Impact of Organizational Culture in Decision Making Essay

In any organization, decision making has traditionally been put in the hands of the management or superiors. An organization’s hierarchy emerges when an organization experiences problems in coordinating and motivating employees. As an organization grows, employees increase in number and begin to specialize, performing widely different kinds of tasks; the level of differentiation increases; and coordinating employees’ activities becomes more difficult (Jones, 2004). As globalization and information technology has changed every sector of the world, business organizations have attuned to demand their leaders to make decisions quickly, without needless ado, and move on to other pressing matters. This creates the temptation to make the decision unilaterally, for the sake of speed and efficiency, and be done with it. On the other hand, it is becoming increasingly clear that healthy organizations characteristically find strength in opening up participation in decision making and empowering relevant people at all levels of the organization to contribute to the quality of the decisions made. There are two reasons for making decision making in organizations more dynamic. First, empowering people to participate in important decisions is highly motivating to them and second, broad participation infuses the decision making process with the full spectrum of knowledge and good ideas that people throughout the organization have to contribute. On the other hand, the concept of organizational culture is at the core of understanding organizational behavior such as decision making. Organizational culture involves the norms that develop in a work group, the dominant values advocated by the organization, the philosophy that guides the organization’s policies concerning employees and client groups, and the feeling that is evident in the ways in which people interact with one another. Thus, it clearly deals with basic assumptions and beliefs that are shared by members of the organization. Taken together, these define the organization itself in crucial ways: why it exists, how it has survived, what it is about. As an organization’s culture influences decisions made by its members it also influences its members’ acceptance or rejection of decisions made by its leaders. So when an organization changes its strategy, the primary interest involves assessment of the compatibility of a decision option with the organization’s culture–where an option is defined as a possible course of action in the case of a member who is making a decision, or a proposed course of action in the case of a decision that has been made by leaders (Beach, 1996, p. 118). For example, CEOs in different industries vary considerably from one another in terms of their background characteristics and experience, an observation that has intrigued the business and academic press. For example, a widely scrutinized and publicized CEO selection decision was Apple Computer’s decision in 1985 to replace founder Steven Jobs with John Sculley, an industry outsider with virtually no experience in the technology-driven personal computer industry. The arguments in this controversial decision centered around the relative suitability of these individuals given the changing nature of the personal computer industry. As a result of changing industry conditions in which marketing and advertising were viewed as increasingly important strategic levers, Sculley’s marketing background and experience at Pepsi’s beverage operations were expected to make him a better â€Å"fit† as CEO than the technologically oriented Steve Jobs (Datta, Guthrie & Rajagopalan, 2002). In this regard, the impact of organization culture in decision making is seen to be very vital. Organizational culture is a powerful environment that reflects past experiences, summarizes them, and distills them into simplifications that help to explain the enormously complex world of the organization. Efforts to reduce this complexity through simplification processes such as imposing decision-making models on it are not likely to be very workable. In this view, therefore, the culture of the organization represents significant thinking prior to action and is implicit in the decision making behavior of the organization’s leaders. So when two organizations merge, there will be an impact in it uniting the culture as to who will make the decision and the issue of empowerment and participation. Empowerment and participation would be viewed by some leaders as losing power by giving it away to others. However, modern empowering leaders understand that one gains power by sharing it with others because in collaborative effort the power available to the group multiplies. To make this effective, this effort should be accompanied by the support of ongoing technical training and consultation to help all participants to master the group process skills that are essential to making empowerment succeed. They must also be accompanied by the development of concrete and publicly known processes through which one participates in the collaborative process.

Archetypes essay

In The Three Little Pigs archetypes are mainly present through the wolf and each of the little pigs. The main conflict that the pigs face is that the wolf comes to their house asking the two pigs to come in each of their houses and they refuse, so the wolf huffs and puffs and blows their house down and eats them. The third pig being the smart one decides to play a game with the wolf. He refuses to let the wolf in and the wolf tries with all his might to blow the house down but it doesn't work. The wolf gets and idea and ties to get the pig out of the house and tells him to meet him at Mr..Smith home – field at six o'clock and that they will get dinner together. The pig outsmarts him and leaves at five o'clock and comes back by the time the wolf gets to his house. He keeps doing this and outsmarting the wolf, soon the wolf gets mad and declares that he will eat him up and that he would get down the chimney. The little pig decides to boil a pot full of water and the wolf falls i n to it and the pig boils him up and eats him. This shows that the cleverness of the third pig prevailed. In The Finnier Wolf the wolf is portrayed as strong and powerful character that thinks he will get what he wants.In the end the wolf gets defeated and the power and dominance is turned over to the protagonist. The hero in this story is as strong as the wolf physically but has a significant amount of knowledge and uses it to his benefit. The wolf thinks many of his actions are clever but in reality they aren't. The wolf declares himself super strong and decides he can pull and break the chain but he underrated the strength of the chain and was overpowered by that. In agenda of Colossal there is great conflict between the villain also know as the monster and the main character also known as Colossal. Sing his crafty kills and strength Colossal advanced toward the monster that everyone feared and sealed him. Many myths and legends end like this because the hero or main character is always portrayed as a good person and the villain is always someone who has a really dark side to them.

The Insurance Companies and the Crisis

In developed countries the size of the insurance market is about eight to twelve percent of the GDP. In the United States the assets managed by the insurance sector are higher than the assets of the banking sector. This is one of the most important pillar of the economy and financial system. At the macroeconomic point of view, level of insurance increases the financial stability of the economy, reduce uncertainty by enabling effective risk management, and support economic activity and stimulate savings and investment.Insurance sector will also increase the efficiency of the entire financial sector by reducing transaction costs, creating liquidity and economies of scale. A modern, well-functioning insurance sector is essential for achieving sustainable economic growth. With the advent of the global financial crisis, the economy is experiencing a very hard time. The insurance industry as well did not avoid the problems. Lack of access to deposited funds in the banks, insurance premium reduction or increase in number of claims, forced the insurance companies to a very difficult challenge – how to carry out current activities and pay due compensation?Many insurers began to lose its liquidity. Insurance industry as one of the few propped the financial crisis at the beginning. Insurers constantly were expanding their offer – not only just for individuals but also for business companies, and were continuing decreasing the prices for life insurance. However, it does not apply to all types of the services provided by insurance companies to entrepreneurs. Finally end of 2007 and 2008 have been rich in events associated with insurance sector.Fall in the stock market, the limitations and difficulties in accessing foreign funding, weakening the financial situation of enterprises caused rapid deterioration of the global economy and have had an impact on the financial performance of the insurance sector. Any disturbances in the banking sector directly affected t he financial results of the insurers. Insurance companies seek to ensure that activities are safe, profitable, and enable timely payment of obligations.Insurers do not give up the cash investments into shares quoted on a regulated market, which can provide significantly higher returns than investments into safe securities. On the background of European insurers’ investment exposure in 2007 and 2008 can be generalized that the most important source of losses for the insurers have proved their investments in debt securities CDOs SPV securitization companies, which face insolvency. These companies has completely lost its value and the guarantee of the solvency. After the collapse of SPV companies, liabilities took over the insurance sector.The situation of the insurance sector in 2008 were gradually deteriorating as well as the solvency ratios of individual insurance company. As an example of big problems on insurance market during crisis I would like to use IG case. The rapid f all in the share price and unsatisfactory liquidity led to lower ratings of AIG by the four major rating agencies including Standard & Poor's and Moody's Investors Service. Standard & Poor's lowered scores for two levels because of less flexibility in raising funds for additional collateral for the loans, and concerns about the growing losses.Similarly, preserved Moody agency, which downgraded AIG for 2 degrees as well. It is clear that the company has liquidity problems. In the first three quarters of 2008, AIG Group lost 18. 5 billion of dollars. Poor results and poor ratings of AIG could cause problems to raise the capital needed to rescue the company. The company asked Central Bank for help. Finally, the government and the Fed did not committed to the downfall of a company in which millions of Americans are insured and agreed to give to AIG financial assistance.The transaction for a two-year revolving credit for 85 billion dollars to ensure the liquidity of the AIG compa ny in exchange for a nearly 80 percent. shares has been approved in September 2008. In case of problems with the implementation of the obligations of the insurer, a domino effect could embrace the whole world, AIG bankruptcy would affect banks and investment funds, which are the main holders of debt securities. In addition, AIG was a major seller of credit default swaps. Bankruptcy of the AIG could force financial institutions in the USA, Europe and Asia (that bought these swaps) to accounting losses.Fed’s decision made was based on the law given to it by the passed bill about the Federal Reserve. It allows the central bank to lend money to companies outside the banking sector under unusual and urgent circumstances. In the agreement, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson forced resignation of current AIG President Robert Willumstada, which was replaced by Edward Libby. In case of Poland, Insurance market were rapidly growing for few years before the crisis. The history of life ins urance in Poland cover a period of about 130 years.The development of life insurance in the first place was associated with an increase in wealth of the society. With the increase in GDP, which is a key determinant of economic status of the country, increased the expenditure on life insurance. In Polish conditions the development of insurance occurred in the nineteenth century. The first Polish insurance company was established in the Austrian partition and it was a Krakow Mutual Insurance Society founded in 1868 in Krakow ( as the name suggests), which a year later began conducting life insurance business.It functioned on principles similar to today's mutual insurance companies. In Poland we could observe the dynamic growth on the insurance market during last years, both in terms of the companies range of products offered and collected contributions. Privatization, further market openings, the adjustment process of the integration with the European Union, and above all the impact o f the launched in 1999 pension reform, the insurance sector are making one of the most promising sectors of the Polish economy.During recent crisis in Poland for example, were noted some main decision-making direction changes in investment policy insurance: * Repeat â€Å"opening up† of Life Insurance Companies to invest funds in real estate. * Abandonment invest their assets in investment certificates other than in the open and closed funds * Disposal of all bonds of the institutions belonging to countries outside the European Union (For Life Insurance Companies). In the current crisis in financial markets, insurance sales, as well as other products and services, has become much more difficult than before.Customers are afraid to invest in financial products and very carefully take the decision of purchasing. There is growing consensus that this crisis will survive only the best sellers. The best sellers are those who see long-term benefits of building and maintaining lasting relationships between insurer and customer. Such a relationship should be based primarily on mutual trust and benefit for both parties. It is crucial to continuously monitor changes in customer needs and proposing solutions to it, which will bring real benefits to it.The today’s internal problem of insurance companies is that insurance companies reward their brokers primarily for acquiring new customers. In life insurance commissions for the following years of the contract are much lower than thus for the first year. This is obviously the most reasonable in today's market situation, but the other side is that such system makes that the agent is much more absorbed in gaining new customers and does not think about them in the category of long-term relationships. This carries a risk of decline in the quality of sales and customer satisfaction.Another issue is the differences in the rates of commission between the products. If the agent is concentrated primarily in the fact to s ell a particular product, which has a better profit, it is likely that the actual identification of customer needs in this area is not a priority for him. Usually it will try to persuade the customer to buy through the pressure and the use of different types of manipulation. But do not forget that the customer who bought life insurance, trust bestowed on both the agent and the company and the contracts are renewable every year. The customer is also a source of new contacts.The customer is more satisfied with the purchase and maintenance, including a greater number of friends to recommend an agent and company. An interesting issue in my opinion is that in Poland close to thirteen thousand of entrepreneurs in the 2008 has opted to temporarily withdraw from the movement of the vehicle. * ‘For many of us is the only chance of surviving the crisis’ – explains Jan Kazulski, Wroclaw Transport Association The government not only allowed to the use of temporary de-registr ation of the car on a larger scale, but released from the obligation to pay by this time a full OC.This is the way how they are trying to deal with the crisis. At the adopted amendments will lose more probably insurance companies. Government explains that option of a refund of contributions for the period in which the vehicle is temporarily withdrawn from service, is already operating in several countries in Europe. The insurance sector in the economy plays a very important role, apart from this obvious, that is protective, contributes to the accumulation of capital in the economy. Accumulation of capital in most concerns life insurance.In case of Poland, despite the current financial crisis, the insurance market in Poland will grow. The pace of growth will be slower than in the past years, and customer requirements in terms of quality sales and after-sales services will increase considerably. Summing up, the financial crisis had a significant impact on insurers. For example the ins urance on Polish market has declined for about 22. 33 percent. Its value has declined by almost 9 billion zlotys – from 39 billion zlotys in 2008 to slightly over 30 billion zlotys at the end of 2009.The record level of disbursements included both property insurance and life insurance policies.Bibliography: * Gazeta Ubezpieczeniowa (Articles from Jan and Feb 2009) * Gazeta Wyborcza ‘Rekordowa strata AIG’, ToP, AFP, 2009-03-02 * http://www. quotes-r-us. org/home-insurance/current-financial-crisis-and-insurance-companies * http://articles. latimes. com/2009/mar/30/nation/na-aig30 * Yahoo! Finance, as of October 23, 2008. * Robert P. Hartwig, Ph. D. , Insurance Information Institute, â€Å"2008—First Half Results,† September 30, 2008.

