Man and Woman Relationship in Naga-Mandala Essay

This paper is entitled Man and Woman relationship in Girish Karnad’s Naga-Mandala.. Simone de Beauvoir in her essay â€Å"The Second Sex† states that â€Å"The whole of feminine history has been man-made. Just as in America there is no Negro problem, but rather a white problem; just as anti-Semitism is not a Jewish problem, it is our problem; so the woman problem has always been a man problem.† Woman in Naga-Mandala is seen as an â€Å"other† in the society. It is an analysis of agony and anguish faced by men and woman in the society and their marriage. Karnad’s play reflect upon the role which women play in the society and the images of which are seen as biological, social situation and Indian culture. Every men and woman are said to live in a stereotypical way and this gives them a good name in the society. Karnad’s play focuses on conflicts and dilemmas experienced by men and woman in their social situation. Hypothesis: The study aim in analyzing the man woman relationship which is depicted in the Indian play Naga- Mandala using the concepts of Simone de Beauvoir’s â€Å"Second Sex† and the concepts of Patriarchy. Significance of the study/Theoretical Framework The study of man and woman relationship differentiates male and female in terms of conversation, intimacy and their behavior. The concept of patriarchy oppresses women among the society. In the play Naga- Mandala Karnad clearly portrays the relationship between man and woman with the feminist perspective. The research employs both theoretical and analytical approach with the help of the text using the concepts of Simone de Beauvoir. Literature Review Research paper titled Naga-Mandala: A Story of Marriage and Love, provides the relationship of man and woman portrayed in the play. Analysis Naga- Mandala is a play about a young couple named Rani and Appana. Appana is seen as husband who does not take care of his wife and locks her up in the house and he comes only in the afternoon to eat his lunch. According to Simone de Beauvoir, Appana treats his own wife as the â€Å"other† and makes her passive and static. He uses her as a so called â€Å"wife† to show the society that they are living together. Appanna does not lead a good life with his Rani and imprisons her by locking her up inside the house. Appana’s power is Rani’s subversive nature and the respect she gives to her husband. Rani is portrayed to be a good wife throughout the play. She obeys her husband and cooks lunch for him every day. She sees her husband as a sacred deity and worships him throughout the play. According to the Indian society marriage is seen as something sacred of â€Å"sex and love† between men and women. In this play Rani adjusts and lives her social life by herself, who is appointed by her husband and the traditional society. Throughout the play Appana does not show any love or affection to his wife. The relationship of Appanna and the concubine is considered to be the symbol of lust. Girish Karnad portrays Appanna as the best example of male chauvinism. He goes to the concubine and neglects his own wife and locks her so that she doesn’t get into any relationship. He is seen as a selfish person who leads a lustful life with another woman. He uses this woman only for her body and not because of love. This shows that he is escaping from the reality and cheats his wife and the concubine. He is treating the concubine and Rani in an unfair manner. The relationship with Rani and Naga is considered to a genuine love in the play. Naga comes in the form of Appanna and loves Rani who was in isolation from her real husband. Naga gives Rani everything that she missed from her husband. He also understands and respects her feelings and emotions. Even though Naga is a snake he expresses true love to his beloved which a human being cannot give to his wife. As a result of their love, Rani becomes pregnant. In Kiranth’s words, â€Å"†¦ an Indian woman knows that motherhood confers upon her a purpose and identity that nothing else in her culture can†. At the end of the play Rani is seen as a mother and good wife to Naga. The death of Naga plays a major role in the story where he sees Appanna and  Rani with their child sleeping together, he feels jealous and this shows that he loved Rani and was very possessive on her. He dies for the sake of Rani and her family. Rani asks Appanna to prepare to perform a sacred ritual for the dead Naga and her son should do the last rights of his father, and Appana agrees to her strange demand. This shows the true love that she had for Naga. A.K.Ramanujan writes that the â€Å"ritual tale itself is a public even told during the Cobra Festival to propitiate snake, to ensure safety and fertility within marriage.† Conclusion The analysis of ‘Man- Woman relationship in Karnad’s play, serves as the best example of woman’s position in the society. â€Å"†¦marriage is always open, and a recognition of the blessings and goodwill of the outsider for bringing together the husband and wife.† This is clearly seen in the play where snake- lover is seen as a hero in the play by expressing his true love to his beloved. Appanna has failed in his relationship with his wife and the fate makes him to accept Naga’s son as his own. The two men with different characters serve the twist in the play, and they are direct contrast between each other. In a happy family the husband should always compromise with the wife and the wife should compromise with husband. Thus, after the death of Naga, Appana starts a new life with his wife Rani. References Karnad, Girish. Naga-Mandala: A Play with a Cobra. New Delhi: OUP, 1991. Print. Beauvoir, Simone de. The Second Sex. Trans.Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier. Random House, 2009. Print

