Week 8 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 5

Week 8 - Essay Example Thus enforcing the change will promote saving (Jacqueline, 2012). Suppose there two family members with US citizenship; one works in Australia while the other in US. The one in US had purchased a piece of land while the one in Australia owns a rental house in Australia. The two family members decide to exchange the ownership of the two properties; a house and a land. Postponing paying tax is one of the strategies of maximizing tax avoidance and minimizing the IRS scrutiny (Jacqueline, 2012). One pays tax whenever he/she sells a property and gains. To avoid the case of obvious gain (which will make you pay tax), one can directly reinvest the proceeds in a similar property as part of a qualifying like-kind exchange. For example, suppose you want to sell off your land and buy a rental house. You may have a gain in cash if your land has higher value compared the rental house you want to buy; if there is cash exchange. To avoid tax, you can find a rental house with higher value than your land and exchange. Thus although you may have gained, it a like-exchange for similar property hence you will not pay

Western civilization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Western civilization - Essay Example This period has been marked by the changing way of life of the people. It was marked by changes in different spheres of life of the people. In particular there was marked rise of industrial systems, education, urbanization and other aspect of life of the western world. Among the things that marked the rise of western civilization was the rise in sovereignty of the nations. In this regard there was increased fall of empires and the rise of nations. The Western Roman Empire which ruled the modern states of Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and England for centuries had collapsed as a result of combination of a number of factors. One of such factors was economic decline which had an impact on the decline of the military spending leading to reduced military strength. The empires were based on the military strength and therefore the fall of military might led to invasion by other tribes. The fall of the Western Roman Empire in its military strength led to the invasion by the barbarian tribes which were coming from Scandinavia and other states like Germany. They invaded the Western Roman Empire and led to its eventual fall. This had an effect on other factors like racial, religious, and the political life of these empires. Increased warfare with the invading tribes and economic crisis could have contributed in a great way to the fall. (Hobsbawm, 1992) Therefore with the fall of the empires there was increased rise of the modern sovereign states. The fall of the empire led to the defragmentation to individual states which were sovereign with internal government. The fall of the Western Roman Empire led to the formation of the modern day states of France, Spain, Portugal, England and Italy. Owing to the factors that led to the fall of the empire such as racial, religious and political division, the emerging states were grouped in some aspects of community. It has been shown that racial and ethnic factors were the main leading

Manage an information or knowledge management system Research Paper

Manage an information or knowledge management system - Research Paper Example ii) The policy guidelines do not draw attention to the areas of underperformance but it is the system performance that can be said to be underperforming or not. 6. True 7. A contingency plan is the process in an organization that prepares it to act coherently to an unplanned occurrence. It is normally a plan used as an alternative plan if the initial plan fails to function. Also known as the plan ‘’B’’. 8. To manage the problem of IT failure when it occurs, one would need to retrieve the information by contacting IT expert. The system can be traced immediately to find the lost data. However, managing this problem for the future, one need to be proactive in that, they need to realize that IT may fail any time; therefore, a data backup system is always required in place. Internet security system should be implemented to avoid data theft through hackers and data destruction through viruses and malwares. 9. Analysis, evaluation, probe, investigation 10. Brainst orming is the process of soliciting for ideas from a group of people in order to find solution to a given problem. This normally begins by the group focusing on a problem, the creatively developing various possible solutions to the problem and pushing ideas as far as possible. 11. False. Auditing finds mistakes and builds on them, not strengths. 12. False. One system cannot be reviewed in isolation since a system is continuous and one system is connected to the other systems. 13. Audits can consider the performance of system interfaces. 14. True 15. Organizational job design, performance indicators and how are suppliers to be used? 16. Organizational mission statement. 17. a, b, c & d. Assignment 2 Case Study 1 Date Incident Consequence Reported by 12/4/13 Request for employment records for a former employee Subpoena-law requirement Susan-HR department Action taken Date Modified File given 12/5/13 Modified By Job Title Sign Susan’s Supervisor Supervisor 1. Good quality inform ation is necessary for decision making purposes, planning, and reference purposes as well as proper management of an organization. 