Effect of Poverty on Women's Healthcare Research Paper

Effect of Poverty on Women's Healthcare - Research Paper Example health, it becomes imperative to identify and disclose health disparities related to gender and economic level so that appropriate actions are taken to help the needful. In this article, feminization of poverty and the health effects of poverty on women is discussed. It is a well known fact that the health of women is not only determined by biological factors but also by several social factors, the most important of which is poverty. In fact, 2 out of every 3 women in the world are plagued by poverty leading to an array of clinical problems like malnutrition, anemia, easy fatigability, increased susceptibility to infections and even premature death (Cohen, 1994). Though several organizations like the World Health Organization have asserted that health is a fundamental right of every human being irrespective of sex and other aspects, several women are being denied of this right and the main cause for this happens to be poverty. It is very important to tackle poverty of women for the purpose of long term success of the child poverty strategy of the Government (WBG, 2005). In this essay, the impact of poverty on the health care of women will be discussed through review of appropriate literature. In several countries like even developed countries like Canada, the poverty rates of women across all age groups is higher than in men. One of the main reasons for poverty among women is their dependency for living. In many races, women are not provided enough education and this leads to poor vocational opportunity and poverty. Many researchers favour the link between education and poverty (Zaki and El-Deeb, 2004). Also, many women cannot get employed full-time because of the responsibilities they have towards their children, husbands and elderly people at home. Lack of awareness which is more predominant in those belonging to lower socio-economic group is another major factor that influences health. In a study by Ailinget et al (2009), it was found that poor women had lower

Isolationism in Europe Essay Example for Free

Isolationism in Europe Essay Isolationism is a system whereby a country withdraws from participating in international affairs. Europe adopted isolationism to protect its economy from foreign countries. Isolationism is associated with America’s refusal societies believed they were different than European societies in the sense that they could achieve democracy and freedom without using violence. Isolationism in European began back in the colonial days when people started fleeing from Europe because of war and economical deprivation. Increase in religious persecution also led people to free from Europe. The escapees saw their new environments as better places to restart the lives and make them better . America isolated itself from Europe because, Europe’s interest were in no way similar to those of America. Europe also participated in a set of controversies and wars that of less importance to America. They saw it unwise to get involved in those activities that did not affect them already. To prove this America involved itself in a set of wars which included the Mexican war and the Spanish American war without asking for Europe’s alliance. President Monroe, during this period declared that America had never and would never involve itself in the domestic European wars. The colonists who brought about isolationism had escaped from Europe to avoid religious persecutions and wars. They believed that the new world outside of Europe was more favorable and moral. Though the wars in Europe were brought about by the colonists from America, they did not participate in them. European states were based on ethnicity and territorial history which brought about a sense of identity and ties states that felt more superior and strong extended their authorities to other national borders to increased their territories and powers. This kind of forced invasion is associated with a lot of violence and wars. Europe therefore became entangled in a chain of wars among its own states. Adopting isolationism brought more benefits to America which was a young developing country. Europeans dominated most of the world affairs and if America got involved in Europe’s affairs it would be colonized by Europe. However during 1800s, Germany provoked America during World War I and got America to participate in the war. Isolationism in Europe caused so much poverty because states fought amongst themselves and destroyed important resources such as schools, factories, farms and hospitals. Actually America was very deeply rooted to this idea of isolationism. Though many other nations supported this idea, their intentions to move into this system were not the same as that of the Americans. That was mainly because the United States was very much stable in terms of economical and also political status and their involvement in isolationism was considered to be very successful. During the time when America was at its peak of development, the United States had many options that they were going to use on expanding within their own territories. It also had large amounts of raw materials that they were going to use in expanding the factories and industries within the country. There was nothing which actually made the Americans travel abroad like many of the western European nations e.g. Britain. They were in no need of any new markets or any opportunities to invest neither did they need any space to build their dynasties. Their only motives were to increase their internal colonization territories to the furthest west. Therefore most of their duties were mainly concentrated within the country and they did not need to move out of the country. Many other nations also had very little chances of entering into the United States. Also the two wide oceans which surrounded the United States of America kept the rest of the countries 3000 miles away. Therefore it was very much difficult for the rest of the nations to cover such distance in seeking to enter into the United States. Most of their surrounding neighbors in the northern and southern part did not concentrate on entering into the country. This was mainly because countries in the northern part e. g. Canada and the West Indies had been connected so much with the British and in the south, the South Americans in the 19th century were not strong enough to attack or to cause conflicts with a country like America at that time. The main reason why the isolation of the Americans was not disturbed in the 19th century was mainly because the British soldiers kept them at bay. This reason was mainly caused by the world’s organization whereby it was mainly done so following the British system. The British system was mainly used because there was a well balanced system of power in the west and the British Navy was very much powerful at that time. The British system was functioning so effortlessly and most of the nations didn’t even believe that the system was mainly powered by the British economical and political supremacy. Therefore America grew well while adopting this system of isolationism as a successful policy because it would keep them away in involving themselves in wars. This was also strengthened by the international involvement of other nations e. g. the British that ensured that all the trouble were reduced to the minimum. Another reason that made Americans to adapt to this system was their belief in the vision of staying as one community that is dedicated to working together. Isolationism in Europe was led by socialists. In Europe isolationism led to political and economical demise. This led to an outbreak of war when Germany went against the treaty of Versailles. Strong alliances were formed against the Soviet Union. Some of them include the alliance between Germany, Italy and Japan. After the World War I, most European countries decided to isolate themselves from the international affairs of Europe. This is because the results of the war were very devastating and so staying away from the alliances was of more benefit to the states of Europe. During the 1900s Portugal rejected all forms of international invasion into its territory and accepted the incorporation of economical aspects and also intergovernmental corporation within itself. The French are the most isolated people in Europe. French does not welcome new members and immigrants into its state. The French politicians are the most rigid and do not allow any foreign invasion into their political affairs. European nations resulted into isolationism due to the fear of international communism. This is a style that was adopted by Western Europe to protect itself against Russia. This is because all activities of the Soviet Union were questionable and suspected to have a ridden motive. Most western European states cooperated with each other to work against the Soviet Union. Great Britain, France and Germany acted as the major authorities in Europe making other states inferior to them. Russia, being a soviet union did not participate in the world war, because it aimed to protect its territories and resources. Russia also colonized other European nations only accepted Russia foreign policy, when Russia joined the League of Nations. After the world wars, Europe did not feel that money and resources used in the war were a waste of time, instead, they believed that, the war was thought for a worthy cause and a common goal to protest its interests and those of its citizens. The war caused unequal distribution of wealth between America and Europe. This is because the war led to collapse of business in Europe. After the war, United States imposed a tariff policy on European goals making it difficult to sell their goods in America. America put the tariff policies to protect their business after the world wars. Political isolationisms in Europe also led to the collapse of the European constitution political leaders isolated themselves from the common citizens and implemented laws that were not acceptable by the citizens. Political leaders in Europe did not accept any political ideas from its citizens. Isolationism is a problem that makes human beings to put their interest first. It is a nature to create a sense of security. European did not want other people from different backgrounds to include their own tunes, values or culture. As a result Europe introduced tariff policies that were aimed at protecting its business from foreign status. Bibliography Graebner, Norman A. The New Isolationism: A Study in Politics and Foreign Policy since 1950. New York: Ronald Press, 1956. http://www. questia. com/PM. qst? a=od=3485145. Martel, Gordon, ed. American Foreign Relations Reconsidered, 1890-1993. New York: Routledge, 1994. http://www. questia. com/PM. qst? a=od=103366220. Powaski, Ronald E. Toward an Entangling Alliance: American Isolationism, Internationalism, and Europe, 1901-1950. New York: Greenwood Press, 1991. http://www. questia. com/PM. qst? a=od=9788561. Ward, Barbara. The West at Bay. New York: W. W. Norton, 1948. http://www. questia. com/PM. qst? a=od=104923298.

COLD MOUNTAIN Essays -- Essays Papers

COLD MOUNTAIN Since Cold Mountain does not heavily rely on dialogue to tell the story, the point of view Frazier uses to narrate the story is important: He must create the effect of being enveloped in two separate worlds, and give insight into characters who have no one to discuss their thoughts with. The only way to accomplish this is by using the omniscient point of view, which is when the author has unlimited knowledge about the characters and their thoughts. A romantic story is especially suited for this type of narration, because romances revolve not around events, but emotions, which are difficult to describe objectively. To fully appreciate the depth of the love between Ada and Inman, the reader must be able to peer into the deepest thoughts of the characters. Isolation, however, prevents Ada and Inman from revealing these thoughts to each other or to another character. We instead must learn from introspections like the one on pg. 393, when Inman reflects, â€Å"†¦he intended to eat nothing until he found Ada. If she would not have him he would go on to the heights and see if the portals on Shining Rocks would open to him†¦He doubted there was a man in the world more empty than he at the moment.† Intimate insights such as this one are frequent in the novel, and reveal the most information about Ada and Inman’s feelings for each other. This unlimited power to inform is used also to directly characterize Inman and especially Ada; due to the relative calm of her ...

Musical is an art of arranging sounds Essay

Musical is an art of arranging sounds in a particular pattern to create a pleasant harmony to the ears of the listeners. Just like the industrial revolution took time to reach its present level, the two major forms of musical in America were realized after a long time of progressive development as (Riddle 2003) explains. American musical was firstly borrowed from the European States; the American musical pioneers built on it to develop theirs then later they completely detached from it came up with their own different style of presentation according to (Lubbock 1962). Musical comedy was the first of the only two advanced musical styles to be established in America. Then there followed the other which is the musical play and the two have been cherished widely in the twentieth and the twenty first centuries. There are several legend musicians who played a key role in making American musical what it is today and have been covered by history. The changes that were met in the twentieth century in musical varied from the cultural, content to the form of delivering the musical. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT Music in America is an art that has a very long history in its development in form and content to the level it is now. The historians have established that it has taken hundreds of years to develop from its primitive form to the now sophisticated forms. (Lubbock1962) traces music in America way back in the year 1735. He argues that this introduced music did not originate from America itself but from England. From those years on up to 1960,s the initial way of treating musicals underwent great transformation and many people came into terms with music unlike in the past. As the year 1960 was dawning, Americans began to get enlightened about Musicals where they were in a position to define it and find out its relationship with art according to (Gann 2000). Through continued development of interest in learning what music was, the people also became able to relate it with culture. It is also worthy noting that the various phases through which the American music underwent included the transformation of the places of performance. The first pieces of music were only played in the urban centres but it slowly filtered into the rural as time went by. According to (Gann 2000), the music was taken from the urban to the rural setting in the year 1961 and from there onward it expanded and widely spread more into the interior like a bush fire. In 1980,s several individuals ventured into bettering the quality of the musical performed in the theatres which took the dimension created by the Americans more than that of Europeans. CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT The culture of the people influences greatly the type of music they compose, the type of dance they use to accompany their songs and more so the kind of perception they have on the present generation music. American musical has had a lot of influence on the way the Americans perceive their abilities and identify their characters according to (Knapp 2005). In the same manner, the music the Americans borrowed from the Europeans took after the cultural practices of the natives of the country. Through the ages the American musicals saw a great transition in the way the Americans treated music in relation to their culture. It came a time when the stake holders in musicals began to present their cultures through the art of music especially holding cultural ceremonies where people got the opportunities to express their personalities as (Knapp 2005) confirms. The American musicians also were able to portray their culture through their manner of dressing during music play performances in the theatres. The twentieth century also was the year of making music as a source of earning personal living in addition to expressing the people’s beliefs and practices. (Crawford 2000) confirms that the art of music took the dimension of commercial activity during its development during the twentieth century and a rapid growth as a business the common exercise of the day. By watching a clip of the American produced musical, one was in a position to analyse the type of culture the performers upheld from the way the dressed, their make-ups, the food they eat and the dancing styles which were adopted during music development time. FORM DEVELOPMENT The form in which music first entered America is not the same style of music we play in America today. A great transition has occurred in the music industry in terms of the several classes of music which have hit in the country. Lubbock (1962) asserts that the first type of music to be played in America was Flora and this had its source from England. In this twenty first century, this kind of music can only be referred to as a legend and you may find that the current generation is not aware of the former existence of such kind of music. In the twentieth century, the American natives set out to develop their own style of music which indeed they did in two phases. The first phase was characterized by a lot of emulation of the pre-existing opera style of England which was later advanced. This first move by the upcoming American musicians constituted what was called the comedy music. The second phase of American musical development was the new form of music which was not derived from the European form. According to (Lubbock 1962) it was the Showboat which established the campaign towards developing American-produced music which came to be referred to as music play. Here the musicians could perform their own composed music in public. The music industry in the new form was since then continued by the other successors including Oklahoma and the others. Their establishments have since then not been out dated because music play and the prior styles are the only two ruling the American music industry.

