The Reggio Emilia and Montessori Approaches Used In Early Childhood Education in the 20th Century

How to Treat Geological and Astronomical Terms

How to Treat Geological and Astronomical Terms How to Treat Geological and Astronomical Terms How to Treat Geological and Astronomical Terms By Mark Nichol Determining whether to refer to geological and astronomical terms with initial uppercase or lowercase letters can be a challenge, because various publications and publishers differ on capitalization style. The following guidelines, however, appear to predominate: Names of geological time spans are capitalized, but the terms for the magnitude of duration (eons, eras, periods, epochs, and stages, in descending order of length), are not; in scientific and nonscientific prose alike, these terms can be omitted: â€Å"The Mesozoic is also known as the Age of Dinosaurs.† â€Å"Mrs. Wattle has been teaching Freshman Composition since the Mesozoic.† Whether modifying terms such as early, middle, and late are capitalized depends on whether they are themselves modified: â€Å"Tyrannosaurus rex lived during the Late Cretaceous.† â€Å"The Deccan Traps erupted in the very late Cretaceous.† â€Å"Ice age† is considered a generic term because multiple such events have occurred. In astronomy, general terms in proper names of celestial bodies are generally capitalized (â€Å"Orion’s Belt,† â€Å"Barnard’s Star,† â€Å"Comet Halley†). Note, however, that comet is lowercased in lay references to â€Å"Halley’s comet.† In nontechnical contexts, sun and moon are often lowercased: â€Å"She shielded her eyes from the bright light of the sun.† â€Å"Beware when the moon is full.† In works about astronomy, or those in which other celestial bodies are referenced, uppercase them: â€Å"The Sun is merely one of countless stars.† â€Å"The Moon orbits our planet roughly every twenty-eight days.† The same rule applies to the name of our planet. In idioms such as â€Å"where on earth,† â€Å"down to earth,† and â€Å"move heaven and earth,† the name requires no emphasis, and references to our world from a surface perspective and to its soil are likewise lowercased: â€Å"I traveled to the four corners of the earth to find it.† â€Å"The earth here is rich and loamy.† But the word as the name of the planet should be emphasized like any other: â€Å"The first four planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, consisting mostly of rock and metals, are called the terrestrial planets.† (Note that Earth, in such contexts, need not be, and rarely is, preceded by the.) General terms like â€Å"solar system,† galaxy, and universe are usually not capitalized; some publications and books uppercase them (especially in references to our own solar system and the Milky Way galaxy). Names of celestial phenomena and objects such as the aurora borealis and the rings orbiting Jupiter and Saturn are lowercased. Remember, too, when discussing the planets orbiting the Sun, that Pluto was in 2006 demoted to a dwarf planet one of four in the solar system’s distant Kuiper belt (a fifth dwarf planet lies in the asteroid belt, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter), and may not even be the largest one. (The scientific jury is still out on whether the similarly sized Eris is larger). And why is belt capitalized in â€Å"Orion’s Belt† and not in â€Å"the Kuiper belt†? In the former term, it’s a reference to part of the personification of the Orion constellation, but in the latter, it’s merely a description, just as in â€Å"the asteroid belt.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Style category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:45 Synonyms for â€Å"Food†Select vs. SelectedSit vs. Set

HCM621-0804A-01 Ethics, Policy, and Law in Health Care Management - Essay - 5

HCM621-0804A-01 Ethics, Policy, and Law in Health Care Management - Phase 3 Individual Project - Essay Example Several numbers of uninsured people have full or part time employment. In order to decrease the number of uninsured individual within the working classes, the insurance will be covering children who are uninsured and extend its coverage to their families. In order to address the number of children who are uninsured it is best to find ways how to lower the numbers. Responses to health crisis will need time, effort and strength, but the assurance of having health coverage to all especially the children is important. I am suggesting the following policies in order to address the crisis. First is to expand the Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP). CHIP is a US federal government program for families with children that gives funds to states to provide health insurance. The program was designed to cover uninsured children in families with incomes that are modest but too high to qualify for Medicaid. Second is to focus on individuals who are eligible for the program in their hometown and encourage them to enrol in the program. And to expand CHIP coverage and include the patents and families of the children enrolled in the program. The statistics shows that nearly 9 million children are uninsured and they come from the community where the p arents themselves are uninsured. Affordable health care option can be provided if they allow CHIP to extend its coverage to the parents. The extension would be beneficial to the children who would take the program. Children enrolled in SCHIP are entitled to regular checkups, immunizations, doctor’s visits and hospital care. Under SCHIP, states have the choice of expanding Medicaid, establishing a separate, stand-alone program, or combining these two approaches.

Cognitive Assessment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Cognitive Assessment - Essay Example Parents are sometimes unable to understand the problems that their children might be going through. On the other hand, the parents may use forceful instructions to teach their children without knowledge on the underlying problems. Studies indicate that most children who have persistent poor performance have attention disorders. Attention disorders such as Attention Disorder Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are one of the commonest conditions among younger children that are hard to identify among school-going students. Parents may sometimes think that their children are impulsive and inattentive whereas such symptoms indicate serious attention deficits. However, it is important to ensure that the exact underlying issue is identified before the child is put into a serious strategy for resolving the learning problems. In the context of Jamir’s case, it would be necessary to diagnose the problem that the child suffers from. This will help in the identification of the best strategy to be applied in order to assist the student. The mother thinks that Jamir does not listen to the instruction. This is an assumption that might be more dangerous to the child. Children like Jamir normally have impulsive behaviors that prevent them from concentrating in certain activities. For Jamir to be able to listen and read, certain strategies must be used (Shaheem, 2012).

