Thursday, October 31, 2019

The strange case of dr. Jekyll and mr. Hyde Essay

The strange case of dr. Jekyll and mr. Hyde - Essay Example Dr.Jekyll – the main character in the story - says â€Å"With every day, and from both sides of my intelligence, the moral and the intellectual, I thus drew steadily nearer to that truth, by whose partial discovery I have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck: that man is not truly one, but truly two†¦It was on the moral side, and in my own person, that I learned to recognise the thorough and primitive duality of man; I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both† (Stevenson, p.82) All his life Dr.Jekyll was trying to be good, to suppress the evil side of his personality. But his curiosity and his desire to try the other life, to see what pleasures it can bring, moved him to the experiment of dividing himself into two different personalities. In the body of Mr.Hyde Dr.Jekyll was able to free his desires that were not virtuous, to give in to th e life’s temptations. It was an interesting game at first, while he could still decide when to be Jekyll and when to be Hyde, but then it turned into a tragedy, when his evil self started to dominate, until it was almost impossible to become Dr.Jekyll again, and led to the death of this character. Stevenson examined the theme of human pride and human’s inability to foresee the consequences of his actions.

Monday, October 28, 2019

Discuss and describe a moral panic from a social science perspective Essay Example for Free

Discuss and describe a moral panic from a social science perspective Essay Society is frequently subjected to moral panics when any crime is committed. Humanity repeatedly blows crimes and incidents out of proportion until the entire society is somewhat controlled. Stuart Hall, in his book, ‘Policing the Crisis’ explained that â€Å"the media, in conjunction with the bourgeoisie, create moral panics in order to perpetrate fear and maintain control over society, as a whole.† (Hall, 2013, s. 1) Moral panics are created as a hazard and rising threat to shock both society and culture into changing the way it thinks and acts about problems in the real world. In this essay, moral panics will be looked at in detail with a specific interest in the case of James Bulger. There will too, be a focus on the influence the media, police and politicians have on moral panics and public opinions. Stanley Cohen derived a moral panic as â€Å"a sporadic episode which subjects society to worry about the values and principles which society upholds which may be in jeopardy. The moral panics are a means of characterising the reactions of the media, the public and agents of social control to youthful disturbances.† (Cohen, 1987: 9) The abduction and subsequent murder of the toddler James Bulger, from a shopping centre in Liverpool, was a crime which brought about a huge moral panic in Britain in the 1990’s. A murder of any sort brings about a moral panic, but when the victim, and in this case the defendants, are both children, it attracts overwhelming media attention and a vast moral panic is quickly spread. It has been previously said that it is the most monstrous of crime when a child elects to kill another child. Theories of moral panics are sparked when they are spread; the ‘Grassroots Model’ (Critcher, 2008) theory occurs when the public and media col laborate, consequently leading to fears becoming exaggerated; in the case of James Bulger; ephebiphobia, which is the fear of children and youth. The murder of Bulger made parents realise how defenceless their own children really are, and how they should fear others’ children. The theory suggests â€Å"panics are initiated and generated from the bottom up and are spread about particularly large numbers of people.† This is subsequently shown in the murder of Bulger; the moral panic was initiated from the crime but then soon spread to the media, thus advertising the story which then became public knowledge and the fear of children and youth becomes established and inflated. Marx established the ‘Elite Engineered Model’ which encompasses the ruling elite  manufacturing certain panics to instil fear in society and divert it away from the real problems they are having. In the scenario of the James Bulger murder, those with high ranking in society involved in the case, for example, police, detectives, press and politicians, created the moral panic of the murder in an attempt to divert the public’s opinion away from the shocking crime of two young boys, just 10 years old, not just abducting a toddler from a busy shopping centre in Liverpool, but also killing him in the most vicious way and dumping his body on train tracks in an attempt to cover up what had happened. This is not the behaviour of children; it is the behaviour of evil. Particularly due to the age of the killers, the ferociousness of the crime and the age of the victim, the mass media reports allowed the public to get personally and emotionally involved in the case and have severe anger and resentment towards the children who murdered James Bulger. The public outcry was huge and, the decision by the politicians and press combined to release the names of the killers publicly as Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, allowed the public to finally vent their abuse against the killers. Amid the hysteria in 1993, both Thompson and Venables lost the right to be seen as children, or even as human. The kids who had killed the kid had to be killed, or indeed locked up for life. The word used about them stopped all arguments; they were pure evil.’ (Morrison, 2003) These scandals make any type of child harm seem dramatic and heinous; these crimes force the attention onto those in society who are high ranked, in an attempt to aim for a change to prevent this crime being repeated. The path of any moral panic can sway in two opposing directions; either the panic dies down relatively quickly and is totally forgotten, or it has lasting repercussions for all those i nvolved, whether press, politicians, the police or the public. (Butler, n.d.) In the case of the murder of little James Bulger, there were lasting implications; which included the introduction of the National Sex Offenders Register (Paedophile Register) in the late 1990’s as a response to the growing concern and panic over the recent child sex offences (Cohen 1972:9). The Interest Group Theory involves panic about a given behaviour, in this instance, a child killing another child, and hence due the massive public outcry, the case is more likely to be distorted by the media and the outcome  changed. The Bulger story was iconic and a rare, uncommon case; but lessons should be learnt. A similar crime had previously been committed in the form of the 1861 murder of baby George burgess in Stockport by two eight year olds. Burgess was forced to suffer a horrific attack and the two young boys inflicted shocking injuries upon his body. This crime severely angered the local community and again created a moral panic. In today’s society, thankfully due to the role that the media now plays in the viewing and promoting of crimes, we, as a whole in society, are able to successfully campaign for justice and see those who participated in the crime jailed for as long as they deserve. The concept of moral panics does have some disadvantages; they do tend to be deterministic and can be twisted by the media to blow the event out of proportion. In the case of James Bulger, the amount of media attention thrown onto the case means that this moral panic is ever lasting, and will always be remembered, preventing events like this from being repeated. Bibliography: Butler, I (2013) Moral Panic and Child Protection Available form: http://www.moralpanicseminars.files.wordpress.com.2013/05/sem2-butler.pdf [Accessed 15th November 2013] Cohen, S (2011) Folk Devils and Moral Panics: Key Ideas. London: Routledge Critcher, C (2006) Moral Panics and the Media. OU Press Critcher, C (2008) Moral Panic Analysis: Past, Present and Future Swansea University: Blackwell Publishing. Available from: http://www.penelopeironstone.com/Critcher.pdf [Accessed 28th October 2013] Eldridge, J Kitzinger, J Williams, K (1997) The Mass Media and Power in Modern Britain (Chapter 5 – Moral Panics, Media Scares and Real Problems) Oxford University Press Goode, E Ben-Yehuda, N (1994) Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Blackwell Hall, S (2013) Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State and Law and Order. 2nd ed. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan Jewkes, Y (2011) Media and Crime. Sage Kirsh, S (2010) Media and Youth. Wiley Blackwell Marsh, I Melville, G (2011) Moral Panics and the British Media: A look at some contemporary ‘Folk Devils’

