Google Case Studies- Hrm free essay sample

Human Resource Management Individual Report January 2013 Introduction Managing Human Resources effectively has become vital to organizations within the modern and fast paced business environment. Today’s market demands knowledge innovation and trust more than mere comparative analysis of  sales/services and market share, and the hierarchy of  the centre and periphery model is evolving into a different paradigm. Human Resources specialists are more important in business strategies today as there’s a change in market dynamics; more so in the present economic situation of a global recession and downturn across industries as economies around the world are globally connected and interdependent. An organization with performance driven HR planning and development practices distinguish itself from competitors and brings quality amp; loyal workers who are committed and passionate about the success of their organization. In order to understand the concepts and HRM strategies/practices learned in lectures better, I have chosen the company that has ranked 1st on ‘100 Best Companies to Work For’ list of Fortune (a well-known international business magazine) for 2007, 2008 and 2012. We will write a custom essay sample on Google Case Studies- Hrm or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page , based in Mountain View, California, Google is the worlds most popular search engine. The company started out of a garage in 1998, has generated wealth faster than any company in history and now dominates the worlds’ information industry. Currently, Google has more than 30,000 employees worldwide is not just known for its innovative breakthroughs in the technology industry, but is also known for innovative human resources (HR) policies. Google is an icon of success among Internet companies. A survey conducted by Business Week magazine showed that Google was the most sought after company by college students, MBAs, women, engineers, and diverse individuals. As of 2008, Google receives an average of 3000 resumes a day (estimated 1. 1 million a year) for an average of only 4000 available jobs a year. Google offers benefits that no other companies offer and it doesn’t pay for all the incentives out of their allotted administrative expenses; it’s all from company’s profits. Google has also made it so big that its company name has become a verb in dictionary! According to the web giants manifest, the core principle is- always putting the user first, written as focus on the user and all else will follow, being socially and ethically responsible, written as you can make money without doing evil, and maintaining a fun, informal, and non-bureaucratic environment, written as you can be serious without a suit. These three main points have become the mantra that defines all of Googles actions, and are the principle reason behind Googles massive success. Discussion First and foremost, Google recognized that company success is linked to employee’s success. Business strategy = HR strategy, it is viewed as the same. Google believes a fun, informal, non-bureaucratic corporate environment leads to a more engaged, more happy, and more creative personnel, and employs many practices that reflect these beliefs. HR practices at Google, is named People Operations. It is not a mere administrative function but to ensure the building of a strong employee-employer relationship. Google have also gone though extraordinary step of changing the way employees work in order to attract and retain the very best. Google VP Operations, Liane Hornsey mentioned on Television show- MeetTheBoss’s interview that they care about employee’s work life balance, so they offer flexible work hours, part time work options, and telecommuting if the specific job allows. They have put in a lot of effort to make it a place where people want to be. Googles HR practices clearly reveal the impressive results of the companys approach, which help in increasing employee productivity. HRM Strategies There are many strategies used by Google but the focus for this report is on three main unique strategies that differentiates it from the rest. 1. Staffing and recruiting process How an organization chooses its members have critical impact on organization’s ability to compete. Hiring the right people is a key HR philosophy at Google and it has created the phenomenon in recruiting by developing the world’s first â€Å"recruiting culture† (from top to down level employees) that is completely different from everyone else. Getting the job is no easy task as they only take the incredibly talented workers from all over the globe, preferring ability over experience. Former  Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, said Google has brought in candidates as many as 16 times before ultimately letting them in. Schmidt  provided a little more insight about recruiting tools used by Google. (As shown below) Recruiting tools of Google Employee referral| Google’s referral program is without any industry leading features, but the company’s strong brand coupled with its highly enthusiastic workforce makes up for weaknesses in the program. | College recruitment| Google hires a large number of PhDs on the premise that they enjoy exploring areas that no one else has explored. To accomplish this, they have developed a network of direct relationships with over 350 professors at major schools. In addition, Google has an outstanding internship program that has a very high conversion rate to permanent hires. | Professional networking| Google also effectively uses networking groups like Linkedin and other live professional events to recruit top performers. | Recruiter training| Google is one of only a handful of companies that requires most newly hired recruiters to go through extensive recruiter training prior to starting. | AdWords as a recruiting tool| Google’s 1st â€Å"wow† approach is its use of its own Google search tool to find â€Å"passive† candidates. Because Google is recognised as the master of search, it’s not surprising that they utilise their own search tool to find top candidates without active resumes. In addition, they attract top performers by placing their own job ads that appear when certain keywords are typed into a search. | Contests as recruiting tools:| A 2nd â€Å"wow† aspect of Google recruiting is its use of a contest to identify and attract top software engineers. The Google Code Jam, as they call it, is a global online software writing contest that can attract over 7,500 people each year. The top 25 finalists are invited to the Mountain View campus to compete for US$50,000 in prizes as well as a chance to work at Google. The contest is powered by TopCoder, a vendor that helps manage the contest and score the winners. | Brain teasers as recruiting tools| The 3rd â€Å"wow† aspect of Google’s recruiting is its creative use of roadside billboards and math tests placed in magazines to garner the attention of math and programming wizards. Google has placed brainteaser billboards in the Silicon Valley and by Harvard Square. The math puzzles on these billboards challenge mathematics-oriented people and get them thinking. Although they do not specifically mention Google, the billboard puzzle does eventually lead interested participants to the Google site. | Friends of Google| The final â€Å"wow† recruiting tool is the â€Å"friends of Google† system. This tool creates an electronic email network of people that are interested in Google and its products but not necessarily interested in working for the company. By signing up these individuals and then periodically sending them emails about the firm’s products and events, Google can build a relationship with thousands of people that like the firm. | (Sullivan. J. 2006) Google believes that each and every hire is important because they are proud of their culture, they do not want to dilute it. Therefore, they want to ensure that everyone they hire fits in. Method such as 360 degree decision around the people they hire and hiring through consensus are used. They are explicitly seeking to attract the kind of people to the company who will be successful in their open, collaborative culture. The median age of employees at Google is 27 years, making it the youngest workforce across the industry. However, the retention rate, and the turnover data at Google proves that the organization has been successfully able to attract, retain, and motivate the most difficult crop of employees – the Y generation cyber? generation professionals who are prone to changing their affiliations quicker than they change their clothes. 2. Compensation Structure and Benefits * Compensation Pay has large impact on employee’s attitude/ behaviours; a motivator that can substantially promotes an organization’s success. Compensation also comes in the form of bonuses to motivate performances, while at the same time control fixed compensation cost. Individual incentives, group incentives as well as profit sharing (via company stocks) are given in Google. Google’s compensation program, also called â€Å"pay-for-performance†, focuses on providing reward for strong performance as well as training for overcoming weaknesses for underperformers. There is also an increase in the proportion of compensation in accordance with the levels of leadership and responsibility. According to a research conducted by Glassdoor (a career and workplace community) in 2008, software engineers at Google draw an enviable compensation package as compared to their counterparts at Microsoft or Yahoo. (Glass door. 2012) (Softpedia. 2008) Google became the first company where the Board of Directors requested for a reduction in their salaries and compensation because they felt they were getting paid more money than they needed. Founders Sergey Brin, Larry Page and CEO Eric Schmidt requested that their base salary be cut to $1. Subsequent offers by the company to increase their salaries have been turned down because their main compensation continues to come from owning stock in Google. In 2008? 2009, all the employees agreed on the sentiment and formally demanded a wage cut themselves. During the same period, the turnover was low at 1. 