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At what point does it become ethically sanctioned to take an innocent person’s life? To what extent do people’s moral institutions compose their apprehension of what is right or wrong? This paper will evaluate how the “trolley problem” is assessed by utilitarian and deontological philosophical approaches on morality and will conclude on the correct position. This proposal raises controversial ideas regarding what constitutes morality, and how each individual evaluates the situation and the consequences to everyday dilemmas. The first paragraph explains the trolley problem alongside how deontology and utilitarianism relate to the dilemma. Moreover, after a critical analysis of the theories’ approaches, I will discuss which solution would result in the best outcome. I will argue in concordance with the utilitarian perspective, as it creates happiness for the greatest amount of people advancing towards general good.
Get original essayPhilippa Foot (1920-2010) presented the Trolley Problem dilemma situation this way, “the driver of a runaway tram which he can only steer from one narrow track to another; five men are working on one track and one man on the other; anyone on the track he enters is bound to be killed” (Wolff, 14). According to utilitarian moral theories, the ethical approach would be for the driver to steer towards the track with one man to spare the lives of five pursuing “the course of action that creates the greatest total of happiness over unhappiness.” To support his argument, John Stuart Mill (1806-73) stated “each person’s happiness is a good to that person, and the general happiness, therefore, a good to the aggregate of all persons” (Mill, 1961/2001, pp. 35-36), in other words, in the event that there is where there can be more than one arrangement, the most good or the best activity would be the one that creates more overall happiness for the best measure when looking at the greater good. Contrary, deontological or duty-based theories define the right action as a set of moral rules that set limits to what we may do, regarding it would be fair and equal for all to let the trolley run its course towards the track with five people. And as stated by Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), the philosopher that established deontology “act as if the maxim of your action were to become by your will a universal law of nature”, in other words, it would not be moral to intervene in the situation, letting five people die is more morally correct than interrupting and killing the individual, because the moment we apply Kant categorical imperative comes in the moral system draws the blame of the killing on you, “actions are wrong if they break the moral rule”.
Although both theories have strong and convincing arguments, after critically assessing the unique situation and possible outcomes, I personally believe that by making use of a utilitarianism perspective mindset is the best option in the trolley dilemma, as saving the most lives creates the greatest good. Deontological perspective could argue that this is not the “right action”, yet in my personal moral institution achieving the greater good is more important than sacrificing one’s integrity and doing what Kant would determine as the “wrong thing.” Being an example of consequentialism, utilitarianism also “judges the rightness or wrongness of actions based on their consequences”, if the consequences are better when approaching the problem by using utilitarianism then doesn’t that make it the right perspective? Furthermore, as E. F. Carritt (2876-1964) explains in his book when looking through a utilitarian perspective “we are justified in inflicting pain always and only to prevent worse pain or bring about greater happiness”, thus if when subtracted the good outnumbers the pain induced, then the punishment would be purely preventive of excessive unwanted pain, pursuing the greater course of action, leading to overall happiness. Finally, Wolff reflects upon the following critic’s statement: “in principle, utilitarianism could permit gross injustice if it advances the general good”.
Conclusively, we all have different moral intuitions that at times like these we must abandon to create the greater good. Although Kant’s proposition of deontology is morally correct, it is unethical when having Mill’s utilitarianism moral theory where the pain being inflicted in the minority is justified by the bringing about greater happiness, outnumbering the wrongful actions therefore, becoming the rightful action, maximizing the good and happiness of the greater group.
This paper compares and critically evaluates four theories of interpersonal attraction. The four theories of interpersonal attraction are: the Social Exchange Theory, Equity Theory, Evolutionary Theory, and the Attachment Theory. At the end of the paper a conclusion is made based on the comparison and the critical evaluation of the four theories of interpersonal attraction.
Get original essayTheories of interpersonal attraction are the theories in Social Psychology that seeks to explain the phenomenon of interpersonal attraction. These theories seek to account for what really causes attraction among people. Although the scholars in interpersonal attraction are widely agreed that the factors of Propinquity, Similarity, Reciprocal liking, and Physical attractiveness, influences interpersonal attraction, the scholars, however, differ on what really causes interpersonal attraction. As such, different scholars have come up with varying theories in an attempt to explain this phenomenon of interpersonal attraction. This paper compares and critically evaluates four such theories of interpersonal attraction. These theories are: Social Exchange Theory, Equity Theory, Evolutionary Theory, and Attachment Theory. At the end of the paper, a conclusion is made based on the comparison and the critical evaluation of the four theories of interpersonal attraction.
Social exchange theory states that how people feel and how satisfied they are in a relationship depends on their understandings of the benefits and the costs of the relationship, the kind of relationship they believe they deserve or expect to have (Comparison Level), and their chances of having a more fulfilling relationship with a different person (The comparison level of alternatives) (What are the Factors that Underlie Interpersonal Attraction? Web). This means that the primary motivation in interpersonal attraction is the benefit that one expects to derive from the other person in a relationship; and the determinant of contentment in a relationship depends on a person’s conception of the kind of relationship they are worth or deserve, and the available alternatives for the person to have a relationship with other people (the comparison level of alternatives).
The Social Exchange theory of interpersonal attraction is supported by a number of scholars in Social Psychology. To begin with, Newcomb claims that we acquire favourable or unfavourable attitudes towards other people as we are awarded, or punished by them (Newcomb, 1956). On the other hand, Aronson claims that we normally get attracted to other people whose behaviour is most rewarding to us (Aronson, 1969). Walster claimed that individuals like those who reward them (Walster, 1971), while Levinger and Snoek said that liking other people emerges from the rewards that we get the people.
In nutshell, the Social exchange theory of interpersonal attraction holds that all forms of interpersonal attraction can be attributed to the gains or the benefits that one expects to derive from his object of attraction, i.e. to the person he/she is attracted to. But a critical look at this view vis-a- vis the other theories of interpersonal attraction shows that this theory is partly true but it does not explain fully the phenomenon of interpersonal attraction. This is because there is more motivation to interpersonal attraction than just the direct reward that one hopes to gain from the relationship. For instance, as the theory of evolution holds, our behaviour in interpersonal attraction can be accounted for by our adaptations in the process of human evolution. This will become clearer when we look at the evolutionary theory of interpersonal attraction.
The second weakness of this theory is the assumption that reward is the sole motivation of interpersonal attraction. But this is evidently not true because there are some forms of interpersonal attraction that are motivated by Agape love (Interpersonal Attraction, Web.). Agape is a selfless love and therefore in agape love one is drawn or attracted to the other person not out of any expectation of any reward or gain, but out of pure love, agape. This fact therefore shows that social exchange theory is not sufficient to account for all forms of interpersonal attraction.
Equity theory of interpersonal attraction is closely related to the Social Exchange theory of interpersonal attraction but there are some fundamental differences between the two theories of interpersonal interaction. For instance, while the Social Exchange theory of interpersonal attraction holds that the main determinant of happiness in a relationship is the reward that one gets from the relationship, and the kind of relationship that the person believes they deserve and the their chances for having a relationship with someone else, the Equity theory of interpersonal attraction holds that the main determinant of happiness in a relationship is the balance between the rewards, the costs, and the contributions of the two partners in a relationship. According to the Equity theory of interpersonal attraction, there should always be a balance, rough balance, between the rewards, and costs that one experiences in a relationship and the contributions that one makes in a relationship, and the rewards and costs experienced by the other partner in the relationship and the contributions made by this other person in the relationship. According to this theory, therefore, parties in a relationship should always seek to ensure that there is a balance between their contributions in the relationship and the gains and the costs that each of them experience in the relationship. Both the over- benefited and the under-benefited in a relationship should seek to restore this balance in case of an imbalance in the relationship. According to this theory therefore, there will always be an attraction between the partners in a relationship when this balance is maintained and the relationship will grow stronger and stronger.
As it can clearly be seen, this theory is also based on the reward that one expects in a relationship, although the reward in Exchange theory takes a different perspective, i.e. the balance between the contributions, gains and the rewards that the parties in a relationship experience. And just like the social exchange theory of interpersonal attraction, this theory is only partly true and does not explain the whole phenomenon of interpersonal attraction. The theory does not explain interpersonal attractions motivated by Agape love. The theory also does not explain some forms of interpersonal behaviour that are motivated by our adaptive behaviour that we acquired in the process of human evolution. Again, this theory doesn’t account for some forms of interpersonal attractions that are motivated by our attitudes and behaviours that developed during our childhood socialization. This is clearly accounted for by Attachment theory of interpersonal attraction (Bowlby, 1969).
