Pointing out the satirical elements of Douglas Adams The Hitchhiker's Essay

Pointing out the satirical elements of Douglas Adams The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Essay Example While the novel ostensibly takes place in the distant future, it’s clear that a number of the thematic concerns examined in the novel have contemporary relevance. In these regards, theorists and critics have argued that in large part the novel is satirical. This essay considers the novel as one of satire, arguing that through the bulldozer that threatens to demolish Arthur Dent’s house and later Earth, the crooked political Zaphod Beeblebrox, and the threat of the Vogon poetry reading, Douglas Adams satirizes social, political, and literary elements. One of the first satirical elements explored in the novel is the encroachment of development and technology on our daily lives. From the beginning of the novel reference is made to an impending bulldozer that is outside Arthur Dent’s home. The next scene in the novel finds Arthur Dent lying on the ground attempting to stop the bulldozer from demolishing his home. It’s during this time that Ford Prefect appears . He is described as being from, â€Å"somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse† (Adams, pg. 5). Ford is able to convince the bulldozer operator to lay on the ground in place of Arthur Dent, so the two men can go to the pub. While this part of the novel is ostensibly absurd and comedic, it also can be argued to have satirical connotations. In these regards, the bulldozer can be read as the encroachment of development on the sanctity of daily life. Dent becomes emblematic of a perspective that is attempting to hold onto these old world values. From another perspective, the bulldozer can also be read as the encroachment of technology on our daily lives. While during the time of the novel’s construction the internet and social networking weren’t as pervasive, this essay argues that part of the text’s lasting power is its ability to continue to appeal to a contemporary audience. In these regards, the bulldozer encroaching on Arthur’s house can be read a s a metaphor of the technological aspects of the internet and social networking encroaching on our daily lives; the rest of the novel then can be read as a sort of resistance of this technological advancement. The next satirical element concerns the nature of Zaphod Beeblebrox. Beeblebrox is the President of the Imperial Galactic Government. His appearance comes out-of-sync in the storyline and seems to have an underlining purpose. Beeblebrox is giving a fantastical description in the story. He is described as an, â€Å"adventurer, ex-hippy, good timer, manic self-publicist, who is "terribly bad at personal relationships," and "often thought to be completely out to lunch" (Adams, pg. 34). The ruler is described as existing on a deserted island and about to unearth the Heart of Gold to the universe. Heart of Gold appears to be a sort of starship government project that has within it a gold box. In reality, it’s indicated that Zaphod and the Heart of Gold have nefarious intent ions to steal the new starship. This scene is clearly complex and for the most part seems to have a comedic element that advances the narrative. Still, from another perspective it’s clear the Zaphod represents a modern day sort of politician. In these regards, one can consider his description of being on an island as the similarity of a politician being removed from the populace they are designed to help. The name of the Heart of Gold project is also indicative of the sort of social welfare and good intentioned project on might envision from politicians. The name

Traditional or Logical Dead Poets Society Essay Example for Free

Traditional or Logical Dead Poets Society Essay In the movie Dead Poets Society, there are many disagreements on how the children should learn. The issue being discussed was everyone believed that the traditional way of teaching was a superior technique of education and the school did not want to change. Once Mr. Keating came into the picture and started teaching in a new way, administrators believed he was in the wrong by the way he taught. If the opinion of the students mattered then Mr. Keating’s way was the best. Not one of the students were ever allowed to live their life to the fullest but Keating showed the students how to have fun but still learn. This all came to an end when one student took his own life and Mr. Keating’s free ways of thinking were blamed. Although the school, Welton Academy, believed the traditional method was best, Mr. Keating’s method of teaching helped his students make their own decisions and do things for themselves. Mr. Keating’s way of teaching inspired the students to live their lives to the fullest, look at everything in different ways, and prepared them for the future by teaching them to make their own decisions and learn to do things their selves. Living their life to the fullest potential is one of the most important things that a person needs to focus on. A person needs to appreciate what they have been given and take advantage of it because they don’t know when it might be their last chance to do the activities that they want to do. Live it up and do your best because at the end of your life you should have no regrets. Living your life to the fullest a great thing to do. Mr. Keating had many different methods of teaching that helped better the students in life and make their own decisions. One of Mr. Keating’s methods of teaching was to show the kids to look at everything in more than one view. He told the all of his students to stand on top of the desk to get the best look of the room because it gives a fuller view of everything that needs to be taken in. Seeing things in different ways helps relate to the boys that everyone else may see the world in a different way. The bigger picture is not necessarily the best picture other people see things in diverse ways and take in the beauty in their own manner. Mr. Keating’s way of teaching is more inspiring to students because it varies in different learning environments. The technique teaches the students to think in new ways and helps them understand the teaching better. Also, learning new things in different places might add some interest to the subject, which may help raise grades and add a chance for the students to think for themselves. Every person is entitled to a way of learning that will better them in the long run. Understanding the way Mr. Keating’s teaches encourages the students of Welton Academy to live their lives to its fullest potential. Mr. Keating showed the students that it is alright to think for their selves make their own decisions. Most of the boys followed the decisions of their parents or had to follow in their brothers footsteps. The boys chose to make their own Dead Poets Society. Neil, one of the boys decided to join a play and Todd decided to throw his birthday present off the roof because he did not like it. All the boys did not know how to take charge until Mr. Keating taught them the phrase Carpe Diem which means seize the day. Some of the boys just blew it off and could care less and some boys took it to heart. As a result of one of the boys taking Carpe Diem to far one of the students ended up taking their own life. Although the movie ended tragically, the administrators blamed Mr. Keating. All of the boys just sat back and let everyone blame Mr. Keating. Todd Anderson stood up and used what Mr. Keating taught him and told the administrators that is was not Mr. Keating’s fault and that it was Neil’s choice.

Subliminal Advertising :: GCSE Business Marketing Coursework

Subliminal Advertising 1.) On television, a common technique to influence a viewer is to flash messages or images for so little time, that it almost seems like a flicker that really never happened. Ways that this has been used is by flashing images that are pleasing to the eye, like a flashy color, or maybe even a picture with sexual innuendo. The cheapest technique, usually used by people, like car salesmen, is to ask the viewer a string of questions, which we all know will have the answer "yes." By doing this, the commercial gets you ready to agree with any pitch they are trying to make you buy. 2.) A more cunning way to make you buy a product is to brainwash your emotions, questioning yourself, "Would I be a bad person if I do not by this product?" For instance, the people that would like you to donate money to the sick, hungry children is some run-down village. They show you pictures of babies crying, adults with hardly any meat on their bones. The commercial then claims that by your donation, you can save a life, but if you do not, you're letting a life die. This technique is an effective way, but I believe that there are some ethics involved in purposely tampering one's emotions. 3.) A technique usually described as using "buzz words" is found more in print than on television or radio. If we are scrolling through a newspaper and we see an exciting flashy word, our eyes tend to draw towards it. Companies are entirely aware of this, so that’s why they flash words on their ads like, "FREE," "NEW," "HURRY." Something about these words makes us want to see what the fuss is all about, and to read the company's ad. Now when you do read the ad, there will be "buzz words" embedded into the ad that do not even look flashy. It is always words that do not actually have any significant meaning, but they are added in anyways. For example, words like, homemade, improved, 100%, tasty, just to name a few. 4.) Michael Jordan is selling you Gatorade, Jerry Seinfeld is backing up American Express, and Paul Reiser wants you to use AT&T. Why do these famous stars appear on commercials and ads? The purpose is to subliminally give the product traits that it never even deserves, like wealth, fame, and success.

Marathon Running Essay

Runners come in all shapes and sizes. I have seen 300-pound men and women at the start of a race and in contrast the chiseled muscles of the elite runners. The reasons for running are as various as the runners themselves. Some run for weight lose, mental or physical health, competition, and charity. There are many physical health benefits for running; â€Å"Human bodies burn about 2,000-2,500 calories a day in normal activities. Running 5 miles a day can burn an additional 500 calories. † If this same formula holds true, a person completing a marathon will have burnt close to 2,600 calories. However, how fast a person doesn’t correspond with how much weight they may loose while running. â€Å"For example, a 220-pound person running an eight-minute mile burns 150 calories, while a 120-pound person running at the same pace burns only 82. Every person’s body requires an excess of 3,500 calories in order to gain a pound or a deficit of 3,500 calories in order to lose a pound. Thus, 180-pound person who runs 5 miles each day will lose about 5 pounds a month. However, as his or her weight goes down, he or she will burn fewer calories per mile† according to a study conducted at Vanderbilt University. According to Runner’s World editor Hal Higgdon. â€Å"Running can also have many psychological benefits. Most significantly runners typically report being happier and feeling less stressed than their counterparts who do not run or exercise regularly. Running actually has the ability to alter an individuals moods because hormones called endorphins are released while running. These hormones create a sense of euphoria often referred to as a runner’s high and can result in an improvement in the runner’s mood. † With these endorphins being released into the runner’s body, running can be very addictive. A man or woman can feel like they’ve been turned into Michael Jordan and anything, even running 26 miles, is possible. Running a marathon and the distances to train are also almost spiritual. When I run I am able to solve my companies, personal, families, and the whole worlds problems. I have come up with some of the most life altering and affirming choices in the sunrise of an 8-mile run. Running is also a great stress reliever while running I am able to focus on the road and the miles as they build. I am able to forget about the office, family, or other concerns. There are 26. reasons why a marathon is hard. To put this distance in perspective if you were to drive your car at 60 mph it would take a half an hour to drive that distance. But while running the marathon â€Å"there is no downtime. You’re the machine,† says physical therapist Jim Wharton of New York-based Wharton Performance, which trains world-class athletes. The debate about the difficulty of the m arathon, doesn’t center just on the physical aspects. â€Å"Motivation, confidence and mental toughness are necessary,† says Stephen Russo, director of sports psychology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Health System. Running is painful; it’s tedious, and exhausting. After a few miles our bodies scream for us to stop and rest. When the body screams stop that is when the mind takes over and you keep running. Through my experiences in running and race competitions I can say a marathon is not something that can be described it is something must be experienced. In a marathon the participant will be competing against hundreds and in larger races thousands of other hopefuls. In many marathons time restrictions are placed on which the marathon will end. -8 hours after the marathon has began, barricades will be removed and the race rout will be dismantled. If a runner is unable to finish in the allotted time the race officials may take them to the finish line and will not allowed to finish. However during those 6-8 hours a runner can run, jog, or walk any distance they want. When Khalid Khannouchi won the London Marathon last year, he didn’t do any walking: He set a world record of 2 hours, 5 minutes and 38 seconds. For elite athletes like Khannouchi distance running is a way of life. Marathoners seem either to be training or getting ready for the next workout. You wake up every morning and you know what you have to do. You have long mileage to accumulate. Sometimes you’re already tired from your last two or three workouts. You still have to wake up, have the motivation and go outside and do the training. † Khannouchi said. For me running is not simply about the weight loss or the constant inquires of family, friends, and co-workers who ask, â€Å"How many mile(s) did you run today? † When I run I am only accountable to my trusty stopwatch and myself. The marathon is my Everest. I will be back. Standing there with hundreds of other runners in tank tops and short on a cold fall morning, waiting for the starter pistol. I don’t run for the medal or the crowd I run for me. I run despite the 9 times out of 10 it will hurt, but I keep going. I run for that one time that it doesn’t and I am able to finish my run and look down at my stop watch and be excited about a new personal best time, if only a few seconds. I run because I know it will hurt but I keep going and I won’t give into the pain. I am an athlete. I am runner.