2. The benefits of information and Knowledge management system include assisting organizations to identify, select, organize, disseminate, and transfer information. It also helps the organization to share knowledge towards meeting its objectives. It enables the organization to compare itself with its competitors. The major drawbacks include failure of the system to deliver the expected outcome and the inability to use by some users. 3. Whether it will be able to provide a basis for the valuation of the company, whether it can stimulate the management in order to focus on the important things and whether the investment in Knowledge Management is justified. I & KMS require that measures like tight information security be applied to the organization’s information system. Confidentiality and legal consideration while dispersing knowledge is critical, keeping the organizational success-knowledge secret for economic prosperity are some of the measures that need to be applied. 4. The type of knowledge information that a sugar processing company uses in the demand side for example, include knowledge of things like; sugar consumption rate, sister companies sugar production capabilities, industry sugar production capabilities, cement import and export levels. Strengths The organization

Western civilization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Western civilization - Essay Example This period has been marked by the changing way of life of the people. It was marked by changes in different spheres of life of the people. In particular there was marked rise of industrial systems, education, urbanization and other aspect of life of the western world. Among the things that marked the rise of western civilization was the rise in sovereignty of the nations. In this regard there was increased fall of empires and the rise of nations. The Western Roman Empire which ruled the modern states of Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and England for centuries had collapsed as a result of combination of a number of factors. One of such factors was economic decline which had an impact on the decline of the military spending leading to reduced military strength. The empires were based on the military strength and therefore the fall of military might led to invasion by other tribes. The fall of the Western Roman Empire in its military strength led to the invasion by the barbarian tribes which were coming from Scandinavia and other states like Germany. They invaded the Western Roman Empire and led to its eventual fall. This had an effect on other factors like racial, religious, and the political life of these empires. Increased warfare with the invading tribes and economic crisis could have contributed in a great way to the fall. (Hobsbawm, 1992) Therefore with the fall of the empires there was increased rise of the modern sovereign states. The fall of the empire led to the defragmentation to individual states which were sovereign with internal government. The fall of the Western Roman Empire led to the formation of the modern day states of France, Spain, Portugal, England and Italy. Owing to the factors that led to the fall of the empire such as racial, religious and political division, the emerging states were grouped in some aspects of community. It has been shown that racial and ethnic factors were the main leading

Bystander Behavior and Concepts Essay Example for Free

Bystander Behavior and Concepts Essay Research reveals that the feeling of guilt can spur on the behaviour of helping. For instance, a survivor of a terrorist attack may be guilty of going to assist others. Lack of Personal Relationship Ideally, bystanders are more likely to assist when the know the person. In the case of emergency, people in the problem people may make personalized response even if strangers are keeping a distance. The bystanders’ presence in the scene of emergency limits the likelihood of any person will display any response to assist in violence. Schouml;llnberger, Mitchel, Redpath, Crawford-Brown Hofmann, (2007) notes that contrary to common sense, there is no safety in bystander in the presence of the bystander because they see and assume someone else will take responsibility. Both social norm and diffusion explanations predict a reduction in helping behaviour when a bystander is present. Pro-Social BehaviourThe psychological foundations of the pro-social behaviour are beneficial for doing my further research in my field of study. Besides, it can also assist me achieve my educational, criminal justice and social work in line of profession. More importantly, the theoretical understanding with practical implications can assist me in improving my health and philanthropy. The concept teaches the principles of help, sharing and giving that are all important for social relationships and assisting and being of benefit for one another in the society and finally feel good. Social Norms The principle of the social norm argues that people use other people’s actions to decide on when to help. Learning and understanding the social norms in the society will help