Enhancement Of Computer Literacy In Primary Students At Central Colleges

1. Beginning of usage of Information and Communication Technology have been re-engineering about all the Fieldss of human life from basic demands like pass oning with friend populating abroad to cardinal demands like instruction, wellness and administration. That is non merely a technological development but besides a societal revolution that enforces the primary pupils, to detect new wonts, advanced ethical motives and production of new life systems, so that to accommodate with planetary alteration in human civilization and life manner. Our instruction system besides to be formulate to run into this construct and to be aligned with this new engineering. Hence, the advanced distribution of Information Communication Technology ( ICT ) for instruction of primary pupils is going compulsive demand since the professionalism is the anchor that could alter the civilization and the society in clip to clip towards create outstanding life status expected by the people. 2. Today, it is highly of import that a primary pupil should be competent with coherency in the country of computing machines and engineering. It is impossible to be successful in today ‘s occupation market and high tech life style, if our primary pupils are failed for seasonably educate every bit early as possible to accommodate the bing demand to this topic. 3. The computing machine literacy is now an indispensable tool that all pupils must be familiar with in order to finish their everyday surveies and concentrating for future occupation demand. Whatever our occupation ; Teacher, Planner, Lawyer, Accountant or Salesperson ; computing machine literacy are compulsory them to win. Primary pupils are besides need to derive certain degree of computing machine literacy in order to finish basic every twenty-four hours skills to confront our future society. In Cardinal Colleges in Sri Lanka most of the primary pupils are cognizant with computing machine surveies but they have to utilize it in a manner to accomplish compulsory consequences need for fall in the future universe and fall in the hereafter community. 4. The usage of the cyberspace installation is extremely required accomplishment for pupils and they are to exhaustively get the hang it decidedly. Computer literacy and Internet are about one ; in the same thing normally one is n't mentioned without the other tagging along. Without the Internet, there would be no manner to immediately happen the name of a celebrated book your favourite author was in five old ages ago. Primary pupils will necessitate to be familiar with the Internet in all types of educational methods whether it is research on any subject or surfing for information. For this purpose primary pupils need to cognize what a hunt engine is and how it works, what a keyword is and how it works, how to open a browser and how to utilize a nexus, etc. The Internet is a immense wealth of information that every pupils should take advantage for gather information accomplishments. There are web sites that will assist primary pupils to happen educational Tourss by posting their ske tch online. Online skills allow primary pupils to larn and portion societal, cultural, environmental facts of other states, people and faiths. Many secondary degree pupils today are now acquiring their degree online in the comfort of their ain places on their ain agenda. It ‘s astonishing how today with a twosome of chinks, every pupil can travel anyplace in the universe in two, three seconds without go forthing their computing machine. 5. Promotion of computing machine literacy is one of the most indispensable countries in instruction. The of import function which it plays is rational, societal, emotional and religious development of kids. The pupils usually use centripetal perceptual experiences to cognize his immediate milieus. It is automatically widens his vision. The computing machine literacy accomplishments of pupils are non a one clip experience. It is a uninterrupted life-time experience. It is accepted that a proper accomplishments of Computer Literacy has to be inculcated and nurtured in the early old ages of age. 6. It must be distinguished as the ability to work with understanding and grasp. In Sri Lanka computing machine is largely a â€Å" Information Communication Technological † accomplishment which is brought about by beastly repeat of a given stimulation together with the appropriate response. It is a affair of some uncertainty whether all kids have acquired the ability to larn in the echt sense, by the clip they have reached school go forthing age. It needs at least four old ages to achieve the computing machine accomplishment and is it sensible to anticipate these kids who drop out after primary degree to prolong that accomplishment afterwards? Computer literacy is a non a terrible complex procedure. It is an mean simple accomplishment which one time learned, can be increased with referral to the Information Technological contented publications.Chapter IIMethodologyPurpose1. This paper will emphasis and analyse why the kids are non skilled in Computer Literacy and for examine the factors which determine computing machine literacy in kids and what stairss have to be taken for the sweetening of computing machine literacy and information technological accomplishments in primary school kids in Central Colleges in Sri Lanka.STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM2. It is required to analyze of Primary degree pupils of Central Colleges computing machine literacy and the present environment to heighten their capablenesss in computing machine literacy. In this research demand to concentrate on their Computer educational system and clear up the troubles and the to the mechanism that they required to beef up the computing machine literacy, information engineering facets, as sing the future occupation chances that can be gained by primary pupils in Central Colleges Sri Lanka. 3. The inquiry is at present scenario is, the primary school pupils in Central Colleges in Sri Lanka have non been able to get the needed criterion of Computer literacy, and information engineering to heighten their minimal accomplishments required in Computer field. 4. This paper will place and analyse why the Computer Literacy in primary pupils is dwindling, the factors which determine literacy and suggest recommendation for the publicity of mechanism that needs to heighten accomplishments, cognition in primary degree pupils.RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS5. Mechanism will be beef uping to confront the future occupation demand. In this facet is to be achieved in a manner of researching experimental computing machine survey of counsel in preparation with Government educational policies on Information Technology for sweetening of Computer Literacy of primary pupils in Central CollegesScope OF STUDYThe range of this research focused on the primary pupils in Grade 1 to Rate 5, their instructors and principals are to pull out their thoughts by questionnaire and interviews. Besides the research will analyse educational specializers ‘ personal positions on what should be the background environing the primary school kids to advance their Computer literacy. The namelessness of the research worker was maintained by inquiring inquiries from certain group caputs and instructors under the name of a consented person. The intent was to extinguish colored replies which may be given as a consequence of the fact that the inquiries are presented by a known IT teacher. This is besides to look into any differences in response for the same inquiries based on computing machine literacy. This method is adopted as the subject is of sensitive nature and based wholly on single attitudes.METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION7. Data aggregation methods are as follows. a. Primary beginning. ( 1 ) Primary beginning of information were collected by questioning IT educationists and caputs of schools. ( 2 ) Further information aggregation done by a questionnaire prepared for the primary school pupils and their instructors. B. Secondary beginnings. Books, paper articles and web sites used as the secondary beginnings of information.Chapter ORGANIZATIONThe thesis is structured as follows: a. Chapter I Introduction B. Chapter II Methodology Chapter III Computer Literacy of Primary Students in Central Colleges ( 1 ) Computer literacy debut of primary pupils ( 2 ) Present literacy accomplishments and IT environment of primary pupils Chapter IV Weather educational support and the needed counsel and aid will supply to heighten the computing machine literacy How instructors adopt educational method to better computing machine literacy of pupils through policies of educational section. How the other facets on substructure installations given to better on computing machine literacy of primary pupils ( 3 ) Enhancement of Computer literacy and IT Skills of Students I Learning involvements of pupils two Students involvements in cyberspace three College IT Environmentfour Teachers sentiment about Computer literacyChapter V Impact of Computer Literacy for primary pupils at Central Colleges and future Job demand at society ( 1 ) . How the computing machine literacy aid to increase occupation demand for future society ( 2 ) . Increase occupation demands and the computing machine literacy as chief educational facets of demands in primary pupils. Chapter VI Reasons behind the inefficiency of present patterns on computing machine surveies of pupils. Why the basic computing machine demands can non continue the computing machine instruction at Central Colleges Present accomplishments of pupils and personal involvement on computing machine literacy of primary pupils. Education degree of primary pupils in line with present engineering alterations behind computing machine educational systems. Awareness surveies and competence of instructors on freshly introduced package systems and theories on computing machine surveies. Other facets that can be used to increase the computing machine surveies. The malfunction exist in modus operandi and system stableness on computing machine surveies of pupils Advantages and disadvantages of using equal survey hours for addition computing machine literacy. Chapter VI Chapter VII J. Chapter VIIIChapter IIILANGUAGE APTITUDE OF PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN1. Language is a procedure that helps people to show themselves and to do effectual societal relationship among people all over the universe. It is done linguistic communication that people could get information to better their basic demands such as wellness wonts, consciousness, scientific alterations and different types of accomplishments to gain a life. Piaget, the celebrated physiologist believed that the existent key to human rational development, conceptual development, is linguistic communication. Language is the most effectual manner of communicating. The deficiency of linguistic communication ability frequently hinders one ‘s advancement. The linguistic communication aptitude and literacy public presentation of the primary degree indicates the criterions of kids ‘s reading wonts and information accomplishments.LANGUAGE LEARNING OUTCOME IN SRI LANKA2. Sri Lanka has attained the first coevals ins truction aim of supplying widespread entree to primary instruction ( grades 1-5 ) . However one major challenge that the state has to get the better of is the moderate degree of larning accomplishment in linguistic communication proficiency among primary school kids. 3. Harmonizing to recent surveies carried out by NIE and NEREC, University of Colombo merely between 35 to 38 per cent of primary school pupils have achieved standard degree of their female parent lingua ( Annex ‘B ‘ ) . This is a serious restraint to further acquisition, as all subsequent surveies will pull on the kid ‘s female parent lingua capableness. 4. There is a considerable difference in the accomplishment of command degree in their first linguistic communication between urban and rural schools. Harmonizing to the above surveies more than 40 per cent of urban kids achieve command degree in their female parent linguistic communication contrast to below 34 per cent in rural countries. Besides more than 1/3 of students have failed to accomplish standard degree for their female parent linguistic communication. This shows the dwindling of reading wonts and information accomplishments among primary school kids. 5. The regional disparity in accomplishing command degree in first linguistic communication is clearly shown in Table III.I. 41.24 per cent of Western state Grade 5 pupils achieve command degree in contrast to 42.40 per centum in Uva state pupils have failed to accomplish the needed criterion degree. This shows how the handiness of physical and human resources affects public presentation. Mastery = 80 % – 100 % Non Mastery = 0 – 59 % Table III.I – Achieving command degrees in literacy in Grade 5 – by provincial degrees Source – Performance of Grade 5 pupils in literacy and numeracy – NIELITERACY SKILLS OF CHILDREN5. Harmonizing to the research undertaking on development of linguistic communication accomplishments among primary school kids carried out by NLDC ( Annex ‘C ‘ ) , the overall public presentation of Grade 2 students is satisfactory. There is barely any disparity between territories or among school types. 