Impacts of the metropolitan person of the rise of the post-modern Essay

Impacts of the metropolitan person of the rise of the post-modern urban condition - Essay Example Within the US, a range of regional planning processes have designed place-type models to help the public and policy makers during the patterning of redevelopment and urban expansion. These model place-types will ordinarily indicate the land use mixtures and the densities, and in some cases, street patterning and building forms. Through the proposals, decision-makers can estimate the environmental and transportation impacts of optional area place-type blends, using I-PLACE3S and GIS-based software. However, irrespective of new attention to large-scale urban design, some suburbanization histories and the classic examination of urban forms throughout history; the developments of urban expansion for cities in North America have not been charted out in a systematic way. This report will detail a study of the evolution of spatial developments across the Sacramento urban area, using GIS (Geographic Information Systems) software to map the growth and the changes that came with the growth. Ad ditional research from secondary sources will offer more information on the history of the urban area and the triggers of growth. The report aims to provide the morphological growth of the region, pointing out the full range of constructed landscapes created through its history, which will help in the management of urban growth. Related Literature The commonly available historical accounts of suburbanisation and urbanisation tend to emphasize the general aspects of growth, and the forces triggering urban development, compared to giving information on the systematic growth of urban forms. Most times, these accounts depict an impressive history, and may assume a normative outlook; Mumford’s â€Å"the City in History† of 1961 is among the iconic examples of both areas. The main focus of these accounts includes financial, cultural and the institutional factors that trigger growth. Others like Hall (2002) focus on the planning ideas and the visions of urban areas. Additiona lly, some scholars emphasize the urban histories of the urban areas, and many others have reviewed the historical account of certain cities (Abbott, 2008). Although, many of the works mentioned before focus on demographic, sociological and cultural change, some iconic planners, geographers and historians have directed more attention towards form. Through the analysis of official maps and designs, which are supported by other sources of graphic evidence, the information is used to offer information on the changes that have taken place in economic needs, cultural values and governmental purposes. Other accounts like Kostof (1992) focuses particular features of design of the city, throughout history, emphasizing on the reflection of purpose and meaning from patterns. Lynch (1981) pointed out the significance of different spatial aspects of a city, including edges, paths, nodes, districts, and grain, going further to explore the ways in which they affect the lives and the experiences of visitors and the residents of the region. Vance (1990) reviewed function and form in urban settlements in human history, directing special attention towards the stages of development, the location of cities and their connectivity – with reference to transportation and trade. Recent literature has been highly systematic in analyzing form, by developing models of form at

Slave resistance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Slave resistance - Essay Example the behaviors exhibited by individuals are observable and does not necessarily require the observation of their mental states in order to explain their behaviors in the environments that they live in (New & Cochran, 2007). However, Watson indicated that observable behaviors are the only ones that can be included in the observation rather than those that include subjective emotions. Drawing on this, this essay will delve into the concept of behaviorism with a focus on learning behavior based on the research findings of Pavlov’s dogs and Skinner’s rats. Essentially, behaviorists deem that people can receive training in order for them to execute various tasks irrespective of their genetic composition or their personalities as long as the conditioning is the right one. In this regard, the two types of conditioning are classical and operant conditioning in which most of the adherents of behaviorism abide by. In essence, operant conditioning is a learning method that involves the inclusion of rewards or punishments depending on the behavior exhibited. On the other hand, classical conditioning is another form of behavioral training method whereby there is a natural response in terms of behavior to the stimulating factor applied (New & Cochran, 2007). The terms used to define the two factors applied in this form of conditioning are conditioned stimulus and response. Based on this school of thought, Russian Psychologist Pavlov applied the conditioned response drawing from the behavior that his dogs portrayed when it came to them salivatin g whether or not their master brought food during his entry into the room that they were in. Through research, Pavlov discovered the salivating behavioral trait that dogs tend to have is not a trainable behavior, meaning that the response is unconditioned indicating food is not the only stimulant that provokes this response. In the course of Pavlov’s research, this psychologist unearthed that dogs salivated or exhibited the same

