The Metamorphosis By Gregor Samsa - 954 Words

The beginning of â€Å"The Metamorphosis†, starts with the character Gregor Samsa, waking up one morning transformed into an insect without any explanation. He was unsure of what was happening to him or why. Gregor’s days were routinely the same, getting up and going to work every day, no matter what. Gregor’s father had owned a business that failed and left the family in debt, which Gregor inherited the responsibility of paying back his family’s debts. Therefore, Gregor’s first reaction was about his obligation to his family and getting to work. His first struggle with his transformation was trying to maneuver his new body. Leaving him unable to leave his room. My uncle also had a daily routine, he got up every morning and make coffee and toast for me before I went to work. One morning I got up and he was not out there, so I became very concerned. When I went to his room the first thing I noticed was a difference in my uncle s appearance. He looked fragile, swollen, and unsure of what was happening to him, he informed me he was unable to move. Seemingly normal the night before, this transformation happen overnight with no warning, Like Gregor, my uncle somehow inherited the responsibility to help raise our children. raise my children. So his first reaction was to get up and fulfill his obligation to care for my children. Another similarity was their inability to eat the same foods after the transformation. In Gregor s case he was unable to eat fresh foods, heShow MoreRelatedThe Metamorphosis By Gregor Samsa1329 Words   |  6 Pagesâ€Å"The Metamorphosis† unfolds into a novella where the four main characters develop over the course of the story. Their development is accredited to once single event which happens to the main character, Gregor Samsa. Gregor becoming a gigantic bug not only changes his perspective of life, literally, but also impacts his family dynamic in a negative way which will never be restored. With this result of the family shifting, Gregor feel he is the cause for all the pain among family. Gregor was theRead MoreThe Metamorphosis By Gregor Samsa1058 Words   |  5 PagesThe Metamorphosis is a story of the transformation of an urban family through the shocking alteration of family breadwinner, Gregor Samsa. Gregor s position profoundly changes his self-feelings as well as his relationship with his family. This change of events drastically alters the family s lifestyle and metamorphoses each member. Gregor s sister, Grete, starts with utmost admiration which stagnates into resentment. His father starts off headstrong and grows weary. His mother s cheer turns intoRead MoreThe Diary of Gregor Samsa in The Metamorphosis1454 Words   |  6 Pagesmy days are numbered, and that before I should be consumed by an overpowering force and new order of movement— that I have come to convince myself, have been the foremost product of my own hands—I should leave you and others with a tale of my metamorphosis. Not too long ago, I transformed into the most treacherous of creatures! I had not anticipated it. Indeed scarcely would I have conceived that a day and a time like this would come that I would not be the productive man that I am. Not even myRead MoreMetamorphosis Gregor Samsa Character Analysis1026 Words   |  5 Pages A villain is someone who opposes who opposes the protagonists (Websters). In Franz Kafka’s, Metamorphosis Gregor Samsa’s father’s tendencies and actions enhance the story. As Kafka recounts a story about Gregor who wakes up one morning, not feeling like himself, literally. He wakes up in an entirely different body, no longer does he walk and talk like a man, but rather lives and breathes through the body of a large insect. After all of Gregors, hardships and demonstrated devotion, his father stillRead MorePersonal Experiences Reflected in Metamorphosis by Gregor Samsa1061 Words   |  5 Pagesinto his work The Metamorphosis. The Metamorphosis p resents many connections between the life of the protagonist, Gregor Samsa, and Kafka himself. Some literary analysts claim it serves as an outlet for his distraught life. Based on the events of Gregor Samsa’s life, it can be deduced that Franz Kafka used his personal experiences as an inspiration for The Metamorphosis. Kafka portrays the relationship he had with his father through the relationship of Gregor and Mr. Samsa. Kafka’s father, HermannRead MoreThe Unselfish Gregor Samsa in The Metamorphosis Essay example1406 Words   |  6 PagesThe Unselfish Gregor Samsa In Franz Kafkas The Metamorphosis, some might argue that Gregor was a terrible person and his metamorphosis was not real, but only an illustration of the terrible person he had become. However, it can much more strongly be argued that he was an extremely unselfish person and his actions were largely taken for granted by his family. Kafka was emphasizing the common practice of selfless actions being unappreciated through his story of Gregor and his family. One wayRead MoreThe Metamorphosis : A Traveling Salesman Named Gregor Samsa825 Words   |  4 PagesElizabeth Shuck Mr. Detweiler Honors English 4 November 2014 The Metamorphosis The Metamorphosis, is about a traveling salesman named Gregor Samsa. One morning, Gregor wakes up to find that he has transformed into a giant insect. Unable to get up, he reflects on how he does not like his life as a traveling salesman. When he does not get up, and is let to work, his mom begins to worry about him. Eventually Gregor’s officer manager shows up and knocks on the door to tell him to get up. He respondsRead MoreThe Metamorphosis Is About A Traveling Salesman Gregor Samsa1056 Words   |  5 PagesTaylor Scott Mr. Flora December 16, 2015 Mid-Term The Metamorphosis The Metamorphosis is about a traveling salesman Gregor Samsa who was the money provider to his family, and was metaphorically transformed. When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vernin (Kafka 538).The transformation that happens to Gregor affects everyone else he is connected with in one way or another, and brings his family into configurations withRead MoreEssay The Sins of Gregor Samsa of Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis2749 Words   |  11 PagesThe Sins of Gregor Samsa of Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis Gregor Samsa’s crimes originate from his intense devotion to his family, and thus in his intense devotion to his work, which in turn makes him intently devout to the conformist society that creates his world. Gregor’s crimes are not of the scope that contains what one may consider normal or standard crimes, and his motivations come from a separate set of values than those that society would consider to be the median. As a result ofRead MoreGregor Samsa Symbolizes Change in Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka 520 Words   |  3 Pagesorder to maintain the fluency of life. The character Gregor Samsa’s in the book â€Å"Metamorphosis† by Franz Kafka symbolizes change, in which he gets transformed into a large insect. Change literally means to make or do something in a different manner to get a new result. However the central theme of the masterpiece â€Å"The Metamorphosis† is change. The novel illustrates the idea of change and transformation through its main character Gregor Samsa who transforms into a large insect. The real transformation

Carl Menger s Principles Of Economics - 1344 Words

Carl Menger has been given credit to the modern Austrian Economic model. He wrote â€Å"Principles of Economics† in 1871 (Snowdon and Vane 474). What separates Austrian Economics from other schools of thought is the emphasis put individuality. The individual is the driving force of the Austrian school of thought. Because of this, Austrian Economics is very subjective. The needs of one individual differ from those of another individual. Put simply, people will want to better their lives. Manoj Singh said that â€Å"One more extra dollar in the hands of a billionaire would hardly make any difference, although the same dollar would be invaluable in the hands of a pauper† (Singh). There is an incentive for people to better themselves.†¦show more content†¦In an economy with no growth, the Austrians believe that the current level of savings is just enough to offset capital depreciation. Also, in a no growth economy the consumable output (products that busin ess produce) is constant. This is represented in the first two periods of the graph. If savings are in excess of capital depreciation, the economy grows. Period 3 shows the decrease in consumable output when consumer preferences change in favor of savings. The assumption is that because businesses are not producing as many products, they have freed up resources. The Austrians would say they need to invest these freed up resources into their company in order to eventually increase their level of consumable outputs at an increased rate in conjunction with the future increase in consumption brought about by the current increase in savings. This is depicted in period 4 and continues throughout the end of the graph. These three graphs are the model that Austrians use to determine output and interest rates in the economy. The graph on the top left represents the stages of production by firms with stages of production on the x-axis and consumable output (goods) on the y-axis. In the economy some products require fewer stages of production than others. At each stage of production there are more goods produced, but only up to the hypotenuse. If the economy

Effects of Plagiarism Free Essays

Julia Fleming-Emery PRPE A108 P12 March 31st 2013 Cause and Effect Effects Of Plagiarism Plagiarism is the theft of credit for creating a document of information. It not only happens in schools but can also happen in the work area. Plagiarism is an act of academic dishonesty and most schools and university’s explain the consequences it can result it. We will write a custom essay sample on Effects of Plagiarism or any similar topic only for you Order Now Plagiarizing has many effects that are not only in schools. Plagiarizing can result in jail time, fines, and expulsion from a school or universities. Plagiarizing an essay or paper can result in jail time. Most cases with plagiarism are considered misdemeanors and can be punishable by fines. But, likewise you can serve up to a year in jail. Plagiarism is considered a felony under certain states and laws. There are many different forms of plagiarism If someone were to write a book using someone else’s material, ended up selling the material and making money depending on the amount of money earned the fine can be bigger and could result in more jail time. For example, if someone were to write a book that contained a different authors research, they could face a horrendous amount of fines and up to ten years in jail. Along with jail time you can end up paying a substantial amount of money in fines for Plagiarism. A misdemeanor you can end up paying upwards from $100 to $50,000. A felony can face up to $250,000 depending on the material. If the material makes more than $2,500 in profit then it can be considered a felony. Fines with plagiarizing all depend on the material that’s written depending on the amount of money that is made from selling what was wrote or published. Plagiarism is a serious offense no one wants to pay the fines that are brought upon it. I think the reason people plagiarize is because its easier and they are simply just to lazy to do the work themselves. I myself would not want the consequences that are brought upon plagiarism. Plagiarizing cannot only result in legal action but can result in expulsion from schools and universities. Schools take plagiarism as a serious academic dishonesty. Along with expulsion from school students who are guilty of plagiarism face a failing grade in the course of which they committed the offense. College students can face losing their degree depending on the discovery of the offense. Expulsion from plagiarizing can ruin a student’s life and could have long-term effects on the student’s life. Students take the easy way out when they plagiarize and they get a good grade from it. In conclusion plagiarism can lead to jail time, fines and expulsion from schools or universities. Universities, schools and states take plagiarism seriously. Plagiarism has many effects that can follow you through your lifetime. Plagiarism is illegal and everyone should take the matter serious. If the work is hard instead of copying and pasting ask some around you for help. How to cite Effects of Plagiarism, Papers

