Your Attitude Is Showing :: Business Marketing

Your Attitude Is Showing: A Primer of Human Relations I enjoyed reading "Your Attitude Is Showing" a great deal more than I expected to. I normally hate to read because I am not very good at it, and I am usually uninterested in the subject. I found that this book to be quite easy to read. The language that the authors used was very easy to understand. Also, it was divided into many chapters with many sections in each chapter. This made it easy for me to keep my attention on the book. When reading I normally become tired and bored, but I was able to focus well on this book. The content of the book also helped keep me interested. I felt that the authors addressed many important points throughout the book. Though I knew much of the information discussed, I also learned a lot from it. This is why I enjoyed the book the most, because it taught me things that I will use, and that are very important for how successful my life is, professionally and personally. Key Points When reading this book I found there to be many important points that were addressed in each chapter. I found three points in particular to be more valuable to me than the others. The first key point that I found was in chapter 2. â€Å"All organizations are built around people. And when you build healthy relationships with your fellow workers and supervisors, you open doors that would otherwise be closed.† I found this statement to be very interesting. This section went on to explain how knowledge of a particular job is not all that is important to succeed in a career. I had previously not realized this in my life, even though I have had personal experiences that reflect this. I was recently offered a management position at my current job. I thought that it was strange because I had relatively no experience working in retail, and I had only been working with the company for a few months. But after reading this section I realized that, most likely, the reason why they off ered me the job was because of the strong relationships I had developed with my supervisors and co-workers in such a short period of time. From now on I plan on keeping this point in mind whenever I begin a new job. The second key point that I found was discussed in chapters 3 and 4.

Alejandro Quiroz Essay

1. What were two major influences on German Baroque music? How did these factors influence the music? The German Baroque bow and Baroque organ. They both gave the music a new kind of sound that is still represented in the music today. 2. How did music differ before and after Bach? Almost everyone in the piano-playing world would agree that his compositions are light-years ahead of his time, harmonically speaking. He introduced unexpected chord changes of which some were considered blasphemous because it was written for a formal choir. 3. How have the performances of Baroque music changed (in terms of tempo, balance and timbre) from the Baroque period to today? When compared to â€Å"classical† performances, modern performances of Baroque music typically use a slower tempi, a similar balance (although recording studios can disrupt the natural balance sometimes, by pushing the harpsichord into the background) and a flatter timbre due to the instruments used in modern times 4. What is a Baroque spirit when playing music? Baroque spirit expresses enthusiasm. 5. At the bottom of the page that discusses Baroque music performance, there are some examples of music that you can listen to. These examples often use different instruments than we are used to hearing today. What are some of these instruments? How is the sound of the music different than what we might hear today? They use instruments such as harpsichords, lots of violins, and clavichord. People today still sometimes use violins but the beats and instruments sound very different then what we hear today. 6. Who was Arcangelo Corelli? What are some of his contributions to classical music? Corelli was an Italian violinist and composer, Corelli initially he started studying music under a priest in the nearby town of Faenza, and then in Lugo. The style of execution was introduced by Corelli, which is important for violin playing. As the time passed Corelli became a â€Å"iconic point of reference† for other violinist. 7. Who was Gottfried Silbermann? Silbermann and Bach were contemporaries and both of them worked together as colleagues and friends, both of them shared an interest and advanced knowledge of acoustics as applied to the voicing and location of organs. In their later years they would work again on the escapement mechanism for first fortepianos, Silbermann would receive the title of honorary court and state organ builder to the king of Poland and the duke of Saxony at Dresden, probably the most famous aspect of Silbermann’s instruments is their distinctive sound. 8. After listening to some of the music samples, how would you describe Baroque music to someone who had not heard it before? Choose at least one piece of music to discuss in detail. What instruments do you think the work uses? Who composed the work? What does the work sound like?

How does Fallout New Vegas (2010) compare to The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind (2002)?

Two games with a release difference of about eight years†¦both being RPGs in their own right and both having similar gameplay†¦the big question is: How does â€Å"Fallout New Vegas† (2010) compare to â€Å"The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind† (2002)? (from left to right: Morrowind and Fallout New Vegas) Fallout: New Vegas Review Before early 2009, I had not heard of the Fallout series. I was too busy playing this neat RPG called Morrowind, which is riveting despite the minor issues with AI and combat. Now I have a game in front of me which is fairly recent (came out in Fall 2010), and is surprisingly similar to Morrowind. Of course, the setting is different and you have many more options in gameplay. The story is that you play as a courier who tries to deliver a package from Primm to New Vegas, who gets shot by a fierce raider gang and is saved by an intelligent robot named Victor. Victor takes the player to Doctor Mitchell, where the game begins. Afterwards, you go through the character creation process which allows you to choose your character's gender, facial features, traits and so on†¦ Sigh†¦ A lengthy character creation, don't you think? Back in Morrowind, all you did was choose your race/gender, facial features, class and birthsign. Then, you were out into the game world faster than you could say John Appleseed. Still, you had the option to answer questions for the funny (they could be twins†¦) looking priest (pictured above, left) so he could choose your class (if you REALLY wanted to hear an old man rambling on and on about rude nicknames, mobs and sweet rolls, that is) but†¦oh snap that! Er, nevermind about the length of character generation in both games. The fact is – in both games, there is a character creation process but they are both radically different. Basically sums it up, don't you think? After the character creation, I set out in the lovely Mojave Desert. Just when you set out in the wilderness, you get a second chance to create your character. No, thank you! I spent about 15 minutes choosing my character (yeah, I timed it†¦) and I will not spend another 15 minutes just staring at the screen and constantly asking myself the same question over and over again (â€Å"Is she a perfect character?