A New Brand Of Democracy - 886 Words

Demiri 1Albulena DemiriProfessor FeldmanHUMN 110123 April 2016Pablo Picasso: Trailblazing ArtistIn 1907, less than a decade into the new century, the world was undergoing considerableand marked social upheaval. There was a desire for a new brand of democracy, where the people(especially women) wanted a greater say in how they were governed, but there were considerableefforts to try and maintain the status quo. Subsequently, the world seemed like it was in chaos.This schizophrenic perspective is highlighted by the major events that occurred in 1907.In Russia, the second Duma opens and Russian troops disperse 40,000 demonstrators. InGermany, a conservative coalition takes over the Reichstag against the threat of a socialistgovernment. The†¦show more content†¦(â€Å"Pablo Picasso and His Paintings†) Many people, such as ourtextbook author Sayre, have indicated this work was notorious, and â€Å"an assault on the idea ofpainting as it had always been understood.† (454) But it’s for this exact reason that I, personally,don’t care much for the work.To me, the beauty of art is in how an artist captures the subject and highlights aperspective. When the subject is symbolized and represented so abstractly, it provides a verydifferent perspective and I don’t care for it. In many ways, I’m like many of the viewers of LesDemoiselles d Avignon, who were disturbed by the work. (Sayre 454) However, I appreciatewhat Picasso was able to do, and understand the rationale. It’s just not my taste.Picasso clearly saw art in a different way. His emphasis was to view art less from theliteral perspective of what we see, to what these symbols represent. His radical departure fromtraditional European painting made it appear as though the art world had collapsed on release ofLes Demoiselles d Avignon. He abandoned known form and representation, resulting in what’sbeen called the most innovative painting in modern art history . (â€Å"Pablo Picasso and HisPaintings†)One of the steps he took to

Essay about Leadership Profile of Deepak Chopra - 3313 Words

Leadership Profile Ââ€" Dr. Deepak Chopra Introduction Servant-leader and transformational leadership models will be the lens through which this study will examine Dr.Chopras leadership style. This paper will analyze the leadership effectiveness of Dr.Chopra in his key leadership position as a world renowned medical practitioner in the U.S, and also examine how events throughout his life have ignited his passion to serve as a leader. Description of the Leader The leader Ive chosen to write about is Dr. Deepak Chopra, popularly acknowledged as one of the worlds greatest leaders in the field of alternative medicine and unified consciousness. It was during the years I worked for a fortune 100 company in the US, that I was†¦show more content†¦Detailed Profile Early Mentors (from Dr.Chopras autobiography): My most important mentors were my parents. My father was a very prominent physician and cardiologist. Once a week he would see patients free of charge for charity. And patients would come from all over the country, actually, to see him, on trains and buses. My mother would cook food for them and pay their bus fare and train fare. And my little brother and I would escort the patients in to see my father, who would not only write the prescriptions, but pay for the medicines for them as well. And at the end of the day, my parents would sit with me and explain what had happened during the day. And the moral of the lesson always was that if you want to be happy, then you have to make somebody else happy. I grew up with this notion that you must always have somebody in your life that you can trust, that you can confide in, that you can seek advice from, and that you can learn skills from. And the best skills come not in school, they come from the people that youre close to, that care about you, that you care about. At one point in time, I have three, or four, or five people that I am acting as a mentor for. And I listen to them mostly. I listen to whats going on in their life, whats going on with their friendships, in their relationships. To be a mentor you need to understand whats going on in a young persons

Global Human Resource Management

Question: Discuss about the Global Human Resource Management. Answer: Introduction The following assignment evaluates the impact of the cultural differences on the global human resource practice. For the purpose of the assignment, the human resource practices chosen are recruitment and selection as well as the career management practice. Employee recruitment and selection as well as career management are the essential human practices for the business enterprise. In this regard, it can be stated these two practices shall help the human resource management of the business entity. Mondy and Martocchio (2016) stated that cultural differences should have a significant impact on the recruitment and selection as well as career management of the workforce. Employees coming from different backgrounds and cultures shall have different views, opinions and work ethics. Thus, the management of the business entity has to consider these factors in developing effective human resource policies for the business entity. According to Mathis et al. (2016) there several cultural factors like power distance individualism, masculinity / femininity a well as the general attitudes and the beliefs of the consumers. Such factors shall have a tremendous impact on the formulation of the human resource policies adopted by a global business enterprise. Employee perception is a determining factor that has an impact of the human resource policies of a business enterprise. Thus, employee perception largely depends on the cultural attributes of an individual employee. Discussion Cultural factors The cultural attributes are a pertinent attribute that has an affect on the international human resource management. Hendry (2012) stated that the culture is composed of certain forces comprising of values, beliefs as well as the actions of a distinct group of individuals. Besides this, it can be said that religion as well as ethnicity are an important part of culture of a group. Therefore, there should not be a clash between the culture of the organization and employees. This can lead to employee discontent and increase the attrition rate in the business organization. Bennett and Ho (2014) mentioned that human resource practices like recruitment and selection as well as career management are highly influenced by the cultural aspects of a particular region. In this regard, it can be state that the expectations of the potential and the existing employee in the business organization are a highly important part of the cultural attributes of a specific region. Several cultural attributes would influence the human resource practices of recruitment and career management of the employees. The following are the factors that have an influence on international human resource management practices in the global market. The human resource practices of career management as well as recruitment, is evaluated in the context of these factors. Power Distance- The power distance in the organization is an essential cultural attribute. The concept of power distance refers to inequality among the employees working in the organization. Purce (2014) stated thatan increase in the power distance leads to greater differences in authority, responsibility and status among the seniors and the juniors in the business organization. In this regard, it can be stated that the power distance is among the essential factors that shall h help the business entity in the development of the goals and the objectives of the business entity. However, the concept of power distance is more prominent in many countries. As such, the business entity has to develop pertinent human resource strategies to overcome business sustainability in the domestic and the International market. Power distance shall lead to rigidity in the organizational structure of the business organization. Besides this, the impact of power distance in the organizational culture shal l lead to lesser flexibility in the business functionalities. In addition, this would result in lesser coordination and cooperation among the organization. A power-distance culture would be most suitable for organizations having a hierarchical work structure. Individualism -The concept of individual behavior is an essential trait for the business entity for the development of the organizational goals and the objectives for the business entity. According to Mello (2014), the individualism refers to the actions of an individual as opposed to working as a team for the business enterprise. According to Nickson (2013)., this essential cultural attribute can have an impact on the operational strategies of a business enterprise. The human resource department of the business enterprise has to consider the individualistic trait of the employees, in the development of human resource strategies of a business enterprise. Riley (2014) stated that individualisms shall lead to greater flexibility and help the employees handle a large amount of responsibility, thereby, enhancing their skill and aptitude. In the context of career management, the trait of individualism is most suitable and would help the business entity in enhancing the skills of the workf orce. Masculinity/Femininity- The dimension of masculinity/Femininity refers to the extent to which the masculine overcomes the feminine values in the business organization. The masculine values that can be identified are assertiveness, orientation of performance as well as the success and the competitiveness of the individual. In this context, it can be stated that the feminine values are the quality of life as well as the level of coordination and cooperation among the employees in the organization. In this regard, it can be stated that this level of masculinity as well as the feminine values varies from culture to culture. Thus, the development of the human resource policies in the business organization shall reflect about the operational and the marketing policies followed in the business organization. In this context, it can be stated that the masculinity and the feminine values in the business organization shall have an impact on the operational policies of the business entity. Nele et al. (2014) stated that the human resource practice of career management should depend considerably on the cultural attributes of the organization as well the employees currently working. As such, the management of the business enterprise has to respond appropriately in executing its career management strategies in a competitive manner. Both masculinity and feminine values have a huge impact in implementing the human resource strategies of the business entity. In the context of recruitment and selection strategies as well as the career management strategies adopted by the business enterprise. Attitude and Perception- Employee perception and attitude shall have a considerable affect on their loyalty towards their business organization. According to Kehoe and Wright (2013), the cultural aspect of a business organization shall have an impact in determining the attitudes and perception towards the business organization. In the context of the recruitment and the selection strategies of the business organization, it is essential to assess the perception of the potential employees of the business organization to understand their expectations from the company. As such, it is necessary for the business entity to analyze the employee feedback in structuring the recruitment and the selection strategies in such a manner, which shall benefit both the organization and the employee. In the recruitment and the selection strategies of the business entity, the business entity has to clearly communicate the job role as well as the benefits that shall be offered to the consumers. Career Management The career management refers to implementing strategies, which can enhance the skills and the competencies of the employees working in the business organization. In this regard, it can be stated that the management of the business entity has to consider the cultural influences, in order to understand the expectations of the workforce relating to their careers. Career management refers to helping employees acquiring greater competencies and skills to enhance their skills. Gatewood et al (2015) stated that the cultural differences should pose a threat and obstacles to such initiatives taken by the business enterprise. Thus, employees have to be receptive enough to gather new ideas and functionalities to enhance the organizational productivity. In this regard, it can be stated that the management of the business entity has to respond appropriately to understand employee needs and issues and react accordingly. According to Flamholtz (2012), the career management initiatives from the employees would not be fulfilled if the organization goals and objectives of the business entity were not taken into consideration. As such, there should not be a clash between organizational culture and the culture of the employees working in the business organization. Besides this, the culture of the organization shall not be de-motivating to the employees in any manner. To promote career management initiatives, the human resource department has to assess the motivational levels of the workers, and then act accordingly. The career management policies implemented in the business organization shall have to be fair and transparent and should not be biased to any employee in the business organization. Recruitment and Selection Procedure According to Flamholtz. (2012), multinational organizations have to face a number of issues while conducting their businesses in the oversees market. Thus, implementing a same business structure in a cultural different country can be stressful, given the complexities of the business operations. The affectivity of the human resource practices can only be achieved, if the managers and the subordinates accept the human resource practice in the business organization in a whole-hearted manner. However, due to rapid globalization employees have to execute their business in an appropriate manner. Gatewood et al (2015) stated that the recruitment has to be done in a global scale to conduct successful business operations in the global market. Therefore, the brand has to consider the cultural attributes of the potential employees in order to develop the goals and the objectives of the business entity. Therefore, the business entity has to conduct the interview in such a manner, in order to pre vent any harm to the local culture and traditions. Bratton and Gold (2012) stated that the recruitment and selection procedure should not contain any rigid policies that would create any negative perception on the consumers. Many traditional cultures prefer the interview timings to be fixed and planned rather than harp hazardously. Thus, the interview procedure shall have to be systematic to avoid any inconvenience to the consumers. Discrimination upon the basis of gender is one of the pertinent issues present in the operation policies of the business enterprise. Gender discrimination is considered as an offence in certain cultures, and can lead to negative perception among the employees. Thus, any business global business entity has to consider this attribute in framing the human resource policies of the business entity. Conclusion It can be stated that cultural attributes has a considerable influence on the human resource practices of any region. As such, the recruitment and selection procedures as well as the career management policies shall have to be considered if the business operates on a global scale. The career management initiatives of the company shall only be successful if the consumers in the business organization possess a positive perception towards the business enterprise and are keen enough to pick up new skills. Several factors shall have a proper impact on the International human resource practices. These factors include - Power distance, Individualism, Masculinity/ Femininity as well as attitude and perception towards the brand. Such factors shall have an influence on the employee behavior as well as the business functionalities of the organization. In the context of the recruitment and the selection procedures, it is necessary for a business entity to determine on the perception of the potential employees. As such, the management of the business enterprise has to adopt proper recruitment procedures to ensure the selection of the most suitable candidate for the business organization. The attitudes and the perception of the employees is largely dependent on the cultural policies adopted by the business enterprise. Cultural attributes like power distance, individualism as well as masculinity/Femininity are attributes that have an influence on the human resource strategies taken by the business organization. Power distance, which represents the level of inequality among the employees in the business organization, is a major cultural attribute within a workplace setting. Business enterprises that have a consider able amount of power-distance within the workplace shall have lesser coordination and cooperation among the seniors and the juniors in the workplace As a result, there would be a hierarchical structure and lesser flexibility in the structure of the organization. References Bennett, J. M., Ho, D. S. (2014). Human resource management. In project MANAGEMENT for ENGINEERS (pp. 231-249). Bratton, J., Gold, J. (2012). Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave Macmillan. Flamholtz, E. G. (2012). Human resource accounting: Advances in concepts, methods and applications. Springer Science Business Media. Gatewood, R., Feild, H. S., Barrick, M. (2015). Human resource selection. Nelson Education. Hendry, C. (2012). Human resource management. Routledge. Kehoe, R. R., Wright, P. M. (2013). The impact of high-performance human resource practices on employees attitudes and behaviors. Journal of management, 39(2), 366-391. Mathis, R. L., Jackson, J. H., Valentine, S. R., Meglich, P. (2016). Human resource management. Nelson Education. Mello, J. A. (2014). Strategic human resource management. Nelson Education. Mondy, R., Martocchio, J. J. (2016). Human resource management. Pearson. Nel, P. S., Werner, A., Botha, C., Du Plessies, A., Mey, M., Ngalo, O., ... Van Hoek, L. (2014). Human resources management. Oxford University Press Southern Africa. Nickson, D. (2013). Human resource management for hospitality, tourism and events. Routledge. Purce, J. (2014). The impact of corporate strategy on human resource management. New Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals), 67. Riley, M. (2014). Human resource management in the hospitality and tourism industry. Routledge.

