How Employment Practices And Social Norms Within The...

For my capstone project, I will explore how employment practices and social norms in North America, specifically in the healthcare sector, contribute to the wage gap. In order to conduct research on this issue, I found various sources, including the following three articles: â€Å"Behind the Pay Gap,† by Judy Goldberg Dey and Catherine Hill, which analyzes how choices that are made by post-secondary graduates affect gender wage inequality and examines ideas to dismantle it; â€Å"Where is there a Gender Pay Gap According to Occupational Prestige,† by Charlotta Magnusso, which discusses the effects of women and men’s family duties and job characteristics on the wage gap; and finally, â€Å"The Sweatshop Feminists,† by Hester Eisenstein, which brings to light how elites in developed nations use females’ labour and ideas of females’ empowerment and freedom to preserve their political and economic power. All these three sources, to some extent, d iscuss the role of social norms and employment practices in contributing to the gender wage gap. In â€Å"Behind the Pay Gap† the authors focus on how choices made by the post-secondary graduates affect gender wage inequality and present ideas for narrowing this gap (Dey and Hill, 2007). A year after graduation, females who worked full time earned about 80 cents for every dollar that males earned (Dey and Hill, 2007). Through regression analysis, weekly pay after a year out of post-secondary school, a dependent variable, was set as a function of workers’Show MoreRelatedCorporate Social Responsibility in Nepal1457 Words   |  6 PagesEssay on Corporate Social Responsibility in Context of Nepal Corporate Social Responsibility is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large. While there is no universal definition of corporate social responsibility, it generally refers to transparent business practices that are based on ethical values, Compliance withRead MoreStructure For The Practice Of The Practitioner1743 Words   |  7 Pagesrecognise and then to make developmental decisions relating to their skills and their next steps. 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The objective of the policies and practices are to create †¢ An effective mechanism for communication and participation †¢ A safe and secure work environment †¢ Commitment for the employer and motivation for the employees Employment relationships are built on trust and theRead MoreUnit 11 Safeguarding Adults and Promoting Independence Essay3870 Words   |  16 Pageswrongs following a suitability check. The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act: The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (ROA) 1974 was brought in to support people who have been convicted of a criminal offence, and who have not offended since, in gaining employment. Under the Act convictions become ‘spent’ or ignored after a specified rehabilitation period. This means that after the specified time has passed, an ex-offender would not normally be obliged to mention their criminal conviction when applying forRead MoreIntroduction. In Recent Decades, Migrants From Sub-Saharan2753 Words   |  12 Pages23000 migrants of all nationalities were regularised and received a one-year residency permit (OIM, 2015). My MSc dissertation analysed the life circumstances of Sub-Saharan migrants (both newly documented and undocumented) in Morocco and explored how socio-political circumstances affect their stay in the country. Most migrants regularised through the above-mentioned campaign live in a state of liminal legality. This has resulted in an â€Å"in-between status,† where they oscillate between invisibility

Gang Violence And Organized Crime Essay - 1966 Words

Gang violence and organized crime have become a serious problem for El Salvador and Central America for the past decade. Gang violence is an enormous problem in El Salvador especially among young people with an estimate of 60,000 minors belonging to gangs. According to government organization Instituto de Medicina Legal, the country has the highest murder rate in Latin America and the Caribbean with 103 murders per 100,000 person. High rates of violence are contributed by competition between rival gangs and police brutality towards suspected gang members. The institute also reports that on average there was one homicide per hour in the first three months of 2016. The two major gangs in El Salvador are, the Mara Salvatrucha (MS13) and Barrio 18 (MS18). MS 18 is a Mexican gang that originated in California in the 1960’s. In the 1980s when thousands of El Salvadorian fled the civil war for a better and peaceful life in the United States. 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Chalice Chapter 11 Free Essays

