Knowledge and asset management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Knowledge and asset management - Essay Example Finally, the report gives how the report can be of help to other companies. (Han 2003) Change is inevitable in any organization. How an organization treats its stake holders, will define its success or failure in implementing any change. An organization needs to define who a stakeholder is and influence the stakeholder has in order to handle them and to have their support in the implementation process. It is worth to note that no stakeholder should be ignored. This is a case study of Seven Seas Technology (Drucker 1974). Seven Seas Technology is an international company dealing with ICT. The company operates globally with most interest in Africa market as the market for technology is high. The company deals with technology solutions for large companies and government agencies. In the recent past, the company has won in tenders with multinationals and governments in Africa. Currently the company is in a contract with the Zambian government to install a sea cable in the country. The company was also in a multi billion contract with the Nigerian government where it was involved in networking government ministries and other government agencies. The company also secured a contract with Vodafone where it developed a system to provide computing services to its customers in the entire world. So what is the real secret behind this accomplishment story? Seven Seas were previously referred to as Dataset Technology where it had a narrow scope of business. The company only focused on East African market. The company wanted to have a wider scope to tap the adaptation of technology in the whole of Africa. The company’s top management then thought it was good to rebrand the company and increase their capital in order for the company to operate in whole of Africa. Seven seas had to identify its stakeholders and develop new ways to make sure they

Social Science Research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Social Science Research - Essay Example This paper as the main task of tracing out the advantages of a comparative methodology that result in value addition in case study analysis ,on the one hand, and, on the other, this paper also explains the various pitfalls that are encountered in social science research when it deploys the comparative methodology. This analysis is achieved by carrying out a literature review in support of arguments in favour of and against the comparative methodology and by citing literature involving case studies that deployed comparative analysis as methodology. Seligson & Tucker (2003) report an interesting cross country study of two very different nations i.e. Bolivia and Russia. They attempt to arrive at conclusions regarding preference for ex-authoritarian rulers in public elections in each of these two countries which are otherwise very divergent in social, economic and geopolitical characteristics. In order to derive such conclusions the research deployed the comparative methodology. The researchers explain their research setting, conclusions and variables in following words, "In our research we find that a preference for authoritarian regime types is a key predictor of support for ex-authoritarian candidates for president in two vastly different countries: Bolivia and Russia. ... Despite the different past and contemporary economic and political characteristics of these two countries, voters choose to support ex-authoritarian candidates in free elections in part because they favor authoritarian regime types. Social capital variables, though, seem to have no effect on this vote choice. Pro-authoritarian attitudes, however, are not the only factors driving support for these candidates. In the Bolivian case our evidence suggests that voters may also prefer ex-authoritarian candidates because of concern over unemployment and corruption. In the Russian case, concern over the state of the national economy clearly plays a role. In both countries, older voters are more likely to support ex-authoritarian candidates. In Russia we find similar patterns for poorer and working class voters as well. As we have examined only two cases in which voters have cast their ballots for former authoritarians, there remain many questions for future research. As a first step, it would be illuminating to examine whether we find similar patterns in other post-communist and Latin American countries in an effort to make sure we have not merely stumbled upon an exclusively Bolivian-Russian connection. Moreover, this analysis was deliberately limited to Presidential elections to facilitate more seamless comparison across the two cases. Having established a realistic basis for comparison, future work could consider parliamentary elections, as well as sub-national elections, in hopes of seeking further evidence of the generalizability of our findings". It is clear from the above that the researchers are very wary of the conclusions reached by them after this comparative analysis. They mention the factors that may affect the