The Rule in Rylands and Flecther remains to be one of strict liabilty. Discuss free essay sample

â€Å"The Rule in Rylands v. Fletcher remains a tort of strict liability. The statement posed to us above is quite contentious, a statement which attracts diverse views from a number of different jurisdictions. The main question to consider here is whether the rule in Rylands v. Fletcher remains an independent tort of strict liability or whether there has been a move towards negligence and nuisance in recent years. There is a great emphasis placed on the rule of Rylands v. Fletcher for law students, however as noted by Lord Hoffman in Transco v.Stockport; â€Å"It is perhaps not surprising that counsel could not find a case since 1939-1945 war in which anyone had succeeded in a claim under the rule. It is hard to escape the conclusion that the intellectual effort devoted to the rule by judges and writers over many years has brought forth a mouse! †1 As mentioned above, a number of common law jurisdictions have diverse views on this issue. We will write a custom essay sample on The Rule in Rylands and Flecther remains to be one of strict liabilty. Discuss or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page I shall discuss each separately throughout my answer. Firstly, in order to provide a fully comprehensive answer, I will discuss the facts of the case. The rule in Rylands v. Fletcher is a decision of the House of Lords which established a new area of tort law. According to Paul Ward; â€Å"it is a land associated tort which is considered to attract strict liability,†2 that is, it imposes liability for harm without having to prove negligence. Ward explicitly lays out that it is a tort that compromises of four elements; of accumulation of a natural thing, which if escapes and causes damage to the plaintiff, the defendant will be strictly liable. 3 The case concerned two adjacent landowners, Rylands and Fletcher. The defendant landowners, Rylands and Horrocks engaged with an independent contractor to build a reservoir in order to supply water to their mill. Due to negligence of the contractors and unbeknownst to the defendant landowners, the reservoir was built above a disused mine shaft, which flooded and collapsed causing water to escape and flood the neighbouring mine owned by the claimants. The plaintiff sued for damages, however a problem arose. At the time of the case, liability could not be based on any of the existing torts for a number of reasons. With respect to nuisance, the court found that the incident lacked continuity; it was not trespass because the flow of water onto land was not a direct impact consequence, and as vicarious liability was not an action at the time, the defendants could not be found liable for the negligent act of the contractor. One would therefore presume that there was no cause of action and that the defendants would escape liability, however liability was imposed. Professor Simpson stated that this was so because of the public anxiety about the safety of reservoirs at the time. 4 Blackburn J.stated the rule as follows; â€Å"a person who, for his own purposes, brought on his land and collected and kept there anything likely to do mischief if it escaped, had to keep it in his peril; and if he did not do so, he was prima facie answerable for all the damage which was the natural consequence of its escape. †5 However it is important to note that the House of Lords did add a further limitation on liability, they altered the notion of a â€Å"thing not naturally there† to a â€Å"non-natural use†, which was described by Lord Cairns as â€Å"that in its natural condition was not in or the land, then if it escapes, the defendant will be prima facie liable.†6 Blackburn, J. judgment was such that it led to the formulation of a new rule of strict liability for damage caused by an escape of something accumulated on a person’s property, if the accumulation is a non-natural use of property. The question today is; is this rule still in operation, one which remains a tort of strict liability? In particular, English, Irish and Australian judges have questioned the eligibility of the rule in recent decades. The main argument is over how one can keep the rule in Rylands v. Fletcher separate from other torts, in describing this Megaw, LJ.stated; â€Å"A regrettable modern instance of the forms of action successfully clanking their spectral chains. †7 The rule is so closely connected to these two torts, it is only natural to ask whether the rule should still claim its independence. I shall discuss this throughout my answer. In relation to Australian law, the rule of Rylands v. Fletcher remains no longer valid since the high court decision of Burnie Port Authority v. General Jones Pty Ltd, which abolished the rule and incorporated it generally into the tort of negligence. This case concerned a fire which started on a defendant’s property, caused by an employee of an independent contractor who was welding negligently. The fire spread to a nearby property causing 2. 5 million Australian Dollars’ worth of damage. The plaintiff sued under nuisance, negligence and the rule in Rylands v. Fletcher. 8 The High Court held that Blackburn’s justification was â€Å"all but obliterated by subsequent judicial explanations and qualifications†9 and that Rylands involved â€Å"quite unacceptable uncertainty. †10 Therefore, thejustices felt that the law should be abolished and that the independent contractor be found culpable under the law of negligence. The new test laid down in this judgment was; A person who takes advantage of his or her control of premises to introduce a dangerous substance or to carry on a dangerous activity, owes a duty of reasonable care to avoid a reasonably foreseeable risk of injury or damage to the person or property of another. Where the person is outside the defendant’s premises, the duty varies according to the magnitude of the risk involved.†11 The judges believed in this case the Authority had breached the duty that it owed to General Jones for the damage sustained in the fire and that this therefore came under the law of negligence. According to Cane, the High Court’s view was that the Rylands rule â€Å"should bow been seen†¦as absorbed by the principles of ordinary negligence, and not as an independent principle of strict liability. † 12 It is clear from my research that the rule remains valid law in English and Irish jurisdictions, but that it is now viewed as a sub-tort of nuisance. Cambridge Water v. Eastern Counties Leather and Transco v. Stockport are two English cases which bring the rule of Rylands v. Fletcher under the wing of nuisance. The former case concerns the defendant who was a leather manufacturer. His employees spilled a solvent used in the tanning process prior to a change in a method; this solvent seeped through the floor and travelled until it met the plaintiff’s water supply. The well became unusable, and hence the plaintiff sued under Rylands v. Fletcher. In his judgment, Lord Goff rejected the claim of the plaintiffs; stating that this is an area of law which should not be developed further and that rather than being an independent tort it should be considered as a sub tort of nuisance. 13 He was of the belief that statutory provisions are a more modern way of dealing with issues which were previously solved with reference to Rylands. This judgment added an important concept to the rule, which is the concept of foreseeability; â€Å"knowledge, or at least foreseeability of risk, is a prerequisite of the recovery of damages under the principle.†14 This is important for us to note as it poses a limitation on the rule, that now in order to impose strict liability, the damage cause by the escape must be reasonably foreseeable consequence of the escape of the defendant. In this particular case, the seepage of chemicals was not reasonably foreseeable and therefore the plaintiff could not recover. One may view this as a way of weanin g out the concept of strict liability; however this is a concept which would be difficult to argue. Transco v. Stockport is also an influential English case dealing with the rule of Rylands v. Fletcher, a judgment which once again questioned the eligibility of the rule as a tort of strict liability. This case concerned the defendant council who were responsible for the maintenance of pipe work which supplied water to a block of 66 flats. A leak developed in the pipes and this was left undetected for a considerable period of time. This water collected at the claimant’s high pressure gas main, the embankment collapsed leaving the gas main unsupported. The claimants took immediate action and sought to recover remedial costs of nearly ? 100,000. 15 While the Lordships protected the rule of Rylands v. Fletcher, however more strict requirements were added which needed to be accounted for before imposing strict liability. It was stated that the escape must be something dangerous and out of the ordinary, which in this case did not include a burst water pipe on the council’s property. Lord Bingham noted; â€Å"to retain the rule, while insisting upon its essential nature and purpose; and to restate it so as to achieve as much certainty and clarity as is attainable, recognising that new factual situations are bound to arise posing difficult questions on the boundary of the rule, wherever that is drawn.†16 Transco disapproved with of the Australian decision in Burnie Port Authority to absorb the rule into the general law of negligence, with Lord Scott stating that it was â€Å"a rather drastic solution and not necessary,†17 but they did agree with the ruling in Cambridge that Rylands should remain valid in law but as a â€Å"sub-species of nuisance†¦while insi sting upon its essential nature and purpose; and†¦restate it so as to achieve as much certainty and clarity as is attainable.†18 In the common law jurisdiction of the United States of America, the rule in Rylands v. Fletcher initially faced very little criticism. There are many situations in which strict liability is applied to actions and according to Woodside; Rylands is commonly cited as the origin of this rule. 19 However, there have also been a number of American judges and scholars who have given notable criticism of this rule, who view it as a very poor decision. The Supreme Court of New Hampshire, New Jersey and New York have all respectfully rejected the rule. Bohlen gives a great insight in his article, he notes of a decision of the Supreme Court of New Hampshire, where an unnamed judge said the rule â€Å"put a clog upon natural and reasonably necessary uses of matter and tend to embarrass and obstruct much of the work which it seems to be a man’s duty carefully to do. †20 These courts believed that the rule enunciated in Rylands v. Fletcher would cause economic harm. Bohlen also argues that the rule established is not trespass nor nuisance as there is respectfully no damage or no continuous action. He argues that the American jurisdiction never accepted the rule because of its â€Å"limited applicability. †21 On the other hand, Woodside notes that some Americans use the rule of Rylands v. Fletcher to justify absolute liability, an offence to which there is no defences. 22 This was never the intent of Lord Cairns in his judgement. Therefore it is very unclear as to whether the rule of Rylands v. Fletcher remains a tort of strict liability within the American jurisdiction. The Scottish jurisdiction, like Australia, has also abolished the ruling of Rylands v. Fletcher. The principles of Rylands v. Fletcher were first applied in Scots law in the case of Mackintosh v. Mackintosh, however according to Cameron; it was applied in such a way as that negligence was still the ground of liability. 23 However, the absolute use of the rule was abolished with the RHM Bakeries v. Strathclyde Regional Council when Lord Fraser stated that strict liability had no place in Scots law and that it was â€Å"a heresy that should be extirpated. †24 Finally I will make reference to New Zealand. The law regarding the rule of Rylands v. Fletcher remains unclear in this jurisdiction. A recent article by The Honourable Justice Chambers discusses the inter-relationship between the torts of nuisance, negligence and the ruling in Rylands v. Fletcher. The argued that there is a need for simplicity in the law of tort, â€Å"Where the law is clear, where the principles are clear, there are usually few cases†. 25 The recent Autex Industries Ltd v. Aucklands City Council case clearly illustrates how the law in New Zealand is unclear regarding this issue. A water main belonging to Auckland City Council burst and caused damage to Autex’ premises, plant, equipment and stock. Autex sued the council for damages. Strict liability and negligence were pleaded. Autex argued that this was a Rylands v. Fletcher case and therefore negligence did not need to be proved. 26 The Court of Appeal divided on their judgment; the majority believed that there was not sufficient evidence before them to make public policy decisions. These decisions should not be based on intuitivestatements, the consequences which flow from them should also be considered. 27 The minority on the other hand disagreed with the judgment in the Australian Burnie case. It is also important to note that in the Hamilton v. Papakura District Council case that it was established that there is no difference in the foreseeability test between nuisance and negligence. The Honourable Justice Chambers states; â€Å"The moment one states that as a proposition, one realises that it is absurd to continue talking about nuisance or Rylands v Fletcher as strict liability torts. They are not.†28 This leaves a question as to whether New Zealand will follow the court of Australia and abolish the rule in Rylands v. Fletcher or if the law will remain valid. With all the criticism posed above, can one still say that it is an area of strict liability? It is clear from the information which is presented in the above paragraphs that there is no clear answer as to whether the rule in Rylands v. Fletcher remains one of strict liability. Each common law jurisdiction appears to have different views on this rule. It is a contentious issue, an issue which is in need of worldwide reform.