43%. It is definitely very unusual and in 2011, Google issued a 10 percent raise to every single employee working for the search engine giant. Performance management is done every quarterly and Google takes it very seriously as they are performance cultured company and performance appraisal has impact on compensation. * Benefits A safe and happy workplace makes the employees feel good about being there. It is achieved through internal surveys to find out whether they are satisfied and if not what they think needs to be changed. Incentive goes a long way in boosting the staff morale, motivation and incentive to stay and it has been seen that this works wonders in getting the best out of the employees. Google employees receive a comprehensive benefits package that is breathtaking: * Flex hours for nearly every professional employee * Casual dress everyday * Pyjamas day, TGIF parties every week and charity events on-site * Employees can bring their dogs to work every day (so long as their co-workers don’t mind, the dogs are not aggressive, are free of fleas and the owners clean up after them) * On-site dentists and doctors * Free on-site salons and barber shops * Health benefits * Tuition reimbursement * Adoption assistance services * Financial planning classes An on-site fitness centre, complete with weight room, lap pool, personal trainers, yoga, massages, rock-climbing walls, beach volleyball and roller hockey twice a week in the parking lot. * Free recreation game rooms everywhere (includes pool tables, foosball, ping-pong, and arcade games. * Stock options everywhere * Free drinks and snacks available everywhere * Free meals from 11 on-site gourmet restaurants (first cla ss dining prepared by world-class chefs) * Three weeks’ vacation during the first year * 27 days of paid time off after one year of employment Six weeks paid sabbatical available for every 6 years an employee works there * Available resources to study 4 foreign languages: Madarin, Japanese, Spanish and French. * Valet parking for employees * Onsite car wash, oil change, banking centre and courier * Maternity and parental leave (18 weeks of additional paid time off post maternity leave; new fathers can take 7 weeks off) * Reimburse up to $500 in takeout for the first 4 weeks of an employee’s maternity leave. * Employee referral bonus program, a $2,000 reward for referring new employees * Onsite child care centre and elderly care centre Back-up child care for parents when their regularly scheduled child care falls through * Free shuttle service * Fuel efficiency vehicle incentive program ($5,000 assistance if you buy a hybrid) * Free Onsite dry cleaning (a coin-free laun dry room) * A 401k investment program * A â€Å"no tracking of sick days† policy, unlimited * Employee interest/hobby groups (formed by Google employees, these are all over the map and are said to include Buffy fans, cricketers, Nobel prize winners, salsa dancing and a wine club) * A founders award, up to millions of dollars (literally), for new program ideas and designs. Annual on? site Health Fair offering free testing services, including eye exams and cholesterol testing; also offers free flu shots Source: Google. 2013. In addition, Google offers free bikes, sagways, and scooters to employees as a form of transport around the facilities. Google also lets employees establish in-company clubs, such as the Black Googlers Association and the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Googlers Association†. These benefits are also designed to encourage collaboration, to break down barriers between functions, and to stimulate individual creativity and innovation. However, these benefits do attract some of the â€Å"wrong people†- talented individuals who are seeking benefits rather than an opportunity to do their best work, which creates a screening challenge. In addition, these may distract less-focused workers from their jobs. 3. Informal Corporate Culture Googles legendary organizational work culture has contributed largely to its success. In contrast to most large companies, Google believes that smart people and good ideas are better than procedures, rules, or trong-armed leadership, and so does not employ bureaucracy with its employees. Bureaucracy implies strict division of labour, rules, and standardization, which are the opposite of Googles goals to maximize the creativity and collaboration of its employees with hopes that this will lead to the best products and solutions possible. Thus, Google use informal, equal, involvement, and empowerment management tactic (an aversion to bureaucratic, formal, and money-centric ideologies of large corporations). They feel that operating with very little bureaucracy it will encourage their employees to develop good ideas at a faster pace; hence Google removed unnecessary managerial hierarchies. The organizational structure is very different because they are made up of many shareholders that have a say in what the company does and turns into. Many organizations have changed their pay or benefits in order to attract better workers, but no one has changed every job in the company just so that the work itself is the primary attraction and retention tool. Google’s founders (Larry and Sergey), HR director Stacy Sullivan, and the leadership team at Google have literally crafted every professional job and workplace element so that all employees are: * Working on interesting work * Learning continuously * Constantly challenged to do more * Feeling that they are adding value (Sullivan. J. 2005) Google emphasizes this policy to keep employees motivated, nurture new ideas, and foster creativity. Workers are expected to take initiative, and are not constantly pushed, watched, or instructed by upper management. Google uses a very strict recruitment process to make sure its employees are self-motivated. Not only must you be the best in your field, but you must share a commitment to creating perfection and having a great time doing it. But once an employee is hired by Google, they are given a large degree of freedom in how they perform their work, because, at Google, how efficiently you make something isnt as important as how useful the end product actually is. * Innovation Time Off- 70/20/10 Google came up with a formula for its employee to follow to ensure creativity. Employees divide their time at work accordingly: * 70 percent are to be devoted to core business/job scope * 20 percent (equivalent to 1 day of the working week) on a researching project of their choice/interested them, related to their business * 10 percent to unrelated new far-out ideas/business Google funds and supports these projects/ideas. The engineering and design staffs make use of the â€Å"free time† to pursue new products and technologies. It is mandatory for all employees to undergo Tamp;D sessions for a minimum of 120 hours/year, which is about three times more than average of 43 hours/year. This rule has a good return on investment as half of their newer products, such as Gmail, Google News, Gtalk, and AdSense originated from these independent endeavours. Its greatest value is that it drives innovation and creativity throughout the organization. Google nurture ideas from employees as they understand that employees can potentially provide the best ideas. Through this system, managers can find talented employees and develop them. * TGIF meetings Google holds weekly TGIF meetings (over email or in the cafe) whereby any employee can ask questions they have directly to anyone within the organization (including top executives, CEO and founders) about any number of company issues; no question is off? limits. Google maintains the open culture often associated with start-ups companies, in which everyone is a hands-on contributor and feels comfortable sharing ideas and opinions. It breaks down the communication barriers put up by hierarchies of authority used in bureaucratic systems to allow for more open communication channels and a more collaborative environment. Google places a high value on the opinions of employees, employees’ ideas are taken into consideration and approved for implementing which enhances employee creativity and boosts employee morale. * Training and development Google emphasized on employee development and Google’s employees are offered tremendous opportunities to learn and grow. Professional development opportunities offered to all employees via on-the-job learning, mentoring programs and lectures by famous personnel/career gurus; includes classes on individual and team presentation skills, content development, business writing, executive speaking, delivering feedback, and management/leadership. Free foreign language lessons, including French, Spanish, Japanese, and Mandarin are also sponsored by Google. Given the prominence of engineers at Google, particular attention is paid to providing unique development opportunities for this group. An Engineering training group, engEDU, provides orientation and training classes, mentoring, career development, and tutorial services – all programs built by and for engineers. Google has also expanded its global learning and development team and is creating new leadership development programs to help develop and support Google’s future leaders. Meanwhile, they encourage job rotation (be it permanent or temporarily) as well as project teams whereby employee can build skills/talent out of their own area of expertise. This shows the amount of effort, time and money that Google invests in its employees to keep them abreast of the professional and technological advancements. * Environment Offices and cafes are designed to encourage interactions between Googlers (term used for Google’s employees) within and across teams, and to spark conversation about work as well as play. The environment (as shown below) provided for employees matched their vision perfectly; there are very few cubicles and solo offices within their premises. Events such as seminars, get? ogethers, and conferences at Google are themed with colour and creativity, allowing all the employees to attach a sense of belonging to the workplace. During first week as Google employees (Noogler), new employees are recognized at TGIF, Google’s all? hands meeting held every Friday afternoon. The company regularly buys out movie theatres so employees can go together and watch for free. Source: Google. 2013 Conclusion Google’s founders started the company with a unique vision and the implementation of that vision has been very successful. Employees are attracted not to the short term monetary returns from work. Google provides a support system that no other company provides; it could help them create anything! Self development and great benefits are also given to employees, they are happy with their job. Apart from the technological edge it had over its competitors, Googles success is clearly attributable to how it treats the people who have a stake in the company and its ability to attract the best talent and retain these employees. Every business owner can learn from this is that they should make their company a great place to work for, even if that means dipping into the profits a bit. At the end of the day, employee’s loyalty (lower turnover) and higher productivity are completely worth it. Being one of the world’s largest companies, it seems to me that they have found a successful algorithm for keepings employees happy and productive at the same time. However, it also requires a strong â€Å"employment brand† and jobs that are designed to continually challenge and grow employees. Reference: 1. Brooker. S. 2011. Googleplex resembles corporate playground. The Daily Aztec. http://www. thedailyaztec. com/2011/04/googleplex-resembles-corporate-playground/ (accessed 4 Jan 2013) 2. Giang. V. 2012. 15 Tech Companies That Pay Their Engineers A Ton Of Money. Yahoo! Finance http://finance. yahoo. com/news/15-tech-companies-pay-engineers-180800206. html (accessed 4 Jan 2013) 3. N/A. 2012. 15 Tech Companies’ Software Engineer Salary Revealed. Glass door http://www. glassdoor. com/blog/15-tech-companies-software-engineer-salary-revealed-glassdoor-report/ (accessed 4 Jan 2013) 4. Meet the bosses. 2012 http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=FRsJbpppvEU (accessed 4 Jan 2013) 5. CNN Money. 2012 http://money. cnn. com/magazines/fortune/best-companies/2012/snapshots/1. tml (accessed 4 Jan 2013) 6. Google. 2013 http://www. google. com. sg/about/company/(accessed 4 Jan 2013) 7. NBC news. 2008 http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=YZHSKZyv1Fwamp;feature=player_embedded# (accessed 4 Jan 2013) 8. Filip Truta. 2008. Apple engineers paid below market salaries. Softpedia http://news. softpedia. com/newsImage/Apple-Engineers-Paid-Below-Market-Salaries-2. png/ (accessed 4 Jan 2013) 9. Sullivan. John. 2006. A look inside the google talent machine. Hcamag http://www. hcamag. com/article/a-look-inside-the-google-talent-machine-112999. aspx (accessed 4 Jan 2013)