Organisational Commitment Psychological Attachment

Question: Discuss about the Organisational Commitment for Psychological Attachment. Answer: Introduction: Organisational commitment describes the psychological attachment of an employee with his organisation. Assessment of organisational commitment is done to evaluate job satisfaction among employees in order to maintain their engagement with the organisation (Lim, 2015). Human relation management practices regulate organisational commitment through multidimensional influences. This report deals with the key concept of organisational commitment and human relation management in effectively addressing organisational commitment. Human relation or Human resource management (HRM) is a formal system of management that manages the employees within an organisation by taking care of staffing, employee benefits and compensation and design of work. In current competitive global market and extreme changes in organisational environment strengthen the importance of Human relation management practices in organisational management. It is significantly addressed that to built effective employee commitment HRM practices is highly relevant within an organisation. A number of studies examined the direct relationship between HRM practices and organisational commitment of an employee (Foss et al., 2015). Employees shows commitments when they are satisfied with their job profile, design of work, benefits and compensation. Diagrammatically the influence of Human Relation Management on organisational commitment can be explained as follows Studies have been carried out at corporate sectors, multiple industries and business industries, and in every occasion, despite of population size, there is a link between HRM practices and organisational commitment. Therefore, by providing effective benefits and facilities HRM practices triggers the emotional, normative and continuous organisational commitment among the employees. Studies on HRM practice showed that HRM practices that supports employee-friendly working environment, career development and comprehensive training reflects a significantly positive relationship regarding organisational commitment (Saridakis, Muoz Torres Johnstone, 2013). Researchers have been showed that effective HRM practices strengthen employee-employer relationship which results in a change in employee behaviour and their engagement with the organisation. Reward systems in terms of monetary compensation and appraisal carried out by the HRM practices increases job satisfaction among the employee as t hey realize that their efforts are being recognized. This satisfaction leads them to emotionally engage with the organisation and motivate them to serve their best to achieve organisational objectives. Studies also suggested that HRM practices also affect the manufacturing performance of an organisation by managing commitment of the employees providing adequate training and extra monetary benefits, which motivate the employees to retain relationship with the organisation (Buller McEvoy, 2016). Theoretical approaches have been taken to analyse the effect of variation in individual and job groups to assess particular HRM practices required to increase organisational commitment. Studies have been showed that individual in different job groups react differently towards similar HRM practices. Therefore, modification of HRM practices according to job group is highly essential to influence organisational commitment (Edwards et al., 2016). From the investigation of these researchers it can be concluded that HRM practices creates an environment within the organisation which polish employees to motivate themselves to express potential benefit and serve their best to achieve the goal of the organisation (Foss et al., 2015). Therefore, it can be concluded that organisational commitment highly influences organisational performance by enabling the employees to perform at their best. Additionally, despite of risks in Human relation management, HRM can also influences organisational commitment. References: Buller, P. F., McEvoy, G. M. (2016). A Model for Implementing a Sustainability Strategy through HRM Practices.Business and Society Review,121(4), 465-495. Edwards, T., Snchez-Mangas, R., Jalette, P., Lavelle, J., Minbaeva, D. (2016). Global standardization or national differentiation of HRM practices in multinational companies? A comparison of multinationals in five countries.Journal of International Business Studies,47(8), 997-1021. Foss, N. J., Pedersen, T., Reinholt Fosgaard, M., Stea, D. (2015). Why Complementary HRM Practices Impact Performance: The Case of Rewards, Job Design, and Work Climate in a Knowledge?Sharing Context.Human Resource Management,54(6), 955-976. Harvard Business Review. (2017). Human Relations or Human Resources?. [online] Available at: https://hbr.org/1965/07/human-relations-or-human-resources [Accessed 24 Jan. 2017]. Kim, K. Y., Eisenberger, R., Baik, K. (2016). Perceived organizational support and affective organizational commitment: Moderating influence of perceived organizational competence.Journal of Organizational Behavior. Lim, V. V. (2015). Organisational Commitment on the Job Performance of Employees in An International Bank. Saridakis, G., Muoz Torres, R., Johnstone, S. (2013). Do human resource practices enhance organizational commitment in SMEs with low employee satisfaction?.British Journal of Management,24(3), 445-458.

Macbeth As A Tragic Hero Essays - Characters In Macbeth,

Macbeth as a Tragic Hero In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, we discover that Macbeth is a tragic hero. Macbeth is very ambitious, courageous, and a moral coward: all these things lead to his tragic death at the end of the play. At the beginning of the play, Shakespeare defines Macbeth as a hero very clearly. From the courages in defense of Scotland is significant in the opening scene. However, he is very ambitious to be king. At the beginning of the play, he was loyal to the king. While he did imagine of murder his mind rejects it and said, "Why, if fate will have me king, why, chance may crown me," - Act I, Sc 3, p.44-45. Yet increasingly his ambition defeated his good nature. When Duncan named Malcolm the Prince of Cumberland, Macbeth decided on the murder of Duncan. When Duncan arrived at Inverness, Macbeth controled his ambition for the time being and did not kill Duncan. The failing of his decision was soon reflected by Lady Macbeth who called him a coward. From then on, after the murder of Dun can, Macbeth entered into a life of evil. Since he overcomed his good nature, he no longer needed to be with his friend Banquo. He wanted to protect his ambition, by killing the king, and now he killed Banquo, due to the prediction of what the witches said about Banquo's son becoming the king. Macbeth wanted to ensure that he would reach his ambition without problems. Macbeth, who now no longer needed any encouragement from Lady Macbeth, started to leave her in ignorance of his plans. Near the end of the play, Lady Macbeth sleepwalked and had a dream about the killing of Duncan and Banquo. She died because of all this pressure and her guilt about the murder. Soul of Macbeth have been destroyed since Macbeth love Lady Macbeth very much, as shown in Act I, Sc. 5, p.58, "My Dearest Love." The power of nemesis is shown clearly at the end of the play when Macduff came back to murder Macbeth. Macbeth would never have guessed that Macduff would come back for revenge for the killing in Macd uff's household. This nemesis shows an additional force beyond Macbeth's control. Because of Macbeth's strong beliefs in ambition and the witches, when he found out Macduff was not born of woman, and also found out the Birnam Wood had been seen moving, he realized that the third apparition had deceived him and he understood he was no longer safe. Through the development of this tragedy, Macbeth has turned from a fine natured person to an evil person. His ambition, strong belief in the witches, has brought him to a tragic end of his life, and caused many people to lose their lives.

Make Time to Be Solitary

Make Time to Be Solitary Loneliness expresses the pain of being alone and solitude expresses the glory of being alone. ~ Paul Tillich Books take many hours to write, which gives the public the impression that writers are lonely, solitary creatures. The average person cannot stand being alone. However, its next to impossible to be alone anymore. Im not talking about people interference, though that is an issue. How often do you write without access to the internet? Your phone? Earbuds or background music? Most writers arent solitary. On the contrary they usually cannot stand not to be connected. And maintaining that connection means you are not completely alone which could be impacting your writing. You may think you need the noise, connection, or music because your brain cannot take the concept of being totally shut off from it. Youve convinced yourself you need that accompaniment. Truth is, being focused on one, intense thing like creative writing is a challenge. We multi-task so much these days that we have lost touch with single-tasking. If we are too long silent online, or do not answer our phone, other people worry. Actually, when people are able to slide away into solitary mode and remain there a while, other people become concerned about broken, abnormal behavior. You arent depressed, are you? In reality, all the stimuli we cant keep up with might be more the cause of said depression. Suzanne Degges-White, a psychology professor at Northern Illinois University, says: â€Å"You can’t make good decisions if you don’t ever give yourself time to reflect.† And â€Å"if you’re constantly engaged in the world, it’s harder to make space for those moments of genius.† Resource: https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/sc-fam-need-for-alone-time-1225-story.html Gaming  on your phone is not alone time. Background music is not alone time. Anything conflicting with alone time saps brain function. Find time where nothing is required of you. Absolutely nothing. Regenerate with alone time, then try writing with nothing else active around you. Attempt pure, unadulterated thinking about your story. This allows your writing to pour instead of fighting its way around the distractions.

BDM midterm

BDM midterm Essay Ralph Edmund loves steak and potatoes. Therefore, he has decided to go on a steady diet of only these two foods for all his meals. Ralph realizes that this is not the healthiest diet, so he wants to make sure that he eats the right quantities of the two foods to satisfy some key nutritional requirements. He has obtained the following nutritional and costs data. The Oak Works is a family owned business that makes hand crafted dining room tables and chairs. They obtain the oak from a local tree farm, which ships them 2500 pounds of oak each month. Each table uses 50 pounds of oak while each chair uses 25 pounds of oak. The family builds all the furniture itself and has 480 hours of labour available each month. Each table or chair requires 6 hours of labour. Each table nets Oak Works $400 in profit, while each chair nets them $100 in profit. Since chairs are often sold with tables they want to produce at least twice as many chairs as tables. Formula a linear program to maximize profit. BDM midterm. (2016, May 16).

Logistics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 6

Logistics - Essay Example FedEx is an American international courier delivery company. The organization has massive information stored in its computer vaults in its Memphis headquarters (FedEx, 2014). The major challenge for FedEx in the early 2000s was to help their global partners access this information, make business for themselves and in turn business for FedEx. To solve this challenge, FedEx connected its partners through an online portal. Check Point Software Technologies is the firm that provided the needed software that was customized by FedEx’s IT workforce. Tied to the firm’s payment processing system, AutoPay, the portal provides access to various reports including revenues brought in by each partner compared to their budgets (Hemmatfar, Salchi & Bayat, 2010). This is in line with the objective of business intelligence of comparing actual performance to set goals (Gendron, 2013). The portal could also be queried to provide information on delivery performance and help in making decisi ons on best locations for new satellite bureaus. Thus, FedEx is able to track and monitor its processes. It provides real-time management updates to pave way for appropriate adjustment plans. Therefore, business intelligence has been critical for FedEx’s continuous planning. In the same way, business intelligence could be used in the logistics industry in general to make timely and well informed business

The relationship between employee engagement and organisational Research Paper

The relationship between employee engagement and organisational performance - Research Paper Example Moreover, the survey also stated that 28% of the global workforce is engaged, 54% is not engaged and 17% is actively disengaged. It was also found that with high level of employees’ engagement organizations tens to do well in the competitive business environment. The discussion aims to investigate the complex issues in contemporary HRM by focusing more on socio-economic issues offering challenges to HR practioners. The discussion underpins relevant literature to seek answer for the key issue revolving around socio-economic issues posing as a great challenge for contemporary HRM that is yet to be defined and understood fully in the current business environment. Majority of the literature stated that high level of employee engagement leads to better organizational performance but organizations need to be transparent and honest in their approach while making their employees fully engaged to accomplish stated goals and objectives. Based on the analysis of the literature in the con text of employees’ engagement and organizations performance, it was concluded that strengthening the relationship between employees and organizations matters the most in order to enhance the overall organizational performance. ... Robinson, et al (2004) stated that employee engagement is the involvement of employees with enthusiasm for work that often results in better organizational performance. Furthermore, Fernandez (2007) stated that employee engagement is the positive attitude held by employees for their organization’s values and objectives that is created by effective relationship between employers and employees. Coffman (2000) stated that there is a positive relationship between employee engagement and organizational performance as engaged employees are more likely to help organizations through their dedicated approach and efforts. Meere (2005) conducted a survey on 360000 employees from 41 companies of 10 different countries and found that operating and net profit drastically reduced with low engagement of employees. Clifton (2008) stated that employee engagement is closely linked to the organizational performance but also requires organizations to form sustainable relationship with employees. O n the other hand, Vance (2006) believed that every organization has different ways of engaging their employees to enhance organizational performance. However, motivation and compassionate behaviour always help organizations to engage their employees to perform well along with putting their best foot forward in achieving the proposed goals and objectives in a systematic and enthusiastic manner. On the basis of the above discussion, it can be said that employee engagement leads to better organizational performance but organizations need to maintain good relationship with employees in order to win their confidence and loyalty resulting in better engagement and better creation of value and thus enhancing the overall organizational performance. Employee Engagement and Organizational Performance

