My Career Essays

My Career Essays My Career Essay My Career Essay Currently, this is the path open to me. I Am currently a Care Assistant for which I needed no formal qualifications to be, however, an NVQ level 2 or the equivalent of would mean I am entitled to a higher rate of pay.The next step is the Senior Carer, In order to apply you must have, or be in the process of studying for, your NVQ level 3 or equivalent thereof. The Staff Handbook and Greensleeves website has this information. After the Senior Carer, the company has at times, employed a Senior Supervisor. The qualifications needed for this are the same as the Senior Carer but is for those people who are trying to make a career in the care industry and are given a more office bask role than a Senior would have.It is not always a position that is in use, the Home manager has the option to recruit someone for this role. They would be expected to take an active part in the training of staff and help out with the managing of the home on a much higher level than the Seniors do. * At the moment, the next step is to get your NVQ Level 5 (or equivalent) and apply for the position of * Deputy Manager, at the moment there is one deputy but soon, with the expansion of our home there will be a second Deputy to assist the manager.With the expansion comes the possibility that we will become a nursing home and should that arise, the home manager has advised me that the Company may consider putting members of staff through Nursing College to get their RGN status and their PIN. Should this happen then that would be an option and should I go that way it may open up another whole avenue of potential but for now, I include only for the purpose of a complete picture. * * Finally the last spot I have on my path is the Registered Home Manager.This position is generally given to those who have a a Level 5 (at least) and several years experience within the Care Industry. I hope one day to reach this level but it’s a long way off and I may change my career plans later on to maybe branch off to do training or Nursing so I included it on my path but the future is always in motion and I have not looked into this too much but the Home Manager is more than happy to discuss the requirements when and if I ask him.

How to Write About Ranges

How to Write About Ranges How to Write About Ranges How to Write About Ranges By Mark Nichol A range is, in written expression, the numerical difference between or among two or more values, or a pair of elements denoting the end points on, and perhaps one or more elements along, a continuum. Using sentences with errors in expressing ranges, this post discusses how to correctly do so in writing. The school enrolls students in grades 9 12. The correct treatment of a range numbers expressed in numerals is one number followed by an en dash (although some publications employ a hyphen) and another number, with no letter spaces: â€Å"The school enrolls students in grades 9–12.† This style, with a numeral range, is correct even when a publication uses a style system in which references to numbers are usually spelled out if the number is one hundred or less. However, if the range is expressed with to (or through) instead of a dash, the numbers should, in that case, be spelled out: â€Å"The school enrolls students in grades nine to twelve.† Operating hours are from 9 a.m.–10 p.m. If from precedes the expression of a number range, to, rather than a dash, should intervene between the two values: â€Å"Operating hours are from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.† (If a dash is preferred, delete from: â€Å"Operating hours are 9 a.m.–10 p.m.†) Only a handful of school districts within a 30-40 mile radius rank among the top twenty-five school districts. The solution for this example is not simply to replace the hyphen with a dash; the range must be recast as shown here: â€Å"Only a handful of school districts within a 30- to 40-mile radius rank among the top twenty-five school districts.† The expressed range is not â€Å"30–40†; it is â€Å"a 30-mile radius to 40-mile radius,† with the first value truncated to the number and a suspensive hyphenation. (This range can also be expressed â€Å"a radius of 30 to 40 miles.†) Qualifying businesses are those with revenues of $10–$20 billion. This sentence suggests that the low end of the range is $10, rather than $10 billion. Except in the case of suspensive hyphenation, values should be fully expressed: â€Å"Qualifying businesses are those with revenues of $10 billion–$20 billion.† The sanctions impact the economy broadly, affecting business transactions ranging from the import of airplanes; the export of caviar, carpets, and pistachios; and the manufacturing of cars. The sequence of phrases specifying trade and production of goods does not constitute a list; it is a range that includes three elements. From must be complemented by to, and the semicolons are extraneous and intrusive: â€Å"The sanctions impact the economy broadly, affecting business transactions ranging from the import of airplanes to the export of caviar, carpets, and pistachios and the manufacturing of cars.† These range from restricting access for the sanctioned entity to the US financial system, to prohibitions on investing in a sanctioned entity, to restrictions on imports from the sanctioned entity, to the exclusion from the U.S. of controlling officers or controlling shareholders of a sanctioned entity. Elements consisting of a sequence of phrases indicating a range and beginning with one element preceded by from and one or more subsequent elements preceded by to should not be interrupted by punctuation: â€Å"These sanctions range from restricting access for the sanctioned entity to the US financial system to prohibitions on investing in a sanctioned entity to restrictions on imports from the sanctioned entity to the exclusion from the United States of controlling officers or controlling shareholders of a sanctioned entity.† If the sentence is not clear without punctuation, recast the sentence. In many cases, including the sentence used as an example here, the use of from and to as signifiers of a range is not necessary, as a given sequence may not necessarily indicate a range that implies priority of one phrase over another. (Here, the sequence does not explicitly express increasingly strict sanctions, though they may be inferred to be so.) When this is true, simply revise the sentence to express a simple list: â€Å"These sanctions include restricting access for the sanctioned entity to the US financial system, prohibitions on investing in a sanctioned entity, restrictions on imports from the sanctioned entity, and the exclusion from the United States of controlling officers or controlling shareholders of a sanctioned entity.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Style category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Arrive To vs. Arrive AtHow to Pronounce MobileTrooper or Trouper?

Compulsory Purchase and Compensation Literature review

Compulsory Purchase and Compensation - Literature review Example There were statutory warnings and objections that were received during this period. In a 10-year period, there was lower than 25% of confirmed CPOs who went to public inquiry (Shaw, 2011). There were many local projects that have got promotions in the last five years. But the compulsory purchase was routed through different channels. The best examples for this were two: one was the Borders and Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine land acquisition, which was for a major railways project. And the other one was the authorization of the Edinburgh trams through private legislation (Shaw, 2011). This was put in force by the Scottish Parliament instead of a CPO (DETR, 2000). In the current scenario, there are some glaring examples which show the decline of CPO usage. First of all, the number of current compulsory purchase is limited. Second, the local authorities have limited rights for decision making and also acquiring the land. The compulsory purchase deployment will probably be increased in the future also (Shaw, 2011). What’s more, the general expertise of the local authorities requires getting a boost so that they can work effectively and efficiently (DETR, 2000). There is separate procedure legislation for crofting that is put into the Act in Scotland (Rowan & Farquharson, 2009) The various bodies are said to assess the claims for compensation which are related to the matters of crofts (Cuthbertson, 2007). When the acquisition is done through an agreement, then the adjudication is done through the Land Court of Scotland while if the claims arise from any of the compulsory purchases, then they are done through the Land Tribunal for Scotland (Barclay, 2010). If someone is seeking for an agricultural or any business property, then the authority is required to pay special attention to the issues that are related to business and farming. When someone is looking to acquire any

Discuss critically how you would bring about an identified change in Assignment

Discuss critically how you would bring about an identified change in an organisation (or organisational unit) you are familiar with - Assignment Example This is a good example of the need for change in our organizations. Clients are now able to access information, which they require at the comfort of their homes or different work places. This has spurred a lot of pressure to their service providers and media, as they need to live up to the expectations of their clients. Organizational change is an issue that most organizations need to embrace and adopt in order to survive and keep up with the business world today. Failure to do this, such firms and organization will experience a competitive environment that may need to them failing to achieve their goals in the near future. Organizations and firms must learn and embrace organizational change at their different work places. This is very essential and important to them. However, sometimes it is difficult to enhance change in an organization. This is because most employees have adopted a certain culture and routines, which they really embrace at their workplaces. A lot of resistance from these employees may be evident if this kid of change has to be implemented. When parties and stakeholders who are involved follow the right steps, this kind of change can be implemented successfully without much resistance from the employees. Organizational change can affect any department in the organization; hence, the heads of these departments must remain positive and open to any change, which might come along. Firms and organization are prone to changes in today’s business world that is greatly evolving Armenakis (Armenakis and Harris 2009). Both internal and external environmental factors can prompt change to occur in an organization. External changes can originate from the global business market. First and foremost, competition in the might take a higher notch that may require an organization to make some changes in its entire structure. At such a situation, the organization is supposed to come up with different marketing