string(145) " put his hand up against her, although she had made no attempt to speak – â€Å"you need not reproach me; it is my blame that we did not\." â€Å"By spending time in his company – as Chalice, as you did – you were giving him your favour – your warranty. He will have gone away to send word to the Overlord that the Chalice of Willowlands supports him. Do you not know – you spend so much time reading† – and in his voice at last was the tone she was used to hearing when the Grand Seneschal spoke to her – â€Å"can you possibly not know that there is a move to put our Master aside and set the Heir in his place?† â€Å"No!† she cried – although she had feared as much. We will write a custom essay sample on Chalice Chapter 11 or any similar topic only for you Order Now â€Å"No, no – how could you think it? I would myself die, if it were necessary, to keep our Master; but the only story of a Chalice doing so, it was at Stonehollow, twelve generations ago, and it did not work and so†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Without thinking, she turned to glance up at the shelf where the book that had told her that story stood, and when she turned back again she was suddenly angry. â€Å"Reading. Yes. Yes, I do spend a tremendous amount of time reading – I should have known that I was giving that lizard Horuld my blessing? How was I to know it, please? When did I serve my apprenticeship, and with whom? Who speaks to me at all, since I became Chalice, except those who must?† She glared down at the sitting Seneschal. â€Å"I am far too strange and grand now for my old friends, even if they knew that a Chalice might send away an Heir with no form but the bare words of command – which I rather doubt they do know. All I have is reading. The books do n ot scorn or avoid my company, and they tell me plainly what they know.† â€Å"Forgive me,† he said. She heard him say â€Å"forgive me† and had a sense of dislocation and preposterousness almost as great as she had had on the day the Circle came to tell her she was chosen Chalice. She sat down with a thump as abrupt as the Grand Seneschal’s had been. â€Å"I guessed that,† he went on, â€Å"yesterday, when Zinna brought me the news of the Chalice and the Heir – followed by Dora and Mallie and Sim bringing me the same news. I guessed that you did not know. You are right. I have blamed you often for the things you did not know. My only excuse, and it is no excuse, but I have only seen that now, last night and this morning† – and she realised, looking at him, that he had probably had even less sleep than she – â€Å"my only excuse is that I too have felt beleaguered by events. It is hard enough to lose a Master; harder yet to lose him unexpectedly and in such a way†¦. There are not even any folk-tales of how a Seneschal may best fulfil his obligation when his demesne has neither Master nor Chalice.† Softly, draggingly, almost dreamily he added, â€Å"The last years of our Master’s brother’s Mastership taught me only to rely on no one; it did not teach me how to be a Grand Seneschal with a broken Circle; it did not teach me to lead when there was no leader†¦.† Unwillingly she thought: And he carried our demesne for seven months while I staggered blind and stupid in his wake; certainly our Prelate gave him little help, and the rest of the Circle little more. How could he not resent me, even though it was not my fault? Willowlands has been lucky to have such a Grand Seneschal – Willowlands who so gravely needs a little luck. â€Å"I even believed that the most I could do for an inexperienced Chalice was to – to spare her the weight of a Grand Seneschal’s advice. I know that my manner is not – is not cordial. But I could leave – try to leave – her – you – free to find your own best way. Our Circle has never been a true Circle. Our previous Chalice could not bind us and we grew more separate still, less aware of each other, under the – the curious strains of the last Mastership. Those of us who were very – involved with the old Master have I think never quite†¦Ã¢â‚¬  His voice trailed away. More strongly he went on, â€Å"It had not occurred to me, till yesterday, that there might be things a Grand Seneschal would know that would be useful to a Chalice struggling to invent her own apprenticeship. That, for example, a woodskeeper become Chalice might not guess an Heir might seek her validation for his own power. â€Å"I knew you supported our Master. I knew it because you never said one word about the burn on your hand. That is why I guessed – finally – yesterday, about what had really happened.† He smiled again. This time it lasted long enough to be identified as a smile, but it was more wintry than the snowflakes still drifting down outside the library window. â€Å"Let it be, perhaps, set in my favour that it was my support of your silence, at the beginning, that enabled you to go on being silent. Deager wanted to declare that by that wound the Master was no fit Master.† She whispered, â€Å"He cured my hand. The Master. It would not heal, and he healed it.† The Grand Seneschal put his hands on the table, palm up. â€Å"I beg you give me leave to tell that story.† She thought of Kenti and Tis, and her conviction that Kenti wanted to believe that same story, that a priest of Fire can cure as well as harm. â€Å"Will it help?† she said. â€Å"Will it help us keep our Master?† â€Å"Yes – it will help. I do not think it will help enough.† He looked up at her, and the grief was still in his face, but it was a different grief. â€Å"We should have had this conversation months ago – when we first knew that Fire would give him back to us. No† – he put his hand up against her, although she had made no attempt to speak – â€Å"you need not reproach me; it is my blame that we did not. You read "Chalice Chapter 11" in category "Essay examples" I know. I know. What I do not know is what to do now. And whether or not it is too late.† â€Å"It cannot be too late,† she said passionately. â€Å"I – we – we won’t let it be too late.† Then he did smile, a real smile, if still a sad one. â€Å"Then we will not let it. I must think. We will begin – I will tell it that the Master healed your hand; there is nothing to gain by pretending the accident did not happen, since everyone knows it did. And you – you must find a subtle way to tell everyone you can that the time you spent with Horuld†¦dispirited you; that you felt compelled to it because†¦because everyone of our demesne must bind themselves together in every way possible, to support our Master; the Heir must not feel shut out, however unworthy the Heir might be; that the situation at Willowlands is not traditional and so tradition is little help.† â€Å"I can’t say that – be subtle, you say? – gods of the earthlines, how do you expect me to say that subtly?† But the Seneschal only said grimly, â€Å"Those books you read – I have read some of them, and it has given me a distaste for reading, because it seems to me that most of them are full of unpleasant things said pleasantly. I’m not sure what else dead written words can teach you except the trickiness of words. Find a way to say this unpleasant thing pleasantly, from your books. I do not deny that I am asking you to walk the edge of a knife blade; you must condemn the Heir, who is human, that our Master, who is not, be seen as the better choice; and how to condemn him when at least the whites of his eyes are white and his clothes hang on his body the way clothes do hang on a human frame? And yet you must also condemn him in such a way that you may still welcome him if the worst happens and he becomes Master.† He stood up again. â€Å"I am sorry. I am older than you; I should have†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He didn’t say what he should have, and impulsively Mirasol said, â€Å"You were Grand Seneschal for our Master’s brother. What†¦Ã¢â‚¬  And then she could not think of a way to ask what she wished to ask. â€Å"I – I – you see, I am not good at subtlety. I do not want to ask about the bad times, about the end. Only what it was like, having a – an ordinary Master.† The Grand Seneschal stood silently for some moments. â€Å"I wonder if there has ever been an ordinary Master. No – I think I do know what you are asking. But I don’t think I can help you. I had my apprenticeship, you see. I learnt to hear and feel what a Seneschal must hear and feel of the demesne, to best serve his Master: I learnt this because the Seneschal who was daily, hourly, thus listening and feeling taught me and watched over me as I learnt. I was apprentice under the Seneschal for our Master’s father, and indeed my first years as Seneschal were under him, under a Master who had held the land steady for fifty years and more. And in those years the Circle was also a Circle. Then our old Master died and his elder son became Master and all began to change, to†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He stopped. â€Å"But now, with this Master†¦a Master who is struggling to engage with his land without hurting it, as he hurt his Chalice when she gave him the welcome cup†¦ there is nothing in my experience for that, any more than, I guess, there is in your books.† He looked at her. â€Å"I daresay an apprenticeship – having had an apprenticeship – is better than no apprenticeship, even in these circumstances. Because I know that it does not help the situation I find myself in – I know the situation is not the fault of my ignorance. But that does not change the situation.† â€Å"It is the fault of my ignorance that I have been seen to sanction the Heir, when that is exactly what I did not want to do,† she said bitterly. After a pause the Seneschal said, â€Å"I came here to tell you that, yes. But I wonder†¦we have had a strong harvest. The Wildwater running over its banks after the seed went into the ground this spring – shortly after our new Master came home – looked like a bad sign. But the second sowing grew better than the first sowings have for several years. The Onora Grove has given us firewood and timber; it was not an area of the wood Oakstaff had thought to open up, but you know the Circle has decided it will open well. And we were lucky with it; even from the House the sky was red with the fire, and those who were there say there was a sudden heavy downpour that lasted just long enough to put it out. The earth tremors have all but gone; I can’t remember the last report of a wall being knocked down – or of chasing animals so terrified they will break through a fence themselves. And no other demesnes – not even those who share a boundary with us â⠂¬â€œ have been troubled. It has not been an easy transition. But even blood Masters have done worse, when the change has been sudden or unexpected. And outblood Heirs have done very much worse, I think.† Mirasol smiled a little. â€Å"Flood, fire, famine and war. I could tell you stories.† â€Å"Perhaps you should tell them.† â€Å"But subtly.† â€Å"Yes†¦but what I am thinking now†¦we have had too many disasters in too short a time, and we have begun to think in disastrous terms. When the Onora Grove burned, I wondered if it would take the demesne with it; and yet instead we have a new meadow with a pond where the stream bank fell in, and most of the trees are still fit for good use, in the hearth, or under axe and lathe, or†¦. Perhaps this disaster comes to you for you to shape.† â€Å"The only lathe I know is the feel of turning pages,† Mirasol said forlornly. But she thought of the things she knew that even the Seneschal apparently did not. If anyone might have ferreted out the truth about the fire in the Onora Grove, she felt it would have been the Grand Seneschal; but he gave no sign of knowing it. He would have mentioned, she thought, the law that a Master can be put to death for harming a Chalice, if he knew of it; he would have mentioned that an outblood Heir might marry his Chalice to prevent the demesne from tearing itself apart from the stress of the blood change. She shivered. â€Å"Has the Grand Seneschal – have you had your disaster? And have you shaped it?† His look was bleak. â€Å"I am shaping it now. My disaster is that I did not speak to you long before. If I hadn’t – as I should have – when the priests of Fire first agreed to send our Master back to us, then I certainly should have spoken after he burned you and you said no word against him. Bringad has thought well of you from the beginning: I should have listened to him. And, Mirasol, it is not that you are – were – a woodskeeper. My grandmother was the daughter of a kitchen maid – got by the Master’s fourth son. My great-grandmother was turned off the demesne before the baby was born, because it was the fashion in those days to do so, because the child might be able to cause trouble if it wished, on account of bearing the Master’s blood. The Master I had my apprenticeship under – our Master’s father – learnt of the story and set his Seneschal to track the line, and bring them home. My mother and father and I came here for the first time in the back of an ox-cart, and were shown into the Grand Seneschal’s office smelling of dirty straw and too many weeks on the road, carrying a few ragged bundles that were our only possessions. I was eight, and could barely stand or speak, because I was overwhelmed by my first experience of my landsense, which had met me at the boundary of Willowlands. I had no idea what was happening to me; I thought I might be dying. When I turned nine the Seneschal took me to apprentice. I do not know why the earthlines speak in your blood so strongly, but that they do is all that matters. But I had twenty years’ apprenticeship. You’ve had a year of reading – and of bearing Chalice perforce.† â€Å"You have held the demesne together, while I read.† â€Å"You have been Chalice since the day the Circle came to you. Your presence in the earthlines is strong; you were easy to find. This is why I hoped I could convince you to live at the House. We’ve needed your strength whether you knew how to use it or not. But I’ve come to realise that your bees were right not to let you go; a honey Chalice should live among them. â€Å"Come to me if I can help you.† He smiled again through his bleak look. â€Å"I will talk to you.† And he turned and left the library. It was snowing harder when she walked home that afternoon. She had not had a great deal more time for reading about outblood Heirs. There had been several messages for the Chalice – dragons take it, she thought, they’re learning to look for me in the library. One, however, was an interesting query from the Housekeeper about the Chalice’s beeswax candles. She knew that the Chalice put a little honey in her candles – you could smell it when they burned (and very pleasant it was, added the Housekeeper punctiliously) and she had furthermore heard that the Chalice also had different honeys which she used for different purposes. The Housekeeper wondered if she applied this to her candle-making? Might there, for example, be candles that, burning, helped you stay awake, if you were, perhaps, up late over your accounts? â€Å"I haven’t the least idea,† said Mirasol. â€Å"But it’s an intriguing thought. I shall experiment, and bring you the result, and you can tell me what, if anything, happens. Thank you.† The Housekeeper, looking slightly bemused (I daresay Chalices aren’t supposed not to have the least idea, thought Mirasol), bowed herself out. The last message was a reminder that her presence was necessary tomorrow evening for a meeting of the Circle with the Master, here at the House. If the weather continued as it was she might have to stay overnight there. She had done this several times when she was first Chalice, and more inclined to take other people’s suggestions, because she found it difficult to say no – to keep saying no – to other people’s advice. But she had learnt very quickly that she slept badly away from her own cottage, as if it were the one safe quiet place in a world suddenly in pandemonium. She remembered one of the few times – before today – that the Grand Seneschal had showed her, she thought, any understanding. The Chalice moved from one person to another, but they were all Chalice; and as little changed outwardly as possible. And so a new Chalice took up residence in the old Chalice’s rooms. The rooms were stripped to the walls and cleaned from ceiling to floor before the equally purged and polished furniture was replaced. When she was first shown the Chalice’s rooms the walls positively glittered, and the sheets on the bed crackled with, she guessed, not merely washing and ironing but sheer newness; she’d never had the luxury of new sheets herself. Even in the midst of her own crisis she had been able to wonder at the time spent, in the middle of the demesne’s crisis, on the task of scrubbing the Chalice’s rooms. She supposed it showed respect – even for an unapprenticed woodskeeper Chalice – or perhaps terror: cleaning might be the only thing the Housefolk could do to clear the residue of the catastrophic end of the previous Chalice and help the new one to find her way. But despite the shining walls and spotless furniture and new bedsheets the Chalice’s rooms had been haunted. Mirasol had barely been able to stay alone in them long enough for the footsteps of the Housewoman who had showed her there to fade away down the corridor. She never so much as sat down. She left and went in search of the Grand Seneschal; she thought the head Houseman might have been enough, but he was new in his job too, and she did not wish to get him in trouble if he were not authorised to requarter a Chalice. So she looked for the Grand Seneschal. It had been less than half an hour since the end of the meeting, and she had left him still arguing – or rather listening and refusing to argue – with Prelate and Landsman. He could not be asleep yet, although she did not relish the thought of knocking on the door of his private apartments. But she had found him – despite the lateness of the hour – in his office. She thought she did well not to stammer or squeak when she said she could not remain in the Chalice’s rooms and that if he could not offer an alternative it was still not so late (it was past midnight) that she could not walk home, which was probably the best idea after all, but she did not wish to leave without informing him. She hadn’t stammered or squeaked, but it had all come out in a breathless rush, like a small woodskeeper forced (for some inexplicable reason) to speak to a Grand Seneschal. He stared at her in the blank, forbidding way she was already accustomed to, but his answer, when it came, was in no more oppressive a tone than usual: â€Å"You may have the Yellow Room.† She had followed the Housewoman (a different one) in a daze. In the first place she had expected some dispute, even a silent one, when the Seneschal let her know that while he would accede to the Chalice’s wishes, she as the woman within the Chalice was (again) failing to bear her new responsibility in a seemly or becoming manner. Furthermore, only the most important rooms at the centre of the House had colour names – suitable perhaps for the housing of a true, a satisfactory Chalice (supposing the Chalice’s rooms had been somehow infested by tigers or chimeras, and uninhabitable), but†¦. As she thought about it now – the memory of their recent astonishing conversation at the front of her mind – the Yellow Room had since then not only been kept for her , but it was the most conveniently placed of any of the private rooms to the library. Either he had already noticed her spending every minute she could in the library, or he guessed that, unapprenticed as she was, she would have to. No – that her best choice was to learn what she could from the library’s dead written words. Perhaps he had been trying again to influence her. She grunted a laugh. The wind was in her face, and several snowflakes fell on her tongue. There were a few bees huddled under the peak of the little overhang that sheltered her front door. They flew, or fell, to her shoulders, and clung there. â€Å"It is too cold for bees, you silly things,† she said. She hadn’t meant to light a fire – only to go straight to bed – but her loyalty had its limits and while she didn’t want to dump her bees to fend for themselves when they were already stupid with cold, she drew the line at taking them to bed with her. And so she stirred the banked embers and added kindling till a log would catch, and then sat down in front of the hearth to let it warm her and the bees still sitting bemusedly on her shoulders. As the fire began to work on them she had to help one or two free themselves from the tangling weave of her shawl, which made her think of the Master, the day he saved the life of the bee who had stung him. She had to think what to put in the cup for tomorrow, and which cup to use. That the Heir would not be there meant she wanted to mix something binding – and exclusive. No longer did she have the luxury of merely wishing to make any gathering move as smoothly as possible; she wished to tie this truculent Circle and this singular Master together as tightly as she could, whether they moved comfortably and effectively within those confines or not†¦and then she had to hope that any such successful tie as she might create did not instead only rouse its members to split themselves more thoroughly apart. She stared into the flames and thought, I am playing with fire. She must have fallen asleep, because she dreamed. She was standing on the knoll where the pavilion had stood, the pavilion that had burnt to the ground, killing the Master and the Chalice and a dozen others, including the Clearseer and the head Houseman. The ruins were black and cold around her, and she felt nothing of those recent deaths, not even that of the previous Chalice. What she felt – or remembered – instead were the stories of what that place had been before the pavilion had been built on it. It had been a place of power since before the demesnes were made, and its power had been both used and subverted by the folk who lived here, and their Masters. But in her dream she remembered something she had not known she knew. Perhaps the lost knowledge was brought forward by the conversation she had had with the Grand Seneschal about the dreadful mistake she as Chalice had made in her behaviour toward the Heir. Perhaps she had never known this before, but the conversa tion and the urgency behind it had opened a way for the earthlines to speak to her directly. Because, centuries ago, when the power of that place was still allowed to be what it was, and had not yet been dammed or forced into some channel it was not meant to be barred and bent by, it had given prophetic dreams to anyone who slept a night on it. It could not tell everything, and about some things it did not always tell the truth, or at least it told the truth so obscurely that it was easily misunderstood. But on a few subjects it most often spoke clearly: it would tell a man if his wife was faithful. And it would tell a woman whom she would marry. And while the old usage had fallen into neglect, the power was still there. Mirasol snapped awake. She could know now, at once – by morning – if her error in being gracious to the Heir was a critical error or not. If the oracle went against her†¦she couldn’t remember if the story stipulated if, having learnt what the oracle would tell you, you could change your fate or not: keep your wife by persuading her to give up her lover, refuse to marry the man you did not want, whether the man you did want appeared or not. Did Chalices ordinarily marry? In her confusion of mind she could not at present remember. Chalicehood was not passed down from mother to daughter as Mastership passed from father to eldest son, but it did sometimes run in families; a bloodline that matched well with the Masters’ would find the Chalice returning to it again and again. The Chalice before her†¦the Chalice before that had been that one’s aunt, Mirasol thought. So far as she knew, her own family, on neither her father’s nor her mother’s side, despite the fact they had long been of this demesne, had ever produced a Chalice, although her father’s had produced both a Landsman and an Oakstaff many generations ago. But did Chalices marry and have daughters? Occasionally the Chalice came to a woman who was either pregnant or nursing, who then held her Chalicehood in milk; was the fact that this was considered bad luck for the demesne an indication that Chalices were encouraged to remain single and celibate? It was a clue to her state of mind, she thought, that she could not remember having read anything about this – although she knew she had not deliberately sought the information. She had never been in love, and her parents had not tried to force a husband on her; and since she had become Chalice, there had always been too much else of more immediate, more drastic relevance†¦. She struggled to her feet, feeling dizzy and stupid, her mind still half in its dream. She pulled her cloak and shawl up over her shoulders again; they had slipped off as she slept and in front of the fire she had not needed them. She looked vaguely around for the bees that had come in with her, but saw no sign of them; perhaps they belonged to the hive tucked next to the chimney breast. She could feel the finger of cold draught that told her that the bee door she had hollowed out of the window-frame was still open. She went to her own human door and opened it. The snow had stopped, although it was still cold. Much too cold to sleep – to try to sleep – outdoors. But the night was at least half over, she thought; she only needed to sleep long enough to dream. She needed only to dream of one face – or of no face at all. How might the oracle tell her she would not marry? She shook her head. It would find a way. But she had to go now. She could not wait – not even till tomorrow night. The cold weather seemed to have settled in, so it would be just as cold tomorrow night; and she’d already spent half of tonight warm, indoors, in front of a fire. She pulled on one of her oldest, shabbiest winter woodskeeper’s dresses, snatched up her shawl and cloak again before she had time to change her mind and left, closing the door gently behind her. Since it had stopped snowing the temperature had risen again; the wind against her face was almost warm. It was the week of the dark of the moon or she might have tried to guess what time it was. But she had to have slept a few hours by the fire, or she wouldn’t have woken so fuzzy-headed. It was a longish walk to the knoll of the old pavilion. She knew the way, although no one, herself included, went there any more – not since the death of the old Master. The grove that had burned was more to the east; from lightning’s point of view it was close to the pavilion, but from a walker’s it was not; from Mirasol’s cottage there was a long detour round a rough scarp. One of the main footpaths of the demesne ran quite near it, and the heavy use it had was evident; the turn-off to the pavilion, which had once been just as wide and worn, was now mossy and overgrown; Mirasol had to duck under young branches and flounder through banks of nettles. How to cite Chalice Chapter 11, Essay examples

