Introduction to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Introduction to Maslow's hierarchy of needs Each of us is motivated by needs. Our most basic needs are inborn, having evolved over tens of thousands of years. Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs helps to explain how these needs motivate us all. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs states that we must satisfy each need in turn, starting with the first, which deals with the most obvious needs for survival itself. Only when the lower order needs of physical and emotional well-being are satisfied are we concerned with the higher order needs of influence and personal development.Conversely, if the things that satisfy our lower order needs are swept away, we are no longer concerned about the maintenance of our higher order needs. Maslow's original Hierarchy of Needs model was developed between 1943-1954, and first widely published in Motivation and Personality in 1954. At this time the Hierarchy of Needs model comprised five needs. This original version remains for most people the definitive Hierar chy of Needs. 1. Biological and Physiological needs – air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep, etc. . Safety needs – protection from elements, security, order, law, limits, stability, etc. 3. Belongingness and Love needs – work group, family, affection, relationships, etc. 4. Esteem needs – self-esteem, achievement, mastery, independence, status, dominance, prestige, managerial responsibility, etc. 5. Self-Actualization needs – realising personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences. This is the definitive and original Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.While Maslow referred to various additional aspects of motivation, he expressed the Hierarchy of Needs in these five clear stages. 1. Biological and Physiological needs – air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep, etc. 2. Safety needs – protection from elements, security, order, law, limits, stability, etc. 3. Belongingness and Love needs  œ work group, family, affection, relationships, etc. 4. Esteem needs – self-esteem, achievement, mastery, independence, status, dominance, prestige, managerial responsibility, etc. 5. Cognitive needs – knowledge, meaning, etc. 6.Aesthetic needs – appreciation and search for beauty, balance, form, etc. 7. Self-Actualization needs – realising personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences. N. B. Although Maslow referred to additional aspects of motivation, ‘Cognitive' and ‘Aesthetic', he did not include them as levels or stages within his own expression of the Hierarchy of Needs. 1. Biological and Physiological needs – air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep, etc. 2. Safety needs – protection from elements, security, order, law, limits, stability, etc. . Belongingness and Love needs – work group, family, affection, relationships, etc. 4. Esteem needs – self-esteem, achievement , mastery, independence, status, dominance, prestige, managerial responsibility, etc. 5. Cognitive needs – knowledge, meaning, etc. 6. Aesthetic needs – appreciation and search for beauty, balance, form, etc. 7. Self-Actualization needs – realising personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences. 8. Transcendence needs – helping others to achieve self actualization. N. B.Although Maslow referred to additional aspects of motivation, ‘Cognitive', ‘Aesthetic', and ‘Transcendence', he did not include any of these as additional stages in the Hierarchy of Needs. Here is a quick self-test based on the extended 8-level Hierarchy of Needs. Like the 5-level Hierarchy of Needs self-test it is not a scientific or validated instrument – merely a quick indicator for helping self-awareness, discussion, etc. what hierarchy of needs model is most valid? Abraham Maslow created the original five level Hierarchy of Needs model, and for many this remains entirely adequate for its purpose.The seven and eight level ‘hierarchy of needs' models are later adaptations by others, based on Maslow's work. Arguably, the original five-level model includes the later additional sixth, seventh and eighth (‘Cognitive', ‘Aesthetic', and ‘Transcendence') levels within the original ‘Self-Actualization' level 5, since each one of the ‘new' motivators concerns an area of self-development and self-fulfilment that is rooted in self-actualization ‘growth', and is distinctly different to any of the previous 1-4 level ‘deficiency' motivators.For many people, self-actualizing commonly involves each and every one of the newly added drivers. As such, the original five-level Hierarchy of Needs model remains a definitive classical representation of human motivation; and the later adaptations perhaps serve best to illustrate aspects of self-actualization. Maslow said that needs must be satisfied in the given order. Aims and drive always shift to next higher order needs.Levels 1 to 4 are deficiency motivators; level 5, and by implication 6 to 8, are growth motivators and relatively rarely found. The thwarting of needs is usually a cause of stress, and is particularly so at level 4. Examples in use: You can't motivate someone to achieve their sales target (level 4) when they're having problems with their marriage (level 3). You can't expect someone to work as a team member (level 3) when they're having their house re-possessed (level 2). maslow's self-actualizing characteristics keen sense of reality – aware of real situations – objective judgement, rather than subjective * see problems in terms of challenges and situations requiring solutions, rather than see problems as personal complaints or excuses * need for privacy and comfortable being alone * reliant on own experiences and judgement – independent – not reliant on culture and environment to form opinions and views * not susceptible to social pressures – non-conformist * democratic, fair and non-discriminating – embracing and enjoying all cultures, races and individual styles * socially compassionate – possessing humanity accepting others as they are and not trying to change people * comfortable with oneself – despite any unconventional tendencies * a few close intimate friends rather than many surface relationships * sense of humour directed at oneself or the human condition, rather than at the expense of others * spontaneous and natural – true to oneself, rather than being how others want * excited and interested in everything, even ordinary things * creative, inventive and original * seek peak experiences that leave a lasting impression maslow's hierarchy of needs in advertisingTo help with training of Maslow's theory look for Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs motivators in advertising. This is a great basis for Maslow and motivation training exercises: 1. Biological and Physiological needs – wife/child-abuse help-lines, social security benefits, Samaritans, roadside recovery. 2. Safety needs – home security products (alarms, etc), house an contents insurance, life assurance, schools. 3. Belongingness and Love needs – dating and match-making services, chat-lines, clubs and membership societies, Macdonalds, ‘family' themes like the old style Oxo stock cube ads. 4.Esteem needs – cosmetics, fast cars, home improvements, furniture, fashion clothes, drinks, lifestyle products and services. 5. Self-Actualization needs – Open University, and that's about it; little else in mainstream media because only 2% of population are self-actualizers, so they don't constitute a very big part of the mainstream market. You can view and download free Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs diagrams, and two free Hierarchy of Needs self-tests, based on the original Maslow's five-stage model and later adapted eight-stage model, ideal for training, presentations and project work, at thebusinessballs free online resources section.Free diagrams include: * Pyramid diagram based on Maslow's original five-level Hierarchy of Needs (1954). * Adapted seven-level Hierarchy of Needs diagram (which seems to have first appeared in the 1970s – after Maslow's death). * Adapted eight-level Hierarchy of Needs diagram (appearing later, seemingly 1990s). interpreting behaviour according to maslow's hierarchy of needs Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is an excellent model for understanding human motivation, but it is a broad concept. If you are puzzled as to how to relate given behaviour to the Hierarchy it could be that your definition of the behaviour needs refining.For example, ‘where does ‘doing things for fun' fit into the model? The answer is that it can't until you define ‘doing things for fun' more accurately. You'd need to define more precisely each given situ ation where a person is ‘doing things for fun' in order to analyse motivation according to Maslow's Hierarchy, since the ‘fun' activity motive can potentially be part any of the five original Maslow needs. Understanding whether striving to achieve a particular need or aim is ‘fun' can provide a elpful basis for identifying a Maslow driver within a given behaviour, and thereby to assess where a particular behaviour fits into the model: * Biological – health, fitness, energising mind and body, etc. * Safety – order and structure needs met for example by some heavily organised, structural activity * Belongingness – team sport, club ‘family' and relationships * Esteem – competition, achievement, recognition * Self-Actualization drivers – challenge, new experiences, love of art, nature, etc. However in order to relate a particular ‘doing it for fun' behaviour the Hierarchy of Needs we need to consider what makes it ‘f un' (i. . , rewarding) for the person. If a behaviour is ‘for fun', then consider what makes it ‘fun' for the person – is the ‘fun' rooted in ‘belongingness', or is it from ‘recognition', i. e. , ‘esteem'. Or is the fun at a deeper level, from the sense of self-fulfilment, i. e. , ‘self-actualization'. Apply this approach to any behaviour that doesn't immediately fit the model, and it will help you to see where it does fit. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs will be a blunt instrument if used as such. The way you use the Hierarchy of Needs determines the subtlety and sophistication of the model.For example: the common broad-brush interpretation of Maslow's famous theory suggests that that once a need is satisfied the person moves onto the next, and to an extent this is entirely correct. However an overly rigid application of this interpretation will produce a rigid analysis, and people and motivation are more complex. So while it is broadly true that people move up (or down) the hierarchy, depending what's happening to them in their lives, it is also true that most people's motivational ‘set' at any time comprises elements of all of the motivational drivers.For example, self-actualizers (level 5 – original model) are mainly focused on self-actualizing but are still motivated toeat (level 1) and socialise (level 3). Similarly, homeless folk whose main focus is feeding themselves (level 1) and finding shelter for the night (level 2) can also be, albeit to a lesser extent, still concerned with social relationships (level 3), how their friends perceive them (level 4), and even the meaning of life (level 5 – original model).Like any simple model, Maslow's theory not a fully responsive system – it's a guide which requires some interpretation and thought, given which, it remains extremely useful and applicable for understanding, explaining and handling many human behaviour situations. maslow's hiera rchy of needs and helping others There are certainly some behaviours that are quite tricky to relate to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. For example: Normally, we would consider that selflessly helping others, as a form of personal growth motivation, would be found as part of self-actualisation, or perhaps even ‘transcendence' (if you subscribe to the extended hierarchy).So how can we explain the examples of people who seem to be far short of self-actualising, and yet are still able to help others in a meaningful and unselfish sense? Interestingly this concept seems to be used increasingly as an effective way to help people deal with depression, low self-esteem, poor life circumstances, etc. , and it almost turns the essential Maslow model on its head: that is, by helping others, a person helps themselves to improve and develop too.The principle has also been applied quite recently to developing disaffected school-children, whom, as part of their own development, have been encoura ged and enabled to ‘teach' other younger children (which can arguably be interpreted as their acting at a self-actualising level – selflessly helping others). The disaffected children, theoretically striving to belong and be accepted (level 3 – belongingness) were actually remarkably good at helping other children, despite their own negative feelings and issues.Under certain circumstances, a person striving to satisfy their needs at level 3 – belongingness, seems able to self-actualise – level 5 (and perhaps beyond, into ‘transcendence') by selflessly helping others, and at the same time begins to satisfy their own needs for belongingness and self-esteem. Such examples demonstrate the need for careful interpretation and application of the Maslow model. The Hierarchy of Needs is not a catch-all, but it does remain a wonderfully useful framework for analysing and trying to understand the subtleties – as well as the broader aspects  œ of human behaviour and growth.

