosencrantz decides that his personal purpose will be to seek pleasure for himself. They begin to realize that they must make their life meaningful on their own rather than by the expectations of others, supporting the existential view. Societal expectations play a big part on one’s quest to find the meaning of life. In the The Stranger by Albert Camus and Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, the main characters are conflicted by the pressures of society and doing what they want to do. In The Stranger, Meursault kills a man on the beach and is going through a trial, where he is eventually sentenced to the death penalty. Meursault knows that society is against him and wants him to be put to death. However, Meursault doesn’t want to die. Like all people, Meursault comes to realize that he has been born, will die, and will have no further importance. Only after Meursault reaches this seemingly dismal realization is he able to attain happiness. When he fully comes to terms with the inevitability of death, he understands that it does not matter whether he dies by execution or lives to die a natural death at an old age. This understanding enables Meursault to put aside his fantasies of escaping execution by filing a successful legal appeal. Meursault sees that his hope for sustained life has been a burden. His liberation from this false hope of not being executed means he is free to live life for what it is, and to make the most of his remaining days. With this, Meursault discovers the existential view that it was his own responsibility to give his life meaning and he should stop worrying about societal pressures. Raskolnikov, the main character in Crime and Punishment, finds himself in a similar situation to Meursault. He murders two women and is now debating on whether to turn himself into the police or not. This ultimately leads to Raskolnikov’s existential crisis: to live or to die. In the novel Raskolnikov says â€Å"Where is it I’ve read that someone condemned to death says or think, an hour before his death, that if he had to live on some high rock, on such a narrow ledge that he’d only room to stand, and the ocean, everlasting darkness, everlasting solitude, everlasting tempest around him, if he had to remain standing on a square yard of space all his life, a thousand years, eternity, it were better to live so than to die at once! Only to live, to live and live! Life, whatever it may be! † This shows that by the end of the novel, Raskolnikov understands that he must make his life meaningful in order for him to want to live. He knows that he was born into this world with no meaning and he has to give himself a purpose in life to strive towards, no matter what society says. Society wants Raskolnikov to just get executed, but he decides to serve his time in person so that he could still make meaning in his life after he got out of prison. Raskolnikov came to understand that only he could fulfill his purpose in life and he must live in order to do so. In the novel The Awakening by Kate Chopin, the overall meaning of trying to find one’s true self helps support the existential belief of the responsibility of creating one’s purpose in life. Edna Pontellier is unhappy with her life and she begins to try to find a way out. â€Å"In short, Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her. † She has this â€Å"awakening† where she realizes that she needs to stop living for everyone else and instead live for herself. Towards the end of the novel she says, â€Å"†I would give up the unessential; I would give my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn’t give myself. I can’t make it more clear; it’s only something which I am beginning to comprehend, which is revealing itself to me. † She has discovered that her meaning in life was not to be the perfect wife or mom, but to live for what is best for her. Edna knows that she needs to create her own meaning for her life so she decides to leave her old life behind and set out to do so. By the end of the novel, Edna commits suicide because she realizes that the only way she can escape her life that she is living for everyone else is just to end her life all together. All in all, the existential belief that one must create their own meaning in life is supported in the novels through the characters’ actions, societal pressures, and the overall meanings of the works. Many of the characters can teach the readers a lesson on how to live for oneself and not be influenced by the wants of others. One only has a single life, so they must make the most of it and create their own purpose in life in order to actually live. If one doesn’t live for their own meaning and purpose in life, then what is the point of living? It’s your choice, but just remember, you only live once.

Yahoo Case Study

Report write-up on Yahoo Case study Yahoo was conceptualized almost accidentally in 1993 by Jerry Yang and David Filo – who were pursuing their electrical engineering degree from Stanford University – while posting a list of their favorite sites on the web, got officially founded in 1994 and incorporated in the year 1995. Initially named â€Å"Jerry’s guide to world wide web†, got later named Yahoo which was an acronym for â€Å"Yet another Hierarchal Officious Oracle†.The term â€Å"Hierarchal† described how the Yahoo database was arranged, the term â€Å"officious† describing the many office workers who would use Yahoo from their work place and â€Å"oracle† suggesting a â€Å"source of wisdom†. Today Yahoo! Inc. is a multinational internet corporation best known for its web portal, search engine (Yahoo! Search, #2 in search engine market share with 6. 8% market share) and for a variety of other services, including Yaho o! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo!Answers, advertising, online mapping, video sharing, fantasy sports and its social media website. With revenue figures of $4. 9B for FY’2011, and a market capitalization of $23. 8B, Yahoo’s success story comprises many hits and more misses. After the modest web directory started to attract large influx of visitors on a daily basis, Yang and Filo decided to make business of it by renting advertising space on the Yahoo Directory pages. Capital Investment came in from Sequoia Capital, who proposed to hire a professional CEO to drive the business forward.After a careful evaluation of a half-dozen candidates, Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital chose Timothy Koogle, who brought 15 years of leadership experience in high-tech management. Timothy had to use great influence and persuasion skills to bring everybody on board on his vision for the company, one that would create a world connected via the web . His vision encompassed leveraging the company’s existing strength of the web directory by providing more and more compelling content and driving higher advertising revenue.At the same time, create an online platform where buyers could meet sellers, transacting safely over the internet and charging a cut of the revenue for these services provided. They also added customization features for their registered users on their Yahoo financials page so that specific companies of interest could be followed by the users. Along the way, they also helped advertisers reach out to their relevant audience better and thereby increasing the value delivered to them. The strategy was working out very well for Yahoo. Yahoo grew rapidly throughout the 1990s.It also made many high-profile acquisitions. While everything was going great for Yahoo, they failed to evaluate their strategy at that juncture. The environment they were thriving on was that of the dot-com bubble and most companies that we re sources of advertising revenue for Yahoo were the dot-com companies. When the dot-com bubble burst, most of these companies went bankrupt drying out sources of advertising revenue for Yahoo. Its stock price skyrocketed during the dot-com bubble, Yahoo stocks closing at an all-time high of $118. 5 a share on January 3, 2000. However, after the dot-com bubble burst, it reached a post-bubble low of $4. 05 on September 26, 2001. While the corporate level vision and strategy were forward looking, the business level strategy needed timely review, the lack of which brought about the downward spiral of Yahoo in a short span. Owing to a huge negative impact on the shareholders’ value, Tim Koogle resigned giving the heirs to Terry Semel, a former Warner Brothers executive.Semel’s goal was to arrest the fall in Yahoo’s revenues by diversifying from the hitherto advertising centric revenue model to subscription-based, value-added services and increasing the quality in ad vertising revenue by targeting more stable companies. This strategy was viewed as but a late reaction to the changing market landscape, something that investors expected the leadership to foresee. Terry Semel also had his share of low moments as CEO of Yahoo during the criticism he drew for cooperating with the Chinese officials to release previously confidential Yahoo information to the Chinese government.He also lost a chance to buy out Google during its nascent years, whose search engine services it used till Yahoo developed its own search engine technologies. Over the years, Yahoo also failed to catch the market trends of social, mobile, local, platform services etc. at the right times, which has resulted in diminishing market share figures in each of the spaces. While Yahoo revenue has dipped for the year 2011, the company’s financials look strong with low debt and good cash flow.Company’s new management team is betting big on mobile and connected TV businesses. M obile applications, where the company is lagging behind competitors like Google and Facebook, is a business line it must produce a turn-around performance on since the markets a trending in that direction. Marissa Mayer, former Google executive, who is now at the helm of the $5B company, would hope to bring her successful experience at Google to Yahoo to deliver the goods on the Mobile platforms business. Discussion Questions: . To what extent was the evolution of strategy at Yahoo planned? To what extent was it an emergent response to unforeseen events? Yahoo’s initial strategy during Koogle’s time of foraying into advertising and online portal for facilitating e-commerce and shopping were a planned strategy and were apt for the company with its inherent strengths. however, the portfolio diversification undertaken by Semel was an attempt to lower the risk exposure as a response to the changed business environment. 2.Could Yahoo have done a better job of anticipating t he slowdown in advertising revenue that occurred in 2000 – 2001 and positioning itself for that slowdown? How? What might it have done differently from a strategic planning perspective? In order to achieve a sustained competitive advantage, a firm must adapt to the change in the market trends. As a strategy evaluation process, yahoo could have foreseen the dot-com bubble burst as the bubble formation was a process that had initiated around ’98. Analysts highlighted the risk in staying invested with the dot-com companies.There was surplus income available with retail investors during that period, which is suggestive of a trend of higher demand of normal goods / services over inferior goods / services. Yahoo could have seen this trend and positioned itself for a niche product / service offering. 3. Does Yahoo have a source of potential long-term competitive advantage? Where does this come from? Yahoo has a good cash flow – a low debt and also a business model in p lace for buyers to meet sellers. Social Media has played a key role in penetrating the market – creating awareness of using the online medium.Yahoo has the system in place to capitalize this strength in order to optimally utilize the buyer-meet seller platform – expand it from retail presence to corporate interactions, include a model that addresses webinars for multiple industries eg pharma meet can be entirely conducted online – creating a significant cost advantage for the participants and also adding to its revenue by marginal investments that wont affect its balance sheet either. 4. What does Koogle’s resignation in May 2001 tell you about the role of a CEO in a public company?CEO’s role in a public company has evolved over the years, but in essence, remains that of a custodian of the shareholders’ value. Koogle had a very good vision and strategy for the company, which did transpire into success initially. While the formulation of the strategy may have been done well, the execution at the business level and evaluation of the strategy could have been better. Even towards the end of Terry Semel’s tenure in 2006, his salary was reduced to only $1 (with $70M worth of stock options ofcourse) due to shareholders’ dissatisfaction.