O Brother Where Art Thou essays

O Brother Where Art Thou essays In the film O Brother, Where Art Thou, the Cohen Brothers present to the audience a comedic adventure of three on-the-run jail mate hillbillies led by the hero, Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney), looking to reclaim a buried treasure. The story takes place back in the days of the Depression-era, Deep South around the 1920s in Mississippi. It is a comedy. The picture is filled with intellectual and witty satire, as well as twists and turns, humorously paralleling scenes and characters from Homers epic poem The Odyssey. In the movie, the Cohen Brothers use various elements to capture the attention of the audience. Just as any other directors attempt to do, they aim to draw the audience into the movie and catch the spirit of the southern, Mississippian, Depression-era hillbillies. In order to generate this affect, one of the key elements the Cohen Brothers use is language. More specifically, they use old-fashioned, southern idiomatic dialogue, which is not really used in todays contemporary dialogue. Yet, most are definitely familiar with it, which serves as the common base to carry out the affect. Just by listening to this southern-type language with its southern accents and all its slang, idioms, and euphemisms, the picture of vast countryside farms and cornfields, old-fashion cars, live-stock, dirt roads, and rednecks and hillbillies in overalls with severe farmers tan instantly comes to mind. Thus, everything becomes more of a reality. However, more importantly, with a whole lot of fresh w itty intellectual satire, there are plenty of laughs through this southern dialogue, which serve as the whole point of making the movie. It is a comedy. Of course the task was not plain and simple. The Cohen Brothers did their research. Throughout the entire picture, there are a countless number of slang phrases, idioms, and euphemisms used. Of course there ar ...

Three Types of Galaxies essays

Three Types of Galaxies essays Elliptical galaxies are collections of stars that remain pretty close together because of the gravitational attraction between them. There is not a certain known rotation axis, so the stars in the galaxy show a wide range of orbital paths. The motions of stars are not entirely random; there is a degree of organization in the direction of these motions, and this determines the overall shape of the galaxy. Elliptical galaxies have a plain appearance, and some elliptical galaxies are nearly circular in shape, and some elliptical galaxies are extremely stretched out or flattened. The ones that are spherical are classed as E0 galaxies, and those that are flattest are E7, the types in between have the numbers E1 to E6. Elliptical galaxies show a larger range in brightness, some can be up to 10 times brighter than the brightest spiral galaxies, and the dullest ellipticals can be 1000 times less luminous than the dullest spiral. An elliptical galaxy is given the label En, where the galaxy sh ape determines the number n. Most galaxies are elliptical. This type of galaxy dependends on the orientation of the galaxy from our viewpoint; in other words, it describes how the galaxy appears to us, it does not tell us a lot about the true physical properties. Unless a galaxy is perfectly spherical, it will have a different appearance according to the direction from which we observe it. Another type of galaxies is called spiral galaxies. It has wide-ranging spiral arms like a hurricane, and a densely populated bar of old stars near the center. All that is clear in visible light. Each spiral galaxy is classified with a label, which gives some indication of its appearance. All spiral galaxy labels begin with the prefix "S", and usually is followed by a lower case letter, which describes the "style" or overall appearance of the particular object. This letter may be either 0, a, b or c, and is determined by ...

I added my word files Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

I added my word files - Essay Example ‘Vegetarian Times’ Study indicates that currently, about 7.3 million Americans have adopted vegetarian diets and 22.8 millions are on the path of vegetarianism. About 1 million American people consume absolutely no animal products and study also indicates that at least 11.9 million have strong inclination to follow a vegetarian diet in the future. Many Americans today look for high-fiber, low-cholesterol, and low-calorie diet and in that sense their switching to vegetarianism is justified. Usually, vegetarian meals provide the lot of fiber, controlled calories and cholesterol free diet. Rudolph Ballentine argues that two-thirds of American households changed their diets due to health reasons in last few decades. The changes incorporated aimed at eliminating beef and pork in diets and increasing vegetable and fruit intakes. Americans are consuming now more fruits and vegetables in their diet than a few years ago. This implies that there is a conscious choice in this change discarding their age-old cultural or traditional habits. Several studies done in past few years indicate that vegetarian diet is complete in all respects and conducive to good health in comparison to the usual diet consumed by majority of Americans. Vegetarians are less prone to many diseases that are prevailing in Americans society today. More and more studies reveal that coronary heart disease, colon and breast cancer rates are much less in vegetarians than those who eat meat. The incidence of obesity, diabetes, and constipation are found much less in those who follow vegetarian diet. The rising incidences of health issues along with mass movement to give up cruelty against animals have been the major causes forcing Americans to change their eating habits. Rudolph Ballentine argues that if meat were dropped by the people in Americas and elsewhere, everybody on this earth could be fed well. From the view point of agricultural land use and its cost

Rebuttal - Why Marijuana should be Legal in the US Essay

Rebuttal - Why Marijuana should be Legal in the US - Essay Example a striking difference can be seen as the results of the poll in 2011 put forward the fact that 50 percent of the Americans wanted marijuana to be legalized now (Carey 2011). The legalization of marijuana has sparked many debates as many benefits of this legalization have been put forward and demands for the revision of the legislation with regard to marijuana has been demanded. The Huffington Post reported the stand of the White House on the issue of the legalization of marijuana. The White House declared the fact that marijuana was a drug which carried many disadvantages and they could not legalize the drug as it would bring much harm to the society. The White House indicated the fact that the government was spending much on research with regard to marijuana and they did not find any strong research that upheld the benefits of this drug. It was further claimed that marijuana resulted in health issues which included â€Å"addiction, respiratory disease, and cognitive impairment.† It was also stated that legalizing of marijuana would not result in any benefit for the community and would rather cause harm to the society (Graves 2011). The benefits of marijuana have been upheld by many groups who consider that legalization of marijuana would result in many positive effects. The use of marijuana in medicine has been one of the most important benefits of the drug. The California Medical Association upheld this stand and put forward the fact that marijuana should be made legal. The Association indicated the fact that advantages of this legalization were much higher than the disadvantages. They also upheld the fact that marijuana was helpful in the relief of pain and thus it should be made legal and regulations should be imposed on drug distribution rather than putting a ban on it (York 2011). The President of Columbia also put forward the fact that the legalization of marijuana had many advantages and he explained that the drug should be made legal throughout the