The Most They Ever Had Book Review

Cory W. Smith Mrs. Huskinsson English 101 18 November 2012 Book Review: The Most They Ever Had The Most They Ever Had is a story of suffering, hard work, and sacrifice. It is a collaboration of interviews conducted on the textile workers of the Profile cotton mill in Jacksonville, Alabama. The author of the book, Rick Bragg, compiles the stories of these people because he is one of them. He was raised in Jacksonville, Alabama. His older brother, Sam, worked at the mill. Bragg wrote this story of his people because it was a story that needed to be heard.The Most They Ever Had tells the simple lives of the men that just wanted to make a living to support a family and make it through this life to get to the next. The title is so fitting because they lived such simple lives that the mill coming to town meant survival. It meant having a somewhat stable job and the ability to buy a house and put food on the table. It was, in fact, the most they ever had. The job came with a price, however. The workers paid for their means of survival with their health. They worked unventilated rooms saturated with lint.The constant inhalation of these minute particles eventually caused damage to the workers lungs causing a disease called â€Å"brown lung. † Because the job was so sought after, the workers could lose their job for the smallest mishaps, even missing one day of work due to illness. The workers could be sick as dogs, but they would still clock in a put in their daily hours. Their daily struggles can teach the readers a lesson–to never take things in life for granted. These workers labor tirelessly day in and day out just to put a roof over their family’s head and food on the table.They worked in terrible conditions, but they rarely complained because they appreciated what they had. That, I believe, is a main purpose behind this book. Not only to tell the readers the stories of these true American heroes, but also to teach them this valuable lesson. T he Profile cotton mill opened its doors in Jacksonville, Alabama in 1905 and remained open until 2001 when it shut down without warning and left the workers still trying to pay off mortgages with no pension. Bragg tells the stories of the mountain people from this region just trying to get by paycheck to paycheck. He insights us on the tyrant mill owners and managers.He also informs us of the tragedies the workers endured like Charlie Hardy’s story of how he, â€Å"one of the best front-porch guitar pickers,† lost his â€Å"picking arm† to a machine in the mill and had to give up his talent. Or the tragic story of Leon Spears, the 65 year old man that began working at the mill when he was seventeen that has to carry an oxygen tank close by because of the damage done to his lungs by the cotton filled air of the mill. Bragg explains how the corrupt bosses would blame the workers’ troubled breathing on hangovers and laziness rather than inadequate working co nditions.Still, however, the workers would show up day after day because they knew that the mill gave them a means of survival. The workers of the mill never gave up hope, though, that things would get better, and, eventually, they did. Over time conditions improved. Profile mill workers, in time, earned â€Å"one of the best blue collar paychecks in the foothills. † The book is informative because it does exactly that–it informs. If I had not read this book, I would have never learned the stories of these brave Americans and their families. It tells you what life in a mid 20th century mill town was like.Bragg doesn’t stop at informative, however. He portrays the workers’ stories in a way that one becomes attached to them. Bragg writes in such an eloquent and descriptive manner that by the end of the book, one believes that he or she actually knows the mill workers of Jacksonville, Alabama. One of the most amazing components of this book, in my opinion, i s that the workers living this tragedy didn’t even realize that they were living one. It was just their life. They worked in such harsh working conditions and under such greedy bosses, but they didn’t look at themselves with pity. They didn’t complain.They did what they had to do to support their family and to make ends meet. Another intense part of the book for me was reading Charlie Hardy’s story. Charlie lost his arm to a machine and by result had to give up on his talent of guitar playing. Since I am a musician myself, I can hardly imagine what it would feel like to be told that I would never be able to play the guitar again. Rick Bragg’s The Most They Ever Had is amazing book of conquest over struggle. The mill workers of Jacksonville, Alabama gave life and limb to provide for their family and never gave up hope that someday things would get better.They never gave up on their families that depended on that paycheck. The Most They Ever Had show s that things in life don’t always come easy and that we must work hard for the things in life we love most. I highly recommend this book to anyone that likes a good conquest story because that’s what this story boils down to. It’s the story of how the workers of the Profile cotton mill trying to overcame the struggles of everyday life in the textile mill of Jacksonville, Alabama. Works Cited: Bragg, Rick. the most they ever had. San Fransisco: MacAdam/Cage, 2009. Print.

Legal and Financial Aspects Influencing a Start Up Business Essay

Legal and financial aspects will affect the start-up of a business in many ways. These can aid the start-up of a business, or they can make the business struggle. Financial aspects that will make your affect the start-up of your business negatively would be things like an increase in costs for things such as expenses e.g Electricity, resources for product, wages. If you have just started your business, and you are already losing money, there is not really any point in continuing the business. If you can’t cover your expenses you will not make any profit, so you will need to pay attention to the Break Even Point, to see if with the combined cost of expenses and costs, and the amount of money you are making from sales, that you are actually making profit, not making a profit, or you are just losing money. Someone starting up a business will need to plan a budget, this is essential if you don’t want to get into a worst case scenario and not have any idea what to do in that situation, to create a budget you should pay attention the current economic status, then how much your fixed and variable costs will cost. Someone starting up a business should also make a reserve of money so that if the economy makes a turn for the worse, they will be able to fund the losses and keep the business going. Legal aspects of a start-up business are needed to be known by the person starting up the business, if you do not know these you will lots of trouble understanding the legal requirements and responsibilities of managing and running a business. Legal aspects that would affect the start-up of a business would be things like licences; you may need a minimum of a business licence and tax registration to start up a business, but it depends on what sector you are operating in. To start up a business you need to categorise yourself into one of these ownerships, a sole proprietorship (A business owned and managed by a single person), a partnership (A business owned by two or more people) or a corporation (A business owned by a large varied group of people), then you register that information to the Inland Revenue, providing this information early also lets them receive money back. When you start up a business it is essential to remember to charge clients and employees VAT (Value Added Tax), the profit from the VAT is then sent to the Inland Revenue. Privately owned companies need to pay Corporation tax which again goes to the Inland Revenue. When you are starting a business and hiring employees, Health and  Safety Responsibilities should be remembered, since you need to make sure that your employees are working in a safe environment, you will need to carry out a risk assessment to identify the risks for employees, customers etc.

The Culture of Basseri Tribes of Iran Research Paper

The Culture of Basseri Tribes of Iran - Research Paper Example Culture plays a very important role in shaping behavior and attitudes and it is particularly true in spirituality and religion. It is believed that how a makes its living and the modes of subsistence has a strong impact on the culture. This paper aims at studying the culture of Basseri of Iran. Different modes of subsistence and its impact on the culture will be discussed. The Basseri culture and its various aspects of modes of subsistence such as Foragers, Horticulturist, Pastoralist, Emerging Agriculturist, Agrarian states or industrialist will also be discussed. Culture is a very vast field which is depicted in all strata’s of life that is beyond the scope of this paper. This paper will be restricted to only three aspects of culture namely social organization, kinship, beliefs and values. Basseri of Iran Basseri of Iran is the nomadic Muslim tribe that is mainly defined as a political group rather than geographical or ethnic criteria. The Basseri’s though mostly are geographically bounded and they inhabit the province of Fars and have migrated near the town of Shiraz along the mountain. This traditional Basseri culture still exists in Iran although there are new recent data available on them such as the size of the population. Language is a strong component of any culture. The language of Basseri is a dialect of Farsi called the Basseri dialect. Most of the members of the Basseri tribe can only speak Basseri dialect but a few also has command over Turkish and Arabic dialect. Basseri is a very old tribe of the area hence most of the population in southern Iran has ancestral link with Basseri. The east of Iran, Semnan, is inhabited by other nomadic groups such as Yazd-e-Khast, the Bugard-Basseri, and Basseri. However it is believed that all of them have rooted from the traditional Basseri of Fars. The political history of Basseri started in the mid-nineteenth century when Khamesh confederacy was formed. Basseri was part of it. The importance and influence of Basseri tribe grew with passage of time and they became an important political and social unit and hence diminished the power and authority of the confederacy. The habitat of the Basseri is hot and acrid climate of the Persian Gulf. They traditionally inhabit a large ecological range of 18,000 to 21,000 square kilometers. In the southern section there is a desert of about 600-900 kilometers whereas north has high mountains. Mountain precipitation supports reasonable vegetation and even foresting (Khanam, 2005). Modes of Subsistence Different modes of subsistence has evolved as societies and human civilizations evolved. This evolution process has been more or less the same throughout the world. The reason is that these modes of subsistence are derived from the needs and how these needs have been satisfied defines the progression of modes of subsistence. These modes of subsistence have a strong role to play in the definition of social structure, culture, values, beliefs a nd customs. Based on this concept many theories have been proposed for the progress and social change (Marko, 2008, issue 39). One such theory is proposed by Smith. According to him based on modes of subsistence and its impact on social institution and human activity, societies can be divided into four categories. Smith’s four stages of human civilization are age of hunters, age of Sheppard,