Hybridity

According to Bhabha, hybridity is the straddling of two cultures and the consequent ability to negotiate the difference. Bhabha developed his concept of hybridity from literary and cultural theory to describe the construction of culture and identity within conditions of colonial antagonism and inequality. For Bhabha, hybridity is the process by which the colonial governing authority tries to convert the identity of the colonized within a singular universal framework. The colonizers would look at the colonized in their own environment and judge their behavior and practices from their own frame of reference.Bhabha contends that a new hybrid identity or subject-position emerges from the interweaving of elements of the colonizer and colonized challenging the validity of any essentialist cultural identity. Hybridity is positioned as an antidote to essentialism, or the belief in invariable and fixed properties which define the ‘whatness’ of a given entity. (The Location of Cul ture 1994) According to Ashcroft, most postcolonial writing has focused on the hybridized nature of postcolonial culture as strength rather than a weakness. It is not a case of the oppressor obliterating the oppressed or the colonizer silencing the colonized.In practice it stresses the mutuality of the process. The clash of cultures can impact as much upon the colonizer as the colonized. It is proof that even under the most potent of oppression those distinctive aspects of the culture of the oppressed can survive and become an integral part of the new formations which arise. (Papastergiadis 1997) Ashcroft says how â€Å"hybridity and the power it releases may well be seen as the characteristic feature and contribution of the post-colonial, allowing a means of evading the replication of the binary categories of the past and developing new anti-monolithic models of cultural exchange and growth†.In conclusion, I believe that hybridity is everywhere. It represents in many instanc es the triumph of the postcolonial or the subaltern over the hegemonic. The resistant always appropriates the cultural onslaught and modifies its products or processes for its own purposes. Hybridity can be a history of slavery colonialism, and rape, inherited in terms of race. It is a difficult and painful history of interracial identity. It deals with issues of choosing one’s affiliations or having ones affiliations thrust upon one.

Words Ending in -aire

Words Ending in -aire Words Ending in -aire Words Ending in -aire By Mark Nichol A small class of English words derived from the Latin suffixes -arius/-aria/-arium, meaning â€Å"connected with† or â€Å"pertaining to,† can be identified by the French descendant -aire. Here is a summary of those terms as used in English. The primarily British English term commissionaire refers to someone who performs commissions. (That word is used in the sense of â€Å"tasks.†) Debonair was originally the French phrase de bon aire, meaning â€Å"of good family, nature, or race†; it was applied originally to well-trained hawks, later pertained to people of a courteous nature, and was then revived (after that sense became obsolete) to refer to a confident, sophisticated man. Doctrinaire describes a dogmatic, headstrong person (the root word is descended from the Latin word doctor in its original sense of â€Å"teacher†). Extraordinaire is an adjective that, in deference to its French origins, is often located after the noun it modifies; its root word, meaning â€Å"regular† or â€Å"usual,† ultimately stems from ordo, the Latin word from which order is derived. Millionaire is based on million, from the Italian term millione, meaning â€Å"a great thousand† (a thousand thousands); it refers to someone whose wealth amounts to at least a million dollars. By extension, a billionaire is someone who has a billion dollars or more; inevitably, there will eventually be trillionaires. Legionnaire derives from the Latin legion, which stems from legere, a verb meaning â€Å"gather† or â€Å"select.† A legion was the basic military unit in ancient Rome, and the French adopted the term and formed legionnaire to refer to a soldier. In English it is associated with the personnel of France’s Foreign Legion, and in the United States it is known as part of the name of Legionnaire’s disease, so named because the first outbreak occurred at a convention of the patriotic organization known as the American Legion. Solitaire, from the Latin word solitarius, meaning â€Å"alone† or â€Å"isolated,† came to refer to a recluse or a widow and then later a single gem, but now it is mostly associated with a card game one plays by oneself. The French word affaire, adopted into English in the diplomatic title â€Å"charge d’affaires† (which refers to a deputy ambassador or minister) is unrelated, as is the English form affair; they are descended from the French phrase faire, meaning â€Å"to do,† and are related to facile and fact. Luminaire, from the French word for â€Å"lamp† or â€Å"lighting† and referring to a lighting unit, also has no connection; it’s from the Latin word lumen, meaning â€Å"light.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:"Because Of" and "Due To" Does "Mr" Take a Period?How Do You Fare?

Free Essays on Heroes

that can describe a hero. In the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, a Hero is described as someone endowed with great courage and strength, and someone celebrated for his bold exploits. To me, it takes more than just courage, strength, and boldness to be a hero it takes Honor. Honor is the defining characteristic of Western Civilization. It determines what a man must do and what he must not do. Honorable actions are bound up with the Ability to achieve a desired result, the Courage to undertake it and see it through. We say that a man has honor accepts, as a duty, the responsibility of rendering necessary and valuable service to his own people and the vital interests of his country, and in so doing puts them above his own self-interests. It is the highest aspect of the Code of the Gentleman and is present only in high civilizations. Honor includes: integrity, courage, loyalty, respect, selfless-service, and duty. Only one of the two characters in these two stories is what â€Å"I† would call a hero. That character is Sir Gawain, this is because he is more honorable. He actually overcame the challenge of having to deal with searching for the Green Knight, even though he feared it. When his weakness was put out there, when then Green Knight admitted to Sir Gawain that he had been in a test all along, sir Gawain was able to admit to the fact that he was afraid. He was loyal by doing as he said he was going to do and admitting that he was scared to get hurt, he showed respect towards the Green Knight by showing that he had been afraid and following trough with his word in order to show that he had been wrong, he was also selfless, and he did things for his own good not just to be considered greater than what he thought he really was. In the other ... Free Essays on Heroes Free Essays on Heroes In the epic Beowulf, and romance Sir Gawain and the Green knight, the main characters are considered heroes but they hold different characteristics. There are many words that can describe a hero. In the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, a Hero is described as someone endowed with great courage and strength, and someone celebrated for his bold exploits. To me, it takes more than just courage, strength, and boldness to be a hero it takes Honor. Honor is the defining characteristic of Western Civilization. It determines what a man must do and what he must not do. Honorable actions are bound up with the Ability to achieve a desired result, the Courage to undertake it and see it through. We say that a man has honor accepts, as a duty, the responsibility of rendering necessary and valuable service to his own people and the vital interests of his country, and in so doing puts them above his own self-interests. It is the highest aspect of the Code of the Gentleman and is present only in high civilizations. Honor includes: integrity, courage, loyalty, respect, selfless-service, and duty. Only one of the two characters in these two stories is what â€Å"I† would call a hero. That character is Sir Gawain, this is because he is more honorable. He actually overcame the challenge of having to deal with searching for the Green Knight, even though he feared it. When his weakness was put out there, when then Green Knight admitted to Sir Gawain that he had been in a test all along, sir Gawain was able to admit to the fact that he was afraid. He was loyal by doing as he said he was going to do and admitting that he was scared to get hurt, he showed respect towards the Green Knight by showing that he had been afraid and following trough with his word in order to show that he had been wrong, he was also selfless, and he did things for his own good not just to be considered greater than what he thought he really was. In the other ...

Definition and Examples of Reported Speech

Definition and Examples of Reported Speech Reported speech is the report of one speaker or writer on the words spoken, written, or thought by someone else. Also called reported discourse. Traditionally, two broad categories of  reported speech  have been recognized: direct speech  (in which the original speakers words are quoted word for word) and indirect speech (in which the original speakers thoughts are conveyed without using the speakers exact words). However, a number of linguists have challenged this distinction, noting (among other things) that theres significant overlap between the two categories. Deborah Tannen, for instance, has argued that [w]  hat is commonly referred to as reported speech or direct quotation in conversation is  constructed dialogue. Observations Reported speech is not just a particular grammatical form or transformation, as some grammar books might suggest. We have to realize that reported speech represents, in fact, a kind of translation, a transposition that necessarily takes into account two different cognitive perspectives: the point of view of the person whose utterance is being reported, and that of a speaker who is actually reporting that utterance.(Teresa DobrzyÅ„ska, Rendering Metaphor in Reported Speech, in Relative Points of View: Linguistic Representation of Culture, ed. by Magda StroiÅ„ska. Berghahn Books, 2001) Tannen on the Creation of Dialogue I wish to question the conventional American literal conception of reported speech and claim instead that uttering dialogue in conversation is as much a creative act as is the creation of dialogue in fiction and drama.  The casting of thoughts and speech in dialogue creates particular scenes and charactersand . . . it is the particular that moves readers by establishing and building on a sense of identification between speaker or writer and hearer or reader. As teachers of creative writing exhort neophyte writers, the accurate representation of the particular communicates universality, whereas direct attempts to represent universality often communicate nothing. (Deborah Tannen, Talking Voices: Repetition, Dialogue, and Imagery in Conversational Discourse, 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, 2007) Goffman on Reported Speech [Erving] Goffmans work has proven foundational in the investigation of reported speech itself. While Goffman is not in his own work concerned with the analysis of actual instances of interaction (for a critique, see Schlegoff, 1988), it provides a framework for researchers concerned with investigating reported speech in its most basic environment of occurrence: ordinary conversation. . . .Goffman . . . proposed that reported speech is a natural upshot of a more general phenomenon in interaction: shifts of footing, defined as the alignment of an individual to a particular utterance . . . ([Forms of Talk,] 1981: 227). Goffman is concerned to break down the roles of speaker and hearer into their constituent parts. . . . [O]ur ability to use reported speech stems from the fact that we can adopt different roles within the production format, and it is one of the many ways in which we constantly change footing as we interact . . ..(Rebecca Clift and Elizabeth Holt, Introduction. Reporting T alk: Reported Speech in Interaction. Cambridge University Press, 2007) Reported Speech in Legal Contexts ​[R]eported speech occupies a prominent position in our use of language in the context of the law. Much of what is said in this context has to do with rendering peoples sayings: we report the words that accompany other peoples doings in order to put the latter in the correct perspective. As a consequence, much of our judiciary system, both in the theory and in the practice of law, turns around the ability to prove or disprove the correctness of a verbal account of a situation. The problem is how to summarize that account, from the initial police report to the final imposed sentence, in legally binding terms, so that it can go on the record, that is to say, be reported in its definitive, forever immutable form as part of a case in the books. (Jacob Mey, When Voices Clash: A Study in Literary Pragmatics. Walter de Gruyter, 1998)

