Friday, October 11, 2019

Pushing Paper Can Be Fun Essay

1.Organizational and Personal Outcomes – What performance problems is the captain trying to address? Behavior- Officers not doing paperwork, or when done, is incomplete. Result – Cases being lost, due to poor reporting. The officers lack motivation and perceive filling out reports as boring. 2.Goal Statement – What would be a desirable outcome? A desirable outcome would be that officers perceive their jobs to include paperwork, and that they understand the value and importance of filling reports adequately and correctly in an assigned time frame. 3.What has the Captain already tried doing to solve the problem? To help motivate the officers, team competitions were established. These were based on the excellence of the reports. The competition provided no reward. An idea suggested to the Captain is to include financial rewards as incentives, based on the number of conviction records. These are also related to motivational factors. 4.Using the MARS Model to diagnose the possible causes of the unacceptable behavior and to explain what the Captain should do to resolve the situation. The MARS Model outlines the four major factors in determining individual behavior and results. The four major factors consist of Motivation, Ability, Role Perceptions and Situation Factors. Motivational: The police officers are lacking motivation when it comes to doing paperwork. Their paper work is frequently put off or completed inadequately. They are aware that promotion is not based on how well they complete paperwork; rather it is based by simply staying on the force for a certain number of years. Ability: I would assume that officers do not receive adequate training on proper report making while attending the police academy. Also some officers may have more of an aptitude than others when it comes to writing. Role Perceptions: The officers perceive their job as peace, law and order. They think of paperwork as boring and routine. A possible issue is that they don’t understand the value attached to providing an adequate and correct report. This perception may have been established due to improper training, the rookies are being taught by other officers, who themselves have never been formally trained. The personalities of the officers as well as their personal values play a role in how they perceive their job to be. Situational Factors: The case did not mention any situational factors; however there is one possible factor. There isn’t enough funding for rewards, so little, that layoffs are being considered. This poses a problem in that, if officers are laid off then there is less of them to perform the task, thus making the issue worse, not improving it. Suggestions: First off in order for things to improve, it needs to start with the Captain. He himself claims the work to be routine and boring; this attitude passes down to his fellow officers. Something as simple as changing his perception, would help motivate the officers. Secondly, all officers including the Captain should be retrained. This will insure consistency throughout. Fewer cases will be lost, and establishing future incentive plans will be must easier. Thirdly, The Captain could decrease the hours officers spend out on the streets, and allocate more time for the officers to complete their paper work. Motivation by Punishment: If a case were to lose due to a faulty report, then the officer responsible for filling the form would have to attend a training session. To avoid the officers from falling back into the same habit, he could also punish them with a week of traffic duty. (I believe most cops prefer to be fighting crime, not issuing traffic tickets). Motivation by Incentive: As the case study mentioned, the police station is experiencing a budget crunch. An affordable method could be to provide officers with free perks, for completing their paper work adequately, correctly and on time. Such things as: first pick of the squat car, which area/street they prefer to patrol and being able to choose cases that interest them most.