Nursing and nutrition

IntroductionIn different healthcare institutions the question of feeding patients, particularly those who are seriously sick and expected to die soon, raises questions of moral and ethical nature thus making a decision making process very difficult for the caring staff. Such questions may include:–  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   How can decisions of giving or withholding feeding and hydration be made?–  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   What values and assumptions underlie these decisions?–  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Which courses of action are in the patient's ‘best interest', and how is this ‘interest' determined?–  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   How and when, if ever, should a decision not to feed or hydrate be made?–  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Can so basic a provision as food and water ever be considered as optional care?In most of the healthcare institutions whether they are hospitals or senior homes, the decision making lies within the practice of the nurses who are usually faced with dilemmas. While doctors are more advanced in professional knowledge they rarely find themselves in the difficult situation of making the decision of withholding nutrition or giving it. However, there is sometimes a differentiation between nutrition as part of the care given to the patient and nutrition as a biological life sustaining process:â€Å"In modern practice there is often an underlying tension between two different understandings of ‘nourishing' the patient. First, nourishing as an intrinsic part of giving care, which falls within the realm of nursing. Second, nourishing as a biological and technical process, a life-sustaining treatment under the control of the medical or nutrition team (from which the nurse may be excluded).† (Hunt, 1994)Yet the daily practice and the roles of nurses and doctors indicate that the nurses find themselves in the dilemma of making the decision more than other medical staff. In many cases where the withholding of nutrition is legally right and in the interest of the patient, the nurse still finds herself in the ethical and professional dilemma. She is not given the opportunity to discuss her opinion or given any information. As a result whatever decision she makes may be taken as wrong regardless of the fact that she was partially ignorant.The dilemma is even more difficult when considering nutrition as a basic need or a medical treatment. For a seriously sick person one may accept withholding medication or a technological device that prolongs life unnecessarily, but it is not easy to withhold nutrition which is the basic need for healthy and unhealthy persons.  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Dresser asks, ‘Ought we to regard tube and intravenous feeding as forms of medical treatment, or should we classify them with more basic sorts of care?'† (Dresser, 1985)The decision of withholding nutrition or hydration is a difficult ethical questi on that poses emotional stress on the nurses. Withholding medication or technological devices is justifiable and there is enough professional and legal guidance for healthcare staff to follow. Indeed, â€Å"Food and water are so central to an array of human emotions that it is almost impossible to consider them with the same emotional detachment that one might feel toward a respirator or a dialysis machine† (Lynn & Childress, 1983)In this research I am going to study this issue in order to confirm or rule out the possibility of establishing a professional guidance that assists the nurses in decision making. This is expected to relief them from a lot of stress and confusion that are imposed as a result of dealing with the issue on personal terms rather dealing with it objectively according to professional guidance and standards.The proposal for this research will be studied under the following headings:1.    Description of a case study2.    Literature review3.      Pro posal4.      Summary and ConclusionsDescription of a Case StudyA case study either from literature or from the records of healthcare institution is expected to illustrate the extent of the problem and its importance. In addition this will emphasise the roles of nurses, relatives and patients in the decision making process. It would also highlight the difficulties facing nurses at different stages of care giving for seriously sick persons.  At this stage of building the skeleton of this research paper very little can be said about the case study until one has been adopted.Literature ReviewThe literature generally confirms the importance of the problem and has been addressing the issues related to the problem of nutrition for sometime now. While it is suggested in the literature that in some cases of chronically ill persons the provision of nutrition is burdensome rather than beneficial, it is agreed that the interpersonal and inter-professional tensions of nurses are ignored. ( Hunt, 1994) It is also pointed out that the stressful environment in which nurses provide their professional care sometimes result in burnouts.The burnout case â€Å"evolves by a process involving three stages: (a) an imbalance between resources and demands, (b) the immediate short-term emotional response to the imbalance, and (c) changes in attitude and behavior such as negativism and emotional detachment† (Riordan & Saltzer, 1992). However, it is also indicated that there are personal differences here: while one may react to stressors by becoming a burnout another with personal hardiness may find the stressors only minor irritants. Riordan and Saltzer (1992) assert:  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Current literature points unanimously to a proactive approach in preventing burnout. This preserves organizational integrity by maintaining human resources and supplying cost-effective care while maintaining quality† (Riordan & Saltzer, 1992).There are a number of suggestions for reducing stress and assisting nurses to cope with the environmental difficulties, though no specific guidelines or procedures are given for dealing with the problem of nutrition and hydration.  It is also indicated in the literature that nutrition and hydration in some terminal cases may only prolong the biological life which is thought to be burdensome for some patients and their families. As Hunt (1994) asserts: â€Å"Feeding may in some circumstances prolong the process of dying and may cause avoidable suffering to the dying patient.†While generally the decision of using nutrition support for the terminally ill people is discussed as a problem facing nurses, some scholars relate the decision to dietitians.  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Clinical guidelines for nutrition support indicate that dietitians should be members of institutional ethics committees and should have an integral role in institutional policy development concerning nutrition support at the end of lifeâ€Å" (Langdon et al, 2002)To put it in a nutshell the literature review confirms the dilemma facing healthcare professionals, particularly nurses, and families in dealing with the decision of providing nutrition and hydration or withholding it for chronically ill people whose illness is diagnosed as terminal. It is also confirmed that the decision making involves personal feelings, ethics, and sometimes legal consideration. Yet there are no clear professional guidelines that streamline the decision making in this issue in the professional practice. Rather there are observations of some acceptable practices.Sometimes the distinction between ordinary and extraordinary is used as a means of reaching decision.  Ã¢â‚¬Å"However, there appears to be an increasing opinion that artificial feeding can be viewed as a'heroic' method of treatment and is morally optional (Meyers and Grodin 1991, Hoefler and Kamoie 1994, Singer 1995, Gillick 2000).This optional treatment is referred to as ‘extraordinary' and is more likely t o be invasive, artificial or complex. Nevertheless, the Hastings Centre guidelines, cited in Meyers and Grodin (1991), stated that decisions over whether to provide artificial nutrition and hydration cannot be made solely on the distinction between ordinary and extraordinary methods of treatment. Despite this, Solomon et al (1993) demonstrated that 74 per cent of health professionals continued to use this distinction in termination of treatment decisions. It would also seem that the decision was significantly influenced by whether it was a decision to withdraw treatment or simply not initiate it in the first place. The Hastings Centre guidelines stipulate that this distinction should not be a consideration (Meyers and Grodin 1991)† (Young et al, 2002).The problem of decision making in providing or withholding nutrition and hydration in the case terminally ill people is a dilemma for nurses until some professional steps are identified to make the decision an objective one made on the basis of professional judgement   rather than being a personal one affected by personal feelings, ethics, beliefs etc.ProposalSince the aim of the study is to justify a professional basis for decision making, in this study we will attempt to investigate the possibility of establishing professional guidelines that may relief the burden on nurses. This will involve identifying criteria that make withholding nutrition more beneficial to the patient than prolonging his biological life. It should also be essential to identify professional means that enable healthcare staff to decide that a patient is not making any sense of life and advise families accordingly to participate in decision making. This should be important especially when the patient is suffering pain or given morphine regularly.In order to be able to design a professional tool or procedure that assists nurses in decision making through this study or alternatively recommend further research on this issue, the study will be a non-experimental one designed to elicit the RN’s attitudes towards nutrition of chronically ill patients using survey instrumentation.The sample will be full time RNs employed by a healthcare region in hospitals and nursing homes of the region. It is advisable to include also a sample of dietitians working in the same healthcare institutions. The RNs involved need to be well informed about the study and its aims and should be positively motivated to participate in the study.It is also important for the study to be approved by a professional body that confirms the study question and methods are ethical.  The instruments of the study should be designed in a way that they measure the attitude of the study sample towards giving or withholding nutrition and hydration for a variety of terminally ill patients. It is also important to determine the internal consistency reliability for the questionnaires and structured interviews.Summary and ConclusionsThese will follow na turally from the analysis of data and discussions and will eventually constitute a recommendation: either a draft of a guideline for assisting nurses in decision making or alternatively suggestions for further research in order to identify a suitable professional tool for relieving the burden on nurses.ReferencesI am not going to list the references now since this is just a skeleton to discuss with your supervisor; unless you deem it necessary.  