British Airways Essay Example for Free

British Airways Essay In 1987, British Airways was privatised, and over the next decade turned from a loss-making nationalised company into The Worlds Favourite Airline a market-leading and very profitable plc. The strategy that transformed the company into a marketing-led and efficient operation was conceived and implemented by Lord King as Chairman, aided by Sir Colin (subsequently Lord) Marshall: two tough businessmen who confronted staff inefficiencies and so improved service effectiveness that BA was rated international business travellers favourite airline for several years in the 1990s. Lord King having retired, Lord Marshall became Chairman and was succeeded as Chief Executive by Bob Ayling, a long-time BA manager. Ayling set in train a strategy to turn BA into a global airline transcending the flag-carrier status (the role of a nations leading airline) it shared with Air France, Lufthansa, Swissair, Alitalia, Iberia into an airline with no national home operating throughout the world. The dropping of the overtly British heritage and associations was reflected in a changed brand strategy. Away went aeroplane liveries featuring the Union flag, to be replaced by tailfins bearing themed designs from around the world. This was to address the global traveller a savvy (mainly business) customer whose criteria for purchase were service levels, range of destinations, promptness not price. But the re-branding became a debacle. Customers, staff, alliance partners, shareholders and retailers (travel agents) all liked the British heritage and imagery and rebelled against the turn to an anonymous, characterless new style. Ayling also focused on cost-reduction programmes which antagonised and demotivated BAs staff and customers noticed the deterioration in behaviour of staff whose commitment to customer service suddenly plummeted. The upshot was that Ayling was ousted in a boardroom coup in March 2000. During his reign, a loss of 244m in the year to March 31 2000 the first since privatisation was recorded and the groups market value had fallen  by half. A New Face. In May 2000, Rod Eddington joined BA as Chief Executive. He was previously Managing Directory of Cathay Pacific and Executive Chairman of Ansett, an Australian airline. Eddingtons immediate actions were designed to restore profitability to BAs operations and to restore the Union Flag to BAs planes! He set about reducing the fleet, moving to smaller aircraft, cutting clearly unprofitable routes. He also targeted high-yield customers, the traditional mainstay segment for BA. Matching supply with demand was the overall concern, to restore positive cash flow. Strategically, BAs longtime search for a merger partner was resumed. A link with American Airlines, the first choice partner, was out of the question after US regulatory authorities squashed the idea. A proposed merger with KLM, the Dutch flag carrier, was discussed in some depth, but that foundered on doubts over the long-term financial benefits, and arguments over the relative shares each airline would have in the merged company. Low-Cost Airlines. Meanwhile, the airline industry was undergoing a seismic shift with the rise of low-cost no frills airlines. Ryanair and easyJet had, at first, demonstrated the existence of a new market for cheap airline travel which had not been tapped by traditional airlines. But then they began to expand and to compete for passengers that normally would have gone to BA even business class customers couldnt see the reason to pay  £100 for breakfast (the difference in price between BA and easyJet between London and Edinburgh.) BAs response (under Bob Ayling) was to form GO as a direct response to the no-frills competitor. Operating out of Stansted airport, GO was operated entirely separately from BA, so none of the high-cost culture was inherited. Launched in the face of vociferous opposition from easyJet, GO nevertheless established itself in the market though at what cost, no-one could guess. Rod Eddington soon decided that his focus on premium customers made GOs operations inconsistent with that of BA as a whole. GO was sold in May 2001 for  £100m to 3i, a UK venture capital and private equity group. GO was subsequently sold on to easy Jet for 375m. However, the driving of aggressive strategies from budget airlines is still forcing flag-carriers to re-assess their business models. The Outcome. For the year ended March 2001, Eddingtons steps had yielded a quadrupling of operating profits. Market share on key routes had been lost as cuts in fleet and routes bit, but BA believed it had lost customers who paid deeply-discounted fares. BA continued its vigorous pursuit of high-yield passengers. September 11th. So, all seemed to be going well. The brand was being restored, financial performance was improving and the only real problem was lack of progress on forming a partnership with a US carrier, prevented by the regulators. Then came September 11th, and the airline market fell apart. The consequences were swift passenger numbers fell 28%, US airports were closed for a week, Swissair, Sabena, US Airlines and nearly, Aer Lingus, went bust. Alitalia lost 570m, Lufthansa 400m. Altogether the industry lost 7bn and shed 120,000 jobs 13,000 at BA and passenger numbers are still running at 13% below normal on transatlantic routes. In contrast, passenger numbers and financial results at low-cost carriers easyJet and Ryanair were rising impressively. Then came Sars, the Iraq war and the continuing sluggishness of the world economy, all deeply damaging to passenger numbers. Strategy at BA was thrown into disarray. Current Strategy. With the travel market is still subject to global economic and political uncertainty, BA has repeated its forecasts for lower revenues. However, the fundamentals of this business are stronger than they have been for four or five years John Rishton, Finance Director, says BA is generating cash, and is conserving that cash. (FT and D.Tel. 6.11.02). The operational imperatives to cope with the turbulent environment are expressed in BAs Future Size and Shape initiative which is intended to: Achieve significant cost reductions. Originally targeted at 650m, the cost savings are now expected to save an annualised  £1.1bn over 3 years (FT 19.3.03). Simplified operations and minimal overheads is the aim. Cut capacity, to match supply of aircraft and flights to the reduced demand. Cut staffing levels. A further 3,000 job cuts planned for March 2004 have been brought forward to September 2003. Change BAs business model. Aware that no-frills competition is not going to go away, but that BA possesses a positive service heritage, BA wants to create an offering that combines the best bits of BA and the no-frills model. Martin George, BAs director of marketing and commercial development, explains our customers like the BA product convenient airports, high frequency, good level of service but want it at the right price, and thats what well give them. Its about changing our business model to allow us to compete profitably (Management Today, September 2000). Rationalise BAs internal UK and short-haul business CitiExpress has been formed from the activities of subsidiaries Brymon, BRAL, Manx and BA Regional. To stem heavy losses on this short-haul network, some rationalisation has been done it has pulled out of Cardiff and Leeds-Bradford airports, and will cut its current fleet from 82 to 50 all-jet planes by end-2005. However, it is expanding operations from Manchester, and from London City airport to Paris and Frankfurt. (FT 18.12.02). It is recognised that BA started to take the bitter medicine of cost cuts and restructuring earlier and in bigger doses than rivals in Europe and North America, and that Rod Eddington has pushed through changes that were long overdue. But is this enough? can BA wrest back the short haul market from easyJet and Ryanair, while maintaining its position in the longhaul market Strike! In July 2003, just at the start of the busy holiday season, BA was hit by an unofficial strike by Heathrow check-in and sales staff who were objecting to a hasty introduction of a swipe-card automatic clocking system. 500 flights were cancelled, affecting 100,000 passengers. The damage to BAs service reputation was enormous. Both management and union leaders were taken by surprise, and it brought to a head the existence of restrictive practices going back 40 or 50 years which both sides have to confront. Performance. Results for the year ending 31st March 2003 showed a pretax profit of 135 on turnover down 7.8% to  £7.69bn, up from a loss of 335 in the year to March 2002. The results included a charge of 84m for the planned ending of Concorde flights in October, and a fourth-quarter loss (January to March) of 200m. These positive results were entirely down to cost reduction. No  dividend was paid a consequence of the need to conserve cash. Operating margin at 3.8% is way below Eddingtons target of 10%. (D.Tel, 20.5.03, FT, 21.5.03). In the first quarter of the 2003-04 year, a pretax loss of  £45m was incurred the effect of the Heathrow strike was put at 30-40m. The business environment. However, Rod Eddington sees the furure business environment as very hard to read, but expects it to get tougher. 2003-04 was meant, according to analysts, to be BAs year of recovery, but it is not now expected to happen. (DTel, 11.2.03) A critical development is the start of talks between the EU and the USA to dismantle the web of regulations that have controlled the development of international aviation since the mid-1940s. Eddington, as chairman of the Association of European Airlines, insists that truly global airlines are impossible in the current regulatory environment. If it were left to the market, international airlines would undoubtedly follow in the footsteps of other industries and would seek the benefits of scale and scope that are currently denied them. A truly global airline..would be free to operate wherever its customers demanded, free to grow organically or through acquisition and free to charge whatever the market would bear. These talks are likely to be very long. However, it potentially offers the opportunity for an opening of the two biggest airline markets and lead to substantial consolidation of participants. (FT, 29.9.03). The takeover of KLM, the Dutch flag carrier, by Air France, may be the precursor to the consolidation expected. BA sees no threat from what is now Europes largest airline. D.Tel, 1.01.03).

Graduation Speech: Thanks for the Good Times :: Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

Hello classmates of 2012. It is almost time for us to depart from one another. We will go our own ways and achieve our goals very soon, but before we go, I would like to share some memories with everyone. I have attended Tates Creek High School (TC) for two years. And during those two years, I have learned a lot from the school staff and from my peers. They all have taught me something new. This is what makes them so awesome. The school is small and so diverse that it makes it easier to meet everyone. It took me seven years in elementary school to get to know just about everyone, but at TC, I knew just about everyone in less than a year. The students are kind and very helpful. They help each other with assignments and help one another with catching up on homework when they have missed school. The staff here at TC are great. They help the students with questions on homework assignments and on just about anything. They are also here to listen to us and when we need someone to talk to, we can go talk to any one of them and they'll be there to help. We receive a lot of homework everyday, but it's no big deal. With many homework assignments, I am not able to slack off. I have to finish all of my assignmanets for one reason, and that reason is to not get any incomplete stamps. The homework load keeps me busy and keeps me from doing bad things that a lot of other middle school children are doing. There are nights where I have very little time or no time at all for fun, except for the weekends. On some days of the week, I have to do things after school. TC has set up enrichment classes for the students to do homework. I usually sign up for homework jumpstart, that way, I am able to get a jump start on my homework. The enrichment class helps me a lot, that way I'll have time to go do other things after school. TC has high standards for education. The staff here, at TC wants all of their students to be successful people in the future. They want what's best for us that's why they push us to try our best in everything we do. Our Basic Standard Testing scores are very high.

