Information Management Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Information Management - Case Study Example USS's major problems were evident in its order taking process. The orders were manual, imprecise and filled with errors; there was no coherence among the different processors as they had their own tracking and order system. There fore USS was unable to follow each order as it was processed and delivered. The communication system employed between the different processors was a dialup system meaning that data processing wasted a lot of time, invariably forcing the company to hold large inventory, increasing its production cost. All such problems made USS uncompetitive in face of other producers such as POSCO, which was recently setup with the latest technologies. To fix these problems USS took rapid steps to improve their production system. First of all, they provided their customers to place theirs order online specifying the product, quantity, price, composition, size, thickness, and even delivery date for their orders. The software was developed so as to allow the customer to be able to see the cost as well as the delivery dates of their order, to allow them to plan accordingly for their business. It also allowed for messages from different processors to be translated much more quickly and more efficiently. USS also connected DecisionExpress software from LiveCapital for customers which reduced its uncollectible debts. To further improve the accuracy of the order USS incorporated several other soft wares such as order fulfillment and later i2 Technologies. They also introduced soft wares such as iTrac to keep track of their shipments and Mechanical Item Generation System to regenerate orders for repeat customers. USS also setup a subsidia ry USS Engineers and Consultants, to sell these soft wares to assist other companies. To maintain its competitive advantage they only provide soft wares which are a version older than their current software (Bratislava, 2003). Results and Business benefits In 1996, when USS faced a disastrous situation of losing Ford Motor, USS identified that, in face of future competition computerization of the production system was a necessity. This direction allowed USS to be more efficient and more profitable. After the implementation of the software system USS required 3 work hours to produce a ton of steel, as compared to 4 hours in Germany and 4.8 hours in POSCO. Hence, USS was able to greatly benefit from strong economic conditions by supplying steel to United States, China and other countries (Michael Erman - 2007). Conclusion The progress of U.S. Steel depends on the world demand for their products i.e. steel. As witness from the world wide economic shock, demand for steel and other essential construction material has plummet. Widespread closer of factories has significantly halted further investments, resulting in drastic drops of steel prices. USS has invested great sum of financial capital in refining their production cycle but in current times it will be very difficult to gain

The Prophet Muhammad Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Prophet Muhammad - Essay Example Muhammad’s Uncle took and grandfather took care of Muhammad. As a young child, Attwell insists that Muhammad usually suffered from seizure fits. During the fits, Muhammad mentioned receiving voices from heaven and heavenly visions (Attwell, 2007). Attwell prescribes some tribes described the young boy, Muhammad, as demon-possessed (2007). Growing up, Muhammad learned the teachings of the Jewish religion and the Christian Church. Consequently, some of the two religions’ teachings were incorporated in the Koran. The Koran teaches that Jesus Christ is a prophet, just like Moses. Growing up, Muhammad prayed to 350 various gods, including the Moon God, Al-lah. The author proposes that Muhammad’s knowledge of Jewish and Christian teachings of the Angel Gabriel visit (Attwell, 2007). Consequently, Prophet Muhammad espoused that Angel Gabriel visited him in Mount Hira, after marrying the 40 year old wealthy widow, Khadijah. Confused about receiving visions, Khadijah and his relatives convinced Muhammad that they were real visions. The author, insist that this situation casts doubts on authenticity as a prophet (Attwell, 2007). Gahl Eden Sasson insists Muhammad insists he quarreled with Angel Gabriel when he was instructed to recite and surrender to the will of God (2008). However, Angel Gabriel â€Å"the angel overwhelmed me in his embrace until he had reached the limits of my endurance. It took a bear hug and some wrestling moves o the part of the archangel to get the Aries (Muhammad) to submit to God’s will (Sasson, 2008 p.124).† Muhammad also mentions that he met Adam in the first heaven and Jesus and John the Baptist in the second heaven, when Angel Gabriel brought him to visit heaven (Spencer, 2007). In fact, Lionel Attwill’s biased resolution indicates Muhammad’s unstable and mentally disturbed condition, magnified by his continued fasting and meditation to receive visions is reminiscent of schizoid delusions (Attw ell, 2007). The author insists that the scripture depicts Angel Gabriel as reassuring Mirriyam, mother of Yahsua by telling her â€Å"Hail, O woman richly blessed The Yahweh is with you. Do not be afraid for you have found favor with Yahweh† (Attwell, 2007; p. 260). The author insists that Angel Gabriel never hugged or squeeze the lady until she thought she was going to die and leaving her cold and doubting her vision and eager to take her own life, because of the Angel Gabriel visit. Being an illiterate all his life, the author insists that Muhammad did not write the Koran (Attwell, 2007). After Muhammad’s death, his followers wrote the Koran from memory and hearsay. The author further states that the Koran verse stating Muhammad was â€Å"escorted to the seven heavens on a white horse to the temple mount in Jerusalem is a myth without any evidence (Attwell, 2007, p.261)†. Likewise, the author insists that Muhammad assimilated prayer to Allah, the pagan religio n’s moon god, into the Islam religion. The author further states that there is no record of Muhammad curing the sick, saving the sight of the blind people, casting out demons, or any other miracles, like the other prophets mentioned in Christian and Jewish scriptures, including Jesus and Moses. Further, Goldschmidt proposed Muhammad was a liar. Initially, he instructed all Muslims to avoid praying to idols or images. However, to gain the favor of the current Meccan leaders, Muhammad made a 180 degree religious policy shift. To espouse increasing the spread of the

The relationship between verbal and non-verbal behaviour

The relationship between verbal and non-verbal behaviour The most promising research methodology for studying the relationship between nonverbal and verbal behaviour Three decades ago there was practically no scientific work done on nonverbal behaviour, except some rare cases of research. However, nowadays research on the relation between nonverbal and verbal behaviour seems to be widespread across different disciplines such as clinical, social or linguistic psychology. This is mirrored by the fact that fundamental studies and achievements have been attained within this field of research. The incredible fast speed of books being published and journal articles being written about body language and actual language reflects both the high amount of interest of the general public and scientists into this area and the great engagement and devotion of researchers involved (Rimà ©, 1985). The present brief paper will focus on presenting research methodologies which have proved to be most promising for the investigation of non-linguistic and linguistic speech. One particular research methodology cannot be pointed out as currently there are different vali d and reliable ways of investigating into this matter. Before outlining possible methodologies for investigating the speech, body language relationship it is useful to consider the study field’s research history. It was Charles Darwin (1872) who pioneered hundred years ago in writing about unconsciously processed non-linguistic communication and in outlining the particular emotional nonverbal expressions and reactions of the human and animal body. Surprisingly, Darwin was back then certain about the now acknowledged fact that emotional body responses stem from the nervous system’s activity and are operating inside the unconscious awareness of mammals. He also observed that emotional expressions evolved due to the aim of species to survive through increasing group collectivism and guarding the offspring from enemies. Additionally, he promoted that a wide number of the nonverbal expressions of emotions were innate and not learned. This theory found supported by observations of children born blind who socially interact through clapping, smiling and laughing in spite of the fact they cannot perceive the reactions of others. The observation of animals, however demonstrated that there are di fferent kinds of nonverbal expressions which accompany language with some being semantic content while others target at evoking appropriate nonverbal and verbal responses in others (Eibl-Eibesfeldt, 1980). The friendly smile of humans has, for instance, been found to be a potential control mechanism against aggressive behaviours in others by being a potential invitation for direct social interaction. Face-to-face eye contact, on the other hand, often results in aggressive behaviour since it is perceived as a threat. One can already realise that with the help of the above mentioned findings the relationship between body language and actual language can be scientifically analysed simply by observing species interact (Pally, 2001). The actual scientific interest into this topic, however, commenced with the beginning of the 20th century, and with having a heavy focus on facial expressions. Anthropologists came to the conclusion that nonverbal communication does not appear by chance but is both learned like a language and while language is learned. Sapir (1949) for instance noted that one reacts to others’ body language â€Å"in accordance with an elaborate code that is written nowhere, known by none, and understood by all† (p. 533). Nonetheless, did not make any systematic or scientific efforts in order to enlighten the relationship between linguistic and non-linguistic â€Å"speech† any further. Ekman (1975), Scheflen (1964, 1972, 1973), Hall (1966), were among those scientists who began with scientific research into body language. As a matter of fact, their effort was not valued by many but received with utter criticism and mockery. Since then, however, some accepted methodologies have bee n devised in order to investigate the relationship between speech and nonverbal communication and Davis (1971), for example, wrote that, in fact, psychiatry, ethology, psychology, anthropology and sociology are the five disciplines dealing nowadays with non-linguistic communication. She noted as well that those interested in the study of body motion (kinesics) usually prefer the so-called systems approach over others as â€Å"communication cannot be studied a unit at a time† but it â€Å"is an integrated system† that â€Å"must be analysed as a whole†. Therefore, one can conclude again that the way of