The word count may not be exactly 3500, but I think what has been written here is enough for your purposes. As soon as you give feedback on this I will start work on the proposal. Nursing and nutrition IntroductionIn different healthcare institutions the question of feeding patients, particularly those who are seriously sick and expected to die soon, raises questions of moral and ethical nature thus making a decision making process very difficult for the caring staff. Such questions may include:How can decisions of giving or withholding feeding and hydration be made?What values and assumptions underlie these decisions?Which courses of action are in the patient's ‘best interest', and how is this ‘interest' determined?How and when, if ever, should a decision not to feed or hydrate be made?Can so basic a provision as food and water ever be considered as optional care?In most of the healthcare institutions whether they are hospitals or senior homes, the decision making lies within the practice of the nurses who are usually faced with dilemmas. While doctors are more advanced in professional knowledge they rarely find themselves in the difficult situation of making the decis ion of withholding nutrition or giving it. However, there is sometimes a differentiation between nutrition as part of the care given to the patient and nutrition as a biological life sustaining process:â€Å"In modern practice there is often an underlying tension between two different understandings of ‘nourishing' the patient. First, nourishing as an intrinsic part of giving care, which falls within the realm of nursing. Second, nourishing as a biological and technical process, a life-sustaining treatment under the control of the medical or nutrition team (from which the nurse may be excluded).† (Hunt, 1994)Yet the daily practice and the roles of nurses and doctors indicate that the nurses find themselves in the dilemma of making the decision more than other medical staff. In many cases where the withholding of nutrition is legally right and in the interest of the patient, the nurse still finds herself in the ethical and professional dilemma. She is not given the oppor tunity to discuss her opinion or given any information. As a result whatever decision she makes may be taken as wrong regardless of the fact that she was partially ignorant.The dilemma is even more difficult when considering nutrition as a basic need or a medical treatment. For a seriously sick person one may accept withholding medication or a technological device that prolongs life unnecessarily, but it is not easy to withhold nutrition which is the basic need for healthy and unhealthy persons.â€Å"Dresser asks, ‘Ought we to regard tube and intravenous feeding as forms of medical treatment, or should we classify them with more basic sorts of care?'† (Dresser, 1985)The decision of withholding nutrition or hydration is a difficult ethical question that poses emotional stress on the nurses. Withholding medication or technological devices is justifiable and there is enough professional and legal guidance for healthcare staff to follow. Indeed, â€Å"Food and water are so central to an array of human emotions that it is almost impossible to consider them with the same emotional detachment that one might feel toward a respirator or a dialysis machine† (Lynn & Childress, 1983)In this research I am going to study this issue in order to confirm or rule out the possibility of establishing a professional guidance that assists the nurses in decision making. This is expected to relief them from a lot of stress and confusion that are imposed as a result of dealing with the issue on personal terms rather dealing with it objectively according to professional guidance and standards.The proposal for this research will be studied under the following headings:1. Description of a case study2.   Literature review3.   Proposal4.   Summary and ConclusionsDescription of a Case StudyA case study either from literature or from the records of healthcare institution is expected to illustrate the extent of the problem and its importance. In addition this will em phasise the roles of nurses, relatives and patients in the decision making process. It would also highlight the difficulties facing nurses at different stages of care giving for seriously sick persons.At this stage of building the skeleton of this research paper very little can be said about the case study until one has been adopted.Literature ReviewThe literature generally confirms the importance of the problem and has been addressing the issues related to the problem of nutrition for sometime now. While it is suggested in the literature that in some cases of chronically ill persons the provision of nutrition is burdensome rather than beneficial, it is agreed that the interpersonal and inter-professional tensions of nurses are ignored. (Hunt, 1994)It is also pointed out that the stressful environment in which nurses provide their professional care sometimes result in burnouts. The burnout case â€Å"evolves by a process involving three stages: (a) an imbalance between resources an d demands, (b) the immediate short-term emotional response to the imbalance, and (c) changes in attitude and behavior such as negativism and emotional detachment† (Riordan & Saltzer, 1992). However, it is also indicated that there are personal differences here: while one may react to stressors by becoming a burnout another with personal hardiness may find the stressors only minor irritants. Riordan and Saltzer (1992) assert:â€Å"Current literature points unanimously to a proactive approach in preventing burnout. This preserves organizational integrity by maintaining human resources and supplying cost-effective care while maintaining quality† (Riordan & Saltzer, 1992).There are a number of suggestions for reducing stress and assisting nurses to cope with the environmental difficulties, though no specific guidelines or procedures are given for dealing with the problem of nutrition and hydration.It is also indicated in the literature that nutrition and hydration in some t erminal cases may only prolong the biological life which is thought to be burdensome for some patients and their families. As Hunt (1994) asserts: â€Å"Feeding may in some circumstances prolong the process of dying and may cause avoidable suffering to the dying patient.†While generally the decision of using nutrition support for the terminally ill people is discussed as a problem facing nurses, some scholars relate the decision to dietitians.â€Å"Clinical guidelines for nutrition support indicate that dietitians should be members of institutional ethics committees and should have an integral role in institutional policy development concerning nutrition support at the end of lifeâ€Å" (Langdon et al, 2002)To put it in a nutshell the literature review confirms the dilemma facing healthcare professionals, particularly nurses, and families in dealing with the decision of providing nutrition and hydration or withholding it for chronically ill people whose illness is diagnosed as terminal. It is also confirmed that the decision making involves personal feelings, ethics, and sometimes legal consideration. Yet there are no clear professional guidelines that streamline the decision making in this issue in the professional practice. Rather there are observations of some acceptable practices.Sometimes the distinction between ordinary and extraordinary is used as a means of reaching decision.â€Å"However, there appears to be an increasing opinion that artificial feeding can be viewed as a'heroic' method of treatment and is morally optional (Meyers and Grodin 1991, Hoefler and Kamoie 1994, Singer 1995, Gillick 2000). This optional treatment is referred to as ‘extraordinary' and is more likely to be invasive, artificial or complex. Nevertheless, the Hastings Centre guidelines, cited in Meyers and Grodin (1991), stated that decisions over whether to provide artificial nutrition and hydration cannot be made solely on the distinction between ordinary and ex traordinary methods of treatment. Despite this, Solomon et al (1993) demonstrated that 74 per cent of health professionals continued to use this distinction in termination of treatment decisions. It would also seem that the decision was significantly influenced by whether it was a decision to withdraw treatment or simply not initiate it in the first place. The Hastings Centre guidelines stipulate that this distinction should not be a consideration (Meyers and Grodin 1991)† (Young et al, 2002).The problem of decision making in providing or withholding nutrition and hydration in the case terminally ill people is a dilemma for nurses until some professional steps are identified to make the decision an objective one made on the basis of professional judgement   rather than being a personal one affected by personal feelings, ethics, beliefs etc.ProposalSince the aim of the study is to justify a professional basis for decision making, in this study we will attempt to investigate t he possibility of establishing professional guidelines that may relief the burden on nurses. This will involve identifying criteria that make withholding nutrition more beneficial to the patient than prolonging his biological life. It should also be essential to identify professional means that enable healthcare staff to decide that a patient is not making any sense of life and advise families accordingly to participate in decision making. This should be important especially when the patient is suffering pain or given morphine regularly.In order to be able to design a professional tool or procedure that assists nurses in decision making through this study or alternatively recommend further research on this issue, the study will be a non-experimental one designed to elicit the RN’s attitudes towards nutrition of chronically ill patients using survey instrumentation.The sample will be full time RNs employed by a healthcare region in hospitals and nursing homes of the region. It is advisable to include also a sample of dietitians working in the same healthcare institutions. The RNs involved need to be well informed about the study and its aims and should be positively motivated to participate in the study.It is also important for the study to be approved by a professional body that confirms the study question and methods are ethical.The instruments of the study should be designed in a way that they measure the attitude of the study sample towards giving or withholding nutrition and hydration for a variety of terminally ill patients. It is also important to determine the internal consistency reliability for the questionnaires and structured interviews.Summary and ConclusionsThese will follow naturally from the analysis of data and discussions and will eventually constitute a recommendation: either a draft of a guideline for assisting nurses in decision making or alternatively suggestions for further research in order to identify a suitable professional tool for relieving the burden on nurses.ReferencesI am not going to list the references now since this is just a skeleton to discuss with your supervisor; unless you deem it necessary.The word count may not be exactly 3500, but I think what has been written here is enough for your purposes. As soon as you give feedback on this I will start work on the proposal.

