The Second Amendment and Gun Control

Harley Davidson †Organizational Behavior Free Essays

string(87) " see how problems developed and how they could fix them during the production process\." Harley History Harley Davidson was seen in America as a company that produced motorcycles with â€Å"raw power. † The company was founded by Arthur and Walter Davidson and William Harley in 1903. In 1918, Harley Davidson had become the largest motorcycle producing company in the world. We will write a custom essay sample on Harley Davidson – Organizational Behavior or any similar topic only for you Order Now Their production totaled 28,000 motorcycles. Production continued to increase with the onset of World War II and the military use of Harley’s motorcycles. The mystique of the product had a tough sense to it with famous actors such as James Dean and Marlin Brando sporting the bikes. After World War II, foreign competitors became interested in the motorcycle market. Japanese competitors entered the market in 1959; Harley Davidson executives did nothing to counter the advance of the competition. Harley Davidson’s share of the industry began dropping while Japanese competitors introduced high quality products. The confidence in Harley’s reputation was causing the firm’s market share to decline steadily. AMF Years Harley Davidson lacked resources to finance new products and designs to expand their production. They were taken over by AMF, a heavy-industrial conglomerate. At this time there was high demand for motorcycles in the U. S. The AMF team thought that they would be able to sell anything they produced, even without taking quality into consideration. After the take over, production was increased drastically at the cost of the quality of the product. AMF began spending large amounts of money on Harley’s manufacturing plants. Production increased from 15,475 units in 1969 to 70,000 units in 1973 due to these new expenditures on capital. To make things worse for Harley, the Japanese firm Honda introduced the â€Å"Goldwing. This was the first introduction of a foreign â€Å"heavy weight† motorcycle that would directly compete with Harley’s market share. With Harley Davidson’s share of the heavyweight market beginning to decrease, the quality of their products also decreased because they were becoming outdated compared to the new advanced Japanese products. Vaughn Beals was brought into the picture by Harley executives to lead the firm. Vaughn Beals Saves the Day Vaughn Beals’ ideals were different than those of AMF its top management. It became clear that AMF did not have the same amount of concern for Harley’s success as Beals, so AMF began looking for a buyer. With Harley Davidson’s profitability down, Beals and some other Harley Davidson managers orchestrated a highly leveraged buyout. This large amount of debt for the buyout forced Harley Davidson’s managers to adopt a new strategy: survival. Vaughn Beals realized that his firm needed to change to become a more competitive force within the motorcycle industry. Change Many things at Harley Davidson were going wrong. The motorcycles were being made at a low level of quality and the focus was too much driven by quantity rather than quality. The organization was formed around the traditional top thinks and everybody acts. It was very apparent that if nothing changed, Harley Davidson’s reputation would be forever tarnished due to low quality products. Forces for Change: Competition (chapter 19) Competition for business is changing. Competitors can come from across the ocean or from across town. For Vaughn Beals, his main force for change was the Japanese competition that was continuing to decrease Harley Davidson’s share of the market. He realized that something had to be done. While visiting the Honda plant, he learned many things that the Japanese did better than Harley Davidson. The differences between Harley Davidson and Honda were striking. For example, only 5 percent of Honda’s motorcycles failed to pass final quality inspection; over 50 percent of Harley’s failed during the same test† (Buller Schuler 2006). Job Design Instead of allowing manufacturers to keep producing the products at a high pace, with little attention to quality, Beals and his top management w anted to change the way the elements in an employees job was organized. Harley Davidson initiated this new job design through the productivity triad. The Productivity Triad After the visit, Beals and his team realized the only way to compete with the very effective management of the Japanese was to improve the quality of their product and the production process that was necessary to produce it. The productivity triad was based on Japanese methods of manufacturing and production. â€Å"This new approach involved (a) employee involvement, (b) use of JIT inventory practices, and (c) statistical operator control (SOC). Organizational Structure (chapter 16) To improve the quality of Harley Davidson’s motorcycles, a complete change of the organizations structure was necessary. Job tasks would be divided, grouped, and coordinated much differently under the productivity triad. To change the structure, Beals and his management introduced many new aspects to the employee’s average day at work. Employee Involvement (chapter 7) Harley Davidson executives realized that using the input of employees would increase their commitment to the much-needed new success of Harley Davidson. They â€Å"reasoned that full participation of employees at all levels was the key to successful improvement of both the product quality and the production process† (Buller Schuler 2006). Job Characteristics Model Harley Davidson uses 3 out of 5 of the characteristics in the model developed by J. Richard Hackman. This model proposes that any job can be described in terms of these core dimensions. Autonomy (chapter 7) Since the line workers were more knowledgeable about what techniques would work and not work in the production process, they were encouraged to make decisions about the production process. This provided a substantial amount of freedom in determining the procedures to be carried out for producing the product. Skill Variety (chapter 7) Instead of just relying on the line