Crime Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Crime - Case Study Example In 1991, 35.7% of students in high school in the US were involved in physical fights and violations (Mass General Hospital for Children, â€Å"Violence Committed by Adolescents†). Thus, the incident which took place in the Gigantic State University can be stated as a crime. Negligence There was a negligence involved in the case from both the parties. The rise of tuition fees had resulted in violation among the students. The university could have negotiated with the Members of Students for Fair Tuition (SFT) regarding the tuition fees and the students should not have entered the President’s building by breaking the law. Laws and Rights The students broke the laws and rights of the university by taking such a violent step. They violently entered the President’s building and caused damage. Thus, the general civil laws were violated that prevents any person from causing any physical or mental damage to human beings as well as property. They also uttered bad words to the President. They were attempting to attack the President but were not successful to attack him and instead they threatened Prudence Pimply, the secretary. People Liable for Damages Students and University both were liable for the damage caused. If the university would not have raised the tuition fees suddenly, then such situation would not have cropped up. The mental damage was caused to the secretary of the president. She was not involved in this case but became a victim. Moreover, the rising tuition fees also caused physical and mental damage to the students of the university. Tort Liability and Exploration of Assault, Battery, Infliction of Emotional Distress and False Imprisonment A tort is considered as a complex legal concept that transcends to a wrong which may be restored that may not be criminal (governmental) or contractual (private) in its existence (University of South Florida, â€Å"Tort Liability†). The touching of one person without the consent of him or her with an intention to harm others is referred as assault. An assault might be committed without the assistance of battery and battery can be occurred without the help of assault. Battery means striking a person from behind without the consent of a person (Duhaime org, â€Å"Assault Definition†). Infliction of emotional distress is the cruel and disgraceful causation of extreme emotional distress. There are four planned infliction related to emotional distress. The conduct may be intentional, it can be severe and outrageous, causal association may be there between illegal conduct along with emotional distress. In addition, the emotional distress can be severe (Duhaime org, â€Å"Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress Definition†). False imprisonment relates to ‘intentional as well as complete imprisonment of a person against his or her will and without lawful justification’. The activities of false imprisonment will lie where a person is inappropriate ly detained. Moreover, little force is associated with detention (Duhaime org, False Imprisonment Definition†). In this incident, primarily infliction of emotional distress was caused to Prudence Pimply by the protesting members. 2.0 Case 2 Negligence Negligence takes place when the activities of both parties fail to perform effectively. When each party has certain state of negligence, accident takes place. In this case, Steve Simple was sent to climb the tower for painting, but tremendous thunderstorm had exposed him to a great danger of being hit by

Using Social Media to Improve Food Safety

Using Social Media to Improve Food Safety Catalin Aricescu Abstract The Food and Drug Administration is an organization mandated to oversee the food and drug safety within the United States. On the other hand, information technology is growing fast and the agency needs to implement better means of communication especially with its participants from consumers to food sources. This study is a pilot research utilizing online survey to comprehend the feasibility of social media use for the improvement of the American food safety system. The results of the study show that more research is necessary as the social media users are mainly young and educated adults and they play an imperative role in the quick dissemination of preventive information, as well as food recall notices, in a manner that is likely to be heard or read widely. Therefore, it would be essential for the American Food and Drug Administration to incorporate social media into its main strategy. Introduction This pilot study was conducted to find out whether the food regulatory agencies such as the Food Safety and Inspection Service and the Food and Drug Administration should consider using social media as a means of improving the food safety system. According to Lang, Barling, Caraher, (2011) the utilization of social networking in organizations is emerging. On the other hand, Seo, Almanza, Miao, Behnke, (2015) affirm that the strategic use of social media in public firms is yet to be studied in great depth. According to Lang, Barling, Caraher, (2011), the exchange of food information and knowledge on food hazard is a form of vulnerability communication in food and safety procedures. Having considered the major characteristics of a food safety system, this pilot study aimed at proofing those effective and efficient food safety procedures are through the adoption of social media use by various regulatory bodies. The agenda may be attained by bringing together organizations and individuals representing various backgrounds. Background Public Policy and Food Safety According to the Consumers Union (2013), the Food and Drug Administration is an institution that is supposed to be a consumers watchdog. However, the agency has fallen short of its mandate. In the U.S., companies that supply processed foods often do not have the capacity to guarantee ingredient safety. Labs (2013) sustains that most of the American corporations do not even know the people or companies that supply their ingredients. Additionally, they do not know whether those suppliers ingredients are screened for microbes or other potentially harmful microorganisms. Recently, the main public policy strategic focus on food safety has been control. One of the strategies used to achieve control is through food recalls. Mayer and Harris (2012) say that food recalls often occur due to quality, physical or biological contamination. The Department of Agriculture, the FDA manufacturer, or the distributor can initiate a recall (Labs, 2013). For food recalls to occur fast, there should be a proper and effective means of message dissemination. Rapid information dissemination makes it easier to trace the data to know whether those affected have obtained the information on the withdrawal. On the other hand, Seo, Almanza, Miao, Behnke, 2015 state the Food Safety Modernization Act is trying to change food safety management from reaction to prevention. Lang, Barling, and Caraher (2011) also state that more groups are involved in the nations food safety program. For instance, the United States Food Safety Working Group implemented innovative strategies for the American food safety system. The FSWG is a group that is focused on the modernization of the food safety system especially through partnerships with regulatory agencies, the food industry, and consumers. The FSWG suggested a better route to freedom from fear of food safety to safe food through improved food systems. Consequently, the FSWG is based on three principles that are strengthening surveillance, prioritizing prevention and improvement of response and recovery. Using social media for food safety According to Mayer (2013), proper food recalling forms of communications are still in the infancy stage. Collier (2011) maintains that both subjective norms and attitudes have an impact on consumers and their intent to act in accordance with a food recall. Attitudes have a greater impact on the peoples ability to comply. Subjective norms and attitudes can be found on social networks. Consequently, social networks are imperative, according to Deasy (2012), and the role of social media is imperative in public policy. Mayer (2013) also suggests that regulatory bodies should emphasize the need to use social media. The use of social media is essential as it involves bringing together heterogeneous groups that form a social network. A social network is easier to coordinate when trying to identify food hazards as well as spread any form of food recall information (Karp, Baur, Atwill, De Master, Gennet, Iles, Kremen, 2015). Apart from using its website, the FDA could incorporate social networking strategies to enable it reach more consumers especially when required to recall certain products from a market. Taylor, and Sklamberg (2016) state that the FDA website offers information or announcements on all forms of recalls. Additionally, consumers can obtain e-mails after requesting to receive alerts on the website. Consumers that have food problems can report on the website, as the FDA has employed complaint coordinators within FDA district offices, to receive all forms of food complaints (Taylor Sklamberg, 2016). Furthermore, the conventional news outlets in the nation can broadcast recall information. On the other hand, with the increased use of social media, it would be important for the news media and regulatory bodies to use social networks as a means of reaching a wider audience in a short time (Deasy, 2012). The social networks allow people to obtain information in real time while people may hear of a recall from a television or radio long after it was issued. For instance, Plum Organics is an organization that has voluntarily used social media to spread information on food. Labs (2013) states that people hearing negative news, such as a recall, that has a direct influence on them, will try to obtain information from informal networks. Additionally, Taylor Sklamberg (2016) say that people are more likely to participate in spreading the information when they believe that the negative event affects them directly and understand that the consequences are serious enough to call for an action. Freberg, Graham, McGaughey, Freberg, (2011) affirm that the consumers are important agents in spreading the information about a food recall that would effectively work online. Social media influencers are an essential part of the social networking and could help in the dissemination of information on food safety. According to Freberg, Graham, McGaughey, and Freberg (2011), consumers who use the social media such as tweets, blogs, or other platforms to spread a negative event are known as social media influencers. Social media influencers play an essential role in the creation of noise in the system and on most occasions, their credibility is questioned due to misinformation or distortion of information. On the other hand, Lang, Barling, Caraher (2011) state that social media could still be used for the improvement of the food safety system. Social media use can be imperative in the food system. As Karp, Baur, Atwill, De Master, et al. (2015) sustain, the system could adopt a strategy that could help in the exploitation of the social networks, especially the social media. The social media may not only expand the systems versatile ability, but also improve its information dissemination to the public as well as take preventive role through tapping into diverse and unutilized resources on food hazard issues. Lang, Barling, and Caraher (2011) add that information and communication technological improvements helped develop ways through which the public agencies can learn on potential food hazards fast. The public agency still needs to coordinate communication to maintain the systems integrity. However, the planned utilization of innovative technologies allows coordination with regulatory interventions efficiently (Lang, Barling, Caraher, 2011). In spreading negative news, the social networks have been used extensively. Deasy (2012) maintains that new communication technologies can be utilized as an essential part of the food system, allowing all participants to exchange information on food safety. However, Mayer (2013) states that little effort has been used to involve consumers as participants in food safety. Research on social network use within corporations is still emerging. However, little information is available on its strategic use within public firms (Collier, 2012). The main disadvantage in the use of social media in public firms is information distortions. According to Taylor, and Sklamberg (2016), information disseminated online can be easily manipulated to a certain degree, which (Collier, 2012) states could bring about naÃÆ' ¯ve learning. Online information is often asymmetrical. Consequently, individuals, and organizations could try to insert false information into the social networks. Lang, Barling, Caraher (2011) state that some companies may choose to alter the information with an aim of raising their competitions costs. Additionally, social media influencers may obtain an incentive to manipulate specific information to increase their popularity online. Taylor, and Sklamberg, (2016) say that efforts have been made to uncover such attempts but still no protection is available from such manipulation. Consequently, efforts to use the social network to pass information on food safety should be considered. Materials and Methods In the study, it was imperative to understand the current situation on public agency use of social media on food recalls. To comprehend the current situation within the United States it was important to carry out a survey, which was done between March 1 and March 9 2017. The survey aimed at focusing on the respondents attention. The main purpose of the study was to examine the responses on food recall. According to Deasy (2012), a food recall is the request to return an entire food production of a particular food product to the seller and it is usually done once safety issues are discovered. Social media use was common in this survey; consequently, the first question asked in the survey was: Which technological device do you use regularly (Computer, laptop, tablet or Smartphone)? The survey also includes two essential questions on product recall experiences. The questions were: Have you ever heard of a food recall? and How did you hear about the food recall? Seven demographic items followed the two questions. On the other hand, a participant that indicated she or he had never heard of a food recall, she or he automatically moved to next part of the survey. To obtain more information on personal experiences, the survey also included four scenarios that allowed the respondents to give more information. The first two circumstances dealt with the participants personal experiences particularly with food issues. The last two dealt with the recall announcements. Similar to the last section, anyone who has not experienced any scenario on food issues automatically moved to the next section. Table 1 Scenarios used in the survey First Scenario The experience of a main issue Have you ever eaten lunch at a restaurant and later ad a severe stomachache leading to diarrhea and forcing you to seek medical assistance? Second Scenario Experienced a minor problem Have you ever eaten at a restaurant and later had an upset stomach? Third Scenario Product you used recalled You bought a packaged lettuce and later heard its brand recalled on radio, television, newspaper or online Fourth Scenario Recall of a product you never used You heard a packaged lettuce recalled on radio, television, newspaper or online but you never use the brand The study was done on utilizing SurveyMonkey.Com, and it ended with three open-ended questions that included: Think of an occasion when you experienced a problem after eating at home or your favorite joint. Tell us the incident. How did you feel, what was your reaction, did anyone know of the problem? Did you seek medical attention? Did you change your eating or food buying pattern? Think of an occasion when you heard of a food recall. Tell us about the incident, how did you feel, what was your reaction, did anyone know of the incidence, did you change your eating or food purchasing patterns? Do you have any additional comments? Participants use of social media The participants showed their comprehension of food recall as well as having shared information on bad food experiences with coworkers, friends, and family through diverse social media platforms. The sharing of the information occurred under certain circumstances, for example, gravity of the issue or the person contacted. According to Lang, Barling, and Caraher (2011), social media use is common in age groups between 18-29 years and 30-49 years. In the results of the survey, the studied group was within the said age groups. In the study, we found that access to smart phones decreases with age while the use of computers, mainly desktop, increased with age. Additionally, the use of social media among the participants decreased with age, but varied in relation to the specific social media such as YouTube and Facebook, which are platforms common in all ages. In the study, 94.8% of the participants had heard of a food recall. Surprisingly, most of the participants had heard of the food recall through broadcast or print media. On the other hand, the younger participants especially those below 25 years had heard of the food recall on both broadcast media and social networks, while those above 25 years had heard of the food recall through broadcast and print media. The Concerns and Experiences of the Participants with Food Problems Most of the participants showed their concern for food safety especially on the participation of the government as well as organizations in monitoring the process successfully. The participants mentioned the need for Food and Drug Administration agencys participation in monitoring the food that people consume. The consumers also noted that there is an increased use of informal communication in food safety. On the other hand, they also expressed their concerns for the increased caution when using social networks as the main form of communication. Furthermore, they appreciated the need to obtain information on bad food. However, it should be mentioned that the person giving the information may have been self-diagnosing inaccurately. The participants mentioned the need to notify the authorities or the necessary bodies whenever there were food recalls after notifying friends and family. The participants had experienced the second Scenario more than the first scenario. Additionally, it was evident that the participants would tell others about the first scenario experience more than they would have in the second scenario. Moreover, more participants would have told others in the third scenario than they would have in the fourth scenario. Similar to previous studies, it was evident that more people were likely to tell others of a food recall if they used that product or had a severe experience from eating the food. The study also aimed at looking at any pattern on the responses. Therefore, Symphony software was used. On the other hand, a pattern did not exist as the participants mentioned different kinds of foods. Some of the foods mentioned included cereal, peanuts, beef, pizza, pork corn, fruit, chicken, lettuce, meat and chili, among others. The discovery of the patterns brought about the question: Who is more likely to inform others on a recall or experience on bad food using the social media? To obtain an answer to the question all participants that used any form of social platform for more than one of the scenarios were grouped together. The activity led to the conclusion that well-educated and young adults especially females were more likely to spread information of a food recall. Table 2 Gender Age Education Female 18-29 98 College graduate 85 Male 18-29 79 Advanced degree 87 Outcomes and Discussions The survey used a manageable sample of two hundred and fourteen respondents. Out of the 214, 212 responses were obtained from three universities. In the study, there were more female respondents than males. The respondents were aged between 18 and 29 years. All the participants were from diverse racial backgrounds, well educated, and were studying different courses at their universities. About 7.1% of the participants had attained their undergraduate education and were pursuing a higher level of education. More studies will be needed to obtain more conclusive information on the use of social networks for food safety. The results of this pilot study suggested that the utilization of social media as a modality of spreading the word on bad food would enable people to cope with the situation better, both cognitively and emotionally. The process would also help in the improvement of the food safety system. The differences that social media can create in improving food safety may be due to the fast dissemination of information using social media. Information sent by a relative, friend, or a close contact is more likely to be read, rather than general public information, spread through a newspaper. The outcomes of the study also suggested that social network users are generally well-educated and young adults. On the other hand, those with the ability to spread the word are not necessarily those with the most friends online. When aspects such as education, race, and gender are constant, the younger generation is more likely to use social networking platforms more than the older persons are. Additionally, females are more likely to use social media than males. Presently, people often use social networking platforms to socialize or spread information on events that they are not involved in or impacted by, directly. Upon hearing a recall of a familiar food product, females, unlike males, are more likely to pass information on the recall. Furthermore, an individual was more likely to spread the word on a recall after experiencing a severe food problem. On the other hand, those passing information were least likely to use social media as the platform to spread the word on a food recall. Therefore, agencies that need to improve their way of spreading information on food recall, need to adopt better plans, as well as formulate policies that ensure that the well-educated and young females are involved. Limitations of the Study This was a pilot study that was limited by time and as well as by using a specific demographic. The university students were the most appropriate. However, the study lacked diversity in the convenient sample size. University students may have a particular mindset on information technology. Consequently, it was difficult to obtain a more diverse view on the study. Moreover, despite obtaining results that were similar to previous studies, the sample size was not a representative one. The small sample size offered limited information on the topic. The study did not cover some aspects that may have influenced the participants use of social media, such as employment or income. Therefore, a large and diverse population would be more appropriate for future studies on the topic. Conclusion An outcome of this pilot research showed that due to the dynamics of social media, it is essential for food safety companies to use intelligence, sufficient resources, as well as good ideas to attain success in recalling bad food. The food agencies require having a strategy that offers a specific alertness in the use of social media information. For instance, the agencies may create their social media groups to manage the network and avoid misinformation. It would be important to form good relationships that are built on trust with the social media users. Furthermore, using hash tags when recalling food would help improve the spreading of the word. Agencies could as well collaborate with distributors, suppliers, grocers, manufacturers, restaurants and businesses that have websites to recall food products from a market, enabling better creation of trust. Consequently, using social media as part of the structured communication strategy would help improve the food and safety agencies. References Collier, M. (2011). The ultimate online customer service guide: How to connect with your customers to sell more!. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley. Consumers Union. (2013). Call for FDA review Good News for consumers. Consumers Union, 2013. Deasy, D. J. (2012). Food safety and assurance: The role of information technology. International Journal of Dairy Technology, 55(1), 1-4. Freberg, Kà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¾ Graham, K., McGaughey, K., Freberg, L. (2011). Who are the social media influences? A study of public perceptions of personality. Public Relations Review, 3(7), 90-92. Karp, D. S., Baur, P., Atwill, E. R., De Master, K., Gennet, S., Iles, A., Kremen, C. (2015). The unintended ecological and social impacts of food safety regulations in Californias Central Coast Region. Bioscience, 65(12), 1173-1183. Lang, T., Barling, D., Caraher, M. (2011). Food, social policy and the environment: Towards a new model. Social Policy Administration, 35(5), 538. Labs, W. (2013). the state of food manufacturing. (cover story). Food Engineering, 85(10), 76-88. Mayer, A. B., Harris, J. A. (2012). Safe eats: An evaluation of the use of social media for food safety education. Journal of Food Protection, 75(8), 1453-1463. Mayer, M. (2013). How social media drives expanded consumer base. Refrigerated Frozen Foods Retailer, 6. Seo, S., Almanza, B., Miao, L., Behnke, C. (2015). The effect of social media comments on consumers responses to food safety information. Journal of Foodservice Business Research, 18(2), 111-131. Taylor, M. R., Sklamberg, H. R. (2016). Internationalizing food safety: FDAs role in the global food system. Harvard International Review, 37(3), 32-37.