Market Audit and Competitive Market Analysis Assignment

Market Audit and Competitive Market Analysis - Assignment Example The relative advantages for these products are that they have a wider usage coverage including schools, offices, hospitals, media houses, factories and of course homes. 2. Comparability Comparability is the capability of existing or performing in harmonious or congenial combination in terms of international marketing, it can be explained to means a situation where different companies employ similar or related business standard such as accounting, measure concepts and measures of closure. As a new force entering Japan and Tokyo for that matter, kikk.k would have comparability with existing companies who ply their trade in similar products such as stationery and plastics. As a new force, it will be important for kikk.k not to deviate from existing business norms as deviating is likely to cause hostility to existing customers who ma not be up to speed with their new norms. 3. Complexity In marketing and in business venturing, complexity can be explained with relation to customer’ s willingness to adapt to the policies and marketing strategies of new companies at the expense of existing ones. To this effect, the degree of difficulty which a purchaser of a new product has in understanding the product, a major determinant of the rate of new product adoption. Japan is market destiny where consumers have fairly great understanding of stationery and plastic products due to the high level and preference for education. Kikk.k would therefore have this to their advantage but would still have to do more to convince consumers of why switching to their kind of products against existing ones is the best decision. 4. Trialability In international marketing, a common strategy adopted by most old companies entering new territories is to make potential consumers try products for free. This has always been necessary because of the need to convince consumers of the need to choose new products to existing ones. Companies and consumers in Japan believe in this principle and so k ikki.k should be ready to bare the risk and cost of going into trial programs for potential consumers. 5. Observability Kikk.k will have to conduct intensive market observation in two major areas. These are consumer behavior observation and business trend observation. In Japanese markets, the use of observation as research methods has proved workable for companies and has yielded results making business and marketing plans. This duty of observation can at the initial stages be done by the middlemen who will be working for the company. This will reduce cost. A. Major problems and resistances to product acceptance based on the preceding evaluation Product acceptance for stationery and plastic products in Japan will not be difficult due to reasons as the use of such products and the need for them that is already in Japan. The difficulty will however lie in kikki.k convincing consumers to choose their new range of China Made products especially as China is a major competitor with Japan as far as plastic manufacturing is concerned. Moreover, Japanese are people who love to keep the tradition of using products made in their country. Despite these, when a very good research (observation) is undertaken, it will be possible to determine the purchasing trend of consumers so that a workable marketing plan will be designed to cover even conservative consumers. II. Sources of information Marketing Teacher,

Organizational change part 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Organizational change part 2 - Essay Example The change strategy should also consider future growth and development of the organization. A change strategy for organizations includes various elements that have to be carefully analyzed before the change process is implemented. These elements include situational awareness, the structures supporting the change, and strategy analysis (Weiner et al, 2009). Situational awareness involves understanding the implications of change on the organizations, knowing who will be affected by the impending change and gathering as much resources and knowledge about the change to be implemented. Supporting structures for organizational change include the team facilitating the change process and the sponsors of the change process. Strategy analysis involves identification of the risks involved in the change process, any resistance to the change and tactics for implementing the strategy. A good organizational change strategy must focus on all these three elements (Weiner et al, 2009). Internal change s in an organization encounter resistance from certain employees or senior managers who may not be so open to change. This may destabilize the whole change process if not managed properly. The team charged with the responsibility of managing the change need to stay vigilant throughout the whole process for any signs of disapproval for the change and address them as soon as they are discovered (Weiner et al, 2009). The change implementation team ought to be very responsive and responsible throughout the change process. This will enable them to intercede and deal with any threat to the change process before it paralyzes the whole process. In order to deal with resistance effectively, a change strategy needs to address several issues such as commitment, responsibility, advocacy, acknowledgement, flexibility and must have a clear outline. A clear outline in the change strategy addresses change policies and guidelines and the structure of the impending change. These have to be communicat ed to every employee in advance before the change is implemented (Weiner et al, 2009). Everyone affected by the change has to be committed to the process and they should be given time to speak out their opinions about the intended change so as to foster advocacy for the change. Every ones role in the change process also needs to be clarified in the change strategy so as to ensure every individual in the change team is responsible for their actions. Every successful step of the change process needs to be appreciated and acknowledged just to let everybody know that the organization is moving in the right direction with the change. The organization’s leaders need to use a more flexible approach in the change process so as to ensure any unforeseen contingencies are dealt with appropriately during the process. Methods that will be used to monitor implementation of the proposed change The change initiative to be implemented involves about of organizational restructuring hence need to be approached with care. This will require a new organizational structure, improvement and changes in the organizational culture and behavior. The process of hiring new nurses wiling the new nurses will require significant contribution from every staff member in the organization. The top management will be required to approve and implement the change while the other

Project Management Theory & Practice Assignment

Project Management Theory & Practice - Assignment Example Therefore, in order to come up with successful, reliable and efficient projects, project managers are required to have a keen interest in managing quality of a project and shall also consider factors influencing quality of a project (Chen, 2010; Levy, 2011). This paper includes a discussion of how various factors influence the quality management process in a project management scenario and what different alternatives for managing quality and recommendations on how further improvements in quality of a project can be attained. Quality Control / Management – Definition Quality control or management can be defined as a process aimed at ensuring that a project which involves manufacturing a product or rendering of a service is able to a predefined and acceptable level of quality. The process of controlling or managing quality includes initiatives and steps taken by the responsible persons to verify and test whether the project is adhering to a certain predefined sets of quality ass urance standards (Levy, 2011; Lester, 2007). The Project Management Process The process of project management is a purely managerial activity which involves planning and managing activities related to a project. The traditional layout of a project management process comprises of various processes. These processes include the following: Initiation of Project Planning and Developing a Project Executing the Project Monitoring and Controlling the Project Closing Down the Project (Levy, 2011). Before going into the details of managing quality in projects, it is pertinent to mention here that the implementation and carrying out of a project involves two basic processes, which include technical process and management process (Levy, 2011). The technical process refers to a process which relates to the development of product. The technical process determines sub processes or activities for development of a product. The process outlines the cycle which is to be followed while carrying out a p roject and also identifies the activities involved in different phases of a project (Levy, 2011). On the other hand, management process refers to a process which relates to the whole project. This process determines the processes and ways in which all the activities involved in carrying out a project are planned, managed and controlled, such that each and every aspect of a project is considered and responsibilities and duties are allocated to relevant personnel and departments. The management process also takes into consideration the timely completion of a project and carrying out of all activities within the allocated budget (Levy, 2011). The interaction of technical process and management process is diagrammatically shown as follows: Source: (StaffTechs, 2013) As can be observed in the diagram presented above, the quality management process lies in the middle of technical process and management process and is regarded as a supporting process. This means that quality control and ma nagement actually bridges the technical and management processes and is interlinked with both of them. Quality Management Standards In order to satisfy the intended users or stakeholders of a project, it is important that the project meets their expectations and is able to provide them what it is

Considering the international law and practice on treaties, answer the Essay

Considering the international law and practice on treaties, answer the following question - Essay Example According to International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, migrant workers and their family members are free to depart any nation including their home nation. The aforesaid right is not subject to any restrictions otherwise in certain instances such as in the case of national security, public health and other justifiable grounds. The article 9 of the convention also affirms the right of migrant workers and their families to be protected by law and further the article 10 of the convention makes it apparent that no migrants and their families shall be subject to torture or treated inhumanly or cruelly. In addition to this, the article 11 of the convention also advocates that no migrants or their family members can be held on slavery. Moreover, the article 11 of the convention also puts restriction on performing forced and compulsory works by migrants and their family members (United Nations, 2008). Furthermore, the convention firmly states that family members of the migrant shall be treated with humanity and dignity (International Organisation for Migration, 2008). However, abiding by the obligation of article 11 of the convention, Acastus does not make it compulsory for migrant workers to work for 1000 hours for community services. In this context, it can be viewed that Acastus does not directly compel migrant workers to work 1000 hours but non-compliance shall result in non-renewal of leaves which shall ultimately force them to work 1000 hours for community service or leave Acastus. Thus, Acastus has adopted a policy that would not violate the obligations of the convention while on the other side it would make migrant workers to work for 1000 hours without violating obligations of the convention. As a consequences of the anti-immigration law enforced by Acastus, its neighbouring country Radius also adopted similar statute relating

Examine the nature of the distinctive managerial,organisational and Essay

Examine the nature of the distinctive managerial,organisational and developmental characteristics of small business visavis large companies.What are the impli - Essay Example Small businesses have distinct features in terms of management organization and development structures. According to Wood (1981), Business objectives are negotiated outcome of the inter play of power and influence between owners of property (capital) and those who do not own properties in the industrial field. (Monsted, 2005) In management, small scale businesses are usually owner-managed while in large scale businesses management has a formal structures with well articulated portfolios that are occupied by professionalism their field of business. Management has been charged with the responsibility of formalizing a coherent long-term industrial relations strategy. Successful small-scale firms engage in strategic management either knowingly and with a set vision or even unknowingly without any set vision. Success is related to sound management while failure shows management is somehow wanting. In the management of small firms owner-managers pursue personal goals which are geared by personal visions; this to some extent hinders achievement of success in the business relative to their large counterparts. This is different from the management in large firms because managers are directly answerable to the stakeholders. (Burns, 2007) In small firms' owner-managers, being the principal stakeholder, in most cases play a multiplicity of roles in management, thus the probability of poor decision-making is higher compared to large firms resulting to inappropriate actions due to lack of efficient management attention to issues that are strategic. (Nooteboom, 1994) Analysis of labor management in small firms commanded little attention during the 80's. Human resource management is a new type of management that is widely used in large companies to quite a great success and has since been introduced in the small firms as well. Previously, it was argued that industrial relations and personnel management in small firms was inexistent thus leading to exploitation of employees. Whereas as large companies dictate supplier relationship, the owners of small businesses are denied options regarding the way they manage labor as considering cost constraints and meeting targets for quality takes away the liberty of independent decision making. Research conducted in the personal field tends to focus on the large firms employing more that 100 employees on a full time basis at the expense of small firms. Small firms put more emphasis on the fields of accounting over personnel management (Nooteboom, 1994). The characteristics of personal ownership, independence and lack of marketing power are unique to the small businesses. These characteristics produce the constraints on management produce the constraints on management and financial resources that are an inevitable consequence of small scale, independence plays to the advantage of the small businesses is that decision making is fast and does not have to undergo all kind of bureaucratic stages as witnessed in large businesses. (Nooteboom, 1994) This saves time and if they make the right decision, they reap the whole of the returns. In small business, there is always room for innovation. This makes the small business to be able to come up with new products and services for the various markets. However, ideas developed in small-scale businesses are not likely to prosper because