Another major weakness of Equity theory of interpersonal attraction is the assumption that equality in contributing to the various needs in a relationship is the main factor that makes a relationship to last for a long time, without breaking up. But although equality in a relationship is definitely very important, it is by no way the sole and the major determinant of the strength of a relationship. The commitment of the partners in a relationship to remain together is the most important factor that makes a relationship to be strong and to last for a long time (What are the Four Factors that Underlie Interpersonal Attraction, Web.)
Evolutionary theory of interpersonal Attraction states that opposite sex interpersonal attractions can be explained in terms of men being attracted to women who have features that indicate that they are very fertile, and women are attracted to men who have the resources and the ability to protect them. This kind of attractions fosters reproductive success (Buss, 1988). This theory hold that this behaviour of men being attracted to females who seem more healthy, and women being attracted to males who have the resources and the strength to protect them can be traced back to the process of natural selection where human beings adapted to the environment and developed features that enhanced reproductive success.
The main weakness of the evolutionary theory of interpersonal attraction is that it does not account for the same sex attractions. This theory therefore explains only the romantic aspect of interpersonal attraction and does not account for the platonic interpersonal attractions. Unlike the social exchange and the equity theory of interpersonal attraction, the evolutionary theory does not acknowledge that the expected reward in a relationship plays a big role in the phenomenon of interpersonal attraction. This theory therefore cannot be taken as a complete account of interpersonal attraction.
This theory holds that, in times of stress, human beings are motivated to seek figures of attachment in an attempt to overcome the stress. The theory then claims that our earliest encounter, as children, with the figures of attachment shapes how we face relationships in the rest of our lives. (Hazan & Zeifman, 1994). If the attachment figures (caregivers, parents, etc.) are available and responsive when we are young, then we will develop a sense of attachment security and later in life we will exhibit healthy behaviour in relationships; we will be confident in life and we will not fear being abandoned by our friends. However, if as children we go through inconsistent and overbearing attachment figures, we develop attachment related insecurity; later in life, we will exhibit unhealthy behaviour in relationships, we will always be insecure and fearing being abandoned or betrayed in a relationship. And, if as children the attachment figures were not available, then later in life we will become avoidant and we will suppress attachment need because as children our attempts to be intimate were rebuffed (Interpersonal Attraction, Web.). These different attachment styles therefore account for how we will be attracted to and relate with other people in life.
One of the main weaknesses of the attachment theory of interpersonal attraction is the fact that it does not recognize the importance of reward expectation in a relationship. Also, the theory doesn’t acknowledge the importance of equity in sharing responsibilities in a relationship. Again, the theory of attachment does not acknowledge that our evolutionary process, natural selection, conditioned us to behave in a certain way in our interpersonal attractions.
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Get custom essayIn conclusion, none of these four theories taken solely can adequately account for the phenomenon of interpersonal attraction. However, each of these theories sheds some light and gives a new perspective to this phenomenon of interpersonal attraction. Taken together, the theories give a more holistic and credible explanation of interpersonal attraction.
The Google story starts in 1995 at Stanford University. Larry Page was thinking about Stanford for graduate school and Sergey Brin, an understudy there, was doled out to demonstrate him around. By a few records, they differ about almost everything amid that first gathering, however by the next year they struck an association. Working from their apartments, they fabricated a web crawler. Sometime later, both consider that the name of its web crawler to be adjusted, and takes the name "Google" emerging from "a play on words with the numerical term" googol", the English elocution is like the" Google "and alludes to the main took after by 100 zeros". The first thought of Google Search, was a motor that will accomplish the association of all current data on the Web, without knowing the significance accomplished all around and in the ideal opportunity for Internet clients. In excess of 70 percent of overall online pursuit demands are taken care of by Google, setting it at the core of most Internet clients' involvement. Its headquarters are in Mountain View, California. Google wound up renowned on the planet and its way of life and subcultures made it an exceptional case for others to mull over. Google is one of only a handful couple of innovation organizations which keep on having one of the quickest development rates on the planet. Google's accomplishments completely don't originate from any good fortune. Google has tried additional endeavors in making a file of a few sites, which have been up to 25 billion sites.
Get original essayGoogle's statement of purpose is "to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful." Ever since its beginnings, the organization has concentrated on building up its exclusive calculations to amplify adequacy. Google keeps on concentrating on guaranteeing that individuals get to the data they require. Such handling and sorting out of data additionally makes list items helpful. In this manner, Google adequately takes after its statement of purpose.
Google's headcount just developed by its biggest sum in a while: Its parent organization Alphabet included right around 5,000 representatives last quarter, completing March with 85,050 workers.
Google is an organization that has a place with the gathering of computerized organizations, for example, Facebook, Twitter or YouTube, among numerous others, that shape the Internet biological system and that have prompted the presence of the supposed new economy. Google has built up a not insignificant rundown of items. Most are in the class of programming, and some are equipment items and administrations arranges Google's items in the accompanying rubrics: look, publicizing, correspondence and distributing, framework advancement, security, outline items, measurements, working frameworks, work area, versatile Web and independent programming, equipment, and administrations Google unmistakably overwhelms the web look market, and Amazon isn't any kind of direct rival in the general area. Some portion of Google's prosperity and a sign of the organization's insight is the revelation of gaining strategies while keeping up a capacity of providing free administrations to a gigantic client base. Cases are Gmail, Google Docs, Picasa, and Google Maps. The benefit and complimentary gifts recipe has given Google the notoriety of a decent organization.
Apple may not appear like an immense danger to Google, but rather you can't disregard the weight that Apple puts on Google through its steady push toward advancement.
At that point there is Apple's help for promotion hindering in iOS 9. Promotion blockers apparently enhance the client encounter, particularly on cell phones, as they square substance from stacking. These happen to square promotions from Google's DoubleClick for Publishers and Google's DoubleClick Ad Exchange, the web's biggest advertisement trade. These are immediate strikes on Google's income.
Facebook is broadly acknowledged as a noteworthy contender to Google. This information is upheld by a recent report performed by Parse.ly which demonstrated that "the interpersonal organization passed Google as the main wellspring of referral activity in June and in July stretched out its prompt three rate focuses, 38.2 percent to 35.2 percent." Note that this investigation was centered around Parse.ly customers, which comprise of numerous news locales, including Fox News, Telegraph Media Group, Mashable, Business Insider, Condé Nast, The Atlantic and Reuters.
Google's prosperity depends on its excellent HR. The organization for the most part underlines savvy and greatness among its workers. Google's human asset administration additionally incorporates precisely chosen systems, strategies, and methods for enrollment and choice, and for the maintenance of superb specialists.
Forecasting- Human asset administrators at Google utilize trend analysis and scenario analysis for estimating. Pattern investigation is a quantitative system that enables the organization to foresee conceivable HR request in light of current conditions and changes in the business. Situation examination is Google's subjective strategy for determining HR request. Situation investigation includes dissecting diverse blends of factors to anticipate HR interest for each subsequent situation. Along these lines, Google utilizes a mix of quantitative and subjective systems for determining HR request.
A retention algorithm- Google built up a scientific calculation to proactively and effectively anticipate which representatives are destined to end up a maintenance issue. This approach enables administration to act before it's past the point of no return and it additionally enables maintenance answers for being customized.
An effective hiring algorithm – One of only a handful couple of firms to approach selecting logically, Google built up a calculation for anticipating which applicants had the most astounding likelihood of prevailing after they are enlisted. Its examination additionally verified that little esteem was included past four meetings, drastically shortening time to enlist. Google is additionally novel in its vital way to deal with contracting since its employing choices are made by a gathering keeping in mind the end goal to keep individual procuring supervisors from enlisting individuals for their own fleeting needs. Under "Venture Janus," it built up a calculation for every expansive activity family that broke down rejected resumes to recognize any best applicants who they may have missed. They found that they had just a 1.5% miss rate, and therefore they employed a portion of the returned to applicants.
Google's emphasis on "individual’s examination" started when Laszlo Bock was enlisted as SVP of People Operations in 2006. Bock, who trusted that information could open approaches to enhance the work environment, made a group of PhDs and ex-advisors to break down workforce information and support the People Operations mission: “find them, grow them, keep them”.
Advantages of retention algorithm
Advantages of forecasting
HR Demand is the association's anticipated necessity for HR, though HR Supply is characterized as the wellspring of laborers to take care of demand prerequisites, got either inside (current members of the organization's workforce) or from external agencies.
It isn't conceivable to precisely gauge what's to come. As a result of the subjective idea of determining, a business can think of various situations relying on the understanding of the information. Consequently, associations ought to never depend 100 percent on forecasting.