observing humans or animals in naturalistic or experimental settings is an effective approach to decide over the relationship between spoken language and body language (Sielski, 1979). Cheney and Seyfarth’s (1990) naturalistic experiments can serve as support for this notion as they successfully investigated monkeys in their natural habitat and demonstrated that a monkey’s specific alarming vocal call triggers the fleeing of peers and thus implies that the behavioural reaction is related to the situational and not semantic context of the alarm signal. Dixon and colleagues’ (1989) observations on humans, can serve as another support for the fact that through simply observing and analysing how individuals act and react verbally and nonverbally one can come to scientifically sound conclusions. They found that body movements signalling discomfort and distress are often aimed at provoking comfort eliciting behaviours in others (Pally, 2001). Another stem of research concentrates on the relation between neuronal brain activity and nonverbal-verbal communication. It has been found, with the help of neuroscience, for example that both the tendency of mother’s and their children to maintain stability (homeostasis) and a majority of their social interaction develops through nonverbal communication. Limbic components of the brain mediate the initiation and influence of nonverbal cues while manipulating, the autonomous nervous system, neurotransmitters, and hormone levels. As a consequence since the delivery of a child, the mother nonverbally interacts with her offspring through all senses and sensory systems (tactile, olfactory, visual, motor, and auditory systems). Language becomes inextricably linked to nonverbal cues as is developed and integrated within the manifested nonverbal communication rituals, rules and habits of mother-infant interaction. Later on, the body language becomes, in fact, more sophisticated and develops parallel to actual language (Sigman Ruskin, 1999). In addition to that, the neurological based methodology successfully demonstrated with the help of patients suffering from brain lesions that the right hemisphere is designed for nonverbal communication whereas speech and verbal communication can be attributed to the left brain hemisphere. Henry (1993), for example, revealed that individuals suffering from impaired right brain hemispheres could not anymore decode nonverbal cues while patients suffering from strokes in the left hemisphere could not anymore articulate themselves verbally. Ekman (1990, 1993, 1997) is another well-known researcher who utilised the so-called Facial Action Coding System (FACS) in order to record and analyse facial expressions and movements through the objective and unobtrusive. The FACS was only recently (Ekman, 1994; Ekman et al., 2002) updated and can be described as the successor of the objective but intrusive electromyography technique which was used by Izard (1979, 1982). There are other widely accept ed facial expression recording devices such as Katsikitis Pilowsky’s (1988) FACEM, which monitors facial expressions with the help of twelve different distances between key points on the face. The most advance laboratory based work on nonverbal expressions was, however, conducted by Reisenzein (2000) who successfully minimised preceding technical limitations and problems and investigated the consistency of 4 elements of surprise such as participants’ facial expression, self-report of surprise, cognitive appraisal of the stimulus as unexpected, and reaction time to surprise (Russell et al., 2003). Hence, studies on nonverbal communication are nowadays managed by using more and more sophisticated investigation techniques. As a matter of fact, advancement in discovering scientifically grounded relationships between one’s speech and body language are strongly correlated to the status of progress and perfection of the methods utilised for assessing, analysing and recording behaviours of interest. Consequently, usage of coders, observers, decoders and raters, are inevitable components in the study of nonverbal behaviours (Fichten et al, 1992). Therefore, there is great emphasis on making sure that the appropriate research methodology is applied and researchers are nowadays required to be technical experts in filming, videotaping and audio-taping of participants. Most researchers within this field agree that in order to successfully investigate the interactive nonverbal and verbal communication one must either use naturalistic or ethological approaches. As a consequence and as a downside, the researcher is often doomed to watch or listen carefully for an incredible amount of hours recorded material again and again before an objective conclusion can be made about the relationship between language and body language. Many compare this tiresome approach to sculpturing as one cannot present the whole block of recorded material in the end but must mould and compress the analysed info rmation into a half an hour presentation or a brief journal article (Rimà ©, 1985). In sum, influential researchers like Rimà © (1985) believe that body language is neither depending on nor complementing verbal utterance but both represent an entity which utilise analogue, parallel and multiple channels in the process of expression. Hence, film material consisting of conversations between two or more individuals are preferably used for studies as it is one of the only ways of analysing the relationship between nonverbal and verbal behaviour together and in relation to each other. REFERENCES Cheney, D. Seyfarth, R. (1990). How monkeys see the world. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Darwin, C., 1872. Origin of Species, Sixth Edition. London: Senate. Davis, F. (1973). Inside Intuition: What we know about nonverbal communication. New York: McGraw-Hill. Dixon A. H., Fisch, H. V., Huber C. Wasler, A. (1989), Ethologic studies in animals and man: their use in psychiatry. Pharmacopsychiatry, 22:44–50. Eibl-Eibesfeldt, I. (1980), Strategies of social interaction. In: Emotion: Theory, Research and Experience, ed. R. Plutchik and H. Kellerman. New York: Academic Press. Ekman, P. (1975). Face muscles talk every language. Psychology Today, pp.35-39. Ekman, P. (1990), Voluntary facial action generates emotion specific autonomic nervous system activity. Psychophysiology, 27:363–383. Ekman, P. (1993), Facial expression and emotion. Amer. Psychol., 48:384–392. Ekman P. (1994). Strong evidence for universals in facial expressions: a reply to Russell’s mistaken critique. Psychol. Bull, pp.115:268–87 Ekman P. (1997). Should we call it expression or communication? Innovation, 10, pp.333–44 Ekman P, Friesen WV, Hager JC (2002). New Version of the Facial Action Coding System. http://dataface.nirc.com/Expression/FACS/ New Version/new version.html Fichten, C. S., Tagalakis, V., Judd, Darlene; Wright, J., Amsel, R. (1992). Verbal and nonverbal communication cues in daily conversations and dating. Journal of Social Psychology, Vol. 132 Issue 6, pp/751-770. Hall, E. T. (1966). The hidden dimension. New York: Doubleday. Henry, J. P. (1993), Psychological and physiological responses to stress: The right hemisphere and the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis, an inquiry into problems of human bonding. Physiolog. Behav. Sci., 28, pp.369–387. Izard, C. E. (1982). Measuring emotions in infants and children. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Izard C. E. (1979). The Maximally DiscriminativeFacialMovement Coding System (MAX). Newark: Univ. Delaware, Comp. and Netw. Serv., Univ. Media Serv. Katsikitis M. Pilowsky I. (1988). A study of facial expression in Parkinson’s disease using a novel microcomputer-based method. J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry, 51, pp.362–66 Reisenzein R. (2000). Exploring the strength of association between the components of emotion syndromes: the case of surprise. Cogn. Emot. 14:1–38 Rimà ©, B. (1985). The growing field of nonverbal behaviour: a review of twelve books on nonverbal behaviour and nonverbal communication. European Journal of Social Psychology, Vol. 15 Issue 2, pp.231-248. Russell, J. A., Bachorowski, J. Fernandez-Dols, J. (2003). Facial and vocal expressions of emotion. Annual Review of Psychology, Vol. 54 Issue 1, pp329-350. Sapir, E. (1949). Selected writing of Edward Sapir. Berkeley: D.G. Mandelbaum. Scheflen, A. E. (1964). The significance of posture in communication systems. Psychiatry, pp.316-331. Scheflen, A. E. (1972). Body language and social order. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall. Scheflen, A .E. (1973). How behaviour means. New York: Gordon Breach. Sielski, L. M. (1979). Understanding Body Language. Personnel Guidance Journal, Vol. 57 Issue 5, p238-243. Sigman, M. Ruskin, E. (1999). Nonverbal communication, play, and language skills. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, Vol. 64 Issue 1, pp29-54.

the supernatural effect in Macbeth :: essays research papers

The Supernatual There was a strong role of a supernatural force in Macbeth. The witches supposedly had a power to see the future. Or perhaps they had the power to change the future. Then there was the three ghosts that predicted the future. And of course the bloody dagger that appears to Macbeth before is going to commit his first murder seems a little too coincidental to not be supernatural. The Three Witches are the strongest of the supernatural powers in the play. Although they speak of the future, they do not seem to affect the course of it. They are the agents of fate because they only speak of the truth of what will happen. There is one line in the play that has the most supernatural effect. â€Å"Fair is foul and foul is fair.† The theme that foul is fair and fair is fowl has the biggest supernatural pull   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Witches do not predict that he will commit murder to become king but only that he will become king. For example, they all hail Macbeth as king by saying, â€Å"All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!† Even if the witches weren’t there, Macbeth would have somehow become king because of fate. The Witches know how he will get to be king and it would be fair to tell Macbeth, but they follow the fair is foul policy. The Witches have the biggest affect on Macbeth because they are the ones who are delivering these â€Å"fair† prophesies. When the Witches prophesize that no man born from a woman’s womb can defeat him, he feels invincible. However, Macbeth does not realize that Macduff was born unnaturally.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Lady Macbeth is affected from the theme as well as Macbeth is. She thought that becoming Queen would make her happier but she later feels that life is not worth living. She says, â€Å"Naught’s had, all’s spent, Where our desire is got without content. ‘Tis safer to be that which we destroy Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.† After murdering Duncan and becoming Queen, she wants to have her old life back or die than to be where she is. Because of her burning ambition to be Queen, her life is ruined. Lady Macbeth constantly taunts her husband for his lack of courage and that he is â€Å"too full o’ th’ milk.† But in public, she is able to act nicely as a skilled and superior person.

