Aristotle the Great Philosopher Essay

Aristotle was one of the most profound philosophers of all time. He was a pupil of Plato; he adapted many of Plato’s concepts into his own. Aristotle follows in the footsteps of Plato and Socrates idea of taking the virtues to be vital in a well-lived life. Based on the precise nature, true happiness can be found. In this paper, I will discuss Aristotle’s beliefs of human good and human flourishing. Aristotle’s most influential work was Nichomachean Ethics. No one is quite sure where Nichomachean Ethics originated from; they assume it is either, a combination of lecture notes from Aristotle or his students. He believes that every human activity aims at some good; every human activity aims at some end. He believes that good equals end. Aristotle refers to good as being the object of an action. He believes people should be goal oriented no matter if the goal is morally good or bad. Aristotle thought that human actions are not haphazard, random, gratuitous, and purposeless. Otherwise, they’re relevance is the distinguishing mark of human rationality, as opposed to the instinctive ness of animal conduct or an unintentional sequence of natural events. He believes that humans seek rational means to attain their goals. (Zunjic, Books 1 & 2) Aristotle was born in 384 BCE and later died in 322 BCE. He grew up in Stagirus, which was a small Greek colony. His father was a physician to King Amyntas of Macedonia. The Macedonia Court would influence Aristotle’s life, greatly. Aristotle’s father died while he was still a child. His guardian, Proxenus, sent him to Athens. While in Athens, he became a pupil of Plato; he attended Plato’s lectures for twenty years. He then began to lecture himself, particularly about rhetoric. (Aristotle’s Biography) After Plato had died, Aristotle may have become the leader of the Academy, except his differences in teaching. They gave the leadership role to Plato’s nephew, Seusippus. Aristotle then left Athens and went to a different court. He married Pythias and then a short while after he moved to the island of Lesbos. Some years later, Aristotle was invited back to Macedonia by the King to tutor the young Alexander. Their ideas differed, which lead to an interesting relationship. (Aristotle’s biography) Aristotle taught and managed the Lyceum for twelve years, producing, during this time, his lecture notes. Only a small amount of Aristotle’s works had survived over the years. Aristotle’s works included all the major areas of thought: logic, science, metaphysics, ethics, and politics. He developed a new theory of form that differed from Plato, created a system of deductive reasoning for universal and existential statements, and produced a theory of the universe, matter, life, and mind. (Aristotle’s Biography) Aristotle expanded his knowledge significantly when he studied under Plato, if his guardian had not sent him to Athens he probably would have never studied under Plato. Though Aristotle learned a lot from Plato, his ideas also differed greatly, and he was a great thinker all on his own. Aristotle might not have been the great philosopher that he is without the guidance of Plato. â€Å"Aristotle’s style of lecturing involved walking around in in covered walkways, for which reason Aristotle was called ‘Peripatetic’ meaning walking around. † (www. about. com) Greek influences helped shape what Aristotle believed. His education under Plato was also a huge influencing factor. He believed that there were only two causes in the universe: form and matter; form and matter leads to intelligence. Aristotle was a firm believer that education and morality went hand in hand with each other. He thought it was the duty of the state to produce well rounded citizens who would lead good lives. The realization of oneself is the main way to reach goodness. Aristotle has been recognized as one of the greatest philosophers of all time. He has had essential time working with other top philosophers of his time. Years after his death, people still learn and adapt his beliefs. Aristotle was a teleologist, meaning, he believed that all existing things have a purpose. Aristotle was way ahead of his time, in his thinking. Many of the ideas he had were completely baffling to others around him. They still take a great deal of thought to grasp what he means but it is worth examining. Aristotle believes in instrumental goods and self-sufficient goods. Multiple instrumental goods are needed to achieve ourselves; they include health, friendship, wealth, knowledge, and virtue. The ancient Greek word for virtue is, ‘Arete’ meaning excellence. The excellence a person demonstrates when acting towards virtue. Virtue, when practice, begins to make us who we are. Aristotle believes that virtue must be practice habitually, so that everyone has the capacity to perfect their own character. (Aristotle Ethics Podcast 1) He believed that every idea can be traced back to the very beginning. This is known as finite regress: finite, meaning an end, and regress, meaning to trace back. Objects of thought can be traced back to the very beginning; many consequences lead to the knowledge of the object of thought. He thought that the idea in your head can be traced back, because the idea in your head is a product of everything else, even what people earlier had in their head. Once the thought reaches the corner stone, you cannot go any farther, showing it has one clear beginning. He does not believe in infinite regress that would mean there would be no defined order. (Aristotle Ethics Podcast 2) Aristotle was not concerned with his own good but, rather, the good for all humans. He called this good, eudaimonia, meaning happiness. Eudaimonia serves as the one, final self-sufficient good. He did not believe happiness was just a feeling; he believed it was also a way of living. Many have adapted this idea as human flourishing. Human flourishing involves achievement of excellence. He believes that everyone aims at some good, but different people have different ideas of what good is. The product of the activity should be better than the activity, says Aristotle. The end is the achievable good. (Kessler, 80-87) Aristotle’s beliefs can be used to view life today. His ideas of what a good is and how to reach human flourishing influence life today. When examining any thought, it is almost possible to try and trace it back to where it originated. Aristotle showed that everything has a clear beginning and end, and that everyone should try to have a life full of virtues. Aristotle’s ideas influenced many other philosophers for years after his time. He was a great influence on medieval scholasticism: much of the Roman Catholic theology shows his ideas of teleology. It was also a big influence to biology; but it was banished from physics by the scientific revolution. Aristotle is a firm believer that happiness is the most important thing in life. Ethics was the main topic Aristotle focused on, the difference between what is a right or wrong, good and evil, rule and virtues, character and vice, success and happiness. Works Cited â€Å"Aristotle – Greek Philosopher Aristotle. † About. com Ancient / Classical History. N. p. , n. d. Web. 02 Dec. 2012. . â€Å"Aristotle of Stagirus – Biography. † Aristotle. N. p. , n. d. Web. 29 Nov. 2012. . Flip4Learning. â€Å"Aristotle’s Ethics (Part One). † YouTube. YouTube, 04 Mar. 2012. Web. 03 Dec. 2012. . Flip4Learning. â€Å"Aristotle’s Ethics (Part Two). † YouTube. YouTube, 04 Mar. 2012. Web. 03 Dec. 2012. . â€Å"Nicomachean Ethics. † Nicomachean Ethics. N. p. , n. d. Web. 29 Nov. 2012. . Kessler, Gary E. Voices of Wisdom: A Multicultural Philosophy Reader. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2010. Print.