Yojimbo supplies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Yojimbo supplies - Essay Example d their associated products; a list of sales staff, their supervisors and their current associated order values; and a list of customers and their current live orders. For purchasing, the Yojimbo Supplies Ltd (Miss Phillipa Howey, The Purchasing Head) wants to store all the details of suppliers and setting up purchase orders along with a list of all the live orders and their associated products; a list of all live orders and their associated suppliers; and a list of all food products with a stock level near to minimum stock level (re-order level.). Customers: The receiving end of the Yojimbo Supplies Ltd are public and trade outlets, general shops and individual and business customers. At presently they places and receives order manually on paper and after implementation of Information system, they will be able to place and track their order online. Actors: The actors are the staffs (sales & purchasing) of the Yojimbo Supplies Ltd, and all types of customers who place order. Implementation of Information system will make tracking of sales-orders/purchase-orders easier for both staffs and customers. Because of this staff can efficiently do their job and customers can easily place and track their orders. Transformations: Two types of process; sale-order processing and purchase-order processing are performed at presently. At presently, customer place order, which is processed by sales staff and delivered. In addition, purchasing department raise purchase order and send it to supplier for receiving of orders at stock. World View: At presently, the Yojimbo Supplies Ltd has no information system for sales-order processing and purchasing. In addition, there is no suitable existing off-the-self software available in market that will suit the need of the Yojimbo Supplies Ltd. This analysis will be able to propose a suitable Information system that can suit the need of the Yojimbo Supplies Ltd. Owner: There are two types of process; sales and purchasing, which are

Public and Government approach in mosquito control programs Essay

Public and Government approach in mosquito control programs - Essay Example It will discuss the effectiveness of the programs, their advantages and disadvantages with regard to how they are implemented. It will also outline the prevalence rates of mosquito born diseases in Queensland especially with reference to Ross River Virus and others. Finally, it will provide some recommendations on how the programs can be designed and who to include in implementation process making them more efficient in future. Mosquito control programs in Queensland have been developed in the past and are still being developed to eradicate mosquitoes in homesteads, houses, hospitals and other public places. The programs are drafted and implemented by the Queensland authorities together with health care providers, local councils and the public in general. The problem has however been the rate at which members of the public are accepting and adopting these programs. The communities do not appreciate these programs and they instead use their own knowledge on how they can control and manage mosquitoes in their homes. They have resorted to buying treated nets, repellents and other pesticides to keep mosquitoes off. The programs from the government although being taken in are a second fiddle especially considering the fact that people don’t take them seriously Surveillance of any disease is the first line of defence against the disease2. In the recent years, there have been many cases of ‘imported diseases’ to Queensland especially from Asia and Africa. This is a setback against the fighting against the spread of mosquito-borne diseases. Various groups are currently promoting the idea of disease surveillance in Queensland. A group based in the area by the name Tropical Population Health Networks Communicable Diseases Control Centre is working with communities and local government officials to make sure that all immigrants do not ‘infect’ the mosquitoes in Queensland

Leadership Essay Introduction Essay Example for Free

Leadership Essay Introduction Essay Perhaps none of you are lucky enough to be a leader and fight for animal rights or other beliefs, but every year colleges and universities require students to write a leadership essay. Its goal is to identify and evaluate your potential leadership qualities. One of the best ways to cope with the task is to list the characteristics that successful politicians or opinion leaders have. And then demonstrate their presence in your case by an example of specific life situations. This is the main difference between the leadership essays and similar ones. Instead of analyzing literary works or their authors, you need to focus on your own personality. The leader is not always associated with the commander or the strong-willed warlord. An effective guide could be strong and weak, learn and teach simultaneously. The leadership category offers a lot of qualities, the presence of which plays a great role in the life of each person. We are talking about empathy, dedication, sincerity, consistency, altruism, responsibility, self-development, influence, the ability to teach. The essential part of leadership paper outline consists of describing the bright moments of your life to substantiate the stated thesis. Examples should not be abstract and contain pathos reflections. It is better to resort to the specifics and show in which cases you showed courage, intelligence or organizational skills. It is the details that increase the confidence in the content of the text. The personal nature of the essay on leadership makes it possible to use anecdotes as arguments. Each new quality must begin with a new paragraph while keeping in touch with the previous text using transitional phrases. This will help make the essay easily readable to the audience. You also could use the information collected earlier from various sources. When writing a leadership essay, the following necessary components should be considered. First of all, to compose an idea of ​​the phenomenon of leadership, use online resources or biographical stories. They will not only clarify the concept but will also lead to good ideas. Do not confuse the leadership essays with the heroic epic. You need attention to yourself, but not to other people. At the same time, it is necessary to avoid fantasies and blatant lies. Remain as honest as possible to make your work realistic, and look like a fairy tale. To achieve this, shun qualities that are not inherent in you. The use of the method of brainstorming will help determine the required skills. Remember the situation where you were given a great responsibility, for instance, a project, a sports team or the main role in the play. In general, any experience of cooperation can be presented in the context of leadership. Once you have decided on the field of research, it is significant to develop an essay scheme. Thus, a successful completing of a leadership essay depends on the depth of understanding of this concept, your honesty and life experience. Also, remember that real effective leaders have a unique vision of things. Use this quality to present yourself in a favorable light.