workers to construct the product, Beals and his team wanted to make sure that the motorcycles were going to be of a much higher quality than in the past. To avoid catastrophes, such as oil leaking onto a showroom floor, â€Å"top management reasoned that training and empowering employees to measure quality and recommend change was essential for improvement† (Buller Schuler 2006). Using the Statistical Operator Control method, employees could now see how problems developed and how they could fix them during the production process. You read "Harley Davidson – Organizational Behavior" in category "Papers" Task Identity (chapter 7) The same employees that were measuring the products for quality issues were also manufacturing the product. This would allow the employee to really become part of his/her product. It would also allow for a more efficient method of production. Creating a Learning Organization Learning Organization (chapter 19) To have a continuous ability to adapt and change would allow Harley Davidson to keep up with the competition and provide its employees with the knowledge to continue to produce quality products. In the 1990’s, Harley Davidson â€Å"began emphasizing organizational and individual learning at all levels through a program it termed the Leadership Institute† (Buller Schuler 2006). The organization took on a strong belief that anyone could learn more. The traditional top thinks and everyone else acts was merged into thinking and acting in all jobs. Along with all this learning, the firm began to change many core aspects of its operations. New Design Options To help Harley Davidson compete more effectively, top management began to mphasize teamwork at all levels. This would allow for easy information sharing and constant learning throughout the organization. To enhance the effectiveness of teams, Harley Davidson wanted to break down any barriers that would prevent employees from sharing information, developing new ideas, or catching current production problems. To do this, they needed to get away from the traditional roles that employees and managers play. Team Stru cture (chapter 16) Harley Davidson eliminated the positions of senior vice president in marketing and operations. They observed that these jobs did not add any value to the motorcycles. A create demand team, a team that was in charge of producing the products, and a product support team were introduced to help employees. Instead of having to approach one top manager for help and get sent to another department to solve the problem, Harley executives realized these teams would be more efficient. Boundaryless Organization (chapter 16) For all of these new changes to actually work, executives in a sense had to let employees become their own managers. To make the changes the most effective, Harley Davidson eliminated the chain of command, allowed the employees to have limitless spans of control, and replaced departments with empowered teams. Types of Teams Self Managed Work Teams (chapter 10) Harley-Davidson employees were put into work teams and encouraged to participate in the decision making process because they knew better than management what worked and what did not. Because the productivity triad emphasized employee involvement so much, the logical way to form teams would be to allow the members to make most decisions. Types of Training Most of the training that the employees would go through when they sought new knowledge was technical based. They would be taught about any aspect of the firm they felt would benefit production or quality. Technical Training (chapter 18) At Harley-Davidson top management saw that as technology became a larger part of the production process their employees needed to have better training to be able to operate productively. Also, after benchmarking itself against Japanese competitors Harley-Davidson saw that learning about all fields within the organization would benefit everyone. This led to the invention of the â€Å"Leadership Institute†, which encouraged employees to seek out training when they needed it. They wanted to create a program that would allow employees to have the opportunity to do a quality job every time. This included learning more about the theories behind the latest technologies and learning about related fields. Since Harley-Davidson was now using empowered teams to make important decisions throughout the organization, each team member needed to have a good handle on technical aspects involved with their responsibilities. Culture With all of these changes underway, Harley Davidson began to develop its own sense of internal culture that became a system of shared meaning held by the employees. The productivity triad and the Learning Institute both helped pave the way for a unique new culture at Harley Davidson. Organizational Culture (chapter 17) It is not hard to assume that with such drastic changes in an organization’s structure, there could be changes in the culture as well. Since employees were allowed to make a lot more of their own decisions and management was not seen as so much of an authority, gaining knowledge in the organization became more of a choice. An employee must make the decision that he or she wants more training – no one will tap you on the shoulder – but once you are there, we will help you† (Buller Schuler 2006). The executive committee wanted to heavily emphasize that they too had much to learn. This became the norm for employees and managers throughout the f irm. A willingness to learn about all fields within the production of a motorcycle was seen as a very desirable trait within Harley Davidson. This would improve the quality of the product because increased knowledge about different aspects of the motorcycle, which were perhaps previously unknown organization wide, would now be put to use. Core Values (chapter 17) The primary or dominant values that were accepted throughout the Learning Institute included the work itself, the supporting systems, and how the work was done. Employees were encouraged to master all the skills necessary to do a quality job every time. To uphold the idea of constant learning, they were expected to learn more of the theories behind the latest technologies