†). Nah, â€Å"perfect† does not exist in Fallout's books. â€Å"Good enough† is a better phrase for the term. Sorry about the mix-up. Like in Morrowind, you gain levels when you gain enough experience in your skills (some skills include Unarmed and Guns). With every 2 levels, there is a perk which you can choose. For example, you can choose the Rapid Reload perk which allows you to reload your weapons 25% faster than the normal rate. Cool, huh? After leveling up, I decided to spend about half of my allotted time to go and kill some mutant ants. I loved testing the combat system, especially with the VATS. Basically, if you have enough so-called Action Points, you can choose to shoot any part of the body of your victim. Then, prepare to watch as litres of blood come oozing out of their bodies in full HD! Or otherwise†¦you can make a nice cuppa instant coffee with extra foam. Mmm†¦ Morrowind was pretty simples when it came to combat. All you did was use your sword, dagger, hammer, club, spear, spell, staff, shortsword†¦etc†¦ to pummel your enemies. Finally, both games have quests. You can choose either to agree to help people or not. Sometimes you are kinda forced into completing the quest if the quest-giver offers you an enchanted sword or a nice gun prior to completion. Other than that, you are free to do whatever you want in both games. Both games get my rating of: 9.2 (outstanding) Sources: Morrowind images – Google Images/Morrowind Photography Guild/UESP Wiki Fallout New Vegas images – Google Images/Fallout Wikia Words – My own brain 😛 Commentary I chose to reproduce this article because I am interested in gaming and I thought that this has a large variety of linguistic frameworks to discuss. I used a variety of sentence lengths to engage the reader's interest. The one word sentence â€Å"Sigh†¦Ã¢â‚¬  offers a pause after four long sentences with a lack of punctuation. It is also used for rhetoric effect as it is accompanied by a rhetorical question â€Å"A lengthy†¦don't you think?† so it will leave the reader to make up their own mind and involve them in the gameplay. I use game jargon like â€Å"Fall† and â€Å"gameplay† because of the article is in the form of a blog and it shows by using the direct address to engage the reader and the centered pictures with a short subtitle underneath, â€Å"they could be twins†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . This article shows an element of bias as well. I tend to mention the game Morrowind slightly more than the game Fallout New Vegas. This is done purposely because it illustrates my preference for Morrowind compared to the other game. When I am talking about the Fallout game I tend to rush through the summary of the game, using as little punctuation as I could. This is very subtle bias. Even though at the end of the article I give both games the same rating, the true preference goes to Morrowind and therefore I hide the bias by using a variety of linguistic techniques like the aforementioned one. Although, it is implied that I do not really like the Fallout game, my opinion changes when describing the â€Å"VATS† combat system, I use a lot of emotive language and show my utter amazement to the feature, for example the transitive verb â€Å"oozing†. I use the colloquial noun â€Å"cuppa† instead of â€Å"cup of† because it adds humor to the article and also, to create consonance and rhythm between the concrete nouns â€Å"cuppa† and â€Å"coffee†. I used the adjective â€Å"simples† instead of â€Å"simple† as it makes a reference to popular culture. It also adds to the sibilance of the list of weapons which Morrowind has. I added an image below the list to illustrate my point on the variety of weapons which Morrowind had. Finally, I include the list of sources where I have acquired my images. It uses the standard layout and grammar in a sources list until when I say â€Å"Words – from my own brain :P†. This is used for humor and the 😛 emoticon emphasises that I am in tune with colloquial language and modern ways of conversing in an electronic mode text. This contrasts with the headline which looks and reads professionally.

Organizational Behavior – Mid Term

ASSIGNMENT FRONT COVER | | | |Module name: Class # 790 – Organizational Behavior | |Assignment title: Midterm Exam | |Assignment deadline: November 12th 2012 | |Effective number of words used: 1471 | |Table of Contents Question 1: Understanding Human Behavior is critical to organizations – discuss the benefits of self evaluation/self assessment as it relates to leaders today . †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 3 Question 2: Prejudice can be hurtful and destructive – discuss how you can personally reduce prejudice in your workplace – please provide an example †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 5 References and Bibliography†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢ € ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 6 Question 1: Understanding Human Behavior is critical to organizations – discuss the benefits of self evaluation/self assessment as it relates to leaders todayIn today’s ever changing environment, organizations need to continuously adapt and transform, not only in order to succeed but even just to survive. While it takes a capable manager to efficiently run a business in steady-state, it takes a leader to successfully drive an organization through change (Kotter in Robbins and Judge, 2009: 385). Dealing with technology, economic and legislation changes isn’t new for organizations. The speed of change has however substantially increased in the last few decades as has the disruptive nature of these changes.Leaders today are faced with challenges such as globalization and instant communication that were not present until recently. The words and actions of leaders are broadcasted across the globe within seconds and are heard and seen by individuals who will perceive and interpret them through the filter of their own values, assumptions, beliefs and expectations. In this accelerated environment, effective leaders need to be able to swiftly read trends and anticipate change, adapt to new situations, fine-tune their actions and continuously inspire others towards the pursuit of a compelling vision.In order to do so, they need to be perceptive of the environment around them and detect when discrepancies between their assumptions and reality arise (Clawson, 2001: 14). An example of business failure due to the mismatch between leader’s assumptions and environmental reality is Polaroid. When in 1977 Polaroid launched its instant-video product Polavision (an innovative instant movie camera that used an additive process to generate color), it experienced the first of several product fail ures that eventually forced the company into bankruptcy.The mistake that Polaroid’s Leader Edwin H. Land made was to assume that the market-follows-technology approach that had been successful for the previous 40 years was unchangeably valid (Lefler, 2010), despite the skepticism expressed by many within the company. Simpler and cheaper videocassette based alternatives were released at the same time by Kodak and other competitors. These â€Å"non-instant† products responded to markets’ trends better than Polaroid’s ground breaking instant-video solution, condemning Polavision to irrelevance and Polaroid to massive losses (Giambarba, 1977).I think Polavision is the story of a self awareness lacking leader, failing to identify his blind spots and driving the organization to failure. In my opinion Mr. Land failed to question his assumption in a changing marketplace and to openly listen to others, consequently ignoring precious feedback. Had Mr. Land listened to the concerns expressed by others around him, including Polaroid’s president Bill McCune, things could have possibly gone differently. Self evaluation is what allows individuals to identify those blind spots and weaknesses and to put measures in place to compensate them (Musselwhite, C. 2007). Through self evaluation, self awareness is achieved. The benefits of self evaluation and self awareness for a leader in today’s organizations are significant. By understanding your strengths, efforts can be focused on them, hence developing a greater potential for success (Roberts at all, 2005: 1). By recognizing your weaknesses you are in a better position to accept them and deal with them effectively. In the case of Polavision, Mr Land’s product and technology strengths were overshadowed by his marketing weakness. For his leadership to be effective, Mr.Land should have commissioned a market research to validate his assumption that the public was ready and willing to c onsume the product he was developing. Self awareness is the basis of self management and social awareness (Goleman, 2000; 80). The ability to read and manage your emotions, reactions and feelings, helps