Culture Theory and Popular Culture Essay

The study of culture has, over the last few years, been quite dramatically transformed as questions of modernity and post-modernity have replaced the more familiar concepts of ideology and hegemony which, from the mid-1970s until the mid-1980s, anchored cultural analysis firmly within the neo-Marxist field mapped out by Althusser and Gramsci. Modernity and post-modernity have also moved far beyond the academic fields of media or cultural studies. Hardly one branch of the arts, humanities or social sciences has remained untouched by the debates which have accompanied their presence. They have also found their way into the ‘quality’ press and on to TV, and of course they have entered the art school studios informing and giving shape to the way in which art practitioners including architects, painters and film-makers define and execute their work. Good or bad, to be welcomed or reviled, these terms have corresponded to some sea-change in the way in which cultural intellectuals and practitioners experience and seek to understand the world in the late 1980s and into the 1990s. Storey claimed that â€Å"postmodernism has disturbed many of the old certainties surrounding questions of cultural value. † This work will consider the issues of postmodernism versus modernism mostly from the perspective of the critics of postmodernism with reference to ‘good’ and ‘bad’ taste. Post-modern cultural movements first emerged in the 1960s in painting, architecture, and literary criticism. Pop art challenged modernist art by experimenting with new cultural forms and contents that embraced everyday life, radical eclecticism, subcultures, mass media, and consumerism. Sociologist Daniel Bell was one of the first to take up the challenge of postmodernism. In The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism (1976) he identified a moral crisis in Western society bound up with the decline of Puritan bourgeois culture and the ascendence of a post-modern culture that he described in terms of an aesthetic relativism and a hedonistic individualism. Yet the most formidable critic of postmodernism and defender of modernity has been German philosopher and heir to the Frankfurt School tradition of critical theory — Jurgen Habermas. There are two problems with postmodernism. The first problem comes into focus around the meaning of the term fragmentation. This is a word which, through over-usage in recent cultural debates, has become shorn of meaning. Post-modernity has been associated by Fredric Jameson (1984) with the emergence of a broken, fractured shadow of a ‘man’. The tinny shallowness of mass culture is, he argues, directly reflected in the schizophrenic subject of contemporary mass consciousness. Against Jameson, Stuart Hall (1981) has recently said that it is just this decentring of consciousness which allows him, as a black person, to emerge, divided, yes, but now fully foregrounded on the post-modern stage. ‘So one of the fascinating things about this discussion is to find myself centred at last. Now that, in the postmodern age, you all feel so dispersed I become centred. What I’ve thought of as dispersed and fragmented comes, paradoxically, to be the representative modern condition! This is coming home with a vengeance’ (34). These are, then, two perspectives on the problem of postmodern fragmentation. There is Jameson, who looks back nostalgically to the notion of unity or totality and who sees in this a kind of prerequisite for radical politics, a goal to be striven for. And there is Hall, who sees in fragmentation something more reflective of the ongoing and historical condition of subaltern groups. Jameson’s unified ‘man’ could be taken to be a preFreudian, Enlightenment subject, and thus be discredited by those who have paid attention to Lacan’s notion of the fragmented subject. But the endorsement of post-modern fragmentation is equally not without its own problems. Have ‘we’ become more fragmented than before? Can we specifically name a time and a place for the moment of fragmentation? Is fragmentation the ‘other’ of ‘humanity’? Or is the representation of fragmentation coincidental with political empowerment and liberation? Christopher Norris (1990) has argued that post-modernity (and postmodern fragmentation) stands at the end of the long line of intellectual inquiry which starts with Saussure, works its way through post-structuralism and Lacanian psychoanalysis and ends with Baudrillard. In Norris’s terms fragmentation is to be understood as marking an absolute and irreparable break with the unified subject, a break which is now writ large in culture. Present-day fragmented subjectivity is captured and expressed in post-modern cultural forms, a kind of superficial pick-and-mix of styles. According to Jameson, however, unfragmented subjectivity, by contrast, produced great works of uncluttered ‘heroic’ modernism. There is a degree of slippage in the connections being made here. The problem lies, at least partly, in the imprecise use of the word ‘fragmentation’. There is a vacillation between the ‘high’ psychoanalytical use of Lacan and a much looser notion, one which seems to sum up unsatisfactory aspects of contemporary cultural experience. Modernists, however, also felt confused and fragmented. Fragmentation, as a kind of ‘structure of feeling’, is by no means the sole property of those living under the shadow of the post-modern condition. Bewilderment, anxiety, panic: such expressions can be attributed to any historical moment as it is transposed into cultural and artistic expression over the last a hundred and fifty years. The category of fragmentation seems to have become either too technical to be of general use (i. e. in Lacan’s work) or too vague to mean anything more than torn apart. The second question which might be asked of neo-Marxist critics of postmodernity, concerns determination, and the return to a form of economic reductionism in cultural theory. Fredric Jameson argues that postmodernism is the cultural logic of capital, but his argument, as Paul Hirst writing about trends in both New Times and post-modern writing, has suggested, ‘slips from a rigid causal determinism into casual metaphor’ (45). Jameson, going back to Mandel’s Late Capitalism, has argued that the kinds of cultural phenomena which might be described as post-modern form part of the logic of advanced or late capitalism. This does away, at a sweep, with the difficult issue of explaining the precise nature of the social and ideological relationships which mediate between the economy and the sphere of culture and it simultaneously restores a rather old-fashioned notion of determination to that place it had occupied prior to Althusser’s ‘relative autonomy’ and his idea of determination ‘in the last instance’ (67). Quoting Lyotard, Harvey (1989) takes up the notion of the temporary contract as the hallmark of post-modern social relations. What he sees prevailing in production, in the guise of new forms of work, he also sees prevailing in emotional life and in culture, in the temporary contract of love and sexuality. Like Jameson he decries this state and looks forward to something more robust and more reliable, something from which a less fractured sense of self and community might emerge. He views postmodern culture disparagingly, as aesthetic rather than ethical, reflecting an avoidance of politics rather than a rising to the challenge of a politics posed by new or changing conditions of production. Despite their sweeping rejection of post-modern writing, both Jameson and Harvey take advantage of the conceptual and methodological breadth found in these theories to circumvent (or short-circuit) the key problems which have arisen in cultural studies in the attempt to specify and under-stand the social relations which connect culture to the conditions of its production. Their conceptual leap into a critique of postmodernism allows these writers to avoid confronting more directly the place of Marxism in cultural studies from the late 1980s into the 1990s, a moment at which Marxism cannot be seen in terms other than those of eclipse or decline. Postmodernism exists, therefore, as something of a convenient bete noire. It allows for the evasion of the logic of cultural studies, if we take that logic to be the problematizing of the relations between culture and the economy and between culture and politics, in an age where the field of culture appears to be increasingly expansive and where both politics and economics might even be seen, at one level, as being conducted in and through culture. Structuralism has replaced old orthodoxies with new ones. This is apparent in its rereading of texts highly placed within an already existing literary or aesthetic hierarchy. Elsewhere it constructs a new hierarchy, with Hollywood classics at the top, followed by selected advertising images, and girls’ and women’s magazines rounding it off. Other forms of representation, particularly music and dance, are missing altogether. Andreas Huyssen in his 1984 introduction to postmodernism draws attention to this ‘high’ structuralist preference for the works of high modernism, especially the writing of James Joyce or Mallarme. ‘There is no doubt that centre stage in critical theory is held by the classical modernists: Flaubert†¦in Barthes†¦Mallarme and Artaud in Derrida, Magritte†¦ in Foucault†¦Joyce and Artaud in Kristeva†¦and so on ad infinitum’ (Huyssen, 1984:39). He argues that this reproduces unhelpfully the old distinction between the high arts and the ‘low’, less serious, popular arts. He goes on to comment: ‘Pop in the broadest sense was the context in which a notion of the post-modern first took shape†¦and the most significant trends within postmodernism have challenged modernism’s relentless hostility to mass culture. High theory was simply not equipped to deal with multilayered pop. Nor did it ever show much enthusiasm about this set of forms, perhaps because pop has never signified within one discrete discourse, but instead combines images with performance, music with film or video, and pin-ups with the magazine form itself’ (Huyssen, 1984:16). In recent article, where Hebdige (1988) engages directly with the question of postmodernism, he disavows the playful elements in Subculture†¦and, more manifestly, in the new fashion and style magazines. In contrast with what he sees now as an excess of style, a celebration of artifice and a strong cultural preference for pastiche, Hebdige seeks out the reassuringly real. He suggests that the slick joky tone of postmodernism, especially that found on the pages of The Face, represents a disengagement with the real, and an evasion of social responsibility. He therefore insists on a return to the world of hunger, exploitation and oppression and with it a resurrection of unfragmented, recognizable subjectivity. He fleetingly engages with an important characteristic of the post-modern condition, that is, the death of subjectivity and the emergence, in its place, of widespread social schizophrenia. Hebdige seems to be saying that if this rupturing of identity is what postmodernism is about, then he would rather turn his back on it. The position of Clement Greenberg in his 1980 lecture entitled The Notion of the â€Å"Post-Modern† could be summarized in the following terms: modernism in painting has been, since its inception with Manet and the impressionists, a heroic struggle against the encroachment of bad taste or kitsch in the domain of art; postmodernism is only the latest name under which commercial bad taste, masquerading as sophisticated â€Å"advancedness,† challenges the integrity of art. Any deviation from modernism, then, involves a betrayal or corruption of aesthetic standards. Seen from this vantage point, the â€Å"post-modern† cannot be much more than a renewed â€Å"urge to relax,† particularly pervasive after the advent of pop art, with its deleterious effects on the art world. This type of argument (modernism’s self-conscious mission, to exorcise bad taste from the domain of high art, is today as urgent as it ever was) appears in a variety of forms and shapes in the writings of the defenders of modernist purity against the infiltrations of commercialism and fashion. This realized art, however, is not in a harmonious universal style as Mondrian was envisaging. It consists mostly in forms of art considered banal, sentimental, and in bad taste by most in the Fine Art artworld. Further, because so many people have no interest in Fine Art, it is often thought that visual art has somehow lost its relevance and potency. People ask what the point of art is, and whether it is worthwhile spending public money on art. When people think of art, they think of Fine Art, and the influence of Fine Art seems to be in decline. However, although Fine Art seems to be in decline as a cultural force, visual art has more power in culture now than it ever had. Visual art is not all Fine Art. There is a diversity of kinds of art in contemporary culture. Besides Fine Art, there is also Popular Art, Design Art, and advertising. What Fine Art does for us is just a small part of the total cultural value we get from art. As traditional culture recedes from memory, and technology changes our lifestyles, people look for new values and lifestyles. These new values and lifestyles are carried by the art broadcast over the mass media and on the products we buy. The mass-media arts define our heroes and tell us about the good. Advertisements define pleasure and lifestyle. With mass-market goods we dress our bodies and houses in art, thus using art to define who we are. These contemporary visual arts play a large part in shaping our values, fantasies, and lifestyles. However, conventional art histories tend not to treat the other powerful visual arts of our own time beyond Fine Art, namely, Popular Art, Design Art, and advertising. Advertising is not considered â€Å"art† because it is not functionless beyond being aesthetic. Also, the advertising does not typically show personal expressive creativity. So, the Design Arts are typically considered mere decoration. Popular Art is thought of as in bad taste, banal, sentimental, and so not worthy of consideration either. Since art histories are only looking at â€Å"good† art, they tend not to consider these other arts. Standing as they most often do within the Fine Art art world, art historians use the ideology and sense of artistic value of Fine Art to evaluate all art. From the perspective of the contemporary art world, Popular Art is thought of as a kind of Fine Art; that is, bad Fine Art or Fine Art in bad taste. It seems hackneyed and banal to the Fine Art art world. From their perspective, popular taste is bad taste. For example, Osvaldo Yero, an artist who emerged in the 1990s, has based his work on the technique and poetics of the plaster figures. These figures, mostly decorations, but also religious images, were perhaps considered the last gasp of bad taste. They constituted the epitome of â€Å"uncultivated† appropriation of icons from the â€Å"high† culture as well as from mass culture, done in a poor and artificial material par excellence, worked clumsily in a semi-industrial technique and polychromed with pretentious attempts at elegance. They symbolized the triumph of â€Å"vulgarity, † the failure of the â€Å"aesthetic education of the masses† proposed by socialism. By the 1920s business and advertising agencies had realized that putting style and color choices into the products they made increased consumption. Through the use of advertising and by designing stylistic variety into their products, manufacturers elevated things into the category of fashion goods that had before just been utility goods, like towels, bedding, and bathroom fixtures. Previously these items did not have any style component, but now designers added decoration to their functional design. This meant that now consumers could choose products not just for function, but also for style. People could now have pink sheets, green toilets, and blue phones. There is a tension in design style between aesthetic formalist styles like the international style, and design styles that are figurative. Those favoring figurative design tend to think of products as coming in a great variety and designed to appeal to the various tastes of consumers. Here the style of the products are not dictated by function, but by market pressures. This is a further development of design for sales. This gave rise to what is known as niche marketing, where the styling is targeted to a smaller, more specific group than mass marketing is. Thus, they shun the idea of a unified worldwide machine aesthetic. For example, a razor can be pink with flowers on it to target it to female users, and black with blue accent lines to target it to male users. The razor is the same, but the razor is packaged with different styling to sell the product to different markets. In designing for niche markets, the styling reflects the class, age group, profession, and aspirations of the target group. This goes hand in hand with advertising, and requires a great deal of research to discover what these values are and what styling motifs succeed in communicating them. The exemplary text or the single, richly coded image gives way to the textual thickness and the visual density of everyday life, as though the slow, even languid ‘look’ of the semiologist is, by the 1980s, out of tempo with the times. The field of postmodernism certainly expresses a frustration, not merely with this seemingly languid pace, but with its increasing inability to make tangible connections between the general conditions of life today and the practice of cultural analysis. Structuralism has also replaced old orthodoxies with new ones. This is apparent in its rereading of texts highly placed within an already existing literary or aesthetic hierarchy. Elsewhere it constructs a new hierarchy, with Hollywood classics at the top, followed by selected advertising images, and girls’ and women’s magazines rounding it off. Other forms of representation, particularly music and dance, are missing altogether. Huyssen argues that â€Å"Pop in the broadest sense was the context in which a notion of the post-modern first took shape, and the most significant trends within postmodernism have challenged modernism’s relentless hostility to mass culture. High theory was simply not equipped to deal with multilayered pop. † References Bell, Daniel. (1976). The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism. New York: Basic Books. C. Norris, ‘Lost in the funhouse: Baudrillard and the politics of postmodernism’, in R. Boyne and A. Rattansi (eds) Postmodernism and Society, London, Macmillan, 1990. Hall, Stuart, Connell, Ian and Curti, Lidia (1981). ‘The â€Å"unity† of current affairs television’, in T. Bennett et al. (eds) Popular Television and Film, London: BFI. Harvey, David (1989). The Condition of Postmodernity, Oxford: Blackwell. Hebdige, Dick (1979). Subculture: The Meaning of Style, London: Routledge. Huyssen, A. (1984). ‘Mapping the postmodern’, New German Critique 33. Jameson, Fredric (1984). ‘Postmodernism, or the cultural logic of late capitalism’, New Left Review 146.