My suggestion to Google would be that they have such a powerful technology they should try to help poor people from third world with facility of free internet network through which they can provide online teaching classes to small kids so that they can develop their future by doing this will surely increase their brand value and they should also focus on their company’s diversity.
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Get custom essayTo put it in a nut shell, according to me, Google is transforming, it already has name among top 5 companies of the world, it has proved its metal by providing global information to people around the world. Company should only focus on its diversity issue other than that I think no one can stop it from becoming world number one organization.
Before Internet people wrote their experiences, discoveries, and thoughts in words on paper. Books were written, and were used to teach a person how to do Math, to write their language, about the history of their country, and other subjects. This made people have to read the books to gain knowledge about certain topics. When the Internet was invented it had only certain knowledge about variety of topics. Today, Internet has made a huge progress in the information it contains. Searching for information has become easier, and quicker to do. Not only is it easier it has many more topics and information about anything one could think of. It has become so easy to find information, that books have simply become irrelevant to many.The way Internet is used has made it hard for one to keep focus, made it harder to read, and is lowering our ability to attain knowledge.
Get original essayWhen people read books, back before internet was a big hit, they would read long passages and read many of the pages in books to find information. We read these pages with out interrupting out reading habits, and keep our mind focused on the reading itself. As we read the full text of a book we had a mind full of information. We remembered the information better because we read it with out interruption and knew exactly what was going on. As internet became more popular it became more updated with information. One can look up anything in mind and be able to find multiple sites for a specific topic. When they search for a certain item the search engine browses through the web and picks out different sources that highlight the key word making it easier to skim through and find a site that has information that they are looking for. With us skimming through pages of keywords, and relations of topics to keywords, we loss focus in actually understanding the text and learning anything from what we look at.
Now that people rely so much on internet to look up the information they need. It is harder for anyone to keep on track and read long passages without getting bored of the reading and stopping. Instead of having the mentality to read and stay focused, internet has caused us to skip through and pick out key words in writings making it harder to read the text. "They found that peoples using the sites exhibited "a form of skimming activity," hopping from one source to another and rarely returning to any source they'd already visited. They typically read no more than one or two pages of an article or book before hey would "bounce," out to another site. Sometimes they'd save a long article, but there's no evidence that they ever went back and actually read it."(Carr 961). The way we skim through the pages of sites affects the way we read and the way the mind functions while trying to comprehend the written text. Our reading habits today have greatly affected the way our brain functions, making it more difficult to actually be able to engage in the reading and understand the text completely.
Google, Wikipedia, and many other sites use references from many different types of sources. Some of these sites are written from people who don't have the qualifications to fully write a factual piece. They write from their own point of view and from their own opinions. Only certain web sites have real information that can is documented. From reading all these sites on search engines such as google may bring up information that is false, but we may not know that. The way we read through the internet had decreased reading rates, and made it more difficult for those to learn from the bits and pieces they pick up from skimming through multiple sites. Which may cause someone to miss an important fact, or important note that could have made them more knowledgeable. The way we type words into search browsers has also affected our learning ability. We use short terms to abbreviate different things, such as u, for you, ur, for your, and many others. It has affected our grammar and speech. Causing us to not be as educated as we should be. Internet has changes many ways of how we were taught and how we learn.
Google, Wikipedia, and other search engines have impacted the way we focus, the way we read, and the ability to learn in many ways. They are affected by the way our mind reads and understands information. How we learn has changed drastically through out the year through the enhancement of technology. As we dull ourselves down from learning things in full text and understanding what a person is saying through their writing, we loss what we could have been taught. We have became more dumb than we ever have been and have lost the decency in the way we speak. As much as technology is enhancing people rarely ever talk, other than through email, text messaging, and sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. We need to start reading more and working our brains so it can function correctly and be more knowledgable.
The 1940’s presented a far different version of America then we live in today, smoking was not only a widely accepted pastime, but many people didn’t even consider it a bad habit. While there were a few studies that had linked smoking to bad long-term effects they were few and far between and so, the habit was much more popular at the time. In 1946 the RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company produced a pro-Camel Cigarette Ad that seemed, at first glance, to be nothing more than a typical ad but upon closer examination it became clear that the ad used elements, such as a doctor, to give consumers a subconscious sense that purchasing Camels could actually benefit them somehow – almost as if the doctor were prescribing them Camels.
Get original essayThe ad’s aesthetics create a medium where producers have highlighted certain features of their product as “important” whilst using misleading imagery to further their agenda of selling the product. The highlight of the ad seems to be the doctor, who dominates nearly half of the advertisement; his presence creates a sense of comfort and a false allusion of benefit to purchasing Camel cigarettes. As a typical consumer would you not assume that, “if doctors think it’s ok, it’s probably ok”? The use of a doctor almost implies that, as is his job, the doctor is prescribing the Camel’s to the consumers viewing the ad. Along with the doctor the ad includes a section that describes the study conducted and it’s results. These results are simple white text on a black background, so they pop, and a pack of camel cigarettes are featured next to the textual blurb, as a means to simultaneously show the consumer what a pack of Camels looks like, and to remind the consumer they are looking at a Camel ad. Lastly, in what seems to be an effort to broaden their market, the ad includes a female who references her “T-Zone”, a makeup term that is aptly reapplied to suit the producers need to sell cigarettes, but still has ties to the doctor and how he may influence women in their purchasing of cigarettes. Overall the ad uses very basic methods to appeal to those who don’t plan on further analyzing the ad and its content.
The doctor used in the Camel cigarettes ad seems to communicate a sense of comfort and lull the average consumer into a state of ease, as most people would believe that what a doctor claimed to be true was true. Visually the doctor in the ad is what one would describe as the “typical wise man”. He’s old, as notable by his old, wrinkled appearance, and his greying hair. His age would imply he’s been a doctor for a significant period of time and not a newcomer to the field, and this, would further indicate that his opinion is based on years of experience, which ads further validity to what he is saying. Comparatively, the doctor is drawn in a much more detailed manor than the other character, the woman, featured on the ad as is expected due to the fact that he is the true focal point of said ad. His wrinkles are defined and his skin has a much more natural gradient – again, adding to the overall notion that this doctor and the fact that he is an experienced doctor, are part of marketing these cigarettes. On top of visually portraying the doctor as a wise and astute man, the text bubble that accompanies the doctor refers to doctors as, “one of the busiest men in town” and “a scientist, diplomat, and friendly sympathetic human being”, each of which carry positions of influential power towards the consumer. A scientist’s opinion might be trusted when possible effects of the cigarette are being debated, a diplomat when logistics and cigarette sales are being debated, and a sympathetic human being’s when one is simply looking for a friends advice. The ad uses the doctor as a means to create someone that the typical consumer can trust, sympathize with, and believe, in doing so they also create the ideal person or people to market their Camel cigarettes.
In terms of marketing for the specific brand of cigarettes, Camels, the ad places them in a variety of eye-catching places to draw, what one would assume to be, the first glance of the consumer. One cigarette sits in the doctor’s hand, and although it isn’t marked as a Camel cigarette it is still drawn to stand off of the background. Despite the fact that the doctor is wearing a white coat, the contrast between the white cigarette and the coat is still quite high, as to further highlight the cigarette. The name “Camel” is once again mentioned in large font below the image of the doctor in the tagline, “More Doctors Smoke Camels Than Any Other Cigarette”, not only does the tagline further support the claim that doctors are being used to persuade buyers to purchase cigarettes – note the bolded “M.D.” - But it also shows that the Camels, although the product being sold, are secondary to the message. After appearing several times in the text blurb at the bottom of the ad the “Camel” cigarettes again pop up in the form of an image next to the aforesaid blurb. Yet again the cigarettes – now specially marked as Camel – stand out against the white background they are set on, despite the fact that they to are white cigarettes. As a whole, the ad highlights the cigarettes, specifically camels, as something good and worthwhile that a doctor might prescribe with his thoughtful and informed opinion.
In an effort to broaden their market the ad includes another “mini-ad” in the bottom right corner. The mini-ad features a woman holding a cigarette – that once again is highlighted from both her and her background – to market the cigarettes to other women. “Your T-Zone Will Tell You/T for Taste/T for Throat…” is how the ad goes about expanding its influence with the T-Zone referencing a commonly used term when amongst women who frequently use makeup. However, unlike the makeup T-Zone, the ad moves the T-Zone downward to include the mouth and the throat in an effort to associate women as a whole with smoking and not correct application of makeup. Although it may seem disconnected at first, the mini-ads reinforcement of the fact that Camel’s won’t affect your throat is something a doctor would back, furthering the notion that the doctor, although not highlighted in this sector of the ad, plays an integral role in why Camel’s are the best cigarettes to smoke.