Comparison between Lennie Smalls and Isaac Statchard Essay

These two texts, â€Å"Of Mice and Men† and â€Å"The Ostler†, seem extremely different when you read them through. Once you have thought about them though, they do have many similarities. The two texts are set in very different times with many social, historical and cultural differences. â€Å"Of Mice and Men† is about two friends who are looking for work during the Great Depression. â€Å"The Ostler† is about a stable buck who has a dream, which becomes reality but ends in a tragic way. Both texts are set in different times and both the characters come from very different backgrounds. Lennie, for instance, has some form of disorder, which affects his speech and memory, and he had been looked after for all of his life. Isaac has lead a very conservative but unlucky life. There are many similarities despite their obvious and not so obvious differences. After the excitements of the 1830s and ’40s, mid-Victorian England was relatively quiet, with the family being regarded by most mid-Victorians as the central institution in society. This is extremely likely to have something to do with Isaac wanting to settle down. The differences in the rights people had were quite shocking. For instance women didn’t have the vote and men were judged whether they were allowed to vote on the size of their estate. The U.S. economy had gone into depression six months earlier; the Great Depression may be said to have begun with a catastrophic collapse of stock-market prices on the New York Stock Exchange in October 1929. The result was a large decrease in output and large increase in unemployment. There are similarities linking the backgrounds of the two texts. The employment situation is similar as in â€Å"The Ostler† it is hard to get casual work and in America where â€Å"Of Mice and Men† is set work, is almost non-existent. Women are considered the lower sex and they both have pretty much the same position in, living at home and tending to children etc. We are introduced to Isaac in a dream, in which it tells his story we think but really, it is foreseeing what is going to happen to him. It is a bit confusing for the reader because we get no information about setting or what has happened, we are launched into it knowing nothing. It changes narrators in the third column, â€Å"after a little hesitation, he compiles with my request. Some years ago†. This is where the text leaves his dream and starts the whole story over again but in greater detail. We know that Isaac lacks intelligence by his mother saying that he has a poor memory. I think Collins has chosen a protagonist such as Isaac because he is a very normal person. I think he wanted to create a character that people could almost relate to and look into their personality. Collins creates a seemingly real character by creating a life and a lifestyle that he follows. Every aspect of a person’s life seems to be covered. He takes the reader into the mind of Isaac and you could almost control him after you have read the text because it is so detailed. We are introduced to Lennie Smalls after he and George are on the run from their native Californian town, Weed after Lennie is involved in an incident with a women. We learn in section one that Lennie is travelling with a friend, George Milton who is like a Father to Lennie. We find out that he is a very large and slow man and he has a very pleasant temperament from what we read. Lennie’s description is significant. He is a â€Å"huge man† and â€Å"dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws† and also the way he speaks: â€Å"where we goin’, George†. The descriptions from other characters, â€Å"a child’s mind locked inside a mans body†, also when George is talking to the head of the ranch he describes Lennie as not being very intelligent. Steinbeck comes across very truthful in the way he describes Lennie he uses words, which make us build up images in our minds. Steinbeck has used words such as ‘gentle giant’, ‘huge’ and ‘nice fella’. The way he is described is a complete contrast to his personality. I think he uses these words to show that Lennie does have strengths but he also has quite a considerable number of weaknesses such as his speech. Lennie has been compared to several animals throughout the first section of the book. I think Lennie’s characteristics are either similar to these animals, or he is copying them.It is obvious that he has a liking for animals, especially rabbits. Third person narrative has been used effectively, it gives the reader the story from different points of view which brings out different things in characters which you may not have got otherwise. Lennie and Isaac are surprisingly similar; they are both people anyone I believe can relate to in some way or another. Neither of them are particularly bright especially Lennie who suffers from an unspecified illness. They both want different lifestyles. Lennie wants to tend the rabbits and Isaac wants to get married. They are in very different circumstances at the start and the whole way throughout the books, Isaac living with his mother and having her support and Lennie having no family. George is not really the same kind of support. Lennie looks upon George as a friend not a parent figure. Steinbeck’s way of developing characters is similar to Collins. He tries to make the characters seem as realistic as possible. He gives them each their own way of doing things. The way Steinbeck has done it makes you want to read on because you feel closer to the characters and you almost feel a part of them and you experience there emotions and thoughts. Lennie has a disability, which affects his speech, and this I think is the reason for such short sentences from him. I do not think he has the intelligence to