6. The Grade 4 appraisal revealed disparity in public presentation among the territories and between school types. AAVG degree schools show highest public presentation while SS degree schools show hapless public presentation. These fluctuations in public presentation pin-point the inequalities in distribution of acquisition and instruction installations for the school topics, peculiarly in linguistic communication accomplishments. 7. More than half of the figure of students in the sample have non been able to achieve the expected accomplishment degree for the vocabulary & A ; synonyms/ opposite word, spelling and grammatical authorship ability and originative squeeze accomplishments for the Grade, after four old ages of schooling. This suggests that they are enduring from deficiency of reading wonts.Chapter IVReading INTERESTS AND INFORMATION SKILLS OF CHILDRENReading INTERESTS OF CHILDREN1. There is no peculiar age at which a kid should really get down the procedure of larning to read. It should appeal to existent activity, to self-generated work based upon personal demand and involvement. Children have an innate desire to cognize about their milieus. As the kid develops larning through centripetal perceptual experience, he becomes more and more funny to understand his environment ; what has happened and what is go oning are his involvements. 2. Children may come to understand an of import portion of their universe through the experience of reading. They start to larn about reading in a natural and incidental manner. If a book satisfies child ‘s demands, he will get down reading it for pleasance. A kid begins familiarity with a book by looking at images. If the book catches his involvement, he returns to the book once more. Besides he is being exposed to the printed word in the environment such as coach boards, assorted postings on the main road, route marks, labels of goods in the market, advertizements on telecasting and newspapers. The kid sees tonss of words in his environment and attempts to hold on them meaningfully. Therefore, most kids have a signifier of consciousness of the printed word. 3. Harmonizing to the survey it has clearly shown that kids are interested in books, magazines, kids ‘s documents and they have a thirst for information, cognition and communicating. This built-in desire and involvement found in kids has to be harnessed to better their reading wonts and information accomplishments. As such it is the responsibility and duty of the parent, the instructor and the governments to take the full usage of it. Table IV.I would wish to pass my Table IV.II would wish to pass my leisure clip aˆÂ ¦aˆÂ ¦.- Grade 2 leisure clip aˆÂ ¦aˆÂ ¦.- Grade 4CHILDREN ‘S INTERESTS IN MEDIA4. The child gets motivated to read when he hears narratives or when an grownup reads aloud a narrative to him. Today the kid could acquire this type of satisfaction through the mass media. When kids watch telecasting or listen to the wireless, those programmes which are meant for kids create consciousness and demand for reading and they could be made usage of to develop reading wonts and information accomplishments. 5. As per the survey it is revealed that Both Grade 2 and 4 kids ‘s best telecasting programme is cartoon narratives. Most of kids like to listen to vocals and narratives by wireless. These involvements could be made usage of in varied ways to develop reading wonts and information accomplishments in the schoolroom and place. Table IV.V – Interest on Television Table IV.VI – Interest on Television Grade 2 Grade 4 Table IV.V – Interest on Radio Table IV.VI – Interest on Radio Grade 2 Grade 4Table IV.I – Grade 2 Table IV.II – Grade 4Children ‘s involvements on kids ‘s paper6. Above two tabular arraies indicate that a really high per centum of kids in all three territories read kids ‘s documents. It was found that this is a wont developed by the good instructors of those schools by interchanging documents within the category, when those parents who could afford to purchase documents for their kids convey them to school. This high per centum suggests that if reading stuffs are made available to kids, and so reading wonts and information accomplishments of primary school kids could be decidedly improved.Chapter VReading AND CHILDHOOD ENVIRONMENT1. As a foundation for the development of reading wonts and information accomplishments, the four linguistic communication accomplishments listening, speech production, composing and reading has to be developed in the schoolroom and the place. The kid should be able to read with easiness and installation in order to develop reading as a wont. The first necessity for this is to derive ability to place letters and words. Then the kid has to read words and sentences to deduce significance and addition cognition, information etc. This is a complex procedure. 2. Reading accomplishments could develop merely if reading stuffs are available. Non handiness of suited reading stuffs create serious restrictions in developing reading wonts. Hence the laying of foundation on a sound terms is the duty of the parent, the instructor and the school.SCHOOL BACKGROUND3. A teaching-learning state of affairs is significantly affected by the handiness of edifice with sufficient figure of schoolrooms, siting adjustment and furniture. Primary subdivisions of some popular urban schools have more than 50 students in one schoolroom, which could suit merely 40. This state of affairs has resulted adversely. Neither the instructor nor the student could travel approximately freely to give and have single attending. 4. The state of affairs is worse in some schools where the categories are conducted in unpartitioned unfastened halls. In such schools both learning and acquisition has become plodding and some instructors are force to carry on categories under the trees in the garden. 5. The instructor is the cardinal factor in bettering reading accomplishments and wonts in students when resources are sub criterion. In those schools the instructor is the lone beginning of larning. Out of the 25 instructors who supplied information through the questionnaire, 21 are primary instruction trained and 3 are trained alumnuss. However the response of caput of the schools revealed that there are quite figure of instructors who are non trained. The criterion of instruction doubtless recedes when instructors are non trained for the profession. 6. Out of 15 schools entirely primary instruction is given in merely 5 schools. In those schools primary instruction is wholly managed by a Deputy Head. Of other 8 school primary caputs three are trained five are alumnuss with station sheepskin. Academic professional position of the caput of the school, his attitude toward bettering the female parent lingua, committedness to his profession, his support in supplying reading stuffs and advancing reading wonts is of significance in this context. 7. Out of 15 schools of the sample five schools do non posses libraries providing to the reading demands of primary school kids. Out of the 10 school libraries three of them have 100 – 500 books. Three school libraries have less than 1000 books and two National schools in Colombo territory and one National school in each other two territories have a wealth of 3000 or more books. The two schools in the sample which have a few books received as a contribution complained that there are no storage installations available for them even to maintain them safely. Out of the 15 schools 7 schools do non purchase even a individual newspaper. In the average clip out of remainder 8 schools merely 5 schools buy kids ‘s paper for the primary school kids. 8. Except for the national schools bibliothecs trained for the occupation are non available in the remainder of the schools. In most of these schools a instructor from the staff helps in the library. In three schools a miss is employed for the work in the library paying a nominal fee. 9. This clearly displays the disparity between schools with sub standard resources and schools with above mean standard resources. This fact substantiates the position presented earlier that the socio economic degree at place and school affect achievement degree of kids.TEACHERS OPINION ABOUT Reading10. The response presented by the 25 instructors of the schools of the sample revealed that kids are truly interested in reading and instructors do their best to advance reading by pull offing schoolroom libraries under hard state of affairss. Each kid in the schoolroom brings a narrative book at the beginning of the twelvemonth. Sometimes instructors give the names of the list of narrative books. Besides those who can afford to purchase kids ‘s paper conveying them to the category. These books and documents are exchanged among the students. There by instructors help kids to develop reading wonts. Alternatively in some schools instructors get a few books, approximately 30 from the s econdary school library and administer them among kids one time a month or so. 11. Some instructors are of the sentiment that the primary course of studies contain far excessively much stuff for the twelvemonth that they can non finish and it is hard for them to concentrate on developing the reading wonts separately. There should be truth in the content of the course of study to provide single demands. Besides they pointed out that Grade 2 and Grade 4 even Grade 5 text books do non actuate kids to read as the narratives do non rouse their feeling and wonder. Narratives do non make chances for kids to believe. Therefore the instructors say that kids automatically read by bosom, even if they can non place letters, words or significance of what they pretend to read. Therefore the governments concerned have to be more cautious in the choice and rating course of study and text book content. 12. Teachers besides revealed that in add-on to the scarceness of reading stuff, kids of sub criterion and mean type schools suffer from other lacks such as socio economic conditions at place, big households, parents non been educated, their inability to recognize the importance of reading. 13. Method of learning dramas an of import function in larning state of affairs. What was observed was instructors are more concerned with covering the course of study, simply utilizing general methods of learning without thought of particular and advanced techniques and single differences of scholars. There is barely any system of measuring reading. Teachers do non look to set about feedback programmes and maintain record of it. Lack of learning AIDSs was observed in most of the schools and instructors depend merely on ‘Talk and Chalk ‘ .Home BACKGROUND14. Research done in western states has revealed that success in reading had been achieved by kids who were provided with plentifulness of chances for reading and entree to books. Avid readers had narratives read or told to them on a regular basis by parents or expansive parents. 15. Children read anything and everything they get hold of as they are interested in reading. If is hence the responsibility of the grownups to choose suited books for kids, as they can non know apart between suited books and books non suited for them and measure them. 16. It is assumed that when household size is big, kids do non acquire equal demand satisfaction enjoyed by kids of little households of the same income degree. In the questionnaire the household size of students was divided in to two classs. a. Class 1 – Number of household members four or less B. Class 2 – Number of household members five or more Table V.I – Bespeaking household size 17. Harmonizing to the tabular array V.I in Colombo territory smaller sized households per centum is higher than other two territories. This factor seemed to hold affected the achievement public presentation of kids, as it is evident from the highest ML per centum in Colombo territory. 18. Parental support in providing reading stuffs such as books, documents and magazines doubtless helped development of kids ‘s reading wonts and information accomplishments. This in bend is conditioned by the socio economic position of parents. Table V.II & A ; Table V.III indicate the figure of books Grade 2 and Grade 4 kids posses is quite eloquent of this factor. Table V.II – No. of books kids posses for auxiliary reading – Grade 2 Table V.III – No. of books kids posses for auxiliary reading – Grade 4 19. The tabular array V.II shows 10 per cent of Grade 2 students in Colombo territory have more than 10 books for excess reading while other two territories kids have below 10 books. Besides the tabular array V.III indicates 54 per cent of Grade 4 students in Colombo territory have more than 10 books for excess reading while other two territories it is below by 36 per cent. This factor besides seemed to hold affected the achievement public presentation of kids, as it is evident from the highest ML per centum in Colombo territory. 