Thursday, October 10, 2019

Natural Resources and Energy in the Rainforests

The beauty, majesty, and timelessness of a primary rainforest is indescribable. It is impossible to capture on film, to describe in words, or to explain to those who have never had the awe-inspiring experience of standing in the heart of a primary rainforest. Rainforests have evolved over millions of years to turn into the incredibly complex environments they are today. Rainforests represent a store of living and breathing renewable natural resources that for eons, by virtue of their richness in both animal and plant species, have contributed a wealth of resources for the survival and well-being of humankind. These resources have included basic food supplies, clothing, shelter, fuel, spices, industrial raw materials, and medicine for all those who have lived in the majesty of the forest. However, the inner dynamics of a tropical rainforest is an intricate and fragile system. Everything is so interdependent that upsetting one part can lead to unknown damage or even destruction of the whole. Sadly, it has taken only a century of human intervention to destroy what nature designed to last forever. The scale of human pressures on ecosystems everywhere has increased enormously in the last few decades. Since 1980 the global economy has tripled in size and the world population has increased by 30 percent. Consumption of everything on the planet has risen- at a cost to our ecosystems. In 2001, The World Resources Institute estimated that the demand for rice, wheat, and corn is expected to grow by 40% by 2020, increasing irrigation water demands by 50% or more. They further reported that the demand for wood could double by the year 2050; unfortunately, it is still the tropical forests of the world that supply the bulk of the world's demand for wood. In 1950, about 15 percent of the Earth's land surface was covered by rainforest. Today, more than half has already gone up in smoke. In fewer than fifty years, more than half of the world's tropical rainforests have fallen victim to fire and the chain saw, and the rate of destruction is still accelerating. Unbelievably, more than 200,000 acres of rainforest are burned every day. That is more than 150 acres lost every minute of every day, and 78 million acres lost every year! More than 20 percent of the Amazon rainforest is already gone, and much more is severely threatened as the destruction continues. It is estimated that the Amazon alone is vanishing at a rate of 20,000 square miles a year. If nothing is done to curb this trend, the entire Amazon could well be gone within fifty years. Massive deforestation brings with it many ugly consequences-air and water pollution, soil erosion, malaria epidemics, the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the eviction and decimation of indigenous Indian tribes, and the loss of biodiversity through extinction of plants and animals. Fewer rainforests mean less rain, less oxygen for us to breathe, and an increased threat from global warming. But who is really to blame? Consider what we industrialized Americans have done to our own homeland. We converted 90 percent of North America's virgin forests into firewood, shingles, furniture, railroad ties, and paper. Other industrialized countries have done no better. Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil, and other tropical countries with rainforests are often branded as â€Å"environmental villains† of the world, mainly because of their reported levels of destruction of their rainforests. Why should the loss of tropical forests be of any concern to us in light of our own poor management of natural resources? The loss of tropical rainforests has a profound and devastating impact on the world because rainforests are so biologically diverse, more so than other ecosystems (e. g. , temperate forests) on Earth. Consider these facts: †¢A single pond in Brazil can sustain a greater variety of fish than is found in all of Europe's rivers. †¢A 25-acre plot of rainforest in Borneo may contain more than 700 species of trees a number equal to the total tree diversity of North America. A single rainforest reserve in Peru is home to more species of birds than are found in the entire United States. †¢One single tree in Peru was found to harbor forty-three different species of ants – a total that approximates the entire number of ant species in the British Isles. †¢The number of species of fish in the Amazon exceeds the number found in the entire Atlantic Ocean. The biodiversity of the tropical rainforest is so immense that less than 1 percent of its millions of species have been studied by scientists for their active constituents and their possible uses. When an acre of tropical rainforest is lost, the impact on the number of plant and animal species lost and their possible uses is staggering. Scientists estimate that we are losing more than 137 species of plants and animals every single day because of rainforest deforestation. Surprisingly, scientists have a better understanding of how many stars there are in the galaxy than they have of how many species there are on Earth. Estimates vary from 2 million to 100 million species, with a best estimate of somewhere near 10 million; only 1. million of these species have actually been named. Today, rainforests occupy only 2 percent of the entire Earth's surface and 6 percent of the world's land surface, yet these remaining lush rainforests support over half of our planet's wild plants and trees and one-half of the world's wildlife. Hundreds and thousands of these rainforest species are being extinguished before they have even been identified, much less catalogued and studied. The magnitude of this loss to the world was most poignantly described by Harvard's Pulitzer Prize-winning biologist Edward O.  Wilson over a decade ago: â€Å"The worst thing that can happen during the 1980s is not energy depletion, economic collapses, limited nuclear war, or conquest by a totalitarian government. As terrible as these catastrophes would be for us, they can be repaired within a few generations. The one process ongoing in the 1980s that will take millions of years to correct is the loss of genetic and species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly that our descendants are least likely to forgive us for. † Yet still the destruction continues. If deforestation continues at current rates, scientists estimate nearly 80 to 90 percent of tropical rainforest ecosystems will be destroyed by the year 2020. This destruction is the main force driving a species extinction rate unmatched in 65 million years. As human beings continue on the quest to find more efficient and economical ways of creating a better life, the world at large is feeling the effects. Searching for new land to build and to grow crops on has created a predictable disturbance to the biogeochemical cycle in rainforests. The biogeochemical chemical cycles in a rainforest rotates through both the biological and the geological world, this can be described as the biogeochemical process. Of course a rainforest takes hundreds of thousands of years to become lush and tropical, while it takes big business a matter of hours to demolish the land and begin building, farming or drilling oil wells on. The plants and animals in rain forest either remain undiscovered, become extinct or are lost to the destruction of the heavy machinery used to clear the land. This has an immense effect on the biogeochemical cycles in the rainforest. Reservoirs are affected and the trees of tropical rain forests are unable to bring water up from the forest floor that would naturally be evaporated into the atmosphere. This is a cycle that is necessary for the whole planet. Oxygen is released into the atmosphere by autotrophs during photosynthesis and taken up by both autotrophs and heterotrophs during respiration. In fact, all of the oxygen in the atmosphere is biogenic; that is, it was released from water through photosynthesis by autotrophs. It took about 2 billion years for autotrophs (mostly cyanobacteria) to raise the oxygen content of the atmosphere to the 21% that it is today; this opened the door for complex organisms such as multicellular animals, which need a lot of oxygen. (McShaffrey, 2006) This is typically the responsibly of trees in a rainforest to carry chemicals from the land into the atmosphere. Human beings are having a major impact on this action being completed. During the clearing of these rainforests, humans burn the area to be excavated and the carbon cycle in the area is then disrupted. Fossil fuels release into the atmosphere excess carbon dioxide. More carbon dioxide is then released into the air and the oceans eventually causing a common condition called global warming. Global warming simply means that the carbon dioxide produced in the atmosphere is permitting more energy to reach the Earth’s surface from the sun than is escaping from the Earth’s surface into space. Reference http://www.rain-tree.com/facts.htm

Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Complex Moralities Essay

According to Aristotle, for a writer to create an interesting character it must be morally complex, meaning it must consist of not only good or bad morals, but both. Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame has a few examples of this trait in its main characters. Claude Frollo, the priest, shows moral complexity, as he is the novel’s antagonist but is also very compassionate in his feelings toward Esmeralda. Phoebus, who is a nobleman, a soldier, and the captain of the King’s archers, is also one to cheat on his fiance, Fleur-de-Lys de Gondelaurier, and later ignore his chance to save Esmeralda during her execution. Quasimodo is another quality example of moral complexity because while he remains loyal to Esmeralda in every way that he can, he also doesn’t hesitate in pushing Frollo off the ledge and murdering dozens of Truands. Moral complexity allows a reader to think about each character with more depth. Claude Frollo, Esmeralda, and Quasimodo all have positive as well as negative aspects to their personalities, which creates what Aristotle would consider to be interesting characters for this reason. In the beginning of the novel, Frollo shows his compassion and dedication when he takes in his younger brother, Jehan, and later adopts Quasimodo after his parents left him as a child. Though Frollo tried his best to mold scholarly individuals out of the young orphans they soon became symbols of his failure, as Jehan drinks and gambles his money away and Quasimodo’s deafness prevents almost any kind of learning. Frollo’s obsessive longing for La Esmeralda causes her to be hanged and Quasimodo to be tortured. It seems that everything he tries to do ends negatively, and that â€Å"by making himself a priest made himself a demon† (Hugo 282). No matter the effort he puts in to make Esmeralda love him, he only ends up causing her pain. His obsession leads him to do things he would otherwise never do. His compelling fixation with this infatuating gypsy girl leads him to stab Phoebus with a â€Å"dagger that only Esmeralda sees descend upon Pheobus, and raise again dripping† (Hugo 165). Frollo’s compassion and partially good intentions conflict with his actions and get him into predicaments. These characteristics of his contradict themselves, making him a morally complex character. Phoebus, who is supposed to be a gentleman, is not much more than a womanizer, however, he saves La Esmeralda from Quasimodo the night he attacks her. Phoebus does not love her, but leads her to think otherwise and tries to seduce her. As he spoke to the lost gypsy girl he confessed his apparent love â€Å"in one breath without making one single blunder,† suggesting that he had strung together the same exact words to many gullible and in love women just like Esmeralda. Hugo 167) When Frollo stabs Phoebus everyone is convinced he is dead but without bringing it to anyone’s attention, he recovers. Phoebus doesn’t speak up when La Esmeralda is sentanced to death for his murder because he doesn’t want to be associated with a gypsy girl and doesn’t want his fiance to find out about his relations with her. Even though he could have saved Esmeralda’s life, â €Å"he felt no great desire to make a personal appearance at the trial† (Hugo 199) With Quasimodo’s life, being soundless and confusing, he does not always make the right decisions. His thoughts and comprehensions are twisted but his heart is good. Near the beginning of the novel, Quasimodo began following Esmeralda and attacked her late at night. He was tried for it and was sentenced to being publicly whipped which later helped him realize that Esmeralda wasn’t like everybody else who made fun of him for his appearance, but she helped him and tried to understand him. For example after he was whipped for an hour all he asked for was water. Everyone listening to him laughed at him but Esmeralda gave him water. This is ironic because the reason that he was being whipped was because he attacked Esmeralda, yet she was the only one to show him sympathy and give him water. Quasimodo was so touched by her kind gesture that â€Å"from that eye, hitherto so dry and burning, was seen to roll a big tear, which fell slowly down that deformed visage so long contracted by despair† (Hugo 322). From then on Quasimodo became very loyal to Esmeralda. Though this is true, he turns on Frollo, the man who raised him and took him in when he had no one, because he is responsible for Esmeralda’s death. During Esmeralda’s hanging he couldn’t bare the rage, he â€Å"took a few steps back from the archdeacon, and then, rushing at him furiously, with his two huge hands, he struck the priest’s back and pushed Dom Claude into the abyss over which he had been leaning† (Hugo 300). Though his morals may not have been commendable, his heart and ntentions are genuine. Frollo’s bad decisions and confusing feelings, Phoebus’s corrupt loyalty but heroic stature, and Quasimodo’s twisted priorities but kind heart reflect true imperfection of the human spirit. Victor Hugo used Aristotle’s methods of giving a character moral complexity to make the reader more interested throughout the story. Neither Frollo, Phoebus, nor Quasimodo have co mpletely good or completely bad morals, but instead struggle with the decisions they face.