Four Theoretical Approaches to Metaphysics Essay Essays

Four Theoretical Approaches to Metaphysics Essay Essays Four Theoretical Approaches to Metaphysics Essay Essay Four Theoretical Approaches to Metaphysics Essay Essay There are four theoretical attacks to the metaphysics and they include Dualism and the theory that what exists on can make so on two degrees the physical or the mental. The following attack is Materialism which theorizes that everything exists on a physical degree. Then there is the Idealism attack which states that everything that exists is mental or religious. Finally. there is Alternative Views which theorizes that what exists in neither mental nor religious but believed that what exists is both. which means that what exists is impersonal. In the Materialism theory of metaphysics it is said that everything is made of some sort of construction that are now called atoms. These atoms are governed wholly by physical Torahs and are thought to do up everything that we know and see. There were and are still many work forces in the scientific community that experience this manner. but the most marked one was named Thomas Hobbes. Hobbes implied â€Å"clearly that all things are made of stuff atoms and that all alteration reduces to gesture. † ( citation ) His theory provinces that everything is matter in gesture to include an individual’s idea procedure. : Hobbes goes into item about how this procedure works and called it perceptual experience or sense. His manner of depicting it is the fact that things have different belongingss and that the belongingss do non truly be. The belongingss of an object are based on what we perceive them to be. We perceive a rose to be beautiful. odor nice. and have red pedals. Those belongingss harmonizing to Hobbes are all based on perceptual experience and the rose does non really have any of these traits. â€Å"The things that truly are in the universe outside us are those gestures by which these seemings are caused. ( citation ) Hobbes describes perceptual experience as gesture from the outside effects the gesture of the interior of a individual. The gesture on the exterior affected the gesture on the interior and leaves a permanent consequence after the gesture is complete or dispersed so the gesture that remains behind on the interior is left as a memory. The gesture that is still on the interior is a perceptual experience and in bend is the root cause for believing. imaginativeness. and memory. As worlds we describe this reaction by delegating words to these perceptual experiences and Hobbes labeled that as logical thinking. The manner that people ground is nil kind of â€Å"adding and subtracting of the effects of general names. † ( citation ) The easiest manner that this can be explained would be to mention it to a computing machine. The difficult thrust is considered as the motion on the interior and the keyboard and mouse as the exterior. The difficult thrust is made up of a disc and magnet and plants by taking the phonograph record and spinning is about at a rapid gait. Next the magnet is moved around to encode the information to the difficult thrust. This whole procedure is done through motion and if stationary there is nil that can be done to recover or hive away information. First to hive away or recover information an external beginning of motion demands to go on. Motion from the exterior was represented as a keyboard and mouse. The keyboard and mouse which is motion from the outside affects the difficult thrust which is the motion from the interior and frailty versa. Now that motion has been represented the logical thinking of information demands to be considered. Now we understand what motion consequence motion means we can now turn to the fact of concluding and perceptual experience. All of the information that the computing machine takes in demands to travel someplace and needs to be retrieved once more. The computing machine makes sense of all the informations by delegating Numberss to all of the informations so that it can be retrieved once more. This facet would be considered our perceptual experience which is concluding which as Hobbes stated before is our thought. memory. and imaginativeness. Now some people would reason that Hobbes theory does non take into histories determination devising and other voluntary actions. but he does travel into item about how that procedure works. Hobbes addresses the finer points of the determination procedure by saying that every determination or motion starts of as an â€Å"endeavor† which was caused by perceptual experience. He so breaks it down even into two groups dwelling of desire and antipathy. When the enterprise is toward something so it is considered a desire and when it is off it is considered an antipathy. We associate desire and antipathy with words like love and hatred or good and bad. So harmonizing to Hobbes the basic rule of our determination devising is like a magnet. Let’s expression at the magnet that is in the computing machine and affects the difficult thrust. Sometimes informations can be corrupted and the information will non take to the difficult thrust. The procedure of corrupt informations being entered from the exterior can be considered as an antipathy. Now any information that the system lets in can be considers as desire. If that did non do sense so lets look at a magnet in general. A magnet has a positive and a negative side. Anything that is attracted to the positive side can be considered a desire and anything that is repelled by the negative side can be considered an antipathy. In the recent old ages at that place has been some promotions in engineering that allows us to bring out the enigmas of the existence. Scientists have found affair that is smaller than atoms and they are naming them subatomic atoms. It has been discovered that these atoms make up every facet of the existence and are comprised of some type of energy that is connected with everything else. After this find a batch of scientists are rattled about their theory and if Materialism is truly the right type of metaphysical theory to travel with. However. this does non wholly govern this theory out it merely seems like that needs to some alterations or pinchs to the manner that we think about Materialism.

The Nature Of The Human Soul Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The Nature Of The Human Soul - Term Paper Example type of approach used 2. mortality status 3. purpose 4. knowledge 5. types or parts of the soul 6. distinguishing characteristics 7. relation between body and soul 8. origin Plato takes a spiritual approach to understanding the nature of the soul. He sees the soul as an immortal being, whose origin is in a spiritual world of perfect forms. He contrasts this with the physical world, which is a mere imitation of this perfection (Page, 2003). There are three phases of the soul, relative to humans. There is a prenatal phase, the embodiment phase, and a postmortem phase. Plato believes that reason, emotion and desire comprise the soul (Velitchkov, 2009). They function with sequential differences from the womb, through life and after death. The purpose of the soul, from Plato’s perspective, is to carry knowledge to the body, but its duration there is of little meaning, since true meaning can only be in the spiritual world of perfect forms, not in this imitation world. In fact, Plato feels that the soul is distinct from the body, pre-dates and outlasts it, is imprisoned by the body, and achieves liberation only at death. Conflicts arise among human thoughts (connected to upper body tension), spiritual experience (connected to the chest area), and desires or appetites (connected to the lower region of the body) (Page, 2003). Knowledge is not so much transmitted as it is remembered, since the soul carries knowledge from one incarnation to the next, Plato’s version of anamnesis (Kowalczyk, n.d.). I support Plato’s spiritual approach. The soul cannot be measured by science, as it is apparently not bound by the laws of physics, the way the body and physical world are. I also support Plato’s theory that the soul is immortal, that it belongs to a world of spiritual perfection, of which our physical reality is a substandard imitation. At night, when I dream, I experience myself flying and changing physical reality with focused intention. I do not c onsider this to be my imagination, but rather my soul’s memory and deeper understanding of reality and thought. I believe that experience of freedom from the body is real, more real than body reality. Not only in dreams, but also in hypnosis, or with the inspiration of hallucinogens, or in a near-death experience, or other out of body experience, one can remember and appreciate freedom from the body. I support Plato’s contention that the soul carries all knowledge across incarnations, and brings it to the body in each current incarnation, so that it must be remembered and not re-learned (anamnesis) (Kowalczyk, n.d.). I believe this because of my own experience. For example, sometimes a friend or even a stranger approaches me and begins to outline a deep problem or confusion they are struggling with. I cannot possibly have all the answers, based solely on current life experience and education. Yet, once a deep rapport is established, my soul speaks. Of course the sound is my voice and comes from my body, and what I say is embroidered with my own thoughts. But the essence that flows freely is my soul, and not my body. Of this I am certain. I have had the experience of driving a car and becoming lost in thoughts, having no knowledge of where I am, passing my destination by miles. At such times, it seems clear to me that I am not in a safe state to be driving, since I am

