Determination of Man?s Role in Latin America Essay -- essays research

Determination of Man’s Role in Latin America   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  How society describes what is meant by a man’s role is an important definition in every culture. What is right or wrong for men to do in terms of behavior depends on each community, and on people’s own perceptions. Latin American culture has a strict set of values on sexual issues, reflecting a man’s role in society. For all of the communities in Latin America there exists a relation between a man’s role and machismo. The exaggerated sense of manliness that machismo stands for is evident by parents when raising their male children, and by communities and their expectations. Machismo represents a culture of traditions indeed, but how does machismo define the role of a man in his society? XY is the chromosome formula for a male. Providing these two chromosomes will give the sexual differentiation that causes a man to be a man instead of a woman. However, psychological, social, and cultural factors that have nothing to do with genetics are important to determine man’s role, and to cultivate the sense of masculinity. Masculinity is a process of learning. No child is born a man, so children learn to become men. One example of this are the â€Å"wild children† of the nineteenth century whose sexual preference was ambiguous. Victor de l’Aveyron and Gaspar Hauser grew up without any human contact. For them there was no difference between men and women. A simple definition for masculinity could be the opposite of femininity. What is meant by this simple definition expresses what is demanded for being a man. It must be proof of that sense of masculinity, it â€Å"must be acquired, and at a high price† (Badinter 2). Characteristics such as success, power, control and strength are demanded for masculinity. Masculinity in Latin America goes further than just demanding it. The symbol of masculinity and male sexuality comes from the definition of machismo. Labels and categories are used in order to understand masculinity. Christian Krohn-Hasen in his essay Masculinity and the Political among Dominicans describes masculinity as â€Å"that of the hombre valiente, the spirited, courageous, and brave man† (112). The symbol of a brave man for many is also considered the symbol of masculinity. Another idea involves man showing his masculinity in public. Physical movements represent his capacity for being a man. The m... ... lower class populations. There might be exceptions in which machismo also affects the upper class population, but the percentage is minimal. In fact, when referring to machismo, it’s more likely to influence low income inhabitants. Machismo is the heritage of Latin communities, and it’s inherited through the culture in every Hispanic man. How machismo influences a man’s role; however, depends on each individual. Bibliography Baca Zinn, Maxine. â€Å"Chicano Men and Masculinity.† Men’s Lives. Ed. Michael Kimmel. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2001. Badinter, Elisabeth. XY on Masculine Identity. New York: Columbia University Press, 1995. Berryman-Fink, Cynthia. â€Å"Communication and Sex-Role Socialization.† New York: Garland Publishing, 1993. Krohn-Hansen, Christian. â€Å"Masculinity and the Political among Dominicans: ‘The Dominican Tiger’.† Machos, Mistresses, Madonnas. Ed. Marit Melhuus. New York: Verso, 1996. â€Å"Physical abuse against women by an intimate partner.† United Nations Statistics Division. 2003. United Nations. Nov 27 2004. http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/indwm/table6c2x.htm Random House Webster’s Electronic Dictionary and Thesaurus, College Edition. 1994.

Utah Family Center :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  We chose to learn about, evaluate and present the Utah Family Center. The goals of this paper are; to explain the logistics of the program, to tie together what we learned with Epstein’s Framework, to describe the climate and those who typically utilize the center, and include some final concluding thoughts about the center. As a group, we referred to the Utah Family Center website, we visited and walked thru the center, and we talked to great lengths with the personnel. We were able to take pamphlets and we took digital pictures of the center to utilize in our group presentation. We worked together to write this report about the Utah Family Center. LOGISTICS   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Utah Family Center is located at 5192 Greenpine Drive (460 West) in Salt Lake City, Utah in the 84123 zip code. The telephone number is (801) 266-6166. The hours and days of operation are 9:00AM until 4:00PM Monday thru Friday. When special classes are offered, they are usually on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6:30PM until 8:30PM. When one particular class is offered, it is on Saturdays. Their website is www.utahfamilycenter.org, and their e-mail address is info@utahfamilycenter.org. The Utah Family Center started small but increased in size once they received grant funding six years ago, and with the help of the PTA and the Utah Department of Education. They share office space with the Utah PTA Headquarters. This particular location is the statewide administrative center, and there are different branches of the Utah Family Center that they refer to as satellite centers. There are nine satellite centers, and they are located in Logan, Price, Kaysville, Monument Valley, downtown Salt Lake City, Tooele, Provo, St. George, and Ogden, Utah. The satellite centers range in size depending on the area they are in, as well as the times they are open. The statewide administrative center is equipped with a large boardroom upstairs (seats 40) and a small one downstairs (seats about 12).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The staffing consists of the Director, Barbara Smith, her secretary, a financial advisor, a counselor, other assistants, workshop teachers, and numerous PAT (Parents as Teachers). The Director manages the center. The classes are directed by nationally certified trainers.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Utah Family Center is funded through repeated PIRC (Parent Information & Resource Centers) grants from the United States Department of Education Office of Innovation & Improvement. A PIRC grant is based on helping low performing schools that struggle, with the â€Å"No Child Left Behind† concept a main focus.