Theme Park Technology Essay Example for Free

Theme Park Technology Essay Introduction New technologies that theme parks utilize or may consider using in the future can help manage crowds, improve child safety, and create thrilling attractions. Theme parks must decide which technologies it should adapt in order to attract the most consumers and increase consumer spending. Innovative technologies improve consumer safety and enhance customer satisfaction. Technologies used in theme parks today include smart phone applications, fast passes or flash passes, RFID tracking systems, 4D attractions, and LED powered wheels. If a theme park considers adapting any of these technologies, it must decide if the technology meets customer needs and if the benefits outweigh the costs. Crowd Control: Theme parks implement measures to control crowds so that certain areas of the parks are not overcrowded while other areas of the park do not have large crowds. Crowd control measures include the use of surveillance cameras, monitoring ride occupancy rates, issuing fast passes for people to come back to rides later in the day and not have to wait in line, and smart phone applications. Theme park technologies that assist with foot traffic flow also enhance customer satisfaction and safety. Surveillance Cameras Disney takes the lead in theme park crowd control. Disney’s Magic Kingdom has a security epicenter underneath Cinderella’s Castle which is equipped with surveillance cameras, video screens, digital park maps, and computer programs to pinpoint where there are traffic backups or problems with rides. Employees monitor to see where crowds are the largest and deploy parades to divert traffic and lead guests to areas of the park that are less crowded. (Brooks) Surveillance cameras also help employees monitor and track suspicious persons, which helps keep parks safe. If parks did not have surveillance cameras, there would need to be a lot more security personal stationed around the park and monitoring the park on foot. Ride Occupancy Theme parks monitor crowd control by ensuring that all seats on rides are filled. If seats are left empty, it takes longer for visitors to get through the lines. Shorter wait times equal happier visitors, and shorter wait times provide visitors with the opportunity to spend more time at restaurants and gift shops which generate more revenue for the parks. FASTPASS ® / Flash Pass FASTPASS ® is a ride scheduling system invented by Disney which allows guests to visit an attraction and receive a ticket to come back to the ride at a later time and not wait in a long line. Attractions that utilize the FASTPASS ® system have the time displayed for when guests can come back without waiting in line. Guests insert their park ticket into the FASTPASS ® machine, and they receive ticket with the time when they can come back to the attraction and not wait in a long line. Disney does not charge guests to use FASTPASS ® machines, but other theme parks do charge for similar services. Many people are willing to spend the extra money in order to avoid long lines at popular attractions. (Disney FASTPASS Service) Theme parks also help manage crowds by displaying estimated wait times for rides. If the wait is too long for a ride, people will go to other rides throughout the park and come back later. Other parks, such as Six Flags Theme Parks , have versions of fast passes that allow visitors to wait in shorter lines, schedule when they will go on rides electronically, and to ride the same ride twice in a row without waiting in line a second time. Six Flags Theme Park visitors can purchase Flash Passes and schedule when they will go on the ride via an electronic scheduling system. Six Flags Flash Passes are more advanced than Disney’s Fast Pass since visitors can schedule when they will go on rides electronically from anywhere in the park instead of having to go to each attraction they want to ride and receiving a time to come back when they turn in a FASTPASS ® ticket. (Flash Pass: Six Flags Magic Mountain) Six Flags allows visitors to purchase Regular, Gold or Platinum Flash Passes which have greater reductions in wait times. The Regular Flash Pass provides guests with a limited number of Flash Passes that allow them to wait in a shorter line. The Gold and Platinum Flash Passes allow visitors to electronically schedule when they will visit an attraction. Visitors are given an electronic device called a Q-Bot, which guests use to check electronically schedule when they will be able to visit the ride without waiting in line. (Q-Bot) The Platinum Fast Pass provides the added benefit of being able to go on the same ride twice in a row without getting off and waiting in line again. Flash Passes bring in additional revenue to parks and prices vary depending on the park. For example, Flash Passes range from $31 $86 per person at Six Flags Over Georgia and $41 to $99 at Six Flags Magic Mountain. (Flash Pass: Six Flags Magic Mountain) and (Flash Pass: Six Flags Over Georgia) Mobile Magic APP Theme Parks are innovative and have technologies that help them learn about customer preferences while making consumers’ experiences at the park more enjoyable. Walt Disney World has a mobile application for Verizon Wireless customers called Mobile Magic. Mobile Magic allows customers to view line wait times, make restaurant reservations, play games while waiting in line, view the weather forecast and events taking place in the park, and find Disney characters for children to get autographs. Disney receives information from Mobile Magic users that allows them to analyze which restaurants and rides are the most popular and can help Disney gain insights as to how to make consumers experiences at its parks more enjoyable. (Mobile Magic Application) Child Safety: RFID Tracking System. Theme parks such as Dollywood, Legoland, and Wannado use RFID bracelets to keep track of guests and to protect lost children. RFID bracelets transmit a signal to computer system which keeps track of each person’s location. If a child wearing a RFID bracelet becomes separated from his parents, then the parents send a text message to guest services stating, â€Å"help. † Parents receive a text message in response with the location of the lost child and directions to get to the child’s location. If a lost child gets too close to park exits, authorities are contacted to ensure the child does not exit the park. (Sturgen) RFID bracelets provide increased safety for children, and they allow groups of people to locate each easily if they are separated. The bracelets also track and store information about what foods people eat, what rides they visit first or most frequently, and what items they purchase. The information helps theme park management tailor the parks to best meet consumer preferences. Some guests may view the RFID bracelets as an invasion of privacy, but others feel that the benefits outweigh the risks. (Sturgen) At Wannado and Dollywood, the RFID technology is taken a step further than at Legoland. Visitors are provided with a bracelet containing a RFID tag. Then, groups of visitors register their names in the SafeTzone Real-Time Locating System which links each group’s bracelets together electronically. Visitors can then track the location of people in their group by scanning their bracelet at SafeTzone kiosks. (Sullivan) According to the New York Times article, â€Å"Disney Tackles Major Theme Park Problems: Lines,† Disney may start to use bracelets and take the technology one step further. Bracelets would store consumer credit card information so park guests can purchase items with the swipe of the bracelet. Also, the bracelets would store information such as the customer’s name, when they last visited the restaurant, how frequently they visit the restaurant, and the customer’s preferences. This technology would lead theme parks to be the best in class in customer satisfaction. However, it may not appeal to some people who may view it as an invasion of privacy and like there is someone watching over them at all times. Ride Technology: â€Å"4D† Attractions Theme parks have implemented a new level of technology to make attractions seem like they are in 4D. For example, Dollywood has a Polar Express ride during the winter that combines a 3D movie with seats that move like you are actually riding the Polar Express train, different smells and temperatures and other effects to make 3D movie scenes seem more realistic. (â€Å"Dollywood’s Polar Express Creates 4D Viewer Experience†) Islands of Adventure also employs â€Å"4D† technology with its Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride. Visitors watch a 3D movie screen while riding on magic benches that drop, lean back, spin, twist, and turn to make it feel as if visitors are flying through the world of Harry Potter. (â€Å"The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universals Islands of Adventure†) Kuka Robot Group developed the magic benches which are also known as Robocoasters. (â€Å"Kuka Arm†) Theme Park Technology Summary: Theme parks utilize leading edge technologies to improve customer safety, better understand customer preferences, and make customers’ experiences at the park more enjoyable. RFID bracelets improve customer safety and provide parks with information about customer preferences. Investment in RFID technology would pay for itself, because many parents would be willing to pay extra to rent bracelets in order to keep traffic of their children and people in their group. Traffic flow and ride wait times are improved through video surveillance, ensuring each ride is at maximum occupancy, fast passes, wait times posted by each ride, and wait times and park information transmitted to people’s smart phones via applications like Disney’s Mobile Magic. Disney was able to create a smart phone application in conjunction with Verizon wireless by charging customers to purchase the application. Customers are happier when there are shorter wait times and the park is not as crowded. Theme parks improve customer satisfaction through the use of â€Å"4D† technology on rides. Theme parks work to improve business by utilizing and developing new technologies. Theme park technology constantly evolves. In addition to the technologies mentioned above, Maurer Rides is in the testing stages of LED-powered wheels for roller coasters. The wheels are powered by light emitting diodes (LEDs) and â€Å"rotation of the wheels creates a ‘generator principle’ with the rotating movement being converted into energy, and thus light. The key benefit is that, apart from saving power, no batteries or excessive wiring is needed. † (Theme Park Post Amusement Theme Parks Industry Business News) The LED wheel lights will show up during the day and night and create an interesting visual effect. Maurer plans to install the first ‘firewheels’, which can travel up to 80 mph, at a theme park in Germany. If this technology works, it may be adapted by other theme parks since it creates visual appeal and uses less energy. (Theme Park Post Amusement Theme Parks Industry Business News) The most important technologies for theme parks improve customer satisfaction and the likelihood that guests will return to the parks again or recommend the parks to other people. 4D Technology, RFID tracking bracelets, Flash Passes, and smart phone applications are leading edge technologies for theme parks that accomplish the task of improving customer satisfaction. Technology is constantly evolving, and theme parks are destined to invent more advanced technologies that improve business operations and customers’ experiences. Works Cited Barnes, Brooks. Disney Tackles Major Theme Park Problem: Lines. The New York Times. The New York Times Company, 28 Dec. 2010. Web. 22 May 2011. . Disney FASTPASS Service. Walt Disney World Resort. Disney. Web. 30 May 2011. . Dollywoods Polar Express Creates 4D Viewer Experience Amusement Parks. Amusement Park Industry-Theme Park Business Directory Amusement Park. Blooloop, 18 Feb. 2009. Web. 31 May 2011. . Flash Pass: Six Flags Magic Mountain. Six Flags. Web. 30 May 2011. . Flash Pass: Six Flags Over Georgia. Six Flags. Web. 30 May 2011. . Kuka Arm. Harry Potter Wizarding World Theme Park in Orlando, Florida. Web. 31 May 2011. . Mobile Magic Application | Verizon Wireless | Disney Parks. Mobile Magic | Disney Parks. Web. 22 May 2011. . Q-Bot. Web log post. Theme Park Review. 17 Mar. 2010. Web. 30 May 2011. . Satchell, Arlene. Wannado City Moves up Closing to Jan. 2 Sun Sentinel. Featured Articles From The Sun Sentinel. The Sun Sentinel, 21 Dec. 2010. Web. 22 May 2011. . Sturgeon, Will. RFID Chips on Kids Makes Legoland Safer | Protecting Your ID | Silicon. com. Silicon. com | Technology Strategy for CIOs and Business Executives. Silicon. com, 24 June 2004. Web. 24 May 2011. . Sullivan, Laurie. How RFID Will Help Mommy Find Johnny InformationWeek. InformationWeek | Business Technology News, Reviews and Blogs. Information Week, 15 Sept. 2004. Web. 22 May 2011. . Theme Park Post Amusement Theme Parks Industry Business News. Web. 22 May 2011. .

Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare Essay -- Papers

Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare The opening scenes of the play are called the EXPOSITION, where the dramatist introduces the most significant characters and themes, so that they can be developed and set up the plot. Describe the means by which Shakespeare had done this in the first act, and judge how successful (or not) he has been. The opening scenes of "Measure for Measure", introduce the most significant characters in the play and also tend to establish the relationships between each of them. The plot and the key themes are introduced giving the reader an idea of what is going to unfold in the following acts. Shakespeare has used the opening scene of the play to introduce one of the key characters. In this first scene, set in Vienna, the Duke announces to his advisor, Escalus, that he is to leave the country for reasons, which are un-disclosed to anyone. He decides to leave Angelo, a trusted friend, standing in his place. This would in effect give Angelo "absolute power" over the nation, giving him the decision to dictate who would live or die. "In our remove be thou at full ourself; Mortality and mercy in Vienna" ============================== Duke Vincento Act I Sc I Angelo is highly respected and held in high regard by both the Duke and Escalus, this is evident by the way the two both talk of him, to each other and to Angelo, himself: "If any in Vienna be of worth To undergo such ample grace and honour, It is Lord Angelo" Escalus Act I Sc I Angelo appears to be a genuine person, there appear to be no hidden sides to him, "What You See Is What You Get". Angelo appear... ... Overall, I do feel that Shakespeare has been successful in creating good first impressions and introductions of the more significant characters, Angelo, Lucio and Isabella. All though Isabella is not in this opening act much, her character ids set up for those later acts, where she will play a bigger, more significant part. Shakespeare's introduction of the themes is also done well. The first appears to be the introduction of power, where the Duke leaves and Angelo is named as the stand in. The theme of corruption is also brought across well, using the comic characters, the prostitute, Mistress Overdone and the pimp, Pompey. As an opening act to a play, I feel that all the characters and the main themes are introduced well, which helps the reader to understand the play because they are introduced from the beginning.

Hunting laws essay Essay

Why are people likely to break hunting laws, whereas the people with the license are the ones that suffer? Over the years people have violated hunting laws. There has been little research for motivations for poaching. Illegal taking of wildlife is a serious problem in today’s society. Questions such as these prompted are discussed in the two following articles: â€Å"Illegal Hunting and Angling the Neutralization of Wildlife,† by Stephen L. Eliason, and an article by Bob Hood â€Å"Rules of the Game. † At first it may appear that only way these two writers might meet in  common ground would be in a head on collision. Nevertheless after reading their articles more carefully, one can realize that Eliason and Hood are actually saying two different things. Initially, these articles seem to be very little in common. Although their titles, for example, convey the same image: Eliasons aggressive â€Å"Illegal Hunting and Angling the Neutralization of Wildlife† versus Hoods passive â€Å"Rules of the Game. † Their subject matters and these authors reasons for writing make them very dissimilar, Eliason states how the very impact  of poaching has affected our society by contrast Hood is merely stating the facts of our local Texas game laws. Between Eliasons use of his method of trying to inform the reader what poaching can do and Hoods general statements on how to follow Texas game warden laws, readers have difficulty recognizing a neutral meeting ground between these persistent writers. Villasenor 2 This strong insistence by each writer that hunting laws should be followed, however, helps the readers see the two differences between these two articles. For both authors, the proposition that â€Å"hunting laws should be followed† is their way of trying to reach out to the general public. For instance Hood states local Texas hunting laws and gives you basic information on how they should be followed. Eliason however is stating on how poaching affects the country as a whole and has enough data and facts to prove his cause. Regarding the similar topic though, we find Hood and Eliason expressing very different views. According to Hood he is stating the dos and don’ts every hunter should know before  hinting predators and non-game animals. Eliason cites a much more informative article stating the affects of the ecological impact of poaching and much more evidence to support his view point. Although Eliason and Hood write about the differences in hunting laws, readers can not see a common ground. Upon close analysis, their articles reveal more then several points of dissimilarity. Both writers have two totally different viewpoints about hunting laws. Readers can recognize that Eliasons and Hoods statements prove to be different.

