Global Warming Endangers the Lives of Grizzly Bears :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

Global Warming Endangers the Lives of Grizzly Bears There are less then 1000 grizzly bears left in the lower 48 United States, around 400 of them live in Yellowstone National Park. These endangered, and beautiful bears, are threatened by many factors, most significantly the fragmentation of their habitat by roads. The latest threat to this species is the Global Warming trend that is threatening the White Bark Pine Tree, which is very important to the grizzly bear diet. Grizzly bears need to eat a great deal of fat in the fall in order to prepare for hibernation. Female grizzlies who don't get enough fat may develop fertility problems. White Bark Pine trees produce pine nuts that are considered to be the grizzly bears favorite food and provide up to 40% of the fat they need. Global Warming threatens the White Bark Pine in two ways. First it reduces the area in which the trees can grow. They depend on a cool, alpine habitat, so as the climate warms they are forced to grow higher on the mountains. Since mountains are conical the higher they go, the less space there is for them to grow. Second, the warming climate creates fog banks in which European Blister Rust thrives. European Blister Rust is a plant disease that was accidentally introduced into the Pacific Northwest in 1906. Blister Rust girdles the infected tree, eventually killing it. Since the introduction of this disease more than 98% of White Bark Pine stands in the northwest have been destroyed. In recent years Blister Rust has been noted getting closer and closer to Yellowstone Park. White Bark Pine stands in Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta and Blackfoot Reservation, Montana have suffered serious declines. Nearly 30% of the White Bark Pines in these areas have been killed and more than 70% of the remaining, living trees are infected. In the past five years Blister Rust has been seen in Gallatin National Forest, just south of Yellowstone, where Yellowstone grizzlies often forage for food. How does this threat to the White Bark Pine Tree also threaten Grizzly Bears? In two ways. First since the White Bark Pine Tree provides as much as 40% of the fat requirement of grizzlies, the loss of the White Bark Pine directly threatens the fertility of female grizzlies. With only 400 grizzlies living in an isolated pocket around Yellowstone Park, a threat to their fertility is a grave threat to their very existence.

If Martin Luther King Were Ali :: essays research papers

Martin Luther King was such an inspirational leader because he appealed to not only the black population, but he appealed to all people who believed in equality and freedom. He was viewed as a clean cut, all round good man, and unlike other leaders in the movement for racial equality, did not have un-orthodox, radical views. Since people did not see him as a threat, but as a peaceful man, leading a movement, he was easy to support. For example: People are more likely to agree with a man who explains something in a non-violent, nice way, than someone who uses mud slinging, name calling, and violence to express a view.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I believe that if Martin Luther King were alive today, that he would still continue to inspire, and lead the civil rights movement the way he did when he was alive. Martin Luther King was not just a leader of blacks, looking for equality, but as a leader of a revolution that affected all races and genders. No one like him has made such a difference in America since him, so nobody would honestly know what kind of difference Dr King would make today in the 90’s. However, in such a racial tension filled decade, a leader like Dr King, would most likely defend the rights of the rightless, and be the voice of the voiceless, as he was more than 30 years ago.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I think that Martin Luther King would make a tremendous amount of change in cases of mistreated Americans. Incidents such as the Rodney King beating, and Reginald Denny. Along with the cases of Abner Louima and Amadou Diallo. They were all classified as racial crimes, and all created a large amount of racial tension. Dr King was very good at defusing tension like that. He never preached radical opinions about violence or the such, just about all races getting along. Especially during the Rodney King riots in California, Martin Luther King could have made a huge difference. Instead of speaches of black pride that maybe fueled tension, I believe Dr. King would have preached Equality, and unification instead.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I somewhat believe that the death of Dr. King was a conspiracy. So many questions about the assassination have not been answered, and the ones that have, are filled with loopholes. I think that the government knows more than they tell us they do, but maybe not knowing certain things is better.