Les Demoiselles d’Avignon

Weller like† â€Å"bottle, glass and violin â€Å"Queering†, and † dove of peace. † Picasso had four paintings in the list of the top 10 highest auction price paintings. In an opinion poll he had been overwhelmingly elected to the greatest artist of the 20th century. And he is the first artist seen his works collected into the Louvre alive. Once, Picasso father found he was painting an unfinished sketch of a pigeon. After observing the precision of his son's technique, Picasso father realized that his 13 years old son has surpassed him, and he swore that he will never paint again.Picasso is a genius painter. Most of Picasso paintings have rich styling, which meaner the use of space color and line. 20th century is a fast changing world, and this century belongs to Picasso. After the age of 30, Picasso entered one after another restless exploration period. Just like his personal life, his works are lack of consistency, continuity and stability. He did not have fixed ideas like many other artists, which made his art fickle and elusive. The world never had an artist who restructured art like Picasso.Picasso had many influential paintings, and â€Å"Queering† was one of them. Picasso completed the painting of â€Å"Queering† in 1937. The medium of the painting is oil on canvas. â€Å"Queering† is primarily a war painting, offering a visual account of the devastating and chaotic impact of war on civilians. In this ABA 2 painting, people are screaming, crying and escaping from the bombing, some people are still alive, but some already dead. Humans and animals Jumbled together into a background of broken hard-edged geometric shapes, reminiscent of Cubism.Compare to Picasso other paintings in his Blue and Rose Periods the predominant color of â€Å"Queering† is mostly black, which might symbols death. Picasso Queering is most likely influenced by Francisco De Soya, a Spanish artist who often painted war paintings. 19 06 to 1909 was Picasso African Period. During this period Picasso Style which was strongly influenced by African sculpture and traditional African masks. â€Å"Less Demolishes Davidson† is an oil painting painted in 1907. Demolishes Davidson† was a name given by the French poet And © Salmon. The painting was originally called â€Å"El Border Davidson†. The painting was influenced by Paul Cezannes â€Å"The Bathers†. Picasso stroke out two men figures in the painting and only pet the five women figures. The reductionism and contortion of space in the painting was incredible, and dislocation of faces explosive. This painting exposed the true genius and novelty of Picasso passion. The women appear as slightly menacing and rendered with angular and disjointed body shapes.Three figures in the painting exhibit facial features in the Iberian style of Picasso native Spain, while the other two are shown with African mask features. Picasso African Period laid a so lid foundation for the Cubist revolution. Picasso made valuable contributions to art throughout his entire life. Pablo Picasso was born in a poor family in southern Spain. His father was a painter who specialized in naturalistic depictions of birds and other game. The family moved to A Corona in 1891, because Picasso father became a professor at the School of Fine Arts.Picasso showed a passion and a skill for drawing from an early age. At the age of 7, Picasso father started to train him about sketch and painting. And during the trainings Picasso showed that he had thoroughly grasped naturalistic conventions at a very young age. In 1895, Picasso 7 year old sister Contain died of diphtheria. And Picasso was traumatized by her death. After some incomplete sessions of art school in Barcelona ABA 3 and Madrid, Picasso spent his adolescence associating with the group of Catalan modernists who gathered at Else Equate Cats in Barcelona.From there he moved to Paris, where he quickly found l ikened poets and painters. His work began to attract serious critical attention and praise by the time he was twenty. His first mature work was around 1901, which is classified as his Blue Period. He painted anecdotal scenes of clowns, vagrants, and prostitutes, all in tones of blue. Important early works include his â€Å"Self- Portrait† (1901) and â€Å"La Vie† (1903). As the time moved forward, Picasso painting developed, and he met the right people in Paris. In 1904, he met Oliver a Bohemia model and they fell in love, and his Rose Period began.His subject matter remained much the same compare to his Blue Period, but his tones were warmer, rosier with orange and pink colors, and the atmosphere of his paintings was gayer. And Olivier appears in many of his Rose Period paintings. This is sometimes called Picasso Rose Period, but really there was no marked technical change between this and the Blue Period. Picasso African influenced Period was during 1907 to 1909 and formal ideas developed during this period lead directly into the Cubist period that follows.During 1909 to 1912 Picasso and Georges Braque's developed Cubism. Cubism is one of the most radical restructuring of the way that a work of art constructs its meaning. Cubism is a term that was derived from a reference made to geometric schemes and cubes. Cubism has been known as the first and the most influential of all movements in 20th century art. Before Picasso did any cubism paintings, there were works exhibiting a raw intensity and violence due to his reading of monoester art aligned with European primitivism.This contrasting position provided the dynamic for Picasso work. In his paintings such as Mother and Child, Picasso showed the fetishistic and simplifying aspects of primitivism. In his paintings Picasso used bright hues and subdued grays and earth colors. And he found out that shapes could have meaning and identities by their arrangement. Pablo Picasso died on 8 April 1973 in No ggins, France. And he was buried in the grounds of a chi ¤attain the village of Buenaventura in the south of France.But his contribution for art secured his immortality ABA 4 Pablo Picasso a genius artist in the 20th century, made tremendous contributions to art throughout his entire life. Throughout his life, he created hundreds and thousands of paintings with different styles, from Surrealist to neo-classical, shows that his artistic vitality transcends any one style. When people asked about the secret of his artistic creation, he replied â€Å"People don't realize what they have when they own a picture by me. Each picture is a phial with my blood. That is what has gone into it. † Pablo Picasso is a real genius. Les