Managing People And Absence Management Management Essay

Managing People And Absence Management Management Essay INTRODUCTION Managing attendance at work is recognised as being an increasing priority for all employers. Both short term and long term absences have a significant impact upon the efficiency and resources of any company and the management of such absences can have a significant effect on both the company and the individuals who are involved. The focus will be on Coleg Sir Gar and how they deal with absence. One of the key challenges facing organisations is how to manage absence effectively to ensure that those who are genuinely sick are fully supported, and that the small minority whose absence is not health-related is deterred. UK legislation places a duty on employers to safeguard employee health, safety and welfare, in addition to which there are rising expectations among staff of what employers should be providing in terms of working conditions and benefits. Adopting an approach to sickness absence management that is both supportive of the genuinely sick and that acts as a deterrent to the few whose absence is not health-related is difficult to achieve, but a crucial element of successful management practice. While the majority of absence is thought to be genuine and related to ill-health, a number of factors appear to have an impact on absence levels. These include motivation, work levels and morale within teams. Individuals perceive their work as stressful due to factors such as overwork, heavy administrative loads and relationships within their teams. Many individuals who feel valued in their roles are less likely to take sick leave as they appreciate that their contribution is important to their organisation. Other causes of absence include needing to take time off for domestic responsibilities such as childcare. Although most organisation have in place a policy relating to special leave aimed at coping with domestic emergencies, awareness of this leave does not appear to be high. The presence and implementation of a good sickness absence policy is an important first step to managing absence well. Ideally, a policy should be clearly understandable and take into account different causes of absence and develop appropriate ways of dealing with these. It is also vital for an organisation to accept that a certain level of employee absence is an inevitable feature of working life. Appropriate support should be offered to employees who are absent and unable to work for health reasons, and a policy should ideally recognise that employees may sometimes need to be absent for reasons other than health, and that this should not be counted as sickness. MANAGING PEOPLE Absence is very expensive. The CIPD annual survey Absence Management 2009 was based on replies from 642 employers in organisations employing a total of more than 1.9 million employees. The average cost of absence per employee per year was  £692, which is a slight increase from the previous years figure of  £666. The annual cost of absence, as last year, is highest in the public sector, averaging  £784 per employee per year; however, this represents a reduction from the previous years figure of  £906 per employee per year. Manufacturing and production employers recorded the next highest cost at  £754 per employee per year, a slight fall from the figure for the year before of  £759. Absence costs among non-profit organisations also fell slightly to  £698 from  £741 per employee per year. Private services organisations recorded the lowest annual absence costs, averaging  £666 compared with the previous years figure of  £663. For an organisation with 1000 employees, t his is nearly three quarters of a million pounds per year. But direct costs are only a part of the problem. Absence disrupts production, operations, customer service and morale. Organisations have to spend extra money on temporary cover or overtime as a result. And unchecked absence can lead to bad feeling, conflict and disciplinary action, including dismissal. And that can lead to tribunal hearings, and even compensation payments, if organisations are unable to demonstrate that they have acted fairly. Why measure absence? A key element of managing absence effectively is accurate measurement and monitoring. An organisation must assess if it has a problem with absence, its extent and the best way to tackle it. Only 41% of employers monitor the cost of employee absence, a figure which has remained low over the last few years. Employers should collect and use data to identify particular patterns of absence and underlying causes, for example, the management style of a particular manager or an increase in workloads. It can also provide evidence of how absence impacts on the bottom line and why it is worth investing in an effective absence management programme. There are a number of measures that can be used to assess absence, each of which gives information about different aspects of absence. There are two aspects to absence in