seeing yourself and the world under a different light. This in turns enables you to shift your point of view and identify opportunities and solutions that were otherwise impossible to imagine (Covey, 1989: 86). In the case of Polaroid a more socially aware Mr.Land would have valued the input of the Polavision skeptics and maybe redirected his creativity towards developing a product more in line with current market trends. Moreover, acknowledging your limits and not hiding them induces trust. You are perceived as human and people relate to you better. When trusted, you become a more effective leader as people feel safe when they follow your direction. Your behavior remains consistent in different situations and the influence of the environment on your actions is weakened. You develop charisma. You become authentic (George, B. et all, 2007: 7).Self evaluation implies asking for feedback and actively listening to what you hear. As you learn from asking questions, people around you also feel more comfortable doing so. This ignites a virtuous learning circle that drives personal growth. The biggest asset of organizations is their human capital. An engaged, motivated and virtuous human capital is the engine behind organizations’ success. In particular, by developing an environment where it is OK to ask questions, to challenge status-quo, to try new things and to make mistakes, innovation forces are unleashed (Musselwhite, C. , 2007).Conclusion Self Evaluation develops self awareness. Self awareness promotes personal growth and enables behaviors that are associated with charismatic leadership. Charisma is what inspires others to follow the leader. They trust her, share her vision and feel empowered and motivated to work towards a common goal. Charisma is a cruc ial element of effective leadership, but it is often not sufficient to drive organizations, particularly large ones, to sustainable success (Nadler and Tushman, 1990: 85). Self awareness developed through self evaluation, allows a leader to also understand and address this.By recognizing her limits, a self aware leader will develop an organizational structure that complements her strengths and, through alignment, effectively works towards the set vision. The most prominent benefits of self assessment for leaders today in my opinion are therefore the enablement of charismatic and institutional leadership, both of which are necessary to effectively guide an organization. Question 2: Prejudice can be hurtful and destructive – discuss how you can personally reduce prejudice in your workplace – please provide an examplePrejudice (prior judgment[1]) implies forming an opinion about the personality traits, expected behavior, skills and capability of a person, without that opi nion being backed by empirical evidence. These pre-formed opinions are often very strong, deriving from values and beliefs that are deeply embedded in our psyche. As such they are hard to remove. We may even unconsciously reject evidence negating the pre-judgment in a self affirming effort to confirm our assumptions. The end result is a diminished ability to appreciate the full range of qualities and the potential of the impacted individual.Prejudice and the corresponding discriminatory behavior, including institutional prejudice, are major issues for organizations today. Increasing cultural diversity in the workforce and the global reach of markets require organizations to actively strive for integration rather than assimilation or differentiation (Thomas & Ely, 1996: 1). In my opinion, the onus of promoting an effort in that direction lies mostly on managers. As a manager I have a moral and professional duty to address prejudice in my organization and I have taken specific steps i n that sense.I started with doing introspection to identify my own prejudices. I focused on my upbringing: who were the most influential figures in my childhood? What messaging did I receive from them and from the environment around me? What stereotypes derived from this? Being of white, catholic and Italian origin, I could immediately identify how anything outside of that archetype, was subject to some degree of prejudice, even if involuntarily. The good news is that â€Å"Prejudice is externally sourced† and â€Å"since it s learned, it can be unlearned† (Clawson, J.G. & Smith, B. , 1990: 5-6). I then realized that most likely everyone in my work environment have similar preconceptions. For example, some people talk to me with the typical Italian-American mafia accent from The Sopranos[2] probably thinking it is hilarious. It doesn’t bother me, but I can definitely see how it could be bothersome to other Italians. I made treasure of these realizations and dete rmined that these are ignorance-based preconceptions that can be resolved by increasing inter-cultural knowledge.I therefore resolved to take steps to encourage people from different backgrounds and cultures to interact with each other. For example, recently I included two international team members (Bryan the reporting manager who is Chinese and Manish the systems analyst who is Indian) in a 4 person project team based in the US Midwest, dealing with the integration of systems and processes from our Company’s latest acquisition. I personally facilitated the first few meetings and encouraged open participation by listening to and publicly valuing everyone’s contribution.I then assigned tasks in a way that required interaction and cooperation. The effort paid off and the team succeeded. The system and process integration was completed in record time, with wide consensus and to the smallest details. References and Bibliography Books Robbins, S. P. & Judge, T. A. (2009). Organizational Behavior. 13th Edition. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall. Covey, S. R. (1989). The 7 habits of highly effective people. USA: Free Press. Internet Resources Lefler, P. (2010). Polavision – Polaroid's disruptive innovation failure. [Webpage]Available from: http://www. spruancegroup. com/blog/bid/32860/Polavision-Polaroid-s-disruptive-innovation-failure [Accessed on Wednesday, November 7th 2012]. Giambarba, P. (1977). [Webpage] Available from: http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Polavision [Accessed on Wednesday, November 7th 2012]. Musselwhite, C. (2007). Self Awareness and the Effective Leader. [Webpage] Available from: http://www. inc. com/resources/leadership/articles/20071001/musselwhite. html [Accessed on Wednesday, November 7th 2012]. The Online Etymology Dictionary, word search: prejudice. [Webpage]Available from: http://www. etymonline. com/index. php? term=prejudice [Accessed on Thursday, November 8th 2012]. Wikipedia, word search: the sopranos. [Webpage] Av ailable from: http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/The_Sopranos [Accessed on Friday, November 9th 2012]. Journal Articles and Written Course Material Roberts, L. M. , Spreitzer, G. , Dutton, J. , Quinn, R. , Heaphy, E. , and Barker, B. (2005), â€Å"How to Play to Your Strenghts†, Harvard Business Review, January 2005. Goleman, D, (2000), â€Å"Leadership that gets results†, Harvard Business Review, March-April 2000. Clawson, J. G. 2001) UVA-OB-0652 Leadership and Intelligence, Charlottesville: University of Virginia Darden School Foundation. George, B. , Sims, P. , McLean, A. N. , and Mayer, D. (2007), â€Å"Discovering Your Authentic Leadership†, Harvard Business Review, February 2007. Nadler, D. A. , Tushman, M. L. , (1990) CMR-024 Beyond the Charismatic Leader: Leadership and Organizational Change, California Management Review, Harvard Business School Publishing. Clawson, J. G. & Smith, B. (1990) UVA-OB-0381 Prejudice in Organizations, Charlottesville: University of Virginia Darden School Foundation. Thomas, D. A. Ely, R. J. (1996), â€Å"Making Differences Matter†, Harvard Business Review, September-October 1996. ———————– [1] See the â€Å"Online Etymology Dictionary† (http://www. etymonline. com/index. php? term=prejudice) [2] From Wikipedia (http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/The_Sopranos): The Sopranos is an American television drama created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads.