Emotional Intelligence Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Emotional Intelligence - Term Paper Example d how a nurse leader or manager could apply both emotional intelligence and appreciative inquiry strategies to address this issue and facilitate positive results that lead to improved quality. Appreciative inquiry is defined by Nel and Pretorius (2012) as "The study of what gives life to human systems when they function at their best" (p. 41). Nel and Pretorius (2012) further asserts that appreciative inquiry functions under the postulation that human beings posses exceptional and distinctive talents, abilities, and involvements. Therefore, there exist intact and unexploited strengths that have to be connected or intertwined in order to achieve change. In other words, appreciative inquiry involve investigations to identify the strengths of an entity by means of well calculated queries with an intention of achieving change. Emotional intelligence, as explicated by Sadri (2012), involves "perceiving emotions, to access and generate emotions so as to assist thought" (p. 536). It also involves controlling or managing feelings in order to support and encourage poignant and logical development (Sadri, 2012). Conflicts are inevitable in health care organizations. Health care organizations comprise of individuals from diverse backgrounds with divergent opinions regarding specific issues. Therefore, diversity contributes to these conflicts. Emotional intelligence and appreciative inquiry can be used to prevent conflicts in health care organizations. During conflicts, nurses and other medical practitioners are likely to demonstrate emotions or sentiments. In other words, their responses in times of conflicts are based on their emotions. By using emotional intelligence, i can be able to comprehend nurses emotions and thus use the understanding to make decisions relating to conflict resolution. This is in view to the fact that people have divergent viewpoints and hence their emotions ought to be considered in conflict resolutions. This will result to a healthy dialogue that

Why numbers matter Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Why numbers matter - Essay Example The principles concerned with managing money are important to be taken into account while planning to save or invest money somewhere. To discuss and understand these principles, an article from Msnbc The Bottom Line dated November 06, 2011, ‘After steadying, home prices begin falling again’ has been taken into account which entails the scenario of the United States’ real estate industry. The author of the article tells about the falling prices of homes in the United States which were on a steady trend in the summer of 2011. He says that due to the imbalance between demand and supply, there are numerous houses unsold in many states of the US until the end of September 2011. This price fall is being observed by investors and analysts and they are waiting for these to be bottomed that is a rise is being expected after massive falls, though not in the short term. Considering the poor interest rates of US short term Treasury Bills; 0.005% for 3-months and 0.035% for 6-month bills as per the recent auction; this investment aspect has been kept on a farer side by many investors as the rate of return is minimal. Considering this point, other investment opportunities should be searched for. This shows that it is a nice time to buy some lower priced houses and benefit from the capital gains arising in the future, though not in the short term (Schoen, 2011). Taking control of finances is very crucial and an investor should read about some financial trends using mathematical concepts such as percentages and shares in different investments and then take calculated actions. This leads to the understanding of the compounding concept. Just as an investor determines the amount of investment he or she can do, he must take into account the related rate of return and use it to compound his or her future inflows from the investment over the concerned time period. The simple formula for it to be calculated is: Amount of investment * (1 +

Group Counseling Observation Personal Statement

Group Counseling Observation - Personal Statement Example His name is "PB". "PB" is the husband of my supervisor and he was more than willing to take me to a meeting and show me what Alcoholics Anonymous was all about. Before leaving for the meeting, I asked "PB" several questions. They ranged from the length of the meeting to specific problems some of the members. He told me not to be surprised if there were some members who were admitted alcoholics and narcotic addicts. As I questioned him further, he said that many of the people in that predicament were also former criminals. One person in particular was so involved with both drugs and alcohol that he nearly died at the emergency room from an alcohol overdose. Now that my questions were answered, I felt much more at ease and ready to go to the meeting. The building where the meeting took place is located in a school basement. It is dismal but there is an inviting scent of coffee with friendly voices. I don't know whether this is a cheerful setting but I quickly learned that the setting didn't matter. When "PB" and I arrived, he introduced me to all of the members who made me feel welcome. As I surveyed the participants, I noticed that they were from all racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. As the meeting started, we began with a serenity prayer and read the twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. The second step was the focus of the meeting. ... The first speaker was named Jack. Jack is a successful attorney and has been a member of Alcoholics Anonymous for over ten years. He relayed his story about how his Power restored him to sanity. Jack said that prior to becoming a member, he knew everything. "I could do anything I wanted to when I wanted to. If anyone disagreed with me, I would do whatever it took to have that person agree with me. It was my way or the highway." With those statements, Jack admitted that when he was drunk, his temper got the best of him. After becoming a member, Jack along with many of the members of the group was able to complete the first step with ease. The second step, however, was going to be a problem. "When I looked at that sign, I was scared because I have been an atheist for most of my adult life." He was hoping that he could skip step two and return to it later, but he was told that he had to complete it before he could advance. Jack said it took quite some time but that higher Power did come to him and it wiped out the "insanity" that was ruining his life. After listening to his speech, I was wondering to myself why these members felt they were "insane". If I saw one of these people on the streets, I would never know that they were alcoholics or they were "insane". I marveled at how they all seemed to speak their own language and somehow have the same experience. Mike was celebrating his second anniversary. He is a parolee and in addition to fighting his demons, is walking the line to make sure he does not go back to jail. He too though mentioned the word "insanity" in reference to discovering a higher Power. The words he used were: "I came, I came to and now I believe." To me, it seems as

My Genre-ation Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

My Genre-ation - Research Paper Example Die Soldaten’s audio quality is superior due to the advanced technology available then and better recording techniques. This piece is a more dramatic composition different from La Traviata. It depicts extreme human emotions as that of fear, outrage and aggression. Die Soldaten requires 16 singing and 10 speaking roles apart from one hundred piece orchestra involving instruments ranging from stringed-instruments, to wind instruments, and unusual folk percussion instruments. It is bounded by the strict 12 tone music and exhibits a high degree of complexity despite its detailed design for a stage performance. Die Soldaten uses superior technology like, film screens, projectors, tape recorders and loudspeakers in addition to special effects. The orchestra is composed of flutes, oboes, clarinets, trumpets, bass clarinet, alto saxophone, bassoons, horns, trombones, bass tuba, timpani, crotales, cymbals, gongs, tamtams, tambourine, bongos, tomtoms, tumba, friction drum, triangles, cow bells, tubular bells, whips, castanets, guiro, maracas, xylophone, marimba, vibraphone, guitar, harps, glockenspiel, celesta, harpsichord, piano and strings. The composition is titled as La Traviata and was written in the mid 19th century during the Romantic Era of Classic Music. It was first performed live in front of an audience on 6th of March in 1853. La Traviata though embellished with symphonic ornamentation and decorated with lyrical prose and other elements of a full-fledged Opera like: heavy costumes, dominant instrument orchestration and vocal choir, presents strong and clear emotions by the leading characters. As observed in the musical pieces in La Traviata, specifically in Act 1, â€Å"the drinking act† where â€Å"Violetta† the leading character is seen to be drinking and making merry, the piece encompasses human desperation in relationships and the irresistible lure

Veterinary school personal statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Veterinary school - Personal Statement Example Being an intern at the Vancouver Aquarium I had the opportunity to work with a variety of animals such as sloths and tortoises – but one of my favorite parts of working there was sharing my passion and knowledge of animals with guests of the aquarium. Another inspiring experience at the Vancouver aquarium was when I shadowed the vet at the aquarium and observed him working with the animals both on exhibit and at the Marine Mammal Rescue Center, behind the scenes of the aquarium. Getting to observe Dr. Martin Haulena aid in rehabilitating injured or orphaned marine mammals  was  very inspiring.   Another challenging part of this job is that it’s not just about learning one species, but dealing with a wide array of animals and understanding them. When I think about being a vet, one of the most difficult tasks coming to my mind is the fact that one cannot simply ask the animals what is hurting them, and that even adds emphasis to the importance of professionalism and knowledge. The important lesson I have learned is that there will be hardships in this life, but there is still incredible beauty to be seen in our broken world. In one of my favorite books, Finding Beauty in a Broken World the author, T. T. Williams, uses a metaphor of a mosaic, writing, â€Å"mosaic celebrates brokenness and the beauty of being brought together.† I want to make a change in lives of both people and animals creating a beautiful mosaic in this world, one made from the incredible healing connection between the lives of humans and animals. To my thinking, each living being on this planet is fascinating, and all the animals possess their own specific beauty that adds diversity and color to the world. I took great pleasure in working with Laura Vello and taking care of horses as well as working at Westbury Vet. At the same time, having had some work experience at the zoo, I have discovered a strong aptitude for working with wild animals

I though I knew what good management was Article

I though I knew what good management was - Article Example his mix feelings, when he arrived in SFD for his first time, where there were approximately one hundred workers on the site, including the gasification pilot plant, support, building and offices. Peace explains that he had mixed feelings of challenges of significant opportunities and threat of situations concerning technology and market, which were foreign to him. Moreover, he explains that it took him four years to gather confidence in discussing issues related to technology with knowledgeable customers. Peace also had problems with employee attitudes, which he identifies through attitude survey months before he arrived in the company. In fact, he compared these attitudes with others, and they were not favorable to him, though he had a solution for these issues, which included effective communication and site cafeteria for addressing the employees. The employees’ attitudes attributed to distrust of management and hostility, which was difficult for him to understand. During the period when trouble was brewing, problems, which seemed to have been resolved, kept recurring, and the managers were applying the same agenda. Consequently, the employees were complaining about innovative ideas from the management were impractical risky and expensive. Peace also explains that he was unhappy with lack of management follow-through, since the managers seemed to be against the system, though the business objectives were well articulated in the company. Moreover, he mentions about his effort in calling a meeting for a discussion related to issues of management style, which bore no fruits. Peace narrates about the period when the problem escalated in the company, whereby there was undeclared war within the division, which might have gone on indefinitely to act of vandalism. In fact, during November 1982, there were unidentified employees involved in slashing the tires of two cars belonging to the managers parked off-site. This act was due to the employee resentment towards