20. The names of books read by students indicate that they read whatever those come in their manner, they have no pick. They read anything and everything they get hold of as they are interested in reading. It is hence, the responsibility of the grownups to choose suited books for kids as they can non know apart between suited books and books non suited for them and measure them. Daily%Lord's daies%Sometimes%Never%Kandy 12.9 40.5 35.3 11.2 Kalutara 19.5 34.5 32.7 13.3 Capital of sri lanka 22.4 41.3 28.4 7.8 Entire % 18.2 38.8 32.2 10.7 Table V.IV – Houses that bargain newspapers – Grade 4 21. 10.7 per cent of the overall sample of kids ‘s parents do non purchase a newspaper. However 38.8 per cent of the sample bargain Sunday newspapers. This may be due to the fact that other signifier of mass media like the telecasting and wireless are being sought after for enjoyment and acquiring information. Thereby a good chance that the parents could offer in actuating the kid to develop his wont of reading is neglected. It is merely a really hapless per centum of parents buy newspapers daily. Even in Colombo territory 22.4 per cent of the sample merely buy newspapers daily. It may hold been caused by two factors. It may be due to miss of money or of clip to read documents. Whatever it is, if the parents could afford to purchase newspapers day-to-day it would be a motive for the kid to read and better their information accomplishments.Chapter VISUMMARY OF FINDINGS1. More than 1/3 of primary school students have failed to accomplish standard degree for their female parent li nguistic communication. 2. Most of Grade 2 students have acquired the linguistic communication skills satisfactorily. 3. a. More than 50 per cent of students have non acquired the linguistic communication accomplishments expected for the class, at the terminal of the twelvemonth. B. Performance of Grade 4 students in vocabulary & A ; synonyms/ opposite word, spelling and grammatical authorship ability and originative squeeze accomplishments are really hapless. 4. There is a pronounced disparity in accomplishment of linguistic communication accomplishments among territories and between school types. 5. There is no just proviso of physical and human resources available in schools as yet for the publicity of reading wonts and information accomplishments. 6. Most of the primary schools of the sample do non posses libraries. Lack of suited reading stuffs, bibliothecs, varied sorts of books, a big measure of books of quality to provide to change demands and involvements of primary kids are found to be obstructions which stand in the manner of development of reading wonts and information accomplishments. 7. The course of study, text books and methods of learning do non look to accommodate the changed society of the modern twenty-four hours and it will non supply any encouragement to kids for the betterment of reading wonts. 8. The parental support and encouragement at place is non plenty for the kids to develop reading wonts and information accomplishments. 9. Family size the and the socio economic position of parents affect to the development of reading wonts and information accomplishments of kids. 10. Childs are interested in books, magazines, kids ‘s documents and they have a thirst for information, cognition and communicating.Chapter VIIDecision1. Reading is one of the most of import constituents of linguistic communication. It is a basic tool topic particularly in primary school. Reading helps to larn all the other countries of the school course of study and provides critical agencies of larning. Reading is believed as a procedure of geting information, having a massage from a print in a meaningful manner. 2. Reading is of greatest significance to the educationalist because it is their duty to steer the kid to develop his entire personality for the public assistance of the single kid and for the public assistance of the full society and besides because it is the right of the kid to be literate. It is of import for kids to read good books and develop their reading wonts and information accomplishments, in order to turn physically and mentally. Good reading wonts are necessary for a healthy rational growing. 3. It is a affair of some uncertainty whether all kids have acquired the ability to read in the echt sense, by the clip they have reached school go forthing age. Teacher influence, place background and book proviso hold the key to an betterment in reading. The chief aim of transporting out this survey was to happen out the ground for lack in reading wonts and information accomplishments among primary school kids. The quality of reading wonts and information accomplishments of anyone depends on many factors. Cardinal factors among those are ability to read with easiness and installation, comprehended what is read and infers information. Besides achievement degree of reading wonts and information accomplishments depend on the ability to construe either in written or unwritten signifier when necessary state of affairs arise. 4. During this research it has been observed that there is no just proviso of physical and human resources in the schools to develop reading wonts and information accomplishments in primary school kids. It is besides revealed that this of import duty has non been undertaken earnestly and satisfactorily either by the parents or by the instructors and governments concerned though the kids have clearly shown that they are like to be engaged in excess reading. 5. This survey suggests that there should be quality and measure betterment in kids ‘s reading wonts in Sri Lanka. Besides there should be better methods of choosing books for kids and better technique to administer them, within primary school kids. Further it suggests to supply sufficient physical and human resources to the primary schools to develop kids ‘s reading wonts and information accomplishments.Chapter VIIIRECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONSRECOMMENDATIONS FOR EDUCATION AUTHORITIES1. About 50 per cent of the schools of the sample suffer due to miss of physical and human resources. Equitable proviso of resources to all primary schools in the inland is an impossible undertaking. Yet, action has to be taken to relieve these disagreements by providing basic necessities, such as separate categories, libraries and reading suites, 500 – 1000 kids ‘s books a few magazines and kids ‘s documents, storage installations and trained bibliothecs. Renovating pri mary school edifices at least one time a twelvemonth and besides maintain the ambiance of the school pleasant and attractive to kids is recommended. 2. Principles as leaders have to educate the parents and acquire their aid for the public assistance of the school. Besides could seek community aid for readying of learning AIDSs, acquiring reading stuffs as contributions from the flush etc. Leadership and committedness of principals is critical importance for the betterment of kids ‘s instruction. Therefore caput of the schools have to be selected carefully and they should be given a preparation how to develop primary kids ‘s instruction by bettering reading wonts.SUGGESTIONS FOR PARENTS AND TEACHERS3. Developing the love for good reading is one of the greatest benefits that we can supply for kids. In order to enrich the reading environment of kids, reading wonts should make the people in rural countries. We have to advance reading among them. Therefore engagement of people in the community should be promote in reading publicity activities, because first and first parents have to understand how of import it is for kids to read good books and develop a reading wont. 4. Parents ‘ consciousness towards reading dramas an of import function in advancing reading by making a reading household environment. The parents should recognize that reading must get down from a really immature age and the instructors should steer them. Mothers can assist a great trade in advancing reading wonts by narrating narratives, singing rimes, vocals, verse forms etc, while feeding, dressing their kids. 5. Those who are able can read books to kids who can non read letters. This will make merely an involvement in kids to read. When kids can read female parents should listen to their reading and praise them. Then kids will experience proud of them and go fond of reading and accordingly parents would purchase reading stuffs whenever they could. 6. The school is the centre in advancing reading wonts and information accomplishments among kids. The instructor is the cardinal factor who integrates all activities of kids ‘s acquisition. One possible agencies of advancing reading wont by the instructor is to form a category library or a book corner exposing kids to a richer reading environment by supplying more printed stuffs to accommodate the class degree. This could be done with the cooperation of parents. 7. The instructor should form a free reading activity one time a hebdomad. She could present such points as marionette shows, games, competitions, dramas, play, narrative relation and other activities related to linguistic communication development and reading involvements. 8. The instructors besides must try to associate reading to every activity of the school twenty-four hours. This is possible in the primary school as it offers a conductive environment for integrating survey accomplishments and reading development work into the regular course of study. Because one instructor is normally responsible for most countries of the course of study, the instructor could easy set her normal schoolroom activities for reading publicity.MASS MEDIA AND READING HABITS DEVELOPMENT9. Using mass media is another avenue for making an involvement in reading. For illustration holding interesting book reappraisal columns in newspapers, treatments on books over the wireless and telecasting and besides treatments, kids ‘s programmes etc. These activities would help in circulating information to the multitudes about value of books and reading on a wider graduated table. However sometimes parental neglect force kids to acquire addicted to watching the telecasting and it would be an obstruction for reading wont development. 10. Therefore parents should ; a. Curtail telecasting screening clip and offer kids other interesting activities as options. B. They should watch good programmes with kids and discourse their good facets. c. Talk about force shown on telecasting and show disapproval of aggressive behaviour and point out alternate ways of confronting jobs and see that they watch less force.Distribution OF QUALITY BOOKS11. It has been found that still there are lacks in the production of quality books for primary school kids. Besides there are lacks in appropriate and just distribution of books, both bibliothecs and instructor replacements etc. Quick remedial action has to be taken to extinguish these defects, for the betterment of reading wonts among primary school kids. 12. There is a deficiency of clear apprehension among authors and publishing houses, of the aim of bring forthing kids ‘s books and how it should be directed. Therefore stairss have to be taken to bring forth quality books, which become more originative and awaken kid ‘s imaginativeness and wonder so that kids begin to read for pleasance, which is a stepping-stone for life long involvement in reading. 13. Distribution of books has to be carried out in such a manner that many kids are benefited. It could be done through public libraries, provincial libraries, community libraries, school libraries and so away. It is indispensable that all primary schools in the island be provided with a library equipped with a scope of books, kids ‘ paper and suited magazines and trained bibliothecs. Thus publicity of better library installations all over the state is envisaged. 14. Library system has to be recognized in such a manner that even a class 2 student could do usage of the library. The kids should be taught how to happen a book, what type of book to choose etc. The instructor should look into the kids ‘s reading wont by inquiring inquiries about the inside informations of books read. These manner kids could be motivated to read, making a life long involvement for reading. 15. Another demand for the twenty-four hours is altering of the library system in conformity with the altering society. Librarians could play a important function in advancing reading wonts among kids with dedication and devotedness. These Public and Provincial libraries can form interesting activities such as ; the narrative hr, quiz competition, book nines, book carnivals, reading cantonments, reading hebdomads at regional, provincial and national degrees with the co-operation of high bookmans.