Management challenges for the 21st Century

What Are Three 21st Century Challenges in Strategic Management? Answer Many challenges face a manager in the 21st century. A looming challenge in strategic management right now is globalization. Another is a volatile world economy. A third challenge in 21st century strategic management is the ever changing environment of government regulations, both domestically and internationally. Globalization Globalization is the international integration of intercultural ideas, perspectives, products/services, culture, and technology.Ethics and GovernanceEthics is at the core of corporate governance, and management must reflect accountability for their actions on global community scale. Diversity Globalization demands a diverse work force, and assimilating varying cultures, genders, ages, and dispositions is of high value. Career Success and Personal Fulfillment Career success and fulfillment hinges on effective human resource management, the practice of empowering employees with the necessary t ools and skills. Technology Technology management is crucial in offsetting the risks of new technology while acquiring the operational benefits the technology provides.Competition Managers must understand a company's competitive advantage, and translate this into a strategy that incorporates the competitive landscape. A Framework for Considering Challenges: PESTEL The PESTEL framework highlights six critical factors for management to consider when approaching the general business environment. A Look at the Managers of Tomorrow Posted on August 25, 2009by greatworkplace Randstad recently published an excellent report on the Managers of Tomorrow, including some fascinating statistics and observations on what our managerial landscape might look like in the future.In his book, â€Å"The Future of Management,† Gary Hamel argues that the secret to long-term business success is â€Å"not operational excellence, technology breakthroughs, or new business models, but management innova tion–new ways of mobilizing talent, allocating resources, and formulating strategies. † We’ll take a look at some predictions for the future and how we might be able to influence them. Who wants to be a supervisor? According to Randstad’s report, current employees have mixed feelings about the quality of managers currently, but their outlook of future supervisors looks somewhat bleak.The report goes on to suggest that â€Å"It’s clear that finding and preparing the next generation of managers is rapidly becoming one of the most critical business needs in the modern workplace. † The problem: future generations of employees aren’t embracing the role of a manager. â€Å"Employees watch their managers and see long hours, loads of new responsibilities and not much more money. Increased stress is the number one reason employees don’t want to become managers. † What attracts employees to a manager role?We’ve established t hat future generations might not currently embrace the role of a manager, but Ranstad’s report does provide some insight on what employees do find attractive about being a manager. So what makes management more attractive? â€Å"Maybe it begins with rethinking management. When we asked employees to list the reasons why they would want to be a manager, the answers were surprising. Power, status and money didn’t even make the list. The number one reason was being able to share my knowledge with others. Number two was being responsible for the success of an organization. And, number three was being able to influence decisions.†Some Goals for the Future In February, the Harvard Business Journal published an article featuring 25 Stretch Goals for Management in the 21st Century. Here are a couple interesting points from the article: Redefine the work of leadership. The notion of the leader as a heroic decision maker is untenable. Leaders must be recast as social-syste ms architects who enable innovation and collaboration. Create internal markets for ideas, talent, and resources. Markets are better than hierarchies at allocating resources, and companies’ resource allocation processes need to reflect this fact.Depoliticize decision-making. Decision processes must be free of positional biases and should exploit the collective wisdom of the entire organization. Retrain managerial minds. Managers’ traditional deductive and analytical skills must be complemented by conceptual and systems-thinking skills. (Source: â€Å"25 Stretch Goals for Managementâ€Å", Harvard Business Journal) Supervisory Training for Tomorrow’s Supervisor Today’s work environment demands highly skilled frontline supervisors different from the command-and-control leaders of the past.People are not interested in working for someone who just gives orders daily and conducts evaluations annually. Today’s employees are looking for leaders who devel op, support and coach them and keep them engaged. In ERC’s popular Supervisory Series I, beginning September 8, participants learn the managerial and interpersonal skills necessary to handle all leadership interactions—including those that are emotionally charged—along with the ability to apply both of these skill sets in any leadership setting or interaction. Organizational Promotions – The Managers of TomorrowSEPTEMBER 1, 2010 BY JORRIAN GELINK 1 COMMENT The people decision process is the control an organization has in whether its vision is being executed as well as achieving high performance. Having mission statements and core values posted across the walls is irrelevant unless the actions towards the people align with the organization’s core vision. Delivering a message emphasizing the importance of attaining new markets falls short when the company promotes an associate that is focused on retaining older clients but moves up due to â€Å"long tenure†.Every decision that is made in regards to people movement up, down or sideways is viewed on carefully not only by those within the department or division; but as well with others that do a â€Å"temperature check† of what it takes to stay/move up within the organization. The management of today need to follow two core steps in order to promote the management of tomorrow. Integrity of character. The start of any promotion should be on an individual’s integrity; for without that the organization is compromised. Integrity is not something learned in an organization, it is a trait brought into the organization and is easily judged by others.Integrity is always worn on a manager and is the fabric that can never come off; whether the integrity is strong or weak, all can see it and will respond to it accordingly. Lack of management integrity will show up in less than one month, but be rest assured the damage will show up the same time that integrity of characte r is breached. Many examples plague a manager’s strength of integrity: favoritism, fear of dealing with strong subordinates, placing blame on others, fear of performance communication, and promoting others â€Å"like me† are some of the main issues that plague poor management today.The people of the organization will forgive upper management promoting someone new to role, but they will never forgive a promotion of one with a lack of integrity. Organizational Performance. The organization has to promote based on performance: clear results achieved by executing tangible goals of the organization. Behavior leading to results needs to be looked at, any manager promoting one based on performing the