McDonaldisation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

McDonaldisation - Essay Example The smaller units go through a process of rationalization to come up with the most efficient method. This most efficient method is put into practice to complete the various tasks while the other inefficient techniques are deemed (Bakardjieva, 2014). Three important environmental factors drive McDonaldization. These factors heavily contribute to the increase in popularity of this process. These environmental factors are: the extent to which this process is in line with other essential changes that take place in the society, the American culture which readily accepts the McDonaldization process and the material interests. Using these process of McDonaldization, many companies in various sectors are able to attain there goals and objectives. This process is highly in demand due to its high consistency levels with other social changes that take place worldwide. This process thrives well in a set up that encourages high mobility in its sector such as high movement of the customers in restaurants (Esmer, 2006). Four clear dimensions illustrate the process of McDonaldization. The first angle is efficiency. The restaurants design an efficient way to ensure that their clients are able to get maximum satisfaction. In order to achieve this process efficiency, the workers at the fast foods and other industries that use this rationalization process have to operate efficiently by following well designed steps. Despite McDonaldization, not creating emphasis for efficiency it has become a reality to many industries in many sectors around the world. It has become a critical tool in the everyday life (Galland and Ritzer, 1996). The rationalization process of McDonaldization has massively spread to other outlets in the fast food industry. These restaurants and outlets include Burger King, Taco Bell, and Domino’s bell. These companies use well organized

Gulliver’s Travels Essay Example for Free

Gulliver’s Travels Essay It is the mistaken employment of reason that Swift finds to be the greatest flaw of human nature: â€Å"When I thought of my family, my friends, my countrymen, or the human race in general, I considered them, as they really were, Yahoos in shape and disposition, perhaps a little more civilized, and qualified with the gift of speech; but making no other use of reason, than to improve and multiply those vices whereof their brethren in this country had only the share that nature allotted them. †(Swift 322) The fact that the horses are the most intelligent and virtuous creatures that Gulliver encounters is significant. The human race is therefore placed below that of the animals and Gulliver hints that the horses may prove more capable of rising above their condition than man seems to be. A Modest Proposal is equally ironic and destructive of belief in the superiority of the human race. As in Gulliver’s Travels, Swift implies a comparison between man and beast in this essay. The author masks his irony under the appearance serious scientific enquiry into poverty and the solutions that he sees as available for it. The first part of the work deplores the condition of those children that are born in poverty and therefore condemned by the social order to a life of misery and hunger. The solution that the writer proposes is radical and astonishing: he proposes that the babies coming from poor families be used as food. The hint to the animal nature which dominates man in many respects is evident. Swift encourages the consumption of young babies by men as an economical solution, also providing mock calculations of the profit that it would bring to society. Human nature appears therefore as base as that of the animals that are capable of violence and cruelty in order to satisfy their instincts. Swift uses the same mechanism he sees in man and thus employs his reason to calculate and rationalize, without scruple, the value of human life: â€Å"I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children. †(Swift 5) The author thus hints that his solution is only a response to the way in which the rich usually treat the poor. Human nature appears in its entirety as base and selfish. Despite the fact that man has the power of reason at his disposal, he is nevertheless capable of calculated cruelty masked as a disinterested and honest endeavoring for the good of society: â€Å"I profess, in the sincerity of my heart, that I have not the least personal interest in endeavoring to promote this necessary work, having no other motive than the public good of my country, by advancing our trade, providing for infants, relieving the poor, and giving some pleasure to the rich. †(Swift 16) Here, Swift unmasks the crimes that the social man does out of greed and poor use of his faculty of reason. The proposal is written so as to imitate the other measures taken by man in favor of social welfare. Swift hints at the exploitation of the poor and at the power abuse that the rich are often found guilty of. Cannibalism is therefore used as a metaphor for the lowliness of human nature, which is still very far from perfection. The two works outline the image that Swift had of human nature. Despite the fact that man has been gifted with spirit and reason, he is not able to rise above his base condition. As Swift emphasizes in both of the works analyzed, man is ingenious and extremely skilled, yet he is unable to employ his reason to a truly good purpose. In comparison to animals therefore, man appears to be even lower since he cannot fulfill his potential for wisdom and spirituality. Both of the works analyzed satirize therefore man as a superior and wonderful being that is yet unable to become truly noble. Swift dissects human nature to reveal the most grotesque aspects it contains. Man has the potential of a noble, god-like creature and yet he behaves weakly and he is often petty, selfish and immoral. Swift’s accomplishment is therefore to reveal the essence of man as a noble and base creature at the same time. Works Cited: Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver’s Travels. Chicago: Rand McNally, 1932. A Modest Proposal. New York: Plain Label Books, 2002.

the boy :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"You all tried your best,† Coach Stevenson said to the group of boys. I was sitting in the back not even listening to him. I was staring at the thick stack of envelopes in his hand. â€Å"Do not open the envelope until you get in your car!† Finally he passed them back.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Gobel, Giles, Hepp, Hegg, Hicks†. I snatched it out of his hand. I could feel that it was still warm. I started to walk towards the door, witch seemed like a mile away. I could barley walk the anticipation was so bad. I rounded the corner thinking how hard I had tried in practice. Then I turned another corner thinking how bad I wanted that place on the team.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I was just about to the skills for living room when my hand acted without asking my brain first. I thrust my finger into the envelope, shedding the paper like a six year-old boy on Christmas mourning. You could hear the paper tare apart. Still walking like a mad man I wiped out the envelope, it read†¦.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Cha-ching,† the sound effects played in my head. Congratulations! From the first word on I knew the results. I made the team.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I walked out the door and saw my mom sitting in her car. She had that look on her face. She did not want to have to tell me, â€Å"its ok maybe next year.† She didn’t have to. I smiled wider than my ears. My mom knew what the paper said before I got in the car.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I pulled out the sheet and looked at the schedule. â€Å" Practice 5 days a week!† Maybe I wouldn’t have been so bad to be cut.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"You all tried your best,† Coach Stevenson said to the group of boys. I was sitting in the back not even listening to him. I was staring at the thick stack of envelopes in his hand. â€Å"Do not open the envelope until you get in your car!† Finally he passed them back.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Gobel, Giles, Hepp, Hegg, Hicks†. I snatched it out of his hand. I could feel that it was still warm. I started to walk towards the door, witch seemed like a mile away. I could barley walk the anticipation was so bad. I rounded the corner thinking how hard I had tried in practice. Then I turned another corner thinking how bad I wanted that place on the team.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I was just about to the skills for living room when my hand acted without asking my brain first.