Challenges Facing Managers in Change Process

There are change management models and research still relevant for the 21st Century. The problem however is not with their relevance or their worth, the problem and challenge facing organizational leaders, organizational development experts and researchers relate to the speed and complexity of change required today. (Mildred Golden Pryor, Sonia Taneja, John Humphreys, Donna Anderson, Liza Singleton – Challenges facing change management 2008). Today, change is constant and organization leaders who anticipate change rapidly and responsibly are successful. However, organizational leaders who anticipate change and invent the future are even more successful because those who invent the game are the leaders in their industry, however there are other organizations that are just followers and adapt to change while there are those that do not even survive. According to MTD Training of 2010, in business, change means moving from one way of doing things to another way of doing them. Not every change has to be managed; every organization will need to make a decision about whether or not to employ change management strategies based, in part on how much risk would be associated with not doing so. Change management is an approach to transitioning individuals, teams, and organizations to a desired future state. It is to make something different. You can cause something to change, or you can bring change upon yourself. (Mildred et al, 2008) The process of change impacts on the whole organization and on all individuals working there. Change processes majorly influence: what the organization does, the way the organization does things, the way all business units of the organization communicate and share information, (Problems in Managing Change, Oliver Recklies). This is the manager’s challenge to make things work. Human resource management has an important role in any change process. Change always needs people: for developing objectives, for identifying the need for change, for developing solutions and for implementing these solutions. Technology can support and influence change, but it can never replace people. Still people are to operate the machines, make and implement decisions, not technology or machines. Another challenge of managing change is that there is no chance to ‘undo’ mistakes once they were made. If you allocate resources in an inefficient way, you still have the option to provide additional resources in order to achieve your objective, but there might be wasted resources due to misallocation. If you once failed to make your employees participate in the change process, motivate them into accepting the changes, you will hardly be able to motivate them again. The figure below shows clearly the complexity and scope of change management: Managing change is a challenge that involves coordinating different areas in the organization and the Human Resource has to help employees own the changes alongside quality management, project management, corporate development and usually with a lot to do in Information Technology to have a new, changed organization. Planning and managing change, both cultural and technological, is one of the most challenging elements of a manager's job (Prosci, Neutralizing change threats in the New Year, 2008). Despite these challenges, managers need to be aware that organizations change in a number of dimensions that often relate to one another and can take any direction in the organization. These dimensions include †¢Extent of planning: Although experts differ about how much change can be planned, managers still need to take steps to set up conditions that permit and even encourage change to occur. Degree of change: Changes may be incremental (relatively small, involving fine?tuning processes and behaviors within just one system or level of the organization) or quantum (significant change altering how a company operates). †¢Degree of learning: This dimension relates to the degree to which organizational members are actively involved in learning how to plan and implement change while helping solve an existing problem. †¢Target of change: Organizational change programs can vary with respect to the hierarchical level or functional area of which the change is targeted. Some changes are designed to influence top management and assist them in becoming stronger leaders. Other change programs may involve basic learning, such as customer services techniques for lower level employees. †¢Organization's structure: If it is very stiff and bureaucratic, there may be a need for emphasis on policies, procedures, and rules. Some organizations are very stiff and bureaucratic and may need to â€Å"loosen up. † Other organizations may suffer from lack of organization structure. They may need to emphasize policies, procedures, and rules. Regardless of which forces that cause organizations to see the need for change, organizational leaders, including managers, continue to struggle to maintain or increase their company’ competitive advantage as rapid changes occur from both the external and internal environments. One of the challenges managers face is successfully implementing initiatives that will lead to change and reactions to the fairness of the change implementation, specifically whether the implementation process was handled fairly or not. Cobb et al – 1995) A 2007 benchmarking study â€Å"Best Practices in Change Management† identified poor support and alignment with middle management as one of the big challenges in managing change. This followed other factors considered as obstacles to change including; ineffective sponsorship and resistance from employees. Managers may resist change and this implies not effectively supporting their employees through change. One of the main culprits for thi s obstacle is the manager dilemma. The manager dilemma is a result of two forces at work on managers and supervisors during times of organizational change. First, managers and supervisors are themselves being impacted by the change and they must embrace, internalize and adopt the change to their own work. Second, they must support their employees during the change as well, helping them to embrace and adopt the new solution. During changes in the organization, the managers are often wearing both the â€Å"agent of change† hat and the â€Å"recipient of change† hat. Add to these challenges the fact that middle and front-line managers are critical to sustaining the day-to-day operations of the business and often feel overloaded with that task alone. This could lead to unprofessional management of stakeholders affected by change. Project teams, support functions (like communication, Human Resource, training and development groups) and senior leaders often only wear the â€Å"agent of change† hat, while front-line employees and those who ultimately adopt the change wear only the â€Å"recipient of change† hat. Managers and supervisors wear both hats and the result being that they have the most difficult role in times of change. Unfortunately, their duel role is often overlooked and neglected to the detriment of project and employee well-being. Workload and speed of change process becomes too big for the manager. Resistance to change is a very big challenge to managers, this is due to reasons like the proposed change ppearing to violate values/ethics or culture generally, the inertia may already exist in the system and change is not easily blended in, the proposed changes may represent uncertainty in different dimensions, there may also be a misunderstanding of proposed changes, fear of loss usually on the side of stake holders, threat of security of organizational members or employees in terms of their jobs, also when personal antagonism exists among group members, when there is lack of confidence in the change sponsor(s) or the change agent(s), lack of participation among team members, fa ilure to see the need for change, when timing is very poor, when there is a disruption of social relationships, at times the proposed change could also upset power balances, resistance may also be due to informal organizational pressure against the change, sometimes a belief that the change is a form of criticism about the way things have been done could cause resistance and sometimes there is a perception that benefits may result if there is a strong resistance to change. Resistance may be a very big challenge that the manager alone may not be able to handle alone. Sometimes managers delegate the whole responsibility to manage the change to employees and only expect to get progress reports from them; this usually may become a very big challenge if things do not go as planned or if the employee does not understand the whole change. The employee does not actually have a responsibility to manage change, the employee's responsibility is to do their best, which is different for every person and depends on a wide variety of factors like health, maturity, stability, experience, personality, motivation, etc. Responsibility for managing change is with management and executives of the organization and they must manage the change in a way that employees can cope with it. The manager has a responsibility to facilitate and enable change, and all that is implied within that statement, especially to understand the situation from an objective standpoint which may mean to ‘step back', and be non-judgemental, and then to help people understand reasons, aims, and ways of responding positively according to employees' own situations and capabilities. Increasingly the manager's role is to interpret, communicate and enable and not to instruct and impose, which nobody really responds to well. Some managers are misunderstood when they introduce change; this is also a challenge that might lead to conflict with employees. Using expressions like mindset change', and ‘changing people's mindsets' or ‘changing attitudes', often indicates a tendency towards imposed or enforced change and it implies strongly that the organization believes that its people currently have the ‘wrong' mindset, which is never the case. If people are not approaching thei r tasks or the organization effectively, then the organization has the wrong mindset, not the people. Change such as new structures, policies, targets, acquisitions, disposals, re-locations, etc. , all create new systems and environments, which need to be explained to people as early as possible, so that people's involvement in validating and refining the changes themselves can be obtained. Management may lack the necessary training, empathy and facilitative capability which are priority areas since managers are crucial to the change process, it becomes a bigger challenge if managers merely convey and implement policies from above without knowing much about them and because people and teams need to be empowered to find their own solutions and responses, with facilitation and support from managers, and tolerance and compassion from the leaders and executives, management and leadership style and behaviour are more important than clever process and policy. Employees need to be able to trust the organization and it becomes the manager’s challenge to ensure there is trust between. Managers must agree and work with these ideas, or change is likely to be very painful, and the best people might be lost in the process. In some situations, when people are confronted with the need or opportunity to change, especially when it's ‘enforced', as they may see it, by the or ganization, they can become emotional and so can the managers who try to manage the change. This challenge may require diffusing the emotional feelings, taking a step back and encouraging objectivity, to enable sensible and constructive dialogue. This is the managers’ and trainers’ challenge to find a solution with help of analogies to assist themselves and other staff to look at change in a more detached way. Just as the state of ‘unconscious incompetence', needs to be developed into ‘conscious competence' to provide a basis for training, so is a person's subjective emotion need to be developed into objectivity before beginning to help them handle change. Some managers are not patience and tolerant enough when managing change and yet it is a challenge where the manager is required to help people in these situations to see things differently, bit by bit. This sort of gradual staged change can be found everywhere in the living world. Strong resistance to change is often rooted in deeply conditioned or historically reinforced feelings that require a lot of patience and tolerance towards the people to whom change is being introduced to, the managers ought to have these qualities if they are to manage the change process effectively. It was discovered that people who easily welcome change are not generally the best at being able to work reliably, dependably and follow processes. The reliability/dependability capabilities are directly opposite character traits to mobility or adaptability capabilities. Managers may face the challenge of such people to ensure they can be reliable. Certain industries and disciplines have a high concentration of staff who need a strong reliability/dependability personality profile, for example, health services and nursing, administration, public sector and government departments, utilities and services; these sectors will tend to have many staff with character profiles who find change difficult and as a manager, to help them into change is your challenge. Age is another factor. Erik Erikson's Psychosocial Theory helps to understanding that people's priorities and motivations are different depending on their stage of life. The manager needs to understand people's needs, at different age levels to better be able to manage change, however, this can be a very big challenge for managers especially dealing with older people who are usually rigid and do not believe anything other than what they already know. People's strengths and weaknesses differ and not everyone welcomes change. It requires time to understand the people you are dealing with, and how and why they feel like they do, before you take action, but the manager may not have that time especially if they are faced with such a rapidly changing world, where a delay might give competitors a chance to override and gain a very big competitive edge. This may be a challenge that requires high skill level and competence for the manager. Managers today have a challenge of fast changing environments where by planning, implementing and managing change in a fast-changing environment is increasingly the situation in which most organizations now work. Dynamic environments such as these require dynamic processes, people, systems and culture, especially for managing change successfully, effectively optimizing organizational response to market opportunities and threats. Some organizations may not have capacity to be dynamic due to different reasons and therefore managers face the bigger challenge. In his book, Change management, 2010, Prof. Dr. Olaf Passeheim identified a challenge due to technological changes today. The International and dynamic situation of the global market has created a big need for change, and this has created a challenge of deregulations which have increased the competitive pressure and minimized monopoly power. Managers today work in such very rapid environment where the organization itself might not be in a position to go with the pace, for example, telecommunication companies like MTN, if it does not have financial capacity to afford the required equipments and software that go with the trend or the required skills to operate them. In any case, the manager has to find a way, or lose the game, an impact that may last and could permanently damage the company. Economic ups and downs are a big challenge, they have such a huge impact on organizations and markets for example, the most recent financial crisis that led to cutbacks and reduced employment, managers face the challenge of neutralizing the situation and making necessary change decisions to cope with the situation. (Passeheim – Change Management 2010) Changes in an organization where workforce is never static for example due to changes in gender, age, education, in and out employees create challenges for managers to go with changes because there will always be a need to redesign work, jobs and working groups, to ensure matching job requirements and skills. High financial costs of replacing, upgrading or buying new equipments which the organization may not be in position to procure, this will delay change process for a cost restrictive business. New systems may also fail and the organization is forced to sell the new equipments at reduced prices, pay employees for redundancy or dismiss them with a package because computers replaced them, training that comes with a cost, managers may have to resist implementation of any changes to cut on the costs involved, a decision that might challenge his capacity as a manager. Lack of analysis of strategic and operative challenge in changing the organization, some managers might blindly decide to make changes without analyzing the weight it holds. Some managers consider strategic plans unimportant and in a way ignore what the operative system is like, changes that are not strategically planned may become disastrous as things are only done as they come, operations may be guess work and yet change is something to be handled with care. There may be some unprofessional use of methods in change process as a result. Insufficient problem awareness, if the manager is trying to go through a change process, but does not exactly know the current problems that may have led to the need for change, it will be a very big challenge for him to make the right and appropriate decisions to implement the changes. Insufficient communication in the organization, if departments and employees do not freely and regularly communicate and even the manager is not interactive enough with employees, yet they ought to know what goes on around, change might come as a surprise for many who may not know why it came, many might resist it or just follow blindly and this could greatly compromising quality. Lack of control by managers, it is a challenge if the manager does not have control over employees, operations, systems due to several factors like limitation from superiors or lack of control skills. In such situation, the manager will find it difficult to even bring about change in the organization. Managing through Change – MTD Training and ventus publishing 2010, suggests other challenges that managers are likely to face in the change process, these include thus: ?Key staff may leave Market place changes may make your new initiative more urgent or less important ?Budget cuts may put a freeze on resources that u are dependant upon for implementation of change ?Legal regulations or requirements might change requiring an adoption to your plan ?Consumer response may fail to meet expectations requiring to reconsider your choice ?Competitors may act in ways that require you to revisit your objectives or vision ?Unexpected technology barrier may arise ?Costs, time, requirements or staff hour requirements may begin to exceed estimates. As manager, facing the above discussed challenges, one may have to scale back, expand or abort the change and any expected outcomes. Flexible is an essential requirement if the company is to survive in a competitive world today.