HelloHealth Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

HelloHealth - Essay Example Today, the organization has more than twice the rate of patients of a regular doctor’s office. Since there are four doctors, and each one is able to see more patients throughout the day than an average doctor without waiting times, the rate is twice as high, and still growing (Reporter’s Book Case Studies in Social Innovation and Creative Communities). Hello Health is a community of doctors that have made going to the doctor easy again. Instead of waiting in some emergency area in an impersonal hospital, Hello Health serves as the old-fashioned neighborhood doctor, adapted to todays lifestyle. Not only is this type of Health care accessible and affordable to all parts of society, but is also very individual and focused on each patient. The services of the four doctors who are involved in seeing twice as high number of patients throughout the day as an average doctor positively impact the city population and create new awareness for better health. The principles of Hello Health are to form a close and healthy relationship between patient and doctor and staying in constant communication, whether one is feeling absolutely all right or has some kind of health issue. The devices through which this is all made possible are the developed technologies of todays society. The internet and the cell phone serve as a means of making appointments and accessing ones records. The entire strategy behind Hello Health is meant to make life more convenient and affordable for both the patient and the doctor (Reporter’s Book Case Studies in Social Innovation and Creative Communities). Hello Health is known for its commitment to excellence, challenging work environment and to the community. This online clinic has a commitment to safeguard health concerns, provide best services to its customers, provide the best working environment for teamwork, creative thinking, respect, and open communication amongst

Debate between a chinese Qing official and japanese meiji official Essay

Debate between a chinese Qing official and japanese meiji official concerning their policy toward the european influence and aggression in east - Essay Example The Western countries exercised hegemonic ambitions and even fought among themselves for prized colonies as their possessions. This period also saw two contrasting approaches in how to deal with the new world order. China had been a regional power for several millennia at around this time and saw no need to modernize itself. It prided itself on its technological, scientific, and military advances, discoveries, inventions, and innovations and thereby did not feel threatened by the growing influx of Western influence into Asia. China got complacent due to this imperial hubris and so did not take the appropriate steps to turn back European aggression into East Asia. Japan before the Meiji Restoration (September 1868 to July 1912) had been always a country that was mainly agricultural (poor), beset with local wars (due to the feudal system in which samurai clans had held attachment to their ancestral lands), weak militarily, and little or no technological development to speak of. Young reformers during the onset of the Meiji era saw Western expansionism as a threat and acted accordingly. They introduced reforms to the countrys political and social systems by adopting Western ideas to modernize Japan. China for several centuries had gotten used to being the regional power in the central Asian region. It had attained a high degree of development in its civilization by a number of world firsts, such as the civil service system, the invention of gunpowder, a unique system of writing, and an imperial system of highly-regarded examinations for entrance to government service. Its Confucian values and centralized, bureaucratic government allowed it to control large tracts of lands and its tributary system allowed it to collect raxes from the neighboring countries to help support its government bureaucracy and imperial treasury. In other words, the high civilization of China was attained without any significant external help or