Genesis And Theogony... Plagiarism? Essay examples -- essays research

Genesis and Theogony†¦Plagiarism? The Book of Genesis is a compilation, and like every compilation it has a wide variety of contributors who, in turn, have their individual influence upon the final work. It is no surprise, then, that there exist certain parallels between the Theogony, the cosmogony of the early Greeks, and the Book of Genesis, the first part of the Pentateuch section of the Bible. In fact, arguments may be made that the extent of this 'borrowing', as it were, is not limited to Genesis; the Theogony has its own roots in Greek mythology, predating the Book of Genesis by a thousand years. A superficial examination of this evidence would erroneously lead one to believe that Genesis is somewhat a collection of older mythology re-written specifically for the Semites. In fact, what develops is that the writers have addressed each myth as a separate issue, and what the writers say is that their God surpasses every other. Each myth or text that has a counterpart in Genesis only serves to further an important idea among the Hebrews: there is but one God, and He is omnipotent, omniscient, and other-worldly; He is not of this world, but outside it, apart from it. The idea of a monotheistic religion is first evinced in recorded history with Judaism, and it is vital to see that instead of being an example of plagiarism, the Book of Genesis is a meticulously composed document that will set apart the Hebrew God from the others before, and after. If we trace back to the first appearance of Genesis in written form, in its earliest translation, we arrive at 444 B.C.; In order to fully comprehend the origin of the story we must venture further back in time. We can begin with the father of the Hebrew people, Abraham. We can deduce when he lived, and find that he lived around 1900 B.C. in ancient Mesopotamia. If we examine his world and its culture, we may find the reasons behind certain references in Genesis, and the mythologies of Theogony they resemble. Abraham lived during a time of great prosperity and a remarkably advanced culture. Homes were comfortable, even luxurious. We can also deduce that it was a relatively stable and peaceful society; its art is characterized by the absence of any warlike activity, paintings or sculptures. Outside the cities the early nomadic tribes of Israel were, "taking with them the early ... ... Hebrew god is simply not measured or scaled; He is an unknown quantity, set apart from the bounds of human knowledge. These similarities serve a function as a contrast to the differences between these religions. It would seem that the writers acknowledged these other religions, and addressed each one by creating a god that surpasses all others. The god that creates himself is one of many; the Hebrew god stands alone in his might. The god that created the world defeated another god, and formed the earth from the corpse; in Genesis, God speaks and his words transform into actions. God exists before the matter He shapes to His will. The writers have then, in fact, minimized the actions of all other gods in comparison to one all-powerful deity such as this. By drawing comparisons to other texts, the message can be lost in attempting to find the roots of certain ideas. But the origins of the stories are not nearly as important as the overall message being stated, and while the ideas they resemble may be old, the message is clear and unique: there is but one, and He is beyond all that is. His will alone suffices, and He predates even time itself. And that message has changed the world. Genesis And Theogony... Plagiarism? Essay examples -- essays research Genesis and Theogony†¦Plagiarism? The Book of Genesis is a compilation, and like every compilation it has a wide variety of contributors who, in turn, have their individual influence upon the final work. It is no surprise, then, that there exist certain parallels between the Theogony, the cosmogony of the early Greeks, and the Book of Genesis, the first part of the Pentateuch section of the Bible. In fact, arguments may be made that the extent of this 'borrowing', as it were, is not limited to Genesis; the Theogony has its own roots in Greek mythology, predating the Book of Genesis by a thousand years. A superficial examination of this evidence would erroneously lead one to believe that Genesis is somewhat a collection of older mythology re-written specifically for the Semites. In fact, what develops is that the writers have addressed each myth as a separate issue, and what the writers say is that their God surpasses every other. Each myth or text that has a counterpart in Genesis only serves to further an important idea among the Hebrews: there is but one God, and He is omnipotent, omniscient, and other-worldly; He is not of this world, but outside it, apart from it. The idea of a monotheistic religion is first evinced in recorded history with Judaism, and it is vital to see that instead of being an example of plagiarism, the Book of Genesis is a meticulously composed document that will set apart the Hebrew God from the others before, and after. If we trace back to the first appearance of Genesis in written form, in its earliest translation, we arrive at 444 B.C.; In order to fully comprehend the origin of the story we must venture further back in time. We can begin with the father of the Hebrew people, Abraham. We can deduce when he lived, and find that he lived around 1900 B.C. in ancient Mesopotamia. If we examine his world and its culture, we may find the reasons behind certain references in Genesis, and the mythologies of Theogony they resemble. Abraham lived during a time of great prosperity and a remarkably advanced culture. Homes were comfortable, even luxurious. We can also deduce that it was a relatively stable and peaceful society; its art is characterized by the absence of any warlike activity, paintings or sculptures. Outside the cities the early nomadic tribes of Israel were, "taking with them the early ... ... Hebrew god is simply not measured or scaled; He is an unknown quantity, set apart from the bounds of human knowledge. These similarities serve a function as a contrast to the differences between these religions. It would seem that the writers acknowledged these other religions, and addressed each one by creating a god that surpasses all others. The god that creates himself is one of many; the Hebrew god stands alone in his might. The god that created the world defeated another god, and formed the earth from the corpse; in Genesis, God speaks and his words transform into actions. God exists before the matter He shapes to His will. The writers have then, in fact, minimized the actions of all other gods in comparison to one all-powerful deity such as this. By drawing comparisons to other texts, the message can be lost in attempting to find the roots of certain ideas. But the origins of the stories are not nearly as important as the overall message being stated, and while the ideas they resemble may be old, the message is clear and unique: there is but one, and He is beyond all that is. His will alone suffices, and He predates even time itself. And that message has changed the world.

Benefits of Risk Management Essay

1. More effective strategic planning  Effective strategic planning means the objectives set by the companies suit the company’s operations capabilities and the planning helps the company preserve its values and seek improvement. Risk management means coordinates activities to direct and control the organization with regard risks. The coordination between activities helps the company to communicate and understand the business activities as a whole, this will let the company understand the operation capabilities better and enable the company implement realistic strategic plan into organization 2. Better cost control – risk management set a objective acceptance of risk level. Company has a guide to manage risk and control negative consequence. – The cost benefit thinking is addressed by the risk management. In the past , companies think they have unlimited resources. Companies tend to transfer risks by buying insurance. Nowadays, risk management does not think transferring all the risks by insurance is enough as the competitiveness is increasing . Risk management provide more solutions, such as , avoiding risks, loss control, transfer part of risks not only by insurance but also by hedge funds and retain some risks( active retain is advocated). Company can save a lot of money by compare cost and benefit of different ways. – The risks management requires forward thinking. This will help the company to prevent downside risks and its bad consequences; also this will help company to catch opportunities to avoid opportunity cost . – greater trust, openness and transparency can be obtained by the company by applying risk management .Risk management requires company communicate with stakeholders(suppliers ,customers ,government, employees and shareholders) and different levels in the company. This will increase the supply chain efficiency and effectiveness. Also lower financing cost and regulation cost ( carbon tax) would be obtained. 3. Increased knowledge and understanding of your exposure to risks -The risks management requires the companies continual plan and manage its risks. Continual evaluation and monitoring control and environment is required. This process helps the company to learn more about itself as more experiences of dealing with same risks ,also it help the company forward looks its downside risks and capture opportunities. – Communication between different levels are required( risk management culture). 4. More systematic and thorough method of decision making -The risks management manage risks in a decentralized way by a centralized policy. – risk management set process of individual company to manage risks. The process enable company think in a complete way to manage risk. 5. Prevention rather than reaction to risks * The risk management requires the company to manage risks proactively rather than simply only reacting to the risks they face. This principle would help the company predict the risks and implement preventative control to prevent risks. * Risks management impose great emphasis on risks management culture. Each individual in company should pay attention to the risks. The effective communication between employees and management should be obtained. 6. Better preparedness for external review -Risks management aligns accountability to top managers . The managers have more pressure to work hard and act carefully. – The risk management processes greatly require communication with stakeholders and different levels within company. this will greatly improve the company’s understanding of different parties needs, concerns and issues . in this way , company can better meet expectation of external parties