Applicability of Lean Management in Nursing

Nurses also bring added advantages to the role of Lean leader-an uncompromising commitment to patient care and the natural ability to view hospital yester through the lens of the patient. The second literature â€Å"Lean Management in Med/Surge† By Barbara Mercer talks about the pros and cons of lean Management as Tracy Galilee, MBA, URN, has developed a professional and personal investment in the success of the organization- one aftercare's lean facilitators.Lean management principles are derived from the manufacturing industry, specifically from Toyota Motor Corporation, which espouses continuous improvement and respect for people. Sounds like a great idea to incorporate into healthcare, wouldn't you think? The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (III) agreed. The ‘His 2005 White Paper Going Lean in Healthcare was based on expert presentations from the ‘HI Calls to Action Series.Among the experts was John Toasting, MD, president and CEO at Teacher, who was integ ral to bringing lean management to the organization. The white paper's executive summary briefly explained the purpose and goals of lean management as they would relate to healthcare: â€Å"The Institute for Healthcare Improvement believes that lean principles can be – indeed, already are being – successfully applied to the delivery of health care. Lean thinking begins with driving out waste so that all work adds value and reverse the customer's needs.For those unfamiliar with lean management practices, Galilee did not take over as a dietary counselor; instead, she assisted nursing staff to cut the fat from daily processes that stand in the way of the most efficient practices and the best possible outcomes for patients. Now the business unit manager of the med/surge unit, Galilee continues to assist staff in employing lean principles in a developing community of empowered problem-solvers. (2) The last literature to be reviewed is an article that spoke against the impl ementation of Lean ManagementDon't ‘Lean' on Me, Hospital Workers Say' by Alexandra Bradbury [August 1 5, 2013. Part of the lean ethos is getting workers to participate in their own exploitation. Some hospitals offer nurses a boost of pay and status for championing a lean project. â€Å"Hospitals are very often successful at co-opting natural leaders,† Mencken said. What can the union do? First is to educate members to see through management's hype-?what labor educator Charley Richardson called the â€Å"tricks and traps† designed to lull you into believing you and management have the same concerns at heart.These include Joint brainstorming, win-win rhetoric, and trust exercises. One strategy is to try to get your people onto the lean team-?but they probably won't be picked, and it's a â€Å"slippery slope,† Sheridan-Gonzalez said. Union members on Joint committees should treat every meeting as if it were a bargaining session, with two opposing sides. They can say, â€Å"We don't accept your framing. We see this as a potential for harm,† Mencken recommends. And the usual union tactics can be used against lean, too: petitions, forms that document unsafe staffing, button/ sticker days, and marches on the boss to resist speed-up. 3) Study Population Nurses have served as leaders of 2 very successful Lean initiatives at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RUSH). Founded in 1884, RUSH is a Magnet hospital that is the principal teaching hospital of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey's Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Each year Rush's 1300 physicians and 1500 nurses care for more than 200 000 patients. The first case study-â€Å"OR Lean†-details the Lean transformation of Rush's operating room (OR).The second case study describes the remodeling of Rush's emergency department (DEED) with Lean principles and practices. Monsoons et al,2012) While nurses in Interiors Medical Center, New York and Cal ifornia Pacific Medical Center have iced out the disadvantages of Lean Management in their respective hospitals. Sources of Data A primary source data was utilized in this study. Lean management as cited in journals, articles and blobs and are mostly Internet based were used and acknowledged.Some of these Journals and articles are: â€Å"From Toyota to the Bedside: Nurses Can Lead the Lean Way in Health Care Reform† by Joyce E. Johnson, Amy L. Smith and Kari A. Master (Nursing Administration Quarterly,September 2012 ,Volume 36 Number 3 ,Pages 234 – 242), â€Å"Lean Management in Med/Surge† By Barbara Mercer, and â€Å"Lean Management Don't ‘Lean' on Me, Hospital Workers Say' by Alexandra Bradbury ‘August 1 5, 2013 among others. Data Analysis As stated in the research's sources 2 data clearly evolved and both stating favor and opposition towards lean management.The 2 cases in RUSH that favor lean management has the following results from their studie s: case study 1 : OR LEAN The need for improved efficiency in OR scheduling has been although the number of Lean interventions in the OR reported in the literature is relatively small when compared with interventions in other hospital departments. Most recently in 2011, Violence reported a 20% increase in OR productivity and capacity n a Canadian hospital that adopted Lean methods.The electronic paperwork to discharge a patient is â€Å"eight pages of clicks,† said Betsy Prescott, a leader in the Massachusetts Nurses Association. Muff get spoken to if you miss one thing. ‘†some of these floors can have 15-19 discharges a day,† she said. Mire's not taking care of the patient, you're documenting. † (Bradbury,2013 ) Standardization is a watchword of lean management. Nurses at SST. Charles Medical Center in central Oregon were Justly proud of their Rapid Response Team-?it had saved lives. But that didn't stop the administration from announcing plans to end the team.The rationale? Other hospitals don't have one. Most hospitals now use computers to set staffing. You enter the number of patients on the unit today, and the software spits out how many nurses and nursing assistants are needed. Employers claim they factor in the severity of patients' conditions-?but Mortally none of them do,† Burros said. (Bradbury,2013 ) Strengths and Weaknesses of the Study The strengths of this study can be summarized as the following: lean management was applied to a well known and prestigious hospital Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RUSH).Founded in 1884, RUSH is a Magnet hospital that is the principal teaching hospital of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey's Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and with well documented evidences that lean management worked for them. Other credible articles as to the applicability of lean management were also cited and gave a good argument to the promise that lean management can work fo r the healthcare sector. So in terms of credibility, accurate accumulation and evidence based arguments both for and against lean management were well presented.On the other hand, it is very clear that the main weakness of the study is its very limited scope and hence the uncertain conclusion as to whether lean management is applicable or not in nursing management. Conclusion It is very clear that the study has a very limited scope but we will summarize below both arguments for and against lean management in regards to its applicability in Nursing management. As shown in the results of the 2 case studies in order for lean management to succeed it must be: Leadership is critical for successThe literature emphasized the central role of committed leadership in the success of Lean work. According to Doss and Orr, leadership is â€Å"an integral part of the Lean Operating System, not an afterthought. † The support of leaders, they suggest, can â€Å"make the difference between su perficial attempts at implementing Lean-where the tools and techniques are evident, but the behaviors haven't changed-and full transformational deployments where the entire organization embraces Lean from the bottom up and the top down. Monsoons et al,2012) Lean work is systems work In their 2010 review, Macho and Litter emphasized that Lean work is a whole yester strategy that cannot be done piecemeal and that no single â€Å"silver bullet† solution, such as a new computer system or automated equipment, can achieve the same results. Systems thinking, the discipline of seeing wholes and inter- relationships, is certainly not new. As Sense suggested more than 20 years ago, the systems perspective is badly needed in a world overwhelmed by rapid technological change, changing demographics, shifting borders, and increasing complexity. 5)(6) Monsoons et al,2012) Communication is critical to success From the outset of our Lean work, we knew that communication was the key to the hor n-term and long-term success of our work. As we had done with past quality improvement efforts, we regularly reminded the staff to keep the vision of the future state in mind because, as the anticipatory principle suggests, the image of the future is what guides the current behavior within an organization. Monsoon et al,2012) As for the argument of those who are against lean management, the following reasons are cited: Lean management according to critics does not consider human factor for it stresses â€Å"no downtime, Just in time staffing, emphasis on the use of technology to monitor staffs performance, among others. Standardization is an emphasis of lean management that also rings alarm bells among employees who do not yet have a holistic appreciation for lean. In lean, first you standardize, then you improve. Improving a non-standard process is like remodeling a house built on quicksand.It won't do you much good in the long run. â€Å"(Bait, 2010 ) If we continue to standardi ze work in hospitals without accounting for the variety nurses and hospitals get from patients we will make things worse for patients, nurses, doctors and the bottom-line. The system needs to be redesigned around the work by management, ruses, doctors and others working together to improve the system. This all begins by management changing their thinking around the design and management of work. Once management understands by seeing the damage of their thinking in a normative way can real changes impact the work. Bait,2010 ) Now, to answer our query whether lean management is applicable or not in Nursing management, we say it is still remain to be seen. Learning from both sides of the argument of for or against lean, it is safe to conclude that lean management is applicable but not to all types of health care institution and setting. As much as success of lean management s well documented in the ROUGH, we have to remember this is a Magnet accredited hospital and employees are expect ed to get used to high standard work and compliance to a strong administrative leadership and management.Lean management is also about culture change and resistance will be expected so those who oppose have some valid points in which management has to seriously consider. After all for any system or management to work, people's satisfaction and cooperation should be addressed foremost and not to be ignored or taken for granted. Otherwise, what is the use of introducing a promising system such as lean management when in he process it will lead to dissatisfied and tired staff?

Entrepreneur: Small Business Management

Small Business Management 1. I think that entrepreneurship can be taught, because many of us exactly students had no experience with business and wish to learn about it, not the fact that all people will work on the specialty, but all of them need money to live, and one way to reach this goal is entrepreneurship. When it is taught, we already know from what to begin and we study on another's examples as it is possible to avoid some problems. On the other hand it depends on the person how he can use this knowledge from lesson more efficiently for his firm. . It seems to me that our collegiate entrepreneurs face a lot of barriers with schedule or time management, because they need to pass their course while they control their own businesses. Also when person launching his own business and it’s connected with producing product, he need demand for his product, but nowadays a lot of customers do not wish to take if the goods are not so known and many of them have got used to take t he checked up goods. Another point of barriers is stuff of employees it should be very responsible people. Of course every collegiate entrepreneur faces some financial obstacle because many of them invest their money, and they want to recover their money quicker, hence many of them look for new highly paid job as they want to be independent. 3. One advantage that collegiate entrepreneurs can do it’s very useful experience for future because they need to analyze will be this project profitable, use knowledge involving accounting, finance, management, marketing and so on also at the beginning it’s interesting will be a boss. As a student entrepreneur can take suggestion from teachers who provide to him advantageous information. Also lots of young people is very risky and they don’t afraid of launching business and their mind more creative and more fashionable. 4. I think that university can organize some special club for those people who want to begin their own business and invite people who really work as entrepreneurs, who can share their own experience with the other people

How the New Deal altered the role of the national government Essay

How the New Deal altered the role of the national government - Essay Example Majority of its legislation followed these purposes (Bryant). The New Deal changed the role of the national government, by expanding the power of the Federal Government and making it more responsible for the general welfare of the states. Since the U.S. became â€Å"united,† states enjoyed latitude in making laws and programs for their specific state needs and concerns. The Great Depression showed, however, that each state, or more so, a few ones, can generally impact the whole nation’s economic conditions. As a result, Roosevelt and his allies are convinced that they must change the national government from being a passive parent to a more aggressive parent handling the economy as a whole. After all, the Constitution states that the federal government has the power to regulate commerce between states and international trade and that it is authorized to generate laws that support the Constitution. Though the New Deal has been criticized as unconstitutional, it proved to greatly enhance the powers of the national government. During the New Deal of the Roosevelt administration, from 1933 to early 1935, the main goals were recovery and relief. The president and his advisers stressed the importance of the national government in creating laws that will stimulate the economy and provide new jobs. Roosevelt expressed to the American public about the alliances among â€Å"business and banking, agriculture and industry, and labor and capital,† in order to enlist them to the causes of the government (Bryant). On March 5, the president closed all the banks and called it a â€Å"bank holiday.† He influenced the Congress to pass a bill that helped the banks. That bill became law a few days later and the President asked the people to trust banks again and deposit their money once more into them. The banks reopened on Monday March 13th and Americans deposited their money again and the total effect was that they

Reader reflection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Reader reflection - Essay Example As a little girl, you are brought up in a way that teaches you how far your abilities can stretch and you should not venture further and explore your potential beyond the settled guidelines. Therefore, you are raised not to believe in your abilities. Only â€Å" if we should finally release ourselves from this spiral and really give a physical task our best offer, we are greatly surprised indeed at what our bodies can accomplish† Young said. In my opinion, the spiral from which all this misperception stems from is within the family realm and community as a whole. Because society is formed by the nucleus family cell. I want to believe that women all around the world start realizing their true abilities and may be even oppose the popular cultural beliefs that they can achieve less than men do. I come from a culture where the prevailing attitude is that men do everything better than women, with the exception of cooking, may be. However, I am positive that if parents try and encourage their children, regardless of their gender to try and achieve something more, their children will eventually accomplish the new task and prove that they are capable of doing so. This will bring more joy and happiness for both parents and young children and hopefully trigger some societal changes. Secondly, women in general tend to hide their strength and be more delicate and frail in order to protect themselves. But then again, I think that this is happening because they have been trained into believing that they are fragile. The projected image that they have for themselves is one of being objectified. Thus, it seems easier that women justify their underestimation in achieving physical tasks. If nobody believes they can accomplish it, why should they believe themselves they can? It is true that men are physically built differently than women, they have stronger body