Management Information System Essay -- Computers Business Information

It deals with planning for, development, management, and use of information technology tools to help people perform all tasks related to information processing and management. In the above definition you can find the three key resources-information, information technology, and people. You will also find various functions that you as a knowledge worker must undertake to ensure that your origination maximizes its advantages. It doesn't matter if you are preparing to work in the area of finance, human resource management, logistics, marketing or even information technology, you will still have responsibilities that include planning for, developing, managing and using MIS function with in your area of expertise. Management information system challenge: Many people believe that information technology is the key resource in MIS. Indeed information technology is critically important set of tools for working with information and supporting the information information-processing needs of your organization. But IT is not a panacea. We have to realize that the success of IT as a set of tools in your organization depends on care full planning for, development, management, and use of IT with the two other key business resources-people and information. And that's what MIS is about -planning for, developing, managing, and using IT tools to help people work with information. There are three aspects of THE MIS challenge, including What businesses do? Customer moment of value. The role of information technology What businesses do? In a nutshell, businesses service their customers. And it really doesn't matter whether you own a business that are employed by an organization that provides telecommunications services arou... ...ible of capturing information, creating new information and cradling these information and transaction in a data base. TPSs also have secondary responsibilities that include conveying information to users. TPS performs the following functions Capture information concerning the order Creates new information such as the total purchase and applicable tax. Convey that information to the order-entry specialist. Cradles or stores the information. Customer Integrated system: A CIS is an extension of a TPS that places technology in the hands of an organization's customers and allows them to process their own transactions. ATM's are perhaps the most common example of a CIS. ATM's provide you with the ability to do your own banking anywhere at any time. ATM'S actually do nothing "new" but they give you greater flexibility in accessing and using your money.

Views of Christianity and Islam Towards Trade

Christianity and Islam are two of the most practiced religions in the world, and have been for centuries. These two faiths are both monotheistic, which means they worship one God, or Allah. Started over 2000 years ago, Christianity is based on the teachings and life of Jesus Christ and was spread throughout the Roman Empire. The religion of Islam began early in 600 C. E. by the prophet Muhammad, and he spread the word of Allah. These religions spread quickly in Europe and the Middle East. As they progressed, new trading routes came about in these areas.Overtime, Christianity and Islam developed opinions about the trading and businesses activity and the people who pursued it. According to the religion’s holy books, the Bible and Qur’an, their views on trade were different at first. Christians believed that people should not trade; for it was not the pursuit of man. Muslims were much more tolerant of trade, as long as merchants were honest in their bargaining. By 1000 C. E, both the religions’ attitudes towards trade had changed completely. Christian scholars began to teach that honest trade was acceptable, while Muslim scholars saw the danger that trade brought to a man’s soul.By the 15th century, attitudes towards trade had even more drastic change once again. Christianity espoused that trade was encouraged and worthy, while Muslims believed merchants were corrupt. When the two religions first began, Christianity and Islam differed at first on their views concerning trade. As stated in the Christian Bible, it is almost impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God (document 1). For Christians, at first they had to live a humble life without making any profits.Its said that it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. As for Muslims this differed because in the Qur’an, men were allowed to trade as long as they were honest; said in document 2. â€Å"I f the two parties speak the truth and make it manifest, their transaction shall be blessed, and if they conceal and tell and lie, the blessing of their transaction shall be obliterated. † This means that if two people trade fairly amongst each other without cheating, then nothing is wrong according to the Islam beliefs.If one of the men are cheated, then their business will be wiped out. The point of document 1 was that Jesus was a poor man, therefore his followers lived up to being poor as well. When Christianity started, Christians believed that in order to go to heaven, they must live a poor and humble life, like Jesus did. The same logic applies for Muslims in document 2, who’s founder Muhammed was a wealthy merchant. In document two, the author is supporting merchants and saying that they will be accepted by Allah as long as they are truthful.Muslims strongly believed that it was okay to be a wealthy merchant as long you are honest, like Muhammed. Therefore, the tw o religions were at first different because Christianity had negative views toward trade while Islam was for it; and they were alike because the reason for their views both traced back to their founders. In documents four and five, the view points of Christians and Muslims toward trade began to change. Christians, who were at first against trade and becoming wealthy from it, now say that it is okay to trade as long as you are honest.Stated in document four, â€Å"No man should sell a thing to another man for more than its worth. † This is saying that for men to do business with one another, they must not sell things for more than they are worth, or in other words scam each other. While Christian scholars are becoming more lenient towards trade than they were when the religion started, Islamic scholars are becoming more strict. Muslims now believe that selling things for a profit, even if it is honest, is inevitably affecting the soul. â€Å"These qualities lead to a decrease and weakening in virtue and manliness,† (document five).The Islam look on trade now sees that the methods that trade employs are tricks aimed at making a profit by securing the difference between buying and selling prices. The two religions, however, are still somewhat similar because they both believe that trading for large profits can eventually lead to corruption of the soul. Views of trade by Christians and Muslims yet continued to change even further in documents six and seven. It seems in document six as if Christians were being encouraged to trade as long as it involved God.Religious paintings of Our Lady were being asked for, therefore Christians now want people to trade. Also in document six it is stated that, â€Å"You know God has granted you to acquire great riches in this world, may He be praised. † It is now expected for Christian merchants to trade and use God while doing so. Overtime you can see the change on the views of trade, because at first Christi ans did not want anyone making a large profit. As for Muslims, merchants are loosing money from trading. In document seven, Sakaoglu Nasuh is an example of how over time the commerce activity has affected his ethical customs. The aforementioned has now acted contrary to the old custom. † This is because he is buying all the cotton yarn and selling them for higher prices. Hence, not giving the other merchants a fair opportunity to buy and sell the cotton as well. This is going against what the Islam religion believed, which is business activities are acceptable as long as you are not taking advantage of others. The Islamic Court probably said this is document seven because they wanted to please the people and let them know that merchants must obey.The two religions continue to differ in these documents because Christians are now persuading people to trade, while Islam trading is becoming monopolized. However, Christianity and Islam are still alike in which they both use religio n as an example. The attitudes of Christianity and Islam towards trade and merchants differed. When the two religions first began, they had opposite views from each other. Christians saw trade and wealth as being far from God and it was not approved. Muslims, on the other hand, tolerated trade as long as the two parties were honest and no one was taken advantage of.Later on, these views changed when Christians became more lenient and also accepted honest trade. Muslims then saw trade as inevitably affecting the soul when merchants became corrupt by outbidding other merchants. However, we would need additional documents such as documents from the common people in order to asses the consequences of the merchant activities. We do not know how the Christians’ or Muslims’ commoners viewed the trading business, therefore, we cannot fully understand all aspects of the religions towards it.