14 Strategies for Writing Better College Papers

14 Strategies for Writing Better College Papers Learning how to write solid college papers is literally half the battle with most majors. In this 3-minute article we’ve broken down the 14 most effective strategies involved. Breeze through each one and ingest them at your leisure. 1. Adjust Your Writing Attitude No, writing doesn’t suck, but your attitude might. College writing is actually quite fun and engaging once you get into it. Make it easy on yourself and just settle into the papers as they come. Accept them. Commit to them. 2. Get Interested Intrigued Part of adjusting your attitude is getting personally invested and interested in the subject. The more involved you are the higher the quality in most cases. Your personality will come through. The things you learn will be genuine. The paper won’t feel forced. Get it? 3. Master the Craft of Outlining Once swept away into the passion of writing (expression), it’s easy to get artsy and try to wing it. Don’t. Instead, make it a habitual practice to get an outline drawn up. Love them. Outlines are just structure to help your thoughts mold along certain parameters. Without them you can find yourself either a) mid-paper and at a dead end, or b) mid-paper and completely off the radar. 4. Get a Second Opinion Show your initial outlines and drafts to other people. If your friends and family aren’t interested, then find people who are. Or, pay someone a couple bucks. It’s worth it. A second pair of eyes can tell you things that are simply invisible to you as the writer. 5. Begin Writing Sooner rather than Later Even if the paper isn’t due for three months, be engaged and working on it from day one. However, don’t try to turn it in super early. There’s no real benefit to doing so other than saving mental space perhaps. Otherwise just take all the time you have and relax. Craft something amazing because you’ve got plenty of time. 6. Visit a Writing Center Once in a While Yeah, really! Grab your outline/draft and head over to the writing center. See what kinds of things they say. Critiques are worth their weight in proverbial gold. They’ll help you edit/polish as well as nail down your thesis. Plus, they know everything about all the small formatting details (more on this in a moment). 7. Don’t Freaking Plagiarize! It’s so tempting! Yes, you can definitely use quotes and cite small supportive paragraphs from relevant sources but there’s a limit. Now, aside from that it’s also quite tempting to try and just copy/paste someone else’s thinking†¦don’t do it. Professors these days have many tools at their disposal to find duplicate content. 8. Let Your Thesis Evolve By beginning the writing process as early as possible you give it lots of time to naturally evolve or settle on the primary thesis you’re searching for. Go with the flow, but stick to deadlines. Give your thesis room to breathe. Don’t stay so narrowed in focus/perspective that you end up with a narrow paper (something most professors are likely to dock you on). 9. Start Thinking Analyzing like a Professor Speaking of professors, look at your thesis statement, outline and drafts like a professor would. If you aren’t sure what your professor will say, then show it to them! Throughout the process try to step into their shoes and critique yourself. It helps. It’s a sobering practice. 10: Spend Serious Time on Formatting The writing center can really help here. All the many formatting details with citing courses, subtitles, adding graphs/charts, etc. can be daunting at first. Instead of wasting tons of time doing it yourself, get some help until it becomes like second nature. Little errors add up fast! 11. Be Creatively Risky In essence college really isn’t a time to strictly follow the rules and conform. Don’t be afraid to test professors and truly express yourself. Don’t be afraid to bend the rules a little as long as it doesn’t have to do with the technicalities. Like, as long as your paper is well-written, though out, formatted correctly and clear, it’s going to be hard for a professor to dock you even if you went a little left field. 12. Let Information Marinate Never underestimate the power of absorbing ideas/concepts and then letting it marinate in your mind or subconscious where ideas form. Let it sit and settle. Let the information coagulate and mold together naturally. Don’t force writing. Follow your gut instincts here. 13. Learn to Take Thorough Notes If you ditch class and skimp on notes it will translate into more hours researching. Take proper notes with your paper in mind. 14. Don’t Forget to Think Critically This is serious business and seriously lacking in America today. Be objective as possible, and then color that cold data with your subjective self. Get it? Be critical. Think critically. Deduce things critically. Okay all you aspiring and accomplished college paper writers out there, how do you do it? Share your wisdom!

Profiling Passengers Pros and Cons

Profiling Passengers Pros and Cons The threat of terrorism has made airport security measures a hot topic since 9/11. While passengers face ever-longer lists of prohibited items, security experts increasingly argue that it is passengers themselves, not the contents of their bags, that need to be scrutinized. Those in the air travel business may agree, as the time and inconvenience of getting through airport security grows, making air travel unattractive to customers. If passenger profiling works, it would be an effective way to prevent terrorists from attacking and save time and money for everyone else. Profiling Provokes Concerns Over Civil Liberties Civil Rights experts argue that passenger profiling violates passengers civil rights. Any profiling system requires creating stereotypes of their objects based on existing information. So, because the 9/11 attackers were all Arab Muslims, Arab Muslims are more likely to be profiled than others, which violates basic ideas about Americans equality. The chance that inaccuracies and prejudice will make their way into the system is good. Profilings Effectiveness Remains to Be Proven Profiling may not actually be effective. Profiling, when it replaces baggage screening, can have a negative effect on overall security, according to the American Civil Liberties Union: In 1972, the last year the United States used profiles to determine whose carry-on luggage would be X-rayed to stop hijacking, there were 28 hijackings of U.S. aircraft anyway. Hijacking dropped off when profiling was abandoned and every passengers carry-on luggage was X-rayed. Latest Developments The August 2006 arrest of 24 men planning to blow up aircraft leaving Heathrows airport using a combination of innocuous liquids re-opened the debate about effective airport screening. Later in the week, the British government announced that it is considering a passenger profiling system that would go beyond simply identifying passengers with specific racial or ethnic backgrounds. Amid extra security measures, delays and skyrocketing threat levels for passengers, analysts concluded that current hand-baggage screening technology is probably not sufficient to identify all potential bomb components, especially homemade ones. The trouble with airport security measures is that a lot of machines do not spot a lot of explosives. It is still a case of dogs and people taking their clothes off, Andy Oppenheimer, an editor for Janes Nuclear Biological Chemical Defense, told The Guardian. Background Airline passenger profiling got its official start in 1994 when Northwest Airlines began developing a computer-assisted passenger prescreening system (CAPPS). Following suspicions that the July 1996 crash of a TWA flight might have involved a bomb, the government began making recommendations that profiling through CAPPS should be made routine. Civil liberties organizations raised concerns that such programs are discriminatory. Their use remained widespread, however, and both a 1997 Justice Department report and 1998 Senate Subcommittee aviation hearings concluded that CAPPS was being implemented in a fair way. They recommended Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) oversight to make sure that profiling remained fair. Concerns about terrorism following 9/11 and advances in electronic information collection and gathering have raised the stakes. Following September 11, the Department of Homeland Security developed two programs, CAPPS II and the Secure Flight Program, both of which have been controversial on civil liberties grounds. CAPPS II, which required passengers to provide personal information when they made reservations, has been abandoned. Secure Flight requires airlines to share the names of passengers with the government for comparison with a centralized list of terrorist names. The government is also experimenting with low-tech forms of passenger profiling based on behavior pattern recognition. Security officers use the technique to flag passengers who seem to be acting suspiciously. While it is behavior, not race or ethnicity, thats being tagged, there are concerns that behavior pattern recognition can turn easily into racial profiling, or subject innocent people to illegal searches without a good pretext. The Screening Passengers by Observation Technique program, known as SPOT, has been in use in major city airports since 2004. The Case for Profiling While behavior pattern recognition hasnt yet stopped any terrorists, there is a lot of anecdotal evidence suggesting that it can. Officers using behavior pattern recognition techniques at major U.S. airports have successfully stopped people with fake identification, and others wanted for drug possession or other crimes. The threat of terrorism warrants adding these techniques to existing baggage screening technology. Passenger Profiling Is a Race-Neutral Technique Behavior pattern recognition is a race-neutral profiling technique in which screeners look for how people act, rather than the shade of their skin. In fact, profilers are prohibited from relying on race or other discriminatory factors to identify potential terrorists. A program analyst for the Transportation Security Administration called SPOT an antidote to racial profiling ... If you look for a certain race or ethnicity, youre making a big mistake. As for screening technologies that make use of electronic databases, our elected officials and others can pressure the government to notify the public that private information is being used, and adhere to other requirements. In fact, requiring the government to use technologies and techniques in an ethical way would be a great way to move beyond the well-debated conflict between liberty and security. The government can provide Americans with both by appropriately using profiling technology and methods. The Case Against Profiling Terrorists may go undetected by behavior pattern recognition profiling, despite the techniques success in capturing other criminals. Terrorists may be trained for long periods in how to control suspicious behaviors. And there are no existing profile templates for how terrorists behave, so it would be difficult to come up with a profile that predicts their specific ways of behaving. Profiling Can Amount to an Ethnic Witch Hunt There is such a high likelihood that profiling will turn into an ethnic witch hunt that it is not worth risking its use. The British implementation of similar profiling in August 2006 immediately provoked a Muslim police officer to call it an extreme form of stereotyping. Such a move by American authorities is likely to provoke similarly justified outrage and in the process damage the United States already troubled relationship with Islamic communities, both domestically and abroad. Profiling Technologies Violate Passengers Privacy Rights Northwest Airlines release of private citizens information to NASA in 2001-2002 suggests that neither the public nor private sector is interested in preserving Americans right to privacy. The availability of technology that encourages the coordination and use of even more personal information will make it increasingly difficult to enforce civil liberties, and although violations of rights may be discovered after the fact, the damage will already have been done. Stopping terrorists before they strike is key to protecting Americans security. But protecting the country also means aiming to protect its ideals. At the least, it would be ironic if the quest to protect the ideals of American freedom cost Americans their civil liberties.