Organizational Behavior and Human Resources Essay Example for Free

Organizational Behavior and Human Resources Essay Organizational behavior is the study and application of knowledge about people or groups of people in an organization. It focuses on what people do and why they do it with aim of improving what they do. Since an organization is a collection of people working together in an organized social structure to achieve a common goal, application of theories and concepts of human behavior is imperative to attain the goals of organizations. Organizational behavior covers areas such as human behavior, leadership in an organization, teams, communications, employee relations etc. Clark, 2008). A study of the organization’s behavior helps the management to succeed in business opportunities. Human resource management is a strategic approach to the management of employees in an organization. It includes activities such as planning, selection, recruitment and maintaining employees. To sustain high performing employees, ensuring safe working environments and compliance to rules and regulations in an organization are some of the main objectives of human resource management. These objectives can only be attained through efficient analyses of the employees’ behaviors. Therefore, when human resource management and organization behavior blend together in an organization, they help to bring about strong and active workforce which help the organization meet its strategic goals. Effective policy development in human resources would help management to establish a strong workforce and explore untapped resources and strategies that would improve the organization performance. In order to employ effective policies, the management should make best decisions in a timely manner in a given situation. Human resource managers should be involved in making strategic decisions of the organization such as being informed on the long term plans of the strategic management. To amicably resolve personnel issues and find appropriate solutions to these issues, the management should have proper human resource policies. The policies should incorporate fresh ideas that reflect current situation in the organizations and the current business world in general. Human resources policies ensure that employees receive equal treatment in a wide range of employment issues and in legal matters incase they arise. To effectively develop human resource in any organization, it is necessary to have policies on employees’ benefits such as educational assistance, retirement benefits, health care and medical benefits etc. Another factor to consider when formulating the policies is the safety, health and security of the employees. Issues such as workplace violence, drugs, crisis management, and diseases like HIV/AIDS should be addressed in policy development. In addition it is important to consider employees relations which entail dispute resolutions and grievances, employees privacy, employees performance management, discipline and the conduct of employees in the organization. Selection, recruitment and placement of employees is a fundamental function in the human resource management. Discrimination in terms of race, religion, sex or in any form should be discouraged in the hiring and recruitment process. In order to improve employees’ skills and their efficiency, there should be a policy on employee training and development. In conclusion, effective policies should seek to motivate employees whereby they feel comfortable and satisfied hence improve their performance. The human resource should operate in a flexible environment. For instance, employees can operate in shifts where different people start and end their workday at different time. The organization should adopt technologies that would enable the employees to work outside the workplace. A study in organizational behavior shows that different people get motivated in different ways and can perform better under different circumstances. The management should therefore, customize their way of rewarding employees to their particular preferences (Marques, 2007).