Network Security Analysis Essay Example for Free

Network Security Analysis Essay This article is concerned about network security. It mentions about the present situation of network security and an analysis of the reason that lead to unsafe network environment. Then the article introduces two frequently used protocols in network security: HTTP (Hypertext Transport Protocol) and HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol over Secure Socket Layer), then compare them and give a brief conclusion. On the other side, the article introduces how firewall protects network security in hardware aspects. Keywords: Network; Security; Analysis; Countermeasures 1. Introduction As technology develops, network is getting more and more mature. It is known to all that security is the second step after that a successful network has been deployed. 1.1 Situation of Computer Network Security With the rapid development of the Internet and the widespread application, the number of computer viruses, Trojan horses is explosive growth. According to Jinshan drug gangsters cloud security center monitoring statistics show that in 2008, Jinshan drug gangsters were intercepted more and more new viruses, Trojans, which grew up 40% compared with 2007. The center statistics also show that 90% of the virus infected users, this attachment web pages that humans are enjoying the network information with the great wealth and convenient at the same time, also be the severe beset by problems of network information security. The lure of wealth that hackers attack is no longer a kind of personal interest, but more and more become an organized, interest driven career crime. Its main means has: online professor viruses, Trojan horses production technology and various network attack technology; Online exchange, trafficking and rental viruses, Trojan horses, zombie network; Online customized viruses, Trojan horses; Internet theft behavior (account Numbers game, bank accounts, QQ number, etc.), sell the trumpets; Internet fraud and extortion; Through the network business platform money laundering profit, etc. Attackers need technical level gradually decrease, means more flexible, joint attacks increase rapidly. Trojan viruses, Trojan virus writers, professional hack personnel, sales channels, professional players have been formed complete gray industrial chain. 1.2 Threats to Computer Network Security The threat to computer network security includes attacks by hackers and computer virus. It mostly presents in the following aspects. Firstly, send fake E-mails to users. It is a common way to cheat the account and password by posing as legitimate websites. Secondly, damage caused by viruses is also a common phenomenon. For e.g. when virus gets into computer, it will cover our hard disk with useless data. Thirdly, it’s about unauthorized accessing. This mainly refers to the normal use or oversteps their authority to use the network equipment and information resources. Fourthly, damage the integrity of the database. Fifthly, interfere with the normal running of the systems. Finally, communication lines are tapped and people are not familiar about safety of network security. The first situation doesn’t occur in common. However, awareness of maintain computer network security is really important. In the article, it mainly analyzes several common situations and introduces what the threat is and how it works. 1.3 Countermeasures of Network Security As network security has a lot of loopholes, people create a lot of methods to protect network. On the side of hardware, people begin to use firewall to protect network. On the side of software, a lot of tools and technologies have been used in this area, such as router filtering. The article introduces how firewall works and two similar protocols: HTTP and HTTPS. By comparing these two protocols, we will find the development of technology. 1.4 Importance of the Study of Network Security It’s important for securing ones computer, keeping important data and profile information protected. Careful web surfing habits may keep you from being a victim of virus attacks and malware, however this is an intensely risky activity and very often people may end up with an infected computer. Some good anti-virus programs will help to keep your computer protected and safe, but users must remember to keep this updated regularly for better protection over new viruses. 2. Related Work 2.1 Network Security Network security consists of the provisions and policies adopted by a network administrator to prevent and monitor unauthorized access, misuse, modification, or denial of a computer network and network-accessible resources. Network security involves the authorization of access to data in a network, which is controlled by the network administrator. Users choose or are assigned an ID and password or other authenticating information that allows them access to information and programs within their authority. Network security covers a variety of computer networks, both public and private, that are used in everyday jobs conducting transactions and communications among businesses, government agencies and individuals. Networks can be private, such as within a company, and others which might be open to public access. Network security is involved in organizations, enterprises, and other types of institutions. It does as its title explains: It secures the network, as well as protecting and over seeing operations being done. The most common and simple way of protecting a network resource is by assigning it a unique name and a corresponding password. 2.2 ISO/OSI model The International Standards Organization (ISO) Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) Reference Model defines seven layers of communications types, and the interfaces among them. (See Figure 1.) Each layer depends on the services provided by the layer below it, all the way down to the physical network hardware, such as the computers network interface card, and the wires that connect the cards together. People develop a lot of protocols to each layer. Such as PPTP/L2TP to linked layer, IPSEC to network layer, TLS/SSL to transfer layer. Each protocol includes security information that helps network transfer safer and safer. 2.3 IPV4 protocol The protocol contains a couple aspects which caused problems with its use. These problems do not all relate to security. They are mentioned to gain a comprehensive understanding of the internet protocol and its shortcomings. The causes of problems with the protocol are: 1. Address Space 2. Routing 3. Configuration 4. Security 5. Quality of Service The lack of embedded security within the IPv4 protocol has led to the many attacks seen today. Mechanisms to secure IPv4 do exist, but there are no requirements for their use. IPsec is a specific mechanism used to secure the protocol. IPsec secures the packet payloads by means of cryptography. IPsec provides the services of confidentiality, integrity, and authentication. This form of protection does not account for the skilled hacker who may be able to break the encryption method and obtain the key. 2.4 Types and Sources of Network Threats Denial-of-Service, unauthorized access, executing commands illicitly, confidentiality breaches and destructive behavior are common type of threats to network security. The sources of network threats include 3 aspects. Firstly, the invasion of bad information and pollution. Network is open, even borderless space information network of people in the rich cultural life, but also to the illegal dissemination of information or indecent information provided soil British Middlebury Seck Griffith University, Professor Di Mulai study found that in non-academic information on the Internet, 47% of pornography on These content without restriction for people feel free to browse, not only seriously jeopardize the health of young people, and poison the social atmosphere and hinder the building of a harmonious society in China. In addition, the networks openness and freedom are often some criminals use, or dissemination of endangering national security, to subvert the government, disrupting social order and security of information, or information network organizing rallies and other anti-social activities. Secondly, Internet hackers and computer crime. Hacker wanton rampage information networks, technology and the consequences of its invasion of escalating their use of technical means, or attacks on government sites or military organizations Web site and endanger national security interests, undermine government image; or steal business, financial institutions, business information to profit illegally, endangering the economic order; or steal personal confidential information, violation of privacy or stolen cash. These acts seriously impede the normal operation of information networks. In addition to outside hackers the use of the Internet, the rampant crime and tort. The use of computer information network system to implement theft, fraud or corruption, embezzlement and other crimes than the traditional criminal methods and tools more subtle complexity, and violation of trade secrets with the network, electronic communications freedoms, civil Privacy and damage the reputation of others and other events are also frequent. Online pyramid schemes, online fraud, etc. These crimes have been on the network posed a serious threat to network security. Thirdly, the existence of their own network security vulnerabilities and risks. Freedom to share and open spirit of the Internet, but also the charm of the Internet The Internet is based on TCP / IP protocol, network devices, operating systems with networking capabilities and openness about the existence inherent vulnerability In addition, the software in the design, it is inevitable there are some defects or flaws, which has become a prime target for hackers, while software programmers deliberately left the back door has become a major network security risks network These weaknesses of their own existence, to bring the work of anti-hacker considerable difficulty: on the one hand difficult for scientists to develop a common and effective network security for the protection of technical means on the other hand the lack of implementation of these measures sufficient to protect the social environment. 3. Methods 3.1 Analysis of Network Security System and network technology is a key technology for a wide variety of applications. Security is crucial to networks and applications. Although, network security is a critical requirement in emerging networks, there is a significant lack of security methods that can be easily implemented. There exists a â€Å"communication gap† between the developers of security technology and developers of networks. Network design is a well-developed process that is based on the Open Systems Interface (OSI) model. The OSI model has several advantages when designing networks. It offers modularity, flexibility, ease-of-use, and standardization of protocols. The protocols of different layers can be easily combined to create stacks which allow modular development. The implementation of individual layers can be changed later without making other adjustments, allowing flexibility in development. In contrast to network design, secure network design is not a well-developed process. There isn’t a methodology to manage the complexity of security requirements. Secure network design does not contain the same advantages as network design. When considering network security, it must be emphasized that the whole network is secure. Network security does not only concern the security in the computers at each end of the communication chain. When transmitting data the communication channel should not be vulnerable to attack. A possible hacker could target the communication channel, obtain the data, decrypt it and re-insert a false message. Securing the network is just as important as securing the computers and encrypting the message. When developing a secure network, the following need to be considered: 1. Access – authorized users are provided the means to communicate to and from a particular network. 2. Confidentiality – Information in the network remains private. 3. Authentication – Ensure the users of the network are who they say they are 4. Integrity – Ensure the message has not been modified in transit 5. Non-repudiation – Ensure the user does not refute that he used the network Here we mainly discuss fake websites. Fake websites means phishing. Phishing is attempting to acquire information (and sometimes, indirectly, money) such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT administrators are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting public. Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail spoofing or instant messaging, and it often directs users to enter details at a fake website whose look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one. Phishing is an example of social engineering techniques used to deceive users, and exploits the poor usability of current web security technologies. Attempts to deal with the growing number of reported phishing incidents include legislation, user training, public awareness, and technical security measures. Once a victim visits the phishing website, the deception is not over. Some phishing scams use JavaScript commands in order to alter the address bar. This is done either by placing a picture of a legitimate URL over the address bar, or by closing the original address bar and opening a new one with the legitimate URL. An attacker can even use flaws in a trusted websites own scripts against the victim. These types of attacks (known as cross-site scripting) are particularly problematic, because they direct the user to sign in at their bank or services own web page, where everything from the web address to the security certificates appears correct. In reality, the link to the website is crafted to carry out the attack, making it very difficult to spot without specialist knowledge. Just such a flaw was used in 2006 against PayPal. A Universal Man-in-the-middle (MITM) Phishing Kit, discovered in 2007, provides a simple-to-use interface that allows a phisher to convincingly reproduce websites and capture log-in details entered at the fake site. To avoid anti-phishing techniques that scan websites for phishing-related text, phishers have begun to use Flash-based websites. These look much like the real website, but hide the text in a multimedia object. 3.2 Firewall’s Protection A firewall can either be software-based or hardware-based and is used to help keep a network secure. Its primary objective is to control the incoming and outgoing network traffic by analyzing the data packets and determining whether it should be allowed through or not, based on a predetermined rule set. A networks firewall builds a brigade between an internal network that is assumed to be secure and trusted, and another network, usually an external (inter)network, such as the Internet, that is not assumed to be secure and trusted. In general, some functions that can be done by the firewall are: 1. Doing a packet filter firewall can make the decision whether to accept or reject the incoming data packets. 2. Hiding Network Address (NAT) IP addresses can be used on the internet is a public IP. So to create a client that uses private IP can be translated into public IP. These functions are performed by a firewall, known as NAT. 3. Monitoring and Logging to improve network security and logging on the terms monitoring by a firewall. 3.3 Protocols of Network Security Network security protocols are used to protect computer data and communication in transit. The primary tool used to protect information as it travels across a network is cryptography. Cryptography uses algorithms to encrypt data so that it is not readable by unauthorized users. Generally, cryptography works with a set of procedures or protocols that manage the exchange of data between devices and networks. Together, these cryptographic protocols enhance secure data transfer. Without cryptographic network security protocols, Internet functions such as e-commerce would not be possible. Secure communication is necessary because attackers try to eavesdrop on communications, modify messages in transit, and hijack exchanges between systems. Some of the tasks networks security protocols are commonly used to protect are file transfers, Web communication, and Virtual Private Networks (VPN). The most common method of transferring files is using File Transfer Protocol (FTP). A problem with FTP is that the files are sent in clear text, meaning that they are sent unencrypted and therefore able to be compromised. For example, many webmasters update their sites using FTP; an attacker using a packet sniffer and the website’s IP address can intercept all communications between the webmaster and the site’s server. Here we mainly discuss two similar protocols: HTTP and HTTPS. The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web. Hypertext is a multi-linear set of objects, building a network by using logical links (the so called hyperlinks) between the nodes (e.g. text or words). HTTP is the protocol to exchange or transfer hypertext. The standards development of HTTP was coordinated by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), culminating in the publication of a series of Requests for Comments (RFCs), most notably RFC 2616 (June 1999), which defines HTTP/1.1, the version of HTTP in common use. Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is a combination of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) with the SSL/TLS protocol. It provides encrypted communication to prevent eavesdropping and to securely identify the web server with which you are actually communicating. Historically, HTTPS connections were primarily used for payment transactions on the World Wide Web, e-mail and for sensitive transactions in corporate information systems. In the late 2000s and early 2010s, HTTPS began to see widespread use for protecting page authenticity on all types of websites, securing accounts and keeping user communications, identity and browsing history private.

Once Upon A Time By Gabriel Okara English Literature Essay

Once Upon A Time By Gabriel Okara English Literature Essay The poet of the poem Once upon a time is Gabriel Okara who is a Nigerian. He was born on 24th or 21st of April in the year 1921.In that year Nigeria got independence from Britain so at that time they were still influenced by the British culture. The background of the poem is that he is remembering the way people used to behave and interact with each other and he is comparing it with how people interact with others now. How the people used to do things with their hearts and with pleasure and happiness. It describes what happens when a traditional African culture and civilisation meets with the western culture. My personal opinion of the purpose of this poem is to outline the behaviour and personality people have at the moment and try and bring them back to the personality that people used to have, when they used to do things with emotion and with their heart The poem is a conversation between a father and his son where the son does things with emotion and the father wants to forget his fake personality and re-learn and create real personalities from his son. And he is asking the son to show him how to express true love and show real personality to others. It the first stanza the author mentions that people used to laugh with their heart they used to laugh with their emotions, when they would laugh they would do it wholeheartedly and with warmth and they used to laugh with their eyes and show pleasure with them. And know they do it with only their teeth not with their heart, meaning they do not really want to laugh but do it just to get closer to you and with their darky gloomy cold eyes they watch you and wait for you from the corner of their eyes waiting for you to leave search behind my shadow. In my opinion the words they refer to the white people who had invaded their country and influenced them with their culture. In this stanza the words ice-block-cold eyes is used these words emphasize the coldness and the inner hatred they have for you like they can freeze water with their gaze. These also make the poem feel a bit dark and cold and a slight bit sinister In the second stanza he further talks about the personalities of the people of the past he says they used to shake with their hearts here he is trying to say that when you would meet each other you will shake their hands with pleasure and with warmth and do it willingly. While their left hands search my empty pockets from this we can see that they are trying to use him to get to his money or receive something from him. This also shows that the peoples personalities are not real and true In the third stanza he is talking about when people ask you to come again and say feel at home you go there once, twice and the third time they will not let you in thinking that you are a pest and that they do not wanted to see you anymore. The words feel at home is used for when you want a guest to feel welcomed and that they belong in that household. Here he mentions that I find the doors shut on me this shows that they do not even open the door to tell him that he is not wanted and the moment but instead leaves the door closed keeping him standing outside. This also shows that when people speak they lie not telling the truth but just saying something nice to grasp their heart. In the fourth stanza he talks about how he has learned to put on faces like how outfits and masks are put on at different times, and with different people you act differently, for example in the office you act in one way to a person but when you meet them on the street you act another way to them, and how all the faces that people have on different occasions. He says I have learned too which is suggesting that he has also changed with the change of the people around him. he also mentions with all their conforming smiles like a fixed portrait suggesting that they all have the same smile all the time not showing any true emotion. In the fifth stanza he says that he has also been influenced by the people around him and he has learned to keep his true personality a secret and show the world a fake personality, to laugh with only me teeth this part is connected with the part in the first stanza they only laugh with their teeth from this you can see a comparison of what people do and what he does now. This also shows that he has changed to blend in with the environment. Here in the part where he says I have also learned to say `Goodbye when I mean `Good-riddance that is pointing out to the fact that they will, without thinking and without meaning it they will say Goodbye. He mentions forward that Glad to meet you meaning that he is happy to see you and is happy with your presence without being glad meaning that the did not wanted to talk to you and they disliked your presence and if they could they would of avoided you and its been nice talking to you, after being bored saying that they say things that they do no t mean In the fifth stanza he concludes it all saying that he does not like what he has become and he wants to be like he used to be when he was like a child so small and innocent. He points out that he really wants to learn how to laugh with emotions like you really mean it and he compares his laugh like that of a snakes fangs that shows only the teeth snakes are those menacing creatures that are full of venom and can never be trusted and to compare his laugh with a snake gives the image that the man really does not like his fake personality. This stanza sums it well by giving the image to the reader that he is not happy and satisfied with himself The last stanza is the farther asking and pleading to his son to show him how to laugh and smile like he did when he was a child. The last line sums up the entire poem really well making sure that all strings are tied The structure of the poem is really good and consistent most of the stanzas have 6 lines in them. It is a very nice poem with a nice smooth flow

A Comparison of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism Essay -- Compare