Ingvar Kamprad Leadership Essay

Business Leader Profile Ingvar Kamprad Founder of Ikea Retail Stores Why Ingvar Kamprad? Does the name Ingvar Kamprad mean anything to you? To most people it doesn’t and it's a testament to the fact that he built up a brand that is so powerful people recognize it immediately, while not tying it into, or even knowing, the genius behind it. The brand? IKEA! The reason why we chose this business leader is simple, Ingvar Kamprad is a businessman and the founder of IKEA with an estimated worth of $22. 5 billion dollars.Kamprad was born in the south of Sweden in 1926 and raised on a farm called Elmtaryd, near the small village of Agunnaryd. He is a great leader and one amazing thing about him is that he went into business early in life, selling matches as a schoolboy and also, very wisely for his age (or any age for that matter) Kamprad took his profits and used them to expand his operations, adding to his small line of goods with decorations of Christmas trees, fish, and seeds. He was learning the operational side of retailing, and he was learning it quickly and profitably.When Kamprad did well in school, his dad rewarded his with some money, and that was the seed to launch a company he named IKEA. He got the name from his initials I. K. , and then added the EA from the name of the farm and the town he was raised in – Elmtaryd and Agunnaryd. Don't think the idea of a furniture company was brewing in the mind of Kamprad with his new company, he still focused on smaller items, and for the most part look to the business of securing contracts of supplying pencils. Like in his younger years, Kamprad soon began to expand into all sorts of other areas, including everything from jewelry to male and female ccessories. He soon outgrew individual visits to customers and went into the mail order business on the local level, having the milk trucks deliver his products to his customers. When Kamprad first included furniture as part of the product line of IKEA, his i dea was to use local manufacturers to keep costs low and under control. That was in 1947. By 1951, furniture sales were so successful, he decided to drop all other products and focus on the furniture line alone. The first furniture showroom opened in 1953, and the rest is history.Almost immediately a price war started between IKEA and its chief competitor, and the inclusion of the showroom helped sway potential customers who were able to see and touch the quality before making their purchases. Like many great retailers, Kamprad was obsessed with controlling costs, and dedicated to finding new ways to do things at a less expensive level. That has been one of the major reasons behind the ongoing success of IKEA furniture sales and profits. Some people attempt to point out the fact that Kamprad has several properties he owns and so the frugal image is contrived.I have to disagree with that, because the reason he can afford some of these things is because he remained frugal within the c onstruct of his company, and so because he was able to put of instantaneous gratification, could then do whatever he wanted once he became wealthy. While there is some truth to the image part, it was also very much practiced by Kamprad. Many people think being frugal is being cheap in a negative way, and yet those best at it are the ones that serve their customers and employees at the highest level by giving customers the best deals possible, while at the same time offering longevity to employees.The best definition that reflects the idea of leadership for Kamprad is â€Å"Leadership is a kind of activity meant to influence behavior, beliefs and feelings of the group members in a certain direction. † (Wright, Peter L. and Taylor, David S. Improving Leadership Performance. Great Britain: Prentice-Hall International Ltd; 1984. p. 2). As Peter F. Drucker said â€Å"The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say â€Å"I. † And that’s not because t hey have trained themselves not to say â€Å"I. † They don’t think â€Å"I. They think â€Å"we†; they think â€Å"team. † This idea is mostly based on a simple word, and that word is â€Å"team†. Every leader who has this trait is surely to have great success simply because they don’t work and take decisions just on their own, they seek and welcome the help of employees, one of those leaders being Kampard of course. If we go back to Niccolo Machiavelli, we can see that he once said that â€Å"The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him. and it a really smart and correct thesis, because in order for a leader to successfully empower his organization he needs employees, but not just any employee, they have to be creative, loyal and intelligent in order to really be useful to their organisation. So while cost control is a major part of the IKEA success story, the empowerment of its custo mers is as well, which is brought about from a highly committed and talented design team. Leader’s position in organizational structure „In an hierarchical system, participants take for granted what the participants with the higher position defines† (Becker, 1998).In other words, social actors in the labor market believe what the professionals (leaders, professors, mass-media) define as leadership, considering that the privilege formal position brings privilege information and ethics. This is not a valid statement if we look into the organizational structure at IKEA. Anecdotes about Kamprad abound. When his father complained that Ingvar slept late in the morning, Ingvar got himself an alarm clock, set it for six o’clock, and yanked away the off button. According to Kamprad, we should all divide our lives â€Å"into 10-minute units, and sacrifice as few of them as possible in meaningless activity. Though past 80, Kamprad still travels the world to visit new IKEA stores. He flies economy class, calls his employees â€Å"co-workers,† encourages everyone to dress informally, stays in cheap hotels and even replaces bottles from the hotel room mini-bar with cheap bottles bought in local supermarkets. He gives no interviews. As far as setting an example through his actions, Kamprad flies only economy class, drives a 15-year-old vehicle, and focuses on little things for his workers like writing on both sides of the paper, and other frugal practices. That has helped IKEA remain on the top of a highly competitive market.Critics of these stories say they seem intended to reinforce the company’s no-nonsense brand and encourage cost-awareness among company staff. They point out that Kamprad may be the world’s richest man, that owns several lavish houses around the world, and that it would be ludicrous to assume a man of such wealth would not use any of it for private purposes. If you've ever read IKEA literature, catalogs or advertising, they reinforce their and Ingvar Kamprad's motto of not only existing to make improvements in the lives of people, but to improve people themselves.With that in mind, the way the stores themselves are set up and the design of the furniture built with the idea of being very simple to assemble, it generates the healthy idea of self-sufficiency, which helps empower people and make them feel good about themselves. Leader or non-leader; manager or leader If we would be to make a list with leader and non-leader and manager traits we would easily see that Ingvar Kampard is a leader, not only that, he is a good example for hundreds of people out there who thrive to become leaders themselves. If we look closely at Kampard we can see that he is a proactive an, he believes in people following examples, he motivates and inspires top results and has great strategic orientation. If a leader is not like this, then as Abraham Maslow said †If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. †. Based on interviews with employees at IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad is a good example of leadership because he strongly expresses the organisational value of IKEA through his behaviours. Thereby, all the IKEA employees (from top management to co-workers) follow this organisational value as a framework.In addition, the leadership style of management position also was influenced through strong organisational value. Employees have used descriptives such as „role model† and „father† when speaking about Ingvar Kamprad thereby denoting the familial nature of IKEA corporate culture. If we apply the model of leader vs. Manager described by Abraham Zaleznik – Ingvar Kamprad is the epitome of business leader. All of this is based on his empathic relationship with his co-workers and employees. By setting examples and inspiring, he also sets the company’s overall direction by altering the direction of its employees.One of his subordinates characterises his leadership style as a „teacher†. Senge (1990) and Max de Pree(1990)’s theory states that a leader should be a teacher in the organization „ †¦ much of the leverage leaders can actually exert lies in helping people achieve more accurate , more insightful and more empowering views of reality, when the leaders carrying out stewardship (Senge, 1990: 353)†, according to Senge (1990). The roles that leaders should play is exactly how Kamprad has been doing for so long. Creativity As Teresa M. Amabile once said „Keep doing what you are doing†.Or if you want to spark innovation, rethink how you motivate, reward, and assign work to people. † What is business creativity? We tend to associate creativity with the arts and to think of it as the expression of higly original ideas. Think of Pablo Picasso reinvented the conventions of painting or how William Faulkner redefined fiction. In business, originali ty isn’t enough. To be creative, an idea must also be appropriate, useful and actionable. Within every individual, creativity is a function of three components : expertise, creative-thinking skills and motivation.Expertise is, in a word knowledge – technical, procedual and intellectual. Creative-thinking skills determine how flexibly and imaginatively people approach problems. Do their solutions apend the status quo? Do they persevere through dry spells? Not all motivation is created equal. An inner passion to solve the problem at hand leads to solutions far more creative than do external rewards, such as money. This compenent – called intrinsic motivation is the one that can be most immediately influenced by the work environment.Senior manager at IKEA strongly believes that IKEA is a creative organisation based upon home-furnishing company; IKEA has to be creative within value â€Å"efficiency and cost conscious†. This reason makes IKEA differ from other companies because it is not easy to produce a good product at low price. Furthermore, IKEA has a strong organisational value that every employee should concern as follows: †¢ Togetherness †¢ Cost consciousness †¢ Respect †¢ Simplicity IKEA follows a model of „family business† because at its inception, Ingvar Kamprad was developing it as a family business which eventually grew to outstanding proportions.Due to this, most of his own ideeas like the simplicity and togetherness have actually become some of the company’s most important organizational aspects. IKEA is an extremely creative organisation because