This Camel cigarette ad falsely uses the pedestal many place doctors and their opinions on as a means to promote their cigarettes to a larger audience. Seeing as the ad is from 1946 it’s consequences are already known to the world we live in today, we now know that smoking causes a plethora of issues in ones later life and cigarette smoking is far from a commonly accepted pastime. In terms of the this specific Camel cigarettes ad and how it may have played a role in changing society it would seem that, due to their misperception, many people were duped not only into buying cigarettes, but specially Camel cigarettes. With this notion in mind one could also adopt the idea that those who purchased the Camel’s on the “doctors orders” may have eventually developed a mistrust in doctors due to the repercussions of smoking.
The RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company’s Camel cigarette ad uses doctors, their trustworthy nature, and their position of power amongst the average consumer to market their Camel cigarettes as the best on the market. The ad, produced in the 1940’s, uses the already widely recognized pastime of smoking cigarettes, and the extensively accepted notion that people trust doctors, particularly those with experience, to market and sell their cigarettes as the best on the coattails of a doctor-like prescription.
My observation of children took place at two different locations, the Holland College Child Development Centre, which is located on the corner of Cumberland and Grafton and an in-home daycare located on Centennial Drive in Charlottetown. At the Child Development Centre there were about 14 children in the area that I was observing, half were boys and half girls. They were between the ages of two and five.
Get original essayI went to this centre twice to observe, the first time was October 15 at 8:00 a.m. for two hours and the second date was October 18 at 3:00 p.m. for two hours. For my last two hours of observation I went to an in-home daycare on October 21 at 2:30 p.m. until 4:30 p.m.. During this time there was another in-home babysitter with the children visiting from across the street. In total there were nine girls ranging from one and a half to five years of age.
Physical development is "the genetic foundations of development, the physical growth of all of the components of the body, their functioning and care"(Rice 586). During my observation I looked at five aspects of physical development, they were: physical growth, motor development, bladder/bowel control, nutrition, and sleep. When observing that children at the Child Development Centre and the in-home daycare I found that the boys and girls of the same age were about the same size, but there were are height differences between the different ages.
The difference between the ages is due to the rapid growth spurts that occur though out early childhood. As stated in the text children tend to follow the cephalocaudal principle, they grow from the head to the feet. This was noticeable with the children that I observed and I also noticed this with my own daughter because I always need to buy shirts that have a large neck opening so her head can fit through.
Motor development of the children varied greatly, this is mainly due to the overall physical maturation of the skeletal and neuromuscular development. At the in-home daycare a little girl about one cannot walk alone while another girl the same age is very agile on her feet and has a lot of coordination. This difference is most likely due to the neurons of the girl not being myelinated of the little girl who can't walk. Myelinization is "the process by which neurons become coated with an insulation fatty substance called myelin," this "helps the neurons to transmit nerve impulses faster and more efficiently" (Rice 113).
This myelinization also plays a role with potty training. If the neurons are myelinated the sensation of urinating and a bowel movement can be sensed faster so the child knows when they must go to the bathroom. During the observation I noticed that all the children above three years old in the home daycare were potty trained. I did not get any numbers from the Holland College daycare.
Both places that I observed at they had a snack time. This is very important for the children to get the energy and nutrition they need. Both places provided a healthful snack, at the in-home daycare the afternoon snack was apple slices, trail mix, and a cup of milk. The Holland College Centre had a cookie and a cup of juice in the morning of my first observation and some fruit and a cup of milk on the afternoon that I went. The two places also had a scheduled nap time. This is very important since sleep is needed for the children's brain to properly process and learn new information.
Cognitive development is "all the changes in the intellectual processes of thinking, learning, remembering, judging, problem solving, and communicating"(Rice 580). I looked at the thinking, remembering, problem solving and communicating intellectual processes in my observation of the children. Most of the issues that I will present in this section of the report are related to the preoperational stage of the Piagetian perspective. At this stage "children acquire language and learn that they can manipulate these symbols that represent the environment" (Rice 35).
Jean Piaget was a Swiss developmental psychologist that outlined the "four stages of cognitive development: the sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years), the preoperational stage (2 to 7 years), the concrete operational stage (7 to 11 years) and the formal operational stage (11 years and up)" (Rice 160).
First I noticed that children exhibit abstract thinking, which is when a child is not able to understand time, money, distance, right or left, etc. I observed this type of thinking when I was at the Child Development Centre. There were two girls and two boys in a corner with a Holland College student. The student was asking the children want their favourite month was, all the children replied with a holiday not an actual month.
I also see this happening with my daughter, I will ask her when her bedtime is and she will say "30 o'clock" when it is really at 9:00. Children also tend to use static thought, this is when a child thinks of things in life as separate, stories tend not to flow together. There was a boy at the Child Development Centre that was telling a story about his weekend. He told the student that he went to Cape Breton for the week end and went to Magic Mountain. He was getting two separate vacations mixed into one.
Children learn in many different ways, both places that I visited had a lot of stimulating materials and activities to learn from. One little girl at the children's development centre sat with me and we played with a foam puzzle that had the shape of an object and word under neath it. We had to match the shape with the word, I found that this four-year-old girl quickly learned what pieces went together. She knew her ABC's which helped her in matching the two pieces.
At the in-home daycare the children were playing with blocks, a 2-year-old girl was trying to build a tower but it kept falling over by about the 5th block, a 3-year-old girl went over to show her how she had to line the blocks up straight and the two of them built a tower that was 10 blocks tall. When the older child helped the younger child this reflected Vygotsky's concept of the zone of proximal development. "The zone is the distance between the child's actual development level reached through individual problem solving, and the higher level of potential development level reached through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers" (Rice 167).
During my observation I took note of how the children memorized information. At the in-home daycare there was a visiting group of children from across the street. The children had all met before, they usually get together twice a week for the last two weeks. The majority of the children of each group did not recall the other children's names. This is due to the short term memory storage, "short term memory ability increases during childhood"(Rice 171). This explains why the older (the four and five year olds) children could remember the names of the children while the two and three year olds could not.
Problem solving of children may be interrupted due to irreversibility and chaining. Irreversibility occurs when a child's "failure to recognize that an operation can go both ways" (Rice 584) and chaining happens when a child is sorting multiple characteristics of an object but gets the information confused and is not able to do it.
I noticed that irreversibility occurred with some of the younger children at the in-home daycare when they went outside to play. The young children found it very difficult to put on their shoes and needed help but when they came in from playing all the children could take off their shoes by themselves. At the Child Development Centre I asked a little girl about three years old if she could sort the blocks into piles that were all the same colour. She was able to do this but was unable to sort the blocks when I asked her to put the large yellow blocks into a pile.
Communicating was very noticeable between the children at both places. There was a large variation of children's ability to verbally communicate. At the Child Development Centre a little boy about two years old could not verbally communicate very well. He was using only one word if he wanted something. At the in-home daycare my daughter who is also two years old uses five to seven word sentences to tell her caregiver what she wanted. I feel that my daughter is able to verbally communicate better then the little boy due to the learning theory.
My daughter is constantly being spoken and read to since she is usually surrounded by adults, she lives with her grandparents and me and visits her father and stepmother two nights a week. Due to her living situation I feel she gets a lot of one-on-one attention, which enables her to imitate, condition, associate, and reinforce her verbal communication skills. Usually around this age of two and a half, children use 3-5 word sentences, that have a subject and predicate and have fewer grammatical errors.
Emotional development is "the development of attachment, trust, love, feelings, temperament, concept of self, autonomy, and emotional disturbances" (Rice 580). Throughout my observations I took note of the aspects of trust, feelings, temperament, concept of self and autonomy among the children.
During my first visit to the Child Development Centre I noticed that all the children were happy to be there and were very comfortable with their parent leaving. This could mean that the children felt that their caregiver met their needs of sustenance, protection, affection, and comfort. By meeting these needs for the children the caregivers were trusted by the children. I noticed that all the caregivers at both locations were very affectionate toward the children. It is very important for the children to have a sense of trust so they know that they are loved.
Another aspect I looked at was the feelings of the children. At the in-home daycare I noticed that the children were very curious of each other (the visitors versus the regulars), but at the Child Development Centre the children did not notice me for the first hour of my visit. Another feeling that I noticed the children exhibited was excitement when the caregivers at the in-home daycare asked the children if they wanted to go outside to play, they all clapped and smiled and made exciting noises like "yippy." The development of emotions emerges with age, and I found that the children I observed displayed many different emotions. When the children were being read to, they would make different facial expressions depended on what was happening in the story.