A Comparison of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism In this essay, I will contrast and compare the two art movements, Impressionism, and Post-Impressionism. I will be concentrating on the works of the two leading artists of these styles Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh. The impressionist movement is often considered to mark the beginning of the modern period of art. It was developed in France during the late 19th century. The impressionist movement arose out of dissatisfaction with the classical, dull subjects and clean cut precise techniques of painting. They preferred to paint outdoors concentrating more on landscapes and street scenes, and began to paint ordinary everyday people and liked to show the effects in natural light. Claude Monet is often considered one of greatest most dedicated of the Impressionist painters. His aim was to catch the light and atmosphere, something that was scarcely done before. He enjoyed painting outdoors and developed a free and spontaneous painting technique. His brushwork is remarkably flexible and varied. He often changed his technique, sometimes broad and sweeping other times dappled and sparkling. Le Grenouillere is a typical example of how much the style of painting had changed. The piece has been painted outdoors using light and bright colours, and is of a fairly ordinary everyday scene. It is a work in which we see his art losing the last of its stiffness and clean cut edge. The composition concentrates mainly on the foreground .It has three main points of interest, the small rowing boats, the artificial island and the floating barge .It also has a stretch of trees and foliage in the background painted in a much lighter fashion. Monet?s painting has a very different composition from Renoir?s painting of Grenouillere, which was done at the same time; Renoir?s painting is focussed much more on the artificial island and the people on it. Monet uses a combination of thick bold brushstrokes and small short soft brushstrokes; this creates a nice varied look and helps give a good impression of perspective. The tone is also very varied as it is Very light in some areas, but it is also quite dark in others, such as the shades on the barge. The use of dark shades in the foreground makes the boat look so realistic and quite 3D. Although the middle ground is flatter this helps add to the perspective. The water ho... ...m each other. I like the way in which the Impressionist painters managed to break away from the traditional ways of painting. Their careful ways painting which show the effects of light (especially on water) so well are really to be admired. Their use of light bright colours made the way for future painters to become free and express their artwork how they choose. They used short sharp brushwork similar to the Post-Impressionist painters and I feel that Post-Impressionism seems to be almost like a more extreme version of Impressionism. However of the two styles I think that I prefer the Post-Impressionist style as I feel it is freer, bright and shows more emotion. I especially like the long broken and sometimes swirly brushwork which gives everyday scenes a more interesting and exciting feel .The use of bright and vibrant colours brings the paintings to life and creates a range of moods .The artist which I like the most is Van Gogh as I feel his artwork is really quite outstandin g .He creates whole new and exciting visions of his interpretations on the things he sees. Not only did he create vivid and intense paintings but also he could express his moods and feelings through them.

Geothermal Energy Essay -- Fossil Fuels Energy Resources Oil Geysers E

Geothermal Energy The human population is currently using up its fossil fuel supplies at staggering rates. Before long we will be forced to turn somewhere else for energy. There are many possibilities such as hydroelectric energy, nuclear energy, wind energy, solar energy and geothermal energy to name a few. Each one of these choices has its pros and cons. Hydroelectric power tends to upset the ecosystems in rivers and lakes. It affects the fish and wild life population. Nuclear energy is a very controversial subject. Although it produces high quantities of power with relative efficiency, it is very hard to dispose of the waste. While wind and solar power have no waste products, they require enormous amounts of land to produce any large amounts of energy. I believe that geothermal energy may be an alternative source of energy in the future. There are many things that we must take into consideration before geothermal energy can be a possibility for a human resource. I will be discussing some of these issues, questions, and problems. In the beginning when the solar system was young, the earth was still forming, things were very different. A great mass of elements swirled around a dense core in the middle. As time went on the accumulation elements with similar physical properties into hot bodies caused a slow formation of a crystalline barrier around the denser core. Hot bodies consisting of iron were attracted to the core with greater force because they were more dense. These hot bodies sunk into and became part of the constantly growing core. Less dense elements were pushed towards the surface and began to form the crust. The early crust or crystalline barrier consisted of ultra basic, basic, calc-alkaline, and granite. The early crust was very thin because the core was extremely hot. It is estimated that the mantel e 200 to 300 degrees Celsius warmer than it is today. As the core cooled through volcanism the crust became thicker and cooler. The earth is made up of four basic layers, the inner solid core, the outer liquid core, the mantel and the lithosphere and crust. The density of the layers gets greater the closer to the center of the earth that one gets. The inner core is approximately 16% of the planet's volume. It is made up of iron and nickel compounds. Nobody knows for sure but the outer core is thought to ... ...ng. There have been many technological breakthroughs that have resulted in increased efficiencies of modern day geothermal electrical plants. I feel that with the current environmental situation that the world now faces a viable method of clean up will include the use of geothermal power plants and resources. In a world that is suffocating from the chemicals, and particulates that are created in the production of electricity and other commercial industries, we have no choice but to change our ways. The earth can not support the current rates of pollution. If we do not change reduce pollution the effects that are beginning to be see now will become irreversible. Using geothermal resources for other purposes such as space heating can only help reduce pollution emission. With in the next century the world will begin to feel the energy crunch. Supplies of other natural resources such as coal, oil and other petroleum products will begin to become scarce. The world today is completely electricity dependent. Without electricity, the world as we know it would cease to exist. In the next century we must learn to be less electricity dependent or find other sources of energy.

Metaphysics Essay -- Philosophy Reality Empiricism Essays

Metaphysics Metaphysics can be defined as an attempt to comprehend the basic characteristics of reality. It is in fact so basic that it is all inclusive, whether something is observable or not. It answers questions of what things must be like in order to exist and how to differentiate from things that seem real but are not. A common thought is that reality is defined as what we can detect from our five senses. This type of philosophy is called empiricism, which is the idea that all knowledge comes from our senses. An empiricist must therefore believe that what we can see, touch, taste, smell, and hear must be real and that if we can not in fact see, touch, taste, smell, or hear something, it is definitely not real. However, this is a problem because there are things that are real that cannot be detected by our senses. Feelings and thoughts can not be detected, so according to a true empiricist, they must not be real. Another example that is listed in the textbook is the laws of gravity (Stewart 84). This is something that is in fact proven and we can see the effects of it, but we can not see gravity itself. Once again, this would not be considered to be â€Å"real.† However, there are certain things that some people consider to be real, and others consider them not to be. This typically comes into play when discussing religion. Some people consider God to be real although they can not â€Å"sense† Him and others say that He is not real, possibly because of the fact that they can no...

Celtic Art

Logan Fogarty Essay 2 Rough Draft 9/19/12 Celtic Art Art is translucent; it acts as a window into the creator’s world. Art portray not only aesthetic attributes but represents a viewpoint, a glimpse through another’s eyes via his or her creation. In Paul Jacobsthal’s article â€Å"Early Celtic Art† he takes viewers into the world of early art through the pieces created by the early Celts. Paul Jacobsthal states that, although the Celtic people were looked down upon as barbarians, their art holds no equal.He compares Celtic art to wide renowned Scythian art that has touched and influenced the far corners of Europe. Jacobsthal states â€Å"both in absolute value, and in the importance of its influence, Celtic art is beyond doubt superior to Scythian art†. (Jacobsthal,pg 113) Although Jacobsthals’ point is clearly stated in his blatant thesis, I believe he wrote this article from a biased standpoint. He may believe Celtic art is superior to Scyt hian, yet its only based off his opinion. Coming from an Irish background this topic intrigues me; it’s why I choose this article.Yet I ask myself whom is the Author trying to influence? At first I thought he was going after an audience that shows interest in ancient Celtic culture or art like I do. After finishing the article I realized the average viewer may not be able to take away the same message as someone who is trained in art analysis, or on who can formally break down a piece. Although the article narrows its audience through its subject and diction, a well-informed audience member will take away so much more than the casual reader.After determining the intended audience, it became much easier to determine that jacobsthal was trying to persuade his audience more so then entertain. Jacobsthal establishes his viewpoint clearly in his thesis, that Celtic art is a superior art form, and then uses supporting details about specific pieces that contribute to the validity of his statement. Jacobsthal goes into fine detail about how Celtic art has not only influenced European art but has also spread into Asia as well.Jacobsthal believes that although Celtic art was influenced by the Greek culture, it stands out in its style and dynamic precision in fine detail. The authors’ writing style is a little bewildering. For example â€Å"But the lower, a row of sickle- like curls, suggests classical analogies, while the pattern of the middle zone is classical absolutely: large lotus flowers alternating with small three- leaved palmettes which grow out of the horizontal S-shaped supporting tendrils†(Jacobsthal, pg 114).He uses heavy artistic terms when describing specific pieces that he believes shines a light on the Celtic culture. Although I was an AP art student I found myself looking up certain terms and getting lost in the wordiness of the descriptions. Jacobsthal tends to follow the same pattern when writing this piece; he would describe seve ral pieces then show a page of the art he just described. This pattern made the article a little less dry, but at the same time confused me when trying to compare the word descriptions on one page with the art on the next.I believe the article would be much more successful if the reader could see the pieces as their reading the description, instead of them being separated altogether, that way the viewer can better connect to what the author is trying to persuade. The piece itself is coherent, but hard to follow at certain points. The author transitions through topics by dividing his main points with the pages of pictures. Jacobsthal makes a broad statement on Celtic art then describes certain pieces that support his statement, shows a page of the art, then transitions into a new topic and group of art.Although this is an effective transition process, it becomes sort of repetitive and leaves the reader looking for change. One may believe that when writing a informational/ persuasive article that the author would use outside view points beside his own to show the viewer that theirs more then one person that shares the same beliefs, not in this article. The author shows little support from outside sources, which I did not enjoy, it showed me that his argument was one sided and his words were empty.Although the author does not use outside sources to back up his argument, he lets the artwork speak for them selves. For artwork created in 800 B. C. E they are truly magnificent, from the intricate gold inlay to the creativity behind each exotic creature the comprise most of the pieces. In the end the author’s subjectivity is invalid because art’s greatness is based off ones opinion and an opinion does not translate to fact. (Logan Fogarty, pg 4) Bibliography Jacobsthal, Paul. â€Å"Early Celtic Art. † The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs Sept. 1935: 113-27. Print