Persuasive Power of Neuroimages

Persuasive Power of Neuroimages Neuroimage effect and repeated exposure:  The contextual origin of neuroimage’s persuasive power Bethany Waites Erica Chastain If you were to open up a newspaper, or visit an online news source, there is good chance that you will come across a media coverage story of a scientific research study, and that article will probably contain an image to help facilitate complicated scientific information to the reader (McCabe and Castel, 2008). Many of the popular media articles describing the latest scientific research simplify the findings for the general public, accompany these findings with neuroimages, and more often than not, these findings are oversimplified or misrepresented (Morling, 2012, p.18). In 2008, it was suggested that judgments on the credibility of scientific reasoning behind research conclusions can be positively influenced (or persuaded) by the supplementary presence of neuroimages depicting cognitive processes described in the scientific research presented by media research articles (McCabe and Castel, 2008) – a finding which many have focused on replicating and discovering the for this p ower (Schweitzer et al., 2013; Weisberg et al., 2008; Schweitzer et al., 2013). If the contextual origins of the documented significant power that neuroimages exert on the credibility judgments of the scientific reasoning (henceforth called the Neuroimage Effect or NIE) can be discovered, there would be implications not only in the fields of psychology but across the scientific field in general. The scientific community is dependent on the popular media to correctly facilitate scientific information and findings to the general public, and if there are in fact contexts out of which NIE can arise, it would be imperative for the scientific community to discover and prevent them from occurring in popular media so that scientific information has a better opportunity of being correctly conveyed to the general public. In 2008, McCabe and Castel’s groundbreaking study introduced the idea of NIE after explicitly examining the persuasive power neuroimages had on the perceived credibility of cognitive neuroscience data and argued that the tendency for images to be intuitively interpreted as scientifically credible representations of various cognitive activities may be due to the reductionist nature of humanity. In their tri-experimental study, they: (1) examined whether the presence of the neuroimages led to higher ratings of flawed scientific reasoning in cognitive neuroscience research compared not only to their absence, but also to the presence of another widely-used visual representations of data such as bar graphs and a text-only control group; (2) examined whether brain images affected credibility judgments because they were more visually complex than bar graphs and whether it was this complexity that influenced judgments, and (3) attempted to generalize the findings of the first two expe riments by using a real news article with scientifically sound reasoning to depict material encountered in the real world (McCabe and Castel, 2008). They concluded that the presence of neuroimages had a statistically significant positive influence on judgment ratings of the credibility of scientific reasoning (NIE) than with the presence of bar graphs and text-only groups, and that they may be more persuasive not because of their visual complexity but because they provide tangible physical explanations of cognitive processes appealing to the reductionist nature of humanity. Following the publication of McCabe and Castel’s study, several research studies have attempted to replicate these findings, some with over-exaggerated success (Michael et al., 2013), while others failed to do so overall (Michael et al., 2013; Schweitzer et al., 2013). While a general failure to replicate the original findings of McCabe and Castel’s original study is prominent, these failures were not complete and have produced interesting and surprising results that have prompted the exploration into finding the origin of the marginal persuasive influence of the presence of a neuro-image on the judgments of scientific reasoning (Schweitzer et al., 2013). There are a handful of speculated contextual sources of the persuasive power of neuro-images including: the methodological design of repeated measures (Schweitzer et al., 2013; Weisberg et al., 2008), the quality of the article’s scientific reasoning (Schweitzer et al., 2013; Weisberg et al., 2008), and the pres ence of criticism, which calls into question the validity of the article’s conclusions (McCabe and Castel, 2008; Michael et al., 2013). The first two speculated sources of NIE previously mentioned were examined in the fifth experiment of the Schweitzer et al. (2013) study. The repeated measures effect (RME) is the suggested underlying contextual variable which produces NIE by introducing a comparative opportunity for participants in which they base their judgments of scientific reasoning in subsequent articles on the quality of scientific logic presented in the initial article (Schweitzer et al., 2013, Weisberg et al., 2008). The second mentioned underlying source, the quality of the article’s scientific reasoning, has been argued by Weisberg et al.