Out of all the children that I observed each of them had their own personality and temperament. There were little girls at the Child Development Centre that were very outgoing and were very comfortable to play with me, while there were some children that enjoyed playing by themselves and were timid of me when I said hello.
"By three years of age, personal characteristics are defined in childlike terms, and are usually positive and exaggerated" (Rice 217). Throughout my observation I realized that this statement was true. I asked several children between the ages of 4 and five at both location what they wanted to be when they grew up. I had many different answers ranging from a firefighter, to an astronaut, to a veterinarian, to a hockey player. The different types of answers to this question shows how at this age their concept of self is not exactly what will be reality.
Autonomy is very important in the development of children, they need to explore, and be able to realize that they can do things for themselves. At the in-home daycare I noticed my daughter wanting to do things for herself, I also see this at home. She would not let anyone help her put her jacket on when they went outside, even though it took her about 5 minutes. I find that when I do help her with a situation like putting her socks on she always starts from the beginning and gets very upset with me. If a child is not "permitted to do some things (with reasonable limits), they develop a sense of shame and doubt about their abilities" (Rice 215).
Social development is "the socialization process, moral development, and relationships with peers, family, and at work" (Rice 587). I took note of the form of discipline used at the two different locations, peer relationships, gender roles, and gender stereotypes.
During my observation at the Child Development Centre I did not see any children misbehaving therefore I didn't see how they are disciplined. I did ask one of the students about their discipline police and she said that they us time-outs and explain to the children why they are being put on a time-out.
At the in-home daycare the children are also put on time-outs when they are misbehaving. When I was there a two and a half year old girl was acting up by taking the toys from other children, she was doing this in a very forceful way so the caregiver told her she was on a time-out. The little had to sit by herself until see was ready to play fair, within two minutes she had said sorrily and was ready to play again. The use of discipline is important because it fosters a sense of self-control in the children that will stay with them throughout life.
Peer relationships were clearly noticeable between the children at both childcare locations, although the younger children at both locations did not interact with one another very much, even though they were playing along side one another. The text states that between the ages of 2 and 7 children seek to play with children regardless of sex, but at the Child Development Centre the children grouped by sex except for one group that was being read to. At the in-home daycare the older girls were playing together at a mini-kitchen. Even though there were only girls at the daycare they all seemed be involved in the traditional female activities like making super and cleaning, I doubt if boys were present they would be playing with the group.
The girls playing with the mini-kitchen at the in-home daycare are an example of gender roles. The girls were all doing the traditional female activities. Another example of gender roles is how some of the girls at the Child Development Centre were carrying around baby dolls and soft plush toys, while a boy had a toy motorcycle. "Giving children gender-specific toys may have considerable influence on vocational choices. Such toys influence boys to be scientists, astronauts, or football players, and girls to be nurses, teachers, or cabin attendants" (Rice 268).
Gender stereotypes "are common concepts and assumed characteristics of what boys and girls, or men and women, are supposed to be like within the context of the culture in which they live" (Rice 269). I noticed that at the Child Development Centre the boys had short hair and were dresses in the typical boys colours like blue, red, black, green and the girls had longer hair with braids or barrettes, and were wearing dresses, skirts, frilly shirts, and pants with flowered embroidery, that were girl colours like pink, yellow, and baby blue. It is thought that girls do more domestic play but at the in-home daycare my daughter was playing with a race car track with another girl when they were bored with the mini-kitchen.
I also notice that my daughter is very interested in hockey. She and her imaginary friend play every night for the last week. These girls playing with the "boy toys" are overcoming the traditional stereotypes which will hopefully in the future eliminate most of these gender stereotypes.
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Get custom essayIn conclusion I found that the children at both locations of my observation were all going through developmental changes. Wether it was physical, cognitive, emotional, or social. I found that each child is different when they are experiencing developmental change and as an adult, caregiver, or teacher we all must be aware of the change that are occurring so we can make the children as comfortable as possible throughout these years of growth and change.
“There are only two types of companies: those that have been hacked, and those that will be.” Robert Mueller, FBI Director, 2012. Cyber security has become a leading concern for many companies with new challenges emerging daily. Hilton Hotels faces the reality of these daily challenges, creating a dire need to identify, assess, and respond in order to mitigate their associated risks. As a leading competitor in the hospitality industry, we are constantly under attack by cyber criminals. We are not alone in this. There have been numerous successful attacks on others in our industry, causing drastic financial loss and stakeholder concern. We must act, as an organizational whole, to implement a proper course of action.
Get original essayWhat are the chances of a cyber-attack hitting our organization/Is it possible that cybercriminals could be in our systems right now? If so, who is our greatest risk?
The chances of a cyber-attack hitting our organization is more likely than not. In today’s technologically dominated world, the threats are so numerous that the question is not “if” we will get attacked, but when. Whenever credit card information or sensitive data are stored, there is high likelihood of security breaches in an attempt to either acquire or alter the said data.
There is a high probability that there are cyber criminals in our system right now. Many of the recent cyber security breaches were discovered to have been going on for months, even years, before being detected. Our greatest risk is the volatility and ineptitude of the end users of our information technology database and system. In addition, employees that access our network from personal devices present another security risk. Considering the sophistication of today’s personal and mobile computers, with the added complexities of cloud server technology, it is more difficult than ever to not only prevent cyber-attacks, but to detect them.
The probabilities of a malware or other viral attack is greatest from dissatisfied employees, according to a 2013 mathematical research study by the City University of London. The research also indicates the key sources of these infections were transmitted through the use of personal computing devices that were brought into the workplace and or linked to the company’s information system. The probabilities are as follows on page two:
The study discloses that this data is based on a sample and cannot possibly show the truest probabilities of cyber-attacks because it is impossible to parametrize all of the likely variables that could lead to a cyber-security breach. Therefore, the likelihood of a cyber-attack against us is probably greater than these numbers indicate due to the nature and magnitude of the personal information for which we are responsible.
In 2012 Wyndham Hotel Group was hacked in what is now known as one of the worst cyber-security breaches of all time. Wyndham Hotels was responsible for allowing three separate instances of unauthorized access to their computer network and property management servers, which includes their customer’s payment card account numbers, expiration dates and security codes. 619,000 customer accounts numbers were compromised, totaling $10.6 million in fraudulent charges.
Breach 1: In April 2008, intruders hacked into a hotel’s local computer network that was connected to the internet and their property management system. During the following month, the intruders used a brute force attack to compromise an administrator’s account. Using this technique, 212 accounts were locked out before they successfully gained access. Due to Wyndham’s inadequate computer inventory system, they were unable to locate the computers causing the account lockouts – leaving them unaware of their network’s compromise for four months. Additionally, because of inadequate security measures between the individual hotel’s system and the corporate system, once the intruders accessed the administrator account, they were able to access the property management systems of multiple Wyndham hotels. The server operating system used by the hotel was outdated and no longer supported by its vendor – therefore, they were not receiving security updates for three years. Once gaining access to multiple servers, the intruders installed memory-scraping malware in order to access card data as payments were processed. In addition to stealing active data, they also accessed and stole files containing past unencrypted account information. Through breaking into one hotel’s network, the intruders were able to access forty-one separate hotels and steal over 500,000 cards account information.
Breach 2: In March 2009, intruders again accessed the hotel’s network through a service provider’s administrator account. In addition to using the same memory-scraping malware to steal information from servers of more than thirty hotels, they also reconfigured Wyndham’s software to have their systems create unencrypted files of all guests at the affected hotels. Due to this breach, 50,000 customer accounts were accessed and used for fraudulent charges. Wyndham personnel did not discover the breach until numerous customers made complaints.
Breach 3: In late 2009, intruders again gained access to Wyndham’s network through an administrator account. And because nothing was done to limit the access between and among Wyndham hotels, intruders again used the same memory scraping malware to steal 69,000 customers’ account information from twenty-eight hotels. Again, Wyndham did not detect the intrusion, but was informed by a credit card company. (https://consumermediallc.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/120626wyndamhotelscmpt.pdf)
Cyber security is a large part of our organization’s risk assessment and serves an important role in ensuring our objectives are met. The cyber risk assessment plays a key role in influencing management’s decisions regarding control activities and in determining what is protected and how it is protected.