The importance of derived demand in B2B marketing Essay

The importance of derived demand in B2B marketing - Essay Example In terms of technology, the company has established the need of aligning the company with emerging technologies. Additionally, the company considers Loyalty of each client paramount and in doing this, looks for ways how to be loyal to customers. The report explores much on marketing strategies that helps organization to concentrate on the greatest opportunities to increase their earnings and attain a sustainable competitive advantage. Many companies adopt the need of having marketing strategies in running their businesses centered on shopper, consumer and retailer need. Due to stiff competition, the company has taken a lot of time to evaluate opportunities that would enhance success. The purpose of this has been to evaluate companies of the same nature and assemble them to offset the marketing program. The company has established that it is from consumer’s needs that their productivity is informed and achieves a notable growth. Introduction Business to Business popularly known as B2B is a commercial transaction that occurs between two businesses as in the example of a manufacturer and a wholesaler (Block & Block, 2005) . The term was coined with the main purpose being to differentiate between electronic communication that was taking place between businesses and consumers. The term has been used mostly to describe the business transactions that take place between two businesses in an online scenario. Therefore, B2B marketing mostly involves sending and receiving mails plus other activities that take place in the online environment. This report seeks to explore the concept of derived demand and B2B marketing. Objectives The main objectives of this paper are to find out how a company (SolidWorks in this case) that is involved in B2B marketing: 1. Estimates derived demands 2. Evaluates business segmentation opportunities 3. Develops a new channel strategy that is aligned to one business segment About SolidWorks SolidWorks is a software engineering (CAD softw ares) which mostly sold to mechanical engineers (Brennan, 2011). The company engages so much in marketing activities by use of links that lead people to their site where they have advertised their products. Derived Demand and B2B marketing Derived demand in marketing term can be defined as the requirement that comes up as a result of purchasing another product. This mostly occurs in cases where the consumer has bought the product with the main purpose being to use it for purposes of production (Bruhn, 2003). The main reason for this is that the purchase of these products is normally due to desire to have their final products. In the case of the software manufacturing company Solidworks, there are a number of ways in which it determines the derived demand in which it decides to respond. All the demand in B2B chain are as result demands that are made somewhere by the consumer. SolidWorks being a software development company relies on engineers who want to design either bridges, houses or other building designs that the consumer has demanded for (Christopher & Ballantyne, 2002). However, the value chain is still incomplete because the consumer sought the services of the mechanical engineer and the engineer sought the service of a software developer who in turn sought the service of the person who developed the programming language. The position that the company is in the chain of value addition determines the contact that it has with the consumer (Bernadson & Toole, 2007). The

Strategies and International Business in IKEA Comapany Essay

Strategies and International Business in IKEA Comapany - Essay Example To begin with, the company lowered the prices of its goods and services in the home country and in the global market (Coe, 2009). This factor made it attract more customers from the competitors. Consumers are sensitive to prices and any slight difference would make them shift and enjoy the relatively lower prices. Because of the higher priced competitors’ products, IKEA managed to record increase in their customer base. Secondly, IKEA engaged in continuous designing of their products to improve their quality and preference. They also engaged in continuous introduction of new innovative products. Moreover, the company used the trademark to protect its goods from being counterfeited by the competitors. Trademark would also make IKEA products be distinct from those of the competitor's top help avoid confusion and to help in developing a brand (IKEA, 2010). In addition, IKEA opened their retail stores in the countries in which it operated to increase the availability of its products and to ensure customers get the direct attention from their agents (IKEA, n.d.). The opening of stores abroad would also ensure that the different customers’ demands are integrated into the production of the company’s goods. IKEA strength is gained from the variety of products it offers and the low prices it offers for their products. Through this, it reduced the costs through lowering storage space and reduced labor cost. The opening of the retails in Germany, Switzerland and US further made IKEA enjoy the wide market coverage and smooth its sales in case the product performance is not good in some of the geographical coverage. However, IKEA suffers from the problem of controlling quality in the global market without hiking the prices of their products (Coe, 2009). To sell their products at low prices mean that IKEA has to sacrifice the profit margin. The environmental regulation further poses a threat to the company since the materials used in manufacturing their furniture requires destruction of trees hence a potential threat. Several reasons prompted IKEA chose Switzerland as the first country to internationalize.  

Discussion paper on New actors in international and global health Essay - 1

Discussion paper on New actors in international and global health focuse on NGOs - Essay Example piece of discussion I will also put light on all kinds of loop holes present in current and emerging NGOs and would end up with number of suitable suggestions and recommendations for the improvement of these supporting bodies within a country. NGOs plays a significant role in improving the struggling masses present in the third world countries and in developing nations to an extent for which, I would use various references from books based on facts and figures to make this discussion qualitative and reasonable for the reader to understand the original essence of the topic. This paper analysis and discusses about the issues raise in Non Governmental Organizations which are non- profitable at the same time around the globe. In this era, where communication is not an issue and distances are no more a deal, all the NGOs have worked together and settled down together with civil society organizations to make a remarkable difference. Some of the facts which are eye catching, as it is getting into power rapidly. â€Å"Nationally, the non-profit arts and culture industry generates $166.2 billion in economic activity every year:   $63.1 billion in  spending by organizations and an additional $103.1 billion in event-related spending by their audiences†. Non-profit sectors/non-governmental organizations work in every community which includes rebuilding cities, schools for primary education, supporting the workforce,  medical assistance, old age masses, elevating the arts, mentoring our youth, protecting natural resources, and much more. In this deal, many new names of business industry and actors are coming up with great deals to offer. They are working for humanity not in a particular region but throughout and around the globe. All these points will be discussed in detail later in this paper. As the masses of the globe situated at different corners were dipping more and more into crises like Health, lack of education, insecurity, poverty and hunger, and when these issues

Christianity and the American Indian Research Paper

Christianity and the American Indian - Research Paper Example Specifically, these worldviews were deeply rooted in religion and experiences of the sacred. It is the thesis of this paper that the influence of Christianity on Native American culture played a significant role in reshaping the lives of the Amerindians through suppression of spiritual ceremonies and a flagrant disregard for an existence considered to be based on superstition and ignorance. II. BODY Most of the European settlers who came to America were of a Christian religious orientation.3 A basic experience of the sacred in Christianity is that God is The Father. George Washington, and those who took up management of the â€Å"Indians† under his leadership and after his time, perceived the Europeans to be more civilized, of superior intelligence and leadership capability, and entrusted by God to represent His will in I II converting the â€Å"savages† to Christian values, beliefs, over-all perspective, and guidelines for living.4 It is every Christian’s duty t o evangelize the â€Å"truth†. Government authority in White America, being Christian, must represent God to the Natives. The government presented itself as â€Å"Father†, or â€Å"The Great White Father†5 Identifying themselves as â€Å"Father† was a symbol of God-like self-perception, a belief in their own inviolable sacred authority. â€Å"Father†, from a patriarchal European mindset, indicated a belief in their own omnipotence and omniscience, an assumption that they know best. A father is responsible, loving, kind, truthful, supportive, caring, guiding his children in a right way. The White Father, on the other hand, was irresponsible, violent, continuously telling lies and betraying â€Å"his children†, enforcing policies that depleted Native resources and ruined the land, humiliated, insulted and starved the Indians. The path he led them on was intolerable and destructive. While the government and settlers forced conversion to Christi anity, speaking of a Jesus who loved them, at the same time they were continuously punitive toward the Native Americans. Native children were eventually forced into mission-sponsored boarding schools where they were forced to join and attend Christian churches and demonstrate Christian ideals. Native language and religious traditions were strictly prohibited, and the slightest infractions were severely and violently punished6. III Their parents fared similarly. They suffered terrible challenges and limited resources on reservations. They were molded into helplessness, their traditional ways stripped from them. Practicing their religious traditions was legally forbidden.7 The law allowed Native spiritual leaders to be imprisoned up to 30 years.8. This was the law until 1978, when a new law was finally passed, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, recognizing the rights of the Native American sovereign nations to practice their own cultural and religious traditions9. This was fol lowed, in 1993, by the Native American Free Exercise of Religion Act, which allowed religious use of peyote, s traditional practice critical to the spiritual practices of Peyote Indians.10 Of course, by then most of these traditions had been lost.. â€Å"Within four hundred years of their first contact, the white man had succeeded in stripping Native American civilizations of virtually all of their land and had nearly wiped their cultures from the face of the earth.11 The Christian concept of there being only one truth, Christian truth, was not congruent with

SESSION LONG PROJECT MODULE 5 TOTAL REWARDS (USAA INSURANCE COMPANY) Essay

SESSION LONG PROJECT MODULE 5 TOTAL REWARDS (USAA INSURANCE COMPANY) - Essay Example This method also helps attract the employees and their attention and help retaining the employees to a great extent. Here in most cases this method helps in improving the morale and levels of motivation and productivity of the employees, thereby being a major benefit for the company as well (Thompson). Using this technique in USAA will be very helpful due to the nature of the job. Here the company will be able integrate the organizational culture, business strategy and also the human resources strategy and draw them towards one main focus, i.e. the total rewards system which focuses on includes all aspects like the compensations, benefits, work life, recognition and performance of the employees and also the overall development and career opportunities. Together all of these are focused towards attracting and motivating people which in turn leads to better satisfaction and engagement of the employees. This concept is clearly one which will remain and become more common within companie s (Buchanan and Huczynski). This technique is here to stay and companies can benefit from the technique to a very great extent. The drawback of this technique, in the case of USAA, it proves to be very costly for a number of employees and also does not meet the needs of the employees.