(2008) to play a role in the influential power of neuroscience information and that the optimal condition for NIE was the use of non-scientific language, a weak argument, and high-impact images (Schweitzer et al., 2013) Schweitzer et al. (2013) designed the fifth experiment to satisfy the optimal conditions presented by Weisberg et al. and others as well as to test RME, and argued its presence would be found in the 2nd block of the experiment, as participants would have been previously exposed to scientific reasoning of the 1st block. They concluded that the study demonstrated a significant NIE in the presence of weak scientific reasoning, but only in the 2nd block after participants were presented with a comparison on which to base their judgments of scientific reasoning credibility, indicating RME as a critical contextual origin. Because there was not a significant NIE in the first block, the authors concluded that faulty arguments were not a critical contextual source. However, it is noteworthy to again mention the fact that McCabe and Castel (2008) used faulty scientific reasoning as a control within their first two experiments which did produce a significant NIE, and coupled with the arguments of Weisberg et al. (2008), it would be unwise to not deem it a potential source of NIE. The final potential source of NIE within the scope of this study is effect that the presence of criticism has on NIE which was introduced by McCabe and Castel (2008) but was iterated upon by Michael et al. in 2013. The original study’s design allowed the researchers to control the participant’s level of reasonable doubt about the credibility of scientific reasoning behind research conclusions by the presence of obviously flawed scientific reasoning within the first 2 articles, and by the presence of criticisms in the last experiment which called into question the validity of the article’s conclusions and counteracted NIE (McCabe and Castel, 2008; Michael et al., 2013). McCabe and Castel (2008) reported that the presence of criticism did not influence the participant’s ratings on the credibility of the article’s conclusions, but upon further investigation of the original data, Michael et al. (2013) discovered that the brain images were more influenti al when critiques were present to question the validity of conclusions – a notable find which counteracted the claims made by the original investigators (Michael et al., 2013). While Michael et al. discovered the discrepancy regarding the role criticism played in NIE and conducted five experiments that included a criticism manipulation, they did not elaborate on the effects of criticisms as they performed a meta-analysis of the original 2008 data and the data from their 10 experiments, to more precisely estimate NIE (Michael et al., 2013). Because this interesting discrepancy was not explicitly investigated, it does pose an intriguing possibility that neuroimages are more influential as they provide evidence against a criticism contradicting the article’s conclusions. The present study attempts to not only examine the persuasive power that neuroimages exert on the perceived credibility of the conclusion’s scientific reasoning (or the Neuroimage Effect; NIE) but also the relationship between NIE and the three potentially critical contextual origins. It is our goal to demonstrate that neuroimages exert a statistically significant positive influence on participant’s ratings of scientific reasoning, and based on prior research, expect to find a significant NIE in each of the three contextual variables. It is also our goal to discover which of those variables produces the most significant NIE, and purpose that NIE is the most influential when participants are presented with a comparative opportunity in which they are able to base their ratings on the credibility of scientific reasoning in subsequent articles on the quality of the reasoning presented in the initial article. References McCabe, D. P., Castel, A. D. (2008). Seeing Is Believing: The Effect of Brain Images on  Judgments of Scientific Reasoning. Cognition, 107(1), 343-352. Michael, R. B., Newman, E. J., Vuorre, M., Cumming, G., Garry, M. (2013). On the  (non)persuasive power of a brain image. Psychonomic Bulletin Review, 20(4), 720-725. doi:10.3758/s13423-013-0391-6 Morling, Beth. Research methods in psychology: evaluating a world of information. New York,  NY: Norton, 2012. Print. Schweitzer, N. J., Baker, D. A., Risko, E. F. (2013). Fooled by the brain: Re-examining the  influence of neuroimages. Cognition, 129(3), 501-511. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2013.08.009 Weisberg, D., Keil, F. C., Goodstein, J., Rawson, E., Gray, J. R. (2008). The Seductive Allure  of Neuroscience Explanations. Journal Of Cognitive Neuroscience, 20(3), 470-477.