Demoiselles d’Avignon Weller like† â€Å"bottle, glass and violin â€Å"Queering†, and † dove of peace. † Picasso had four paintings in the list of the top 10 highest auction price paintings. In an opinion poll he had been overwhelmingly elected to the greatest artist of the 20th century. And he is the first artist seen his works collected into the Louvre alive. Once, Picasso father found he was painting an unfinished sketch of a pigeon. After observing the precision of his son's technique, Picasso father realized that his 13 years old son has surpassed him, and he swore that he will never paint again.Picasso is a genius painter. Most of Picasso paintings have rich styling, which meaner the use of space color and line. 20th century is a fast changing world, and this century belongs to Picasso. After the age of 30, Picasso entered one after another restless exploration period. Just like his personal life, his works are lack of consistency, continuity and stability. He did not have fixed ideas like many other artists, which made his art fickle and elusive. The world never had an artist who restructured art like Picasso.Picasso had many influential paintings, and â€Å"Queering† was one of them. Picasso completed the painting of â€Å"Queering† in 1937. The medium of the painting is oil on canvas. â€Å"Queering† is primarily a war painting, offering a visual account of the devastating and chaotic impact of war on civilians. In this ABA 2 painting, people are screaming, crying and escaping from the bombing, some people are still alive, but some already dead. Humans and animals Jumbled together into a background of broken hard-edged geometric shapes, reminiscent of Cubism.Compare to Picasso other paintings in his Blue and Rose Periods the predominant color of â€Å"Queering† is mostly black, which might symbols death. Picasso Queering is most likely influenced by Francisco De Soya, a Spanish artist who often painted war paintings. 19 06 to 1909 was Picasso African Period. During this period Picasso Style which was strongly influenced by African sculpture and traditional African masks. â€Å"Less Demolishes Davidson† is an oil painting painted in 1907. Demolishes Davidson† was a name given by the French poet And © Salmon. The painting was originally called â€Å"El Border Davidson†. The painting was influenced by Paul Cezannes â€Å"The Bathers†. Picasso stroke out two men figures in the painting and only pet the five women figures. The reductionism and contortion of space in the painting was incredible, and dislocation of faces explosive. This painting exposed the true genius and novelty of Picasso passion. The women appear as slightly menacing and rendered with angular and disjointed body shapes.Three figures in the painting exhibit facial features in the Iberian style of Picasso native Spain, while the other two are shown with African mask features. Picasso African Period laid a so lid foundation for the Cubist revolution. Picasso made valuable contributions to art throughout his entire life. Pablo Picasso was born in a poor family in southern Spain. His father was a painter who specialized in naturalistic depictions of birds and other game. The family moved to A Corona in 1891, because Picasso father became a professor at the School of Fine Arts.Picasso showed a passion and a skill for drawing from an early age. At the age of 7, Picasso father started to train him about sketch and painting. And during the trainings Picasso showed that he had thoroughly grasped naturalistic conventions at a very young age. In 1895, Picasso 7 year old sister Contain died of diphtheria. And Picasso was traumatized by her death. After some incomplete sessions of art school in Barcelona ABA 3 and Madrid, Picasso spent his adolescence associating with the group of Catalan modernists who gathered at Else Equate Cats in Barcelona.From there he moved to Paris, where he quickly found l ikened poets and painters. His work began to attract serious critical attention and praise by the time he was twenty. His first mature work was around 1901, which is classified as his Blue Period. He painted anecdotal scenes of clowns, vagrants, and prostitutes, all in tones of blue. Important early works include his â€Å"Self- Portrait† (1901) and â€Å"La Vie† (1903). As the time moved forward, Picasso painting developed, and he met the right people in Paris. In 1904, he met Oliver a Bohemia model and they fell in love, and his Rose Period began.His subject matter remained much the same compare to his Blue Period, but his tones were warmer, rosier with orange and pink colors, and the atmosphere of his paintings was gayer. And Olivier appears in many of his Rose Period paintings. This is sometimes called Picasso Rose Period, but really there was no marked technical change between this and the Blue Period. Picasso African influenced Period was during 1907 to 1909 and formal ideas developed during this period lead directly into the Cubist period that follows.During 1909 to 1912 Picasso and Georges Braque's developed Cubism. Cubism is one of the most radical restructuring of the way that a work of art constructs its meaning. Cubism is a term that was derived from a reference made to geometric schemes and cubes. Cubism has been known as the first and the most influential of all movements in 20th century art. Before Picasso did any cubism paintings, there were works exhibiting a raw intensity and violence due to his reading of monoester art aligned with European primitivism.This contrasting position provided the dynamic for Picasso work. In his paintings such as Mother and Child, Picasso showed the fetishistic and simplifying aspects of primitivism. In his paintings Picasso used bright hues and subdued grays and earth colors. And he found out that shapes could have meaning and identities by their arrangement. Pablo Picasso died on 8 April 1973 in No ggins, France. And he was buried in the grounds of a chi ¤attain the village of Buenaventura in the south of France.But his contribution for art secured his immortality ABA 4 Pablo Picasso a genius artist in the 20th century, made tremendous contributions to art throughout his entire life. Throughout his life, he created hundreds and thousands of paintings with different styles, from Surrealist to neo-classical, shows that his artistic vitality transcends any one style. When people asked about the secret of his artistic creation, he replied â€Å"People don't realize what they have when they own a picture by me. Each picture is a phial with my blood. That is what has gone into it. † Pablo Picasso is a real genius.