The Five Powers of Buddhism

The Five Powers of Buddhism The spiritual path can seem a frustrating slog much of the time. The Buddha knew this, and he taught that there are five spiritual qualities that, when developed together, become the panca bala in Sanskrit and Pali, five powers that overcome hindrances. The five are faith, effort, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom. Faith The word faith is a red flag for many of us. The word often is used to mean blind acceptance of doctrines without evidence. And the Buddha clearly taught us to not accept any doctrine or teaching blindly, as found in the Kalama Sutta. But in Buddhism, faith shraddha (Sanskrit) or saddha (Pali) means something closer to trust or confidence. This includes trust and confidence in yourself, knowing that you can overcome obstacles through the power of practice. This trust does not mean accepting Buddhist doctrines as true. Rather, it means that you trust the practice to develop your own insight into what the doctrines teach. In the Saddha Sutta of the Pali Canon, the Buddha compared trust in the dharma to the way birds trust a tree in which they build their nests. Often we experience to practice as a balancing act between faith and bewilderment. This is good; be willing to look deeply at what bewilders you. Looking deeply does not mean concocting an intellectual explanation to cover your ignorance. It means practicing wholeheartedly with your uncertainties and being open to insight when it comes. Energy The Sanskrit word for energy is virya. Virya evolved from an ancient Indo-Iranian word that meant hero, and in the Buddhas day virya had come to refer to the strength of a great warrior to overcome his enemies. This strength can be mental as well as physical. If you are struggling with inertia, torpor, laziness, or whatever you want to call it, how do you develop virya? Id say a first step is to take inventory of your daily life to see whats draining you and address that. It could be a job, a relationship, an unbalanced diet. Please be clear, however, that addressing your energy drains does not necessarily mean walking away from them. The late Robert Aitken Roshi said, The first lesson is that distraction or obstruction are just negative terms for your context. Circumstances are like your arms and legs. They appear in your life to serve your practice. As you become more and more settled in your purpose, your circumstances begin to synchronize with your concerns. Chance words by friends, books, and poems, even the wind in the trees brings precious insight. [From the book, The Practice of Perfection] Read More: Virya Paramita: The Perfection of Energy Mindfulness Mindfulness sati (Pali) or smriti (Sanskrit) is a whole-body-and-mind awareness of the present moment. To be mindful is to be fully present, not lost in daydreams or worry. Why is this important? Mindfulness helps us break the habits of mind that separate us from everything else. Through mindfulness, we stop filtering our experiences through judgments and biases. We learn to see things directly, as they are. Right, Mindfulness is part of the Eightfold Path. Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh said, When Right Mindfulness is present, the Four Noble Truths and the other seven elements of the Eightfold Path are also present. (The Heart of the Buddhas Teaching, p. 59) Concentration Concentration in Buddhism means to become so absorbed that all distinctions between self and others are forgotten. The deepest absorption is samadhi, which means to bring together. Samadhi prepares the mind for enlightenment. Samadhi is associated with meditation, and also with the dhyanas, or four stages of absorption. Wisdom In Buddhism, wisdom (Sanskrit prajna; Pali panna) does not exactly fit the dictionary definition. What do we mean by wisdom? The Buddha said, Wisdom penetrates into dharmas as they are in themselves. It disperses the darkness of delusion, which covers up the own-being of dharmas. Dharma, in this case, refers to the truth of what is; the true nature of everything. The Buddha taught that this kind of wisdom comes only from direct, and intimately experienced, insight. It does not come from crafting intellectual explanations. Developing the Powers The Buddha compared these powers to a team of five horses. Mindfulness is the lead horse. After that, faith is paired with wisdom and energy is paired with concentration. Working together, these powers dispel illusion and open doors of insight.

American Civilization before 1877 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

American Civilization before 1877 - Essay Example He was so proper that a commentator even kidded that â€Å"Washington was born with his clothes on and his hair powdered, and made a stately bow on his first appearance in the world†. He is always dignified and looked like a leader. Socially he also like to dance and ride horses which fits in the character of a gentleman of his time. He was not without criticism though. He was criticized as being unintellectual. Adams even mocked him that he was too illiterate, unlearned, unread for his station and reputation is equally past dispute. Thomas Jefferson Jefferson qualified and fitted of being a gentleman because he embodied America’s democratic ideals and democratic hopes. Lincold even said of Jefferson that â€Å"the principles of are the definitions and axioms of free society†. He was criticized by Leonard Levy though in his work Lincoln are the definitions and axioms of free society†. According to him, Jefferson was inconsistent and hypocrite. He ripped off Jefferson’s mantle of libertarianism to expose his darker sige: his passion for partisan persecution, his lack of concern for basic civil liberties, and his self-righteousness that became at times out- and- out ruthlessness. Far from being the skeptical enlightened intellectual, allowing all ideas their free play, Jefferson was portrayed by Levy and other historians as something of an ideologue, a doctrinaire thinker eager to fill the young with his political orthodoxy while censoring all those books he did not like. He did not have an open or a questioning mind after all. Alexander Hamilton Alexander Hamilton was the great American capitalist. He singlehandedly created modern American capitalism. He is the founder big state fnancial capitalism. In the 1890 he was He was called a â€Å"sound thinker, the constructive statesman†who sponsored a â€Å"vigourous, positive, constructive national policy... that implied a faith in the powers of an efficient government to ad vance natioanl interest.† Robert Warslow described him in 1931 that for a man, he was not noble, as a politician, hewas not an eminent success; as a statesman, apart from financial measures, he was not superior. But as businessman, not in all this period was any man to match him. And this characteristic fitted Hamilton as one of finest gentleman of his time as he embodied the American ideals of capitalism that made it an economic superpower that it is now. 2. a In Revolutionary Characters, Gordon Wood explains "what made the founders different." How do the public lives and attitudes of two of the men he discusses prove his point? Base your answer on the Introduction, the Epilogue, and at least two other chapter America unlike its counterparts in Europe and elsewhere in the world, was created by a sense of belief and not by common ethnicity. It also prides being a gentleman not by birth but by merit. Being a gentleman however connotes different meaning with the forefathers of A merica. America’s founding fathers were different because for them being a gentleman assumed a moral meaning that was more important than its social significance. Unlike their counterpart in Europe where pure monarchists still define gentility exclusively by the pride of their families, the size of their estates, the