The Return: Shadow Souls Chapter 16

Damon clearly decided to throw himself on the mercy of the court, and looked piteous and a little unbalanced, which he could easily do whenever he wanted. â€Å"I really didn't try to Influence you,† he repeated, but then hastily added, â€Å"Maybe I can just change the subject for a while – tell you more about the star balls.† â€Å"That,† Elena said in her most frosty voice, â€Å"might be a rather good idea.† â€Å"Well, the balls make recordings directly from your neurons, you see? Your neurons in your brain. Everything you've ever experienced is there in your mind somewhere, and the ball just draws it out.† â€Å"So you can always remember it and watch it over and over like a movie, too?† Elena said, twiddling with her veil to shade her face from him, and thinking that she would give a star ball to Alaric and Meredith before their wedding. â€Å"No,† Damon said, rather grimly. â€Å"Not like that. For one thing, the memory is gone from you – these are kitsune toys we're talking about, remember? Once the star ball has taken it from your neurons, you don't remember a thing about the event. Second, the ‘recording' on the star ball gradually fades – with use, with time, with some other factors nobody understands. But the ball gets cloudier, and the sensations weaker, until finally it's just an empty crystal sphere.† â€Å"But – that poor man was selling a day of his life. A wonderful day! I should think he would want to keep it.† â€Å"You saw him.† â€Å"Yes.† Once again Elena saw the louse-ridden, haggard, gray-faced old man. She felt something like ice down her spine at the thought that he had once been the laughing, joyous, young John that she had experienced. â€Å"Oh, how sad,† she said, and she wasn't talking about memory. But, for once, Damon hadn't followed her thoughts. â€Å"Yes,† he said. â€Å"There are a lot of the poor and the old here. They worked themselves free of slavery, or had a generous owner die†¦and then this is where they end up.† â€Å"But the star balls? Are they just made for poor people? The rich ones can just travel to Earth and see a real summer day for themselves, right?† Damon laughed without much humor. â€Å"Oh, no, they can't. Most of them are bound here.† He said bound oddly. Elena ventured, â€Å"Too busy to go on vacation?† â€Å"Too busy, too powerful to get through the wards protecting Earth from them, too worried about what their enemies will do while they're gone, too physically decrepit, too notorious, too dead.† â€Å"Dead?† The horror of the tunnel and the corpse-smelling fog seemed ready to envelope Elena. Damon flashed one of his evil smiles. â€Å"Forgot that your boyfriend is de mortius? Not to mention your honorable master? Most people, when they die, go to another level than this – much higher or much lower. This is the place for the bad ones, but it's the upper level. Farther down – well, nobody wants to go there.† â€Å"Like Hell?† Elena breathed. â€Å"We're in Hell?† â€Å"More like Limbo, at least where we are. Then there's the Other Side.† He nodded toward the horizon where the lowering sun still sat. â€Å"The other city, which may have been where you went on your ‘vacation' to the afterlife. Here they just call it ‘The Other Side.' But I can tell you two rumors I heard from my informants. There, they call it the Celestial Court. And there, the sky is crystal blue and the sun is always rising.† â€Å"The Celestial Court†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Elena forgot that she was speaking aloud. She knew instinctively that it was the queens-and-knights-and-sorceresses kind of court, not a court of law. It would be like Camelot. Just saying the words brought up an aching nostalgia, and – not memories, but the tip-of-the-tongue feeling that memories were locked right behind a door. It was a door, however, that was securely locked, and all Elena could see through the keyhole were ranks of more women like the Guardians, tall, golden-haired, and blue-eyed, and one – child-sized among the grown women – who glanced up, and, piercingly, from a long way off, met Elena's gaze directly. The litter was moving out of the bazaar into more slums, which Elena took in with darting quick glances on either side of her, hiding in her veil. They seemed like any earthly slums, barrios, or favella – only worse. Children, their hair turned red by the sun, crowded around Elena's litter, their hands held out in a gesture with universal meaning. Elena felt a tearing at her insides that she had nothing of real value to give them. She wanted to build houses here, make sure these children had food and clean water, and education, and a future to look forward to. Since she had no idea how to give them any of these things, she watched them dash off with treasures such as her Juicy Fruit gum, her comb, her minibrush, her lip gloss, her water bottle, and her earrings. Damon shook his head, but didn't stop her until she began fumbling with a lapis and diamond pendant Stefan had given her. She was crying as she tried to disengage the clasp when suddenly the last bit of the rope around her wrist came up short. â€Å"No more,† Damon said. â€Å"You don't understand anything. We haven't even entered the city proper yet. Why don't you have a look at the architecture instead of worrying about useless brats who're likely to die anyway?† â€Å"That's cold,† Elena said, but she couldn't think of any way to make him understand, and she was too angry with him to try. Still, she stopped fumbling with the chain and looked beyond the slums as Damon had suggested. There she could see a breathtaking skyline, with buildings that seemed meant to last for eternity, made of stones that looked the way the Egyptian pyramids and Mayan ziggurats must have looked when they were new. Everything, though, was colored red and black by a sun now concealed by sullen crimson cloudbanks. That huge red sun – it gave the air a different look for different moods. At times it seemed almost romantic, glinting on a large river Elena and Damon passed, picking out a thousand tiny wavelets in the slow-moving water. At other times, it simply seemed alien and ominous, showing clearly on the horizon like a monstrous omen, tingeing the buildings, no matter how magnificent, the color of blood. When they turned away from it, as the litter bearers moved down into the city where the huge buildings were, Elena could see their own long and menacing black shadow thrown ahead of th em. â€Å"Well? What do you think?† Damon seemed to be trying to placate her. â€Å"I still think it looks like Hell,† Elena said slowly. â€Å"I'd hate to live here.† â€Å"Ah, but whoever said that we should live here, my Princess of Darkness? We'll go back home, where the night is velvet black and the moon shines down, making everything silver.† Slowly, Damon traced one finger from her hand, up her arm to her shoulder. It sent an inner shiver through her. She tried holding the veil up as a barrier against him, but it was too transparent. He still flashed that brilliant smile at her, dazzling through the diamond-dotted white – well, shell pink, of course, because of the light – that was on her side of the veil. â€Å"Does this place have a moon?† she asked, trying to distract him. She was afraid – afraid of him – afraid of herself. â€Å"Oh, yes: three or four of them, I think. But they're very small and of course the sun never goes down, so you can't see them as well. Not†¦romantic.† He smiled at her, again, slowly this time, and Elena looked away. And in looking, she saw something in front of her that captured her entire attention. In a side street a cart had overturned, spilling large rolls made out of fur and leather. There was a thin, hungry-looking old woman attached to the cart like a beast, who was lying on the ground, and a tall angry man standing over her, raining down blows with a whip on her unprotected body. The woman's face was turned toward Elena. It was contorted in a grimace of anguish, as she tried ineffectually to roll into a ball, her hands over her stomach. She was naked from the waist up, but as the whip lashed into her flesh, her body from throat to waist was being covered by a coating of blood. Elena felt herself swelling with Wing Powers, but somehow none would come. She willed with all her circulating life-force for something – anything – to break free from her shoulders, but it was no good. Maybe it had something to do with wearing the remains of slave bracelets. Maybe it was Damon, beside her, telling her in a forceful voice not to get involved. To Elena, his words were no more than punctuation to the heartbeat pounding in her ears. She jerked the rope sharply out of his hands, and then scrambled out of the litter. In six or seven leaps she was beside the man with the whip. He was a vampire, his fangs elongated at the sight of the blood before him, but never stopping his frenzied lashing. He was too strong for Elena to handle, but†¦ With one more step Elena was straddling the woman, both her arms flung out in the universal gesture of protection and defiance. Rope dangled from one wrist. The slave owner was not impressed. He was already launching the next whiplash, and it struck Elena across the cheek and simultaneously opened a great gap in her thin summer top, slicing through her camisole and scoring the flesh underneath. As she gasped, the tail of the whip cut through her jeans as if denim were butter. Tears formed involuntarily in Elena's eyes, but she ignored them. She had managed not to make a sound other than that initial gasp. And she still stood exactly where she had first landed in protection. Elena could feel the wind whip at her tattered blouse, while her untouched veil waved behind her, as if to protect the poor slave who had collapsed against the ruined cart. Elena was still desperately trying to bring out any kind of Wings. She wanted to fight with real weapons, and she had them, but she couldn't force them to save either her or the poor slave behind her. Even without them Elena knew one thing. That bastard in front of her wasn't going to touch his slave again, not unless he cut Elena into pieces first. Someone stopped to stare, and someone else came out of a shop, running. When the children who'd been trailing