Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Monastic spirituality in the 21st Century Essay

In the 21st Century, it could be said that monastic spirituality in an outdated concept. In the contemporary world we live in today, it has become increasingly difficult to live obedient to the Churches teaching. Some people would argue that there should be no real set of moral codes, and that the Church should not have such high authority. This contrasts to the Celtic Monks belief that â€Å"Nothing must be refused in their obedience; to be Christ’s true disciple†¦it will not be pleasing to the Lord.† In society today, people don’t see a need for a moral code. They make their own subjective decisions about what is right and wrong from them, and don’t accept religious or government law. Grove argues â€Å"People do not see the Church as having a real relevance in their everyday lives, and therefore do not recognise its authority in everyday matters.† Some sociologists have said that it is this belief that has led to religious organizations â€Å"watering down† their beliefs to accommodate many beliefs, in the hope that this would make their religion more popular. However, in actual fact this can often lead to the religious organization becoming less popular, as they may lose the devoted members, who aren’t looking for a watered down religion. Pope Benedict said that â€Å"relativism†¦does not recognise anything as being certain†¦its highest goals are one’s own ego and desire.† Relativism is the belief that concepts such as right and wrong, goodness and badness, or truth and falsehood are not definite and that they alter in different cultures and situations. It could be described as the â€Å"cherry picking† for faith. An example of this would be ignoring the rule of no contraception, for promiscuous reasons. An other common example would be the issue of sex before marriage. The Celtic monks had a huge sense of Divine Will that had to be obeyed. Saint Columbanus reminded us of this by saying â€Å"by strict obedience shall the monk show his love of God.† Many of these traits, that the monks found so admirable, have been lost in today’s society. Monks believed that community was better than the individual, and that when we do something, it should be for the sake of the community, rather than for the sake of the individual themselves. The monks saw obedience as responding to God’s call. We can see a huge lack of obedience to God by looking at the large decline in vocations in recent years. In 2008, in Dublin, only three people were ordained into the priesthood. There are many reasons for this, a main possibility being the recent scandal the Church has been involved in in recent years. In 1968, 95% of Catholics went to mass. By 2004 this amount had dropped to a mere 50% (BBC Newsline). These figures support the view that as Christians, we no longer feel compelled to be obedient to God. This can relate back to what Pope Benedict described as â€Å"The Culture of Relativism.† Another debated issue is the importance of chastity and sexuality in our society today. Saint Columbanus said â€Å"a monk’s chastity is indeed judged by his thoughts.† He said that they were not only judged by sexual relations, but by the purity of the mind, and the sexual desires that they experienced. This view contrasts greatly to the view of society today. In our modern society, people are often sexually objectified. An estimated average of 75% of prime television shows include content of a sexual nature, and in soap operas it is estimated that extra-marital sex is referred to two out of three times every hour. This is because the television company’s know that in today’s society, sex sells. It is no longer thought of as a big deal, and there has been a massive increase in sexual promiscuity. This has led to a big increase in sexually transmitted diseases, which are becoming increasingly difficult to control. It also meant a big increase in the amount of unwanted pregnancies. Unlike monastic living which promoted the selfless giving of ones self to the community, we have adopted a hedonistic, narcissistic attitude. We have become our own lust. Michael Maher points out that the standards in Celtic monasteries are â€Å"severe, particularly in the area of sexual morality†. For many today, the idea of chastity is an outdated concept and is problematic for the future of the priesthood in the Catholic Church. This would lead me to believe that in regard to this aspect of monastic life, monastic spirituality could very easily be perceived as outdated in the 21st Century. Brigid of Kildare had a preferential option for the poor. She vowed to the king of Leinster, â€Å"If I had all your wealth, I would take it and give it away to the poor,† So Brigids monastery in Kildare, became known as the â€Å"City of the poor.† Aidan of Lindesfarm also expressed solidarity to the poor, when he gave away the kings’ gift of a horse to the first beggar he met saying â€Å"Surely this son of a mare is not more important to you than that son of man.† However, the Church didn’t always share the same view. Leondardo Boff argues that â€Å"the Church became an abstract speculation removed from the original spirit of the Gospel message, and out of touch with real life.† The Church has been criticised for siding with the vested interest, and in its history has even been involved in colonisation and the removal of land from the peasantry, in its commitment to obeying the laws of the land. Richard Woods reminds us that â€Å"justice and chastity were the main hinges of Celtic social action.† This is another way, in that it could be said that monastic spirituality is an outdated concept in the 21st Century. Views that should be had today have slowly died off, and have left places worse off. However, Bishop Casadaliga reminds us that â€Å"as long as there are poor people in the world, and as long as there is a God who cares for the poor, there will be a need for a theology of Liberation.† The spirit of Liberation Theology is very much evident in Celtic Monasticism in many ways, from the care of the poor and the sinner, to the welcoming of the stranger. Hospitality was always extremely generous in the monasteries, and any stranger who came was very well looked after. In 2004, 19% of asylum seekers were allowed to find refuge in Britain, while 78% were turned away. The Celtic monks in their openness to all, especially the weakest turned no one away. This shows another way that Monastic Spirituality could be considered an outdated concept in 21st Century life. In conclusion, it would appear that Monastic Spirituality is in fact an outdated concept in 21st Century living, with our lackadaisical views on chastity and sexuality, and our selfish views on poverty, it seems that Monastic Spirituality has been lost, and I believe it would be in the Catholic Churches interest to try and retrieve some of this monastic spirit.

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Plato and Aristotle: An Analysis Essay

Determining the best form of political association was important to the ancient Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle, and each of them expressed his opinion in important works such as the Republic and Politics. In explaining, comparing, and contrasting the political philosophies of Plato and Aristotle, it is evident that each of them shared the same goal of identifying and promoting the best form of political government. They also shared in common the same philosophy regarding the origins of a political state. The State arises, Plato says through Socrates in the Republic, â€Å"out of the needs of mankind. † (Plato) Aristotle agrees, and declares that the state is a political partnership that exists for purposes of self-sufficiency as well as for the sake of living well. In other words, the State exists in order to provide for the well-being of its citizens. Aristotle expresses this in Politics when he argues, â€Å"the good life is the purpose of the city-state. † (Aristotle) Furthermore, both Aristotle and Plato agreed that Man is by nature a political animal, because he has the ability to express his thoughts about justice. Their respective analyses reflected their respect for justice, and their elevation of it to the highest priority. In the Republic, Plato defines just political rule as a system in which each interest is satisfied to the proper extent and everyone has what is theirs. The philosophers have the knowledge they want; the warriors have the honors they want; and the commoners have the goods and pleasures they want, under the enlightened guidance of philosophers and warriors. The methods of Aristotle and Plato were similar in many ways. They both utilized logic, evaluations of contemporary politics, and lengthy comparisons of various types of political rule to arrive at their conclusions. As citizens of ancient Greece, they both shared much the same outlook on society, religion, morality, and politics. They also shared similar historical perspectives, and their perceptions of contemporary events were formed through the same philosophical context. One of the contrasts between their methods is that Plato used analogies to make his points. He examined a political state by comparing the state with the human soul. Unlike Aristotle, he also used a style of approach in which he made his points through dialogues involving Socrates. He also designed an ideal state run by people he referred to as â€Å"The Guardians† which differed from Aristotle’s approach in Politics, in which style and form more closely resembled an essay or monologue. In Politics, Aristotle emphasized that correct political rule involves pursuing policies which are to the common advantage of the most people. Aristotle reasoned that rulers who placed their own interests above everyone else’s had no political legitimacy, for their tyranny brought suffering upon their own people. Aristotle described the best forms of political rule as kingship, aristocracy and polity, and described the worst forms as tyranny, oligarchy and democracy. Plato was also harshly critical of tyranny, and described it in the Republic as, â€Å"not a matter of minor theft and violence, but of wholesale plunder, sacred and profane, private or public. † (Plato) Both men’s methods involved a comprehensive analysis of the consequences of each form of rule. Aristotle criticized Democracy because its consequences were rule by the multitude, which causes injustice. He criticized Oligarchy because its consequences were rule by the wealthy, which also causes injustice; and he criticized Tyranny because its consequences were dictatorship, which again causes injustice. In terms of the merits of the citizenry, Aristotle notes that the people may collectively be the best judges of certain things, so it is justified for them to take part in deliberations. But like Plato, he feels that the common people are not qualified to share in the highest offices. Both Plato and Aristotle also agree that laws need to be made in accordance with the regime, and agree that the more just a ruler is, the more just the laws will be. Essentially, both Aristotle and Plato asserted that the goal of politics should be justice. One difference between them is that Plato believed that the best claim to rule was education and virtue, although he conceded that there is also a claim to rule based on wealth and on numbers. Another difference is that Aristotle emphasized that the most important task for a leader was to be a lawgiver, and to frame the appropriate constitution for the city-state. In Aristotle’s system, it was the leader’s duty to provide enduring laws, customs, and institutions for the citizens. According to Aristotle, once the constitution was in place, the ruler needed to take the necessary steps to maintain it, to implement reforms when he considered them necessary, and to guard against any subversion of the political system. Aristotle’s emphasis on a constitution sets him apart from Plato, who considered philosopher kingship the best form of political rule. Aristotle described a constitution as â€Å"a certain ordering of the inhabitants of the city-state,† and as â€Å"the way of life† of the citizens. (Aristotle) He also speaks of the constitution of a community as â€Å"the form of the compound† and argues that whether the community is the same over time depends on whether it has the same constitution. (Aristotle) It should be noted that despite the fact that Aristotle’s political views were influenced by Plato, he was very critical of the ideal city-state set forth in Plato’s Republic. He based his criticism on the grounds that Plato’s ideal city-state overvalued political unity, embraced a system of communism that was impractical and inimical to human nature, and neglected the happiness of the individual citizens. In contrast, in Aristotle’s view of the ideal State each and every citizen would possess moral virtue and the equipment to carry it out in practice, and thereby attain a life of excellence and complete happiness. All of the citizens would hold political office and possess private property because â€Å"one should call the city-state happy not by looking at a part of it but at all the citizens. † (Aristotle) In conclusion, the ancient Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle were both concerned with identifying and promoting the best form of political association. In works such as the Republic and Politics, they used similar methods of analysis to evaluate the best form of political rule. For Aristotle, the best form of political rule corresponded to the best way of life for a human being. Since the best way of life is living nobly and according to virtue, the best political form of rule is the one which promotes this kind of life. For Plato, the best form of political rule was Aristocracy, for it involves rule by the best people in the political community. Bibliography Aristotle. Politics. New York: Dover Publications, 2000. Plato. Republic. New York: Viking Press, 1955.