Managed Care Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Managed Care - Essay Example In this type of organization there is a very good interlinks that is formed between the hospitals, doctors as well as the various health insurance plans and mostly these three can be found in the same organization. In such cases it is found that the HMO will own the hospital and the salaries of the physicians are paid by them. Under normal circumstances, the patients have to go for the managed care plan that is being offered by the organization and only in very extreme cases, the patient can opt for other types of medical care providers. It has been widely seen that the HMO offers medical plans that are quite friendly to the pockets of the patients, since they force both the doctors as well as the patient to control the cost for the medical treatment that is to be undergone. As a result they are considered to be much more advantageous than other plans but at the same time they lack the quality aspect through the control of costs. (Nguyen 2009) Fee For Service or FFS: In this case of plan the patient can choose any doctor as well as any type of health care provider they wish. As a result the physicians are paid fees on each visit of the patient and in addition to this; the patients also have to pay for the various medical tests that they undergo.

Compare and contrast psy 5025 ass. 4 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Compare and contrast psy 5025 ass. 4 - Essay Example Adlerian psychotherapy is complete built upon the theory of Alfred Adler. Adler was a strong follower of Freud. He disagreed with Freud’s sexual development theory however. He believed the child’s experiences with power and the lack of power make the difference between positive mental health development and unstable mental health development or neuroses as Freud called it. Adlerian Therapy works with several major issues. Emphasis is placed on the importance of the feelings of self the come from conflicts and social interactions. This is basically an individual’s self image or self esteem. This therapy also stresses that one’s sense of self is the core of personality. Therefore they would say that personality is moldable and ever changing. In general this therapy begins with psychoanalysis however greater emphasis placed on motivation and social interactions (Schwartzman, 1998). The goal of Adlerian play therapy is to challenge and encourage the beliefs and the goals of the client and to help them form goals that are useful in social relationships as well as help them form an image of themselves that allows them to feel equal to others. These goals relate to every area of the client’s life (Schwartzman 1998). In general adlerian therapy and in play therapy the therapist provide a supportive and accepting enviromnet for the client to open up. In the case of children that is not always enough. Children are seen as timid and unwilling to share why they are doing things with adults by nature. Since Adlerian therapy is basically talk therapy the systems theory needed to be added for play therapy. They see play as a way to fool the child into opening up because the session is conducted during a â€Å"play time†. By playing together the therapist puts him/her self on the same level of the child so the child will open up. The play is not seen as therapeutic but rather as a tool to do psychoanalysis with the child (Schwartzman,

Business administration - Program Capstone Essay

Business administration - Program Capstone - Essay Example Moreover, a manager must specify objectives and prioritize interests, values, concerns and aspirations. Also a manager, who is aware of both short-term and long-term implications of a decision and have a 360 degree approach, makes better decisions (George, 2000). In order to achieve desirable results and better decision making, a manager must identify the purpose of decision and clarify all the uncertainties involved. The amount of risk that a situation at hand can tolerate must be carefully evaluated. Multiple ideas must be generated and a manager should not adopt a particular perspective, desisting a multidimensional approach of making better decisions. Perhaps the most crucial aspect of making better decisions is reviewing the steps and looking for the implications of it in order to revise them and take corrective actions. In the realm of decision making, assumptions are accepted cause and effect relationships that provides basis for actions and create useful what if scenarios to simulate different realities or possible situations (Facione,2007). However, they can be dangerous when accepted as realities without proper investigations. With respect to assumptions, the firm I worked with had its own perceptions of issues.

IT Consultancies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

IT Consultancies - Essay Example This paper reports on information technology consultancies for small and medium enterprises. IT consultancies The small and medium enterprises have embraced information technology developments and have established demand for consultancy services. Some of the enterprises’ consulting services in information technology applications include the following, as are offered by SME consulting services. Web design Customer relationship management Content management system E-commerce Custom application development Design outsource (Sme, 2010) Justifications of the information technology consultancies Application of the consultancies by the enterprises, the derived benefits of the applications as well as the fact that the small and medium enterprises have limited financial capacities to purchase or develop their own applications justifies the need for information technology consultancies. Features of each consultancy however identify specialized justification for each consultancy services . Web design is for instance an essential tool to every organization because of the globalized market that is dominated by the internet technology. Having an organization’s web site is therefore essential to reaching its target stakeholders. The quality of a developed website is also essential to an organization’s target customers as a marketing strategy towards a competitive advantage. Achieving an objective of developing an effective website therefore require expertise knowledge in â€Å"web design,† â€Å"flash and multimedia,† developing sites that have â€Å"interactive sound,† and â€Å"content management system† (Sme, 2010, p. 1). The derived benefits from application of content management system also justify the need for its consultancy services. This is because of its scope that promotes effectiveness and efficacy in data management and management of website pages that is instrumental to forecasting and management of trends for orga nizational decision making, and marketing through exploiting audience’ tastes and attitudes in developing website’s content. Some of the specialized services from content management system include â€Å"professional content designs,† developed potential to adjust information content, search assistance options, and add inns to an organization’s web pages (Sme, 2010, p. 1). Similarly, technological developments towards reliance on the internet also identify the need for business initiatives over the internet. Communication towards agreements for sale of property and transfer of ownership is for example easier and faster over the internet, especially in the globalized market where geographical gap hampers traditional methods of written communication. Achieving the desired communication efficiencies however requires specialized tools that are offered by E-commerce consultancy. The consultancy accords diversified services such as interlinked classes of product s and suppliers, diversified currencies and languages for communication, products evaluation, and feedbacks on the products, services for ordering and paying for commodities, and relevant calculations from transactions. These services’ ability to enhance electronic business transactions therefore justifies the need for the consultancy towards efficiency and effectiveness (Sme, 2010). Customer relationship management is another essential element of an enterprise’s management, and development and application of its model justifies the nee

Business administration - Program Capstone Essay

Business administration - Program Capstone - Essay Example Moreover, a manager must specify objectives and prioritize interests, values, concerns and aspirations. Also a manager, who is aware of both short-term and long-term implications of a decision and have a 360 degree approach, makes better decisions (George, 2000). In order to achieve desirable results and better decision making, a manager must identify the purpose of decision and clarify all the uncertainties involved. The amount of risk that a situation at hand can tolerate must be carefully evaluated. Multiple ideas must be generated and a manager should not adopt a particular perspective, desisting a multidimensional approach of making better decisions. Perhaps the most crucial aspect of making better decisions is reviewing the steps and looking for the implications of it in order to revise them and take corrective actions. In the realm of decision making, assumptions are accepted cause and effect relationships that provides basis for actions and create useful what if scenarios to simulate different realities or possible situations (Facione,2007). However, they can be dangerous when accepted as realities without proper investigations. With respect to assumptions, the firm I worked with had its own perceptions of issues.