The Masque of the Red Death

â€Å"The Masque of the Red Death† Literary Analysis: A Look at Imagery We continue our literary analysis of â€Å"The Masque of the Red Death† by Edgar Allan Poe with a look at the graphic imagery in the short story. players †¢ slide 1 of 4 Imagery is the use of figurative or descriptive language to create a vivid mental picture. It involves at least one of the five senses–sight, sound, touch, feel, taste. Imagery in â€Å"The Masque of the Red Death† is ghastly. †¢ slide 2 of 4 Example of Imagery – â€Å"There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution.The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim, were the pest ban which shut him out from the sympathy of his fellow men. † (145). Senses – Sight, Touch Analysis – Poe establishes the mood and setting of the story with the vivid description of the Red Death. The passage establishes the h orror of the disease and explains why the guests would react to the blood stained intruder at the end of the story. †¢ slide 3 of 4 Imagery in the 7th RoomExample of Imagery – â€Å"The seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung all over the ceiling and down the walls, falling in heavy folds upon the carpet of the same material and hue† (146). Senses – Sight, Touch Analysis: The oppressiveness of the 7th room contrasts the gaiety of the previous six. The darkness of the room and the heaviness and darkness of the curtain symbolizes death. No wonder none of the guests wish to come near it. Note the pun on â€Å"shroud. † Example of Imagery – â€Å"The panes here were scarlet–a deep color†¦.In the corridors that followed the suite, there stood, opposite to each window, a heavy tripod, bearing a brazier of fire, that projected its rays through the tinted glass and so glaringly illuminated the room. And thus were produced a multitude of gaudy and fantastic appearances†¦ The effect of the firelight that streamed upon the dark hangings through the blood tinted panes was ghastly in the extreme† (146-7) Senses – Sight Analysis – So much for peaceful death. The images created by the brazier of fire and blood tinted glass give the room of death a ghastly appearance.The gaudy and fantastic appearances, the blood tinted panes, and the fire create an image of hell, hinting that perhaps the guests and the Prince fear not just the Red Death, but their eternal fate. †¢ slide 4 of 4 More Examples Example of Imagery – â€Å"Its pendulum swung to and fro with a heavy monotonous clang; there came from the brazen lungs of the clock a sound which was clear and loud and deep and exceedingly musical† (147). Senses – Sound Analysis – No wonder the musicians stopped when this clock struck.Poe uses personification–brazen lungs–to em phasize the deepness of the â€Å"heavy monotonous clang,† a clang that serves as an hourly reminder to the guests that death is approaching. Example of Imagery – â€Å"The figure was tall and gaunt, and shrouded from head to foot in the habilments of the grave†¦ His vesture was dabed in blood and his broad brow, with all the features of the face was besprinkled with the scarlet horror. † (149). Senses – Sight Death – The personified Red Death strikes fear and anger in the hearts of Prospero and his guests.Once the Red Death appears, it never leaves. Symbolism in â€Å"The Masque of the Red Death† Why are there seven rooms in â€Å"The Masque of the Red Death†? Learn all that and more with this guide to symbolism. latest †¢ slide 1 of 6 Edgar Allan Poe's â€Å"The Masque of the Red Death† should be studied at many levels: (1) the literal level – the literal level is a study of the events that actually take plac e in the story; (2) an allegorical level – an allegory is a story in which the objects, characters, and events are symbolic of something grander in scale.In order to understand the story allegorically, one needs a firm understanding of symbols in â€Å"The Masque of the Red Death. † †¢ slide 2 of 6 Symbols ; Analysis The Red Death symbolizes the inevitability of death. Although there is no specific disease with the exact symptoms described in the story, critics believe the disease's description has elements of tuberculosis, a disease which killed many of those close to Poe. It also brings forth memories of the Black Death which depopulated much of Europe during the Middle Ages.The Castle represents man's efforts to prevent death. Regardless of wealth, social position, or popularity, death arrives as an uninvited guest. Prince Prospero symbolizes the end of feudalism. Prospero's inviting only wealthy knights and ladies to his castle at the expense of peasants and c ommoners represents the socioeconomic divide between landowners and peasants that existed during the feudalistic period. It is not coincidental that the Black Death, which reduced the number of workers, led to a demand for labor and played an important role in ending feudalism in Europe.The Ebony Clock is a constant reminder of death and symbolizes the inevitability of it. The revelers could neither stop its pendulum from swinging nor could they prevent its ominous tones from dampering their enthusiasm. †¢ The Seven Rooms represent the stages of life. More on this later. The Masqueraders symbolize all humans and gives creedence to the interpretation that the seven rooms represent the seven ages of man (covered further in the next section). †¢ slide 3 of 6 Color Symbolism Colors play an important role in this story:Red – The most obvious color symbolism in â€Å"The Masque of the Red Death† is in its title. Red symbolizes death and blood. The gruesome descript ion of the Red Death gives the color a ghastly connotation, especially in light of the red window panes contained in the death room at the far western end of the imperial suite. Black/Ebony – The seventh room was â€Å"closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung all over the ceiling and down the walls, falling in heavy folds upon a carpet of the same material and hue† (146).This seventh room contains â€Å"no light of any kind† and represents the darkness of death. In this room stands the ebony clock. Upon hearing its chimes the guests were reminded of death: â€Å"the giddiest grew pale, and the more aged and sedate passed their hands over their brows as if in confused reverie or meditation† (147). Blue/Purple/Green/Orange/White/Violet – These are the colors of the first six rooms in the imperial suite. I will address them together insomuch that they represent a prism and therefore reflect a progression, lending creedence to the interpre tation that the story is an allegory for life.This interpretation, however, is complicated by the fact that the color of Prospero's room do not occur in the same sequence as they do in a prism, possibly reflective of Prospero's twisted sense of fairness or an attempt by the author to associate particular colors with a specific period in life. †¢ Others interpret the 7 rooms in â€Å"The Masque of the Red Death† as a symbol of Prospero's indulgence in the seven deadly sins: 1. Pride/Vanity – Pride is the excessive belief in one's own abilities, similar to vanity, which is setting one's heart on things of little value.Prospero's belief that he is more powerful than death is a vivid demonstration of pride. 