The Definition of Cyberpunk Essay -- Science Fiction Literary Genre Es

The Definition of Cyberpunk In Bruce Sterling's article, "Cyberpunk in the Nineties," he explained how public opinion had defined himself, Rucker, Shiner, Shirley, and Gibson as the cyberpunk "gurus" in the 1980's. Because of being labeled cyberpunk "gurus," the public had come to understand the definition of cyberpunk as "anything that cyberpunks write." To break this definition of cyberpunk established by popular public opinion, I will pursue giving cyberpunk a more definite definition. After reading numerous cyberpunk fiction stories, I noticed reoccurring themes in these stories. I believe these themes can form a criteria under which a story can be defined as cyberpunk. These criteria are total enhancement and integration of everyday life by technology, some degree of pleasure (by the author) in explaining this technology, cyber-lingo, and some degree of global connectiveness. The first criterion or theme, total enhancement and integration of everyday life by technology is probably the most obvious and vital in order for a story to be deemed cyberpunk. Why is it the most obvious and most vital? It is the most obvious because cyberpunk writers use the "everyday," that is, objects, concepts, or places we causally shrug off as normal, and integrate/enhance the normal with technology. A good example can be found in John Shirley's "Freezone." Upon entering the "Semiconductor" the scene is unusual but appears to be a everyday freak club. An occasional flare dots the audience. They have multi-colored hair that is styled straight up. In reaction to the flares and much more frequent than the flares are minimonos; they have ultra-straight hair falling down past their shoulders and uniform monochrome colored clothes. Anyway, the ... ...d projecting its evolution in the future, he is not intimidated, therefore he is able to enjoy himself in explaining this concept or technology. Furthermore, because the author is reflecting off of a society so obsessed with detail, he is obligated to present his story is such a detailed fashion. Basically, I think, that if cyberpunk fiction fulfills its purpose then the four criteria will fall naturally into place and therefore these four criteria build the backbone of the definition of cyberpunk. Works Cited Sterling, Bruce, Ed. Mirrorshades. New York: Arbor House, 1988. Cadigan, Pat. "Rock On" Shirley, John. "Freezone" Browning, Tonya, Ed. Writing About Cyberpunk. Austin: Abel's Copies, 1995. McCaffrey, Larry. Storming the Reality Studio Gibson, William. "Johnny Mnemonic" Tiptree, James Jr. "The Girl Who Was Plugged In"