Survey Administration Research Method †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Survey Administration Research Method. Answer: Introduction The primary purpose of this report is to find out the appropriateness of the use of survey administration method in researching a pilot questionnaire.The report also aims at looking at the focus areas that require improvement relating to the study. The research aimed at trying to understand the consumer's attitude and how they perceived Full-service carriers (FSCs) and also Low-cost carriers (LCCs). This report also tends to explain the areas raising issues among respondents and the statements that should be changed on the pilot questionnaire. The report describes the administrative method utilized to complete the pilot test by outlining the advantages and limitations of using survey administration method and offering suggestions that can be put in place to improve the technique. Some of the respondents were unable to understand the questions and their solutions necessitating the adjustment and modification of the questionnaire. Survey administration method The main aim of carrying out the pilot test is to find out the areas that needed improvement on the questionnaire, but before doing this, the issues with the survey required to be identified first. In carrying out this procedure, our group decided to adopt self-administrative questionnaire method. The method gives respondents freedom to fill the research papers with no interference from the team members, (Labonte et al., 2012, p. 166). As they filled the research papers, our team members talked to respondents to determine the specific questions they had problems in answering and also the statements they had difficulties in understanding. There was much use of face to face communication where our team members interviewed the respondents. The self-administrative questionnaire is designed in such a way that the respondent is required to complete filling the research paper without the interference of the researcher, (Brock et al., 2012, p. 266). Even though there is no interference by th e researcher, a skilled researcher can get a researcher do some observations on the respondents to be able to identify the issues with the questionnaires on time. Modes of self-administrative questionnaire include: Use of computers: Computers have an advantage of streamlining a potentially complex series of questions for the respondents to answer, (Lewis, 2015, p. 475). Many respondents can access the information through the computer. Use of the traditional method: This involves the researcher presenting himself in person and giving the respondents the research papers to fill after which they are supposed to return to the researcher, (Lee et al., 2012, p. 88). The researcher gives the respondent the questionnaire and a pencil person by person. The automated interactive interview where respondents are invited for interviews using mails. Advantages of self-administrative questionnaire method No researcher interference Respondents answer the questions on the research paper at their convenience because there is no interference by the researcher. The respondent is, therefore, able to fill the correct information on the research paper. This encourages objectivity on the part of the respondents when answering the questions, (Fusch Ness, 2015, 1408) Encourages objectivity There is less bias since there is no interviewer present to change the way questions are asked and therefore the respondents complete the questions as they appear on the research paper. The interviewer does not manipulate the work of the respondent, and thus the information gathered from the questionnaires is the original data from the respondents, (Berger, 2015, p. 12). Reliability The researcher can get a tremendous amount of information and is also able to access a good number of sample, (Hunter, 2012, p. 11). The researcher will be able to get the data required from many sources of respondents, and therefore, the information needed by the researcher will be at his/her disposal. Each respondent provides information independently. Researcher can get answers to complicated questions One can ask some complicated questions as compared to a personal interview. The researcher can decide to include the hard and complicated questions on the questionnaire so that the respondents who can fill them with ease can do so and the researcher can get the required feedback, (McPeacke et al., 2014, p. 25). Researchers can receive respondents personal information In a self-administered questionnaire, respondents can give information on private and their sexual relationship better than in face to face communication, (Theorem et al., 2012, p. 12). With self-administrative surveys, people do their best not to impress anyone but instead try to give the Full-service impression. Therefore, Full-service results in the right and insightful feedback on how people consume alcohol, sexual life and also sexual experiences can be obtained through this type of questionnaire. A self-administrative questionnaire is ecumenical in that it saves time and money. It is the most comfortable method for respondent since the respondents only have to answer the questions on the research paper and nothing else, (Grav et al., 2012, p. 114). The researcher gets instant feedback from the respondents. The feedback from the respondent is provided with immediate effect through filling the questions on the questionnaire and with this, the researcher can get the required information about the research. Therefore, the researcher can adopt surveys from each respondent and clarifications can be offered if needed. Disadvantages of self-administrative questionnaires May be time-consuming Self-administrative questionnaires may be time-consuming since respondents are supposed to answer the survey and record their responses, (Lutomski et al., p. 16). It is also labor intensive since many copies of the questionnaire must be made for the respondents to fill. This makes self-administrative questionnaires costly to implement. The respondents may misinterpret the questions In elf-administrative questionnaire method, the researcher does not have any control over how the respondents and the people involved interpret the questions or the statements on the research paper, (Crede Niehorster, 2012, p. 134). The questions on the questionnaires are targeted to be filled by different types of respondents, and therefore, they can interpret the questions in different ways, and the researcher has no control over their interpretation. The respondents may fail to fill important questions. The researcher cannot force the respondents to fill the questions in the questionnaire, (Crede Niehorster, 2012, p. 134). This is because the respondents have the freedom to fill the questions on the survey without being interrupted by the researcher and therefore they may end up not filling the question maybe because of their complexity. Difficulties in sampling There can be a challenge in sampling on the side of the researcher. The process of sampling the research and collecting data using the self-administrative is complicated and hard on the side of the researcher, (Crede Niehorster, 2012, p. 134). Cannot obtain information from illiterate people The self-administrative questionnaire is not convenient for uneducated people as they cannot be able to read and write what is contained in the research paper, (Crede Niehorster, 2012, p. 135). Reflections on the administrative procedure A self-administrative method was used as our group decided that it was a good idea to give respondents their freedom to fill the questionnaires after which the researcher can get the feedback about the questions from the respondent and also their perspective about the research. The process went on well, and our team was able to get the feedback from the respondents. Our team members interacted with the respondents through face to face communication, and the respondents could comfortably remember where they had difficulties during the process. The team members actively supported the respondent in tackling the questionnaire, and through this, the respondents were able to get information about the questions that seemed hard on the research paper. Our research team concluded that self-administrative method worked out perfectly well and at the same time employing face to face interactions with the respondents as it had so many advantages on the research. Suggestions to improve administrative procedure Use of self-administrative research can miss some aspects such as human reactions like body language because of lack or fewer interviewers. The respondents might at times require in-depth explanations about the questions, and lack of qualified researchers at their disposal can make them fill the questionnaire in the wrong way or even fail to fill the survey altogether, (Berger, 2015, p. 18). As a result of this challenge, it is vital for a self-administrative method to be accompanied by face to face interaction with the respondents to help cover their reactions, facial expressions, and feelings. Change required for the questionnaire The questionnaire at hand should be modified before catering for a large number of respondents. Some of the questions on the survey are also not precise enough and require interpretation by an experienced researcher. The structure of the questionnaire is complicated. The questionnaire should, therefore, be reviewed once again to cater for mistakes that are evident before it spreads to a vast group of respondents. Because of the objective of making sure that this survey reaches a good number of people, using face to face interaction is not convenient, and this calls for the use of an online survey method. The online survey method is advantageous because it enables interviewing of a large number of respondents at a time, hence saving time and cost, (Crede Niehorster, 2012, p. 150). Online survey method is also essential as it can reach a large number of respondents with similar interests, values and also facing the same challenges. The people utilizing Full-service carriers and also Low-cost carrier's airline can be interviewed and questioned by an online survey. The researchers are also able to automatically receive the results of the study after the respondents submit their responses. Getting the results automatically will help by doing away with manual calculations and in the long-run enhance the accuracy of the research. In the questionnaire, complicated and irrelevant questions should be highly avoided. This is because the respondents who are less educated may not be able to answer the complex research questions, (Crede Niehorster, 2012, p. 161). Such respondents end up filling irrelevant answers or even not fill the questions altogether. It is of great importance that the questions appearing on the questionnaires should be simple and clear to be read because the questions are targeted to be filled by different groups of respondents. Lesson learned and conclusion The research survey has enabled us to get new and essential knowledge regarding research methods on face to face questionnaire by interacting with the respondents. The review has also assisted us in gaining an understanding of how different people understand and perceive things around us. Some issues have been considered to avoid complicating the survey questions of the research, for example, if there is a simple and appropriate way for reaching the respondents, it will be easier and faster to collect and analyze data from the respondents. Finding out the research method is a crucial and compulsory requirement for any research to be carried out. Survey questionnaires should be viewed at appropriately so that the significance and the value of the informational data can be well understood by the respondents and the other people, (Crede Niehorster, 2012, p. 139). Also, the survey questionnaires should be clearly and structured merely so that the respondents can be able to understand. With this, the less educated respondents can be able to fill the questions on the questionnaire since they are familiar and straightforward. References Berger, A.A., 2015.Media and Communication Research Methods: An Introduction to Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. Sage Publications. P. 12-19. Brock, R.L., Barry, R.A., Lawrence, E., Dey, J. Rolffs, J., 2012. Internet Administration Of Paper-And-Pencil Questionnaires Used In Couple Research: Assessing Psychometric Equivalence.Assessment,19(2), Pp.226-242. Cred, M. Niehorster, S., 2012. Adjustment to College As Measured By the Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire: A Quantitative Review of Its Structure and Relationships with Correlates and Consequences.Educational Psychology Review,24(1), Pp.133-165. Fusch, P.I. Ness, L.R., 2015. Are We There Yet? Data Saturation in Qualitative Research.The Qualitative Report,20(9), P.1408. Grav, S., Hellzn, O., Romild, U. Stordal, E., 2012. Association between Social Support and Depression in the General Population: The HUNT Study, a Cross?Sectional Survey.Journal of Clinical Nursing,21(1?2), Pp.111-120. Hunter, L., 2012. Challenging the Reported Disadvantages of E-Questionnaires and Addressing Methodological Issues of Online Data Collection.Nurse Researcher,20(1), Pp.11-20. Labont, M. ., Cyr, A., Baril-Gravel, L., Royer, M. M., Lamarche, B. (2012). Validity And Reproducibility Of A Web-Based, Self-Administered Food Frequency Questionnaire.European Journal of Clinical Nutrition,66(2), 166-174. Lee, G., Benoit?Bryan, J. Johnson, T.P., 2012. Survey Research in Public Administration: Assessing Mainstream Journals with a Total Survey Error Framework.Public Administration Review,72(1), Pp.87-97. Lewis, S., 2015. Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches.Health Promotion Practice,16(4), Pp.473-475. Lutomski, J.E. et al., 2013. Validation of A Frailty Index from the Older Persons and Informal Caregivers Survey Minimum Data Set.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society,61(9), Pp.1625-1627. Mcpeake, J., Bateson, M. ONeill, A., 2014. Electronic Surveys: How to maximise Success.Nurse Researcher,21(3), Pp.24-26. Thorn, E.S., Andersson, G. Lunner, T., 2012. The Use of Research Questionnaires with Hearing Impaired Adults: Online Vs. Paper-And-Pencil Administration.BMC Ear, Nose and Throat Disorders,12(1), P.12.