Analysis of Saudi Arabian Water Resources Research Paper

Analysis of Saudi Arabian Water Resources - Research Paper Example This essay stresses that quality of water services in the country continues to be a real course of concern. To be a bit more specific discontinuation of services is a major problem. Very few cities actually enjoy continued services. According a survey conducted by FAO in Riyadh, in the last year water was available only once in every two and a half days. In Jeddah the water availability figure is once in every nine days. However, there has been slight improvement as in 2008n the concerned figure in Jeddah was and Riyadh was respectively 23 and 5 days. This paper makes a conclusion that that it is quite likely that demand and supply of water in various sector would be a major issue for a country like Saudi Arabia considering fact that it is desert country. The course of concern would be leading to a whole new level due to the changes in climate leading to rise in temperature, low amount of precipitation, increase in population and industrialization. Also consistency in the level of water supply is something that needs to be taken care of. Although there are a lot of room for improvement, but still the government initiatives in the domain of water demand management has to be appreciated. The plan undertaken by the government for the development of the industrial city would go a long way in the overall control of water demand and supply. Based on the above analysis some recommendations have been provided.

Exploration of a business or management related topic relevant to your Assignment - 1

Exploration of a business or management related topic relevant to your organisation of choice - Assignment Example The current paper examines the strategic policies of Next in terms of maintaining their competitiveness and superiority in the marker. Through evaluation of their strategies it becomes possible to understand how such success and competitiveness has been achieved by Next. Freeman, R. E., 2010.  Strategic management: A stakeholder approach. New York: Cambridge University Press. Chapter 1, 2, 4, 5. The book is easily accessible and providers detailed information regarding successful strategic management. Next plc, 2015. About next. [online] Available at: [Accessed 30 may 2015]. The website is likely to provide detailed information regarding the strategies and competitive advantages existing at Next. N.B. There is no word count for this but try and provide sufficient detail to demonstrate the areas of investigation and the depth of research you intend to complete. The Project Plan Grading Criteria provides more guidance on expected depth &

The Gender Roles Portrayed by Science Fiction Essay

The Gender Roles Portrayed by Science Fiction - Essay Example According to the research "The Gender Roles Portrayed by Science Fiction" findings society visualizes man as having the potential to exercise power and control more than the woman has. Darwin explained that conditions in nature compel men to develop such traits. According to Darwin, women have a relatively small brain capacity compared to men. This explains why the imagination of man can only allow him to create a being that has masculine traits and advanced intelligence. In addition, the last part of the fiction [portrays how Bowman enters into a different form of life. On entering stargate, Bowman displayed a rare sense of courage and did not let fear carry him over to the next world. Bowman plunges into the new world with expectation and excitement. He does not hesitate to gain the new form of energy to control the world. Kubrick portrays the story as Darwin elaborated. He implies that just as Darwin indicated, men have a greater potential of intelligence than women do (121). In h is fiction, he gives men all the chances of discovering the world and excludes the women. The view he projects to society is that technology and scientific advances are masculine adventures. In the first part of the film, Kubrick presents to us Moonwatcher, who is huge and gigantic compared to his tribesmen. Moonwatcher advances slowly as environmental conditions change from ape-like nature to humanity. He is the first human being to experience bravery and a sense of leadership. He discovers how man can use traditional tools to hunt animals for food. He developed emotions within him as time elapses. Kulbrick draws the picture of man having a higher social standing that a woman right from the start. This picture compares positively to Darwin’s theory. Space odyssey projects masculine superiority in science and technology. This view is evident in our society. Interestingly, Kulbrick displays that some women can work together with men in scientific ventures. He brings in women like Elena who travels to the moon with other women. This only makes one point clear that Kulbrick has realized that both men and women can work together to bring about scientific breakthroughs. In a different fiction story, Alien, then director brings out his perspective of gender roles and traits. In his story line, he reverses what society considers the norm. A crew is out to explore the space with the goal of collecting samples of an alien creature.

Develop an Export Strategy for an Organisation Essay

Develop an Export Strategy for an Organisation - Essay Example These processing industries need huge supplies of cocoa, a factor that makes an opportunity for developing countries to explore the market. Consequently, with Ghana being among the leading world producers of Cocoa beans, this marks an opportunity for the exploration of international markets by local companies (Pinnamang & Armah, 2011, p 34). The Cocoa Marketing Company limited in Ghana is among the leading dealers in cocoa. Thus, the factor of discussion remains to establish international ties between the companies in the Netherlands and CMC to facilitate export of Cocoa to Netherlands. The international trade options of the company include venturing into the market through either direct or indirect exporting strategies. In an analysis of the temperament of the market in the Netherlands, in this case CMC should adopt the direct export strategy to allow it to engage the international market extensively. The Netherlands is a member of several trade organizations and it incorporates several free trade and movement regulations for exporters and importers, a factor that liberates the markets (Country Intelligence Report Netherlands, 2014, p 11). Therefore, with Ghana being a developing country CMC will benefit accordingly in engaging the market directly. The company should lay strategy on the contacts to establish and leading figures and offices in the Netherlands to ensure they engage the market extensively and reap the trade benefits in a leading world market. Food processing is a leading industry in Netherlands. The foods that Netherlands processes originate from within and imported products. These industries incorporate the leading industries of processors of cocoa beans to produce various products. There are leading companies within the country, such including Cargill Cocoa & Chocolate company among others (Parker, 2010, p 17). Moreover, the country processes the Cocoa into powder among other products, creating a

Have infant and toddler educational videos impacted quality parental Research Paper

Have infant and toddler educational videos impacted quality parental interaction - Research Paper Example As a result, television becomes not only their favorite pastime, but a tool for learning. With the impact of television among the children aged 2, which almost takes over the lives of these children, their development, the biggest concern is their involvement with their parents, which weakens due to time they spend watching TV (Courage & Setliff, 2009). Videos and television have become the contemporary educators, which, some analysts argue, have taken over the role of parents for these children. This essay shall undertake an analytical research to assess the declining ability of the parents to act as the educators and trainers of their children and how most of them have been reduced to mere ‘watchmen’. The essay shall incorporate the works of numerous analysts and researchers in the quest to assess the validity and application of the title of the work in today’s society. In the research compiled by Garrison and Christakis (2005), many toddlers are addicted to videos in one way or another, especially the ones that teach them new songs, how to read, and how to play various forms of music. Most of the parents also do not have time to play with their children and teach them new games, an aspect that reduces the toddler to learning new games from the frequent programs, and videos aired on television and films related to play for the toddlers. An encouragement of the parents to allocate time for their children especially for play means that the kind of interaction present in the two parties is actually doubtful. To clarify the intensity of the problem facing the toddlers who need ‘touch’ from their parents, videos have been produced that relate to the toddlers. These videos consist of colors, games, words and letters that provide the basis for introduction to toddler education. Though some analysts are of the opinion that

Data Mining for Auditing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Data Mining for Auditing - Essay Example However, with increased use of databases, comes a new challenge: how to make sense of the abundant data Auditors are overwhelmed with massive collection of data. Omnipresent personal computers, low cost multi-gigabyte disks, ubiquitous electronics and new generation database languages have made it very simple for companies to capture data and save it without any worries of loss of space, time or computing power. This benefit of databases to companies is also the bane to auditors. However, the effective utilisation of one robust technology will bring sense to the chaos generated by databases: Data Mining. Data Mining aims at converting data to sensible information. It intends to extract information from the data repositories in a manner as needed by the auditor. The auditors, with the help of data mining techniques can 'mine' for the relevant information needed to perform their assessment without having to bother about the irrelevant data. This report aims at analysing the benefits brought about by applying data mining technologies to auditing. As a part of the process of analysing the benefits, the paper also presents the technological overview of data mining, the problem faced by auditors and the tools and techniques data mining provides to alleviate the problems. Auditing: An Introduction to the Problem Domain Auditing is commonly defined as the process of accumulating and analysing information to detect the degree of conformance of the information with the pre-set criteria (Arens & Loebbecke, 2000). During its inception, auditing was an activity performed only to check financial compliance with the goals set. However today, it is an activity that is carried rigorously across all the domains of an enterprise. Auditing involves analysing the information from all departments including manufacturing, operations, human resource, finance and other verticals. Generally, companies hire independent auditors from outside the company to ascertain whether the statements of the company are in conformity with the generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). However auditing is facing very tough challenges. The demise of major companies such as Enron and Anderson are live examples to limn the depth of negative impact that can be brought about by improper auditing. The complexity of business transactions coupled with investor's complex business practises to gain more profits makes the job of an auditor very challenging (Vijayalakshmi, 2003). To ensure that an objective assessment is reached, an auditor must be presented with data at all levels. The company creates huge databases of statements, records and other data that an auditor is expected to analyse. However due to timing and cost constraints, auditors can not examine every detail behind the stacks of records. With massive improvements in technology such as the development of Supply Chain Management Systems and Enterprise Resource Planning applications, the amount of business transactions performed everyday has grown exponentially. Since, in most cases, a company hires an