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Target Market of Nike

Target Market of Nike To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world. A mission statement is a statement of the organizations purpose- what it wants to accomplish in the larger environment. Nike has evolved a lot over the years, from a US-based footwear distributor to a global manufacturer and marketer of athletic footwear, apparel and equipment. Over the years of this evolution the target market for the company has kept on evolving. Market segmenting, by grouping together with similar needs, provides a commercially viable method of serving these customers. According to the Nikes official website the goal of the company is to carry on with innovating thinking to develop product that helps athletes of every level of ability to reach the potential they are capable of and side by side create business opportunities that set Nike apart from the various competitors. According to the official website of Nike the core consumer categories is action sports, basketball, football (soccer), mens training, running, sportswear and womens training. Thus in a way the primary target market for the company are athletes. Keeping this in mind I have selected a new athlete shoe as my product. The Marketing Mix For our case study we have concentrated on the traditional 4Ps marketing mix. Nike is one of the pioneers in marketing and has one of the strongest Marketing Mix. Product We define a product as anything that is offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use or consumption and that might satisfy a want or a need. Jim Blythe rightly said product brought to satisfy personal and family needs are consumer goods and Nike caters to all the relevant aspects in terms of its products and understanding consumers. A customer would emphasis at the three levels of benefit from product. Core Product Actual Product Augmented Product Core Product: The Problem solving services or core benefits that consumers are really buying when they obtain a product. Briefly it can so be said that Nike deals in four core categories which is footwear, apparel, equipment, accessory product. Actual Product: A products parts, quality level, features, design, brand name, packaging and other attributes that combine to deliver core product benefits, Nike has taken these factor into special consideration in terms of the product it brings in the market. Augmented Product: Additional consumer service and benefits built around the core and actual product, it is so said the more you keep your customers satisfied and happy the better for the business and Nike has given priority to these factors one being after sale service. Nike considered Design creates performance innovation products that minimize environmental impact by reducing waste throughout the design and development process, using environmentally preferred materials and eliminating toxics. Nike designers make smart, sustainable design choices at the start of their creative process, working to achieve breakthroughs to solve the big problems that hinder progress toward a sustainable future Internally, NIKE works across product teams and with groups ranging from the hub of product design and creation functions to influence the development of short-, mid- and long-range projects that make progress toward closed-loop products. The product choose is a new shoe for athletes manufactured after doing research and talking to making athletes to find out there requirements and needs of a shoe. The product will be light as well as durable and will athletes to run faster and more easily. Promotion Promotion, according to Kotler and Armstrong (2010), mean activities that communicate the merits of the product and persuade target customers to buy it. Promotion for Nike is the most critical and though about part of the marketing mix. Nike uses the following tools to promote its brand: Tool 1: Advertising Advertising, according to Kotler and Armstrong (2010), is any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor. The basis thing that Nike does through its advertising is makes its corporate visual identity: the swoosh, as popular as it can get. Corporate identity is a broad term referring to the set of meanings by which an object allows itself to be known and through which it allows people to describe, remember and relate to it (van Rekom, 1997). The literature suggests that firms who standardize their global corporate visual identity achieve communication benefits beyond the usual marketing mix (Melewar and Saunders, 2000). In all of the banner, newspaper advertisements, holdings, T.V commercial and even on their product Nike is recognized now through the swoosh instead of the brand name. Advertisements have been instrumental in marketing most of Nikes products(Hunger Wheelen, 2003). Tool 2: Personal Selling Personal Selling, according to Kotler and Armstrong (2010), is personal presentation by the firms sales force for the purpose of making sales and building customer relationships. Nike has setup two mediums through which it achieves personal selling: Nike has set up Nike exclusive store across the globe though help of distributor where one to one marketing of the brand is carried out by the sales person with in the stores and second Nike has setup a virtual store where any one visit anytime of the day and not just order the product even customize it. Tool 3: Sponsorship Sponsorship, according to Fahy, Farrelly and Quester (2004), has been viewed as an appealing communication tool, given the increasing clutter and fragmentation of the traditional mass media. Nike sponsors numerous sporting personalities in a wide range of sporting activities; for example: Tiger Woods in Golf, Wayne Rooney in Football, Roger Federer in Tennis (Brown, 2010). The strategic role of sponsorship is to attain advantage in the competitive market where the sponsorship must rise above the clutter and effectively resists the efforts of competitors to ambush it (Fahy, Farrelly and Quester, 2004). Nike has been known to use ambush marketing strategy for a long time now. The Just Do It campaign helped Nike to increase its market share. Nike increased its share of the domestic sport-shoe business from 18 percent to 43 percent, from $877 million to $9.2 billion in just ten years between 1998 and 2008. This campaign made Nike so identifiable that Nike stopped using the word Nike in the commercials, the swoosh was enough for the customer to understand whos ad they were seeing. By 2000s, just as the evolution of Nike product has occurred, the approach of the company towards marketing has also evolved. In 2002, Nike started its very first global marketing effort through the Secret Tournament campaign. Secret Tournament is an integrated approach which has now become the cornerstone marketing and communication effort by Nike. Ambush marketing is an effective way by which Nike over the years has promoted its brand and increased its brand image. Ambush marketing occurs when one brand pays to become an official sponsor of an event and another competing brand attempts to cleverly connect itself with the event, without paying the sponsorship fee and more frustratingly without breaking any law. Now the product that we are forwarding is specifically for athletes but can be used by anyone who wants to be fit. Thus again ambush marketing will be used. The product poster and advertising will be everywhere. The main cost in the marketing mix will be given to promotion to get the product successful. Place Nike has come a long way from when its founders used to sell the shoes out of the trunk of their cars until the first Nike store was built in 1966. During the November of 1990, Nike opened its retail- as- theatre experience called Nike town in Portland. Nike town won many architectural design and retail awards. Nike then also opened a dozen of other Nike town around USA and also internationally. According to Jobber (2004), Place involves decision concerning the distribution channels to be used and their management, the locations of outlets, methods of transportation and inventory levels to be held. The recent World Headquarters (WHQ) of Nike, Inc. encompasses of 17 buildings spread across 193 acres of land which totals 1.9 million square feet of interior space. The World Headquarter is in Beaverton, Oregon. Nike, Inc. also leases out 750,000 square feet or more of space in the area which is in the surrounding metropolitan. The European Headquarters (EHQ) of Nike, Inc. is located at Hilversum, The Netherlands. The office space is around 500,000 square feet which has been leased. Nike, Inc. has three major distribution and customer facilities for all the Nike-branded products. The location of these facilities: two are in Memphis, Tennessee and one is located in Wilsonville, Oregon. Place includes company activities that make the product available to target consumers. Nike, Inc. has approximately six production office located outside of the United States. There are over 100 sales offices and showrooms which are located worldwide. Nike, Inc. also has over 70 administrative offices worldwide. The product will be available in each and every shop and retail outlet that NIKE owns. It will also be sold online on the official Nike website. To gain maximum profit out of sales online sales of the product will be given emphasis. Price In a narrowest sense price is the amount of money charged for a product or service. More broadly, price is the sum of all the values that customer give up in order to gain the benefits of having or using a product or service. In marketing mix pricing is the only element that produces revenue; all other elements represent costs and that is the sole reason where Nike has been very successful as it has priced its product according to the needs of the customer. The various segments where Nike proves why Nike is so very popular and successful among its customers in terms of price are: Footwear (54% of Revenue) Nike specializes in athletic footwear, although Nike also sells sport-inspired casual footwear like its Air Force Ones footwear line. Footwear sales increased 14% in 2009, reaching about $10.3 billion, and accounted for 54% of Nikes 2009 revenue. Apparel (27% of Revenue) Apparel sales totaled $5.24 billion in 2009, a 0.2% increase from a year earlier.ÂÂ  2008 sales from this segment grew by 14% from 2007, a trend that Nike attributed much of this revenue growth to a 25% increase in sales inÂÂ  emerging marketsÂÂ  like Russia in the EMEA region as well as a currency-neutral 50% increase in revenues fromÂÂ  China. Equipment (6% of Revenue) Nike also sells sports equipment such as balls, protective equipment, and golf clubs. Sales of Nike branded equipment reached $1.11 billion in 2009, a 9.5% increase from 2008.ÂÂ  This increase was driven primarily by a 10% increase in equipment sales in the Asia region. Other (13% of Revenue) Nike also sells apparel and footwear under the Nike Golf, Cole Haan, Converse, Hurley International, and Umbro brand names and earns approximately 13% of its revenue, or $2.5 billion in 2009, from these segments. As we can see the main income of the company is from the Footwears and its main target market is athletes, this product is going to be for high class people. The product will be in the high range band.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Glamorous Lives Changed By Children :: Film Movie Raising Helen Uptown Girls Essays

Glamorous Lives Changed By Children In the movies â€Å"Raising Helen† and â€Å"Uptown Girls†, two women find their glamorous lifestyles turned inside out and themselves’ in the constant and close company of children who they do not seem at all fit to take care of. Although these women have similar experiences with children and are shaped and changed in similar ways by these experiences, their circumstances are quite different. The two women learn a world completely different from their own through being care takers to children. They each have new responsibilities that come out of this experience and, as a result, are shaped into entirely new people with new values and memories of life. Both women gain experience in responsibility to someone they truly care about. Although their glamorous lifestyles are changed drastically by these responsibilities, both women realize the true happiness and satisfaction they get from doing something and being there for someone other than themselves. As a resu lt, they learn to value selflessness and memories that could never be out done by a life of glamour and money. In â€Å"Raising Helen†, Helen Harris in her glamorous, big-city life one day finds herself acquiring custody of her two nieces and one nephew. Her life is turned inside out and she is completely beside herself when trying to figure out what to do. Helen and the kids face many trials and tribulations but soon make a life together that, although is lived one day at a time, works. Helen is shaped into a whole new person and learns now more than ever what it means to be a family. In â€Å"Uptown Girls†, Molly a rock n’ roll princess has her glamorous and rich life swept out from under her feet when she finds out that her accountant has blown all of her daddy’s money. She ends up in a job as a Nanny for nine year old Ray who has a mother too busy with her own life to even notice her daughter. Molly and Ray hate each other at first but soon become the best of friends and learn how to accept each other’s quirks. Molly is also shaped into a whole other person and learns what it means to have a true best friend. Both women experience a drastic change in their lives. They are hit with new responsibility, a kind of responsibility that, if neglected, would affect another human-being, not just themselves.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