Character Analysis Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Character Analysis Paper - Essay Example They wear leather jacks, drink gin and grape juice in order to give the appearance of a cool group of buys. However, in the end, the insecurities and fear of Digby is brought forward as he is unable to maintain his cool in a dire situation. From the interaction between the group, it seems quite clear that Digby is the untold leader of the group. It is Digby who instigates the group in getting into rebellious situations. For instance, it was Digby who pointed the blue car to the narrator. Rather than collaborating with his friends, he took over the situation in a manner that an unofficial leader would take. It was not Digby who was driving the car but rather the narrator because the narrator owned the car. Digby was sitting in the passenger seat right beside the narrator. His position in the car also points towards his role in the group. He was happy to let the narrator ride the car but he placed himself in a position where he could control the car. He did this when started fighting for the wheel and leaned over the horn. He even instructed the narrator to turn on the flashlights (Boyle, 1985). Digbys character is dynamic because it changes at the end of the story. From being a cool boy, Digby evolves into a scared one. Digbys attitude at the beginning of the story was one of nonchalance. He was living a life where he derived fun at others stake. However, when he is beaten up by the man in the blue car, he is scared. Digby did fight with the man initially but realized that he was not strong enough to beat the man. Therefore he ran away from fear. He, like his friends, hid on the other side of lake for the entire night only out of fear. Even when he did get on in the morning, he was in a hurry to get back. The offer of drugs by a beautiful girl did not persuade him to stay. In many ways, Digby is quite like the young teenagers. They may appear to be cool from the outside but inside they are