Questioning Techniques Essay Example for Free

Questioning Techniques Essay A number of researches conducted recently within the local setting on teaching skills of teachers show that there is a decline of the quality of classroom teaching of many teachers. The prime reason for this decline, as concluded by many researchers, lies in the problems of the training they receive at pre-service training institutions. For example; Lim, Cock, Lock et.al. (2009) state that though there is a practical element of pre-service teacher training, it does not provide enough knowledge and skills for the teachers to handle the challenges they encounter in the classroom brought by globalization and the development of modern technology. Because it is the National Colleges of Education that produce the pre-training to majority of teachers their syllabi were analyzed to understand that heavy theoretical knowledge given through the syllabi deprives the prospective teachers of opportunity of having enough practical teaching experience during their on campus training. On the other hand, no specific attention is paid on developing important teaching skills even though some practical teaching opportunities are given to them. Karaseva (2013) also highlights the importance of giving teachers assistance in getting their problems solved in relation to particular teaching skills of which they show weaknesses in. Among those important teaching skills, questioning techniques are one of the skills to which less attention is paid during pre- service teacher education. Cotton (1989) says that virtually no attention is paid on developing questioning techniques of teachers during their pre-service training period. Further, Aggarwal (2013) highlights the importance of questioning techniques because psychologically and philosophically asked questions help teachers achieving lesson objectives to expected level. Therefore, this research broadly aims at developing the questioning techniques of prospective teachers using a widely recognized technique and evaluating the efficacy of the used technique in developing teaching skills  of prospective teachers. Objectives of the Study; To review the theoretical background of questioning techniques in teaching. To investigate the development of questioning techniques of prospective teachers through the current programme of instruction. To find out innovative techniques that can be used in improving questioning techniques. Methodology/Design; Theoretical background of questioning techniques was reviewed through literature and a check list was used to determine the current states of questioning techniques employed by prospective teachers in their lessons. It was further expected to use the checklist to determine how far the existing methodology of instruction is capable of developing questioning techniques. The check list focused broadly on general aspects of questioning such as tone and accuracy of questions and specific skills such as eliciting, probing and Socratic questions. Lessons were videotaped for further analysis and at the same time descriptive field notes were kept by the researcher for recording and analyzing the questioning techniques employed by prospective teachers. Peer group members too observed the lessons and used an observation schedule to record and comment on the questioning techniques used by their colleagues. An available convenience sample of 30 prospective teachers of English was selected for the research and two lessons of each member were observed using the check list. From the 30 teachers observed, 12 were selected to conduct lessons in the classroom for the peer group. Half the peer group acted as students while the rest was observing the lesson using the observation schedule. Therefore, the data gathering instruments of the research include a checklist, field notes, an observation schedule, videotaping and lesson plans prepared by prospective teachers. Results/Findings; When the theories related to questioning techniques were analyzed it was understood that Bloom’s Taxonomy provides proper guidance for teachers in selecting, grading and using questions to develop the cognitive domain of students(Bloom et.al. cited in Huitt, 2011). Doff, (1988); Alexis,( 2009); and Hyman, (1982) add the importance of wait time to classification of  questions according to Bloom’s Taxonomy. They prove that longer wait time encourages critical thinking. When literature is further analyzed it was understood that probing questions are very important for the subject taught by prospective teachers, i.e. English language as probing questions demand authentic language production (Stepien, 2012). With the light of the theories related to questioning techniques, results of check lists were analyzed with comparisons to the field notes of observed lessons. The results of check list show that prospective teachers use tone appropriately in asking questions which is further verified by the field notes. Though high marks were noticed for the accuracy of questions in the checklist field notes and observation schedules record inaccurate questions especially in complex structures such as, â€Å"Can you tell me what is this colour?† There were five sections of the check list out of which probing questions recorded the least marks for a greater majority of the prospective teachers. This was further noticed in field notes and observation schedules because only a few such questions had been recorded. Teachers seemed to be happy with the received questions or directly corrected the inappropriate answers without attempting to probe into the answer. When research conducted to develop teaching skills were studied it was found out that â€Å"Micro Teaching† has provided effective results in international setting in developing skills such as class control and classroom management Conclusions; Prospective teachers should be encouraged to preplan their questions whenever possible to increase the accuracy of them because inaccurate questions lead to misconceptualization. New strategies must be employed to give more training to prospective teachers to develop aspects such as wait time, using probing questions because the existing method has not been able to develop those aspects of questioning. â€Å"Micro Teaching† is suggested to be used in developing questioning techniques since it has been successful in many other situations in developing several other teaching skills such as class control and classroom management. Reference; 1. Aggarwal, J. C. 2013. Essentials of Educational Technology. Innovations in Teaching – Learning. Dlhi, Vikas Publishing house Pvt. Ltd. 2. Alexis, 2009. A Questioning Strategy, Power of Wait Time/Think Time. Retrieved from http://schoolvisitexperts.com/?p=563 on 10.02.2014. 3. Asking Questions to Improve Listening. The Teaching Center. Washington University.(2009)Retrieved fromhttp://teachingcenter.wustl.edu/strategies/Pages/asking-questions.aspx on 12.02.2014 4. Beare, K. (N.D.) Speaking Skills Asking Questions. About.com English as 2nd Language. (Retrieved on 13.02.2014) 5. Cotton, K. 1989. Classroom Questioning. School Improvement Research Series. NorthwestRegionalEducationalLaboratory.http://www.nwrel.org/scpd/sirs/3/cu5. html. 6. Doff,A. 1988. Teach English: A Training Course for Teachers. Trainer’s Hand Book. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. 7. Fries-Geither, J. 2008; Why Ask Questions? The Ohio State University. Ohio 8. Hyman, 1982. Teaching Methods. Questioning in the Classroom. How to Ask Questions. Retrieved from,http://www.tea ching.iub.edu/finder/wrapper.php%3Finc_id%3Ds2_1_lect_04_quest.shtml on 14.02.2014 9. Innovations and Initiatives in Teacher Education in Asia and the Pacific Region. (1990).(Vol-II).Bangkok, UNESCO Principal Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific 10. Marzano, R. Pickering, D. and Pollock, J. 2001. Classroom Instruction That Works: Research-based strategies for increasing student achievement. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. 11. Professional Development among Academic Staff at Selected Malaysian Public Universities: Preliminary Findings of the Impact of the Basic Teaching Methodology Courses, International Journal of Business and Social Science 2(3) 2011.p.125 12. Research Scholar. An Experimental Study to Find Out the Effectiveness of Some Micro Teaching Skills in Teaching Geography at the Secondary Level. West Bengal, Rabindra Bharati University. 13. Rowe, M.B. (n.d.) Wait Time: Slowing Down May Be A Way of Speeding Up. Journal of Teacher E ducation. 1986; 37; 43 Retrieved from, http://jte.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/37/1/43 on 13.02.2014 14. Shomoossi, N(2004),.The effect of teachers questioning behavior on EFL classroom interaction: A classroom research study, The Reading Matrix, 4 pp. 96–104 15. Yang, C.C.R. (2010)Teacher questions in second language classrooms: An investigation of three case studies, Asian EFL Journal, 12 (1) (2010), pp. 181–201 Declaration Form for Corresponding Author Title of the abstract: Asking Questions the Right way; an analysis of the questioning techniques employed by prospective teachers. (Current state of an ongoing action research to develop the questioning techniques of prospective teachers) Name of authors: R.M.D. Rohan Address of institution where the work was carried out: Pasdunrata National College of Education Kalutara Name of the supervisor: Prof. Manjula Vithanapathirana I declare that the above abstract reports the results of original research work and that the work reported in the abstract has not been published or presented elsewhere. Name Signature of the Corresponding Author: R.M.D. Rohan Address: Pasdunrata National College of Education Kalutara Date: Supervisor’s signature:

Lives of Girls and Women: Curiosity by Alice Munro Essay -- del jordan,

The process in which human beings advance through different stages in their life towards adulthood is highly hellacious. Moreover, it is very likely that one might encounter some difficulty in this progression. However, it is in human nature that we learn by failing at things, then mastering them by repeating them again and again. In the novel Lives of Girls and Women, Alice Munroe presents the life of Del Jordan in a very interesting way. The novel is divided into eight stages of Del’s life, where she experiences different scenarios which ultimately give her a better understanding of life. Even though being curious has its pros and cons, at the end of the day it leads to the enhancement of a person’s inner self. In the novel Lives of Girls and Women, Del the protagonist can be analyzed as being a very enthusiastic girl. Moreover, her curiosity proves to be a dynamic benefit of her actions. Firstly, as an individual develops, it is normal for one to be very keen. Moreover, the enthusiasm leads one to being curious and wanting to learn new things. During the early stages of Del’s life, her curiosity is reflecting with her interest on the life of Uncle Benny. She narrates his life in Flat Roads and presents Benny as an eccentric character who is single, likes to hunt at the pond, and lives in an extremely unorganized way. â€Å"So lying alongside our world was Uncle Benny’s world like a troubling distorted reflection† (Munro 22). This quote explicitly shows the interest Del maintains on the troublesome life of Uncle Benny as she analyzes his characteristics and the many obstacles he faces in life. For instance, due to the fact the Benny was unorganized and needed someone to look after his house, he came up with an idea of marrying a woma... ... questioned gravity when an apple dropped on his head. This led to the discovery of physics that we study in schools today. However, too much curiosity is not good as well. Like they say â€Å"Curiosity killed the Cat† Del develops interests on topics regarding intercourse and gets sexually harassed by a man much older than her. All in all, we all should remember that curiosity is good if it is used in topics that would not cause great harm to you. As a human it is okay to be curious. What do you think? Is too much curiosity bad? Is Del right for being so curious? Works Cited Munro, Alice. Lives of Girls and Women. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company. January, 1974. Book. Stafford, Tom. "Why Are We so Curious?" BBC Health. BBC, 19 Jan. 2012. Web. 24 Jan. 2014. Rey, H. A. "Curious George - The Original Story (1941)." YouTube. YouTube, 23 May 2012. Web. 27 Jan. 2014.