Veterinary school personal statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Veterinary school - Personal Statement Example Being an intern at the Vancouver Aquarium I had the opportunity to work with a variety of animals such as sloths and tortoises – but one of my favorite parts of working there was sharing my passion and knowledge of animals with guests of the aquarium. Another inspiring experience at the Vancouver aquarium was when I shadowed the vet at the aquarium and observed him working with the animals both on exhibit and at the Marine Mammal Rescue Center, behind the scenes of the aquarium. Getting to observe Dr. Martin Haulena aid in rehabilitating injured or orphaned marine mammals  was  very inspiring.   Another challenging part of this job is that it’s not just about learning one species, but dealing with a wide array of animals and understanding them. When I think about being a vet, one of the most difficult tasks coming to my mind is the fact that one cannot simply ask the animals what is hurting them, and that even adds emphasis to the importance of professionalism and knowledge. The important lesson I have learned is that there will be hardships in this life, but there is still incredible beauty to be seen in our broken world. In one of my favorite books, Finding Beauty in a Broken World the author, T. T. Williams, uses a metaphor of a mosaic, writing, â€Å"mosaic celebrates brokenness and the beauty of being brought together.† I want to make a change in lives of both people and animals creating a beautiful mosaic in this world, one made from the incredible healing connection between the lives of humans and animals. To my thinking, each living being on this planet is fascinating, and all the animals possess their own specific beauty that adds diversity and color to the world. I took great pleasure in working with Laura Vello and taking care of horses as well as working at Westbury Vet. At the same time, having had some work experience at the zoo, I have discovered a strong aptitude for working with wild animals

Week Two LT Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Week Two LT Assignment - Essay Example By integrating the quality program to the core process of their manufacturing of CD changers, BJB will be able to produce durable components. The products target market already exists; hence the main issue with the product is durability and better sound quality for vehicles. High end CD-changers should be of appropriate size saves on power and has the appeal for various car markers. Cost effectiveness would be applied by using affordable and durable electronic parts from countries like Japan. The recommended quality management approach to use for various projects is a Quality Philosophy methodology. This method is beneficial; firstly, because it guides and influences the way directors of the company applies strategy and innovation (Hoyle, 2008). By reducing staff turnover and improving quality assurance, this approach can be deemed most appropriate. Additionally, the organization will be in a position to motivate itself to meet their clients’ demand of quality products and services. A quality philosophy system will help BJB to enhance their productivity by engaging the organization divisions and the external contributors like suppliers and lenders. This usually creates a culture of continuous innovation in problem solving of technical matters. In conclusion, by adopting this philosophy, BJB can easily adapt to the ever consumer needs and this will promote efficiencies and quality on higher level (Hoyle, 2008). This is the basis of creating excellence and a healthy team that not only promotes business success but also sustains continuous

Study or Stock Market Essay Example for Free

Study or Stock Market Essay Dr. Pushpa Bhatt and Sumangala J. K (2011) studies Impact of Book Value on Market Value of an Equity Share – An Empirical Study in Indian Capital Market. They attempt to find the explanatory power of book value in explaining the variations in equity market value. Then attempt is made to compare the same with the same of earning per share (EPS). They have collected and analyzed data about book value and market value of equity share of 50 companies for 5 years from 2006-07 to 2010-2011. Jimoh Ezekiel Oseni (2007), Determinants of stock prices in the capital market. There are over 130 companies whose shares are being traded in the Nigerian capital market. The Banking sector in the last five years has dominated the market in terms of trading volumes and market performance. The earning per share (EPS) and dividend per share (DPS) of twelve companies listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and (average) annual GDP, crude oil price (OIL), lending interest rate (INT), inflation rate (INFL) and foreign exchange rate (FX) are used are analysed for effect on the stock price. The period covered by the data is year 2001 to 2007. Mohammed Belal Uddin (2009) Determinants of market price of stock: A study on bank leasing and insurance companies of Bangladesh. The population size is 86 listed companies in Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) and chosen 68 companies as sample on probability sampling basis. In this study the dependent variable is â€Å"Market Price of Stock (MPS)† in Bangladeshi taka. The independent variables are: (1) Net Asset Value per Share (NAVPS) in Bangladeshi taka; (2) Dividend percentage (DIV); (3) Earnings per Share (EPS) in Bangladeshi taka Dr. Sanjeet Sharma (2009) Determinants of equity stock prices in India. This study has been undertaken to examine the empirical relationship between equity share prices and explanatory variables such as: book value per share, dividend per share, earning per share, price earning ratio, dividend yield, dividend payout, size in terms of sale and net worth for the period 1993-94 to 2008-09. Dr. Bidyut Jyoti Bhattacharjee (2012), the determinants of market price of share of Indian companies. This study makes an attempt to examine that whether market price of share of the company influenced by important determinants like size, growth, risk, profitability, leverage and dividend decision of the company considering Indian industries enlisted in Bombay Stock Exchange of India. In Uwalomwa Uwuigbe, Olowe and Olusegun, Agu (2012) An Assessment of the Determinants of Share Price in Nigeria: A Study of Selected Listed Firms. This study basically seeks to investigate the effects of financial performance, dividend payout and financial leverage on the share price of firms operating in the Nigerian stock exchange market. To achieve the objectives of this study, the Nigerian stock exchange fact book and the corporate annual reports for the period 2006-2010 were analyzed. In addition, using the judgmental sampling technique, the study considered a total of 30 listed firms in the Nigerian stock exchange market. The choice of these industries arises based on the size, and the decline in the share prices of the stocks of these firms. Dwi Martani, Mulyono and Rahfiani Khairurizka (2009), the effect of financial ratios, firm size, and cash flow from operating activities in the interim report to the stock return The objective of this study is to examine the value relevance of accounting information in explaining stock return. The study uses profitability, liquidity, leverage, market ratio, size and cash flow as proxies of accounting information. The samples of the study are listed companies in manufacturing industries that actively trading between 2003-2006 in Indonesia Stock Market. The study finds that profitability, turnover and market ratio has significant impact to the stock return. P. S. irmala, P. S. Sanju and M. Ramachandran Determinants of Share Prices in India the focus of this study is to identify the determinants of share prices in the Indian market. The study uses panel data pertaining to three sectors viz., auto, healthcare and public sector undertakings over the period 2000-2009 and employs the fully modified ordinary least squares method. The results indicate that the variables dividend, price-earnings ratio and leverage are significant determinants of share prices for all the sectors under consideration. Further, profitability is found to influence share prices only in the case of auto sector

Mental Health of Children with HIV

Mental Health of Children with HIV Chapter 1 Introduction Women are more at risk of acquiring HIV infection than men in sub-Saharan Africa mainly due to Gender inequality, this relatively increases the risk of children acquiring HIV through mother-to-child-transmission [1]. According to available statistics about 30% of babies born in sub-Saharan Africa to HIV positive mothers will themselves be infected with the virus either through childbirth or through breast-feeding [2]. From recent data there are about 3.2 million children living with HIV, 91% of these children living with HIV are found in sub-Saharan Africa [2]. The WHO recommendations stipulates that children below the age of 5 diagnosed with HIV should be placed on ART regardless of what their CD4 count is, 28% of these children living with HIV worldwide, requiring antiretroviral treatment (ART) currently have access to these drugs [2]. Since the onset of the epidemic, most of the children with perinatally acquired HIV in low and middle income countries do not live past infancy [3, 4]. However, results from recent research shows that life expectancy has improved and 36% of these infants live up to 16 years of age [5]. Likewise, strategies employed to screen pregnant mothers and test infants and children at risk for HIV infection, as well as the advances in ART, has improved the quality of life and ensure HIV positive children live longer [6, 7]. However, these children will have to face the challenges of living with a chronic illness, requiring tremendous social support for long, to enable proper development both mentally and physically. For example, recent studies indicate that living with a life-threatening and stigmatizing illness is also difficult and creates great psychological distress for children with HIV [8]. Children living with HIV are often confronted with fears/thoughts about their own death, most of them are stigmatized and discriminated against [8]. Consistent evidence also shows cognitive difficulties for HIV positive children [9]. 1.2. Background and Context Mental disorder is progressively becoming an important global health concern and the leading cause of disability globally. Depression an ordinary mental disorder, currently afflicts about 350 million people, both adults and children worldwide [10]. An increasing number of mental disorders are ranked among the leading causes of disability in the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Burden of Disease 2004 [11]. War, poverty, deprivation, marginalization and deracination are among the key social determinants of mental health identified as prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) [12-15]. This in turn increases the prevalence of depression in this region, though the number are under-reported. Despite the clear indication that mental health is a huge public health concern in SSA, it has consistently been neglected, due to the preponderance of communicable diseases, malnutrition and other perinatal disorders. Adults living with a chronic illness like HIV, are prone to psychosocial and psychological stressors so are children living with HIV. They are faced with anxiety associated with living with a chronic illness and the possibilities of death from the infection. High on the list for psychosocial stressor, is the issue of discrimination and stigmatization, as well as struggles with other challenges like malnutrition, poverty and diminished social support [15]. Evidence from studies have shown that children suffering from chronic diseases are more prone to developing mental disorders than their peers that are healthy. In one study [16] involving children with epilepsy, it was suggested that healthy children were less likely to suffer from mental disorder than those with epileptic conditions that had increased risks. Another study [17] showed minders of children with sickle cell disease reported more emotional and behavioural abnormalities among these set of children. Studies from other region of the world have shown that there is a relationship between HIV and mental illness. It has been shown [18] that early abnormalities in children’s neurological development is attributable to HIV infection and no other factors like environmental and biological risks. The association between HIV and neurological impairment is well researched in children. Learning difficulties, attention deficit disorder [19, 20], behavioural abnormalities [21-23] and cognitive discrepancies [24, 25] are all associated with HIV infection in children. The Pediatric Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome Clinical Trials Group (PACTG) in their study reported increased risks for psychiatric hospitalization for children living with HIV compared to other children without the infection [26]. It was also suggested that children with perinatally acquired HIV infection may be susceptible to certain mental disorder due to the effects of HIV infection on neurological development. They a lso stated that there is a likelihood of increased mental illness among these children as they progress in life. Result from a study conducted by Mellins et al.[27] that examined psychiatric indicators in children between the ages of 9-16 years with perinatal HIV infection, showed that 11% of the children had oppositional defiant disorder and 13% diagnosed with conduct disorder. Moreover, other studies have shown that perinatal HIV infected children are at greater risk of experiencing abnormalities in brain development [28], these abnormalities include delayed motor and cognitive development [29] and in some cases short-term amnesia and mental retardation as a result of the infection [30, 31]. A study [32] of Ugandan HIV positive babies followed over a period of one year, showed that 30% of the babies on ART exhibited impaired motor functions while about 26% of the babies displayed impaired cognitive functions, this is in contrast with 5-6% of HIV negative babies that exhibited the same conditions. Papola et al. [33] in their study, collected retrospective data on 90 school children living with HIV, in order to examine their developmental and needs. From their findings 44% of the children’s range of intelligence were below average or average, while 56% had language impairment. A similar finding were replicated by Bachanas et al. [32], result from the study showed that HIV-infected children had lower WISC-III scores and abysmal academic performance. They also exhibited significant psychological functioning deficiency. 1.3. Research Project and significance With increasing access to ART, the number of children born with perinatal HIV infection getting to adolescence and adulthood has increased tremendously. These children in most cases share stressors experienced by other children living with other chronic illness, like long term medical hospitalization and treatment, and agonizing life experiences. Notwithstanding the burgeoning evidence and psychosocial consequences of living with a chronic disease, there are still dearth of studies that have investigated the mental health concerns of children living with HIV in SSA. Most research elsewhere focuses on the effect of ART treatment and prevention of HIV. Though, there is an increasing cognizance of the likelihood of increased risk of mental health disorders for people living with HIV in the long run, owing to biomedical changes occasioned by ART and environmental risks. Based on the glowing evidence from research on correlation between substance abuse, risky sexual behaviours and mental health disorders, it is then pertinent to understand the association between mental health and children living with prenatally acquired HIV infection in sub-Saharan Africa, especially because of its unique environment and the high prevalence of the social determinants of mental illness in the region. This is necessary to inform mental health treatment and prevention programmes. 1.4. Study aim To review and provide a synthesis of research on the mental health and psychological functioning/outcomes of children who are perinatally-infected with HIV, corresponding risk and protective elements, treatment modes and areas of vital need for future research and interventions. 1.5. Organization of the Thesis This thesis is organized as follows. Chapter 1 deals with the scope and objectives of the thesis, it gives a brief background of children living with perinatal HIV infection and the current trend, the mental health issues associated with living with HIV/AIDS. Chapter 2 deals with the methodology, the literature search and identification of studies, inclusion and exclusion criteria, data extraction, quality assessment and procedures used in the analysis. Chapter 3 presents the study findings. Chapter 4 presents the general discussions of the study findings, including limitations of studies included. And also the limitations of a systematic review study, strength and weakness. Chapter 5 gives the concludes and summarizes the study, giving possible intervention to address the emerging mental health concerns for children living with HIV/AIDS, as well as recommendations and identified areas of future research. Chapter 2 Literature search A systematic literature review was conducted using the theme â€Å"children living with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa and mental health†. The study included studies up until July 2014. The research focuses on papers dealing with children living with HIV/AIDS and the effects on their mental health. The aim is to harness these research papers on the above-mentioned theme, and discuss the subject, present a summary, and highlight areas of future research needs. This informed by the body of evidence suggesting that in the long run, perinatal infected HIV children are liable to mental health issues, arising from factors such as environment, genetics, biomedical and familial [30-33]. Nonetheless, in the course of these research there are dearth of studies using the mental health as outcome and perinatal HIV infection as exposure in SSA. Hence, terms relevant to the review theme were discovered and used in finding the required papers. Studies on children living with HIV and mental health outside sub-Saharan Africa were not included in this review. It is not clear as explained in some studies, whether the mental health condition experienced by HIV positive children is neurologically or psychological. This might be a limitation of this review. A comprehensive search of online database for published articles on mental health and psychological functioning of children who are perinatally-infected with HIV was conducted. The electronic databases includes: PubMed, EBSCOhost and Science Direct, MEDLINE, Psychinfo, PubMed, JSTOR and Google Scholar. In addition to the online databases, unpublished articles, theses and internal reports will also identified by citation snowballing from the initial journal articles. Data was collected between January 2014 and July 2014 from the databases. The search terms used, identified through MeSH include: mental health, psychiatric/psychological, emotional and behavioural problems, perinatal HIV infection, paediatric HIV and adolescence. Inclusion and Exclusion criteria The initial search returned one hundred and eleven studies relevant to children in sub-Saharan African living with HIV and mental health concerns, restrictions were applied in terms of age, geography and study methodology. Only studies that included children between the ages of 1- 15 years were included. Studies conducted outside sub-Saharan African countries were not included. Both quantitative and qualitative studies were included if the primary research was on HIV infection as exposure studied, the researchers had a control group or standardized psychological instrument, mental health disorder/symptoms was the key outcome studied. Only English language articles were included. Out of the 111 studies selected only 10 that were relevant to the review was selected. As the main aim of this review was to focus on well-grounded findings the mental health and psychological functioning/outcomes of children who are perinatally-infected with HIV, only papers that included both subject were selected. Exclusion of studies outside the geographical area of interest were only performed at a later stage, to ensure that relevant studies that did not stipulate their geographical emphasis in their keywords were not excluded. Figure 1. Inclusion and exclusion used in systematic review. Data Extraction Children were classified as infected or uninfected based on their seropositive or negative status. The final synthesized materials were evaluated based on the research methodology employed, age range, and the outcomes from the study. To assist in the analysis Microsoft Excel was used. A content analysis was performed. As the studies used in the systematic review is small, a meta-analysis could not performed.