Strategy vs Structure in Strategic Management

Strategy vs Structure in Strategic Management Strategic analysis: Strategy versus Structure for International Competitiveness Introduction The strategy structure relationship, that was previously considered reciprocal, is now recognized as being considerably more complex, and there is some agreement that structure can and does have a profound impact on strategy through its direct effect on the strategic decision making process (Bourgeois Astley, 1979; Burgelman, 1983; Fredrickson, 1986). In understanding the role of strategy and structure in international business, one must understand that what has essentially changed is the context within which business operations take place. The well developed and complex associations between structure and strategy in classical studies of firms are also central to research in international business, but the nature of business has changed, and so have the relationships. As such, issues have arisen over the best way for international firms, operating in global marketplaces, to best align their strategy and structure to serve numerous distinct markets, whilst maintaining a global identi ty. This paper looks at the development of business strategy and structure over time, highlighting how the relationships have changed, the implications for organisational behaviour, and how firms can alter their behaviour to best gain competitive advantage in international markets. International Strategies Business strategy refers to how firms compete in an industry or market (Varadarajan and Clark 1994; Walker and Ruekert 1987). The two historically dominant frameworks of business strategy are the Miles and Snow (1978) model, which focuses on intended rate of product-market change, and the Porter (1980) model, which focuses on customers and competitors. Miles and Snow (1978) developed a comprehensive framework that addresses the alternative ways that organisations define and approach their product-market domains and construct structures and processes to achieve competitive advantage in those domains. Miles and Snow identify four archetypes of how firms address these issues: â€Å"prospectors† continuously attempt to locate and exploit new product and market opportunities, â€Å"defenders† attempt to seal off a portion of the total market to create a stable set of products and customers, â€Å"analyzers† occupy an intermediate position by cautiously following prosp ectors into new product-market domains while protecting a stable set of products and customers, and â€Å"reactors† do not have a consistent response to the entrepreneurial problem. In contrast, Porter (1980) proposes that business strategy should be viewed as a product of how the firm creates customer value compared with its competitors, and how it defines its scope of market coverage. Walker and Ruekert (1987) observed that though each of these strategy typologies has inherent strengths, i.e., Porters external focus and Miles and Snows internal focus, each is also limited. To address this, Walker and Ruekert proposed a hybrid model that synthesizes the two foci in a typology that consists of prospectors, low-cost defenders, and differentiated defenders. However, although Walker and Ruekert’s article has been frequently cited in the marketing and management literature, the distinctions between low-cost defenders and differentiated defenders have only recently been supported in empirical analysis (Slater and Olson, 2001). Following on from these initial developments, over the last few years researchers have quite successfully addressed and explicated the various forms of international strategy, and these forms are generally well accepted in the literature. There is now considerable agreement among international business scholars that most firms embarking upon or undertaking international business operations are cognizant of the twin pressures of global integration and local responsiveness. To this end, the integration-responsiveness framework suggested by Prahalad and Doz (1987) has provided a valuable theoretical tool to better understand international strategic behaviours of firms. More recently, we have seen many successful applications of globally integrated strategies (Parente, 2003; Parente Kotabe, 2003). According to Yip (2003), global companies have developed more sophisticated and flexible versions of international strategies and organisational processes, which successfully embraced globaliz ation. Organisational Structures Organisational structure refers to an organisation’s internal pattern of relationships (Finley, 2000). Structure has been characterized by a number of dimensions and illustrated by using a variety of types, like functional or divisional (Fredrickson 1986), however, there are three dimensions of structure: centralization, formalization, and complexity, which have received more attention than any others (Fry, 1982; Fry Slocum, 1984). Each of these dimensions appears to have great implications for strategy and strategic decision making, and are dominant characteristics of the well known structural types (Fredrickson, 1986). Centralization refers to the degree to which the right to make decisions and evaluate activities is concentrated (Fry Slocum, 1984; Hall, 1977). A high level of centralization is the most obvious way to control and coordinate organisation decision making, but places significant cognitive demands on those managers who retain authority (Fredrickson, 1986). Min tzberg (1979) has discussed this issue by suggesting that an individual does not have the cognitive capacity or information that is needed to understand all the decisions that face a complex organisation. The degree of formalization specifies the extent to which an organisation uses rules and procedures to prescribe behaviour (Hage Aiken, 1969; Hall, 1977). Therefore, formalization has significant consequences for organisational members because it specifies how, where, and by whom tasks are to be performed (Fredrickson, 1986). A high level of formalization has the benefit of eliminating role ambiguity, but it also limits members’ decision making discretion. Complexity refers to the condition of being composed of many, usually, though not necessarily, interrelated parts. Hall (1977) suggests that there are three sources of complexity: horizontal and vertical differentiation, and spatial dispersion. Therefore, an organisation that simultaneously has numerous levels, broad spans of control, and multiple geographic locations would be considered as highly complex (Fredrickson, 1986). The Interaction Between Strategy and Structure Whilst strategy and structure have been studied in isolation for a great many years, and are now relatively well understood, what is less understood is the international role of organisational structure and its relationship with international strategy (Finley, 2000). International strategies are the forms and types of actions firms follow to fulfil their long term business objectives. Organisations involved in international business activities usually have two major forces impinging on them. One is the need to standardise products on a global basis, and the other is to respond to local country or local market demands. International strategies may be characterized in different ways, and the integration-responsiveness framework developed by Prahalad and Doz (1987) has extended the conceptualization of industry pressures to incorporate generic strategic responses. The framework suggests that organisations develop their strategies and structures based on the emphasis they place on either one or both forces. At the most basic level, organisational structures are established to coordinate work that has been divided into smaller tasks. Mintzberg (1981, p. 104) noted, â€Å"How that coordination is achievedby whom and with whatdictates what the organisation will look like.† Walker and Ruekert (1987) further hypothesized that firms that follow different generic business strategies adopt different structural designs. Vorhies and Morgan (2003) studied the relationships among marketing organisation structure, business strategy, and performance in the trucking industry. Both of these studies demonstrated that different marketing organisation characteristics are more or less appropriate for different business strategies. The forms of structures typically defined by formalization, centralization, and specialization, which as Walker and Ruekert (1987 p. 27) noted â€Å"seem particularly important in shaping an organisation’s or departments performance†, are also applicable in d ifferent ways to different strategies and geographic factors. For example, in studying the development of America’s dominant industrial organisations, Chandler (1962) observed that major increases in unit volume, geographic dispersion, and vertical and horizontal integration were eventually followed by changes in structural form. Several studies following Chandler’s work confirmed an association between these two variables, in that structure generally followed strategy (Fouraker Stopford, 1968; Rumelt, 1974). In spite of the wide spread acceptance of the structure follows strategy relationship, there is a significant body of literature that suggests that structure has a significant and major effect on strategy (Fredrickson, 1986). Bower, for example, characterized structure broadly as the context within which decisions are made, and observed that â€Å"structure may motivate or impede strategic activity† (1970, p. 67). This view is also supported by other researchers who contend that structure constrains, or in another set of circumstances, enables, strategic choice (Bobbitt Ford, 1980; Duncan, 1979; Hedberg, Nystrom Starbuck, 1976). To understand why it is logical for strategic action to be affected by structure, one must understand the relationship between decision making and structure (Fredrickson, 1986). March and Simon (1958) addressed this critical aspect of the relationship by suggesting that an organisation’s structure imposes boundaries of rationality that accommodate members’ cognitive limitations. By delimiting responsibilities and communication channels, structure allows organisations to achieve organisationally rational outcomes despite their cognitive limitations (Simon, 1976). Structure also allows management to control the decision making environment and facilitate the processing of information (Fredrickson, 1986). The structure-strategy relationship is well explained by Bower when he states that â€Å"when management chooses a particular organisational form, it is providing not only a framework for current operations but also the channels along which strategic information will flow † (1970, p. 287). As a result, the relationships between business strategy and organisational structure become massively complex when considered in the international context, and thus require organisations to strategically examine their fundamental behaviours in order to best align their strategy and structure, without becoming lost in the complexity. Strategic Organisational Behaviour Organisational behaviour refers to organisational members’ work-related activities (Ouchi 1977; Robbins 2002) and, according to Snell (1992), management attempts to influence organisational behaviour through the use of control systems. Control is any process that helps align employees actions with the firm’s interests (Snell 1992; Tannenbaum 1968). Control theory (Snell 1992) identifies three major categories of control mechanisms: behavioural control (e.g., establishing and monitoring of sets of actions), output control (e.g., goal attainment measures), and input control (e.g., training). When applied within an organisational context, control theory posits that management attempts to direct employee behaviour to enhance the probability of desired outcomes. As Snell notes (p. 292), â€Å"Advocates of the behavioural perspective posit that different strategies require different behaviours.