Night World : Black Dawn Chapter 8

What are you doing?† he repeated ferociously.His grip was hurting her. â€Å"I'm throwing the water bag down there,† Maggiesaid. But she was thinking, He's so strong. Stronger than anybody I've ever met. He could break mywrist without even trying. â€Å"I know that! Why?† â€Å"Because it's easier than carrying it down in myteeth,† Maggie said. But that wasn't the real reason,of course. The truth was that she needed to get temptation out of the way. She was so thirsty thatit was a kind of madness, and she was afraid ofwhat she would do if she held onto this cool, sloshing water bag much longer. He was staring at her with those startling eyes,as if he were trying to pryhis way into her brain.And Maggie had the odd feeling that he'd succeeded, at least far enough that he knew the real reason she was doing this. â€Å"You are an idiot,† he said slowly, with cold wonder. â€Å"You should listen to your body; it's telling youwhat it needs. You can't ignore thirst. You can'tdeny it.† â€Å"Yes, you can,† Maggie said flatly. Her wrist wasgoing numb. If this went on, she was going to dropthe bag involuntarily, and in the wrong place. â€Å"You can't,† he said, somehow making the wordsinto an angry hiss. â€Å"I should know.† Then he showed her his teeth. Maggie should have been prepared. Jeanne had told her. Vampires and witches and shapeshifters, she'd said. And Sylvia was a witch,and Bern had been a shapeshifter. This boy was a vampire. The strange thing was that, unlike Bern, he didn'tget uglier when he changed. His face seemed palerand finer, like something chiseled in ice. His goldeneyes burned brighter, framed by lashes that lookedeven blacker in contrast. His pupils opened and seemed to hold a darkness that could swallow aperson up. But it was the mouth that had changed the most.It looked even more willful, disdainful, and sullen-and it was drawn up into a sneer to displaythe fangs. Impressive fangs. Long, translucent white, tapering into delicate points. Shaped like a cat's canines,with a sheen on them like jewels. Not yellowing tusks like Bern's, but delicate instruments of death. What amazed Maggie was that although helooked completely different from anything she'd seen before, completely abnormal, he also lookedcompletely natural. This was another kind of creature, just like a human or a bear, with as muchright to live as either of them. Which didn't mean she wasn't scared. But shewas frightened in a new way, a way ready for action. She was ready to fight, if fighting became necessary. She'd already changed that much since entering this valley: fear now made her not panicked buthyper alert. If I have to defend myself I need both hands.And it's better not to let him see I'm scared. â€Å"Maybe you can't ignore your kind of thirst,† shesaid, and was pleased that her voice didn't wobble.†But I'm fine. Except that you're hurting my wrist. Can you please let go?† For just an instant, the brilliant yellow eyesflared even brighter, and she wondered if he wasgoing to attack her. But then his eyelids lowered,black lashes veiling the brightness. He let go ofher wrist. Maggie's arm sagged,and the leather bagdropped from her suddenly nerveless fingers. It landed safely at her feet. She rubbed her hand. And didn't look up a moment later, when he saidwith a kind of quiet hostility, â€Å"Aren't you afraidof me?† â€Å"Yes.† It was true. And it wasn't just because hewas a vampire or because he had a power thatcould send blue death twenty feet away. It was because of him, of the way he was. He was scary enough in and of himself. â€Å"But what good is it, being afraid?† Maggie said,still rubbing her hand. â€Å"If you're going to try tohurt me,IT fight back. And so far, you haven't triedto hurt me. You've only helped me.† â€Å"I told you, I didn't do it for you.And you'll neversurvive if you keep on being insane like this.† â€Å"Insane like what?† Now she did look up, to seethat his eyes were burning dark gold and his fangswere gone. His mouth simply looked scornful and aristocratic. â€Å"Trusting people,† he said, as if it should havebeen obvious. â€Å"Taking care of people. Don't youknow that only the strong ones make it? Weak people are deadweightand if you try to help them, they'll drag you down with them.† Maggie had an answer for that. â€Å"Cady isn'tweak,† she said flatly. â€Å"She's sickShe'll get betterif she gets the chance. And if we don't take care ofeach other, what's going to happen to all of us?† He looked exasperated, and for a few minutesthey stared at each other in mutual frustration. Then Maggie bent and picked up the bag again.†I'd better give it to her now. I'll bring your can teen back.† â€Å"Wait.† His voice was abrupt and cold, unfriendly. But this time he didn't grab her.†What?† â€Å"Follow me.† He gave the order briefly andturned without pausing to see if she obeyed. It wasclear that he expectedpeople to obey him, withoutquestions. â€Å"Bring the bag,† he said, without lookingover his shoulder. Maggie hesitated an instant, glancing down atCady. But the hollow was protected by the overhanging boulders; Cady would be all right there for a few minutes. She followed the boy. The narrow path that wound around the mountain was rough and primitive, interrupted by bands of broken, razor-sharpslate. She had to pick her way carefully aroundthem. In front of her, the boy turned toward the rocksuddenly and disappeared. When Maggie caught up, she saw the cave. The entrance was small, hardly more than acrack, and even Maggie had to stoop and go in sideways. But inside it opened into a snug littleenclosure that smelled of dampness and cool rock. Almost no light filtered in from the outsideworld. Maggie blinked, trying to adjust to the neardarkness, when there was a sound like a match strike and a smell of sulphur. A tiny flame was born, and Maggie saw the boy lighting some kindof crude stone lamp that had been carved out ofthe cave wall itself. He glanced back at her and his eyes flashed gold. But Maggie was gasping, looking around her.The light of the little flame threw a mass of shifting, confusing shadows everywhere, but it alsopicked out threads of sparkling quartz in the rock.The small cave had become a place of enchantment. Andatthe boy's feet was something that glitteredsilver. In the hush of the still air, Maggie couldhear the liquid, bell-like sound of water dripping. â€Å"It'sa pool,† the boy said. â€Å"Spring fed. The watees cold, but it's good. Water .Something like pure lust overcame Maggie. She took three steps forward, ignoring the boy completely, and then her legs collapsed.Shecupped a hand in the pool, felt the coolness encompass it to the wrist, and brought it out asif shewere holding liquid diamond in her palm. She'd never tasted anything asgood as that water. No Coke she'd drunk on the hottest day of summer could compare with it. It ran through herdry mouth and down her parched throatand then it seemed to spread all through her, sparklingthrough her body, soothing and reviving her. A sort of crystal clearness entered her brain. She drankand drank in a state of pure bliss. And then, when she was in the even more blissfulstate of being not thirsty anymore, she plunged the leather bag under the surface to fill it. â€Å"What's that for?† But there was a certain resignation in the boy's voice. â€Å"Cady. I have to get back to her.† Maggie sat backon her heels and looked at him. The light dancedand flickered around him, glinting bronze off hisdark hair, casting half his face in shadow. â€Å"Thank you,† she said, quietly, but in a voice thatshook slightly. â€Å"I think you probably saved mylife again.† â€Å"You were really thirsty.† â€Å"Yeah.† She stood up. â€Å"But when you thought there wasn't enoughwater, you were going to give it to her.† He couldn'tseem to get over the concept. â€Å"Yeah† â€Å"Even if it meant you dying?† â€Å"I didn't die,† Maggie pointed out. â€Å"And I wasn'tplanning to. Butyeah, I guess, if there wasn't anyother choice.† She saw him staring at her in utterbewilderment. â€Å"I took responsibility for her,† shesaid, trying to explain. â€Å"It's like when you take ina cat, or-or it's like being a queen or something.If you say you're going to be responsible for your subjects, you are. You owe them afterward.† Something glimmered in his golden eyes, just fora moment. It could have been a dagger point ofanger or just a spark of astonishment. There wasa silence. â€Å"It's not thatweird, people taking care of each other,† Maggie said, looking at his shadowed face. â€Å"Doesn't anybody do it here?† He gave a short laugh. â€Å"Hardly,† he said dryly.†The nobles know how to take care of themselves.And the slaves have to fight each other to survive.† He added abruptly, â€Å"All of which you should know.But of course you're not from here. You're fromOutside.† â€Å"I didn't know if you knew about Outside,† Mag gie said. â€Å"There isn't supposed to be any contact. Therewasn't for about five hundred years. But whenmy-when the old king died, they opened the pass,again and started bringing in slaves from the outside world. New blood.† He said it simply andmatter-of-factly. Mountain men, Maggie thought. For years there had been rumors about the Cascades, about menwho lived in hidden places among the glaciers andpreyed on climbers. Men or monsters. There were always hikers who claimed to have seen Bigfoot. And maybe they had-or maybe they'd seen ashapeshifter like Bern. â€Å"And you think that's okay,† she said out loud.†Grabbing people from the outside world and dragging them in here to be slaves.† â€Å"Notpeople.Humans.Humansarevermin;they're not intelligent.† He said it in that same dispassionate tone, looking right at her. â€Å"Are you crazy?†Maggie's fists were clenched; herhead was lowered. Stomping time. She glared upat him through narrowed lashes. â€Å"You're talking to a human right now. Am I intelligent or not?† â€Å"You're a slave without any manners,† he saidcurtly. â€Å"And the law says I could kill you for the way you'retalkingto me.† His voice was so cold, so arrogant†¦but Maggiewas starting not to believe it. That couldn't be all there was to him. Becausehe was the boy in her dream. The gentle, compassionate boy who'd looked ather with a flame of love behind his yellow eyes,and who'd held her with such tender intensity, hisheart beating against hers, his breath on her cheek. That boy had been real-and even if it didn't makeany sense, Maggie was somehow certain of it. And no matter how cold and arrogant this one seemed, they had to be part of each other. It didn't make her less afraid of this one, exactly.But it made her more determined to ignore herfear. â€Å"In my dream,† she said deliberately, advancinga step on him, â€Å"you cared about at least onehuman. You wanted to take care of me.† â€Å"You shouldn't even be allowedto dream aboutme,† he said. His voice wasas tense and grim asever, but as Maggie got closer to him, looking directly up into his face, he did something that amazed her. He fell back a step. â€Å"Why not? Because I'm a slave? I'm a person.† She took another step forward, still looking at him challengingly. â€Å"And I don't believe that you're asbad as you say you are. I think I saw what youwere really like in my dream.† â€Å"You're crazy,† he said. He didn't back up anyfarther, there was nowhere left to go. But his wholebody was taut. â€Å"Why should I want to take care of you?† he added in a cold and contemptuous voice.†What's so special about you?† It was a good question, and for a moment Maggie was shaken. Tears sprang to her eyes. â€Å"I don't know,† she said honestly. â€Å"I'm nobodyspecial. There isn'tany reason for you to care aboutme. But it doesn't matter. You saved my life whenBern was going to kill me, and you gave me waterwhen you knew I needed it. You can talk all youwant, but those are the facts. Maybe you just care about everybody, underneath. Or-â€Å" She never finished the last sentence. As she had been speaking to him, she was doingsomething she always did, that was instinctive to.,her when she felt some strong emotion. She had done it with P.J. and with Jeanne and with Cady. She reached out toward him. And although shewas only dimly aware that he was pulling his handsback to avoid her, she adjusted automatically,catching his wrists†¦. And that was when she lost her voice and whatshe was saying flew out of her head. Because something happened. Something that she couldn't ex plain, that was stranger than secret kingdoms orvampires or witchcraft. It happened justas her fingers closed on hishands. It was the first time they had touched like that, bare skin to bare skin. When he had grabbed her wrist before, her jacket sleeve had been in be tween them. It started as an almost painful jolt, a pulsatingthrill that zigged up her arm and then sweptthrough her body. Maggie gasped, but somehowshe couldn't let go of his hand. Like someone beingelectrocuted, she was frozen in place. The blue fire, she thought wildly. He's doing thesame thing to me that he did to Bern. But the next instant she knew that he wasn't. This wasn't the savage energy that had killed Bern, and it wasn't anything the boy was doing to her. Itwas something being done to both of them, by some incredibly powerful source outside either of them. And it was trying †¦ to open a channel. Thatwas the only way Maggie could describe it. It was blazing a path open in her mind, and connectingit to his. She feltas if she had turned around and unexpectedly found herself facing another person's soul.A soul that was hanging there, without protection,already in helpless communication with hers. It was by far the most intense thing that hadever happened to her. Maggie gasped again, seeingstars, and then her legs melted and she fellforward He caught her, but he couldn't stand up either.Maggie knew that as well as she knew what wasgoing on in her own body. He sank to his knees, holding her. What are you doing to me? It was a thought, but it wasn't Maggie's. It washis. I don't know †¦I'm not doing it †¦ I don't understand!Maggie had no idea how to send herthoughts to another person. But she didn't need to,it was simply happening. A pure line of communication had been opened between them. It was afierce and terrible thing, a bit like being fused together by a bolt of lightning, but it was also so wonderful that Maggie's entire skin was prickling and her mind was hushed with awe. She felt as if she'd been lifted into some new andwonderful place that most people never even saw. The air around her seemed to quiver with invisible wings. This is how people are supposed to be,shethought. Joined like this. Open to each other. Withnothing hidden and no stupid walls between them. A thought came back at her, sharp and quickasa hammer strike. No! It was so cold, so full of rejection, that for a moment Maggie was taken aback. But then she sensedwhat else was behind it. Anger†¦ and fear. He was afraid of this, andof her. He felt invaded. Exposed. Well, I do, too,Maggie said mentally. It wasn'tthat she wasn't afraid. It was that her fear was irrelevant. The force that held them was so much morepowerful than either of them, so immeasurably ancient, that fear was natural but not important. The same light shone through each of them, strippingaway their shields, making them transparent toeach other. It's all right for you. Because you don't have any thing to be ashamed of!The thought flashed by so quickly that Maggie wasn't even sure she hadheard it. What do you mean?she thought. Wait †¦ Delos. That was his name. Delos Redfern. She knew itnow, as unquestionably as she knew the names ofher own family. She realized, too, as a matter of minor importance, an afterthought, that he was a prince. A vampire prince who'd been born to rule this secret kingdom, as the Redfern family had ruled it for centuries. The old king was your father,she said to him. And he died three years ago, when you were fourteen. You've been ruling ever since. He was pulling away from her mentally, trying tobreak the contact between them. It's none of your business, he snarled. Please wait,Maggie said. But as she chased after him mentally, trying to catch him, to help him,something shocking and new happened, like a second bolt of lightning.