Sound in The Tempest and the New Orthodox View :: Tempest essays

Sound in The Tempest and the New Orthodox View  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Critics have offered varying evaluations of the characters in William Shakespeare's The Tempest. Some consider Prospero to be magnanimous for forgiving his enemies, for freeing Ariel from the confines of a tree, and for treating Caliban with great sympathy until the monster's attempted rape of Miranda. Others view Prospero as an oppressive colonizer and consider both Caliban and Ariel to be his innocent and mistreated subjects. In his article "Reading The Tempest," Russ McDonald argues that the new orthodox interpretation of The Tempest, "which exalts the colonized, is as narrow as the old, which idealizes and excuses the colonizer" (117). He argues that the actual status of the characters is considerably more ambiguous, and he supports his view by analyzing the rhetorical devices present in the play. However, a close examination of the various sounds disbursed throughout the work--including speech, silence, and music--tends to support a less ambiguous view of the characters. Indeed, it tends to lend support to the new orthodox view that Prospero is an oppressive colonizer, for he often threatens his enemies and servants with unpleasant sounds and demands silence from others, including his daughter. The play begins with a ship's crew being subject to terrifying sounds that Prospero has ordered Ariel to produce. The sounds are all loud: "whistle," "storm," "cry," "thunderclaps," "fire and cracks," and "roaring" (1.1.7, 14; 1.2.203-5; 2.1.2). The terror that these sounds and the accompanying storm inflict upon the mariners is evidenced by their cries: "All lost! To prayers! To prayers! All lost!" (1.1.52). The infliction of these sounds is also made to appear unjust when Miranda pleads with her father: "If . . . you have / Put these wild waters in this roar, allay them. / . . . O, the cry did knock / Against my very heart. Poor souls, they perished!" (2.1.1-9). Indeed, Prospero often refers to unpleasant sounds as a means of threatening others. "I will plague them all, / Even to roaring," he says of Caliban, Trinculo, and Stephano (4.1.188-214). When Prospero believes Ariel is not providing an eager and willful service, he threatens the spirit with imprisonment in a tree, reminding Ariel that when he was previously trapped, his "groans / Did make wolves howl" (1.2.289-90). Prospero also tells him, "Thou hast howled away twelve winters" (1.2.298). Similarly, Prospero threatens Caliban, carrying out his threats and subjecting the monster to tortures accompanied by unpleasant sounds. Sound in The Tempest and the New Orthodox View :: Tempest essays Sound in The Tempest and the New Orthodox View  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Critics have offered varying evaluations of the characters in William Shakespeare's The Tempest. Some consider Prospero to be magnanimous for forgiving his enemies, for freeing Ariel from the confines of a tree, and for treating Caliban with great sympathy until the monster's attempted rape of Miranda. Others view Prospero as an oppressive colonizer and consider both Caliban and Ariel to be his innocent and mistreated subjects. In his article "Reading The Tempest," Russ McDonald argues that the new orthodox interpretation of The Tempest, "which exalts the colonized, is as narrow as the old, which idealizes and excuses the colonizer" (117). He argues that the actual status of the characters is considerably more ambiguous, and he supports his view by analyzing the rhetorical devices present in the play. However, a close examination of the various sounds disbursed throughout the work--including speech, silence, and music--tends to support a less ambiguous view of the characters. Indeed, it tends to lend support to the new orthodox view that Prospero is an oppressive colonizer, for he often threatens his enemies and servants with unpleasant sounds and demands silence from others, including his daughter. The play begins with a ship's crew being subject to terrifying sounds that Prospero has ordered Ariel to produce. The sounds are all loud: "whistle," "storm," "cry," "thunderclaps," "fire and cracks," and "roaring" (1.1.7, 14; 1.2.203-5; 2.1.2). The terror that these sounds and the accompanying storm inflict upon the mariners is evidenced by their cries: "All lost! To prayers! To prayers! All lost!" (1.1.52). The infliction of these sounds is also made to appear unjust when Miranda pleads with her father: "If . . . you have / Put these wild waters in this roar, allay them. / . . . O, the cry did knock / Against my very heart. Poor souls, they perished!" (2.1.1-9). Indeed, Prospero often refers to unpleasant sounds as a means of threatening others. "I will plague them all, / Even to roaring," he says of Caliban, Trinculo, and Stephano (4.1.188-214). When Prospero believes Ariel is not providing an eager and willful service, he threatens the spirit with imprisonment in a tree, reminding Ariel that when he was previously trapped, his "groans / Did make wolves howl" (1.2.289-90). Prospero also tells him, "Thou hast howled away twelve winters" (1.2.298). Similarly, Prospero threatens Caliban, carrying out his threats and subjecting the monster to tortures accompanied by unpleasant sounds.

Literary Techniques in “The Things They Carried”