Monday, July 29, 2019

Systems in Organizations for Safety and Improvement Essay

Systems in Organizations for Safety and Improvement - Essay Example (Don Fienley). It is a fact that there is actually a medical revolution as far as medical improvements are concerned, such as fertility treatment, cancer cures, cardiac care and AIDS management are some of them to mention, on the other hand, in the United States health care system often fails to deliver on the promise of science it employs (Spear S. 79). This paper will look at some of the possible errors in this field and their remedies to prevent harm and injuries to the public. An earlier study showed that as many as 98000 people succumb to medication errors each ear in United States hospitals (Burke J). If this is the case of the health care conditions of country which leads the world in medical science, the situations in the third world can be beyond any calculations. Firstly, the medical errors include mistakes such as administering wrong dose, wrong drug or wrong time. Then, the eventualities such as misread prescription due to poor handwriting, mismanagement due to look-alike and sound-alike medicines and adverse drug reaction. Broadly, every nation and governments have made every possible step to make sure that the health care professionals are typically intelligent lot. ... The hospitals and organizations are to integrate systems to improve primary care, nursing care, medication administration and a great lot of clinical processes. All this improvements will have a direct impact on the safety, quality, efficiency, reliability and timeliness of healthcare (Spear S. 79). Improvement and understanding will only take place when the gap between the health care system and the professionals working in it will narrow. Communication Errors It is common knowledge that poor communication will lead to adverse effect and results. Unless and until all in a team becomes completely sure of the situation that must be dwelt with and work that is to be completed and who are responsible for what aspect of work, moreover, the way it should be accomplished, the chances of error will always be there. When a problem arises in between a task the best way is for everyone to work closely around the problem. 80% of errors were initiated by miscommunication, including missed communication between physicians, missing information in medical records, mishandling of patient requests and messages, inaccessible records, mislabeled specimens, misfiled or missing charts, and inadequate reminder systems (Smith Peter). Most of the communicative error will round up to one staff member's failure to inform the other staff member of a patient's condition or verbal instructions are misunderstood. Often, a subordinate is smart enough to identify the problem but bit nervous to mention it to the senior who may not give the deserved appreciation for the hard work. Lack of proper and purposeful communication often ends up in a failure to perform medical procedure properly for example placing a feeding tube into the lungs and cutting an organ

Sunday, July 28, 2019

Islam Way of Life Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Islam Way of Life - Research Paper Example Today, more than 1.75 billion people are following this religion of Islam that makes them more than twenty-four percent population of the world. Analysis (Haddad, pp. 23-25) has indicated that like other revealed religions, such as Christianity, Judaism, etc, Islam also has similar principles of ethics, equality, patience, impartiality, etc; however, Islamic way of life has been confronting a number of issues due to opposite practice of few Muslims around the globe. In other words, terrorism is one of the major issues that have resulted in wrong image of Islam in Western countries due to the concept of Jihad in Islam that actually calls Muslims to fight in the name of Allah (God); however, few uneducated Muslims took this in actual phrases and began to breed terrorism in the name of Islam. On the other hand, a huge number of Muslims in various parts of the globe are practicing their lives on the fundamental principles of Islam and consider Jihad as a fight with one’s own self for improvement rather than someone else. It has been an observation that everything passes through a face of alteration during its existence that is the true law of nature. In this regard, religions undergo the same process of continuous change. Christianity confronted such phases, and that has been same for Islam as well. According to sacred scriptures (Haddad, pp. 29-34), Islam encourages an astonishing form of unity and pluralism, and that has been one of the reasons of higher level of cultural diversity of Muslim population in different parts of the globe. In this regard, this paper is an endeavor to discuss different ways of Islamic life that will enable the readers in better understanding of this monotheistic and religion with second largest global population. Scrutiny has indicated that sixteenth century began the existence of Islam in the United States with the arrival of

Saturday, July 27, 2019

Strategic Management Aspect Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Strategic Management Aspect - Essay Example However, it should also be noted that each of these techniques has its own weaknesses and limitations. Thus, in evaluating the Loftmeister's strategic performance through the use strategic management tools, this report will also state its weaknesses and limitations. The report is organized as follows. The first section will look at the internal environment of the Loftmeister through the use of ratio analysis in order to assess its profitability. Next, the external factors in the company's environment will be looked into through the use of PESTLE analysis. The last section will present a SWOT analysis which will integrate the previous analyses. Financial ratio analysis is a very essential tool in assessing the financial health of a business entity. Specifically, it enables a financial analyst to spot trends in a business and to compare it with the performance of similar business enterprises within the same industry. Financial ratios are grouped into four categories, each showing a different aspect of a company's financial operations. These are profitability ratios, financial leverage ratios and liquidity/solvency, and activity ratios. Due to the limited availability of data, this report will only look at Loftmeister's profitability ratios from 2001-2004. Profitability ratios measure the ability of the company to generate income from its investments less the costs incurred. The gross profit margin ratio tells us the profit a business makes on its cost of sales, or cost of goods sold. The computed operating profit margin, which is the ratio of operating income to sales measures as a percentage of sales, the excess revenue from sales over cost of normal operation excluding financing. (Analyzing Company Reports 2005). Logically, higher profitability ratios indicate a healthier financial condition. The table above shows the computed profitability ratios of the Loftmeiser Plc from 2001-2004. It should be noted that both gross profit and operating profit margins are declining through the years. The company's gross profit margin declined by 9% during the five year period attributing to the rise in the demand for lower margin off-trade products coupled with the decline of higher margins on-trade offerings. On the other hand, operating profit margin also slid by 10% indicating Loftmeiser's inefficient cost management. Financial ratios are commonly used to assess the financial performance of a business organization. However, this type of analysis is limited only in evaluating the financial aspect of a company and not the whole industry. Financial analysis should always be accompanied by benchmarking in order to fully determine how each industry player fared during the financial year. It should be noted that numbers don't tell all and attention should also be focused on other relevant qualitative issues in the market. PESTLE Analysis PESTLE analysis stands for Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, and Environmental. This strategic management tool is noted for its ability to capture almost all the variables in the environment where the business

Friday, July 26, 2019

Healthcare finance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Healthcare finance - Essay Example Once this is understood, the organization can accurately assess the profitability of each sector, clinical management, service lines or provider relationships in order to ensure growth in revenues and scalability (Glaser & Sett). Performance of each subsector can then be analyzed hence given room for improvement. To lower costs and enhance efficiency, there is need to revise networks in order to enhance coordination across health care services delivery. Accessibility of health care records to a greater amount of staff, physicians and clinicians is vital to ensure the speed of delivery and determine the individual cost of services offered. All these can be achieved through technology. Over the past, Electronic health records, revenue cycle management and costing systems have been operating individually, hence the high cost of delivering health care services. Since relevant technology started creeping in, from the integration of data storage facilities with the internet, the flow of information has been quick and accessible at numerous places at a one moment (Glaser & Sett). When health care data is recorded and coupled with time stamps, cost can be recorded instantly and bills can be calculated faster. This data is then recorded and will be accessible anytime for

John Calvin Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

John Calvin - Research Paper Example This paper briefly analyses the life of John Calvin and his contributions to global culture. â€Å"John Calvin was born in 1509. He died in 1564. John Calvin was the son of a lawyer. He was born in Noyon, Picardy and was therefore a Frenchman† (John Calvin, n. d). John Calvin was very much interested in religious studies and initially he studied theology; however later went for law studies because of the pressure from his father. The death of his father in 1531, gave freedom to Calvin and he started to learn more about humanities and religion. â€Å"Calvin was highly critical of the abuses in the French Catholic church but he never doubted that he was God’s chosen instrument in the spiritual regeneration of the world† (John Calvin, n. d). During the period of Calvin, devotional songs with the help of musical instruments had an important role in worshipping in Roman Catholic Churches. Calvin criticized such customs and argued that such devotional songs actually di stract the concentration of the people from real worshipping. He has pointed out that Bible consists of excellent songs in psalms which should be used during worshipping in churches instead of the songs accompanied by musical instruments. â€Å"He placed great importance on the sermon. ... ed that the New Testament and baptism and the Eucharist had been created to provide Man with continual divine guidance when seeking faith (John Calvin, n. d). Roman Catholic Church teaches the people that a person can get salvation through Mass and pilgrimages. Moreover, Roman Catholics believed or still believe that saints can help people immensely for getting salvation. In most of the Roman Catholic churches, saints are getting almost similar recognition as Jesus Christ is getting. Calvin ridiculed these beliefs and customs and pointed out that such beliefs are against the teachings of God or Bible. He has declared that according to the teachings of Bible, a person can attain salvation only through the belief in Jesus Christ. No other short cuts may help a person in getting salvation. Calvinism was a belief that was dependent on the strength of the individual. You controlled your own goodness on Earth and this depended on the strength of your inner conviction. This was a personal b elief not dependent on the whims of an individual pope or relics, indulgences etc. You may have been a reprobate in the eyes of God but you would not know this and so a person would lead a life for God to fully know him (John Calvin, n. d). Roman Catholics gave more emphasize to rituals and customs in their worshipping whereas Calvinism gave more emphasize to the strength and actions of the individual. Calvinism pointed out that ultimately the activities of an individual decides whether he may get heaven or hell. No custom or tradition alone can save a person if he commits sins and take shelter in customs or traditions for getting salvation. According to John Calvin, the most important thing in getting salvation is the belief in Jesus Christ and strict observance of the life principles

Thursday, July 25, 2019

Criminal investagation questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Criminal investagation questions - Essay Example This would have other far-reaching consequences such as undermining the deterrence objective of legal punishment. Linking the suspect with the cigarette butt would for example dilute evidence, leading to acquaintance, and therefore promoting the criminal’s future involvement in crime. I would therefore disclose ownership and explain that the cigarette smoking occurred unconsciously (Berg 33). Upon arrival at a crime scene and I am not sure if the suspect has fled, I would inform the people of my position as a security officer and ask them to obey orders. I would then ask the people to put their hands where I can see them and then frisk the people to ensure that none of them is armed. I would then record their statements. I would not assume that the suspect has fled and would not consider the people as victims until I review all of their statements. In order to protect my partner, the victims, and myself, I would frisk the five people to ensure that none is armed. This is because a victim, if present and armed, may take advantage of any of the other parties to aid