Use of Quick Response Codes in Health Care Research Paper

Use of Quick Response Codes in Health Care - Research Paper Example A quick response code is a matrix barcode, which can be read using a smartphone that has the right bar code reading application. In health care, the bar code is encoded with heath information or data of an individual. In order for a first respondent to access an individual’s data on the bar code during an emergency, the smartphone or other enabled devices can be used to scan the bar code (Davis, 2012). Although this technology in health care might play a big role in emergency cases, there are various concerns such as privacy and ethics concerns, raised by its use, which might discourage most health care institutions and individuals from adopting it. Body The history of the quick response codes is traced in Japan. This is where the Japan-based company ‘Denso Wave Corporation’ invented this technology in 1994. Initially, this technology was not meant for use in health care. Instead, the company invented this to help in tracking Toyota vehicles and vehicle parts, dur ing the process of manufacturing. However, in the most years, packaging companies and consumer advertisers have been responsible for the infiltration of the QR codes in the USA. Today, QR codes are found on the internet, on mails from advertisers, on books, and on billboards. In this case, the bar codes have data about the advertised products and the company, as well as the URL’s of the company. Most recently, QR codes have crossed the border from advertising and marketing industry to the health care sector (Maeder & Martin-Sanchez (2012) In health care, this technology is still new, therefore, has not been adopted by most health care institutions. Knowledge of the technology and expertise still lacks, since this technology is still in its initial stage of implementation. For instance, in the USA today, the implementation of this new technology is underway in the Marin County, in the state of California, through a partnership with Lifesquare. The health care professionals in this county are being equipped with iPhones with enabled bar code readers. On the other hand, Marin residents are encouraged to register their personal and medical information in the quick response bar codes available in CVS stores. Lifesquare requires the individuals to stick the bar code stickers to areas it recommends, such as wallets, and mobile phones, among others, where these can be accessed during an emergency (Davis, 2012). In this case, the health data read by the first respondent is directly fed into the emergency systems of the relevant health care institution. According to Garcia-Betances and Huerta (2012), the major advantage of using QR code is that it is a simple technology, which does not require special tags in its use. The QR code is a type of a 2D code, thus it is easy to generate and print the bar code on different surfaces, including paper, and plastic surfaces, among others. This does not require use of any complex equipment. Therefore, with basic training, in dividuals lacking information on how to use the QR codes can learn this within a short period. Additionally, the QR codes in health care are capable of reducing cases of erroneous reading of patient health information, leading to misdiagnosis and wrong prescriptions. This is because, QR codes are easy to read and decode since this technology is not a complex. As long as an individual has a smartphone or a device capable of decoding a bar code, they can access the health data on a patient’s bar code. Garcia-Betances and Huerta (2012) note that since the 2D-based readers are camera-based, these have a much

Macbeth Essay Example for Free

Macbeth Essay In Act 2 Scene 2, Lines 1 to 13 of Shakespeare’s â€Å"Macbeth†, Shakespeare questions the reader about who in truth is controlling Macbeth, Lady Macbeth or himself. Shakespeare also makes us ponder if Lady Macbeth has a healthy ambition, that she herself controls, or if her ambition is controlling her. The three main themes of Evil, Ambition, and Macbeth-The Victim of Manipulation are heightened through the use of Positive and Negative Sleep Motifs, expressed in a negative context. Also found in this selection are examples of Negative Diction, Religious Symbolism, and Animal Imagery which all develop the reader’s understanding of death, and develop the three key themes that circulate around the idea of death. Contrast is used to express the difference in power and confidence between Lady Macbeth and King Duncan’s attendants, and also to distinguish life and death, in the case of the attendants. Punctuation is used very effectively. Through the use of punctuation, one can visualize the emotions of Lady Macbeth. During the first few lines, each line is its own individual sentence, which ends in a period or colon. Simply by looking at the punctuation one can see that she is calm. Near the end of these lines, Lady Macbeth uses many commas, caesuras, and enjambments, she is out of order. Here one can sense just how nervous and frightened Lady Macbeth is. The final key device used in these lines is Foreshadowing. It gives the reader a glance at what will come out of Lady Macbeth and Macbeth’s decision to kill Duncan through the archetype of â€Å"fire†, which appears in line 2. Fire symbolizes light and warmth, yet at the same time symbolizes chaos and destruction. This can be related to their decision which will either make them or break them. Found throughout this passage are many literary devices, all of which are significant. However the most significant devices are Negative Diction, Religious Symbolism, and Sleep Motif. Religious Symbolism is immensely important in shaping Lady Macbeth’s character and sculpting the recurring themes, yet does not appear nearly as much as Negative Diction and Sleep Motif. One can find Lady Macbeth say â€Å"The doors are open†, Here she is literally talking about the doors to Duncan’s chamber, however one can interpret these doors as the doors of death. The doors are open for Duncan to walk through. This line can be related to Alexander Grahame Bell’s famous quote â€Å"As one door closes, another door opens. † Both Lady Macbeth’s and Mr. Bell’s quotes relate to death in a way; the door of life closes, and the door of death opens, waiting for us to walk through. Another example of Religious Symbolism is found in the lines â€Å"That death and nature do contend about them // Whether they live or die. This is symbolic of God and the Devil having a battle for the lives of the attendants, and later dueling for them to either be rewarded in Heaven or condemned to Hell. The image of God and the Devil gambling for the souls of the dead is expressed in the song â€Å"Spanish Train† by Chris De Burgh. This song has a similar religious meaning, as in both one can see a battle going on between God and the Devil for minor pawns or as one likes to say, humans. Another device, Sleep Motif, is used throughout these lines to portray the idea of sleep. In this piece one can find two main ideas: death and sleep. These two ideas are interconnected by a Religious meaning. One can see just how cleverly William Shakespeare uses the two devices of religious symbolism and sleep motif. Without one, the other, would not be as important. These two tools work hand in hand to develop the character of Lady Macbeth and the several themes throughout the play. Most of these sleep-orbiting words can be divided into three categories. The first category being what one usually consider sleep as, what we do each night in order to rest our body for the new day. This category can be referred to as the conscious form of sleep. Words that fall under this category are â€Å"good-night†, â€Å"snores†, â€Å"slept†, and â€Å"awaked†. These terms are the most positive sleep revolving words found in these lines. The next form of sleep is the sub-conscience form of sleep. This form of sleep is commonly known as â€Å"drunk† or â€Å"intoxicated†, and is usually found quite discouraging. â€Å"Drunk†, â€Å"Surfeited†, â€Å"Drugg’d†, and â€Å"Possets† fall under the sub-conscious form of sleep. The last category of sleep is the unconscious form. Words that fall under this category may seem depressing for non-believers of an afterlife or second life, but for believers they symbolize a new beginning. This form of sleep is tied in greatly with religious symbolism because it is rooted in the spiritual life. One does not quite know what happens after death, however there is a general belief that the spirit lives on, while the body lays under an eternal rest. The reader can see just how influential sleep is in this excerpt. One sees a sleeping Duncan, and later a deceased Duncan and also sees drunk attendants by Duncan’s side. In these few lines the reader envisions all three types of sleep. Although both Sleep Motifs and Religious Symbolisms play a huge role in shaping the themes of this scene, the most used device, and particularly important in these 13 lines is Negative Diction. Throughout, one sees words spoken wickedly by Lady Macbeth. She speaks wickedly about a wicked deed. Throughout the text one can see numerous examples of negative diction; â€Å"drunk†, â€Å"stern’st good-night†, â€Å"the owl that shriek’d the fatal bellman†, â€Å"surfeited†, â€Å"mock†, â€Å"drugg’d†, â€Å"death†, â€Å"die†, â€Å"confounds†, â€Å"afraid†, and â€Å"daggers†. Through Lady Macbeth’s vocabulary one can easily sense just how sinister Lady Macbeth is in both her words and actions. In this section of â€Å"Macbeth† one finds several literary tools that aid in conveying the character of Lady Macbeth and the three central themes. The most important devices used throughout this passage include Religious Symbolism, Sleep Motif, and Negative Diction. These three devices are interconnected as they revolve around the ideas of sleep and death. These three terms work together to shape the reader’s understanding of death and sleep which Shakespeare exemplifies to us through Lady Macbeth’s manipulation of Macbeth into the killing of the righteous King Duncan. The reader can relate what Shakespeare illustrates to the Human Condition. Everybody in life has ambitions, be it big or small, most people strive to help themselves, and through helping themselves, they help others around them. In few scenarios like in the case of Lady Macbeth, her foul ambitions overpower her and corrupt her to a point of sheer evil.