How did the designations aliens ineligible for citizenship and the Research Proposal

How did the designations aliens ineligible for citizenship and the yellow peril negatively affect Asian Americans in the years prior to 1952 - Research Proposal Example Second, this designation led to separated or hurt families (Hutchison 44). Such families suffered mental effects because of this designation. Male-controlled familial structures among Asian Americans were not common in the United States before 1952. The statistical and social supremacy of Chinese males, together with domestic separation and customary diversity extended the assimilation procedure for Asian immigrants. This is the third negative effect of this designation that also allowed the dominant perception of Asian Americans as alien immigrants (Brilliant 34). Fourth, the â€Å"Aliens Ineligible for Citizenship† policy led to increased demands for Asian prostitution because of the absence of Asian women (Brilliant 34). Frequently disguised as business wives, selected Americans drew or bought and shipped women from Asian nations like China to serve as prostitutes in the United States. Shortly afterwards, Asian prostitution was perceived as an annoyance alongside West Coast and legislators responded by passing the Page Law in 1875. This law enabled customs officials at ports to refute entrance to Asian women believed to be imminent prostitutes in the United States (Brilliant 36). The designation â€Å"Yellow Peril† radically transformed into one of the approvals as Asian success tales began becoming increasingly common all through the American community (Allred 58). Before this transformation, this policy was the source of some of the worst discriminations against Asian Americans in history. This designation coined the phrase â€Å"model minority† to refer to Asian in the United States (Allred 61). This phrase acted as a model for other minorities. As a result, Asian Americans became a widespread outcast in America and suffered more discrimination than any other minority group. Secondly, as a type of subtle discrimination, the â€Å"Yellow Peril† designation fostered the spread

Section I of the Capital Project Research Paper

Section I of the Capital Project - Research Paper Example With every capital purchase, an organization aims to meet a set of organizational needs. A capital purchase would not benefit an organization unless it contributes to the organization’s productivity or overall performance efficacy. This paper will discuss a software purchase a healthcare organization made for filing patient records properly. The paper will give particular focus on managerial, organizational, and economic benefits of this capital purchase. Capital purchase To define, â€Å"a capital purchase is defined as any purchase of $1000 and over† (Novak, 1996, p.335). Capital purchases are considered as long term assets of an organization. Generally, capital purchases are viewed as capital investments, capital assets, or capital acquisitions. The process of capital acquisition can benefit a healthcare organization in a number of ways. In the view of Gitman and McDaniel (2008, p.434), capital acquisitions add to an organization’s asset strength, which in tur n contributes to the firm’s value chain efficiency and service efficiency. In the case of healthcare organizations like hospitals, a capital purchase is mainly intended to improve the quality of care delivery and thereby promoting patient safety. ... The planned software purchase for filing patient records costs more than $5,000, and therefore, it is a capital purchase. This capital acquisition may assist the healthcare environment to deliver improved patient care services at affordable costs. Management goals of the purchase This capital acquisition would support many management goals including revenue growth, operational efficiency improvement, improved productivity, quality assurance, performance evaluation, reduced employee hiring and training costs. Loretz (2005) says that filing patient records manually is a difficult task because a large number of patients visit a healthcare institution every day. Hence, a healthcare institution needs to employ a large workforce to manage patient records appropriately. Evidently, an organization is forced to spend huge amounts on employee hiring and training in order to file patient records manually (p.2). This situation would probably reduce the firm’s profitability. However, compu terized patient records handling system would assist a healthcare environment to manage patient data effectively and inexpensively. A software-based patient information filing system is beneficial for the organization to minimize the level of employee hiring because such a program may be capable of handling patient data more accurately and quickly. Even though this purchase may cost huge money initially, this acquisition would benefit the organization to trim down employee hiring and training expenses in the long term. Consequently, this may aid the firm to reduce its operating expenses and thereby improve profitability. As we discussed earlier, a software-based program can more quickly and accurately manage patient information;

Mental representation Essay Example for Free

Mental representation Essay Memory is defined as the process of storing and retreiving information. There are three major memory processes namely encoding, storing and retreival. During encoding, information is placed or stored in the memory by a mental representation. The information is being input to the mind for further retenetion. After being encoded the information or stimuli is now being stored. It is now placed in a permamnent mental state for later recall. The brain needs to process first as to what type of memory it has gathered before putting it to storage. This is where the idea of memory types emerge. Sensory memory is the initial step in memory which involves a process that hold visual and auditory information in its raw form for a very brief period of time. Examples of these are iconic (visual) and echoic (audio) memory. Thesetypes of memories are being stored for about a quarter of a second or more. Sensory memory prevent s the brain from being overwhelmed from too many incoming stimuli because anything that you do not attend or respond to will vanish in a matter of seconds. Rather than that, it also gives us decision time, stability, playback and recognition. After this process, the brain now determines whether to keep this memory for goof or not. Now it depends on which type of memory, either be long term or short term memory to which these informations can be retreived. This process is also called as the output of information from the memory system. From where this memory is retreived, now thats the big question. There are two types of memory retenetion namely short term memory and long term memory. Short term memory is also called the working memory that can hold only a limited amount of information and will remain up to 30 seconds (Cherry, 2010). It can hold an average of 7 items for a short period of time for approximately 20-30 seconds. However, despite its limited capacity and duartion, it can possibly increase through â€Å"chunking†. Short term memory can help us be attentive on a certain stimuli since it excludes other uncessesary ones. It can also improves ones retention of information since the is rehearsed in the mind over and over. Long term memory, however, is the type of memory that can store almost unlimited amounts of information for a long period of time (Cherry, 2010). There are two types of long term memory, first of which has another subdivision. Declarative memory involves memory of facts or evets. It can either be episodic or semantic. Episodic memory are knowledge of specific events, personal experiences or activities (such as naming or describing a favorite bar, songs, movies) while semantic memory involves knowledge of facts, concepts or words, definitions and language rules. Another type of long term memory is procedural which tackles about skills, habits, and things learned from classical conditioning. There are instances in which some people tend to forget. What may be the reasons for this? Forgetting is defined as the inability to retreive, recall or organize information that was stored or still stored in long term memory (Copeland, 2006). Most forgetting occurs because information in working memory was never transferred to long term memory. It can also occur because we lost our access to information that is in long term memory. One proposed theory to this was the repression theory. According to Sigmund Freud, informatio that is theatening to our self is automatically driven away into our consciousness from which we cannot retreive. It is one of his many proposed defense mechanisms. Another theory is the interference theory. It is defined as the inhibition of recall of certain information by the presence of other information in memory (Copeland, 2006). There are two types of interference: (1) retroactive and, (2) proactive. Retroactive interference is the decrease inability to recall previosuly learned information caused by learing new information while proactive is the exact opposite, defined as the decrease ability to learn new information caused by interference from existing information. In order to avoid these, psychologists suggests a number of ways to improve retention and to aid learning. One can increase their study time in order to store more memory. It will also be useful to distribute practice in order not ot mix up things. Speed reading is also advisable. Though speed reading can lead to poorer comprehension and retention of materials, it can also be useful if the materials are needed only for a short period of time. Arousal is also a factor to be considered. This means the stimulation of thoughts and conditioning of the mind. Sleep is an important factor to consider since sleep deprivation has a great effect in learning. References Cherry, Kendra. (2010). Memory: An Overview of Memory Retreived from http://www. psychology. about. com/ Copeland, David E. , Radvansky, Gabriel A. (2006). Memory retrieval and interference: working memory issues. Retreived from http://www. sciencedirect. com/ Defense mechanisms. (2010). Retreived from http://www. changingminds. org/