right behaviors but not achieving results shows a lack of ignorance to the organization’s goals. Others will look upon this type of poor promotion it as â€Å"as long as I do what my manager tells me, who cares if I need to perform†.Not only will you damage your bus iness, you also shun others from wanting to move up the organizational ladder. Another result of poor promotion planning are the â€Å"opinions† of whether one can be handle a new role: what needs to be there is factual evidence of performance. The worst damage that can be done is not only average performance of a candidate, but under-performance, as any objectives and goals leading to results will not be taken seriously by co-workers and upper management will be looked upon as â€Å"the promoter of friends†.Continuous poor promotions with this method result in sub-ordinates leaving the organization due to favoritism or even worse, destroy the organizations objectives by trying to be-friend their superior in place of achieving results. The managers of tomorrow require high integrity of character as well of results of organizational performance. Focusing on these two requirements helps the organization be fair and accountable to what it needs from its teams. Missing eve n one of these requirements not only threatens the performance of the organization, but also detracts others from looking to be promoted.This is the true control of the organization: moving the right people into the right places for the right reasons. Jorrian Gelink Management Architect 5 Key Roles for HR Managers of Tomorrow What wlll the HR directors of tomorrow look like and what will their roles be? If we listen to theorists and academics, they might not look like much at all — in fact, they might already be extinct. This isn’t news: mandates for change in the profession have been prolific since the ’90s. Remember Fast Company’s 2005 article â€Å"Why We Hate HRâ€Å"? That certainly got our attention: attacking HR’s intelligence and value.Still today, noted practitioners like Jacques Fitz-Enz advocate breaking up HR, suggesting that the competencies needed for each area of the HR practice be allocated to other capable departments within a co mpany. I, naturally, wholeheartedly disagree with Fitz-Enz and other HR-killing proponents. Why? There is absolutely nothing in any organization that does not require people. People are an organization’s greatest asset — they are the human capital. So why should there not be a talented team of professionals focused on all things people?I think there is hope for HR, but it will require a dramatic paradigm shift and a deliberate refocus on what’s important to an organization in order to drive the performance and development of the workforce. If HR is to survive, it must think and act as if the organization was paying for its services — and could pull the plug at any time. Here are five roles that the HR Leader of tomorrow will have to play in order to shift the paradigm and add true value to an organization: Strategic Investor Today’s HR team is overwhelmed, overly busy and stretched beyond capacity.With multiple customers having exponential number o f needs, run from one project to the next, without stopping to understand why we are doing it, what the end result should be and whether or not we met the end results. Think about that. If HR were a business with services and products for an organization, would we not have to think about our business as a strategic investor, providing the right products and services for a cost that the customer will pay? We cannot be everything, and do everything. We need to learn to deliver our work where it adds value, and continuously measure that delivery.Relationship Facilitator Sticking with the concept of Human Resources as â€Å"all things people† for a minute, it goes without saying that a huge element of that role is facilitating relationships throughout (and outside) the organization. I see â€Å"building relationships† as being part of this, but not all. Yes, HR needs trusted relationships with executives, peers, the HR team, and the employees. But Human Resources cannot st op there; they must facilitate relationship building up and down levels, across business units, and with the community at large.Relationships are the biggest derailers of organizational success, and HR is poised to be the trusted facilitator bring people, teams and the organization together to drive business success. Developer of People Human Resources tends to be the â€Å"cobbler’s children†, going without shoes while the cobbler provides shoes to everyone else. Developing the skill and talent of the workforce goes without saying on the HR job description (at least in my mind), but we cannot forget our own team. How can we expect to influence and facilitate if our own team is in disarray?How can we facilitate trust, if our HR team is not trusted? Risk Manager There is no getting around it; there are tremendous risks related to people in an organization, and it is the role of HR to manage those risks. That doesn’t mean providing policies and procedures to ensur e no one steps out of line, but building capability in the leadership team and engagement and commitment in the workforce. Technology Geek The Human Resources Director of Tomorrow cannot survive on inference and buzzwords; they must provide credible business intelligence.Anyone stepping into HR leadership must have broad knowledge of technology systems, data integrity, process improvement and analytics. We must be able to critically analyze our processes to ensure that the business intelligence that we provide to our customers is credible. With the complexity of today’s HR systems, HR has to have to â€Å"geek-y curiosity,† asking, â€Å"how can we do this better and more efficiently using technology? † Can We Shift the Paradigm? Not only can we, but we must, not only for our survival, but for the organizations we serve.The people of the organization make it or break it, and need the talent and skills to make it. That’s where HR can shine. A Word from the Associate Dean: VUCA and the managers of tomorrow Posted on July 4, 2013 by GMBA Community Change is occurring faster than ever before, the world is more and more unpredictable. More players, more issues, and more voices means chaos and complexity and the â€Å"realities† of doing business are not so hard and fast as we may have once assumed it to be. Organizations operating under these forces face unique challenges and opportunities in decision-making, problem-solving, and planning.VUCA, an acronym standing for volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity is a term derived from military vocabulary that is increasingly relevant for describing how managers should take into account the external environment. Being aware, being prepared, and anticipating the complications arising from VUCA are essential characteristics of a global manager today. As companies understand (or more likely, fail to understand) this operational chaos, they seek a new kind of leader, a talent tha t is prepared, aware, and capable of foreseeable strategy and informed action.These are the kinds of leaders the Global MBA seeks to train, to help provide companies with the talent they need to stay ahead of the trends. The companies that fail to perform today are the ones that are still operating under the talent acquisition, talent management, and workforce planning processes of yesterday. But this chaos is here to stay, so businesses