Subject-Verb Agreement on SAT Writing Strategies and Practice

Subject-Verb Agreement on SAT Writing Strategies and Practice SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Subject-Verb Agreement may be the most tested grammatical rule on the SAT. Therefore, just by mastering this rule and its applications, you will be well on your way toward achieving a ridiculously good score on the SAT Writing. While the rule itself is relatively simple, the questions related to it can be challenging and a bit tricky. In this article, we’ll teach you how to become a master of all things subject-verb agreement on the SAT. In this post, I’ll do the following: Give you a clear understanding of subject-verb agreement. Explain why and how subject-verb agreement questions on the SAT can be tricky. Offer general strategies that can help you correctly answer subject-verb agreement questions. Provide you with practice questions so you can test what you’ve learned. Review: What's a Subject? Simply, a subject is the noun which corresponds with a verb in a sentence. In a sentence where there is an action, the subject is the noun which is doing the action. Here is an example: Justin saved the world. Justin is the subject because he did the saving. In a sentence where there is a description, typically using a form of the verb â€Å"to be†, the subject is the noun which is being described. Consider this beautifully written sentence: Justin is amazingly humble. Justin is the subject because he is the person who is amazingly humble. Now that we have a basic understanding of a subject, let's define this ubiquitous SAT grammar rule. What Is Subject-Verb Agreement? Subject-verb agreement is a rule stating that all subjects must agree with their verbs in number. Singular subjects take singular verbs. Plural subjects take plural verbs. Most of the subject-verb agreement questions on the SAT deal with verb forms in the third-person singular form (he/she/it/one) and third-person plural forms (they). In the present and present perfect verb tenses, third person singular verb forms end in an â€Å"s†. Third person plural verb forms do not. Let's check out an example sentence to give you a better understanding of this rule: The celebrity chef cook lobster and foie gras. This sentence probably already "sounds" wrong to your ear, but let's break down exactly why. The subject of this sentence is "chef". Obviously, because we are only talking about one chef, the subject is singular. Therefore, the verb should be in the singular form. However, "cook" is the third-person plural form of the verb so this sentence is incorrect. Here is how the sentence should read: The celebrity chef cooks lobster and foie gras. Here's another basic example: The gymnasts performs incredible feats of strength. In the above sentence, the subject is "gymnasts" because they are doing the performing. "Gymnasts" is plural so the verb should be in the plural form. However, "performs" is in the singular form. This is the corrected sentence: The gymnasts perform incredible feats of strength. This rule is relatively basic and easy to comprehend, right? Some of you may be thinking that all subject-verb agreement errors on the SAT will be as simple to detect as they were in the example sentences above. However, in traditional SAT fashion, sentences on the SAT are intentionally deceptive and questions related to subject-verb agreement can be rather challenging. Subject-Verb Agreement questions can deceive you Why Are These Questions Tricky? Generally, questions related to subject-verb agreement on the SAT can be difficult because the subject is usually not placed directly in front of the verb. This problem appears in two ways: Interrupting Phrases, and inverted sentences where the subject follows the verb. Common Trap #1: Interrupting Phrases Interrupting phrases are phrases thatseparate the subject from the verb. Such phrases make locating the subject and determining whether the verb should be singular or plural more difficult. There are specific types of interrupting phrases and we'll take a closer look at a few of them. You don't know need to know all of the specific grammar terms, but it's important to recognize how they influence subject-verb agreement questions. Non-Essential Clauses Non-essential clauses are phrases describe a noun, often the subject of a subject-verb agreement question on the SAT. Non-essential clauses are surrounded by commas. These clauses can be removed without creating grammatical errors or changes in the meaning of a sentence. Take, for example, this sentence: My doctor, who is very unfriendly, spoke to me for less than a minute. The phrase in bold is a non-essential clause. It is separated by commas and removing the clause does not create an error or change the meaning of the sentence. The phrase is only used to provide descriptive information about the subject. See: My doctor, who is very unfriendly, spoke to me for less than a minute. A non-essential clause often starts with a relative pronoun (which, who, whose, or where), but it doesn't in a phrase known as an appositive. An appositive functions like a non-essential clause, but it doesn't have a verb. Here is an example: My doctor, a very unfriendly man, spoke to me for less than a minute. Again, the phrase provides information about the doctor, but it can be removed and will not create any errors or change the meaning of the sentence. So, how will knowing about these phrases help you correctly answer SAT questions related to subject-verb agreement? I'll explain. Non-Essential Clauses and Appositives on the SAT On the SAT, these phrases will be placed between subjects and verbs to trick you into thinking a subject is singular or plural. Look at this example of an incorrectly written sentence in which I've underlined the subject and bolded the verb: My math teacher, who is extremely demanding and yells at all the students, give too much homework. The subject is singular and the verb is in the plural form. However, there is a non-essential clause separating the subject from the verb so it is more difficult to locate the error in subject-verb agreement. Also, on the SAT, there will often be a plural noun in the non-essential clause placed right next to the verb in such a sentence. Many test takers will incorrectly assume that "students" is the subject,especially if you read the question quickly in one go. Here is the corrected version of the above sentence: My math teacher, who is extremely demanding and yells at all the students, gives too much homework. So, how do you avoid falling into this common trap that the SAT will set for you? Strategy For these types of questions, always cross out appositives and non-essential clauses. Doing so will make it easier to notice any issues with subject-verb agreement. The resulting sentence should be grammatically correct. Let's do this with the incorrectly written version of our previous example: My math teacher, who is extremely demanding and yells at all the students, give too much homework. Crossing out the non-essential clause leaves us with "My math teacher give too much homework." The subject-verb agreement error in that sentence is easy to spot. Here is another type of interrupting phrase, probably the most common on the SAT: the prepositonal phrase. Prepositional Phrases Quick Review: prepositional phrase begins with a preposition. Prepositions provide additional details about nouns and often answer the questions "Where?", "When?", or provide descriptive information. Here is a chart showing examples of commonly used prepositions: http://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-a-preposition-definition-uses-examples.html On the SAT, prepositional phrases are often inserted between subjects and verbs to make errors in subject-verb agreement less noticeable.Take a look at this incorrectly written sentence with the prepositional phrase underlined: Changes for the new and improved SAT is going to be implemented soon. The subject of the sentence is "changes" and the prepositional phrase provides descriptive information about the changes. Because the subject is plural, the verb should be in the plural form. Once again, notice how the SAT can trick you by putting a singular noun, SAT, right before the verb, "is." If you go by ear, you're likely to fall prey to this trap. Here is the corrected version of the sentence: Changes for the new and improved SAT are going to be implemented soon. The approach you should take with sentences that contain a prepositional phrase is very similar to the one you should use with non-essential clauses and appositives. My ghost writer. He knows his SAT grammar. Strategy Cross out the prepositional phrase and the resulting sentence should be grammatically correct. Also, doing so will make it easier for you to identify the subject and ensure that the subject and verb agree. The subject will never be contained within a prepositional phrase. Let's use the cross out method with the above incorrectly written sentence: Changes for the new and improved SAT is going to be implemented soon. The subject-verb agreement error is much more obvious. Hooray! Interrupting phrases are not the only tactic the SAT uses to complicate subject-verb agreement questions. Common Trap #2:Sometimes the Subject Will Follow the Verb Occasionally, the normal word order of a sentence will be changed so that a prepositional phrase appears at the beginning of a sentence and the subject will follow the verb.In these sentences, it can be difficult to identify the subject and determine whether there is an error in subject-verb agreement. Take, for example, the following sentence with the prepositional phrase underlined and the verb in bold: On my forehead resides five unsightly pimples. We know that a subject cannot be contained within a prepositional phrase and the subject must correspond with the verb. What is doing the residing? The pimples. And "on my forehead" provides information about where the pimples are located. Because the subject is plural, the verb needs to be in the plural form: On my foreheadreside five unsightly pimples. The correctly written sentence may sound more awkward to you because the noun "forehead" is singular and it is placed right next to the plural form of a verb. That is why you should focus on the rules and not rely on what sounds right. In rare cases, the verb comes before the subject but is not preceded by a preposition.What? How is that possible? Check out this sentence with the subject underlined and the verb in bold: Eating Hot Cheetos is fun, but less fun is its consequences. In the sentence, what is less fun? The consequences. Therefore, "consequences" is the subject which corresponds with the verb. There is an error in subject-verb agreement. The sentence should read like this: Eating Hot Cheetos is fun, but less fun are its consequences. The order of the words has been changed, but this sentence is saying that "The consequences are less fun." So, how should you tackle sentences in which the subject follows the verb? Strategy In these sentences in which the subject follows the verb, simply rearrange the sentence so that it follows the normal structure of subject then verb. This will enable you to more easily spot errors in subject-verb agreement. If you did that in the incorrectly written example above, you would be left with "its consequences is less fun". The subject is right in front of the verb and the error is obvious. Application: Real SAT Example So, we’ve established that subject-verb agreement questions can be tricky because the subject is often not placed directly in front of the verb. Let’s see how this plays out with an actual SAT question. First, let's look at a sentence with an interrupting phrase. The subject of this sentence is â€Å"research†. The phrase â€Å"by several scientists† is a prepositional phrase providing descriptive information about the research. Therefore, the subject is singular and the verb should be in thesingular form. If you get rid of the prepositional phrase, the sentence reads "research suggest". B is the answer; the word should be â€Å"suggests†. There are additional situations which complicate the most basic questions that test subject-verb agreement. Now we'll take a look at some of these specific situations. More grammar fun. Get excited!!! Common Trap #3: Compound Subjects If the subject is two singular nouns connected by â€Å"and†, then the verb should be in the plural form.Here is an elementary sentence illustrating this rule: Justin and the SAT are friends. The subject is both Justin and the SAT so the verb needs to be in the plural form. Here is a more difficult SAT-style example in which a prepositional phrase is also placed at the beginning of the sentence: Under my bed exists a pen and a Taco Bell receipt from 1994. So, where is the subject? "Under my bed" is a prepositional phrase - that's not the subject. What exists? Both a pen and a Taco Bell receipt. We can rearrange the sentence order so that the sentence reads that "A pen and a Taco Bell receipt exists". Because there is a compound subject, the verb should be in the plural form. This is the corrected version of the sentence: Under my bed exist a pen and a Taco Bell receipt from 1994. Application: Real SATExample Here is an example of an actual SAT subject-verb agreement question that uses a compound subject. The subject is both the time and the place. Therefore, the verb should be in the plural form. Also, there is an additional error in the sentence in that â€Å"to approving† should be â€Å"to the approval†. The correct answer is C. Collective Nouns Another unique situation that affects subject-verb agreement involves the use of collective nouns.Collective nouns are singular nouns that refer to groups of people. On the SAT, these nouns, if used in the singular form, should be used with singular verbs.Examples of collective nouns include team, band, company, and committee. Keep in mind that subject-verb agreement questions with collective nouns are rare, but I have seen this type of question on actual SATs. This is what the sentence would look like: After losing by thirty points, the basketball team have decided to fire its coach. Even though there are multiple people on a team, the subject is referring to one team. Therefore, the subject is singular and the verb should be in the singular form. This is corrected version of the sentence: After losing by thirty points, the basketball team has decided to fire its coach. Other Singular Subjects That Can Be Tricky Aside from collective nouns, there are other specific types of subjects that may intuitively appear to be plural but are singular and require a singular verb. Each=Singular The word â€Å"each† implies that you’re referring to each thing individually so you should use a singular verb when â€Å"each† is the subject.This is an example of an incorrectly written sentence using "each" as the subject: Each of the members of the team are athletic. Keep in mind that "of the members" and "of the team" are prepositional phrases. After removing the prepostional phrases, the sentence reads "Each are athletic." Each is our subject so the verb should be singular. This is the correct version: Each of the members of the team is athletic. Every=Singular Similarly, the word â€Å"every† implies that you’re referring to each thing individually. Think of the word â€Å"every† as implicitly stating â€Å"every one†. Here is an example of this rule in effect: Every person in each of my classes are intelligent. Although all of the students are intelligent, this sentence is stating that every single student is intelligent. Also, the use of the singular noun "person" further indicates that the subject is singular and requires a singular verb. Remember that "in each of my classes" is a prepositional phrase. This is how the sentence should look: Every person in each of my classes is intelligent. Gerunds When Used as Subjects=Singular A gerund is a verb which is used as a noun and ends in â€Å"ing†.When a gerund is being used as a subject, then the subject is singular.Look at this example: Remembering the names of all of the Kardashian sisters are easy. To determine the subject, think about what is easy. Also, we know that "of all of the Kardashian sisters" is a prepositional phrase which we can cross out and will not contain the subject. Therefore, we're left with "Remembering the names are easy". Even though "names" is plural, "the names" is not the subject and simply provides additional information about what we're remembering. The subject is "Remembering", a gerund which requires a singular verb. So, here is the corrected version: Remembering the names of all of the Kardashian sisters is easy. Who is this? Application: Real SAT Example It's time to take a look at an actual SAT subject-verb agreement question that includes one of these uniquely singular subjects. The subject is the gerund â€Å"storing†, which is singular. Therefore, the verb should be â€Å"increases† and the answer is B. Also, because â€Å"delays† is singular and shares the same subject, you should know that any verb which corresponds with the same subject should be in the singular form as well. Now that we've looked at various types of subject-verb agreement questions, let's go over strategies you can use on your SAT to help determine if you're encountering a subject-verb agreement question and ensure that you answer the question correctly. Want to learn more about the SAT but tired of reading blog articles? Then you'll love our free, SAT prep livestreams. Designed and led by PrepScholar SAT experts, these live video events are a great resource for students and parents looking to learn more about the SAT and SAT prep. Click on the button below to register for one of our livestreams today! General Strategies for SAT Subject-Verb Agreement Look For Errors in Subject-Verb Agreement When a Verb is Underlined In any of the subsections (sentence improvement, identify the error, paragraph improvement), if a verb is underlined, make sure that there are no errors in subject-verb agreement. Always Identify the Subject Both subjects of sentences and subjects of clauses must agree with their verbs. For each verb, find the noun which corresponds with that specific verb.Then, determine whether that subject is singular or plural and make sure that the subject and verb agree. The Subject is Never Part of a Prepositional Phrase Be aware that the subject will not be part of a prepositional phrase.Most subject-verb agreement questions on the SAT separate a subject from a verb with a prepositional phrase. Cross Out Interrupting Phrases The SAT tries to deceive you by placing long phrases in between the subject and the verb. Often, the number of the noun closest to the verb will not match the number of the subject. By crossing out the interrupting phrase, you will have an easier time identifying the subject and determining whether there is an error in subject-verb agreement. Be Able to Recognize the Common Tricks Knowing the common tricks the SAT uses on questions that test your knowledge of subject-verb agreement can be helpful. The better you know these tricks, the more quickly you’ll be able to identify them and correctly answer subject-verb agreement questions. Additional Practice Hopefully, by this point you thoroughly understand subject-verb agreement and how to correctly answer any subject-verb agreement question that may appear on the SAT. I've created some practice problems to test you on what you've learned. Remember to use the general strategies I referenced above. If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right. 1. Every summer in Los Angeles (A) the sound of children yelling(B) at the beach on a weekday indicate(C) that it is summer vaction (D). No error (E) 2. The selfie, which is(A) a photograph taken(B) by many narcissistic people, is(C) extremely popular on various social networking websites (D). No error (E) 3. An effective and helpful(A) tutor demonstrates(B) exceptional knowledge, is responsive to the needs(C) of her students, and listen(D) to them carefully. No error (E) 4. Extremely careful analysis(A) of handwriting samples show(B) that creative people are more likely to write(C) rounded letters (D). No Error (E) 5. Playingsports(A) such as basketball, football, or baseball allow(B) children to learn teamwork(C) and develop(D) coordination. No error (E) Answers:1. C, 2. E, 3. D, 4. B, 5. B What's Next? If you want to know everything that is tested on the SAT Writing section, read our article about what's actually on SAT Writing. After you have mastered the basic questions, study the hardest SAT Writing questions. Finally, if you're aiming for an 800 on SAT Writing, find out how to get a perfect scorefrom a perfect scorer. Want to improve your SAT score by 240 points? Check out our best-in-class online ACT prep program. We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your ACT score by 4 points or more. Our program is entirely online, and it customizes what you study to your strengths and weaknesses. If you liked this Writing and grammar lesson, you'll love our program.Along with more detailed lessons, you'll get thousands ofpractice problems organized by individual skills so you learn most effectively. We'll also give you a step-by-step program to follow so you'll never be confused about what to study next. Check out our 5-day free trial:

A Comparative Perspective African Slave Trade and Spanish Rule in Peru

A Comparative Perspective African Slave Trade and Spanish Rule in Peru Research Argument Guaman (13) and Vazquez (15) view the Spanish rule in Peru as an epoch characterized by suffering among the indigenous communities and destruction of indigenous socio-political institutions. On the same note, Guaman includes a Christian perspective whereby he insists on the Kingdom.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on A Comparative Perspective: African Slave Trade and Spanish Rule in Peru specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Similarities in Perspectives According to Vazquez (45) and Mbemba (43), the slave trade in Africa and Spanish rule in Peru witnessed the annihilation of the existing political systems and the introduction of foreign ones. In Africa, the Arabs introduced the Islamic legal system based on the Sharia law along the East African coast and in West Africa, which replaced the indigenous decentralized system of government. According to Mbemba (23), both the Arab Slave trade in Africa an d the Trans-Atlantic slave trade exposed Africa to the outside world leading to the colonization of the continent. In Peru, the inception of the Spanish rule was marked by the destruction of the indigenous Incan political system by the Spaniards (Vazquez 56). The tremendous decline of native populations was a common consequence of African slave trade and Spaniard occupation of Peru. During the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, thousands of Africans died during capture, Middle Passage, and in the plantations and mines in America (Mbemba 22). In Peru, the introduction of infectious diseases such as smallpox by the Spaniards led to the decimation of over nine million Amerindians between 1520 and 1620 (Vazquez 43). Mbemba (12) and Vazquez (34) also argue that the two events were also characterized by the exploitation of the locals by foreigners. The Viceroyalty of Peru pursued economic development via mineral extraction and creation of a commercial monopoly. The viceroys used native forced la bor in mining and imposed taxes on the locals. In Africa, slave trade weakened the local economies; important labor forces were moved from the continent while slave raids disrupted economic activities on the continent (Vazquez 83). Variation in Perspectives Vazquez (98) posits that the political economy created by the Spaniards in Peru was characterized by competition for economic wealth between the Amerindians and the Spaniards. The Amerindians acquired wealth and influence. On the other hand, Rodney sums up the slave trade in Africa as well as the colonial epoch as having grossly underdeveloped the continent (Mbemba 12). In 1570s, Viceroy Fransisco dde Toledo unsuccessfully reorganized property rights, refining technology, and land policy in Peru to revitalize Spaniard control and boost silver production. This economic reorganization was futile in toppling Amerindian competition over silver and crude ore appropriation. Vazquez (2) presents the Spaniard political economy as a strug gle to control and contain competition that would enable the locals accumulate wealth.Advertising Looking for research paper on history? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Nonetheless, the Indian communities, individuals, social climbers, commoners, ethnic notables, and lords persistently competed with the Spanish for profit in the commercial economy established in the post-conquest era. Vazquez (27) presents a scenario of the presence of competition between the colonizers and the colonized, and among the colonizers in Peru with the Amerindians refusing and circumventing the exploitative Hispanized commercial economy. Mbemba (15) presents a systematic exploitation process of the African continent by foreigners stretching from the slave trade to the neocolonial era. During slave trade, particularly the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, the African societies were depleted their able labor force that left them incapable of stagi ng formidable resistance on the intruders. While Mbemba (13) presents conquest as the main avenue through which Spaniards gained control of Peru, African societies are to blame for the slave trade menace. There existed the institution of slavery among some African societies, which the outsiders exploited to their advantage. The variation in the two writers’ perspectives in regard to the African and Amerindian responses to slavery and Spanish occupation respectively is largely informed by the context of the societies they wrote on; the weakened African society and the politically conscious Incan empire (Guaman 53). Undoubtedly, colonialism in Peru and slave trade in Africa were characterized by cultural exchange. The Amerindians adopted Christianity from their conquerors. The Africans adopted Islam from the Arab slave traders and later Christianity from the Europeans. Guaman, Felipe. Chronicle: First New Chronicle and Good Government: on the History of the World and the Incas up to 1615. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2009. Print. Mbemba, Nzinga. Appeal to the King of Portugal (1526). New York: Curtis Brown, 1964. Print.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on A Comparative Perspective: African Slave Trade and Spanish Rule in Peru specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Vazquez, Antonio. Mercury Mining in Huanacavelica and Silver Mining in Potosi (1620s). New York: WW Norton Co, 2011. Print.