Analysis of the Ancient Pyramids Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Analysis of the Ancient Pyramids - Term Paper Example Although the perfection achieved by these men are still difficult to achieve even with today’s modern machinery and technology, the point the pyramids make is that human ingenuity, dedication and hands-on personal attention is still unequaled by the other machines that we make. Bibliography: Crozat, Pierre. â€Å"Origin of the Materials.† Engineering of the Pyramids. Paris: 6th Congress of Scientific Systems, 2005. Print. Levy, Janey. The Great Pyramid of Giza: Measuring Length, Area, Volume and Angles. New York: Rosen, 2005. Print. Romer, John. The Great Pyramid: Ancient Egypt Revisited. Cambridge: Cambridge GP, 2007. Print. Student name Instructor name Course name Date Analysis of the Ancient Pyramids at Giza Although only the top portions of them were left exposed above the desert sand 100 years ago, the ancient pyramids of Giza have long been structures that inspired wonder and puzzlement among those who knew of them. Built in an area of the world in which there are few building materials, including rock or trees, the stone pyramids were constructed with a level of precision placement that remains difficult to reproduce even today despite our advances in mechanical lifting technology and modern equipment. Once they were fully exposed to the modern world, the size of the pyramids fully revealed the tremendous achievement reached by the ancient Egyptians. The architectural feat accomplished coupled with their awe-inspiring size have made the pyramids object lessons for modern architects and others as they struggle to understand how and why these structures were created and how they have managed to persist throughout the centuries. Although we have created some very impressive structures in the modern age, it remains true that the Great Pyramid is one of the taller manmade structures on earth, standing as tall as most 50-story skyscrapers (Russell, 2005). This pyramid, and its attendant structures discovered on the Giza Plateau, is old enough to receive a mention in the Bible and impressive enough to have been included as one of the original seven great wonders of the world - the only one to still survive today. The pyramids, especially the Great Pyramid, are worthy subjects of architectural study because of how their construction, composition and style communicate the political, social and spiritual practices of the people that built them, demonstrating the ever-important link between architecture and society. Any study of the Great Pyramid should start with an analysis of the amazing technical details inherent in the structure. Surveys done on the pyramid have revealed that the length of each side of the structure is equal to all of the other sides almost exactly with the greatest difference in measurement equal to less than 1.75 inches (Levy, 2005). This same survey indicates that the base of the pyramid is almost perfectly level. It is hard to imagine how such a massive structure could have been created to such precise measurements in such a way that they would still hold true today, more than 4,000 years after it was constructed, and all without modern surveying equipment, earth movers or other advances in machinery. This is especially difficult to understand when one considers that the building blocks used for the pyramid

To What Extent Does a Company Exist Only For The Benefit Of Its Essay

To What Extent Does a Company Exist Only For The Benefit Of Its Shareholders - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that the Occupy protests taking place around the world have highlighted a problem that lies at the heart of corporate structures: the single-minded pursuit of profit at the expense of everything else. Indeed, the logic of the market demands that players in it pursue maximum gain. A company, therefore, is expected to pursue maximum profits for its shareholders. Wealth generation becomes a single and overarching focus.   Experience has shown us however that this has sometimes led to unfortunate consequences. The single-mindedness with which profit is pursued has allowed companies to neglect other issues and concerns. It became of little surprise therefore that the recession that has hit much of Europe and America and the widely-reported corporate scandals have highlighted the need to make corporate governance at the top of a company’s order of priorities and the overriding principle guiding its directors. The escalating protests on W all Street in the United States, for example, demonstrate growing public outrage against corporate greed and white-collared crimes.   In simple terms, this paper suggests that the company must exist only for the benefit of its shareholders only to the extent that it does not encourage corporate deviance and it retains its obligations to the rest of the society, not necessarily only its shareholders. This paper will begin by first discussing the Agency theory and its implications. Next, it will discuss the theory counterpoised to that, which is the Stakeholder theory – highlighting corners and turns of the debate that theoretically underpins the question as to whether and to what extent a company should exist only for the benefit of the shareholders.

Organizational Culture Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Organizational Culture - Research Paper Example As the report declares an effective training and development program for the employees has helped them to increase their motivation level. These training and development programs have made them responsible towards their job profile. An effective customer service strategy is another important part of the successful organization culture of Walmart. Moreover, the organization has implemented an open-door communication strategy in order to simplify the communication process between the top level and bottom level of the organization. Bringing flexibility in the decision making process has helped Walmart to undertake effective decisions. However, the study will reveal the organizational culture of Walmart in terms work culture, customer service, internal and external communication, and the strategic decision making process of the organization. Several past researches on this area have been carried out to collect appropriate information for the study. This paper stresses that organizational culture is a specific study of individuals and behavior of those individuals within the context of workplace settings in an organization. Organizational culture is an interdisciplinary field that incorporates communication, psychology, management, and sociology. It is an important field of study that helps to investigate the impact of culture of groups, individuals and structures on the performance of organizations. It harmonizes the academic studies of human resource management and organizational theory. Organizational culture can also be referred to as an organizational science or organizational studies. This study will analyze the organization culture of Walmart which is the world’s largest supermarket chain. Overview of Organizational Culture Organizational culture is an interdisciplinary field that incorporates communication, psychology, management, and sociology. Organizational culture consists of the organizational work process, w ork culture, environment, communication process, and the decision making process. Organizational culture addresses the environment of workplace. Communication process addresses the communication between the top level and bottom level of the organization. Decision making process is one of the key processes that enhance organizational culture. The field of organizational culture has its roots in both organizational and industrial psychology. Contemporary Issues Due to advanced technology, the business environment of an organization is changing dramatically. Gigantic size of an organization is another contemporary issue. Business diversification can create several organizational issues. Adaptability and flexibility in the business environment are other contemporary issues. Innovation and cultural diversifications in the organization are also considered as the contemporary issues. Organizational Culture of Walmart It is known to all that Walmart is the largest departmental store chain. The organization was

Imaginary Small Business KraftyKidz.com Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Imaginary Small Business KraftyKidz.com - Essay Example Books: there should be a selection of books that appeal specifically to the parents and educators of the target market, so that these interested adults can go to this site and order books about their children. In addition, of course there is also a selection of books to be ordered by and for the kids to read. The Internet reinvents itself every three months, or even faster. Therefore, our strategy for future development is to remain positioned with enough flexibility to adapt new technologies, and adapt to changes quickly. The Krafykidz.com market would be expanding exponentially with the advances of technology in the teaching sectors and the acceptance of technology as a teaching aid. The critical component to our entrance into the market will be approval and support from the school communities - including teachers, the PTA, and special education programs. While we have plans to expand into international territory, our initial launch will target our most important market - the American upper class. We know that most of our clients would drive BMW's and have very good taste - they spend money on their children because they can appreciate the technology that we have created. They also generally have high bandwidth connections, and are impressed by first-class design. The Break-even Analysis is a good f... We know that most of our clients would drive BMW's and have very good taste - they spend money on their children because they can appreciate the technology that we have created. They also generally have high bandwidth connections, and are impressed by first-class design. Financial Considerations Our start-up costs would come to $33,750, which are high because of our commitment to dominate the Internet market place. The Break-even Analysis is a good financial indicator. We show break-even with a sales level of about $265K per month, even assuming a fixed cost of $169 per month, which is high. Given those assumptions, we would reach steady-state break-even in December of the first year. Some companies can raise funds under the Enterprise Investment Scheme. The scheme applies to trading companiesbut not generallyto service or investment companies. There are potential tax advantages for individuals - including sole traders and partners acting in their capacity as individuals -who invest in such companies, such as - The buyer of the shares get tax relief at the lower rate of income tax and when they sell the shares it is also possible that they can defer the capital gains tax on any gains on those shares. Interest on loans taken for the purpose of investing in qualifying companies is not tax deductible. Government Regulations KraftyKidz.com would also need to consider trademarks. Trademarks and service marks may be registered in a state for a term of ten years as per the regulations involved. KraftyKidz.com would be required by law to withhold the following from the wages paid to employees: federal income taxes, state income taxes and FICA (Social Security) Insurance. Income taxes will also be levied by the federal and