† Snell also notes that this view of the link between strategy and behaviour is useful because it provides a clear explanation of why behaviour should be linked to strategy and because it posits a testable set of behaviours. As a result, strategic behaviours have the potential to create superior performance through enhancing the execution of business strategy and identifying the relevant organisational structure (Slater and Narver 1995). There are four behaviours which are all claimed to offer potential competitive advantage to firms. These are customer-oriented behaviours (Deshpandà ©, Farley, and Webster 1993), competitor-oriented behaviours (Armstrong and Collopy 1996), innovation-oriented behaviours (Hurley and Hult 1998), and internal/cost-oriented behaviours (Porter 1980). It is important to understand that these strategic behaviours are not mutually exclusive and that it is common for firms to engage in multiple sets of behaviours simultaneously (Slater and Narver 1995). Furthermore, different combinations of emphases will likely prove more or less beneficial for firms that adopt different business strategies. Customer-Oriented Behaviours Firms with a strong customer orientation pursue competitive advantage by placing the highest priority on the creation and maintenance of customer value. As such, these firms engage in the organisation wide development of and responsiveness to information about the expressed and unexpressed needs of both current and potential customers (Deshpandà ©, Farley, and Webster 1993). Because of the constantly refined market-sensing and customer-relating capabilities of the customer-oriented firm, it should develop strategies and a structure to anticipate customer need evolution and to respond through the development of new customer value-focused capabilities and the addition of valuable products and services (Day 1994). Competitor-Oriented Behaviours A different perspective on competitive advantage is simply to beat the competition (Day 1994). This orientation places a priority on the in-depth assessment of a set of targeted competitors, focusing on targeted competitors goals, strategies, offerings, resources, and capabilities (Porter 1980) and on the organisation wide dissemination of the information generated from this assessment. The result is that managers develop competitor-oriented objectives rather than economic or customer-oriented objectives (Armstrong and Collopy 1996). The behavioural goal of the firm is to match, if not exceed, competitors strengths, both in strategy and structure. Innovation-Oriented Behaviours Another perspective is that firms build and renew competitive advantage through radical or discontinuous innovations. An innovation orientation indicates that the firm not only is open to new ideas but also proactively pursues these ideas (Hurley and Hult 1998) in both its technical and administrative domains An innovation orientation encourages risk taking and enhances the likelihood of developing radically new products. March (1991) argues that firms must be aware of the possibility that an innovation orientation may not allow for the follow-through that is necessary to reap the benefits of earlier innovations fully, unless their strategy and structure are aligned with both the generation and utilisation of innovation. Internal/Cost-Oriented Behaviours Porter (1980) argues that there are two basic sources of competitive advantage. The first is the differentiation advantage that a firm derives from the customer-, competitor-, or innovation-oriented behaviours. The second is the cost advantage that a firm derives from internal orientation and structure, with internally oriented firms pursuing efficiency in all parts of their value chain (Porter 1985). They attempt to reduce costs in primary activities, such as logistics, operations, and sales and marketing, and also attempt to reduce costs in support activities, such as procurement, research and development, and administrative functions. These firms pursue operational excellence, through their strategy and structure, that they can translate into higher sales through lower prices or higher margins. Whereas experimentation is the hallmark of firms with an innovation orientation, exploitation is the hallmark of internally oriented firms (March 1991). Conclusion International business has produced some incredibly competitive and complicated markets, with numerous potential problems for organisations, but also numerous opportunities for firms that can best adapt to their marketplace. However, such is the level of complexity in these markets, that firms who try to engineer specific, rigid strategies and structures will likely find themselves left behind by the latest shift in the market or technology. As a result, firms competing in international markets would be best advised to focus on the organisational behaviour, or behaviours, that best match their capabilities, and let these behaviours drive their strategy and structure to provide the most sustainable competitive advantage possible. Unfortunately, there is currently a paucity of available academic evidence on the most relevant behaviours for firms to best secure competitive advantage under the myriad market conditions, and this should be a key area for future research, as it may soon bec ome a strategic issue of significant importance. Equally, organisational behaviour as a field of study is vastly complex, with ongoing debates between theorists around organistic versus mechanistic structures, the role of teams, and the best styles of leadership needed in an organisation. In particular, organisational behaviour tends to suggest that organistic structures will be required in uncertain, rapidly changing markets, however mechanistic structures will be required in markets where the pace of technological developments is slower (Burns and Stalker, 1961). Thus, more research is needed into the consequences of an organisation in a relatively fast moving market making strategic organisational behaviour choices which would be better facilitated by a more hierarchical, mechanistic structure. Similar research would be recommended into the roles of leaders, and teams within organisations, in implementing and driving these behaviours forward. However, regardless of the need for further research, it is clear that firms can no longer merely define a strategy, focus strongly on it, and expect their strategic focus to guarantee success. Likewise, in the international business world, firms should no longer focus on having a well defined structure, regardless of whether it is organistic or mechanistic. Instead, a key recommendation of the strategic organisational behaviour approach is that firms should concentrate on best aligning themselves to the most appropriate behaviour for their industry. In manufacturing, this is likely to be more internal, or cost oriented, in technology it will tend to be primarily innovation oriented and in professional services a strong customer, or client, orientation would be best. However, it is vital that firms do not neglect the other behaviours: those that are not their primary focus, as these remain important, and can help maintain a balance approach to strategy and structure, offering sustained competitive advantage in international markets. References Armstrong, J. S. and Collopy, F. (1996) Competitor Orientation: Effects of Objectives and Information on Managerial Decisions and Profitability. Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 33, May Issue, p. 188. Bobbitt, H. R. and Ford, J.D. (1980) Decision maker choice as a determinant of organisation structure. Academy of Management Review, Vol. 5, p. 13. Bourgeois, L. J. and Astley, W. G. (1979) A strategic model of organisational conduct and performance. International Studies of Management and Organisation, Vol. 6, Issue 3, p. 40. Bower, J. L. (1970) Managing the resource allocation process. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Burgelman, R. A. (1983) A model of the interaction of strategic behaviour, corporate con-text, and the concept of strategy. Academy of Management Review, Vol. 8: p. 61. Burns, T. and Stalker, G (1961) The Management of Innovation. London: Tavi-stock. Chandler, A. D. (1962) Strategy and structure: Chapters in the history of the American industrial enterprise. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Deshpandà ©, R. Farley, J. and Webster Jr. F. E. (1993) Corporate Culture, Customer Orientation, and Innovativeness in Japanese Firms: A Quadrad Analysis. Journal of Marketing , Vol. 57, January Issue, p. 23. Day, G. S. (1994) The Capabilities of Market-Driven Organisations. Journal of Marketing, Vol. 58, October Issue, p. 37. Duncan, R. (1979) What is the right structure? Decision tree analysis provides the answer. Organisation Dynamics, Vol. 7, p. 59. Finley, P. (2000) Strategic Management. Prentice Hall. Fouraker, L. E. and Stopford, J. M. (1968) Organisation structure and the multi-national strategy. Administrative Science Quarterly; Vol. 13, p. 47. Fredrickson, J. W. (1986) The strategic decision process and the organisational structure. Academy of Management Review; Vol. 11, Issue 2, p. 280. Fry, L. W. and Slocum, J. W. (1984) Technology structure, and workgroup effectiveness: A test of a contingency model. Academy of Management Journal; Vol. 27, p. 221. Fry, L. W. (1982) Technology-structure research: Three critical issues. Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 25, p. 532. Hage, J. and Aiken, M. (1969) Routing technology, social structure and organisational goals. Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 14, p. 368. Hall, R. H. (1977) Organisations: Structures and processes. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice- Hall. Hedberg, B. L. T. Nystrom, P.C. and Starbuck, W. (1976) Camping on seesaws: Prescriptions for a self-designing organisation. Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 21, p. 41. Hurley, R. F. and Hult, G. T. M. (1998) Innovation, Market Orientation, and Organisational Learning: An Integration and Empirical Examination. Journal of Marketing; Vol. 62, July Issue, p. 42. March, J. G. (1991) Exploration and Exploitation in Organisational Learning. Organisation Science, Vol. 2, Issue 1, p. 71. March, J. G. and Simon, H. A. (1958) Organisations. New York, NY: Wiley. Miles, R. E. and Snow, C. C. (1978) Organisational, Strategy, Structure, and Process. New York: McGraw-Hill. Mintzberg, H. (1981) Organisation Design: Fashion or Fit? Harvard Business Review, Vol. 59, Issue 1, p. 103. Mintzberg, H. (1979) The structuring of organisations. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Ouchi, W. G. (1977) The Relationship Between Organisational Structure and Organisational Control. Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 20, Issue 1, p. 95. Parente, R. (2003) Strategic modularization in the Brazilian automobile industry: An empirical analysis of its antecedents and performance implications. Doctoral Dissertation, Temple University, August 2003. Parente, R. and Kotabe, M. (2003) Strategic modularization, evolution of sourcing strategies, and performance implications. Proceedings Academy of International Business; Monterey, CA. Porter, M. E. (1980) Competitive Strategy. New York: The Free Press. Prahalad, C. K. and Doz, Y. L. (1987) The multinational mission. New York, NY: Free Press. Robbins, S. P. (2002), Organisational Behavior, 10th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Rumelt, R. P. (1974) Strategy, structure and economic performance. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Simon, H. A. (1976) Administrative behaviour (third edition). New York, NY: Free Press. Slater, S. and Narver, J. (1993) Product-Market Strategy and Performance: An Analysis of the Miles and Snow Strategy Types European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 27, Issue 10, p. 33. Slater, S. and Olson, E. M. (2000) Strategy Type and Performance: The Influence of Sales Force Management Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 21, Issue 8, p. 813. Snell, S. (1992) Control Theory in Strategic Human Resource Management: The Mediating Effect of Administrative Information. Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 35, Issue 2, p. 292. Tannenbaum, A. S. (1968) Control in Organisations. New York: McGraw-Hill. Walker, O. C. and Ruekert, R. W. (1987) Marketing’s Role in the Implementation of Business Strategies: A Critical Review and Conceptual Framework. Journal of Marketing, Vol. 51, July Issue, p. 15. Varadarajan, P. R. and Clark, T. (1994) Delineating the Scope of Corporate, Business, and Marketing Strategy Journal of Business Research, Vol. 31, Issue 2, p. 93. Vorhies, D. W. and Morgan, N. A. (2003) A Configuration Theory Assessment of Marketing Organisation Fit with Business Strategy and Its Relationship with Market Performance Journal of Marketing, Vol. 67, January Issue, p. 100. Yip, G. S. (2003) Total Global Strategy II. Upper Saddle River, NJ. Prentice Hall.