put together a large sentence. A few examples of his dialogue, â€Å"I am not takin’ it away jus’ for meanness† and â€Å"I ain’t gonna say nothin'†. Using slang, colloquialisms are effective because it makes it a bit more realistic. It is using terminology, which the characters would have done. Some examples of this are â€Å"I think Curley’s married a †tart† said by Candy or â€Å"an live of the fat of the land† said by Lennie. It is all part of developing a character you have to get every characteristic right. Collins describes Mrs Scatchard with words that describe the mother. He uses positive descriptions with words like happy. She is a typical mother person who looks out for her son and tries to do the best for him. We know she is quick and witty unlike her son because when Isaac comes to her with his problem she takes down a description of the girl and puts it away. It is almost like she knows that Rebecca is going to turn up. We have learnt that she is very happy being a mother and loves her sons very much, she has fallen on hard times but still marches on she is determined to do her best for herself and her son. She is always there if he has a problem he has; we have a problem in the story of Rebecca being part of her son’s life. George in Chapter one is described as an exact opposite to Lennie. George has all the qualities that Lennie does not have. George has a hard time looking after Lennie. He finds all the food, work and shelter. He keeps Lennie in order taking things like dead mice away from him. George and Lennie are equally as close as Isaac and Mrs Scatchard. They both depend on the more intelligent one of each pair; they seem to be able to overcome a lot when they both work together. Collins makes us feel sympathetic with Rebecca, the first time you actually meet her he describes her as â€Å"a poorly dressed woman†. I think he is trying to mislead us he is making Rebecca look harmless when she is really a murderer. Our suspicions are aroused when Mrs Scatchard meets Rebecca and she wants to see the paper with the description on. Physiognomy has been used when Mrs Scatchard reacts to Rebecca. She treats Isaac with respect at first so that she can get close to him and lead him up to marriage. When she got close to him her attitude changes completely, she becomes violent towards Isaac it is like she wants to marry him for money then kill him off. Isaac’s mother stays the same the whole way throughout she continues to be supportive, she plays the mother figure. Rebecca is a very deceptive character she plays the nice she plays the innocent responsible adult to get really close to Isaac. When Mrs Scatchard meets Rebecca, she realises before Isaac that this person is really the person out to the dreams. Then Rebecca seems to use that as a turning point in her attitude towards Isaac. She becomes emotionally unstable and goes on the rampage with violence and hatred. We are introduced to Curley’s wife when she wonders into the bunk house. They are both considered as no go zones. George gives her a negative picture where as Lennie when he is in the stable playing with the pup thinks she is a nice person. Lennie is just too dumb to take on people’s real personality but he seems to charm people with him manor and people are nice back to him. Our reactions to Rebecca and Curley’s wife are very different. Rebecca we start to not like because we see her turn from good to evil or from loving Isaac to wanting to kill him. Curley’s wife on the other hand we do feel sorry for because she has no one to talk to nor anyone to socialise with, she is expected to just amuse herself and live in her own little word. Rebecca does deceive Isaac, she puts on a false character, which is the ideal person for Isaac to love and to hold, but then she changes her character completely, everything about her seems to change her behaviour, her attitude towards Isaac and they way she does everyday chores. Victorian writing was all about mystery or melodrama. This is certainly present in â€Å"†The Ostler†Ã¢â‚¬ . The mystery in this text revolves around the arrival of Rebecca. Melodrama I do not think is present that much in this text. Melodrama is all out over exaggerating movements and there is not much of this. When you try doing some background research into â€Å"The Ostler†, it is almost impossible. If you do some research into Collins, it always refers to his more famous pieces of writing. He does create tension very well by having Rebecca on the loose and having Isaac on the run. Collins is like Steinbeck he gives you an amazing wealth of knowledge about each character. He gives them a very life like personality. Steinbeck set his book in the 30’s, so it is obviously a lot more modern and up to date. He has set his book just outside Weed and as the author is American, he can relate to their way of life. He sets it just after he Great Depression and it was probably set on two real characters at the time. I think that the level of suspense is equally as high in Steinbeck’s novel because you do get signs on what is going to happen but you don’t know when they are going to happen. This is because they have their dream and it comes so close. It is very successful because it makes the reader want to read on. It gives small hints about what is going to happen â€Å"If you get into any trouble come and hide by river and wait for me† but it doesn’t make it clear what is going to happen. This makes the book more interesting and it makes you want to read on. The aim in â€Å"Of Mice and Men† was I think to show readers the lives of two normal everyday people after the depression and the recovery. I think Steinbeck would have written this to tell people what going through the depression was like and how much of a struggle it really was. â€Å"The