Relationship Between Consumer Vanity Cultural Studies Essay

Relationship Between Consumer Vanity Cultural Studies Essay This is a very brief overview of what candidate wants to do and it is based on preliminary and superficial literature review. The direction of the study within this area and choice of variables and model details can be modified after in-depth literature review under the directions of study supervisor. The relationship between consumer vanity, status consumption, fashion consciousness and materialism in university students of Islamabad Naveed Ahmed (MM-113046) MS-Marketing Muhammad Ali Jinnahl University Islamabad, Pakistan. [emailprotected] For consideration in Department of Management Muhammad Ali Jinnah University, Islamabad The relationship between consumer vanity, status consumption, fashion consciousness and materialism in university students of Islamabad Introduction: Consumption   is   a   construct shaped in accordance with social,   cultural, political   and   economic   process   of   choosing   products   and services. This process reflects the opportunities and constraints of modernity depiction by consumers through acquisition of a desired social identity via patterns of consumption . As the US populations insatiable appetite for consumerism teeters on a staggering $14 trillion in consumer debt . What is most puzzling to economists and decision theorists is that it is often those earning the least that spend the greatest fraction of their income on conspicuous consumption (i.e., the act of acquiring goods not for their inherent objective or subjective value, but to signal social status . Now a days consumption has become the social standard of leisure time and lifestyle that is necessary, easily accessible, and optimistic by society . Goldbart, Jaffe, DiFuria stated that consumer goods will give psychological benefits as the focus of materialistic values is more on materialistic good, and young people are comparatively more exposed to status consumption than the old ones. Sometimes consumers wish to become distinctive among larger groups to acquire an improved self. The fashion industry is becoming globalized by having the 220 billion worth in the luxurious fashion market for different brands . In USA consumers having age between 12 and 19 emerged as an fashion consumer due to having purchasing power of worth 153 billion $. That is an emerging market for getting profitability . In Asia the scenario is not different, according to different researchers Asian consumers adopt eight main styles in their decision making . These are: Perfectionist high quality conscious Brand conscious Novelty and fashion conscious Recreational or shopping conscious Price conscious Impulsive careless Confused by too much choices Habitual and brand loyal Even in Pakistan, people are becoming brand, fashion consciousness by purchasing the imported products rather than the Pakistani products, which shows that Pakistanis have become more fashion, and brand conscious . Economists say that, in recent years, Pakistani women have fueled a retail boom in name brand shopping as they move from a traditional homebound life into the working world. A senior female instructor at the Government College of Technology in Lahore said she earns about 100,000 rupees, or $1,054, a month. Gradually in the last five years I have become brand-conscious, she said. Today, definitely I spend more on my clothes and jewelry. . People acquire, utilize and dispose the materialistic products in order to get feelings of differentiation from society, creating a new self and social identity . According to Solomon the materialistic show is only through vanity, people show vanity via different materialistic products like dressing, sunglasses, luxury watches etc. Durvasula, Lysonski, Watson found that vanity is an improved self in the human which is affected by society and it is also derived by the society. People try to create an idealistic personality to prove them unique in the society. Netemeyer, Burton, Lichtenstein separated the vanity into four categories which includes physical concern. Physical view, achievement concern and achievement view. Physical and achievement vanity both are very important from the perspective of marketers because they have to highlight the benefits of an individual in terms of their physical appearance and attractiveness. Marketers use vanity as an appeal to promote different products . Fashion consciousness is of greater importance when examining the self-concept of fashion consumers. explain that the concept of self-consciousness suggested by is the basis for construct of fashion consciousness Individual can posses status with accumulation of education, wealth, social ties, fashion consumption, different possessions and materialistic products . Problem: The companies of cosmetics products, which are promoted on the appeal of physical vanity, and different materialistic products that are promoted on the appeal of achievement vanity are more conscious about customers now days. With the emergence of modernism, the customer has become more fashion and brand conscious. They do not care about the price of products and are more conscious about their status. The status consumption is an indicator to social dimensions for consuming certain products and consumer is more conscious about status than price, quality and other dimensions of the products . Therefore, its very difficult for companies to appeal the products on different values like consumer vanity, materialism and fashion consciousness and its need to check the accuracy of these values in customer willingness to buy and status consumption in different brands according to the suggestion of in different countries of Asia. Gap: Brand engagement social concept, which can be in terms of different traits (Sprott et al., 2009), and status consumption are concepts that link fundamental materialistic tendencies with more specific marketplace behaviors. The three constructs form a constellation of motivated behavioral tendencies focused around the purchase which include vanity, self consciousness and fashion consumption and use of goods to build and portray the self to others. People high in these traits have been shown to consume more, pay more attention to advertisements, and be more interested in products and shopping and thus are of great interest to marketers . There is a great push due to materialism for status consumption and it works as a potential moderator in between fashion consciousness and status consumption . Fashion consciousness and brand consciousness are basic elements which influence the Pakistani university students consumptions and intentions to buy and need to investigate more with traits lik e consumer vanity . There is little research in general and no research in Pakistan and specifically university shoppers, however, that specifically examines how this group of variables works together to affect status consumption. The present study seeks to fill this gap. Research questions: The research questions related to this study are: What is the effect of consumer vanity on status consumption, how the physical vanity and achievement vanity effects the status consumption? What is the mediating role of fashion consciousness in between consumer vanity and status consumption? What is the moderating role of materialism with fashion consciousness and status consumption? Objective: The main objective of this study is to examine the effect of consumer vanity on status consumption with mediating role of fashion consciousness and moderating role of materialism with fashion consciousness and status consumption in university students of business studies. The purpose of taking business students is, they have different values like achievement, social status and hedonism leads them to congruence with environment . Significance: This study will contribute both aspects marketing theory and practical implication. First, this will broaden the knowledge of consumer behavior and traits related marketing in relation to adult consumers, university shoppers in Pakistan. Second, it will enable the marketers to set an advertising appeal for consumers based on physical vanity and achievement vanity and can provide a base for getting purchasing patterns for status and a way of modernism. It will also assist them in determining the purchasing pattern of university shoppers in Pakistan. Theories supporting research on this topic: In terms of social learning theory, influenced by the media, female college students with different vanity characteristics may develop a materialism trait and may go a step further than the different fashion anxieties. Hence, adolescent consumer behavior was study, it is essential to study students vanity trait, materialism and fashion anxiety. However, the relationship between fashion anxiety, materialism and vanity trait has rarely been studied. To theorize status consumption and luxury brand purchase intention with regard to the implications for consumer research, this study draws on consumer culture theory . Within CCT, studies on possessions are particularly relevant. The central position is that is that consumers use possessions to formulate and alter their identities, in order to  ¬Ã‚ t their own projections of who they are and aspire to be. At the same time, this process must also be validated by the judgment of the external world (Jenkins, 2004). The relationship study is based on the Veblen theory of conspicuous consumption and Veblen work on the evolution of leisure class. According to Veblen, status has become increasingly important for societies and people own different materialistic products, and other possessions in order to get honor and show their status. To show a position of esteem they try to change their self-presentation their physical vanity compels them to adopt different products to make them physical attractive. Their achievement vanity also directed them to status consumption in order to show their success and achievements . Literature Review: The literature of different variables related to study is given below: Status Consumption: Achieving and expressing status are basic goals of members of human society and achieving status through consumption has been studied for more than a century (Veblen, 1967/1899). One of the ways consumers endeavor to demonstrate their social status is through the purchase and display of certain products. Gabriel and Lang (2006, p. 8) expressed this idea well: display of material commodities fix the social position and prestige of their owners. In recent years, as the level of consumer affluence has grown, so has the consumption of luxury and status goods (Hader, 2008). Consumers try to demonstrate their personality and social status in different ways and dominant way is purchasing and displaying certain products. They elaborated this idea in clear words: Materialistic possessions and goods sets prestige and social position of holder. Different studies showed the consumption of status products and luxurious consumption has rapidly increased with the intensity of consumer richness. The good condition of economy is also a predictor of status consumption. When public has facility of credit and aggregate income of a country is rising then people show their social standing with the help of status goods. In the scale of status consumption, the operationalization of persons tendency to consumer for the sake of status. While status consumption varies with the health of the economy, the increased availability of credit and overall rising incomes contribute to the use of status items to enhance social standing. The tendency of a person to consume to achieve status has been operationalized as an individual difference variable by the status consumption scale (Eastman et al., 1999). The scale allows researchers to measure an individuals propensity to use products and services as an expression of their own status. In the scale development piece, Eastman et al. (1999) used fashion clothing as a prime example of a product category used to express status. More recently, Solomon and Rabolt (2004, pp. 239-241) and OCass and Frost (2002) both use fashion as an example of a product category employed to express status and personal meaning. Other studies show that consuming to achieve status is conceptually related to the idea of instrumental materialism (Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton, 1981) where people accumulate possessions to some end. Status consumption relates also to a tendency to conform to group norms while expressing ones need for uniqueness (Clark et al., 2007). Indeed, status consumers are susceptible to normative influence, but not necessarily informational influence (Clark et al., 2007). While status consumption relates to accumulation to express position, materialism is more personal. Materialists things make them feel good directly, and status consumers things make them feel good because they show the world personal superiority. At the same time, materialists do want to signal status (Wang and Wallendorf, 2006), and materialistic consumers have been shown to be especially attuned to which products have status and how acquiring them promotes the status (Loulakis and Hill, 2010). Status consumption and materialism are clearly related individual difference variables. Consumer Vanity: Netemeyer, Burton, Lichtenstein defined vanity with two domains. The first one is physical vanity and other is achievement vanity. Two sub parts of physical vanity are; a concern for physical appearance and an inflated view of physical appearance. Similarly two sub parts of achievement vanity are; a concern for achievement and an inflated view of achievement. Mainly there are two philosophies about vanity. The first one says Vanity is derived by primary and biogenic needs. It is such type of personality trait which is affected by parental socialization and genes and on the second end Mason reveals that vanity is not primarily, it is secondary trait which is mainly influenced by the environment and socio-economic conditions like conspicuous consumption. Worst, Duckworth, McDaniel develop a special measure of 98 items about vanity and its motivation toward overspending based on literature. The main traits are (1) narcissism (2) Association about saving behavior (3) Compulsive over sp ending. Physical vanity: An extreme concern for and positive view of physical appearance is called physical vanity . The popular and academic press both revealed with articles and books about physical appearance, and its impact on consumer product demand. In USA people spent $ 36 billion on