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Case Study Module 3 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Module 3 - Case Study Example Dr. MacIntyre finds that the drug Valium in the Avery Clinic was unaccounted. Despite this, her outdated records management system is unable to affirm if the drugs were physically missing. The next problem is the increasing absenteeism of her associate Stephen Saltzman. With Mr. Saltzman not working full time, the sales figures at the Avery clinic are negatively impacted. He is also not available as often as he is expected to be thus disappointing many clients. Mr. Saltzman also seems to have a poor work ethic. Dr.MacIntyre by analyzing the amount spent on tests at the Avery clinic concludes that he may not be taking the time to diagnose properly. These issues point to a bigger problem which is the poor monitoring of the Avery clinic. It is evident from the case that Dr. MacIntyre is closely involved with the Johnsonville clinic where she puts up but not so with the Avery clinic. A new branch or venture always needs close attention to be paid. (Kishel & Kishel, 2005) Leaving the Avery clinic to its own devices seems to cause of all the problems the business is facing. A cause of immediate concern is the few hours been put in Avery and poor work ethic by Mr. Saltzman at Avery. This is because the two directly influence income and customer satisfaction. The hours Mr. Saltzman is not attending to clients are all hours not spent billing. Not taking enough time to diagnose animals is poor service delivery and leads to unhappy clients. Neglecting client’s needs ruins the reputation of the business. (Scott, 1991) As a result of the problems mentioned above, other areas of the business suffer. Profitability has gone down in the Avery clinic because as a direct result of the absenteeism of Stephen Saltzman. It has gone down in Johnsonville as Dr. MacIntyre had to reduce her hours of working to travel to and from Avery to assist with the workload there. Strategic direction for the company also suffers as the lack of sufficient

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Final Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Final - Research Paper Example Erik Erikson and his Psychosocial Theory Erikson was viewed to be ‘the most important’ person to have contributed in knowing some of the developments in the early years of a man’s life. Such significant developments coincide, not just with the physical state of man being perceived as a toddler or an adult, but also with the ability of the toddler or the adult to think and act based on what a toddler, or an adult thinks. He believed that in every action man makes corresponds to an inert thinking, which was influenced by some events that had happened in the past and the culture where one belongs (Berk, 2006, p. 18; Douvan, 1997, p. 15). A prominent psychoanalyst just like Erikson, Sigmund Freud was the one who first initiated the whole idea into a study and made a point that such developments were basically driven by one’s hidden and innate pleasures that are then guided with the rationality of thinking when one becomes mature, and also by the so-called †Å"conscience† being the man’s highest thinking capability (Berk, 2006, p. 17). Consequently, Erikson’s psychosocial theory emerged when he intently thought that although Freud was correct with his notion about motivating the occurrence of man’s significant developments, those motivating factors Freud had pointed out, for Erikson, are not enough. Erikson, in his theory, had stressed the presence of a â€Å"positive† motivation, coining that it is not just the man’s sense of right or wrong, or his/her innate pleasures as a way for changes to occur, but an individual is driven to change because everyone must contribute something to the society (Berk, 2006, p. 18). The Strengths and Limitation of Psychosocial Theory Being psychoanalytic in nature, psychosocial theory suggests that to know two contrasting ideas present in every period of man’s development and identify which of the ideas are suited to the person, based on some past events, c an actually determine possible reasons why a person is acting that way or is thinking such, a strength powerful enough for a society to understand the people that it comprises (Berk, 2006, p. 19; Capps, 2012, p. 270). If Freud had identified a gradual change from birth to adolescence, it was Erikson who had pointed out such observation of Freud until the old age, making Erikson the first one to pinpoint the â€Å"lifespan† of man (Berk, 2006, p. 18). To know what one has felt when he/she was still a baby and predict the feeling when he/she gets old are part of the process of viewing one’s lifespan, another strength noteworthy to be inculcated in the hearts of people since knowing how one had lived life can lead to improving oneself. With the theory’s strengths come also its limitations. According to many authors (e.g. Cairns, 1998; Thomas, 2000; Westen & Gabbard, 1999) who have proven the point of Berk (2006), Erikson’s theory is limited to only identifyi ng the value, i.e., choosing whether a person had demonstrated â€Å"initiative† in carrying out a task when he/she was a toddler or had been guilty towards the task, and is â€Å"vague† for individuals who are interested in psychoanalysis to assess the stated values through experiments (p. 19). It is also not reliable in terms of getting numerical data (Prelinger & Zimet,

Monday, July 22, 2019

The Flesh and the Spirit Essay Example for Free

The Flesh and the Spirit Essay Anne Bradstreet’s poem â€Å"The Flesh and the Spirit† shows us the duality of man that her audience was having to deal with at the spiritual level. While this poem was written back in 1643 it still shows us as Christians what we have come from and how easy it would be to go back to a life of the â€Å"flesh†. This poem also goes about giving us details about what we should be striving for and what we have to look forward to if we strive toward the real or ultimate goals or rather possessions. The poem is written in two different parts starting with the ways and things of the flesh, that being material possessions that are for our enjoyment here on earth. The second part consists of more spiritual based â€Å"possessions† and also chastises the sister living among the earthly treasures she has laid up for herself. The poem is written in iambic tetrameter meaning that each line has a total of eight syllables. Bradstreet writes this poem full of metaphors and is very illustrative with the language that she wrote it in. Bradstreet was a Puritan and this poem is filled with religious symbolism and references that would be apparent to her readers. At the start of the poem the first sister is called â€Å"Flesh† and while this sister is very materialistic she wants her sister to enjoy some of the pleasures that she enjoys. The part of Flesh is from lines 10-37 to which she is going on about the wonders that this world has to offer. Lines like â€Å"Hast treasures there laid up in store† (16) and â€Å"Art fancy sick, or turn a sot† (18) show us that Flesh is interested in things such as the treasures and art this world has to offer. Flesh tells us that there is more gold, silver and pearls than anyone can imagine here on earth and she basically is insisting that her sister take up some of the riches that are around. The way that Flesh talks to her sister is similar to the way that Satan talked to Jesus in the wilderness. Flesh is telling Spirit all the wonderful things of this earth and tells her sister that she will be happy if she acquires some of these indulgences. This was also the case when Satan showed Jesus all the things of earth that he could have if Jesus would worship him. There are even some apparent sins that Flesh tries to temp Spirit with such as in line â€Å"And trophies to thy name erect† (27).This line in the poem is basically the temptation to worship idols. This notion is backed up by the previous line â€Å"As some of their immortal fame† (26) suggests that people are worshiping these trophies. Flesh’s final statement â€Å"For things unknown, only in mind† is almost a taunt to her sister because she knows what her sister has or is working towards is for her heavenly life. That line basically tells Spirit that she has nothing to show for her life and what she claims to have is all imaginary. This is something that Jesus was faced with throughout his time here on earth from the time that he was in the desert to the cross Jesus had to have faith in what he was doing was going to get Him and us a heavenly life with nothing to show for it here on earth. The second part of this poem is what Spirit has to say to her sister about the things she was told to get and what she has been working for all her life. Much like Jesus in the wilderness telling Satan to get away from him, Spirit tells flesh to leave her alone and not tempt her with these worldly things, â€Å"Disturb no more my settled heart† (38). In lines 55-65 Spirit is telling Flesh that the things that Flesh finds appealing are things that Spirit hates. Spirit is not tempted with riches or honors. She is not looking for pleasure in people worshiping her or even the gold, silver and pearls. In fact, Spirits says â€Å"My crown not diamonds, pearls, and gold/ But such as angels’ heads infold† (ll.83-84). Spirit continues rebuking Flesh about how vanity is not what is to be sought after. Spirit may not have silk garments here on earth but in heaven she will have royal robes â€Å"More glorious than the glist’ring sun† (82). Spirit tells us the difference between the places in which she and her sister are trying to accumulate their possessions for and tells us the importance of choosing the correct destination. â€Å"The city where I hope to dwell† (85) is talking about Spirits desire to live in God’s holy city and that this city, â€Å"There’s none on earth can parallel† (86), is absolutely better that the best places here on earth. Lines 87-104 is the description of the city and how the most precious gems and metals that we have here on earth are the basic building blocks for the city and its landscape. It continues telling us that there is no night and day which alludes to time no longer being a factor. Spirit also describes there being no sickness and with that no more death. This part ends with â€Å"But beauty shall be bright and clear† (104) which goes back to what Flesh trying to get Spirit to get nicer cloths and jewelry so that people would see her as attracti ve. Although Spirit and Flesh are sisters, they are very different in every aspect of life and are basic mirrors of each other showing the duality that man has with God. In lines 40-54 Spirit is describing her relationship with her sister. While they are sisters Spirit considers Flesh to be her enemy which she is constantly fighting. She continues to say that even though they are twins they don’t have the same father (figuratively). Flesh is born from old Adam, which implies that she is worldly and is looking for the things to make her time here on earth more pleasant, such as Adam did when he disobeyed God to be with Eve. Spirit says that her Father is above, giving reference that God is her father and that is why she will stay away from the things of Flesh so that she will be able to be with her Father. This poem does end on a solemn note, while Spirit has just described this amazing place where she is going to be with her Father she tells Flesh that she is not going to be there because nothing that makes Flesh happy will be there. This is a reflection of how the Puritans and even many Christians that being of this world will end up costing you the chance to see the city referenced in the poem. The poem â€Å"The Flesh and the Spirit† is indeed a poem that describes the human condition of materialism and how it can consume and impact not only the mortal lives but also the eternal lives of the human race. Humanity must decide whether or not the city that is described in the poem is worth the sacrifice of material possessions in order to gain spiritual wealth. It must decide if it want to be in a place unaffected by time, death, and disease or if it simply wants to cover up its impurities with a faà §ade that will only last a short while.