Recollection of the Routine of Food Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Recollection of the Routine of Food - Essay Example In my household, food was never a focal part of the family structure that involved a collaborative dining session much like those often illustrated from typical 1950’s-variety family structures. Therefore, the quality and dimensions, especially those delivered psychologically, were never strongly reinforced through the process of cooking together and ultimately consuming together. The food selections in my household during my youth were rather generic, consisting of basic varieties of beef, chicken, and common household snacks. Because of this, eating often became a routine activity simply to satisfy hunger. Consumption was more of a ritualistic situation rather than the satisfaction of a psychological need that some people experience in the process of dining and preparing together as a family unit. It is because of this limited symbolism associated with food that I have developed my current dietary habits and this directly impacts how I have, in the past, viewed food as a lifestyle and cultural significance. However, this course has changed my view on eating, especially when considering the different cultural symbolism that food represents for many in and out of the United States. I have recently begun to realize that I have missed out on many of the important sociological dimensions that food and consumption can provide, along with the camaraderie that is often developed by discussing the importance of food. Rituals are often symbolic activities that reveal cultural values associated with a specific community of people and often produce social predictability as well as the creation of individual social identity (Leeds-Hurwitz, 61). I find myself disappointed, especially after learning about the different elements of food as having much cultural consequence, that I had not previously considered the social value that food can bring to enhancing lifestyle. Being part of the middle class social structure, the quality of high-dollar foods has usually been limited to visualization, through television cooking shows and other gourmet chef programs. Because of this, depth in terms of taste and experimentation has never been given much personal thought. Much, I believe now, is missing from daily lifestyle by not exploring the different dimensions of food. This can be attributed, with a minor sense of blame, to the family structure and their limited emotional diversity associated with consumption and food variety. Gender and race as associated with a non-diverse worldview on food are not generally applicable to my own values associated with food since it has only been recently that I have begun to reassess the quality and cultural togetherness that food consumption and discussion can bring in a social or family setting. Some companies trying to sell their food products attempt to get consumers interesting in powdered sauces and cake mixtures by introducing a degree of nostalgia into advertising. Slogans such as just like mom used to make are often used to gain more interest and bring forth a psychological response from buyers (Bugge, 22). Though these advertising efforts have never had any meaning for me in previous years, I now recognize that many people are attracted to the process of enjoying home cooking in a friendly and unified family atmosphere. I find a certain sense of remorse after considering the value of the home-cooked quality meal that people seem to prefer and wish that it had been a broader part of my childhood. Because of this new type of thinking associated with food, I find myself wanting to explore an entirely new dimension in relation to food, socialization with consumption, and also the preparation process. I have always measured my personal identity based on goal-attainment and

Business Proposal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

Business Proposal - Essay Example The aim is to provide coffee services. Coffitoff will start its online business from England mainly London and then at later stage expand its market to other parts of the UK. London is the business hub of the UK and it is there where the product will be tested. The business will be started as a sole proprietor and if need arises it will go public to attain funds. The coffee beans are exported from other countries. This increases the cost of the coffee in the UK as compared to the American or Asian countries (Casenotes, 2004). Coffee is not easily affordable in the UK. The global recession that took place in 2008 has made consumers very careful of how they spend their money. Coffee is regarded by many as a product of surplus need rather than an immediate one. People in the UK can go without drinking it (Ireland, 2009). Consumers look to save every penny in these harsh economic times. As newer coffee machines are coming into the market it is becoming easier for people to purchase and keep these machines in their home. It is cheaper to make coffee at home rather than ordering online (Hashemi, 2002). The target market for Coffitoff comprises of business professionals who find it hard to stop by a coffee shop for a cup of coffee. Recent research shows that 60% of all business executives would like to have a cup of coffee at least once a day in London (Richardson, 2014). Out of the 60% only about 18% of the professionals make it to the coffee shops. This means that 42% of the people are deprived of this need as they do not have time for coffee. Coffitoff will look to cater this segment of people (Richardson, 2014). 1. Rivalry: Online business is still very new and is growing. At the moment, there are over a dozen online coffee shops in the UK. Brand identification is very important to maintain the rivalry and market position between coffee shops (Pride, 2008). 2. Threat of substitutes: The threat of

Effects of recession on marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Effects of recession on marketing - Essay Example During such times, people show preference to the basic products and eliminate the secondary products most of which they can survive without. This stifles the operation of some manufacturers who operate on such secondary products. Knowing the reduced spending, the companies become more articulating in their expenditures since the market does not promise the effective returns as always. They therefore plan their spending trying to sell as much of their product in the uncertain times. Companies therefore engage in unorthodox marketing strategies with the aim of improving their product visibility and possibly sales. While the market is always compelled to use the basic products such as food products and clothing, the purchasing trend changes and becomes characterized by low rates of purchase and purchase in smaller quantities. The trends worsens for some specific products and services considered secondary by the markets. Such products include electronic and leisure services thereby hampe ring the productivity of the tourism sector. Leisure for example is a mode of relaxation in which people engage during specific times. Additionally, such leisure activities are costly and therefore require a lot of money. Most people therefore prefer to remain at home and spend three times with their families thereby saving on the additional and often unnecessary spending through the holidays. Additionally, recessions result in job losses thereby rendering the financial status of some families unpredictable. While they suffer shocks, they detest spending and therefore control their finances stringently often showing preference to the basic products. The reduced market activities require specific marketing strategies to ensure that products and services perform favorably enough to...While this did not change much, the company relies on a number of production features to increase its marketing process thereby increasing its product visibility in the market at relatively lower costs. A mong such is the diversification of its products among the different market segments (Bogomolova, 2011). The soft drinks manufacturer produces an assortment of other products under different names thereby increasing its market base. Among its most common products are coca cola from where it borrows the name, sprite and Fanta among other types of soft drinks and enriched waters. Besides the product diversification, the company sponsors a number of different sporting events through its different products thereby earning relevance and recognition among the lovers of such sports. Looking at the activities of the two giant companies one of which is an electronic manufacturer while the other is a beverage manufacturer, it becomes evident that recessions require effective management including reduced spending. The companies understand the essence of advertisement and therefore spend fortunes on increasing their product visibility. During recessions, even the big corporations control their spending showing preference to more productive venture. One of the budgets that such business revise is their advertising budgets. This therefore validates the creative advertisement mechanisms that some of such corporations employ like the sponsorship deals.

Sources of Law in the European Union Thesis Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Sources of Law in the European Union - Thesis Example e European Union, particularly the Council of Ministers, the Commission, the European Parliament, and Court of Justice, can be studied in terms of their decision-making processes, which are governed by well laid laws and guidelines. This paper seeks to highlight the sources of EU laws and their integration to guide the union’s objectives. The sources of European Union law are crucial elements to foster cohesion and equality among member states. As such, laws are pooled from within member states and presented in a harmonized manner to govern the proceeding of the organization. The law is applied in courts within members as well as in territories held by the states and such they should be maintain the integrity of member states. The key sources of law are treaties, which are regarded as primary sources while legislation enacted by union organs by virtue of the powers given by member states is termed as secondary community law (Foster, 2007). Primary sources of the EU law are defined by the founding treaties stated as the Treaty on the European Union and the Treaty on the functioning of the EU; thus illustrating their dominance as reference. To this effect, the primary sources top the hierarchy of sources of EU law and their supremacy indicate that other sources remain subordinate. This superiority is strengthened by the prohibition of any revision on the treaties outside the set procedures of the treaties themselves (Kaczorowska, 2009). The treaties are aimed at dispensing competences between the organization and member states, which establish the powers assumed by institutions within the EU structure. In essence, the treaties serve to lay out the legal framework on which the union’s mandate is implemented; moreover, primary law also incorporates amended EU treaties and protocols annexed to the founding treaties as well as the amended treaties. For instance, amendments to the EU treaties were signed to establish an internal market within the union in 1986. In