Ostler† is really a mystery and I do not think there is really an aim to this book. Collins may have written this to show the readers an example of life in the 19th Century and wrapped a story into it to make it interesting. I preferred â€Å"Of Mice and Men† only because I felt I could relate more to it. I have seen these ranches in work just outside Weed which also made the story more interesting whilst reading it. It seemed to be a more normal text with things which definitely could have taken place, where as in â€Å"The Ostler† we don’t know where it is set or any other key details. The stories both portray two less than bright individuals who survive in life. I believe Lennie Smalls is les cleaver than Isaac Scatchard due to Lennie requiring George to live. In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck and The Ostler by Collins Dreams play a crucial role. Lennie used dreams as a way of inspiration where as Isaac Scatchard’s life was dictated by a dream he had, had in a hotel.

Business Psychology Essay

In this era of globalization, every organization must design its own strategy in terms of running its business at excellent level to survive and stay in competition. Trigger factors of higher demands that addressed to organizations are; emergence of free market which means that competitors are not only from the local market but also come from organizations all over the world, technological advances that developed rapidly over time also has role in higher demands that has been exposed to organizations in determining that everyone inside the organization must be compatible with the rapid development of technological advances at their workplace. Intense competition environment as already mentioned above certainly lead to tendencies for organizations in emerging innovations, creativities, enhancement of added value, service excellences, competitive prices and acceleration of process business plot as an objective to be â€Å"the winner† in competing with other organizations. A paradigm shifting in the design of the organizational strategies is necessary to be developed by organizations in order to survive in spite of the free market enforcement. One of the strategies that can be applied is building an effective team in the organization, the transformation in working method from individual to team work as the main focus must bring psychological effects for every individual in the organization. Every member in the organization is forced to be part of their team, regardless to their preference to work as individual or as a team. This phenomenon also brings the â€Å"domino effect†; each member in the organization will be evaluated not only for their field competencies related to their job performance, but also personal competencies related to perform effectively as a team member (team work competencies) will be evaluated by the organization. In the realization  of forming an effective team, more than one strategy related to competencies in team building, which are parts of the business psychology area, must be combined in a synchronous way. Business psychology can be use as a source in designing and implementing an organizational strategy, especially for the accentuation in understanding individual behavior and self improvement basis when they are put and work together in a team. There some business psychology focuses that can be used in designing a strategy which at the end also can be used as references in building personal competencies needed in order to perform as an effective team. These are the beneficial focuses: 1. Perception and personal reality Every individual has cognitive limitation in responding to information that they received, as a result of that phenomenon, they are forced to pick information selectively regarding to which received information associated as valuable and which is invaluable, which data that will be taken to the next level of information process. Related to selectivity process, individual tend to use heuristic process, an information processing which characterized by incomplete usage of given data, only based on general issues and experiences, and all those information processed quickly. This information processing form has potential in bringing biases, misunderstanding, and inaccurate result in processing information. Based on the implementation of information processing above, in interacting with other individual, stereotypes and expectations emerged. Stereotyping is a judgment processing of someone that made only based on perceptions to the group where they can be categorized. Expectations from each individual not always positively responded by the other party where they are interacting with each other. Expectations also correlate with communication styles that will be used in interactions. 2. Team ship In building an effective team, many approaches must be used and collaborated in a synchronous way. Defining roles in each team member is an important aspect for balancing the roles of team members in order to optimize the team’s outcomes and coherence. One of the models that can be used in describing team roles in details is â€Å"team roles model† by Belbin : An effective team, in the process basis is characterized by these indication processes; active listening, sharing leadership, taking turn-not interrupting, positive reframing, rescuing eac other’s views, spontaneous and open praise and elaboration of ongoing ideas. In terms of their task performance, an effective team is characterized by these indication processes; analyzing, focus on results, reflecting, open rejection-goal oriented, open rejection-based on data, seeking opinion, seeking clarification and closure. There are some important key behavior in an effective team, such as: open communication, mutual respect, shared