High Stakes Testing In The Modern World Education Essay

I think that in today ‘s modern universe, everyone is determined to hammer some type of achievement, whether it is academic or vocational. In some instances high bets proving are used to find most of these accomplishments. High bets trial are hence used to verify a broad scope of critical results which allow pupils to come on to the following degree. High bets proving can be traced back to the 1965 mandate of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act ( ESEA ) . This was to better doing of import determinations about pupils, instructors, and decision makers in the simple and secondary schools and besides for measuring the schools and school systems. Clarke, Shore, Rhoades, Abrams, Miao, and Li ( 2003 ) found in their National Board survey that answerability systems with high bets test helped instructors aim countries for future direction, and transformed the accent on authorship and critical thought accomplishments. I ‘m of the steadfast sentiment that high bets test allows pupils to analyze and measure a given job or state of affairs by get the hanging the cardinal content cognition and achieving the accomplishments necessary for future success in instruction and work force. Besides instructors provide feedback so that accommodations and even restructuring could be applied. With high bets proving some instructors have adopted a more student-centred attacks Jones, Jones & A ; Hargrove, ( 2003 ) , and aligned their course of study to the province criterions, which in bend increased teacher coaction Marshall ( 2003 ) . Students have to be given the chance to construct on their old cognition and explicate their ain thoughts as to do sense of what is being taught. The civilization of the instruction has to be in coherency with the province or state to let pupils to bring forth at an optimal degree. Students must be able to associate and place within their linguistic communication, beliefs and norms. High bets proving besides highlights the accomplishments gaps between rich and hapless territories, rural and urban countries and among cultural and cultural groups. Uncovering these informations can let pedagogues to turn to the prevalent jobs, particularly if wagess and countenances to schools, instructors and pupils are specified. Administrators and instructors can nail possible jobs and readdress the course of study and instructional activities accordingly. Conversely, the high bets trials constrained many instructors ‘ ability to learn creatively Gordon & A ; Reese, ( 1997 ) ; Jones, Jones & A ; Hargrove, ( 2003 ) and undermined their sense of professionalism and liberty. Some of these high interest trials have defined course of study and fashioned direction. Teachers now have moved to where everything has got to be aligned and tightly structured. A sense of autonomy is no longer executable due to the authorizations and force per unit areas to execute. Teachers are hence learning the course of study and implementing a strategic method of memorisation – a pupil ‘s ability to shop and reproduce names, day of the months and facts for the benefit of go throughing a certain degree of their academic accomplishment. In add-on to the above, high bets test have the inclination to over trial and under-examine pupils abilities and accomplishments. This places an tremendous sum of force per unit area on the instructors and pupils likewise to follow a narrow course of study and concentrate on memorising facts alternatively of developing more advanced abilities. High bets proving has maintained a narrow appraisal of pupil capablenesss and so pupils do what they must in order to go through the test and nil more. Education becomes a inactive experience and this transcends the schoolroom to the work environment. Finally by far the most compelling indictment of these high-stakes scrutinies is that they test what pupils know instead than what they can make and as such motive is an authoritarian factor. Education should be an active experience where pupils are invariably engaged and where a love for acquisition is developed, instead than a hatred for concluding tests. Ash and Persall ( 2000 ) stated that motive can drastically impede school betterment and make an discerning and dead environment in which instructors are isolated, without chances to collaboratively work out jobs, portion cognition, or larn together. In reasoning the intent of high interest trials is to better pupil accomplishment. While pupils with larning disablements have a batch to derive from increased focal point on pupil accomplishments it is besides evident that high bets trial does hold major deductions. Crucially, with respects to high bets proving more direct and concrete information is needed to demo that pupils are using factual information and reassigning their cognition, accomplishments and thoughts into a merchandise, a public-service corporation or a public presentation. However, high bets trial are geared towards bettering pupils and heighten the answerability that the contrivers are urgently seeking and supply the equity and regard that each and every kid is entitled to in the school system. Then it might be merely possible that every kid would acquire a opportunity to reflect.BACKGROUND TO HIGH STAKES TESTING IN TRINIDAD AND TOBAGOIn Trinidad and Tobago High Stakes Testing are done throughout our primary schoo ls, secondary schools and third establishments as these establishments have maintained a stiff arrested development on scrutinies. Standardized trials are good in that they are utile for comparing pupils countrywide since they are all required to analyze the same course of study for the same test. The Secondary Examination appraisal is no different as it awards a kid for farther accomplishment in the academic field. Secondary Entrance Assessment ( SEA ) Examination is a high interest trial that is used in Trinidad and Tobago to ease the arrangement of pupils in Secondary Schools.A The SEA comprises of three documents Creative Writing, Mathematics, and Language Arts with an allotted clip frame for each topic and covers the national course of study for Primary-level instruction with a focal point on Standards three to five. The Common Entrance was replaced with this debut of the SEA scrutiny high-stakes trial to be used as one of the tools to drive the instruction system in the right way. Planners would no uncertainty argue that there is good virtue for the application of this high interest appraisal. Besides the SEA exams uses standard tonss to use the discrepancy in each paper and hence allows the pupil ‘s to keep a criterion when they are combined, therefore guaranting equity in the arrangement procedure. Placement in secondary schools continues to be on the footing of virtue, pick of schools and gender. Merely when pupil ‘s picks of schools have been exhausted, will try be made to put pupils in schools closest to their places. In such a high interest trial as the SEA exams the paper contains open-ended points for which pupils are required to build their responses, instead than choose them from a figure of other options. Open-ended points can arouse different right responses from pupils, but the accent is on uncovering pupils ‘ thought. This high interest trial gives room for originative and critical thought leting pupils to develop their accomplishments. Students are required to demo their cognition of the mechanics of linguistic communication and expose their academic competences. While their exists certain wagess to the SEA high bets test the sum of accent placed on larning through past documents, â€Å" brochures † and sample trials speaks to the unfortunate importance of the understanding the trial format over the importance of understanding the existent stuff. Furthermore, what makes a â€Å" good school † good is how good its pupils perform at the terminal of these trials. This places an tremendous sum of force per unit area on the instructors to follow a narrow course of study and concentrate on memorising facts alternatively of developing more advanced abilities. For case where a instructor would wish to give her pupils a hebdomad to plan an experiment to prove the consequence of planetary heating, the clip factor before the S.E.A. exam merely does non allow her to make so. Alternatively of advancing fresh groundbreaking thoughts, instructors are forced to restrict themselves and pupils to walking the beaten way. Another downside is that the instruction system is organized in such a manner that if you have jobs memorising and regurgitating, you are branded as a individual who is â€Å" non bright † and your way is set from every bit early as the S.E.A. scrutinies. Those doors are non unfastened to you who have jobs declaiming information, because even if you somehow do it go through the first phase of S.E.A. , you end up in the same state of affairs at higher degrees in a system that has the same learn-by-heart demands of its pupils. This civilization of high interest trials in instruction has limited the capacity of our citizens to bring forth at an optimal degree in our society because it has limited creativeness of the instructor, of the pupil and of the ensuing work force. Standardized testing besides limits creativeness of the instructors. Our state ‘s overexploitation of tests to measure pupil public presentation is holding serious negative effects on instruction and acquisition. The trials have defined course of study. The standardised testing of SEA exams merely assesses pupil ‘s ability to shop and reproduce names, day of the months and facts. What is of import is that pupils memorize the expression and non that they understand it. This leads to a entire deficiency of capacity for groking cardinal constructs and believing in abstract footings. In add-on, how the topic is tested has become how the topic is taught and what is non tested is non taught. Students should non be asked to reproduce a twelvemonth ‘s work in a 70 proceedingss exam because this does non develop their critical thought accomplishments and analytical techniques. By heightening creativeness in the schoolroom, it will cultivate originality in believing which will enable citizens to see things otherwise and use new schemes and attacks to work outing jobs. Education should be an active experience where pupils are invariably engaged and where a love for acquisition is developed, instead than a hatred for concluding tests. Fortunately for us, Ras Shorty I did non hold to go through a music test in order to contrive soca and it is a good thing that Brian Lara did non larn to play cricket through a cricket enchiridion with batting expression. It is non the sweeping reproduction of novel-writing but the originative usage of written linguistic communication that makes VS Naipaul an acclaimed author. In decision high bets test such as the SEA scrutiny has its benefits and its negative impact. It is utile in puting criterions across the schools, territories and state. Besides it would be polar in constructing answerability into the system. Hence provide feedback so that accommodations and even restructuring could be applied to the system. However, peculiar attending to the course of study and instructional techniques, alteration of proving methods, more teacher encouragement and good observation are some of the other factors that will besides promote pupils to accomplish higher classs.Campaigners InterviewedData Collection InstrumentDate and Time of Interview1. Teacher 2. Parent 3. Student: One Two Three Interviews – Interviews were conducted with a instructor, parent and students, with respects to high bets proving. 2rd June 2010 @ 2:00 autopsy 4th June 2010 @ 3:30 autopsy 7th June 2010 @ 2:00 autopsy 9th June 2010 @ 2:00 autopsy 11th June 2010 @ 2:00 autopsyTeacher:After carry oning an interview with a SEA test instructor, Mr. Mehindra stated that most pupils sitting the S.E.A Examination are under intense anxiousness as the course of study had many countries to specify. He stated that the SEA scrutiny course of study is rather regime and demands a batch from the pupils composing the test. A major job he stated was the clip restraint that inhibits pupils from being originative as there is small or no clip to experiment with information. Formulae, regulations and grammatical constructions are learnt and merely applied to inquiries. While he found a high interest trial such as the S.E.A. scrutiny to be relevant and necessary as it standardizes proving of pupils who portion similar learnt cognition and ability as to what they have studied throughout their primary instruction. He stated that as a S.E.A. exam instructor such a high interest trial is indispensable because it allows for pupils to be motivated and encourages an environment for competitory acquisition. He besides mentioned that the accomplishment of transportation is at the bosom of larning and should non be left to speculate. It must be officially encouraged and become profoundly engraved and structured into the course of study in schools. In contrast he besides claimed that the existent winners are ever those who think outside of the box and who have put their cognition and endowments to creative usage in the humanistic disciplines, concern, scientific disciplines, humanistic disciplines, athleticss and across subjects and have good balanced and holi stic development.Parent:Most parents want what ‘s best for their kids. They want their kids to go critical minds with the accomplishments necessary for higher instruction and great success in life. As a parent of a kid who sat the SEA test late she was much relieved that it was done and over with. She stated that utilizing high bets test to do determinations with of import effects for single pupils can be intimidating. Her concerns were if the trials are being used right and reasonably. She besides stated that it was much work for her as it was for her kid because she spent same sum of hours awake and was emotionally stressed out by the volume of worked needed to be covered by her kid. Besides the memorisation of all the assorted expression and grammatical regulations were rather overpowering. She found that the SEA test high bets test promoted a narrow focal point on acquiring the right reply and contract the course of study to whatever information is expected on the trial. Thinking outside of the box is discouraged. Capable countries such as art, music, wellness and scientific discipline got fringy attention.A Conversely she besides expressed rather an interesting point by acknowledging that high bets test facilitates higher acquisition accomplishments. She besides appreciated the fact that the SEA test high interest trial in peculiar besides encourages an environment for competitory acquisition.Student # 1As a SEA exam pupil it proved to be rather ambitious and boring Cavita stated with a diffident smiling. She has late completed the SEA scrutiny and shared some of her late fond memories. The effects of the high interest SEA test did so take a toll on her. Her full agenda had changed as she had increased her perusal hours because the work got really demanding, which in bend reduced her extracurricular activities by about half. She besides stressed of the scope of inauspicious emotional reactions, of which she frequently felt down, disquieted, or embarrassed. Besides at times she felt stupid and less proud of herself. While there was the motivative factor of competitory acquisition she besides stated that it was so a immense challenge. Cavita besides mentioned that her parents were rather supportive and did so attend to her every demand. Her female parent would frequently remain up while she studied and if she was hungry made a speedy bite for her to crunch on. She did nevertheless hold that standardising a high bets test such as the SEA tests do hold its benefits, as it allowed a similar scene of criterions across the schools, territories and state. Furthermore she stated that it gave a sense of what to anticipate at secondary and third degree scrutinies.Student # 2Ravi is a originative kid who is non really fond of tests. When questioned about the SEA test he was a spot hesitating about the subject because he found the test to be an highly hard undertaking. He argued that it was excessively much work to larn in excessively small clip. He stated that at times the focal point on memorisation of ex pression and grammatical regulations were rather overpowering. Besides he stated that instructors teach the course of study and merely what is in the course of study and as such originative humanistic disciplines and scientific discipline undertakings are sidelined in order to complete the demanding course of study. Next, he mentioned how boring it used to be as instructors focus on so many trial documents and past documents that at clip he felt suffocated. His extracurricular activities were denied as he had excessively much work to concentrate on. However he besides stated that he was a spot slower than others and frequently felt down and defeated, therefore, the demand to seek harder. On the positive side he was appreciative to the fact that in such a high interest trial as the SEA exam he can look frontward to capture into a secondary school, which in bend was his motivative factor.Student # 3Small speculative heads ever think critically, as such is this student who late wrote the high bets SEA test. She found the SEA scrutiny to be a ambitious vas to greater accomplishment. She stated that it a mechanism that is used to actuate pupils and instructors likewise. Student should desire to execute good to experience a sense of achievement as go throughing this test allows you to graduate and travel on to a secondary instruction. Teachers should besides experience accomplished when their clip and attempt is appreciated, non merely by their pupils but parents every bit good. She besides pointed out that standardising trial such as the SEA scrutiny will let pupils a just opportunity of equality as the same trial is given to each kid. She besides did non bury to advert that a high interest trial as the SEA test will besides help in puting criterions across the schools and state. On the downside nevertheless, she stated that a batch of analyzing had to be done and as such her extracurricular activities were minimum. Besides being originative was non an option as memorisation of assorted expressions and grammatical regulations was a cardinal factor in go throughing the SEA test.THEMES DERIVED FROM ALL INTERVIEWS TAKENHarmonizing to the World Wide Web, a subject â€Å" is a consolidative thought that is a perennial component in literary or artistic work, † in a sentence, paragraph or try. Many subjects can be derived from the interviews taken every bit many responses were likewise based. While it s true that each individual has given their valuable and honest parts towards this assignment, it can be noted that many of us are of the same position when it comes to standardised testing, and to a big extent Secondary Entrance Assessment Examinations, and that it that it is clip devouring with its overladen course of study, it encourages competitory acquisiti on, disputing, motivationally structured and it diminishes any excess clip towards extra-curricular or other capable affairs. As a instructor in the primary school, I am to the full cognizant that the clip tabular array is shifted doubtless when a kid escalates to the standard 5 category. Besides, small or no clip is given to extra-curricular activities every bit good as Creative Humanistic disciplines, Music, Science and Social Studies. It was besides highlighted that there are excessively many expressions, regulations and grammatical constructions which are to be mastered in order to keep and put high at its terminal. Decision In kernel, high-stakes testing has its benefits and its disadvantages. High bets trial is aimed at making better accomplishing pupils. A High-stakes testing is designed to keep single studentsA accountable for their ain trial public presentation, unlike â€Å" system answerability, † which is aimed at the suppliers of instruction, such as, school territories, and schools. However, this can non be achieved if the system is smothering the creativeness of the people. Memorizing a text edition is no replacing for advanced thought. The creativeness for advancement that should hold been cultivated in the schoolroom is missing. Therefore neglecting to go through for a esteemed school at the S.E.A. scrutiny does non specify a individual it merely puts you at a different degree. Rather the inquiry is how best to utilize high-stakes testing. Furthermore, sufficient resources must be provided for professional development of instructors in the usage of trials and redress of pupils who ab initio fails. Policymakers must non lose sight that the ultimate end of a comprehensive answerability system is non to honor or penalize, but to better the bringing of course of study and increase pupil larning. Some balance could be brought to bear on the overdose of these pen-and-paper trials if schools become committed to a annual expounding of kids ‘s work highlighting, among others, their accomplishments in athleticss, the ocular and executing humanistic disciplines, and the school ‘s outreach community programme, to be viewed publically by school functionaries, nucleus stakeholders and other service suppliers. It provides indirect grounds that pupils are showing understanding of their cognition in context. Therefore it is of my sentiment that a high interest trial does non specify an person but help a pupil into going a more successful and accomplishing individual. In Trinidad and Tobago we must recognize that the consequence of the instruction system which revolves about high bets scrutinies is non ever the most achieving method but a mechanism used to assist ease higher accomplishment.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Immigrant Voices essays