Sunday, July 21, 2019

Machine Learning in Malware Detection

Machine Learning in Malware Detection 1.0 Background Research Malware was first created in 1949 by John von Neumann. Ever since then, more and more malwares are created. Antivirus company are constantly looking for a method that is the most effective in detecting malware. One of the most famous method used by antivirus company in detecting malware is the signature based detection. But over the years, the growth of malware is increasing uncontrollably. Until recent year, the signature based detection have been proven ineffective against the growth of malware. In this research, I have chosen another method for malware detection which is implementing machine learning method on to malware detection. Using the dataset that I get from Microsoft Malware Classification Challenge (BIG 2015), I will find an algorithm that will be able to detect malware effectively with low false positive error. 1.1 Problem Statement With the growth of technology, the number of malware are also increasing day by day. Malware now are designed with mutation characteristic which causes an enormous growth in number of the variation of malware (Ahmadi, M. et al., 2016). Not only that, with the help of automated malware generated tools, novice malware author is now able to easily generate a new variation of malware (Lanzi, A. et al., 2010). With these growths in new malware, traditional signature based malware detection are proven to be ineffective against the vast variation of malware (Feng, Z. et al., 2015). On the other hand, machine learning methods for malware detection are proved effective against new malwares. At the same time, machine learning methods for malware detection have a high false positive rate for detecting malware (Feng, Z. et al., 2015). 1.2 Objective To investigate on how to implement machine learning to malware detection in order to detection unknown malware. To develop a malware detection software that implement machine learning to detect unknown malware. To validate that malware detection that implement machine learning will be able to achieve a high accuracy rate with low false positive rate. 1.3 Theoretical / Conceptual Framework 1.4 Significance With Machine Learning in Malware detection that have a high accuracy and low false positive rate, it will help end user to be free from fear malware damaging their computer. As for organization, they will have their system and file to be more secure. 2.0 Literature Review 2.1 Overview Traditional security product uses virus scanner to detect malicious code, these scanner uses signature which created by reverse engineering a malware. But with malware that became polymorphic or metamorphic the traditional signature based detection method used by anti-virus is no long effective against the current issue of malware (Willems, G., Holz, T. Freiling, F., 2007). In current anti-malware products, there are two main task to be carried out from the malware analysis process, which are malware detection and malware classification. In this paper, I am focusing on malware detection. The main objective of malware detection is to be able to detect malware in the system. There are two type of analysis for malware detection which are dynamic analysis and static analysis. For effective and efficient detection, the uses of feature extraction are recommended for malware detection (Ahmadi, M. et al., 2016). There are various type of detection method, the method that we are using will b e detecting through hex and assembly file of the malware. Feature will be extracted from both hex view and assembly view of malware files. After extracting feature to its category, all category is to be combine into one feature vector for the classifier to run on them (Ahmadi, M. et al., 2016). For feature selection, separating binary file into blocks to be compare the similarities of malware binaries. This will reduce the analysis overhead which cause the process to be faster (Kim, T.G., Kang, B. Im, E.G., 2013). To build a learning algorithm, feature that are extracted with the label will be undergo classification with using any classification method for example Random Forest, Neural Network, N-gram, KNN and many others, but Support Vector Machine (VCM) is recommended for the presence of noise in the extracted feature and the label (Stewin, P. Bystrov, I., 2016). As to generate result, the learning model is to test with dataset with label to generate a graph which indicate detec tion rate and false positive rate. To find the best result, repeat the process using many other classification and create learning model to test on the same dataset. The best result will the one graph that has the highest detection rate and lowest false positive rates (Lanzi, A. et al., 2010). 2.2 Dynamic and Static Analysis Dynamic Analysis runs the malware in a simulated environment which usually will be a sandbox, then within the sandbox the malware is executed and being observe its behavior. Two approaches for dynamic analysis that is comparing image of the system before and after the malware execution, and monitors the malware action during the execution with the help of a debugger. The first approach usually give a report which will be able to obtain similar report via binary observation while the other approach is more difficult to implement but it gives a more detailed report about the behavior of the malware (Willems, G., Holz, T. Freiling, F., 2007). Static Analysis will be studying the malware without executing it which causing this method to be more safe comparing to dynamic analysis. With this method, we will dissemble the malware executable into binary file and hex file. Then study the opcode within both file to compare with a pre-generated opcode profile in order to search for malicious code that exist within the malware executable (Santos, I. et al., 2013). All malware detection will be needed either Static Analysis or Dynamic Analysis. In this paper, we will be focusing on Static Analysis (Ahmadi, M. et al., 2016). This is because, Dynamic analysis has a drawback, it can only run analysis on 1 malware at a time, making the whole analysis process to take a long time, as we have many malware that needed to be analysis (Willems, G., Holz, T. Freiling, F., 2007). As for Static Analysis, it mainly uses to analyze hex code file and assembly code file, and compare to Dynamic Analysis, Static Analysis take much short time and it is more convenient to analyze malware file as it can schedule to scan all the file at once even in offline (Tabish, S.M., Shafiq, M.Z. Farooq, M., 2009). 2.3 Features Extraction For an effective and efficient classification, it will be wise to extract feature from both hex view file and assembly view file in order to retrieve a complementary date from both hex and assembly view file (Ahmadi, M. et al., 2016). Few types of feature that are extracted from the hex view file and assembly view file, which is N-gram, Entropy, Image Representative, String Length, Symbol, Operation Code, Register, Application Programming Interface, Section, Data Define, Miscellaneous (Ahmadi, M. et al., 2016). For N-gram feature, it usually used to classify a sequence of action in different areas. The sequence of malware execution could be capture by N-gram during feature extraction (Ahmadi, M. et al., 2016).   For Entropy feature, it extracts the probability of uncertainty in a series of byte in the malware executable file, these probability of uncertainty is depending on the amount of information on the executable file (Lyda, R.,Hamrock, J,. 2007). For Image Representative feature, the malware binary file is being read into 8-bit vector file, then organize into a 2D array file. The 2D array file can be visualize as a black and gray image whereas grey are the bit and byte of the file, this feature look fo r common in bit arrangement in the malware binary file (Nataraj, L. et al., 2011). For String Length feature, we open each malware executable file and view it in hex view file and extract out all ASCII string from the malware executable, but because it is difficult to only extract the actual string without extract other non-useful element, it is required to choose important string among the extracted (Ahmadi, M. et al., 2016). For Operation Code features, Operation code also known as Opcode are a type of instruction syllable in the machine language. In malware detection, different Opcode and their frequency is extracted and to compare with non-malicious software, different set of Opcodes are identifiable for either malware or non-malware (Bilar, D., n.d.). For Register feature, the number of register usage are able to assist in malware classification as register renaming are used to make malware analysis more difficult to detect it (Christodorescu, M., Song, D. Bryant, R.E., 2005). For Application Programming Interface feature, API calling are code that call the function of other software in our case it will be Windows API. There are large number of type of API calls in malicious and non-malicious software, is hard to differentiate them, because of this we will be focusing on top frequent used API calls in malware binaries in order to bring the result closer (Top maliciously used apis, 2017). For Data Define feature, because not all of malware contains API calls, and these malware that does not have any API calls they are mainly contain of operation code which usually are db, dw, dd, there are sets of features (DP) that are able to define malware (Ahmadi, M. et al., 2016). For Miscellaneous feature, we choose a few word that most malware have in common from the malware dissemble file (Ahmadi, M. et al., 2016). Among so many feature, the most appropriate feature for our research will be N-gram, and Opcode. This is because it is proven that there two feature have the highest accuracy with low logloss. This two feature appears frequently in malware file and it already have sets of well-known features for malware. But the drawback using N-gram and Opcode are they require a lot of resource to process and take a lot of time (Ahmadi, M. et al., 2016). We will also try other feature to compare with N-gram and Opcode to verified the result. 2.4 Classification In this section, we will not review about the algorithm or mathematical formula of a classifier but rather their nature to able to have advantage over certain condition in classifying malware feature. The type of classifier that we will review will be Nearest Neighbor, NaÃÆ' ¯ve Bayes, Decision tree, Support Vector Machine and XGBOOST [21] (Kotsiantis, S.B., 2007) (Ahmadi, M. et al., 2016). As we need a classifier to train our data with the malware feature, we will need to review the classifier to choose the most appropriate classifier that are able to have the best result. The Nearest Neighbor classifier are one of the simplest method for classifying and it is normally implement in case-based reasoning [21]. As for NaÃÆ' ¯ve Bayes, it usually generates simply and constraint model and not suitable for irregular data input, which make it not suitable for malware classification because that the data in malware classification are not regular (Kotsiantis, S.B., 2007). For Decision Tree, it classify feature by sorting them into tree node base on their feature values and each branch represent the node value. Decision Tree will determine either try or false based on node value, which make it difficult to dealt with unknown feature that are not stored in tree node (Kotsiantis, S.B., 2007). For Support Vector Machine, it has a complexity model which enable it to deal with lar ge amount of feature and still be able to obtain good result from it, which make it suitable for malware classification as malware contains large number of feature (Kotsiantis, S.B., 2007). For XGBOOST, it is a scalable tree boosting system which win many machine learning competition by achieving state of art result. The advantage for XGBOOST, it is suitable for most of any scenario and it run faster than most of other classification technique (Chen, T., n.d.). To choose a Classification for our malware analysis, we will be choosing XGBOOST, as it is suitable for malware classification, it also recommended by winner from Microsoft Malware Classification Challenge (Ahmadi, M. et al., 2016). But we will also use Support Vector Machine, as it too is suitable for malware classification and we will use it to compare the result with XGBOOST to get a more accurate result. References   Ahmadi, M. et al., 2016. Novel Feature Extraction, Selection and Fusion for Effective Malware Family Classification. ACM Conference on Data and Application Security and Privacy, pp.183-194. Available at: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2857705.2857713. Amin, M. Maitri, 2016. A Survey of Financial Losses Due to Malware. Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Information and Communication Technology for Competitive Strategies ICTCS 16, pp.1-4. Available at: http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=2905055.2905362. Berlin, K., Slater, D. Saxe, J., 2015. Malicious Behavior Detection Using Windows Audit Logs. Proceedings of the 8th ACM Workshop on Artificial Intelligence and Security, pp.35-44. Available at: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2808769.2808773. Feng, Z. et al., 2015. HRSà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¯: A Hybrid Framework for Malware Detection. , (10), pp.19-26. Han, K., Lim, J.H. Im, E.G., 2013. Malware analysis method using visualization of binary files. Proceedings of the 2013 Research in Adaptive and Convergent Systems, pp.317-321. Kim, T.G., Kang, B. Im, E.G., 2013. Malware classification method via binary content comparison. Information (Japan), 16(8 A), pp.5773-5788. Kà ¼Ãƒ §Ãƒ ¼ksille, E.U., Yalà §Ãƒâ€žÃ‚ ±nkaya, M.A. Uà §ar, O., 2014. Physical Dangers in the Cyber Security and Precautions to be Taken. Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Security of Information and Networks SIN 14, pp.310-317. Available at: http://dl.acm.org.proxy1.athensams.net/citation.cfm?id=2659651.2659731. Lanzi, A. et al., 2010. AccessMiner: Using System-Centric Models for Malware Protection. Proceedings of the 17th ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security CCS10, pp.399-412. Available at: http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1866353%5Cnhttp://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=1866307.1866353. Nicholas, C. Brandon, R., 2015. Document Engineering Issues in Document Analysis. Proceedings of the 2015 ACM Symposium on Document Engineering, pp.229-230. Available at: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2682571.2801033. Patanaik, C.K., Barbhuiya, F.A. Nandi, S., 2012. Obfuscated malware detection using API call dependency. Proceedings of the First International Conference on Security of Internet of Things SecurIT 12, pp.185-193. Available at: http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84879830981partnerID=tZOtx3y1. Pluskal, O., 2015. Behavioural Malware Detection Using Efficient SVM Implementation. RACS Proceedings of the 2015 Conference on research in adaptive and convergent systems, pp.296-301. Santos, I. et al., 2013. Opcode sequences as representation of executables for data-mining-based unknown malware detection. Information Sciences, 231, pp.64-82. Stewin, P. Bystrov, I., 2016. Detection of Intrusions and Malware, and Vulnerability Assessment, Available at: http://dblp.uni-trier.de/db/conf/dimva/dimva2012.html#StewinB12. Willems, G., Holz, T. Freiling, F., 2007. Toward automated dynamic malware analysis using CWSandbox. IEEE Security and Privacy, 5(2), pp.32-39. Tabish, S.M., Shafiq, M.Z. Farooq, M., 2009. Malware detection using statistical analysis of byte-level file content. Proceedings of the ACM SIGKDD Workshop on CyberSecurity and Intelligence Informatics CSI-KDD 09, pp.23-31. Available at: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=1599272.1599278. Lyda, R.,Hamrock, J,. 2007.Using Entropy Analysis to Find Encrypted and Packed Malware. Nataraj, L. et al., 2011. Malware Imagesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¯: Visualization and Automatic Classification. Bilar, D., Statistical Structuresà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¯: Fingerprinting Malware for Classification and Analysis Why Structural Fingerprintingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¯? Christodorescu, M., Song, D. Bryant, R.E., 2005. Semantics-Aware Malware Detection. Top maliciously used apis. https: //www.bnxnet.com/top-maliciously-used-apis/, 2017. Weiss, S.M. Kapouleas, I., 1989. An Empirical Comparison of Pattern Recognition , Neural Nets , and Machine Learning Classification Methods. , pp.781-787. Kotsiantis, S.B., 2007. Supervised Machine Learningà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¯: A Review of Classification Techniques. , 31, pp.249-268. Chen, T., XGBoostà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¯: A Scalable Tree Boosting System.