me develop moral behaviour and learn how to make curate decisions. Making wiser choices is important for life developments and benefits of decisions. Humanism Humanistic psychology refers to a psychological perspective that major on the study of a person referred to as holism. The approach argues that the behavior of an individual is connected to his inner self-image and feelings. According to the humanistic perspective, every individual is unique and individual and is at liberty to change his or her lives at any moment. Because of the center view of the person or her or his personal, subjective perception and experiences of the world, the humanists argue that the scientific methods are inappropriate to study the behaviour. The most influential theory of holism is the cognitive theory (Schouml;llnberger, Mitchel, Redpath, Crawford-Brown Hofmann, 2007). The theory is relevant to my current and future life. Besides, the theory revolves around the studying of the mental process of acquiring knowledge. Since it deals with the perception attention and memory, it will help me achieve and maintain general healthy lifestyle. The theory can be use d to analyze mental illness hence providing healthy lifestyle. Behaviorist Perspective Behaviorists view people as controlled by the environment. Besides, it mentions that we are the result of what we have learnt in our environment. The perspective is important for learning how stimuli affect observable behaviour. The perspective highlights operant conditioning in which people learn from consequences and classical conditioning in which people learn by association. The perspective is beneficial for getting better academic and life grades. Understanding the concepts of learning will assist me achieve better learning procedures for justifying better grades. Reference Schouml;llnberger, H., Mitchel, R. E. J., Redpath, J. L., Crawford-Brown, D. J., Hofmann, W. (November 01, 2007). Detrimental and Protective Bystander Effects: A Model Approach. Radiation Research, 168, 5, 614-626. Source document

Organization and Management Research

Organization and Management Research Organization and management research is in danger of becoming irrelevant Different researches undertaken by organizational management helps to gain knowledge in the management field (Sandberg, Alvesson, 2011). Efficient management research is essential for any organization as it can indicate the success and the failure of that firm (Davis, 2014). The enormous extension in the field of management, over the previous few years, resulted in a great development in academic articles published (Davis, 2014). Despite all the good and valuable work being produced, this growth has been coupled with continuous debates that management research is becoming irrelevant in the present time (Davis, 2014). This paper is intended to focus on the various debates regarding the present downfall of management research and proposes alternative solutions to those problems (Sandberg, Alvesson, 2011). Despite the vast and painstaking success, organizational and management research has a serious deficiency of high-impact research in the management field. It is argued that the researchers are becoming irrelevant for the business organizations (Sandberg, Alvesson, 2011). There is a large shared thought of a disturbing lack of original ideas and innovative contributions in the management studies (Alvesson, Spicer, 2016). Research process enhances the knowledge and train people to question the set norms if they seem backdated. Organizational and management research process has a huge lack of interesting and influential studies (Davis, 2014). The problem is that there is no mark of challenging the underlying assumptions of established literature (Sandberg, Alvesson, 2011). The gap-spotting research method is mostly used by the researchers and the institutions nowadays which are blocking the entry of creativity in the field of research (Neuman, 2014). Innovation and creativity are nee ded in this field, to question the previous beliefs of every individual and of course, the next task of the research process will be to provide essential theoretical and practical answer to every individual (Davis, 2014). The incremental consensus-confirming work is in the central attention rather than the consensus-challenging contributions which are really disappointing for the editors, other researchers and for the commentators (Quinlan, 2015). Institutional conditions, professional norms within the management field and the researches identity constructions, these three points are closely interconnected and quite influential for the organization and management research process (Alvesson, Sandberg, 2012). These three factors are equally supporting and practicing adding-to-the literature form means to find out the probable gap in the research thereby filling it up with suitable examples and arguments rather than challenging the whole system and providing an interesting and innovative framework (Neuman, 2014). There is a constant pressure prevalent for the researchers in the path of achieving identity (Quinlan, 2015). Nowadays, researchers are more interested in publishing their works in the top listed journals accepting the gap-spotting method which decreases the quality of research