Immigrant Voices essays The Book Immigrant Voices by Thomas Dublin is focused on giving readers a close view of what things were like for immigrants between the years of 1773-1986. It contains diaries, letters, autobiographies, and interviews of actual immigrants during this time period. The book tells many facts about immigration to America and the harsh realities people faced. The first immigrant I read about was John Harrower. Harrower was from the Shetland Islands and was forced to leave in 1773 due to poverty and despair. Harrower left his wife and children in order to find work in America. Harrower signed away his freedom in order to cross the ocean. On the journey to America Harrower delt with his own sickness and watched others die. Harrower watched men that he knew, friends, who had died of illness get tossed overboard and thrown into the ocean. Harrower was a smart man, therefore, when he reached America he became a tutor. John instructed the children of the man of which he was serving. After being there for nearly four years Harrower had saved up almost enough money to bring his family over to America. John Harrower died of an unknown illness before he could bring his wife and children to their new home. Some of the letters that I spoke if were those of William and Sophie Frank Seyffard to their families. William and Sophie were Germans who came from well off families. William and Sophie were married and they were happy together. William Seyffard bought a farm where he and Sophie would live. They had children and were happy in America for the most part, until their mill burnt down and they lost practically everything they had. They owed mortgages and creditors. They moved off of their own farm and all of their children got ill with scarlet fever. The one by the name of Ernst died. Another instance of a heartbreaking story of an immigrant is that of Rosa Cassettari. She was an Italian who wa...

Monday, October 21, 2019

Synthetic vs. Conventional Motor Oil

Synthetic vs. Conventional Motor Oil According to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, 85 percent of the motor oil changed at home by do-it-yourself-ers. About 9.5 million gallons a year in that state alone ends up disposed of improperly in sewers, soil, and trash. Multiply that by 50 states and it is easy to see how used motor oil might well be one of the largest sources of pollution affecting groundwater and U.S. waterways. The implications are startling indeed, as one quart of oil can create a two-acre sized oil slick, and a gallon of oil can contaminate a million gallons of fresh water. The Lesser of Two Evils Conventional motor oils are derived from petroleum, whereas synthetic oils are replicas manufactured from chemicals that are really no kinder to the environment than petroleum. Plus, those chemicals used to make synthetic oil also come from, ultimately, petroleum. As such, conventional and synthetic motor oils are about equally guilty when it comes to how much pollution they create. But Ed Newman, Marketing Manager for AMSOIL Inc., which has been producing and selling synthetics since the 1970s, believes that the synthetics are environmentally superior for the simple reason that they last about three times as long as conventional oils before they have to be drained and replaced. Additionally, Newman says that synthetics have lower volatility and, therefore, do not boil off or vaporize as quickly as petroleum motor oils. Synthetics lose from 4 percent to 10 percent of their mass in the high-heat conditions of internal combustion engines, whereas petroleum-based oils lose up to 20 percent, he says. Economically, however, synthetics are more than three times the cost of petroleum oils, and whether or not they are worth the difference is the subject of frequent, inconclusive debate among auto enthusiasts. Do Your Homework But before deciding for yourself, consult your car’s owner’s manual regarding what the manufacturer recommends for your model. You can void your car’s warranty if the manufacturer requires one type of oil and you put in another. For instance, many car manufacturers require that you use only synthetic motor oil for their higher-end models. These cars can now go up to 10,000 miles between oil changes. Natural Alternatives While synthetics seem to be the lesser of two evils for now, some promising new alternatives derived from vegetable products are coming of age. A pilot project at Purdue University, for example, has produced motor oil from canola crops that outperforms both traditional and synthetic oils with regard to both performance and production price, not to mention greatly lessened environmental impact. Despite the benefits, though, mass production of such bio-based oils would probably not be feasible, as it would require setting aside large amounts of agricultural land that could otherwise be used for food crops. But such oils may have a place as niche players as the worldwide market for petroleum products diversifies due to dwindling reserves and related geopolitical tensions. EarthTalk is a regular feature of E/The Environmental Magazine. Selected EarthTalk columns are reprinted on ThoughtCo  by permission of the editors of E. Edited by Frederic Beaudry

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Analytical Essay Sample on Dances with Wolves by Michael Blake

Analytical Essay Sample on Dances with Wolves by Michael Blake Michael Blake’s book Dances with Wolves reveals a very exciting story of the territorial war between settlers and Native Americans. The book has a Western setting depicting a frontier from a Native American’s point of view. Blake invites the reader to experience the regular pressure that had initially been placed on American by Settlers. John Dunbar, the major character, is a lieutenant who had initial sympathy for the settlers, links with a tribe belonging to Native Americans. This essay analyses Lieutenant Dunbar’s traits that made him abandon America’s allegiance and be part of the Comanches. Dunbar is a brave man after deciding to be a leader of a troop in a civil war. Instead of having one of his legs face amputation, he decides to take a horse to war and ride next to his enemies where they have a full view of him. He goes into the enemy’s frontline so as to pronounce and face his death. The army belonging to the Union attacks as the confederates gets distracted by the ride Dunbar has decided to take. The war ends as a confederate riot. Dunbar survives the battle and they win the war and Dunbar is considered a hero. His creative nature is evident when he decides to distract the enemies from his troop. He also defends the village and sees them to victory following attacks from a rival tribe known as Pawnee. He is smart when he requests for a position on western frontier, though it is deserted. He is awarded the horse that carried him during the war and his posting as a gift. As a result of his brave trait, he does not leave the island, and he decides to live alone with his horse. His self-assured nature gives him the courage to live in the island though it looked deserted. After arriving at the new post, he finds the frontier in disrepair and abandoned. He is opportunistic of giving â€Å"hope† to the island and makes a â€Å"life† out of the island. He begins restocking and rebuilding the fort and prefers the solitude that has been accorded to him. Dunbar being a friendly and a social person creates friendship with the people of the tribe found in the frontier, where he finds a woman raised by Indians despite her white race. He gets attracted by the customs and the lifestyle of the island dwellers and he begins spending a lot of time with the tribes. For being lovable person he earns respect from the island dwellers and is seen as a hero when he locates buffaloes that were migrating and volunteers to participate in hunting the buffaloes. In addition to this, his befriending nature also extends to animals after he forms some form of friendship with a wolf that he names â€Å"Two Socks† (Blake 120). His non-conversant nature allows him to interact freely with the tribes in the island and get rid of his white-man’s lifestyle. He changed his clothing, identity and mindset. He further befriends and forges relationship that turns out to be romantic with a white woman from the frontier tribe. Dunbar is realistic depicting high intelligence in the way he manages his life as well as the life of others. Due to his sympathetic character, Dunbar rescues the white woman who was injured. His compassion attribute causes him to understand the pain tribe is experiencing when they are confronted with the Pawnee community. He also portrays a cooperative nature when he decides to work together with the community in times of war and when hunting for the buffaloes. His cooperative nature is also evident when gets along with the tribe as well as with its culture. Dunbar is loyal and has a citizenship-type of a character when he turns down the offer by Americans to serve in their army. The American army requests Dunbar to serve as an interpreter in helping them understand the local tribe’s language. When he rejects their offer, he is put on trial, and charged for treason, and they transport him back to the east as a prisoner. His courageous nature is also seen when he does not fal ter even after being threatened with deployment to face trial charges. Dunbar’s excellence nature is attributed to the victory his accomplices have witnessed. Dunbar is also industrious seen in the way he reconstructs the island and tries to reshape it from its ruin. His leadership skill allows him to lead his troops twice in a battle where they did not concede defeat. He showed them the â€Å"way†, and this influenced his troops to follow his example. In conclusion, the shift portrayed in the story is what makes the story so unique and unusual, as the antagonist turns out to be the protagonist. As the story begins, Blake depicts the Indians as protagonists after the warriors originating from the Pawnee tribe murder Timmons, who was Dunbar’s escort. This makes a reader have an impression of how all Native Americans are cruel and evil savages. As the book progresses, Indians turn out to be the protagonists after Comanche reconciles with Dunbar, and Blake describes them as colonization’s victims. The love twist that unfolds between Lieutenant Dunbar and his lover makes this book worth reading. Dunbar has various character traits that enable him to â€Å"fit† and accept the Comanche tribe and join them. Dunbar’s bravery trait made his troop win the war and as a result, he was positioned at the frontier as a gift accorded to him. This accord made him experience a new whole tribe in a deserted fort. His lead ership skill â€Å"blends† well with his bravery character, in leading the two groups to victory during the war. His bravery nature is one of the things that attract the Comanches to him and because of this he is awarded respect. First and foremost, he leads the Comanches to victory against their foes the Pawnees, and he later joins them in the hunt for the migrating buffaloes. His cooperative nature is another attribute he depicts after agreeing to join hand with the community in searching for the buffaloes. He has a friendly nature seen in the way he befriends the community, a wolf and the woman whom he turns out to have feelings for resulting in a romantic relationship. As the story comes to an end, Dunbar shows the loyalty and the citizenship after turning down the American army’s offer to together with them in interpreting the Comanches language. Despite the fact that the American army threatened him with trial charges for trespass and treason, Dunbar does not yie ld to their request. They then transfer him to the eastern side where he is to face trial, but he is rescued by the Sioux. If you need a custom written essay on Dances with Wolves topic you can buy essays online at CustomWritings.com. Our professional writers will help you with writing essays on any topics!

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Why it is important study quiescent cancer stem cells Essay

Why it is important study quiescent cancer stem cells - Essay Example The study done by Dembinski and Krauss (2009) gave a profound evidence of linkages between quiescence and cancer stem cells. Moreover, the study of quiescence CSCs is important for the reason that the quiescent cancer stem cells are found to be resistant to chemotherapy and other applied therapies (Moore 2010). It has been discovered that as soon as the therapy is discontinued, they retain their state. In this perspective, it becomes necessary to understand the mechanisms of stem cell quiescent state so that normal stem cell functionality could be manipulated. The understanding on this account helps develop the clinical approaches to quell and target cancer stem cells. As per Li (2011), the recent findings explain the resistance of cancer stem cells by their state of dormancy. Dormant cancer stem cells can be activated by altering their intrinsic or extrinsic mechanisms that tend to maintain their quiescent state so that they become susceptible to the applied chemotherapy and help discover new visions in the cancer treatment. From above it is quite clear that the study of quiescence CSCs is likely to open new vistas in the discovery of new cancer drugs and therapies to get effective and lasting treatment for all kinds of cancers. 1. Moore N.; Lyle, S. (2010),Quiescent, Slow-Cycling Stem Cell Populations in Cancer: A Review of the Evidence and Discussion of Significance, Online at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2948913/#sec6 [Accessed 23 October 2011] 3. Roesch A, Fukunaga-Kalabis M, et al (2010). A temporarily distinct subpopulation of slow-cycling melanoma cells is required for continuous tumor growth. Cell., 141(4):583–594. Also online at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2882693/ [Accessed 23 October 2011] 4. Dembinski JL, Krauss S. (2009), Characterization and functional analysis of a slow cycling stem cell-like subpopulation in pancreas adenocarcinoma, Clinical and Experimental Metastasis, 26 (7):611–623.