The Effectiveness of Organizational Actions, Structures, and Research Paper

The Effectiveness of Organizational Actions, Structures, and Multiagency Involvement in Response to Homeland Security - Research Paper Example Terrorism is definitely a serious issue for the super power America as it has faced one of the most devastating terrorist attacks in century (Bullock et al, 2012 p. xv). Positioning statement The department of the Homeland security( DHS) was founded by the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (P.L. 107-296) signed on November 25, 2002 with departments from 22 different government agencies initiating official operations on March1, 2003. The DHS has since then underwent a series of restructurings and reorganizations with the aim to improve its efficiency and effectiveness. This section will deal with the actions taken by the US government in tackling the counter terrorism aspect and its subsequent development of a strong base structure with the involvement of the multilateral agencies engaged in tackling the counter terrorism issue. Literature Review Background of the problem The aspect of terrorism is a transnational threat that entails potential risks to the global interests of United State s’ manifested and developed from the international and the domestic surroundings. The core theme of the United States efforts in addressing these transnational issues is to detect, deter and defeat the terrorist faction, primarily the Al Qaeda (Painter, 2011, p. 8). Supporting evidence The Obama administration recognized the significance of the home ground jihadist threat in two of its recent strategy documents. In June 2011, the administration announced the National strategy for the counter terrorism which focused on the Al Qaeda, its affiliates and its adherents. Obama’s top counter terrorism advisor John Brennan publicly described that homeland security is the primary area of emphasis with respect to counterterrorism efforts. In August 2011, the Obama administration released a strategy for combating the violent extremism revolving around the counter action of the radicalization of all types of potential terrorists. The domestic focus of the policy was the protection of the civil rights, federal cooperation with the local leaders in the private and the public sectors. In 2004, Congress passed the project Bio Shield in order to encourage the private sector to develop certain biological counter measures to protect the lethal effects of the biological menace done by the terrorist attacks (Painter, 2011, pp. 8-10). The National Counterterrorism Center is the primary organization for the integration and analyzing the processes involved with terrorism. The system provides all source intelligence support to the government wide counter terrorism activities and establishment of the information technology systems and architectures and infrastructure between the NCTC and the other agencies. The NCTC serves as the chief advisor to the Director of National Intelligence on the international organizations for the strategic operation planning of the counter terrorism (Counterterrorism, n.d., p.3). In the fall of 2001, the anthrax incidents induced the potentia l biological attacks against the nation. In January 2001, President Bush declared a supplementary appropriation with an amount of around $ 1 billion to tighten the states’ capabilities of the bio-terrorism. Developments were made by the states in the utilization of

A Rose for Emily by William Faulker and A & P by John Updike analysed Essay

A Rose for Emily by William Faulker and A & P by John Updike analysed - Essay Example On a personal view, life is a process of making choices. Even the fact that an individual would put every life decision on fate is a choice in itself. For that matter, in the query regarding the human beings’ ability to make choices or to be controlled by fate, the main answer is that there is an interaction between making choices and having faith on fate. The two literary works analyzed depicted and captured how human beings live life. A Rose for Emily by William Faulker and A & P by John Updike are the main focus of the paper. These short stories exemplify the effects of the different events, cultural and social factors on the behavior, outlook, and the manner each of the characters lives life. A Rose for Emily In the short story by William Faulkner entitled A Rose for Emily, life was given a different light. The author focused on the dark elements that often occur in life thus the story leaned on the mysterious and macabre genre. Included in the elements of the plot are mul tiple deaths, tragedies of love, and strict family rules. Emily is the focus of the story. She is a character who is a member of a family with strict traditions and mysterious habits. These traditions and habits became the main reason why Emily and her family stood out of the community. They are very different, they attracted attention because they do not connect and mingle with other people, which is considered as a normal thing to do as a member of a community. For that matter, people around them either treat them with alienation or with antagonism. The main character Emily can be considered to have the fate of being born in a family of eccentric views and attitudes in terms of social interaction and relationships. As a person who only depends on whatever the fate brings, Emily can be presumed to just stay inside the house all her life, even after the death of her father. But as the story progressed, it is safe to say that this is not the case. When her father died she continued t o stay inside the house but this changed Homer Barron came into town. He is a charming guy involved in the construction and modernization of road in town. He represents a modern world where he came from. This can be concluded in the manner he carries himself. He is confident in interacting with the people in the community. Even Emily had not been safe from his charms. Her life and even her outlook in life changed when she met Homer. It had been fate that made Emily a part of an eccentric family. It was also fate who brought her Homer Barron. He changed her life to the point that she became a different person when he was around. She became more open and a part of the community. She was able to consciously change her ways when she was with Homer. Based on the said decision, Emily can be considered as a person who can make her own decisions. She is also a type of person who is not afraid to be criticized based on the decisions that she is making and the attitudes and behaviors that she is showing. Another action that affirmed Emily’s capability to make her own decisions was the fact that she wanted to keep her love with her forever, by keeping Homer’s body in the bedroom even after he died. Although this is weird and can even be considered as a twisted action, she had not been afraid to show expressions of her love for the man. People can judge such actions as insane but Emily stood by her own views. Regardless of the society’s negative reactions, she showed that she cannot be swayed. Until her last day, she lived with the choices and decisions she made. Based on the short story, different factors can affect the life of every person. Factors such as tradition, religion, genetic make-up and socioeconomic status can affect the manner by which person makes decisions

Role play Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Role play - Essay Example 1. Have good analytical listening skills. This ability does play a significant role in leadership, for only through listening can one be able to gather as much information as possible. The modern leaders of our society that innovated the prosperity of their organizations, as well as nations, talk less and listen more. This is mainly because in listening to outsiders they can branch out of their comfort zones where everything is alright and learn of the emerging problems being incurred. In my leadership position, I utilize my analytical listening abilities by first surrounding myself with trustworthy individuals who can talk a lot and address problems experienced objectively. From this activity am also able to evaluate all the information that is supplied directly to me and thus be able to analyze how best to use this information. I do not seclude myself to only listening to the positive but majorly listen to the critical information to fully understand the depth of the problem and an alyze how it can be sorted out. 2. Ability to persevere, deal with volatility as well as adapt to changes incurred. Great leaders always create a volatility plan in place in order to implement it, should a volatile season occur. This helps to keep them on the alert and also enhance the chances of the organization dealing with volatility in an appropriate manner. In my experience volatility mainly occurs with investments and the ability to adapt to the new nature of the environment is vital and it should be done with a remembrance of perseverance. I do this in order to be able also to support and help my employees towards enduring volatile seasons of investment. I usually do have very tight plans already drawn up to necessitate some business and changes incurred during these seasons. 3. Can conduct open networking and manage relationships. Technology has transformed the modern ways of networking in business and globally a leader should

5 Reason to Have a Master in Public Administration Essay Example for Free

5 Reason to Have a Master in Public Administration Essay 5 reasons why a Masters in Public Administration is vital in todays business A Masters in Public Administration is a very important program from a society’s perspective. The aspirants who wish to make a key contribution to the society and are motivated to doing something socially meaningful a Masters in Public Administration can be the ideal degree for them to pursue. A Masters in Public Administration is vital for the business and the economy for several reasons. Here are some of the reasons that make this program significant: Public Administration is critical to creating a sound administrative infrastructure for the society. Business and industry in any country can prosper only if there is a strong foundation of basic social facilities and systems in the country. All institutions of national and local governance, internal security and public welfare must be strong enough to ensure that people can conduct their businesses or pursue their occupations without any hurdles or hindrances. A Masters in Public Administration creates professionals who address these issues and create a sound administrative infrastructure. Public Administration facilitates interaction between professionals and government officials in policy matters. If a public administration official has a Masters in Public Administration, he can deal with the government officials effectively and provide creative inputs in the matter of developing public policies and programs for the larger benefit of the society, and creating good conditions for a prosperous business and economy. A Masters in Public Administration can be useful within the government and also for the corporate world. The government can hire such professionally qualified individuals to assist in the matters of policy formation and implementation. They can bring new ideas and strategies to deal with the issues of public welfare successfully. Even in the corporate sector, the large companies prefer to hire candidates with this qualification so that they can engage with the government officials on various policy issues concerning the business and industry. See more: My Writing Process Essay A Masters in Public Administration helps to shape the overall public policy that benefits the consumers, new entrepreneurs and business organizations at large. That creates a thriving environment for growth of business and industry. In the times of economic stagnation, an efficient Public Administration becomes even more vital to the survival of business. In such conditions, the government and public administration offices are expected to play a key role to bring back the macro economy to the levels of normalcy. That helps business and trade to survive during the tough economic times, and pull through without resulting in a situation of massive job losses and economic crisis for the people of the country.