2. Envy – It is unclear who the Prince might envy, but he sure is trying hard to impress someone. 3. Gluttony – Gluttony is the act of consuming more than one is required. Instead of using his means to protect more people, something he is obligated to do as prince, he lavishes his guests with â€Å"ample provisions† and â€Å"the appliances of pleasure. † 4. Lust – Lust is an excessive craving for the pleasures of the body, usually associated with sex. The era in which Poe wrote prohibited he explicit or implicit description of sex, but what do you think was going on at an anything goes party? 5. Anger – The Prince becomes angry with the uninvited guest and attacks it. 6. Greed – Although it is apparent Prince Prospero shares his wealth with a thousand guests, he helps those who need it least and withholds his substance from those in need. 7. Sloth – Sloth is the absence of work. The prince seems like a hard worker; his work, however, is on the physical realm not the spiritual realm. †¢ slide 6 of 6 What do you think they mean? If you have an alternate interpretation, let me know in the comments.

A Study of Ethics in Relation to Business Practices

A Study of Ethics in Relation to Business Practices Combining ethics and business can be difficult at times, for every business’ goal is to make profit and certain ethical issues might be overlooked in order to avoid complications that might obstacle the company’s activities and jeopardise its revenue opportunities. The relationship between ethics and business has been discussed by many experts, such as Friedman (1970), who argued that a manager’s decisions should be driven by money, however they should not ignore the basic rules onto which every modern society is based. This may sound like a good solution to the ethical issues most companies have to deal with nowadays. A number of practical solutions to the ethical problems encountered by leaders who manage a group of individuals was given by Aristotle, a Greek philosopher who certainly didn’t run a company, yet analysed and discussed the duties of a leader, placing great importance on their morality and virtues, as every leader should be virtuous to deserve the name, as the pointed out in his Nicomachean Ethics. In the first place, it would be useful to analyse the meaning of the adjective â€Å"ethical† before applying it too liberally. Ethics comes from ancient Greek â€Å"ethos†, which means â€Å"character†, intended as the common belief that guides and determines the actions, behaviours and thoughts of a community. Ethics are not â€Å"absolute†, as different communities can have different opinions as to what is ethical and what is not, so before conducting a critical study on the relationship between ethics and business, it should be clarified that when it comes to business, western countries are the ones which dictate and set the standards for what is ethical, as Miriam Schulman (n.d.) correctly observed. Now, ethics and law do not always go hand in hand, as law can sometimes be unethical and a good action which may seem morally right could be deemed illegal by a country’s code, e.g. when Hitler ran Germany, the holocaust, albeit unethical, was permitted by the law, whereas helping a prisoner escape was considered illegal, even though arresting someone and forcing them to work without giving them a salary just because of their religious beliefs or nationality is absolutely unethical. Every manager should be able to distinguish between what is legal and what is ethical as to make decisions that do not simply conform to the law, but are also ethically â€Å"right†. Ethics, in fact, has to do with what concepts such as good, bad, right, wrong, fair and unfair. German philosopher Marx described the whole production process, explaining how the worker alienates themselves when manufacturing/creating something, whatever this is, emphasizing the importance of equality as opposed to meritocracy. That is the main reason why Marx’s theories have been questioned many times, for it is not easy to tell whether equality is ethically correct, seeing as people who possess qualities that others don’t and work harder than others deserve to be given more responsibilities and rewarded accordingly, as Michael Young (1958) observed. Human society and business alike are dynamic, which means that they tend to change alongside with people and governments’ needs, expectations and actions. It is their complexity that makes corporate ethics such an interesting, yet critical subject that every human resource manager should understand in order to make decisions that might benefit the company without damaging their employees in any way. In the following paragraph, a few cases will be analysed and discussed as to show what kind of issues may arise when business ethics are violated and determine whether Human Resource Management is compatible with them. Psychological implications in human resource management Managing an organisation’s employees is no easy task and requires specific skills, without which a manager might severely damage the company they work for. In fact, because employees are not to be seen as mere workforce, but also and mainly as individuals who have ambitions, needs, expectations, problems and feelings, a human resource manager, in fact, should know that when it comes to managing people, theoretical issues, as well as practical ones, are faced. Therefore, a deep understanding of the human psyche and behaviour is required, which is why psychology plays a very important role in human resource management, as Suraj Kumar (2011) pointed out. Job dissatisfaction is not to be underestimated, for all humans tend to adapt to new situations and, when they find themselves in unpleasant ones, research has revealed that they do whatever they can to reduce dissatisfaction. These defensive mechanisms may negatively affect a company, leading to bad performance, absence, low productivity, withdrawal behaviours and, last but not least, lack of loyalty, in the sense that employees will leave the company