A literary technique is a device employed in literature to add depth to a writer’s work. These techniques can be obvious, such as the technique of rhyme in a poem, or subtle, such as juxtaposition, which can go unnoticed by the reader. In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien uses many such techniques to provide more depth to his book. Four literary techniques used by Tim O’Brien are symbolism, pathetic fallacy, irony, and juxtaposition. One literary technique prominent in The Things They Carried, particularly in the story by the same name, is symbolism. Throughout this story, O’Brien mentions all the things that the soldiers carry with them, both physical and emotional. However, the physical items that the men carried is more than just equipment- they are symbols that represent various facets of each soldier’s personality. For example, â€Å"Rat Kiley carried†¦ morphine and plasma and malaria tablets and surgical tape†¦ and all the things a medic must carry, including M&M’s for especially bad wounds† (O’Brien 5). The fact that Kiley carried medical necessities shows that he is a good paramedic devoted to doing his job well, but the M&M’s represent something different- Kiley’s optimistic and kind outlook on the war and life in general. Conversely, the tranquilizers carried by Ted Lavender represent his terror of the fighting in the war and his inability to face reality, rather choosing to escape from it by taking drugs. This is an effective technique because, by using these symbols, O’Brien can let the reader figure out for him/herself deeper aspects of certain characters’ personalities without actually stating them outright. Another literary device Tim O’Brien employs is pathetic fallacy, or nature mirroring humans’ emotions. In the story Speaking of Courage, Norman Bowker attempts to save Kiowa’s life but fails. He becomes depressed and remorseful about what he should have been able to accomplish. For a long time afterward, Bowker struggles with the fact that he was â€Å"braver than he ever thought possible, but†¦ not so brave as he wanted to be† (153); he is overcome with sadness and guilt. This is reflected in the weather at the time of Kiowa’s death. The soldiers were camping out in a field along the Song Tra Bong, and â€Å"the rain kept getting worse. And by midnight the field turned into soup† (145). The rain emulates the emotions of the weary and despondent soldiers. Pathetic fallacy is a very useful technique because it helps to provide the tone for the story. If the story was a sad one but the weather was bright and sunny, the tone of the story would be wrong, and vice versa. In Speaking of Courage, the fact that it was raining during the main event of the story helps the reader gain and understanding of just how bleak and dismal the events that occurred were. Irony, or a discrepancy between expectation and reality, is another literary technique used by Tim O’Brien in The Things They Carried. Many of the titles of the stories contain irony themselves. For example, Speaking of Courage is more centred on the themes of failure and the inability to be courageous than it is about courage. The story Love is not, as it would seem, about mutual love, but rather unrequited love. Field Trip, an expression with a usually very positive connotation, is a story about a visit to a battleground where many lives had been lost. The Story How to Tell a True War Story also contains much irony within it. The main point of this story is that a true war story cannot be told because the simple act of telling it makes it untrue. The title of this story is ironic- O’Brien makes the reader think that he wants to instruct them how to tell a true war story, but the reader soon finds out O’Brien’s real intention- that telling a true war story is impossible. Another ironic idea within this story is the idea that war can be beautiful. You hate it, yes, but your eyes do not. Like a forest fire, like cancer under a microscope, any battle†¦ has†¦ a powerful, implacable beauty† (81). This catches the reader off-guard because of how greatly it contrasts with the view of war we have been previously given. He continues to say that, â€Å"a true war story will tell the truth about this, though the truth is ugly† (81). This is very ironic because although the actual event may be beautif ul, if a true story is told about it, the story is ugly. This adds to O’Brien’s point that telling a story, even a true one, can only take away from the truth of the event. Using irony, O’Brien can present his message in a creative an interesting way, and this helps the readers understand his point better. Another technique used by Tim O’Brien is juxtaposition. The story The Lives of the Dead seems to be a bit of a non-sequitur to the rest of the book, however, O’Brien has put it where it is for a reason. The point of The Things They Carried is not simply to tell stories about the Vietnam War- the lesson goes deeper than that. It comes to teach that war is about more than just fighting- it is about the connection between life and death. It is about learning to detach oneself from death. It is about the sacredness and fragility of life. It is about so many things that many people never have to experience. But the Vietnam War is not O’Brien’s first time coming into contact with these kinds of issues. As a child, he had a beloved friend named Linda who died of cancer. Linda’s death was a major part of his growing up process. As a child, he already had to learn to distance himself from her death, saying, â€Å"It didn’t seem real†¦ the girl lying in the white casket wasn’t Linda† (241). And although he did not realize it at the time, her death helped him to deal with all the deaths he encountered in the war. For example, when Curt Lemon dies, O’Brien refuses to see his body as a friend who died. Instead he says, â€Å"his body was not really a body, but rather one small bit of waste in the midst of a much wider wastage† (238). The lessons that O’Brien learned as a child are very relevant and linked to his experiences in the Vietnam War, which is why he chooses to include The Lives of the Dead. But this is not the only message that O’Brien wants us to take out of the inclusion The Lives of the Dead in The Things They Carried- he wants to convey that even though something that happens in one’s life may seem horrible and meaningless, it may become of use to him or her later in life, and it may help him or her to get through an otherwise unmanageable time. O’Brien wants his reader to know that everything in life comes for a purpose. Throughout The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien makes use of many different literary techniques. In the story The Things They Carried, O’Brien uses symbolism. In Speaking of Courage, the literary technique is pathetic fallacy. Irony is used in How to Tell a True War Story, among others, and juxtaposition is used in the story The Lives of the Dead. It can be seen that literary techniques have a simple but powerful effect in The Things They Carried.