17 Weird Hobbies for Students That Will Change Your Life

17 Weird Hobbies for Students That Will Change Your Life College can be a stressful time, so it is a good idea to find some fun activities to fill your spare time. However, for some students this can lead to some weird hobbies! Let’s look at some of the most unusual hobbies you might want to try. 1 – Toy Voyaging There are some weird hobbies that are stranger than others and one of them must be toy voyaging. You can register online to send your toy off on vacation to another part of the world – or you can host someone else’s toy. People take it incredibly seriously, giving their toy life missions they wish to fulfil while hosts complete travel journals and take photographs of the toy enjoying its vacation. 2 – Quidditch Harry Potter captured thehearts of children and adults alike and continues to have a huge fanbase today. Many colleges and universities are playing homage to that by setting up their own real life Quidditch teams. There may not be flying brooms, but the muggle equivalent of this wizard sport certainly counts as one of the weird hobbies you might find on campus. 3 – Soap Carving Some weird hobbies are quite artistic when you look more closely. Soap carving transforms standard bars of soap into intricate works of art using specialist tools and techniques. 4 – Element Collecting As weird hobbies go, one that might appeal to chemistry students in particular is Element Collecting. This involves trying to collect elements from the periodic table. There are many ways to approach this with some enthusiasts opting for a specific row or group rather than the whole table. A word of caution – collecting heavy elements, poisonous elements and of course radioactive ones is not recommended! 5 – Making Snow Globes Who doesn’t love playing with a snow globe? Wouldn’t making your own be even more fun? This is a hobby shared by one of the world’s most well-known celebrities – Taylor Swift. Even the stars have weird hobbies they enjoy on their down time. 6 – Beetle Fighting Beetle fighters pit their insects against one another in small plastic arenas with the bouts often being filmed and loaded to YouTube. Some enthusiasts even go so far as to breed their own beetles in an attempt to create a champion. 7 – Hikaru Dorodango You have likely never heard of Hikaru Dorodango, also known as dirt polishing, but it is apparently a popular hobby. It involves take a small ball of mud, extracting all the moisture and then coating it with fine layers of soil. Eventually it becomes possible to polish the ball of dirt into a smooth sphere. 8 – Entomology Entomology is the study of insects. In terms of weird hobbies bug collecting must be up there, right? One celebrity who doesn’t agree is model Claudia Schiffer who has an extensive bug collection and is also a huge fan of spiders! The logo for her clothing line even features a spider. 9 – Duck Herding Did you know? It is possible to train ducks to be herded just like sheep? In fact, it is a competitive sport and one of the most popular choices for corporate team building days. 10 – Extreme Ironing Believe it or not Extreme Ironing is a competitive sport which is growing in popularity. It involves ironing laundry, but in more extreme situations such as while rock climbing, kayaking or even skydiving. 11 – Newsraiding Have you ever wanted to appear on television? You are not alone if the growing popularity of newsraiding is anything to go on. This hobby involves appearing on television as a bystander on news reports and other live broadcasters! One of the most prolific newsraiders is Paul Yarrow from the UK who has appeared in the background of hundreds of television broadcasts always wearing his signature beige sweater. 12 – Noodling If your college is located near a fishing spot, then maybe you would like to try your hand at noodling quite literally. Noodling is the art of fishing with your bare hands. Catfish are the most common prey for noodlers. 13 – Ghost Hunting Are you a fan of paranormal TV shows like Ghost Adventures and Paranormal Lockdown? Why not try a little ghost hunting in real life? Many paranormal teams across the country run events taking members of the public to investigate spooky buildings. 14 – Collecting Barbie Dolls Perhaps collecting barbies isn’t one of the strangest entries on our list, but one of its enthusiasts made it interesting enough to be included. Johnny Depp is an avid collector of the dolls and says he often plays with the dolls in his collection when getting into character for a role. 15 – Tree Shaping Tree shaping is not a hobby for those looking for instant gratification as it can take years. However, it is extremely cool as you can train trees to grow into artistic shapes or even into your own living furniture. 16 – Geocaching What if we told you that you could go on a real-life treasure hunt? Geocachers use satellite technology to locate caches – small boxes of trinkets and other treasures which can be swapped. There is also a log book to sign inside each one. It may seem a little weird at first, but it is totally free, a great way to stay fit and good for meeting other players. 17 – Suing People Not all the weird hobbies we have come across are advisable and we certainly don’t recommend taking up suing people. Jonathan Lee Riches made it into the Guinness Book of World Records for being the person who has filed the most lawsuits. His list of targets includes the likes of Britney Spears, Martha Stewart, the Eiffel Tower and even a selection of Buddhist Monks. These weird hobbies might sound a little strange to you right now but consider this – the hobbies you mention on your resume are something that helps companies with their recruitment. If you prefer to try something more conservative, check out these cheap hobbies for students. A prospective employer is not necessarily looking for a hobby connected to the job, but if you have an interesting hobby then it could help you to stand out from the crowd of applicants!