Edgar Allen Poe :: Biography

Many people label Edgar Allen Poe a horror writer, plain and simple others refer to Poe as the father of the detective story, but over all he ´s one Americas greatest writers. His ability of expressing the world in gothic ways, really captures the reader ´s attention. Even though he lead a tough life and was known as a sadistic drug addict and alcoholic, he still managed to produce great pieces of literature. Three of his greatest works were The Tell Tale heart, The Fall of the House Usher, and The Raven. All of these are very known troughout the world and are considered three of Poe ´s greatest pieces. He was born in Boston on January 19, 1809, his parents, regular members of Federal street theater, named him Edgar Poe. Shortly before his mother's death in Richmond, Virginia on December 8, 1811, his father abandoned the family. John Allen, a wealthy tobacco merchant in Richmond, brought Poe into the family (at his wife's request), and gave him the middle name Allen as a baptismal name, though he never formally adopted him. Even though Allen ´s treatment toward Poe is not exactly known, we know that Allen never treated Poe with sensitivity. In 1815, the Allen family moved to England on business. There, Poe entered the Manor-House School in Stoke-Newington, a London suburb. This school taught him the gothic architecture and historical landscape of the region made a deep imprint on his youthful imagination, which would effect his adult writings (Levin, 14). The Allens left England in June 1820, and arrived in Richmond on August 2. Here, Poe entered the English and Classical School o f Joseph H. Clarke, a graduate of Trinity College in Dublin. On February 14, 1826, Poe entered the University of Virginia. Though he spent more time gambling and drinking than studying, he won top honors in French and Latin. On May 26, 1827, Poe enlisted in the US Army under the name Edgar A. Perry. He joined Battery H of the 1st Artillery, then stationed at Fort Independence. While Poe served there, Calvin F.S. Thomas printed Poe's first book, Tamerlane and Other Poems, a slim volume, which failed to earn any fame or money. Poe then visited Baltimore, and arranged for the printing of another slim volume, entitled Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems. Then, Allen obtained an appointment for him as a cadet, so on July 1, 1830 he entered West Point Military Academy, making his residence at No.