IKEA allows employees to work in freedom and are open for trying new ideas. To demonstrate clearly, when employees have concepts, it is important to express their concepts to the manager in order to consider whether it is possible to develop and make this concept concrete. The respondent emphasises that â€Å"It does not take a long time, if you have a really good idea.This creative idea will be developed and spread out to use at every store of IKEA in the world Moreover, the organisation also encourages employees to continually learn from their own experience and also other’s experiences such as co-workers. As a result, employees are able to complete their own tasks as well as generate new ideas that make IKEA different from other companies. Leadership styles Leadership style is the manner and approach of providing direction, implementing plans, and motivating people. Kurt Lewin (1939) led a group of researchers to identify different styles of leadership.After a complete analisys of all three styles(autocratic, democratic and delegative) we have reached the conclusion that Ingvar Kampard is most of the times a Participative(democratic) leader. This style involves the leader including one or more employees in the decision making process (determining what to do and how to do it). However, the leader maintains the final decision making authority. Using this style is not a sign of weakness, rather it is a sign of strength that your employees will respect. But of course, he is not always using this style, since every problem requires a different style.Besides the fact that Kamprad is one of the wealthiest living people, he is also an impressive leader. The leadership style he embodies is one of personal example. Though he has billions of dollars, Ingvar is reluctant to a life in luxury. People confess seeing him haggling in the market and dining together with his wife in cheap, dirty places. His image makes up for billion words. Black worn out shoes, cheap glasses and a grey faded coat dress up the billionaire in most of his rendezvous. Taxis are substituted with public transportation like busses and subways and, luxurious jets with low-cost airlines.By his daily routine and his habits of living in an artificial poverty, Ingvar Kamprad embodies the average IKEA customer. â€Å"I look at the mo ney I'm about to spend on myself and ask if IKEA customers could afford it. † â€Å"If I start to acquire luxurious things then this will only incite others to follow suit†¦ †. Ingvar considers himself to be an example for all others and tries to appear as a normal individual. In â€Å"A Furniture Dealer’s Testament,† Kamprad suggests that â€Å"IKEA people do not drive flashy cars or stay at luxury hotels. †, â€Å"How the hell can I ask people who work for me to travel cheaply if I am traveling in luxury? he asks. â€Å"It’s a question of good leadership. † From a young age, Ingvar learned what working hard meant and what a strong bound truly is. He is a preacher of the religion of simplicity and during over half a century, along the constant growth of his company, numerous others joined in. According to Plato, the mob is a â€Å"big and dangerous animal† which must not be underestimated. What kind of strategy could work with masses rather than a leader of their status? Governments have fallen and people died along time only to protect the need of having a representative leader which could alike them.Ingvar Kamprad succeeded in building up a truly simple and productive leadership style only by regarding himself as equal as and never more important than the commoner. Nicolo Machiavelli stated: â€Å"Religion is not important because of the truth it holds but because of its efficiency in maintaining control over masses†. In our case we have little to do with angry mobs but with the angry way in which money are wasted by a company or individual in matter of costs. Kamprad understood this fact and built a distinctive corporate culture which comprehended his true nature.In contrast, the famous RJR enjoyed the expense of private planes and luxury and unlike our billionaire, success was only passing by. Warren Buffet’s mentality resembles the one IKEA’s Founder and together with the m indset, the income is comparable. Coming again to Plato, the philosopher once said „Those who rule must provetheir leadership abilities. A person can be trained to be a good ruler, but we have to distinguish between superficial competencies (oratory) and profound competencies (developed with the help of philosophy). The ruler has to guard not only the peaceon the ship but also to know which wayto sail and ow. † Ingvar’s thinking is flexible and innovative. Mistakes are praised and considered as the most important link to success. He is without regard a transformational leader. His style motivates people and defines a new way of thinking. Ingvar also connects with his followers and is a source of inspiration for younger generations. Bernard M. Bass, after decades of research and experimentation, regards transformational leaders as the leaders who recognize the needs of the followers and in addition tends to go further and satisfy higher needs of the follower.All of these actions are aimed to propel the follower on a higher tier in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Whereas common leadership or transactional leadership seeks only to maintain the satisfaction of the individual, transformational leadership looks into enchanting the well-being of the followers in order to achieve a higher outcome alongside with their happiness and devotion. This gap between the leadership styles is what I believe to be the main reason for the existence of excellent, world-changing people, in contrast with the unsuccessful ones.Their view of the world is their most precious asset and how they regard to others is the main secret of conquering unreached heights. Due to the fact that Ingvar Kamprad has a unique way to behave with the employees of IKEA and tries to enrich them with traits so important for the success of both the corporation and the employee’s leadership skills, I believe that Kamprad is a brilliant representative of Bass’s beliefs. Kamp rad could also be considered to be a Level 5 leader according to Jim Collins’s â€Å"Good to Great†. Ingvar greets the uncommon and is on a constant quest for taking apart obstacles which lie between failure and success.His constant struggle for reaching excellence in everything he does could be clearly seen in the process which I would like to call â€Å"building the empire of self†. His focus on the main purpose, the one of bringing innovative furniture in each and every household and changing the lives of many by simplifying their existence, assured his success and the status of one of the greatest business managers and leaders to have ever existed. A Napoleon of the furniture industry, Kamprad was. Close to followers, talented and emotionally involved were some principles he used during his reign.Thus many would say he received divine help, he started as a common man. Only his devotion and hard work made the difference. Garry Gemmill and Judith Oakley refer to a leader as a Messiah or a savior and hardly agree with the concept of a leader as a creator. Moreover, they state that â€Å"Leadership is nothing else but a myth propagated in order to keep everybody else quiet and nice. † . They might be right but in my consideration, this words do not apply to the hero we analyze in this project. Ingvar strongly encourages creative discussions within the company and his actual position is one of a leant and a symbol of excellence.David Goleman on the other hand expresses, in his work â€Å"What makes a Leader? † some traits which could help us identify other traits of the IKEA Giant. Goleman places a great emphasis on emotional intelligence and connects the status of a leader according to it. The main skills David puts behind a glorious leader are Self-awareness, Self-regulation, Motivation and the abilities to relate to others – Empathy, and Social Skill. Ingvar seems gifted with emotional intelligence when managing peop le and events. Happiness is in his opinion the greatest asset an IKEA worker should possess.An excellent business man and an excellent time manager he proved to be during many occasions and time only knows when the world could inherit another great leader such as Ingvar Kamprad, the Swedish Scotsman. Conflict management style â€Å"The Ikean culture, which was directly linked to Scandinavian culture, valued simplicity and informality, frugality, humbleness, responsibility, and the constant will to renew. † The company initially sold furniture provided by numerous suppliers. As time passed, competition started to corrupt the suppliers and as a result, Ingvar decided never to trust others than himself.It was a turning point in the history of IKEA which now started to produce its own furniture. A moment of conflict and lack of trust turned into a brilliant idea and started to place the organization on the path to success. Another turning point in Ikean history was by the time an employee decided to disassemble the furniture in order to transport it by car. Kamprad saw this particularly insignificant moment of conflict as a possibly gorgeous opportunity for the future. From that point onward, the furniture company started to differentiate and build up not just furniture but a light, innovative, easy to use and cheap type of furniture.The most significant property Ingvar’s furniture has is its ability to be assembled by the customer and offer him the joy of putting the puzzle pieces together. Price was amazing. IKEA furniture was 50% cheaper than the competition and besides this important factor; it was more than friendly and practical. Ingvar once was accused of being a Nazi supporter due to the fact that he attended to their meetings on numerous occasions. The conflict took a serious impact on Ingvar’s personality and started to shift its public perception in a truly negative way.However, the conflict was in some manner consumed when Kamprad composed letters of apology to all his employees and people whom he disappointed. He recognized that he made a mistake and that it was a dark chapter in his existence which shouldn’t have happened. Questioning the status quo is Ingvar’s best way in dealing with everyday problems and through his successful career they were many. To begin with, the more IKEA grew, the more Ingvar’s problems developed. Alcohol, Nazi support and deaths at the opening of a store were only the biggest of them.Despite the severity of the problem, the modesty, humanity and determination always brought Ingvar on the right track. For the IKEA founder, conflict never ceased to be functional. It helped both him and the employees remain focused and constructive. It generated growth, activated learning, maintained excellent interpersonal skills and gave a different perspective over issues. The main conflict management style of his was collaborating. In almost every occasion he and the employe es formed a team and everyone is expected to contribute with anything they can.Departments are structured on the philosophy of sharing ideas and support. Also, there is a win-win situation between IKEA and