and business leaders not only need to get up to speed but to start finding the relevant talent that can perform and remain agile in this environment.Agility is a term we stress in our program. In the age of innovation, disruption, and globalization, sticking with the tried and true won’t necessarily cut it. Unique challenges require unique solutions, and the demands placed on business leaders in this setting are diverse, varied, and in constant flux. As new markets emerge, new opportunities and obstacles arise. At a faster pace, the future is upon us before we can anticipate it. And with disruptive innovation the rule rather than the exception, competition is breakneck.Traditional leadership styles don’t work in this sort of dynamism. The leadership must mirror the environment and focus on VUCA preparedness, anticipation and evolution. And that doesn’t mean that there’s a one size fits all model for management; complex problems require complex solutions and equally complex strategies. Tomorrow’s leaders must be able to thrive in multiple, multi-faceted environments, keeping a finger on the pulse of emerging markets, mature markets, entrepreneurship and innovation, and efficiency and optimization.Embracing chaos, taking risks, being capable of rapid strategy changes in response to changing markets: all of these characteristics must also be balanced by pragmatism and commitment and underscored by a passion to bring employees along on the adventure. The skills gained through interacting with a d iverse cohort, traveling and working internationally, exposure to emerging markets, studying in a mature market, learning from the best professors from around the world are all hardwired into the design of the Global MBA to respond to these needs.Studying a variety of cases of multiple situations and from diverse industries helps students examine strategy and learn from failure. Extensive teamwork helps them learn to collaborate, share strengths and compensate weaknesses, and adapt collectively in response to the VUCA microcosm of a rigorous, 12-month MBA. How should companies respond to these complex external environment? In kind. Agile leadership means harvesting the best of skills, styles, and experience to meet specific, unique needs.In July, the Global MBA students will take off around the world for their International Immersion Projects. Each team consists of students of different nationalities, with different linguistic capabilities, with different professional expertise and different academic strengths. They would be working in for a Lifestyle brand in China, agri-business in Bolivia, energy and bottom-of-the-pyramid issues in India, eco-tourism in Morocco, small and medium size sector development in Djibouti and wine industry in S.Africa. To tackle these diverse projects in challenging external environment requires diversified skill set. The teams will work in environments ranging from -20 degree C to +50 degree C! It also means that the teams are uniquely equipped to respond to the shifts and demands of their different projects in different locations through practiced collaboration and constructive conflict. The successful companies of the future will harness resources like these and use them to become leaders in a VUCA-fueled world.

The Beguines: The Brave, Religious Women of the Middle Ages

Women were expected to be two things in the Middles Ages, they either live under the charge of a husband in the household or dedicated herself to the Church in a convent as a nun. However, something unfamiliar happened in the late 12th century in parts of Europe, especially the Lowlands, Germany and Italy.Women who were called â€Å"beguines† gained prominence as they questioned those stereotyped concepts of being women and lived outside of those boundaries. During the Middle Ages, women who entered Beguinages (Beguine houses or convents) were not bound by permanent vows, in contrast to women who entered convents.It would seem that these women responded spontaneously to the work of the Holy Spirit to live a simple communal life of prayer, to care for the poor, the sick, lepers and orphaned, to teach, make lace, garden and anything else which enables them to be economically free in their respective communities. They also read and taught the Scriptures in the vernacular. The beg uines had a very special devotion to the Eucharist and to the Passion of Christ. The beguines were ordinary women who were in a certain world, but not really part of it.They are pious women whose devotional ardor often surpassed that of cloistered nuns. Like them, they dedicated their lives to God in a disciplined lifestyle, but unlike them they did not professed religious vows. In sum, it was the lifestyle of the early beguines, a lifestyle founded on intense spirituality, which differentiated them on the one hand from other laywomen and on the other from nuns. Women could enter beguinages having already been married and they could leave the beguinages to marry. Some women even entered the beguinages with children.Various debates exist with regards to their origins, but around 1150, groups of women, eventually called beguines, began living together for the purposes of economic self-sufficiency and a religious vocation. The attitudes of the clerics towards blossoming beguine movemen t were ambivalent at first. They deemed that these were groups of religious women who were dedicated to chastity and charity, which could not be condemned in any way. The fact that they existed and existed without men, except for priests and confessors to lead them, was suspect to the ecclesiastical hierarchy.For this and many other reasons, many beguines came to be known as heretics and were brutally persecuted. Though they were never an approved religious order, at one point they were granted special privileges and exemptions customary for approved orders. The Church, however, did not approve of their lack permanent vows. Women were not supposed to have that much freedom. What is particularly interesting about the Beguines was that, unlike most of those considered heretics, most of them considered themselves orthodox, but still beguines.Some strongly identified themselves as such and while in court testified to that effect, demonstrating self-identification with the group. Yet, th e group was diverse and is hard to define. This diversity was due in part to the geographical distribution as well as to the individual autonomy of each community. However, the beguines’ great devotion to the Eucharist emphasized the real presence of the incarnated Lord. At the height of the beguine movement the Feast of Corpus Christi was decreed by Pope Urban IV in 1264, and there is no doubt that the Eucharistic piety of the beguines attributed to the keeping of this feast.Indeed, the beguines wanted to imitate their Lord and to live as the Spirit inspired them. The first beguines were not subject to a rule of life, neither did the beguine have to make a life-time commitment. She was free to leave or to marry. Such a way of life was very attractive to the devout woman, and it is not surprising that their numbers grew swiftly. It was a welcome alternative to the cloister or marriage, although for women to live without the protection of the convent or a husband was quite rev olutionary in the early medieval period.Undoubtedly, the beguines had become an important fragment not only in the history of women’s movement, but also the development of the Catholic