Access Control Proposal Essay

Access control: type of access control by which the operating system constrains the ability of a subject or initiator to access or generally perform some sort of operation on an object or target. In practice, a subject is usually a process or thread; objects are constructs such as files, directories, TCP/UDP ports, shared memory segments, IO devices etc. Subjects and objects each have a set of security attributes. Whenever a subject attempts to access an object, an authorization rule enforced by the operating system kernel examines these security attributes and decides whether the access can take place. Any operation by any subject on any object will be tested against the set of authorization rules (aka policy) to determine if the operation is allowed. A database management system, in its access control mechanism, can also apply mandatory access control; in this case, the objects are tables, views, procedures, etc. With mandatory access control, this security policy is centrally controlled by a secu rity policy administrator; users do not have the ability to override the policy and, for example, grant access to files that would otherwise be restricted. By contrast, discretionary access control (DAC), which also governs the ability of subjects to access objects, allows users the ability to make policy decisions and/or assign security attributes. (The traditional UNIX system of users, groups, and read-write-execute permissions is an example of DAC.) MAC-enabled systems allow policy administrators to implement organization-wide security policies. Unlike with DAC, users cannot override or modify this policy, either accidentally or intentionally. This allows security administrators to define a central policy that is guaranteed (in principle) to be enforced for all users. Historically and traditionally, MAC has been closely associated with multi-level secure (MLS) systems. The Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria[1] (TCSEC), the seminal work on the subject, defines MAC as â€Å"a means of restricting access to objects based on the sensitivity (as represented by a label) of the information contained  in the objects and the formal authorization (i.e., clearance) of subjects to access information of such sensitivity†. Early implementations of MAC such as Honeywell’s SCOMP, USAF SACDIN, NSA Blacker, and Boeing’s MLS LAN focused on MLS to protect military-oriented security classification levels with robust enforcement. Originally, the term MAC denoted that the access controls were not only guaranteed in principle, but in fact. Early security strategies enabled enforcement guarantees that were dependable in the face of national lab level attacks. Data classification awareness: For any IT initiative to succeed, particularly a security-centric one such as data classification, it needs to be understood and adopted by management and the employees using the system. Changing a staff’s data handling activities, particularly regarding sensitive data, will probably entail a change of culture across the organization. This type of movement requires sponsorship by senior management and its endorsement of the need to change current practices and ensure the necessary cooperation and accountability. The safest approach to this type of project is to begin with a pilot. Introducing substantial procedural changes all at once invariably creates frustration and confusion. I would pick one domain, such as HR or R&D, and conduct an information audit, incorporating interviews with the domain’s users about their business and regulatory requirements. The research will give you insight into whether the data is business or personal, and whether it is business-critical. This type of dialogue can fill in gaps in understanding between users and system designers, as well as ensure business and regulatory requirements are mapped appropriately to classification and storage requirements. Issues of quality and data duplication should also be covered during your audit. Categorizing and storing everything may seem an obvious approach, but data centers have notoriously high maintenance costs, and there are other hidden expenses; backup processes, archive retrieval and searches of unstructured and duplicated data all take longer to carry out, for example. Furthermore, too great a degree of granularity in classification levels can quickly become too complex and expensive. There are several dimensions by which data can be valued, including financial or  business, regulatory, legal and privacy. A useful exercise to help determine the value of data, and to which risks it is vulnerable, is to create a data flow diagram. The diagram shows how data flows through your organization and beyond so you can see how it is created, amended, stored, accessed and used. Don’t, however, just classify data based on the application that creates it, such as CRM or Accounts. This type of distinction may avoid many of the complexities of data classification, but it is too blunt an approach to achieve suitable levels of security and access. One consequence of data classification is the need for a tiered storage architecture, which will provide different levels of security within each type of storage, such as primary, backup, disaster recovery and archive — increasingly confidential and valuable data protected by increasingly robust security. The tiered architecture also reduces costs, with access to current data kept quick and efficient, and archived or compliance data moved to cheaper offline storage. Security controls Organizations need to protect their information assets and must decide the level of risk they are willing to accept when determining the cost of security controls. According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), â€Å"Security should be appropriate and proportionate to the value of and degree of reliance on the computer system and to the severity, probability and extent of potential harm. Requirements for security will vary depending on the particular organization and computer system.†1 To provide a common body of knowledge and define terms for information security professionals, the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium (ISC2) created 10 security domains. The following domains provide the foundation for security practices and principles in all industries, not just healthcare: Security management practices Access control systems and methodology Telecommunications and networking security Cryptography Security architecture and models Operations security Application and systems development security Physical security Business continuity and disaster recovery planning Laws, investigation, and ethics In order to maintain information confidentiality, integrity, and availability, it is important to control access to information. Access controls prevent unauthorized users from retrieving, using, or altering information. They are determined by an organization’s risks, threats, and vulnerabilities. Appropriate access controls are categorized in three ways: preventive, detective, or corrective. Preventive controls try to stop harmful events from occurring, while detective controls identify if a harmful event has occurred. Corrective controls are used after a harmful event to restore the system. Risk mitigation Assume/Accept: Acknowledge the existence of a particular risk, and make a deliberate decision to accept it without engaging in special efforts to control it. Approval of project or program leaders is required. Avoid: Adjust program requirements or constraints to eliminate or reduce the risk. This adjustment could be accommodated by a change in funding, schedule, or technical requirements. Control: Implement actions to minimize the impact or likelihood of the risk. Transfer: Reassign organizational accountability, responsibility, and authority to another stakeholder willing to accept the risk Watch/Monitor: Monitor the environment for changes that affect the nature and/or the impact of the risk Access control policy framework consisting of best practices for policies, standards, procedures, Guidelines to mitigate unauthorized access : IT application or program controls are fully automated (i.e., performed automatically by the systems) designed to ensure the complete and accurate processing of data, from input through output. These controls vary based on the business purpose of the specific application. These controls may also help ensure the privacy and security of data transmitted between applications. Categories of IT application controls may include: Completeness checks – controls that ensure all records were processed from initiation to completion. Validity checks – controls that ensure only valid data is input or processed. Identification – controls that ensure all users are uniquely and irrefutably identified. Authentication – controls that provide an authentication mechanism in the application system. Authorization – controls that ensure only approved business users have access to the application system. Input controls – controls that ensure data integrity fed from upstream sources into the application system. Forensic controls – control that ensure data is scientifically correct and mathematically correct based on inputs and outputs Specific application (transaction processing) control procedures that directly mitigate identified financial reporting risks. There are typically a few such controls within major applications in each financial process, such as accounts payable, payroll, general ledger, etc. The focus is on â€Å"key† controls (those that specifically address risks), not on the entire application. IT general controls that support the assertions that programs function as intended and that key financial reports are reliable, primarily change control and security controls; IT operations controls, which ensure that problems with processing are identified and corrected. Specific activities that may occur to support the assessment of the key controls above include: Understanding the organization’s internal control program and its financial reporting processes. Identifying the IT systems involved in the initiation, authorization, processing, summarization and reporting of financial data; Identifying the key controls that address specific financial risks; Designing and implementing controls designed to mitigate the identified risks and monitoring them for continued effectiveness; Documenting and testing IT controls; Ensuring that IT controls are updated and changed, as necessary, to correspond with changes in internal control or financial reporting processes; and Monitoring IT controls for effective operation over time. References : http://hokiepokie.org/docs/acl22003/security-policy.pdf Coe, Martin J. â€Å"Trust services: a better way to evaluate I.T. controls: fulfilling the requirements of section 404.† Journal of Accountancy 199.3 (2005): 69(7). Chan, Sally, and Stan Lepeak. â€Å"IT and Sarbanes-Oxley.† CMA Management 78.4 (2004): 33(4). P. A. Loscocco, S. D. Smalley, P. A. Muckelbauer, R. C. Taylor, S. J. Turner, and J. F. Farrell. The Inevitability of Failure: The Flawed Assumption of Security in Modern Computing Environments. In Proceedings of the 21st National Information Systems Security Conference, pages 303–314, Oct. 1998. Access Control Proposal Essay Proposal Statement Integrated Distributors Incorporated (IDI) will establish specific requirements for protecting information and information systems against unauthorised access. IDI will effectively communicate the need for information and information system access control. Purpose Information security is the protection of information against accidental or malicious disclosure, modification or destruction. Information is an important, valuable asset of IDI which must be managed with care. All information has a value to IDI. However, not all of this information has an equal value or requires the same level of protection. Access controls are put in place to protect information by controlling who has the rights to use different information resources and by guarding against unauthorised use. Formal procedures must control how access to information is granted and how such access is changed. This policy also mandates a standard for the creation of strong passwords, their protection and frequency of change. See more:  Perseverance essay Scope This policy applies to all IDI Stakeholders, Committees, Departments, Partners, Employees of IDI (including system support staff with access to privileged administrative passwords), contractual third parties and agents of the Council with any form of access to IDI’s information and information systems. Definition Access control rules and procedures are required to regulate who can access IDI information resources or systems and the associated access privileges. This policy applies at all times and should be adhered to whenever accessing IDI information in any format, and on any device. Risks On occasion business information may be disclosed or accessed prematurely, accidentally or unlawfully. Individuals or companies, without the correct authorisation and clearance may intentionally or accidentally gain unauthorised access to business information which may adversely affect day to day business. This policy is intended to mitigate that risk. Non-compliance with this policy could have a significant effect on the efficient operation of the Council and may result in financial loss and an inability to provide necessary services to our customers. Applying the Policy – Passwords / Choosing Passwords Passwords are the first line of defence for our ICT systems and together with the user ID help to establish that people are who they claim to be. A poorly chosen or misused password is a security risk and may impact upon the confidentiality, integrity or availability of our computers and systems. Weak and strong passwords A weak password is one which is easily discovered, or detected, by people who are not supposed to know it. Examples of weak passwords include words picked out of a dictionary, names of children and pets, car registration numbers and simple patterns of letters from a computer keyboard. A strong password is a password that is designed in such a way that it is unlikely to be detected by people who are not supposed to know it, and difficult to work out even with the help of a Protecting Passwords It is of utmost importance that the password remains protected at all times. Do not use the same password for systems inside and outside of work. Changing Passwords All user-level passwords must be changed at a maximum of every 90 days, or whenever a system prompts you to change it. Default passwords must also be changed immediately. If you become aware, or suspect, that your password has become known to someone else, you must change it immediately and report your concern to IDI Technical Support. Users must not reuse the same password within 20 password changes. System Administration Standards The password administration process for individual IDI systems is well-documented and available to designated individuals. All IDI IT systems will be configured to enforce the following: Authentication of individual users, not groups of users – i.e. no generic accounts. Protection with regards to the retrieval of passwords and security details. System access monitoring and logging – at a user level. Role management so that functions can be performed without sharing passwords. Password admin processes must be properly controlled, secure and auditable. User Access Management Formal user access control procedures must be documented, implemented and kept up to date for each application and information system to ensure authorised user access and to prevent unauthorised access. They must cover all stages of the lifecycle of user access, from the initial registration of new users to the final de-registration of users who no longer require access. These must be agreed by IDI. User access rights must be reviewed at regular intervals to ensure that the appropriate rights are still allocated. System administration accounts must only be provided to users that are required to perform system administration tasks. User Registration A request for access to IDI’s computer systems must first be submitted to the Information Services Helpdesk for approval. Applications for access must only be submitted if approval has been gained from Department Heads. When an employee leaves IDI, their access to computer systems and data must be suspended at the close of business on the employee’s last working day. It is the responsibility of the Department Head to request the suspension of the access rights via the Information Services Helpdesk. User Responsibilities It is a user’s responsibility to prevent their userID and password being used to gain unauthorised access to IDI systems. Network Access Control The use of modems on non- IDI owned PC’s connected to the IDI’s network can seriously compromise the security of the network. The normal operation of the network must not be interfered with. User Authentication for External Connections Where remote access to the IDI network is required, an application must be made via IT Helpdesk. Remote access to the network must be secured by two factor authentication. Supplier’s Remote Access to the Council Network Partner agencies or 3rd party suppliers must not be given details of how to access IDI ’s network without permission. All permissions and access methods must be controlled by IT Helpdesk. Operating System Access Control Access to operating systems is controlled by a secure login process. The access control defined in the User Access Management section and the Password section above must be applied. All access to operating systems is via a unique login id that will be audited and can be traced back to each individual user. The login id must not give any indication of the level of access that it provides to the system (e.g. administration rights). System administrators must have individual administrator accounts that will be logged and audited. The administrator account must not be used by individuals for normal day to day activities. Application and Information Access Access within software applications must be restricted using the security features built into the individual product. The IT Helpdesk is responsible for granting access to the information within the system. Policy Compliance If any user is found to have breached this policy, they may be subject to IDI’s disciplinary procedure. If a criminal offence is considered to have been committed further action may be taken to assist in the prosecution of the offender(s). If you do not understand the implications of this policy or how it may apply to you, seek advice from IT Helpdesk. Policy Governance The following table identifies who within [Council Name] is Accountable, Responsible, Informed or Consulted with regards to this policy. The following definitions apply: Responsible Head of Information Services, Head of Human Resources Accountable Director of Finance etc. Consulted Policy Department Informed All IDI Employees, All Temporary Staff, All Contractors. Review and Revision This policy will be reviewed as it is deemed appropriate, but no less frequently than every 12 months. Key Messages All users must use strong passwords. Passwords must be protected at all times and must be changed at least every 90 days. User access rights must be reviewed at regular intervals.  It is a user’s responsibility to prevent their userID and password being used to gain unauthorised access to IDI systems. Partner agencies or 3rd party suppliers must not be given details of how to access the IDI network without permission from IT Helpdesk. Partners or 3rd party suppliers must contact the IT Helpdesk before connecting to the IDI network. Access Control Proposal Essay 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Title of the project Access Control Proposal Project for IDI 1.2 Project schedule summary The project will be a multi-year phased approach to have all sites (except JV and SA) on the same hardware and software platforms. 1.3 Project deliverables †¢ Solutions to the issues that specifies location of IDI is facing †¢ Plans to implement corporate-wide information access methods to ensure confidentiality, integrity, and availability †¢ Assessment of strengths and weaknesses in current IDI systems †¢ Address remote user and Web site user’s secure access requirements †¢ Proposed budget for the project—Hardware only †¢ Prepare detailed network and configuration diagrams outlining the proposed change 1.4 Project Guides Course Project Access Control Proposal Guide Juniper Networks Campus LAN Reference Architecture 1.5 Project Members David Crenshaw, IT Architect and IT Security Specialist Members of the IT Staff 1.6 Purpose A proposal for improving IDI’s computer network infrastructure is the purpose for this proposal. This project is intended to be used by IDI’s information security team to developing a plan to improve IDI’s computer network infrastructure at multiple locations. 1.7 Goals and Objectives Objective 1 To assess the aging infrastructure and then develop a multi-year phased approach to have all sites (except for JV and SA) on the same hardware and software platforms. Objective 2 The core infrastructure (switches, routers, firewalls, servers and etc.) must capable of withstanding 10 – 15% growth every year for the next seven years with a three-to-four year phased technology refresh cycle. Objective 3 Solutions to the issues that the specifies location of IDI is facing Objective 4 Assessment of strengths and weaknesses in current IDI systems Objective 5 Address remote user and Web site user’s secure access requirements Objective 6 Prepare detailed network and configuration diagrams outlining the proposed change Objective 7 Prepare a 5 to 10 minute PowerPoint assisted presentation on important access control infrastructure, and management aspects from each location. Objective 8 A comprehensive network design that will incorporate all submitted requirements and allow for projected growth. Objective 9 Final testing of all installed hardware, software, and network connectivity. Objective 10 Initialization of the entire network and any last minute configuration adjustments to have the network up and operating within all specified ranges. 2 Current Environment 2.1 Overall: There are a variety of servers, switches, routers, and internal hardware firewalls. Each of the organization’s locations is operating with different information technologies and infrastructure—IT systems, applications, and databases. Various levels of IT security and access management have been implemented and embedded within their respective locations. The information technology infrastructure is old and many locations are running on outdated hardware and software. Also, the infrastructure is out dated in terms of  patches and upgrades which greatly increase the risk to the network in terms of confidentiality, integrity, and availability. 2.2 Data Center: Logisuite 4.2.2 has not been upgraded in almost 10 years. Also, numerous modifications have been made to the core engine and the license agreement has expired. Progressive upgrading to the current version will be required. As a result, renewing this product will be extremely cost and time-prohibitive. RouteSim is a destination delivery program used to simulate routes, costs, and profits. It is not integrated into Logisuite or Oracle financials to take advantage of the databases for real-time currency evaluation and profit or loss projections. IDI’s office automation hardware and software has not been standardized. Managers have too much liberty to buy what they want according to personal preferences. Other software problems include early versions of MS Office 5, WordPerfect 7.0, and PC-Write that are not compatible. Telecommunications has not been since the company moved its current headquarters 15 years ago. This has left many of the new features for telecommunications lacking and not integrated with the customer service database to improve call management efficiency. The generic system was acquired from a service provider who is now out of business. Policies for personal devices are being ignored by many of the executives who have local administrators install the clients on their unsupported, non-standard personal laptop computers and workstations that interface with the internet. The original WAN was designed in the early 2000’s and has not been upgraded. During peak periods, usually between September and March, the capacity is insufficient for the organization resulting in lost internet customers which  further reduces growth and revenue. Telecommunications works through a limited Mitel SX-2000 private automatic branch exchange (PABX) that only provides voice mail and call forwarding. 2.3 Warsaw, Poland This is the largest office based on number of employees, strategically located to assist IDI for major growth in the Middle East and Asia, and the home portal for expansion and geographical client development, yet there is insufficient computing power to stay afloat on a day-to-day basis. The primary freight forwarding application is almost 10 years old and does not interface with the McCormack dodge accounting and finance system There are 6 Web servers (4 are primary and 2 fail during clustered load balancing) The cafeteria sponsors a public wireless network running WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) with no password protection. Telecommunications is an 8 year old Siemens Saturn series PBX, some of whose features have become faulty. The desktop phones have not been replaced or upgraded during this time. There is a lack of separation of duties between the network operations and the accounts receivable department and there is evidence of nepotism and embezzlement. 2.3 Sao Paulo, Brazil Vendors are unwilling to sign a service agreements.