Friday, October 18, 2019

Ethical Theories, Principles, and Concepts Assignment

Ethical Theories, Principles, and Concepts - Assignment Example Medical staff may desist from helping patients in the event of occurrence of a disaster for fear of prosecution (Fremgen, 2009). The law provides a standard measure for an individual’s action and punishes lawbreakers. Whatever is punishable by law is immoral and unethical. However, the law permits actions such as manipulation and lying, which is morally offensive. The law set to regulate medical care aims at maintaining high standards of morality, which may not consider the anticipated good. Medical law and regulations allow for autonomy, which at times may make one make uninformed decision on a particular treatment procedure that could in turn affect the life of the patient and at times leading to loss of life. Some medical practices are justified in medical procedure  but are unethical and unethical. Therefore, the laws and regulations are a challenge other than a solution to the problem (Garrett, Baillie, & Garrett, 2010). The practice of medicine requires a proper understanding of the ethical philosophies and principles. The principals that safeguard it include among others the respect for autonomy. Autonomy provides the patient with the right to take well-informed independent choice without influence, and medical practitioners should obey the patient’s decisions. The principle provides for non-maleficence where the Hippocratic Oath applies (Fremgen, 2009). The doctor can only treat the patient according to what he or she knows best and avoid injuring the patient. The principle advocates for doing good to the patient. In this principle, the doctor must administer treatment to the patient without causing pain to the patient. Finally, the rule of justice must prevail. The medical care should be fair, reasonable, equitable and without preference (Fremgen, 2009). Utilitarianism is a philosophical theory that explains ethical practice to be for the good of the many.

Questiona and Answer Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Questiona and Answer - Essay Example Illustrators also often resort to research in the early stages of the illustrative process. They usually do background research of the elements involved in the story and deeply understand them in order to better tell the story in picture. The next procedure would be the storyboards, design and layout, where the illustrator arranges the sequence and the blending of the text and the illustrations in order to have the most potent story-telling effect and to highlight and emphasize certain parts where highlighting is needed. Ansty & Bull (2000) noted that the illustrative process is rather full of interaction from many people along the way, and not only isolated to the illustrator. He consults among many individuals and are also critiqued and constructively evaluated by others before the final output is done. This step is essential especially with the involvement of an editor wherein he knows what might be good or what might be detrimental in the ultimate goal of the story, which is to sell. Going back to the illustrator, it is important to consider how he views and is aware of his target audience for the illustrations. He must be sensitive to the orientation of the readers and on how he portrays them or how he expresses it to them in a manner appropriate. 1. The illustrative process is likened to the writing process because of the way it does not follow strict guidelines and sequences of stages in order to make the desired outcome, but they nonetheless adhere to the same overall process. Writing is the ability to articulate to share and influence the thoughts with others (The Writing Process, 2007), in like manner, illustrating is not so far off in that concept. 2. In writing a story board, first, one needs to consider the message that is the overall concept in the story. In this case, in the story of Cinderalla, it’s about

Why i want to be a nurse and my plan for the future in nursing Essay

Why i want to be a nurse and my plan for the future in nursing - Essay Example Nursing is an extensive professional field. It therefore calls for intensive understanding and acquisition of knowledge on protecting, promoting and optimizing human health and offering care to needy individuals and communities, which the American Nurses Association, ANA (2014) documents as the core function of the profession. As a practicing registered nurse, Empire State College provides the perfect placement because it not only provides the opportunity to acquire such knowledge but also provides the flexibility of enrolling for part-time, online or face-to-face courses. I aim at advancing my nursing skills and have thus set my professional goals at further developing my understanding of nursing practice and critical thinking skills. This is in line with the BSN program mission that promotes the advancement of education among RNs to enable them provide comprehensive and evidence-based nursing care. This course would also pave way for my advancement into leadership position in this career. I appreciate that leadership in nursing is a critical role that calls for endowment with the requisite knowledge to promptly make decisive decisions. BSN would therefore ensure that I am well equipped for this

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Wider Professional Practice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Wider Professional Practice - Essay Example LLS refers to relevant social and political reforms and national policies while devising its own guidelines and procedures. As the sector that exists to support and deliver lifelong learning, government policy in a range of areas plays a considerable role in influencing the future development and the demand for skills within the LLS workforce. One of the most important government green papers that it refers to is Every Child Matters (ECM). Every Child Matters is a reform that has reshaped the overall behaviour in Britain towards child welfare, care and education. Where the lifelong learning sector intends to introduce education from the grass roots level, it adheres strongly to the ECM policy structure. As ECM covers various aspects of child welfare and care relating to health, safety, enjoyment, achievement, positive contribution in society and achievement of economic well being, it relates closely to LLS since lifelong learning is an attempt at achieving a better quality of life (Francis and Gould, 2012). However, this correlation gives rise to a need to evaluate if ECM provides an effective framework for institutions and professionals in LLS to follow and also if the LLS framework and policies of institutions working for and within LLS actually adhere to the framework devised by ECM. LLS practice is strongly governed by a Professional Code of Conduct that was introduced by IfL as guidelines for teachers working in LLS (Francis and Gould, 2012). This Professional Code of Conduct ensures that teachers working within the LLS must provide personalised care to children and young people, be alert to signs and symptoms that children may be at risk of harm and expedient in reporting them. It is important to note that educational institutions where special or vulnerable children are being tutored, reforms introduced by LLS have played a major role ensuring children’s

'Does Country Matter' - Summary and Critque Essay

'Does Country Matter' - Summary and Critque - Essay Example a) The question is, how much does country difference actually explain the variations in achievements of foreign affiliates To answer this, the elements they defined were as follows: Country effects, Industry effects, Multinational Corporation (MNC) effects, Affiliates effects and the Years observed, analyzing these to see how they all contributed to the average return or business success achieved by the foreign affiliates. They hypothesized that country had an important role to play and had not been explored fully in earlier research. b) Methodology The study is described as unique by the researchers because it uses performance of foreign affiliates as the primary unit of analysis, the country effects variables contained in it, and non-U.S. data, only Japanese MNCs. Data was taken from the Trend Survey of Overseas Business Activities (Trend Survey), annually conducted by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. The companies used were: either subsidiary (MNC has 10% capital invested),sub-subsidiary (MNC has 50% invested) or where a sub-subsidiary has 50% capital invested in the foreign affiliate company. 12,000 total, over 6 years were examined, using 616 c) Results and conclusions suggest that country effects are almost as great as industry effects, implying that the host country has great impact when determining performance, wi

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Why i want to be a nurse and my plan for the future in nursing Essay

Why i want to be a nurse and my plan for the future in nursing - Essay Example Nursing is an extensive professional field. It therefore calls for intensive understanding and acquisition of knowledge on protecting, promoting and optimizing human health and offering care to needy individuals and communities, which the American Nurses Association, ANA (2014) documents as the core function of the profession. As a practicing registered nurse, Empire State College provides the perfect placement because it not only provides the opportunity to acquire such knowledge but also provides the flexibility of enrolling for part-time, online or face-to-face courses. I aim at advancing my nursing skills and have thus set my professional goals at further developing my understanding of nursing practice and critical thinking skills. This is in line with the BSN program mission that promotes the advancement of education among RNs to enable them provide comprehensive and evidence-based nursing care. This course would also pave way for my advancement into leadership position in this career. I appreciate that leadership in nursing is a critical role that calls for endowment with the requisite knowledge to promptly make decisive decisions. BSN would therefore ensure that I am well equipped for this

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

'Does Country Matter' - Summary and Critque Essay

'Does Country Matter' - Summary and Critque - Essay Example a) The question is, how much does country difference actually explain the variations in achievements of foreign affiliates To answer this, the elements they defined were as follows: Country effects, Industry effects, Multinational Corporation (MNC) effects, Affiliates effects and the Years observed, analyzing these to see how they all contributed to the average return or business success achieved by the foreign affiliates. They hypothesized that country had an important role to play and had not been explored fully in earlier research. b) Methodology The study is described as unique by the researchers because it uses performance of foreign affiliates as the primary unit of analysis, the country effects variables contained in it, and non-U.S. data, only Japanese MNCs. Data was taken from the Trend Survey of Overseas Business Activities (Trend Survey), annually conducted by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. The companies used were: either subsidiary (MNC has 10% capital invested),sub-subsidiary (MNC has 50% invested) or where a sub-subsidiary has 50% capital invested in the foreign affiliate company. 12,000 total, over 6 years were examined, using 616 c) Results and conclusions suggest that country effects are almost as great as industry effects, implying that the host country has great impact when determining performance, wi