Heraldic Code of the Philippines Essay Example for Free

Heraldic Code of the Philippines Essay â€Å"Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow; don’t walk behind me, I may not lead; Just walk beside me, and be my friend†. I have one such good friend who walks beside me and who extends his hand, when I am about to slip and fall. He is my greatest asset in life, which I treasure more than anything else in this world. He is my best friend. My best friend is Tom Sangma. We come from the same neighbourhood. Our houses are situated close to each others. Both Tom and I are of same age and belong to more or less same economic background. In fact, what has cemented our friendship deep is that our families have been close to each other for a long time. My father and his father were classmates. My mother’s best friend is Tom’s mother. Another reason, which probably helped us to become good friends, is that we have grown together. We have spent our childhood days playing, fighting, learning, and enjoying together. My memory of sweet bygone days of the past is a nostalgic memory of happy days spent together in Tom’s company. Today Tom and I study in Class X in a reputed school in the town. We generally go to school together and have been lucky enough to be studying in the same class for the past ten years and more. Tom has many excellent qualities of heart and mind. His simplicity, smartness, neatness, intelligence, straightforwardness, cool temperament, pleasant behaviour, gentle ways, dutifulness, etc. have made him one of the most liked and popular students in the school. Tom’s sweet temperament is his greatest quality. He never hurts others or speaks ill of others. He has a charming personality. For several years consecutively, he has been given the ‘Best Student’ award in the school. Despite my best efforts I have never managed to reach his level. Yet I never feel jealous of him. Because he helps me more than anybody. He tries to do all he can to make me come up to his level. He never goes to any function or party or film without me. I do the same for him. Whenever I am sick, he is the first to come and see me. There is no function in my home without his presence. The same is true in his house as well. All these have combined to make our friendship deep and lasting. The best trait that I admire and like most in my friend is his disciplined life. He would not do anything that goes against accepted norms or decency. He gets up on time, does his homework always, attends school regularly, respects his teachers and elders and never indulges in unhealthy ways such as, smoking, taking alcohol, idling away time, skipping classes etc. His principle of ‘duty first- enjoyment second’ is something that I find difficult to follow, yet try to imitate. He corrects me whenever I commit any mistake. For me he is a source of inspiration, support and also a role model to imitate. I am ever grateful to the almighty for having given me such a good friend. I cherish it as my greatest treasure. I am sure our friendship will grow deeper and deeper in the years to come. I wish everyone had such friends in life. One cannot describe the thrill and the joy of journeying together in life, sharing its ups and downs, rainbows and thunders and Good Fridays and Easters. It has to be experienced.