Mozarts Symphony No. 39 in E-Flat Major, K. 543 A Brief History and Interpretation essays

Mozart's Symphony No. 39 in E-Flat Major, K. 543 A Brief History and Interpretation essays Mozart is undoubtedly one of the greatest musical composers in the Western tradition. Indeed, many might argue that he is the greatest classical composer to have walked the earth, period. However, some of his works are less well known than others. In particular, his Symphony No. 39 in E-flat major, K.543, is among the least commonly cited in reference to his greatness. Yet the depth, and sense of gentle optimism that shines through the piecean optimism and lightness that seems to defy the pain that Mozart experienced in his personal life, marks it as truly remarkable According to Michael Prouty, in his Mozart Web page, Mozart was born in the year 1756 in the Austrian town of Salzburg, one of two surviving children (out of seven) of Anna Maria and Leopold Mozart. A child prodigy, Mozart learned to play the harpsichord at the age of three, and by the age of six he was writing compositions. Under the guidance of his father, Wolfgang toured Europe. When that ended, he traveled briefly to France and there, suffered the death of his mother. Soon after, he returned to Salzburg, where he married Constanza, the sister of his first love, Aloysia Weber (who had rejected him). Soon he was to suffer through the deaths of several of his children, as well as difficult financial times. It is during this time that he completed his greatest works, including The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and the Magic Flute, which was completed It was during the last years of his life that he completed what is known as the final symphonic trilogy, including K543, K550, and K551. In fact, Mozart completed this monumental task in approximately three month's time in 1788. Further, according to the Web-based encyclopedia, Wikpedia, many scholars assert that he probably intended that these three works should be published as a single, three part opus. However, they were...

Is digital evidence collected from a volatile source as valid as that Research Paper

Is digital evidence collected from a volatile source as valid as that collected from a static source - Research Paper Example Evidence sources in the recent times has shifted from static source as one of the initial steps in evidence collection to adoption of digital source which is quickly driven by the ever changing dynamic computing environment. Evidence from volatile source can be referred to as data that provides a linkage that is significant between the victim and the perpetrator (Wang 2007). It can be gathered from anything that is criminally related such as such as theft of trade secrets, destruction of intellectual property and fraud to the usage of computer. Static source can be referred to as data preserved when the computer is turned off conserved on a computer hard drive or another medium as opposed to volatile source whose storage is in memory and gets lost when the computer is turned off. Introduction There are various ways of collecting digital evidence from the scene of crime. The most prevalent techniques are collecting digital evidence form volatile sources and collecting from static sour ce. Data from volatile source might have key evidence. It is therefore vital that at the scene of crime, the computer remains on. Tools for data collection range from various software such as data recovery, file examination, internet protocol tracking, decryption, authentication and most notably backup. Other notable tools are needed when obtaining data such as hardware imaging tool where bit by bit of data is copied using a method known as a bit stream copy. Data backups are always considered first with a principal objective of retaining the original evidence. Scope Casey (2000) lays out the physical characteristics of digital source where he asserts that it cannot be kept in its original state easily since the computer system records data in binary form that is 0 and 1 where the copied data has user modifications making it difficult to recollect volatile source in its original status. Volatile source can easily be produced hence prone for it being modified or copied raising doubts on its source and integrity. The negative impact posed is the difficulty to deduce directly the relationship between evidence obtained and the suspects as posed to the highly efficient methods such as deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) or fingerprints that is used for evidence authentication. A computer uses random access memory (RAM) to store volatile data by way of writing current processes in the form of a virtual clipboard for process usage and immediate reference. The information that may be of interest to the investigator include running processes, console executed commands, clear text passwords, unencrypted data, instant messages and the internet protocol addresses. There can be a scenario where an examination of a running system is required involving a computer during investigation. These can be enhanced using home networking technology which allows an investigator to have a small network to facilitate any investigative situation involving a computer. Volatile source data preserva tion and forensic examination analysis will surely be the way forward for many years to come for digital evidence collection. Investigators ability to collect crucial evidence at the crime of scene ought to be critical most importantly when they are provided crime scene collection skills so as to deal with the challenges and workload brought about by

Social Media in the Public Sector Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Social Media in the Public Sector - Dissertation Example In the midst of Arab uprisings, the role of social media such as Twitter and Facebook and their utilization by the Government 2.0 goes largely ignored (Council on Foreign Relations, 2011). While some research has attempted to examine the use of social media in the private sector, little attention has been given to the use of social media by the Government 2.0 in Arab countries in controlling and channelizing the thought processes of Arab citizens and averting such uprisings as happened recently. Background Previously, the world was organized around the traditional system of messages communicated via a single knowledge repository to all stakeholders with little or no interaction ‘amongst’ these stakeholders (Evans, 2008). However, the contemporary networked world is just the opposite with two-way communication being the norm. Social media has played a significant role in the birth of the boundary less world, with ease of collaboration and interaction amongst participants (Evans & McKee, 2010). Recent uprisings in Arab countries are raising concerns about the need for government to interact with its citizens, listen to their concerns and respond to them (Idle & Nunns, 2011). Governments in UAE have introduced blueprints for social media for government organizations in line with the e-participation directives (Abdallah & Albadr, 2010). Research indicates that approximately 30% of government organizations in Dubai have successfully adopted the use of Web 2.0 and social media technology at their place of work and another 30% plan to do the same in the coming 3 years (Abdallah & Albadr, 2010). ... by Arab governments is a step further in the concept of â€Å"open governments† which is a people-oriented strategy, in line with principles of true democracy, which is reflected in long term partnerships between the government and the nation’s citizens at a holistic level (Andersen et al., 2010). The concept is to engage the citizens by using ICTs that enhance trust, collaboration and participation between the government and its citizens. The notion of e-government includes but is not limited to, e-participation, a term that recognizes that two-way communication can be efficiently achieved via social media technologies by allowing the user (citizen) to interact with the government in real time (Macintosh & Tambouris, 2009). 2. Aims and Objectives The aim of this research is to identify, describe, and critically analyze the factors responsible for the need for use of social media in the public sector and establish the significance of social media as a tool for fostering Government 2.0. The objectives are as follows: 1) to define the tools used by public sector government organizations under the umbrella of social media 2) To determine the most significant tool in social media adoption in Arab world 3) To determine the extent to which the economic impact of e-government can be established 4) To examine the benefits of an open government and the role of social media in promoting it 5) To examine the challenges of implementing the social media networking technology in the context of promoting Government 2.0 6) To establish the differences between countries that are promoting Government 2.0 and those that are not 3. Intellectual Challenge: Within private sector businesses, there is evidence of use of social media as a tool for enhancing communication with stakeholders

Managerial Decision in Supply Chain Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Managerial Decision in Supply Chain - Essay Example Supply chain is a key feature to success or a failure of today’s business. This is because getting the correct products to consumers is not only the key player to competitive success, but also the solution to survival. According to Industrial Marketing Management Journal, managerial decisions to prevent failure in the movement of goods and services are very crucial (Handfield, & Bechtel, 2002:367). The decisions should target to respond to the market requirements with overall efficiency. This issue falls on the management. The management should design sound strategies to respond swiftly to the consumer’s demands. Moreover, the strategies should take care of the ever-changing markets. This is the only way to maintain and bring a competitive advantage to the market. For supply chain to remain efficient, it should concentrate on reduction of cost. In addition, the supply chain should avoid wastage of resources of non-value added activities. The managerial decisions should focus to resolve trade-off between responsive and efficiency (Handfield, & Bechtel, 2002:369). This paper examines the managerial decisions that increase responsiveness of the supply chains. ... To achieve this, it calls for the management to make sound decisions to respond well to the customer demands or changes in market. This is because each customer has specific set of needs. Some markets require high level of receptiveness and others concentrate on effectiveness. The general effect of making prudent decisions regarding to each driver establishes the affectivity with which the supply chain serves its market for maximum profits for the participants in the supply chain (Minnich, & Maier, 2008:3). The common tenet from literatures holds that for success of supply chain managers should be aware of changes in the competitive market environment. The managers should then re-organise the supply chain to satisfy the genuine needs of the consumers. This swift response determines the adaptation of firms and supply chain to the needs of the ever-changing markets to achieve lasting competitive success. This means that policy designing, and changes are crucial to respond well to the s upply chain in the five areas of the company. These are production, transportation, information, inventory, and location. The managers’ decisions on the strategies they should focus on the situation at hand. The decision should endeavour to achieve the lower costs of goods and services. This is an issue, which many supply managers grapple with. It therefore means that the managers should choose between two strategies philosophies. The management can either demonstrate a high reaction to consumers at any cost. The other way is to reduce waste in order to achieve maximum profits (Minnich & Maier, 2008:3). The managerial decisions should concentrate on devising sound processes and key performance pointers that rewards