Osamu Dazai Essay

Osamu Dazai was one of Japanese novelist and considered one of the most important storytellers of postwar Japan. While known primarily as a novelist, Dazai also earned recognition for his numerous short stories, including â€Å"Omoide† (â€Å"Memories†), â€Å"Sarugashima† (â€Å"Monkey Island†), and â€Å"Ha† (â€Å"Leaves†), which were published in Bannen, his first collection of short stories. Like most of his longer fiction, Dazai’s short stories are autobiographical and reflect a troubled life marred by alcoholism, drug addiction, and several suicide attempts. Nevertheless, Dazai’s fiction showcases his artistic imagination and unique confessional narrative technique. Dazai was born the youngest of ten children in Kanagi, a small town in northern Japan, to one of the wealthiest families in the region. While Dazai’s later years were turbulent, he grew up a sensitive child in comfortable surroundings. Later in his life , however, his wealthy background led to self-consciousness, contributing to a nagging sense of isolation that is an undercurrent throughout his fiction. Dazai underwent his apprenticeship in writing during the 1920s while attending secondary schools in Aomori and Hirosaki and published many of his early stories in magazines founded and run by aspiring young authors. By the time he attended Hirosaki Higher School, however, Dazai began to live the unconventional lifestyle that brought him much fame. Despite his widely recognized talent, however, alcoholism, drug addiction, affairs with geishas, suicide attempts, and frequent psychological traumas plagued him the rest of his life. In 1930, Dazai enrolled in the Department of French Literature at Tokyo University, but by the end of his first year, he ceased attending classes. Instead, Dazai became involved with left-wing politics, caroused, and renewed his relationship with a geisha he met while attending Hirosaki Higher School. His family disapproved of this relationship, leading to one of Dazai’s suicide attempts. He attempted to take his own life on at least three other occasions and finally succeeded in a double suicide with a young war widow in 1948. This episode, among several instances of double suicide in Dazai’s fiction, is retold in his widely acclaimed novel, No Longer Human. Dazai’s highly autobiographical fiction first garnered popular and critical attention after the publication of his first collection, Bannen (The Final Years). The first and most significant of these stories is â€Å"Omoide† (â€Å"Memories†). With its highly personal tone, â€Å"Memories† reveals a common narrative technique in Dazai’s writing. Revealing his childhood and adolescent traumas, as well as his need for companionship and love, Dazai’s first-person narrative attracts the reader’s sympathy while raising doubts about the authenticity of the narration beca use of exaggerated rhetoric. â€Å"Gangu† (â€Å"Toys†), another tale in Bannen, illustrates Dazai’s playfulness. In this tale, the narrator — after briefly relating his financial troubles — details his plans to concoct a tale recounting the memories of an infant. While these and other early pieces exemplify the personal tone of much of Dazai’s work, another group of tales shows his talent for imaginative storytelling. Two tales — â€Å"Gyofukuki,† translated as â€Å"Metamorphosis,† and â€Å"Sarugashima,† translated as â€Å"Monkey Island† — provide good examples of this. In place of the Dazai like protagonist present throughout most of his other short fiction; â€Å"Metamorphosis† is about a peasant girl who, on the verge of puberty, takes on the appearance and identity of a fish. â€Å"Monkey Island† presents two humanoid monkeys as its protagonists. In astonishment, one of the monkeys soon realizes they are the objects of attention, rather than the spectators, of the humans walking through the zoo. In his final years, he composed a series of stories that evince his interest in domestic issues, as titles such as â€Å"Villon’s Wife,† â€Å"Father,† and â€Å"Family Happiness†Ã¢â‚¬â€suggest. As critics have remarked, the stories of these collections are among the few works of artistic value produced by a Japanese author under the strict government censorship during World War II. While famous in Japan and avidly read — especially by the younger generation — Dazai has not achieved the international stature of Japanese writers such as Natsume Sseki, Kawabata Yasunari, Mishima Yukio, and End Shusaku. This is partly due to problems with translating Dazai’s highly personal style. Yet Dazai has earned himself a position in modern Japanese letters more or less comparable to that of an F. Scott Fitzgerald, as opposed to a William Faulkner, in modern American literature. Donald Keene, Dazai’s principal English translator, has described him as a Japanese writer â€Å"who emerged at the end of World War II as the literary voice of his time.† While Dazai’s body of work is sometimes criticized for its narrow scope, many critics maintain that h is fiction contains some of the most beautiful prose in modern Japanese literature. Dazai became celebrated for two short novels, The Setting Sun and No Longer Human, both translated into English. I read both of them back when I was reading all the Japanese fiction I could get my hands on, but did not care for either, and have not read either again. The Setting Sun was published in 1947, and is set in those years shortly after the end of the war. It was a very popular novel, and the title came to represent Japanese of the upper classes who had fallen because of the war and American occupation. But Dazai was already well known for personal characteristics reflected in the major characters as well–nihilism, drunken dissipation, despair (a kind of model for our hippie generation)–so, although the central character is a young woman, Kazuko, the novel is read as strongly autobiographical. This is true for No Longer Human, too, which is perhaps even more autobiographical, and, as Donald Keene describes it, is â€Å"an attack on the habits and traditions of Japanese society, but above all †¦ a record of his alienation from society.† (1063) I was not attracted to the narcissistic qualities in these two novels, or to the fact that Dazai, after having failed in two previous love suicides (in which the women succeeded) succeeded in a love suicide June 13, 1948 (he and the woman drowned in the Tamagawa Reservoir). I just didn’t much like him or his characters–never used those novels in courses I taught. But I did use one of his short stories, Villon’s Wife, several times, because it was in the anthology I most frequently used in the survey course of Japanese Literature, Donald Keene’s Modern Japanese Literature, and I actually came to like that story very much (sort of like Oe’s The Catch, the exception that proves the rule). The husband in the story may be the closest self-portrait of all, and the most despicable, in his drunken dissipation, unfaithfulness, and unforgivable treatment of his wife, but the story is told by the wife, who, in her attempts to accommodate herself to all of this comes through as an attractive and courageous character–and you realize that even Dazai, in his more sober moments perhaps, must have appreciated her virtues. Anyway, that’s the one I recommend–then, if you want to read either, or both, of the novels, you will be reading fiction that was very popular in Japan in the decade after the end of the war, and may, indeed, reflect some of the values in flux in that traumatic time, particularly for young Japanese who would have seen themselves as having lost everything. I will be comparing Akutagawa to Edgar Allan Poe next month for their short lives and some of the qualities of their fiction, and it is easy to compare Dazai to Akutagawa (1892-1927), as well . Akutagawa was more of Tanizaki’s generation, but died in his late 30s, as a suicide, as Dazai did. But, I am happy to say, I am very fond of Akutagawa–a highly disciplined literary artist. (MAIN BODY) â€Å"NO LONGER HUMAN† This book, by Osamu Dazai, is an example of the Japanese genre of shishosetsu, a kind of autobiographical fiction. It’s different from what we think of as autobiography, in that the purpose is not so much to tell a story – there is no real emplotment, beginning, middle, end in the traditional (or Aristotelian) sense, but rather, the text is a sort of rambling exploration of the self. Style is de-prioritized, sincerity and immediacy are tantamount. There is no constrained form, but rather, an attempt to establish a direct link between author and reader, to explain a particular perspective. The book is largely autobiographical, based on events from Dazai’s own life. He was a literary rock star, but a deeply miserable guy, attempting suicide several times before finally succeeding. There’s actually a monument at the spot where he killed himself (along with his mistress), and apparently