Othello and Racism Essay

Held a captive and cannot escape the grips of racism, Othello must battle with this matter from day one till his call of death. Just because his skin tone is unusual from Venice and its citizens, makes Othello an outcast . Although born a black moor, Othello has all the great characteristics a man should have. Being courageous, honorable, intelligent and all the aspects a woman would want in a husband. He grew up to be a venetian military general who has risen to high position of power is viewed in two means. One, since Othello belongs to the military realm he hence deserves the respect and authority any other general should receive. Second view is highly different and because the race role is a huge issue, it essentially eliminates the first way people would view Othello. But this doesn’t stop Desdemona from falling in love with him and making him her husband. The color of Othello’s skin doesn’t bother Desdemona one bit which isn’t the case for the rest of the characters seen throughout the play. Before Othello’s name is even mentioned in the play, racial slurs are being said and the audience is being introduced to how Othello will be treated. In Act I Scene I, Rodrigo and Iago talk about â€Å"the moor†, â€Å"the thick-lips† and â€Å"the old black ram† . Small comments like these slowly bring out the characteristics that multiple characters share in this play. Iago and Rodrigo aren’t the only ones who have a problem with Othello; Desdemona’s father ,Brabantio, is in the same boat with Iago and Rodrigo. Brabantio is a self-important the Venetian Senator whose main priorities are his job and his daughter. If one of these main concerns aren’t necessarily going his way, then there could be a problem. Othello encounters this the hard way unfortunately. Brabantio hears news about how his daughter has gotten married but not to any regular guy, to a moor.

Possibilities of Stem Cell Research

Possibilities of Stem Cell Research Free Online Research Papers Abstract Discovering, isolating, and culturing stem cells are being described as the single most significant scientific medical breakthrough this century. The cells uniqueness biologically is the virtue that warrants this description. Alone, stem cells have the ability to infinitely self-regenerate and retain the remarkable capability of differentiating to all forms of cell tissues. In addition to this, culturing stem cells hold much tremendous potential for developments of new regenerative types of medicine that will treat disabling or terminal conditions and diseases that otherwise would not have a cure. Ironically, the discovery of tremendous medical potentials to improve and prolong lives through stem cells come trenchant, intractable queries about life’s true value. Collecting stem cells from embryos destroys the embryo they are collected from. In other words, the results are an expiration of an embryo in the earliest stage of a human potential life. This is where the issue about life’s value begins to emerge and asks perhaps the most poignant and stark question of if the life of that already in existence should be spared at the expense of an embryo in the earliest form of possible life. Does a life in existence have more value than the potential life of an embryo? Never the less, the most ethical and moral response to justify this question is in no way obvious. The answer is not apparent immediately, but forces the question of what criteria should be counted as appropriate for assessing any possible response. Even knowing what the correct terminology and concepts for structuring the central questions seems contentious. What does seem clear is how remiss it would be to fail engaging in these questions without commensurating the Importance, complexity, and depth of the issue. Stem Cell Research Possibilities Many of the world’s exceptional advancements have come directly from medical research: numerous types of medications for pain, cures for diseases, and infinite amounts of discoveries that have impacted the perception of medical research’s scientific side. Medical research brings good and bad; there have been amazing breakthroughs and devastating failures. The potentials of medical research are either the best or worst thing to happen to humankind. The good and bad of stem cell research are clouded by controversy. Medical histories greatest discoveries could be stem cell research. Although this research has the potential to cure most illnesses and diseases, many ethical and moral issues must be considered. Imagine future capabilities of growing a new heart someone needs, or being able to cure a loved ones disease. These possibilities are closer to being realized with stem cell research which is something all our bodies grow. If researchers are able to figure out how to c ontrol stem cells, they will be able to provide cures for a wide variety of debilitating conditions. Researchers are adamant that in the next 10 years, stem cells will provide solutions to questions and heal diseases caused by failure of cells and repairing tissues not capable of self regeneration. Stem cell research can potentially prevent and cure many diseases, but do these potential benefits outweigh the concerns? This debate continues to keep the nation on edge. The issue is complicated by the fact that there are different ways to obtain stem cells for research purposes. As long as means of stem cell research is done in a way that will not harm others, it will serve as a benefit to humanities and our future. Is stem cell research unethical? This is a question that societies majority faces daily. Like most other public issues, stem cell research has two sides. However, one needs to have an understanding of the study before having a valid opinion. The National Institute of Health says, A stem cell is a cell that has the ability to divide (self replicate) for indefinite periodsunder the right conditions, or given the right signals, stem cells can give rise (differentiate) to the many different cell types that make up the organism. That is, stem cells have the potential to develop into mature cells that have characteristics, shapes and specialized functions, such as heart cells, skin cells, or nerve cells(NIH, 2007). Until the last decade most people had not heard of stem cell research, nor did they know what they did. In today’s world stem cell information and their function is readily available. People now learn new information about stem cells from newspaper articles, radio and t elevision news, or the Internet. Currently though the idea of researching stem cells raises strong debate. Columnist Charles Krauthammer, though a proponent of legal abortion, joins many pro-life Christians in fearing the slippery slope in this realm of bioethics: You dont need religion to tremble at the thought of unrestricted embryo research. You simply have to have a healthy respect for the human capacity for doing evil in pursuit of the good. (Christianity Today, 2007) One of the biggest debate reasons is the process in which stem cells are obtained. The main two ways stem cells are obtained is through surplus embryos found at fertility clinics and the discarded fetal tissue of abortions. Stem cells, collected from embryos, are cells that are not developed to their specified stage. Thus, a stem cell is capable of developing into any human cell the adult body has or needs. Week-old embryos are destroyed in the process of collecting stem cells. This seems to be the reason that the issue of stem cell research is almost as debated as abortion. Unlike abortion, in which life is destroyed, stem cells give life because they hold the key to the cures for many disabilities and diseases. Dolly the cloned sheep was born on February 24, 1997, and the United States stem cell research efforts have been a widely debated issue ever since. The debate reached all time highs following President Bush’s August 9, 2001 speech which was in support of funding stem cell research. The vast majority of Americans strongly support the advancement of biomedical research through the application of their tax dollars, said Daniel Perry, executive director of the Alliance for Aging Research. Surveys consistently show Americans want to see greater efforts against serious and life-threatening diseases. (Bettelheim, A., 2000) Couples not capable of conceiving their children on their own often try in vitro fertilization. The In vitro fertilization method usually prepares about 10 embryos, but only selects three or four to be implanted. The two ways surplus embryos are handled are freezing spares using liquid nitrogen or to dispose of them. Risks encountered freezing are the embryos dying during freezing or the thawing process. Unused embryos that are not frozen are discarded by being exposed to air, flushed down a sink, or burned. (Faden, R. R., Gearhart, J.D., 2005). The embryos are still alive when they are frozen or discarded. The solution would be to donate excess embryos for the purpose of research. Scientists would then be able to further the research of stem cell possibilities. There are some cases where excess embryos are not wasted. In these cases embryos are frozen and another couple eventually adopts them. (Hall, C. T., 2006) Although this seems to be a good fate for excess embryos, the risk of dying while thawing remains. The ethical issue arising from the research of stem cells is solely based upon the stem cell source. The argument is reasonable because the cells come from an embryo, which dies once the cells are obtained. In the early stages of stem cell research, all stem cell samples are obtained from in vitro clinics stored excess embryos. Scientists must get permission from donors to collect stem cells and study the embryos. This is the cause of outcry from pro-life communities. Pro-lifers believe that each embryo has the potential of life. The pro-life groups claim the problem can be solved by collecting cells in a more ethical way. One alternative would be to collect stem cells from fetuses that are aborted. Another way would be to collect stem cell samples from healthy adult volunteers. This would be an alternate to embryonic research of stem cells, but adult stems do not hold the same potentials. Stem cell research relating to the Embryos Bill 2002 allowed only excess embryos existing prior to April 5, 2002, to be utilized for researching purpose in accordance with the regime of licensing. It is a fact that the excess embryos would have most likely expired or succumbed anyway. The excess embryos would have still been destroyed however; the expiration process would have been natural. On the surface, it appears there is no difference if harm or the expiration of the excess embryos came from research or natural causes. The embryos expire in both cases. This impression is somewhat oversimplified. Some argue there are distinct ethical and moral differences between omissions and acts and between failing to passively intervene to prevent death and actively, knowingly killing. Although each has the same outcome, the act of bringing death about by oneself is argued as worse morally. Many argue that since both alternatives result in the expiration of the embryo, the logical answer is t o go option that has the potential to provide the most benefits. This rationale would most likely change, indeed, if the present alternatives were to change. If, for example, if research were being done on embryos created for research purposes and not pre-existing embryos predetermined to expire. (Rickhard, M., 2002) Many scientists believe the key to finding cures lays in stem cell research. This research will potentially cure diseases such as diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s disease. Stem cells hold the possibility in becoming the human body’s different types of tissue, bone, muscle, and nerve. Theoretically, stem cells could grow a harvest of organ replacements for virtually all parts of a human’s body. But Ian Wilmut, the scientist whose team at Scotlands Roslin Institute cloned Dolly born July 5, 1996, and euthanized in 2003 because of lung disease says the most interesting thing about the past decade is what has not happened. (Weise, E., n.d.) While ethical issues and questions will continue clouding opinions on the medical advancements made possible by the research of stem cells, these issues and questions must not allow us to ignore all the advancements of stem cell research. The focus should be that scientists are striving to enhance and preserve the g ift of life, not how and where cells are collected. Although both sides present reasonable arguments, it is crucial to understand the potentials. Stem cell research holds life enhancing potential. Such benefits may only be a potential, but in order to have the opportunity for exceptional advancements risks must be taken. Many of the world’s greatest advancements were based strictly upon a potential for improvement. When stem cell research potentials are realized, its greatness will provide endless rewards. Philosopher John A. Robertson said, â€Å"In taking such a stance, persons define or constitute themselves as highly protective of human life.† Robertson notes, however, that this same symbolic respect for life can be expressed through allowing embryos to be created so that others lives can be prolonged, or deaths averted. (Rickhard, M., 2002) References Bettelheim, A. (2000). Senate Argues Promise and Peril Of Human Stem Cell Research. CQ Weekly, 58(8), 357. Retrieved Sunday, April 27, 2007, from the Academic Search Premier database. Weise, E. (n.d.). Dolly was worlds hello to clonings possibilities. USA Today, Retrieved Sunday, April 27, 2007, from the Academic Search Premier database. The Slope Really Is Slippery. (2007). Christianity Today, Retrieved Sunday, April 27, 2007, from the MasterFILE Premier database. Rickhard, Maurice (2002, November 12). Parlinfo Web. Retrieved June 2, 2007, from Parliament of Australia Web site: http://wopared.aph.gov.au The Presidents Council on Bioethics. Human Cloning and Human Dignity: An Ethical Inquiry. Washington: Public Affairs, October 2002. 400 pages. Available online: bioethics.gov/reports/cloningreport/index.html. National Bioethics Advisory Commission. Ethical Issues in Human Stem Cell Research. Rockville, MD: NBAC, 1999. Volume I: Report and Recommendations of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission. Volume II: Commissioned Papers, January 2000. Volume III: Religious Perspectives, June 2000. Statement by the President, dated September 13, 1999. Available online: www.georgetown.edu/research/nrcbl/nbac/pubs.html. Faden, Ruth R., Gearhart, John D. (2005). â€Å"Facts on Stem Cells.†. 2005, 9, Retrieved May 13, 2007, from washingtonpost.com/. Hall, Carl T. (2006). The forgotten embryo: Fertility clinics must store or destroy the surplus that is part of the process.. SF Gate News, 12, Retrieved April 24, 2007, from sfgate.com/ National Institutes of Health (NIH), (2007). Stem cell information. Retrieved May 13, 2007, from National Institutes of Health (NIH) Web site: http://stemcells.nih.gov/ Research Papers on Possibilities of Stem Cell ResearchGenetic EngineeringResearch Process Part OneLifes What IfsBionic Assembly System: A New Concept of SelfStandardized TestingInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesArguments for Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS)Analysis of Ebay Expanding into AsiaBringing Democracy to AfricaCapital Punishment