of one’s job. To emphasize the boundaryless aspect, employees were expected to branch out and learn the related fields of work around them. Each employee should also have a high degree of knowledge about how the motorcycle works and how it can be improved. If they have a good handle on how the motorcycle operates and how to fix it, this could drastically improve customer relations. Since employees became empowered to make decisions for the production process, they were also expected to take responsibility for their product. If there was a quality problem in their product, it was up to them to figure out how to solve it. Having an open mind was important too. An employee was expected to always be looking for new things to learn about improving their work. There were no strict guidelines that employees had to stick to when it came to brainstorming ideas. Creativity and experimentation were encouraged. Conflict Functional (chapter 15) Since Harley Davidson’s new culture involved a lot of participation and independent learning, there were a lot of different opinions from different employees. This would be a good amount of conflict that would avoid groupthink and promote creativity. Process (chapter 15) After production quality began to increase, the idea of over seas production had come up. There was a lot of debate about whether or not Harley should produce motorcycles abroad, or just increase domestic production for export. Some of the employees thought that the overseas manufacturing of Harley Davidson motorcycles was inconsistent with â€Å"buying a piece of the American Dream† (Buller Schuler 2006). The international market for Harley Davidson is growing. The firm has subsidiaries across the globe in countries such as: Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom. The German subsidiary also serves Austria, France, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland. Germany, Japan, Canada, and Australia represent the firm’s largest export markets. It is very apparent that Harley Davidson is known worldwide. Europe holds the world’s largest heavyweight motorcycle market and is â€Å"expected to become the next battleground for heavyweight motorcycles† (Buller Schuler 2006). Rewarding Employees To increase motivation and work performance, Harley Davidson really wanted their employees to understand empowerment. They rewarded them with power and of course pay. Participative Management (chapter 7) At Harley-Davidson top management realized that the employee needed to be utilized as a resource for ideas on how production of motorcycles should work. Harley-Davidson also realized that there were un-needed positions at the corporate level of the company â€Å"We eliminated those jobs because they didn’t add value to our products. The people were auditors. They were checkers† (Buller Schuler 2006). This led to the company eliminating the Senior Vice President in Marketing and Operations position among other positions. These positions did not add value to the product. Instead of having these jobs, employees were put into teams and were encouraged to use their own expertise in the decision making process. Harley-Davidson wanted their employees to become more like managers and to not feel the need to ask someone above them on how to do things. This is a key tool for increasing job satisfaction and motivation. Merit Based Pay (chapter 7) Another new program that Harley-Davidson began was a pay for performance pay system. Harley-Davidson wanted their employees to understand empowerment, so they encouraged their employees to learn as much as they could about the company. This would improve quality, which would allow a general wage increase to take place. Task Groups (chapter 9) When Harley-Davidson created these teams it meant that employees had more power in their own decisions. Many of the teams specialized in one aspect of production, so they had very specific tasks. After the teams were created, these teams would make decisions on production instead of higher ups in the company, â€Å"Before Harley established teams, people would go up to one boss and that boss would go over to another boss and he would go to still another boss. And we wondered why the Japanese beat us on the issue of time† (Buller Schuler 2006). Conclusion Harley Davidson’s market share began to dramatically increase in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. The structural and cultural change that Vaughn Beals and Harley executives imagined truly did save the firm. Harley Davidson motorcycles today are seen as very high quality machines. They have become a symbol of status and lifestyle in today’s society. Observing how much customization a consumer can request for his/her bike reflects the creative aspect of the firm’s internal culture. Harley continues to exemplify individuality through its production process and large amount of die hard followers. Contributions to the project: Jared and Scott wrote the paper; everyone did their part for the power point. References: Buller Schuler. (2006). Managing organizations and people. U. S. : Thomson South Western. Judge, J. A. , Robbins, S. P. (2008). Organizational behavior (13th edition). New Jersey: Prentice Hall. How to cite Harley Davidson – Organizational Behavior, Papers

Mediating Role of Organizational Learning †Free Samples to Students