her litter surrounded her, wailing, a crowd of sorts gathered. Apparently it was one thing to see a merchant beating his worn-out drab – the people around here must have seen that almost daily. But to see this beautiful new girl having her clothes slashed away, this girl with hair like golden silk under a veil of gold and white, and eyes that perhaps reminded some of them of a barely remembered blue sky – that was quite another thing. Moreover, the new girl was obviously a fresh barbarian slave who had clearly humiliated her master by tearing the lead ropes from his hands and was standing now with her sanctity veil made into a mockery. Terrific street theater. And even given all of that, the slave owner was preparing for another stroke, raising his arm high and preparing to put his back into it. A few people in the crowd gasped; others were muttering indignantly. Elena's new sense of hearing, turned up high, could catch their whispering. A girl like this wasn't meant for the slums at all; she must have been destined for the heart of the city. Her aura alone was enough to show that. In fact, with that golden hair and those vivid blue eyes, she might even be a Guardian from the Other Side. Who knew – ? The lash that was raised never descended. Before it could, there was a flash of black lightning – pure Power – that sent half the crowd scattering. A vampire, young in appearance and dressed in the clothing of the upper world, Earth, had made his way to stand between the golden girl and the slave owner – or rather to loom over the now cringing slave owner. The few in the crowd not stirred by the girl immediately felt their hearts pulse at the sight of him. He was the girl's owner, surely, and now he would see to the situation. At that instant, Bonnie and Meredith arrived on the scene. They were reclining on their litter, decorously draped in their veils, Meredith in starry midnight blue and Bonnie in soft pale green. They could have been an illustration for The Arabian Nights. But the moment they saw Damon and Elena, they most indecorously jumped off the litter. By now the crowd was so thick that working their way to the front required using elbows and knees, but in only seconds they were at Elena's side, hands defiantly unbound or trailing rope that hung defiantly free, veils floating in the wind. When they did arrive beside Elena, Meredith gasped. Bonnie's eyes opened wide and stayed that way. Elena understood what they were seeing. Blood was flowing freely from the cut across her cheekbone and her blouse kept opening in the wind to reveal her torn and bloody camisole. One leg of her jeans was rapidly turning red. But, drawn up into the protection of her shadow, was a far more pitiful figure. And as Meredith raised Elena's diaphanous veil to help keep her blouse closed and once more enshroud her in decency, the woman herself raised her head, to look at the three girls with the eyes of a dumb and hunted animal. Behind them, Damon said softly, â€Å"I shall quite enjoy this,† as he lifted the heavy man into the air with one hand and then struck his throat like a cobra. There was a hideous scream, which went on and on. No one tried to interfere, and no one tried to cheer the slave owner on to make a fight. Elena, scanning the faces of the crowd, realized why. She and her friends had become used to Damon – or as used as you could become to his half-tamed air of ferocity. But these people were getting their first look at the young man dressed all in black, of medium height and slim build, who made up for his lack of bulging muscle with a supple and deadly grace. This was enhanced by the gift of somehow dominating all the space around him, so that he effortlessly became the focal point of any picture – the way a black panther might become the focal point if it were walking lazily down a crowded city street. Even here, where menace and an aspect of outright evil were commonplace, this young man exuded a quality of danger that made people want to stay out of his line of sight, much less his way. Meanwhile Elena and both Meredith and Bonnie were looking around for some sort of medical assistance, or even for something clean that would staunch wounds. After about a minute, they realized that it wasn't just going to appear, so Elena appealed to the crowd. â€Å"Does anyone know a doctor? A healer?† she shouted. The audience merely watched her. They seemed loath to get involved with a girl who had obviously defied the black-clad demon now wringing the slave owner's neck. â€Å"So you all think it's just fine,† Elena shouted, hearing the loss of control, the disgust and fury in her own voice, â€Å"for a bastard like that to be whipping a starving pregnant woman?† There were a few downcast eyes, a few scattered replies on the theme of â€Å"He was her master, wasn't he?† But one youngish man who had been leaning against a stopped wagon, straightened up. â€Å"Pregnant?† he repeated. â€Å"She doesn't look pregnant!† â€Å"She is!† â€Å"Well,† the young man said slowly, â€Å"if that's true, he's only harming his own merchandise.† He glanced nervously over to where Damon was now standing above the deceased slave owner, whose face was cast into a ghastly death grimace of agony. This still left Elena with no help for a woman she was afraid was about to die. â€Å"Doesn't anyone know where I can find a doctor?† There were now mutterings in various tones from the crowd members. â€Å"We might get further on if we could offer them some money,† Meredith was saying. Elena immediately reached for her pendant, but Meredith was quicker, unfastening a fancy amethyst necklace from around her neck and holding it up. â€Å"This goes to whoever shows us a good doctor first.† There was a pause while everyone seemed to be assessing the reward and the risk. â€Å"Don't you have any star balls?† a wheezing voice asked, but a high, light voice cried, â€Å"That's good enough for me!† A child – yes, a genuine street urchin – darted to the front of the crowd, grabbed Elena's hand and pointed, saying, â€Å"Dr. Meggar, right up the street. It's only a couple of blocks; we can walk it.† The child was wrapped in a tattered old dress, but that might only be to keep warm, because he or she was also wearing a pair of trousers. Elena couldn't even figure out whether it was a boy or a girl until the child gave her an unexpectedly sweet smile and whispered, â€Å"I'm Lakshmi.† â€Å"I'm Elena,† Elena said. â€Å"Better hurry, Elena,† Lakshmi said. â€Å"Guardians will get here soon.† Meredith and Bonnie had gotten the dazed slave woman to her feet, but she seemed to be in too much pain to understand if they meant to help her or kill her. Elena remembered how the woman had huddled in the shadow of Elena's own body. She put a hand on the woman's bloody arm and said quietly, â€Å"You're safe now. You're going to be fine. That man – your†¦your master – is dead and I promise that nobody will hurt you again. I swear it.† The woman stared at her in disbelief, as if what Elena was saying was impossible. As if living without being beaten constantly – even with all the blood Elena could see old scars, some of them like cords, on the woman's skin – was something too far from reality to imagine. â€Å"I swear it,† Elena said again, not smiling, but grimly. She understood that this was a burden she was taking on for life. It's all right, she thought, and realized that for some time now she had been sending her thoughts to Damon. I know what I'm doing. I'm ready to be responsible for this. Are you sure? Damon's voice came to her, as uncertain as she'd ever heard him. Because I'm sure as hell not going to take care of some old hag when you get tired of her. I'm not even sure I'm ready to deal with whatever it's going to cost me for killing that bastard with the whip. Elena turned to look at him. He was serious. Well, then why did you kill him? she challenged. Are you joking? Damon gave her a shock with the vehemence and venom of his thought. He hurt you. I should have killed him more slowly, he added, ignoring one of the litter bearers who was kneeling beside him, undoubtedly asking what to do next. Damon's eyes, however, were on Elena's face, on the blood still flowing from her cut. Il figlio de cafone, Damon thought, his lips drawing back from his teeth as he looked down on the corpse, so that even the litter bearer scurried away on hands and knees. â€Å"Damon, don't let him leave! Bring them all over here right now – † Elena began, and then, as there was a sort of universal gasp around her, she continued nonverbally, Don't let the litter bearers leave. We need a litter to carry this poor woman to the doctor. And why is everyone staring at me? Because you're a slave, and you've just done things no slave should do and now you're giving me, your master, orders. Damon's telepathic voice was grim. It's not an order. It's a – look, any gentleman would help a lady in distress, right? Well, there are four of us over here and one is more distressed than you want to look at. No, three are. I think I'm going to need some stitches, and Bonnie is about to collapse. Elena was striking methodically at weak points, and knew that Damon knew she was doing it. But he ordered one of the sets of litter bearers to come and pick up the slave woman and the other to take his girls. Elena stuck with the woman and ended up in a litter with the curtains all closed around it. The smell of blood was a copper taste in her mouth, making her want to cry. Even she didn't want to look closely at the slave woman's injuries, but blood was running onto the litter. She found herself taking off her blouse and camisole and putting back only the blouse so that she could use the camisole to hold to a great diagonal slash across the woman's chest. Every time the woman raised dark brown, frightened eyes to her, Elena tried to smile at her encouragingly. They were down deep somewhere in the trenches of communication, where a look and a touch meant more than words. Don't die, Elena was thinking. Don't die, just as you have something to live for. Live for your freedom, and for your baby. And maybe some of what she was thinking got through to the woman, because she relaxed against the litter cushions, holding on to Elena's hand.