Coleg Sir Gar: 1. Total time lost 2. How that time is distributed. Total time lost This is the crudest measure and the one used most often. To calculate this, the total number of days that could be worked in the organisation is added. Then the number of days that were lost due to absence are deducted and expressed as a fraction of the total. In a sense, this is the cost of the extra people that the organisation has to employ purely because of absence. For example, an organisation of 1000 people with an absence rate of 3.5 per cent has to employ 35 more people than would otherwise be necessary, just to cover the absence. How that time is distributed Many organisations only measure the total time lost. Yet this figure can describe several quite different problems. In a department of 30 people, an absence rate of 3.5 per cent could result from one person being away for a year with a longà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Ëœterm illness, with no other absence in the department, or it could result from everyone taking small amounts of time off. Or it could result from a few people taking quite long absences. Before you can define the problem, you have to ask: Who is being absent? How often are they being absent? How long are they being absent for? Bradford Factor The Bradford Factor identifies persistent short-term absence for individuals, by measuring the number of spells of absence, and is therefore a useful measure of the disruption caused by this type of absence. It is calculated using the formula: S x S x D S = number of spells of absence in 52 weeks taken by an individual D = number of days of absence in 52 weeks taken by that individual For example: 10 one-day absences: 10 x 10 x 10 = 1,000 1 ten-day absence: 1 x 1 x 10 = 10 5 two-day absences: 5 x 5 x 10 = 250 2 five-day absences: 2 x 2 x 10 = 40 The trigger points will differ between organisations. As for all unauthorised absence, the underlying causes will need to be identified. So should we try to manage absence? After all, if someone is ill, they are ill. The answer is that we should. And there are several reasons for this. Stopping theft of working time. Some people do take unauthorised time off for no reason other than personal gain. These people are stealing. They are stealing from their employer, because they are being paid for work they are not doing, and they are putting unfair extra work on to their colleagues. Stopping this theft of time is a clear moral and legal imperative. Some people take time off because they have a problem. This may be a personal problem, or a problem affecting someone close to them. By investigating the absence, managers can find out about such problems. In many cases, the organisation will then be able to offer support to the employee. In the longer term, this will reduce absence and help the employee. Some people take time off because of stress or unhappiness with work. It is very likely that these problems will be affecting performance generally, quite apart from affecting attendance. Investigating the absence may uncover such problems and enable the manager to address them, resulting in better performance in general and less absence. There must be no question of trying to coerce someone who is genuinely and unavoidably ill into coming to work. But in this case it is still important that the organisation knows the facts and so is able to plan its response accordingly. The sick employee may well suffer unnecessary extra stress and anxiety if he or she is not sure how the organisation views the illness. Directly confronting the illness, and being clear about the organisations attitude to it, will not only help the organisation know what it has to deal with, it can help the employee deal with the illness, too. Confronting and discussing absence not only helps the organisation, it helps the absentee. What causes absence? First, the causes of absence should be looked at to provide insight into the problem and to illustrate the areas where policy has an influence. Research shows that the causes of absence fall into the following four distinct clusters: The general health and lifestyle of employees and its impact on attendance at work has been a popular topic for research. Virtually all studies demonstrate a clear link, for example, between smoking and increased absence. Similarly research shows a strong link with excessive alcohol use and absence. For a proportion of employees there is a strong direct relationship between absence and poor health, but for others nonà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ medical factors are equally important. Absence management polices need to discriminate between those who are unavoidably absent due to illness and those whose health is affected by factors over which the employer can have some influence. Employers who are able to support health education programmes which promote healthier lifestyles and actions such as providing healthy meals at work, encouraging exercise and aiding those who wish to give up smoking will all benefit from the improved general health of employees and reduced staff sickness rates. Some aspects of the working environment affect the wellà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ being of staff. Research into how work is organised has shown the