We must assess the likely attack methods and prepare defense strategies in response. As reflective in the probabilities chart above, attacks can be both internally and externally sourced. We must implement preventative and detective controls, with general information technology controls included. These controls will only be effective if communication is sparked when a control indicates a problem. To ensure timely action occurs during a suspected breach, a map of individuals who must be informed should be created. As we saw with Wyndham Hotels, the breaches lasted for months without anyone’s knowledge. With active controls and effective communication strategies, we can mitigate these risks.
First, we should “establish ownership of the problem on a cross departmental basis.” A senior officer with interdepartmental authority, other than the CIO, should lead a team. Next, we should “appoint a cross-organization cyber-risk management team with representation from all stakeholder departments. Then, we must meet regularly and develop reports to the board.” Executives should track and report quantifiable metrics of the business impact of cyber threat risk management efforts. Internal audits of cyber-threat risk management effectiveness should be conducted quarterly. Then, we must “develop and adopt an organization-wide cyber-risk management plan and internal communications strategy across all departments and business units.” All stakeholders must participate in developing the corporate plan and feel “bought into it.” Lastly, we must “develop and adopt a total cyber-risk budget of sufficient recourses.” Because cyber security affects the entire organization, its budget should reflect that, by not being bound to one department.
We should also ask ourselves the following questions: “What data, and how much data, are we willing to lose or have compromised? How should our cyber-risk mitigation investments be allocated among basic and advanced defenses? What options are available to assist us in transferring certain cyber risks?” (https://na.theiia.org/standards-guidance/Public%20Documents/NACD-Financial-Lines.pdf)
The following are controls we should consider. 1) Identify the most risky touch points and ensure that we have the proper firewalls in place between individual hotel systems and the corporate system 2) Educate our employees on the proper procedures to prevent cyber-attacks on our company. 3) Develop or purchase software that links the daily information modifications with a master file and notifies the proper officials when data has been changed or extracted from a day to day period. 4) Areas requiring a password should be limited to three login attempts, exceeding this threshold should result in account suspension with notification to proper officials. 5) After five account suspensions, an alert with inventory numbers/IP address should be sent to the proper officials.
Once the suggested controls are implemented, the following should be practiced by management to monitor these controls: 1) There should be ongoing monitoring, both daily and periodically. Some information must be checked daily to ensure controls are working as required. 2) There should also be event-driven monitoring – “discrepancies, or even frauds, may result within normal processing or in special circumstances, such as where there are large-value transactions. In many IT environments, malicious attacks are likely. Consequently, specific controls should be in place to detect and report unusual activities to an entity within the organization that is chartered specifically to investigate and determine if preventive or corrective actions should be applied. Such monitoring controls are complementary to the normal controls employed and provide assurance on the effectiveness of those controls or early warning that they may have been breached.” 3) We must also practice continuous monitoring by implementing technology that monitors and assess particular controls on a continual basis. 4) We should conduct special reviews on a quarterly basis for control assessment – “Sarbanes-Oxley legislation in the United States requires cyclical control assessments. Although the board of directors is required to make statements regarding the effectiveness of internal controls, management actually must provide the assurances to the board, and the internal and external auditors must perform sufficient audit work to attest to these assurances.” 5) Lastly, we must perform audit reviews – formal reviews of infrastructure, process, and technology implementation should be performed so the CAE can assess the reliability and usefulness of the controls. (https://na.theiia.org/standards-guidance/Member%20Documents/GTAG-1_edited_forWeb-CX.pdf)
In order to protect ourselves from the internal and external threats to our cybersecurity, we need to practice multiple audit techniques. We must check behind our employees and our systems to ensure that our information is safe from both misappropriation and altering of information. Our main types of audit work can be broken down into two areas: preventative and detective/damage control. Preventative audit work ensures that we are doing everything possible to keep cybersecurity threats from invading our company’s data, while damage control-oriented audit work will work to limit the amount of harm done in the case of a data breach.
For our preventative audit work, we must monitor our employees to ensure they are following the security procedures addressed in question four. These involve a number of different auditing procedures. One of the most important of these is ensuring duties are properly segregated. Our auditors will come behind our workers and ensure they only have access to materials for which they are authorized. This is beneficial for two reasons. First, it ensures no employee can cause undue damage to the company either intentionally or unintentionally. Second, it prevents us from suffering the same problems as Wyndham, when their employees’ computers were compromised and used to steal data from across networks. As a final preventative audit procedure, we must randomly sample data to see if it is properly classified and accessible to only those who should be able to see or alter it.
For detective/damage control audit work, we need to ensure every activity that might compromise data leaves behind a trail. Not only do our audits need to be performed in order to prevent security threats, we also must ensure that we are ready in case of a successful attack. As KPMG points out in their security advisories (KPMG, 2015), we can lessen the damage of an attack that gets through some of our systems if we respond to the event correctly. Audit work is an important part of checking to see if we are properly prepared. We can audit our responses to these events before they happen by conducting simulation hacks and observing to see what our response teams do well or poorly. (http://advisory.kpmg.us/content/dam/kpmg-advisory/PDFs/RiskConsulting/cyber-incident-mistakes-forensic-focus.pdf)
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Get custom essayOur audits need to be regular, random, and thorough. Our employees need to expect they will be audited in the future; however, they should not be notified of planned audits. This will incentivize them to follow security procedures at all times.
This is a case study about the Topinhar Call Centre, in which three management literatures are studied to analyse and develop the problems in the Topinhar Call Centre. In this case study, the performance can be considered as a function of ability and motivation. As a result, the importance of employee motivation is recognised, and the factors about the motivation are addressed. Finally, some recommendations for overcoming the problems at the call centre are suggested.
Get original essayMotivation of our employees is one of the most important issues facing companies today. The need to instil our employees with motivation is becoming ever more important especially with the shift towards a more socially and culturally responsive workforce. Due to the globalisation, the call centre develops quickly recently, But while call centres offer an appealing way to handle functions such as customer service, sales, technical support and so on, they also present new challenges in people management. In essence, when people do not enjoy working, or cannot see a future for themselves, they are likely to leave -and staff churn is expensive. So how does a call centre find out what motivates its employees and to improve the performance? It is important to managers of any organisations. This report discusses the performance problem in Topinhar call centre, tries to find the ways to overcome these problems, and finally attempts to offer a useful framework for understanding the motivations and emotions of employees as well as the attitudes of management in a call centre.
There are many useful literatures that study the motivation of employees in recent years. By analysing the characteristics, Nemerov (1993), a managing principal of D.S. Nemerov & Associates, suggests that successfully motivating and creating harmony in the call centre is the key factor in creating a competitive advantage. According to Nemerov (1993), there are three factors that significantly contribute to higher levels of worker motivation and performance, which are leadership, commitment to competence, and rewards as well as recognition. Through exercising visible and ongoing leadership, heightening staff commitment through competence, and reward systems recognizing quality as well as productivity, call centre managers should be able to achieve impressiveness.
In the article Employee motivation of the high achiever, Atwood (2004) states that the supervisors should enhance the motivational climate in the workplace to foster and maintain continued excellence. Atwood (2004) also recognises that the high achiever employee is operating in the self-actualization need area. Thus, the supervisors should promote the employees' realization of their potential. These are several things supervisors can adopt that demonstrate knowledge of excellence and set the motivational environment to maintain an outstanding performance, which are observing, providing feedback, delegating as well as channelling employees into leadership positions, and providing an environment for goal achievement.
In the paper A Review of Employee Motivation Theories and their Implications for Employee Retention within Organizations, the author Ramlall (2004) provides a synthesis of employee motivation theories such as Need Theories of Motivation, Maslow's Need Hierarchy Theory, Equity Theory, Expectancy Theory, Job Design theory, and so on. He describes the relevant motivation theories and explains how employee motivation affects employee retention and other behaviours within organizations. In addition, by synthesizing and critically analysing the motivation theories, the author compiles several major factors affecting the employee motivation from the respective theories including needs of the employee, work environment, responsibilities, supervision, fairness and equity, effort, employee's development, and feedback.
In the case of Topinhar call centre, the issue revolves around performance and how to get the best out of people. According to the individual performance equation (Wood, et al. 2004), the performance can be viewed as the result of the personal attributes of individuals, the work effort they make, and the organisational support they receive. As a result, the performance can be considered as a function of ability and motivation. Ability in turn depends on education, experience and training and its improvement is a slow and long process. On the other hand, motivation can be improved quickly. The job of a manager in the workplace is to get things done through employees. To do this, the manager should be able to motivate employees. Therefore, it is important for the managers of call centres to understand the need for development and motivation.