Blood Diamond Essay Example for Free

Blood Diamond Essay The realization that there is always something bad mixed with good hit her like a tornado as she watched the movie Blood Diamond. Unconsciously she fingered the stone on her finger and wished she had not worn it. She had to blink back the tears stinging her eyes as she saw children being put to work at alluvial mines, and other workers being amputated and killed for sport. I almost choked with guilt when I remembered how I had gaily remarked, ‘Diamonds are forever,’ when my friend showed me the diamond ring her boyfriend had gotten her. We were not giggling anymore when we saw a World Vision quote†¦ ‘amputation is forever. ’ On seeing the movie, we decided that we had to do something about the conflict diamond issue. We felt so bad about not getting information concerning the origin off the diamond my friend wore, we would never know for sure whether it was a conflict diamond or not. Blood diamond and conflict diamonds are more or less synonymous terms. The UN defines a conflict diamond as a â€Å"diamond whose origin is an area which is controlled by forces that are opposed to legitimate and internationally recognized governments. The diamonds are used to finance military action to oppose the government of the day or to contravene the decisions of security council (UN,www. un. org/peace/Africa/Diamond html) Most of these diamonds have their origin in Africa with countries like Sierra leone, Liberia, Angola and DR Congo being among those most affected. Though diamonds are mined in Liberia, it offers more of a marketing and ‘supporting point’ role for the Blood Diamond trade. Civil wars in Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone are funded with diamonds that have been smuggled into Liberia which are later sold and the cash is used to purchase ammunition, guns and other weapons. Liberia has imposed some violence of its own lasting 8 years killing around 200,000and displaying thousands more (Stop Blood Diamond Organization, 2007). Reports by Amnesty International and Global Witness show that there are areas in Liberia where diamond are still mined and traded which are controlled by rebels. Worse, these have been report of links between the infamous alqaida and Liberia (Amnesty USA,2007). The 9/11 attacks have been linked to funds and weapons associated with the diamond mines of Sierra Leone. The diamonds are usually mined by civilians who are used as slaves after being caught as prisoners. The civilians, children included, work in poor conditions and are punished brutally for the slightest error. Killing for sport and amputation are regular occurrences. (Stop Blood Diamonds Organization, 2007). Some of the abducted children eventually become child soldiers. John Lahia, a 15 year old child soldier was among the victims of the war that has led to starvation, disease and war wounds for many refugees. He was wounded by an exploding rocket-propelled geradeand died of a tetanus infection, far away from medical aid that would have otherwise saved his life. The Revolutionary United Front(RUF) medics left him lying in a backwater hospital with his wounds taped for lack of better medical means to treat him. This too will be the likely fate of other combatants and all this because of the greed for diamond (Campbell,2007). A sure way to eradicate conflict diamond is to end conflict areas. Peacekeeping that aims at apprehension and removal of rebels without violation of human rights of civilians can be used to achieve this. Inernational agencies need to focus on ending hostilities so diamond production can return to the hands of the government; this will enable the countries in question to benefit from rather than be torn apart by their diamond mines. In 1999, the UN deployed a mission to deal with the problem of conflict diamonds. The Kimberly cerrtification scheme requires provision of a certificate of origin for diamonds. The aim is to cut off flow of diamonds from illegitimate sources. This process however has several shortcomings. The certificates can be forged, many diamonds can be smuggled into a dean country and even when certificates are real the officials may have been bribed. This is a reality especially because in most of the war torn countries poverty and suffering are rife. Most people will only be too glad to line their pockets with the bribes offered. Sensitizing the American Public on issues to do with conflict diamonds is another strategy. This has already began especially in the entertainment industry with such movies as Dicaprios Blood Dianond and James Bond Die another Day and Kanye West’s song, ‘Diamond are Forever’. Further flooding of the public with more information through as many avenues as possible will ensure that people are aware of the origin and human terror and suffering that comes with some diamonds. This will in turn create a low market for the diamonds, slowing down the flux of diamonds into the country. In the present situation, supply of diamond and human suffering in the country of origin have a direct correlation, decreasing supply from illegitimate sources will consequently lead to a decrease in suffering of the Africa children and civilians affected. US contributes 70%of the worlds diamond trade making it a leading customer of diamond. (VOA News, 2007). The US therefore has a role in spearheading the fight against conflict diamond. The government should insist on strengthening the Kimberley process and the Clean Diamond Trade Act. By providing more forceful support, technical aid and financial aid. African countries can be assisted to develop the Kimbeley process such that its effect is felt by the corrupt officials and rebels overseeing mining of blood diamond. The Government Accountability office has had several proposal which include spot checks of diamond companies and tracking of rough diamonds inside and outside the country of origin. (Globalwitness, 2007). These need application and immediate application. Regular checking of the progress of US wagh diamond trade statistics Is an important evaluation tool for the effect of blood diamond and assessment of how the problem is being combated. Though my friend and I are not sure of the origins of the diamond she wears on her finger we are more knowledgeable about conflict diamonds. As a result our circle of friends also know more and now most of our college is no longer ignorant about the issue. Through our campaigns we encourage people to ask about the origin of the diaomonds they are just about to buy. This means that as a nation we are thinking about and doing something in consideration of the people whose lives have been lost in the diamond trade. REFERENCES Amnesty USA Conflict Diamond retrived from www. amnestyusa. org/new/doc/diamonds-survey-text. pdf Campbell G. Blood Diamonds, Amnesty Magazine retrieved from www. amnestyusa. org/amnestynw/diamond s. html Conflict Diamond retrieved from Www. un. org/peace/Africa/Diamond. html Globalwitness, Combating conflict Diamonds,retrieved Sep 1 2007 from http://www. globalwitness. orga/pages/en/conflictdiamonds. html Stop Blood Diamond Organization, Stop Blood Diamond, conflict Diamond in Africa retrieved from www. stopblooddiamonds. org/children-of-Africa. asp VOA News US cogress Tackle Blood Diamond trade retrieved sep 1, 2007 from www. voanews. can/english/archive/2002-02/a-2002-02-4-2-us. cfm. World vision, Stop the Trade in Blood Diamond, retrieved sep 1 2007 from Worldvision. org/worldvision/stable/globalissues-conflictdiamond.