The Manual Transmission System

The Manual Transmission System In this report, I am going to compare and contrast the difference between Toyota 5 speed manual gearbox transmission and Toyota 5 speed automatic transmission system. 2. History of the transmission In 1894 Louis-Rene Panhard and Emile Levassor invented the modern transmission. Today we still use the same concept since it was introduced. The concept is still the same that the crankshaft connects from the engine to the transmission shaft through clutch. The latter is mounted to gears which control and operate the transmission of the motion that is coming from the engine to the wheels. Few experiments have been done about type and numbers of gears but still until today the same concept is applied. To make it easier for the driver to control speed and with help of gears, synchromesh gears and a live rear axle were invented. Instead of having gears engage and disengage again from each other, a car transmission that had gears and continuous with each other was introduced, all the gears were moving and the dog clutch was designed in order to connect the gears that are caused to rotate by engine and move the wheels forward. Different gears with different sizes are designed to increase or decrease the momentum of the vehicle. The most popular transmissions were 4 speed transmissions which its top gear (4th) had a ratio of 1:1 while other gears had lower ratios. Then, engineers came with a 5th gear in which will increase the ratio by 1 between the engine rpm and the wheel rpm that is known as overdrive. American inventors Harold Sinclair and Richard Spikes designed automatic transmission while German inventors invented the automatic transmission rudimentary design. While General Motors provided automatic transmission in all of their cars that were manufactured from 1938 and by the end of 1940s most of the car manufactures offered at least one transmission in their models. Electric cars also fitted with electric car transmission. Now the market for automatic transmission is huge and most cars are manufactured with it (Car transmission, 2006) 3. Automatic transmission system This is the type of transmission that is capable of changing the gear ratios automatically while the vehicle is moving without the need of the driver to manually change the gear using the gear stick. The main purpose of the transmission is to provide the following outcome: Neutral to keep the engine running without the gear, or moving the vehicle. Lower gears for taking off purpose and for operating in heavier situation. Higher gears for cruising, higher speed and lighter weight Reverse gear to move the vehicle backwards. Transferring the driving torque to the required wheels (Crolla, D, 2009, p, 109) The automatic transmission comes into two different types. The front wheel drives vehicles that are designed more compact than rear wheel drive vehicles transmissions that are normally connected in the engine compartment in which they are known as transaxle. Both of these types of transmission do the same job and same design of the planetary gear train. The essential part for the front wheel drive transmission is differential, while the rear wheel drive transmission has externally mounted differential which is uses the drive shaft to link up with the transmission. The automatic transmission system contains few major components. These are: Planetary gear unit Torque converter Hydraulic control unit Seals and gasket Computer Governor/ modulator The above six components perform various duties in transmission as explained below (Toyota technical training). Planetary gear unit: The purpose of planetary gear unit is to provide and changing different gear ratios. Generally, the planetary gear unit contains three major parts. These are ring gear, inner gear (sun gear) and planetary carrier that carries three or four gears which are between the inner gear and outer ring gear. Planetary gear unit When one part of the planetary gear connects to the input shaft which leads to the engine, the second part is held still and the third part usually attached to the output shaft. It all depends on which part stays still, which one is the input or output because it will result in different gear ratios. Things such as brake bands, hydraulic clutch packs and one way clutches are used in the planetary gear to control the power flow. Every gear links up to a combination of clutch packs and bake bands being engaged or disengaged (Samarins.com) Torque converter Is a fluid type coupling, that lets the engine to rotate freely without the help from the transmission, if the engine is running slowly, idling or on the stop traffic, there is a small amount of torque that is passed via torque converter, less pressure is also required on the brake pedal to keep the car stationary. Also when you put more pressure on the gas pedal, it speeds up and adds more fluid into the torque converter which causes the wheels to receive more torque. The torque converter housing contains five major components. Pump is fixed to housing, turbine that is connected through output shaft to transmission, stator has output that is connected to fixed shaft in transmission, fluid and converter clutch. This housing is attached to the engines flywheel and rotates and at any speed that the engine is spinning. The torque converter also has pumps that is made up of fins and are attached to the housing that uses the same speed as engine to turn. Centrifugal type pump is used inside the torque converter, as it rotates it causes the fluid to be thrown outside and this action creates the vacuum that draws a lot of fluid in at the centre. Once the fluid arrives in the blades of the turbine, the transmission begins to rotate and this causes the car to move, the turbines blades are curved and this makes the fluid that is coming from the outside to go into different way before it goes to the centre of the turbine, this changing of direction is the one that causes the turbine to spin. In other way we can put that both turbine and the fluid spin in different direction and this creates the force as an outcome. This fluid that exists from the turbine is usually moving into different direction as the pump and engine turn, because if the fluid hits the pump directly, it may cause the engine to waste power or slow it down and that is why there is a stator in the torque converter (Builders transmission and used car Inc.). Hydraulic control unit: A transmission fluid is sent using the engine oil pump that controls the performance of the car clutches that helps the planetary gear sets to work smoothly. Seals and gasket Their work is to support and maintain the right place of the engine oil and stop it from leaking outside. Governor / Modulator This controls and monitors throttle position and the speed of the car to determine when to change the gears. Computer This is the major unit that uses sensors to control all the activities such as engine speed, engine load, throttle position, brake pedal position etc. (Carazoo, 2010) 4. Materials The materials that are used to build clutch or transmission have to resist heat, friction, durable, strong, hard and tough. These materials are organic, Kevlar, segmented Kevlar, hybrid carbon, ceramic and sintered iron (UUC Motorwerks, 2003) 5. Advantages of automatic transmission system The torque converter gives more engine torques and reduces the strain and the shock of the entire drive line. A lock up clutch is included in the latest automatic transmission, this helps in maximizing the fuel economy because of its direct mechanical linkage from the engine to the transmission. A vehicle with automatic transmission is very comfortable and easy to drive as the driver does not need to manually change the gear ratios. Automatic transmission can also be powerful and strong because of the arrangement of the sun gear and ring gear, this increase the gears contacts that reduces the gears breakage and supplies more torque on big area (Rowe, R. 2010) 6. Disadvantages of automatic transmission Since the automatic transmission is made up of several components, the main setback can occur when single part breaks down working and this can cause a transmission to stop working, as a result maintaining or fixing it can be very expensive. Also the total speed of the vehicle is controlled by the computer that manages the transmission, and the driver can lose the acceleration beyond a certain speed. Automatic transmission can overheat easily. 7. Manual transmission system This is the type of transmission in which the driver has to manually change the gear ratio setting by using the gear stick inside the car. There are two types of manual transmissions. The constant mesh design and the sliding gear type. The sliding-gear type, no part is turning inside the transmission case except the main drive gear and cluster gear when the transmission is in neutral. In order to mesh the gears and apply engine power to move the vehicle, the driver pushes the clutch pedal and moves the shift knob, which shifts a linkage and forks to slide a gear along the main shaft that is connected straight above the cluster. Once the gears are meshed, the clutch pedal is released and the power from the engine is sent to the drive wheels. There can be different gears on the main shaft of different diameters and tooth counts, and the transmission shift linkage is designed so the driver has to unmesh one gear before being able to mesh another. With these older transmissions, gear clash is a problem because the gears are all rotating at different speed (Cook, M. 2009) The 5 speed manual transmission gear box has a three plane arrangement order with reverse gear alongside fifth gear and uses a special fluid to operate. Moving forks are attached to three wide base rails that work in arranged bushing for less friction, these moving levers are connected together to the shifting cables. Every one of them uses different way with selected lever and this creates less shifting efforts for a driver, it also avoids to accidentally engaging the reverse gear from fifth because of the way it is designed to operate, it shifts the crossover lever into three to four gear without jamming or binding. The shift knob is usually used to control the gear ratios. The forward gear ratios are synchronized using great capacity dual cone brass (1st and 2nd) and other gears are synchronized with paper friction materials which is more strong and clash resistant than brass. The input shaft uses paper materials synchronizers, by cutting rotating inertia it helps to reduce the shifting effort. A reverse engagement clash can be minimised by using a brake mechanism. The needle roller bearings are fixed to reduce friction and extend gear life. The case itself is cast in only two pieces to reduce leak paths; structural ribs strengthen and harden the case to reduce noise and vibration with small or no extra weight. The case has good bending stiffness, offering a natural frequency above the exciting frequency of the engine at peak rpm (Massey, K. 2010) 8. Clutch system A manual transmission system will not function without a clutch. This is the mechanism that is used for transmitting rotation that can be engaged and disengaged. This is controlled by the driver who uses a special release mechanism to control the movement of the torque between them. The clutch assembly A single disc clutch assembly contains four major parts: the rear face of the flywheel- a driving member the clutch disc- the driven member the pressure plate assembly-a driving member the release mechanism-disengages and engages the clutch (May, E. 2004. p,250) 8.1 Types of clutches Multidisc clutch that contain two or more disc are usually used in automatic transmission, motor cycles and heavy mechanical equipment. While the manual transmission is operated using a dry clutch and there is no lubrication between surfaces. The automatic transmission clutch operates wet, it is enclosed in the transmission case that is full of lubrication fluid. Generally, in automatic transmission there is no clutch pedal and a gear shift (Roymech, 2010) (Genta Morello, 2009 p, 425) There are so many different types of clutches such as cone clutches, wet clutches and dry clutches but the common one uses one or more friction discs that are pushed very tight together or against the fly wheel using a spring. A Clutch contains two rotating shafts, one is operated using pulley and the other one uses a different method, these two shafts are connected together by the clutch so that they can be locked together and rotating at the same time while it engages, or be decoupled and rotate at different speed while it disengages. The input shaft is used at the centre of the pressure to engage the splines of the friction disc hub. The clutch and flywheel assembly spinning as one unit when the engine is rotating. The flywheel is receiving the torque from the engine, uses the friction that is occurring from the clutch discs to the spline hub into the transmission. When the clutch pedal is moved, it manages and controls the movement of the torque between two units. The pressure pl ate can be retracted against the springs force and frees the disc from its clamping action by depressing the pedal. These two units and clamping force can be connected again by releasing the pedal once again. This is a very important mechanism when: Engaging the transmission into gear, the input shaft from the transmission must be disengaged from the engine. The pedal is released slowly, it provides a gradual engagement of the drive, as the facings slips of the friction slip, and this lets the torque to be applied continuously until these two units are connected very tightly. Choosing different ratio, changing gears when the vehicle is moving, for this to happen, the engine torque from the transmission must be interrupted. The disengaged of the transmission that causes the vehicle to stop and let the engine run at idling speed. The co-efficient of friction between the friction facings and their mating surfaces, the total spring force and the amount of facings in contact can decide the torque that is transferred by the clutch. If you want to increase the torque capacity, the diameter of the clutch needs to be increased and this will cause the spring force to increase. Multi plate clutch can be made by having two or more clutch plates as well as increasing the number of facings and torque capacity. They are useful where by reducing the diameter is beneficial or where by increasing the spring strength is undesirable. (CDX online eTextbook). 9. Advantages of manual transmission system The manual transmission vehicles are usually cheaper and good in maintenance compare to the automatic ones, this is because changing of the fluid can be very less, also when it breaks down it is more than likely that the clutch needs to be replaced and this can save you a lot from buying a new or second hand transmission. It gives better control because of the faster shift response, this is mainly due to the bad weather. They can as well be good in braking because the driver is not fighting the effort of the automatic transmission to move forward. It can be good is terms of fuel economy because you can shift the gear into neutral and avoiding driving in lower gears. A skilled driver at shifting gears will have a better traction in snowy, muddy or slippery conditions and might as well be easier to get of the dangerous situation than automatic one. Manual transmission is also lighter in weight. And there is a fun point of view in driving manual because it keeps you active and keeps you aware of what is going on around you (Moore, S. 2010) 10. Disadvantages of manual transmission system Driving manual car in traffic can be very pain full especially when there is a stop start driving, automatic cars are more comfortable in this case. It is very unlikely to find a manual transmission car with a cruise control. Most car now are built in automatic transmission so there is less availability of cars with manual transmission as well as the difficulties in learning how to drive manual transmission cars. 11. Report Summary This has been a successful report and I have researched a lot of information about this topic. Indeed I have acquired a lot transmission system. Here are some few pointed aligned below: History of the transmission What is automatic transmission system Major components of the automatic transmission and how they work Advantages and disadvantages of automatic transmission system What is manual transmission system Clutch assembly and clutch components and how they work Advantages and disadvantages of manual transmission system 12. Conclusions According to my understanding in the report, it shows the main difference between automatic transmission and manual transmission is that automatic transmission uses torque converter to create power while manual transmission uses clutch to engage and disengage the gears. Also automatic cars are in very high demanding since most of the components are controlled by computers now in the car. It also shows that once the automatic transmission breaks it can be very hard and complicated to fix it and this may end up in replacing the whole transmission. In terms of manual gear box, the report shows they are very hard to break or die as well as less maintenance too, this is one of the best things in manual transmission because it can last for long time without anything happen. From my point of view I would always recommend to go for manual car if you enjoy the gear changing ration as I do.