Features of Intercultural Communication

Features of Intercultural Communication Intercultural communication is about how people from different cultures communicate. It is a face to face communication between people from different cultures and backgrounds (Lewis, Slade 2000). In University, the mixing of different cultures is a good example of intercultural communications. Every day, we learn different things about different cultures. This is important as it allows the world to grow and become closer allowing countries to have relations with each other and to learn and respect the different beliefs of other cultures. There will be problems faced along the way to achieving these goals nevertheless there are always ways to overcome these problems. Problems such as language barriers, traditionalbeliefs , Gender with regards religion are the main issues which present difficulties towards learning about different cultures. One of the problems that can affect the movement of intercultural communications is traditional beliefs. For example, Koreans traditionally as a sign of acknowledgement and respect, greet one another with a bow. If a westerner goes to Korea and greets a Korean with a wave, it may be disrespectful towards the Korean. This can be overcome by education and the acceptance of multiculturalism within each country. A country cannot expand if it does not except multiculturalism. Storey Douglas said in his article that international communications including the flow of popular culture and news, as well as educational, economic, and professional exchange, are shown to have profound influences on how people develop images of other nations and how perceptions and misperceptions affect interaction at the national level (Douglas 1988). Language is the key to a person’s self-identity. It enables the person to express emotions,  share feelings, tell stories, and convey complex messages and knowledge. Language is our  greatest mediator that allows us to relate and understand each other (Imberti, 2007). It can be defined as a system of conceptual symbols that allows us to communicate. It also provides us with a significant frame of reference and a relational context that sustains our identities (Imberti, 2007). An example of how language can be a barrier towards intercultural communication is when a Chinese man is unable to communicate to a Western man because of his lack of knowledge of the English language vice versa. Aki Uchida mentioned in her article about understanding the need to learn English, she saw it as an important means of relating to people of different cultures and constructing shared knowledge and understanding (Uchida 1997). Understanding the need to learn another language is important for overcoming the language barrier to enable communications between cultures helping us relate to different cultures and sharing our knowledge and understanding of our cultures to them. Some cultures believe that women are inferior to men. It is a barrier preventing us to achieve intercultural communication. For example if a successful Australian woman goes to the middle east where women are permitted to work and their job were to simply stay at home and look after the kids, Middle eastern men may find that very intimidating and offensive therefore avoiding any form of communication with the Australian woman. Aki Uchida suggested in her article that emphasizing the possibility that the beliefs and practices that constitute gender are salient cultural resources and attributes that participants may reject, accept, or integrate in the course of cultural building (Uchida 1997). To build obtain intercultural communications; people have to learn to accept and respect their dogmata of another culture for communication to transpire. In respects to the example I gave, Middle eastern men should accept and respect the culture of Australian society and not be afraid to approach the Australian woman with respect and benevolence. Like-wise the Australian woman should realize their culture and be more respectful towards the men not in an inferior way but a restrained manner (not coming across as too aggressive). These are ways that we can form bridges to further improve our drive towards obtaining intercultural communication with different cultures. However there are still people in the world who are ethnocentric. Ethnocentric is having the idea that your particular belief or culture is better than other cultures and beliefs. Having this mind set will only set us back in hopes of obtaining multiculturalism and cross cultural communication. Ethnocentrism is divided into three stages, denial, defence and minimization are the three ways to define an ethnocentric person (Chu 2014). The person is in denial which means he or she is completely not interested in dealing with people of different cultures (Chu 2014). They are comfortable in their culture and usually do not want to step out and accept a different culture. Some are in Defence and take action towards people of different cultures (Chu 2014). Their actions are usually caused by fear of an unknown belief or action and therefore in defence, they retaliate against the person in other words categorising them as â€Å"minorities†. Minimization is when they recognise a different culture but at a very superficial and minimal kind of level (Chu 2014). Our aim should be to try and help those who are ethnocentric to slowly move towards being ethnorelative. Naomi Ludemen Smith described in her article that to be ethnorelative is to adopt a position that dismantles any notion that there is a set of universal standards by which we can rightfully judge or confront the good and the bad of how a people group, religion, and society lives (Smith 2013). ethno relativism is divided into three stages, acceptance, adaptation and integration. Acceptance is to tolerate different cultures, Adaptation is to experience emphathy towards a different culture and integration is not regarding that there is a dominant culture (Chu 2014). To move from ethnocentrism to ethnorelativism, according to Deardorff, the attitudes move from top to bottom. Firstly, when dealing with another culture, the ethnocentric individual will have to show respect, openness and curiosity discovery (Chu 2014). This is the basic requirement before moving on to the next stage of gaining knowledge and skills to adaptation. Individual has to show cultural self-awareness which is acknowledging that his or her culture is not perfect. After realising this, you will accept another culture and gain an understanding of it and slowly being open o listen, observe and show respect to a different culture (Chu 2014). After which, a desired internal outcome will be obtained. The individual will gain an ethnorelative mindset and will be able to empathise with other cultures. Lastly, the individual will obtain the desired external outcome being able to behave and communicate affectively and appropriately to achieve his or her goals to some degree with another culture (Chu 2014). Our ultimate goal is to achieve intercultural competence in todays globalised society. All these technical tools on how to become more ethnorelative will be completely useless if the individual does not possess the correct ethics. we need to have ethics when it comes to competence of intercultural communication. In order to address ethics in communication, we must recognise them as an extension of personal convictions or we condemn ourselves to study them as idealistic, theoractical constructs (Casmir 2013). We have to gain these ethics ourselves, gaining knowledge of the norms within other cultures and show respect towards these norms, show hospitality to people from other cultures for others to display respect to our culture therefore displaying the awareness of different cultures ethical responses (Chu 2014). At the end of the day, it is people who communicate with each other and not cultures that communicate with each other. If we look at the differences between cultures from our perspective, there are many differences however if you look at it from a individual human to human perspective, There is not much difference in the way people react to things (Chu 2014). We have to put ourselves into unknown territory for us to change and appreciate different cultures and to display ethics. The learning process or acculturation which is the process of the meeting of cultures and the changes which result from such meetings (Chu 2014). How we acculturate is the same as how we learn about things in our daily lives such as university or our work place, we expose ourselves to unknown situations and learn from it by excepting it. Intercultural empathy is shown when we place ourselves in the shoes of someone from a different cultures perspective and try to understand what it is like from their eyes (Chu 2014). It is like setting a goal for ourselves in the future and working backwards from that goal that way guide us and sets a focus into attaining our goal. Intercultural competence is important to communications because it helps us bridge cultural differences within and among nations (Chu 2014). Multiculturalism is spreading around the world due to globali zation with counties helping each other expand through trades and multi national operations. Therefore, migration is high and individuals from different cultures are made to interact with one another which is why it is necessary for us to have an ethical response to the social reality of cultural tension. Why not get along to help make the world a better place to live in.