Umpqua Bank Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Umpqua Bank - Case Study Example Ray Davis, the CEO and President of the Umpqua Holdings Corporation and of Umpqua Bank, took the challenge of revitalizing the bank’s concept of banking. He instead focused on an alternative approach in banking by combining sales strategy with a service-oriented culture. He also made sure that the employees were motivated by keeping them satisfied with their jobs, and this in turn was able to ingrain the company’s ideals to the employees (Lok & Crawford, 1999). The customer and service-oriented culture of Umpqua Bank gave it an edge over the competition, and helped it rise up to its status today. Davis chose associates within and outside the organization that were also open to changes, and it helped him and the company achieve exactly what he wished for the Umpqua Bank to become, even exceeding their expectations. The internal structure of the organization was changed first, and in order to provide a service-oriented atmosphere in the banks, the frontlines were employee s that were able to attend to anything that any customer might ask, which makes the bank employees seem even more flexible and approachable for their customers. Thus the customers of the bank would only be interacting with what the CEO calls â€Å"sales people† (Freeze, n.d.). Most of the people that had jobs that do not let then interact with customers directly (e.g. tellers, accountants, etc.) were mostly sent in another facility in order for them to do their work efficiently without distractions from incoming customers. Next, trainings and seminars about customer services were provided for all the employees in order for them to imbibe the company’s culture of being customer and service-oriented. Other upgrades such as the appearance of the banks were made by designing the place to look like a warm lounging area. All visible employees can then cater to the inquiries of the depositors or bank visitors, while providing them seats, internet access, magazines and newspap ers, and even coffee while waiting (Freeze, n.d.). By making the customers feel at ease, more inquiries and bank transactions were made, and along with the eventual upgrade of the other branches as well, the new services brought in not just additional revenue but also a new image for the Umpqua Bank. Aside from giving trainings and seminars, the company also gave time for its employees to participate in activities involving business partners or other institutions in where the bank is located, such as volunteering in order to show the people of Oregon that the company cares not just to its customers but to the community as well. This was found to be a win-win solution in that aside from enriching the lives of the banks’ employees, the interaction also increased not just the number of people that wanted to do business with them or the assets that the bank was able to acquire, but also the number of financial institutions that would be willing to merge with the company (Freeze, n.d.). Thus the perception of the people in for Oregon Umpqua Bank was a bank that puts the customer first, a bank that works with local partners, and as a bank that gives back to the community. Upon inspection on how

Nursing Utilization Project-Improving Quality Initiatives & Standard Essay

Nursing Utilization Project-Improving Quality Initiatives & Standard in the Community Services Program - Essay Example naturally be followed by several systemic changes; creating the necessary management structure; developing the strategies for the changes to take place; designing the mechanisms to incorporate the change; and assigning the resources. This proposal has been inspired by various researchers, a study conducted by Rabbani et al. (2007) which assessed the feasibility of using the BSC within a low-income health setting and resulted in improvements in patient, staff, clinical, and financial outcomes alike within their health care settings. Another study by Hashmi (2003) used a QAPI program similar to the one proposed herein. Implementation of the quality improvement initiatives shall be commenced with the staff practicing better customer service complimented by thorough training and monitoring by the QAPI team. A number of surveys and interviews shall be done with the patients, community and staff to evaluate the quality improvement initiatives on a regular basis. Such data will be reported to the Board of Directors to evaluate. The reporting cycle is every 90 days or approximately 6 months. The Board shall have the final decision in approving policy changes within this proposal as necessary, in order for the plan to be effective in the process of improving the quality of services of Walton Community Services to garner at least 90% compliance rating in the improvement of customer services, an achieve CARF certification and increase funding. Walton Community Services, Inc., a reliable community healthcare provider is concerned with the continued provision of a high quality of service to the majority of its clientele. Accreditation not only improves one status within the field of community providers, but also establishes the company as a reputable provider of community services and ensures funding through different sources. Walton Community Services, Inc. must defend the vision of the company by providing the highest quality of customer service it can offer its

Integrated Marketing Communications Plan for Virgin Atlantic Essay

Integrated Marketing Communications Plan for Virgin Atlantic - Essay Example The type of customers Virgin Atlantic Airways caters to vary across different status, genders and age. Most of its travelers are business and leisure travelers. Children above 5 years old are allowed to travel on the airline. For those kids who are younger than 5 years, should be accompanied by their guardians or parents. The company also has the policy of accepting trained pets on their flights provided that they are there to carter after a disabled person, for instance a blind person. The airlines are home to passengers who could include friend circles, family troupes and business travelers. Virgin Atlantic Airways attaches a great deal of importance to technology. Technology re-vitalizes and also builds up the expectations of the passengers. Once you are in the air-line business you just cannot undermine the importance of technology in running the air-craft. Virgin Atlantic understands how important it is for its technology to be up-to date and how cortically dangerous it can be i f the fleet is run without a check on latest technology. They have their own set of air-craft engineers who continue to work and improve the airlines at the technical level. Similarly, the airline has also incorporated and put technology to efficient use to entertain passengers during their flight. Technology has been used to come up with more innovative and novel ways for keeping the passengers busy and entertained during the flight. These included various incentives such as video entertainment, Sony watchman, ensuring that there is an individual video screen for every seat. The company’s entertainment was offering at least 20 audio channels and 16 video channels to its passengers. These ideas were implemented as a part of company’s plan to ensure that its passengers feel that they are being returned the right value for the money that they invest in Virgin Atlantic’s airways ticket. Political-Legal: The Heathrow Airport was opened to Virgin in the year 1991 by the UK government. This was when it removed the London Air Traffic Distribution Rules owing to pressure from within the industry. The London Air Traffic Distributions had taken form and effect in the year 1978. They had been implemented to ensure that the traffic between UK’s two main airports Heathrow and Gatwick was fairly distributed so that even Gatwick can make profit. Under the rules, it was stipulated that those airlines which did have an international scheduled service before 1st April 1977 would not be allowed to conduct their operations from Heathrow but would have to use Gatwick. On the international front, the rising trend in travel has been keenly observed by many. As developing countries continue to grow, their citizens have become more and more open to travel. A major trigger in encouraging air travel has been the industry’s privatization and de-regulation. Before the 1980s, most of the airlines especially in countries like US were state-owned.

Pfizer Business Trends Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Pfizer Business Trends - Assignment Example Looking at the graph above, the performance of Pfizer has been ever on the increase since 2008. If the company assumes an investment of $100 in 2008, the graph shows that, in 2009, the company reinvested all dividends and the amount of investment was $108.3. Similarly in the other years, it was $108.6 in 2010, $139.8 in 2011, $168.4 and $212.5 in 2012 and 2013 respectively. This shows a steady rise and a tremendous increase in the company’s investment level every year. This, as well, shows that, the value of the company’s shares has been increasing steadily in the stock exchange market. Profitability, therefore, can be deduced from the graph as the company’s performance shows clearly that it is profitable as the level of the shareholder’s dividends keep on rising steadily every year. Since everyone who wants to invest in a company would benefit through the company’s dividends that it pays to the shareholders, I would therefore not hesitate from inve sting in this company as it shows a prospectus future for its investors. The current stock price for this company is $29.96 with its daily high being at $30.27 while its day low standing at $29.85. Since its current stock price in the NYSE is higher than its day low, it means that the company’s stock is doing well and is on the increase. Its 52 weeks high stands at $32.96 while its 52 weeks high stands at $27.12. This also shows that the current price is not lower than the 52 weeks low; hence the company is doing well in the stock exchange market. That is, its shares are profitable or they are gaining value in the NYSE. The company currently has a volume of shares that amounts to 54,908,700 shares (Pfizer, Shareholders Services : Cost Basis Calculator, 2014). When the company’s performance is compared to other companies performance in the same industry, as indicated by the graph, and the graph assumes that all these companies invested $100 in 2008, hence creating a benchmark for all