Social Psychology - Definition Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Social Psychology - Definition - Essay Example The theoretical postulates in social facilitation help just in identifying and isolating the individual traits concerning the formation and transformation of the individual self. Despite excessive theorizing on the subject there has been a truly articulate wider focus on the phenomenon of social facilitation with a clearer contrast between autonomous individual actions and socially facilitated reflex-based responses. The underlying nuances are obviously delineated to produce a coherent process of development from one premise to the next (Heffernan, 2002). In the first instance when Norman Triplett carried out research into the performance by cyclists taking part in a race, he realized that individual cyclists tended to perform better simply because they were being observed by others. Thus they separately developed a tendency to achieve faster times on the clock in each race (Sternberg, 2003). The critical perception of performance as is based on the cause-and-effect analysis would show that the theoretical parameters developed by Triplett were though original under the circumstances were essentially connected with a body of a priori principles that produce parallel processes of behavioral paradigms among individuals. This causal link is so important in understanding the norm-based behaviors among certain classes of people. In fact in the process of theorizing the psychological perspective on conventional behaviors of the individual and the cognitive perceptive response to external stimuli have been combined together to produce a convergence/divergence contingency model of behavioral response (Baron, & Byrne, 2002). According to the Stanford Prison Experiment carried out by a group of researchers led by Professor Phillip Zimbardo at the University of Stanford in 1971 even before 36 hours lapsed on the experiment at least one prisoner in the experiment group was discovered to suffer from acute tension, continuous crying, anger and incoherent thinking (www.prisonexp.org). The group that acted like authorities in the experiment did not believe him because they felt he was conning to compel them into releasing him. According to drive theory that human organisms have some needs. If and when these needs were deprived the subject person would experience some emotional disturbance or tension. As and when the n eed is satisfied the level of drive diminishes and the concerned organism would function as normally as it was before. However the theory tells that drive would increase as the time goes on (Haney, Banks, & Zimbardo, 1973). This process is similar to a feedback and control mechanism.Psychologists who have studied such creatures like rats and cockroaches have found that their behavioral tendencies in some instances closely resemble that of humans (Davey, 2004). Cottrell was responsible for the Evaluation Apprehension Theory (1972). According to EPT people rapidly learn what social rewards and punishments would be received by subject people for good performance and

Quantitative research critique Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Quantitative critique - Research Paper Example The authors feel that the distinction between these atypical medications and the comorbidity with weight gain and diabetes is an important distinction. Furthermore, this certainly has ramifications for nursing in regards to the diet and importance of monitoring signs of diabetes and increased weight gain in this cohort. The population under study and the quantitative analysis of the data is appropriate and meaningful for this study. Literature Review: The references cited, while not extensive, are suitable for the size of the study. Twenty-two references are used directly. Of these, seven are directly related to the effects the study is analyzing. The others relate to the specific mediations under study as well as the general information regarding diabetes and adiposity. Twenty are current and date from 2002 forward, only two are older, (1) the American Diabetes Association’s â€Å"Report of the expert committee on the diagnosis and classification of diabetes mellitus.† dates from 1997 but is only used as a general reference and (2) Gray and Fujioka (1991) â€Å"Use of relative weight and body mass index for the determination of adiposity,† also for general guidelines. ... In a survey of diabetes associated with clozapine, glycemic control improved after clozapine was stopped in 78% of individuals who developed diabetes; 62% of these patients no longer required hypoglycemic drugs. Of 12 patients who were restarted on clozapine, 9 developed hyperglycemia again. (Cohen, 2004, 3) While other references used generalized this effect there is other literature that directly supports it. For instance, in a study they did not reference, Koller and Doraiswamy (2002) showed in their research that 78% of the group had improved glycemic balance once they stopped taking or decreased the dosage of olanzapine and that if olanzapine was restarted eight out of ten patients had a recurrence of hyperglycemia. So it is clear that there were previous studies which connected the same inferences the authors are stating. There is also some research that counter-indicates their results as to weight gain to some extent: †¦patients taking antipsychotic drugs can develop diab etes without significant weight gain or can lose weight. Furthermore, their diabetes usually improves rapidly when the antipsychotic drug is withdrawn, without significant reduction in body weight, and often recurs rapidly if the drug is started again. (Wirshing, 2001, 8) They do cite another study from Wirshing, Boyd and Meng (2002) which does concur with their weight gain hypothesis. Furthermore, as far back as 1999, the diabetic inducing effects off clozapine and olanzapine were already known: Several cases of new-onset diabetes attributed to clozapine and olanzapine were associated with acute pancreatitis. It is possible, therefore, that antipsychotic-induced diabetes results from chemical damage to the pancreas. However, diabetes

Reducing mongoose in Hawaii Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Reducing mongoose in Hawaii - Essay Example address the issue through mobilizing collective efforts by the public as well as the government agents responsible of wildlife conservation and management into resolving the issue. There is the need to have the endangered species of animals and plants (threatened by mongoose) saved while still conserving the mongoose because the retaliation efforts by the citizens present another threat to the mongoose species. This paper therefore proposes the creation of management/conservation zones for the mongoose in Hawaii, which would help through protecting them from human beings while at the same time reducing their detrimental effects towards human beings. The position of this paper that conserving the mongoose through conservancy zones would present an amicable solution to the current issue is because the solution has proven with other species on endangered species of wildlife. By keeping the species out of unauthorized interaction with human beings would allow them to breed to the capacity that the ecosystem would naturally support while reducing their risk of threatening existence of other species of animals and plants as claimed. Adaptive management has therefore been shown to be a paramount area of study in the 21st century especially with the increase in human populations and the resultant interference with natural ecosystem. The study is therefore not only interesting but also informative and presents an opportunity for people to devise practical solutions to emerging issues such as the one at hand. Hays, W. S., & Conant, S. (2007). Biology and impacts of Pacific Island invasive species. 1. A worldwide review of effects of the small Indian mongoose, Herpestes javanicus (Carnivora: Herpestidae). Pacific Science, 61(1),

Moral absolutism Essay Example for Free

Moral absolutism Essay The choices we make in our everyday life all have to do with our ethics. In this paper the topic will discuss the similarities and differences between virtue theory, utilitarianism, and deontological ethics. In order to understand the similarities, and differences of virtue theory, utilitarianism, and deontological ethics we must first define them. Virtue theory is defined as a moral excellence. It is a positive trait quality demand to be morally good and is valued as a foundation of principle and good moral being. It takes the viewpoint that in living your life you should try to cultivate excellence in all that you do and all that others do. Utilitarianism is a theory that suggests that an action is morally right when that action produces more utility for the group than any other alternative. We need to understand what our consequence would be based on our choice. When we make the right choice we will get a positive consequence and are acting morally; if we make the wrong choice the consequences will be acting immorally. Deontological moral is focused on loyalty to independent moral rules or duties. To make the right choices we need to comprehend what our duties are and the rules of our moral perspective. This is a matter of what we view to be moral or immorally based on our beliefs. The similarities between the three theories represent the good in people and how they strive for excellence. The differences are with virtue theory describes a person’s character, cultivating excellence in all we do. Utilitarianism addresses ethical and morality issues by addressing the balance of good over bad consequences. The morality associated with this theory suggests actions that produce a total utility for the group. Deontological ethics have a definition of a definition of a person’s dedication to recognize moral duties. In my current position as an assistant manager I am often put in a situation that includes some type of confidentiality with an associate that falls under me. If I am told about a certain situation that an associate is having in their personal life I have been told in trust and this be unethical for me to tell everyone else what is going on. Also when I have to write up any associate for work performance, that should be kept between me and that associate. For me to be able to keep my word about a particular situation involving any of my associates consist of moral concepts. Values, virtues, and ethics distinguish those actions as being morally right or morally wrong.