Video Games And Children Education Essay

Video Games And Children Education Essay Video games, children love them, but youre not so sure. Here you can find out about the risks and benefits of video games, plus some ideas for choosing appropriate games and managing your childs interest in playing them. did you know According to a 2005 survey: 76% of families set rules about which types of games their children could play.   Games with cartoon-style violence can send the message that violence is a good way to solve conflict. They can also make kids less sensitive to real-life violence, or make them overly fearful about violence in their own world. What are video games? Playing it safe Benefits of playing video games Problems of playing video games What about violence in video games? What are video games? Video games are electronic, interactive games that come in many forms: CDs, DVDs, internet downloads and online games. They can be played on a personal home computer (PC), television or portable hand-held device. Some games are controlled by a separate joystick or console, while others use the computer keyboard and/or mouse. Many games (including those online) can be played by several people at once. The big name brands for video games are Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo. Playing it safe The best way for your child to learn from video games is when you play together. An added bonus is that youll spend some time with each other and have fun! Here are some ideas for making the most of video games with your child. Set ground rules of one hour: aim for this recommended daily  screen time  for children under seven or eight. Moderate: aim for balance in your family activities, so that everyone has a go at physical activity, creative activities  and interactive social games. Work together to prioritise indoor play time, outdoor fun, homework and time spent with friends. Get involved: ask your child to show you how a game works its the best way to tune into what your child is learning. Make a mental note of the kinds of games your child enjoys and finds challenging. So if your child is really enjoying a game about dinosaurs, for example, you can broaden his knowledge by finding books or movies on the topic. Discuss: talk to your child  about the games he is playing. Find out what your child likes or dislikes about the games and ask what he would change or add to make them better. This will develop his analytical and critical skills. Be informed: read reviews of the games you think might be suitable for your child. Make sure you carefully read the blurb on the games cover. And dont forget to check the games rating games rated G or PG are more likely to suit young children. Borrow before buying: if possible, borrow games from a library or a friend before making a purchase. You might find that your child isnt interested in a particular game, or you dont approve of the games content or concepts.   Dr. Mona warned left a consulting psychology of the many children watching the kid cartoons and played video game in the first three years of age, where it may lead to decreased levels of intelligence and the ability to communicate and collection. Said Dr. Mona left in the program Good Morning Egypt on Monday morning said the research proved that watching television in the early age of the child lead to a lack of focus makes the child as much movement, the child also Tbehrh colors and speed of movement in the cartoon tends and loves to watch a lot, which it at the age of nursery tired of explaining the lessons is a modern teacher to receive information. And recommended Mona Yousry mothers need to identify the assets of the childs education from birth through the reading, or search the electronic information network, or the use of a specialist in psychology for child-rearing in a scientific way so that it can avoid the mental and neurological problems they face in old age. She consultant child psychology that the American Academy of Children recommended in a recent non-exposed children under three years for any electronic games or watch cartoons. She noted that if the Mona return the child to sit for several hours in front did not respond kindly to reduce the period, the mother use a physician for treatment of addiction, net and to increase communication with friends and family to keep him on the damage that addiction. Abstract The ability to balance cooperative and competitive behaviors has important implications for a childs overall development. While socially competent children appear to learn highly successful strategies for entering peer groups and negotiating access to limited resources, the development of this level of social competence can be challenging for preschool-aged children. Early childhood educators may therefore have to intervene to develop the childs social competence and promote the use of negotiation and effective conflict management strategies. Using theories of social exchange and human sociobiology, this paper reviews literature on cooperation and competition involving limited resources and highlights the implications of this research for early childhood education. Results suggest that a variety of individual and social-contextual factors might influence a childs development of socially competent behavior. The review highlights the importance of teaching children to negotiate effecti vely with peers. Introduction Many educators view school-age students attraction to video and computer games with envy. If only we could harness the power of video games in education, some say, with a wistful expression. Some equate the attraction of the game to the computer, and hope that any educational experience that occurs on a computer will somehow capture that magic. Some delve deeper, designing extensive educational simulations that adopt conventions of popular game design and expensive production values merged with educational content. In this paper, I suggest how these attitudes combine with market forces to strongly reinforce bad design and curtail innovation, rather than support a vision of compelling, immersive educational experiences. There is no doubt that video and computer games have positive educational outcomes for the users. In an in-depth literature review, Alice Mitchell and Carol Savill-Smith conclude that there is the use of such games can stimulate the enjoyment, motivation and engagement of users, aiding recall and information retrieval, and can also encourage the development of various social and cognitive skills. (Mitchell Savill-Smith 2004). In this paper, educational games are games designed for youth in the age range of compulsory school, approximately ages 5 to 18 that contain overt attempts to teach school-related subjects. Video games are commercial games designed for a specific hardware console such as Nintendo GameCube and GameBoy, Microsoft X-box, and Sony PlayStation. Computer games are designed for use on personal computers, either by running application software on the computer or playing a game online. As time goes on these distinctions blur, but the markets are different enough to make this distinction. This paper, written by an educator who also designed video games and computer software for the home and school markets, evaluates attempts to harness the lure of these games for educational purposes. The paper offers an analysis of why the nature of video and computer games is antithetical to traditional forms of school curriculum, content and assessment, and why market forces, both consumer and educational, drive these design decisions. Why Are Games An Attractive Model For Education? When educators look at video and computer game players, they see young people suddenly transformed into attentive learners, willing to spend inordinate personal time learning to master complex situations. These same students, however, may not devote similar dedication to school-related activities. Educators wonder what it is about these games that could be used to make these game players devote the same attention to the goals of school. Educational software developers deconstruct the elements of video games and come to the conclusion that the game play can be extracted from the context. Therefore, the thought goes, mere substitution of educational content and context while leaving game play elements untouched will produce educational games with great benefits for learners and stockholders alike. In engaging computer and video games, the player must master a progressively challenging set of skills to advance each step in the game progression to ultimately win and end the game. This advancement through challenges is seen as a direct correlation to advancing through a course of study. In a classroom, the teacher guides the acquisition of skills and the students are able to progressively tackle harder problems, learn new facts and produce higher quality products required by the subject. It seems obvious that if an educational game led players through a similar process, similar results would be achieved, with the added benefit that students would pay attention and be engaged more than in a traditional classroom environment. Learning vs. Content Mastering skills comes in many forms. Game designers know that at some point, learning new skills has to end and you need to let the player start to play. Some games have a first level where skills are introduced, and then you start the real game. The actual content of the game, how to shoot your weapon, how to navigate your vehicle, how to throw the football, or any of the multitude of variations of game play is actually very limited. The game consists of becoming an expert in quickly selecting which of these skills are appropriate to your current situation. Learning in the game is a process, much of which ends in failure. Game designers know that there is a very special feeling that gamers get when they are being challenged at the right level. If you fail too quickly and too often, the gamer will give up. If the challenges are too easy, they will lose interest. Its not fun to simply win all the time. Frustration and failure result in the eventual euphoria of wining at a new level, and provides incentive to keep going. The secret of a videogame as a teaching machine isnt its immersive 3-D graphics, but its underlying architecture. Each level dances around the outer limits of the players abilities, seeking at every point to be hard enough to be just doable. In cognitive science, this is referred to as the regime of competence principle, which results in a feeling of simultaneous pleasure and frustrationa sensation as familiar to gamers as sore thumbs. James Paul Gee, a reading professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy Educational game developers have different design goals thrust on them. Any educational game designed for schools must meet demands for increased accountability and test scores. The content of games must tie to mandated curriculum standards, which list the things that students must know in a certain grade level. The game therefore correlates to these standards and provides assessment vehicles so the students progress through these standards can be measured. If this does not happen, the game will have a very limited market in schools. These standards are likely to differ from state-to-state and between nations, making development of these games even more expensive. In building these games, designers must often make sacrifices in creativity to allow content to fit into the game environment. Game play becomes rote, and graphics must be reused to accommodate the game elements that are drawn from a content pool. As much as the designers try, they are bound by the requirements of mandated content and simultaneous assessment to create a repetitive experience. These games may (or may not, depending on the research you read) increase standardized test scores, but they arent something that a student will devote time and energy to voluntarily like a video game. Some educational games go to great efforts to substitute the made-up worlds of video games with realistic educational worlds built to reproduce curriculum content. However, most educational games focus on low-level topics of simple literacy and arithmetic. The analytical rigor, ingenuity, and passion reserved for the most popular video games are seldom invoked by educational computer games. What is best about the best games is that they draw kids into some very hard learning. Did you ever hear a game advertised as being easy? What is worst about school curriculum is the fragmentation of knowledge into little pieces. This is supposed to make learning easy, but often ends up depriving knowledge of personal meaning and making it boring. Ask a few kids: the reason most dont like school is not that the work is too hard, but that it is utterly boring. (Papert, Easy Doesnt Do It.) Some commercial games do contain a lot of content, for example, sports simulations. Memorizing player statistics, playbooks and game statistics can help a player win the game. The difference is that the game is also playable without learning that content, but advancing in the game is easier when you do. There is no amount of content that is mandatory, in fact, some players will do very well by simply being skilled in game-play, while others may excel because they have memorized vast amounts of sports statistics. The game makes no judgement however, about which skills or content is more important than others, and offers all kinds of players many different ways to succeed. As another example, chess is a complex game with limited content. Chess is also well regarded as supporting educational goals such as promoting critical and logical thinking skills. Yet the content of the game of chess is fairly minimal. There are only a few pieces with special moves to learn, the rules are straightforward and the game board is simple. Most people can function at a beginner level with less than an hour of instruction. What is it about chess, then, that attracts brilliant people to devote their lives to it? Its that the rules are tuned so that highly complex and difficult problems are created relatively quickly. In chess, the process and resulting strategies for winning provide challenges that automatically escalate as players (and their opponents) become more adept at extending and complicating the game. As curriculum, chess could be done in a few weeks, with a test at the end assessing the students knowledge of chess moves, board set up, and perhaps some names of fa mous players. But anyone who would portray that as educationally appropriate would be laughed at. Market Forces Video and computer game designers face constraints placed on them by the market realties that exist in todays retail world. When a company makes a decision to create a game, they want to put their money into games that will make them the most return on their investment. Game designers work to create a game that will look great, play well, be engaging and offer the player an experience that surpasses anything else they have done before. Educational game designers have additional market forces thrust upon them that video game designers dont have to worry about. These market forces tend to further constrain educational game design in ways that are contrary to what game designers know makes a game fun and engaging. Consumer Market The consumer market for video and computer games is undergoing extreme pricing pressure that makes it very risky for publishers to invest the large amounts of money it takes to produce, market and sell these games. In the past ten years, the retail price of childrens computer games has dropped from over $40 (US) to less than $10 (US) due to many factors, including competition from free Internet sites. The market for video games has remained slightly more stable with less price erosion. For video games to be commercially viable, the development costs range from 5-60 million dollars (US). (Williams 2004) This does not include the costs associated with marketing and putting the product on retail shelves. These costs can exceed the development budget. To make matters worse, games sales are tracked by major retailers weekly, and a game that does not sell well within a few weeks will be pulled off the shelves to make room for something that will make more money. This does not allow for a game to develop a word of mouth or build a reputationthe game must be promoted with expensive marketing to make sure that the early sales are high. If not, the game will be unavailable or in the bargain bin in a matter of weeks. For a company to invest tens of millions of dollars in a new game, they want to be assured of success. Edutainment games, although less expensive to build, also are pressured to sell copies quickly. Retailers are often reluctant to put any box on the shelf that they do not instantly recognize as a potential hit, so they will tend to choose software for children, educational or not, based on licensed characters from popular television shows. Retailers see that parents will purchase games with familiar characters rather than ones with strong educational content. For video game systems, there are no educational games being developed. This market is controlled by the hardware console manufacturers. These manufacturers, Nintendo (Game Cube and Game Boy), Sony (PlayStation), and Microsoft (Xbox) control all games developed and produced for their platforms. Every game design must pass through their approval process. Their goal is to market their game systems to hard-core gamers because they are the ones who spend the most money. These manufacturers cannot allow their systems to be perceived as being for children, it confuses the brand message. They therefore actively discourage all games that are designed primarily for children. The only ones that pass the approval process are tie-ins with licensed characters currently starring in hit movies or TV shows. Without the approval of the game system manufacturer, there is no way to bring a game to market. These manufacturers also require a large royalty for every unit sold, further reducing any chance of profitability. In addition, video games labelled educational have sold so dismally that no one is making them anymore. Parents do not think of video game systems as being educational, they prefer their children to have fun and view these electronic games as a break from school and homework. Finally, proprietary consoles like the Leapfrog systems have temporarily replaced educational game purchasing for many parents. Unfortunately, these consoles only allow simple games that are little more than multiple choice drills. The School Market The school market for educational software provides some hope for educational game designers. Schools will pay more than consumers for software, and therefore, there should be more money to develop good educational games. However, looking closely at the numbers provides a more sobering conclusion. Simply by looking at the U.S. school market, you can see the economies of scale break down. There are approximately 115,000 K-12 school buildings in the U.S. (public and private.) At normal videogame pricing, sales of 500,000 units is required to breakeven (DFC Intelligence, 2004). Every school in the U.S. would have to purchase 4 units of any educational videogame for it to just to make the publishers investment back. Clearly, this is not a market that will by itself support the development and production of educational videogames. Traditional publishers, especially publicly traded ones, simply cannot tell their investors and shareholders that they choose to spend their money on something with a low, slow return on their investment when there are other choices that make more money. For this reason, educational software companies are concentrating their development and sales efforts on the sales of large instructional learning systems that can cost schools tens of thousands of dollars, even up to a million dollars for large installations. It is more efficient to make one sale for a hundred thousand dollars than to sell a thousand units of an educational game for $100 each. Inherent in the sale of these large systems is the promise that they will cover massive amounts of content and provide assessment data for the school system. This drives the design of this software towards the management of the content pool and reduces both the game play and the educational value of the software. Fear of government sanctions is responsible for revenue generated by these systems, not quality. Conclusion Educationally meaningful edutainment software requires substantial shifts in attitudes towards education both in the consumer and designer community. Its not as easy as plugging school content into a video game engine. In addition, success would necessitate changes in the retail environment or non-traditional sources of funding for game development. The current system of publishers working with retail and institutional purchasing works to reward the best-selling games in a very traditional capitalistic way. This makes it unlikely that games that do not fit into the current market expectations will be able to survive without an alternate source of funding for both development and dissemination. There are certainly non-profit organizations that can choose to avoid these channels. However, it is not even enough to give games away for free. Schools especially are hard pressed for time, and bringing in new programs that do not promise to fully meet every goal of the set curriculum is just not worth it. There may be instances of individual teachers integrating a game into their classrooms, but the impact would be very small relative to the dissemination effort that would be required. Likewise, busy parents will not even bother taking a free game, especially if it does not fit into their perception of their needs. Their own time is more valuable than that. Publishers recognize that reaching the mass-market parents is an expensive proposition. Unlike the entrenched audience of hard-core gamers who regularly disseminate information very efficiently through their own fan discussion boards, read similar magazines, and pay a lot of attention to new game releases, parents are much more difficult to reach. Given these facts, the difficulty of educational game dissemination would most likely be pretty demoralizing to any institution that would have to devote millions of dollars and years of effort in the hope that it would significantly impact education. That kind of investment would require at least some hope of reaching a wide audience for even the most benevolent non-profit to consider it a success. Educationally meaningful game software will require substantial shifts in attitudes towards education both in the consumer, publisher, and designer community. No one assumes it will be as easy as plugging school content into a video game engine. But it is daunting to grasp that success would require changes in the retail environment, a change in the current content-based assessment focus in schools, or need to rely on massive funding and patience from non-traditional sources of funding for game development and dissemination. Does this mean that it is impossible? Of course not. These markets are changing rapidly and there is a high likelihood that channels that are small or even not invented yet will become mainstream. The key is to understand how current market forces work to impact game design, and decide how (or whether) a game design will conform to these expectations. The best news is that if we accept that non-traditional publishing is required for revolutionary educational game design, designers do not have to feel constrained by current rules. Freeing educational game designers from mandated curriculum, outdated assessment practices, and mass-market cartoon characters may be the only way that educational games can make that paradigm shiftcreating the marriage of fun, engagement and academic legitimacy that innovative educational game designers envision.