What does prsonal responsibility means to me Essay Example for Free

What does prsonal responsibility means to me Essay What does personal responsibility mean to me? According to Dictionary.com, â€Å"Personal Responsibility is the state or fact of being responsible, answerable, or accountable for something within one’s power, control, or management.† I am taking responsibility to complete my degree. I need to take responsibility for my academic work just like I do with business, I need to finish what I start, and if I take responsibility I will incorporate effective strategies as a student. First, I need to take responsibility for my academic work just like I do with business. It seems that most of my life has consisted in working for myself or for my business. After I dropped out of school and got married I opened up a family restaurant in the Oroville area called Cassidy’s Family Restaurant. We were very successful. Usually a restaurant needs to watch their food and labor numbers very closely but because we had huge volume it wasn’t necessary. At our high point we were bringing in $137,000.00 a week! One year later we opened up a second restaurant in Chico. Here, we did well but I was responsible for two growing, profitable restaurants. After five years I got out of the business and got into Real Estate. This new venture was slow in the beginning. I performed all of the normal marketing procedures that a Real Estate agent would perform and eventually became very proficient. This lead into opening my own agency which was very profitable but I decided to downsize in order to finish my degree. Using these examples, if I apply the same techniques and responsibilities to completing my degree then I should be ready to succeed. Taking responsibility for my academic work like I have with business I will be able to complete my college education. Next, I need to finish what I started. A college education is very important to me. Because I lacked a college education I could not get the high paying job I wanted with a corporation. I needed to make a healthy monthly income and without a college education the only way to make a lot of money was to start your own company. Presently, it’s a good time to finish my education because money is stable and I have the patience to work through  the classes. Also, my degree is probably the most important piece of my life that I have not completed and I am committed Lastly, by taking responsibility for my education I take responsibility to incorporate effective strategies as a student.. My college journey started in the late 80’s and it continued until 1993. I started at the local junior colleges and eventually transferred to U.C. Davis. My first year at Davis was a disaster! I was trying hard to fit in and lived off campus which was ridiculous. The quarter system was new to me and classes went by so fast. I did not take any responsibility for any of my actions. I started to miss classes and tests. Trying to catch up was a nightmare! Thinking back I really could have used more direction with my education. A good example is the exercises that we are completing in class right now. It feels refreshing learning more about myself and how I can actually fit into our class groups. Taking responsibility for my education will allow me to complete my education. Lastly, by taking responsibility I will incorporate effective strategies as a student. I will seek out advice from current successful students to succeed. According to Margaret M. Spieth in Optimizing Online Student Success: Strategies Utilized by technical College Students: 1) Take advantage of face-to-face time offered with your online instructor when you feel the course material is not making sense. Dont go into the class thinking that no face-to-face contact is the best approach. Meet your instructor to answer questions/comments/concerns you may have that an email will not convey properly. 2) Do not assume that an online class will be a breeze because you dont meet face-to-face. 3) It is extremely important to know that it generally takes more time to complete an online class than a traditional class, ranging from 4 hours to 25 hours of your time per class, per week. Plan your personal and online life accordingly and your family will still want all/most of their time -even if they have offered to make sacrifices. 4) Its wonderful to take when you work and have a family. Wish there were more classes like this! pg 140 In Conclusion, it is time to take control of my future education. Through the years I have started and ran successful business but always felt a  little incomplete because I did not complete my education. Using the tools and taking responsibility for my education as I did with my past businesses I should be successful. I am taking responsibility to complete my degree. By doing so I need to take responsibility for my academic work just like I do with business, I need to finish what I start, and if I take responsibility it will be easier to complete my degree. Reference Spieth, Margaret M. (2009). Optimizing Online Student Success: Strategies Utilized by technical College Students, 140. Retrieved from ProQuest LLC responsibility. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved September 16, 2014, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/responsibility