Words Ending in -gue

Words Ending in -gue Words Ending in -gue Words Ending in -gue By Maeve Maddox An email in which the word colleague was spelled colleag got me thinking about English words that end with a hard g sound spelled -gue. Since only a few such words are in common use, learning to spell them shouldnt be too difficult. WARNING: These words start to look strange when you look at them in a group. Twenty-six common English words end with the spelling -gue. Variant spellings drop the -ue. The following -gue words have no acceptable variant spellings, not even in Merriam-Webster: brogue colleague fatigue fugue harangue ideologue intrigue league meringue morgue plague rogue tongue vague vogue For each of the following -gue words, Merriam-Webster recognizes variant spellings without the -ue: analogue catalogue travelogue decalogue demagogue epilogue monologue †¨ pedagogue †¨ prologue The OED, on the other hand, does not dignify decalog, demagog, travelog, epilog, or monolog with entries. It acknowledges the existence of pedagog, catalog, and synagog. Pedagog and catalog are listed among obsolete spellings. Travelogue has an entry at which it is identified as originally U.S, but no variant spelling is given. Synagog is shown at synagogue and labelled U.S. The OED does have an entry for prolog, but it has nothing to do with the word prologue: prolog: (The name of) a high-level logic programming language derived from Lisp, originally designed for natural language processing but now used in many artificial intelligence programs. I can write analog, catalog, and travelog without a shudder. I cannot bring myself to write epilog, decalog, or synagog. †¨ Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Spelling category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:100 Words for Facial ExpressionsThe Parts of a WordWhen to use "an"

Community and Public Health Nursing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Community and Public Health Nursing - Essay Example A metaphor for community is 'system' in that a community has inter-related and inter-dependant structures that work together to form a whole greater than the sum of its parts. Further, the behaviors of the people making up this system are reactive to stimuli. The community as a whole can be conceived of conceptually as 'client' (McGary, 2003). A community is comprised of aggregate groups. An aggregate a can be defined as a collection of all the individuals within the community who have the same specific characteristics, for example the aggregate of older persons or families within London (Bakken, Cashen, Eneida, Mendonca, O'Brien, & Zieniewicz, 2000). Where the focus of care is on more than the single person the term aggregate is often used. In this sense, the aggregate can also be conceptualized as 'client'. The aggregate are the sub-population which share a common interest, problem or purpose. However, as an aggregate is part of a community there is an inter-relationship between th e needs of the aggregate and the needs of the wider community(Bakken et al., 2000).. Hence, each of these 'clients' functions within an external environment, and incorporates and is affected by biopsychosocial factors. To effectively differentiate between a community and aggregate is essential for nurses to be able to provide community care and care of specific groups.

Social Networking Sites Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Social Networking Sites - Essay Example Face to face meetings, especially for the first time, are usually exciting events. One gets to scrutinize a new acquaintance physically and gauge his or her intelligence through conversations. Almost immediately, one can form an impression of the other, and this may remain unless proven otherwise in the next meetings. A lot depends on the spontaneity of a person – how quick his or her wit is, how personable he or she is, and how one’s sense of humor clicks with another’s. Glimpses of one’s personality shines through except for people who have put up a lot of defensive walls around themselves. For these people, it may be more challenging to see through their real selves. Getting into a social networking site such as Tagged to meet new people online offers a different scenario. One creates his or her own profile, putting in information he chooses to share, lay it out in a design he or she prefers, and adds a profile picture, or more for his or her picture gallery. Then a choice to set this profile in private or to be seen publicly is made by the user. The profile picture is available for public viewing, and becomes a choice in a buffet of new prospects to be chosen as contacts or â€Å"friends† by other members. If someone likes to include another in his friends’ list, then he makes an effort to ask that person if he or she can be added as â€Å"friend†, and upon acceptance, they become part of each other’s online contact list. It is up to them to maintain communication either by sending messages, picture tags or add comments (either text or picture or video) in one’s profile. They may also opt to communicate outsid e the site by exchanging contact details or chatting in another messaging system like Yahoo Messenger or MSN Instant Messaging. Here, they may restrict their communication to online chat or see each other by webcam or actually meet in person. It is really up to the individuals how they want

1990s Hip Hop Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

1990s Hip Hop - Term Paper Example The history of music is very long, and it is impossible to cover all the stages of its development in one essay. Donald Jay Grout wrote: â€Å"The history of music is primarily the history of musical style, and cannot be grasped except by first-hand knowledge of the music itself† (1937). In this abstract we will talk about the hip hop style and its origin. â€Å"Hip-Hop is a product of post-civil rights era America, a set of cultural forms, originally natured by African-American, Caribbean-American, and Latin-American youth in and around New York in the 70s. Its most popular vehicle for expression has been music, though, dance, painting, fashion, video, crime and commerce are also its playing fields† (Nelson George, 1998). It is a musical genre or form, which comprises the combination of four different styles and is represented by different forms of music, from "light" genres such as pop and rap, to aggressive ones - hardcore rap and so forth. The content of the songs v aries from the memories of the "good old days" to the raise of the social issues. The formation of hip-hop was influenced by other genres: rhythm and blues, soul, jazz, rock music, reggae and so forth. The subculture of this style of music appeared in 1974 in African-American and Latino neighborhoods of the Bronx. Hip-hop was developed in the streets of New York as a combination of four elements - MC, DJ, break dance and graffiti. However, these genres did not develop separately. At Jamaican parties, the deejays combined MC and Rap styles. Firstly, this method of creating tracks was used by Kool Herc. In 1970, the producer Sylvia Robinson created the label, called â€Å"The Sugar Hill† and numerous DJs began to work with it, developing a new style of music - a combination of scratching and recitative. The emergence of the "hip-hop" genre is dated from 1979. The basis of hip-hop was

Chapter summaries 1 page each chapter Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Chapter summaries 1 page each chapter - Essay Example by scholars, it has not be written for scholars.1 The chapter seeks to inform a wider audience on how to go about interpreting the Old Testament and this chapter is especially set for students, pastors, and the general public regardless of their level of education. A correct understanding of any written or spoken information depends on the context. If such statements are taken out of the context, this deprives the information its true meaning, and leads to misinformation.2 The meaning of the passages depends on the context of the message and the paragraph. The meaning of such a passage would thus depend on the grammatical form of the word, and the role of the word or phrase in relation to the sentence. This is what amounts to an immediate context. The scripture is best understood by considering the literary form, which is a middle level context. In addition is the distant context that is also referred to as the theological context. The latter requires consideration of the canon of the scripture to understand. There is a need to consider the genre as a critical step in interpretation. The literary form of the Old Testament has been ignored by many, and this has led to lack of a holistic understanding of the context among the general audience. The bible in both the new and the Old Testament use different forms of communication, which include stories, music and homiletics. These forms of communication have to be analyzed according to their own genre. Owing to the overreliance of story forms in writing the Bible, the narrative becomes the ideal essence in Bible revelation, and this makes narratives to be the essential part for all bible interpreters.3 The literary forms becomes essential in understanding the Bible, as the Bible is entirely written in literary form. Therefore, the correct interpretation of narratives would largely depends on the appreciation of the plot as it entirely describe the beginning, the middle and the end of both the single and complex

World History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

World History - Essay Example When we talk of the impact which these civilizations had on us we need to accumulate factors concerning political, social, religious, and scientific impact. The people of those ancient civilizations laid strong foundation in the field of astronomy. The Mesopot The concept of living with a multi-cultural society was basically originated in their civilization. Since the Mesopotamians started their dwelling in between the two rivers Tigris and Euphrates, which was already occupied with Assyrians, Aklad Babylonians, Sumerians etc,. Today we could find multi-cultural societies every where .As a result the impact of one culture lays on the other. The art of predicting the future, the study of astronomy [the stellar movements], the learning of atmospheric sciences all came from Mesopotamian civilization. The Greeks seemed to have excelled in every field. Their civilization was the most influential one. They were the pioneers to built multi-storied buildings, formulated trade routes covering large territories such as Turkey, Cyrus, Egypt, Afghanistan and Scandinavia. Athletics and other art of sports such as â€Å"Bull-leaping†, Marathon was given by them and we still conduct these sports world wide .The Greeks were the first to introduce â€Å"Epic poetry† and â€Å"Lyric†. All the credit goes to Homer, the first person to present Greek Literature. The â€Å"Democratic form of government† and the voting system, the meeting of those people who voted was called as â€Å"assembly† was all their contribution and its impact could be felt obviously. The urbanized culture started from their time onwards. One more important impact is the logical and philosophical approach towards every concept of life, was given by them. The philosopher’s quest resulted in teaching an exact way of moralistic life. The Greeks had the view that the state should be

Education MIS in the East African Countries - Case of Tanzania Dissertation

Education MIS in the East African Countries - Case of Tanzania - Dissertation Example EDUCATION MIS IN EAST AFRICAN COUNTRIES – CASE OF TANZANIA Name: Institution: Course: Tutor: Date: TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦4 CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.6 1.1. ... †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..44 REFERENCE LIST†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦...45 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The education sector of Tanzania has historically faced a number of challenges, including the lack of basic infrastructure like electricity at local schools, but also the in-availability of national funding. The creation of the MIS model will serve the purposes of empowering decision makers and the creation of capacity to deliver better education services across the sector. In the area of requirements analysis, the creation of the specification for the MIS model was executed through incorporation of national and international standards of education, regarding the needs of the users of the Tanzanian education sector. Communication with the users w as executed through interviews, as this model offered unbiased information on the viewpoints of the user population. Feedback surveys were also helpful towards reaching the desired information base, as collected from social networking and other ICT-related data sites. Areas of constraints included the vague knowledge of the specifications desired by the user population, the unreasonable timelines of the end-users, and the communication gap between implementation teams and the end-user population. The rationales for the choices made were based on rationale capture and rationale representation, which were verified using argument-based choices. The software requirements specification was designed to emphasize on and foster the usage of management information systems throughout the creation, processing and consumption of information. Performance indicators revolved around the service delivery of service personnel to the documentation of students, and offering a

World History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

World History - Essay Example When we talk of the impact which these civilizations had on us we need to accumulate factors concerning political, social, religious, and scientific impact. The people of those ancient civilizations laid strong foundation in the field of astronomy. The Mesopot The concept of living with a multi-cultural society was basically originated in their civilization. Since the Mesopotamians started their dwelling in between the two rivers Tigris and Euphrates, which was already occupied with Assyrians, Aklad Babylonians, Sumerians etc,. Today we could find multi-cultural societies every where .As a result the impact of one culture lays on the other. The art of predicting the future, the study of astronomy [the stellar movements], the learning of atmospheric sciences all came from Mesopotamian civilization. The Greeks seemed to have excelled in every field. Their civilization was the most influential one. They were the pioneers to built multi-storied buildings, formulated trade routes covering large territories such as Turkey, Cyrus, Egypt, Afghanistan and Scandinavia. Athletics and other art of sports such as â€Å"Bull-leaping†, Marathon was given by them and we still conduct these sports world wide .The Greeks were the first to introduce â€Å"Epic poetry† and â€Å"Lyric†. All the credit goes to Homer, the first person to present Greek Literature. The â€Å"Democratic form of government† and the voting system, the meeting of those people who voted was called as â€Å"assembly† was all their contribution and its impact could be felt obviously. The urbanized culture started from their time onwards. One more important impact is the logical and philosophical approach towards every concept of life, was given by them. The philosopher’s quest resulted in teaching an exact way of moralistic life. The Greeks had the view that the state should be

Is the Death Penalty Applied Fairly Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Is the Death Penalty Applied Fairly - Essay Example This definition also raises a lot of questions because according to many laws, the death penalty is considered, lawful and non-malicious yet it also involves the killing of human beings by the government or concerned authorities that execute such penalties (Williams, 2002). Those who oppose the death penalty argue that the terms ‘execute’, ‘murder’ and ‘kill’ can be used interchangeably. All the three actions result in the same end because life is lost in all the cases. Those who argue that the death penalty is just and fair fail to realize that they are supporting something that is as wrong as the crime that they purport to punish. Supporting the execution of someone who commits murder is just like committing murder itself. This is because the end result of such actions is the death of the people. Claiming that the death penalty is fair is similar to comparing rape to lovemaking or battery to self defense (Williams, 2002). Those who support tha t the death penalty is applied fairly base their arguments on the fact that the death penalty is a punishment for those who deserve to be killed for what they did. There are many types of punishments that may be given to people who do wrong deeds. These punishments may range from denying a person certain privileges, imprisonment and even the death penalty. The right thing to do according to the law is to ensure that the punishment given fits the crime that was committed. This means that a small crime should be punished in a small way and a very serious crime deserves a punishment of similar magnitude. Law jargon may refer to this as lex talonis which may be generally translated to mean, an eye for an eye. So, if someone kills another person, do they deserve to be killed or get punished in other ways? I do not feel that the death penalty is applied justly or fairly because it is ironic to kill someone who kills another person but not rape someone who rapes another person (Williams, 2 002). The death penalty is not applied fairly because it seems to have a lot of loop holes. As seen earlier, those who support the death penalty do so because they believe that a crime should be punished according to its seriousness. If this was the case, would it be correct to say that rapists should be punished by being raped? If a rapist is considered to be wrong by raping someone else, it is also considered morally incorrect to rape that person with the aim of punishing them. It would be morally degrading to let someone punish the rapist by raping them so that they do not get away with rape and that they do not rape again. Why then would it be right for someone to declare that a killer should be killed? Is this the only means of punishing someone who commits a crime of killing another person? I think that it is also morally incorrect to let someone decide that the life of another person should come to an end for whatever reason (Williams, 2002). Life is very sacred and should be treated as such. No human being has the moral obligation of deciding that another person should live or die for whatever reason. Governments are there to protect the rights and freedoms of their citizens. They should therefore ensure that the lives of their citizens are protected and respected, no matter what they do. When a person is found to have killed another person, the