Question: Discuss about the Mediating Role of Organizational Learning. Answer: Introduction Every organization needs to train their employees and for this conventional kind of training is needed to cover important work based skills, tools and techniques along with right knowledge. For thee training and development, one needs to be more optimistic and improve the approach to traditional training. The concept also works as a guide which is based primarily on what is good for people and mainly what can be profitable for the company. The biggest reason behind it is that training and development believes in activities which can be good for people with improved performance, customer satisfaction, overall quality, effective control and management. Therefore, bringing a profitable change in the organization. (Dhar, 2015). It must be about the complete development of an individual and not only associated with the transferring skills or the traditional level interpretation of training. It is very important to be realistic with right corporate level attitude with expectation about the training. But while starting the program it is important to imagine, perceive and speak about the progressive approach in developing people mind. The increased productivity, less supervision and the job satisfaction are some of the crucial points for the development of the organization which are required for the assessment of both the employers and the employees of the organization. The concept of training and development can be defined as organization development in a planned set up from top down approach where organizations overall efforts to enhance the companys effectiveness. Organization development is accomplished through proper interference in the process of the company by using behavioral pattern. The concept of organization development is expected to transform the belief system, approach, values and overall structure of company so that they can improve with adaption of new technologies, markets as well as challenges. Studies have also focused on that fact that organizational development is not only about anything that can be done to better a company (Goetsch Davis, 2014). It is specifically kind of transform the proc ess designed specifically to bring outcomes as far as organization development consist of reflection, improvement in systems and self-analysis. The on-the-jo training, mentoring, simulation and the web-based learning is important as it focus on the supervisor management, new employee orientation, professional skills training and the customer service training. The talent development is also helpful for the change in organization, employees and the other stakeholders. To make sure that the workforce is well equipped with the right form of skills, knowledge and capacities to work well with the assigned work, training and development plays an important role for the development as well as overall success of the business. While selecting the right kind of training, it is important to make sure that the employees gain the right kind of skills for the organizations and the same requires to be updated constantly to get the best along with new HR based operations (Brewster Hegewisch, 2017). To meet the present as well as future demands in business, training and development process assumes as well as its strategy role is based on number of studies done by many experts, have achieved much significance since this throws light on training and development practices in cross cultural perspective. It is important to understand that there is considerable amount of influence of training on the overall performance of organization. The training and development is a proper education process which involves the sharpening of the skills and the enhancement of the performance. With this, the focus is on how the stakeholders in the training are categories for the focus on the jobs that the individual tends to hold. The development of the activities focusses on the organization employing the individual where the clients of training and development are the business planners. Some of the conflicts are the issues related to career mainly in between the employees and the bosses. Importance of training and development in an OD Training along with development of career is very crucial in any organization that focuses on the concept of progress or development. This happens to include right kind of decision making along with thinking in a creative manner and management of people (Ford, 2014). The concept of training and development is very crucial since it assist in dealing with weakness of employees: - Improving the performance of worker Consistent in performance based duty Making sure that the employee is satisfied Rise in the level of productivity Improved in the quality of services and products Decreased cost Decrease in the need of supervision Approaches to training and development Reactive approach: it is a traditional approach in training that can be called as reaction based, driven by number of activities and delivery of technical set of skills in a traditional way which means in classroom setting and where training is an event focused functions. Proactive approach: in a learning set up of organization, this approach aligns with all kind of learning operations with the corporate strategy of business and it aims on development of abilities (Real et al, 2014). Active learning approach: this approach helps the trainee to play a crucial role in learning as well as exploring challenges and situation based issues under the super vision of the facilitator. The learning happens while asking questions as well as look for outcomes and interpreting many kinds of observation made at the time of process. The approach of active learning has a more lasting influence on the overall learning since it assists in retaining it for long run and finding a much better option in varied challenging examples. In the current time where everything is fast, the importance of learning has increased further to succeed. Organizations also need to make sure that the workforce is learning new skills constantly so that they can stay updated with rise in demand and the organization can also gain high level of competitive edge in the market (David Schoorman et al, 2016). Identification of training and development requirements There is an obvious expectation from the managers that will discuss about the needs associated with training and development with the staff member at least on yearly basis since it is a part of performance review and planning procedure. The needs from training and development for the workforce when appointed newly on the position must be discussed in detail properly within one month of their taking up the work. The training and development unit also must organize a structured training program for the staff on all branches and establish a session to meet the recognized need for the section group of departments or occupation based group. The service related with computing administers the current program for the workforce and other companies as well as departments