International Context of HRM Practice and Consultancy Essay

International Context of HRM Practice and Consultancy - Essay Example 12 References 13 Work Councils – Functions and Difference from Trade Unions Globalization has triggered sea changes not only in the transnational commerce but multinational companies are also deluged with issues concerning labor relations in a cross cultural and multi-economic scenario. The earlier concept of negotiating with a central trade union and implementing the issues agreed upon in workplace is no longer a sufficient guarantee of smooth labor relations. Multinational enterprises now need to negotiate at multiple levels with trade unions of several countries to achieve harmonious labor relations. This surely is a humongous task what with dealing in unionized labor of different cultural and economic contexts (Prahalad and Doz 1987). Such situations surely result in loss of managerial flexibility as conditions agreed upon in one country might not be acceptable in another country. Further, the terms and conditions of appointment and associated remunerations and perquisites also vary from country to country thus causing unwelcome variances in managing human resources. The basic problem of transnational human resource management can be categorized as (Poole 1986): The level of technological attainment and unionization of labor in a particular country The nature and extent of governmental intervention in labor management The number and political polarization of trade unions Impact, if any, of religious organizations on trade unions Strategies adopted by management These factors have resulted in the growth and proliferation of various types of trade unions which could be either generalized trade unions that represented all categories of employees, or, craft unions that represented employees having specific skill sets and are employed in different industries, or, a conglomerate of unions spread across different countries. Such diversity, quite obviously, present a rather daunting scenario for executives entrusted with the responsibility of collective barg aining with employees and also raises the prospect of multiple agreements within a single corporate entity. One option open to multinational corporations to find some semblance of order in this otherwise chaotic and indeterminate scenario is to set up work councils. These are micro level labor representatives who are elected by workers of a specific factory for a period of four years. The most vibrant forms of such work councils are observed in Germany where once nation-wide agreements with recognized trade unions are completed by representatives of a particular industry, each individual member firm of that particular industry undertake negotiations with their respective work councils on the details of how such an agreement has to be implemented in a particular work place. As members of work councils need not be members of recognized trade unions, these councils can be formed even in those industries where there is no existence of a nationally recognized trade union. This surely inv ests in such councils a large degree of flexibility and freedom from dogma or political influence associated with conventional trade unions. This also provides an opportunity for both management and workers to strike out an agreement that factors in micro specifics and thus is beneficial to both the workers and that particular firm. The other benefit of having work councils is that the levels of interaction and the channels of communication between management and wo

Financial calculation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Financial calculation - Essay Example Planning for a new business or expansion of a business today is never again a simple task. Globalization had caused factors that are previously 'foreign' to local business, becomes more and more influencing. Local producers cannot relax and keep producing mediocre quality products as foreign competitors entering the local market. The furniture industry for example, has become an international business rather than local. Local furniture producers in a country as far as Jamaica are threatened by the presence of US competitors ('Globalization and', 2003).The global environment has made planning a more complicated task as non-financial measurements are become increasingly important toward business forecasts. Specific preferences of the industry, habits of international competitors, and other non-financial factors must be considered, to prevent bias reporting of financial forecasts. Nevertheless, financial performance is still the main indicator of corporate success or failure. This is wh y the financial calculation has always been incorporated within academic studies.Financial performance of a corporation can be evaluated by observing financial ratios. Financial ratios are indicators designed to elaborate certain aspects or corporate financial performance. Different aspects are elaborated by different ratios. There are four types of financial ratios, they are:Profitability ratios display the rate of return resulted from company operation over a certain period. The amount of profit itself is not sufficient to describe corporate performance over the period. Excess of revenue over expenses are compared to total sales and corporate assets in order to obtain a ratio that describe how much money resulted from existing assets (Financial Ratios, n.d). Several profitability ratios are profit margin, return on equity and return on total assets: Ratios 2003 2004 2005 Profit margin 30.00% 18.75% 11.67% Return on asset 15.38% 17.44% 7.29% Return on equity 35.29% 31.91% 12.73% According to corporate financial statement, Fine furniture is experiencing a significant decline over the last three years. In order to properly assess corporate performance we actually ought to compare corporate ratios with industrial average. However, comparison of the three periods available has clearly displayed significant downward shift. The ratios indicated that profitability performance decline more than 50% over the past two years. Due to limited data available, we are using end of year numbers to calculate the financial ratios, instead of average numbers. Liquidity Ratios Liquidity Ratios display corporate ability to pay short-term debt. The ratios compare liabilities of the company to existing assets, to see how many assets are available to guarantee each dollar of corporate short-term loan. The most well known liquidity ratios are current ratio and acid test ratio: Ratios 2003 2004 2005 Current Ratio 1.24 1.89 1.57 Acid Test Ratio 0.86 1.19 0.79 Fine furniture displayed average liquidity performance regarding liquidity ratios. The best performance was during the year 2004. Current ratio increases during 2004, but decreases again during 2005. Similar patterns are shown by the Acid Test Ratio. Solvability Ratios Solvability ratios have similar functions to liquidity ratios. However, solvability ratios concern long term instead of short term corporate abilities to meet existing obligations. Solvability ratios include debt ratio, gearing ratio and equity ratio. Ratios 2003 2004 2005 Debt Ratio 0.97 0.95 0.94 Gearing Ratio 0.06 0.08 0.10 Equity Ratio 0.44 0.55 0.57 According to financial statements, Fine Furniture has not seemed to take full advantage of long term debt possibilities. This is revealed by the gearing ratio, which displayed that only a very small portion of the capital is financed using long term debt. However, the debt ratio described acceptable

An evaluation of the law surrounding forced marriages Essay

An evaluation of the law surrounding forced marriages - Essay Example Although, the government through legislation has tried to discourage forced marriages, these policy measures have been ineffective in eradicating the dehumanising practice. This difficult in ending the tradition comes from the fact that the forced marriage is deeply rooted culture in the minority groups. According to the United Nations, Forced marriage consists a violation of individuals’ human rights. Forced marriages also violate the rights of children some of whom are forced into marriages before they even reach the age of 10. Legislative response that really tries to address the problem has only been enacted recently, but they still do not provide enough cover for individuals in forced marriages or under threat of being married forcefully. In 2007, the Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act) was passed where victims could obtain protection orders from courts. Recently, the Conservative government has announced plans to make forced marriage a criminal offence. This paper cr itically analyzes legislative attempts by successive UK government to respond to the problem of forced marriages among minority groups. Secondly, it critically analyzes the proposed attempt to make forced marriage a criminal offence. ... a Nobleman could only marry a noblewoman.1 To retain and consolidate power noble families encouraged and coerced their children to intermarry. However, with cultural advancement these practices were disappeared before any legal policy could be articulated to address the issue. Nobody envisioned that hundreds of years later a modern British society would be grappling with the problem of forced marriages. In the present and the last century, UK society made the first legal attempt to discourage forced marriage in 1949. In the Marriage Act 1949 prohibited marriages between parties below the age of 16 in section 2.2 This law was strengthened in the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 in Section 11 (a) (ii) put the age of consent for marriage at 16. The 1973 Act also provided protection for individuals below the age of 18 requiring the consent of a legal representative3. Under the matrimonial causes act an individual aged between 16 and 18 has the right to obtain consent for marriage through a co urt order, if the legal representative unreasonably refuses consent4. In the 1973 Act, all matrimonial relationship must start through the free consent of both parties. In Section 12, the 1973 Act prohibits vitiating of consent by other factors like violence or pregnancy. In the 1960’s UK governments made further legal changes to address the issue as immigrant communities continued to increase their number in the UK. In 1962, the UK signed the United Nations Convention to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration5. The convention came into force two years later in 1964 and was adopted by the UK in 1970. Later in 1969 the UK passed the Family Law Reform Act 1969 defined a person under the age of 18 as a minor. Under this definition a minor