Managerial Skills Essay

In order for managers to be effective, they must have a clear understanding of whether different skills are important in their managerial role. In addition, managers must have a mutual understanding of the skills and responsibilities necessary for other managers across similar and different organizational levels and functions ([10] Kraut et al. , 1989). If these skills and responsibilities are not clearly understood, managers will neither be able to coordinate work effectively, communicate expectations, deliver feedback, nor be prepared for job transitions or other training and career development activities ([10] Kraut et al. , 1989). In short, understanding whether certain managerial skills are important to a manager’s job is essential. A number of researchers have investigated the roles, tasks, or activities of managers (e.g. [18] Mintzberg, 1973; [13] Luthans, 1988; [10] Kraut et al. , 1989). However, these studies are over a decade old, some more than two or three decades, and have not specifically examined skills. The world of work has changed since these studies, most notably due to organizational downsizing, technology, and the globalization of the workplace. Skills important to managers in the late 1980s and early 1990s may not be as important today. As times change, researchers should update important findings to determine if those findings are still applicable ([4] Cronbach, 1975), especially when considering that the skills and roles of managers need to be clearly defined and understood to effectively teach, select, develop, and promote these individuals in the workplace. Based on results of a study of more than 14,000 managers over two distinct time periods, this paper will highlight whether the importance of certain managerial skills changed over a 15-year time period, and determine which skills are needed at different organizational levels and across organizational functions from the opinions of managers themselves. Our main research question is, to what extent has the importance of certain managerial skills changed, or remained constant, over time, and whether certain skills are important based on organizational level and function. Studies of managers [18] Mintzberg (1973) provided one of the most influential works on managerial roles. Prior to his research, the roles of managers were understood to be embedded in a rigid functional approach of planning jobs, organizing staff, and leading personnel ([20] Pearson and Chatterjee, 2003). However, Mintzberg observed that managers worked at a much faster pace during which they were required to address a range of issues. The job of the manager required an ability to handle more complex roles than those described by classical management theory. Using a descriptive diary method to observe managers at work, Mintzberg identified ten roles of managerial work, which were divided into three categories: interpersonal roles, informational roles, and decisional roles. Expanding on [18] Mintzberg’s (1973) work, [10] Kraut et al. (1989) investigated the differences between managerial levels in the perception of role importance. They identified seven major factors of management tasks including: managing individual performance; instructing subordinates; planning and allocating resources; coordinating interdependent groups; managing group performance; monitoring the business environment; and representing one’s staff. Their findings also revealed distinct differences in role importance based on the level of the manager. For instance, first-level managers reported that managing individual performance and instructing subordinates were the most important set of activities in their job. However, as managers moved up the management hierarchy to the level of middle manager, the importance of these activities dropped and more focus was placed on tasks related to linking groups. The act of linking groups included planning and resource allocation, managing group performance, and coordinating interdependent groups. Executive managers took an even broader view of their job as evidenced by their high importance ratings related to monitoring the environment including business, economic, and social trends. The only commonality among the different managerial levels was the importance they placed on representing their staff; over 50 per cent of managers at each level rated representing staff of â€Å"utmost† or â€Å"considerable importance.† [13] Luthans’ (1988) research also examined differences between top and middle managers. However the focus was more on the distinction between the activities of an effective manager versus a successful manager. Effective managers were identified by a high level of performance in the unit they are responsible for, whereas successful managers were recognized by their rapid promotions within an organization. The activities that characterize effective managers included spending time on communication and human resource management, which can lead to long-term results. In contrast, successful managers spent more time on networking and aimed for short-term results. In addition to differences between levels, [10] Kraut et al. (1989) also compared managerial activities across the different organizational functions of marketing, manufacturing, and administration. For example, a greater percentage of marketing managers rated monitoring the outside environment more important when compared to other managers. Alternately, fewer marketing managers rated instructing subordinates as important when compared to managers in manufacturing and administration. Managers from all three organizational functions indicated that activities involving coordinating interdependent groups were important. The present study will attempt to expand on similar research such as those previously mentioned. First, this research examines managerial skills, which are much different than managerial roles, activities, or tasks. While past research has determined what roles or activities are important for managers and what tasks managers tend to spend much of their time on, this research attempts to determine what skills are important for managerial jobs. Second, this research will use opinions from practicing managers totaling more than 14,000 from two distinct time periods (1988-1992, and 2004-2006) to capture what skills have been important in the past, and determine whether those skills have changed in importance over time. In addition, this research will examine whether managerial skills are important across different organizational levels and organizational functions in the context of today’s work environment. The changing world of work The aforementioned research regarding the importance of managerial tasks, roles, and activities was conducted in the 1970s and 1980s. There is reason to believe that skills once deemed important for managers may have adjusted in relative importance since much has changed in the world of work since these studies. One can assume that the changes in the world of work may coincide with possible changes in the importance of different managerial skills. Organizations have become flatter and less hierarchical with fewer levels and more responsibilities ([2] Allen et al. , 2001; [16] McKinley et al. , 2000; [17] Miller, 1990). Also, organizational downsizing is commonplace due to the increasing need to reduce costs, to eliminate unnecessary levels of management, and to streamline operations ([5] DeMeuse et al. , 2004). As organizations become less hierarchical, there is reason to believe that the skills managers thought were important in the past may have changed in scope. Organizations also exist in a different environmental context than 15 years ago. Due to improved technology such as e-mail and the internet, changes have occurred in the way managers and co-workers interact. We have seen the emergence of the Internet as a major form of communication and e-commerce as a new source of business. Flexible work patterns and the ability to work in geographically dispersed teams is now a common reality in the workplace ([27] Wallace, 2004). These changes have cultivated the need for better communication, coordination, improved performance, team monitoring, and more interdependence and trust ([22], [21] Salas et al. , 2004, 2005; [28] Zaccaro et al. , 2004). Teams and organizations are increasingly becoming more global or virtual in nature. As a result, an awareness of different cultures and attention to multiculturalism and globalization is vital for the success of many managers. As organizations become more fast-paced and global, there is also speculation that the importance of different skills managers need may have shifted in scope. [7] Kanter (1989) argued that these rapid changes, spurred by technology and competitive pressures, have made traditional forms of organizing work obsolete. Managers may believe certain skills are important in order to be a partner with and empower employees to address business problems on their own and to work in cross-functional teams, which could be different than the skills believed to be important 15 years ago. Managers must fully understand their roles and responsibilities and become adept at a variety of skills to perform their job effectively ([1] Ahearn et al. , 2004; [6] Halbesleben et al. , 2003; [25] Stockdale and Crosby, 2004; [27] Wallace, 2004; [28] Zaccaro et al. , 2004). As previously mentioned, understanding the skills of managers is essential to coordinate work effectively, communicate expectations, deliver feedback, and for training and career development ([10] Kraut et al. , 1989). It is unknown whether the changes over the past 15 years that have occurred in an organizational and global context have also coincided with possible changes in importance of managerial skills over time. A recent case study reexamined [18] Mintzberg’s (1973) work 30 years after the original research by studying the pattern of behavior among four executives in Sweden ([26] Tengblad, 2006). The findings revealed that modern executives are more oriented towards working with subordinates in group-settings and focus more time on giving information rather than performing administrative duties. However, Tengblad noted significant similarities with Mintzberg’s original study, indicating that claims of the emergence of radically different managerial work may be exaggerated. However, due to the small sample size and lack of empirical data in that study, it is important that further work specifically examine the modern skills of managers with a wide range of managers and ample sample size. In other words, are the skills thought to be important to managers 15 years ago still important to managers in today’s work context? The present research will attempt to answer this question and provide relevant present-day information for managers and those who work with, train and develop them, by re-examining the importance of managerial skills across two distinct time periods and across both organizational level and function in the context of today’s work environment. Method Participants This research used data from two waves of managers engaged in a leadership development program from a leadership development provider in order to compare differences in managerial skills over time. The first wave consisted of 7,389 managers from the USA involved in a leadership development process between 1988 and 1992. The second wave consisted of 7,410 managers from the USA who were involved in a leadership development process between 2004 and 2006. Because of data housing and management issues, demographic data could not be given for the first wave of participants. However, aggregate biographical data from the leadership development provider from the time period of 1988 to 1992 revealed that leadership development participants in general were similar in terms of age, gender, race, education, and job status to those of 2004 to 2006. Demographic data in aggregate could be given for the 7,410 participants of the second wave. The average age of the managers in the second wave was 41.73 years old, 59 per cent were male, 86 per cent were white, 69 per cent worked in the private sector and 77 per cent had a minimum of a bachelor’s degree. Managers came from over 60 organizational types (e.g. aerospace and defense, finance, communications, government, education) and over 1,300 companies. In addition, 999 managers (13.5 per cent) were first-level managers (forepersons, crew chiefs, section supervisors), 3,136 (42.3 per cent) were middle-level managers (office managers, professional staff, mid-level administrators), 2,197 (29.6 per cent) were upper-middle managers (department executives, plant managers, senior professional staff), and 1,078 (14.6 per cent) were top or executive level managers (chief executives or operating officers, presidents, vice presidents, directors). Measure Managerial skills . Data determining the importance of managerial skills was collected from SKILLSCOPE ®[1] a 360-degree instrument that assesses job related strengths and weaknesses. The instrument has 98 items that are organized into 15 skill clusters. These clusters represent 15 skills and roles managers need in order to be effective in their job which are part of Mintzberg’s three categories (interpersonal, informational, and decisional) and two other categories (personal resources and effective use of self). The conceptual basis for SKILLSCOPE ® is research which focused on managerial skills, roles and tasks (e.g. [3] Beggs and Doolittle, 1988; [8] Kaplan, 1987; [9] Kotter, 1982; [14] McCall and Kaplan, 1984; [15] McCall et al. , 1979; [18], [19] Mintzberg, 1973, 1990; [23] Sayles, 1979; [24] Stewart, 1976). As part of their leadership development process, managers chose which five of the 15 skill clusters were the most important for their current job. Table I [Figure omitted. See Article Image.] describes each skill cluster. Results A frequency count of the data revealed the skills that are most important for managers in their current job. Result show that both â€Å"Communicating information, ideas† (60.1 per cent of the managers in 1988-1992 and 63 per cent of the managers in 2004-2006) and â€Å"Taking actions, making decisions, following through† (59.7 per cent of the managers in 1988-1992 and 62.9 per cent of the managers in 2004-2006) were the most important skills across all managers. On the other hand, â€Å"Self-management, self-insight, self-development† and â€Å"Openness to influence; flexibility† were the least important for managers in 1988 through 1992 (8.6 per cent and 8.8 per cent respectively as one of the most important skills needed) and managers in 2004 through 2006 (10.9 per cent and 7.2 per cent selected respectively as one of the most important skills needed). Table II [Figure omitted. See Article Image.] shows a comparison between managers from 1988-1992 and managers from 2004-2006. Many of the skills were similar in importance for both waves of managers. However, there were three skill clusters with differences of more than 10 percentage points that should be noted. First, 39.9 per cent of 2004-2006 managers rated â€Å"Relationships† as one of five important skill clusters which was an increase from 29.4 per cent of managers in 1988-1992. Second, 33 per cent of 2004-2006 managers rated â€Å"Administrative/organizational ability† as one of five important skill clusters, a decrease from the 45 per cent of managers was from 1988-1992. Finally, 31.7 per cent of managers from 2004-2006 rated â€Å"Time management† as one of five important skill clusters which was an increase from the 19.7 per cent of managers in 1988-1992. The next set of analyses focused only on the 2004-2006 managers. Examining the results as a whole may mask important findings based on managerial levels. Consequently, we analyzed the importance of managerial skills across the four managerial levels for the present study, similar to [10] Kraut et al. (1989). Figure 1 [Figure omitted. See Article Image.] displays the importance rankings for each skill sorted by managerial level. â€Å"Communicating information, ideas† and â€Å"Taking action, making decisions, following through† were the two most important skills for all managerial levels with the exception of first-level managers. While â€Å"Taking action, making decisions, following through† ranked as the most important for first-level managers, â€Å"Knowledge of job, business† ranked as second-most important, followed by â€Å"Communicating information, ideas†. On the other hand, â€Å"Openness to influence, flexibility† was the least important to managers at each level, again with the exception of first-level managers who believed â€Å"Risk-taking, innovation† was the least important, followed by â€Å"Openness to influence, flexibility†. In general, the importance rankings were similar across managerial levels, though there are some notable exceptions. First, â€Å"Getting information, making sense of it; problem identification† was less important for top/executive-level managers (48 per cent) than for other managerial levels (each over 55 per cent). Second, as managerial level increased, so did the importance of â€Å"Influencing, leadership, and power†, (from 21 per cent of first-level managers to 45 per cent of top/executive level managers), and of â€Å"Risk-taking, innovation† (from 7 per cent of first-level managers to 22 per cent of top/executive level managers). Last, as managerial level increased, the importance of two managerial skills decreased, namely â€Å"Knowledge of job, business† (from 63 per cent of first-level managers to 45 per cent of top/executive-level managers) and â€Å"Time management† (from 42 per cent of first-level managers to 19 per cent of top/executive-level managers). In addition, viewing the results from all managers in aggregate may also conceal important findings based specifically on job function, as managers in different functions may have different managerial challenges ([10] Kraut et al. , 1989). In order to account for this, the present study mirrored the data analysis of the [10] Kraut et al. (1989) study in that the levels of management were equally weighted in each function so that no one managerial level would have statistical influence over the other managerial levels, and managers from marketing (n =282), manufacturing (n =253), and administration (n =489) would be selected. Due to the functional diversity of the sample of the second wave, managers from engineering (n =413), human resources/training (n =345), operations (n =916) and sales (n =518) were also examined. Figure 2 [Figure omitted. See Article Image.] provides the rankings for the skills of managers across job function. It is interesting to note that the pattern of skill importance is similar across functions. For instance, â€Å"Communicating information, ideas† was most important for marketing, human resource, and sales managers, while â€Å"Taking action, making decisions, following through† was the most important managerial skill for manufacturing, administration, engineering, and operations. In fact, across the seven managerial functions studied, these two managerial skills were among the top three in importance for each managerial function. On the other hand, â€Å"Openness to influence; flexibility† was the least important to managers across all functions except for managers in human resources, who believed â€Å"Energy, drive, and ambition† was the least important. Some managerial skills were rated similarly in importance across managerial functions. For instance, between 22 per cent and 27 per cent of managers across different functions believed â€Å"Coping with pressure, adversity; integrity† was important. Also, between 8 per cent and 13 per cent of managers thought â€Å"Self-management, self-insight, self-development† was an important skill to have. There was variability among the importance of some skills across managerial function. For example, â€Å"Administrative/organizational ability† was important for less than 25 per cent of managers in marketing, manufacturing, and sales, but was important for 58 per cent of managers in administration. â€Å"Getting