Tuesday, October 8, 2019

Corporate Governance and Ethical Responsibility Term Paper

Corporate Governance and Ethical Responsibility - Term Paper Example They can include the patients, surrounding community and government. However, this paper only focuses on three stakeholders: the employees, shareholders and the patients. As a hospital director, Dr. DoRight owes the stakeholders duty of loyalty in all aspects of the hospital performance. This duty requires that Dr. DoRight should act in the best interest of the shareholders and the hospital as an entity. The duty of loyalty also restricts Dr. DoRight to make him stay away from his personal interests and self dealing which can be at the expenses of the stakeholders. Dr. DoRight also owes the stakeholders duty of loyalty that dictates him not to enter into some acts that may help him receive personal benefits improperly and end up causing harm to the stakeholders and the hospital at large. To the patients, Dr. DoRight owes a duty of loyalty that requires him to act in good faith and care which any other prudent and ordinary person in the same position would accord in a similar situatio n in order to safeguard both the interest of the patients and the hospital (Martin, 2001). The duty of loyalty is also owed to the employees, especially in making decisions. Dr. DoRight is required to have his decisions made in good faith, being well informed and with honesty when dealing with the employees in order to safeguard their interests, as well as those of the hospital through the judgment rule of the business. In order to have this protection invoked, Dr. DoRight owes them the duty of information on all the reasonable material information available. The rule of business judgment may not protect Dr. DoRight when he has financial interests at a personal level in the transactions, fails to have information on the situations, is not independent, or fails to carryout the duty of loyalty and care. Dr. DoRight must make sure that he follows the standard of fairness to the hospital and all the stakeholders (Pickstock, 2007). Dr. DoRight as a director of the hospital has the duty t o facilitate the maximization of the shareholders’ wealth and enhance the interests of the shareholders. In summary, Dr. DoRight must ensure that maintains the rights of the shareholders and treats them equally, honor the interest of all other stakeholders like the patients, observes integrity and ethics in his duties, and remains transparent with all his actions. Question two Stakeholders have different interests in hospital. For instance, the shareholders who invested on the hospital are interested in the survival and profitability of the firm. They are classically concerned with the allocation of investment earnings and their residual earnings that is paid to the as dividends; the company management, including Dr. DoRight, is interested in the efficiency of the hospital in generating the profits. The general performance of the hospital is regarded as the effectiveness of management and can be observed by particular financial rations; the customers such as the patients are interested in the ability of the hospital to continue providing the health services to them; employees may be interested in high wages in order to keep their work running; suppliers on the other side want to see their products bought and paid for by the hospital and the lenders are interested in the liquidity position of the hospital to check if they will be paid in time; and the community in general is concerned with environmental

Monday, October 7, 2019

English colonization on the indigenous peoples of the New World in the Research Paper