different dieting programs for their physical appearance . According to survey of psychology today which reported that 34 % men and 38 % women were bit satisfied about their physical appearance and other majorities want to get plastic surgery . Research uncovered that concern for physical appearance directs not only positive attitude (e.g. good health eating patterns and exercising) towards consumption but negative attitude also (e.g. disorder in eating patterns, addictive behavior and cosmetic surgeries ) for personal satisfaction . Achievement vanity: There is empirical and theoretical evidence that creates a link between consumption of product and personal achievement. Mitchell grouped 23 % respondents as achievers (who are anxious to achieve personal goal) and 9 % are grouped as emulators ( an aspiration to achievers ) by using typology of VALS. And according to Kahle 16 % people values a good judgment of accomplishment most important. It has been suggested by Belk that different groups consume in order to convey to status or success. One school of thought says that people show off the materialistic product for personal achievement . Fashion Consciousness: Various uses of self-presented products like clothing have been found to be related to self-esteem (Humphrey et al., 1971). Kwon (1994) examined the perceived effects of clothing on self-esteem. He suggested that college students perceived themselves as more competent in work, more sociable, and more positive when feeling good about their clothing as compared to feeling bad about it,. Fashion consciousness is of greater importance when examining the self concept of fashion consumers. Gould and Stern (1989) explain that the concept of self-consciousness suggested by Fenigstein et al. (1975) is the basis for construct of fashion consciousness. According to Buss (1980), the central concept of the self-consciousness theory is the extent to which one focuses on the inner or outer self: When self-awareness is directed inward, people tend to have a high level of private self-awareness, being conscious of inner states such as feelings, moods and beliefs. However, when self-awareness is directed outward, people tend to have a high level of public self-consciousness. When a person has a high level of public consciousness he tends to focus on himself as a social object (Buss, 1980, 1985). Those who are high in public self-consciousness are likely to become more nervous about being observed by others than those who are low in public self-consciousness (Buss, 1980). Based on aspects of self-consciousness, Gould and Stern (1989) strengthened the concept of fashion consciousness, and stressed the importance of biological gender in fashion consciousness. Nam et al. (2006) explain fashion consciousness as a persons degree of involvement with the styles or fashion of clothing. Apparel marketers  ¬Ã‚ nd it a convenient attribute of consumers, as this pre-existing interest in clothing can increase consumer receptivity to apparel product promotions (Richards and Sturman, 1977; Kaiser and Chandler, 1984). An individual does not have to be either a fashion opinion leader or a fashion innovator to be considered fashion conscious. Rather, fashion consciousness relates to a persons interest in clothing and fashion and his appearance (Summers, 1970; Jonathan and Mills, 1982). Gould and Stern (1989) developed the Fashion Consciousness Scale (FCS), which they suggested to have derived from two related constructs: (1) self-consciousness (suggested by Fenigstein et al., 1975) and (2) an everyday concept of fashion consciousness. Accordingly, the FCS consisted of 38 items to include both the original Self-Consciousness Scale and also various aspects of individuals everyday fashion consciousness. Gould and Stern (1989) further explained that fashion conscious females tend to focus more on their own external appearance, and they will tend to look for appearance-related reinforcement in shopping activity. They explained that the presence of objects such as mirrors,  ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡attering lighting, and sales people trained to provide positive appearance are reinforcers for females. Conversely, males who are more fashion conscious focus more on what they are, and these men connect fashion with their self-identity and internalized maleness (Gould and Stern, 1989). Greco and Paksoy (1989) noted that fashion-conscious shoppers rely more on mass media information sources than non-fashion-conscious customers. Walsh et al. (2001) highlighted that fashion consciousness among German consumers was due to the desire for up-to-date styles, frequent changes in wardrobe and pleasurable shopping experiences. As Bakewell and Rothwell (2006) noted, historically, the practice of shopping and clothing consumption has been regarded as a female practice. However marketers are increasingly recognizing that it is outmoded to consider men as producers and women as consumers (Bakewell and Rothwell, 2006). However, many authors suggest that although appearance consciousness has a greater in ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡uence on women, the society rede ¬Ã‚ nes what it means to be a man. Therefore, the notion of fashion-less male is outmoded (e.g. Featherstone, 1995; Kacen, 2000; Tseelon, 1995; Patterson and Elliot, 2002). In contrast, a study of fashion consciousness in Eastern Europ ean markets highlighted that young male respondents were more fashion-conscious than their female counterparts (Manrai et al., 2001). Further, Barak and Stern (1985) explained that fashion-conscious women often feel younger than their actual age. However, Lumpkin (1985) found that a high proportion of active mature consumers were relatively heavy spenders on clothing. Based on this, they concluded that fashion-conscious segments of older consumers do exist among shoppers. The work of Chowdhary (1988) showed that there is no relationship between age perception and fashion consciousness. However, there is a dearth of research focused of the fashion consciousness of consumers in developing countries since their cultural and socio-economic background is different from consumers in developed countries. (2) Fashion consciousness has been identi ¬Ã‚ ed as an important dimension of a persons lifestyle that affects purchase decision and consumption behaviour (Lee et al., 2009; Zhou et al., 2010). People who are highly fashion-conscious may pay more attention to the image portrayed by prestige brands and therefore may be more prestige-sensitive than those who are less fashion conscious. Studies in the past found that highly fashion-conscious consumers possess traits such as health conscious, brand conscious, innovative, and self-con ¬Ã‚ dent (Wan et al., 2001). Further, highly fashion-conscious consumers were found to be younger, and embrace social values such as respect, excitement, and fun/ enjoyment (Goldsmith and Stith, 1990). Stranforth (1995) identi ¬Ã‚ ed traits such as sensation seeking, adventure seeking, susceptibility, and clothing individuality to be signi ¬Ã‚ cantly related with high degree of fashion consciousness. The proposed hypothesis and relationships: The proposed hypothesis and relationship literature is given below: Consumer vanity and Fashion consciousness: Physical vanity and fashion consciousness: illustrated that being a fashion agent in a modernism era the fashion consumers are more conscious about brands and new fashion. He examined the relationship of brand consciousness and impulsive buying in the fashion environment. Checked the college student behavior in the attractive shopping environment but he no one focused in the fashion stores context. In today society, physical attractiveness and beauty are so much emphasized as desirable and Iranian females are more fashion consciousness in buying products for physical attractiveness. Therefore the proposed hypothesis on the base of this literature is: H1a: the physical vanity will be positively associated with fashion consciousness. Achievement vanity and fashion consciousness: People have becomes more conscious in fashion consumption just in order to show the view of achievement and success to their fellows . aggregated the achievement vanity with public-self consciousness and relate it with the external environment but ignored the self-consciousness in specific fashion context. Therefore, on the base of this literature the proposed hypothesis is: H1b: the achievement vanity will be positively associated with the fashion consciousness. Fashion consciousness and status consumption: Status consumption, wish for souvenir and fashion consciousness are the basic motivation for the fashion consumer for the purchasing of fashion goods.    Fashion  consciousness  and interest in image predispose consumers to be willing to pay more for their preferred brands. However, in Pakistan the emergence of multinational fashion brands emphasis on the requirement of research in this area. Therefore, the proposed hypothesis is: H2: Fashion consciousness will be positively associated with the status consumption. Consumer Vanity and status consumption: Physical vanity and status consumption: In a recent study in which has combined the psychological and social correlation and illustrate that the physical vanity and physical appearance needs to lower weight status and which ultimately leads to the status consumption. The need for high social status and compel to more physical attractiveness is more in female consumers . Therefore on the bases of this literature the proposed hypothesis is: H3a: Physical vanity will be positively associated with status consumption. Achievement vanity and status consumption: The values of achievement and social status prevail from young adults to university shoppers. In university the students are status consumer and want to show their achievements with their peers . The values of achievement are succeeded from the university environment to the shopping environment. described that there is a positive relationship between conspicuous achievement and status consumption in Iranian consumers but it should be investigated with other areas in this region. H3b: Achievement vanity will be positively associated with status consumption. Mediating role of fashion consciousness between consumer vanity and status consumption: Fashion consciousness, which is equivalent to fashion involvement, is merely the desire for and adoption of up-to-date styles to maintain ones status in a social network . This concept mediates the relationship between age and consumer commitment to retailers and that between age and fashion knowledge . report a signi ¬Ã‚ cant mediating effect of fashion involvement on the relationship between status consumption and price sensitivity. Checked the mediation of fashion consciousness among interpersonal effect of self-monitoring, susceptibility to personal influence with status consumption and reported about mediation working. Similarly, this study took the variable fashion consciousness as a mediator between the relationship of consumer vanity and status consumption. H4: Fashion consciousness is mediating between consumer vanity and status consumption. Conceptual Framework: Status Consumption Fashion Consciousness Consumer Vanity H1: Consumer vanity will be positively associated with fashion consciousness. H2: Fashion consciousness will be positively associated with status consumption. H3: Consumer vanity will be positively associated with status consumption. H4: Fashion consciousness is mediating between consumer vanity and status consumption. Methodology: The main objective of this study is to examine the effect of consumer vanity on status consumption with mediating role of fashion consciousness and moderating role of materialism with fashion consciousness and status consumption in university students. The purpose of taking business students is, they have different values like achievement, social status and hedonism leads them to congruence with environment . For this purpose, we will collect data from the different university students of Islamabad using the convenient sampling technique. Survey method will be used in order to collect the data from the sample of 400 respondents by developing the well-structured questionnaire. The measures for this study are given below: Measurement of the vanity was made with a well established scale of having 4 main facets. These are CFPA (Concern for physical appearance), VOPA (View of physical appearance), CFA (Concern for achievement), and VOA (View of achievement). All items have 5 questions each except VOPA (View of physical appearance) which has six questions. Five point likert scale was used having values from strongly disagree to strongly agree (Strongly disagree =1, Disagree =2, neutral =3, Agree =4, strongly agree =5) to check the response of business students and teachers of business studies. Fashion consciousness (FAS), developed by Shim and Gehrt (1996), consists of  ¬Ã‚ ve items. This construct re ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡ects the degree to which an individual incorporates the latest fashion styles into his wardrobe (Nam et al., 2006) and the degree of his desire for up-to-date styles and frequent wardrobe changes (Shim Gehrt, 1996; Walsh et al., 2001; Wells Tigert, 1971). Five point likert scale was used having values from strongly disagree to strongly agree (Strongly disagree =1, Disagree =2, neutral =3, Agree =4, strongly agree =5) to check the response of fashion clothing involvement. The concept of status consumption (STA) was developed by Eastman, Goldsmith, and Flynn (1999) and refers to an interest in consuming to obtain status or engaging in conspicuous consumption. The original scales compose of  ¬Ã‚ ve items. Five point likert scale was used having values from strongly disagree to strongly agree (Strongly disagree =1, Disagree =2, neutral =3, Agree =4, strongly agree =5) for getting response of business students about status consumption. The statically tools will be used to describe response of university students. Mean values of response were also calculated, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis will be used in order to prove the reliability and validity of instrument. KMO values were obtained. To check the association and to know the variance between variables. For inter-item reliability final scores the Cronbach alpha values were determined. Descriptive statistics were useful to demonstrate the demo-graphics of respondents. Correlation and regression values were calculated and regression weights will be used to show the relationships of variables.