International Resourcing and Talent Management

International Resourcing and Talent Management As organizations continue to expand businesses across an extensively global environment, they put great effort towards finding new and ever more efficient ways through which they can advance their competitive positions. In recent years, the persistent march of globalization has begun threatening, and in several cases, decreased many of the important fundamentals of competitive advantage that drive organizational performance. As entry costs into markets decrease and product markets expand, a vast number within the realms of businesses have come to understand that sustainable competitive advantage originates more from a firms internal resource endowments and its resource deployments (Lado Wilson, 1999). As a result, organizations now view the human resource practices and systems that underpin them as a vital component for securing sustainable competitive advantage. Not only are organizations becoming aware that the practice of doing businesses are culture bound, but also that the structures and systems for people management are uniquely determined by forces of tradition. In a research based on best practices of about 250 companies, Harris and Brannick (1999) present practical examples of how successful organizations source, recruit and retain excellent employees; the underlying factor identified as culture. International Human Resource Management should be studied within the context of the ever changing business and economic environment, as the flow of both the foreign and home business context in which firms operate is vastly changing. In taking on these different perspectives, it is imperative that multiple levels of analysis are used when studying IHRM i.e. the PEST environment (political, economic, social, and technological factors) as well as the industry, firm and cultural environment. The extent to which the practices of human resource management can be transferred between countries has been at the fore of considerable debate. Bartlett and Ghoshal (1991) argue that HRM practices and policies are becoming crucial as they can act as instruments for the control and co-ordination of international operations. On the other hand, Adler and Bartholomew (1992) assert that HRM constitutes a major restraint when organizations try to enforce global strategies. While previous research has mostly focused on differences in national cultures (Hofstede, 2001), the implications of these differences for the role of managers in multinational corporations (MNCs) have hardly been researched. This essay will attempt to evaluate if national culture matters in international resourcing and talent management. To do this, it is important to analyse culture. Therefore, the first part of the essay will critically review culture, national culture and the convergence and divergence debate. The second part is a critical evaluation of national culture on international resourcing and talent management. The third and final part of the essay concludes with a summary/concluding section with possible areas for future research. LITERATURE REVIEW Culture (Organizational And National) To properly understand the cultural implications of human resource within an organization, it is paramount to understand the culture concept. Although there are several definitions of culture, the term is generally used in describing a shaping process. As Phatak (1995) explains, an individual is not born with a particular culture; rather he or she gains it through the process of socialisation which starts at birth. Geert Hofstede (2001), a seminal writer on culture refers to culture as software of the mind, and identifies 5 dimensions of culture: the power distance dimension, individualism versus collectivism, masculinity versus feminism, uncertainty avoidance and long term versus short term orientation. Hofstede asserts that there are different levels to culture, resembling layers of an onion, and ranging from the easy to observe outer layers i.e. behavioural conventions and observable practices, to the more difficult to figure out inner layers such as values and assumptions. Management scholars have presented a range of definitions for the concept of organizational culture (Ravasi Schultz, 2006). Schein (2004) states that it refers to the practice organizations develop around handling its people (p.7). Hofstede (1998) defines organizational culture as a collective programming of the mind which distinguishes members of one organization from the other (p.478). Whilst there isnt a single widely accepted definition, it appears that there is some agreement that the definition should comprise a number of assumptions, social phenomena and behaviours held by members of an organization that help in shaping the ways in which they respond to their external environment, and to each other ( Ngo Loi, 2008). In recent years, the concept of national culture has begun to acquire an increasing prominence in organizational studies and this is largely due to the pioneering work of Hofstede (1980). In the interaction of human resource management (HRM) and national culture, one theory regarding both practice postulates that greater cultural distance between two entities will adversely affect the acceptance and transfer of HR practices from a local subsidiary to a foreign multinational company, while another suggests that corporations will try to abide by local management customs when they are faced with considerably large cultural distance from a foreign sub-unit (Gamble, 2003). Ample degree of support for each of these postulations are present in existing literatures on national culture and the capability of HR practices to be successfully implemented across such cultures. Hofstedes (1980: 372) note that organizations are culture-bound and the debate has laid emphasis on whether organizational culture serves to overpower some cultural norms related to a particular nation. Another interesting contribution to the debate is Sparrow et al.s 1994 study of HR managers and CEOs from across twelve countries. After giving out surveys and conducting a cluster analysis, Sparrow and his colleagues distinguished five clusters of countries (Sparrow, et al., 1994: 278). They are: Anglo-Saxon Cluster: Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom and United States. Latin Cluster: Argentina, Brazil, Mexico. Cultural Island 1: France Cultural Island 2: Korea Cultural Island 3: Japan Identifying these clusters gives credibility to the assertion that significant differences based on national culture creates a different effect with regards to the efficiency of HRM practices constituted by MNCs. Further analysis revealed that despite the significant differences enough to justify categorization into various cultural clusters, there were certain practices i.e. resourcing items e.g. workforce size management, recruitment and training, performance management items and corporate responsibility for which convergence across clusters was existent (Sparrow, et al., 1994). The fact that in spite of divergent national cultures, these convergences in HRM exist shows that although variances occur through mechanisms such as levels of individualism and collectivism, the predominance of hierarchical societal structures, and the embracing of free market capitalism, there is ample amount of common ground on which international HRM can rest, especially when other determinants that moderate the efficiency of HRM practices in foreign subsidiaries are considered. Convergence And Divergence There have been emerging literatures on human resource management (HRM) strategies of multinational corporations (MNCs) over the last decade. Majority of this literature has focused on determining the factors that are behind the acceptance and implementation of these strategies and differentiating between different types of MNC strategies (Dowling et al, 1999). Over the last few decades, the debate on the convergence and divergence of work values continue to be in the forefront as multinational companies have struggled to comprehend the diverse value systems of their multi domestic operations, and if the cross-societal values pertaining to their workforces are becoming more alike or not (Ralston et al., 1993). Most of this argument surrounding the convergence-divergence debate centres on national culture and its effects on the viability of human resource practices within a given realm of operation. The wind of globalization has stretched the geographical reach of firms, broadened the mindsets of executives and plunged international business into new territories, one of such, the concern with national culture. While traditional international business research was concerned with legal/economic issues and organizational structures, the last two decades have seen the significance of national culture becoming increasingly important largely as a result of Hofstedes (1980) classic work. A review of the literature on cross-cultural applicability and global HR gives an insight into few key determinants that influences the ultimate efficiency of HR practices across national boundaries and the distinction of those practices across diverse localities. In the mid-1980s, Laurent (1986) wrote on the state of International Human Resource Management and concludes that the challenges facing the growing subject field of international human resource management is to decipher the multidimensional puzzle of organizational and national cultures. DOES NATIONAL CULTURE  MATTER IN IRTM? As businesses have transcended national boundaries, organizations face the challenge of conflicting requirements from global standardization and local customization, which has crucial implications for HR functions. With this, knowledge of cultural differences becomes critical. Existing research provides evidence that organizations adapt to a certain degree to national cultures in which they operate (Schuler and Rogovsky, 1998). Additionally, subsidiaries that are consistently managed with national cultural expectations tend to perform better that their counterparts that act otherwise (Newman and Nollen, 1996). National culture plays a very important and significant role in international resource and talent management. Ma and Allen (2009) argue that the theories describing national cultural values can give valuable insights into understanding the recruitment and the management of employees in organizations. Previous literature on international HR by Posthuma, et al., (2005) also supports the idea that national cultural values have an impact on HR practices such as selection, compensation, and turnover. Aycan et al (2000) assert that the increasing demands of the globalized and liberalized business environments have made researchers and practitioners to start paying more attention to the study of culture as an explanatory variable. Following Ployharts (2006) call for research on the effectiveness of staffing systems across cultures, Ma and Allen (2009) integrate the framework of Hofstedes (1998) cultural values with Barbers (1998) process model of recruitment to unravel a cultural value-based model of recruitment in order to support the research on the role of national cultural values in international resourcing. (Fig.1). In the model, Ma and Allen (2009) establish the possible impact of the five dimensions of cultural values of Hofstede on the relationships between major elements of recruitment and the outcomes suggested by Chapman et al., (2005) e.g. organization attraction, job pursuit intentions, acceptance intentions, the applicants overall assessment of the attractiveness of the organization. Thus, one of the major contributions of the framework is a specific recognition of the fact that the varying dimensions of national culture are extremely important during different recruitment exercises, depending on the intent of the parties involved and the nature of their interactions. Since there are significant differences in cultural values, substantial research have examined how these values differ based on various cultural dimensions (Hofstede, 1980; Gupta House, 2004). In the international human resource management field, Hofstedes dimensions have also been found to be relevant in explaining the differences in HR practices in multinational companies (Ferner, 1997). However, the fundamental analytical question is how far the behaviour of MNCs from different countries is informed by national differences in business systems. Firstly, it is noted that local isomorphism, a practice of organizations to behave as  local  firms and adjust their systems to  local  circumstances, is expected in certain areas of HR/IR due to constraining factors of host country rules and regulations. Secondly, some systems of national business systems make little or no sense if isolated from the group of features in which they are incorporated in the home country. Lincoln et a1.,(1995) assert that in this circumstance, the system does not travel well and states that it is important to understand how national cultures would fit into each other when resourcing . Lincoln et al., goes on to state an example of Japanese MNCs; that they may find it difficult to adapt to the techniques of home country personnel management in their foreign operations because the extensive formal systems that exist are so deep-rooted in the Japanese corporate culture Furthermore, Japanese MNCs in Europe prefer using expatriate managers because of the difficulties involved in sourcing for managers within the local labour markets that will have the appropriate degree of commitment, given that the managerial inter-firm mobility in Europe is more closely connected to a pursuit of career advancement (pp. 430-1). In other words, what Diilfer (1990: 264) refers to as degree of strangeness. This can be said to be between the host and home country, and this will create difficulty for the MNC to incorporate the practices and philosophies of the home-country. This practice can be problematic though, as reported by Dowling, Welch De Cieri, (1989) about an Australian expatriate general manager who was internationally resourced to head a new mining venture in Indonesia. The local Indonesian manager in charge at the host country could not figure out why the Australian expatriate was upset when he found out that he (the Indonesian) had hired most of his extended family rather than recruiting staff with the needed technical competence. In this circumstance, the Indonesian was simply making sure his obligation to his family was fulfilled. As he was in a position to give them jobs, it was an obligation to do so. The Australian, however, saw the Indonesians actions as a negative practice and nepotism, according to his own value system (Dowling, Welch De Cieri, 1989). In spite of the methodological cross-cultural research concerns, it is widely recognised that insensitive cultural behaviours and attitudes, stemming from misguided beliefs, ignorance or what works at home will work here are not only inappropriate but often are the major causes of international business failure that could put an expatriates job on the line as he has failed in his foreign operation. Therefore, to be able to retain the best talents in an organization to perform effectively in foreign locations, a cultural awareness is essential for a HR manager both at the corporate headquarters and at the host location as practices of the host country are often based on value systems peculiar to that countrys culture, and will be determined by actions such as hiring, promotion and compensation (Tung, 1993). Comparative research has paid a great deal of attention to the systemization of work within firms considering national differences. French firms are said to rigidly separate tasks within and between different strata in the organizational hierarchy (Poirson, 1993), while German firms show a much more blurry horizontal differentiation of functions and tasks (Sparrow and Hiltrop, 1994: 270-3). Cross-cultural influences most definitely have an impact in the processes of international resourcing and the retention of talent as tribal, ethnic and national borders become more porous. There is an important need for organizations to exploit aspects of the targeted host culture to aid maximum co-operation with local customs in foreign operations. In a study of Greek firms to determine the link between culture and management, Myloni et al (2004) address the areas of recruitment and selection, as well as compensation. In the study, it was found that in the area of recruitment, Greek firms use less standardized methods of selection, prefer internal recruitment and make use of references and recommendations than their multinational subsidiaries. This is associated with the high level of family orientation of the Greek culture to employ people they are familiar with, basing their selection on less objective criteria than their multinational subsidiaries. In the area of compensation, differences were found with regards to the level at which basic pay is determined as Greek companies rely a great deal on national or/and industry collective agreements while in multinational subsidiaries, basic pay is determined mainly at company and individual levels (Myloni et al, 2004). In the country of origin, personnel function structures and national culture has been used to clarify the differences of management policies of IR/HR of corporations. One of these discussions is addressed by Yuen and Hui (1993). In comparing Japanese and United States MNCs in Singapore, they concentrate on personnel function discrepancies in the business cultures of the two home-countries. They mention that in the US, management of labour is based on a model of recruiting and firing, high mobility of labour and market-determined wages, which is also known as economic-contractual model. In contrast, the model of Japanese HRM is grounded on multidimensional employment relations, also known as the human capital model. Wursten (undated) argues that when analysing national cultural differences and its influence on international resource and the management of talent, one of the fundamental elements to take into account is the difference in thinking patterns and reasoning between cultures. Wursten goes on to analyze eight competencies often used by recruiters to illustrate a cultural understanding need, along with the need for adaptation to the environment the expatriate would work in. They are sound judgement, strategic vision, planning organizing, drive for results, adaptability, delegating, fostering team work and competence. Cultural competent recruitment enables managers to predict the likely outcomes of management techniques and management policies in different national contexts, and to modify them where these approaches could be dysfunctional (Wursten, undated) The practice of National Cultural is not the only factor that influence international management practices. It is also influenced by certain elements such as workforce nature, competitors in the industry, the history and management of the organization, and organizational culture. Burman and Evans (2008) argue that before an initiative of cultural change, an assessment of the needs required to be able to identify and understand the current organizational culture should be carried out. Evaluations may be done through employee surveys and interviews, focus groups and observation where necessary, and other in-house research, to be able to clearly identify the areas that are in need of change. The organization must then make an assessment to clearly recognize the new, desired culture to be able to design a change process. According to Cummings Worley (2005, p.  491) this is specifically of relevant for equitable treatment control, employee integrity, and security of jobs. SUMMARY/CONCLUSION This essay is an attempt to straighten out some matters of contention regarding the effect of national culture and its influence on multinational corporations. A considerable body of evidence is visible to show that MNCs of the various national origins across the globe act in significantly different ways and most especially, the IR and personnel issues relating to cross-national management. Harzing and Hofstede (1996) argue that since national cultures appear to be collectivistic or individualistic, specific cultural values could inhibit change while others facilitate adaptation to change. Societies that are more open to change are identified with low power distance, individualism and low uncertainty avoidance. In addition, it is easier to foster innovation and change in loose culture rather than tight culture. Loose culture also symbolizes high diversity tolerance and it is suggested that CEOs of MNCs should support these values, most especially in the framework of high paced indust ries. The findings of this study also raise certain questions that are considered appropriate for future research. For example, are MNCs from certain countries more likely to transfer their own practices to host countries and less likely to adopt local practices in lenient host countries? What implications are obvious for managing IR and HR in a global context when MNCs choose to embody typical national characteristics? Todays business environment is without doubt getting increasingly complex, dynamic, highly competitive, and extremely volatile. Therefore, one major challenge for organizations and corporations is that they must be global and systematic in managing their human capital and resources in a differing cultural environment if they wish to have any hope of gaining and sustaining a competitive advantage in the years to come.