The Purpose Of A Movie Analysis Film Studies Essay

The Purpose Of A Movie Analysis Film Studies Essay Film analysis is an important part of understanding films although this is overlooked by many people. There are various elements of films which are brought together to give the final outcome and enable the audience grasp the story. Some of these elements are very visible such as actors while others may not be clear such as the theme of the movie. Elements in films include actors, storyline, images, motion, time, background sound, composition, sequence, lighting and others (King, 2002). These elements usually undergo processes such as filming and editing among others. The overall quality of the elements and processing techniques in totality determines the success of a film. It is important to analyze all elements which are brought together in a film in order to assess the effectiveness of the film in achieving the objectives of the producers. This is also important since it helps explain why some films are more successful than others. This paper will discuss how movie analysis is done and how meaning is found in a film and how to interpret it. My personal criteria used in movie evaluation will also be discussed in the paper. The discussed issues will be summarized at the end of the paper. How to analyze an entire movie There are various strategies used when analyzing movies. Different movie analysts use different criteria although there are various elements which form the basis of movie analysis. This section of the paper will discuss how a movie is analyzed and the various aspects which are assessed during movie analysis. Effectiveness of storyline and dialog This is one important aspect of a movie used in analyzing the overall success of a movie. The storyline creates a platform for development of the movie. In a successful storyline, the audience should be able to easily relate with the theme and dialog between characters in the movie (Pollick, 2011). Successful movies use scenarios and dialog which actors are comfortable with. This makes it easier to convey the storyline to the audience. Movies which are considered less successful use scenarios and dialog which constrict the actors and make it difficult to convey the storyline. Less successful movies feature obscene language or poor conveyance of thought in a manner in which thoughts appear to be from the screenwriter as opposed to the character. A movie analyst asks themselves whether the dialog appeared to honest or whether there was a logical progression of scenes. The analyst should further ask themselves whether all scenes necessary to effectively give the storyline were present. Finally, they should assess whether the movie had any dialog or language which made it impossible to effectively understand the movie. These are basic questions which guide movie analysts when assessing whether dialog and the storyline in a movie are effective. Set pieces and background In any movie, the background plays a very important role in presenting the storyline and movie in general to the audience. The role pf photography in a movie is to enhance the characters and make the storyline more realistic to audiences under the circumstances. There is need to develop a proper atmosphere when presenting a movie to an audience. In order to analyze whether the set pieces and background is effective for the movie, one should ignore dialog and the actors for a brief duration. During this time, a movie analyst should assess the costumes used, sets, scenery, colors and shapes which have been used in the film. These elements are used to create the desired ambience or mood. In addition, the use of darkness and light as well as fog and shadow should not be overlooked since these play an important role in producing background effects. However, all these elements should be used sparingly and they should not overwhelm viewers. In general, the analyst should ask themselves whet her the background used distracted his or her to the storyline or whether it complemented the storyline. Performance of actors This is another major aspect which dictates the success or failure of a movie. Performance of actors should be judged both when they are acting in the main action and even when they are part of the background. In successful movies, actors roles push forward the plot of the movie or assist audiences develop particular characters in their minds. They should be judged even when they are part of the background since the audience feels the presence of such actors. Actors chosen should fit into the roles they play and they should complement each other as opposed to competing against each other. They should also portray the emotions which accompany the roles they play in different scenes in order to make the film appear realistic to the audience. When a film analyst is analyzing performance of actors, she or he should ask themselves whether actors fit into the roles they played and whether they complemented the parts played by other actors. They should also ask themselves whether their perf ormance made the movie more realistic to the audience or not. Editing This is one of the most important processes which any film undergoes. In fact, most critics are of the opinion that significant work in any movie begins at the editing stage. There are many movies which have good storylines and actors but they fail to capture the audience due to poor editing. Such movies feature many scenes which do not add to the plot or have those which are important left out. Others have poor editing techniques and audiences are exposed to obvious mistakes every time there is a transition to a new scene. Editing of movies should be done in a professional manner in which the audience is unable to notice any edited parts. When a film analyst is analyzing a movie, he or she should look for confusing parts especially when transiting to new scenes. He or she should also look for the synchronization between actors words and actions in order to judge the success of the editing process. In movies which have action scenes, these scenes should gradually build to climax with out losing the captivation and interest of the audience. Successful movies flow smoothly between scenes which gradually develop the theme or plot of the story. Directors fingerprints Most directors have distinct styles which characterize movies they produce. Directors understand the scriptwriters intentions, actors skills and how the crew operates. Due to this reasons, films usually leave a signature which is unique to directors. After a film is completed, it should have the feel and look of the director who directed the movie. In order to assess the directors signature in a movie, the analyst should research previous movies done by the directors and any distinct styles which she or he uses. The analyst should also analyze the reputation which the director has from the perspective of other directors and filmmakers. Signature elements which are unique to directors include edgy dialog, familiar actors, creative background music or unique camera perspectives and angles. These elements assist a film analyst to analyze a movie and conclude whether it was successful or not. How to find and interpret meaning in movies Finding and interpreting meaning in movies is usually challenging to audiences especially if the film is of low quality. Many people watch a movie and wonder what its theme or meaning was after it is over. However, there are various techniques which may be used to find meaning and some of them will be discussed below; Analyzing how characters react to conflict This is a common approach which should be used by analyst when finding meaning in movies. Many movies have simple concepts at the face level but once someone analyzes how characters react to conflict with other characters or events, it becomes clear the meaning or theme of the movie. Conflict in movies is usually represented as dramatic action or dialog. Dramatic action should be interpreted by watching characters actions in order to expose underlying meaning (Hagener TÃ ¶teberg, 2002). Action is usually interpreted through analyzing the unspoken. When searching for meaning, the changes which characters undergo as a result of experiencing conflict, exposes the underlying meaning in movies. Changes on the main character throughout the movie This is a similar approach to finding meaning in movies. It involves analyzing the character of the main actor at the beginning of the movie and at the end in order to view any changes which they may have experienced. Main characters usually change after experiencing certain events within the movie. They are usually faced with challenges and experiences which require decision making and choices. These decisions and choices change the character of the actor. Understanding the changes which occur to the main character and the factors which influenced these changes will enable a movie analyst to find meaning in film. Personal experiences There is consensus among many directors that movies may have different meaning to different people based on experiences. Some people may have different interpretations of the same movie based on experiences they have. In order to find meaning, the audience may therefore be forced to analyze their personal experiences and relate them to the movie. Many movies feature themes which relate to social norms and experiences and it is therefore easy for a movie analyst to find meaning within his or her experiences in society. Cultural influences Every film is based on a certain culture which may be real or fictional. Particular characters in the film either follow such cultures or rebel against them. This is the basis of creation of a villain and hero within the movie. When the actions of characters in the totality of the film are assessed based on the popular culture in the film, it is possible to derive meaning from the film. The presence of villains and heroes who either follow or rebel against the prevailing culture drives an analyst in finding meaning of the movie. This strategy works both for fictional or real life acts. Analyzing contradictions within the film Finally, another effective way of understanding meaning of film is through analyzing contradictions inherent in the movie. The major elements of a film include sound, editing, cinematography, settings, theme, character and narrative. By studying any contradiction which may be present between these elements, one can derive meaning from film. For instance, contradictions between actors actions and words or between soundtracks and images may present a deeper meaning in film. My personal criteria for evaluating movies When evaluating movies, there are certain steps which I follow and some of them are included in the strategies which have been discussed above. The first step involves watching the movie carefully and patiently in order to understand the storyline. This should be the first objective of any film analyst since the storyline provides the basis for analyzing a movie. Understanding the storyline involves connecting the sub-plots and scenes together in order to develop one overall story. After watching the film, the second step is finding meaning. I believe that any effective film analyst should first understand meaning of a film before he or she gives an opinion of whether it was successful or not. In order to understand meaning in film, I usually use two strategies. The first involves studying the behavioral changes in the main actor as a result of experiences in the movie. The choices and decisions made as a result of experiences which in turn alter their character is an effective way of understanding meaning. The second strategy involves analyzing the cultural influences on characters. The behavior of characters in the context of the dominant culture in the movie has helped me interpret meaning in film. Finally, any experiences which I may have relating to the storyline also help me in finding meaning of a movie. After understanding meaning of a movie, the third step is assessing the effectiveness of the various elements of the film. These include the sound, editing, cinematography, settings, theme, character and narrative. I usually analyze all these elements independently and judge whether they were effectively used or not. I also analyze the connection between various elements in order to make the overall movie. I usually use the guidelines which have been discussed in the paper when analyzing the elements. After this analysis, I consider the elements, storyline and theme of the film in totality, in order to give an opinion on whether a film was successful or not. I consider a film to be successful its storyline is interesting, theme relevant and if all elements have been effectively used in developing the movie. Summary and conclusion Various aspects of film analysis have been discussed in the paper. Film analysis involves analyzing film elements, the storyline and theme in order to develop a conclusion of the success of the movie. In order to effectively analyze a movie, various elements are assessed and these include effectiveness of storyline and dialog, set pieces and background, performance of actors, editing and the directors fingerprints. These elements should all be interlinked and they should flow to give the movie a clear storyline. In order to find meaning in movies, various factors are analyzed and these include analysis of how characters react to conflict, changes on the main character throughout the movie, personal experiences, cultural influences and analysis of contradictions within the film. Meaning and effectiveness of elements used should be taken in totality when determining the success of a movie. However, one should be careful when finding meaning since different people may have different mea nings to the same movie due to different cultural experiences.