as soon as given an opportunity to do so, damaging the company, which will have to invest time and money in the finding and training of new employees. (Rosse, J. G., Saturay, S. L., 2004) O’Toole (n.d.) argued that Aristotle’s theories on leadership and ethics could be adapted to modern times and used by managers to make fair decisions that will benefit the companies they work for and the employees they supervise. To do so, they should ask themselves what they would want if they were in the employees’ shoes, how they would like to be treated, what kind of treatment and incentives would help them express their potential, whether they would like their opinions to be kept in consideration when important decisions that might affect their careers are made and so forth†¦ Moreover, Aristotle, as well as other thinkers, such as Socrates, maintained that a leader (and mankind in general) should not be enabled to rule other people unless they know themselves and are virtuous. According to Socrates, self-knowledge is an ability that prevents failure from happening. In light of such enlightening observations, it would be useful to analyse a few contemporary cases. Western companies and ethical issues Nike and forced labour Nike Inc. is a popular and successful sportswear brand and equipment supplier whose net income, as of 2010, was over US $1, 900 billion (United States Securities and Exchange Commission, 2010). The company has been harshly criticized for manufacturing their products in countries such as China, Vietnam, Mexico, Cambodia, Pakistan and Indonesia, where, according to Locke (2002), not only adult employees underpaid, child workers are used especially in stitching centres. Even though Nike’s code of conduct says that the company provides healthy and safe workplaces for all their workers, ensures that nobody below the age of 18 can sign a labour contract with them, does not use any form of forced labour, respects their employees, does not practise discrimination and commits to providing their employees at least the minimum wage plus benefits (Kochan, A. T., Schmalensee, R., 2003) , Australian Channel 7 News (2008) revealed numerous cases of forced labour involving the American company and a few years later Associated Press (2011) published an article reporting cases of forced labour and employee abuse at some of Nike’s plants in Indonesia. Are forced labour, abuse and child labour ethically correct? Obviously not, seeing as freedom is not just a privilege, it is a right for the simple reason that everyone is born free, even though many factors contribute to shaping humans’ judgement and choices throughout their lives. According to English philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1651), a person is free when they can decide to do something even though they could have done otherwise. That is what free will, intended as liberty, is. Gap and child labour With regards to child labour, the employment of people below a certain age, which is not always 18, is seen as a form of exploitation in most western countries, for, ethically speaking, children are weaker than adults and should not be made to work hard, especially considering that several western companies, such as Nike and Gap (The Guardian, 2007) have been criticised for collaborators with contractors which employ children, force them to work under horrible circumstances and treat them nearly as slaves, in terms of minimum wage and abuse. It goes without saying that these practices are unethically correct, as we are all born equal and a person should not exploit and abuse of another one. As reported by The Guardian (2007), after the child labour scandal, Gap confirmed its code of conduct, promising to put an end to its collaboration with those contractors found guilty of child labour and abuse and to withdraw thousands of products which had been manufactured by children. Two other interesting cases are those of HM and Zara, two popular clothing retailers which have been accused of using cotton which might be picked by children in Uzbekistan and Bangladesh, where they are forced to work under horrific conditions. They both responded to these accusations stating that their codes of conduct banned child labour, however ensuring that raw materials are not picked by children is a very difficult thing to do, for most underdeveloped and developing countries fail in guaranteeing that unethical practices, such as slavery and child labour, are removed. (Independent Television News 2009) Nowadays, ethical behaviour and commitment to moral values (non-economic ones) are often used by companies to promote their services and/or products. However, Adam Smith (1952) argued that businesspeople’s ultimate goal is to make the public believe what they want to believe as to raise prices. That is why sensitivity to ethical issues is often included by companies in their marketing strategies. Try as they might, governments can not monitor corporations’ sensitivity to ethical issues, as ethics regulates details of human actions and behaviours which governments can not control. (Berle, A. A., Means, G. C., 1932). Utilitarianism and business Utilitarianism is a philosophical trend initiated by Jeremy Bentham (2005) and John Stuart Mill (2009), who spoke thoroughly about ethics, their relationship with business and human rights, maintaining that a right action leads to a good consequence, therefore, the ethical worth of an action can be gauged by its outcome. Unlike other philosophers, such as Hume (1975) or Locke (1997), who simply maintained that every action has a consequence without giving recommendations as to what is the most ethical thing to do, Bentham and Mill argued that, when faced with a decision, everyone should carefully consider their options and the consequences implied by each of those options and finally choose the one that will generate the greatest felicity. Only by going through this specific decision-making process can one be certain of being making an ethically correct choice. According to Richard Mervyn Hare (1981), most people tend to use intuitive, instead of deductive, moral thinking to make de cisions, as in doing so, happiness is maximised. However, when it comes to more delicate matters, such as human rights, managing and supervising other people and ensuring that employees are treated fairly not only because employee dissatisfaction is known to increase the likelihood of failure, but also and mainly because it is right to treat employees fairly, a more deductive and critical thinking method is required. Applying the utilitarian principle to business and human resource management in