information, making sense of it; problem identification† was less important for sales managers (39 per cent) than it was for engineering managers (65 per cent). Regarding â€Å"Managing conflict; negotiation† it is interesting to note that most managers rated it the same in importance (between 27 per cent and 31 per cent) except managers from marketing, where only 17 per cent of managers thought it was important. Managers in manufacturing (25 per cent) and engineering (26 per cent) ranked â€Å"Relationships† less important than human resources (51 per cent) and sales (52 per cent) managers. â€Å"Selecting, developing, accepting people† was important to some managers in manufacturing and sales (both 35 per cent), but was not as important to marketing managers (12 per cent). Discussion In total, 30 years after [18] Mintzberg’s (1973) original study, [26] Tengblad (2006) found that while some things have changed, managerial work has remained the same, despite changes in the world of work. In a similar fashion, the present research attempted to determine whether the importance of skills managers need in their job have shifted over a 15-year time period. Though many have commented on how the world of work has changed over the past 15 years (e.g. [2] Allen et al. , 2001; [5] DeMeuse et al. , 2004; [7] Kanter, 1989; [16] McKinley et al. , 2000; [17] Miller, 1990; [22], [21] Salas et al. , 2004, 2005; [27] Wallace, 2004; [28] Zaccaro et al. , 2004), the data of the present research suggests that despite the changes in the work environment, the importance of certain managerial skills is somewhat similar. For instance, what was believed to be important in 1988-1992 (i.e. â€Å"Communicating information, ideas† and â€Å"Taking action, making decisions, following through†) is still considered important for managers today. In addition, skills that were not thought of as important in 1988-1992 (i.e. â€Å"Self-management, self-insight, self-development† and â€Å"Openness to influence; flexibility†) are still not thought of as important for managers in today’s work context. Despite these apparent similarities, there are some noteworthy differences between what managers thought was important 15 years ago and what managers think is important today. First, â€Å"Relationships† seem to be more important now than for managers 15 years ago. [26] Tengblad (2006) hinted at this with the finding that executives are concentrating more today (than 30 years ago) on working with others in a group setting. The increased importance of this skill cluster coincid ed with the changes in the organizational context that managers today must face. The use of communication technology, such as e-mail, and the existence of geographically dispersed teams require managers to be more deliberate in the effort they devote towards forming and maintaining relationships. The nonverbal cues that aid in face-to-face communication cannot be relied on in virtual relationships. By acknowledging and facing the challenges presented by these new forms of communication, managers can successfully execute their job requirements. In addition, the flattening of organizational hierarchies has forced a higher level of coordination and collaboration between peers. As more and more people work in an environment structured around the work team, the more likely a focus on building relationships will be encouraged. For instance, more time is devoted to interdependence and trust in a team setting ([22], [21] Salas et al. , 2004, 2005; [28] Zaccaro et al. , 2004), where ultimately, building relationships is necessary. [26] Tengblad (2006) found that executives are indeed focusing less time on administrative duties, and [7] Kanter (1989) also revealed that organizing work was becoming obsolete with changes in the environment. In a similar fashion, the present study found that â€Å"Administrative/organizational ability† seems to be less important today than it was 15 years ago. One of the reasons could correspond with the recent trend of the flattening of organizations. Organizations have become more streamlined, and responsibility has become more spread out in the organization. In effect, managers do not have a hierarchical structure to manage. The administrative tasks that were needed in more hierarchical structures 15 years ago are not needed as much in the present work context. The advent of technology has also facilitated many organizational processes that were once paper-based. More and more companies have converted to computer-based processes (i.e. online recruiting and staffing) that have minimized the necessity to focus one’s skill on administrative or organizational duties. â€Å"Time management† appears more important now than it was 15 years ago. The reasons why could coincide with changes in the work context. Technology now enables people from around the world to work in real-time, to contact people instantly, and work more quickly. E-mail has replaced mail and fax. The use of cell phones and electronic devices such as â€Å"blackberries† has also increased. At the same time, employees are focusing on creating balance between their professional lives and their personal lives, attempting to get work out of the way faster. Employees and their managers therefore must focus on time management now more than ever. The differences in importance rankings of managerial skills we observed between managers at different organizational levels confirm previous findings in the literature. [10] Kraut et al. (1989) found that some managerial roles are considered important at each level, but the degree of importance may be contingent on a particular level. In the present study, â€Å"Influencing, leadership, and power† and â€Å"Risk-taking and innovation† showed an increase in importance ranking as managerial level increased. Both of these skills are indicative of senior levels of leadership. As a manager takes on more responsibility, it is critical to the manager’s success that the manager’s focus shifts to meet the new demands of the job. Also important to note, some managerial skills differ in importance depending on managerial function and relevance. For instance, â€Å"Administrative/organizational ability† is more important to managers in administration than it is for any of the other functions because administrative ability is inherent in the administrative function. â€Å"Getting information, making sense of it; problem identification† is more important for engineering managers than it is for any of the other functions because working with information and problem identification is particularly relevant for engineers. â€Å"Communicating information and ideas† and â€Å"Risk-taking, innovation† are more important for managers in marketing than any of the other functions because those with a marketing background must be able to communicate and be innovative. Finally, â€Å"Relationships† is more important for managers in sales and HR than any of the other functions because sales and HR functions are dependent on forming and building good relationships. In effect, some skills are important to different managerial functions because of relevance of the specific organizational function. Practical applications Determining what is important for managers at each level and each function is crucial to coordinating work effectively, communicating expectations, and facilitating training and career development activities ([10] Kraut et al. , 1989). Relying on past (or outdated) information about the importance of certain managerial skills, roles, tasks, or activities could hinder effective work coordination, communication, and effective training and career development. Hence, â€Å"updating† this type of information may help managers in their work and development, even if it is to simply validate or reinforce previous findings. Imagine the challenges managers face if relevant information about the importance of certain skills in their jobs were not correct or outdated. If information from previous research from the 1970s or 1980s is still used for coordinating work activities and it has not been updated, managers may be concentrating on different or unnecessary skills that are no longer relevant. This could greatly impede their work, their advancement, and ultimately, their success. Moreover, managers may not be taught the appropriate skills for the present-day work environment that is needed to succeed if training and development relies on outdated information. For instance, [11] Lipshitz and Nevo (1992) detailed research of the competencies of effective and ineffective managers whose activities and practices aided the design of training and development programs. Knowing which managerial skills are important for different managerial levels and functions would definitely bring knowledge to improve training and development programs. Because of their rated importance, the data suggests that managerial training and development in today’s world of work may need to keep focus on communication and decision-making, decrease focus on administration and organization ability, and increase focus on enhancing relationships and the concept of time management. In addition, these findings may help those in selection and in succession planning; knowing that certain skills are important at different levels and functions can help determine what type of manager is needed at each level or each function. For instance, time management may be a skill set that is necessary particularly for first-level managers and not top-level executives, and hence, first level managers should have that appropriate skill for the job. Administrative/organizational ability may be important for managers in the administration function, and those in succession planning or selection for managers in that particular function should keep in mind that information, along with relevant information from any job analysis or competency model. Limitations and future directions There are some limitations to this study. First, asking managers to choose five of 15 skill clusters that are important to their current job does not provide the level of detail that could be obtained by evaluating the importance of each cluster using other methodologies. In the present study, a skill cluster is either among a manager’s top five most important or it is not. Therefore, the data does not permit an assessment of how much more important the top five skill clusters were than the ten skill clusters not selected. In addition, the data did not allow us to assess any relative ranking among the top five skills. As a result, it would be useful to assess the importance of clusters, competencies, roles, skills, or abilities using a Likert-type scale in the future. In this manner, researchers could examine to what extent each cluster is important to managers. Also, examining what managers believe are the most important skills for their job may not yield the same findings as asking what their direct reports or supervisors consider important. Future research should investigate what direct reports and supervisors of managers think are important skills for managers to acquire a more global perspective of managerial competencies, similar to those acquired through competency modeling (e.g. [12] Lucia and Lepsinger, 1999). Also, asking similar questions to managers outside the United States would bring more information about the importance of managerial skills across cultures. Combining the quantitative approach of evaluating to what extent a variety of skills are important for managers along with more qualitative methodologies of on-the-job observation and interviewing to assess competencies should create a more comprehensive picture of â€Å"today’s manager†. Finally, any future research should capture the demographic data for the sample across successive waves. Without knowing more about the sample composition for the first wave of data, it is not possible to ascertain whether changes over time are due to differences in organizational structure or function, differences in individual jobs represented by the sample, or differences in workforce composition. Therefore, explanations of changes cited in our findings may be due to structure changes and changes in technology or they may be due to changes in workforce demographics (i.e. aging baby-boomers). The best this research can conclude is that shifts in the importance of certain managerial skills have coincided with changes in the context of the world of work. However, with the present research data set, having a large sample of more than 7,000 managers with similar aggregate demographic data for each time period may tend to lead to more generalizable results than would a sample of a lesser number of participants. The world of work has changed over the past 15 years. Results of this study revealed that managers today feel the need to concentrate more on building relationships and time management skills and focus less on administrative and organizational ability. However, many of the skills managers thought were important to their job in the late 1980s and early 1990s are somewhat similar in importance from the opinions of managers in the first decade of the 2000s, particularly skills concerning communication and decision making. To answer the original research question, much like [26] Tengblad (2006) found, despite noticeable changes in the world of work, while some managerial skills shifted in importance, some managerial skills remain as important today as 15 years ago. The importance of these managerial skills not only coincided with the changes in the work environment, but also are context dependent based on managerial level and function. For instance, though time management has increased in importance over the years, managers at lower levels (i.e. first-level managers) seem to believe time management is more important to their job than those at higher levels (i.e. top- or executive-level managers). In essence, one should take note not only of how the importance of certain skills change over time, but also, that certain skills believed to be important for managers at one particular level or function may be more or less important for managers at other levels or other functions. In the end, knowing this information is essential to effectively teach, select, develop, train, and promote managers in the workplace. Portions of this paper are based on a poster that was presented at the 2007 Society of Industrial Organizational Psychology Conference, New York City, New York. Footnote 1. SKILLSCOPE is a registered trademark of the Center for Creative Leadership. References 1. Ahearn, K.K., Ferris, G.R., Hochwarter, W.A., Douglas, C. and Ammeter, A.P. (2004), â€Å"Leader political skill and team performance†, Journal of Management, Vol. 30, pp. 309-27. 2. Allen, T.D., Freeman, D.M., Russell, J.E.A., Reizenstein, R.C. and Rentz, J.O. (2001), â€Å"Survivor reactions to organizational downsizing: does time ease the pain?†, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, Vol. 74, pp. 145-64. 3. Beggs, J.M. and Doolittle, D.C. (1988), â€Å"Mintzberg revisited: a study of chief executive officers†, Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 9 No. 6, pp. 17-21. 4. Cronbach, L.J. (1975), â€Å"Beyond the two disciplines of scientific psychology†, American Psychologist, Vol. 30, pp. 116-27. 5. DeMeuse, K.P., Bergmann, T.J., Vanderheide, P.A. and Roraaf, C.E. (2004), â€Å"New evidence regarding organizational downsizing and a firm’s financial performance: a long-term analysis†, Journal of Managerial Issues, Vol. 16, pp. 155-77. 6. Halbesleben, J.R.B., Novicevic, M.M., Harvey, M.G. and Buckley, M.R. (2003), â€Å"Awareness of temporal complexity in leadership of creativity and innovation: a competency-based model†, The Leadership Quarterly, Vol. 14, pp. 433-54. 7. Kanter, R.M. (1989), â€Å"The new managerial work†, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 67, pp. 85-92. 8. Kaplan, R.E. (1987), The Warp and Woof of the General Manager’s Job, Tech. Rep. (27), Center for Creative Leadership, Greensboro, NC. 9. Kotter, J.P. (1982), The General Managers, The Free Press, New York, NY. 10. Kraut, A.I., Pedigo, P.R., McKenna, D.D. and Dunnette, M.D. (1989), â€Å"The role of the manager: what’s really important in different management jobs†, Academy of Management Executive, Vol. 3, pp. 286-93. 11. Lipshitz, R. and Nevo, B. (1992), â€Å"Who is a ‘good manager’?†, Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 13 No. 6, pp. 3-7. 12. Lucia, A.D. and Lepsinger, R. (1999), The Art and Science of Competency Modeling: Pinpointing Critical Success Factors in Organizations, Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer, San Francisco, CA. 13. Luthans, F. (1988), â€Å"Successful versus effective real managers†, Academy of Management Executive, Vol. 2, pp. 127-32. 14. McCall, M.W. Jr and Kaplan, R.E. (1984), Whatever It Takes: Decision Makers at Work, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. 15. McCall, M.W. Jr, Lombardo, M.M. and Devries, D.L. (1979), The Looking Glass Inc. ® Simulation, Center for Creative Leadership, Greensboro, NC. 16. McKinley, W., Zhao, J. and Rust, K.G. (2000), â€Å"Sociocognitive interpretation of organizational downsizing†, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 25, pp. 227-43. 17. Miller, D.B. (1990), â€Å"Organizational, environmental, and work design strategies that foster competence†, in Willis, S.L. and Dubin, S.S. (Eds), Maintaining Professional Competence: Approaches to Career Enhancement Vitality, and Success throughout a Work Life, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA, pp. 233-48. 18. Mintzberg, H. (1973), The Nature of Managerial Work, Harper & Row, New York, NY. 19. Mintzberg, H. (1990), â€Å"The manager’s job: folklore and fact†, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 68, pp. 163-76. 20. Pearson, C. and Chatterjee, S. (2003), â€Å"Managerial roles in Asia: an empirical study of Mintzberg’s role formulation in four Asian countries†, Journal of Management Development, Vol. 22, pp. 694-707. 21. Salas, E., Sims, D.E. and Burke, C.S. (2005), â€Å"Is there a ‘Big five’ in teamwork?†, Small Group Research, Vol. 36, pp. 555-99. 22. Salas, E., Kosarzycki, M.P., Tannenbaum, S.I. and Carnegie, D. (2004), â€Å"Principles and advice for understanding and promoting effective teamwork in organizations†, in Burke, R.J. and Cooper, C. (Eds), Leading in Turbulent Times, Blackwell Publishing, Malden, MA, pp. 95-120. 23. Sayles, L.R. (1979), Leadership: What Effective Managers Really Do†¦ and How They Do It, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY. 24. Stewart, R. (1976), Contracts in Management, McGraw-Hill, London. 25. Stockdale, M.S. and Crosby, F.J. (2004), The Psychology and Management of Workplace Diversity, Blackwell Publishers, Malden, MA. 26. Tengblad, S. (2006), â€Å"Is there a ‘new managerial work’? A comparison with Henry Mintzberg’s classic study 30 years later†, Journal of Management Studies, Vol. 43, pp. 1437-61. 27. Wallace, P. (2004), The Internet in the Workplace: How New Technology Is Transforming Work, Cambridge University Press, New York, NY. 28. Zaccaro, S.J., Ardison, S.D. and Orvis, K.A. (2004), â€Å"Leadership in virtual teams†, in Day, D.V. and Zaccaro, S.J. (Eds), Leader Development for Transforming Organizations: Growing Leaders for Tomorrow, Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ, pp. 267-92. Appendix Corresponding author William A. Gentry can be contacted at: gentryb@leaders.ccl.org AuthorAffiliation William A. Gentry, Center for Creative Leadership, Greensboro, North Carolina, USA Lauren S. Harris, University of Georgia, Atlanta, Georgia, USA Becca A. Baker, JCPenney Co., Plano, Texas, USA Jean Brittain Leslie, Center for Creative Leadership, Greensboro, North Carolina, USA Illustration Figure 1: Importance rankings for managerial skills (2004-2006) by managerial level Figure 2: Importance rankings for managerial skills (2004-2006) by organizational function Table I: Descriptions of managerial skill clusters Table II: Overall importance rankings for managerial skills (1998-1992 and 2004-2006) Copyright Emerald Group Publishing Limited 2008