Martin Buber and The Way of Man Essay

Martin Buber is today’s one of the most important representatives of the human spirit. He was born in Vienna in 1878, studied philosophy and the history of art at the University of Vienna and of Berlin. In 1916 he founded Der Jude, a periodical which he edited until 1924 and which became under his guidance the leading organ of the German-speaking Jewry. Professor Buber has written widely in the fields of philosophy, education, philosophy of religion, community, sociology, psychology, art, Biblical interpretation, Judaism, Hasidism, and Zionism. Buber’s works best known in America include I and Thou, the classical statement of his philosophy of dialogue, Between Man and Man, Eclipse of God, The Tales of the Hasidism and the way of man The way of man is a book by martin Buber which would seem to be simple but a person who read it through and think they have understood it fully, when in fact they have discovered only one or two dimensions of its message. Everything that is in I and Thou is also implicit in The Way of Man, but it is in there in a much more compressed form. I and Thou is compact too, but The Way of Man is much more compact, yet still rich and pregnant with meaning. It almost demands that you read it again and again, its meanings are hidden in between the lines, so people who are meditative in reading could understand the meanings of the book and the wisdom in that little book. And if The Way of Man is short, deceptively simple and heavy with meaning, the recurring dream that frequently came to Buber is even more so. His description of this dream is only one page long, but for those who have a good understanding of how dreams sometimes speak the deeper language of the heart and spirit, this dream is a rich and powerful one indeed. And the fact that it recurred to Buber several times is itself significant. Recurrent dreams are often, according to Carl Jung, our soul’s (or God’s? ) attempt to tell us something extremely important about our deepest well-being, and they have to recur because we are so resistant to hearing whatever the message is that they are trying to teach us. So Buber saw this dream as a particularly significant one. The Influence of Hasidism in The Way of Man Although his existence as a modern Western man has made it impossible for Buber to become a Hasid, it is to Hasidism, more than to any other single source that he has gone for his image of what modem man can and ought to become. For Hasidism, as for Buber’s philosophy of dialogue, one cannot love God unless one loves his fellow man, and for this love to be real it must be love of each particular man in his created uniqueness and it must take place for its own sake and not for the sake of any reward, even the salvation or perfection of one’s soul. Hasidism is a mysticism which hallows community and everyday life rather than withdraws from it, rejecting asceticism and the denial of the life of the senses in favor of the joy that can transform and re-direct the â€Å"alien thoughts,† or fantasies, that distract man from the love of God. According to Buber Despair, to Hasidism, is worse even than sin, for it leads one to believe oneself in the power of sin and hence to give in to it. One must overcome the pride that leads one to compare himself with others, but he must not forget that in himself, as in all men, is a unique value which must be realized if the world is to be brought to perfection. Everyone must have two pockets, said one Hasidic master. In his right pocket he must keep the words, for my sake was the world created, and in his left, I am dust and ashes. Hasidism stresses simple piety and fervor more than intellectual subtlety or the attempt to schematize heavenly mysteries. As every lock has its key which fits it, so every mystery has the meditation that opens it, said a great Hasidic teacher. â€Å"But God loves the thief who breaks the lock opens: I mean the man who breaks his heart for God. According to Hasidism, the very qualities which make us what we constitute our special approach to God and our potential use for Him. There is nothing so crass or base that it cannot become material for hallowing. The profane, for Hasidism, is only a designation for the not yet hallowed. Hallowing transforms the evil urges by confronting them with holiness and making them responsible toward what is holy. It is not in our inward devotion alone or in Freudian sublimation which uses the relation to the outer as a means to inner change, but in essential, mutual relations with others that we are able to serve God with our fear, anger, love, and sexual desire. What God asks of man is that he become humanly holy, i. e. , becomes holy as man, in the measure and in the manner of man. The Relationship of God and Man God asks us questions that He already knows the answer to so as to call us to examine ourselves. This is based on the belief that we are capable of knowing who and what we are by self-examination. The chief did not what to be called to examine himself because he was afraid of what he might find out. Each human being is unique, should seek to discover, then be himself and do what he ought to do in service to God. The way to reach God is revealed when a person comes to understand who and what he or she is in their own individuality in recognition of that absolute which create and stirs those inner desires so leading that person to that absolute, which is God, by being what he or she ought be as God intends. Heart-Searching the Way of Man: Man and Man Relationship The task of man, of every man, according to Hasidic teaching, is to affirm for god’s sake the world and himself and by this very means to transform both. There is a demonic question, a spurious question, which apes God’s question, the question of Truth. Its characteristic is that it does not stop at: ‘Where art thou? , but continues: From where you have got to, there is no way out. This is the wrong kind of heart-searching, which does not prompt man to turn and put him on the way, but, by representing turning as hopeless, drives him to a point where it appears to have become entirely impossible and man can go on living only by demonic pride, the pride of perversity. Every single man is a new thing in the world, and is called upon to fulfill his particularity in this world. Thus the way by which a man can reach God is revealed to him only through the knowledge of his own being, the knowledge of his essential quality and inclination. A man may only detach himself from nature in order to revert to it again and, in hallowed contact with it, find his way to God. Any natural act, if followed, leads to God, and nature needs man for what no angel can perform on it, namely, its following. But just this perspective, in which a man sees himself only individual contrasted with other individuals, and a genuine person, whose transformation helps towards the transformation of the world, co rains the fundamental error which Hasidic teaching denounces. The essential thing is to begin with oneself, and at this moment a man has nothing in the world to care about than this beginning. Any other attitude would distract him from what he is about to begin, weakening his initiative, and thus frustrate the entire bold undertaking. ‘Our sages say: Seek peace i your own place. You cannot find peace anywhere saves in your own self. When a man has made peace within himself, he will be able to make peace in the whole world. Human Beings as Treasures In their true essence, the two worlds are one. The goal here is integration. As Buber stated earlier, it is man’s work to hallow creation, and here in section 6 to draw God into the world since God wants to come into the world through man. So the theme of The Way of Man comes together, integration. My life is a gift so any ‘treasure’ I have is not of my own making. I have a wonderful wife, two beautiful children, and my health, live in freedom, and have a good job and financial stability. Any of these wonderful gifts could be taken from me at any time, so I must be careful as to what I put my trust in and what I value as my ‘treasure. To have any lasting, ultimate value I must store up treasures that are imperishable and of eternal significance. My relationships and the priorities I place on them will be of eternal significance, which the most important relationship being with God. It is when I put my relationship with God first that all my other relationships begin to be what they ought to be. As somebody think of their marriage and their relationship with God functions like a triangle, the closer you both draw to God, the closer you will draw to each other. ’ So ‘treasuring’ the eternal has earthly value as well. Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. †(Matthew 6:19-21) I would say this means God gives man freewill; He is a perfect gentleman who will not enter where He is not invited, but will gladly enter where He is. Body and Soul as Conflicting Entities There is a conflict between body and soul where the person is not ‘all of one piece. When one aspect attempts to lord over the other or tries to bring the other into submission, this is what is referred to as patchwork since there is disunity in the person. Resolution occurs when the core of the soul, the divine force is allowed to bind the conflicting desires of body and soul to act in concert as it is intended to be. When the desires of both body and soul are unified in purpose and action, in absence of conflict, a person is being what he or she ought to be. In order to make peace with the world you must first be at peace with yourself. Often times we preach hardest against that which we struggle with ourselves. In previous years in struggled with atheism so Buber gravitated toward atheists seeking debate and argument because I myself wanted answers; doubt is very disintegrating. A couple of years ago he struggled with the issue of free-will, despite the fact that he despises the implications of determinism Buber listened to and studied prominent Calvinists. He is not comfortable with only listening to what he wants to hear because Buber views that as a form a self-brainwashing. As it is mentioned The way of man brings about and rather learns through conflict and antithesis. Relationship to God and Man Leads to Development Human beings are basically social beings who mingle each other for their daily needs and livelihood. Buber has given more importance to the relationship to god and man where one becomes authentically human by fulfilling their existential nature. Both these relations are essential for a human being for his personal development as well as the development of the society. In a society where the individuals nourish their behavior and character through firm relations, obviously the society also would flourish in all the dimensions. According to Buber, if person could nourish the relation with God and is not able to contact with human beings his life will be a failure and vice versa. But as far as the new age is concerned, we are becoming more self-oriented in character and in nature. Often time’s human beings relate with God and man in order to gain something, or to secure their lives in this world. Our culture has changed from the rich traditions, where people lived in harmony with each other, helped each other, obviously that was an ‘other oriented’ era. Once there were villages where cultures had grown, people lived in faith and relations sprout like the tree in the river side. But nowadays there are concrete villages where people live in broken relations, fake faiths and comforting life styles. Here Buber’s thoughts are revolutionary to change the heart of the people. The way of man could bring about a paradigm shift in people, where only through healthy relationship human develops their behavior and character. Thus the philosophy of development could be a fruit of the relations with God and the fellow beings. Conclusion Most systems of belief the believer considers that the can achieve a perfect relationship to God by renouncing the world of the senses and overcoming his own natural being. Not so the Hasid. Certainly, cleaving unto God is to him the highest aim of the human person, but to achieve it he is not required to abandon the external and internal reality of earthly being, but to affirm it in its true, God oriented essence and thus so to transform it that he can offer it up to God. Hasidism is no pantheism. It teaches the absolute transcendence of God, but as combined with his conditioned immanence. The world is an irradiation of God, but as it is endowed with an independence of existence and striving, it is apt, always and everywhere, to form a crust around itself. Thus, a divine spark lives in everything and being, but each such spark is enclosed by an isolating shell. Only man can liberate it and re-join it with the Origin: by holding holy converse with the thing and using it in a holy manner, that is, so that his intention in doing so remains directed towards God’s transcendence. Thus the divine immanence emerges from the exile of the shells. But also in man, in every man, is a force divine. And in man far more than in all other beings it can pervert itself can be misused by himself. This happens if he, Instead of directing it towards its origin, allows it to run direction less and seize at everything that offers itself to it; instead of following passion, he makes it evil. But here, too, a way to redemption is open: he who with the entire force of his being turns to God, lifts at this his point of the universe the divine immanence out of its debasement, which he has caused. The task of man, of every man, according to Hasidic teaching, is to affirm for God’s sake the world and himself and by this very means to transform both.