particular, a manager should consider their various options, asking themselves what the various courses of each action might be, what costs, risks and harms they would imply, not only for the company, but also for its stakeholders, employees and themselves and all those who might be somehow affected by their decision. The main problem managers are usually faced with is to avoid potential conflicts of moral rights. In order to do so, a manager should ask themselves what choice they have the moral right to make in relation with the current circumstances, what moral rights the other party have and whether there is a conflict of moral rights between themselves and the other party. Should there be a conflict of any kind, the manager should whether their rights or those of the other part deserve precedence. Job enrichment and employee motivation While ethics are often overlooked especially during negotiations, when information that might jeopardise the success of a merger, just to name one, is withheld, managing employees is a completely different matter. In fact, keeping account of ethics when making decisions that involve employees, elaborating strategies that will affect them or simply assigning tasks is essential to the creation of a stimulating and productive working environment. According to American psychologist Hertzberg (1993), job enrichment is the best method to motivate employees, ensure their loyalty and cooperation whilst letting them express their abilities and fulfil themselves. In order to create a pleasant working environment that stimulates employees and benefits the company, a manager should make sure that each employee is given the opportunity to perform different tasks of varying difficulty, faces challenges and receives constant feedbacks. Communication is key to the encouragement of ethical behaviour and motivation, as through it, a manager can provide merit recognition. Among the other things, a manager should provide their employees with adequate resources to perform their assigned tasks well, give clear instructions, let employees know what the corporate mission is and make them feel involved in the decision-making process, provide them with enough freedom, rewards, incentives and encourage them and, last but not least, ensure job variety so that every employee can express their abilities and feel self-fulfilled. (Mione, P. ) Now, in order to create a positive working environment where the manager takes actions that display their virtues, instead of their vices (dishonesty, greed, laziness, selfishness, neglect†¦), ethical behaviour should be motivated. Therefore, it is important that the manager should set the example among employees and develop a programme that rewards good behaviours and penalises bad ones through penalties and sanctions. Rules and expectations that define what is acceptable and what is not should be written down and communicated to employees, as to anticipate bad behaviours. At the same time, good behaviours should be rewarded through incentives and praised. Participative management techniques should be used to motivate ethical behaviour and, in order to assure justice when it comes to disagreements and conflicts, these should be handled impartially and formally. The company should also create an effective method for employees to file complaints and report unethical or illegal behaviour so that they won’t have to go to the ombuds office every time a workplace issue arises. Regardless of the efficiency of its method, which might also include an ethics hotline and website, the company should use an ombuds office to investigate complaints with confidentiality, ethics and objectivity. Conclusion Ethics differs from country to country, being a framework of rules which define what is right, wrong, good, bad, acceptable and unacceptable. Corporate ethics in China is different to corporate ethics in France, which does not mean that one of them is wrong, whereas the other one is right, since ethics goes hand in hand with culture. Therefore, a relativistic approach is sure to be the most appropriate one to study ethics without letting personal prejudices and opinions influence the course of the analysis. Ethical norms evolve and, nowadays, consumers are sensitive to ethical issues, such as forced labour, diversity, discrimination and child labour, which is why western companies such as Nike (Associated Press, 2011) and Gap (The Guardian, 2007), which have been accused of violating basic ethical norms, have had to revise their codes of conduct and reassure consumers that their products, despite being manufactured in underdeveloped and/or developing countries, where governments still find it difficult to eradicate slavery, forced labour and other unethical practices. Now, when it comes to human resource management, ethical behaviour is strongly recommended for research (Hertzberg, F., 1993) has proved that it plays a very important role in creating a productive working environment. While ethical norms are often overlooked during negotiations, it is crucial that a manager should be virtuous, set the example among their employees and take actions that will produce the greatest benefit f or the company, its employees and themselves. In this regard, three principles should be applied in order for the manager to make decisions that display their virtuous traits and benefit those around them: the utilitarian principle, the right principle and the care ethics principle. In other words, before taking an action, a manager should ask themselves whether that action will do the greatest good for those who will be affected by it and evaluate all the different options, then, they should ask themselves what action they have the moral right to take and, finally, whether their choice â€Å"cares† for their needs and those of the people with whom they have working relationships (coworkers, stakeholders, supervisors, suppliers, employees and so forth†¦) That is why every working environment should be regulated by ethical norms and employees should be encouraged to obey them through incentives and rewards, which will ensure their satisfaction and loyalty, which have been proved to greatly contribute to the enhancement of employee performance, hence to the corporation’s success. (Judge, T. A. et al., 2001)