Saturday, July 20, 2019

Analysis of the UK Approach to Work Training and Skills Essay -- uk wor

Training and skills shortages have been a concern to industry and part of the national debate since pre-war years, resulting in many schemes and approaches by successive governments to confront these challenges over the years (Keep, 2012).Indeed political parties, trade unions and employers regardless of political affiliation agree that training and skills are essential components of economic success and competitiveness (Grugulis, 2007).Governance of the skills and training system in the UK is overseen by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, (BIS) which is a government department, partnered with the Skills Funding Agency, whose role is to fund and promote adult further education and skills training in England. Although, the Government Department aims to improve the Quality and efficiency in training and skills there are no regulations to support the actions. This essay will analyse the UK approach to work training and skills in view of current data and in comparison t o specific countries Despite the various frameworks and initiatives by successive Governments, the UK has traditionally led a voluntarist market based approach to training, hence, it is left to individual employers whether they train their staff or not, with Governments attempting instead over the years to address skills shortages by policy innovation and the provision of infrastructures for the supply of skills (Gold et al, 2013). This approach favoured by the UK is based on assumptions of free market principles, that organisations are more competitive and efficient and can target training needs effectively to their needs. (Redman et Al, 2009).Although, it could be argued that the UK in setting up frameworks and initiatives are seeking to influence... ... (2013), UK Commissions Employer Skills Survey Results 2013, [Online] Available: http://www.ukces.org.uk/assets/ukces/docs/publications/ukces-employer-skills-survey-13-executive-summary-81.pdf [Accessed 20/02/2014] Saks, A. M. & Haccoun, R. R. 2010. Managing Performance Through Training and Development, Nelson Education. Simon Smith, Peter Stokes, John Wilson, (2014) "Exploring the impact of Investors in People: A focus on training and development, job satisfaction, and awareness of the Standard", Employee Relations, Vol. 36 Iss: 3 Stewart, J. & Rogers, P. 2012. Developing People and Organisations, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Telegraph, (2014) Apprentices are for life, not just for this week. [Online] Available:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/10679733/Apprentices-are-for-life-not-just-for-this-week.html [Accessed 01/003/2014]

Friday, July 19, 2019

Traditional Values :: Personal Narrative

Traditional Values Traditional values can sometimes sway us to do wrong things parallel to our own personal beliefs. People, places, and things shape these values and cause us to surrender to situations that neither influence nor hold our interest. This is a scary concept: What if one of these situations put our life or someone else’s life in danger? This is a question that crossed my mind when I thought about conformity in my life. One memory in particular involves my football team. As did Langston Hughes in his experience with conformity, I too felt pressure from my peers to do something I didn’t want to do. During my sophomore year, my teammates wanted to take part in hazing a younger freshman football player. They asked me to help them take all of his equipment out of his locker, find him, and beat him up. This went against my personal beliefs. In no way did I want to take part in something that had to do with the humiliation of another teammate. Also, when I was younger, I had to go through the same thing, and it hurt me deeply. Then and now, I looked at my own embarrassment as something I don’t ever want to see someone else go through. Before I gave my answer to my teammates, other consequences rolled through my head; hazing is illegal, and if convicted, the offender would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I was doing well both on and off the field, so why mess it up? So I devised a plan. I would agree to help my teammates, but I would also agree to help the young freshman find his equipment and help him elude a vicious beat-down. â€Å"Well are you gonna help us or not?† the quarterback of my team impatiently asked.â€Å"Yeah sure†¦Ã¢â‚¬  I said, â€Å"Just let me take care of everything ‘cause I really don’t like this kid.† He looked at me and smiled. â€Å"There you go, Taylor!† He turned to the posse of football players, â€Å"We got a sophomore that’s stepp’n up!† It was like I killed two birds with one stone and saved both my butt and the kid’s in one throw.

Google vs. Msn Essay example -- Computers Internet Web Essays

Google vs. Msn One of the wonderful things about the internet is how it makes life much easier if the information can be found in the convenience of the home instead of going to a library and making a day out of it. This is especially true if the internet offers updated information as soon as it happens were as a library may only update a few things every week or month at a time. It is truly remarkable how much information can be found and because of this it isn’t unbelievable that more and more people are using the internet instead of going to a library or using another service the internet can offer them. However, without organization and direction information is useless. Search engines offer this stepping stone by storing all the data in a manor that is searchable. Two of the major search engines are Google.com and Msn.com. Both offer great search engines and services, but have different styles and appeal to different audiences looking for different things. At first glance it may appear Msn is better than Google because it offers much more links than Google does. However, a text box and a button is basically all the user needs to search for what s/he is looking for, everything else is extra. Therefore Google has the right idea; short and sweet. If the page is any more complicated then the user may not be good enough at a computer to figure out what to do, and a good computer user can certainly use it as well. Another thing that is very important about this is the more detail and pictures on a web page makes the web page take longer to load. Because of this users with a slow connection to the internet may have trouble getting around the web site if it takes them a minute or more to load each web page... ...e, so a search result with the same key words could return different results every time the user attempts to find the same thing. To make matters worst LookSmart isn’t the only search engine they use either. They use Teoma, Inktomi, and Overture as well, which have other ways of charging the web masters. Looking back, it seems Google has a simple search engine, but a much more effective one than Msn. Although Google offers a nice search engine it doesn’t have as many services as Msn and so the user may not come to the site because they can get more done on Msn without moving around much. It is clear Msn and Google use very different styles to present different users with what they are looking for and do a very good job of pulling it off. With Google and Msn at the user’s finger tips there is no longer need for a libraries or newspapers, to name a few.

Thursday, July 18, 2019

Mask Poor Communication

Assignment One: Miscommunication April Sherrod COM 200 Interpersonal Communication Terrance Frazier May 21, 2012 I agree with the article provided â€Å"Close Relationships Sometimes Mask Poor Communication† because I have had plenty of encounters with my loved ones where I was meaning one thing and they were interpreting what I said a completely different way and thinking I meant something totally different from what I actually meant. Have you ever had a miscommunication with someone close to you simply because you assumed that they understood you?What happened? When it comes to having miscommunication with someone, my fiance and I should receive an â€Å"A† all the time. The miscommunication we have can be as simple as me telling him to go to the store and get me a soda and be meaning for him to get a Dr. Pepper and he will come back with a coke. However we have had more serious altercations over miscommunication than a run to the store. The most recent altercation we have had over miscommunication was over whether or not to accept a car my parents were trying to give us as a gift.When telling him of this car, I had told him that there was still a little over $2000 owed on this car, I also told him that they said they would finish paying it off to help pay off a debt they had owed us. He completely misunderstood me and thought I was telling him we were going to make the payments ourselves, which he was completely fine with; however he isn’t fine with my parents making payments on something that we are going to be using.In the end before I had re-explained how things were going to take place, he disagreed with us getting the car because he thought that they were just simply going to make the payments and also pay us back what they owed us from a previous encounter when they had borrowed some money. I ended up re-explaining things to him and told him that what he thought wasn’t the case that they were only going to pay off the car, n ot pay off the car and pay off the debt.So now that he knows what exactly is going to happen, he has agreed with letting them pay off the car and giving it to us. How can you make sure that this kind of miscommunication does not happen in the future? Or when it does happen, what could you do to make your communication more clear? Miscommunication will always happen, however I could take actions to make sure my point is across and that everything I say is understood the exact way I say it and not the way my fiance interprets it would be by asking him what he thinks I meant before ending the conversation.References Close Relationships Sometimes Mask Poor Communication, January 24, 2011 http://health. usnews. com/health-news/family-health/brain-and-behavior/articles/2011/01/24/close-relationships-sometimes-mask-poor-communication Sole, K. (2011). Making connections: Understanding interpersonal communication. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. https://content. ashford. edu/books /AUCOM200. 11. 1