people gather there on the anniversary of his death every year. In any case, the book itself is interesting. It makes me want to learn Japanese, for starters, because no matter how great the translator, there’s no getting around the fact that the grammatical structure of Japanese is completely different from that of English, most importantly, for this book perhaps, in that it is entirely possible, and even common, to construct a sentence in Japanese with no subject. Apparently the entire book is written in this form, which would be particularly appropriate to the work itself. Though I wonder if the Japanese reader would really think of this as particularly artful, given that it’s apparently a standard thing to them. But I guess that’s a question for psycho-linguists to answer. The book is the related story of a very unhappy guy who is essentially chronicling his downward spiral. Though it’s hard to say if it’s really a downward spiral – though he does pinpoint a moment at which he ceased to be human, itâ €™s not entirely clear that he was ever really human (by his own definition) to begin with. One question is what it means, in his eyes, to be human. There is a clear parallel to Notes from the Underground (Dazai was big into Dostoevsky, and the main character refers to Crime and Punishment), in that both are notes from deeply unhappy men who are convinced of their own uniqueness, but there are definitely differences. Dostoevsky’s character is raging against rationality, and the way in which it dehumanizes people, so in a sense, though he calls himself a mouse, etc, he could be seen as claiming that he is really the only human. Dazai’s character, Yozo, sees himself as inhuman, mainly, it seems, because he lacks certain basic human traits. He claims, for instance, that he has never felt hungry. However, there is also a certain issue of domination at play – he is unable to say no to anyone, to turn down anything. In this sense, one could say that he is entirely determined by the outside world. Despite the fact that he has an inner life, he keeps it hidden from the outside world. In fact, his behavior is entirely, he claims, an act, he â€Å"plays the clown† for the amusement of others, refusing to let his own feelings show. But I’m not certain if this is really the case. For instance, he wants to be an artist, and actually disobeys his father in order to pursue his artistic career, and confesses to the other authority figure in his life, Flatfish, that he wants to make art. So it seems as though the masking process is incomplete in this case, and at times he does behave authentically. I wonder if the same could be said for the Underground Man? I think that it’s slightly different in his case, in that the construction of the Underground Man is such that he can’t behave authentically, because he has no stable self. Yozo, on the other hand, certainly has an inner life, it’s just a rather empty one. He doesn’t seem to have any real will of his own, or rather, the will that he does have is purely towards self-destruction – he can get booze and drugs, and drink himself into a stupor, without any difficulties. But then again, he also seems to have a brief lull of happiness, directly following his marriage. But even there, it’s hard to say if he’s happy. Maybe it’s most accurate to say that he is so constructed as to be incapable of happiness? Hmmm. There’s more thinking to be done here. Unfortunately, I seem to like each Dazai Osamu (1909-1948) book less than the previous one. No Longer Human (Ningen Shikkaku, 1948) is more epigrammatic that The Setting Sun (Shayo, 1947), but perhaps I am too old for it (as I was once too young to read Proust) to be much moved for the plaint of a creature too delicate for the world. I can’t muster sociological interest in it as social history of the 30s either, since dissipitation is basically timeless (though the preferred means vary). I read the epilogue differently from translator and longtime Columbia professor Donald Keene: as showing the notebook’s writer was successful at mimicking good nature, not that his widow is right and the writer wrong. (â€Å"In the way that most men fail to see their own cruelty, Yozo had not noticed his gentleness and capacity for love†-p. 9; really? a capacity for love? and gentleness? or solipsism mixed with diffidence?) I am not so sure that Keene was right that the Japanese â€Å"are certainly much more like Americans than they are like their ancestors of one hundred years ago. As far as literature is concerned, the break with the Japanese past is almost complete† (p. 7), though this is more credible now than it was six decades ago. Dazai seems very traditionally Japanese to me in many ways, a descendant of Sei Shà ´nagon both in wit and to some degree in aesthetics (Dazai is still plenty delicate and fairly indirect, even about what she would have considered vulgar and even sordid matters, very regretful and very perishable). Would Keene have been moved to translate Dazai, if there was nothing of the Japanese tradition that Keene venerates in Dazai? Let alone, recall translating Dazai â€Å"as if I were writing a book of my own,† an experience he only otherwise had with Kenkà ´Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s Essays in Idleness (On Familiar Terms, p. 189). I like Keene’s characterization of Yozo as a man â€Å"who is orphaned from his fellows by their refusal to take him seriously† (p. 8, see p. 139), which in turn is a result of his desperate clowni ng. Of course, this resonates with my experience of people not believing I could possibly be serious when I am, and feeling I’m not like other people, incapable of â€Å"getting by.† And â€Å"unusual or extravagant things tempt me† (p. 23). It is interesting that someone who felt himself different from an early age and for whom â€Å"it would be no exaggeration to say that my only playmates while I was growing up were girls† (48) became a diffident lady-killer rather than a homosexual. Ã…Å'ba cannot forget his abuse by a female servant when he was young. In high school, he played the buffoon. At university, he finds bad influence from Horiki and leads a life of debauchery (nonstop smoking, alcohol abuse, promiscuity), culminating in a double suicide (it cannot seriously be billed a â€Å"love suicide†) in which the married woman drowns and he survives. After being expelled from the university, Ã…Å'ba is â€Å"clan and sober† for a time in a relationship with an innocent young woman, but Horki shows up and leads Ã…Å'ba back into temptation, now adding morphine to alcohol abuse and being incarcerated in a mental asylum, where he is numb rather than violent. As for being zombified by Japan’s defeat, Dazai seems to me to have been as self-destructive and intellectually nihilistic while the Japanese Empire was rising as in the general anomie after Emperor Hirohito renounced divinity and the US occupied the archipelago. (Imamura’s â€Å"Pigs and Battleships† show some of this social breakdown and women who were better at surviving it than the men.) The original publication sold more than six million copies in Japan, more than any Japanese novel other than Kokoro (1914) by SÃ… seki Natsume. A manga version was published in 2009, the centenary of Dasai’s birth, and also filmed. (CONCLUSION) Attending Meiji Gakuin University from the age 15 to 19, Toson gradually became aware of literature under the influence of unconventional traditions of the school. Toson literature is even said to originate during his days at the university. Toson joined Bungakukai, a literary group, and as a romantic poet, published a collection of poems including Wakanashu. Later, Toson turned a novelist and published Hakai (â€Å"The Broken Commandment†) and Haru (â€Å"Spring†), and is thus regarded as a prominent naturalist novelist. His other works include, Ie (â€Å"Family†), considered to have achieved the highest level in Japanese Naturalism literature, Shinsei (â€Å"New life†), a confession of his own incestuous relationship with his niece, Yoakemae (â€Å"Before the Dawn†), a historical novel modeled on the life of his father. Altbough he began his serialization of Tohonomon (â€Å"The Gate of the East†) in 1943, he died of a stroke at his own hom e in Oiso, Kanagawa prefecture on 22nd of August. (BIBLIOGRAPHY LIST) Dazai, Osamu, and Donald Keene. No Longer Human. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1981. Print. Lyons, Phyllis I., and Osamu Dazai. The Saga of Dazai Osamu: a Critical Study with Translations. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 1985. Print. Hachimaki, Emi. â€Å"ä º ºÃ©â€"“å ¤ ±Ã¦   ¼.† é â€™Ã§ © ºÃ¦â€"‡å º «Ã£â‚¬â‚¬Aozora Bunko. Aozora, 1 Jan. 1999. Web. 15 Nov. 2011. . (REFERENCE) http://kirjasto.sci.fi/dazai.htm http://www.jlit.net/authors_works/dazai_osamu.html http://wlc.drake.edu/wordpress/japanese/2010/02/28/osamu-dazai%E3%80%80%E5%A4%AA%E5%AE%B0%E6%B2%BB%EF%BC%89/