Philosophy and Technology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Philosophy and Technology - Essay Example Given any circumstance he would avoid confrontation and any kind of collision with an opposing party. War or aggression is the last thing on the mind of a pacifist. The author through the above statement is trying to convey that if a person who possesses the characteristics of a pacifist is made to work in a bomb factory he would still come up with a new idea to make a bomb. No matter how opposed a person might be towards the concept of waging a war, if the mind is put to work on a task that needs to be done, the task takes precedence against the principles. The chief duty is to design a bomb, and no matter how opposed the principles of the person concerned are, he would eventually end up innovating and creating a new type of bomb. According to the author technology has shaped the human mind and has been much of a latent threat to the very existence of mankind as much as it has been a boon. The author through his interpretation of the human psychology and the constant struggle betwee n the opposing forces of principle/conscience and duty has tried to convey that the human mind and its intrinsic qualities are overpowered by practicality and the reality of life. In this case the reality is the surrounding, the environment, and the opportunity to design a new type of a bomb. Human beings are thinkers, innovators and are prone to ideate. A constant undercurrent of the urge to experiment and innovate prevails on the human mind. The human psyche by nature is inclined to improvise and invent things from what it sees around it and in this example provided by the writer, he may go against his pacifism to design a new bomb within weeks. Even if this means going against his very fundamentals he would still be drawn to live a life of intellectual prosperity and independence. We live in an age where man’s lust for power and technological superiority overshadows basic principles of humanity and life. Man’s greed for machines and mechanisation is to such an exten t that he would let the machines take over and in turn be reduces to a defunct and cold vestige of sorts. In our age mechanisation and scientific leapfrogging has finally triumphed to an extent that we can actually feel the tendency of the machine to make physically and intellectually challenging human life impossible. (Orwell 193) Building and developing on the central theme of intellectual proliferation, am individual if confined to a secluded environment with a nature work that is opposed to him, he would eventually begin to put his mind over the job and end up doing the task. All the steam in the world could not, like the virgin build Chartres The second phrase is by Mont Saint Michel and Chartres. It exalts the triumph of technology and its ushering through the Industrial Revolution in the Western World. The power of the mother is represented through the phrase given above. It talks about the benefit of technology to the western world and the power of the Lady who ultimately se cures â€Å"†¦the place of woman in the Church to be the guardian of the primacy of the contemplative over the active, of persons over ideas, and of family over economy† (Mary Victrix 1) According to the author the power of technology is immense. Technology is compared to the power of the Lady, Virgin Mary. It was her power, influence and inspiration that led to the construction of the cathedral in Chartres, France. Mary Victrix 1). Technology is viewed

Public Relations Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Public Relations Plan - Essay Example What the public thinks of one school carries a weight that could make or break it. To cope with the demand for information, public relations has become an indispensible tool for schools and organizations all over. With this, schools can maintain an aura of trust, credibility, and cooperation with the general public as well as the people inside the school. This is important in many ways because who you know and who knows you really count in any business. A single remark from a parent could ruin a school, not enough exposure to the public could limit the number of students coming to the school, and a bad image could discourage potential students from even considering enrolling to that school. It goes on and on. With proper public relations, all those can be avoided. Communicating with the Community It is imperative that the school maintains contact with the people inside and around it. That means talking and listening to everyone from the staff, the faculty, the administration, the stu dents and their families, and the community in general. The school must strive to empower everyone with information about itself, its current status, and the status of its students. It must also increase the amount of interaction between the school and community, in effect increasing the involvement and support of the community in the school’s affairs. This can be achieved by holding meetings and events that could serve as forums where people can discuss about the important things relevant to the school. For the teachers and staff, Faculty and staff meetings could be held monthly or as needed to keep everyone updated and to provide an outlet for discussion; for parents, Parent-Teacher conferences can be done regularly to bring them up to speed with their children’s performance, any events in school to look out for, and to discuss better ways to help the children have the best education; Giving recognition to the achievers is also a form of feedback. It gives a sense of pride and lets parents know that their child is doing well, while the student gets motivated to study harder; the students should also have a say through student forums and other such activities; to keep the school in the eyes of the community in general, some of the most concrete ways are distributing school publications or newsletters, student ambassador programs, and participating or hosting community events; other ways that are important would be cleaning up the school’s image through an awareness campaign or community outreach program, instructing the teachers to be more open to students’ and parents’ concerns by offering a listening ear to them, or putting up a ‘Questions, comments or suggestion box’ (or any equivalent) wherein anyone can voice a concern at any time. All the while, the school itself provides the information in an open manner with enthusiasm and a visible concern for the proper education of the students. Crisis Management The best way to handle a crisis is preventing it, or failing that, preparing for it. Crisis aversion is the primary focus for crisis management. The school needs to look for possible crises that may occur and take the necessary steps to prepare for it. For incidents beyond the control of the school, steps can also be taken to mitigate the damage that can be caused. First, prevention is the key. Check the safety of