that provide training for the workforce as and when need arises (Anitha, 2014). External training and development Companies also have the option to sponsor the staff to go out and attend multiple external course every now and then. It completely depends on the ultimate nature of the course as well as the time along with nomination on who will go for the training. There is also representation based on deciding the nomination of the sub-committee of the training and development which is done in accordance with the sections designed. The fees along with travel and accommodation can be applicable that can be met from a centralized budget for training. Any other kind of situational cost are the accountability of the nominating section (Hornstein, 2015). The member of the staff is well supported from the current budget and are also expected to submit a brief kind of report to the management. It is also expected further to pass the knowledge as well as skills that were gained in training to a wider group is done through workshops and seminars. The role of the company in investing in training and development is directly linked with the bottom line within the current business. With rise in high performance company in the present time, the overall recognition is done based on needs to have best kind of training and development programs to increase the competitive edge in the organization. Training and development is very crucial for every kind of organization when the value and overall potential of people that must be harnessed and developed. There are number of studies that have highlighted the clear connection that exist between a well-structured and training and development initiatives and the bottom line that exist within the business (Reynolds, 2017). The overall image of the present industry and people based managers is also impacted by the level and quality of workforce training and development. The prospective employees in such an open labor force will evaluate the record of all the potential managers in this crucial field. Progression in career as well as overall growth is becoming more and more attractive with basic level needs for many members of workforce. In the present business world, where every industry is going through some or the other kind of shortage in staff or basic skills, organization are also facing stiff competition internally as well as externally for high quality workforce. Every manager who can invest seriously in areas of training and development will reap the advantages of a rich working culture with high level of retention in staff as well as rise in level of productivity and impactful performance (Reynolds, 2017). Training and development objectives The kind of training and development objectives recognized will rely on the personal as well as organizational goals identified with the strategic level planning procedure and the agreed level of appraisal cycle. In any kind of event based on goal will as a part of minimum standard considers some factors mentioned below: The values inculcated by organization The strategic goals of the institute Policy of equal opportunity Need for core competencies Continued personal as well as professional growth Need for professional as well as vocational level skills in education further (Reynolds, 2017) Need for professional, workplace updating and vocational training Need to change as per the market demand Conclusion The field of training and development is the field which was based on organizational level function aiming at the betterment of the overall performance of people in organizational setting. It is further combined with the role which is usually called as Human Resource also called as HR. It primarily means development of human resources to stay competitive in the current marketplace. Training also aims on doing operations of the current time to grow employees for the present jobs and growth based on preparation of workforce for the coming future responsibilities (Reynolds, 2017). It also conducts an analysis which covers the goal of training and development for the creative learning company which also make sure that the workforce through proper value addition can effectively work for the jobs and gain competitive edge and look for self-development. The calculative performance is a result of good training and development and can also rise the overall development of organization. It is a lso a process of moving the information as well as knowledge to managers. It helps the management to translate that knowledge or information to real practice with an opinion to increase the overall effectiveness of organization and the overall productivity along with the quality of management of people (Reynolds, 2017). Reference Anitha, J. (2014). Determinants of employee engagement and their impact on employee performance.International journal of productivity and performance management. Brewster, C., Hegewisch, A. (Eds.). (2017).Policy and Practice in European Human Resource Management: The Price Waterhouse Cranfield Survey. Taylor Francis. David Schoorman, F., Mayer, R. C., Davis, J. H. (2016). Empowerment in veterinary clinics: The role of trust in delegation.Journal of Trust Research,6(1), 76-90. Dhar, R. L. (2015). Service quality and the training of employees: The mediating role of organizational commitment.Tourism Management,46, 419-430. Ford, J. K. (2014).Improving training effectiveness in work organizations. Psychology Press. Goetsch, D. L., Davis, S. B. (2014).Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson. Hoobler, J. M., Lemmon, G., Wayne, S. J. (2014). Womens managerial aspirations: An organizational development perspective.Journal of Management,40(3), 703-730. Hornstein, H. A. (2015). The integration of project management and organizational change management is now a necessity.International Journal of Project Management,33(2), 291-298. Real, J. C., Roldn, J. L., Leal, A. (2014). From entrepreneurial orientation and learning orientation to business performance: analysing the mediating role of organizational learning and the moderating effects of organizational size.British Journal of Management,25(2), 186-208. Reynolds, M. (2017).Organizing reflection. Routledge.