Student Syurvival Guide

Student Syurvival Guide Free Online Research Papers Student Survival Guide Using Axia’s Educational Resources There are a wide variety of technological tools and resources available to me as a student. I can use the University Library which has a number of databases or I can go to Google. When I need to research I will go to the University Library and first search the databases alphabetically and then from there I can go even further and search all databases by description. Then depending on what I am looking for, I can choose which database will best suit my needs. It is important to me to make sure that all my research comes from credible resources and I know that library will give me just that. â€Å"Educational and government sites are generally more likely to have been screened and selected by educated professionals than other sites. Look for URLs ending in .edu (these sites originate at an educational institution) and .gov (these sites originate at government agencies). A URL (Universal Resource Locator) is the string of text and numbers that identifies an Internet Site. All the sites listed in the Research Navigator databases have been selected to maximize reliability and credibility.† It is also important for me to be able to have access to â€Å"peer-reviewed articles† which I can find in databases such as EBSCOhost or Gale PowerSearch. â€Å"Peer-reviewed means that before an article is accepted for publication within a journal, it is first reviewed and corrected by a subject expert. Peer-reviewed journal articles are typically considered of higher quality because of this review process than a non-peer-reviewed journal articles.† www.salisbury.edu/library/distance_ed/glossary.htm Many databases will allow me to search specifically for a peer-reviewed journal articles. For example, to find some in the Gale PowerSearch database, do a search and then click on the â€Å"Peer-Reviewed† tap at the top of the list. The way I can identify a peer-reviewed article: Lengthy, in-depth articles, often presenting original research Frequent in-text citations and a concluding Reference List/Bibliography Language that indicates expert knowledge of the subject Few illustrations except graphs, charts, or tables to summarize data Authors affiliated with universities or research organizations Journal titles referring to an academic discipline or specialized field of study ithaca.edu/library/research/scholar.php Upholding Academic Honesty The definition of Plagiarism is presenting someone else’s work or ideas as your own. When you steal someone else’s work it is illegal and unethical. It is important for me to remember that the consequences out way the benefits. Some of the consequences are a failing grade for the paper and in the course itself. There could also be a permanent notice placed in my student records. I think the worst thing that could happen to me would be to get suspended from the University. Plagiarism can happen accidently or intentionally but the outcome is still the same either way. Here are ways that accidental plagiarism can happen: Example 1 Copying a quotation without using quotation marks. Example 2 Eliminating a citation for information that comes from a source. Example 3 Using vague or incorrect citations. Example 4 Paraphrasing information incorrectly. Example 5 Writing material very close to the original- changing only a few words by using synonyms. Example 6 Copying and pasting a source from the Internet without using quotation marks or citations. Intentional Plagiarism Example 1 Eliminating a citation for information that comes from another source. Example 2 Using an incorrect citation so that the reader cannot locate the source. Example 3 Using another student’s work as your own. Example 4 Purchasing an essay from an Internet website. Example 5 Using an essay from a free Internet website. Example 6 Copying a quotation without using quotation marks. Example 7 Writing material very close to the original- changing only a few words by using synonyms. (Center for Writing Excellence, Types of Plagiarism) The Center for Academic Integrity at Duke University defines academic integrity as a commitment to five fundamental values: honesty (a search for truth in work and in communication), trust (being true to your word), fairness (contributing to a fair academic environment), respect (accepting and honoring the opinions of others), and responsibility (making fair and honest choices). (A Report from the Center for Academic Integrity, Center for Academic Integrity, Kenan Institute for Ethics, Duke University, October 1999. Available: www.academicintegrity.org (March 2001). I must take the time to read the assignments, take proper notes, use citations and paraphrases, and always remember to give credit to any source that I may use. This way, I will never have a problem with plagiarizing. Setting and Achieving Goals There are two types of goals, long term and short term. Long term goals are goals that usually take a considerable amount of time to achieve. These are things like getting going to school to get a degree or reaching a certain position within a company. There are also long term goals that have no time frame. Short term goals can span just a few hours or take up to a few months to achieve. When I sit down and think about what I want to make of my life, I will write out on paper, making two columns, and list the things I would like to achieve. The first column will have my long term goals which are getting my Associates Degree in Criminal Justice in 2 years and get hired by my local police department as a Forensic Researcher and continuing on in college to get my Bachelors Degree within 4 yrs so I can become a Probation officer. These goals are aimed towards my education and job placement. Now, the next column will have my short term goals, which are broken down into smaller steps so I can eventually reach the long term goals. Right now, these would be to get my reading assignments done by day 1 so I can turn in my written assignments on the days scheduled and weekly projects by Sunday. I would also like to keep a B average in all classes. When I complete the required 60 units, I can graduate and hopefully reach my goal of working for Bakersfield Police Dept in forensics. Managing Time Wisely The one thing I have learned in this class to better manage my time. By doing so, I am able to finish my work in a reasonable time frame and elevate stress. I know that the best time for me to do anything school related is in the morning. I am refreshed from a good night’s sleep and ready for the day ahead. Also, my son is in school and I can have quiet time while he is gone. Next, I plan out my day by prioritizing the things that I need to accomplish. I will break it done into 3 categories: Priority 1 items are the most important. They would be taking/picking up son from school, going to class, doing assignments, household chores. Priority 2 items are things are things that are more flexible, like running errands and keeping up with studying. Priority 3 are the things that you would like to do but can wait. By prioritizing the things I need to do this way, I am able to get done everything that I set out to do. Fostering Reading Comprehension and Retention First off, the goal of reading comprehension means to have a complete understanding of what I am reading. It is important to determine the purposes of what and why I am reading. Depending on what my reading purpose is, I will follow one of the 4 guidelines defined in Keys to College Studying: Becoming an Active Thinker, (Second Edition, by Carol Carter, Joyce Bishop, and Sarah Lyman Kravits. Published by Pearson Prentice Hall. Copyright  © 2007 by Pearson Education, Inc.) They are as follows: Purpose 1: Read for understanding. Studying involves reading to comprehend concepts and details. These components depend on each other. Details help explain or support general concepts, and concepts provide a framework for remembering details. Purpose 2: Read to evaluate critically. Critical evaluation involves understanding. It means approaching material with an open mind, examining causes and effects, evaluating ideas, and asking questions that test the writer’s argument and assumptions. Critical reading brings a level of understanding that goes beyond basic information recall. Purpose 3: Read for practical application. A third purpose for reading is to gather usable information that you can apply toward a specific goal. When you read a textbook preface or an instruction booklet for a new software package, your goal is to learn how to do or use something. Reading and action usually goes hand in hand. Purpose 4: Read for pleasure. Some materials you read for entertainment, such as Sports Illustrated magazine, the latest page-turner by DaVinci Code author Dan Brown, or even novels by Charles Dickens and Jane Austen. As Yale professor Harold Bloom points out, reading for pleasure gives you the opportunity to enlarge your life and to enter into â€Å"alternate realities.† â€Å"Why read?† Bloom asks. â€Å"Because you can know, intimately, only a very few people, and perhaps you never know them at all. After reading [the Thomas Mann masterpiece] The Magic Mountain you know Hans Castorp thoroughly, and he is greatly worth knowing.†(See Harold Bloom, How to Read and Why. New York: Scribner, 2000.) In my approach to reading, I will incorporate what I have learned from the SQ3R which is to first survey what I am reading: chapter elements and back matter. Then I will right out some questions: what is the topic of what I have read, and do I understand what I am reading. From there I will read and take notes, and highlight the important parts. I will then re-read some of it aloud as it helps me to understand the material and I will ask myself the questions I wrote down when I had initially skimmed it. Last but not least, I will review what I have read by going over the highlighted areas and condense the material so I can focus on the most crucial ideas. Applying Personality and Learning Styles There are 8 different types of learning styles: Verbal-Linguistic: able to communicate through language Logical-Mathematical: able to understand logical reasoning and problem solving Bodily-Kinesthetic: able to use the physical body skillfully and to take in knowledge through bodily sensation Visual-Spatial: able to understand spatial relations and to perceive and create images Interpersonal: able to relate to others, paying attention to their moods, what motivates them, and feelings Intrapersonal: the ability to understand one’s own behavior and feelings Musical: able to understand and create meaningful sound Naturalistic: able to understand features of the environment Mine is that of Interpersonal and my personality assessment says I am a Giver. For me it is important to do my studying in a well-structured, stable environment and to be more organized when it comes to scheduling my study time and assignments. I will find a creative way to help me memorize different terms, (flash cards, games, or puzzle) thus be able to turn whatever I am doing into something fun. I will seek out groups to study with so I can discuss information and get other students point of view and hopefully teach others with my point of view. I would like to learn from an Intrapersonal to cheek my emotions in check at all times and to be self-aware and from a Verbal-Linguistic the passion for reading and writing and understanding syntax and word meaning, and the art of remembering terms easily. I plan on implanting these styles of learning into all of my college courses so that I may be successful in my college endeavors. Research Papers on Student Syurvival GuideStandardized TestingResearch Process Part OneAnalysis of Ebay Expanding into AsiaNever Been Kicked Out of a Place This NiceThe Project Managment Office SystemOpen Architechture a white paperThe Relationship Between Delinquency and Drug UseMoral and Ethical Issues in Hiring New EmployeesInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesIncorporating Risk and Uncertainty Factor in Capital

Converse Essays

Converse Essays Converse Essay Converse Essay oduced and distributed Just as the nation was recovering from the effects of the Great Depression, with the economy somewhat stabilized following Roosevelts New Deal, and with the looming 2nd world war, Capras Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) is an important document not only in terms of the state of affairs as it was at the time of its production, but also in terms of what led up to it and what was about to follow. To better understand how the film accomplishes this, one must first examine the idea of freedom and its changing meaning in the period leading up to Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Following that, the ways in which this idea is used in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and to what end, will be explored. Finally, the films role as an active agent in the reality that is to ensue with the outbreak of the 2nd World War, as relating to the past/present reality of the time and Capras manipulation of this reality, shall be considered. During the depression and its aftermath, the idea of freedom took several meanings as different issues were at the forefront of the American socioeconomic reality. Foner xplores depression-era ideas of freedom, concluding that the socioeconomic freedom (to work and be able to earn ones living) became of greater importance than the political freedom (as expressed in the constitution). [l] But this idea soon came to change as the conditions improved following Roosevelts New Deal. Following the labour union disputes and the more militant activism of organizations like the CIO and the Popular Front on the side of the workers, civil liberties and the freedom of speech took an increasingly central role as the decade was nearing its end[2]. The creation of the Department of Justices Civil Liberties Unit in 1939, established civil liberties as an issue with a central place in the New Deal understanding of freedom [3]. It is exactly this idea of freedom that Mr. Smith Goes to Washington builds on to convey Capras message. While Capras film conveyed the nations self image as it was at the time (perhaps more than one has any right to expect according to Bergman[4]), it also used this self image in order to make its message heard by his listeners. Qualifying Capras way of manipulating images as genius and referring to the way that he understood enough of what people wanted to help create a consciousness, and to build himself into the renders the work not only as one of a reactive nature, but also as an active protagonist. As Muscio notes, Capra was not simply a witness or narrator, but rather a key protagonist in the relationship between communications and politics[6]. As Capra explains: For two hours youve got em. Hitler cant keep em that long. You eventually reach more people than Roosevelt does on the radio[7]. freedom of speech, employing such rhetoric as: Libertys too precious a thing to be buried in books Men should hold it up in front of them every single day of their lives and say: Im free to think and to speak[8] or Fighting for something better than Just jungle law, fghting sos he can stand on his own two feet, free and But while such a fight was being fought at home by the CIO and protected by the Civil Liberties Unit, Capra points to the looming fght to keep these liberties overseas with his mention of Hitler