Public Administration Essay

DEFINING PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION When people think about government, they think of elected officials. The attentive public knows these officials who live in the spotlight but not the public administrators who make governing possible; it generally gives them little thought unless it is to criticize â€Å"government bureaucrats.† Yet we are in contact with public administration almost from the moment of birth, when registration requirements are met, and our earthly remains cannot be disposed of without final administrative certification. Our experiences with public administrators have become so extensive that our society may be labeled the â€Å"administered society†. Various institutions are involved in public administration. Much of the policy-making activities of public administration is done by large, specialized governmental agencies (micro-administration). Some of them are mostly involved with policy formulation, for example, the Parliament or Congress. But to implement their decisions public administration also requires numerous profit and nonprofit agencies, banks and hospitals, district and city governments (macro-administration). Thus, public administration may be defined as a complex political process involving the authoritative implementation of legitimated policy choices. Public administration is not as showy as other kinds of politics. Much of its work is quiet, small scale, and specialized. Part of the administrative process is even kept secret. The anonymity of much public administration raises fears that government policies are made by people who are not accountable to citizens. Many fear that these so-called faceless bureaucrats subvert the intensions of elected officials. Others see administrators as mere cogs in the machinery of government. But whether in the negative or positive sense, public administration is policy making. And whether close to the centers of power or at the street level in local agencies, public administrators are policy makers. They are the translators and tailors of government. If the elected officials are visible to the public, public administrators are the anonymous specialists. But without their knowledge, diligence, and creativity, government would be ineffective and inefficient. HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION Large-scale administrative organization has existed from early times. The ancient empires of Egypt, Persia, Greece, Rome, China, and later the Holy Roman Empire as well as recent colonial empires of Britain, Spain, Russia, Portugal, and France – they all organized and maintained political rule over wide areas and large populations by the use of quite a sophisticated administrative apparatus and more or less skilled administrative functionaries. The personal nature of that rule was very great. Everything depended on the emperor. The emperor in turn had to rely on the personal loyalty of his subordinates, who maintained themselves by the personal support from their underlings, down to rank-and file personnel on the fringes of the empire. The emperor carried an enormous work load reading or listening to petitions, policy arguments, judicial claims, appeals for favors, and the like in an attempt to keep the vast imperial machine functioning. It was a system of favoritism and patronage. In a system based on personal preferment, a change of emperor disrupted the entire arrangements of government. Those who had been in favor might now be out of favor. Weak rulers followed strong rulers, foolish monarchs succeeded wise monarchs – but all were dependent on the army, which supplied the continuity that enabled the empire to endure so long. In the absence of institutional, bureaucratic procedures, government moved from stability to near anarchy and back again. Modern administrative system is based on objective norms (such as laws, rules and regulations) rather than on favoritism It is a system of offices rather than officers. Loyalty is owed first of all to the state and the administrative organization. Members of the bureaucracy, or large, formal, complex organizations that appeared in the recent times, are chosen for their qualification rather than for their personal connections with powerful persons. When vacancies occur by death, resignation, or for other reasons, new qualified persons are selected according to clearly defined rules. Bureaucracy does not die when its members die. BUSINESS MANAGEMENT AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION In the studies of the 1880s and later scholars have collected an impressive body of data how best to carry out and manage routine operations to gain productivity in industry. Principles of scientific business management were worked out and people were trained to follow them. Later successful business was seen as the model for the proper management of government, and the field of public administration was seen as a field of business, because management of all organizations in both the fields involves planning the activities and establishing goals; organizing work activities; staffing and training; directing or decision-making; coordinating to assure that the various work activities come together; report-  ing the status of work and problems to both supervisors and subordinates; and budgeting to assure that work activities correspond to fiscal planning, accounting, and control. Some scholars argued that administration is a more general term and a more generic process than management. Administration takes place at factories, schools, hospitals, prisons, insurance companies, or welfare agencies, whether these organizations were private or public. Accordingly they started speaking about business and public administration. There is an obvious difference between administration of business, or private organization, and administration of public organizations. Thus, the word public in ‘public administration’ is meaningful, and the study of public affairs will have to take into account not only management subjects common to both public and private sectors, but also the special environment in which the public servant has to live, an environment constituted of the mix of administration, policy making, and politics. And then, public organizations are more dependent on government allocations, more constrained by law, more exposed to political influences, and more difficult to evaluate than business organizations. These differences suggest caution in applying business management techniques to government agencies. Public Administration as an Academic Discipline Originally the discipline of public administration was not strong on theory. Early public administration was marked by a concern for applying the  principles of business management to a higher level of business – public affairs. The method of case study was borrowed from business schools and applied to public administration. It was a prescriptive method and it told the student what he â€Å"ought to do† and what he â€Å"should not do† in specific situations of managing of public agencies. But by and by public administration developed a theory and a method of investigation of its own. In the 1950s it began to borrow heavily from sociology, political science, psychology, and social psychology that led to the formation of organization theory that helps to understand the nature of human organizations. Then, the 1950s and 1960s witnessed a dramatic upsurge of professional and academic participation in comparative administration studies. Comparative administration was focused on the developing nations and the analysis of â€Å"transitional societies†. Considerable attention was paid to studies of particular areas of the world. There were detailed case-by-case examinations of administrative situations in both the developing countries and the older, established bureaucracies of the industrialized world. They developed elaborate and highly generalized models of development administration and