Literature Review On Defining Employee Engagement

Literature Review On Defining Employee Engagement The purpose of this review is to present the definitions of engagement found in the literature and list the drivers of engagement that have been identified by many authors. The Sunday Times 100 Best companies to Work For surveys eight engagement factors will also be explained in detail along with their link to engagement. Subsequently, authors views on the factors that turned out to be more sensitive for Addleshaw Goddard will be reported along with authors recommendations on how to leverage them in order to boost employee engagement. Introduction In the midst of economic crisis and with its unavoidable negative effect on employee morale and motivation, it is important that organisations take steps to maintain, if not increase, employee engagement [IDS report, April 2009, Vol. 892, pp2] Most studies conducted around the topic shows its link to company performance and sustainability, as Bates et al. claimed that employee engagement predicts employee outcome, organisational success and financial performance [Bates, 2004; Baumruk, 2004; Harter et al, 2002; Richman, 2006]. Lockwood [2007], in her report pointed out that it is a key business driver for organisational success and that high levels of engagement in firms promote retention of talent, foster customer loyalty and improve organisational performance and stakeholder value. The importance of engagement is that it has an effect of what people do and how they behave in their jobs and what makes them act in ways that further both, the organisational objectives and their personal goals. Defining Employee Engagement Employee engagement is growing as a concept within the business world due to evidence and research that points out that an engaged workforce performs better and hence creates a strong employer brand [Leigh and Roper, 2009]. This promotes organisations as good employers hence recruiting and retaining key talent becomes less problematic, as evident from the IDS report [2009], where they state, effective employer branding captures the essence of an organisation and sells it to the labour market and employees. A strong employer brand embraces an organisations vision, values and working culture. [IDS Report, April 2009] On the subject of engagement, the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD) says that Employee Engagement, or passion for work, involves employees feeling positive about their job, as well as being prepared to go the extra mile [CIPD, 2010]. Macey et al. [2008] argues that engagement has been used to refer to a psychological state (e.g., involvement, commitment, attachment), performance (e.g., either effort or observable behaviour), character (e.g., positive affect), or a combination of the above. For example, Wellins and Concelman [2005] suggested that engagement is an amalgamation of commitment, loyalty, productivity and ownership. It is personified by the passion and energy employees have to give to the organisation. It is all about the willingness and ability of the employees to give constant discretionary effort to help their organisation succeed [Cook, 2008]. Furthermore, Towers Perrin Talent Report [2003] which is a study that tracks views and attitudes of employees to understand the elements of the work experience that drive attraction, retention and engagement has defined engagement as a factor that involves both emotional and rational factors relating to work and overall work experience, where the emotional factors are linked to peoples personal satisfaction and the sense of inspiration and affirmation they get from their work and from being part of their organisation. Engagement can be seen as a combination of commitment to the organisation and its values plus a willingness to help out and support colleagues (i.e. team work) Improvements in engagement can be made in many areas and the key concepts are trust, listening, flexible working and the avoidance of the long hour culture. However, this is not in itself a new concept, and highlighting this, Rankin [2008] refers to engagement as: embracing the older concepts of job satisfaction, motivation and attachment that describes individual employees attitudes to their employer, but goes beyond them to provide a complete model of the psychological relationship between individuals and organisations. Rankin [2008] This suggests that employee engagement is inextricably linked to the Psychological, or unwritten contract which exists and concerns discretionary effort, having many positive effects. For example Leigh and Roper [2010] highlighted that psychological contract is a subjective behaviour where employers and employees have their own perception of what is expected of each other. Hence, it is obvious that engagement is something that employees have to offer and that it is impossible to require engagement as part of the employment contract. It is rather an emotional link to the organisation, its purpose and its people. When an organisation delivers on its commitments (when by their actions they fulfil employees expectations), this reinforces employees sense of fairness and trust in the organisation and generates a positive psychological contract between employers and employee. There are many reported examples of employers who have executed strategies to improve employee engagement through business transformation, which in turn improved employee morale, retention and ultimately business performance. Rankin [2008] suggests that management are more likely to embrace initiatives to drive employee engagement, rather than simple retention strategies, owing to the extra benefits of such strategies, such as improved business performance, profitability, focus on customer service and organisational efficiency, of which retention is a positive by-product. What are the Key Levers of Employee Engagement? Defining engagement is crucial but the real value is in determining what creates engagement. Therefore, where studies have been conducted on engagement, there has also be reports on the key enablers of engagement. There is a range of opinions on what the key drivers or enablers are, for example the findings of the UK Governments MacLeod Review into employee engagement have underlined the critical role played by an engaged workforce [MacLeod and Clarke 2009] in both organisational success and individual well-being. As an example, ibid. [2009] suggested in their study that Leadership, Employee Voice, Engaging Managers and Integrity were strong levers in engaging workforce. In other words, without these factors, organisations would have disengaged staff which would lead to poor performance. Furthermore, Lockwood [2007] also underlines that engagement is influenced by many factors, from workplace culture, organisational communication and managerial styles to trust and respect, leadership and company reputation. For todays different generations, access to training and career opportunities, work-life balance and empowerment to make decisions have also become imperative. According to Towers Perrin report [2003] the factors that drive engagement are a combination of Macleod et al. [2008] and Lockwoods [2007] study such as, (a) Senior managements interest in employees well-being (b) Challenging work, (c) Decision-making authority (d) Career-development opportunities (e) The companys reputation as a good employer (f) Collaborative work environment and (g) Clear vision from senior management about future success, to name a few.  [1]   There is no definitive list of engagement drivers. However, CIPDs [2010] research into employee attitudes found that the main drivers of employee engagement were communication and leadership, along with pay and benefits, learning and development, line management and work-life balance as key factors of measuring employee attitudes which can determine how engaged a workforce is. An alternative model of engagement comes from the burnout literature, which describes job engagement as the positive contrast of burnout, underlining that burnout involves the erosion of engagement with ones job [Maslach et al 2001]. According to Maslach et al, six areas of work-life lead to engagement: workload, control, rewards and recognition, community and social support, perceived fairness and values. They argue that job engagement is associated with a sustainable workload, feelings of choice and control, appropriate recognition and reward, a supportive work community, fairness and justice, and meaningful and valued work. Like burnout, engagement is expected to intercede the link between these six work-life factors and various work outcomes. May et als [2004] findings support Maslach et als [2001] notion of meaningful and valued work being associated with engagement, and therefore it is important to consider the concept of meaning. The development of survey tools and questionnaires such as Gallups Q12  [2]  and The Best Company Survey allow levels of engagement within an organisation to be measured. Most of the studies mentioned above have some common theme. Similarly, while Purcell et al [2003] found a number of factors to be strongly associated with high levels of employee engagement, the one thing all of these factors had in common was that they were connected with an employees involvement in a practice related to their work. The Best Companies Survey has also done their share of research linking it to some of the existing researches and categorised the measurements of engagement into eight factors as mentioned earlier in Chapter 1. Critics of Employee Engagement Even though Employee Engagement has become such a commonly used term within the organisational scene, as it is seen as a lever for business success [Wiley, 2010] some studies have shown that organisations fail to understand the true meaning of engagement as quoted by Macey et al.