13 Questions You Should Be Asking about Updating Your References

13 Questions You Should Be Asking about Updating Your References National Update Your References Week It seems there are international and/or national weeks for just about everything, and the first week in May was, as proclaimed by Career Directors International, International Update Your References Week (UYRW). Why such a thing? CDI says UYRW â€Å"was created due to the importance of job seekers [sic] learning to maintain a network of warm contacts and references, in order to assist them in career change, employment, and growth.† CDI’s director, Laura DeCarlo, asserts that â€Å"up to 45% of employers check references, so it is necessary to be prepared to be asked for them.† Are You a Skeptic about National Anything Weeks? Even as a resume writer, my initial response to learning about International Update Your References Week was, â€Å"You’ve gotta be kidding. How much could there possibly be to do or say about references?† But then I thought about all the people reading my blog who might not have their references updated. I did a double-take for myself too: If I were to apply for employment somewhere, would my references be at my fingertips at the moment I needed them? I Need to Update My References The answer to that second question was †¦ well †¦ â€Å"mostly yes.† I’m connected with the majority of my past supervisors on LinkedIn, and recently had a nice chat with one of them just to catch up. When I travel to New York, I make an effort to visit my old stomping grounds in Brooklyn to stay in contact with the folks at CAMBA Legal Services. So why do I say â€Å"mostly†? Well, I have, embarrassingly enough, forgotten the name of my most recent supervisor at the University Of Wisconsin Law School’s Career Services Office. Prior to posting this article, I wrote to the man who was assistant director during my tenure- someone I have stayed connected with through networking- and asked for his assistance in identifying her. Oops. From my own erroneous ways in the references department, I can confidently say that while updating your references is something that’s best done on an ongoing basis (just like being nice to your mother on days other than Mother’s Day, or showing love to your partner on days other than Valentine’s Day), it doesn’t hurt to give some extra attention to this project once a year. 13 Questions and Answers About Updating Your References Since Update Your References Week proved useful to me, I imagine it will be a wake-up call for some of you too! To that end, here are some questions you might have about updating your references, which are answered on the UYRW information page: Why do I need to provide references for an employer? Who makes a good reference? How many references do I need? What types of information do I list? Should I list references directly on my resume? Should I list â€Å"References Available Upon Request† on resume? What if I was fired from my last job? Do I need to list that employer as a reference? When do I send references? What if I can’t find all of my previous supervisors? Do I need to ask permission to use someone as a reference? Someone once suggested that I send a copy of my resume to all my references. Why should I do that? What if I don’t have any prior experience? CDI has thoroughly answered all those questions and I recommend you read the answers. You might be surprised by some of them! Another question came up recently for me: â€Å"Can I quote my references on my resume without asking for their specific permission to do so?† My answer to that is, â€Å"It depends.† If your reference has publicized their testimonial on LinkedIn, then their recommendation is fair game. If they have not, then best practice is to request their permission before putting their name on your resume, especially if a quote is attributed to them. This doesn’t mean you can’t use their rave review from an evaluation or other source- but get their permission first, or, as an alternative, use their title only, without their name attached to it. Keeping It Personal Also missing from CDI’s list is a recommendation that I would like to make: Stay in contact with your references! Are you aware of your former boss’s career transitions? Family milestones? Remember, people will be most willing and enthusiastic about providing recommendations for you if you exhibit interest in them for more than their reference status. Staying in touch with your references will be particularly useful if they are prohibited by company policy from providing a recommendation, but can find a way around the rules- or if they move to another company, allowing them to provide a reference for the prior one. Do you have other questions about references? I will be happy to answer them even though Update Your Reference Week is over! I’d also love to hear how you would rate yourself on your communications with your references. Is it time to reach out to someone or find out what’s happening with their career or life? There’s no time like a national UYRW to do it!

Destructiveness of garment structure Dissertation

Destructiveness of garment structure - Dissertation Example Deconstruction  -----------------------12 2.2 Identification of Conceptual and Functional Fashion----14 2.3 The Idea of Experimental Design in Fashion-------------15 2.4 Architectural Deconstruction in the Structure of Fashion Apparel---------17 Chapter 3: Case Studies-------------------------------------------------------------24 3.1 The Impact of Japanese Designers-------------------------24 3.1.1 Rei Kawakubo, Founder of Commes des Garcons----------27 3.1.2 Yohji Yamamoto--------------------------------29 3.2 The Influence of Experimental Designers-----------------31 3.2.1 Martin Margiela----------------------------------32 3.2.2 Hussein Chalayan---------------------------------35 Chapter 4: Fashion Collection on Deconstruction of Garment Design: Origami Art and Geometric Patternin-----------37 Chapter 5: Conclusion---------------------------------------------------------------42 REFERENCES----------------------------------------------------------------------43 REFERENCES FOR IL LUSTRATIONS------------------------------------------46 List of Figures Fig. 1a. Sydney Opera House: Section Drawing------------------------------------------19 Fig.1b. Sydney Opera House: Photo-------------------------------------------------------19 Figs. 2a., 2b., 2c.Ozezen’s Dress Designs Inspired by Sydney Opera House--------20 Fig. 3. A-POC Clothing Line by Issey Miyake, 2004-----------------------------------22 Fig.4. Testa’s Carbon Tower---------------------------------------------------------------23 Figs. 5a, 5b. Rei Kawakubo: The Lumps and Bumps Collection----------------------28 Figs. 6a, 6b. Yohji Yamamoto: Spring 2012, Ready to Wear---------------------------30 Figs. 7a, 7b. Maison Martin Margiela: Spring 2012 Ready to Wear-------------------34 Figs. 8a, 8b. Chalayan: Fall...Gill (1998) argues that clothes are not liberated from funtionality because of deconstruction as an external causal force. On the other hand, the elimination of functionality from clo thing is achieved through a complex interaction between bodies, clothing and their different settings of use (Gill, 1998). Salingaros and Alexander (2004) state that deconstruction is a new concept that denotes the breaking up of coherent forms; it takes apart traditional literature, art and architecture. In buidling construction, the concept has become increasingly influential among architects, scholars, educators, decision makers, policy makers, and developers of prestigious construction projects. Deconstruction in architecture is more than mere visual fashion, and contributes extensively to form, function and aesthetics (Salingaros & Alexander, 2004). It is characterized by broken lines and lopsided asymmetrical shapes portraying the destruction of conventional principles. Other possible elements of architectural deconstruction include a building construction of unsuitable scale for human use, either two small or excessively big, disconnected and unrelated components and surfaces, along with highly polished metal work and sparkling glass, state Saligaros & Alexander (2004).

Individual Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Individual Report - Essay Example ..10 Forecasts and Outcomes†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦13 References†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦14 Executive Summary Stereotyping and prejudice are forms of discrimination. Hurst (2007) stated, â€Å"One reason for stereotypes is the lack of personal, concrete familiarity that individuals have with persons in other racial or ethnic groups. Lack of familiarity encourages the lumping together of unknown individuals.† In the case of stereotyping, individuals are put into groups that make them appear to have similar distinctions that give them an identity. Such groups could be identified by race, age, gender, and educational attainment to name a few. These forms of discrimination are evident in the workforce various organizations. Moreover, changing times have caused the amplification of some forms of discrimination, while other forms have subsided. However, despite the lowered levels of certain forms of discrimination, employees are still significantly affected by it. Discrimination has caused decreased moral, poor job satisfaction, and increased employee turnover. Furthermore, discrimination not only affects the employees, it ultimately causes poor overall performance of an organization. It is important for an organization to ensure the welfare of its workforce in order to ascertain that the organization would be able to perform competitively and effectively. The client, which is a logistics company based in Kuwait, has problems in stereotyping and prejudice in the workplace. The group suggest the use of Geert Hostede's five cultural dimensions in assessing the issues of the organization. In addition, various management styles could also be considered in order to help elimin ate or at least minimize the issue of discrimination within the workplace. The following sections would provide justification for the chosen cultural theory and management styles, while aligning it with the aim of solving the issue of stereotyping and prejudice in the workplace of the logistics company. Terms of Reference The group is composed of consulants from an HR consulting company which has been contracted to identify ways of improving the organizational cutlure of a culturally diverse company company. One of the primary issues that was brought up is stereoptyping and discrimination. This paper will tackle these issues in greater depth. The client is a large scale company that offers logistics services from specific drop-off and pick-up stations to any point in the world. Main offices are located in Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. The company offers sea, land, and air freight services. Among the aims of the company are to provide excellent services through cost an d schedule control, efficiency and safety of operations. Moreover, the logistics company achieves profitability through solid dedication to catering to the needs of their customers and through the development of its employees. The client handles more than 750 employees. With a relatively large workforce, diversity among the employees is absolute. The company recorded employee citizenship to range from local recruits to American and European executives. In addition, employees differ in educational attainment. They

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

Training and development 6 - Essay Example With this in mind, this trend will affect my personal career development as I would have to take several measures to promote my own career development. Some of these steps would include, I would need to develop several sources of income to supplement my main income. I would also need to attend career improvement and development conferences, seminars, workshops and symposiums to ensure that I am always abreast with the current developments in my chosen career and hence always remain ahead of most competitors. In an attempt to be able to be favorably placed in the event that new opportunities happen to arise, I would need to ensure that I diversify the range and breath of my experience by ensuring that I always engage in new projects when given the chance to do so (Kakabadse et al 50). As the protean career trend continues to develop, job security is fast becoming a thing of the past and I would need to ensure that I extensively network with other professionals in an attempt to ensure that I am always kept in the loop on the events taking place in my industry. Networking will also potentially provide new employment