Wednesday, July 17, 2019

MBA leadership and organisational behaviour at W L Gore

Abstr constituteThis analyze caters an exploration of directinghip and organic lawal behavioural issues at W L pierce Company, which is the UK offshoot of a renowned US friendship. The existence portion of the paper includes details close to the friendships procedure and scope perseverance get dressedting. Moreover, the paper focuses on trinity major paradigms that argon discussed in the publications review, such as heed and leadinghip, motivating, multitudes and roots, and rooting leadership. Once these concepts atomic number 18 endueed, the researcher moves onto a critical abridgment of how these paradigms be employ in the judicatureal context of gore. The paper concludes with a summary of major culminations drawn from the miscue study of bloodbath and recommendations to improve the part in the company.Introduction and Context backgroundW L bloodletting has emerged as a company which succeeded to brinytain extravagantly consummation i n the service indus emphasise regarding the manu accompanimenturing of control panel-Tex. The unique physical body of black market shaping is designed to support employee creativity and persona (Gore authorized Website, 2014). As a egress of the transformation of traditional circumspection principles, Gores dispensers and leaders micturate authentic a quite a mod program for the company. Delivering continuous foundation garment inwardly the ecesis has set out the primary principle of direct and communicating (Gilbreath and Karimi, 2012). Moreover, it has been accentd that the company has use rules of transp arncy and fairness (Gore prescribed Website, 2014).It is plain that police squads ar changing constantly, which means that the geological formation sufficiently implements a vision of variety show. The operate teams argon kept sm both(prenominal) be intellectual this is considered an curb schema to address the individual use upfully of each sta keholder (Gore official Website, 2014). Team members at Gore argon escaped to adjudicate their fair games that argon aligned with the organisations core values and perpetration. Therefore, leaders and organisational behaviour is properly developed at this company. The mod piddle organisation of Gore implies that leaders atomic number 18 constantly working to wed a culture of noblely innovative and conciliatory principles of operation (Luthans and Youssef, 2007). Each employee in the organisation has a clear location of hold on aparted fibers and responsibilities, and this contributes to better organisational work.The concepts that atomic number 18 apply to analyse the sideslip study of Gore refer to vigilance and lead, indigence, themes and teams, and sorting lead. These paradigms are found useful in the intelligence of leaders and organisational behaviour issues at bottom the selected organisation (Gilbreath and Karimi, 2012). The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of how the paradigms of perpetration and leadership, motive and theme leadership female genitals be applied in the context of Gore (Lian and Tui, 2012). A section of literature review is included in order to expand individual perspectives into requisite leadership and organisational behavioural issues determine in the company. In addition, the paper critic on the wholey discusses the cover of these three historic theories to the case of the company.In an attempt to set the context of the case study, it is commutation to clarify that Gore is the UK leg of a US multi-national company that specialises in the manufacturing of the Gore-Tex textile. This is the product for which the company is widely cognize nearly the world (Rehman and Afsar, 2012). Moreover, Gore indicates a committedness to obtainth various products for next-generation electronics, for medical examination implants and for innovative fabrics (Gilbreath and Karimi, 2012). The unique blood parameter strategy adopted by the company illustrates its fealty to innovation which is obvious in on the whole organisational forgees.Literature Review port and leadersIn the leadership maturement world, self-coloured confusion exists regarding the relationship between counselling and leadership. Many individuals run away to use these concepts in an interchange equal to(p) musical mode, while new(prenominal)s consider them as separate categories in the business plain stitch (Lian and Tui, 2012). Researchers fuck off emphasised the sine qua non that care and leadership should be balanced in contemporary organisations (Sharma and Jain, 2013). Although the two concepts do not imply the same thing, they are near linked. While managers are more presumable to focus on systems and social organisations as vigorous as administer special pro get rules and procedures, leaders are foc apply on innovation and change at bottom the organisational context. Leader s as well consider the importance of people and the development of their skills in a proper flush (Northouse, 2007). In the modern business environment, employees do not simply expect that their managers should assign them peculiar(prenominal) tasks but they excessively want a purpose pertaining to those tasks. Managers try to formulate employees in order to expand organisational capacity along with the brain to develop talents and inspire procurement (Sharma and Jain, 2013).The emergence of the cognition prole is a satisfying aspiration in most organisations. much(prenominal) change requires that employees should not be managed. It becomes apparent that the primary(prenominal) objective of combining management and leadership in companies is to lead individuals, with the utmost name and address to expand the strengths and knowledge of each employee (Rowe, 2007). heed and leadership are fundamental for the rescue of high quality products and services. A mutuals ru le has been identified in monetary value of expecting that good managers should possess adequate leadership skills, while good leaders are recognised as those professionals who need an graze of management skills to increase their strongness (Gilbreath and Karimi, 2012).leaders is more often than not establish on the concept of creating a strong nose out of mission and vision, while management refers to the idea of acquiring things done. One of the corresponds for good management utilisations is that both managers and team members should be selected on the merchant ship of merit (Sharma and Jain, 2013). The balanced involvement of individuals is an important chemical ingredient of management and leadership concepts that are applied in modern organisations. It has been argued that management is mostly about making decisions (Rowe, 2007). think is an requirement tool for both management and leadership, as professionals in these fields are expected to anticipate unplanned ev ents in a applicable manner by considering the needs and interests of solely stakeholders in business (Moynihan and Pandey, 2007). motifDemonstrating adequate knowledge of how to motivate employees in the global business world is a fundamental managerial and leadership skill. need is referred to as a set of factors that cause individuals to select specialised behavioural patterns from other alternatives (Burton, 2012). In organisations, employee performance is affected by want and the precise work environment. It quarter be suggested that motivation is a signifi nominatet determinant of performance. There are distinguishable historical views of motivation as presented in the management literature (Moynihan and Pandey, 2007). The premise of scientific management is that work average ally emerges with inherently unpleasant characteristics for the majority of employees. As a result, their income is more important than the limitedity and nature of their job. Furthermore, the mil itary personnel relations movement stressed the sham of social processes that occur in organisations (Gilbreath and Karimi, 2012). For instance, this management philosophy illustrates the principle that the individual need for constituent, importance and usefulness is more applicable than income in motivating employees (Mizuno et al., 2006).In line with the ideology of the human alternative tinter, individuals are determined to contribute to team effectiveness. Yet, organisations are required to establish a hale work environment that properly utilises all available human resources (Mizuno et al., 2006). The human resource access code is the most rele vanguardt commencees utilise by contemporary organisations regarding motivation. However, there are certain(prenominal) integrative draw neares that provide a better conceptualised view of employee motivation, such as need- backsided, process-based and documentation-based models (Burton, 2012).Need-based approaches to motiv ation mostly focus on the aspects that motivate employees to select specific behaviours among others. Initially, a certain need or wishing is identified in the organisational context, followed by drives to fill up that particular need, actions and pleasure (Morris, 2009). Maslows pecking order of needs is the most widely used need-based approach, according to which peoples motivation is driven by their willingness to satisfy quintette distinct levels of needs. These are physiological needs, sniff out of security, belongingness, esteem, and self-actualisation as the highest need in the hierarchy to be satisfied (Mizuno et al., 2006). Individuals usually relegate in cost of determine specific objectives and thus needs to meet in the process of such hierarchical organisation.Process-based approaches to motivation focus on how exactly motivation occurs in organisations. It is important to determine the way in which employees mensurate their own satisfaction once they have achi eved their goals (Moynihan and Pandey, 2007). A common process-based approach to motivation is expectancy surmisal which was introduced by Victor roar. Expectancy guess indicates that motivation along with effort leads to performance which is directly linked to outlets (University of Cambridge, n. d.). As a result, high performance whitethorn lead to high satisfaction of employees. Another process-based approach to motivation is identified as fairness theory which was developed by J. Stacy Adams (Gilbreath and Karimi, 2012). The chief(prenominal) assumption of equity theory is that upon the plectron of particular actions to satisfy employee needs, individuals tend to evaluate the equity of the expected outcome. The equity element is important to maintain principles of accountability and hydrofoil in the workplace. Equity emerges as the self-colored belief that employees are treated in a fair and transparent manner which is relative to the treatment of other individuals in th e workplace (Burton, 2012).Reinforcement-based approaches to motivation emphasise the advert of rewards on causing certain changes in individuals behaviour. For instance, such approaches are based around understanding that behaviour which arises from rewarding factors or consequences is more likely to be reiterate in the hereafter (Mizuno et al., 2006). Reinforcement contingencies glow the emergence of possible outcomes that individuals may father due to their specific choice of behaviour. Employees tend to select behaviour that prat study them immediate satisfaction and motivation to work in order to meet their ad hominem and professional goals. Moreover, there are distinguishable approaches that have been implemented to provide reinforcement which is closely associated with motivation (Morris, 2009). A fixed-interval scroll has been found useful to reinforce employees at fixed intervals of time, irrespective of behaviour. A variable-interval catalogue provides reinforce ment at various times (Gilbreath and Karimi, 2012). Regardless of the specific way of providing reinforcement, it may be indicated that this technique is considered a semiprecious system to increase employee motivation. mathematical concourses and Teams, free radical LeadershipResearch shows that effective leaders are expected to manage their responsibilities of being leaders and members of a team (Wu et al., 2010). It is important to ensure end-to-end the process that goals are realistic and measurable. It has been indicated that when groups and teams properly meld their actions, the final result is improved performance. They have distinct roles in organisations, as the point of each role corresponds to inembodiedd goals and achiever (Val and Kemp, 2012). Team processes emerge as an adequate aspect of team performance. The formation of teams is of the essence(p) to facilitate the work of the entire organisation. companys and teams are expected to perform in high-voltag e business environments. Therefore, group leadership appears an essential characteristic of effective team performance. Group leadership emphasises the necessity for leaders to describe a proper team direction (Wu et al., 2010). The organisation of groups and teams should be done with the objective to optimise progress at all organisational levels. Researchers have stressed the substantial heart of interdependence which exists among team members. Constant coaction is required in the process of achieving specific team goals (Li et al., 2012). For instance, groups and teams devote their efforts and time to supersede important information and resources in companies.The registration of team interaction is usually pliable considering the specific conditions that are present in organisations. Highly cost-effective groups and teams are identified as individuals whose aim is to demonstrate propelling collective performance (Boos et al., 2014). Promoting individual and collective fle xibility is a main driver of team effectiveness. As a result, group leadership is noted for its meet on team effectiveness. This type of leadership provides a realistic manikin to team members of how they can complete their collective tasks in an efficient manner (Wu et al., 2010). Leaders usually emphasise the necessity of collaboration and active chat among team members. Leader planning and coordination activities found part of the overall concept of group leadership.Group leadership suggests a square(a) element of facilitating the actions of groups and teams. The group efforts mostly motion in this process in terms of grantd out responsibility and accountability. The laissez-faire fashion is a relevant approach to group