Analysing Strategic Management and Leadership

Analysing Strategic Management and Leadership This unit is all about strategic management and leadership. This assignment will cover the link between strategic management and leadership style in organisation in different situations. Strategic management and leadership is an ability to anticipate the future requirement that is for an organisation to be proactive in maintaining flexibility, motivation and empower the people to create the strategic change for the growth of organisation. Strategic management is all about shaping strategies and taking important decision for the organisation to survive and to get success in the face of competitive challenges and from other pressures from within and outside organisation. 1.1: Link between Management and Leadership Both word strategic management and leadership are often used interchangeably, although these words actually describe two different concepts. The main aim of management is to maximize the output of organisation through administrative implementation. His functions include; organizing, planning, directing and controlling. While according to John Kotter (1996) leadership is the set of practises that create the organisation in first place or adapt them to significantly changing circumstances. Strategic management is a vital area for any organization. It helps to improve an organisational performance and productivity. It is the responsibility of the strategic manger to design strategies for the future needs of the organisation. Designing and setting the plan is the job of strategic managers or we can say strategic management but to bring this plan and design into practice is the job the leadership. Leadership qualities are required to achieve those goals and targets which are set by the strategic management. Central to strategic success is aligning the right leaders with the right skills in the right places at the right times to achieve desired competitive results (William J. Rothwell 1999) To run an organisation successfully and get the goals and objectives of the firm both qualities of a manager and leaders are needed. A manager needs leadership qualities to be effective be and successful in taking initiative while leader needs some management capabilities to run the organisation. It is the job of the strategic manager to decide what they need to do and what they need to avoid to achieve objective in longer term. They make the policies internally and externally to achieve their goals. 1.2: Impact of management and leadership styles on strategic decisions. Management and leadership style play pivotal role on strategic decisions. They make decision according to the expectation of the organisation and their decision always have the support of the team. It is the style of the management and leader which keeps organization moving. Different styles have different type of impact on strategic decision and organisation. For example if we look at the democratic style of management and leadership, in this style management always consult and discuss with their team which makes them feel more responsible and motivates them to work hard. It is the job of strategic manager to decide and make critical decision regarding the future of the organisation. It is the wisdom of the management and leadership that drives the organisation forward. It is their vision which has always great impact on the organisation. Their style of management and leadership plays vital role on the decision making and on the future of the organisation. They should have the style which changes according to the situation, sometime they are very much cooperative and give everybody chance to express but if situation demands them to be more authoritarian they have the style approach and power to change them. 1.3: Management and leadership style in British Petroleum (b.p) Management and leadership style is the manner and approach of providing direction, implementing plans and motivation people. There are different leadership and management style based on different theories and assumption which can be adapted on different situations As currently being employed in British Petroleum retail store. In BP management adapts different styles of management and leadership. BP leadership has a mix style of management and leadership. They vary from situation to situation, but mostly in BP they practise democratic style of management and leadership. Again when we talk about democratic style of leadership and management, it is a kind of situational leadership where management changes them according to situation and circumstances. According to Jane Henry (2001)the personal style of superb leaders vary; some leader or subdued and analytical, other shout their manifesto from mountain top. And just as important, different situation calls for different type of leadership. The philosophy of retail store management is to integrate the staff and create feel of one in organisation. The senior management is always very close to staff and they believe in having excellent relationship with all staff members. Leadership of BP has the capacity and capability to understand and anticipate the situation and then react according the situation demands. Based on my understanding democratic style of management has some positive and few negative points but in my point of view it has more positive than negative points Through democratic style of management and leadership, BP achieves good communication between their staff. In that way staff feels comfortable in giving their opinion to management, moreover the management motivates employees by organising some events where B.P management and staff gathers together that results to minimize the gap between senior management and staff. Through this they can have good feedback from their staff which gives them opportunity to improve further. It is very good way of having a good understanding of organisation internally. As BP retail stores are open 24 hours because of the timing of the stores it is hard for the managers to stay at store all the time. In the night time only three customer assistant are present on duty. In this situation because of democratic style they delegate the work to junior staff and give them sense of responsibility. Because of this trust junior staff feels more motivated and perform their duties and task more efficiently. Through this kind of motivation staff feels freedom and space to enjoy their work and management achieve the goals and target which are requirement of the organisation. BP higher management believes that through teamwork they can achieve their objective and target. As in retail stores there is always direct interaction with customers and there is lot of pressure of work on the staff, so through team work BP management and leadership always manage to get the best out of their staff. BP management and leadership style has this quality and capacity to bring staff together when it is required. In teamwork BP management believe in sharing work load equally and with this they not only achieve individual targets but they achieve team and organizational objectives. BP through the democratic leadership and management style they have made friendly environment in all stores so they always believe in helping each other. Without team work they cannot achieve excellent customer service that they provide. There are some situations when some employees become hesitant to perform certain task; I have witness working in B.P retail stores that manager sometime do certain duties to inspire the junior staff. I have seen manager doing the cleaning himself to maintain the standards this way other employees also get inspiration from this and next time they perform the task himself. People expect leader to have sense of direction and concern for future of the organisation (Kouzes Posner 2007). 1.4 Conclusion Effective performance management is important process that can be achieved by setting realistic expectation, goals and targets that need to be established together with management and employees. In the short report I have highlighted the link between leadership and management. Being part of B.P Retail store I have learned that B.P management have the capacity, knowledge and skills leadership to achieve their goals and targets. The report has highlighted the importance of strategic management and Leadership style in an organisation has explained the good point of democratic style of leadership and management. In the report I have discussed various factors which are the core point of the management. In the case study of B.P Retail I have pointed out how the management works keeping in mind all the basic factor of strategic management and leadership. I have personally experienced the qualities of management and leadership which make an organisation unique. As many of good point of democratic style have discussed in this report, there are some bad factors of the style which I identified during my research on organisation. In democratic style of leadership and management style sometime it is difficult of for the manager to have good control on their junior staff and it can lead to some inefficiency toward work, but overall during my research on this assignment I have come to learn that democratic style of management and leadership is the solution to most of the problems in an org anisation. Task 2: Be able to apply management and leadership theory to support organisational direction This task is all about leadership and management theories which support organisational direction. In this task the case study is about Warid telecom, I have worked in warid telecom for two years in Pakistan. Warid telecom is multinational company and it is telecom service providing company. This task will elaborate how leadership theories support the organisation and at the end this task will provide a leadership plan which will support the organisational direction. 2.1: Review the impact that selected theories of management and leadership have on organisational strategy Leadership and management qualities are very important to make average organisation into a very successful organisation, at the same time there are lots of leadership and management theories which create big impact on the organisational strategies. Leadership and management apply different theories according to situation to make organisation move forward. There are some theories which are practiced very effectively in Warid Telecom. 2.1.1: Charismatic leadership and management theory: Charismatic leadership theory is very important and it plays very critical role on Warid telecom success. Mr Muneer Farooqi who is the CEO of Warid Telecom is the example of this, he has charismatic leadership and management style which is very inspirational for all management team and through his leadership and management style he is driving Warid telecom forward and expanding the business all over. Mr Muneer Farooqi has the power to influence his management by the style and approach toward work; he inspires them to by their own working style and wisdom. Through his style and leadership he shows trust toward his sub-ordinate which motivates them to work hard for the organisational goals and objective. Mr Muneer Forooqi is a result oriented professional. He is a team player with an objective-driven approach that gives priority to company best interest at all times strongly backed by efforts that are focused on determination, dedication, follow-up and successful completion of result o riented initiative.(www.waridtel.com) . 2.1.2: Transformational leadership and management theory: Transformational theory of leadership is also in practice very effectively in Warid Telecom. According to this theory leaders and follower both work together and help each other for the organisational goal. This theory brings positive change in the sub-ordinates behaviour and approach, sub-ordinate get motivation which helps him to perform according to expectation of the leaders (leadership in organisation). Mr Suhail Jan is Gm Commercial in Warid telecom and he is responsible for sales, marketing and distribution and it is the requirement of the job that he needs to be more transformational in his management style, he is through his transformational leadership and management style is motivating his team and working very closely with them to bring more productivity in Warid Telecom (www.waridtelcom.com). Transformational theory has great impact on organisational, with this kind of theory leaders can bring good teamwork among employees and they can work together for organisational obj ectives. According to Burns (1978), Transformational leadership is a process which leaders and followers help each other to advance to higher level of morale and motivation. Under this kind of working environment brings great success for an organisation, they put passion and enthusiasm to everyone working around them. 2.2: Create leadership strategy that supports organisational direction Warid telecom: Leadership plays important role to take organisation toward right direction and it is the responsibility of leadership to make strategies which support the organisation directions and objectives. It is very important for manager and leaders to understand clearly what are the objectives and should find the right path and strategies to achieve these objectives and goals. There are certain things on which leaders need to work to support organisation direction and objectives and they can bring better result and more productivity in Warid telecom. 2.2.1: Developing Professionalism: As with growing trend of globalisation and with this trend employees are also from different region and cultures, so they do not know what behaviours and attitude is suitable for working environment. It is the responsibility of Warid telecom leadership and management to make strategies to solve this kind of issues. Leaders need to develop certain rules and regulation at working place which each and every employee should follow; these standards should be met to create more effective professionalism between employees. If a leader can bring up plan or strategy to develop professionalism it can support the organisational strategies and directions more efficiently. 2.2.2: Developing trust and belief: Its vital for Warid telecom management make strategy to give more value to employees. Employees are most important asset of an organisation without them no one can grow and achieve their objectives, so it is the duty of leaders to develop trust and belief on employees which motivates them to work hard for organisational directions. Trust between staff and leaders or manager create healthy working environment which brings positive effect on the performance of the employees. To create trust and belief leader should be friendly, honest and more close to the staff. He should be more consistent and in his behaviour and attitude toward work and his employees, if leader can develop trust and belief in his staff then it will be lot easier for him to achieve objectives. 2.2.3: Developing Respect: It is very important factor for Warid telecom if they want to grow and go on right direction to have sense of respect for each other; through this a leader can bring good teamwork in the organisation and build up better understanding between staff. Leader should not discriminate employees and leader should treat everyone equally and respect them, it is the duty of leader to promote the culture in which everyone respect each and through this a better working environment can be established. It is the responsibility of leader to bring certain type of organisational policies which will prevent incident of disrespecting each other. 2.2.4: Training Program: To achieve organisation objective one of the major factor is training program to support the organizational direction. Warid telecom is growing multinational company and it is very important for leadership and management to identify the need of training and development for the staff, as it is a fast growing world and to keep up with the new and advance techniques one should keep planning for training and development plan to compete with new challenges. If a leader can train his team it can bring lot of benefit for organisational direction and it can help an organisation to grow and develop with great speed. 2.3: Conclusion: In this task Warid telecom is taken as case study. As being part of Warid telecom in the past so it is discussed here how leadership has big impact on warid telecom strategies and policies. In the first part this task main point which was under discussion was how leadership works and how it affects the performance of the employees. In the second part of this task leadership plan for organisational direction is developed, in this part a leadership strategy is made for Warid telecom. Task 3: Planning for Leadership: Introduction: The main purpose of this task to discuss and elaborate the future needs for the leadership skills developments. In this task learner will develop a link for himself for future need for leadership development. Past experience will be linked and connected for my future planning and development of leadership skills. I have worked in Warid telecom for few years in sales and at the moment being employed in B.P retail store as Customer service assistance and at the same time studying to complete my M.B.A. As I have plan to become part of the management of leading organisation so it is a belief that to achieve my organisational and professional goals once need to develop his leadership skill. Leadership is about a big vision, big picture view, coping with change. Part of reason leadership has become so important in recent years is that the business world has become more global, more competitive and more volatile .Major changes in organisational design , structure and leadership has become e ssential for survival in this new environment (Leadership in Organisation, 2009). 3.1: Be able to assess the current Leadership requirements: As we are moving into very fast and more competitive environment which demands more and more every passing day. World has become global village because of technology and because technology most of traditional way of business changing. Business has changed, is changing and will change further in future. Global competition, world market, new technologies, and significantly different global workforce have forced companies to become more aware of global competition, foreign workforces and demand for new work, leader has to be more vigilant to understand the need and demands of the world as it is very common trend now days that more and more companies are doing mergers and partnerships to expand themselves in other part of the world so leadership need to have wisdom, understanding, vision and mission to deal with these type of challenges. As it is the time of globalisation so if something happens in one part of the world it automatically affects the other part of the world, for example climate change in one part of the world affects other part the world, as this year flood came in Pakistan which destroyed most of its crops, as Pakistan is the biggest exporter of cotton the England and other European countries so it is predicted that cotton prices will be more higher next year in most of countries as Pakistan could not export any cotton this year, so current leadership should have awareness and vision to foresee these problems and come up with solution to these problems. Social and Cooperate Responsibility One the most current leadership requirement is social and corporate responsibility for leaders, they need to be more responsible and aware what is happening around the them and whether it is right or wrong, one the most famous example regarding social and corporate leadership comes from Primark that when the realise that child labour is being practice in India to make their product they cancel all the contract with Indian companies until they restricted the practice in India, one more very common example is which is in practice by more and more major companies now a days that companies like ASDA, BP and Tesco are charging customer for the plastic bags, the idea behind this concept is to reduce the use of plastic bags are as they are threat to environment in future. 3.2: Plan for development for future situations: Merger and Takeover As world is changing very fast and every day something new happening in this world so for this situation every organisation is working hard. Every organisation wants to grow fast in this competitive world and one the fastest way to grow as an organisation is merger and takeover. It is the requirement for current and future leadership to understand the need of merger and takeover; it is very complicated and sensitive issue because wrong analyses of a merger could cost an organisation huge amount of money. It is requirement of leadership to have innovation and skill to understand what is the right time and time organisation for this type of acquisitions. Emerging of new Technologies One of the major challenges for the current leadership is technology; technology is growing very fast and taking over everything in an organisation. Now there is more concept of virtual business or e-business where business in done mostly online and employees are scattered in most part of the world. There are so many successful businesses in current world which just base online, for example Google, Face book, and EBay they are run by people globally from their computers. It is requirement for leadership to learn more skills have more control; leadership needs to bring new innovation into their thoughts to have better management of these types of challenges. Regulatory Compliances In future there will be more regulatory compliance so leadership any organisation needs to be more vigilant and they need to make strategies which will keep them within the regulatory limits because it is seen that if anyone tries to exceed the limit that company can lose its licence for business or that licence can be suspended for certain period of time. In past we have seen that due to this many organisation lost their or licence or it was being suspended for certain period of time. So it is must for leadership to make strategies to train their staff and improve their knowledge about laws and regulatory compliances that they will not violate or exceed it in future. Cultural Diversity As now more and more organisations are diversified and people from all over world works together so it is very vital for leaders to understand the requirement for such condition they need to be more cooperative and should understand the requirement for other cultures. Leaders should develop more effective interpersonal skills to make the entire staff member who belong to different cultures into a one team. It is the need of the situation to develop skills to form a team which can work for leaders to achieve future objectives. 4.1: Plan the development of leadership skills for specific situation. Leadership is a very vital area for any organisation future, as now days world is developing very fast and demands are increasing. It is very vital to plan a development for leadership skills as it is the requirement for the future. Leaders need to more knowledgeable and skilful to handle future situations. Development of skills by means of Formal Learning As there are new products are being introduced in market so it is necessary for leaders to be up-to date with these new products, for this purpose organisation plan formal training program to groom leaders for their future needs, some organisation send them for higher studies in universities to learn latest skills and get knowledge about new developments. Development of Skills by means of Training Programs Leaders need to increase their communication skills because through this leaders will be able to achieve their objective more efficiently and properly. As new invention are being launch everyday so it is important for leader to be in touch with these products so leaders need to attend more and more seminar and conferences to attain further knowledge and improve their skills to meet the current and future requirement for leadership. Leaders should learn from the experience and they should always be more vigilant and active to see what is happening around them, they should need to develop the skill to learn from the mistake because if someone learns from mistake and experience that that will last in the mind of that person forever. 4.2: Report on usefulness of method used to plan the development of leadership skills: It is imperative for leaders to develop more skill to cope with future challenges and demands, as discussed earlier about current and future leadership requirements and leadership plan it is very important that method which are used to improve leadership skill should be more effective and useful so objective can be achieved leadership requires vision, contagious, enthusiasm and self-confidence, empowerment, action enabling of others, getting things done, making things happen(David I.bertocci,2009). Formal learning is very good way to improve skill and get further knowledge about upcoming challenges. The extent of which leadership competencies are acquired and used depends on the type of development activities that occur (e.g., training, experimental learning, self learning), facilitating condition (e.g. boss support, learning environment), and qualities of the individual manager (flexible, pragmatic, learning oriented) (Hall Seibert, 1992). Conclusion:

Online Decision Aid In Airline Industry Marketing Essay

Online Decision Aid In Airline Industry Marketing Essay 1. Online Decision Aids (ODAs) The World Wide Web can change human behavior and its communications with the world largely. Online shopping is one major example. Internet is changing day by day the way customers are shopping, buying goods. Many companies started using the Internet with the aim of cutting marketing costs, thereby reducing the price of their products and services. There are numbers of online shops that do not exist in the real world for e.g. Amazon, eBay, target etc. There is lot of benefit for all those who are sitting at home. Sometimes it may become difficult for a customer to choose a product from such a huge list, but customers always go for quality and Price. Most online retailers provide the customers with some help in the form of online decision aids (ODAs) .Online Decision Aid (ODA) is how customers make purchase on Internet .Customers buying goods on internet is based on the Online decision Aid. ODA help customers firstly through Information retrieval that is form of searching documents and data within the documents, as well as searching relational databases of documents within the World Wide Web. Whenever user enters a query in search bar, IR scores the query and ranks it according to its value. Secondly, ODAs uses information filtering, through which the system removes unwanted data and brings relevant stuff for customers according to customers need. Filtering tool helps user to locate the most relevant data, so that system take limited time to search for product and valuable documents. Filters used to organize and structure information so that information displayed in front of customers in sequence. Lastly, ODA use Collaborative Filtering process that displayed in front of customers. Collaborative filtering (CF) is the process of filtering data or techniques involving collaboration among multiple agents, viewpoints, data sources, etc. CF is applied on many different kinds of data sensing and monitoring data such as in mineral exploration, environmental sensing over large areas or multiple sensors; financial data such as financial service institutions that integrate many financial sources; or in electronic commerce and web 2.0 applications where the focus is on user data, etc. Collaborative filtering (CF) algorithm involves Prediction of the item and recommendation of data. Example of Collaborative filtering (CF): Figure 1: Result of Google 2. Benefits of ODA Use of ODA help user to find the product easy and more quickly. The task of ODA is use to compare or filter the data and brings relevant data in front of customers. In practice, ODAs get information from the customers and then based on the input preferences; they filter a massive amount of information and provide the customers with a smaller set of results. In addition, if there are plenty of customers on one website so in that way retailer have to make combination of ODA according to Customer decision. Customers buying travel tickets online does not have good idea than the customers buying a Product from online stores. If a customer is, buying ticket online is identified then the website developer have to see how many Combination of ODA can be made according to customer need and bringing accurate result in front of customer. 3. Types of ODA There are five types of ODA namely: Recommendation Agent Personalized Recommendation Bargain List Consumer Reviews Problem Definition 3.1. Recommendation Agent Recommendation agents (RAs) are software agents that bring products according to customer need. If customer is searching for a Product, online software agent brings related products in front of customer to save time. RA sustain and develop the quality of the decisions that customers made when searching for and selecting products online (Xiao. B Benbasat I, 2007). RA focuses on developing and evaluating different underlying algorithms that generate recommendations (Xiao. B Benbasat.I, 2007). RA itself is ODA that produce a list of goods available in the online store and then that list, ranked based on customer preferences. RA generates recommendation in a way to help customers. For example if customer is buying an Airline Ticket than RA also recommend other airline tickets with cheap prices so that it become easier for customers(Mohajerani .A , 2008). Figure 2: Process of Recommendation agents (RA) RAs use in different areas, including E-commerce, education, and organization knowledge management (Xiao. B Benbasat.I, 2007). In context of E-commerce, RA involved in two Processes: product brokering merchant brokering Product Brokering is the process of finding the best-suited product for customer and merchant brokering is the process of finding the best-suited vendor (Xiao. B Benbasat.I, 2007).In the project we focus on Product Brokering RA. A product broker is someone that locates the best possible deals for their customer by using a variety of sources. Some Product brokers have connections with major retail partner stores like Target, Wal-mart, Best Buy, etc that provide customers with the best potential deals. In Product broker case if customer want to buy product (i.e. Airline ticket) first he have to contact product broker, services of product broker are free. Customer signs up and provides detail to product broker what he is looking for, then product broker direct you to best store for that product. Once customer buys that product through Product broker services then product broker is pay through partner stores. In this way, it becomes smarter and easier for customer to buy that product rather than searching for that on different websites. 3.2. Personalized Recommendation Shopping on the web is more informative rather than shopping in ordinary store. So much information about products may lead overload and that creates less discontentment and confusion in customers. If we create personalized recommender systems, than this problem will overcome as there are different ways to overcome this Problem (Mohajerani .A, 2008).There are two types of personalized recommender systems (Mohajerani .A, 2008) First, if customer wants to buy a product. The personal information of a customer is collected and the system reasons about the preferences of the customer by analyzing the available personal information. Then, the history of the products he or she has browsed and the products he or she has purchased in the past would be analyzed. Finally, a profile is created for the customer to be used for further recommendations (Mohajerani .A , 2008) .System then record observation and behavior of customer and build a model according to that observation , once the model is obtained than System Predict other Product according to the behavior of customer in same area . Figure 3: Personalized Recommender Systems The second type of personalized system are those in which customer do not frequently purchase (Mohajerani .A, 2008). For example if customer is purchasing an airline ticket on the other hand he is purchasing home appliance, there will be no history maintain for such kind of ODA. For this other recommender system are used In this case, domain experts are required to make recommendations and give suggestion (Mohajerani .A, 2008). 3.3. Bargain List Bargain lists are the list of products or services, which sellers offer with lower price or in discount rates. Retailers tend to offer bargains and discounts on special occasions e.g. Christmas, Eid etc (Mohajerani .A, 2008). Figure 4: List of discounted Items Sometime customer likes products but they cannot afford in different seasons. Discount rates help customer to buy their favorite goods. Customers mostly consider price the main factor that draws them to an online retailing Web site. However, although offering low prices on all products is a good way to attract price-sensitive customers (Mohajerani .A, 2008). Bargain list is useful in two ways (Mohajerani .A , 2008) first customer react towards lower price product and discounted products , second bargain list offer those product which are left few in the stock. Bargain list are those ODA which inform customer about the low prices products (Mohajerani .A, 2008). 3.4. Consumer Reviews When customer is shopping online, they face two types of reviews. One is product review which is created by the retailer of the product and the second is a consumer review (CR) which is written by the consumers who have already used the product (Mohajerani .A, 2008). Consumer review is the review of product and suggestion of other products to customer. Figure 5: Consumer review Product review Customer search for opinions from other customer and they mostly rely on experience of other customer then they make final decision whether to purchase or not. Customers can give feedback for that product so that it becomes influence towards other customers. CRs are presented in a written form, consumers are then able to easily examine and measure positive and negative opinions in terms of quality and quantity (Mohajerani .A, 2008). 3.5. Problem Definition Decision making process for customer might become problem sometimes but ODA satisfied the customer through different recommendation systems. ODA develop more practical and convenient Web site for customers. 4. Importance of Online Decision Aid in Airline Industry Airline industry moves towards saving time of customers. Customer interacts with websites rather than inconveniently interact with an impatient travel agent in search for less Expensive tickets (Rubin E Mantin B, 2008). In this Project, we will examine a solution in the context of the travel industry. Customers just have to use internet when they write their query in search engine. Through this process total search cost of customer is reduce. Online decision aid has become an important tool for customer to take decision more quickly and effectively. In the context of flights, as information about alternative travel combinations is present, Customers can find similar, alternative flights, with lower prices and lower experienced demand. Therefore, depending on their flexibility, customers may end up purchasing less expensive alternatives rather than the more expensive, highly demanded ones (Rubin E Mantin B, 2008). When you search for a flight in search engine, you get various results. Some of the e-ticketing websites are Expedia, .ixigo, onetime, .travel-ticker, booking buddy, fare compare etc. Figure 6: Example of Airfare websites The main context of this research is to what extent information is provided by a decision aid on a carrierà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s website affects the results of retailer. More specifically, the major contributions of our research are in (Rubin E Mantin B, 2008): Record the previous search by customer, and extend the work and give recommendation of other airfare product through consumer review with discounts. Improving interaction between decision aids and pricing (Rubin E Mantin B, 2008). Improving the processes affecting airfare pricing (Rubin E Mantin B, 2008). 5. Web portal of flights Example Through a research on two web portal Expedia and Sky scanner, we extract few results. We book a round trip from Karachi (KHI) to Dubai (DXB) starting from Dec 31, 2010 to Jan 13, 2011. Both websites gave different consequences with recommendations of different airlines Figure 7: Sky Scanner and Expedia Figure 8: Results of Sky scanner Sky scanner show results with different airline Air blue, Emirates with timing of Departure and Duration with total cost of the flight. Figure 9: Results of Expedia Expedia show flights with different airline Gulf Air, Emirates with timing of Departure and Duration with total cost of the flight. Comparing the entire result, customer will select Airline with less charge and less duration time. In this way, it becomes easier for customer to book flights and ODA recommend so many flights. Sometime on special occasion like Christmas, Eid etc these retailers give discount on tickets and there are special honeymoon packages for couples. Figure 10: Bargaining list of travel deals 6. Conclusion ODA in airline industry is best way to buy ticket online on customer demand with cheap prices .ODA help customer to find best product they need. ODA uses different types of filtering tool, which is use to filter data, bring the most relevant data in front of customer, and give suggestions about other products. Through ODA, Recommendation agents (RAs) bring product according to customer wish and show bargain list of that product to customer. Customer also can buy product through product broker, which is link with some retailers. Customers can give feedback for products on web portal so it becomes helpful and easier for other customer to buy that product.