faith. Origins of the Beguines Two important movements in the 12th century had their impact on those who became known as beguines. The Cistercian monk, Bernard of Clairvaux (1090- 1153), especially from his writings on The Song of Songs emphasized the importance of a personal relationship between the soul and the Lord. He allegorized this relationship as being similar to that of the bride and the heavenly Bridegroom.This union between the beloved and the lover was a foundation upon which the feminist mystics, including beguines, developed an intimate spirituality with their Lord. Of course the receiving of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament was the outward act of this union. Closely associated with this nuptial image of Bernard was the â€Å"reasonable mystic† and â€Å"learned lover† of his friend, William of St. Thierry (1085-1148), who happened to live in Liege, the birthplace of the beguine movement.He appealed to the soul to know God in perfect love, which also appealed to these mystics (McNichols, 2002). Another factor contributing to the birth of the beguine movement was the vita apostolica, which St. Francis of Assisi had preached by returning to the ideals that our Lord had preached to His disciples: poverty, simplicity and a burning desire to preach the Gospel. The acceptance of this Franciscan preaching and mendicant order in 1215, even though no new orders were supposed to be have founded, gave inspiration to like-minded souls (McNichols, 2002).In the early twelfth century a new order, Premonstratensains, was founded in Liege by Norbert of Xanten who allowed religious women to be â€Å"attached† and to do charity work in the world. However his successor reversed this role and all nuns were expelled from the order by the end of the century. In a way, these sisters were the forerunners of the beguines (McNichols, 2002). In addition, when the church structures were becoming increasingly inaccessible to women in the 13th century; where convents were overcrowded and entrance dowries were expensive; women's orders were scarce and subject to male oversight.At this time in Liege and Antwerp, on the peripheries of urban centers, self-supporting communities of women began to appear. They lived by the work of their hands, often caring for the poor, the sick and the dying, and carried on regular devotional practices. They sought â€Å"an unstructured, nonhierarchical spiritual life that was both active (in the sense of ministering to the needs of others) and contemplative (in the sense that meditation and visionary experience were highly valued and developed)† (Petroff 1994, p. 51-52). This was the seed of what would become the beguinages.More elaborately, Walter Simons explained in the preface to Cities of Ladies Beguine Co mmunities in the Medieval Low Countries, 1200-1565 (2001) that the most widely held scholarly opinions about the origins of the beguines both have their source in medieval materials. James of Vitry's second Sermon to Virgins, written sometime between 1229 and 1240, provides Joseph Greven with his argument that the beguines were â€Å"nuns manquees, women who became beguines because they could not be nuns† (p. x). Similarly a statement on the origins of the beguines made by a clerical committee who visited the beguinage of St.Elizabeth of Ghent in 1328 became the basis for Karl Bucher's argument that the beguine movement was the result of a â€Å"surplus of women† in the urban areas of the Southern Low Countries and other parts of northern Europe. As Simons summarized that the two materials of James of Vitry and the bishop's men at Ghent agreed on several points: they argued that large numbers of young women of the best families, in their desire to live chastely, attemp ted to join a nunnery, but that many of them could not find a convent that would accept them: there were simply too many candidates.The Ghent report added that women could not afford the entrance gift, the dos, required in most monasteries – an obstacle to their entry that James tactfully omitted. It further differed from James in its assessment of the primary motive that drove women to the convent: it was the inability to conclude a suitable marriage that prompted these women to the monastic life; when the latter proved impossible, they joined the beguinage (p. xi).Seen from the perspective of the committee at Ghent, particularly as reread by Bucher and others, the beguines were driven primarily by economic and social forces and beguinages were â€Å"thus just female versions of guild organizations† (p. xi). Grundmann, as Simon noted, was the first to write about a â€Å"religious movement by women† (â€Å"religisen Frauenbewegung†) and to understand the specifically religious motivations behind the beguine life style, particularly their emphasis on poverty and labor in the pursuit of the apostolic life.Grundmann goes on, however, to describe in detail the complex negotiations between the papal curia, the mendicant orders, and the women's religious communities whereby the mendicants were eventually persuaded-sometimes pressured-into taking over the â€Å"care of souls† and often institutional responsibility for women's houses (Grundmann's most detailed examples of this process involve communities that became Dominican convents).Implicit within the narrative of Religious Movements in the Middle Ages, then, lies the argument that orderly communities of beguines desired and ultimately succeeded in becoming more traditional convents, most often within the mendicant orders. Beguines were forced to give up ideals of individual poverty and self-support and to possess sufficient corporately owned property to maintain a community of enclosed nuns.Hence ecclesial concerns for women's chastity and religious propriety required that women's religious ideals be transformed. As Grundmann argues, the result is the spiritualization of poverty within the writings of the thirteenth-century beguines and their heirs among both male and female Dominican authors. Without directly contesting Grundmann's arguments, which for the most part pertain to Germany, Simons presents a significantly new picture of the development of beguine communities in the Southern Low Countries.Simons divides the history of the movement into two periods: the first, from 1190-1230, saw the emergence of laywomen living alone or together in â€Å"loose communities without institutional attachments† (p. 36). The primary sources pertaining to this period are eleven hagiographies devoted to individual holy women involved with the movement from 1190-1250. Often written shortly after their death and in each case by male clerics or monks interested in promoting cults around the holy women, none of these women were ever canonized nor did they all maintain the beguine lifestyle.In fact, as Simons points out, hagiographers from the period and region seemed particularly interested in women who moved from the beguinal milieu into more traditional forms of monastic life (p. 92). Groups of women outside convents, like the beguines, had to steer a narrow course in order to avoid â€Å"the shoals of anticlericalism and heresy that always threatened the spiritual creativity of women† (McNamara 1990, p. 237). The success and spread of the beguine movement would suggest it did answer a need felt among women for an independent expression of their own religious creativity.It is also important to note that beguines fall under the more general designation of mulieres