The Pure Voice in Hardys Tess of the dUrbervilles Essay -- Tess of t

The Pure Voice in Tess of the D'Urbervilles      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Thomas Hardy often alludes to his heroine as the "soft and silent Tess."   "Soft" certainly insinuates her beauty, which Harrtainly insinuates her beauty, which Hardy stresses as her downfall.   However, it seems that Tess's silence is the all-pervading reason for her tragedies.   "The two men she encounters in her life steal her voice: one with violence, the other with his own language"(Jacobus 47).   Tess struggles with the damage that these men cause until redeeming herself through innocence.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Hardy, in his portrayal of Tess as "The Maiden," begins with the May Day Dance, where Tess has yet to develop her beauty but wears a red ribbon in her hair, the only girl to do so in the train of "white-frocked maids."   The ribbon signifies what she has that the other girls do not: an inner beauty which will win her-much against her will-the affections of men.   At the sight of her father singing on his way home, the other girls begin to giggle; Tess reprimands them harshly, saying, "Look here; I won't walk another inch with you if you say any jokes about him!"   Herokes about him!"   Her verbal aggressiveness causes the onlookers to follow her wishes.   This is one of the examples of how the maiden Tess was not silent. It also follows that when the fellows that danced with her "became fierce, she rebuked them."   She had no problem saying her mind and sticking to it in this phase.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Tess's conversation with her brother, Abraham, takes place during their midnight ride to deliver hives for her father.   They talk on and on about the stars and the belief that Tess holds that our star is "a blighted one."   Soon Abraham brings up the future planned for Tess, that she ... ... Ed. Charles P. C. Pettit New York: St. Martin's, 1994. 16-40. ---. Tess of the d'Urbervilles: Unorthodox Beauty. New York: Twayne, 1992. Chapman, Raymond. " 'Good Faith, You do Talk!': Some Features of Hardy's Dialogue." New Perspectives on Thomas Hardy. Ed. Charles P. C. Pettit. New York: St. Martin's, 1994. 117-36. Hall, Donald. Afterward. Tess of the d'Urbervilles. By Thomas Hardy. New York: Signet, 1980. 417-27. Hardy, Thomas. Tess of the d'Urbervilles. 1891. New York: Signet Classic, 1980.   Jacobus, Mary. "Tess: the Making of a Pure Woman." Thomas Hardy's   Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea   House Publications, 1987. 45-60. Mickelson, Anne Z. Thomas Hardy's Women and Men: The Defeat of Nature. Metuchen: Scarecrow, 1976. Weissman, Judith. Half Savage and Hardy and Free. Middletown: Wesleyan UP, 1987.   

Look at the significance of chapter five to the novel as a whole. Essay

Look at the significance of chapter five to the novel as a whole. Focus on the relevance and effect of the writer’s language to describe setting, character and what it shows about social and historical influences. Frankenstein is a Victorian novel written in the gothic genre. It is about a man, Victor Frankenstein, giving life to an inanimate being and abandoning it. The monster then seeks revenge and the love of what he believes to be his mother, Frankenstein. The author, Mary Shelley, wrote the book at the age of nineteen but was not able to get the book published at first, as she was a woman. Her husband, Percy Shelley, finally got the book published by an unknown author. It took years for Mary Shelley to officially become known as the author of Frankenstein. At the time the ideas portrayed in Frankenstein were grotesque and many thought it unbelievable for these thoughts to have come from the mind of a woman. Chapter five is the most significant chapter within the book as this is where the monster is created, which is the main beginning to the story. The first four chapters are to set the scene for the story and to show why Victor Frankenstein was so determined to bring life to an inanimate object. The novel addresses many important issues. Mary Shelley writes about how Frankenstein chose the most perfect body parts for his creation but once it is complete he finally sees the monster he has created. ‘No mortal could support the horror of that countenance’, this shows that when Frankenstein finally sees what the monster looks like he becomes afraid. Frankenstein had been blinded by obsession and has no sense of reality, ‘ how can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe’. He has taken such ... ...d. She shows this in the story as the monster was infused with life by electricity. Mary Shelley has a lot of social influence in the novel as she talks about the monster losing his mother, which symbolises the loss of her own mother. She was also shunned by society when she married Percy Shelley, which is like the society shunning the monster. When she talks about Frankenstein abandoning his creation she is symbolising the death of her own children. Also when she talks about the monsters sense of abandonment she is symbolising her life as at a young age as her mother died. She then ran away with Percy Shelley and was shunned by society and her father. Her and Percy had three children, two of whom died, and then Percy drowned leaving her with a two-year-old child and no money. The novel of Frankenstein reflects some of the pain within Mary Shelley’s life.