output responsibility, agreement through consensus, active disagreement, clear individual responsibilities and roles, subordinate own goals to group objectives, engender high team morale, receptive to new ideas and change, and constructive and supported feedback. There are two applicable models that can be useful in order to design the strategy for establishing an effective team, and they are: Jungian model and Tjosvold model. a. Jungian Model b. The Ideal Team System by Tjosvold Sharing organizational expectations, business strategies and visions, core  values, organizational cultures and organizational objectives, can be defined as envisioning. Showing interest about team member’s visions, task clearances, valuing intercultural differences, and transferring the idea of the team ship’s paradigm importance are efforts in uniting the team. Bringing out loyalties, responsibilities, knowing potential of team members and assigning them based on that, and motivate them when they need motivation are characteristics in the empowering step. After being empowered, exploration in discovering problems and focusing on finding solutions can be established, diversities can be managed in finding the best solution, and all that will raise the team’s awareness to the importance of learning over time to have the upper hand in the market competition. After the best solution is reached, reflecting what the team has been through at every step of the cycle above can be very important as the source of any plan or step that needs to be revised on the next period in order to perform as an effective team. 3. Conflict resolution There are some causes of conflicts that usually appear in organizations: competition, scarcity of resources, interdependence/dependency, conflict in objectives and tasks, differences of opinion and of influence, differences in status, cultural differences, change, misperception, miscommunication, different ways of seeing things, personal preferences, pace of response, range of response and form of response, individual differences and emotional defenses. Traditionally, from all causes of conflicts that mentioned above, individual differences and emotional defenses are the main issues in organizations. In dealing with conflicts, there are three natural reactions that are usually expected from the individuals involved: striking back (leads to escalation, potentially damaging the relationship), giving in (usually results in poor outcome, can be seen as rewarding bad behavior), and breaking off (sometimes can be beneficial, often very costly, hasty and regretted). Regarding to conflict resolution, application of negotiation competencies can be very useful. There are five stages in negotiation process; orientation, position taking, search for solutions, crisis/deadlock, settlement and finalization. It is important to each team member to identify their position in those stages that are related in optimizing conflict resolution process. By knowing and sharing their each position, they can build the same perceptions in finding the best conflict resolution scheme. Principled approach is a combined technique in negotiation from soft and hard style of positional bargaining. In this approach, participants are problem solvers, the goal is a wise outcome reached amicably and efficiently, people and the problem must be separated, must be soft on the people and hard on the problem, independent of trust is proceed, the focus is on interests not the positions, interests are being explored, having a bottom line is avoided, options for mutual gain are invented, multiple options are developed, the use of objective criteria is insisted, a result is reached based on standards independent of will, there is tendency to be open to reasons and yield to principle, not pressure. Conflicts can lead to project delays, missed market opportunities, confused communication, inconsistent information, teams fail and difficult to retain good staff. Considering the effects of unresolved conflict, there are three category : first order effects (quantifiable) can be counted by employee replacement cost, including termination costs and recruitment, second order effects (harder to quantify) which can be observed by increased supervision or management activities , and third order effect (impossible to quantify) when its already revealed in passive aggressive behaviors. Look more:  problem focused coping essay There are two types of conflict; task focused, which is characterized by differences of views and opinions, based on facts and reasoning, and related to intellectual matters. The other type is relationship focused conflict, characterized by anchored in personal differences, influenced by history/assumptions, and related to feelings and emotions. There is a model by Thomas Kilmann which explained deliberately about correlation between  assertiveness and cooperativeness in dealing with conflict. 4. Decision making There are two types of decision making process that people tend to implement, they are: width (diverging) and depth (converging). Diverging type is characterized by some points; seeking options/strategies, works with multiple perspectives, requires more options, considering new ideas, combining options/lateral ideas, and creative suggestions. On the other hand, converging type is characterized by: seeking consensus, seeking clarification, seeking structure, review based on new information, analytical, making inferences, assess consequences based on data, strong defense of viewpoint, clear decisions and outcomes. The usage of both types can be based on the situation that the decision making processes is taking place in the organization. Combination of width and depth are expected and can be the best option in decision making process.