importance of team working with absence being lower where people work in small collaborative teams. Absence can also be a way of avoiding aspects of work that are emotionally demanding or stressful. The long hours culture also has an adverse impact on absence. A strong link exists between those who consistently work more than their contracted hours and both psychological and physical sickness levels. Management actions such as team working, awareness of health and safety issues and discouraging the working of excessive hours can all help to reduce the adverse impact of these factors. How employees feel about their working lives has been shown to be an important influence on attendance. Research has demonstrated that organisational commitment has a directly beneficial effect on absence and through this to business outcomes. The major influence on the creation of this commitment has been identified as the line manager and the quality of their relationship with their staff. The sensitive handling of change within organisations, often in the hands of line managers, is also essential as various features of the change process are associated with deterioration in employees health. These include uncertainty, lack of control, role ambiguity and job insecurity which can lead directly to reduce physical and mental health. Stress and absence are generally also shown to be related, although in the field of research the definition of stress is problematic and whether it should it be regarded as psychological or as a series of physiological symptoms has not yet been resolved. C areer satisfaction is one of the more powerful predictors of absence behaviour. Absence is higher among those expressing dissatisfaction with their careers. Among those who have marketable skills and are often absent the likelihood of them resigning is high. A link also exists between resigning and attendance behaviour. Those with poor attendance records are more likely to express an intention to leave and there is evidence that those with high absence rates are indeed at a greater risk of leaving. What policies need to contain? Good policies should clearly define the roles and responsibilities of key factors such as line managers, senior managers, the HR function, the occupational health function and the individuals themselves. They should also establish procedures to ensure that each case is treated in the same way and that standardised information on absence is collected. The first step to managing absence effectively is to ensure that you have a clear policy in place that supports your organisations business objectives and culture. Legislation requires employers to provide staff with information on any terms and conditions relating to incapacity for work due to sickness or injury, including any provision for sick pay. Effective absence policies must spell out employees rights and obligations when taking time off from work due to sickness. The policy should: provide details of contractual sick pay terms and its relationship with statutory sick pay outline the process employees must follow if taking time off sick covering when and whom employees should notify if they are not able to attend work include when (after how many days) employees need a self-certificate form contain details of when they require a fit note from their doctor explain that adjustments may be appropriate to assist the employee in returning to work as soon as is practicable mention that the organisation reserves the right to require employees to attend an examination by a company doctor and (with the workers consent) to request a report from the employees doctor include provisions for return-to-work interviews as these have been identified as the most effective intervention to manage short-term absence. Sickness absence policies are put in place to manage sickness absence. Staff are expected to maintain a satisfactory record of attendance. However, the aim is to balance the sensitive nature of individual sickness and ill health against its needs to achieve its objectives. As a caring employer, the aim is to assist employees to retain or regain good health. It is essential that the procedures be carried out with tact and sensitivity and a realisation that the management of attendance is the joint responsibility of the line manager and the individual member of staff. Human Resources (HR) will be available to advise and support line managers and their staff. Employees may be requested to consent to be examined by the occupational doctor or nurse and to agree to allow Occupational Health to provide a medical report. Employees may also refer themselves to Occupational Health. If a member of staff fails to comply with notification or certification procedures or otherwise abuse the procedu res, the disciplinary procedure may be used. The policy and procedure that apply are: This policy and associated procedure incorporate the following principles. Good faith The policy and procedures will be applied to all members of staff in a consistent manner and without discrimination. Fairness Any action taken will be reasonable and necessary.  