The Role of Estrogen in Sexual Differentiation :: Biology Essays Research Papers

The Role of Estrogen in Sexual Differentiation Most, if not all, species with two sexes exhibit sexually dimorphic behavior and physical characteristics. These dimorphisms can be attributed to differences in the brain, such as size or function of structure, and these brain structures can be affected by the hormones circulated throughout the organism. It has been held that the sexual dimorphisms rely only on the presence or absence of androgen, namely, testosterone, during the critical period of development for an organism; however, new research suggests that the presence of estrogen, specifically estradiol, has an active role in sexual differentiation. Several sexual dimorphic structures in the brain have been observed in laboratory experiments. The corpus callosum in male rats is much larger than that in female rats, and this size difference is uncorrelated with total brain weight. These findings led many to investigate the relationship between human male and female corpus callosa. A paper published by de Lacoste-Utamsing and Holloway stated that the splenium of the callosum is larger in women than in men, but their finding has since been challenged by several reports stating that there exists no sexual dimorphism. Analysis done from 1982-1994 reveals a small difference of corpus callosum size in favor of males, but it is hypothesized that age, handedness, overall brain size and weight, and incorrect statistics were not taken into account. (3) There has also been controversy in the research involving the brain region INAH-3 in humans. The heterosexual male INAH-3 is larger than that of heterosexual females; the INAH-3 in homosexual males is on the average smaller than that of heterosexual males and approximately the same size of heterosexual females. The general population has attempted to use this fact as an explanation of the biological basis of homosexuality, though the differences in structure may not be causally related to the sexual orientation of the man. Because we can only observe behaviors when doing experiments with lab animals, the data cannot firmly establish a basis for sexual orientation. The traditional view on sexual differentiation is that organizational effects from hormones which occur during neonatal development are the master plan for the organisms sex and corresponding behaviors and characteristics. Exposure to androgen, namely, testosterone, would result in a male organism, while exposure to neither androgen nor estrogen would result in the default sex: female. Characteristics resulting from organizational effects include formation of genitalia and traits such as aggression. The Role of Estrogen in Sexual Differentiation :: Biology Essays Research Papers The Role of Estrogen in Sexual Differentiation Most, if not all, species with two sexes exhibit sexually dimorphic behavior and physical characteristics. These dimorphisms can be attributed to differences in the brain, such as size or function of structure, and these brain structures can be affected by the hormones circulated throughout the organism. It has been held that the sexual dimorphisms rely only on the presence or absence of androgen, namely, testosterone, during the critical period of development for an organism; however, new research suggests that the presence of estrogen, specifically estradiol, has an active role in sexual differentiation. Several sexual dimorphic structures in the brain have been observed in laboratory experiments. The corpus callosum in male rats is much larger than that in female rats, and this size difference is uncorrelated with total brain weight. These findings led many to investigate the relationship between human male and female corpus callosa. A paper published by de Lacoste-Utamsing and Holloway stated that the splenium of the callosum is larger in women than in men, but their finding has since been challenged by several reports stating that there exists no sexual dimorphism. Analysis done from 1982-1994 reveals a small difference of corpus callosum size in favor of males, but it is hypothesized that age, handedness, overall brain size and weight, and incorrect statistics were not taken into account. (3) There has also been controversy in the research involving the brain region INAH-3 in humans. The heterosexual male INAH-3 is larger than that of heterosexual females; the INAH-3 in homosexual males is on the average smaller than that of heterosexual males and approximately the same size of heterosexual females. The general population has attempted to use this fact as an explanation of the biological basis of homosexuality, though the differences in structure may not be causally related to the sexual orientation of the man. Because we can only observe behaviors when doing experiments with lab animals, the data cannot firmly establish a basis for sexual orientation. The traditional view on sexual differentiation is that organizational effects from hormones which occur during neonatal development are the master plan for the organisms sex and corresponding behaviors and characteristics. Exposure to androgen, namely, testosterone, would result in a male organism, while exposure to neither androgen nor estrogen would result in the default sex: female. Characteristics resulting from organizational effects include formation of genitalia and traits such as aggression.

Analysis of Professional Development Plan Essay

The definition of professional development varies in school districts and educators agree that the term is ever changing and involves the use of technology. Some educators have said that the term has an operational definition. In the article, key design factors in durable instructional technology professional development, author John Wells offers the following definition for educators within the context of the technological age:Professional development†¦goes beyond the term training with its implications of learning skills, and encompasses a definition that includes formal and informal means of helping teachers not only learn new skills, but also develop new insights into pedagogy and their own practices, and explore new or advanced understandings of content and resources. [This] definition of professional development includes support for teachers as they encounter the challenges that come with putting into practice their evolving understanding about the use of technology to sup port inquiry-based learning (p.2). Professional development may encompass various characteristics such as goals and outcomes aligned to the districts, relevant topics in trainings, opportunities for staff collaboration, development maintained by an on-site coordinator, high quality and professional training and evaluations to determine effectiveness of program. James Polk, author of traits of effective teachers, states, â€Å"the need for a strong professional development program is well established in research† (p.2). Mr. Polk (2006) cites a recent study of factors contributing to three aspects of the teaching process that, â€Å"teachers ranked professional development in the top third of importance on each aspect† (p. 2). In analyzing the professional development plan of my school district, Richland County School District One, I noticed several issues that were identified by Mr. Polk. Mr. Polk outlined several problems associated with the traditional in-service programs that are deemed ineffective. Mr. Polk (2006) states that:assumptions, such as periodic in-service being sufficient to develop new teaching methods and improve practice, teachers being able to learn by listening to a speaker, and professional development being a luxury  rather than an integral part of district improvement, are all negating factors in the implementation of patronization of training programs (p. 2). Mr. Polk further identifies research-based, more effective assumptions such as professional development should be perpetual, and school change involves external and internal organizations and personal development. In professional development programs, the instructions to teacher should be demonstrated or modeled, practiced with feedback and professional development should be integrated into the daily life of teachers. Mr. Polk (2006) states that â€Å"if professional growth rests solely on bimonthly, two-hour in-service sessions after the students are dismissed early, then any training received will unlikely be reflected in student mastery† (p.2). Richland County School District One’s (RSDI) professional development program has several components such as the Plan Do Check Act (PDCA), Avatar, and classroom walkthrough. According to the Richland County School District One’s website, Plan Do Check Act is used in â€Å"designing curriculum and delivering classroom instruction, in providing student support services, staff goal setting and evaluation, developing any new program, product or process design, planning strategically and starting a new improvement project or implementing any change†. The Plan component is identifying the learning problem and gathering the needed data. The Do component is analyzing the causes and implementing the plan on a trial of pilot basis. The Check component of PDCA is gathering the data results of the solution and analyzing the data. The Act component is implementing the instruction for all students and modifying the improvement plan. Avatar is the district’s professional development management system that allows for teaches to sign up for trainings offered by the district. All the trainings are offered after school or in the summer; this contradicts the recommendation offered by Mr. Polk that professional development should be integrated into the daily life of the teacher during the school day. The classroom walkthrough team is a district employee, the principal, assistant principal, and the professional development on-site coordinator. The team conducts the classroom walkthrough by observing the instructional strategies of a teacher for a total of five to ten minutes. The teacher is not offered prior information or feedback on the classroom walkthrough to correct or enhance his instructional strategies. The Richland County School District One website offers the levels of engagement of the students who the team should identify during the walkthrough. The levels; Authentic Engagement, Ritual Engagement, Passive Compliance, Retreatism, and Rebellion and their definitions are cited on the web page but teachers would not know their level due to lack of communication from the classroom walkthrough team. The problem of the poor quality of professional development was identified in the South Carolina schools that I have researched. For example, in Richland County School District Two, the district’s professional development program mirrors Richland County School District One’s program by only focusing on providing monthly in-service trainings on half-days for students or summer in-service activities. Both districts also provide the occasional monthly state or national conference in the teacher’s subject area and online training, i.e. Educational Television. Richland County School District Two differs by offering their Richland School District Two’s Technology Education Collaboration Mentors Program. The program is for school-selected representatives from every school in the district. The program focuses on helping fellow staff members develop personal technology skills and integrate technology into their classroom. Besides this program, I was unable to find any difference from the two districts and the professional development training. Richland County School District One and District Two professional development programs consist of low quality training once a month, irrelevant topics, lack of feedback from teachers and administrators, and concepts but lack of implementation. The districts’ programs lack the scope, high quality, accessibility (besides the Avatar system in RSDI), relevancy, and feedback from students. The majority of the district’s professional development program is the poor quality program described by Mr. Polk; two-hour  in-service sessions after the students are dismissed early from school. Reference Polk, J. (2006). Traits of effective teachers. Arts Education Policy Review, 107, p. 23-30. Wells, J. (2007). Key design factors in durable instructional technology professional development. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 15, p. 101-123. www.richlandone.org/ipda/Training_Tools/pdca.htm and www.richland2.org