Families Values in Knoxville, Tennessee, Those Winter Sundays, and Two Kinds :: Two Kinds, Amy Tan

Family. What do you think of when you hear that word? Some people think of relatives or the people that they live with. Maybe a stepfather, stepmother, brothers, or sisters. To me, family is love, devotion, and caring. People of a family want to be together and love to do things for each other, such as do the dishes or wash the car for them. The poems that most represent my family values are â€Å"Knoxville, Tennessee† by Nikki Giovanni and â€Å"Those Winter Sundays† by Robert Hayden. The one that does not represent my family as much as the others is â€Å"Two Kinds† by Amy Tan. I love the poem â€Å"Knoxville, Tennessee† by Nikki Giovanni. It gives me a sense of people wanting to be together, family, wanting to be together. Giovanni wrote this poem so that it is told through a child (under the age of ten). The child’s world is made up of his or her family. He or she is mostly with the family â€Å"at the church picnic† (Giovanni 50, line 12) or â€Å"at the church / homecoming† (Giovanni 50, lines17-18). The child goes places with the family and is with them all of the time. He or she has not reached the teenage stage of rebellion and does not mind being with his or her parents. That is why I like this poem. It shows love for family through the uncontaminated eyes of a child. â€Å"Those Winter Sundays† represents family devotion to me. The father in the poem is so devoted to his family that he gets â€Å"up early / and put his clothes on in the blueback cold† (Hayden 51, lines 1-2) to warm the house for them. He does not care about anything except driving the cold away for his family. That is the kind of thing that is done out of true, deep, unconditional love. Families stick together and support each other, even if one is not so kind, like the teenager who fears â€Å"the chronic angers of the house† (Hayden 51, line 9). Families forgive, forget, and keep loving each other. â€Å"Two Kinds† is a story that does not represent my idea of family. The young daughter (Tan) does not obey her mother and continually disappoints her. Her mother wants her to learn piano and believes that she has talent, but Tan does not agree. â€Å"Unlike my mother, I did not believe that I could be anything.