Never Forget Event in My Life Essay

There is an event that I will never forget in my life. It was the day experienced my first accident in the river. At that time, I and my friends came to river to fishing after having a class in the afternoon. at exactly3. 00 pm, I got there on foot and brought all fishing equipments. we were so happy and singing together. sometimes we made a joke and screamed like a crazy man. It was a nice and unforgettable childhood. In the fishing place, we made a chair from unuseful wood around of the river. Then, we sat on it and fishing together. Close to an hour, we had not got even one fish and made us felt so bored. Although, we were still going on and tried it again and again. About 30 minutes later, the float of my fishing equipment moved. Then my friend said that â€Å"you got it† and I pulled it and finally I got one fish, but it was not too big. I felt so happy and all of my friends came to me to see that fish. Then, they back to their sit and tried it again 15 minutes later, they got it one by one. one hour later, we had got many fish about 23 fish. One of my friend told me that â€Å" it is better to swim because it is so hot today. † All of my friend agreed and decided to stop fishing and swimming in the river. One by one they jumped in the river but at that time I felt so doubt to jump because I could not swim but my friends gave me spirit and one of them said that â€Å" you are a loser â€Å". Of course, that was made me angry. Then I jumped into the water. Because I could not swim, I asked help to my friends, but they could not help me because they were far enough from me. Suddenly, I looked at a wood float on the water on my right side, I reached it and hold it. It had saved my life. I was so scare and took a deep breath. All of my friends laughed me and they came to me and took me to the land. They asked me that â€Å"why did not you tell us that you cannot swim ? â€Å" and just said† I just want to having fun with you all. † Then they took me to the water again and taught me to swim well. I tried it and one hour later I did it even it was not to well, but I had made good trying. They were so happy and so did I. That was a nice and unforgettable childhood. I have many best many friends and they are helpful. At that time, I realized that if we want to do something, we have to think about it well before, even it is just a little thing in our life. An important event changed my life – going to the university Everyone knows how Cinderella changed her life after meeting the prince. I have my own Cinderella story. I was a little girl who was always in shame. I studied hard but always got bad scores. All my friends were my neighbors. I had never gone to a far place without keeping my family company. However, an amazing change happened in 1989. I did not meet the prince, but passed the universities’ entrance examination. As lucky as Cinderella, I went to the top university of my country. My life was changed from that moment. The first change was independence. I lived in a church dormitory which was near the campus; my parents could not cook and do laundry for me anymore. I had to deal with everything by myself even handle accidents. Once, I fell down from a scooter and hurt my neck and head. I knew I had to save myself at that moment. My parents knew that their little girl had grown up after that. Now, I study alone in a country far from my hometown I can live here as well as I do in my own place. Getting confidence in myself has led me to more successes. I got my first award of the top five percent in my class in the second year. I was not as smart as a lot of geniuses on the campus, but I got great scores in my interesting subjects. I was active in student activities. We succeeded in holding a campus book exhibition. We survived a serious typhoon when we had a tour in the mountain area. When I became an elder student, I taught and took care of the younger students. An interesting major and abundant student activities built my confidence step by step. The last change deeply affects my work, my research, and my life now. The university provided a good environment to open my view. My university is famous for freedom – freedom of speech, freedom of life, and freedom in academics.