its customers. On the one side, IKEA has tremendous profit margins (about 16% – almost two times higher than other furniture retailers) and sells for tens of billions annually and on the other side, the customer benefits from exceptional quality and practicability for the given money. Ingvar’s mentality (comprehended by the Business Harvard Review: How Management Teams Can Have a Good Fight) is one of creating common goals. The company and he was an impeccably motivated and determined group of people.Creative and interpersonal relations are also highly praised within a company and IKEA makes no exception. In his work, Kenneth W. Thomas, refers more and more to the importance of conflict in an organization. Throughout a sustained study of the great players in the corp orate world, the mesmerizing power of a poorly managed conflict is revealed. Too many companies suffer great reductions in income and performance due to this mostly overlooked default. Using a bi-dimensional representation, Thomas expressed the whole conflict issue using 5 elements – Avoiding, Accommodating, Compromising, Competitive and Collaborative.The IKEA model works entirely based on the Collaborative model due to the fact that it is mostly a win-win situation in which both the company and the employee reach a high level of fulfillment. Conflict can also be managed using a system of rewards resembling the one parents use for their children. It might be unexpected but I believe this is an awesome way to educate outsiders and to make them behave according to a reward. Despite the fact that it might be a bit manipulative, the rewards system is a good way to achieve a prosperous work environment.However, if good is not enough for a company, this system could be substituted by one composed of amazing people, highly talented and qualified personnel which requires little training and can propel the company to new heights. The ideal way in which I believe conflict could be turned into a powerful creative force is through the use of Virtuoso Teams. Despite the fact these kinds of teams require a constant action and an important continuous goal. Jeff Weiss and Jonathan Hughes express in their â€Å"Accept-And Actively Manage Conflict† the necessity of conflict in a prosperous working environment.After and during the Industrial Revolution, people and mostly employees were kept under and oppressive working regime which limited their creativity and power to change their condition. Riots were common and worker unions started to prosper. However, the work was dull and no sane man could cope with it more than a few years. Now, a century later, conflict is comprehended as a powerful tool. Just thinking about the Olympiads or a race between two close friends is more than enough in order to have an insight into the invisible motivation a challenge releases.The same principle applies in the development of Ikean furniture. People have a â€Å"Vojna Idej† (War of the Ideas) and as a result breakthroughs occur. However, due to the fact this war of ideas is hardly sustainable in time, there must be a boundary composed of the corporate vision and goal. I believe that none of the amazing commercials and ways of presenting the company could have emerged without a nearly balanced conflict management system. Weather we think of the cleverly designed buss stations or the exquisite TV commercials, IKEA is a sign of greatness. EthicsBusiness ethics (also corporate ethics) is a form of applied ethics or professional ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that arise in a business environment. It applies to all aspects of business conduct and is relevant to the conduct of individuals and entire organizations. Busin ess ethics reflects the philosophy of business, one of whose aims is to determine the fundamental purposes of a company. If a company's purpose is to maximize shareholder returns, then sacrificing profits to other concerns is a violation of its fiduciary responsibility.Kamprad began to develop a business as a young boy, selling matches to neighbors from his bicycle. He found that he could buy matches in bulk very cheaply from Stockholm, sell them individually at a low price, and still make a good profit. From matches, he expanded to selling fish, Christmas tree decorations, seeds, and later ballpoint pens and pencils. When Kamprad was 17, his father gave him a cash reward for succeeding in his studies. IKEA was founded in 1943 at his uncle Ernst's kitchen table. In 1948, Kamprad diversified his portfolio, adding furniture.His business was mostly-mail order. The acronym IKEA is made up of the initials of his name (Ingvar Kamprad) plus those of Elmtaryd, the family farm where he was b orn, and the nearby village Agunnaryd. Kamprad has lived in Epalinges, Switzerland since 1976. According to an interview with TSR, the French language Swiss TV broadcaster, Kamprad drives a 15-year-old Volvo 240, flies only economy class, and encourages IKEA employees always to write on both sides of a paper. He reportedly recycles tea bags and is known to pocket the salt and pepper packets at restaurants. In addition, Kamprad has been known to visit IKEA for a â€Å"cheap meal. † He is also known to buy Christmas paper and presents in post-Christmas sales. The firm he created is still known for the attention it gives to cost control, operational details and continuous product development, allowing it to lower its prices by an of average 2-3% over the decade to 2010, while continuing its global expansion. Kamprad explains his social philosophy thusly in his â€Å"A Furniture Dealer's Testament,† â€Å"It is not only for cost reasons that we avoid the luxury hotels.We don't need flashy cars, impressive titles, uniforms or other status symbols. We rely on our strength and our will! † Despite this, Kamprad allows himself some luxuries; he owns a villa in an upmarket part of Switzerland, a large country estate in Sweden, and a vineyard in Provence, France; he also drove a Porsche for several years. Ingvar Kamprad had made two „big mistakes†. From 16 to 25, Kamprad was a friend and follower of Per Engdahl, the leader of the quasi-fascist, pro-Nazi Neo-Swedish movement. Engdahl attended Kamprad's first wedding in 1950.Kamprad only terminated his involvement in 1951. When the scandal broke in the early 1990s, Kamprad wrote to his employees: â€Å"You have been young yourself. And perhaps you find something in your youth you now, so long afterwards, think was ridiculous and stupid. In that case, you will understand me better. † He also apologized in a television interview and said he had not fully understood what the Neo-Swedish movement was about. And the second happened while working with furniture manufacturers in Poland earlier in his career, Kamprad became an alcoholic.He has, however, stated that his drinking is now under control. In 1947, Kamprad introduced furniture into the IKEA product line. The use of local manufacturers allowed him to keep his costs down. The furniture was a hit, and in 1951, Kamprad decided to discontinue all other product lines and focus on furniture. In 1953, the first IKEA showroom opened. It came about because of competitive pressures. IKEA was in a price war with its main competitor. The showroom allowed people to see it, touch it, feel it, and be sure of the quality before buying.Kamprad's vision has been the driving force behind IKEA's succcess. IKEA hires its own designers, who have received numerous awards over the years. Kamprad believes that the company exists not just to improve people's lives, but to improve the people themselves. The self-service store design and ease of assembly of their furniture are not merely cost controls, but an opportunity for self-sufficiency. This vision is reinforced in their advertising and catalog, as well. Kamprad has been extremely shrewd in creating IKEA's organizational structure.It is owned ultimately by a Dutch trust controlled by the Kamprad family, with various holding companies handling different aspects of IKEA's operations, such as franchising, manufacturing, and distribution. IKEA even has an investment banking arm. Kamprad has repeatedly resisted pressure to take the company public, feeling that it would slow their decision-making processes that have allowed their phenomenal growth. On a final note This leader and founder of IKEA is an Old – School Business man that made mistakes in his teens. His mistakes were that of an average teen that dreamed at glory and power or of that of an overworked man.He weakes up at 5am in the morning, every day and sometimes arrives at the IKEA store before the first truck. Ingvar Kamprad treats all his employees with respect and calls them co-workers, he recycles and he tries to persuade his employees not to buy expensive cars and big villas in countries that are reprezented as dots on the World map. Ingvar Kamprad built IKEA from scratch and he worked very hard so that the comapany became what it is today. Finally, he is a man that was interested in being a business man since he was a child.He is a much respected man and a wonderful example for future leaders and it was a pleasure for our team to work out together in order to realize this portfolio about Ingvar Kampard. I hope you enjoyed reading our essay as much as we enjoyed writing it. ( Questions Are there strong parallels between theory and organizational environment, reflecting your understanding of reality? -Based on our understandings the reason for that is most experiences in organizations have autonomous processes which are self-replicating and form themselves randomly by gro up decision.Theory is embedded only when it is actually considered firsthand Did you use various perspectives to analyze the leader? -We have extended our search into various perspectives about Ingvar Kampard, such as private life, workplace and even his â€Å"fun† time. How many problems or â€Å"bugs† did you identify in the theory or practice of leadership? -As far as we’ve gone into research, we were not able to find many bugs in the practice or the theory of our leader, only minor mistakes that are now â€Å"buried† underneath the ground. Do you have a critical approach to leadership? Our approach towards leadership is pretty much critical but not to a higher extent Did you use tables, logical schemes or graphics to illustrate your ideas? -At our meetings we needed to put up our ideas somewhere so we used logical schemes that we followed and established by ourselves and after that we transferred the info onto paper. Are your ideas backed-up by eviden ce? – The evidence is provided in the form of surveys and results conducted by people with authority to perform such research. Some evidence may be anecdotal, lacking any form of statistical analysis.However most of the data is falsifiable (both in theory and practice) hence observable in different ways, so that reality can speak for itself instead of giving evidence or proving points. Did you use relevant and important papers/authors? -We have used relevant and also important papers/authors/articles. Did you use both academic and professional sources? -Yes we did. One of our most important sources were the Harvard Business Reviews Reference: fondatorul-ikea/ ———————– [pic]