process (Verma, 2014). New evolutionary research is important not only to challenge the set assumptions of other people blindly but also, it is necessary for clear, critical and new viewpoints in the organizational and management research (Quinlan, 2015). Theory and literature studies are important in everything that we do; they act as a way of guiding us to perform better in our respective fields (Sandberg, Alvesson, 2011). They are essential for organizational behavior, practicing organizational psychology and at the time of studying (Alvesson, Sandberg, 2012). However, recently, the field of organization and management research has lost its essence and has become attracted to the interesting puzzles and shiny objects (Donaldson, Qiu, Luo, 2013). There has been no advancement in the management theory; it is more concerned with the entertainment value present in the present articles and theories, rather than focusing on their real-world value and scientific rigor (Donaldson, Qiu, Luo, 2013). The theories should be accurate and have value for them to be applied in the real-world practices (Sandberg, Alvesson, 2011). Previously the theories that were developed, especially in the late 70s and 80s, they were completely focused and aimed at improving the existing practices of the organizations (Birkinshaw et al. 2014). The authors used to derive hypotheses from theoretical propositions, which were then tested before being formed into a theory (Sandberg, Alvesson, 2011). This helped in identifying the underlying relationships like whom do they apply to, and why and where. The theories of that time effectively addressed the what, how, why, when and where of the organizational phenomenon (Birkinshaw et al. 2014). The theoretical contributions were gauged on various parameters like what is new, how will it effect, and why now (McKeown, Petitta, 2014). Currently, this has process has almost vanished (McKeown, Petitta, 2014). The researchers are more interested in getting a high quantity of articles published rather than focusing on the quality of the research or theories. This is because, the number of articles being published each year has increased significantly, and there is high competition among the authors to get their research papers published in leading journals (McKeown, Petitta, 2014). Several new business schools have been established all around the world and the existing ones have expanded significantly, because of this there has been a major increase in the number of articles for organization and management research (McKeown, Petitta, 2014). Furthermore, governments have introduced various assessment formulas like ERA and REF/RAE in Australia and the UK respectively (Birkinshaw et al. 2014). These assessment guidelines have been formulated by the government to govern the universities. Thus, because of this, it has b ecome a performance indicator for the top business schools, as the more articles they are able to get published in the high-end journals, their ranking and status will be improved (McKeown, Petitta, 2014). This has led to the universities forcing the professors and scientists to get a high number of articles published every year and because of this, they cannot research properly and produce articles which lack good research and theory (McKeown, Petitta, 2014). Additionally, even though there is a high increase in the number of articles being published, none of them have interesting and innovative theories, and are highly monotonous (Alvesson, Sandberg, 2012). Since there has been an increase in the quantity of management articles, the authors have become competitive and due to this the quality of the articles has improved (Karlsson, 2016). However, this has not motivated the authors in publishing new and improved theories (McKeown, Petitta, 2014). Research is done so that the knowledge of the particular field is enhanced and new and innovative theories are discovered, which help in making the existing practices better. Nevertheless, the research that is being done currently lacks innovative and interesting theories and ideologies (Alvesson, Sandberg, 2012). The authors have been publishing the same theories repetitively and gap spotting is becoming extremely popular. These articles are highly quantitative and contain figures from the past years, which make them irrelevant and tough to understand (Karlsson, 2016). Furthermore, they are just based on hypotheses and do not always turn out to be accurate. Since these organization and management research papers lack relevant theories and innovative ideas; the existing as well as upcoming managers have stopped reading them (Farnsworth, Keeble-Ramsay, Kemble, 2014). These research papers do not have much relevance with the real-time management world and the managers cannot relate t o them (Alvesson, Sandberg, 2012). Thus, these papers are not solving the actual purpose and because of this there is a debate on whether these research papers are relevant for the business organizations or not (Karlsson, 2016). The research is done by the authors on the same topic repetitively. In one instance, there were two articles found on the Harvard Business Review, which was written by well-educated authors having good knowledge about academic management research (McKeown, Petitta, 