Managing Change in Small Organisations

Managing Change in Small Organisations 1.0 Introduction The phenomenon of resistance to change is the bane of all Algerian bakeries that convey ideas for change. For the same one who proposed the change, the resistances are usually synonymous with hostility, intrigue deadlines, polarization, conflict, and impatience, many problems which are likely to frustrate and undermine the success of his bakery. Basically, resistance to change is built up from many sources; internal and external. Overcoming resistance to change requires first the identification of those sources. Therefore, the owner of the bakery â€Å"El-Bahdja† is looking for an expert or professional advice in the field to help managing change effectively. Hence, as this topic is part of the international business and management studies, the owner asked me to do some research on this matter. Ultimately, this research is divided into two major chapters, first; the literature part that discusses the main topic theoretically, it starts off by mentioning the general sources that fuels the resistance to change, then it goes on with hofdstedes point of view on resistance of change based on cultural differences and it concludes by describing the steps of managing change effectively and it concludes with. The second major chapter is the analysis of the findings from the primary data that have been collected through interviews with owners and employees from the bakery El-Bahdja and owners from other bakeries. Finally this paper is closed by recommendations for the owner of the bakery El-Bahdja on how to overcome resistance to change and how to manage change. 1.1 Research objective Many companies in North Africa particularly in Algeria are making loss and could not improve the quality of their business due to the habit of following common procedures and the high consideration of sunk costs invested in the status quo and fear of new ideas. Lack of adequate information fuels rumors and gossip and adds to anxiety generally associated with change. This fear creates resistance to change in the Algerian bakery industry Therefore, this research focuses on finding the elements that fuel the resistance to change in the Algerian bakeries and specifically the bakery â€Å"El Bahdja† that produces and delivers all kind of bread and pastries. The owner of the Algerian Bakery â€Å"El-Bahdja† is an old man and has been in the business since 1967. The owner is facing the closing down due to lack of managing change skills in the bakery and the high resistance from the employees to change. The main objective of this research is to provide the owner of the bakery â€Å"El-Bahdja† with guidance to effectively managing change when it is in the process of the implementation. 1.2 Research questions To provide guidance on how to manage changes for the owner of the bakery â€Å"El-Bahdja† it is essential first to find answers to the following research questions. â€Å"Does Algerian culture welcome changes† â€Å"Why most Algerian employers and employees resist changing?† â€Å"What are the external factors that prevent Algerian employers and employees from changing?† â€Å"How do Algerian employers and employees manage change when applying the new ideas?† 1.3 Methodology This study is based on both primary and secondary data that help in understanding the causes of resistance to change from both the Algerian owners and their employees: Secondary data collection: this method studies the previous cases that have already been written about and find the similarities between the cases. This method is very helpful in collection data from different cultures that share the same fact which is fear of new ideas that have direct effect on their traditional way of doing business. Therefore, the resources of the secondary data collection are mainly from books, journals, and internet. Primary data: a very crucial data and plays a big role in making final decision. The primary data which is better called direct communication or field research, on other word; facing people and have them interviewed. The objective of this method is to collect factual data that helps in answering the research questions of this study and this after interviewing people from the same field on the main topic. Reflection on the research methodology: the methods followed for collecting data are linked together. The secondary data helps understand the theoretical concepts that have been concluded from previous cases and compare them to the new facts. In this method; the 7s model of McKinsey, the theory versus the real world by Jeff Hiatt and Arab identity by Halim Barakat are used as starting point for facing organizational change in Algeria. The primary data is basically the tangible evidence for decision makers, observing and interviewing people are the major tools to be used in collecting data for this study. Reliability and validity of data are the essential axes of this method. Therefore, the interviews take place specifically with owners of bakeries and their employees in Algeria and in the Netherlands for comparison to see whether culture differences is a matter for resisting changing. 2.1 Why managing change? â€Å"Change is believed to happen Changes are fact and every person is subject to these changes. People faces changes regularly in their life or in their workplace, part of them deal with these changes successfully and the other part fail to adjust to change. In the life, for instance a family with children; parents believe that children are subject to changes and may change to better or to the opposite that parents plan for them, however these changes would not affect the family as a whole but the person himself. Nevertheless, in a business changes there are two ways and no third, successfully manage change or failure. In organization whether you are an executive, supervisor, coach, consultant, project team leader or manager of any type where your job is to manage people, you likely have experienced resistance to change from employees. However you may not recognize the role that you can play in preventing that resistance and leading change. Many managers do not make this connection until they have personally experience failure in an important change project (Jeff Hiat, Timothy J. Creasey 2003) When asking people after this failure what would you do differently if you had the chance to do it again? The common response would be using an effective and planned change management program. The question to be risen here is whether this program is sufficient enough to prevent resistance to change from happening in the first place and deal with people emotions and pursue them to change. The real barrier to success is a lack of change management and not management program. Some people do not lack of vision or an understanding of the marketplace but they feel simply short when managing the people side of change. In other words, things did not go exactly as planned. The unexpected happened. Not managing the people side of change impacts the success and introduces risk into the business (Jeff Hiat, Timothy J. Creasey 2003) Change management skills have shown that is not only mitigates these business risks, but also can avoid them entirely. Business leaders have change management skills to not only manage resistance once it appears, but to prevent it from occurring. 2.2 Change and the manager â€Å"Change needs to be portrayed in positive terms, a necessity to ensure long term survival (Robert A Poton, James McCalman, 2008)† Organizations and their managers must recognize change, in itself, is not necessarily a problem. The problem more often than not is a less than competent management o the change situation (Rob Paton, James McCalman, 2008). Managers must realize that one cannot separate strategic change management from organizational strategy; both must work in tandem. The importance of the human side of change cannot be underestimated, one must identify and manage the potential sources and causes of potential resistance and ensure that motivators are built into new processes and structures (Forlaron, 2005). i) Change competency: â€Å"Change is part of the businesss philosophy† â€Å"The successful organization is the organization that understand change will occur, expect it and support the change during implementation (Jeff Hiat, 2003) An organization that faces constant demands to change and uses effective management over and over with each new initiative may experience a fundamental shift in its operations and the behavior of its employees. Sponsors begin to repeat activities that made last change successful. Managers develop skills to support employees through the change. Employees see part of their job as navigating these new changes. Each level in the organization will have internalized its role in change and developed the skills and knowledge necessary to react to constant change. The organization has become ready and able to embrace change; it has developed change competency (Jeff Hiat, Timothy J. Creasey, 2003). However, building change competency is not paved with flowers; it requires a belief that change is now an ever-present feature of organizational life (Burnes, 2004). Change competency is similar to change management, but there are several key distinction. First, change management is ultimately the use of specific activities like communication, coaching, sponsorship and training; to realize successful outcomes with business changes. Change competency is not a specific activity; it is an organizations ability to react to change over and over again Second, while change management can be taught and learned, change competency requires a fundamental shift in culture and values. It must be simply part of day-to-day operations and cannot be simply demonstrated in training or instructional material. Third, change competency must penetrate every facet and level of the organization. This distinction especially relates to the front-line employee. An organization may have expertise in change management in its sponsors, consultants and change management. However, the front-line employees are the ones whose day-to-day activities are changing. To build change competency into the organization, you can take the first step by ensuring that solid change management practices are applied consistently for each change initiative. The second step is to begin building the following competencies into your organization (Jeff Hiat, Timothy J. Creasey, 2003) ii) Change and Human Resource Technology has played a major role in ensuring that a coherent business approach and managerial performance can be maintained from a reduce resource base. The key success in such moves has been the mobilization of the human resource (Pettigrew and Whipp, 1993). 2.3 Managing resistance once it appears â€Å"Believing in changes to be happening is a key principle to reducing resistance to change† People are often afraid of new ideas. They may feel threatened by new ideas and fear that they will not be able to cope with a change in working patterns that is demanded of them or that they will not understand how to use a new technology; example of that many older people are afraid of materials that they are not able to handle and may make them calling the technician every moment (Tony proctor 2005). The fear of new ideas is a natural feeling; people live with this fear and it not a bad manner. Fear of new ideas becomes negative when is surrounded with sources that increase the tension of fear that leads to high level of resistance and consequently aggravation of the failure of any project. Change more often than not produces suspicions and resistance. To many it implies a move from familiar ways-mastered over long periods of time- to an unknown and threatening environment. In order to deal effectively with resistance to change, people must understand its causes (Jack Rabin, Marcia B. Steinhauer, 1988). Lawrence and Greiner 1970, identify the main sources that feed the resistance of change. Fear of the unknown, lack of information, threats of status, fear of failure, and lack of perceived benefits. Regarding the first group of sources of resistance, change starts with the perception of its need, so a wrong initial perception is the first barrier to change. This first group is called ‘distorted perception, interpretation barriers and vague strategic priorities (Pardo del Val, Manuela Martà ­nez Fuentes). It includes: (a) Inability of the company to look into the future with clarity (Barr et al., 1992; Krà ¼ger, 1996; Rumelt, 1995); (b) Denial or refusal to accept any information that is not expected or desired (Barr et al., 1992; Rumelt, 1995; Starbuck et al., 1978); (c) Perpetuation of ideas, meaning the tendency to go on with the present thoughts although the situation has changed (Barr et al., 1992; Krà ¼ger, 1996; Rumelt, 1995; Zeffane, 1996); (d) Implicit assumptions, which are not discussed due to its implicit character and therefore distort reality (Starbuck, Greve and Hedberg, 1978); (e) Communication barriers, that leads to information distortion or misinterpretations (Hutt et al., 1995); (f) Organizational silence, which limits the information flow with individuals who do not express their thoughts, meaning that decisions are made without all the necessary information (Morrison and Milliken, 2000; Nemeth, 1997). The second main group of sources of resistance deals with a low motivation for change. Five fundamental sources: (a) Direct costs of change (Rumelt, 1995); (b) cannibalization costs, that is to say, change that brings success to a product but at the same time brings losses to others, so it requires some sort of sacrifice (Rumelt, 1995); (c) Cross subsidy comforts, because the need for a change is compensated through the high rents obtained without change with another different factor, so that there is no real motivation for change (Rumelt, 1995); (d) Past failures, which leave a pessimistic image for future changes (Lorenzo, 2000); and (e) Different interests among employees and management, or lack of motivation of employees who value change results less than managers value them (Waddell and Sohal, 1998). The lack of a creative response is the third set of sources of resistance. There are three main reasons that diminish the creativeness in the search for appropriate change strategies: (a) Fast and complex environmental changes, which do not allow a proper situation analysis (Ansoff, 1990; Rumelt, 1995); b) Reactive mind-set, resignation, or tendency to believe that obstacles are inevitable (Rumelt, 1995); and (c) Inadequate strategic vision or lack of clear commitment of top management to changes (Rumelt, 1995; Waddell and Sohal, 1998). Taking into consideration all those sources of resistance mentioned above can reverse the situation into preventing resistance in the first place. Cultural web: Cultures differ from each other in their resistance to change. The strongest resistance to change characterizes of high power distance, low individualism, and high uncertainty avoidance. Among these cultures are most Latin American countries, Portugal and Korea, followed by Japan, France, Spain, Greece, Turkey, and Arab countries. Cultures with low levels of resistance to change are low on power distance, high on individualism, and low on uncertainty avoidance. This category includes the Anglo countries, Nordic countries, and the Netherlands, followed by Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Africa (Harzig and Hofdestede, 1996 2.4 Making sense of change management â€Å"7S model of McKinsey†: The Mckinsey 7S model defines the seven components that encompass an organization and that by changing any one of the S components there is impact on the other S components. This model is such a conceptual aid by acting as good checklist for those setting out to make organizational change, laying out which parts of the system need to adapt, and the effects of these changes in other parts of the system (Mike Green, 2007) The 7s categories are: Staff important categories of people within the organization, the mix, the diversity, retention, the development and the maximizing of their potential. This component helps to determine how committed resources to make it all work? Skills distinctive capabilities, knowledge and experience of key people. The role of this component is to identify how ready and competent are the staff based on where the organization is heading? Systems processes, IT systems, HR systems, knowledge management systems. In other words, what are the suitable systems to be used to support the transition? Style management style and culture. How we are getting from here to there? Shared values guiding principles that make the organization what it is. Strategy organizational goals and plan, use of resources. Briefly is where are we transitioning to? Structure the organization chart and how roles, responsibilities and accountabilities are distributed in furtherance of the strategy. â€Å"The Mckinsey 7S model provides an effective framework for analyzing an organization and its activities that determine whether an organization is strong enough to adjust to any changes. Furthermore, this model helps in avoiding some of the sources that feed resistance to change in the first place† 2.5 Five steps for effective change process (Thomas and Christopher, 2008) Step 1:Motivating change: â€Å"Moving from the known to the unknown† Organizational change involves moving from the known to the unknown. The future is uncertain and may adversely affect peoples competencies, worth, and coping abilities. Organization members generally do not support change unless compelling reasons convince them to do so. A key issue in planning for action is how to motivate commitment to organizational change. This requires attention to two related tasks: creating readiness for change and overcoming resistance to change. Creating Readiness for change: peoples readiness for change depends on creating a felt need for change. This involves making people so dissatisfied with the status quo that they are motivated to try new work processes, technologies, or ways of behaving. Generally people and organization need to experience deep levels of hurt before they will seriously undertake meaningful change. The following three methods can help generate sufficient dissatisfaction to produce change: Sensitize organizations to pressures for change. Modern organizations face unprecedented environmental pressures to change themselves, including heavy foreign competition, rapidly changing technology, and the draw of global markets. Internal pressures to change include new leadership, poor product quality, high production costs, and excessive employee absenteeism and turnover. Organizations can make themselves more sensitive to pressures for change by encouraging leadership to surround themselves with devils advocate; for instance by cultivating external networks that comprise people or organizations with different perspectives and views; by visiting other organizations to gain exposure to new ideas and methods. Reveal discrepancies between current and desired states. Significant discrepancies between actual and ideal states can motivate organization members to initiate corrective changes, particularly when members are committed to achieving those ideas. A major diagnosis is to provide members with feedback about current organizational functioning so that the information can be compared with goals or desired future states. Convey credible positive expectations for the change. When organization members expect success, they are likely to develop greater commitment to the change process and to direct more energy into the constructive behaviors needed to implement it. The key success to achieving these positive effects if to communicate realistic, positive expectations about the organizational changes*. Research suggests that information about why the change is occurring, how it will benefit the organization, and how people will be involved in the design and implementation of the change was most helpful.