STRATEGY and OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

STRATEGY and OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT - Essay Example Each brand provides a unique blend of performance, reliability, and aesthetics to its customers. Some of its brands, such as the Vostro, Latitude, Precision, and N series are high end performance systems that are targeted towards small, medium, and large businesses. Other brands such as Inspiron, Studio, XPS, Alienware and Adamo cater to home users with different set of requirements. Apart from computers, Dell also manufactures electronic devices such as LCD monitors, keyboards, mice, USB drives, and so on, in support of its computer range. Dell has adopted a combination of Cost Leadership and Differentiation as its generic strategy. The world is becoming an increasingly technology dependent place. Companies throughout the world spend a great portion of their budgets towards Research and Development to offer the customers great value, at the lowest possible price. Dell has been pursuing the same objective as well. With its highly integrated network of suppliers and customers, Dell has been able to sell directly to customers, reducing cost through eliminating wholesalers and retailers from its business model. This had enabled Dell to provide customers with products at the lowest possible prices. However, cost cutting is not the only objective in Dell’s strategy mix. The company constantly strives to provide its customers with high quality, reliability, convenience of purchase, and outstanding after sales service (Treacy & Wiersema, 1993). All these factors, add some value to the customers and, when put together, enables Dell to differentiate its offerings from its long list of competitors. Through its streamlined processes, Dell manages to not only cut costs and charge less from the customers, but also provides them with differentiated, customized computer systems that only few competitors, today, have managed to deliver. All activities of Dell work in collaboration to facilitate its generic strategy. Through technological solutions, Dell

See the prompts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

See the prompts - Essay Example 2 women and 3 men show their presence on â€Å"the simple kitchen stage in the play.† The two women are wives of the sheriff and the farmer and they mostly remain on the stage, whereas there men characters â€Å"county attorney, sheriff and a neighboring farmer† arrive and depart from the stage several times, as they constantly discuss and search for proof and intentions behind the murder. The women examine the â€Å"little things† in the kitchen (Judith, p.461) Men ignore issues which women consider important and the women ponder how Mrs. Wright made preparations about completing the quilt. They strike a feminine commonality as they share their own experiences in the light of the evidence now found and with the discovery of â€Å"a battered birdcage and the dead canary,† they are elated about their findings and think that they have stuck at the evidence for the motive of the murder. â€Å"Glaspell conveys the setting in three realms: time (era), regional (geographical), and domain (kitchen). Collectively the three setting elements portray the values, ideals, and attitudes of the characters giving deeper meaning to the play’s outcome. (Judith, p.461) â€Å"The ideals, values and disposition of the characters are linked to setting, physical and time details and the author passes an indictment against the society that demeans women and eulogises men for their so-called superior talents. â€Å"Values, ideals and attitudes of people† in â€Å"Trifles† need more analysis. Trifles saw the light of the day in 1916. In that period, the social conditions of women were poor and political rights for them were non-existent in United States. Women had no voting rights, and they were not appointed as juries. The responsibility of women was restricted within the four walls of the house and it was a male-dominated society. Glaspell has made the intelligent use of gender and values in this play. The women are aware that their o pinion is of no consequence in finding the motive of the murder. So this gender war reaches the setting of this play, women do investigations, and the kitchen in secular terms, is the female-dominated area. Men do investigation in other areas and from other angles, and they do not give any importance to the kitchen. Men consider themselves to be intellectually superior, and the women have accompanied them as mere enclosures. The opinions of women are not counted and they have no say, let alone the final say. These women prove how wrong the gender bias is. They find the evidence to show how their sixth sense works, and why they are equal to men if not more equal, by finding the evidence for the murder. Thus the gender values of the time are challenged by Glaspell. The gender bias and the husband-wife relationship, relevant to the time, have been subtly described by Glaspell through the characterisation of Mr. and Mrs. Wright. He is busy in the farm and she is busy in the unending dom estic chores. She waits for her husband to return from the farm, and even when he comes his arrival did not bring cheer to her as Glaspell puts it, â€Å"no company when he did come in† (Judith,p.463). Her life is lonely and frozen. Setting kitchen as the stage has profound meaning; it is as well refers to the conditions prevailing in the society of the 19th century. The man-woman divide is complete; each section dominates the external and the internal worlds in complying with the attitudinal difference between the genders. So, the author places the two

STRATEGY and OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

STRATEGY and OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT - Essay Example Each brand provides a unique blend of performance, reliability, and aesthetics to its customers. Some of its brands, such as the Vostro, Latitude, Precision, and N series are high end performance systems that are targeted towards small, medium, and large businesses. Other brands such as Inspiron, Studio, XPS, Alienware and Adamo cater to home users with different set of requirements. Apart from computers, Dell also manufactures electronic devices such as LCD monitors, keyboards, mice, USB drives, and so on, in support of its computer range. Dell has adopted a combination of Cost Leadership and Differentiation as its generic strategy. The world is becoming an increasingly technology dependent place. Companies throughout the world spend a great portion of their budgets towards Research and Development to offer the customers great value, at the lowest possible price. Dell has been pursuing the same objective as well. With its highly integrated network of suppliers and customers, Dell has been able to sell directly to customers, reducing cost through eliminating wholesalers and retailers from its business model. This had enabled Dell to provide customers with products at the lowest possible prices. However, cost cutting is not the only objective in Dell’s strategy mix. The company constantly strives to provide its customers with high quality, reliability, convenience of purchase, and outstanding after sales service (Treacy & Wiersema, 1993). All these factors, add some value to the customers and, when put together, enables Dell to differentiate its offerings from its long list of competitors. Through its streamlined processes, Dell manages to not only cut costs and charge less from the customers, but also provides them with differentiated, customized computer systems that only few competitors, today, have managed to deliver. All activities of Dell work in collaboration to facilitate its generic strategy. Through technological solutions, Dell

Blacks Leisure Group Board Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Blacks Leisure Group Board - Essay Example Hence, for the development and sustenance of a competitive advantage the marketing planner of a company needs to recognize that the advantage an organisation or brand possesses that is meaningful will be copied or improved upon by competitors sooner rather than later (Wilson R. and Gilligan C., 2005, p 405). Established a century and a half earlier in 1863, by Thomas Black, the Blacks Leisure Group has come a long way from being a humble sails manufacturing company to a camping, outdoor and sporting goods retail empire. Today, for millions of those out-door loving enthusiasts, the company is more of an institution that a mere retail store. Presently, the Black Leisure Group holds a powerful presence within two of the exclusive markets in which the company operates: Broadwear and Outdoor. Currently the management team of the group is focusing on restoring and, developing and sustaining its competitive advantage. The management is also concentrating on building upon the disciplines of operational improvements that was achieved in the current financial year (Black Leisure Group plc, 2008). However, to in order to return to its past performance levels and to develop and sustain its competitive advantage an innovative business strategy with further radical changes will be required. To be able to lock horns with other competitors and to come on top in the present era of fasted paced innovation and ruthless competition, the sustainability and competitive advantage of companies are defined by innovative strategies.Henceforth, in order to conceive of a corporate strategy through the company will successfully be to develop and sustain its competitive advantage, first a better understanding of the link between strategy and competitive advantage is a must.   Strategy and Competitive Advantage According to the definition of competitive advantage, it as an advantage gained over competitors by offering the consumers a greater value for their investments either by means of low prices or by the provision of greater benefits that does justice to higher prices. For a company to gain a competitive advantage over its competitors Michael E. Porter has identified four "generic" business strategies (Porter E.M, 1980). These "generic' strategies relate to the extent to which the scopes of a business' activities are narrow against the extent to which a business seeks to differentiate its products. The four strategies are as follows: Differentiation Strategy: This strategy is based on studying the different criteria used by consumers while buying products and selecting one or more of these criteria and then positioning the business to meet the chosen criteria. This differentiation strategy is all about charging a premium price for a product that covers the added production costs, ensuring profit and as well as giving the consumers obvious reasons to choose the product over the other less or not differentiated products. The examples of differentiation strategy can be better understood with case studies of Mercedes cars and Bang & Olufsen Company (Porter E.M, 1980).     