Critical Thinking Triad Insurance Company Essay

Introduction The term critical thinking refers to â€Å" †¦ to a wide range of cognitive skills and intellectual dispositions needed to effectively identify, analyze, and evaluate arguments and truth claims, to discover and overcome personal prejudices and biases, to formulate and present convincing reasons in support of conclusions, and to make reasonable, intelligent decisions about what to believe and what to do†¦ â€Å"   (Bassham, G., et al, 2005).     It serves as the foundation of objective analyses that leads to the correct problem definition resulting in the generation of sound alternative courses of action.   In the absence of critical thinking models, companies can fall into decision-making traps where, unconsciously, they are forced to make the wrong decisions (Langlois, G, 2007). What are the issue and conclusion? The case study, as embodied in the Memorandum to the Chief Executive Officer, dated September 20, 2007, presents a prescriptive issue, to establish or not a leadership development program for Triad Insurance Company of Indianapolis (TICI).   Ms. Denise Khali (Vice-President of Human Resources) specifically recommended disapproval of the proposal submitted by the Director of Operations, Mr. Ralph Clarke. What are the reasons? As VP of human resources and from her personal standpoint, Ms. Khali presented various arguments, notions and ideas to support her recommendation. TICI has 12 senior executives and none has attended a leadership development program. The past performance of TICI casts doubt on the necessity of the program. Supporting reason 1: TICI is over 50 years old.   The continued operation of TICI suggests a successful business undertaking.   Even at over 50 years, there is no end in sight for its continued operations, increasing its going-concern value. Supporting reason 2: TICI has an annual average growth rate of 12%.   There is a presumption that the 12% growth rate is acceptable in the insurance industry where TICI is located. Supporting reason 3: The age and growth factor of TICI are indicative of the company’s prosperity. According to Ms. Khali, the successful and effective leadership experience of TICI suggests that â€Å"leaders are born, not made.† Supporting reason 1: Ms. Khali surveyed TICI’s senior staff on the notion that â€Å"leaders are born, not made.†Ã‚   The survey result showed that all, except one, agreed with this notion. Supporting reason 2: Dr. Carleton Parker, a famous economist, has a similar stance. Supporting reason 3: Ms. Khali refers to an existing â€Å"entire school of leadership theory† that the world’s famous leaders possess common traits – that â€Å"cannot be learned; they are innate.† Ms. Khali cited her personal observation that leaders have a genetically determined tall physical stature. Supporting reason 1: She cited two internet websites Laughter Genealogy and IMDB that presented a partial list of American leaders, of different generations, having a height of more than six feet. Supporting reason 2: All of TICI’s senior staff members have heights of over six feet tall.   With the exception of Mr. Ralph Clarke, the leadership training advocate. The intentions of Mr. Ralph Clarke are doubtful with regards to his ambitions and liberal views on education and achievement. Supporting reason 1: Ms.Khali believes Mr. Clarke covets her position as VP of Human Resources. Supporting reason 2: Ms. Khali believes Mr.Clarke is out to discredit her. Supporting reason 3: According to Ms. Khali, Mr. Clarke believes every citizen can get anything they desire through each citizen’s right to get education. Supporting reason 4: The leadership theories of Aspen Institute do not fit in the culture of TICI. Agreement to the proposal will set off requests for expensive trainings that TICI cannot afford. Training staff without leadership traits is a waste of money. Supporting reason 1: Two research studies, described as â€Å"well-respected,† concluded that personality traits point to a person’s leadership potential.   These two studies appeared in the Journal of Applied Psychology and Leadership Quarterly.   There was no mention of the specific issues where they appeared. Supporting reason 2: Recruitment efforts should focus on applicants with leadership traits. Which words or phrases are ambiguous? We review the reasons cited above for ambiguity.   Vague words undermine the strength of the reasons supporting the conclusion.   The discussion of ambiguity also opens the door to look into the proposal itself for weaknesses and possible points of misunderstanding.   The Background Section identifies the ultimate purpose of the training program as preparation for â€Å"future advancement† of 20 junior executives annually into executive positions.   There was no justification on the number of trainees.   Does TICI have as many executive positions to fill up in the short or medium term?   The phrase â€Å"future advancement† can be broken down into the exact executive positions with vacancy and in what future timeframe.   The training program can be viewed as an investment and the training costs can be matched with the costs of pirating executives to see which is feasible. The term prosperity in Reason 1 can mean increases in value in different things.   The increase can refer to gross sales, net profit, net worth, goodwill, and others.   In the insurance industry, cash flow is not proportionate to sales levels as there is no guarantee in the collection of annual premiums due to nonpayment or termination of contact by the policyholder.   Even if an insurance company is growing in terms of premium sales, there is the possibility of cash flow problems that will translate in operational problems, including training activities by the Human Resource Department. Reason two, uses a very general description of TICI leadership in the words successful and effective.   The words suggest that TICI leadership is successful in all areas of corporate management – finance, operations, marketing, sales, administration, information systems, and others.   If that is the case, there is no need for an outsourced training program.   The best training the junior executives can get is from the company leadership itself.   The Human Resource Department can develop in-house training programs.   Ms. Khali was silent on this possibility.   She did mention training of personnel with leadership traits, but she failed to elaborate. Ms. Khali conducted a survey to support the notion that â€Å"leaders are born, not made.†Ã‚   She did not inform the technicalities as to sample population characteristics, sample size, and others.   It could have been a simple query to a select group such that the procedure itself is biased.   Therefore, in this case, the result is also biased.   The use of the descriptive phrase â€Å"entire school of leadership theory† suggested a huge following but said following is unverifiable. Reason 4 reveals power play and Ms. Khali accuses the Operations Director of discrediting her.   There seem to be an assumption the training proposal of Mr. Clarke is needed by the company and the VP of Human Resources was not able to see or sense this.   Therefore, she may have been bypassed in the formulation of the proposal.   How the leadership theories of Aspen do not fit the culture of TICI is in itself vague. Ms. Khali mentioned subsequent requests for expensive trainings are something TICI cannot afford.   Are they having cash flow problems even if the company is experiencing a long period of prosperity? What are the value conflicts and assumptions? The case facts limit us to values in the work place.   A good reference in analyzing the interplay of values in Triad Insurance is Schwartz’s Values Circumplex (McShane & Von Glinow 2:47, 2005).   The case facts present bipolar positions where the VP of Human Resources assumes conservative values while the Director for Operations assumes values reflecting openness to change.   This explains, in part, the actions of the two protagonists and the values they are assumed to have.   Ms. Khali possesses the values of conformity (adherence to corporate culture), security (tenure and stability) and tradition (moderation and maintenance of the status quo). Mr. Clarke whose values cluster on the opposite side of the model is assumed to possess the values of self-direction (independence in thinking and action) and stimulation (facing challenges and taking risks).   The Schwartz model also has vertical bipolar clusters around self-transcendence and self-enhancement.   From this dimension, only the values clustering around self-enhancement are present, from the facts given in the case.   Both protagonists possess the values of achievement (personal success) and power (dominance over others within the organization).   The conflicting values and assumptions explain the collision course of the two corporate protagonists. What are the descriptive assumptions? The first descriptive assumption is that the senior executives know almost everything about leadership and further training is unnecessary.   This assumption is hard to accept in this age of globalization, which promotes the free flow of information, resources and people (Jrank, 2007).   Several decades ago, the concept of international competition was limited to the big multinationals.   With the developments in information technology, competition is now global in character and big and small players can compete in various geographic locations at the same time or within cyberspace itself. Genetics play an important role in determining leadership traits of every person.   Ms. Khali relied heavily on this descriptive assumption to support her recommendation not to accept Mr. Clarke’s proposal.   Underlying this descriptive assumption is another descriptive assumption that exposes Ms. Khali’s incapability of adequately supporting her arguments.   The data on leader heights she presented to the CEO was taken from the Laughter Genealogy website.   Professional journals are readily accessible in the libraries and the internet and are better sources of reliable data and information. The case did not present much information on Mr. Clarke.   It was apparent that Ms. Khali was wary of Mr. Clarke’s intentions and she was convinced that the latter was after her position.   The manner by which Ms. Khali reacted, gathering supporting arguments left and right and throwing accusations, seemed to indicate another descriptive assumption.   Ms. Khali was insecure of her position in the company for reasons not stated in the case.   She was desperately protecting herself in the ongoing power struggle, as she perceived it. Are there any fallacies in the reasoning? The following analysis on fallacies is based on the article of Haskins (2008) as posted on the Skepdic website. Ms. Khali has committed the fallacy of argument from ignorance and the fallacy of begging the question when she argued that all, except one, senior executive of TICI are over 6 feet tall that explains why they are â€Å"successful and effective† leaders.   She also committed the fallacy of false analogy by quoting Dr. Carleton Parker in proving that only a select group can be leaders and they are genetically determined to become leaders.   What Dr. Parker said is that each human being is born into this world with â€Å"rich, psychical disposition† that provides â€Å"all his motivations of conduct.†Ã‚   She also committed the fallacy of slippery slope when she argued that there would be more requests for expensive trainings if the leadership program were approved. It is only a claim but remains to be proven.   Upon concluding her arguments, she also committed the ad hominem fallacy by shifting her criticisms from the leadership program to the character of Ralph Clarke accusing him of coveting her position.   She resorted to the ad populum fallacy when surveying the acceptance of the notion that leaders are born, not made.   The survey was more of a popularity vote on an idea rather than a serious attempt to establish statistical probabilities. How good is the evidence? The evidences given by Ms. Khali were gathered to support her decision not to recommend the acceptance of the proposal.   On the contrary, whatever position she takes will be more acceptable with a study that will show the feasibility of the proposed program.   She capped her memorandum with personal accusations that were impossible to prove or defend. Are there rival causes? As Vice President of Human Resources, it was the prerogative of Ms. Khali to recommend or not the leadership-training proposal.   It is assumed that anybody n her position will recommend what is best for the company.   The memorandum she wrote was filled with ambiguities and fallacies.   As she cast doubt on the intentions of Mr. Clarke a similar cloud of suspicion hung over her intentions. The manner by which her memorandum was crafted was not deserving of the CEO.   All these factors indicate the possibility of rival causes.   Did Ms, Khali recommend the rejection of the proposal as part of her job as vice president or did she make that recommendation to protect her hold on the position of vice president?   Conflicting values as discussed above indicated a collision course between the two major players in the case.   Corporate executives live with conflict and are expected to resolve them in a professional manner expected of them. Are the statistics deceptive?  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The proposal itself and the arguments against it contain deceptive statistics.   Training 20 junior executives for senior positions every year indicates a requirement stemming from growth or a fast turnover of senior executives.   Both of these two possible reasons remain unsupported throughout the case.   If the number of junior executives for training were down to five, for example, would it have been more realistic for the company?   Ms. Khali did not look at it from this perspective; she simply went all out to prevent project implementation. Dr. Carleton Parker was quoted as supporting the hypothesis that a select group is genetically destined to become leaders.   What Dr. Parker said was all human beings are psychically equipped to face motivations in his lifetime. What significant information is omitted?   The pros and cons of the project proposal did not get equal investigation.   The memorandum would have gained much credibility if the side of Mr. Clarke was sought and presented in the memorandum.   Perhaps, Ms. Khali was not consulted during the formulation of the project proposal causing her personal hurt and doubts as to the real intentions of Mr. Clarke.   In retaliation, she presented only her side of the picture.   In the absence of Mr. Clarke’s arguments, the memorandum could have achieved a sense of balance and fairness if both sides of the coin were represented in all the arguments used. What reasonable conclusions are possible? There were so many ambiguities and fallacies in the memorandum.   Perhaps the CEO will ask an improved version, one expected of a vice president.   A balanced report will provide stronger arguments and the opinion of Mr. Clarke may be required in the modified memorandum.   The CEO may ask other parties to conduct the investigation.   Both the proposal and the arguments have weaknesses and points to the possibility that personal interest weighed heavily against that of the company. Conclusion As mentioned, critical thinking is a requirement to generate the right arguments, generate Alternative courses of action and make the right decisions.   By not following a critical thinking model, the company finds itself with the wrong decisions.   Many decision alternatives are arrived at because of the poor thinking styles used in the process.   As a result, companies unconsciously limit their own decision choices. Langlois (2007) identifies several heuristic (decision) traps companies face.   In the case of TICI, a decision based on Ms. Khali’s memorandum will force the company into a framing trap that prevents the generation of other alternatives to the proposal presented.   It is the responsibilities of the CEO to identify heuristic traps and develop strategies that will guide the company develop a healthy decision making environment. References Bassham, G, Irwin, W, Nardone, H, & Wallace, J (2005). Critical thinking, 2nd ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Haskins, G. (2008). A practical guide to critical thinking.   Retrieved January 20, 2008, from   http://skepdic.com/essays/haskins.pdf Jrank, 2007, Modernization theory – globalization theory.   Retrieved January 16, 2008, from   http://science.jrank.org/pages/10275/Modernization-Theory-Globalization-Theory.html Langlois, H. (2007). The challenge of changing, part II. Massachusetts: Cambridge [Course notes.]   Retrieved   January 14, 2008, from http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic203996.files/Challenge_in_Changing092507B.ppt McShane, S.L., Von Glinow, M.A. (2005). Organizational behavior: emerging realities for the workplace revolution, 3rd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Education.