* Overcoming Resistance to change: At the organization level, resistance to change can come from three sources. Technical resistance comes from the habit of following common procedures and the consideration of sunk costs invested in the status quo. Political resistance can arise when organizational changes threaten powerful stakeholders, such as top executive or staff personnel, or call into question the past decisions of leaders. Finally, culture resistance takes the form of systems and procedures that reinforce the status quo, promoting conformity to existing values, norms, and assumptions about how things should operate. Empathy and support. A first step in overcoming resistance is learning how people are experiencing change. This strategy identifies people who are having trouble accepting the changes, the nature of their resistance, and possible ways to overcome it. Communication. People resist change when they are uncertain about its consequences. Lack of adequate information fuels rumors and gossip and adds to anxiety generally associated with change. Effective communication about changes and their likely results can reduce this speculation and allay unfounded fears. Participation and innovation. Involvement in planning the change increases the likelihood that members interests and needs will be accounted for during the intervention. Consequently, participants will be committed to implementing the changes. They also can identify pitfalls and barriers to implementations. STEP 2: CREATING A VISION The second activity in leading and managing change involves creating a vision of what members want the organization to look like or become. Generally, a vision describes the core values and purpose that guide the organization as well as an envisioned future toward which change is directed. It provides a valued direction for designing, implementing, and assessing organizational changes. The vision also can energize commitment to change by providing members with a common goal and a compelling rationale for why change is necessary and worth the effort. Research suggests that compelling visions are composed of two parts: (1) a relatively stable core ideology that describes the organizations core values and purpose, and (2) an envisioned future with bold goals and a vivid description of the desired future state that reflects the specific change under consideration Step 3: DEVELOPING POLITICAL SUPPORT Managing the political dynamics of change includes the following activities: Assessing Change Agent Power. Greiner and Schein 1988, indentified three key sources of personal power in organizations (in addition to ones formal position); knowledge, personality, and others support. Knowledge bases of power include having expertise that is valued by others and controlling important information. For example, leaders in organizational units undergoing change can call on their informal networks for resources and support, and encourage subordinates to exercise power in support of the change. Identifying Key Stakeholders. This can start with simple question. †who stands to gain or to lose from the changes? Once stakeholders are identified, creating a map of their influence may be useful. Consequently, provides change agents with information about which people groups need to be influenced to accept and support the changes. Influencing Stakeholders. There are three major strategies for using power to influence others in organization development; First strategy is playing straight; this strategy involves determining of particular stakeholders and presenting information about how the changes can benefit them. The success of this strategy relies heavily on the change agents knowledge base. He or she must have the expertise and information to persuade stakeholders that the changes are a logical way to meet their needs. The second strategy is using social network; in this strategy change agents attempt to use their social relationships to gain support for changes. This social networking might include, for example, meeting with other powerful groups and forming alliances to support specific changes. This strategy also might include using informal contacts to discover key roadblocks to change and to gain access to major decision makers who need to sanction the changes. The third strategy is going around the formal system; the change agents charisma, reputations, or professional credibility lend legitimacy to going around the system and can reduce the likelihood of negative reprisals. For example, managers with reputations as winners often can bend the rules to implement organizational changes. However, this power strategy is relatively easy to abuse. Therefore; the OD practitioners should consider carefully the ethical issues and possible unintended consequences of circumventing formal policies and practices. Step 4: MANAGING THE TRANSITION Implementing organizational change involves moving from the existing organization state to the desired future state. There are three major activities and structure to facilitate organizational transition: activity planning, commitment planning, and change-management structures. Activity Planning This involves making a road map for change, citing specific activities and events that must occur if the transition is to be successful. Activity planning should clearly identify, temporally orient, and integrate discrete change tasks and should link these tasks to the organizations change goals and priorities. Commitment planning this activity involves identifying key people and groups whose commitment is needed for change to occur and formulating a strategy for gaining their support. Change-Management Structures Because organizational transitions tend to be ambiguous and to need direction, special structures for managing the change process need to be created. These management structures should include people who have the power to mobilize resources to promote change, the respect of the existing leadership and change advocates, and the interpersonal and political skills to guide the change process. Step 5: SUSTAINING MOMENTUM Once organization changes are under way, explicit attention must be directed to sustaining energy and commitment for implementing them. A strong tendency exists always among organization members to return to old behaviors and well-known processes unless they receive sustained support and reinforcement for carrying the changes through to completion. The following five activities can help to sustain momentum for carrying change through to completion: Providing resources for change. Additional financial and human resources are required for implementing organization change, particularly if the organization continues day-to-day operations while trying to change itself. Extra sources are always helpful to provide a buffer as performance drops during the transition period. Building a support system for change agents. Organization change can be difficult and filled with tension, not only for participants but for change agents as well. A support system typically consists of a network of people with whom the change agent has close personal relationships people who can give emotional support, serve as sounding board for ideas and problems, and challenge untested assumptions. Developing new competencies and skills, reinforcing new behaviors, and staying the course. In organizations people generally do things that bring them rewards. Consequently, one of the most effective ways to sustain momentum for change is to reinforce the kinds of behaviors needed to implement the changes through for instance informal recognition, encouragement, and praise. Staying the course. If the organization changes again too quickly or abandons the changes before it is fully implemented, the desired results may never materialize. There are two primary reasons that managers do not keep a steady focus on change implementation. First, many managers fail to anticipate the decline in performance, productivity, or satisfaction as change is implemented. Organization members need time to practice, develop, and learn new behaviors; they do not abandon old ways of doing things and adopt a new set of behaviors overnight. Second, many managers do not keep focused on a change because they want to implement the next big idea that comes along. Successful organizational change requires persistent leadership that does not waver unnecessarily. References Books and articles Ansoff, I.H. (1990), â€Å"Implanting Strategic Management† Prentice Hall International, Ltd. London Cynthia D. Scott, Dennis T. Jaffe. (2003), â€Å"Managing change at work: leading people through organizational transitions†, edit 3 Greiner, L.E. (1972), â€Å"Evolution and revolution as organizations grow† Harvard Business Review, pp. 37-46. Greiner, L E and Schein, V E. (1988), â€Å"Power and Organization Development: Mobilizing power to change†, Reading, MA: Addison Wesley Halim Barakat. (1993), â€Å"The Arab world: society, culture, and state† Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, Hutt, M.D., Walker, B.A. and Frankwick, G.L. (1995) â€Å"Hurdle the Cross-Functional Barriers to Strategic Change† Sloan Management Review, 36 (3), pp. 22-30. Jack Rabin, Marcia B. Steinhauer. (1988), â€Å"Handbook on human services administration† Public Administration and Public Policy/34, pp. 305 Krà ¼ger, W. (1996), â€Å"Implementation: The Core Task of Change Management† CEMS Business Review, 1, pp. 77-96. Lawrence, P.R. (1954), â€Å"How to Deal with Resistance to Change† Harvard Business Review, (May/June), pp. 49-57. Mike Green. (2007), â€Å"Change management masterclass: a step by step guide to successful change†. Tony Proctor. (2005), â€Å"Creative problem solving for managers: developing skills for decision making†. Edition 2, pp. 241 Pardo Del Val, Manuela Martà ­nez Fuentes â€Å"RESISTANCE TO CHANGE: A LITERATURE REVIEW AND EMPIRICAL†, p. 5-7 Rob Paton, James McCalman. (2008), â€Å"Change Management: A Guide to Effective Implementation†, edition 3, pp. 39-54 Rumelt, R.P. (1995), â€Å"Inertia and transformation†, in Montgomery, C.A., Resource-Based and Evolutionary Theories of the Firm, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Massachusetts, pp. 101-132. Rusell Tobin. (1999), â€Å"Overcoming resistance to change†, Second Edition, pp. 142 Starbuck, W., Greve, A. and Hedberg, B.L.T. (1978) â€Å"Responding to crisis†, Journal of Business Administration, 9 (2), pp. 111-137. Thomas G. Cummings, Christopher G. Worley. (2008), â€Å"Organization development change†, Edition 9, pp. 165-182 Waddell, D. and Sohal, A.S. (1998), â€Å"Resistance: a constructive tool for change management†, Management Decision, 36 (8), pp. 543-548. Zeffane, R. (1996), â€Å"Dynamics of strategic change: critical issues in fostering positive organizational change†, Leadership Organization Development Journal, 17, pp. 36-43. Websites: http://www.explorehr.org/articles/Orga Managing Change in Small Organisations Managing Change in Small Organisations 1.0 Introduction The phenomenon of resistance to change is the bane of all Algerian bakeries that convey ideas for change. For the same one who proposed the change, the resistances are usually synonymous with hostility, intrigue deadlines, polarization, conflict, and impatience, many problems which are likely to frustrate and undermine the success of his bakery. Basically, resistance to change is built up from many sources; internal and external. Overcoming resistance to change requires first the identification of those sources. Therefore, the owner of the bakery â€Å"El-Bahdja† is looking for an expert or professional advice in the field to help managing change effectively. Hence, as this topic is part of the international business and management studies, the owner asked me to do some research on this matter. Ultimately, this research is divided into two major chapters, first; the literature part that discusses the main topic theoretically, it starts off by mentioning the general sources that fuels the resistance to change, then it goes on with hofdstedes point of view on resistance of change based on cultural differences and it concludes by describing the steps of managing change effectively and it concludes with. The second major chapter is the analysis of the findings from the primary data that have been collected through interviews with owners and employees from the bakery El-Bahdja and owners from other bakeries. Finally this paper is closed by recommendations for the owner of the bakery El-Bahdja on how to overcome resistance to change and how to manage change. 1.1 Research objective Many companies in North Africa particularly in Algeria are making loss and could not improve the quality of their business due to the habit of following common procedures and the high consideration of sunk costs invested in the status quo and fear of new ideas. Lack of adequate information fuels rumors and gossip and adds to anxiety generally associated with change. This fear creates resistance to change in the Algerian bakery industry Therefore, this research focuses on finding the elements that fuel the resistance to change in the Algerian bakeries and specifically the bakery â€Å"El Bahdja† that produces and delivers all kind of bread and pastries. The owner of the Algerian Bakery â€Å"El-Bahdja† is an old man and has been in the business since 1967. The owner is facing the closing down due to lack of managing change skills in the bakery and the high resistance from the employees to change. The main objective of this research is to provide the owner of the bakery â€Å"El-Bahdja† with guidance to effectively managing change when it is in the process of the implementation. 1.2 Research questions To provide guidance on how to manage changes for the owner of the bakery â€Å"El-Bahdja† it is essential first to find answers to the following research questions. â€Å"Does Algerian culture welcome changes† â€Å"Why most Algerian employers and employees resist changing?† â€Å"What are the external factors that prevent Algerian employers and employees from changing?† â€Å"How do Algerian employers and employees manage change when applying the new ideas?† 1.3 Methodology This study is based on both primary and secondary data that help in understanding the causes of resistance to change from both the Algerian owners and their employees: Secondary data collection: this method studies the previous cases that have already been written about and find the similarities between the cases. This method is very helpful in collection data from different cultures that share the same fact which is fear of new ideas that have direct effect on their traditional way of doing business. Therefore, the resources of the secondary data collection are mainly from books, journals, and internet. Primary data: a very crucial data and plays a big role in making final decision. The primary data which is better called direct communication or field research, on other word; facing people and have them interviewed. The objective of this method is to collect factual data that helps in answering the research questions of this study and this after interviewing people from the same field on the main topic. Reflection on the research methodology: the methods followed for collecting data are linked together. The secondary data helps understand the theoretical concepts that have been concluded from previous cases and compare them to the new facts. In this method; the 7s model of McKinsey, the theory versus the real world by Jeff Hiatt and Arab identity by Halim Barakat are used as starting point for facing organizational change in Algeria. The primary data is basically the tangible evidence for decision makers, observing and interviewing people are the major tools to be used in collecting data for this study. Reliability and validity of data are the essential axes of this method. Therefore, the interviews take place specifically with owners of bakeries and their employees in Algeria and in the Netherlands for comparison to see whether culture differences is a matter for resisting changing. 2.1 Why managing change? â€Å"Change is believed to happen Changes are fact and every person is subject to these changes. People faces changes regularly in their life or in their workplace, part of them deal with these changes successfully and the other part fail to adjust to change. In the life, for instance a family with children; parents believe that children are subject to changes and may change to better or to the opposite that parents plan for them, however these changes would not affect the family as a whole but the person himself. Nevertheless, in a business changes there are two ways and no third, successfully manage change or failure. In organization whether you are an executive, supervisor, coach, consultant, project team leader or manager of any type where your job is to manage people, you likely have experienced resistance to change from employees. However you may not recognize the role that you can play in preventing that resistance and leading change. Many managers do not make this connection until they have personally experience failure in an important change project (Jeff Hiat, Timothy J. Creasey 2003) When asking people after this failure what would you do differently if you had the chance to do it again? The common response would be using an effective and planned change management program. The question to be risen here is whether this program is sufficient enough to prevent resistance to change from happening in the first place and deal with people emotions and pursue them to change. The real barrier to success is a lack of change management and not management program. Some people do not lack of vision or an understanding of the marketplace but they feel simply short when managing the people side of change. In other words, things did not go exactly as planned. The unexpected happened. Not managing the people side of change impacts the success and introduces risk into the business (Jeff Hiat, Timothy J. Creasey 2003) Change management skills have shown that is not only mitigates these business risks, but also can avoid them entirely. Business leaders have change management skills to not only manage resistance once it appears, but to prevent it from occurring. 