Ramlall (2004) identifies analyses and critiques the motivation theories underlying employee motivation in organizations. These theories explain what the employee motivation is, how to motivate employees, and the critical factors affecting the work motivation in different perspective. In this case study, these theories provide the tools to analyse and identify the motivation problems in Topinhar call centre and also suggest some solutions to the problems. For example, the Need Theories of Motivation including Maslow's Need Hierarchy Theory and McClelland's Need Theory can be used to analyse and identify the employees' need and then address the problems. Moreover, Equity theory and Job Design theory suggest the ways to develop employees' motivation. Equity theory suggests that organisations should develop reward systems that are perceived to be fair and equitable and distributing the reward in accordance with employee beliefs about their own value to the organization (Ramlall 2004). Job Design theory is based on the idea that the task itself is the key to employee motivation. According to this theory, a boring and monotonous job stifles motivation to perform well, whereas a challenging job enhances motivation. Therefore, variety, autonomy, and decision authority are three ways of adding challenge to a job. Moreover, job enrichment and job rotation are the two ways of adding variety and challenge (Ramlall 2004). It is very useful to the Topinhar call centre case study because it provides an effective method to motivate employees in the boring job.
Atwood (2004) in his paper recommends that mangers should understand the importance of the motivation for work performance. The author suggests that "the high achiever employee is operating in the self-actualization need area as suggested by Abraham Maslow in his Hierarchy of Needs theory of motivation" (Atwood 2004, p. 3). As a result, the manager should help employees to realise their potential. The author also provides the ways to set the motivational environment to maintain an outstanding performance. It provides some useful recommendations to solve the problems in the Topinhar call centre case study.
Obviously, Nemerov's (1993) paper is more useful to the managers of the call centre. In his paper, Nemerov (1993) identifies the factors which are relatively generic across all telemarketing operations and provides the suggestions to improve the employee motivation in a call centre. It is a good reference to develop the solutions to the problem in Topinhar call centre.
According to Nemerov (1993), there are three factors that significantly contribute to higher levels of worker motivation and performance in a call centre. Firstly, the fundamental and important factor is the visible, accessible and ongoing leadership. The managers should firstly regard the human as the resource of an organization and believe that organizations exist to serve human needs, and a good fit between organization and its employees benefits both (Bolman & Deal 2003). Based on their individual, family, and cultural values, employees have multiple needs which depend on the current and desired economic, political, and social status; career aspiration; the need to balance career, family, education, community, religion, and other factors; and a general feeling of one's satisfaction with the current and desired state of being (Ramlall 2004). "Managers have the responsibility to create a proper climate in which employees can develop to their fullest potential. Failure to provide such a climate would theoretically increase employee frustration and could result in poorer performance, lower job satisfaction, and increased withdrawal from the organization" (Steers & Porter 1983, cited in Ramlall 1993, p.54). In addition, Douglas MacGregor (cited in Bolman & Deal 2003) develops 'THEORY X' and 'THEORY Y' based on Maslow's Hierarchy-of-needs theory. 'THEORY X' says that 'subordinates are passive and lazy, have little ambition, prefer to be led, and resist change', however, 'THEORY Y' tells that 'the essential task of management is to arrange organizational conditions so that people can achieve their own goals best by directing their efforts toward organizational rewards' (MacGregor, cited in Bolman & Deal 2003). It is obvious that the 'THEORY Y' rather than 'THEORY X' should be adopted by the management. The employees should be encouraged to self-direct. However, in the case of Topinhar call centre, managers monitor the work of employees; it seems that the 'THEORY X' is adopted. It is certainly not useful to improve the performance. Therefore, these managers should change their attitudes.
Secondly, it is the managers' responsibility to establish an environment that is productive, respectful, provide a feeling of inclusiveness, and offer friendly setting (Nemerov 1993). In Topinhar call centre, the employees have a little chance to establish or control personal spaces because they work with phone handsets and computers in an open-plan office with cubicles. This situation needs to be changed so that the employees can have personal spaces in which they feel comfortable. Also, employees prefer to function in environments that provide a challenge, offer new learning opportunities, significantly contribute to the organization's success, offer opportunities for advancement and personal development based on success and demonstrated interest in a particular area (Ramlall, 2004). Managers need to provide staff with development opportunities. In this case, managers need to think beyond the career ladder. People are often keen to gain experience and develop their CVs by, for example, working in other departments or in cross-functional project teams. Moreover, managers must look out for opportunities for staff to contribute to the developing business. In this case, this requires that they go out of their way to listen to new ideas from staff and appreciate that front-line operators might have practical and creative ideas about how to improve the service they provide. In addition, managers need to establish ambitious, achievable and agreed targets with their teams and to provide an environment for goal achievement quickly and easily (Nemerov 1993, Atwood 2004). After the goals are established and communicated, the employees should be empowered to determine how to best accomplish the goals. The employees will be motivated by being involved in determining how to accomplish the goal (Nemerov 1993). Management should be very supportive of team decision making. This support includes open sharing of information about the business, clear and fair standards of performance, and frequent feedback regarding performance and personal development. It is noted that this appoarch is "best executed through the supervisor who, rather than being the disciplinarian, becomes the coach" (Nemerov 1993, p. 54). In the case of Topinhar call centre, although call monitoring is a necessary part of call centre management, monitoring can emphasize recognition of good, rather than poor performance.
The second factor contributing to higher levels of worker motivation and performance in a call centre which is suggested by Nemerov (1993) is "The staff must have the competence to stay committed to the goals and objectives" (p. 55). Ramlall (2004) also states that if an employee feels competent to perform in a more challenging capacity and has previously demonstrated such competencies, he or she may feel a need to seek additional responsibilities and be rewarded in a fair and equitable manner. So how are such results achieved? Nemerov (1993) suggests that the employees will be encouraged to take on additional tasks and perform at a higher level by targeted training, coaching and increased job responsibilities. Atwood (2004) suggests the managers should allow the employees to show initiative, delegate often and channel them into leadership positions, such as using some employees to train others, delegating authority to act in the manager absence, or other leadership activities.
The last factor of worker motivation and performance is "creative use of rewards designed to recognize and reinforce both individual and team performance" (Nemerov 1993, p. 53). Managers need to find ways to recognize the efforts and achievements of staff. According to the employee motivation theories, employees prefer to have timely and open feedback from their supervisors (Ramlall 2004). By providing feedback, managers can help people to develop their self-worth and help people to see that they have a key role in the success of the operation. Specially, it is important for managers to observe the outstanding performers carefully and provide constant feedback to the high achievers (Atwood 2004). Of course, reward as a traditional motivation method is powerful. However, it is crucial that the management should realise that employees want to be treated and rewarded in a fair and equitable manner regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, geographic location, or other similarly defined categories (Ramlall 2004).
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Get custom essayIn conclusion, motivation is a very important component within the business world because it plays a vital role of the psychological well being of employees. Successfully motivating and creating in the call centre is the key factor in creating a competitive advantage. However, human nature can be very simple, yet very complex, too. An understanding and appreciation of this is a prerequisite to effective employee motivation in the workplace and therefore effective management and leadership.
The modern day economic situation is marked by high competition, fast development in terms of new technologies and globalization (Eaton & Kilby, 2015). As such, organizations are forced to become more global while the employees with different backgrounds, work-related attitudes and perceptions have to work together. This explains why organizational culture is vital in the implementation of strategic goals set by the company. The culture a company creates dictates whether it will lose or win in the fight for supremacy and market share (Eaton & Kilby, 2015). This means that the differences in successful and the not so successful businesses rest in the decision and roots of establishing the right organizational culture to suit the environment. The popularity of corporate culture in the present age is the significant relationship between this concept and the outcomes thereof. These consequences include company effectiveness, financial performance and gaining substantial competitive advantage. Culture is a vital part of the success of an organization. Culture revolves around integrity, teamwork, customer focus and a spirit of humility. For the world business today, organizational culture and its models have been growing remarkably in importance over the past few years. The question that stands out however is how the elements of a corporate culture can have influence on the attainment of the strategic goals and objectives set by the company.
Get original essayBarclays bank is an example of an organization hat has had immense success. Barclays bank uses the role culture and task culture models in their efforts to meet the organization’s strategic goals and objectives (Barclays PLC SWOT Analysis, 2015). The role culture ensures that the roles delegated to employees at all levels are more important than the individuals implementing the same. In this model, reasoning and logic as well as procedures and impersonal systems govern the behavior. Task culture ensures that there is no one single source of power. Every task given to the employee is the priority. Such a culture and model depends on getting the most creative and the best individuals to become a team working towards the set organizational goals. Teamwork is paramount over every other valued element within the work culture. The corporate culture of Barclays is therefore the main driving force for the organizational objectives in that the corporate models dictate how to attain the goals (Barclays PLC SWOT Analysis, 2015). The role and task cultures and models help Barclays to achieve their strategic goals.