Scarlet Letter Essays (1059 words) - English-language Films

Scarlet Letter The achievement of simplicity in life never occurs because things are not simple, but manifold, being viewed differently, and speaking more than one purpose. Nathaniel Hawthorne journeys to seventeenth century Boston and introduces Hester Prynne as he makes his awareness of this idea evident. Through The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne presents the complexity of life's components whether they appear as simple as an embroidered letter or as intricate as a life changing circumstance. The focus on sin and the consequences and atonement that follow exemplify Hawthorne's tragic moral vision. A moral vision dealing directly with human nature through Hawthorne's own creation of Hester Prynne provokes this idea, this problematic truth. A woman publicly acknowledged for what her society held as a grave sin stands before them. She begins her journey, a journey that will forever change the views of not only her fellow characters, but also those to whom Hawthorne tries to reach through his writing. In this journey, meet a woman who's weakness became her strength, who was looked upon in ways as changing as the seasons. Hester Prynne and the scarlet letter, standing not only as character and prop, but also as universal defendants of the idea of multiple views, are tools for the exploration of this truth. Through just three different perspectives, Hester and her scarlet letter can sustain the ideology presented by Hawthorne and contribute to its acceptance. They do so as regarded by the townspeople, Hawthorne, and Hester herself. The citizens of Boston deem two manifest opinions of Hester and the letter: that notion from the opening scene, which differs greatly that by mid-novel. As Hester walks out into the marketplace for the satisfaction of the townspeople, they immediately evince their cold and unsparing attitude toward this woman. The letter A was to be worn as a punishment, to be worn in shame, to be worn as "adulteress." The Puritan community was a dark, strict society, feeling indifferent to the humanness of the woman standing before them on the scaffold, with her infant daughter against her chest. The beautifully sewn letter does not glow in the eyes of the people. The letter shapes the way they look at Hester and the way they treat her. They isolate Hester socially and geographically, which ultimately causes her own emotional isolation. However, that attitude does change. The very townspeople who once condemned her now believed her scarlet A to stand for her ability to create her beautiful needlework and for her unselfish assistance to the poor and sick. They now saw it as a "symbol of her calling. Such helpfulness was found in her- so much power to do and power to sympathize-that many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification," (Hawthorne 156) and now believed it to represent the concept of "able." At this point, many the townspeople realized what a high quality character Hester possessed. They would call to each other, "Do you see that woman with the embroidered badge? It is our Hester-the town's Hester..." (157). The changing attitudes in her society did eventually see the brave, strong woman Hester always had been. However, they never would know what it was like to be the person who bore that scarlet letter. Hester knew the A's significance in her own life to be much different from what was viewed by others. Only Hester herself felt the letter on her chest. Only Hester felt the change that came over her in those seven years. Walking out to the scaffold that first day, Hester behaved as the brave, integrity-filled woman that she knew she was all along. She did not attempt to conceal the symbol that she wore, for she knew there was nothing to hide. Although Hester is clearly not a Puritan, she does show respect for the Puritan code. She fully acknowledges her sin and she boldly displays it to the world. This face of the A is a model of"acceptance," a symbol of Hester's respect for herself, and for her life. Hester did not plan to commit the sin of adultery, because it was not a sin of lust in her eyes; it was an act of love. Her salvation lies in the truth, the truth of love and passion. Hester's pride sustains her from the opening scene until she dies, still bearing the scarlet A. Hester's acceptance transformed the scarlet letter to being much more than a symbol, it was a guide, "...her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been

Socrates, the Midwife of Souls essays

Socrates, the Midwife of Souls essays Socrates, the great Greek philosopher, was a man of the people. His father was an artisan, one of the stone masons who squared, fixed and polished the blocks of which the Parthenon was built. Socrates took up the chisel of his father, the stone mason. He felt himself to be a born artisan, but he was more attracted to fashioning a different sort of material, the human soul, with the same certainty, knowledge and workmanly conscientiousness he applied to his stone work. He felt the artisan bound to his trade by strict and delicate rules, was most capable of understanding the human soul. He wanted to invent a technique for producing noble characters. His mother, who was a midwife, provided another foundation for Socrates life vision. He would deliver souls of the truth they bore within themselves. He would become a midwife for souls. Socrates was known for being very strange, almost extravagant in his behavior. However, he was also a man of great common sense and strict logic. Fat, with bulging eyes, snub nose, broad nostrils, and a wide mouth, he was considered the ugliest man in Athens. Since he held the body in such low esteem, he rarely took a bath. But, as his friends knew, he was "all glorious within," "the most upright man of that day". His self-control and powers of endurance were exemplary; "he had so schooled himself to moderation that his scanty means satisfied all his wants." And he came to be considered one of the greatest philosophers of all time. Socrates believed our most important task, in fact, the very meaning of our lives, was the care of ones soul. He believed the soul was our true self, our very essence, and our bodies the mere instrument utilized in dealing with the physical world. Socrates seemed confidant that human beings survive physical death, therefore possessing an immortal soul. Socrates' view of the soul stands in sharp contrast with the Homeric and...