Decisions to Drop the Bombs on Japan Essay -- World War 2 II Two Bombs

Decisions to Drop the Bombs on Japan War in itself is an atrocity, to kill or be killed in the name of whatever government chooses to go to war over. Taking lives in order to save lives is the most outrageous oxymoron ever heard, yet during the end of WWII taking the lives of Japanese people saved America from fighting on home soil. Many factors play a role in the final decision to drop the atomic warheads on America's enemy, yet in the end after all is said and done America was simply defending her land and right for freedom. America was under attack in a war fought on foreign soil. No one wanted the war to be brought on American soil and all American's wanted the war to be over to assure safety of the American people. The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were necessary to bring the war with Japan to an immediate halt. Dropping of the A-bomb took thousands of lives and rendered many others sick while completely destroying in total two entire cities. The force of the first atomic bomb (Hiroshima, code name: "Little Boy") was equivalent to 12.5 kilotons of TNT and the second bomb (Nagasaki, code name "Fat Man") was equivalent to 20 kilotons of TNT (Clancey). It is difficult to fathom the power held within each bomb. Twenty thousand tons of dynamite! To dream of dropping this much power on any living thing is total genocide. Many members of the atomic bomb scientists because of the tremendous power each nuclear reaction would generate had discouraged the u...

Critique of the paintings by the artist A.E. Backus Essay

Albert Ernest â€Å"Beanie† Backus is a gifted painter born on January 3, 1906 in Ft. Pierce, Florida. He studied at the Parsons School of Applied Art in New York but his talent in creating wonderful works of art is considered to be only self thought. He devoted his time in creating Florida landscapes after he came from the war and his works became widely popular through his exhibitions in Miami and Palm Beach. (â€Å"A. E. Backus: A brief biography,† 2007) Backus is famous for his creative works that feature picturesque Florida views like sunsets, the vistas of the Everglades, and spectacular beach and river views. One of his artworks, titled the â€Å"Early Taylor Creek† was in fact a nice example in his set of landscapes. Created in memory of S. N. Baruch, this work of art shows a view of a boat resting on a side of a creek with palm trees and a house looming on its background. The outlines of the shapes and lines are not overly emphasized and are applied in light strokes creating a wispy sort of image to the view. The colors used are mostly in the hues of light green, brown, and blue giving the impression of solemnity and mildness to the artwork. The shading of the colors in the picture is applied subtly while the texture gives a rather unrealistic and semi-solid sense of touch on the surface because of the way the lines are applied in wispy strokes. (â€Å"Permanent Collection,† 2007) When it comes to the application of the principles of design, this work of art can undoubtedly be considered as one having a nice visual balance. The informal type is used in this work wherein unlike objects are placed on either side of the picture to create the illusion of balance. With the boat serving as the central point, Backus created equilibrium by painting a clump of trees on the right side and pairing it with the picture of the house, an expanse of grass, and a withered trunk on the left. (â€Å"Principles of Design,† 2007) Variety is the principle that artists use to make a certain artwork interesting by creating complex relationships in their works to make it appealing and lively. For some painters, however, the concept of variety is out of the question when they want simplicity to rule in their creations. Here in Early Taylor’s Creek, the principle of simplicity is the one used because it displays elegance despite of its plainness in subject. The boat resting on the side of the creek and the house on its background, on the other hand, shows the application of the principle of emphasis since these are the objects that stood out most on the painting. (â€Å"Principles of Design,† 2007) When it comes to contrast, the concept of low contrast is applied in this work since the colors used are mainly in the same hues and the shapes doesn’t give an impression of obvious difference on the whole of the artwork. Repetition is displayed here by the withering trunks on both the left and right side of the picture and it also showed good rhythm by the way Backus painted the trees and the grass swaying in the same direction to emphasize movement. Also, the principle of scale showed here are shown in correct proportions to the standard size references of the actual objects making it look realistic in nature. The spacing of the objects in the picture is done well and the motions as well as depth are also simply well-displayed. (â€Å"Principles of Design,† 2007) Backus has an unrequited passion for wildlife and plants and through his natural talent; he was able to produce captivating paintings of tropical flowers and other flora. One of his particular favorite as his subject is the hibiscus which is a native in Hawaii and Malaysia. One of his paintings featuring this ubiquitous flower is his work called the â€Å"Offering to the gods† which features a native mask standing amidst a background of several leaves with a red hibiscus lying on its side. (â€Å"Wikipedia,† 2007) Studying the elements and the principles of designs applied to it, this artwork can be well considered as the opposite of Early Taylor’s Creek. The lines and shapes used here are well defined and geometric compared to the earlier landscape giving it a solid and distinct impression. The colors used here are mostly in black and in shades of dark brown, green, and red which gave it a rather gloomy and mysterious kind of feel. The shading applied also added to the factor of the artwork’s shadowy appearance. Due to the smooth application of strokes and the defined lines, the Offering to the gods was able to attain the kind of solidity that lacked in Early Taylor’s creek. (â€Å"Backusgallery. com,† 2007) In examining the principles of design used here, it is noticeable that this creation didn’t use the principle of balance. All the weight is placed on the left side of the picture because of the mask and the clump of leaves behind it. Only the hibiscus flower was placed on the right but its bright red color somehow made up to its lack of size when compared to the dull colors of the objects painted on the left side. Simplicity isn’t also applied here because when you first look at the picture, you will quickly notice the stand out image of the mask looming over the startling red hibiscus lying prone on its side. (â€Å"Principles of Design,† 2007) When it comes to the principle of variety, what lacked in Early Taylor’s Creek was abundant here in this work. Because of this picture’s mystifying look, it possessed a certain complexity that only the aspects of variety can only give. However, emphasis is hard to distinguish in this artwork because there are only two subjects painted here and both are certainly noticeable. The native mask can be considered as the focal point of the painting because of its appearance and size but the hibiscus can also be taken in as the important subject because its bright red color stands out from the shadowy background of green, brown, and black. On the other hand, the concept of high contrast is used here because of the emphasis of the color of the hibiscus over the shades of the mask, leaves and the background. (â€Å"Principles of Design,† 2007) The concept of repetition is out of the topic since the two subjects here are far different from each other. The principle of scale, however, was quite noticeable in this painting because of the monumental size of the mask over the hibiscus flower. Motion is not applied since the subjects portray a fixed position and the principle of rhythm is also disregarded since it is connected to the concept of repetition. The depth possessed by the artwork is also unfathomable because of the mysterious and gloomy quality brought by its subjects. (â€Å"Principles of Design,† 2007) The Early Taylor’s Creek piece is more appealing to me because of its sheer simplicity and elegance. Its concept is also easy to understand and interpret compared to the dark ‘feel’ that the Offerings to the gods give. I also find that the principles of design are well applied here because the concepts of balance are applied soundly and the lack of variety makes people to easily connect with the message it communicates. Movement and rhythm are also very well handled making this painting more realistic in nature. The Offerings to the gods’ concept may be appealing because of its mystifying aura but Early Taylor’s Creek is still my choice because of the light and placid feel it displays. References: Backusgallery. com. (2007). A. E. Backus: A brief biography. (2007). Permanent Collection. (2007). Principles of Design. (2007). Wikipedia. (2007).