religiosae (religious women), an umbrella term which included nuns, recluses, and virgins living at home or in small groups. The appearance of the mulieres religiosae, who f lourished in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, was a major religious development, possibly connected with factors like the Crusades, priestly celibacy and harsh physical labor, which resulted in women outnumbering men in Western Europe.Religious motives, however, were perhaps even more important than socio-economic ones (DeGanck 1991, p. 2-3). Development of the Beguine Movement Scholars trace the development of the beguine movement through several stages, beginning with individual women (beguinae singulariter in saeculo manentes) living in towns but observing the evangelical principles as well as they could. These individuals eventually came together in the beguinages (congregationes beguinarum disciplinatarum) that are the main focus of this chapter.Later, some of the communities took the form of cloistered communities (beguinae clausae); finally, some communities were reconstituted as autonomous parishes (Little 1978, p. 130). Around 1230, these loose communities of widows, v irgins, and chaste wives began to acquire property, to draw up regulations governing the life of the group, and to present â€Å"themselves to the outside world as religious institutions, either in the form of small ‘convents,' or as larger architectural complexes segregated in some manner from the surrounding urban community, the so-called court beguinages† (Simons 2001, p.36). Simons therefore convincingly demonstrates that up to and through the Catholic Reformation the beguine movement in the Southern Low Countries remains a lay urban movement characterized by the preponderance of women from a range of social classes who participated within it (p. 91-117). In addition, Simons provides invaluable information about the beguines' work in the textile industry (p. 85-87), with the sick and dying (76-80), and-perhaps most importantly for the study of spirituality-in teaching (p.80-85). Grundmann's early argument for the centrality of the beguines' lay status to the develop ment of vernacular religious literature here finds crucial support. Not only did the beguines themselves read and write in the vernacular, but they were also engaged in the education of girls and women who then in turn constituted an audience for vernacular religious writing. The development of the beguinages demonstrated an outgrowth of the lay religious awakening of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.It also reflected the social background of the era. Although much more positive than simply a stand against clerical mediocrity and Western feudalism, the growth of the beguinages did, nevertheless, provide alternatives to both. The beguinages represented a new way of giving religious significance to women's ordinary lives (Bynum 1987, p. 17). It was characteristic of the beguinage to combine the vita contemplativa and appropriate devotional exercises with the practical solution of daily problems.The beguines customarily engaged in weaving, spinning, carding, charitable activity, se wing, and the education of children. So religious impetus and economic factors were intertwined in a beguine's life (McDonnell 1954, p. 146). Theologically, medieval women were faced with contradictory doctrines which placed them either on a pedestal or in a bottomless pit: the virgin or the temptress. In the Christian view of sacred history, the greatest source of blessing for humanity after Christ was his mother, Mary; the greatest source of grief was also a woman Eve, the mother of us all.Clearly, Christian tradition saw women as both the greatest and the weakest (Power 1962, p. 401-403). Thus, the beguines were bound to change these by shaping their own religious experience in lay communities, where female charisms served as alternative to the male emphasis on the power of office, the beguines paralleled other women who were emerging from the feudal system and becoming economically independent through small crafts, shops, and businesses in new towns (Bynum 1987, p. 22).Also, it has been suggested that the strength of the beguines lay in their unique combination of traditional spirituality with their freedom from the restrictions of the cloister, a combination which allowed them to experiment and break new ground. Beguines adopted a chaste way of life and dressed simply, but they were not separated from the world, nor were they bound to any ecclesiastical authority. To wit, The beguine movement differed substantially from all earlier important movements within the western church.

The Application of Relevant Study Framework Research Paper

The Application of Relevant Study Framework - Research Paper Example In view of illnesses reflected theory of biological concern, terminologies aiding this are fully reimbursed by developing notable health models. The changing trend explored by passiveness in health development encompasses knowledge changes, especially in reversing various trends reflecting psychological health. The technique itself encompasses relevant understanding of individual wellbeing and evidently it also involves aiding growth, development and various treatment processes. In virtue of changing ill health challenges, possible inclusion of beliefs and various strategies offer notable compliance understanding of various mainstream features. According to different researchers medical recommendations are implemented by noting the existing perceptions and what future health trends would encompass. The definition of responsibility illustrate that medical changes are applied fully in order to accomplish the required medical requirements. For example, there is an observable definition of various health models that have helped to maintain express health-related levels. This, hence, has implied that healthiness is achieved by uncovering various illnesses and hence defining the core mainstream compositions. Hence by understanding what health entails at various points, the mindset is developed and recreated in order to help create stages relative to defining the core concepts aiding health perceptions. 1.1 The Study Objectives The psychological approach provides a comprehensive feedback required in the following mainstream objectives. i. Understanding, developing and implementing notable health theories relevant to etiology of illness. ii. Carrying out practical experience in attaining the psychological health and also understanding relevant behavioral characteristics of illness. Gili et al. (2011) explain that the role of psychological health process is to provide notable steps required to achieve better health standards. For example, the analytical framework of psy chological health pursues the following goals: The analytical procedure in psychology reflects what levels of health require absolute referencing in the following key areas: i. Projects that cover the aspects of health and their relevance. ii. The core health features including beliefs, behaviors and illnesses. iii. The experiences encountered at various cycles including terminologies and various inclusions aiding both behavioral changes and professional attainment of illness controls. iv. Psychological role in helping patients to recover. The study factor provides relevant steps required to complete possible behavior management. 1.2 Health Beliefs and Behaviors Various health considerations