managed to explain many development situations. Another situation that has drawn from the management science traditions is the emergence of public policy analysis as a major branch of public administration studies. Writings on decision-making took into account economic, political, psychological, historical, and even nonrational, or irrational processes. The National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) advocates public policy analysis as one of the subject areas that should be included in any comprehensive program in administration. An interesting development in American public administration in the late 1960s is known as the New Public Administration which was a reaction against the value-free positivism that had characterized much of American public administration thought since World War II. It reasserted the importance of normative values, particularly social justice. The disclosures of the Watergate scandals have reinforced these positions and stressed anew the importance of integrity, openness, and accountability in the conduct of public affairs. This concern for the needs of human beings in the modern world can be seen in the growth of consumer and environmental protection functions domestically, and pressure for human rights around the world. The politics  of public administration becomes increasingly interesting. Citizens, students, and scholars all round the world have come to understand the enormous impact of public administration on all of us, which is an important reason for the renaissance of their interest in public administration. SOME THEORETICAL ASPECTS   OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION Though there are different approaches to the field of public administration, this interdisciplinary subject nowadays has a quite strong theory that tries to take into account not only management subjects, but also the mix of administration, policy making, and politics. Let us consider some issues of this theory and start with organization theory common to both public and private sectors. The basic aspects of organization theory The terms public and private convey very different connotations to the general public. Public organizations are commonly pictured as large mazes that employ bureaucrats to create red tape; private organizations, on the other hand, are viewed to be run by hard-nosed managers who worry about profit and consumers. Public organizations are pictured as wasteful; private organizations are often presented as efficient. Yet these perceptions of their differences do not withstand careful scrutiny. Both types of organizations have much in common. Organization as bureaucracy Whether in business or government organizations, a dominant form of any administration is bureaucracy. Bureaucracies are generally defined as organizations that (1) are large, (2) hierarchical in structure with each employee accountable to the top executive through a chain of command, (3) provide each employee with a clearly defined role and area of responsibility, (4) base their decisions on impersonal rules, and (5) hire and promote employees taking into account their skills and training related to specific jobs. Bureaucracy has promise but it may also create problems  and abuses of power, especially in the absence of effective coordination. Organization as a dynamic change Then, both public and private organizations have a dilemma – the need for both stability and change. All organizations resist change as organizational change is often painful and destructive. Despite the need for new ideas, new approaches, and new types of employees, stability need usually dominates in organizations. And the forces of stability are stronger in public organizations. These institutions are generally insulated from survival concerns by legal mandates. Few of them declare bankruptcy despite serious doubts about their efficiency. Organization as human relations Both organizations, especially public organizations, are crowded with individuals. Individuals bring to organizations a complex mix of needs (both fundamental needs, as food, shelter, health care, and future security which are bought with money earned through work, and our highest spiritual needs to belong to a social group and to contribute to it, the need of self-actualization, esteem and recognition). To attract and keep people and to encourage dependable and innovative performance, organizations must take into account individual needs and motivation and satisfy them. Organizations should also make a system of various rewards that are powerful incentives for above-average performance. Pay, promotions, recognition, and others rewards are distributed by managerial staff. Social rewards like friendship, conversation, impact, satisfaction received from meaningful work appear in the process of work itself. The social rewards of some jobs are more obvious than others. Jobs with greater variety, responsibility, and challenge are inherently more rewarding while routine can generate lack of interest and boredom, and managers should take it into account. Organization as a structure of subgroups Most work in organizations depends on ensemble rather than solo effort, and is a mix of collaboration and interdependence. There are two basic groups in organizations: formal and informal. Formal groups (departments, committees) are identified and selected by organizational leaders, and their major  characteristics are organizational legitimacy and task orientation. Informal groups (sport groups, common lunch hours, etc.) are not created by management but evolve out of the rich social environment. Though people in these groups get together to share common interests, not to work, their activities in them (supporting friends, trading rumors, and so on) have a profound effects on work and are as important as formal assignments. Organization as a cultural product Organizations have not only tangible dimensions such as an office building, an organizational chart, products and services, specific individuals and groups. Organizations are cultural and meaning systems as well as places for work. The concept of culture is difficult to define. But when comparing organizations in different countries, their cultural differences are extremely vivid and important. Despite similar work and procedures, police departments, for example, in India, Germany and Japan differ greatly. Offering a small gift to a policeman may be considered corruption in one nation and a sign of respect in another. Organizations are also meaning systems as they provide meaning to our lives. Feelings and emotions as well as purpose are very important to work life of an organization. The despair of the unemployed goes deeper than financial worries; many feel lost, without significance. Both culture and emotions influence structure, effectiveness, and change in organizations. Organizations are not only places of production; they are also sites rich with symbols and bureaucrats and executives act as tribal leaders: they tell stories, repeat myths, and stage rites and ceremonials. The symbolic and cultural dimensions of organizations are increasingly viewed as essential to understanding individual organizations and their role in society. The environment of public administration When many people think of public administration as an activity, they visualize large offices crammed with rows of faceless bureaucrats sitting at desks and producing an endless stream of paperwork. But this view captures only few of the important things that professional civil servants actually do. Public administration also has many more participants, such as the  executive, the legislature, the courts, and organized groups, which are involved in the formulation and implementation of public policy. And if a public administrator focuses the attention on only some of them then others may become neglected and that may lead to the jeopardy of the entire program. Summing up what has been said, it is important to underline that the