29 Great Colleges for B Students and How to Get In

29 Great Colleges for B Students and How to Get In SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Generally, the better your grades, the more college options you'll have. However, some students are under the false impression that you need straight As in order to get into a wonderful college. Students stress and worry that a few Bs will sentence them to an inferior university. Fortunately, getting Bs won't prevent you from being able to go to a good school. There are a number of excellent colleges that admit B students. I'll provide a list of 29 of the best colleges for B students and explain how to find a good college if you're a B student. Are You a B Student? You Can Still Go to a Great College If you’re at the end of your junior year or the beginning of your senior year and you have mostly Bs on your transcript, don't freak out: you can still gain admission to an excellent college. Since super selective colleges will likely be a big reach for you, you might want to set your sights on quality schools that are significantly less selective. For example, Stanford only admits around 5% of its applicants, and its average admitted student has a high school GPA of 3.95/4.00. By contrast, the University of Michigan has an acceptance rate of 28%, and the average admitted student here has a GPA of 3.83/4.00. As a B student, you might have trouble getting into schools in the top 50 on the US News and Forbes rankings lists; however, you might have a decent chance of getting into a school in the top 100. Considering there are almost 3,000 four-year colleges, the #100 college is still better than over 99% of colleges in the US. For instance, according to our admissions calculator for Indiana University Bloomington, a student with a 3.2 GPA and a 29 ACT composite score would have about a 62% chance of getting accepted. Indiana University is currently ranked #89 by US News. How Much Do Your Grades Matter for College Applications? It should go without saying that your grades are a huge factor in determining your college options. In fact, grades are one of the most important factors colleges use when deciding whether to admit you. According to a 2017 study on the state of college admission conducted by the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), 77% of colleges believe that overall GPA and grades in college prep courses are considerably important admission factors. Meanwhile, test scores from the ACT, SAT, etc., are deemed considerably important by just 54% of colleges surveyed. This indicates that grades are by far one of the most important factors in college admission. It's not just grades that mean something, though; colleges also want to see that you're challenging yourself with difficult courses. According to the NACAC study, 87% of colleges deem the rigor of a student's course load at least moderately important. In other words, just getting good grades isn't enough- you also need to get good grades in tough classes. Although you can still get into a great college as a B student, if you have any extra time before your college applications are due, I recommend using it to try to improve your grades. Not All B Students Are Created Equal Colleges take many factors into account when determining admissions, including grades, classes, standardized test scores, extracurriculars, recommendations, and the personal statement. All else being equal, a student who got all Bs in regular classes is going to be much less qualified than a student who got all B+'s in mostly honors and AP classes. Generally, this is reflected in your weighted GPA, which weighs harder courses more heavily than regular classes. So in this example, the student with straight Bs would receive a 3.0 GPA, and the student with straight B+’s (assuming she took four honors classes out of six total classes) would get a 3.97 GPA. That said, you can compensate for lower grades by excelling in other areas. For example, if you had a 3.4 weighted GPA and a 33 ACT score, you’d probably be able to get into much more selective schools than would a student who has the same GPA as you and a 27 ACT score. Also, you might be able to make up for lower grades if you exhibit exceptional achievement in your extracurriculars. If you're an Olympic-level athlete or a successful entrepreneur, you might be able to gain admission into the most selective colleges- even with some Bs on your transcript. Overall, if you’re a B student but want to get into highly selective colleges, focus on ensuring that all other components of your college applications are as strong as possible. If you go to the Olympics, you can get into a good school with lower grades. How Did I Create This List of Colleges for B Students? I compiled this list of great schools for B students by looking at various ranking lists, including US News, Forbes, and Niche. I gave extra weight to the US News rankings because they’re the most referenced and prestigious of the college rankings. I considered a college accessible to B students if its average GPA for admitted applicants was less than a 3.75. If you've got a weighted GPA in the range of 3.30-3.80, all the schools below could be reach, target, or even safety schools for you. If your weighted GPA is less than 3.30, you might also want to take a look at the best colleges for students with a low GPA. By no means does this list contain all the great colleges for B students. Ultimately, I tried to come up with a diverse list that included colleges from all regions and of all types, including large public universities and small liberal arts colleges. List of the Best Colleges for B Students Below, we introduce our list of great colleges for B students. I categorized all the schools by region: West, Midwest, Northeast, and South. For each school, I listed its location, US News ranking, average GPA, average SAT score, average ACT score, and acceptance rate. Keep in mind that US News separates its school rankings into four categories: National Universities, National Liberal Arts Colleges, Regional Universities, and Regional Colleges. Most of the schools on our list are National Universities and National Liberal Arts Colleges; no Regional Colleges made the list. For all regions, the listed US News ranking is for National Universities unless otherwise noted. Lastly, here are the ranges for GPA and other items on our list: Average GPA: 3.33 to 3.83 Average SAT Score: 90 to 1340 Average ACT Score: 25 to 30 Acceptance Rate: 34% to 81% West School Location US News Ranking Average GPA Average SAT Average ACT Acceptance Rate Loyola Marymount University Los Angeles, CA #3 Regional Universities West 3.75 1270 28 54% Pepperdine University Malibu, CA #46 3.64 1300 28 39% San Diego State University San Diego, CA #127 3.7 90 25 35% University of Colorado, Boulder Boulder, CO #96 3.62 1250 27 80% University of Oregon Eugene, OR #102 3.55 80 25 83% University of the Pacific Stockton, CA #106 3.52 1200 26 65% University of Utah Salt Lake City, UT #9 3.61 1220 25 66% Pepperdine is pretty. (CampusGrotto/Flickr) Midwest School Location US News Ranking Average GPA Average SAT Average ACT Acceptance Rate Beloit College Beloit, WI #68 National Liberal Arts Colleges 3.29 1200 27 54% Creighton University Omaha, NE #1 Regional Universities Midwest 3.79 80 27 72% College of Wooster Wooster, OH #67 National Liberal Arts Colleges 3.68 1270 27 56% Indiana University Bloomington Bloomington, IN #90 3.72 1250 28 76% Michigan State University East Lansing, MI #85 3.71 1200 26 71% Purdue University West Lafayette, IN #56 3.75 1280 29 57% University of Iowa Iowa City, IA #89 3.63 1240 26 81% Wabash College Crawfordsville, IN #56 National Liberal Arts Colleges 3.65 70 25 63% College of Wooster Kauke Hall (Maitri/Flickr) Northeast School Location US News Ranking Average GPA Average SAT Average ACT Acceptance Rate Clark University Worcester, MA #66 3.63 1310 29 55% Fordham University New York, NY #70 3.65 1320 29 46% Providence College Providence, RI #2 Regional Universities North 3.43 1240 28 52% Rutgers University Piscataway, NJ #56 3.73 1300 28 58% St. Lawrence University Canton, NY #56 National Liberal Arts Colleges 3.56 1300 28 48% Syracuse University Syracuse, NY #53 3.63 1260 28 47% University of Delaware Newark, DE #89 3.71 1240 27 65% University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA #70 3.89 1270 28 58% Purnell Hall at the University of Delaware (Mathieu Plourde/Flickr) South School Location US News Ranking Average GPA Average SAT Average ACT Acceptance Rate Auburn University Auburn, AL #5 3.86 1230 27 84% Baylor University Waco, TX #78 3.68 1280 28 39% Furman University Greenville, SC #51 National Liberal Arts Colleges 3.7 1290 29 61% Rollins College Winter Park, FL #2 Regional Universities South 3.3 1270 27 64% Sewanee: University of the South Sewanee, TN #49 National Liberal Arts Colleges 3.73 1290 28 47% Texas Christian University Fort Worth, TX #80 3.6 1230 28 41% Samford Hall at Auburn University (Jason Coleman/Flickr) How Should You Use This List of Colleges for B Students? If you’re a B student looking for a great college, be sure to research any of the colleges on this list that interest you. Use the school websites, finders, guidebooks, and ranking lists to guide your research. You can also go on college visits to truly get a feel for some of these schools and determine whether they might be a good fit for you. Furthermore, I advise you to consult with teachers, counselors, parents, current students, and alumni to get more information and to further narrow your college search. How to Find Other Great Colleges for B Students: 2 Resources There are plenty of excellent schools for B students that didn’t make the list above. Here are a few different ways to identify other colleges that might work for you. #1: College Finders On Big Future, you can’t search for colleges by average GPA, but you can search for colleges by SAT/ACT score and selectivity. Because most good colleges for B students have an average SAT score of around 1200 and an average ACT score of around 27, you can look for colleges that match that criteria. These colleges range from very selective (25-50% of applicants admitted) to less selective (more than 75% of applicants admitted). You can select additional search filters to help find schools that better fit what you want in a college. With the website College View, you can enter your SAT/ACT score and unweighted GPA in your college search. #2: PrepScholar Database Our PrepScholar database contains profiles for every college. A school's profile lists its acceptance rate, average GPA, and average standardized test scores. We also have an admissions calculator on every school profile so you can roughly determine your odds of admission based on your GPA and SAT/ACT test scores. To find a school's profile, search for "[School Name] PrepScholar admissions" on Google. Another great feature is located at the bottom of each school's profile page. There, you'll see three lists: schools that are harder to get into, schools that are equally hard to get into, and schools that are easier to get into. I suggest looking up the profiles of the schools on our list above to find other schools that are about as selective and to get even more good colleges for B students. For instance, on our PrepScholar page for Syracuse University, Boston University and UT Dallas are listed as harder to get into, Penn State and Hofstra are listed as equally hard to get into, and Ohio University and Quinnipiac are listed as easier to get into. You can use these lists to identify other schools that might interest you. These are schools that are listed as "equally hard to get into" on Syracuse's profile. How to Improve Your Chances of Admission Even as a B student, there are a number of ways you can improve your odds of getting into your dream school; this depends on where you are in the college application process. Here are some examples of things you can do to improve your application: Follow an SAT or ACT study plan and give yourself time to take the test a second or even third time if your scores aren't up to par Come up with a compelling essay topic for your personal statement Spend the summer before your senior year doing something incredibly interesting, such as traveling abroad or volunteering Remember that colleges consider a multitude of factors when evaluating your application. By strengthening any of these components, you can increase your odds of being accepted! What's Next? Is it really important for you to attend a top-tier school? Find out if it really matters where you go to college. Do you want to go to a college in the Midwest or the South? Then check out my lists of the best colleges in the Midwest and the South. Are you looking for a traditional college experience in a fun setting? Learn about the 23 best college towns. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points? We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Coles Myer Ltd Essays