Performance Appraisal of Al-Arafah Islami Bank Limited

1. 0 Introduction Every company has its own vision and mission. Achieving of its vision and mission is primarily depends on the performance of the employees. If the employees are not dedicated to their works, they will not achieve company’s mission as well as its vision. It is the duty of the Human Resource department in a company to measure the performance of the employees and based on their performance appraisal report and considering the need of the organization assigning employees with different training and development programs so that the employees can develop their skills as well as contribute in the development of the organization.As a result, the organization can achieve its goal from their employees. This performance appraisal and training program has great impact on financial institution to achieve its targeted profit and competitive advantage. As a part of our BBA Program, our Human Resource Management Course Instructor Mr. Faisol Chowdhury assigned us to prepare a report on the employee performance measurement in an organization, the training and development program offered in an organization and the benefit the organization gets from these training and development programs.We have selected our report topic as, â€Å"Performance appraisal, training and development programs and its benefits in AL-Arafah Islami Bank LTD†. 1. 2 Background of the Company: Al-Arafah Islami Bank Limited is a scheduled commercial bank. With the objective of achieving success here & hereafter by pursuing the way directed by Allah and the path shown by His Rasul (SM), Al Arafah Islami Bank Ltd was established under the Bank Companies Act 1991 and incorporated as a public limited company under the Companies Act 1994 in Bangladesh with the primary objective to carry on all kinds of banking business in Bangladesh.The Bank is listed with Dhaka Stock Exchange Limited and Chittagong Stock Exchange Limited in 1998. For the purpose of maintaining boost modern manageme nt, advanced technology, good profitability and steady growth transparency Al-Arafah Islami Bank started its journey in 1995 with the said principles in mind and to introduce a modern banking system based on Al-Quran and Sunnah. A group of established, dedicated and pious personalities of Bangladesh are the architects and directors of the Bank. Among them a noted Islamic scholar, economist, writer and ex-bureau craft of Bangladesh government Mr.A. Z. M. Shamsul Alam is the founder Chairman of the bank. His progressive leadership and continuous inspiration provided a boost for the bank in getting a foothold in the financial market of Bangladesh. A group of 26 dedicated and noted Islamic personalities of Bangladesh are the member of executive committee of the bank. MR. Badiur Rahman and MR. Ekramul Hoque are the existing chairman and the managing director of the bank. Now AIBL is one of the top ranked banks in Bangladesh. Recently it has introduced its 100th branch milestone by openin g its 100th branch in Teknaf, Cox’s Bazar. AIBL annual Report, 2011) Vision: †¢ To be a pioneer in Islamic Banking in Bangladesh and contribute significantly to the growth of the national economy. Mission: †¢ Achieving the satisfaction of Almighty Allah both here & hereafter. †¢ Proliferation of Shariah Based Banking Practices. †¢ Fast and efficient customer service. †¢ Quality financial services adopting the latest technology. †¢ Maintaining high standard of business ethics and competitive return on shareholders' equity. †¢ Firm commitment to the growth of national economy. †¢ Innovative banking at a competitive price. Attract and retain quality human resources. †¢ Balance growth. 1. 3 Objective of this report: We have prepared this repost based on two purposes: Primary Objective †¢ To provide detailed information about the performance appraisal process of AL-Arafah Islami Bank LTD †¢ To provide detailed information on t raining and development †¢ To figure out the benefits of the training and development program Secondary Objectives †¢ It is an assessment criteria for our MGT-351 (Introduction to Human Resource Management Course) †¢ It is a practical implementation of our theoretical knowledge 1. 4 Scope of the StudyAs we have an assigned topic we have covered only that certain topics in this report. For covering that certain topics we talked to the Human Resource Division head and the training institute principal of AL-Arafah Islami Bank LTD. As a result we got some valuable information about the performance appraisal method of bank and their training programs which helped us to justify our theoretical concept of performance appraisal, training method and its real life benefit. As AIBL is a Shariah based Islamic bank we have also gathered some valuable information about Islamic banking system. 1. Methodology For making any report we have to collect primary and secondary information which reflect the actual situation of the company. We have collected both primary and secondary data for making our report. I. Primary data: The data we have collected from Mr. Md. Rafiqul Islam, Deputy Managing Director of AIBL, Mr. Mazharul Islam, Vice President & the Head of HRD, AIBL, Mr. Zahid Hasan, Assistant Vice President & Principal of the AIBTRA through interview are considering as primary data. II. Secondary data: The data we have collected from their AIBL website (http://www. al-arafahbank. om), Annual Report, periodicals, various books, articles etc regarding banking activities, different literature and official records ) are considered as secondary data. 2. 0 Literature Review 2. 1. 0 Performance Appraisal: What is Performance Appraisal? Performance Appraisal (PA) means evaluating an employee’s current and previous performance relative to his or her performance standards. (Dessler & Varkkey 2012, p. 318) Performance = f (A, M, O) A = ability, M = motivation, O = opportunity It is not a process that happens once a year or every six months, but one that happens every day.It should focus solely on employee performance improvement. It is an element of the Performance Management system. Performance appraisal always involves 1) Setting work standard 2) Assessing employees actual performance relative to those standard 3) Providing feedback to their employee with the aim of motivating him or her to eliminate performance deficiencies Potential Benefits of Performance Appraisals There are a number of potential benefits of organizational performance management conducting formal performance appraisals (PAs).There has been a general consensus in the belief that PAs lead to positive implications of organizations. Furthermore, PAs can benefit an organization’s effectiveness. One way is PAs can often lead to giving individual workers feedback about their job performance. From this may spawn several potential benefits such as the individual workers becoming more productive. Other potential benefits include: †¢ Facilitation of communication: communication in organizations is considered an essential function of worker motivation. It has been proposed that feedback from PAs aid in minimizing employees’ perceptions of uncertainty.Fundamentally, feedback and management-employee communication can serve as a guide in job performance. †¢ Enhancement of employee focus through promoting trust: Behaviours, thoughts, and/or issues may distract employees from their work, and trust issues may be among these distracting factors. Such factors that consume psychological energy can lower job performance and cause workers to lose sight of organizational goals. Properly constructed and utilized PAs have the ability to lower distracting factors and encourage trust within the organization. Goal setting and desired performance reinforcement: Organizations find it efficient to match individual worker’s goals and performance wi th organizational goals. PAs provide room for discussion in the collaboration of these individual and organizational goals. Collaboration can also be advantageous by resulting in employee acceptance and satisfaction of appraisal results. †¢ Performance improvement: Well-constructed PAs can be valuable tools for communication with employees as pertaining to how their job performance stands with organizational expectations. At the organizational level, numerous studies have reported positive relationships between human resource management (HRM) practices† and performance improvement at both the individual and organizational levels. †¢ Determination of training needs: â€Å"Employee training and development are crucial components in helping an organization achieve strategic initiatives†. It has been argued that for PAs to truly be effective, post-appraisal opportunities for training and development in problem areas, as determined by the appraisal, must be offered . PAs can especially be instrumental for identifying training needs of new employees.Finally, PAs can help in the establishment and supervision of employees’ career goals. 2. 1. 1 Performance Appraisal Methods: Many organisations have eliminated formal appraisal programs, preferring a structured hiring, training and organisational culture centric employee performance. Most organisations still practice some sort of appraisal methods to evaluate employee performance. A mixture of different appraisal methods is always recommended for a better and meaningful result. (Dessler & Varkkey 2012, p. 324) GRAPHIC RATING SCALE: The graphical rating scale is the simplest and most popular method for appraising performance.A graphical rating scale list traits (such as â€Å"communication or teamwork†) and a range of performance values (from â€Å"uncertainty† to â€Å"outstanding† or â€Å"below expectation† to â€Å"role model†) for each trait. The superv isor rates each subordinate by circling or checking the score that best describes the subordinate’s performance for each trait. [pic] Alternation ranking Method: Ranking employees from best to worst on a particular trait, choosing highest, then lowest until all are ranked [pic] Paired Comparison method: Paired comparison method helps to make the ranking method more precise.For every trait (quantity of work, quality of work, and so on), you pair and compare every subordinate with every other subordinate. Forced Distribution Method: The forced distribution method is similar to grading on a curve. With this method, anyone can place predetermined percentages of rates into several performance categories. The proportions in each category need not to be symmetrical. Critical Incident method: Keeping a record of uncommonly good or undesirable examples of an employee’s work related behaviour and reviewing it with the employee.Manager then uses the record to assess the employees ’ performance when it is time for PA. Not helpful for comparing employees and making salary decisions. Behaviourally Anchored Rating Scales (BARS): A behaviourally anchored rating scale (BARS) is an appraisal tool that anchors a numerical rating scale with specific examples of good or poor performance. Essay Description: A written statement describes employee’s strengths, weaknesses, past performance and future development. Managers write the descriptions of the employees. So, good writing skill is the pre-requisite for this method.Management by Objectives: MBO is a comprehensive and formal organization-wide goal setting and appraisal programme, used sometimes as a primary appraisal method or a supplementary method. Electronic Performance Monitoring: Electronic performance monitoring (EPM) systems use computer network technology to allow managers access to their employees computers and telephone. So managers can monitor employees rate, accuracy and time spent working o utline. 2. 1. 2 Performance Appraisal Problems (Dessler & Varkkey 2012, p. 333) †¢ Unclear Standard – Most of the appraisal scales are unclear.Standards and traits are interpreted differently by different people. †¢ Halo Effect – When a supervisor’s rating of a subordinate on one trait biases the rating of all other traits. E. g. an unfriendly employee will often be rated ‘unsatisfactory’ for all traits rather than just for that specific trait. †¢ Central Tendency – Tendency to rate all employees the same way – the middle of the rating scale; which is usually rating an average rating. †¢ Leniency or Strictness – Tendency to rate all subordinates either ‘high’ or ‘low’. Biasness – Tendency to rate employees based on their differences on age, race, sex, background and other characteristics. 2. 2. 0 Definition of training and development: Training means giving new or current empl oyees the skills they need to perform their jobs. It is the process of providing employees with the knowledge, skills and attitudes they need to successfully perform their current job. It usually involves teaching operational or technical employees how to do their jobs more effectively and efficiently. (Dessler & Varkkey 2012, p. 274)Development is the process that provides employees knowledge, skills and attitudes they will need to perform jobs at present and jobs they aspire to in future. It is generally aimed at helping top level executives better understand and solve problems, make decisions, and capitalize on opportunities. The cost and budget of development program is higher than training. (Dessler & Varkkey 2012, p. 295) 2. 2. 2 Training Programs There are several training programs- (Dessler & Varkkey 2012, p. 283) †¢ On the job training: It having a person learns a job by actually doing the tasks by him. Apprenticeship: It is a process by which people become skilled wor kers, usually through a combination of formal learning and long-term on the job training. †¢ Job instruction: listing each job’s basic tasks, along with key points, to provide step-by-step training for employees. Sometimes position description (PD) can be used as job instruction. †¢ Coaching: Under an official appointed teacher employee learn the basic tactics of the job. †¢ Mentoring: linking an experienced employee with less experienced employee to share experience, knowledge and skills. Helping someone to change his attitude, not his skills. Lectures/Seminar/Workshop: Lecture is a quick and simple way of providing knowledge to large groups of trainees. †¢ Audiovisual/Multimedia: Audiovisual based training techniques like DVDs, films, PowerPoint, and audiotapes are widely used. †¢ Vestibule: Vestibule training is a method in which trainers learn on the actual or simulated equipment they will use on the job, but are trained off the job(perhaps in a s eparate room or vestibule). †¢ Computer Based Training (CBT): With computer based training, trainers use interactive computer-based and DVD system to increase knowledge and skills. Role Play: Role playing is to create a realistic situation and then have the trainees assumes the part (or roles) specific person in that situation. †¢ Action Learning: Action learning programs give managers and others released time to work analyzing and solving problems in departments other than their own. †¢ Assessment centres (in-house / off the job) : centre that assesses participants performance, benchmark this against established standards, and consider remedial resources. E. g. Ernst & Young. Simulated training: provides trainees with the opportunity to learn on the actual or simulated equipment while off the job in a risk free environment. E. g. driving, medical examinations, pilots. †¢ E-learning: learning delivered, enabled and mediated by electronic technology. E. g. compute r / internet web based training sessions on cost effective, OH&S issues. †¢ Vestibule Training: training that takes place away from the production area on equipment that closely resembles the actual equipment used on the job. 2. 3. 0 Development methods (Dessler & Varkkey 2012, p. 296) There are several development methods-Job Rotation: Job rotation means moving managers from department to department to broaden their understanding of the business to test their abilities. Action Learning: Action learning programs give managers and others released time to work analyzing and solving problems in departments other than their own. Case study: giving employees a written description of an organisational problem to diagnose and solve. Management games: computerised management game where trainees are divided into five or six person companies, each of which has to compete with the other in a simulated marketplace.Outside seminars: attending seminars arranged by outside organisations. E. g . AHRI. University programs: continuous education programs in leadership, supervision etc. Role Play: Role playing is to create a realistic situation and then have the trainees assumes the part (or roles) specific person in that situation. In house Development centers/Corporate University: In house development center typically offer a catalogue of courses and programs aimed at supporting the employers’ management needs.Executive Coaches: Executive coaches is an outside consultant who questions the executive’s boss, peers, subordinates, and (sometimes) family in order to identify executive’s strengths and weakness and how they can capitalize their strength and overcome the weakness. 