Islam Essay -- essays research papers

Visiting a mosque for the first time for any non-Muslim can be quite a daunting and intimidating experience if one doesn’t know exactly what to expect. A mosque is the place of prayer for Muslims within the Islamic faith. It is a house of prayer, one very much like that of churches and cathedrals for Christians, Synagogues for Jews, and temples for Hindus and Buddhists, but with its own distinct rules, rituals, and services. Mosques are not only the center of religious prayer amongst Muslims, but rather also serve as the center of any Muslim community and society in the area. Muslims, however, don’t always have to pray in mosques, other than Friday, the Muslim holy day of the week, much like Sunday in Christianity. The reason why Friday is the holy day of the week for Muslims is because the Prophet Muhammad was born on a Friday. The Prophet Mohammed taught that prayers are obligatory at least five times a day, and subsequently, can be held anywhere as long as it is sin cere to Allah. The word â€Å"Islam,† in Arabic, means â€Å"submission to the will of Allah.† The Islamic Mosque, and or Masjid, as it is referred to in Arabic, is a place where Muslims bow before Allah declaring their obedience to His will. The history of the Islamic Mosque dates back to the time of the Prophet. Mosques usually contain a place for washing and cleansing oneself before prayer. This cleansing in Arabic is referred to as â€Å"Wudu,† a physical and spiritual purification of oneself before submitting themselves to Allah in prayer. I took a trip to a local nearby mosque in Miami two weeks ago with a Muslim friend of mine on Friday. His name was Ali, and he is a Pakistani-American. The mosque was called â€Å"Masjid AL Noor,† and is located in downtown Miami. It was a Sunni–Islamic mosque. Sunni Muslims comprise the worldwide majority of Muslim adherents, as opposed to Shi’ite Muslims, whom comprise the minority of Muslim adherents. However, the Sunni/Shi’ite schism within Islam is for the most part more political, rather than that of religious. My friend, whom I came with to the Sunni-Islamic mosque was actually a mainstream Shi’ite Muslim. He usually goes to this particular mosque because its closer to where he lives. According to him, a mosque is a mosque, and Muslims, all Muslims, are brothers in faith, regardless of sect. Friday prayers, also known as â€Å"Salat e Juma† in the Quran, is mandatory fo... ... keep up with their prayers, give alms (charity), pay their dues (zakat), the essence of modesty, as well as the frequent recitation of the Quran. The imam recited â€Å"ayahs,† which are passages from the Quran, and then gave an English translations of it. The mosque was comprised of a very diversified crowd of all backgrounds and ethnicities. One saw some Middle Eastern people, many Indians and other South Asians, people from the Far Pacific and Oriental looking, African Americans, as well as some Anglo Saxons. It felt like a tightly knit diversified community. My experience at the mosque was that of one of an extraordinary one. I didn’t feel like an outsider, nor uncomfortable at all, but rather, on the contrary, I felt quite welcomed. I find the Islamic religion very fascinating and unique. I am always keen and open to learning about new ideas, belief systems, and faiths. One acquires a greater understanding and perspective of others in how they think, and how they view the world and this life. Overall, I think that this was a rather rewarding experience because it broadened my horizons on the Islamic faith as a whole, something, which I had very little knowledge about prior to.

Pearl Harbor :: American History World War 2 WWII

Of the years following the arrival of Captain James Cook, Pearl Harbor was not considered a suitable harbor due to shallow water. The interest of the United States Government in the Sandwich Islands followed the adventurous voyages of its whaling and trading ships in the Pacific. As early as 1820, an "Agent of the United States for Commerce and Seamen" was appointed to look after American business in the Port of Honolulu. With the cementing of commercial ties with the American continent, another factor to be considered was the endeavors of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. This was particularly true when the American missionaries and their families became an integral part of the Hawaiian body politic. With the exception of a few episodes, American prestige tended to increase in the islands. One of these was the affair of Lieutenant John Percival in 1826 which illustrates some of the high-handed tactics of that time. When his ship, USS Dolphin, had arrived in Honolulu, an ordinance had just been passed, inspired by the missionaries, placing restrictions on the sale of alcoholic liquors and the taking of women aboard vessels in the Honolulu Harbor. Lieutenant Percival and members of his crew felt that the new vice laws were unfair and with more than a mere threat of force had them rescinded. This act, it must be said, was later renounced by the United States and resulted in the sending of an envoy to King Kauikeaouli. When Captain Thomas ap Catesby Jones arrived, in command of the USS Peacock, he was the first naval officer to visit Hawaii armed with instructions to discuss international affairs with the Hawaii King and Chiefs, and to conclude a trade treaty. In spite of the Percival incident, American influence in the islands was steadily increasing. Throughout the 1820's and 1830's, many American warships visited Honolulu. In most cases the commanding officers carried letters with them from the U.S. Government; all sympathetically friendly toward the Hawaiian sovereign and, as a rule, giving advice concerning the conduct of governmental affairs and of the relations of the island nation with foreign powers. In 1841, the weekly periodical, Polynesian, printed in Honolulu, advocated editorially that the U.S. establish a naval base in Hawaii. Its pretext was the protection of the interest of American citizens engaged in the whaling industry. The pro-British Hawaiian minister, R.C. Wyllie, remarked in 1840 that ". .

About Belonging

Laird's stories show that all people face challenges no matter where they live In the world. Do you agree? Having a sense of belonging is important for everyone and Laird's short stories, â€Å"Interpreter of Maladies† describe the problems people face when they feel isolated. She sets many of her short stories In America and describes the difficulties that some immigrants face when confronted with a new culture, gender expectations or crisis.She also demonstrates, however, how others readily adapt and embrace their new lifestyle. Nonetheless Chumps Lair uses a diverse range of characters to illustrate the human need to feel belonged to one self to others, to feel accepted and have a place to belong. Between the nine short stories that Chumps Lair has written she has set up a range of main characters facing similar problems contrasting their different living styles but comparing the fact that they have problems.Lair wants to explain that everyone can face problems. One of her challenges she has developed with In the short stones Is the demand of a sense of belonging. In â€Å"when Mr. Pravda moms to dine† The first-person speaker is a ten-year-old girl, Lila. Lila faces a problem when she finds herself caught between the traditions of her parent's and American. Her mother understands that Lila Is American – We live here now, she was born here' (p. 26) ? and has little understanding of the politics of India and Pakistan.Yet, something still fascinates Lila about her parent's' homeland. This confusion Lair has developed in her narrator was to demonstrate how important it is to someone to have a sense of belonging to a place and without that feeling they become lost and confused. Alular has revealed feeling a sense of belonging to a place through a young girl and also through an old Indian lady. By comparing Laird's short stories, It illustrates the struggles people face when they have a loss of belonging to a place, or others.Similar to All In â€Å"when Mr. Piranha came to dine† Mrs. Seen in the story by the same name, folds herself lost in a different culture and Is unwilling to adapt to that culture. Mrs. Seen is an old Indian woman who came to America; living In one country for most of her life she feels a sense of belonging to that culture and no matter where she goes she refuses to change her expectations due to the place she is in. This inability to conform to her new society is shown by her inability and unwillingness to learn how to drive.Her separation from the culture she is living in is shown when she is on a bus with a ‘bloodlines bag' (p. 132) full of fish and a woman with ‘a crisp white bag from the drugstore' (p. 132) tells the bus driver. Mrs. Seen Is living In a world where blood and the real world are ever- present, a distinct contrast with the antiseptic world of America. Lair Illustrate the same problem of being forced to adapt and change to survive In another culture with anothe r old Indian woman.In a † real Durban† Boor' ma works in America and wishes to have a sense of belonging with that country and culture which is unlike Mrs. Seen who refuses to change. Lair wants to demonstrate a similar ‘OFF in accepting change. Boor ma seeks to find belonging to a place but then is rejected due to the untrusting of another culture. â€Å"We shared our coal, gave her a place to sleep, how could she betray us like this. â€Å"P. 81 . Boor ma wishes to connect to a culture, to others as well as to a place. Not being accepted in any of those could create a loss f your true identity.Being confused about your identity is a universally human problem people face. Many people try to find a sense of belonging within them. Being confused about your identity is a hard Journey to achieve a comfortable and true description of yourself. Lair illustrates this tough Journey In ‘Sexy. Miranda tries on a number of identities in her search to feel comfortable within her. She recalls being exploited when she was younger; however, the affair with Deep offers her hope that she can establish a new sense of self. â€Å"Pressed her face against Dive's engineers intertwined with hers† p. 4 revealing the extent that Miranda was trying to steal someone else's identity and not seek her own. Lair explores the idea that identity, is something that must be hunted. We gain a sense of identity through family, society and culture. For the culturally displaced, this is a difficult endeavourer. The search for identity is universal. Chumps Lair has created a diverse collection of characters from young to the old and different cultures, to reveal that problems anyone can face are universal. One of the problems Chumps Lair has created is a universal human desire to belong.Unable to adapt to a different culture or not being accepted, is a tough challenge people face in order to have a sense of belonging. Being tied between two different cultures can s park confusion in where you're meant to belong. In addition trying to find a sense of belonging within themselves in a problem that faces many characters Chumps Lair has created. Ultimately Chumps Laird's key message is that anyone regardless of their culture, origin, age, or gender can face similar problems, which makes it harder for them to have a sense of belonging.