Culture can be defined in non-technical language as the way things are done. It is the mode of operation within an organization, which is accepted and seen as normal (Wren & Dulewicz, 2005). It makes up the social environment in a business that is solely responsible for the creation of innovations and initiatives. Culture ensures that a company is more competitive and attains profitability. Such are the main goals of any organization. A national culture ensures maximum impact with the employees. It can be defined as the behavior, customs, beliefs and set of norms that are more dominant within the population of a nation. Global organizations and international businesses like Barclays develop managerial goals and practices according to the national culture of the nation they are operating within. The national culture of the UK is high in individualism, masculinity and indulgence (Wren & Dulewicz, 2005). The power distance, uncertainty avoidance and long term orientation are relatively low. There are low ties between members of a community in the national culture of the UK. This explains why the organization under discussion (Barclays) has performed so well in a struggling economy (Barclays PLC SWOT Analysis, 2015). The institution is keen on tasks and roles delegated to individuals in a work. Although the cultures are somewhat different, they work together that way. They complement each other. The high individualism of the British people allows for high orientation towards rewarding hard work and success.
Barclays group is a huge international financial provider that operates in all continents in the world. They have major business in Europe, Australia, Asia, America, Africa and the Middle East (Barclays PLC SWOT Analysis, 2015). They deal with wealth management, retail banking, corporate banking, credit cards and investment banking. In analyzing he corporate cultural profile for Barclays, customer responsiveness, communication, personality and organization, work motivation, reward management and job satisfaction are the key cultures to consider.
Communication is essential in passing over and inculcating common objectives. Failure to pass on clear purposes will result in calamities for a firm. At Barclays, clear communication plays a major role in satisfying customer needs and demands to offer all the information required to make a decision (Barclays PLC SWOT Analysis, 2015).
Organization and personality are essential in having a successful organization. it helps the management to develop good organizational behavior. This is attained through understanding the different personalities of the employees so as to increase workable interactions models in the business. The personality encompasses qualities, competencies, skills and characteristics of the employees combined with other traits like attitude and grooming.
The culture and model used at Barclays ensures that tasks and roles come before an individual (Barclays PLC SWOT Analysis, 2015). However, in general, the British culture is individualistic in orientation and favors reward. Therefore, this ensures that the motivation to attain results is very high.
<3>Impact of Barclays Corporate Culture in Achieving its Objectives
Present day economic situation is marked by high competition, fast development in terms of new technologies and globalization. This forces organizations to become more global while the employees with different backgrounds, work-related attitudes and perceptions have to work together. The culture of Barclays has been a key element in propelling it forward in the banking and financial industry (Barclays PLC SWOT Analysis, 2015). With a culture that is oriented towards attaining its objectives and results with a focus on the tasks and roles, the company has been able to meet all of its strategic goals and objectives (Eaton & Kilby, 2015).
The success of the UK’s Royal Air Force in all its military endeavors depends on effective leadership, shred principles and core values, personal standards, resilience and total commitment. The culture and climate of the Royal Air Force prohibits fraternization, adultery and unprofessional relations. Such acts are considered as a counter to order and discipline due to the resultant negative impacts on the morale and unit cohesion. At every level, the commanders must make sure that there is a climate that is conducive for mission effectiveness. To attain this, the group ethos must be impeccable (Defense Forces, 2013). Therefore, the values established in the military code of conduct must be adhered to the letter. Those serving together are required to behave in accordance with the enforced standards , equally and unassailable. In this sense, the Royal Air Force can be regarded as a socialist meritocracy. Key values enforced include honesty, sacrifice, accountability, and complete fairness in, promotions, risk and rewards.
Positive command climate is the best way to improve the corporate climate within the Royal Air Force. The performance of the service people is definitely affected by the organizational climate (Randhawa & Kaur, 2014). For efficient allocation and implementation of tasks, the climate must foster the set rules, principles and standards. Values enforced include honesty, sacrifice, accountability, and complete fairness in, promotions, risk and rewards. Just like the business climate has evolved over time, this report recommends that the RAF changes its basic structure to allow a channel of back and forth communication (Randhawa & Kaur, 2014). The current climate is that of a dictatorial establishment. This is the case in the sense that, a junior member of the force has no input where senior officers have expressed their views. Therefore, having or introducing a channel that will allow communication without necessarily undermining the authority of those higher in ranking will go a long way in ensuring efficiency in the military (Eaton & Kilby, 2015).
In order to have organizational values that meet the specific strategic and operational needs of the military, this report proposes the use of the human relation model, internal process model, and the internal process model. For the human relation model, the mentor is rather approachable and very helpful. Additionally, the leader is solely responsible for the growth and development of the individual employees, in this case the service men and women. In the human relation model, the top level managers promote teamwork, manages interpersonal conflicts and cohesiveness. This report proposes an integration of the human relation model and the internal process model and the open system model. The internal process model involves a role of supervision from the management who check on the performance and handling of the technical parts.
The stakeholders represent the parties or people in a business or institutional setting that have particular interests with an organization. Internal stakeholders are individuals already committed to responsibilities in a business in the capacity of board members, volunteers, staff and donors. On the other hand, external stakeholders are the individuals who are impacted by work as constituents or clients, partners, the community and other interests like the government.
Communication is among the most important elements of a firm’s success (Dolle, 2012). Communication is essential in passing over and inculcating common objectives. Failure to pass on clear purposes will result in calamities for a firm. At Barclays, clear communication plays a major role in satisfying customer needs and demands to offer all the information required to make a decision. Among the stakeholders, communication is vital since it connects information, thoughts, opinions, ideas and plans (Wren & Dulewicz, 2005). For the internal stakeholders, Barclays group PLC has a clear communication culture that promotes openness and enhances teamwork. Communication amongst the external stakeholders is easy (Mahal, 2009). It involves offering annual reports for the performance f the company and following up with monthly reports and consequent financial statements.
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Get custom essayFor any organization to succeed, the ability to communicate plays a vital role (Mahal, 2009). To harness any form of advantage within the working of a firm, it is essential for a firm to communicate efficiently. Good communication strategies allow better control and monitoring structures that help to address differences in values, belief, language and customs. A new strategy will involve all members of the organization in communication. This primarily includes members of the stakeholder’s team that are inactive in daily company operations. They include retirees and other dormant members. An open door policy will be the best way to communicate in order for the firm to have an open climate that allows junior members to participate in discussion of ideas and perceptions on a number of issues (Dolle, 2012).
People nowadays use Facebook every minute. Yes, every minute. We have seen a lot of users who are spending too much time scrolling on their Newsfeeds, lately fed up reading with different status, pictures, videos, etc. Facebook has been the favorite and favorable social networking site due to its demand in society. Facebook can be accessed through PC and most conveniently, through smart phones. Every other time the developer updates Facebook to eliminate bugs and unnecessary errors. That's why it is easy and fast to open the page/graphical user interface for both desktop user and smartphone user. You will soon realize how Facebook has become popular worldwide. You will soon come to think how fast Facebook has become famous. Facebook before is just a simple profile-viewed website just like LinkedIn. Lately, Mark Zuckerberg, who is the founder of Facebook, developed the site through different algorithm and some sort of complex mathematics and programming. You can see here the good side of Facebook as per user demand. Now, let us tackle the advantages of Facebook.
Get original essayAll throughout different countries, Facebook is accessible. Communication is done either between two different races or group conversations through Facebook. A user can access for a live chat in which user can live stream himself or herself. Facebook can be used for online business such as buy and sell, online shopping, house for sale, rooms or house for rent, freelancing, and posting job advertisement. Facebook can also be used as a means of posting current events in different countries, streaming live news, entertainment, sports, and other social media. It can be used as a place for sharing ideas, thoughts, opinions, and testimonials for a certain topic. The networking site can also be used for exposure of freedom of speech of netizens who are against certain rules and regulations or policies implemented by political government.
On the other side, Facebook is also a social networking site with many disadvantages. One of the the disadvantage is cyberbullying. Being cyberbullied on the social networking site is embarrassing and could lead to negative factors to a user such as depression and low self esteem. Facebook can also be of no privacy anymore. Everything about what they are doing and what's all about their lives is already posted on their designated posts. Especially to students, they have time for Facebook, but some don't have time for books anymore. Yes, it is the reality. Facebook creates virtual world with virtual people. It is always up to us how to use Facebook in a proper way. We can not always please anyone.