Eddie George essays

Eddie George essays The question for my report is, What impact has Eddie George had on sports. Eddie George played a big role in the world of football. He and Steve McNair led the Tennessee Titans to the Superbowl, but they lost. Eddie George was 8, just another young kid on the neighborhood playground who fantasized about winning the Heisman Trophy, when his mother, Donna, began to get his life in the order she wants him to grow up in. "Eddie would never stop," said Donna's mother, Jean McCarthy, whose yard in suburban Abington Township, served as one of her grandson's playgrounds. "His friends would be saying, come on, Eddie, we gotta rest, we gotta rest, but Eddie would say, no, no, we gotta play, we gotta play. "He was always running," Jean McCarthy said. "No surprise to me he turned out to be a running back."(7) As Eddie was growing up, he put team goals before his. He wanted to play football, he wanted to go to college by playing football, he wanted to win the Heisman Trophy, and he wanted to play in the pros. His mother Donna said, " to fulfill those goals, you have to build up your character." She was the "architect" in the family. Eddie, 22, and his sister Leslie, 25, who works for an insurance company in suburban Philadelphia, grew up in a single parent household, after their mother separated in 1980 from their largely absentee father, also named Eddie. They were later divorced, and Donna said that Eddie's relationship with his father remains distant. (5) However, "the single- parent" is misleading for despite the circumstances, Eddie and his sister were reared in a structured, loving and religious environment, not only by their mother, but by her parents Fred and Jean. Jean usually was there to help during the years that Donna worked two and sometimes three jobs. She was determined to do more than make ends meat. Their mother was a very busy woman; for the first nine years of Eddie's life, she was a productio...

A Short History of the Nazi Party

A Short History of the Nazi Party The Nazi Party was a political party in Germany, led by Adolf Hitler from 1921 to 1945, whose central tenets included the supremacy of the Aryan people and blaming Jews and others for the problems within Germany. These extreme beliefs eventually led to World War II and the Holocaust. At the end of World War II, the Nazi Party was declared illegal by the occupying Allied Powers and officially ceased to exist in May 1945. (The name â€Å"Nazi† is actually a shortened version of the party’s full name: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP, which translates to â€Å"National Socialist German Workers’ Party.†) Party Beginnings In the immediate post-World War I period, Germany was the scene of widespread political infighting between groups representing the far left and far right. The Weimar Republic (the name of the German government from the end of WWI to 1933) was struggling as a result of its tarnished birth accompanied by the Treaty of Versailles and the fringe groups seeking to take advantage of this political unrest. It was in this environment that a locksmith, Anton Drexler, joined together with his journalist friend, Karl Harrer, and two other individuals (journalist Dietrich Eckhart and German economist Gottfried Feder) to create a right-wing political party, the German Workers’ Party, on January 5, 1919. The party’s founders had strong anti-Semitic and nationalist underpinnings and sought to promote a paramilitary Friekorps culture that would target the scourge of communism. Adolf Hitler Joins the Party After his service in the German Army (Reichswehr) during World War I, Adolf Hitler had difficulty reintegrating into civilian society. He eagerly accepted a job serving the Army as a civilian spy and informant, a task that required him to attend meetings of German political parties identified as subversive by the newly formed Weimar government. This job appealed to Hitler, particularly because it allowed him to feel that was still serving a purpose to the military for which he would have eagerly given his life. On September 12, 1919, this position took him to a meeting of the German Worker’s Party (DAP). Hitler’s superiors had previously instructed him to remain quiet and simply attend these meetings as a non-descript observer, a role he was able to accomplish with success until this meeting. Following a discussion on Feder’s views against capitalism, an audience member questioned Feder and Hitler quickly rose to his defense. No longer anonymous, Hitler was approached after the meeting by Drexler who asked Hitler to join the party. Hitler accepted, resigned from his position with the Reichswehr and became member #555 of the German Worker’s Party. (In reality, Hitler was the 55th member, Drexler added the 5 prefix to the early membership cards to make the party appear larger than it was in those years.) Hitler Becomes Party Leader Hitler quickly became a force to be reckoned within the party. He was appointed to be a member of the party’s central committee and in January 1920, he was appointed by Drexler to be the party’s Chief of Propaganda. A month later, Hitler organized a party rally in Munich that was attended by over 2000 people. Hitler made a famous speech at this event outlining the newly created, 25-point platform of the party. This platform was drawn up by Drexler, Hitler, and Feder. (Harrer, feeling increasingly left out, resigned from the party in February 1920.) The new platform emphasized the party’s volkisch nature of promoting a unified national community of pure Aryan Germans. It placed blame for the nation’s struggles on immigrants (mainly Jews and Eastern Europeans) and stressed excluding these groups from the benefits of a unified community that thrived under nationalized, profit-sharing enterprises instead of capitalism. The platform also called for over-turning the tenants of the Treaty of Versailles and reinstating the power of the German military that Versailles had severely restricted. With Harrer now out and the platform defined, the group decided to add in the word â€Å"Socialist† into their name, becoming the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP) in 1920. Membership in party rose rapidly, reaching over 2,000 registered members by the end of 1920. Hitler’s powerful speeches were credited with attracting many of these new members. It was because of his impact that party members were deeply troubled by his resignation from the party in July 1921 following a movement within the group to merge with the German Socialist Party (a rival party who had some overlapping ideals with the DAP). When the dispute was resolved, Hitler rejoined the party at the end of July and was elected party leader two days later on July 28, 1921. Beer Hall Putsch Hitler’s influence on the Nazi Party continued to draw members. As the party grew, Hitler also began to shift his focus more strongly towards antisemitic views and German expansionism. Germany’s economy continued to decline and this helped increase party membership. By the fall of 1923, over 20,000 people were members of the Nazi Party. Despite Hitler’s success, other politicians within Germany did not respect him. Soon, Hitler would take action that they could not ignore. In the fall of 1923, Hitler decided to take the government by force through a putsch (coup). The plan was to first take over the Bavarian government and then the German federal government. On November 8, 1923, Hitler and his men attacked a beer hall where Bavarian-government leaders were meeting. Despite the element of surprise and machine guns, the plan was soon foiled. Hitler and his men then decided to march down the streets but were soon shot at by the German military. The group quickly disbanded, with a few dead and a number injured. Hitler was later caught, arrested, tried, and sentenced to five years at Landsberg Prison. Hitler, however, only served eight months, during which time he wrote Mein Kampf. As a result of the Beer Hall Putsch, the Nazi Party was also banned in Germany. The Party Begins Again Although the party was banned, members continued to operate under the mantle of the â€Å"German Party† between 1924 and 1925, with the ban officially ending on February 27, 1925. On that day, Hitler, who had been released from prison in December 1924, re-founded the Nazi Party. With this fresh start, Hitler redirected the party’s emphasis toward strengthening their power via the political arena rather than the paramilitary route. The party also now had a structured hierarchy with a section for â€Å"general† members and a more elite group known as the â€Å"Leadership Corps.† Admission into the latter group was through a special invitation from Hitler. The party re-structuring also created a new position of Gauleiter, which was regional leaders that were tasked with building party support in their specified areas of Germany. A second paramilitary group was also created, the Schutzstaffel (SS), which served as the special protection unit for Hitler and his inner circle. Collectively, the party sought success via the state and federal parliamentary elections, but this success was slow to come to fruition. National Depression Fuels Nazi Rise The burgeoning Great Depression in the United States soon spread throughout the world. Germany was one of the countries to be most affected by this economic domino effect and the Nazis benefitted from the rise in both inflation and unemployment in the Weimar Republic. These problems led Hitler and his followers to begin a broader campaign for public support of their economic and political strategies, blaming both the Jews and communists for their country’s backward slide. By 1930, with Joseph Goebbels working as the party’s chief of propaganda, the German populace was really starting to listen to Hitler and the Nazis. In September 1930, the Nazi Party captured 18.3% of the vote for the Reichstag (German parliament). This made the party the second-most influential political party in Germany, with only the Social Democratic Party holding more seats in the Reichstag. Over the course of the next year and a half, the Nazi Party’s influence continued to grow and in March 1932, Hitler ran a surprisingly successful presidential campaign against aged World War I hero, Paul Von Hindenburg. Although Hitler lost the election, he captured an impressive 30% of the vote in the first round of the elections, forcing a run-off election during which he captured 36.8%. Hitler Becomes Chancellor The Nazi Party’s strength within the Reichstag continued to grow following Hitler’s presidential run. In July 1932, an election was held following a coup on the Prussian state government. The Nazis captured their highest number of votes yet, winning 37.4% of the seats in the Reichstag. The party now held the majority of the seats in the parliament. The second-largest party, the German Communist Party (KPD), held only 14% of the seats. This made it difficult for the government to operate without the support of a majority coalition. From this point forward, the Weimar Republic began a rapid decline. In an attempt to rectify the difficult political situation, Chancellor Fritz von Papen dissolved the Reichstag in November 1932 and called for a new election. He hoped that support for both of these parties would drop below 50% total and that the government would then be able to form a majority coalition to strengthen itself. Although the support for the Nazis did decline to 33.1%, the NDSAP and KDP still retained over 50% of the seats in the Reichstag, much to Papen’s chagrin. This event also fueled the Nazis’ desire to seize power once and for all and set in motion the events that would lead to Hitler’s appointment as chancellor. A weakened and desperate Papen decided that his best strategy was to elevate the Nazi leader to the position of chancellor so that he, himself, could maintain a role in the disintegrating government. With the support of media magnate Alfred Hugenberg, and new chancellor Kurt von Schleicher, Papen convinced President Hindenburg that placing Hitler into the role of chancellor would be the best way to contain him. The group believed that if Hitler were given this position then they, as members of his cabinet, could keep his right-wing policies in check. Hindenburg reluctantly agreed to the political maneuvering and on January 30, 1933, officially appointed Adolf Hitler as the chancellor of Germany. The Dictatorship Begins On February 27, 1933, less than a month after Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor, a mysterious fire destroyed the Reichstag building. The government, under the influence of Hitler, was quick to label the fire arson and place the blame on the communists. Ultimately, five members of the Communist Party were put on trial for the fire and one, Marinus van der Lubbe, was executed in January 1934 for the crime. Today, many historians believe that the Nazis set the fire themselves so that Hitler would have a pretense for the events that followed the fire. On February 28, at the urging of Hitler, President Hindenburg passed the Decree for the Protection of the People and the State. This emergency legislation extended the Decree for the Protection of the German People, passed on February 4. It largely suspended the civil liberties of the German people claiming that this sacrifice was necessary for personal and state safety. Once this â€Å"Reichstag Fire Decree† was passed, Hitler used it as an excuse to raid the offices of the KPD and arrest their officials, rendering them nearly useless despite the results of the next election. The last â€Å"free† election in Germany took place on March 5, 1933. In that election, members of the SA flanked the entrances of polling stations, creating an atmosphere of intimidation that led to the Nazi Party capturing their highest vote total to-date, 43.9% of the votes. The Nazis were followed in the polls by the Social Democratic Party with 18.25% of the vote and the KPD, which received 12.32% of the vote. It was not surprising that the election, which occurred as a result of Hitler’s urging to dissolve and reorganize the Reichstag, garnered these results. This election was also significant because the Catholic Centre Party captured 11.9% and the German National People’s Party (DNVP), led by Alfred Hugenberg, won 8.3% of the vote. These parties joined together with Hitler and the Bavarian People’s Party, which held 2.7% of the seats in the Reichstag, to create the two-thirds majority that Hitler needed to pass the Enabling Act. Enacted on March 23, 1933, the Enabling Act was one of the final steps on Hitler’s path to becoming a dictator; it amended the Weimar constitution to allow Hitler and his cabinet to pass laws without Reichstag approval. From this point forward, the German government functioned without input from the other parties and the Reichstag, which now met in the Kroll Opera House, was rendered useless. Hitler was now fully in control of Germany. World War II and the Holocaust Conditions for minority political and ethnic groups continued to deteriorate in Germany. The situation worsened after President Hindenburg’s death in August 1934, which allowed Hitler to combine the positions of president and chancellor into the supreme position of Fà ¼hrer. With the official creation of the Third Reich, Germany was now on a path to war and attempted racial domination. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland and World War II began. As the war spread throughout Europe, Hitler and his followers also increased their campaign against European Jewry and others that they had deemed undesirable. Occupation brought a large number of Jews under German control and as a result, the Final Solution was created and implemented; leading to the death of over six million Jews and five million others during an event known as the Holocaust. Although the events of the war initially went in Germany’s favor with the use of their powerful Blitzkrieg strategy, the tide changed in the winter of early 1943 when the Russians stopped their Eastern progress at the Battle of Stalingrad. Over 14 months later, German prowess in Western Europe ended with the Allied invasion at Normandy during D-Day. In May 1945, just eleven months after D-day, the war in Europe officially ended with the defeat of Nazi Germany and the death of its leader, Adolf Hitler. Conclusion At the end of World War II, the Allied Powers officially banned the Nazi Party in May 1945. Although many high-ranking Nazi officials were put on trial during a series of post-war trials in the years following the conflict, the vast majority of rank and file party members were never prosecuted for their beliefs. Today, the Nazi party remains illegal in Germany and several other European countries, but underground Neo-Nazi units have grown in number. In America, the Neo-Nazi movement is frowned upon but not illegal and it continues to attract members.