5 Simple Ways to Improve a Boring Lesson

5 Simple Ways to Improve a Boring Lesson The key to teaching any student is to get them to be actively engaged in the lesson. Textbooks and worksheets have been a staple in classrooms for decades, but they can be extremely boring. Not only are they boring to the students, but they are boring for the teachers as well. Technology has made teaching and learning more engaging, but sometimes that may not be enough either. Although its quite possible to have a paperless classroom that is filled with appealing technology, its not always possible to keep students actively engaged. Here are 5 teacher-tested tricks to help you improve a boring lesson and keep your students engaged. Give Student Choice When students are given a choice they feel like they have some kind of control over what they are learning. Try asking students what they want to read, or give them an option on how they want to go about learning a topic or completing a project. For example, lets say that students have to read a book for a lesson but its a boring book. Give them the option of watching the movie, or acting out the book as well. If you are conducting a lesson and you want students to complete a project about it, then give them a few options, it will make it more interesting if they decide how they will complete the task, versus having you tell them what to do. Add Music The benefits of music are amazing; increased test scores, higher IQ, improved language development, and thats just to name a few. If you find that your lesson is boring, add music to it. You can basically add music to anything if you really think about it. Lets say that you are in the middle of a multiplication lesson and you find that students are getting extremely restless, add some music. Have students clap, snap, or stomp as they are saying the times tables. Every time they count, 5, 10, 15, 20... they will add a sound. Music can help you get out of any boring lesson, and get students back on track. Use Food Who doesnt like food? Food is the perfect option to make your boring lesson, a little less boring. Heres how. We will take the same example from above. You are working on a multiplication lesson and students are doing their times tables. Instead of adding rhythm and music, you can add food. For example, lets say students are trying to figure out what 4 x 4 is. Give each student enough gummy bears, grapes, fish crackers, or whatever other food you want to use and have them use the food to figure out the answer. If they get the answer right, they get to eat the food. Everyones got to eat, so why not make this lesson during snack time? Use Reals There is no better way to keep students engaged then to relate the lesson to something that they already know. If you are teaching fifth graders a social studies lesson, then try having students create a song by changing the lyrics of a popular artist to correlate with what they are learning. Use technology, popular celebrities, video games, musicians, or whatever else that is currently relevant to children to keep them interested. If you are teaching students about Rosa Parks, then find a real-world example to compare her journey to. Use Objects By objects, we mean anything from a tiny manipulative like a coin, to a magazine or an everyday item like a paper towel roll or piece of fruit. Here are a few examples of how you can use objects to increase student engagement and make your lessons less boring.

PROBLEM SOLVING essays

PROBLEM SOLVING essays Like most people I have problems, but like some of those people running away from the problem is not an option. Sometimes thinking of a solution thoroughly isnt always the first thing on my mind. Thinking back on my past problems I found that sometimes thinking of a solution thoroughly was the only thing on my mind On September 18, 2000 I started to take a psychology course provided by the BMCC-College Now program. On Monday October 8, 2000 I went on a job interview at Citigate Dewe Rogerson. On Tuesday October 9, 2000 I was given the opportunity to play girls softball for my school. On Wednesday October 10, 2000 I got a phone call asking me when would be available to start at the prestigious company. My reply was right away. Thats where the conflict began. I decided to set my priorities straight and categorize my options from most to least important. The job came first only because I really needed the money. Next came the college course because its free and Ive already invested my time into it. Finally came softball something I always wanted to do, but just never had the time. I narrowed it down to discontinue either softball or the college course. I then arranged every possible solution with every possible consequence. If I stop taking the college course then Ill get a full advantage of year round practice before the actual games begin. If I continue the college course I have the chance of going to college with a couple of credits. After some thought I discussed my dilema over with my cousin and he sort of shed some light on my situation. He reminded me that I was a senior and that this year should be one that I would want to remember for a long time. He told me that I would never get the opportunity to have another senior year in which I can play softball in highschool. Eureka! Taking consideration to what my cousin said I decided to continue taking the college course meanw...

Sexual Dreams and Fantasies are a Normal and Healthy Part of Life Essay

Sexual Dreams and Fantasies are a Normal and Healthy Part of Life - Essay Example Alongside the enjoyment of the actual act of sex is, or can be, the enjoyment that comes from erotic dreams and fantasies. It is my position on erotic dreams and fantasies that they are common in both men and women, and that they serve purposes that maintain a healthy life. While I believe that men and women have different fantasies, and that these fantasies can serve different purposes, through citing current research on all of these points, I believe that I will prove that both erotic dreams and sexual fantasies are common, normal, and healthy behaviors that are needed, if not required, for a person to be and remain healthy sexually and overall, regardless of gender. It is first important to understand that sex, and sexual behaviors, do not encompass a short or even somewhat workable list of topics and behaviors. Controversy surrounds the subject in society, with some behaviors such as anal sex and others automatically being seen as dirty, taboo, or against nature. Given this infor mation, it is not hard to understand why even the very mention of sex can make hairs on the back of the neck stand up in anger, embarrassment, or indignation. While there can be no doubt that sexual acts are private in nature, it should also be understood that sex is a normal and healthy part of life. According to a 2009 survey entitled The National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior (NSSHB), which encompassed 5,865 adults ranging in age from 14 to 94 years old, to say that the differences found in various behaviors related to sex were wide would be an understatement (Kreimer). It found, among other things, that men and women alike participated in activities that involved sexual acts both alone and with partners, and when the question was posed to report their latest sexual act, 41 different combinations were counted (Kreimer). No decrease was apparent in sexual activity among older adults, and in fact when questioned, this grouping was more receptive to new sexual ideas and needs (Kreimer). Orgasms were found to be the widest variant among the participants, with 85% of men reporting an orgasm in their latest sexual encounter, as opposed to only 64% of women (Kreimer). While this data does not speak to erotic dreams and fantasies, it does help to establish that sex is still seen as a common act between those of consenting age and nature. Helping the acceptance of erotic dream and fantasy become more accepted in society is the fact that America no longer lives in the 1950s, when sex was talked about in hush-hush tones and twin beds were shown on television for married couples. In a 2004 Live Poll Survey by ABC News, startling truths were revealed about just how far America had come in viewing the act of and the acts that went with sexual intercourse. The poll showed that 57% of Americans had had sex outdoors or in a public place, and that 29% had had sex on a first date. While 55% of Americans described their sex life as â€Å"traditional†, 10% of thos e people said that they would like their sex life to be more adventurous. Also, the poll showed that 21% of Americans had fantasized about a threesome, while 10% fantasized about having sex at work. An additional 14% reported that they had actually engaged in a threesome, while an additional 12% reported having had sexual activity or intercourse at their place of employment. Most importantly, 51% of Americans talked about their sexual fantasies with their partners.

EXAMINE the proposition that there exists a correlation btween the Essay

EXAMINE the proposition that there exists a correlation btween the rate of inflation and the level of unemployment. explain the significance of your result - Essay Example For instance, an unemployment rate of 5% is considered as acceptable in the United States. Almost all economic variables are related to each other. A rise in one consequently causes either a fall or an increase in another. Two variables display this relationship. These are unemployment and inflation. This essay will examine the proposition that there exists this correlation between the rate of inflation and the level of unemployment. Firstly, it will briefly explore the concepts of inflation and unemployment. Secondly, it will examine the relationship between these two variables. Thirdly, it will explain the significance of this correlation and finally give a conclusion. Inflation is, by simple definition, an increase in prices. However, in a more detailed definition, it is the consistent and sustained increase in the general price level of commodities and services. Inflation has an immediate effect on the value of a currency of the country experiencing it. For instance, if the United Kingdom is experiencing inflation in its economy, then the value of a sterling pound reduces. Here the value of a currency denotes its purchasing power or the quantity of real goods that one unit of the currency can purchase. The value of a currency varies with the level of inflation, and is never constant (Mankiw, 2011:43). Where there is an increase in the rate of inflation, the purchasing power of people in an economy declines. The opposite is also true for a decrease in the rate of inflation. Inflation is measured as percentage. Specifically, it is measured as a percentage increase of goods and services in a given year. For instance, if the rate of inflation in a y ear is 3%, then a commodity that costs 1 sterling pound will cost 1.03 sterling pounds after inflation is factored in. Inflation has three major variations. These are deflation, hyperinflation, and stagflation (Vogt, 2008:37). Deflation refers to a situation in the economy when the general price level of