theory of public administration is very diverse, is rapidly developing and depends much on what we know about why humans behave as they do when they interact with each other. PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION PERSONNEL:  ROLE-TYPES, ROLE CONFLICTS, ROLE OVERLOADS Large organizations employ many individuals. Charismatic leaders, caring supervisors, innovative program directors, and numerous street-level employees lend individuality to the collective and character to the whole organization. One should also remember that higher moral and ethical standards are expected of public employees than of private employees, and that public managers work within very strict limits of legislation, executive orders, and regulations surrounding government. But unique contributions of individuals do not obscure their general patterns of behavior, or roles. A role is a predictable set of expectations and behaviors associated with an office or position. Like an actor assigned a part, cabinet secretaries, police officers, and policy analysts step into roles that are already largely defined. A person usually performs several roles and it may become a source of stress and overload. Role overload is more than just too much work, or overwork. Role overload exists when the demands of various roles overwhelm an individual’s ability to balance expectations, when the demands of one role make it difficult to fulfill the demands of others. The lawyer who must cancel an appointment to care for a sick child or the professor who neglects his students to fulfill administrative obligations is experiencing a role conflict. Viewing organization as a system of roles helps to identify rights and obligations of each employee. Roles provide the consistency that holds an organization together. An organization that falls apart when individuals leave has not built an adequate structure of roles. Although public organizations contain  many specific roles, five role-types – the political executive, desktop administrator, professional, street-level bureaucrat, and policy entrepreneur – are the most common. Political executives Political executives (the secretary of a State Department, the city manager, or the county administrator) occupy the top of public organizations. Although their jobs and responsibilities are different, they all perform the functions of a political aide, policy maker, and top administrator. In most cases, political executives are political appointees – elected officials give them their jobs. That is why, their position, their tenure, and their influence while in office derive from the authority of elected officials. The official who wins the election most commonly appoints loyal supporters. They are advisors for selected officials. Elected officials cannot do everything. They can do little more than point the general direction and scrutinize the final result. That is why political executives appointed by them are also policy makers. The political executive initiates, shapes, promotes, and oversees policy changes. They may also have responsibility for major decisions. The ultimate authority, however, rests with the elected official. Political executives are also top-level administrators. It is a difficult role. Public executives are legally responsible for implementing policy They must cut through the red tape, resistance of change, intra-organizational conflict to assure that the public is served well.. Those political executives who fail to reach down and get the support and enthusiasm of their agency personnel will effect little change in policy. But if they completely disregard the preferences, knowledge, and experience of their agencies, stalemate ensues. If they uncritically adopt the views of their elected officials or their agencies, they may lose influence with elected officials. Desktop administrators Desktop administrators are career civil servants down the hierarchy a few steps from political executives. They are middle managers and closely fit the general description of a bureaucrat. Whether a social worker supervisor or the director of a major government program, the desktop administrator  spends days filled with memoranda and meetings. The desktop administrators are torn between the promises and practicality of governing. Desk administrators guide policy intentions into policy actions that actually change, for better or worse, people’s life. If there is, for example, a public and political consensus that the government should assist poor blind people, the definition worked out by a desktop administrator to answer the question who is poor and who is blind, has a dramatic influence to the nature of the program. Desktop administrators differ fundamentally from political executives in that most of them are career civil servants. After a short probation period, most earn job tenure, and usually are not fired. Tenure insulates the civil service from direct political interference in the day-to-day working of government. Job tenure protects civil servants from losing their jobs, but they may be reassigned to less important jobs of equal rank if they lose favor with political executives. Professionals Professionals make up the third major role-type in public organizations. The original meaning of the term profession was a ceremonial vow made when joining a religious community. This vow followed years of training and some certification that the acquired knowledge and appropriate norms of behavior justified an individual’s initiation. Modern professionals receive standard specific training that ends with certification. They also learn values and norms of behavior. Increasingly the work of public organizations depends on professionals and more and more professionals are involved in public administration. The work of professionals involves applying their general knowledge to the specific case and requires considerable autonomy and flexibility. An important difference between professional and non-professional work is who evaluates performance. Nonprofessionals are evaluated by their immediate supervisors. Professionals assert their independence from supervisors. Their work is evaluated by peer review of their colleagues and that has flaws: fellow professionals are sometimes more willing to overlook the mistakes of colleagues for different reasons. Street-level bureaucrats Street-level bureaucrats (social workers, police officers, public school  teachers, public health nurses, job and drug-counselors, etc.) are at the bottom or near the bottom of public organizations. Their authority does not come from rank, since they are at the bottom of hierarchy, but from the discretionary nature of their work. They deal with people and people are complex and unpredictable, they are not the same and require individual attention. A common complaint about public bureaucrats is that they treat everyone like a number; they ignore unique problems and circumstances. But there are only general guidelines how to deal with people (an abusive parent, an arrested, poor, old or sick person), and it is impossible to write better guidelines to make everyone happy. Street-level administrator must use judgment to apply rules and laws to unique situations, and judgment requires discretion. Given limited resources, public organizations want fewer, not more clients, and this is an important difference between public and private organizations, which attract more clients to earn more profit. And dependence of clients on street-level bureaucrats often create conflicts. Street-level bureaucrats work in situations that defy direct supervision. Even when supervisors are nearby, much work with clients is done privately. Most paperwork and computerized information systems attempt to control street-level bureaucrats, who in turn become skilled in filling out forms to satisfy supervisors while maintaining their own autonomy. Street-level bureaucrats are also policy-makers. They often decide what policies to implement, their beliefs can affect