FIN501 MOD 1 Case assign Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

FIN501 MOD 1 Case assign - Essay Example The organization wants to choose between offering the shares through an online auction or traditional book building techniques. AVG should issue shares through an online auction technique, which is better than the traditional method in almost all aspects. The online auction reaches more investors, it reduces the risks of under or overpricing, and the technique is less costly than book building (Corr, 2007). The organization should follow the rules of the technique strictly to avoid leaving out investors like Google did in 2007. Online Auction Attracts more Investors than Book Building I would advice AVG to issue its IPO using the online auction because the method is less costly, reaches more customers, and it ensures that the share price is based on its market value. The company reaches more investors by announcing the offer online and allowing customers to bid the price and shares that they would like to purchase (Gregorious, 2006). This is unlike the book building method where unde rwriters sell shares to the clients that they value more than others (Pequignot, 2005). The investment banks leave out the investors who bid low prices because the underwriters aim at maximizing their returns (Jones, & Yeoman, 2008). This means that investment banks aim at the wealthy and existing investors in the company. Auctioning allows numerous customers to bid because the online process is open to everyone, and it is cheaper to access the internet (Carter, 2005). AVG is likely to attract new and existing investors ranging from the wealthy to the middle income group in the society using the online auction (Khurshed, 2011). Auctioning Reduces Costs of Issuing Shares AVG would incur fewer costs using the online auction than the book building technique. The company does not have to incur the high costs of underwriting. These costs refer to the price that the company pays investment banks when they determine the price of issuing each share (Vermaelen, 2005). The costs also include the commission that the firm would pay underwriters to sell the shares by conducting road shows. The commission may be as high as 8% in some cases, and this may be costly for the company especially when it sells a few shares (Nyantara, 2005). The role of underwriters in the online auction is to help the company to set the price at which to issue shares based on the bids of all customers. This is not costly, and it means that AVG would cut on the underwriting cost. Other costs that the firm would incur using online auction are the Securities and Exchange Commission fee (Savitz, 2012). This fee covers the cost of registering shares with the registrar by way of a prospectus. The securities Exchange Commission fee and other costs account for 10% of the value of the collected capital (Savitz, 2012). This cost is also incurred using the book building process, and this means that the company cannot avoid paying the price. Auctioning IPO is Less Risky than Traditional Book Building AVG redu ces the risk of under or over pricing shares. This is because the directors of the company would determine the value of each share based on the investor’s bids. The bids represent the true value of the shares because the investors symbolize the market (Sherman, 2010). Google oversaw the bids from customers by determining their market price per share without considering the bids. The company ended up losing capital by leaving out some investors from

Creative Writin Essay Example for Free

Creative Writin Essay The sun filters in through the leaves of the trees. The midday sun casts dancing shadows over the well-worn table-top. The tables are set for lunch guests paper napkins, ashtray, salt and pepper shakers, and toothpicks all indicate that the table is ready for a guest. The floor is cleanly swept and all the furniture carefully arranged to create a pleasant and inviting atmosphere. Two new picture frames lean against the wall – one of a dancing woman and the other a blank wooden backing. Soon these new images will join the walls already decorated with art. A local artist uses the wall space to display his abstract paintings. The room is filled with blues, oranges, yellows, and reds. The colors seem to practically illuminate the room. Behind the computers are pictures from the sea – both pictures depicting dolphins and underwater diving adventures. The computers are ready for use. Three armed sentinels standing in a row. There is a motorcycle helmet next to one, with a set of keys. Next to the second is a half-empty water glass. The chairs are empty, and the screens are poised in the middle of email composition. The door to the office stands open, and the regular attendant sits in the chair. He is engrossed in something on the screen, probably a game that he’s been playing, probably not a newspaper article. The restaurant staff are all huddling around the hostess stand. Occasionally, one will venture out and wipe an empty table. There is very little noise today, and aside from one group sitting at two tables pushed together, there is no one else eating. The group looks like it is here for business, each person has a set of papers out before them and the discussion seems led. Everyone is calm and organized. The scent of pizza drifts into the air. The wood fire stove at the back has been fired up, and the scent of cheese and wood fills the air. Glasses clink together in the background as the dishwashers keep busy. THE UNFAMILIAR The place is silent. There are computers, but no sounds of keys being pushed. There is staff, but they are not chit-chatting or engaging in conversation. Even the large group talking in low tones, when talking at all. Ah, a distant clink of water glasses. Someone must be active in the kitchen. Despite the sun streaming through the windows, the place has an ethereal light. The walls are adorned with bizarre paintings – no forms can be discerned and the colors are garish. They are all done in primary colors and seem to be uncontrolled expressions of lines and colors with no coherent overall theme. The way the paintings are spaced along the walls adds to the social displacement. An empty picture frame along the wall begs to be filled, to become the link between the abstract art and underwater scenes adorning the walls. The computer terminals only hint at human existence. There is an abandoned motorcycle helmet, which cannot be too abandoned because there is a set of keys next to it, and an open email program. But there is no one to be seen. An empty water glass holds the seat next to the motorcycle helmet. Are these physical placeholders for non-existent people? There is a man in the office. He looks as though if people disappeared in front of his eyes, he wouldn’t even notice. He is so engrossed in his computer screen – is he playing a game? His eyes are not even blinking. This level of interest is the polar opposite of the interest shown by the staff. The staff remains huddled around the hostess stand, paying no attention to the one group inside, or to the missing people from the computer terminals. The tables suggest readiness for occupants, napkins, toothpicks, ashtrays, and salt and pepper are ready for use. They stand guard over the empty tables.

Gibbs Reflective Cycle 1988 Nursing Essay

Gibbs Reflective Cycle 1988 Nursing Essay I am a Paramedic registered with the health professions council and this essay will look reflectively at an incident I attended during the course of my duties. The assignment will look at the moral, ethical and legal aspects of pre-hospital care with which I was challenged during this particular emergency. Confidentiality has been maintained at all times and names of individuals have been changed, I have also gained permission from the family of the patient and for the purposes of this essay I will call the patient Mr Taylor (HPC 2008) To analyse this critical incident I will use Gibbs reflective cycle. (1988). Description As a Rapid response Paramedic working for the Ambulance service I attend life threatening emergencies during my tours of duty, I work alone and am frequently dispatched to jobs as a solo resource that is without ambulance back up. The incident on which I wish to reflect occurred part way through a shift that had been up to then quiet. I received a call to attend a patient who had collapsed and was semi-conscious. On arriving I was met by a lady who was obviously distressed and she showed me to the patient who turned out to be the ladys husband, he was around 50 years old and was by this time unconscious with poor respiratory effort, I quickly requested a backup ambulance via radio and continued with my assessment of the patient and attempted to gain a history of his condition and what had happened that day. His wife told me that Mr Taylor had been well until 8 weeks before when he visited his doctor for abdominal pain and some rectal bleeding. The GP had sent him for tests at the loc al hospital within a couple of days he had been diagnosed with numerous tumours throughout his body, Bowel, liver & lung and was told it was terminal , he had been given between 3 and 6 months to live. Overall he had still been active and reasonably well until a couple of days before, when he started to deteriorate , that day she had been shopping and when she arrived home had found him in bed semi-conscious and with difficulty breathing. By this time I had gained some observations and placed oxygen on Mr Taylor. My back up ambulance arrived and I did a clinical handover to the paramedic on board it was at this point that Mrs Taylor called me to one side and told me that he wanted to pass away at home and not in hospital, he had expressed a wish not to be resuscitated, she explained that as she was alone with her son living in the south she felt she needed some help when she found him. I asked about a the Do Not Attempt Resuscitation (DNAR) paperwork and she told me there wasnt any. I explained our position as Health Care Professionals and in the absence of the DNAR we had to act in his best interests. She again reiterated his wishes not to be taken to hospital or resuscitated. As my colleagues continued to assist the patient I contacted our on call Advanced Paramedic for advice , I was asked to verify there was no DNAR in situ with the patients palliative care team first, then if this was the case to contact the patients GP to see if he or she would attend as a matter of urgency. After confirming the absence of a DNAR I contacted the GP who was extremely understanding and attended within 15 minutes. Mr Taylor passed away within minutes of the GP attending. Feelings Situations that deal with someone losing their life are always hard to deal with and cause an array of emotions, in this case sadness, that this lady was losing her husband of 30 years and he was only 50, frustration and irritation of paperwork that should have been in place but was not. The Health professions council (HPC) list one of my duties as a registrant as , act within the limits of my knowledge, skills and experience and if necessary , refer the matter to another practioner (standards of conduct performance and ethics, p3 2006) on this occasion we did this and it is On occasions like this when there is a group of health care professionals I try to include everyone in the descsicon making process and it was agreed it would be wrong to ignore a persons wishes in these circumstances. His wishes had been explained to me by his wife, his palliative team and his general practioner. The Lasting memory for this lady and her family would be that her life partner died at home with his wife, exactly as he had wished. Evaluation As with any emergency situation our priority is safety and ensuring we are aware of any potential danger on scene, and performing dynamic risk assessments during the emergency. My responsibility for safety covers myself, colleague, patient, relatives and any further agencies requested to attend scene. The health and safety at work act (1974) states I should take reasonable care for my own health and safety and also that of others who could be affected by my acts or omissions. On this occasion everything was safe. Looking at the incident I feel there were lots of positives , these include fast and effective communication with the patients relative, and fast assessment of the scene, decision makimg was also quick and effective and minimised any further upset and stress to the patients wife. Conversations with our own AP and the Palliative care staff and GP all fell into place on this job and this is not the norm , we often encounter difficulties contacting various agencies within the NHS . Negatives included understanding of the DNAR side of our advanced decisions policy. Im sure most HPCs would agree that with so many modern policies and proceadures we cannot be expected to know everything , let alone little used sections of certain policies. Morally I was challenged too as my professional guidelines state that in the absence of a DNAR then you must commence resuscitation (JRCALC).2006). Analysis