How has Identification Technology evolved in society through Research Paper

How has Identification Technology evolved in society through Biometrics - Research Paper Example Biometrics has had great impacts on science today and a long history over time. It has been greatly embraced by different individuals ranging from company holders to the government. All this is done for security purposes. Banks for instance use biometrics in iris recognition for the security of different account holders (Leeuw 2007). They are able to tell through use of iris recognition how withdrawals were made from ATMs by different customers. Government can use biometrics by carrying out facial scan n different criminals. This will be identified due to the uniqueness that each individual posses. In understanding the history of biometrics different researches have been carried out all over the world. Biometrics dates back in different ages. This scientific analysis was first identified in China when different merchants applied this technology in distinguishing the differences in different children using fingerprints. It is through this practice that biometrics technology has been developed (Lockie 2006). Another evidence of biometrics dates back in the 1980s, when an anthropologist sought to differentiate traits in different criminals. He noticed that there are different traits that do not change regardless of environmental factors, there noting that use of biometrics is important in ensuring that convicts do not escape from jail. Among this unchanging characteristics are the finger prints, the retina and finally the skull. This view by anthropologist was adopted by different professionals all over the world these are the doctors and the police. The biometric study was faced with different challenges due to the fact that there was low technological advancement. Due to this, here instances of errors in the data collected, but today we experience an improvement in this study due to the high technological knowhow all over the world. This is to mean that the chances of

Housing Sector in UK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Housing Sector in UK - Essay Example The housing location being discussed in this paper is located at Grovewood Hill along the Burnbrae Drive at Edinburgh. The view of the typical houses being discussed here is shown in the figure 1. Theses houses are mostly constructed of burned clay bricks, cement and mortar. This practice of housing was found to exist from atleast 100 years in this region and the sector also boasts of providing huge labour employment in the country. This is a scenario of affluent people who could afford independent dwelling units in the places or locations of their choice. But the huge number of migrant labours and working class who makes their living by working in the city find their shelter along the slums that have come up in the city outskirts. This volume of occupants tends to increase at an astonishing rate as the more of the "development" takes place. The housing sector too shows a skewed growth in the urban centres with the slum dwellers increasing in the city suburbs and the planned housing developments moving to the outskirts. ... The location of the study at Groovewood Hill was chosen based on the easy access and also being the location well known to the student. The primary data collection was based on the interview technique with the help of a prepared questionnaire. Also, the information already available with the student researcher have also been used in the interpretation of the data. Also, the discussions with the housing association members and the estate manager was carried out to explore the various operation constrains and main characteristics of the housing locality. The secondary information was collected from already published materials and other reports. Based of the data collected the analysis is carried out and required information is presented in the subsequent sections. 4. Findings and Discussion 4.1 Nature and type of construction Figure 2 : Perspective of the house The sample house chosen from the locality was constructed with strong reliance on the architectural masonry almost 5 years back. It was the time when sudden development initiatives have begun and the building industry was experiencing boom. This was also the time when new methods and materials were also tried. But the labour force as well as contractors were less reluctant to change and hence the advantage it promised in the initial stages was not attained. The construction process progressed more based on the skill set of the masons rather than the advances proposed by the technocrats .Most of the houses being discussed here are two storied residential unit built in country burned bricks, cement and concrete. The roof is made in reinforced cement concrete. The interiors have been designed incorporating the techniques of passive heating /cooling technologies. Thus optimizing