Summative Assessment Essay Example for Free

Summative Assessment Essay 1.1/1.2/1.3 – Requires me to describe what is employee engagement and how does it differ, if at all, from related concepts like employee involvement, employee participation and employee consultation? Also how far is employee engagement something which is genuinely new and distinctive, or is it merely a repackaging of old and well-established ideas? Chiumento (2004) defined employee engagement as a positive, two-way, relationship between an employee and their organisation. Both parties are aware of their own and the other’s needs, and the way they support each other to fulfil those needs. Engaged employees and organisations will go the extra mile for each other because they see the mutual benefit of investing in their relationship. One of the first challenges presented by the literature is the lack of a universal definition of employee engagement. Kahn (1990) defines employee engagement as â€Å"the harnessing of organisation members’ selves to their work roles; in engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role performances†. The cognitive aspect of employee engagement concerns employees’ beliefs about the organisation, its leaders and working conditions. The emotional aspect concerns how employees feel about each of those three factors and whether they have positive or negative attitudes toward the organisation and its leaders. The physical aspect of employee engagement concerns the physical energies exerted by individuals to accomplish their roles. Thus, according to Kahn (1990), engagement means to be psychologically as well as physically present when occupying and performing an organisational role. Most often employee engagement has been defined as emotional and intellectual commitment to the organisation (Baumruk 2004, Richman 2006 and Shaw 2005) or the amount of discretionary effort exhibited by employees in their job (Frank et al 2004). Although it is acknowledged and accepted that employee engagement is a multi-faceted construct, as previously suggested by Kahn (1990), Truss et al (2006) define employee engagement simply as ‘passion for work’, a psychological state which is seen to encompass the three dimensions of engagement discussed by Kahn (1990), and captures the common theme running through all these definitions. The existence of different definitions makes the state of knowledge of employee engagement difficult to determine as each study examines employee engagement under a different protocol. In addition, unless employee engagement can be universally defined and measured, it cannot be managed, nor can it be known if efforts to improve it are working (Ferguson 2007). This highlights the problems of comparability caused by differences in definition. Furthermore, whilst it is acknowledged that employee engagement has been defined in many different ways, it is also argued the definitions often sound similar to other better known and established constructs such as ‘organisational commitment’ and ‘organisational citizenship behaviour’ (Robinson et al 2004). Thus Robinson et al (2004) report 408, IES defines engagement as: ‘A positive attitude held by the employee towards the organisation and its values. An engaged employee is aware of business context, and works with colleagues to improve performance within the job for the benefit of the organisation. The organisation must work to develop and nurture engagement, which requires a two-way relationship between employer and employee.’ As a result, employee engagement has the appearance of being yet another trend, or what some might call â€Å"old wine in a new bottle†. An engaged employee is one who is fully involved in, and enthusiastic about their work, and thus will act in a way that furthers their organisations interests. Employee Engagement is a measurable degree of an employees positive or negative emotional attachment to their job, colleagues and organisation which profoundly influences their willingness to learn and perform at work. Thus engagement is distinctively different from employee satisfaction, motivation and organisational culture. Employers require an investment from their employees and in return employees need a similar investment from their company. †¢ The physical things are at the conscious level. They tend to be noticed by management ie an employee’s willingness to ‘go the extra mile. †¢ The emotional things such as caring, commitment and concern occur often at the unconscious level and as a result are not always as visible. †¢ Cognitive engagement means that employees are sure about their job requirements and role expectations. When managers say ‘I want my staff to be caring, pleasant, happy and enthusiastic’, you would ask, ‘what are you giving them so they will do all of this?’ The reply is usually, ‘They get paid.’ If you want your staff to do all the above then they need a return in the appropriate dimension the emotional one. This means creating an atmosphere where the staff passes on to your customers what they get from you. For example: †¢ If you want employees to display initiative and come up with new ideas (Intellectual) you must give them responsibility and provide interesting work and opportunities for promotion. †¢ If you want your employees to adhere to the safety and health regulations at work you must provide them with good equipment and safe working conditions. †¢ If you want them to show respect and empathy for other staff members and customers you in turn must show them respect and have empathy for them. Organisational commitment is the relative strength of an individual’s identification with and involvement in a particular organisation, Armstrong (2006). It consists of three factors: †¢ A strong desire to remain a member of the organisation. †¢ A strong belief in and acceptance of the values and goals of the organisation. †¢ A readiness to exert considerable effort on behalf of the organisation. Work engagement is positively related with, but can nevertheless be differentiated from, similar constructs such as job involvement and organizational commitment, in-role and extra-role behaviour; personal initiative, and workaholics. Moreover, engaged workers are characterised by low levels of burnout, as well as by low levels of neuroticism and high levels of extraversion. Also they enjoy good mental and physical health. Most recently, Christian et al (2011) meta-analyzed over 90 engagement research studies. They found that engagement is distinct from job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and job involvement. If we are to understand how engagement might be managed in organisations, it is essential that we look at how it operates at the level of individuals and groups. A number of commentators in the academic literature have equated engagement with well-established psychological concepts. For example, it has been linked to the notion of ‘flow’ where the worker becomes totally immersed in an activity (Csikszentmihalyi 1990). The military is a great example of employee engagement as they work together going forward to be operationally focused. Learning outcome 3 3.1/3.2/3.3 Requires me to find out why is employment engagement a ‘hot topic’ for many organisations? And what are the benefits to be gained from creating a culture of employee engagement and an ‘engaged’ workforce? Over the past decade, and particularly in the past three years, employers and employees have faced human capital challenges and an uncertain economy. The economic downturn that started in 2008 has had a significant impact on companies and the resulting decisions made by management. These decisions have impacted employee engagement levels and perceptions globally, leading to changes in leading drivers of employee engagement. In uncertain times, organisations need to focus on harnessing the discretionary effort that engaged employees deliver. This makes the difference in how companies are affected during the economic downturn, how quickly they emerge from it, and how strong they are in the future after the downturn passes. Employee engagement/communication is one way to ensure the balance of the psychological contract is maintained throughout change. During an early CIPD Podcast (03 Apr 2007), the CIPD Adviser of Employee Relations, Mike Emmott describes employee attitudes throughout the public sector as ‘bottom of the heap’ He goes on to say ‘I think there is an endemic problem in getting an engaged workforce in the public sector and until they’ve cracked it, efforts at public sector reform are going to be hamstrung’. In an article by Ritu Mohanka (2011) in the British business publication, Management Today he highlighted the rapid emergence of Employee Engagement as a hot topic in company boardrooms and sought to educate its readership on the basics of Employee Engagement. However, though the author was impressed by the power of Employee Engagement as a lever for tapping into an organisations potential, he was still sceptical. They were right to highlight employee engagement as a hot topic. Human Capital Management (HCM) research clearly demonstrates that if your employees arent engaged, then theyre unlikely to be doing a particularly good job, and so probably wont be keeping your customers all that happy and therefore might be laying the seeds for your own downfall in the future. Because you can be sure that somewhere, someone else covets those very same customers and will be doing their utmost to poach them from you. Or to put it another way, if your horses are sleeping, whos pulling your carriage? Finding out just how awake, how hard and in which direction those horses are pulling is the centrepiece and focus of all good Employee Engagement. The challenge, of course, is educating both management and employees, whilst fitting a sound conceptual model to the individual context, values and environment of each and every company. To continue the analogy, its finding the right horses for courses. And then making sure that the management has the right information and benchmarks to understand; how fast theyre going, if theyve actually employed thoroughbreds or work-horses, and whether their horses are all pulling in the same direction. In an ideal world, all of a companys employees are sufficiently gifted and striving towards a unified goal, while advocating their companys values and championing their services to the external world. Common sense, and the real world, tells us that this isnt always the case. This makes it paramount for company leaders to know the reality of the situation and seek sufficient information to develop an action plan, putting both appropriate remedies in place and providing a route to increased employee buy-in, commitment and Engagement, and hence future performance improvements. So, how can they get the horse before the cart? Well, one way would be to start finding out, through their own customised Employee Engagement survey. If properly devised and carried out this will provide an up-to-date and in-depth understanding of their employees: Motivation, Commitment, Belief in the companys leaders and managers and Understanding of company (Values, Goals (vision, mission, strategic priorities etc.), Actions, and their part as a cog in the greater machine, probability of staying with the employer)). In a study by CIPD (2011) it was stated that the key to employee engagement is to create a meaningful job with variety and autonomy. It was also suggested that a positive relationship with managers and feeling able to voice any concerns were also key to maintaining a motivated workforce. Learning outcome 4 4.1/4.2 Requires me to find out what is the empirical evidence to support the claim that these benefits can be realised in practice? An article on engagement in People Management, Mark Butler (2008), Director of the People Organisation and an associate of Edinburgh HR Academy suggest that ‘valuing the views of the people is beyond dispute’. This was further reinforced in People Management, Tim Smedley (2008) when he interviewed Tony McCarthy, Director, People and Organisational Effectiveness, British Airways. Tony McCarthy described it very succinctly, ‘we need to listen to people more than we do’. Also in April 2008, the success of Birmingham City Council’s ‘Best’ initiative a values-based change programme intended to improve performance and empower employees, demonstrated how learning from past performance and involving staff in the design of a programme rather than imposing it had a dramatic positive effect on the mood of the workforce. The Military Covenant (2000), which forms part of the Army’s Doctrine, underpins the ethos of the military’s psychological contract with its serving soldiers. An extract of the Army Doctrine Publication Military Covenant (2000) relevant to this report is as follows ‘soldiers will be called upon to make personal sacrifices, including the ultimate sacrifice – in the service of the nation. In return, British soldiers must always be able to expect fair treatment, to be valued and respected as individuals, and that they (and their families) will be sustained and rewarded by commensurate terms and conditions of service. In a case study by PlasticCo (2007) they described their leaderships as ‘from the top–down’ with an autocratic approach to problem-solving. However, changes in their senior management led to a new strategic direction for the company. A new managing director was appointed, bringing a more participative vision. With full