Monday, October 14, 2019

Personality and Organizational Commitment Relationship

Personality and Organizational Commitment Relationship ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to explore the relationships between the personality traits and organizational commitment among non teaching employees in government schools in the Sultanate of Oman. Data was collected by using Big Five Inventory (BFI) and revised Organizational Commitment Scale (Meyer, Allen, Smith, 1993). Response was received from 95 non teaching employees with a response rate of 47.50%. The findings of this study suggest us the relationships between personality traits and organizational commitment among non teaching staff in the government schools. KEYWORDS Affective commitment, big five-factor model of personality, continuance commitment, normative commitment, organizational commitment. INTRODUCTION This study explored the relationship between personality traits and organizational commitment among non teaching employees in the government schools of Sultanate of Oman. Organizational Commitment is being considered as an underlying factor for organizational success. Shepherd and Mathews (2000) suggest that employers view Organizational Commitment with increasing interest and importance. Due to increasing interest of employers and researchers, organizational commitment has become highly researched job attitude. It is evident from the fact that commitment has been the subject of many meta-analyses (Cooper-Hakim Viswesvaran, 2005; Mathieu Zajac, 1990; Meyer, Stanley, Herscovitch, Topolnytsky, 2002) studies. Theoretical reviews by Lawler (1992) and Reichers (1985) have also widely explored this attitude. This job attitude has become important for employers because employees with low levels of commitment are more likely to leave their organizations (Meyer et al., 2002). Research into Organizational Commitment has focused on the relationships between various antecedents and the components of Organizational Commitment. The primary antecedents to organizational commitment are like age; gender; education level; marital status; position and organization tenure; personality; and role states (Camilleri, 2002). Meyer and Allen, (1984); Grusky, (1966) and Mowday et al (1982) have thoroughly examined various relationships between antecedents and organizational commitment. This study was designed to contribute to the Organizational Commitment related literature by exploring the relationships between age, tenure, personality traits (using Big Five Model) and organizational commitment. THE FIVE-FACTOR MODEL OF PERSONALITY The Big Five model of personality implies that personality consists of five relatively independent traits that provide a meaningful explanation for the study of individual differences (Kumar, Bakhshi Rani, 2009) and their responses. The five dimensions in Big Five model of personality are Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness and Neuroticism. Each of the Big Five traits is a set of traits that tend to occur together in individuals (Kumar, Bakhshi Rani, 2009). Extraversion is the state of being predominantly concerned with and obtaining gratification from what is outside. The behavioral tendencies used to measure this factor are sociable, gregarious, assertive, talkative, and active (Barrick Mount, 1991). Conscientiousness refers to the tendency to show self-discipline, act dutifully and be focused on the goals. It includes behavioral tendencies like being hard working, achievement- oriented, persevering, careful, and responsible (Barrick Mount, 1991). Openness to experience is a general appreciation for art, emotion, adventure, imagination and variety of experience. The behavioral tendencies associated with Openness to Experience include being imaginative, cultured, curious, original, broad minded, intelligent (Digman, 1990). It also reflects need for variety, aesthetic sensitivity, and unconventional values (McCrae John, 1992). Agreeableness refers to a tendency to be compassionate and cooperative. This factor includes behavioral tendencies like being courteous, flexible, trusting, good-natured, cooperative, forgiving, soft-hearted, and tolerant (Barrick Mount, 1991). Neuroticism refers to the tendency to experience negative emotions like anger, anxiety, or depression in a person. It is also called emotional instability. Behavioral tendencies associated with this factor include being anxious, depressed, angry, embarrassed, emotional, worried, and insecure (Barrick Mount, 1991). ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT Organizational Commitment refers to the degree to which an employee identifies with the goals and values of the organization and is willing to exert effort to help it succeed (Herscovitch Meyer, 2002). According to Allen and Meyer (1990) Organizational Commitment is made up of three components or dimensions. First component is affective commitment and it refers to the employees emotional attachment to, identification with, and involvement in, the organization. Second component is continuance component and it refers to commitment based on the costs that the employee associates with leaving the organization. Third component of organization commitment is normative component, which refers to the employees feeling of obligation to remain with the organization. DEMOGRAPHIC RELATIONSHIPS WITH ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AGE AND ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT According to meta-analysis by Mathieu and Zajac (1990), age and organizational commitment yielded a medium positive correlation. Older employees tend to have a higher degree of organizational commitment because they view their past years of service to the organization as an investment (Camilleri, 2002). Therefore they would tend to be more committed to the organization. Thus, H 1: Non teaching employees commitment to the organization will positively relate to their age. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TENURE AND ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT Various studies show a weak positive relationship between tenure and organizational commitment. In these studies, job tenure has been shown to be more positively related to attitudinal commitment, while organizational tenure was more positively related to calculative commitment (Clayton, Petzall, Lynch Margret, 2007). The given explanation is that years spent in a particular position tend to increase an employees psychological attachment to an organization, while extended tenure also increases their stake in terms of benefits such as pension plans (Mathieu and Zajac, 1990, p.8). Thus, H 2: Non teaching employees commitment to the organization will positively relate to their length of tenure. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BIG FIVE PERSONALITY TRAITS AND ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT AFFECTIVE COMMITMENT Affective commitment refers to an employees positive emotional response to the organization. An employee, who is affectively committed, strongly identifies with the goals of the organization and desires to remain in the organization. While extroverts exhibit positive emotionality (Watson Clark, 1997) and it is reasonable to assume that those high in Extraversion experience higher affective commitment than those who are less extraverted. Many studies have also found significant bivariate correlations between positive emotionality and affective commitment (Williams, Gavin, Williams, 1996). Thus, H3: Non teaching employees extraversion will positively relate to affective commitment. CONTINUANCE COMMITMENT Continuance commitment refers to an awareness of the costs (economic and social) associated with leaving the organization. It develops through an employees perceptions of employment alternatives. Employees who perceive that they have several viable alternatives will have weaker continuance commitment than those employees who perceive that they have few alternatives (Meyer Allen, 1997). Extrovert individuals tend to be more socially active and may develop more social contacts than introverts. More social contacts of extraverts may bring them more job opportunities. Therefore, H4: Non teaching employees extraversion will negatively relate to continuance commitment. Neuroticism refers to an enduring tendency to experience negative emotional states by an individual. Neurotic individuals tend to experience more negative life events than other individuals (Magnus, Diener, Fujita, Pavot, 1993). Due to this tendency, person may prefer to stick to same job instead of facing new work environment. Thus, H5: Non teaching employees neuroticism will positively relate to continuance commitment. Conscientiousness refers to the traits like self-discipline, carefulness, thoroughness, organization,  deliberation  (the tendency to think carefully before acting), and need for  achievement. According to Organ and Lingl (1995), due to conscientiousness nature, employee gets more opportunities to obtain formal (e.g., pay, promotion) and informal work rewards (e.g., recognition, respect). To the extent that a conscientious employee earns such rewards, they should have high level of continuance commitment. Therefore, H6: Non teaching employees Conscientiousness will positively relate to continuance commitment. NORMATIVE COMMITMENT Normative commitment refers to employees perceptions of their obligation to their organization. It develops from the investments that an organization makes in its employees (Meyer Allen, 1991). This will make employees feel indebted to his or her organization and want to respond his or her organizations initiatives favorably. Extraverted employees seek out more social interactions within the workplace and exhibit positive emotions. Therefore extroverts tend to respond favorably towards the organization due to perception of obligation. Thus, H7: Non teaching employees extraversion will positively relate to normative commitment. METHOD SAMPLE A sample of 95 non teaching employees was obtained from government schools in the Sultanate of Oman. Questionnaires were bilingual (English and Arabic). Response rate of 47.50 % (95 filled questionnaires received out of 200) was obtained. The gender composition of the sample was 53.7% male (N=51) and 46.3% female (N=44). The average age of the respondents was 35.85 years (SD=4.3). On an average, the respondents had the present organizational tenure as 7.46 years (SD = 3.2) and total job tenure as 8.21 years (SD = 2.9). MEASUREMENTS THE BIG FIVE The Big Five Inventory (BFI) (John et al., 1991) (John et al., 2008) consisting of total 44 items was used to measure personality traits of school laboratory technicians on a five point Likert-type anchoring ranging from strongly disagree (1) to 5 (strongly agree). It contains five dimensions corresponding to big five personality traits (Extraversion, Neuroticism, Agreeableness, Openness and Conscientiousness). The reliabilities (Cronbachs Alpha) for each facet were Extraversion (0.88), Neuroticism (.94), Agreeableness (.92), Openness (.91) and Conscientiousness (.91). AFFECTIVE COMMITMENT Affective Commitment was measured by revised version of Affective Commitment Scale (Meyer, Allen, Smith, 1993). Responses were collected on a seven-point Likert-type anchoring that ranged from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). The reliability (Cronbachs Alpha) of this six item scale was 0.82. CONTINUANCE COMMITMENT Continuance Commitment was measured by revised version of Continuance Commitment Scale (Meyer, Allen, Smith, 1993). Responses were collected on a seven-point Likert-type anchoring that ranged from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). The reliability (Cronbachs Alpha) of this six item scale was 0.88. NORMATIVE COMMITMENT Normative Commitment was measured by revised version of Normative Commitment Scale (Meyer, Allen, Smith, 1993). Responses were collected on a seven-point Likert-type anchoring that ranged from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). The reliability (Cronbachs Alpha) of this six item scale was 0.89. RESULTS A factor analysis, which is confirmatory in nature, was performed on the different variables such as Extraversion, Neuroticism, Agreeableness, Openness, Conscientiousness, Affective commitment, Continuance commitment, and Normative Commitment. The factor analysis was conducted using principal axis factoring with varimax rotation as an extraction method (see for details, e.g. Nummenmaa et al., 1996, p. 244; Hair et al., 1998, pp. 87-120). The identified factors were selected whose Eigen values are greater than 1.0 from the graph of scree plot. Graph 01: Scree Plot Showing Eigen Values of Factors These variables within factors are correlated, is confirmed by the Bartletts test of sphericity. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy indicated a practical level of common variance (KMO = 0.587), which implies that the results obtained from factor analysis are appropriate. The factors identified with loadings in appendix 01 exhibits 74.22 percent of the variance of the variables. The table 01 comprises the means, standard deviations, partial correlations, and reliability coefficients for the proposed variables. The partial correlations among proposed variables provided initial support of our hypotheses. In the support of hypothesis 01 age is positively correlated with affective commitment (r = 0.255, p The table 02 shows the results obtained after running multiple regressions. It is evident from the table 02 that the correlations among variables are low. The coefficient of determination of three dimensions of organizational commitment such as Affective commitment, Continuance commitment, and normative commitment are 35.8%, 24.6%, and 20% respectively. The coefficient of determination indicates the change in dependent variable is explained from a change in independent variables. It is evident that the relationship in a linear is medium for affective commitment and small for continuance commitment and normative commitment as the value of the coefficients of determination are very weak. The F-ratio for the three dimensions of organizational commitment such as Affective commitment, Continuance commitment, and normative commitment are 5.255 (p When exploring the beta values of three dimensions of organizational commitment, the magnitude of approximately all values is low. The 35.8% explained variance in the coefficient of determination for the affective commitment may be attributed to organization tenure, job tenure, extraversion, and openness to some extent. The 24.6% explained variance in the coefficient of determination for the continuance commitment may be attributed to organization tenure, extraversion, neuroticism, and conscientiousness to some extent. The 20% explained variance in the coefficient of determination for the normative commitment may be attributed to organization tenure, job tenure, and extraversion to some extent. DISCUSSION The findings suggest that the studied model serves as the foundation in the exploration of the various dimensions of organizational commitment. In particular, Age and organizational tenure has played substantial role in all three forms of the organizational commitment. Moreover, Extraversion has played a role of the most consistent independent variable of the all dimensions of the organizational commitment. Extraversion was positively associated with affective commitment because the positive emotionality is important dimension of personality (Watson et al.,1988; J. Erdheim et al. 2006). Secondly, Extraversion was negatively associated with continuance commitment. In general, extraverts have better relations with peers than introverts which may result into better career options (Watson Clark, 1997). Finally, Extraversion was positively associated with normative commitment. Because extraverts believe that their extraordinary service by providing congenial social environment may enhanc e the psychological contract with the organization (Watson, 2000; J. Erdheim et al. 2006). Correlation between Neuroticism and Organizational Commitment varied for three components of organizational commitment. Correlation between Neuroticism and Affective Commitment was found significantly negative and significantly positive with continuance commitment. While with normative commitment it was found negative (nonsignificant). Neurotics tend to be prone to negative experiences and negative affect. This tendency makes them low on affective commitment. Neurotic individuals used to be conscious of the costs associated with leaving the jobs so continuance commitment used to be high among neurotics. Conscientiousness displayed positive significant relationship with continuance commitment while nonsignificant relations with affective and normative commitments. Since conscientious individuals tend to be highly involved in to their jobs (Organ Lingl, 1995) and it increases their chances of workplace rewards. These rewards will have impact on the continuity of individuals in the organizations. THEORETICAL AND MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS The results of the present study reflect that the role of personality is vital in the development of organizational commitment. It gives a scope of relationship between personality job attitudes and organizational commitment. This theoretical implication gives further scope of study pertaining to the factors of other dimensions of the job attitudes such as job involvement, job embeddedness etc. Managerial implications of the study are primarily in the personnel selection. Since different components of organizational commitment are correlated with personality traits, organizations need to judge personality traits at the time of selection and foresee the impact on the candidates commitment. It has been found in meta-analysis that employees with low level of commitment are more likely to leave their organizations (Meyer et al., 2002). LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS Furthermore, this study suffers from three limitations whereas the results are statistically in most parts. The first limitation is related to the sample size which is relatively small in comparison to similar other studies. The second limitation pertains to the coefficients of regression model which are relatively low and may affect the reliability and validity of findings. The third limitation which is prominent in nature is that the proposed model was tested using correlation and regression analysis among variables. However, this technique can only examine a single relationship at a time (Hair, at el, 1998). An area of upcoming research is to test the proposed model using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) which may provide better results. SEM is a multivariate statistical technique used to estimate a number of interrelated dependence relationship simultaneously. The present study will give additions in the literature of the factors pertaining to the organizational commitment in various dimensions. There are evidences of outcomes of the study that the application of the five-factor model of personality assisting the prediction of three forms of the organizational