Ã‚  Members of staff involved are entitled to be heard with courtesy and respect. Confidentiality Information relating to sickness absence will only be shared with individuals who have a need to know. Representation If issues of attendance arise within these procedures and a formal approach is required to deal with them, a member of staff will be entitled to be accompanied by a trade union representative or by a work colleague.  Ã‚  Ã‚   Conclusions Recommendations Accepting absence as unavoidable and inevitable in an organisation creates a culture of poor attendance. This highlights the critical role of managers in communicating clearly the organisations expectations on attendance. Without positive action it is possible to have a culture where absence is just accepted as uncontrollable, or in the worst scenario, viewed as entitlement to extra leave. Overall, it is clear that managing absence is complex, and a successful approach must involve a mix of elements that successfully support those that are genuinely ill and deter the small minority of those that are absent for non-health-related reasons. Line managers are key in terms of implementing the policy, but they must be adequately supported by other areas of the organisation, such as senior management, the HR function and the occupational health function. Further, it is important for line managers to achieve the right balance when managing sickness absence, and to learn to tailor their approach appropriately. For example, in terms of the frequency and type of contact with individuals during long-term sickness absence, what is right for some individuals may not work for others, who may want more or less frequent contact? It is therefore up to line managers to find the appropriate balance between what is perceived as intrusion and support. Communicating the objectives of any attendance policy clearly to all staff members is essential. A policy which is to be credible and successful needs to be understood throughout an organisation and applied consistently and fairly. An individuals case of sick absence, depending on length, can require actions from various individuals and services such as the line manager, senior managers, the HR function, the HR Business Partner, Occupational Health Services and the Employee Assistance Provider. For an attendance policy to be effective in practice it is essential that the respective roles of the individuals and services involved in managing cases of absence are defined. This ensures that cases are handled systematically and efficiently. At any point in an absence it should be known who is responsible for each aspect and what outcomes are to be expected. Once the areas of responsibility are defined the procedures to be applied need to be established. This makes certain that each case i s treated the same way, that similar approaches are used and standardised information collected. Word Count excluding references: 3,090

Comparing Apocalypse Now by Franice Coppola and Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad :: Literature Francis Coppola Joseph Conrad Essays

Comparing Apocalypse Now by Franice Coppola and Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad Francis Coppola’s Apocalypse Now was inspired by Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness that informs the film throughout. A comparison and contrast can be made between the two. Both have the same themes but entirely different settings. Heart of Darkness takes place on the Congo River in the Heart of Africa while Apocalypse Now is set in Vietnam. The stock characters in both have the same general personalities but have different names. Of course, Kurtz is Kurtz, Willard parallels Marlow, and the American photojournalist corresponds to the Russian Harlequin. Willard is a lieutenant for the US Army and Marlow is a captain of a steamboat of an ivory company. The first images of Willard and Marlow differ to some degree. The movie begins with Willard lying in an apartment room lost from reality with the song ‘The End’ playing by The Doors. He is haunted by his earlier deeds and he is getting very drunk. Willard smashes the mirror while fighting himself and cuts his hand. He collapses on the bed weeping. Marlow is portrayed as a wanderer of the sea. The narrator described him to somewhat of a hero. Their mission is to find Kurtz and take him down at all costs. In both stories Kurtz is a psychotic rebel, worshipped as a god, who threatens the stability of his original unit, but in one it is an ivory trading company and in the other it is the US Army. Kurtz, who had begun his assignment a man of great idealism and the highest morals, had become strangely savage. Tribes of natives worship the man who lives in a hut surrounded by fence posts topped with recently acquired human skulls. Kurtz has undergone a total breakdown of the physical, psychological, and spiritual. Along the trip into the wilderness, Willard and Marlow discover their true selves through contact with savage natives. As Marlow ventures further up the Congo, he feels like he is traveling back through time. He sees the unsettled wilderness and can feel the darkness of its solitu de. The movie ends quite differently than the novel. The movie ends with a spectacular scene. During a native tribe’s ritual sacrifice ceremony of a water buffalo, The Doors’ The End playing on the background, Willard finally kills Kurtz with a machete. Willard exits to find the natives begin to worship him.