leadership, as emphasised by most researchers. It is commonly described as a hands-off method, in which the group is provided with the resources which are necessary for the completion of a particular project (Li et al., 2012). However, group members are bump to complete the outlined tasks with virtually no direct involvement by the group leader. In this case, the group leader serves a major facilitating function in the superstar of being available to answer suppress questions and motivate team members (Gilbreath and Karimi, 2012).Another approach to group leadership is identified as the abdacratic style, in which the group leader has no authority over team members. plane though this model of group leadership enhances individual and group creativity in organisations, it has been considered insufficient to perform major merged tasks (Morris, 2009). The autocratic approach to group leadership places importance on a central process for making decisions in companies. The main leadership responsibility in this approach is usually given to a group of managers (Wu et al., 2010). They are held accountable for the decisions they make. Employees are free to discuss any suggestions or recommendations for cash advance with their managers as part of this flexible approach to group leadership. Another style associated with team performance and group leadership is the popular approach to leadership (Mizuno et al., 2006). This approach refers to long freedom and flexibility granted to employees who feel authorise to initiate certain activities in the workplace. The most proper utilisation of this method is in situations where different individuals indicate a high level of group divided out responsibility for the actions of team members. The key decision-maker inwardly the group tends to act as a facilitator of team goals and effectiveness.Critical Evaluation of Leadership and Organisational behavioural Issues at GoreThe fact that Gore is extensively center on innovation at all organisational levels is revelatory of the presence of strong leadership skills in the company, which along with good management practices have contributed to its succeeder over the years (Gore Official Website, 2014). Considering that l eaders replace managers to deliver high levels of innovation shows a strong commitment to an innovative corporate culture which aims at expanding the potential of employees and increasing the organisations capacities to differentiate the products and services it provides. This is important in achieving a substantial competitive return (Mizuno et al., 2006). The model of blending management and leadership can help individuals clarify specific categories or practices that help businesses prosper with time. At Gore, all employees communicate in a free and coarse manner which is an essential requirement to maintain a flexible, innovative corporate climate. In turn, employees are empowered to expand their knowledge and responsibility (Boos et al., 2014). They distinctly know that their opinion and practical contribution to the company is highly valued, and as a result, they devote their time and resources to demonstrate their capabilities in practice.Gores managers and leaders work to gether to improve organisational efficiency and productiveness which would not have been possible without adopting an integrated and holistic approach to management and leadership (Gore Official Website, 2014). The company provides adequate examples of the role played by the knowledge worker in the organisations procedures, plans and activities. Such type of employees is known for being able to boost productiveness in organisations. benignant the right people at Gore is crucial for its optimal performance throughout the years (Cicero et al., 2010). The ability to make commitments and keep them is a strong differentiating factor that has helped the company maintains a solid market presence.In addition, it has been indicated that the levels of employee motivation at Gore are high considering their constant elaboration in different organisational activities, with the purpose to contribute to organisational uprightness and success (Li et al., 2012). The specificity of work at Gore a s well as the present relationships between the company and employees shows that employee motivation cannot be identified with the principles of scientific management (Cicero et al., 2010). The impact of human relations movement is quite strong at this organisation because all employees are motivated not by monetary rewards but by the necessity to be recognised for their contribution.Based on the performance of employees at Gore, it can be concluded that process-based approaches to motivation are mostly applicable. Motivation at this company is sensed as process orient in the sense that employees are extensively focused on how they can participate in various processes to expand their knowledge and competencies (Gore Official Website, 2014). Gores employees act upon certain expectations in terms of motivation. This means that they distinctly know that their actions will produce important results for the company, and thus their motivation is outcome based (Gilbreath and Karimi, 201 2). In addition, the companys employees try their best to ensure that they remain flexible and open to new suggestions for improvement within the organisation.It can be suggested that Gore has succeeded in building trust through the tenacious engagement of teams. Therefore, the model of teams and group leadership corresponds to the specific business environment in this organisation (Li et al., 20120. The core activities of the team are important for achieving initially set goals for organisational performance. Gore has adopted a promising philosophical paradigm because it has persistently relied on prospects of developing the people (Wu et al., 2010). The lack of strict rules in the company implies that managers and leaders are oriented to ensuring a flexible culture in which employees have an opportunity to develop and share their voice in the companys policies and procedures (Gore Official Website, 2014). It has been recognised that the company can function better without written rules. It can be more effective when all team members are enabled to participate actively in changing certain practices within the organisation.Gores philosophy of overlap values has been properly developed to glisten the companys focus on introducing successful initiatives. Trust is one of these shared values making employees function as one whole (Morris, 2009). Innovation has become the norm, and the exploitation of new information engineering has led to a better understanding of the dynamic relationship among all stakeholders. Teams set specific targets themselves, and this serves as a tooshie for their motivation to perform better in the long term (Mizuno et al., 2006). The sense of engagement of all team members in the projects introduced by leaders is evident throughout the organisation which has maintained a competitive position in the industry.Gore has been devoted to maintaining such culture of shared values. An important norm adopted by the organisation refers to the structure of a culture that energises associates. The expected outcome is the formation of effective teams, implying that the concept of group leadership is mostly relevant to the specific circumstances in which the organisation functions (Cicero et al., 2010). bear on business success has become doable because the company has placed importance on developing and enhancing its culture in a flexible way. The implementation of high performance practices shows that the company is results oriented in the sense that leaders introduce a framework of change and innovation with the presumption to achieve adequate results (Gilbreath and Karimi, 2012). As mentioned, traditional management practices are not valued at Gore because of its innovative direction presented by leaders. The pursuit of group objectives indicates high levels of motivation in the company which employees accept as an opportunity to prove they are assailable to fulfil their responsibilities.The replacement of management d irectives and rules with forms of constant, open colloquy has become one of the determining factors for Gores success. Research indicates that organisational colloquy is interrelated to better organisational efficiency and productivity (Morris, 2009). Regular communication also facilitates associates to share their ideas and insights into the performance of the organisation. The result is the formation of a flexible corporate culture that motivates employees to grow and develop in their area of expertise (Gore Official Website, 2014). When providing employees with freedom, they tend to demonstrate an native belief that they should deserve the trust of their managers and leaders. The company is constantly seeking new improvements in order to defend its prestigious mountain range as an innovator in the field. The important contribution that employees make to the company is an power of the successful strategies implemented by leaders (Mizuno et al., 2006). Continuous innovation a nd success are the two main drivers of the organisations performance.Conclusion and RecommendationsThis paper focused on the exploration of major leadership and organisational behavioural issues in the context of Gore Company. The main conclusion drawn from the case study of this organisation is that it has a unique form of organisation when it comes to work responsibilities and employee relations (Gore Official Website, 2014). Gore has emphasised that constant communication and employee participation in work processes are fundamental for the success of the company. The paper also illustrated that leaders have been continuously introducing a culture of innovation which contributed to the substantial success of the organisation (Li et al., 2012). Therefore, another important conclusion that was derived from the critical evaluation of Gores case study is that the model of group leadership has proven efficient and true to improve employee productivity and motivation.However, it is imp ortant to provide specific recommendations to improve the situation in the company in terms of enhancing the group leadership model. The company should analyse its strengths and weaknesses in order to explore all relevant parameters of leadership (Wu et al., 2010). Being natural and gracious in practice is an important condition to improve the performance of all stakeholders within the organisation. graciousity serves as an inspiring element as well as allows individuals to base their decisions on organisational reality (Cicero et al., 2010). Understanding of corporate unwritten rules is also fundamental for the future growth of the organisation. Team discussion should be encouraged along with training opportunities that can expand individual performance. Consistency and truth of leaders actions are expected in the process of improving the companys rules and principles which are applied in practice (Li et al., 2012). Individuals should have a clear idea of any shortcomings pertai ning to leadership and organisational behavioural issues in the company so that they can act accordingly to attain better performance indicators.ReferencesBoos, M., Pritz, J., Lange, S. and Belz, M. (2014). Leadership in Moving Human Groups. PLoS Computational Biology, vol. 10(4), pp1-9.Burton, K. (2012). A Study of Motivation How to Get Your Employees Moving. Thesis. Indiana University. operational at http//www.indiana.edu/spea/pubs/undergrad-honors/volumn-6/Burton,%20Kelli%20-%20A%20Study%20of%20Motivation%20-%20How%20to%20Get%20Your%20Employees%20Moving%20-%20Faculty%20Cheryl%20Hughes.pdf Accessed 7 solemn 2014.Cicero, L., Pierro, A. and van Knippenberg, D. (2010). Leadership and Uncertainty How Role equivocalness Affects the Relationship between Leader Group Prototypicality and Leadership Effectiveness. British daybook of Management, vol. 21(2), pp411-421.Gilbreath, B. and Karimi, L. (2012). Supervisor behavior and Employee Presenteeism. International diary of Leadership St udies, vol. 7(1), pp114-131.Gore Official Website (2014). slightly Gore online. addressable at http//www.gore.com/en_gb/ Accessed 6 rattling(a) 2014.Lian, L. K. and Tui, L. G. (2012). Leadership Styles and Organizational Citizenship demeanour The Mediating Effect of Subordinates Competence and Downward baffle Tactics. journal of utilise pipeline and Economics, vol. 13(2), pp59-96.Li, Y., Chun, H., Ashkanasy, N. and Ahlstrom, D. (2012). A Multi-Level Study of Emergent Group Leadership Effects of Emotional stability and Group Conflict. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, vol. 29(2), pp351-366.Luthans, F. and Youssef, C. M. (2007). Emerging Positive Organizational Behaviour. Journal of Management, vol. 33(3), pp321-349.Mizuno, M., Yamada, Y., Ishii, A. and Tanaka, S. (2006). A Human election Management Approach to Motivation and affair Stress in Paramedics. International sexual congress Series, vol. 1294, pp167-170.Morris, R. J. (2009). Employee attain Motivation and Discre tionary Work Effort. Thesis. Brisbane Graduate School of Business. gettable at http//eprints.qut.edu.au/31725/1/Robyn_Morris_Thesis.pdf Accessed 7 August 2014.Moynihan, D. P. and Pandey, S. K. (2007). The Role of Organizations in Fostering earthly concern Service Motivation. Public governance Review, vol. 67(1), pp40-53.Northouse, G. (2007). Leadership Theory and Practice. London quick of scent Publications.Rehman, M. and Afsar, B. (2012). The Impact of Paternalistic Leadership on Organization Commitment and Organization Citizenship Behaviour. Journal of Business Management and Applied Economics (5), pp1-12.Rowe, W. G. (2007). Cases in Leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA Sage Publications.Sharma, M. K. and Jain, S. (2013). Leadership Management Principles, Models and Theories. globose Journal of Management and Business Studies, vol. 3(3), pp309-318.University of Cambridge (N. d.). Vrooms Expectancy Theory online. Available at http//www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/research/dstools/vrooms-expect ancy-theory/ Accessed 6 August 2014.Val, C. and Kemp, J. (2012). Leadership Styles. The Ontario Journal of Outdoor Education, vol. 24(3), pp28-31.Wu, J. B., Tsui, A. S. and Kinicki, A. J. (2010). Consequences of secern Leadership in Groups. Academy of Management Journal, vol. 53(1), pp90-106.