commitment. This model paves the way to a new dimension of the research which may explore the extensive relationship between the unexplored dimensions of personality and organizational commitments. Our findings have various practical implications in the selection procedure of the organization. Further research may be extended to explore the utility of using personality tests to predict organizational citizenship behavior in a selection setting. REFERENCES Allen, N.J., and Meyer, J.P. (1990) The Measurement and Antecedents of Affective, Continuance and Normative Commitment to the Organization, Journal of Occupational Psychology, Vol. 63:1-18. Barrick, M. R., Mount, M. K. (1991). The big five personality dimensions and job performance: A Meta-Analysis. Personnel Psychology, 44, 1-26. Camilleri, E. (2002). Some Antecedents of Organizational Commitment: Results from an Information Systems Public Sector Organization. Bank of Valletta Review, 25. Clayton, B., Petzall, S., Lynch, B. Margret, J. (2007). An Examination of the Organizational Commitment Of Financial Planners. International Review of Business Research Papers, Vol.3, No.1. Pp. 60 72 Cooper-Hakim, A., Viswesvaran, C. (2005). The construct of work commitment: Testing an integrative framework. Psychological Bulletin, 131, 241-259. Digman, J. M. (1990). Personality structure: Emergence of the five-factor model. Annual Review of Psychology, 21, 417-440. Erdheim,J., Wang, M. Zickar, M.J. (2006). Linking the Big Five personality constructs to organizational commitment. Personality and Individual Differences 41, 959-970 Grusky, D. (1966) Career Mobility and Organisational Commitment, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 10, 488-503. Hair, J.F., Anderson, R.E., Tatham, R.L., Black, W.C. (1998), Multivariate Data Analysis, 5th ed., Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, . Herscovitch, L. and Meyer, J. P., 2002. Commitment to organizational Change: Extension of a three-component model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87: 474-487. John, O. P., Donahue, E. M., Kentle, R. L. (1991). The Big Five InventoryVersions 4a and 54. Berkeley, CA: University of California, Berkeley, Institute of Personality and Social Research. John, O. P., Naumann, L. P., Soto, C. J. (2008). Paradigm shift to the integrative Big Five trait taxonomy: History, measurement, and conceptual issues. In O. P. John, R. W. Robins, L. A. Pervin (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (pp. 114-158). New York, NY: Guilford Press. Kumar K., et al (2009). Linking the Big Five Personality Domains to Organizational Citizenship Behavior. International Journal of Psychological Studies. Vol. 1, No 2 Lawler, E. J. (1992). Affective attachment to nested groups: A choice process theory. American Sociological Review, 57, 327-339. Magnus, K., Diener, E., Fujita, F., Pavot, W. (1993). Extraversion and neuroticism as predictors of objective life events: A longitudinal analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 1046-1053. McCrae, R. R., John, O. P. (1992). An introduction to the five-factor model and its applications. Journal of Personality, 2, 175-215. Mathieu, J. E., Zajac, D. M. (1990). A review and meta-analysis of the antecedents, correlates, and consequences of organizational commitment. Psychological Bulletin, 108, 171-194. Meyer, J.P. and Allen, N.J. (1984) Testing the Side-Bet Theory of Organisational Commitment: Some Methodological Considerations, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 69: 372-378. Meyer, J. P., Allen, N. J. (1991). A three-component conceptualization of organizational commitment. Human Resource Management Review, 1, 61-89. Meyer, J. P., Allen, N. J., Smith, C. A. (1993). Commitment to organizations and occupations: Extension and test of a three-component conceptualization. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 538-551. Meyer, J. P., Allen, N. J. (1997). Commitment in the workplace: Theory, research and application. California: Sage Publishers Inc. Meyer, J. P., Stanley, D. J., Herscovitch, L., Topolnytsky, L. (2002). Affective, continuance, and normative commitment to the organization: A meta-analysis of antecedents, correlates, and consequences. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 61, 20-52. Mowday, R., Porter, L.W. and Steers, R.M. (1982) Employee-Organisation Linkages: The Psychology of Commitment, Absenteeism, and Turnover. San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Nummenmaa, T., Konttinen, R., Kuusinen, J., Leskinen, E. (1996), Tutkimusaineiston Analyysi , Analysis of Research Data WSOY, Helsinki, . Organ, D. W., Lingl, A. (1995). Personality, satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behavior. Journal of Social Psychology, 135, 339-350. Reichers, A. (1985). A review and reconceptualization of organizational commitment. Academy of Management Journal, 10, 465-476. Shepherd, J. L. Mathews, B. P. (2000). Employee commitment: Academic vs practitioner perspectives. Employee Relations, 22(6): 555-575. Watson, D., Clark, L. A. (1997). Extraversion and its positive emotional core. In S. R. Briggs, W. H. Jones, R. Hogan (Eds.), Handbook of personality psychology. New York: Academic Press. Watson, D., Clark, L. A., Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063-1070. Watson, D. (2000). Mood and temperament. New York: Guilford Press. Williams, L. J., Gavin, M. B., Williams, M. L. (1996). Measurement and nonmeasurement processes with negative affectivity and employee attitudes. Journal of Applied Psychology, 81, 88-101. Personality and Organizational Commitment Relationship Personality and Organizational Commitment Relationship CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Chapter Overview This study will focus on the relationship between personality and organizational commitment. This chapter includes background of the study, problem statement, research question, research objectives, significant of the study and the scope of study as well. In addition, the conceptual and operational definitions of terms are discussed to provide an understanding on their usage in this study. Lastly, this chapter concludes with a summary. Background of the Study Organizational commitment is a positive psychological state of attachment that pushes the employee’s performance upward to successfully turn the firm’s strategic vision into a reality (Hawass, 2012) 8964-35144-1-PB (2). Although there are many kind of definitions by different researchers, all of them unanimously attempted to place emphasis on the relationship between employees and organization (Ekmekci, 2011) Darbanyan. Over the past two decades, there has been a huge increase in the research efforts trying to explore and understand the nature, antecedents and consequences of organizational commitment (2-4) Kumar. Many of research reviews and meta-analysis have done on organizational commitment because it plays an important role in predicting work behavior (kumar, 2010) kumar. According to Klein, Backer, Meyer (2009) Hackney, organizational commitment is so well studied due to the impact of organizational commitment is associated with work outcomes such as turnover intention, absenteeism, job performance, motivation and job withdrawal behaviors. Organizational commitment is a multidimensional framework that can bring effect to many factors in organization and draw out various positive implication for organization and its workers (Darbanyan et al. 2014) Darbanyan. For example, there is an inverse relationship between organizational commitment and absenteeism, turnover intention and dysfunctional job behavior (Amiri, 2009) Darbanyan. Moreover, meta-analyses also indicate that organizational commitment is positively related to job satisfaction, organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) and job performance (Vandenberghe and Bentein, 2009; Su et al. 2009) 09593841211204335. A study conducted by Sjoberg and Sverke (2000) Darbanyan in Sweden found out that organizational commitment has multiple effects on absenteeism. Researchers have identified different factors that can be affected for organizational commitment. Personal characteristic, work experience, role related characteristics are considered as common antecedences of organizational commitment (Meyer and Allen, 1993). Personality characteristics are one of the antecedents of commitment and studies of personality as it relates to commitment are few (Klein rt al., 2009) Hackney. Personality is another variable that examined in this study as well as addressed by many theorists. Different researchers possess different approaches and came up with various definitions of personality in line with their approaches (Darbanyan, 2014). According to Peryin John (2009) 8964-35144-1-PB (2), each level of these personality traits has special contribution to the understanding of individual differences in behavior and experience. Individual’s personality can define how he or she views the world around him, react to situations and interacts with others in the organization (Michaud, 2013) 8964-35144-1-PB (2). Understanding employee’s personality is very important due to its usefulness on placing people into jobs and gives clues to managers about how an employee is likely to act and feel in a variety of situation. According to Kumar and Bakhshi (2010) SSRN-id2220719, individual’s personality is a good predictor of work attitudes and work outcomes. The dispositional factors are always referring to the Five-factor model of personality (Kumar and Bakhshi, 2010). Big Five personality is one of the most prominent models in contemporary psychology to describe the most salient aspects of personality (Goldberg, 1990; John Srivastava, 1999) SSRN-id2220719. Most of the studies on organizational commitment focus on identifying the environmental factors such as low salary, highly stress environment and low motivation (Hoffmann, Ineson.., 2004) 109_327_3rdICBER2012_Proceeding_PG1583_1592. However, employee dispositional sources mainly known as personalities are being ignored. A study done by Kumar †¦ (2010) stated that there is little attention given in investigating the relationship between personalities, using the Big Five personality model with organizational commitment. This study proposes to investigate the relationship between Big Five personality and organizational commitment among employees in Aon Insurance Brokers Sdn Bhd, Bangsar. Problem Statement Research Questions Research questions of this study are: What are the personality traits among employees in Aon Insurance Brokers (M) Sdn Bhd. What is the level of organizational commitment of employees in Aon Insurance Brokers (M) Sdn Bhd? Is there any relationship between Big Five personality and organizational commitment among employees in Aon Insurance Brokers (M) Sdn Bhd? What is the effect of Big Five personality to organizational commitment among employees in Aon Insurance Brokers (M) Sdn Bhd? Research Objectives The research objectives of this study are: To identify the personality traits among employees in Aon Insurance Brokers (M) Sdn Bhd. To determine the level of organizational commitment of employees in Aon Insurance Brokers (M) Sdn Bhd. To investigate the relationship between Big Five personality and organizational commitment among employees in Aon Insurance Brokers (M) Sdn Bhd. To determine the effect of Big Five personality to organizational commitment among employees in Aon Insurance Brokers (M) Sdn Bhd. Scope of the Study This study is to identify the relationship between personality and organizational commitment among the employees in Aon Insurance Brokers (M) Sdn Bhd. The study will be conducted by having the Aon Insurance Brokers (M) Sdn Bhd’s employees as respondents to identify the personality traits and organizational commitment of them. There are around 110 employees who work in Aon Insurance Brokers (M) Sdn Bhd and there will be a total number of 86 employees been chosen randomly as research sample to participate in this study. The employees will be chosen based on random sampling and the data will be collected via questionnaire from the employees in Aon Insurance Brokers (M) Sdn Bhd. The independent variable will be measured by Big Five Inventory (BFI). The dimensions of the Big Five personality are extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness. For the dependent variable, Three Dimensional Commitment Scale questionnaire will be used to measure the organizational commitment of employees. There are three dimensions of organizational commitment that will be measured: affective organizational commitment, continuance organizational commitment and normative organizational commitment. Total of 24 items will be used to measure organizational commitment by using 5 point Likert Scale. Significant of the Study Many researchers have widely discussed the study on organizational commitment (Lin, Lin and Lin, 2010; and Judge, Klinger, Simon and Yang, 2008) 109_327_3rdICBER2012_Proceeding_PG1583_1592. However, there is not much attention given on the study of relationship between Big Five personality and organizational commitment especially in Malaysia. Thus, this study will contribute in adding more literatures on personality and organizational commitment specifically in Malaysia context. The study brings attention to the importance of talking personality into consideration while measuring employees’ organizational commitment. Additionally, this study will help managers to understand more about employees’ personality and how they react toward organizational processes. Understanding employees’ personality is very useful to managers because managers can predict how the employees are likely to act and feel in different kind of situation. Moreover, findings of this study could help managers to increase employees’ loyalty in particular company. Job satisfaction will also increase and followed by decrease in turnover rate in that company. Conceptual Definition 1.8.1Personality: Big Five Model Personality is a subfield of psychology (Friedman Schustack, 2008). Personality is basically not studied in terms of non-psychological concepts. These non-psychological concepts included profits and losses, souls and spirits, or molecules and electromagnetism. According to the founder of personality psychology, Gordon Allport, personality is defined as the inner organization of psycho physiological system of a person to create a person’s unique behavior, feeling and thoughts (Lin, 2010). For this research, Big Five personality approach will be used to identify employees’ personality traits. The Big Five personality factors include extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness. Big Five personality is also known as OCEAN, NEOAC or CANOE (Feldman, 2011). 1.8.2Organizational Commitment As Meyer and Allen (1991) suggest, organizational commitment is defined as the psychological state that links an employee to the organization where the employee has strong involvement and desire to exert effort in achieving organization’s goals. There are three types of commitment, which are affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment. Brown (1996) and Brickman (1987) 1-s2.0-S105348220000053X-main who provided general definitions of commitment noted that commitment is different from motivation or general attitudes. They suggested that commitment influences behavior independently of other motives and attitudes and, in fact, might lead to persistence in a course of action even in the face of conflicting motives or attitudes (†¦,2001). Operational Definition Big Five Personality Big Five personality is the five basic factor develop by the researcher Norman through measure of the factor analysis of peer’s personality trait. The factor that concludes from Norman’s Big Five factor is extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and culture (Lin 2010) yuchuan. However, the Big Five Model that we going to used in this study is the Big Five model which modified by researcher McCrae where the â€Å"culture† dimension is changed to â€Å"openness† dimension (Lin, 2010). Individual who high in extraversion tend to be energetic, talkative, enthusiastic, sociable and dominant. Individual low in this dimension tend to be introvert, quiet, shy, submissive and retiring (Friedman Schustack, 2011) ting. For agreeableness, individual high in this dimension is friendly, warm, cooperative and trusting whereas individual low in this dimension are unkind, cold and quarrelsome (F.., 2011). Neuroticism also known as emotional instability. Individual who has this personality dimension tend to be moody, nervous, tense, high-strung and worrying. Individual low on this dimension is emotionally stable, calm, contented and stable. Conscientiousness also known as lack of impulsivity. Early research in personality psychology mentioned this dimension as Will. Conscientious individual are generally responsible, cautious, organized, dependable and persevering. Individual low on this dimension is impulsive, undependable, careless, disorderly (F†¦, 2011). Besides that, openness also known as culture or intellect. Individual who has this personality dimension tend to be artistic, imaginative, original creativity and witty. Individual low in this dimension are shallow, simple and plain (F, 2011). Organizational Commitment Meyer and Allen’s Three-Component Model of commitment (1991) is used to measure the level of organizational commitment of employees in this study. Organizational commitment refers to the level to which the employees’ emotional connection and their identification with the company where they currently working in. Three dimensions of organizational commitment proposed by Meyer and Allen (1991) is investigated in this study, namely affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment. According to Meyer and Allen (1997), affective commitment is the employee’s emotional attachment and participation of the employee in the organization. In this study, it refers to the employees’ emotional commitment towards their company, their identification and the desire to remain in the company. The second dimension proposed by Meyer and Allen is continuance commitment, which refers to the awareness of the cost of leaving associated with leaving the organization. In this study, continuance commitment means the consciousness of the employees on the perceived prices associate with quitting from their company, such as limited job opportunities. Lastly, normative commitment is the feelings of employee’s obligation to remain in an organization and it also used to describe the degree to which the employee believes him or herself should committed to their organization. Summary In conclusion, this chapter outlines the background, problem statement, research questions, research objectives, study scope as well as significance of study. The main objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between employees’ personality and their organizational commitment. The conceptual and operational definitions of research variables such as personality and organizational commitment are also being discussed. The relevant literatures, previous empirical research, models and theories related to this research will be explained and discussed in chapter 2.