2.2 Change and the manager â€Å"Change needs to be portrayed in positive terms, a necessity to ensure long term survival (Robert A Poton, James McCalman, 2008)† Organizations and their managers must recognize change, in itself, is not necessarily a problem. The problem more often than not is a less than competent management o the change situation (Rob Paton, James McCalman, 2008). Managers must realize that one cannot separate strategic change management from organizational strategy; both must work in tandem. The importance of the human side of change cannot be underestimated, one must identify and manage the potential sources and causes of potential resistance and ensure that motivators are built into new processes and structures (Forlaron, 2005). i) Change competency: â€Å"Change is part of the businesss philosophy† â€Å"The successful organization is the organization that understand change will occur, expect it and support the change during implementation (Jeff Hiat, 2003) An organization that faces constant demands to change and uses effective management over and over with each new initiative may experience a fundamental shift in its operations and the behavior of its employees. Sponsors begin to repeat activities that made last change successful. Managers develop skills to support employees through the change. Employees see part of their job as navigating these new changes. Each level in the organization will have internalized its role in change and developed the skills and knowledge necessary to react to constant change. The organization has become ready and able to embrace change; it has developed change competency (Jeff Hiat, Timothy J. Creasey, 2003). However, building change competency is not paved with flowers; it requires a belief that change is now an ever-present feature of organizational life (Burnes, 2004). Change competency is similar to change management, but there are several key distinction. First, change management is ultimately the use of specific activities like communication, coaching, sponsorship and training; to realize successful outcomes with business changes. Change competency is not a specific activity; it is an organizations ability to react to change over and over again Second, while change management can be taught and learned, change competency requires a fundamental shift in culture and values. It must be simply part of day-to-day operations and cannot be simply demonstrated in training or instructional material. Third, change competency must penetrate every facet and level of the organization. This distinction especially relates to the front-line employee. An organization may have expertise in change management in its sponsors, consultants and change management. However, the front-line employees are the ones whose day-to-day activities are changing. To build change competency into the organization, you can take the first step by ensuring that solid change management practices are applied consistently for each change initiative. The second step is to begin building the following competencies into your organization (Jeff Hiat, Timothy J. Creasey, 2003) ii) Change and Human Resource Technology has played a major role in ensuring that a coherent business approach and managerial performance can be maintained from a reduce resource base. The key success in such moves has been the mobilization of the human resource (Pettigrew and Whipp, 1993). 2.3 Managing resistance once it appears â€Å"Believing in changes to be happening is a key principle to reducing resistance to change† People are often afraid of new ideas. They may feel threatened by new ideas and fear that they will not be able to cope with a change in working patterns that is demanded of them or that they will not understand how to use a new technology; example of that many older people are afraid of materials that they are not able to handle and may make them calling the technician every moment (Tony proctor 2005). The fear of new ideas is a natural feeling; people live with this fear and it not a bad manner. Fear of new ideas becomes negative when is surrounded with sources that increase the tension of fear that leads to high level of resistance and consequently aggravation of the failure of any project. Change more often than not produces suspicions and resistance. To many it implies a move from familiar ways-mastered over long periods of time- to an unknown and threatening environment. In order to deal effectively with resistance to change, people must understand its causes (Jack Rabin, Marcia B. Steinhauer, 1988). Lawrence and Greiner 1970, identify the main sources that feed the resistance of change. Fear of the unknown, lack of information, threats of status, fear of failure, and lack of perceived benefits. Regarding the first group of sources of resistance, change starts with the perception of its need, so a wrong initial perception is the first barrier to change. This first group is called ‘distorted perception, interpretation barriers and vague strategic priorities (Pardo del Val, Manuela Martà ­nez Fuentes). It includes: (a) Inability of the company to look into the future with clarity (Barr et al., 1992; Krà ¼ger, 1996; Rumelt, 1995); (b) Denial or refusal to accept any information that is not expected or desired (Barr et al., 1992; Rumelt, 1995; Starbuck et al., 1978); (c) Perpetuation of ideas, meaning the tendency to go on with the present thoughts although the situation has changed (Barr et al., 1992; Krà ¼ger, 1996; Rumelt, 1995; Zeffane, 1996); (d) Implicit assumptions, which are not discussed due to its implicit character and therefore distort reality (Starbuck, Greve and Hedberg, 1978); (e) Communication barriers, that leads to information distortion or misinterpretations (Hutt et al., 1995); (f) Organizational silence, which limits the information flow with individuals who do not express their thoughts, meaning that decisions are made without all the necessary information (Morrison and Milliken, 2000; Nemeth, 1997). The second main group of sources of resistance deals with a low motivation for change. Five fundamental sources: (a) Direct costs of change (Rumelt, 1995); (b) cannibalization costs, that is to say, change that brings success to a product but at the same time brings losses to others, so it requires some sort of sacrifice (Rumelt, 1995); (c) Cross subsidy comforts, because the need for a change is compensated through the high rents obtained without change with another different factor, so that there is no real motivation for change (Rumelt, 1995); (d) Past failures, which leave a pessimistic image for future changes (Lorenzo, 2000); and (e) Different interests among employees and management, or lack of motivation of employees who value change results less than managers value them (Waddell and Sohal, 1998). The lack of a creative response is the third set of sources of resistance. There are three main reasons that diminish the creativeness in the search for appropriate change strategies: (a) Fast and complex environmental changes, which do not allow a proper situation analysis (Ansoff, 1990; Rumelt, 1995); b) Reactive mind-set, resignation, or tendency to believe that obstacles are inevitable (Rumelt, 1995); and (c) Inadequate strategic vision or lack of clear commitment of top management to changes (Rumelt, 1995; Waddell and Sohal, 1998). Taking into consideration all those sources of resistance mentioned above can reverse the situation into preventing resistance in the first place. Cultural web: Cultures differ from each other in their resistance to change. The strongest resistance to change characterizes of high power distance, low individualism, and high uncertainty avoidance. Among these cultures are most Latin American countries, Portugal and Korea, followed by Japan, France, Spain, Greece, Turkey, and Arab countries. Cultures with low levels of resistance to change are low on power distance, high on individualism, and low on uncertainty avoidance. This category includes the Anglo countries, Nordic countries, and the Netherlands, followed by Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Africa (Harzig and Hofdestede, 1996 2.4 Making sense of change management â€Å"7S model of McKinsey†: The Mckinsey 7S model defines the seven components that encompass an organization and that by changing any one of the S components there is impact on the other S components. This model is such a conceptual aid by acting as good checklist for those setting out to make organizational change, laying out which parts of the system need to adapt, and the effects of these changes in other parts of the system (Mike Green, 2007) The 7s categories are: Staff important categories of people within the organization, the mix, the diversity, retention, the development and the maximizing of their potential. This component helps to determine how committed resources to make it all work? Skills distinctive capabilities, knowledge and experience of key people. The role of this component is to identify how ready and competent are the staff based on where the organization is heading? Systems processes, IT systems, HR systems, knowledge management systems. In other words, what are the suitable systems to be used to support the transition? Style management style and culture. How we are getting from here to there? Shared values guiding principles that make the organization what it is. Strategy organizational goals and plan, use of resources. Briefly is where are we transitioning to? Structure the organization chart and how roles, responsibilities and accountabilities are distributed in furtherance of the strategy. â€Å"The Mckinsey 7S model provides an effective framework for analyzing an organization and its activities that determine whether an organization is strong enough to adjust to any changes. Furthermore, this model helps in avoiding some of the sources that feed resistance to change in the first place† 2.5 Five steps for effective change process (Thomas and Christopher, 2008) Step 1:Motivating change: â€Å"Moving from the known to the unknown† Organizational change involves moving from the known to the unknown. The future is uncertain and may adversely affect peoples competencies, worth, and coping abilities. Organization members generally do not support change unless compelling reasons convince them to do so. A key issue in planning for action is how to motivate commitment to organizational change. This requires attention to two related tasks: creating readiness for change and overcoming resistance to change. Creating Readiness for change: peoples readiness for change depends on creating a felt need for change. This involves making people so dissatisfied with the status quo that they are motivated to try new work processes, technologies, or ways of behaving. Generally people and organization need to experience deep levels of hurt before they will seriously undertake meaningful change. The following three methods can help generate sufficient dissatisfaction to produce change: Sensitize organizations to pressures for change. Modern organizations face unprecedented environmental pressures to change themselves, including heavy foreign competition, rapidly changing technology, and the draw of global markets. Internal pressures to change include new leadership, poor product quality, high production costs, and excessive employee absenteeism and turnover. Organizations can make themselves more sensitive to pressures for change by encouraging leadership to surround themselves with devils advocate; for instance by cultivating external networks that comprise people or organizations with different perspectives and views; by visiting other organizations to gain exposure to new ideas and methods. Reveal discrepancies between current and desired states. Significant discrepancies between actual and ideal states can motivate organization members to initiate corrective changes, particularly when members are committed to achieving those ideas. A major diagnosis is to provide members with feedback about current organizational functioning so that the information can be compared with goals or desired future states. Convey credible positive expectations for the change. When organization members expect success, they are likely to develop greater commitment to the change process and to direct more energy into the constructive behaviors needed to implement it. The key success to achieving these positive effects if to communicate realistic, positive expectations about the organizational changes*. Research suggests that information about why the change is occurring, how it will benefit the organization, and how people will be involved in the design and implementation of the change was most helpful.* Overcoming Resistance to change: At the organization level, resistance to change can come from three sources. Technical resistance comes from the habit of following common procedures and the consideration of sunk costs invested in the status quo. Political resistance can arise when organizational changes threaten powerful stakeholders, such as top executive or staff personnel, or call into question the past decisions of leaders. Finally, culture resistance takes the form of systems and procedures that reinforce the status quo, promoting conformity to existing values, norms, and assumptions about how things should operate. Empathy and support. A first step in overcoming resistance is learning how people are experiencing change. This strategy identifies people who are having trouble accepting the changes, the nature of their resistance, and possible ways to overcome it. Communication. People resist change when they are uncertain about its consequences. Lack of adequate information fuels rumors and gossip and adds to anxiety generally associated with change. Effective communication about changes and their likely results can reduce this speculation and allay unfounded fears. Participation and innovation. Involvement in planning the change increases the likelihood that members interests and needs will be accounted for during the intervention. Consequently, participants will be committed to implementing the changes. They also can identify pitfalls and barriers to implementations. STEP 2: CREATING A VISION The second activity in leading and managing change involves creating a vision of what members want the organization to look like or become. Generally, a vision describes the core values and purpose that guide the organization as well as an envisioned future toward which change is directed. It provides a valued direction for designing, implementing, and assessing organizational changes. The vision also can energize commitment to change by providing members with a common goal and a compelling rationale for why change is necessary and worth the effort. Research suggests that compelling visions are composed of two parts: (1) a relatively stable core ideology that describes the organizations core values and purpose, and (2) an envisioned future with bold goals and a vivid description of the desired future state that reflects the specific change under consideration Step 3: DEVELOPING POLITICAL SUPPORT Managing the political dynamics of change includes the following activities: Assessing Change Agent Power. Greiner and Schein 1988, indentified three key sources of personal power in organizations (in addition to ones formal position); knowledge, personality, and others support. Knowledge bases of power include having expertise that is valued by others and controlling important information. For example, leaders in organizational units undergoing change can call on their informal networks for resources and support, and encourage subordinates to exercise power in support of the change. Identifying Key Stakeholders. This can start with simple question. †who stands to gain or to lose from the changes? Once stakeholders are identified, creating a map of their influence may be useful. Consequently, provides change agents with information about which people groups need to be influenced to accept and support the changes. Influencing Stakeholders. There are three major strategies for using power to influence others in organization development; First strategy is playing straight; this strategy involves determining of particular stakeholders and presenting information about how the changes can benefit them. The success of this strategy relies heavily on the change agents knowledge base. He or she must have the expertise and information to persuade stakeholders that the changes are a logical way to meet their needs. The second strategy is using social network; in this strategy change agents attempt to use their social relationships to gain support for changes. This social networking might include, for example, meeting with other powerful groups and forming alliances to support specific changes. This strategy also might include using informal contacts to discover key roadblocks to change and to gain access to major decision makers who need to sanction the changes. The third strategy is going around the formal system; the change agents charisma, reputations, or professional credibility lend legitimacy to going around the system and can reduce the likelihood of negative reprisals. For example, managers with reputations as winners often can bend the rules to implement organizational changes. However, this power strategy is relatively easy to abuse. Therefore; the OD practitioners should consider carefully the ethical issues and possible unintended consequences of circumventing formal policies and practices. Step 4: MANAGING THE TRANSITION Implementing organizational change involves moving from the existing organization state to the desired future state. There are three major activities and structure to facilitate organizational transition: activity planning, commitment planning, and change-management structures. Activity Planning This involves making a road map for change, citing specific activities and events that must occur if the transition is to be successful. Activity planning should clearly identify, temporally orient, and integrate discrete change tasks and should link these tasks to the organizations change goals and priorities. Commitment planning this activity involves identifying key people and groups whose commitment is needed for change to occur and formulating a strategy for gaining their support. Change-Management Structures Because organizational transitions tend to be ambiguous and to need direction, special structures for managing the change process need to be created. These management structures should include people who have the power to mobilize resources to promote change, the respect of the existing leadership and change advocates, and the interpersonal and political skills to guide the change process. Step 5: SUSTAINING MOMENTUM Once organization changes are under way, explicit attention must be directed to sustaining energy and commitment for implementing them. A strong tendency exists always among organization members to return to old behaviors and well-known processes unless they receive sustained support and reinforcement for carrying the changes through to completion. The following five activities can help to sustain momentum for carrying change through to completion: Providing resources for change. Additional financial and human resources are required for implementing organization change, particularly if the organization continues day-to-day operations while trying to change itself. Extra sources are always helpful to provide a buffer as performance drops during the transition period. Building a support system for change agents. Organization change can be difficult and filled with tension, not only for participants but for change agents as well. A support system typically consists of a network of people with whom the change agent has close personal relationships people who can give emotional support, serve as sounding board for ideas and problems, and challenge untested assumptions. Developing new competencies and skills, reinforcing new behaviors, and staying the course. In organizations people generally do things that bring them rewards. Consequently, one of the most effective ways to sustain momentum for change is to reinforce the kinds of behaviors needed to implement the changes through for instance informal recognition, encouragement, and praise. Staying the course. If the organization changes again too quickly or abandons the changes before it is fully implemented, the desired results may never materialize. There are two primary reasons that managers do not keep a steady focus on change implementation. First, many managers fail to anticipate the decline in performance, productivity, or satisfaction as change is implemented. Organization members need time to practice, develop, and learn new behaviors; they do not abandon old ways of doing things and adopt a new set of behaviors overnight. Second, many managers do not keep focused on a change because they want to implement the next big idea that comes along. Successful organizational change requires persistent leadership that does not waver unnecessarily. References Books and articles Ansoff, I.H. (1990), â€Å"Implanting Strategic Management† Prentice Hall International, Ltd. London Cynthia D. Scott, Dennis T. Jaffe. 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