Literature Review dependent variable is knowledge productivity.

Literature Review dependent variable is knowledge productivity. 2.1 Introduction This chapter is divided into six main sections. This first section provides an overview of the chapter. The second section is a definition of essential terms that used in this study. The third section discusses the background and the previous study that focusing on factors that influencing and contributing to the knowledge and research productivity. The fourth section discusses the models and frameworks of knowledge conversion abilities developed by past researchers. The fifth section highlights the theoretical framework, hypotheses develop for this study, and the final section summarizes the chapter. 2.2 Definition of Term There are 3 essential terms in this study. There are that are knowledge productivity (KP), organizational factor and individual factor. All these three terms will be frequently highlight and discuss throughout this study. 2.2.1 Knowledge Productivity According to Kessels (2001), Knowledge productivity involves signalling, absorbing and processing of relevant information, generating and disseminating new knowledge and applying this knowledge to the improvement and innovation of processes, products and services (Kessels,2001). Refer to the Cambridge Dictionaries Online (http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary), productivity define as a rate at which an organization make or produces goods, it usually judge by the number of people and amount of the materials produce. In the context of this study, knowledge productivity can be refer to the amount or number of knowledge produce or generated. Meanwhile, according to (Jansink, et.al, 2005) concept of knowledge productivity is related with training and research activity. Hence, for the purpose of this study knowledge productivity is referring to research productivity. Williams (2003), define research productivity as an effort of any scholarly research produced by a faculty member that contributes to the new knowledge. In this study the dependent variable is knowledge productivity. 2.2.2 Organizational/ Institutional factor According to Waworuntu and Holsinger (1989), organizational factor consist of the quality of research facilities, research collaboration, reward system and institutional prestige. Meanwhile, according to Long et.al (2009), organizational factors are the affective motivator for the research production. They list out research reward; research expectation and pressure to publish are research comes under organizational factor. Dundar and Lewis (1998) 2.2.3 Individual factor Early work with these factors included the effects of age, gender, socioeconomic status, and educational background (Dundar.H, Lewis.D.R, 1998) 2.3 Previous Study on Knowledge Productivity 2.3.1 Knowledge productivity Research has become the most important functions of universities all over the world. Knowledge is created through research conducted in the Universities. It is clear that faculty build and disseminate knowledge through the production of research (Dundar and Lewis, 1998). Faculty members or academician, the primary producers of academic research, play crucial roles in producing knowledge. According to Teodorescu (2000), professor at Research University are expected to produce new knowledge through research and use the latest result in their teaching. Research productivity or research performance is very synonym with the academician and University. Williams (2003), define research productivity as an effort of any scholarly research produced by a faculty member that contributes to the new knowledge. Research productivity always refer to the number of books, articles, technical reports, bulletins, and book reviews published, as well as presentations given and grants received through revi ewing curriculum vitae or other print materials (Rotten 1990). Meanwhile, according to Wilson (2001), research productivity defined by the number of the publication of publication in an academic refereed journal and scholarly books. Obviously, research productivity is a number of researches done which measure by the number of publication published. According to Gaston (1970), research productivity divided into two components. There are knowledge creation which is related to the research activity and knowledge distribution which is related to the publication or productivity. Hence in the study, research productivity will be considered as knowledge productivity. Importance of Knowledge Productivity Research is a one of the product creates by academician. Research has a significant impact to career development of the academician. Previous studies shown that research productivity give the impact to academician profession. Research productivity is one of the criteria for promotion, reward system as we as their tenure ( Kotrlik, 2002). It supported by Bloedel (2001), stated that research productivity always serves as a main factor in determine successful of academician, especially related to the promotion, tenure and salary. Meanwhile, according Read et al (1998), criteria for the promotion had been change in recent year. Most of the academician who being promoted in recent year has conducted more research compare with academician promoted in a last few year. This scenario shows that the University has emphasize research productivity for the promotion exercise. Gibbs and Locke (1989), through their study which involved 93 University found that the most important criteria for the pr omotion and tenure decision are the research productivity. The productivity of knowledge or research not only gives the impact to the academician but also to the academician itself. Numerous studies have been conducted to examine the important of research productivity to the University or higher institution. According to Blackburn et. al, (1991), research productivity not only important to academician, but also important for enhancing an institution reputation. Research productivity contributed to the University rank and performance (Henthorne et al.,1998). Study conducted by Olsen (1994), also found that increase in productivity led to high prestige for the institution. This supported by Boyer (1990). He found that research productivity not only give a promotion to the academician, but also improve university reputation and rank. Meanwhile, Kasten (1984) found that major criteria for promotion for academician is a research productivity. Influencing factor on Knowledge Productivity The important of the knowledge productivity in the academic environment has encouraged researcher to study and investigate influencing factor on knowledge productivity. Numerous studies have been conducted on the influencing research productivity in academic environment. The studies have identified and investigated numerous factors that influencing research productivity. It is important to identify the factors that have a relationship with research productivity to encourage research activity among the academician. According to Blackburn and Lawrence (1995), socio demographic and career factors as well as self-knowledge, social knowledge, behaviours and environmental related to research productivity. William (2003), identify environmental factors, institutional factors and individual factors are related to the research productivity. Zainab (2001) identify that individual and organization correlated with research productivity among academician in Malaysia. Meanwhile, Fox (1996) found t hat individual characteristics, environmental and reinforcing which included colleagues and mentorship influencing research productivity among academician in science faculty. Personal or individual factors seem a most frequent factor that has been connected with the research productivity. Wood (1990) proved that research productivity significant influence by personal variables. He has conducted a study among academician for Australian university. Through the study, he found that academic research activity is highly influenced by a number of personal variables, such as research styles and the freedom of inquiry (the choice of research topics). The personal correlates considered in studies are gender, age family background and personality traits. Age has been studied in previous studies with different results. Gender Gender is a one of the variable has been examined under individual variable. Most of the previous studies indicated that men are more productive than women (Bailey 1992; Vasil 1992; Billard 1993; Blackburn Lawrence 1995; Creamer 1998; Kotrlik et al. 2002). Blackburn, Behymer and Hall (1978) found that male academician published three times more than are women academician. These finding supported by study done by Cole and Zuckerman (1984). They found that on average male academician published 40% to 50% more compare that women academician. Same scenario also happens on the academician in ASEAN region. Study by Waworunto ( 1989), who focus on the Indonesia academician also found that male academician are more productive in doing a research. There are several reason have been highlight in the previous study on this scenario. According to Guyer and Fidell (1973), this is because of women academician more engaged in applied research compare than men who engaged more on theoretical resear ch. Applied research needed considerably more time to publish compare than theoretical. Cole and Zuckerman (1984) also provided a reason for their result of the study. According to them, women are less productive because of they do not have strong network on research and family obligations also prevent women to spending more time on research. This reason support by (Creamer 1998), indicated that, women naturally members often have family demands that compete with time to conduct research. Further, Gaertner and Ruhe (1983) found women academician are excited to perform better than men, however it caused greater stress to them and effect their productivity However, opposing result has been found by some researchers. They found that there was not a gender difference in productivity (Kotrlik et al. 2002; Teodorescu 2000). Consistent result also found by Rubin and Powell (1987) and also Omundson and Mann (1994). They found no difference in publication outputs for male and females. Meanwh ile Garland (1990) found that gender was not a significant variable on productivity compare with other variables such as rank, educator and type of institution. Age Many previous studies on research productivity have indicated that career publication and age have not strong relationship, although most of studies found that publication generally declines with age (Teodorescu 2000). Over (1982), found that research productivity slightly decrease with age. However, when productivity was investigated in groups by birth date, younger faculty members produced more research at an earlier career stage than older faculty members. He also found that many senior academicians remain quite active in research and their outcomes can be comparable to those of younger faculty members. These finding are significant with the study by Levin and Stephan (1991). They reported in his study that the life cycle effect varies significantly by field. Life cycle is related to publishing productivity and obviously scientists become less productive as they age. Generally, a persons age at first publication affects consequent research productivity. If academic lecturers submi t research for their first publication at a young age, then it is more likely that they will produce more when their age increases. Although many studies found relationship between age and research productivity, there are several studies found that there is no strong relationship between age and research productivity. Bland and Berquist (1997) found that shift workloads and emphasis have strong relationship with productivity compare with the age of the academician. Williams (2000) has studied academic lecturers in the Human Resource Development Faculty in the United States and found no significant relationship with age. Kotrlik et al (2001) also found the similar result. His study on the university agricultural education faculty members in the United States found that age did not significantly affect research productivity. Besides that, Ramsden (1994) also found age is not correlated with research productivity. Marital Status Luukkonen and Hieskanen (1983) indicated in their study that, married female academician are more productive. Kyvik ( 1990) who done a study among academician in Norway also found that married and divorce academician ( men and women) were more productive compare than single academician. Author also found that, women with children were more productive compare than that academician who doesnt have children. However the result showed that women who have only one child were more productive compare than women academician with two and more children. Through this study, author has provided some explanation for this finding. These findings because of married women have more energy and stamina compare with women without children. Married academician also gets a support from their husband or wife and their have more experience in social life. Authors also explain that family life have increase their self respect and being married neutralize the affect of sex since married women corporate more with their male colleagues. In contrast, Creamer (1998), discovered that there was either no significant effect or a positive effect on publishing productivity for married women. Interest, attitude and motivation (research skill) Wood (1990) found that personal or individual characteristic influenced research productivity among Australian academician. The personal or individual characteristic that has been study is the ability, energy, creativity, motivation, ambition and also self discipline. According to author, productive academician tended to be a senior academician because they ready with extraordinary workload, intellectually curiosity and like writing and puts time away for research. Productive academician also saw as a gamesmanship, who hard-nosed about the time allocated for research even though need to scarified other responsibilities such as teaching. Through this study, author found that less of productivity are because of the lacked of confident being judge by peer, adhere to such high standard that their work never get published and also lack of experience. Author also found that productive academician is a who have certain attitude and approach toward research such as they put greater stress of research activity and also working extra time on their research activity. Interest in research also was study by Behymer (1974) and found research interest to be the best predictor of