Measuring Reaction Rate Using Volume of Gas Produced

Chemistry 12 Formal Report Measuring Reaction Rate using Volume of Gas Produced By John Doe 23th October 2012 Introduction An essential element of chemistry is finding reaction rates. This is because chemists need to know how long a reaction should take. In addition to needing to know the rate of a reaction at any point in time to monitor how the reaction is proceeding. Many factors effect reaction rates, two shown above include temperature and concentration. Concentration affects the rate of reactions because the more concentrated a solution the more likely collisions between particles will be.This is simply because there are more particles present to collide with each other. When the temperature is higher, particles will have more energy. This means that more reactions will happen for two reasons, firstly more particles will come into contact with each other because they are moving around more and secondly because the reactions occur at higher speed making it more likely to succeed . A few other factors are the surface area and if a catalyst is present. The larger the surface area the more collisions will occur because there are more places for molecules to react with each other.A catalyst affects the rate of reaction not by increasing the number of collisions, but by making more of the collisions that do occur successful. Ordinary household bleach is an aqueous solution of sodium hypochlorite, NaClO, this contains little more than 5% NaClO by mass. Bleaching is caused by the ion. Under normal circumstances this ion breaks down slowly giving off oxygen gas and the chloride ion, . In order to speed up this reaction a catalyst is needed. In this experiment the catalyst used was cobalt (II) nitrate solution.When this is added to the bleach a black precipitate of cobalt (III) nitrate is formed which acts as a catalyst for the decomposition of The purpose of this experiment was to determine how concentration of reactants and temperature affect the rate of the react ion between bleach and 0. 01M cobalt (II) nitrate solution. In this experiment the volume of gas produced shows the rate of the reaction. Procedure Figure 1 Firstly, all safety protocols were ensured and applied (lab apron and safety goggles). The apparatus was set up with reference to figure 1 above.Then, the eudiometer was filled with water and inverted into the trough, which was half filled with water. It was held in a vertical position with the burette clamp attached to the stand. The rubber tubing was joined to the top of the glass tube, which goes through the stopper on the flask. The other end of the tubing was then placed into the neck of the eudiometer. 15mL of bleach solution was measured into the 25mL-graduated cylinder and poured into the Erlenmeyer flask. As followed, 5mL of 0. 10M of cobalt (II) nitrate solution was measured and poured into the 10mL-graduated cylinder.Once ready, the cobalt nitrate solution was poured into the flask containing the bleach solution, and the rubber stopper was immediately slotted in. It was then mixed and stirred as well as recorded (time). It was noted that a black precipitate of cobalt (III) oxide was forming, and from then on the flask was stirred gently and constantly. This was significant to dislodge bubbles of oxygen from the surface of the Co2O3 catalyst. Another thing that was important to note was that if the swirling was stopped or reduced, the rate decreases, so therefore the amount of swirling must be kept steady and uniform throughout the runs.The total volume of oxygen that had been collected was recorded every 30 seconds until a volume of 50mL was obtained. Also, the actual elapsed time of when the 50mL mark was reached was recorded. Once the first run was successful, the following needed to be repeated the same way: the same amount of solutions must be measured into the same containers, and the procedure of applying them needed to be the same too (time recorded, measurements, temperature, etc. ). The only thing that was different in the next run was that the reactants had to be at a temperature of 10? C above room temperature before mixed.This was accomplished by placing both the flask with bleach and the graduated cylinder with the cobalt (II) nitrate in a water bath for 10 minutes, and then adding the cobalt (II) nitrate to the flask, then back into the water bath. Hot water was used to increase the temperature, and cold water was used to adjust it. The next run was a similar idea to the previous one, but the reactants were brought down to a temperature 10? C below room temperature using ice. The steps to doing this are similar to the previous ones, but only this one required an addition of 20mL of water to the bleach solution before mixing.The reason being is so that the overall concentrations are half of their original vales. The run that followed after was also identical, but instead of adding 20mL, 60mL was added. Now the overall concentrations after mixing were one quart er of their original values. The experiment was practically over, but there always had to be cleaning and instructed disposal of chemicals. The product(s) was/were instructed to be disposed in the designated container only for the waste solution. Finally, all the parties that participated in the experiment were obliged to wash their hands thoroughly with soap and water before leaving the laboratory.Analysis and Results The rate of production of oxygen for each reaction was slightly different. The rate of reaction is determined by the equation; For the control where the reaction to place at room temperature and with bleach with a concentration of 0. 529M, the rate of production of oxygen was 36. 1 mL/minute. In next reaction which took place at a temperature 10? higher than that had a rate of 39. 5 mL/minute. Next was the reaction which took place at 10? below room temperature which resulted in a rate of 26. 8 mL/minute.In the reaction that 20 mL of distilled water was added to the b leach solution and the temperature was kept constant, the reaction rate dropped to 16. 2 mL/minute. Finally the slowest reaction occurred when 60 mL of distilled water was added to the bleach causing a rate of 10. 8 mL/minute. The rate value changes as the temperature is changed. When the temperature increases by 10? , the rate of the reaction increases by a factor of 0. 12 (12%). This is again changed when the temperature is changed to 10? below room temperature. This results in a rate of production of oxygen, which is decreased by a factor of 0. 5 (25%). When the concentrations were changed so did the rate of reaction. When the concentration was changed to 0. 265M the rate of reaction dropped by a factor of 0. 5 (50%) below the control value. Furthermore when 60mL of water was added to the bleach dropping the concentration too 0. 132M the rate dropped by a factor of 0. 7 (70%). Bleach should never be mixed with any acid based cleaners because it results in the formation of toxic C l- gas. If bleach is mixed with an acid based cleaner in a small room it will result in a toxic build up of chlorine gas, which can be fatal to anyone spending time in the room.The equations for these reactions are shown below; Bleach is formed by the action of chlorine gas on sodium hydroxide, NaOH: The equation below represents the reaction of bleach with an acid based cleaner, which gives off chlorine gas Because of this reaction all acid based cleaners have warnings not to be mixed with bleach because it can result in injury or death. If bleach with 10% sodium hypochlorite was used for this experiment instead of bleach with 5. 25% sodium hypochlorite.The shape of the rate curve for the graph would likely be twice as steep as the graph for the reaction involving bleach with a concentration of 5. 25% sodium hypochlorite. This is because the reaction will finish faster due a concentration that is higher by a factor of two. In this experiment there were possibilities for errors, the main one would be caused by measuring the volume of air at certain times. The reason for this being an error is that at 30 seconds more air will have been produced than is bing measure this is because some oxygen is in the Erlenmeyer flask but still rising to the point at which it is measured.Also some oxygen is held back because of a kink in the rubber tubing. To improve this experiment I would use a better way of measuring the volume of oxygen produced, either by measuring the air pressure in a container attached to the flask where the reaction was taking place or by using a large tube with a piston inside that would slide along the inside of it showing how much oxygen is evolved during the reaction. Conclusion From the experiment that was carried out it can be concluded that both temperature and concentration effect reaction rates.The lower the temperature the slower the reaction rate, therefore the higher the temperature the faster the reaction takes place. Likewise the lower t he concentration of a solution the slower the reaction and the higher the concentration the faster the reaction is completed. ——————————————– [ 1 ]. Measuring Reaction Rate Using Volume of Gas Produced. † Experiment 11C. N. p. : SMG Lab, n. d. N. pag. Rpt. in Experiment 11C. N. p. : n. p. , n. d. 154-58. Print. [ 2 ]. DiGiuseppe, et al. Reaction Rates. N. p. : Nelson, 2012. Print. Nelson Education.

Dunnes Store Organisational Structure

Dunnes Stores is an Irish, family owned, mass market retailer in the grocery and textiles and the company ethos has been based on the principles of very competitive pricing, good quality products and choice. These principles are encapsulated in the words ‘Better Value' for which Dunnes Stores has become famous.Structure of StoresAll Buying & Support functions are located in Dunnes Stores Head Office, based in Dublin City Centre. Head Office currently employs approximately 520 people. Head Office management visit stores regularly to ensure that issues are resolved as quickly as possible and to share ideas and opinions. The Head Office departments break down into 4 main areas:†¢Grocery Buying – dealing with products ranging from Tissues to TVs. We have Buyers and support positions in Beverages, Confectionary, Wine, Dry Grocery, Dairy, Bakery, Frozen Food, Non Food, Convenience, Fresh Meat & Poultry and Fresh Produce. †¢Textiles Buying – dealing with produc ts ranging from Socks to Sofas. They have Buyers and support positions in Ladieswear, Homewares, Menswear, Childrenswear, Footwear, Lingerie & Hosiery and Accessories (see our Day in the Life section).†¢Operations – This is a section dealing with all operational matters, including Operations Development, Grocery Operations, Textiles Operations, Operations Finance, Food Hygiene, Security & Loss Prevention, Health & Safety, Catering and Merchandising. They ensure that the stores are performing as they should be and that there is nothing which prevents a store from operating to the highest level for service and standards. †¢Finance & Accounts – This is where they keep number crunchers, in departments such as Financial Accounts, Management Accounts, Grocery Accounts, Drapery Accounts, Overheads, Insurance, Purchasing, Treasury, Shipping, Trade, Salaries, Wages, Central Payment, Figures and MIS. They also employ specialists in the following areas:-†¢Store Dev elopment †¢Human Resources †¢Business Systems †¢MarketingAs you can see Head Office consists of a lot of different departments! Within each department there are sub departments and within each sub department there are a lot of different types of positions at all different levels. This all means that there are lots of opportunities and great career prospects for people across a broad range of disciplines and backgrounds.In 1943 Bernard â€Å"Ben† Dunne opened his first store, a drapers shop, in Cork, Ireland and by 1944, the first store bearing the Dunnes name opens. Now family-owned Dunnes Stores Ltd remains an Irish tradition, with nearly 125 department stores, combining groceries, home furnishings, and clothing, throughout Ireland, Northern Ireland, England and Scotland, and Spain. Ireland is the core of the company's operations, with 89 stores, and the company has expanded strongly into the Northern Ireland market, with 23 stores. The company's 11 stores in England and Scotland are textile-only stores, but its four stores in Spain are modeled after its traditional Irish department stores. In addition, Dunnes has begun a drive into the convenience store market, converting one of its sites to a smaller â€Å"American-style† format.The intensely private company, which has long held the slogan of â€Å"Better Value† and which has long shunned the media spotlight, has also registered a subsidiary (sister company), called Better Value Conveniently Yours Ltd., suggesting its intention to expand further into the convenience store market, under the Conveniently Yours name. Dunnes remains controlled by the founding Dunne family, with the founder's daughter Margaret Heffernan acting as CEO since the early 1990s. Under Heffernan's leadership, the company has shifted away from its deep-discount roots to position itself as a mid-priced market retailer. The company is purported to be grooming the next generation to take over the company , with Heffernan's daughter Anne tipped as her mother's successor. Dunnes remains committed to its status as a private, independent company.Principal Competitors: Tesco Plc; Musgrave Group Plc; Roches Stores Ireland Ltd.; Arnotts Plc; Brown Thomas Group Ltd.ROLES IN DUNNES STORES15,000 people operate throughout the Dunnes Stores Group within a vast array of different and diverse positions. Buying and Selling is clearly the backbone of any retailer, and in Dunnes Stores it is no different. However they also employ many people within numerous different support functions both within Stores as well as within Head Office. Positions include Human Resources, Finance & Accounting, Customer Care, Information Technology, Marketing, Store Development, and Operations – to name but a few!The Company is still family-owned and the family members are still very active in the day to day running of the Company. Their commitment and drive is critical in ensuring the winning momentum continues a nd that critical business decisions are made in a timely manner. These decisions filter through the Company and are enacted extremely quickly.EXAMPLES OF SOME ROLES IN DUNNES STORESSales AssistantsThe Sales Assistants are critical in ensuring that customer demands and expectations are met. They assist throughout the day (and sometimes throughout the night) in ensuring that products are replenished and re-merchandised to a high standard. They are the face of the Company and meet and greet customers on a daily basis, offering them high quality service through the appropriate training and support.Many of today’s Store Managers started their careers as Sales Assistants, either straight out of school or working part-time whilst at college.Retail ManagersThere are managers operating in areas such as Grocery, Dairy/Frozen, Non Food, Fresh Foods, Fresh Produce, Goods Inwards, Homewares, Ladieswear, Childrenswear, Menswear, Security, Human Resources, Checkouts, Food Safety as well as within their Timepiece Restaurants. These are fast paced and challenging roles, where the main objectives are to maximise Customer Service, Sales and Standards. A Manager in Dunnes Stores would drive productivity within the team and look for opportunities where standards can be improved and where positive results can be maximised.Store ManagersStore managers are responsible for delegating tasks / duties and driving productivity and satisfaction amongst their team (which can now incorporate up to 700 people). Duties include controlling overheads, maximising sales performance on every product, controlling stock loss and wastage, ensuring the best results from company audits and making sure that your yearly targets are reached and exceeded.The beauty of Dunnes Stores is that each store is operated like a mini business on its own – and store managers are the one in the driving seat. When I say ‘mini-business’ but it may well be a business responsible for millions of Euro a week!!Store Managers have to adhere to the Company policies and procedures but they can also open the door each day to their own agenda.