Compare and contrast the European and North American freight Case Study

Compare and contrast the European and North American freight transportation systems, globalized trade, and global policy implications - Case Study Example America and most countries in Europe boast of different kinds of freight systems, which have been instrumental in the growth of their economies. This paper makes a comparison of the global freight systems that have been established in the United States and most countries in Europe. Today’ globalization has brought about very many changes with respect to long-distance transport, as well as communication costs between and among countries of the world. In the past, it was agreed that trade costs did not hold any major impact as far as the structure and quantity of global trade were concerned. However, at present, these costs are now being considered and acknowledge ad being of great importance. Currently, the distribution systems in the global freight can be said to have been brought about by the convergence that has been necessitated by technology, modes and terminals, as well as infrastructure (Debrie & Gouvernal 2006). One of the things that have stood out significantly behind the process of standardization of these global freight systems has been containerization. This development has resulted in the emergence of strategies in supply chain management like maritime shipping. Europe and North America are among the major markets of the world; these two regions have huge notable commonalities in terms of strong and stable import functions (Rodrigue, Comtois & Slack 2009). The global functions in this perspective are made up of inbound logistics; in addition, there are many highly developed shipment distribution systems that link these two regions, necessitating their comprehensive trade flows. Different researches that have been carried out on this issue have indicated that these two regions are still walking similar paths when it comes configuration of their logistics networks and transport infrastructure. The operational decisions, as well as the establishments of regulatory frameworks are guiding and necessitating these

Personal centred care for older person Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Personal centred care for older person - Essay Example Rather than continuing on and suffering through the hardships of continuing her rather vigorous daily routines, June realized that her career nor her students would benefit from the decreased level of energy and time that she could devote to them. Instead of allowing her work to be impacted negatively, June instead opted for retirement as this gave her the opportunity to devote maximal time and energy to the care of her declining health. June admitted to the fact that although she knew it was bad for her, she had been a chain smoker up until the point that her husband died. As such, she suffers from osteoporosis and emphysema; diseases that she says make it increasingly difficult to deal with life. This difficulty is due to the compounding nature of the symptoms. Although she was not diagnosed with either of these diseases prior to ending her teaching career, the symptoms and the hardships of dealing with both of them at the same time provides significant stress and hardship for her. June stated that one of the things that provides her a degree of comfort and happiness with respect to the aging process is that she has come to understand herself to a degree that she never before thought possible. In earlier life, she was quite concerned with the approval of others and what they thought about her or what she did. However, as she has come to be older, their approval is of less importance. Further, she also enjoys the fact that others have come to give her the respect that she feels has so long been due to her. As a result of her age, and partly to her health condition, individuals are more willing to listen to what she has to say and consider the needs or requests that she might have as compared to earlier in life. It is without question that her answer to these questions may well have heavily been impacted upon by her prior experience as a high school teacher. In addition to these aspects, June also