their work with clients, they may interpret the policy to benefit clients and vice versa, and thus they may change the policy while implementing it. Policy entrepreneurs The policy entrepreneur is generally considered to be the charismatic person at the top, though they can exist at all levels of an organization. They are strongly committed to specific programs and are strong managers. They are skilled in gathering support and guiding an idea into reality. The role requires conceptual leadership, strategic planning, and political activism. This role is both necessary and dangerous. They take risks and push limits, which is necessary for a dynamic government, but they also bend rules and sometimes lead policy astray. PERSONNEL ADMINISTRATION: STAFFING  AND TRAINING THE AGENCY An important task in the management of any enterprise, private or public, is the recruiting, selecting, promoting, and terminating of personnel and employee training. Recruiting Once jobs have been created, the recruitment starts, i.e. finding people to fill those jobs. Public administration in the United States has come a long way from the time of Andrew Jackson, when, in the popular view, government jobs could be performed by any individuals (or at least any men) with normal intelligence. Under Jackson and his successors, frequent rotation on office was encouraged; no particular prior training or experience was necessary for most jobs. Merit systems were designed for the most part to keep out the grossly incompetent, not to attract the highly qualified. Gradually, the pattern changed. The government began attracting especially competent applicants. Openings were more highly publicized, recruiting visits were made to college and university campuses, and wages were made more nearly competitive with those in the private sector. Active efforts were made to attract individuals who, in earlier times, would have been excluded from public employment because of their ethnic or racial backgrounds or because they were women. Examining and selecting Once applications have been received, the next step in the personnel process is examination. The term examination does not refer only to a pencil-and-paper test. Some judgments are made on the basis of an unassembled examination. That is, the application form itself may require sufficient information to permit the assignment of a score based on reported experience and education and on references. Another possibility, especially important for jobs requiring particular skills, is performance examination. Some jobs call for an oral examination, particularly those for which communication skills are especially important. One examination of special importance is the Professional and Administrative Career Examination (PACE). PACE is intended to select candidates for federal government careers rather than for particular jobs. The personnel agency (e.g. Civil Service Commission) considers the list with the names of the individuals with the highest examination scores from which it chooses the new employee. Considerable discretion is allowed in making the final choice. Following selection, the new employee is likely to serve a probationary period, often six months, during which removal is relatively easy. Personnel managers encourage supervisors to see this as an extension of the testing procedure, but few employees are, in fact, dismissed during this period. Evaluation The evaluation of employee performance is a further personnel function. Recently, the trend has been to formalize rating schemes and to regularize feedback to employees. Where possible, objective measures of the work completed are employed. In jobs where this is not possible, supervisors are encouraged to judge performance as accurately as possible using impressionistic techniques. By supplying a continuing record of performance, such evaluation can protect employees from capricious actions of a subjective supervisor. Continuing education in the public service Government is deeply involved with the further education and training of the employees. This involvement may range from relatively simple, in-house training sessions – even on-the-job training – to the financing of undergraduate or graduate education. Many universities, in cooperation with government agencies, have developed special programs for public employees, and the courses typically lasting for a week, may be conducted either at a university campus or at an agency site. The Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville, Virginia, established in 1968, operated by the Civil Service Commission, provides managerial training for high-level federal executives. The commission also has regional training centers located throughout the country. Public personnel are also often given leaves for a semester or a year by their agency to pursue a degree at the doctoral level (the Doctor of Public Administration) or to fulfill a master’s program. ELEMENTS AND MODELS OF A DECISION-MAKING PROCESS We all make decisions all the time. Some are small; some will have ramifications throughout our lives. Sometimes we make snap judgments that in retrospect seem wise. Other times we carefully weigh the pros and cons but are betrayed by fate. Often the most important decisions are nondecisions: we put things off, choose to ignore problems, or to avoid situations or people and later discover that inaction has consequences just as important as those resulting from action. Four processes of decision-making Whether small or large, short- or long-term, studied or impulsive, decision-making involves four major elements: problem definition, information search, choice, and evaluation. They are not sequential, they occur simultaneously. And it is often difficult to identify when a decision process begins and ends as most important choices are ongoing. Problem definition The first step in defining a problem is recognizing that it exists. Then, problems are plentiful; attention is scare. Selecting a problem for attention and placing it on the policy agenda is the most important element in policy making. When a problem is given attention, it gains focus and takes shape. How a problem is defined affects how it is addressed. The problem of the homeless is a good example. The people without home have always been with us. Most often they have been seen as people who because of their own weaknesses could not find work and afford homes. They were dismissed as drunks and drifters. So defined, the homeless remained a problem in the background – a problem for the Salvation Army, not the government. But as their number grew, we began to take a closer look. We saw individuals discharged from mental institutions, the unemployed whose benefits had expired, and families unable to afford decent home. And we started seeing â€Å"the homeless† as people in desperate situations. This change in our perception altered the decision process. Homelessness is now a focus of policy debate. Information search When we are only vaguely aware that a problem exists, our first step is often to learn more about it, and this learning is an important step in the decision-making. Acid rain is a good example. First in Europe and then in North America, people noticed that trees were dying, and a few scientists began to ask why. Pollution and changes in climate were explored. Out of this active search for information the problem gained definition: air pollution is killing trees. Then, the solutions were considered. Reducing acid rains requires costly reduction in pollution created in regions often at great distance from the dying trees. Thus, the information defined the nature of the policy-making. Information has always been central to governing, and governments are primary sponsors of research both in the sciences and humanities. Such research is driven by the interests of scholars and may not have immediate relevance to policy debate. But it may have important policy implications. For example, advances in lasers and genetic engineering influence defense and social policy in ways unanticipated by scientists or their government sponsors. Choice As problems are defined and information about problems and outcomes is examined, choices emerge. Weighing options and selecting are the most visible decision-making processes.  