Impacts of the California Drought

Impacts of the California Drought In 2015, California was once more taking stock of its water supply, coming out of the winter season in its fourth year of drought. According to the National Drought Mitigation Center, the proportion of the state’s area in severe drought had not significantly changed since a year before, at 98%. However, the proportion classified as under exceptional drought conditions leaped from 22% to 40%. Much of the worst hit area is in the Central Valley, where the dominant land use is irrigation-dependent agriculture. Also included in the exceptional drought category are the Sierra Nevada Mountains and a large swath of the central and southern coasts. There was much hope that the winter 2014-2015 would bring El Nià ±o conditions, resulting in above normal rainfall across the state, and deep snow at high elevations. The encouraging predictions from earlier in the year did not materialize. In fact, in late March 2015, the southern and central Sierra Nevada snowpack was only at 10% of its long-term average water content and only at 7% in the northern Sierra Nevada. To top it off, spring temperatures were quite above average, with record high temperatures observed all over the West. So yes, California is really in a drought. How Is the Drought Affecting the Environment? Energy: About 15 percent of California’s electricity is provided by hydroelectric turbines operating on large water reservoirs. Those reservoirs are abnormally low, reducing hydropower’s contribution to the state’s energy portfolio. To compensate, the state needs to rely more on non-renewable sources like natural gas. Fortunately, in 2015 utility-scale solar power reached new heights, now at 5% of California’s energy portfolio.Wildfires: California’s grasslands, chaparral, and savannas are fire-adapted ecosystems, but this prolonged drought is keeping the vegetation tinder dry and vulnerable to intense wildfires. These wildfires create air pollution, displace and kill wildlife, and damage property.Wildlife: While much of the wildlife in California can weather temporary dry conditions, a prolonged drought can lead to increased mortality and reduced reproduction. Drought is an additional stressor affecting endangered species already burdened by habita t loss, invasive species, and other conservation problems. Many species of migratory fish are endangered in California, notably salmon. Low river flows due to the drought reduce access to spawning grounds. People will also feel the effects of the drought. Farmers in California are heavily dependent on irrigation to grow crops like alfalfa, rice, cotton, and many fruits and vegetables. California’s multi-billion dollar almond and walnut industry is particularly water intensive, with estimates that it takes 1 gallon of water to grow a single almond, over 4 gallons for a single walnut. Beef cattle and dairy cows are raised on forage crops like hay, alfalfa, and grains, and on vast pastures that require rainfall to be productive. Competition for water needed for agriculture, domestic use, and aquatic ecosystems, are leading to conflicts over water use. Compromises need to be made, and again this year large swaths of farmland will remain fallow, and the fields that are farmed will be producing less. This will lead to price increases for a wide variety of foods. Is There Some Relief in Sight? On March 5, 2015, meteorologists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration finally announced the return of El Nià ±o conditions. This large scale climate phenomenon usually is associated with wetter conditions for the western U.S., but due to its late spring timing, it did not provide enough moisture to relieve California from drought conditions. Global climate change throws a good measure of uncertainty in forecasts based on historical observations, but perhaps some comfort can be taken by looking at historical climate data: multi-year droughts have happened in the past, and all have eventually subsided. El Nià ±o conditions have subsided  during the 2016-17 winter, but a number of powerful storms are bringing a copious amount of moisture in the form of rain and snow. It wont be until later that we will really know if its enough to bring the state out of the drought. Sources: California Department of Water Resources. Statewide Summary of Snow Water Content. NIDIS. US Drought Portal.

Progressive Stuff essays

Progressive Stuff essays TRUTH AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE PROFESSIONS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF `TRUTH IN ADVERTISING' AND `TRUE AND FAIR' FINANCIAL STATEMENTS IN NORTH AMERICA DURING THE PROGRESSIVE ERA Both advertisers and auditors wrestled with the truth of their text during the Progressive Era (1880-1940). Although in North America, advertisers adopted "truth in advertising" as a theme, auditors rejected "true and fair" as a description of financial statements. Auditors instead adopted the weaker statement that financial statements were "consistent with accepted accounting principles." It is paradoxical that auditors compared with advertisers made the greatest progress toward professionalization during this era. This article documents debates about the concept of "truth" in each profession during the Progressive Era and examines the professional and legal consequences of each profession's engagement with truth. The Progressive Era, roughly the period from the depression of the late 1880s through to the late 1930s, represents a period of institutional, technical, and social innovation. During this period, most developed economies made the transition from rural to urban and from agrarian to manufacturing economies. It is a period when sectional interests, including many of the modern professions, developed. The Progressive Era is particularly marked by the conjunction of scientific knowledge and traditional values. It is a period when science and technology were thought capable of providing for the material wants of all and that the issue of social justice could be resolved through knowledge. This conjunction provides the setting in which "truth" is seen as an achievable state. The modern professions emerged from this milieu as occupations concerned with the moral and technical mysteries of life. The exemplars of the professional model were medicine, the law, and teaching. The successful professions lay claim to areas of expertise that were used to defin...

Facilitate your personal development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

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Secure Computer Systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

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