3. 1. 0 Performance Measurement in AL-Arafah Islami Bank LTD. AIBL has its own Human resource department. Personal data and the records of service and performance are recorded and maintained separately for each employee by HRD. HR executive and HRD head regularly measure their employe e’s performance.For measuring performance HRD of AIBL use APR (Annual Performance Report). Annual Performance Report (APR): (AIBL employee’s service rule p. 27) A system of annual report on the work and conduct of the employees will be laid down by the Board and such report will be called Annual Performance report(APR) and the bank may also call for special performance reports on any employees as and when considered necessary in the interest of the bank. AIBL has two specific format of APR (annual performance report): I.Operational post: It includes 27 traits. Operational employee’s (CEO, DMD, EVP, SVP and etc. ) performance is measured based on this 27 traits. II. Micro Finance & Logistics Posts: It includes 18 traits. This APR format is applicable for non-officer grade employee like filed supervisor, field assistant, Driver, Armed force, MCG(Messenger cum Guard) Operational post (APR format) Annual Performance Report (APR) (AIBL employee’s service rule p. 74) Personal Traits of the Officer under reporting (To be filled in by the reporting officer) |SL. No. Traits | Mark Secured | | | |Excellent | | | |Excellent |Very Good | |1 |Foundation course on Banking(Batch-I/2011) |1 |45 | |2 |Foundation course on Banking(Batch-II/2011) |1 |39 | |3 |Laws & Regulations in Bangladesh for Foreign Exchange Transaction & International Trade |1 |42 | |4 |Investment Operation & SME |1 |49 | |5 |Audit of Foreign & Exchange Trade Operation |1 |29 | |6 |Orientation Course on Banking |1 |45 | |7 |Orientation Course on Banking |1 |36 | |8 |Audit of Investment Operation |1 |27 | Development Programs that are offered by â€Å"Al-Arafah Islami bank† †¢ Job Rotation: For developing employee HRD of AIBL rotate the job and responsibility of each employee on a regular basi †¢ Action Learning: Action learning programs give managers and others released time to work analyzing and solving problems in departments other than their own. †¢ Case study: During the probation period, a written description of an organizational problem given to employees to diagnose and solve †¢ Workshop: workshops are organized by AIBL on a regular interval. Workshops organized by AIBL in 2011 (AIBRTA training & workshops 2011) S/L |Subject |Number |Participants | |1 |Capacity Development in ICC & Internal Audit |1 |21 | |2 |AML Compliance: Independent Testing Procedure |1 |27 | |3 |UCP-600 and its Application |1 |50 | |4 |Implementation of Web Based EXP from matching Through Online System |1 |23 | |5 |Al-Arafah Solar Energy Investment Scheme Management |1 |40 | |6 |Al-Arafah Solar Energy Investment Scheme Operation |1 |29 | |7 |Prevention of Money laundering and Fraud-Forgery in Banking |1 |41 | |8 |Security measures in handing Cash, Cheques and Instrument |1 |42 | |9 |BACH, MICR Cheque & Instrument and Security measure |1 |48 | |10 |Automation In Banking Operation in Bangladesh |1 52 | |11 |Green banking & Environment Risk Management |1 |44 | |12 |AML & CFT Issues(Batch-I/2011) |1 |49 | |13 |AML & CFT Issues(Batch-II/2011) |1 |44 | |14 |Operation Risk Associated with manual payment |1 |40 | |15 |UCP-600 |1 |48 | |16 |Asset Liability Management & Profit Maximization |1 |48 | |17 |General Insurance: bankers issues |1 |44 | |18 |Legal Process of Investment Recovery |1 |38 | |19 |Salesmanship in handling Foreign Remittance |1 |41 | |20 |Supervisory Review Process |1 |30 | |21. |Environment Risk Management & Investment Risk Management |1 |30 | |22. |Asset Liability Management & Profit Maximization |1 |40 | |23. |Renewable Solar Energy Management |1 |42 | |24. |Renewable Solar Energy Operation |1 |51 | |25. Readymade Garments Industry finance in AIBL |1 |48 | |26. |Implementation of Web Based EXP from matching Through Online System |1 |56 | |27. |Green Banking & Environment Risk Management |1 |21 | |28 |Functions of Internal Control & Compliance Division |1 |46 | |29 |Shariah Implementation in Aibl (batch-I) |1 |28 | |30 |ShariahImplementation in Aibl (batch-II) |1 |23 | |31 |AML & CFT Issues |1 |45 | |32 |Control of Primary Securities against Investment |1 |51 | |33 |UCP-950 |1 |23 | | | | | | Outreach Workshop: Outreach workshops are very helpful for providing development programs outside the Dhaka city. (AIBRTA training & workshops 2011) 2011 following outreach workshops are organized by AIBL S/L |Subject |Number |particepents | |1 |Sariah Implementation in Aibl(Veneue Agrabad, Khulna, Zindabazar, |1 |90 | | |Bogra branch) | | | |2 |Money Laundering prevention 2011(lead bank AIBL, Venue: Jhalakathi |1 |33 | | |branch) | | | Executive Workshop: AIBL organizes executive workshop for top level executive. 2011 following executive workshops are organized by AIBL |S/L |Subject |Number |Participants | |1 |Stress Training 1 |42 | |2 |Core Risk management |1 |42 | |3 |CAMEKS Rating & Banks health |1 |35 | |4 |Preparedness for BASEL II |1 |40 | |5 |Internal Control & Compliance |1 |42 | |6 |Corporate Gove rnance |1 |35 | †¢ Role Play: After completing each topic in the training institute, each trainee is sent to the nearest branch of the bank to implement his learning into the real life †¢ In house Development centers/Corporate University: AIBTRA typically offer a catalogue of courses and programs aimed at supporting the employers’ management needs. 3. 3. Organizational Benefits of Training & Development program Productivity: (M. Islam 2012, pers. Comm. , 26 November) Training is a process of learning as well as the function of acquired knowledge aiming at better performance of the employees, while development involves not only the related process but also helps the employees in building up their personalities, at the same time as, improving their progress towards the actualization of their full potentials. In order that the total performance may be improved, organizations need to have trained and experienced people. AIBL practices training and development for their employees with the thinking that their efficiency will increase.They think that these programs are very important for the preparation of the employees with the necessary skills that are required for particular jobs. Besides, failing to reach an expected level of performance of the employees or declines in the productivity also require training and development programs to be administered in the organizations. Team Spirit: Building team Spirit is very important for any organization because everyone in the organization work as a team and most of the time they are dependant with each other. So if they have no team spirit and team coordination then they will be failed to reach the goal and more value to the company. The complexities of various jobs emerge the importance of training and development programs.So AIBL train their employees for building the team spirit among the employees because they know when they practice the team spirit among the employees then the production level ultima tely increase. Organization Climate: This bank is one of the most disciplined Banks with a distinctive corporate culture. Here they  believe in shared meaning, shared understanding and shared sense making. Their people can see and understand events, activities, objects and situation in a distinctive way. They mould their  manners and etiquette, character individually to suit the purpose of the Bank and the needs of the customers who are of paramount importance to us. The people in the Bank see themselves as a tight knit team / family that believe in working together for growth. Health Work Environment:The offices of the Bank situated in the heart of city, generally in commercial surroundings. Offices are centrally air conditioned and well decorated with modern furniture and sophisticated technical Banking equipment. With the advancement of  Technology, offices of the Bank’s are now become paperless; most of the banking tasks are recorded and accomplished here with stron g banking software. They are continuously training employees for getting used to it and employees are learning and implementing very well. Inter and intra office communications are generally held by telephone, fax, internet and cell phones. The interior decorations of the office look gorgeous.Employees do their task in a safe and healthy environment Image: For the image of the company they give training and development to employees because as a big company they have some reputation to other companies and if they want to make them as a strong competitor they should maintain a good image both in the whole industry and to the customer. Profitability: The main agenda of any business is to make profit. For making profit they have to maintain quality products and services and to produce product efficiently. AIBL has different companies and every business’s main purpose is to make profit. So they think about the other factors behind this success so they arrange training and developm ent.Communications: The increasing diversity of today's workforce brings a wide variety of languages and customs. For being successful, it is also important to maintain communications among the employees and the other clients. So it is very important how to communicate with them and in which way it will be more effective. For this reason AIBL arranges some training and development program for their employees. They mainly do this for mid level and top level employees. Ethics: Today's society has increasing expectations about corporate social responsibility. Also, today's diverse workforce brings a wide variety of values and morals to the workplace.So for maintaining ethics they arrange some training and development program and practice this in their organization. Employee Benefits By providing training and development employee also get benefitted from it. Some of the benefit is given below: Training Improves Job Satisfaction: The training program improves the job satisfaction of the employee because when any employee get training then he/she become more efficient about his/her job. He/ she will be rewarded for his/her performance or can get recognition from senior employees which will motivate them. Training gives them knowledge which they share with others and they come out with so many ideas which involve them into work more.So, when his/her efficient level goes up and does the job more efficiently, then the salary of the employee goes up and overall the satisfaction level improves. Increased Employee Motivation: AIBL arranges some orientation program about their new technologies. So when the employees get some information about it and know how it works, then they are more motivated to do the job. But sometimes it’s not about a ‘new’ way of doing things, and simply about reminding each other about the ‘best’ way of doing things. Like any relationship, your employee relationships can get stale unless you consistently invest tim e and effort to remind them how important they are to you, how valued their contributions are, and critically that they are all part of one team—the same team Reduced employee turnover:Training and development increases employee’s motivation so that they eager to do his/her job with the company. So the employee turnovers become low and they tend to stay in the organization for long period of time. 4. 0 Findings ? We have found that all the employee of Al Arafah Islami Bank Limited has got training and thus the employee performance shows great potentiality and skill. The analysis also shows the respondents have got variety of experiences which is taking banks performance upward. ? A respondent as employee of Al Arafah Islami Bank Limited seems in young age and all of the employee educational level exceeds masters which are providing banks performance a great rhythm. Most of employees got 60 days entry level training which is known as Foundation Course and 5 to 10 days m id level training because here number of employees is higher than advance or other level. The bank provides advance and other level training according to their succession plan or situation. ? In Al Arafah Islami Bank Limited the respondents as employees got both on the job training and off the job training from the bank but unfortunately the employees did not international training from the abroad. ? Respondents show that training and development program provided by the bank is well organized and equipped. It also considered that training and development programs are directed and controlled by skilful trainer and these programs are based on banks working activities. Respondents as employees of Al Arafah Islami Bank agreed that training provided bank is beneficial for their working performance. So we can see training and development program provided by Al Arafah Islami Bank has positive effect on employee performance. 5. 0 Recommendations †¢ Al Arafah Islami Bank Ltd is arrangin g initial training employees but in mid level and advanced level they are not arranging well length programs. Al Arafah Islami Bank Ltd must be arranged training program and increase length of these types of training before sending employee which types of training will necessary for the trainees in future and one of the advantages s that no hindrance with regular activities. For these reasons, customer service of the bank will be increased and customer satisfaction will increase. †¢ TNA is essential for every bank to carry out the banking activities and to reach its goal. We know that TNA is the difference between standard performance and the actual performance. The bank should measure TNA before sending for training. Higher authority will take appropriate decisions for each employee to measure TNA and must be fair in their work. †¢ Though the trainers are very much skilful and knowledgeable persons sometimes they are not understand the trainee’s needs or their lack ing. So they must make know the need of trainees. The training and development department of Al Arafah Islami Bank Ltd provides the training to their employees try to improve the training and maintain international standard which helps the bank to reach its mission and vision. 6. 0 LIMITATIONS Followings are the limitations of the project work taken by us: ? One of the limitations of this project study is of the time limitation. Since the duration of our project study is of 4 weeks, it is somehow difficult to fully know any organization like AIBL in this limited time  period. ? Senior managers and others officers in AIBL are also very busy. They do not have enough time for solving our queries in details. Some respondents were conservative as they were hesitated to express their real opinion. ? Main limitation of this report was that the bank did not disclose all the data and main information for obvious reasons, which was could have been very much vital 7. 0 Conclusion Al-Arafah I slami Bank started in 1995 with the said principles in mind and to introduce a modern  banking system based on Al-Quran and Sunnah. Al-Arafah Bank is one of the markets leading bank in the banking sector and it has already proved its presence and contribution in the socioeconomic prospect. For the economic development of a country banking sector plays a vital role .In this project, we briefly discuss about organizational background, mission, vision and in topic analysis we elaborate performance appraisal, training and development program and its benefit. We can conclude that to compete with other bank Al Arafah Islami Bank needs skilful employees this is achieved by the effective training program. They have passed 16 years and  today they have established their own service and Brand with much goodwill. But still they  have problems and they are lagging behind with their competitors. Finally for the betterment of the organization, we hope that if they  take the above mentione d suggestions into account, they will definitely surpass its close  competitors in the banking service. References:Al-Arafah Islami Bank Ltd. , 2012, Employees’ Service Rules 2009 Al-Arfah Islami Bank Training and Research Academy, 2012, AIBTRA training & workshops 2011 Dhaka AI-Arafah Islami Bank Ltd. , 2012, Annual Performance Report 2011 Al-Arafah Islam Bank Ltd.. , 2012, Company Overview, [online] Retrieved December 13, 2012 , from , http:// http://www. al-arafahbank. com/ Dessler, G. & Varkkey, B. , 2012, Human resource Management, Pearson, India Wikipedia, 2012, Performance evaluation, Potential benefits of PA, [online], Retrieved December 13, 2012 , from http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Performance_appraisal [pic][pic][pic] ———————– 32 – 1 –