Sometimes choices are difficult and taking decisions is very hard, especially when choices are not clear and their results are unpredictable. Should we negotiate with terrorists? Do we want to save the lives of hostages, as family members prefer, or do we want to eliminate any incentive for future terrorism? The selection process does not necessarily require reasoned judgments; the compromises of group decision-making often produce results that only few individuals prefer; satisfying single interests often means ignoring the interests of others. Evaluation Decisions do not end with choices among alternatives. Decision-making  involves evaluating the effects and actions. Evaluation may be formal (an official study of the results produced by a new government program) or informal (scanning the news, talking to colleagues). Whether formal or informal, evaluation is another form of information gathering after the choice. The distinction between information search and evaluation is arbitrary. Before decision makers reach conclusions, most try to anticipate outcomes. The most difficult aspect of evaluating choices is establishing the criteria. The most common criterion is the result – if things turn out well we feel that we made the right choice. But in this case we may confuse good luck with good decision-making (consider the decision to have a surgery: all surgery involves risk, and if a person chooses to take the very slight risk to remove a small tumor and dies during surgery, was the decision wrong?). Results are not universal criteria for the quality of a decision. The evaluation of any decision-making must involve looking at results and processes as well as the situation faced by decision makers. Models of decision-making There is no right or wrong way to make decisions. Sometimes cautious deliberation is the best path; at other times risks are required. But scholars speak about two broad categories of models of decision-making: rational and nonrational models. Rational decisions are choices based on judgment of preferences and outcomes. They are not always turn out best and they do not eliminate the possibility of failure. Sometimes the goal is so important that it is rational to choose an option with little promise of payoff. Opting for experimental surgery is a rational choice over a life of pain. In nonrational models choices do not result from the deliberate balancing of pros and cons. These models share the assumption that the mix of rules and participants shape choices, and that decisions result from the varying (though not necessarily accidental) mix of ingredients. Most of governmental decisions are within these models. The decision process there is too complex to take into account multiple goals, alternatives and impacts of every alternative; the time required to take a decision is too short; the  finances are too thin to provide long researches. Taken to extremes, rational models reduce human judgment to computation, and nonrational models portray decision outcomes as the result of forces beyond individual control.  Both rational and nonrational models of the decision process are products of value-neutral social science. Values enter rational decision models only in the form of preferences, but they are generally defined in terms of self-interest. An emerging view of decision-making places a stronger emphasis on decisions as value statements. LEADERSHIP Leadership is the direction and guiding of other participants in the organization. Leadership differs in degree. Transactional leaders exchange rewards for services. They guide subordinates in recognizing and clarifying roles and tasks. They give their subordinates the direction, support, and confidence to fulfill their role expectations. They also help subordinates understand and satisfy their own needs and desires. They encourage better than average performance from their subordinates. They are good managers. Transformational leadership is more dramatic. Transformational leaders change the relationship of the subordinate and the organization. They encourage subordinates to go well beyond their original commitments and expectations. If transactional leaders expect diligence, transformational leaders foster devotion. These leaders have the ability to reach the souls of others to raise human consciousness. They raise the level of awareness and encourage people to look beyond their sel f-interest. Both forms of leadership are important. When people in positions of authority encourage subordinates to believe that their work is important – not merely a fair exchange of pay for work – motivation, commitment, and performance surpass routine expectations. Leadership is required for major changes and new directions, and without leadership government easily stagnates. When things go well or poorly we credit or blame the leader. We look for leadership in candidates for high office. But can we determine which job candidates are â€Å"natural born† leaders? Can we train employees so that they develop the required personality characteristics to become effective leaders? Over many years, investigators have hoped to identify leadership traits. It is  extremely difficult to know precisely what traits such diverse political leaders as Napoleon Bonaparte, Luther King, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Indira Ghandi, and Adolf Hitler shared in common. Yet many researches have attempted to identify universal characteristics of leadership and the following classification of the leadership traits is suggested: 1)capacity (intelligence, verbal facility, originality, judgment); 2)achievement (scholarship, knowledge, athletic accomplishments); 3)responsibility (dependability, initiative, persistence, aggressiveness, self-confidence, desire to excel); 4)participation (activity, sociability, cooperation, adaptability, humor); 5)status (socioeconomic position, popularity). Yet this list is not very helpful. Particular traits are neither necessary nor sufficient to become a leader. There are brilliant thinkers and talkers who are not leaders, and there are people who are not very intelligent and not blessed with verbal facility who are obvious leaders. The holding of a degree does not say enough of the holder and whether he would fit into a particular situation. In some situations the manager’s superior education may be even resented by less well educated organization members. It is obvious that some managers are better leaders than others, and if psychological traits do not explain the variations, what is the explanation? Some investigators emphasize the situational character of leadership. The ingredients of this parameter of leadership are the following: †¢status, or position power – the degree to which the leader is enabled to get the group members to comply with and accept his or her leadership (but leadership should not be confused with high position – holding high office does not guarantee impact; despite the leader’s formal power, he or she did not always get from subordinates the performance that was desired); †¢leader-member relations – acceptance of the leader by members and their loyalty to him or her; †¢task-structure – the degree to which the jobs of the followers are well defined; †¢ability to recognize the most critical needs for organization members at the moment (physiological needs for food, sleep, etc. or safety needs for freedom from fear, for security and stability; needs for love, friends and contact; esteem needs for self-respect and the respect of others or needs for self-actualization, for a chieving one’s potential). Defining leadership is a very difficult task but  rejecting the study of leadership would impoverish our understanding of governing.