research productivity. Meanwhile Noser et al. (1996) found attitude toward research to be related to research productivity. Sageemas N.W.,S.N, Wongwanich.S Bowarnkitiwong.S. (2009) also found capabilities in research skills and technique, funding skills, research management and research communication skills and networking and team work would produce high research productivity among Thailand academician. Bland, C.J. et al (2002) also have study motivational factor on research productivity. They found that academician who highly research driven is positively associated with research productivity. This result is significant with the study by Zainab (2001). She found view or perception on the research also positively associated with research productivity among Malaysian academician. Work habit Fox 1993 refer A recent study by Fonseca et al. (1997) of50 eminent Brazilian scientists in the field of biochemistry and cell biology, indicated that they are highly motivated, found pleasure in their work and able to face challenges effectively. High publication productivity reflects excellence. The eminent scientists have a common trait in that they were all highly productive. The scientists were also interviewed and their CV examined to identify periods of greater and lesser productivity. The peaks and falls were used as a reference point in the interviews. For each scientist two productivity scores were computed (a) total number of published papers and (b) sum impact factors (IF) of the journals in which the articles are published. The IF of a journal is the average number of citations received in one year by the articles published in that journal in the two previous years. These two scores were plotted along the years of each scientists career. The interviews revealed five groups of factors i nfluencing productivity: (a) human factors related to human relations in the laboratory, the quality of the working team, the relationship of the leaders to the students, the ability to exchange ideas, interact with other scientists, and the rapport among team members; (b) subjective emotional factors related to the ability to face challenges, motivation and pleasure at work.; (c) active material conditions related to facilities, equipment and money to buy chemicals ; (d) types of research related to having the freedom A recent study by Fonseca et al. (1997) of 50 eminent Brazilian scientists in the field of biochemistry and cell biology, indicated that they are highly motivated, found pleasure in their work and able to face challenges effectively. High publication productivity reflects excellence. The eminent scientists have a common trait in that they were all highly productive. The scientists were also interviewed and their CV examined to identify periods of greater and lesse r productivity. The peaks and falls were used as a reference point in the interviews. For each scientist two productivity scores were computed (a) total number of published papers and (b) sum impact factors (IF) of the journals in which the articles are published. The IF of a journal is the average number of citations received in one year by the articles published in that journal in the two previous years. These two scores were plotted along the years of each scientists career. The interviews revealed five groups of factors influencing productivity: (a) human factors related to human relations in the laboratory, the quality of the working team, the relationship of the leaders to the students, the ability to exchange ideas, interact with other scientists, and the rapport among team members; (b) subjective emotional factors related to the ability to face challenges, motivation and pleasure at work.; (c) active material conditions related to facilities, equipment and money to buy ch emicals ; (d) types of research related to having the freedom Academic rank Numerous studies have been done to correlate academic rank with the research productivity. Academic rank was studied by Bailey (1992), Dundar and Lewis (1998), Kyvik and Smeby (1994), Teodorescu (2000) and Vasil (1992). Each found rank to be a significant predictor of research productivity. Ramsden (1994) found seniority of academic rank to be correlated with research performance. Meanwhile Patterson and Barnes 1984; Bentley and Blackburn 1990) indicated that academician in higher rank have more productivity compare with lower rank. Similar result also found by Wanner,Lewis and Gregario (1981). They indicated found that rank has strong relationship with research productivity. Kyvik (1990a) indicated full professor produce more research because they have less teaching load then they can more on the research productivity. . Meanwhile Tien and Blackburn (1996) found slightly different result. Full professor publisher more than other rank of academician but there a no difference between assistance professor and associate professor. However, in contrast, Over (1982) also found rank has no influence. Same result also found by Gregario (1981). Gunne and Stout (1980) also found there is no significant relationship between rank and research productivity. Experience and Tenure Tenure also has been examined in previous study toward research productivity. Tenure is guarantee of their career as an academician and secures their position in the University. A tenured academician will have a more privilege and benefit compared that non tenure academician. This scenario will provide morale boot and secure working environment. Hence, there is no doubt tenure will affect the productivity of academician. Butler and Cantrell (1989) was studied tenure variables among business faculty members and it showed significant correlated with research productivity. Later Radhakrishna et al. (1994) found that tenured faculty members held publishing as significantly more important than non tenured faculty members. Another study was done by Bailey (1992) found that productivity level increase when academician moves from non tenure to tenure academician. However contrast result found by Teodorescu (2000). He found that tenure was not significantly correlated with article productivit y. Similar result also found by Bartlett et al. (2001). He indicated that the number of years a faculty member held a tenure track position did not explain a significant portion in variance for research productivity. Meanwhile experience also was study by Rushton, Murray and Paunonen (1987). They found relationship between publication and experience and also age. The number of publication increase with the number of experience of the profession. The vast experience in research determine the research productivity in India ( Babu and sigh, 1998). Organizational / Departmental Organizational factor also defined as departmental by some researcher. Support from Time spend on research and teaching (64) Austin and Gamson (1983) indicated that extrinsic factors such as teaching load, administrative tasks, reward and opportunity could influence research productivity. Meanwhile clark,corcoran and lewis (1986) -. found that academician who allocated a smaller percentage of their time in teaching had a stronger research orientation. Calligro et al (1991) -. also found a similar result. They found academician who are productive spent more time on research. However Webster (1985) found that there was a little or no positive correlation between research and teaching. Same result found by Feldmen (1987) . Fox (1992). has study of the academic role, time allocation for research and teaching, teaching load and also time administrative. The result indicated that publication productivity was not related to teaching. Other study by Blackburn et al ( 1991) also indicated interest in research need not necessary predict high productivity in research. Discipline difference wood Department size Graduate student supervision Departmental prestige Culmulative advantage Leadership Role of the leader in organization in influencing research productivity and performance have been studies previously. According to Friedrich ( 1985) Friedrich,G.W.(1985). Renewing the commitment to Scholarly.Annual Meeting of the speech communication assocaition) leader can help to create healthy climate for scholarship by setting realistic goal, identify area where they can excel and be a more individual approach when dealing with staff. McKeaachie ( 1983) McKeaachie, ( 1983). Faculty as a renewal resources. In: College faculty: versatile human resources in a period of constraint, study on the fuinction of leader in encouraging research activity. Leader who respected research performance among academic staff provided an environment that encourage research activity. Boice (1988), found the important of leader in encouraging writing through forming discussion group, highlight good writing habit and conduct a research workshop. Barnhill and Linton (1992), indentify how leader can promo te research. They found that promoting a balance between teaching and research, identify the best undergraduate for the staff requirement,ecourange under represented staff to perform, provide clear research goal, encourage team research group, and also identify the need for the research. According to author, leader also should have a leadership criteria such as lead by example,lead pro actively, encourage inter disciplinary research and also research collaboration. The done by Fonseca et al 1997 -.) also found the relationship between leader and research productivity. Beside the environmental factors mentioned above, the leadership of an institution or department leaders are important factors affecting research productivity. Leadership is a relationship between leaders and their constituents and a subtle process of mutual influence that fuses thought, feeling, and action to produce collective effort in the service of the purposes and values of both the leader and the led (Bolman Deal 1991). Kerr (1977) reviewed the literature on leadership and found that leadership plays an important role in research universities because the leadership highlight staff morale and self-esteem. For Gardner (1995), who studied leadership from the perspective of the cognitive psychologist, leaders are persons who, by word and/or personal example, markedly influence the behaviours, thoughts and /or feelings of a significant number of their fellow human beings (p.6). Leadership in academic organizations can be understood as taking different forms depending on how leader s view their institutions. A university can be viewed as a bureaucracy, a collegiums, a political system or an organized anarchy (Chaichanapanich 1998). Generally, leadership has a weak relationship with academic productivity, even when the Chair of the faculty lends moral support or provides monetary backing for the research, because faculty members continue to be more concerned about their teaching, their research or their scholarship. Indeed, it has been observed that faculty staff members valued more highly the assessment of their colleagues and their students than the support of their leadership (Blackburn Lawrence 1995) Colloboration / knowledge sharing Financial Financial element is a important in research productivity. Amount of funding will influence amount of research or knowledge produce. Salisbury (1990), Foncesa et al (1997) found a significant relationship between financial support and research productivity. Wood (1990) also indicated that adequate and continued funding is very important factor in ensuring successful of the research. Warner, Lewis and Gregario (1981) have compare the publication number and amount of grant and they found that amount of grant have resulted in greater productivity or articles. Again, this result shows the positive relationship between fund and productivity. Facilities ( library, electronic support, Library play the important in research. Capabilities of library to provide the resources influenced research productivity. Electronic facilities Schefermeyer and Sewell (1988) indicated that using of email among academician to communicate and seek other for research collaboration have open opportunity to increase research productivity. Almquist (1992) Almquist, E.(1992). Listening to users:case studies in building electronic community.Fox institution annual conference, found that the scientists used IT facilities for different phases of their research especially at the subject identification and also find a similar research or literature. Meanwhile, Bruce (1994)- found that over 80% of Australian academic believed that network access give them benefit in conducting research and 63% believed it can helped increase their publication. Massy and Zemsky (1995). suggested that the availabilitiy of IT facilities provided greater access to the resources and it increase the productivity of research. Huges (1999) investigated the telecommunication environment that support research productivity and found that a networked environment he lped to promote information about research productivity. 2.4 Theories, Framework and Model of Previous Study 2.4.1 Zainab Awang Ngah (2001) Exploratory study to examined the factor that affecting the research publication of academic engineering and scientist from UKM and UM. This study aim to identify problem as well as increase understanding of factor that conducive for a productive academic research environment. The study identifies total number and type of research publication published.Examined the endogenous factor such as personal,home,academic background,attitude,view and problem faced and how these are related to publication productivity. Examianed exogenous factor, academic staff information used and disseminated behaviour, problem associated with publsihng articles or in obtaining library materials. The sample population comprises 125 academic engineering and 311 academic scientis from UKM and UM. Data collection and information about the staff are obtained from questionnaire, university calendar and interview. The results are reported in descriptive statistic and tested for significant and correlation using the chi square for nominal type variables and the spearman rank test. The result generally show that in more cases the correlated are significant related to publication productivity. The significant correlated ( Masuk kan model nya (diagram disini) 2.5 Theoretical Framework Organization Factor Top management Slack Resource Knowledge sharing culture Training Technical infra Knowledge Productivity (Dependent variable) Individual Factor Research motivation Attitude toward research Research skill 2.6 Chapter Summary Conclusion The diversity of factor influencing research productivity is well documented in published literature. However, difference in finding about the relative relationship of research productivity and various variables remained.