History of Rev War

The cry of soda enquired into: Educational analysis in seventeenth-century New England. History of Education Quarterly, 13(1), 3-22. Lang, Harry G. Genesis of a Community: The American Deaf Experience in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. In J. Van Clever (Deed. ). The Deaf History Reader. Washington, DC: Gladdest university Press, 2007. 1 . The American Indian view of the colonial missionaries' influence on the â€Å"education† of the Indian is how the colonial missionaries changed their norm behaviors where they had to change their beliefs to the â€Å"European culture† (ColonialMissionaries and Their schools, 2004, p. 1 5). Also, they correlated the Indian dally life of cleanliness, lack of discipline for the children (Colonial Missionaries and Their Schools, 2004, p. 1 5). I feel that the quote that said by H. G. Wells was relevant to the Indian communities at that time period since the colonial missionaries changed and controlled the Indian lifestyle by Glen n them better education and lifestyle.The article, Colonial Missionaries and Their Schools, explained that most of the Indian children who were taught by the missionaries were separated from their parents nice the Indian parents did not understand the influence that the missionaries had for the Indian children (p. 16). One point was mentioned In the article about how confused the Indians were when they were the victims of the missionaries and â€Å"Christians† cheated and sexually abused them since they were preached about the missionaries' practice and cheated and sexually abused were not allowed (Colonial Missionaries and Their Schools, 2004, p. 6). The situation where the Indian were cheated and sexually abused by the missionaries and â€Å"Christians† led catastrophe in hat they were taught by the missionaries. 2. The religion played a special role in the Puritan efforts to establish formal schooling in America by set up a high educational standard where their chil dren are successful as their parents are. Puritans did not accept any failures. (The cry of Soda enquired into: Educational analysis in seventeenth-century New England,1973, p. ) We are experience the same thing today without much of religious involvements. The parents today want to see their children to succeed In their education and have bright futures. Also, parents Ely on teachers and school to help their children In academic where the teachers are constantly encouraging the children to go for their dreams by dream big. Teachers of the deaf can learn from the Puritan educational efforts about literacy by continuing to encourage the deaf students to read and write where they can eventually Improve their English. 3.People with disabilities during the asses and early asses were treated badly where they were chained to the wall since the people did not know how to take care of them. People with disabilities were treated like an here doctors who had better knowledge knew how to take care of them where they were also being observed based on their behaviors. From reading about Isaac Kilojoules, Matthew and Sarah Pratt, Andrew Brown and Jonathan Lambert, I learned that all of them became part of a religious and the Puritans accepted disabilities for who they are without any Judgments.Also, the church did allow deaf marriages without any restriction. 4. Sign language in the American colonies before the Revolutionary War show that it was only used in the level of abstraction and used tit the people who were already here in America after the generation that founding of Plymouth colony. Before Revolutionary War was the time period where sign language as American Sign Language, history of deaf literacy before the education for the deaf was established.Sign language gave the deaf American colonies the ability to communicate with each other. Sign language gave the deaf the abilities to have education and be able to understand what being learned. 5. The efforts that the d eaf children where educated in the American colonies were that they were sending o school like Broadsword Academy or private education. The deaf children were known as deaf and dumb during that time period, but each one had the abilities and skills in different academic areas.For example, John Boiling was good at Geography and Arithmetic Globe and the father of Charles Green reported after Charles two years at Broadsword Academy has â€Å"improvement in the construction of language, and in writing; he has made a good beginning in arithmetic. † Children who were private education like William Mercer was able to succeed in his life since he had the skill for minting which was found through the years located.

Health Care Organizations for Capital Budgets

All major business organizations dealing with economic conditions of uncertainty, opportunity costs, and scarce or depreciating resources have to develop capital budgets. The three major steps to developing a capital budget are: conducting a decision analysis to establish a base for knowledge building, establishing option pricing to secure an accurately assessed market position, and creating discounted cash flow (DCF) for making appropriate investment decisions for the organization. No organization can manage capital projects by simply looking at the numbers of discounted cash flows. A financial analyst for any organization must look at the entire decision and assess all relevant variables and outcomes within an analytical hierarchy. Decision-making regarding capital budgeting is increasingly complex today because of uncertainty, particularly in the health care environment where safety assessments of pharmaceuticals, health care insurance allotments, and other factors may affect the future of the organization. All capital projects will involve numerous variables and possible outcomes-but health care perhaps more than most. (Evans, pp.1-2) In the second phase of capital budgeting, financial management, or consideration of options within capital budgeting is called contingent claims analysis or option pricing. Timing (when to enter certain ventures), abandonment (what past ventures to discontinue) and growth (what ventures to expand upon) are all critical-one must ask such questions as, what aspects of health care in the organization are revenue-producing and/or necessary to the community, what areas are more necessary at certain times of year, and what can be discontinued? (Evans, p.3) Discounting refers to taking a future amount and finding its value today. Future values differ from present values because of the time value of money. Financial management recognizes the time value of money because of inflation, uncertainty, and opportunity for investment. Thus, the more uncertain the economic environment or industry, the more necessary such revenue analysis becomes-and hence, once again, the necessity of such capital analysis for health care.