Coles Myer Ltd Essays Coles Myer Ltd Essay Coles Myer Ltd Essay Coles Myer Ltd Background and Issues In 1985 G. J Coles, primarily a Melbourne-based supermarket chain, merged with Myer Ltd, an upmarket Melbourne department store, becoming Coles Myer Ltd. The merger was brought on by an expectation of significant cost savings from sharing services and overheads such as purchasing, warehousing, information technology and property. However these benefits never occurred. Coles Myer was burdened with poor management, bad strategic decisions, and internal conflict. Their share price was faltering, and lagging behind their biggest competitor Woolworths, and profit had been stagnant for three years. In September 2001 the board appointed John Fletcher as chief executive, well known for his part in turning Brambles into a successful international company. Fletcher’s first priority was to do something about Coles Myer’s share price, however he recognised that to be able to change it he must first deal with the companies strategic and structural problems. This analysis of organisational design and effectiveness will discuss the issues experienced by Coles Myer, discussion of theories related to the these problems and possible solutions, an examination of what is being done, and what else could be done to improve the situation. One of the biggest problems facing Coles Myer was organisational culture. With the Coles and Myer target markets being downmarket and upmarket respectively, compatibility of their cultures became an obstacle after merging. In order to achieve the anticipated merger benefits, Coles with their mass merchandising mentality would have to find a way to amalgamate many of their functions, tasks and processes with Myer’s, who dealt with chic, and more expensive luxury items. In addition to this, Fletcher believed the Coles Myer culture had become too bureaucratic. A clear demonstration of this bureaucracy was in the headquarters of Myer in Melbourne, which was built as a statement of purpose, place and status. Also, since the merger, the Coles Myer bureaucracy had allowed several uncooperative silos to develop. This problem was worsened by the recent appointment of overseas managers to head the main businesses. As a conglomerate, Coles Myer had the difficulty of having to coordinate a diverse range of businesses including Coles, Red Rooster, Target, and Myer. This was not helped by various newly appointed managers would change business strategies confusing employees and consumers. The result of this was that each business struggled to find its position in the marketplace and in the Coles Myer business family. Myer also struggled to find its place, it was continually under-performing, and it wasted a substantial amount of management’s time. Fletcher also initiated considerable organisational change upon his appointment, including standardisation IT throughout the company. He also worked towards developing a coherent strategy for each of the Coles Myer businesses, breaking down the bureaucracy, and developing a common culture. Relevant Theories The Machine Bureaucracy Coles Myer demonstrates many of the characteristics of a machine bureaucracy. â€Å"It is an organisation with very routine and formalised operating tasks, rules and regulations, which is highly centralised† (Robbins Barnwell, 2006, pp. 123). Being such a large organisation it has to rely on these formalised tasks, rules and regulations for coordination and control. The main strength of a machine bureaucracy is its highly efficient ability to perform standardised tasks. Like specialties within the organisation are grouped together to achieve economies of scale and reduce the duplication of personnel and equipment (Robbins Barnwell, 2006, pp. 24). Many employees have the sole purpose of maintaining standardisation, and a large number of these would have been included in the 1000 back-office staff that was made redundant by Fletcher in his progress towards making Coles Myer less bureaucratic. However, creating specialised units can result in conflicts, the creation of unit goa ls that take precedence over the organisational goals, and a reduction in communication between the units. Units that exhibit these characteristics are known as silos. Fletcher attempted to dismantle the silos within Coles Myer but encountered ignificant difficulties. Another problem for machine bureaucracies is trying to do too much. The resulting complexities arising from an organisation attempting to control a very broad range of businesses can often be too great for the machine bureaucracy structure to handle (Robbins Barnwell, 2006, pp. 125). This problem was recognised by Fletcher, with one of his first moves to sell off the ‘non core businesses’ Red Rooster and World 4 Kids. Increased organisational complexity also played a part in failure to achieve the expected economies of scale after the merger. Organisational Change Change in an organisation can either be planned or unplanned. â€Å"Planned change is change that comes about as a result of a specific effort on the part of a change agent† (Wood et al. 2001, pp 635), with unplanned being the opposite. Wood (et al. 2001, pp 635) also states that planned change comes about as a result of someone’s perception of a performance gap. The board’s recognition of such a performance gap led to Fletchers appointment as chief executive, and change agent. The problems facing Coles Myer were difficult and widespread. Most of the individual businesses struggled with business strategy, and across the whole organisation there was issues with organisational culture and structure. These kinds of problems require a kind of change known as systematic change. Systematic is a form of planned change that is widespread across an organisation, and affects most aspects of its operation. Robbins and Barnwell (2006, pp. 377) suggest that because systematic changes causes widespread disruption and requires enormous effort that it is only done out of necessity. The systematic change that Fletcher initiated took the form of downsizing to reduce the bureaucracy and reduce costs; clear definitions of the structures, roles and responsibilities, and positioning of each business unit, developing a common culture across the organisation, and the standardisation of IT across the organisation. Change is a continuous process, but the traditional episodic view of change is unfreeze, change and refreeze (Burton, Lauridsen and Obel, 1999, pp 2). Unfreezing involves management preparing a situation for change. The change is then performed. Refreezing involves positively reinforcing the desired outcomes, and evaluating the change process and gathering feedback. A continuous but intermittent process. Change can also be ongoing, where instead of refreezing, more of a rebalancing occurs after the change, ready for the next change. The change needed by Coles Myer upon Fletchers appointment was episodic. They needed a significant systematic change, and then for this change to be secured and given time to succeed, as the continuous changes occurring in the organisation in the previous years had done more harm than good. This also had to be supported by extensive feedback. Organisational Culture Robbins and Barnwell (2006, pp 405) defines organisation culture as a system of shared meaning within an organisation, and that in every organisation there are patterns of beliefs, symbols, rituals, myths and practices that have evolved over time. Coles Myer has numerous organisational culture problems. Firstly, due to the separate nature of the businesses, vertical subcultures have formed in the Coles Myer family, contributing to the silo problem discussed earlier. This is a problem, as organisational effectiveness depends on how much the organisations culture, strategy, environment and technology are aligned with the organisations goals (Robbins Barnwell, 2006, pp. 411). It is also the main reason behind the attempts to create a singular culture across the organisation. But as Fletcher found out, it is a difficult problem, as it is almost guaranteed that subcultures will form within a large organisation such as Coles Myer. Organisational culture was also a significant issue at the time of the merger. When mergers are aimed at attaining economies of scale, the success of the merger will depend on how effectively the different cultures themselves can be merged (Robbins Barnwell, 2006, pp. 419). In order to integrate functions, assets and infrastructure, a successful merger between the mass marketing culture of Coles, and the more elegant and exclusive culture of Myer would have to be performed. We know now that this wasn’t to be, and that Coles Myer decided to abandon the Myer department store, and become known as the Coles Group. Recommendations In addition to the actions already performed by Fletcher, there are a number of things that can or could have been done to improve organisational effectiveness and efficiency. An effective way to assist in the dismantling of silos, and preventing their formation is to promote communication between the silos. This can be done by creating various coordinator positions, whose job is to liase between different departments, ensure that all the necessary information is being communicated, and regularly report back to senior management on how the departments are performing in relation to the organisational goals. The implementation of common/centralised IT and processes throughout the Coles Group would play a significant role in their future success. Using common software and procedures will increase communication and coordination, and reduce organisational complexity. A centralised system is well suited to the Coles Group, and it will enhance control and monitoring; important processes in a machine bureaucracy. Leifer (1988) asserts that effective performance of centralised computer business information systems requires rules and policies that match the tasks of the machine bureaucracy organisation, supporting this statement. Moving to a centralised system would appear to be a significant change, however Rockart and Scott Morton (1984, cited in Leifer 1986 p 66. ) believe implementing a centralised system in a machine bureaucracy requires few changes on part of the organisation†. Having disposed of non-core businesses, and the culturally different Myer, the Coles Group are now set to unify their brand and culture. With the aid of the $1. 4 billion provided by the sale of Myer, the Coles Group will be cutting their key brands down to just three – Coles, Target and Office works within the next two years (Simpson, 2006). This strategy will help to resolve the organisational culture and structure problems discussed in this case study analysis, as by reducing the number of key businesses/brands the individual business goals will also be reduced, discouraging the formation of silos, and making it easier to create a unified culture throughout the whole organisation. References Burton, R. M. , Lauridsen, J. ; Obel, B. 1999, ‘Tension and Resistance to Change in Organizational Climate: Managerial Implications for a Fast Paced World’, Retrieved April 26th, 2007 from www. ok. cbs. dk/images/publ/Burton%20og%20Obel%20og%20Lauridsen%20tension%202000. pdf Leifer, Richard 1988 ‘Matching Computer-Based Information Systems with Organizational Structures’, MIS Quarterly, Vol 12, no 1, pp 66. Robbins, S. P and Barnwell, N. S. 2006, Organisation Theory: Concepts and Cases, Prentice Hall, Sydney Rockart, J. and Scott Morton, M. 1984 ‘Implications of Changes in Information Technology for Corporate Strategy’ Interfaces, Vol 14, no 1, pp. 4-96, cited in Leifer, Richard 1988 ‘Matching Computer-Based Information Systems with Organizational Structures’, MIS Quarterly, Vol 12, no 1, pp 66. Simpson, Kirsty 2006 ‘Coles drops Kmart, Bi-Lo’, The Age, August 1st, 2006, Retrieved April 26th from theage. com. au/news/business/coles-drops-kmart-bilo/2006/07/31/1154198073979. html Wood, J. ; Chapman, J. ; Fromholtz, M. ; Morrison, V. ; Wallace, J. ; Zeffane, M. ; Schemerhorn, J. ; Hunt, J. ; Osborne, R. 2003, Organisational behaviour: a global perspective, 3rd edition, John Wiley Sons Australia Ltd, Milton Qld