An Explication of Beowulf’s Monologue About His Past

Katie Taylor EH 215 Volf 4 February 2013 Beowulf’s Past Beowulf is an epic poem that is filled with episodes and digressions that provide a better understanding of the poem as a whole. In one of the episodes, Beowulf speaks of his past, and the reader can learn about his upbringing as a child and how it has affected him as an adult. This monologue also gives some information about King Hrethel and his sons. The main purpose of this anecdote, however, is to describe how and when Beowulf began his career of combat and fame.Within Beowulf’s monologue, the author utilizes alliterations and kenning to help the poem flow and to emphasize the strength and valor of Beowulf as an epic hero. One such example is the kenning used at the beginning of the episode. It reads, â€Å"Beowulf, son of Ecgtheow, spoke†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (2425). Instead of the phrasing reading â€Å"Beowulf spoke,† this phrase adds vigor to the beginning. It reinforces the idea that Beowulf is seen as an extremely powerful hero that can take on anything that comes his way as opposed to â€Å"just Beowulf. If â€Å"son of Ecgtheow† were not used, Beowulf would seem almost boring compared to the magnificent, heroic image that comes to mind when this phrase is employed. Alliteration is also used to allow the poem to flow and also to provide an interesting element to otherwise bland sentences. â€Å"While I was in his ward he treated me no worse as a wean†¦Ã¢â‚¬  is referring to King Hrethel’s â€Å"adoption† of Beowulf after his father died (2432).The repetition of the W sound allows easy movement through the story that Beowulf tells, and it keeps the reader interested in what is being said. Another example of alliteration is the lines 2479-2480: â€Å"My own kith and kin avenged these evil events, as everybody knows†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Without any sound repetition, the reader would become bored with the story, but the author strategically places these examples of alliteration in the epic to provide more exciting details. Along with these rhetorical devices, this passage gives significant details bout Beowulf’s upbringing. The reader learns that Beowulf’s father Ecgtheow dies when Beowulf is only seven years old. King Hrethel takes him in, though, and treats him like one of his own sons. Later, the king’s oldest son Herebeald is accidentally killed by his younger brother Haethcyn. King Hrethel is so depressed that he lay down and dies from grief. Afterward, there is a battle between the Swedes and the Geats, in which Hrethel’s son Haethcyn, the new king, is killed in battle.Hygelac, the last son of Hrethel and now the new king of the Geats, gave Beowulf treasure and land for fighting alongside them. This battle seems to be one of the first that Beowulf participated in. He says, â€Å"I marched ahead of him [Hygelac], always there at the front of the line; and I shall fight like that for as long as I live†¦ † (2497-2499). After that first battle, Beowulf launched himself into a life of war and fame, constantly craving the recognition and treasures that came after a successful battle or killing.Beowulf’s monologue about his past allows readers into his mind so that they can understand why he fights the way he does and where he came from in the first place. Without this episode, the poem as a whole would suffer because there would be no back story to explain Beowulf’s desire to defeat monsters and achieve the fame that he thinks he deserves. Perhaps he is making up for the fact that his father died when he was so young: he is trying to live a life that would make his father proud that Beowulf was his son.

What can we learn from the product management of Microsoft Vista, and Essay

What can we learn from the product management of Microsoft Vista, and how to apply the lessons learned in managing digital products in general - Essay Example Product management is an organizational function within a company dealing with the planning or marketing of a product or products at all stages of the product lifecycle. Product management is also a collective term used to describe the broad sum of diverse activities performed in the interest of delivering a particular product to market" (Wikipedia, 2008). The purpose of this paper is to deter what we can learn from the product management of Microsoft Vista, as well as how to apply the lessons learned in managing digital products in general.The features of Windows Vista differ according to the edition: Ultimate, Home Premium, Home Basic, Business, or Enterprise. According to Microsoft, "Ultimate provides the power, security, and mobility features needed for work, and all the entertainment features that you want for fun" (2008). They claim that Home Premium, "provides a breakthrough design that brings your world into sharper focus while delivering the productivity, entertainment, and security you need from your PC at home or on the go" (2008). Their description of Home Basic is that "Easy to set up and maintain, it enables you to quickly find what you're looking for on your PC and the Internet, while providing a more secure environment to help protect you from an unpredictable world" (2008). They argue that with their Business version, users will "spend less time on technology support-related issues-so you can spend more time making your business successful" (2008). Finally, they claim that Enterprise was "Designed to significantly lower IT costs and risks, Windows Vista Enterprise meets the needs of large, global organizations with complex IT infrastructures" (2008). Physical products have several advantages over digital products, but there are also some disadvantages. First of all, pictures or actual representations or examples of physical products can be shown. Second, many shoppers know that they often get a real bargain when they shop for physical items online versus in a store, and the convenience of being able to shop from anywhere is second to none. Finally, physical products that are online appeal to a much larger and diverse pool of shoppers than those that are in stores in any given city. The downsides of physical products include that they are often expensive to ship, some physical products are perishable, and the inventory must be stored somewhere which is often a significant additional expense to the seller (Collins, 2007). Digital products have their advantages and disadvantages as well. First of all, there is no storage space needed other than for electronic storage. There is no need to worry about shipping, as customers can download the products. The downsides of digital products include vulnerability to computer problems, equipment maintenance costs, and the need for Internet with higher bandwidth (Collins, 2007). According to Wikipedia, "In business and engineering, new product development (NPD) is the term used to describe the complete process of bringing a new product or service to market. There are two parallel paths involved in the NPD process: one involves the idea generation, product design, and detail engineering; the other involves market research and marketing analysis. Companies typically see new product development as the first stage in generating and commercializing new products within the overall strategic process of product life cycle management used to maintain or grow their market share" (2008). This concept applies to digital products just as much as it does physical products. The following is a model of the new product development process. It shows the process starting with discovery, and then continuing on to exploration, scoping, building the business case, development, testing and validation, launch and, finally, post launch review. The strategic planning contained in such a