board support, a business case was made for a three-year transition towards an involvement-oriented culture. At the heart of this approach were people development, teamwork, communication and a more open leadership style. The new management team made it clear that the company was profitable and performing well and that the change was part of a new strategy of continuous improvement towards greater performance. PlasticCo joined the Kingston Business School Employee Engagement Consortium to help assess the levels of engagement in their company and identify potential avenues for improvement. Truss et al (2006) conducted a survey of working life in the UK, of which engagement was a core consideration. Using a cross-section of UK workers from various industries, they concluded that only 35% of people are engaged overall. These studies suggest there is much scope for increasing engagement in UK companies and public bodies. GovDep is a large government department, which in 2007 underwent considerable changes as a result of a merger between two previously separate agencies. This led to a new management structure and ‘head office’ rationalisation and provided an opportunity for headcount efficiencies. The department and agencies have been involved in working towards increased employee engagement for some time, although this has only been branded as ‘employee engagement’ latterly. This interest stems from a drive to renew employment practices and processes as part of a wider agenda of government modernisation. The department and agencies conducts annual staff survey’s, which feeds into improvement activities, which has increased the focus on employee involvement initiatives. The majority of the agency’s employees work in an office/contact centre environment. There is an emphasis on employee development, coaching and teamwork. There is also careful attention to diversity and equal opportunities. Sickness absence rates were high, compared with the private sector organisations, and with a new performance standard for sickness in place the aim is to reduce sickness absence to below 8.3 average working days per year. This work is beginning to provide the reduction required. To assist in the development of their employee engagement they have joined the Kingston Business School Employee Engagement Consortium. Learning outcome 6 6.1/6.2/6.3 Requires me to find out what is the future of employee engagement so far as tomorrow’s organisations are concerned? There are many theories about how to do change. Many originate with leadership and change management guru, John Kotter (1995) who created eight steps that are required to transform an organisation: 1. Establishing a sense of urgency. †¢ Examine market and competitive realities. †¢ Identify and discuss crisis, potential crisis, or major opportunities. †¢ Provide evidence from outside the organization that change is necessary. 2. Forming a powerful guiding coalition. †¢ Assemble a group with enough power to lead the change effort. †¢ Attract key change leaders by showing enthusiasm and commitment. †¢ Encourage the group to work together as a team. 3. Creating a vision. †¢ Create a vision to help direct the change effort. †¢ Develop strategies for achieving that vision. 4. Communicating the vision. †¢ Build alignment and engagement through stories. †¢ Use every vehicle possible to communicate the new vision and strategies. †¢ Keep communication simple and heartfelt. †¢ Teach new behaviours by the example of the guiding coalition. 5. Empowering others to act on the vision. †¢ Remove obstacles to the change. †¢ Change systems and / or structures that work against the vision. 6. Planning for and creating short-term wins. †¢ Plan for and achieve visible performance improvements. †¢ Recognize and reward those involved in bringing the improvements to life. 7. Consolidating improvements and producing still more change. †¢ Plan for and create visible performance improvements. †¢ Recognise and reward personnel involved in the improvements. †¢ Reinforce the behaviours shown that led to the improvements. 8. Institutionalising new approaches. †¢ Articulate the connections between the new behaviours and corporate success. †¢ Developing the means to ensure leadership development and succession. Within the military they have various ways to get feedback and then action employee’s requests if deemed necessary and if budgets allow. Two of these are the Armed Forces Pay Review Body (AFPRB) and the Armed Forces Continuous Attitude Survey (AFCAS). These surveys are conducted annually, meaning that changes for future employees are a role on thing. Changes will happen, but only through consultation with its employee’s. Due to the volume of this document the full report for the AFPRB can be found at: http://www.baff.org.uk/201103191103/armed-forces-pay-review-body-afprb-report -2011.html Also the same goes for the AFCAS, which can be found at: http://www.baff.org.uk/armed-forces-continuous-attitude-survey-2011.html My personal feelings are that employee engagement will become even more critical as the economy and job market begins to steadily rebound from the trenches we have seen over the last couple of years. With this being said, you will begin to see those key players within organisations, being targeted by competitors. And, with companies still reluctant to offer incentive based increases and tightly controlling their cash flow; there will need to be some form of non-tangible incentives available to these aforementioned key individuals. This is where employee engagement comes into play. Companies will need to identify areas that are important to the retention and development of their employee base and really focus their energy in those areas. Such as identifying key moments in an employee’s life or career and leveraging those to inspire others through communication. HR has a key role to play in implementing engagement initiatives. This will generally include designing and carrying out employee surveys, testing the findings through focus groups and advising senior managers on their significance. HR personnel will also have the job of helping line managers to raise their game. They may also need to liaise with marketing to develop the ‘employer brand’ or incorporate the findings of employee surveys within performance management processes. References Armstrong, M. (2006) A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice 10ed. London: Kogan. Baumruk, R. (2004) ‘The missing link: the role of employee engagement in business success’,Workspan, Vol 47, pp48-52. BCC. (2008) The Change Agent Project, ‘Best Initiative’. Birmingham: BCC. Available at: http://www.birminghambest.co.uk/changeagents [accessed 09 Mar 2012). Butler, M. (2008) Why engagement is set to revolutionise public services. London: CIPD. Available at: http://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/pm/articles/2008/09/why-engagement-is-set-to-revolutionise-public-services.htm [accessed 09 Mar 2012). Chiumento. (2004) Get Engaged, Chiumento, London. Christian, M. S., Garza, A. S., Slaughter, J. E. (2011). Work engagement: A quantitative review and test of its relations with task and contextual performance. Personnel Psychology, 64, 89-136. CIPD (2007) Employee Engagement: Podcast episode 6. London: CIPD. Available at: http://www.cipd.co.uk/podcasts/_articles/article6.htm [Accessed 08 Mar 2012]. CIPD (2008) Employee Engagement in Context: Research Insight. London: CIPD. Available at: http://www.cipd.co.uk/NR/rdonlyres/6D7D52C8-6E51-4539-A189-1E2D6EBEF01F/0/employee_engagement_context.pdf [Accessed 09 Mar 2012]. CSIKZENTMIHALYI, M. (2008) Flow: the psychology of optimal experience. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics. Ferguson, A. (2007) ‘Employee engagement: Does it exist, and if so, how does it relate to performance, other constructs and individual differences?’ Available at: http://www.lifethatworks.com/Employee-Engagement.prn.pdf [Accessed 07 Mar 2012]. Frank, F.D., Finnegan, R.P. and Taylor, C.R. (2004) ‘The race for talent: retaining and engaging workers in the 21st century’, Human Resource Planning, Vol 27, No 3, pp12-25. Kahn, W.A. (1990) ‘Psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work’, Academy of Management Journal, Vol 33, pp692-724. Kotter, J. (2011) The Heart of Change. Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NKti9MyAAw [Accessed 10 Mar 2012]. Mohanka, R. (2011) Employee Engagement is a Hot Topic. London: Europe Office. Available at: http://events.kenexa.com/newsletter/oldver/05041.asp?uid=1tbl=test [Accessed 09 Mar 2012]. Richman, A. (2006) ‘Everyone wants an engaged workforce how can you create it?’ Workspan, Vol 49, pp36-39. Robinson, D., Perryman, S. and Hayday S. (2004) The drivers of employee engagement. Brighton: Institute for Employment Studies. Available at: http://www.wellbeing4business.co.uk/docs/Article%20-%20Engagement%20research.pdf [Accessed 07 Mar 2012]. Shaw, K. (2005) ‘An engagement strategy process for communicators’, Strategic Communication Management, Vol 9, No 3, pp26-29. Sims, R R (1994) Human Resource Management’s Role in Clarifying the New Psychological Contract, Human Resource Management, 33 (3), pp, 373–82. Smedley, T (2008) We need to listen to people more than we do. London: CIPD. Available at: http://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/pm/articles/2008/09/we-need-to-listen-to-people-more-than-we-do.htm [accessed 09 Mar 2012). Spindler, G S (1994) Psychological contracts in the workplace: a lawyer’s view, Human Resource Management, 33 (3), pp 325–33. Truss, C., Soane, E., Edwards, C., Wisdom, K., Croll, A. and Burnett, J. (2006) Working Life: Employee Attitudes and Engagement 2006. London, CIPD. Bibliography Arkin, A. (2011) ‘Is Engagement Working’, People Management, November 2011, pp.22-27. Armstrong, M. (2006) A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice 10ed. London: Kogan. Baumruk, R. (2004) ‘The missing link: the role of employee engagement in business success’,Workspan, Vol 47, pp. 48-52. BCC. (2008) The Change Agent Project, ‘Best Initiative’. Birmingham: BCC. Available at: http://www.birminghambest.co.uk/changeagents [accessed 09 Mar 2012). Brearley, M. (2009) ‘Fully Charged’, People Management, June 2009, pp.20-23. Butler, M. (2008) Why engagement is set to revolutionise public services. London: CIPD. Available at: http://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/pm/articles/2008/09/why-engagement-is-set-to-revolutionise-public-services.htm [accessed 09 Mar 2012). Chiumento. (2004) Get Engaged, Chiumento, London. Christian, M. S., Garza, A. S., Slaughter, J. E. (2011). Work engagement: A quantitative review and test of its relations with task and contextual performance. Personnel Psychology, 64, 89-136. CIPD (2007) Employee Engagement: Podcast episode 6. London: CIPD. Available at: http://www.cipd.co.uk/podcasts/_articles/article6.htm [Accessed 08 Mar 2012]. CIPD (2008) Employee Engagement in Context: Research Insight. London: CIPD. Available at: http://www.cipd.co.uk/NR/rdonlyres/6D7D52C8-6E51-4539-A189-1E2D6EBEF01F/0/employee_engagement_context.pdf [Accessed 09 Mar 2012]. CIPD (2011) Employee Engagement: Factsheets. London: CIPD. Available at: http://www.cipd.co.uk/hr-resources/factsheets/employee-engagement.aspx [Accessed 07 Mar 2012]. CSIKZENTMIHALYI, M. (2008) Flow: the psychology of optimal experience. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics. Ferguson, A. (2007) ‘Employee engagement: Does it exist, and if so, how does it relate to performance, other constructs and individual differences?’ Available at: http://www.lifethatworks.com/Employee-Engagement.prn.pdf [Accessed 07 Mar 2012]. Frank, F.D., Finnegan, R.P. and Taylor, C.R. (2004) ‘The race for talent: retaining and engaging workers in the 21st century’, Human Resource Planning, Vol 27, No 3, pp. 12-25. Kahn, W.A. (1990) ‘Psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work’, Academy of Management Journal, Vol 33, pp. 692-724. Kotter, J. (2011) The Heart of Change. Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NKti9MyAAw [Accessed 10 Mar 2012]. Mohanka, R. (2011) Employee Engagement is a Hot Topic. London: Europe Office. Available at: http://events.kenexa.com/newsletter/oldver/05041.asp?uid=1tbl=test [Accessed 09 Mar 2012]. Pickard, J (2009) ‘A Healthy Constitution’, People Management, January 2009, pp.20-23. Richman, A. (2006) ‘Everyone wants an engaged workforce how can you create it?’ Workspan, Vol 49, pp36-39. Robinson, D., Perryman, S. and Hayday S. (2004) The drivers of employee engagement. Brighton: Institute for Employment Studies. Available at: http://www.wellbeing4business.co.uk/docs/Article%20-%20Engagement%20research.pdf [Accessed 07 Mar 2012]. Shaw, K. (2005) ‘An engagement strategy process for communicators’, Strategic Communication Management, Vol 9, No 3, pp26-29. Sims, R R (1994) Human Resource Management’s Role in Clarifying the New Psychological Contract, Human Resource Management, 33 (3), pp, 373–82. Smedley, T (2008) We need to listen to people more than we do. London: CIPD. Available at: http://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/pm/articles/2008/09/we-need-to-listen-to-people-more-than-we-do.htm [accessed 09 Mar 2012). Spindler, G S (1994) Psychological contracts in the workplace: a lawyer’s view, Human Resource Management, 33 (3), pp 325–33. Truss, C., Soane, E., Edwards, C., Wisdom, K., Croll, A. and Burnett, J. (2006) Working Life: Employee Attitudes and Engagement 2006. London, CIPD.