Gummy Bear Lab Essay

Question- If the percent of the concentration of a solution varies, will the amount of water gained or lost vary in a linear fashion? Hypothesis- If the concentration of a solution varies, then the amount of water lost or gain will not vary in a linear fashion Prediction- I think that the amount of water lost will not vary in a linear fashion. I think the water will vary like one gummy bear would lose 4 grams while another would lose 6 grams while another would lose 3.56 grams. Just numbers all over the place. Experiment- 1. Materials needed: a. 5 gummy bears b. 5 beakers c. A scale d. Distilled water e. Salt f. A cover for each beaker g. A paper to put on the scale h. Tweezers The independent variable is the salt in the water. The dependent variable is whether the amount of water lost or gained in the gummy bears varies in a linear fashion. The constants are the type of gummy bear used in this experiment, the type of salt, the type of beaker, the type of scale, the cover, amount of water, and the amount of time the gummy bears have. The control is the beaker without the salt in it; Beaker A. Safety procedures  include washing your hands before and after the experiment. Day 1: Get 5 beakers and 5 gummy bears. Put a paper on the scale and find the weight of the gummy bears. Then put the gummy bears in each beaker and label the beakers A-E. Put 100 ml of water in each beaker. Pick a solution you want each beaker to have. For this experiment the solutions were: Beaker A- 0%; Beaker B- 5%; Beaker C- 10%; Beaker D- 15%, and Beaker E- 20%. So to put the solutions into the beaker, first take salt and find the weight of it. It you want a 5% solution; the salt’s weight has to be 5 grams or close to 5 grams. Do the same for the other beakers. Of course, Beaker A will have no salt in it because it doesn’t have a solution with salt. Cover each beaker with the same kind of cover and wait for 24 hours to see what happens. Day 2: Take the beakers out of the place they were in. Spill all the liquid out of all the beakers. Make sure to identify which gummy bear is which. It is best to do this one at a time. Take the gummy bear out of the beaker with tweezers. Put a paper on the scale and weigh each gummy bear. Record the weight. When you are done weighing each, throw the gummy bears and all waste away and wash your hands. Analysis: Observations were that all the gummy bears lost their pale yellow color and turned into a clear color. Some gummy bears had salt sticking to it. Another gummy bear lost its shape completely and it looked like glob. Some gummy bears looked like it gained weight and some looked like it lost weight. Errors were that a little bit of salt was added into the control group; Beaker A. Results from Alexis’s group were that all the gummy bears gained weight and Justin told me that all his gummy bear’s also gained weight although I don’t know what their solution were for each beaker or the difference from the final weight to the initial weight. Their results didn’t vary in a linear fashion. Mathematical calculations were to subtract the final weight of the gummy bear with the initial weight of the gummy bear. Conclusion The results of the experiment were that the water lost or gained didn’t vary in a linear fashion. It went from one number to another. Even though the amount of solute varied in a linear fashion, the differences did not. They vary at a nonlinear rate. These results matched the hypothesis and proved it correct. Errors that happened in this experiment were that some salt was added to the control group; Beaker A. This could have affected the dependent variable by gummy bear losing a little bit of weight because of the salt. The results from the other groups were that their results didn’t vary in a linear fashion. This is consistent with my results because the difference in grams also didn’t vary in a linear fashion. This means that my lab was done correctly. Other experiments that can be done are by taking a jar and filling it with water. Then secure the paper towel on the jar with a rubber band. Make a water filled chamber to put food coloring drops it in and see what happens. The paper towel is the cell membrane and the food coloring is the water molecules crossing the cell membrane. Another experiment is by filling two beakers of water, making them  ¾ full and labeling them. Then add salt to one beaker and mix it into the water until no more salt can dissolve. Put a carrot, celery, and 3 raisins in each beaker and see what happens in 24 hours.

Human Nature in the Destructors Essay

Graham Greene had summarized the conflicts in a society through a representation of teenage children during the post-war era, in his famous short story, â€Å"The Destructors†. The setting of the story happened in blitzkrieg London after World War II ended. The characters are mainly teenage boys who had established a gang known as Wormsley Common gang. Their group religiously meets everyday beside the house of Mr. Thomas or Old Misery. The decision of the gang was made through voting. T or Trevor, the main character in the story, suggested that the gang should demolish Mr. Thomas’ house on the upcoming holiday. Mr. Thomas was an old man, who lived in a house that solely stand on an area that was bombed during the war. The group agreed and commenced their plan under the leadership of T. the story ended with the destruction of the house. The story reflects action and adventure, since the gang would do things that can be considered as daring, especially for their age. The story also has a mix of suspense, especially on the last part wherein Mr. Thomas had gone back home earlier than expected. Nevertheless, the short story is not merely a fiction made to entertain its readers rather, it reflects the factual realities observable during the period it pertains such as delinquency, war and human nature. This essay would analyze the story in connection to the delinquency and war which reveals human nature. Human nature would be discussed as something that is subjective and relative to the perspective and position of the individual in the society where he belongs. The story revolves around the actions of the Wormsley Common gang. As mentioned above, the group was predominantly young teenage boys. Every day they will engage themselves with folly, childish acts. As children going through the transition to adulthood, they are trying to find their own identity through joining groups. They express their authority or control over their decision through delinquent acts; such as sneaking free bus rides. One of the things that separate man from the rest of the living organisms in the planet was his capacity to control things. It is a part of being a human to seek dominance. The several instances of delinquency in the short story prove this point. The most prominent was the destruction of Mr. Thomas’ house. However, if all humans would try to dominate each other, chaos would result. Therefore laws are created in societies that seek to control human actions. In the story, Mike –the most childish character, was usually noisy or has a childlike attitude of opening his mouth when he heard something interesting or unbelievable. This behavior was controlled in the gang through the unwritten rule that a frog would be put down inside the mouth of noisy or open-mouthed members. The story also shows that humans have the capacity to choose or decide. Blackie could leave the group but he did not. He can express his disagreement but he chose to remain silent. Humans are naturally born with the ability to weigh circumstances with respect to situations. Man can choose whether to be good or evil. Most of Greene’s writings reflect the good and the evil side of man. The ethical weight of the action depends on the perspective used to judge the action. Breaking into someone else’s house is impolite and evil as rendered by the society, or at least by the society of London. However, in the perspective of the group, it is an expression of pride, dignity and courage. Mr. Thomas served as the representation of the adults during the period; he does not care what the children would do as long as their actions would not bother him. When he gave the boys some chocolates, the gang discussed and argued about why Mr. Thomas would give them something. The gang decided that it was a bribe. Mr. Thomas had accommodated T when he visited him. He even let him tour the house and explained the things he can’t understand. Nonetheless, it was T who had suggested the plan to destroy the house. Mr. Thomas had trusted T, at the end T locked him up. This illustrates the younger generation’s distrust to the adults. Why? Because it was the adults’ decisions, neglect and actions that led to their destitution. When they took everything away from Mr. Thomas, they left him as vulnerable and helpless as a child. They gave him some foods and a blanket to keep him comfortable as he waited for someone to open the door. When the door finally opened, he was amazed to find that the house he cherished was now only a pile of bricks and rubbles. The concepts of delinquency and war revealed that human nature is also subjective to individuals and relative to societies. As illustrated above, humans tend to judge an action from their own perspective. The living conditions and previous events shaped these perspectives. The distant atmosphere that surrounds T was caused by the events that led to their poverty. The childish acts of Mike were due to his young age. The just attitude displayed by Blackie when he opposed taking away things from Mr. Thomas’ house reflects that he was against theft. The humans’ ability to reason gave him the ability to judge. The fact that Blackie stole or got the hacksaw without permission showed a changed in perspective regarding right and wrong. The things that the society or the organization accepts were the right things while those that the society blames were wrong. Human nature was normally branded as either good or bad, depending on the human actions which were either right or wrong. Human nature, as can be reflected on the story was neither good nor evil. Someone perceived as evil by one person might be considered as good by another. People can be persuaded that humans are naturally good. If the society was not perverted, humans would not result to perverted actions. Humans can also be seen as naturally evil and the existence of laws can be justified as a means to prevent them from explicitly doing evil and promote harmony and security in the society. Like every human being, the characters in the story longs for a recognition. Humans would naturally form groups to be able to defend themselves and justify their actions through rules and laws. The gang would decide according to votes which gave everyone a chance to express himself. The conclusion of the votes determines the gang’s action. Whether it was mischief or simply a childish act, if the majority of gang agreed that it should be done, then it would be done. Everyone would do their best to achieve the set-goal. The story also highlights the fact that it is a human nature not to try the things that pains causes pain. For example, Mr. Thomas went home earlier than expected because of his rheumatism. Likewise, when Summers (one of the gang members) complained that they already done â€Å"enough†, T told him that he should not complain because he along with the others had voted in favor of the plan. It was natural for humans to do things that they like and stop doings things that they hate. Humans would naturally move away from something painful or uncomfortable while humans would naturally move towards the things that give them fun and comfort. The sense of belongingness and the various activities that the members of the gang experienced whenever they do an offending act reflect their adherence to the things that do not cause them pain. Humans would logically want the things that please or made them comfortable. Each member of the gang needs one another to get a sense of belongingness and create an identity. When Blackie asked T whether he hated Mr. Thomas, he perceived that T’s actions and decisions were out of personal interest. Mr. Thomas gave them chocolate to get rid of it. The driver looked help Mr. Thomas out of curiosity. Mike went to the house instead of the church, not simply to help but to be accepted and regarded as important. Blackie did not leave the gang because he wanted to take part on its success and glory. Common to all humans was their capacity to decide, contemplate and judge depending on their personal interest. Humans see things depending on how they perceived them. Every individual portrayed in the story would act according to their selfish interest. Humans were judge according to convention and thus, they act with respect to those conventions. The destruction of the house represents the power to destroy. Since the beginning of time, humans aspire for power and authority. Both of these gave humans the capacity to control things with respect to how he wanted things to be. The idea of destroying the house made T a leader. The actual destruction confirmed his authority. On the other hand, the destruction of the house undermines the power of Mr. Thomas. The greater society also works the same way. It was a power struggle to stay on the top. The destructors were the winners while the destructed was the loser. Good and evil depends on the position and situation of the person in between this spectrum. Good makes the person happy while evil gives him pain. Good benefits while evil takes away or weaken a person.