Why Natural Farming is better than Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) Research Paper

Why Natural Farming is better than Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) - Research Paper Example It was an excellent narration to illustrate the various sources of our food that can be had either from industrialized farms which utilizes GMO, to large scale organic farming to hunting (2006). In the same vein, the movie Food Inc by Robert Kenner Food Inc. demonstrates how industrial food makers through the massive use of GMO corn have altered our eating habits. Both the book and movie illustrated that industrial farm factory does not reveal the true cost of our food. While it may initially priced to be cheaper, the true cost is concealed in terms of undermining our health and the environment. This was more vividly illustrated in the movie Food Inc. where corn are also being fed to cows which is now fast becoming as part of our staple food causing us obesity and other health issues. The lethal contamination of E.coli that was induced by cows being in their manure during production was also illustrated with a kid dying just few days after consuming a contaminated burger. In effect, both Pollan’s book The Omnivore’s dilemma: a natural history of four meals and Robert Kenner’s movie Food Inc. illustrated that the source of our food is becoming a factory and is no longer grown the way it used to be. Worst, industrial farm factory and the use of GMOs are even packaged to be a better food source than organic farming (2008). Perhaps it was to illustrate the importance of organic farming over factory farming that uses genetically modified corn that Pollan showed his fascination on a farm where different species can be raised together in a theme of symbiosis (Pollan 126). The grower called himself a â€Å"grass farmer† to demonstrate that grass is the foundation of the intricate food chain. II. The rise of the Genetically Modified Organism agricultural products The debate over organic farming and Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) crop farming is still as intense when GMOs first caught the public attention. Each mode of farming the crop ar e pushing its advantage over the other as a better source of food with GMO gaining wider acceptance because of its putative efficiency in producing the crops. Genetically Modified Organism came to public attention in September of 2000 when the business section of the New York Times ran a frontpage story about an issue in the food supply. A new genetically engineered corn that contains a protein Cry9C which was supposed to be used as an animal feed was found in a nationally sold tacos (Kelso and Takahashi I). Despite of the issue, genetically modified crops have gained wide acceptance in the United States that it now contains more than 40% of soybeans, cotton and corn that is sold in supermarkets (Sakko). Crops have been modified to grow efficiently requiring fewer herbicides with some crops designed to be resistant to insects and pests. There were also crops whose genomes were altered to produce certain vitamins such as the Golden rice which has been said to contain Vitamin A. Genet ic alteration is not only limited to crops but is also used in trees and other animals (Sakko). III. The debate: why natural farming is better than Genetically Modified Organism? The most common reason used by the proponents of Genetically Modified Organism factory farming is that they are cheaper to produce and is a practical option to provide food to people worldwide (Royal Society of Chemistry). They are also said to be efficient because crops can be improved through genetic engineering to become more resistant to pests with an enhanced nutrient value at a lower production cost. Proponents of GMO’s are also highlighting the advantage of genetically improved crops to be more profitable because they can be grown faster. Proponents of organic farming on the other raised the advantages of organically raised foods over genetically

International Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

International Marketing - Essay Example 63-65, 1996). Yet, the fundamental question remains and revolves around the reason of why shall the company use the services of consultants for the same and why the internal talent be utilized for the same. There are many reasons in this regard. Firstly, strategy building is a difficult and painful exercise since it requires making hard and avoidable choices. In fact, strategy builders have to get out of their comfort zones and take decisions to undertake discussions, which they would have not even imagined under normal circumstances. It has been an observation (Porter, pp. 69-74, 1996) that at times, it becomes extremely difficult for the company to make those choices considering the human and emotional constraints. This also explains why many Chinese and Japanese companies avoid having clear and well-defined strategies since the process of the same would require them to go against their culture of collectivism, uncertainty avoidance and achieving consensus for every decision (OMahoney, pp. 64-6 9, 2010). Quite understandably, when managers are making the strategies, there is a high probability that the emotional element would get into the process to make it more biased. Many companies successfully develop good strategies but fail to execute them; however, it would be a complete disaster if the company designs a biased and mediocre strategy and then executes it with all possible energies (Curnow & Reuvid, pp. 79-84, 2003). Furthermore, over the years, the field of strategic management has developed to great limits. New complexities, inventions, and use of latest tools, ever-changing industry scenario, new elements and dynamics and others have made it even more complex for any nonprofessional or even an average middle manager to involve himself in the process of strategic management and promise great results. Management consultants bring with themselves vast experience in their fields of helping companies making turnarounds and taking otherwise