2014). These articles were written by Bennis OToole (2005) and Behrman Levin (1984) and had a gap of 21 years. However, the content of both these articles were same and they addressed the same issues (McKeown, Petitta, 2014). This is a proof of the same research is being repeated time and again. This means that the issues have not changed at all, and the same issues are plaguing the management world even now (Johnston, 2014). Therefore, the researchers should not waste their resources for providing solutions for the same research repetitively and the previous research papers and theories can be used by the existing managers as a guide (Karlsson, 2016). Or the solutions for the problems faced by the manager and how they can improve themselves have not been found by the researchers until now (McKeown, Petitta, 2014). Even though several problems are plaguing organization and management research, and many people have been complaining about the system which is prevalent (Suddaby, Hardy, Huy, 2011). There have hardly been any proper complaints by these people regarding the system. This is because; many people are getting benefitted from the prevailing system and are dominating the field, so that it does not get changed. The other segments of people are continuing to support this system voluntarily (Alvesson, Sandberg, 2012). Only few people are there who actually want this system to be changed. The benefactors of this system include the deans of the colleges and the status of the universities, publication houses, as well as the authors writing the existing articles (Karlsson, 2016). The deans of the colleges are highly benefitted because of this existing system, as according to the government regulations, the colleges can improve their ranking if higher number of articles are published in leading journals, which have been specified by them (McKeown, Petitta, 2014). So, they ensure that various articles from their college get published in these journals; thus, increasing their ranking and improving the image of the university. The publication houses are getting benefitted because there has been an increase in the research articles being submitted to them, which in turn is improving their brand name. This is also beneficial for the researchers, as writing these articles and getting them published in prestigious journals enhances their career (Donaldson, Qiu, Luo, 2013). This has resulted in the biggest problem present in management research, which is gap spotting. Scientific enquiries involving questioning the underlying assumptions of the existing research and deal with consensus challenging theories; however, gap spotting involves consensus seeking, which is the complete opposite (Karlsson, 2016). This has become extremely popular and the authors identify or construct gaps in the studies that have been done previously. This is known as extending the literature, and the researchers use the previous research studies to extend them by critically or positively referring to them, and base their own study and theories on these works. The contemporary authors and researchers use this as an excuse in most of the cases, so that they can get their articles featured in leading journals (McKeown, Petitta, 2014). This also has its benefits, as some articles actually need to be improved and challenged, but this has become a trend and the organization and manag ement research is becoming irrelevant due to this (Alvesson, Sandberg, 2012). Gap spotting happens because of various reasons and a major reason is the professional norms that have been dictated by the editors, journals and reviewers (McKeown, Petitta, 2014). These journals have started this trend of gap spotting and constantly encourage the norm of adding-to-the literature. Since the authors want to get their articles published in these journals, they have to follow the guidelines and rules dictated by them (Alvesson, Sandberg, 2012). They follow a strict review system and to get an article published, an author has to get various changes done. Sometimes because of this, several parts have to be deleted and various meaningless additions are done, due to which the meaning of the article gets completely changed (McKeown, Petitta, 2014). Furthermore, all these changes have to be done within the word count stipulated by them and the researchers have to listen to innumerable demands (Karlsson, 2016). This has become a significant problem, as sometimes because of this, people who have written good journals having relevant theories and discoveries, do not get their work featured (McKeown, Petitta, 2014).   The near omnipresent condition to constantly publish in the top rank journals has proved that most of the researchers have lost track and the main aim of the management studies, namely, to generate original knowledge that matters to the organization and community. (Quinlan, 2015). Therefore, the most noteworthy point here is that, in order to get back the management studies on the previous track, there is a need to shift the interest of the researchers from the recent paper production to the production of more innovative and significant ideas that can bring change in both organizational procedure and theories (Alvesson, Sandberg, 2012). Using problematization and empirical material as methods for challenging previous assumptions will be beneficial to get new ways in the organizational and management research process (Neuman, 2014). Books Karlsson, C. (Ed.). (2016). Research Methods for Operations Management. Routledge. Neuman, W. (2014). Social research methods (1st ed.). Boston [u.a.]: Pearson. Quinlan, C. (2015). Business research methods (1st ed.). Andover: Cengage Learning EMEA. Verma, R. (2014). Management research (1st ed.). New Delhi: Anmol Publications. Journals Alvesson, M., Sandberg, J. (2012). Has Management Studies Lost Its Way? Ideas for More Imaginative and Innovative Research. Journal Of Management Studies, 50(1), 128-152. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2012.01070.x Alvesson, M., Spicer, A. (2016). (Un)Conditional surrender? Why do professionals willingly comply with managerialism. Journal Of Organizational Change Management, 29(1), 29-45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/jocm-11-2015-0221 Behrman, J. N., Levin, R. I. (1984). Are business schools doing their job. Harvard Business Review, 62(1), 140. Bennis, W. G., OToole, J. (2005). How business schools lost their way. Harvard business review, 83(5), 96-104. Birkinshaw, J., Healey, M. P., Suddaby, R., Weber, K. (2014). Debating the future of management research. Journal of Management Studies, 51(1), 38-55. Davis, G. (2014). Celebrating Organization Theory: The After-Party. Journal Of Management Studies, 52(2), 309-319. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/joms.12094 Donaldson, L., Qiu, J., Luo, B. N. (2013). For rigour in organizational management theory research. Journal of Management Studies, 50(1), 153-172. Farnsworth, T., Keeble-Ramsay, D., Kemble, R. (2014, June). ProblematizingRepeat Studies in Management Sciences. In European Conference on Research Methodology for Business and Management Studies (p. 144). Academic Conferences International Limited. Johnston, A. (2014). Rigour in research: theory in the research approach. European Business Review, 26(3), 206-217. McKeown, T., Petitta, L. (2014). Management studies in context: International, interconnected, yet still unique. Journal of Management Organization, 20(05), 567-571. Sandberg, J., Alvesson, M. (2011). Ways of constructing research questions: gap-spotting or problematization?. Organization, 18(1), 23-44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1350508410372151 Suddaby, R., Hardy, C., Huy, Q. N. (2011). Introduction to special topic forum: where are the new theories of organization?.

Dreams in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Essay -- Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Dreams in Buffy the Vampire Slayer      Ã‚   The battle between Good and Evil. Nothing could be more timeless or universal. And each week, when presented as a contest between a teenage vampire slayer named Buffy and legions of vampires, demons, and assorted destructive forces on the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, millions of modern American television viewers watch that conflict as represented in late-nineties popular culture. As any frequent TV viewer knows, Good wins, vanquishing Evil with some ratings-garnering kicks and punches, and the episode concludes, at least until next week. Right? Not quite. Although Buffy consistently protects the world from destruction, her supremacy as a force of good remains challenged and incomplete. In part, this is a television necessity; forces of evil must always remain to be battled in next week's episode. But within the text of the series itself, the character of Buffy's boyfriend Angel -- a two-hundred odd year old vampire with a soul -- further complicates this blur ring of the lines between good and evil. Angel, whose very nature embodies a coexistence of and struggle between good and evil, functions as a site within which the war between Good and Evil take place on a microcosmic level. In the episode "Amends," Angel's dreams and visions of his past destructive acts drive him to a suicide attempt. The episode's dual reading of the evil force responsible for Angel's dreams as an external demonic force and as an element of Angel's own psyche ultimately suggests the appropriate response to evil is not more destruction but rather comprehension of and vigilance against the complex and competing forces present within individuals.    On its most literal level, the episode "Am... ...itive constructive power even in the face of his darker nature. For Buffy and Angel, dreams are not solutions. Rather, dreams serve as insights into their situation, themselves, and their emotional connection. Though the revelations and lessons of self and of loved ones come from dreams, the solution and "fighting" against evil and weakness comes from the characters working together. Though it presents surprisingly complex view for a television series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer's exploration of the interactive forces of good and evil on two narrative levels ensures that while episodes like "Amends" entertain, they also touch at deeper issues of concern to audiences across time and place. Good, evil, and dream visions -- Tuesdays on the WB.    Works Cited Whedon, Joss, creator. "Amends." Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The WB Network. 15 December 1998.