English colonization on the indigenous peoples of the New World in the 16th and 17th centuries - Research Paper Example In ancient times the concept of colony is found in Greek city states. According to Toynbee apart from Athens and Sparta, all the Greek city states established their colonies on different parts. Greek city states developed colonies in order to fulfill the needs of their growing population1. Modern era of colonialism is normally associated with the discovery of America in 1492 by Columbus. Spain established its colonies in the New World and shortly afterwards other European countries followed the suit. The fall of Spain gave place to England and France to fight for the new found world along with already known world of India and Africa. In this fight between the two European powers, England prevailed. English colonies were established worldwide and they boasted that sun never set on the British Empire. American history begins with the clash of Europeans and Native American people. The above statement is true for modern times, which ignores the past of New World. Archeology has revealed the old world of America but normally it is ignored and least discussed. For current purpose the focus will be on the 16th and 17th centuries. The Native Americans, who first came into contact with Europeans, had their culture and values. They used to speak some 300 to 350 distinct languages and different ways of living. The Aztecs and Incas were two great empires of this New World and their remains testify the greatness achieved by these empires. These native people first faced Spanish settlers. The sheer power and brute force humbled the indigenous population and this was the method, which was to be used by later colonial powers. English settlers tried their luck at the East and there the indigenous population despite its variation lived in similar ways. They depended on agriculture, which was done by female population. Indigenous population did not keep herds of domestic animals and Male population used to hunt and fish. They used to live in family groups but loyal to larger kin and clan. There used to be one chief, who ruled by consent. The first major impact of colonialism on indigenous population was epidemic diseases. The life style of local population was different as they never kept herds and never lived with animals. On the other hand Europeans and Asian used to live near their domestic animals. The diseases, which were spread in the local population, resulted in the death of countless people. Mann says that "what happened after Columbus was like a thousand kudzus everywhere." "Throughout the hemisphere," he wrote, "ecosystems cracked and heaved like winter ice."2 Estimates of the population of the Americas at the time Columbus arrived have varied enormously. Some have argued that existing estimates of a high pre-Columbian indigenous population are rooted in a bias against aspects of Western civilization and/or Christianity. The indigenous population in 1492 was not necessarily at a high point, and may have already been in decline. Indigenous populat ions in most areas of the Americas reached a low point by the early twentieth century, and in a number of cases started to climb again. Native Americans suffered profoundly because of their remoteness from the rest of the world. Europe, Africa, and Asia had been trading knowledge and technologies for centuries. Societies on all three continents had learned to use iron and kept herds of domestic

Sunday, October 6, 2019

Consulting for Entertainment Weekly Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Consulting for Entertainment Weekly - Case Study Example Disney has the rights to â€Å"any other technology yet to be invented,† this includes the distribution of videocassettes of the Lady and the Tramp film in 1987. The company has also made clear that it was their practice not to allow profit participation deals for voice performers, as manifested by the testimonies of Jodi Bension (the voice of Ariel in The Little Mermaid) and Cheech Marin (voice performer in Oliver and Co.). As for the case of Ms. Peggy Lee, she is pressing the advantage that despite the contract’s specification on residual payments she is also pressing the right that the company violated her right to privacy, especially on the use of her name and likeness without her consent. The distribution of the 1987 videocassettes, with her voice used, is in her case a violation to her right to privacy. However, it must also be pointed out that she misinterpreted her claim that she is entitled to $9 million as of March 1988 videocassette sales of Lady and the Tramp. Lee misinterpreted the Income Statement and multiplied the $77 million sales to 12.5% residual payments Based from the evidences presented, it is clear that Disney has an edge in winning the case against Ms. Lee. The unauthorized commercial use of name, voice, signature, photograph or likeness is defined as the unknowing use of a person’s name, voice, etc. without such person’s permission. In this case, Ms. Lee permitted Disney to use her voice and talent when she agreed on working with the film back in 1955. The later release of the film in 1987 is not a violation of her right to privacy since her contract specified that Disney has rights to â€Å"any other technology yet to be invented† and that phonographic recordings later sold entitles her to residual rights. If this is the case, then Ms. Lee is only entitled to 12.5% of the profit generated by the videocassette release, which was capped (under union rules) to $381,000. If the future value of money is calculated, Disney would calculate

Saturday, October 5, 2019

European fantasy sport analysis Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

European fantasy sport analysis - Research Paper Example With the saturated point of Great Britain, the market of the fantasy league is gradually growing to build the brands to the outside emerging markets. The fantasy league is largely grown in three major countries in Europe. Germany, France, and Italy proved to be the best marketplace for the sports fantasy more especially in football. Mondogoal is a company that is based in the territories of Europe (Lupica, 2014). There were a number of reasons why it was based to Europe especially in football. There was a license that was issued in the Great Britain including England, Wales, and Scotland. Italy, Spain, France, and Germany are regulated thus it is time-consuming and costly to get a license. Most of the companies decide to partner with the companies that have already acquired the license in order to offer the service. Brazil has got no problem when establishing the fantasy sports company because as long as one is not based there, he or she can play the gamble game and earn cash. The on ly problem is that the market is new and its growing up (Blessings, 2012). Analysis of the marketIn Europe, the fantasy sport is very popular because the companies involved normally allow players to select from the real players from the sports. That is to say, the players of this game normally choose the virtual players online, all from the list of the players they adore. With the ardent fans of these game-winning prizes upon winning the game, it has penetrated in many parts of Europe (Collins, 2013).