[2008] numerous definitions of engagement can be derived from practice and research driven literatures but the literal meaning is still not clear among practitioners and academics [Macey and Schneider, 2008: pp4] An example of this could be seen from the study Cunningham et al. [1996] did on Empowerment. After the 1990s when empowerment was introduced in the business world, there was a hype about it for years where organisations wanted to Empower their people, without considering the true meaning of the word. While empowerment only represented the most recent manifestation of employee involvement practice [Cunnigham et al., 1996: pp143]. Also argued by Wilkinson [1997] that the term empowerment when first introduced was very loosely used [Wilkinson, 1998: p40]. Likewise, engagement is seen and known widely as beneficial for organisations yet engagement in the UK is said to be critically low as employers are said to be barking up the wrong tree, as Holmes [2010] reports on personnel today. Also as witnessed in Wileys [2010] report he found that UK engagement results lag behind compared to the global results. This is mainly because of the lack of understanding the term as a whole. Hence the concept of employee engagement could be viewed as being faddish and might fade away in a few years when another concept is introduced in the business world. Employee Involvement versus Employee Participation According to CIPD [2010X]: Employee involvement is a range of processes designed to engage the support, understanding and optimum contribution of all employees in an organisation and their commitment to its objectives. Whereas. Employee participation is defined as a process of employee involvement designed to provide employees with the opportunity to influence and where appropriate, take part in decision making on matters which affect them. Farnham [1997] defines Employee Participation as one of four choices for managing the employment relationship. Cited in Rose [2008, p335] Farnham states: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦an employee has the right to question and influence organization decision makingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. this may involve representative workplace democracy. The other policy choices Farnham identifies are worker subordination via managerial prerogative, union incorporation via collective bargaining and employee commitment via employee involvement. It is clear then that there are differences between employee participation and employee involvement. The literature suggests that employee participation is a pluralist/collective approach with a range for employees from no involvement to full control [Blyton Turnbull, 1998]. Hence, it may involve processes and mechanisms such as: Collective bargaining Employee share schemes Works councils Worker directors Joint Consultative Committees European Works Councils Whereas, Employee involvement, is more of an individualistic and unitarist approach which aims to harness commitment to organisational objectives. Defining Leadership Leadership is about the ability to influence people by personal attributes and behaviours [CIPD, 2010a]. Leaders need to act out and communicate organisational values otherwise this endangers trust in organisations leading to poor performance. Hence, the Best Company measures how people feel about the head of the organisation, the senior management team, and organisational values. Rayner and Adam-Smith [2007] have pointed out that leaders are key players in devising and implementing organisational strategies. And high level of engagement depends in the way employees are led and managed, as quoted by Armstrong [2009]: degree to which jobs encourage engagement and positive discretionary behaviour depends upon the ways in which job holders are led and managed on any formal process of job design. [Armstrong, 2009:140] There is considerable evidence from prior research that perceptions of managerial processes impact on engagement [Wildermuth and Pauken, 2008]. Evidence suggests that employees level of engagement and other work responses are affected by their perceptions of management or leadership style. For example, opportunities for upward feedback increase engagement through greater participation, which, in turn, relates to better understanding of broader organisational issues as well as personal involvement [Robinson et al 2004]. 3.4.1 Role of leaders in engagement In Macleods engagement report [2009] he stressed that leadership provides a strong strategic narrative which has widespread ownership and commitment from managers and employees at all levels. However, it has been proven through Hays Group research findings [2010] that 56 per cent of leaders were disengaging the staff that they led; and only 26 per cent of the leaders achieved in creating an engaging environment that encouraged high performance. In order for employees to be engaged, it is crucial that leaders themselves be engaged; they need to work and succeed in both their core and non-core job roles [reference] Management from the top to the bottom of the organisation should be committed leaders and key role of the immediate line manager/supervisor is recognised as one of the most important channel to achieving effective employee engagement. Leadership plays a vital role in influencing levels of employee engagement. Goal clarity and direction are identified as factors that can influence an employees level of engagement [Rayner and Adam-Smith, 2007]. Staff perform well when they are clear about their goals and objectives, and know how to go about achieving them, an example could be Latham and Lockes Goal-Setting Theory [1979] where they suggest that by establishing goals individuals are motivated to take action to achieve those goals. As a result, employees tend to be motivated and committed to it. Hence, communication of clear goals and direction from the leader becomes crucial. Leaders also help employees develop personal accountability for their goals and help achieve them. Setting performance expectations and instilling personal responsibility among employees are critical for getting results. The biggest challenges which leaders face is how to effectively motivate, initiate change, and sustain improved performance amo ng employees i.e. Employee engagement has emerged as a critical leadership challenge [Molinari and Weiss, 2005]. Leaders should provide challenging work with opportunities for career growth. Good leaders challenge employees but at the same time they should create confidence that the challenges can be met [Seijts and Crim, 2006]. 3.4.2 Dealing with Professionals/Leaders reluctance from leaders to learn As mentioned above, leaders play a vital role in communicating the firms strategy, values and culture. Leadership style and support are also said to be crucial for encouraging employee engagement. Years of occupational health psychology research have revealed that a transformational leadership style is effective for this task [Barling, 2007], where leaders lead to positive changes in those who follow. However, Leadership development proves to be a big challenge for HR professionals. HR professionals continue to wrestle with understanding the best ways to retain talent and develop leaders for future succession planning. Increasingly recognised as becoming strategic business partners within their organizations, HR professionals are expected to provide the essential frameworks, processes, tools, and points of view needed for the selection and development of future leaders. Across the globe leadership development has been identified as a critical strategic initiative in ensuring that the right employees are retained, that the culture of the organization supports performance from within to gain market position, and that managers are equipped to take on leadership roles of the future so that the organisation is feasible in the long term. Even though they play such an important role in engagement and instilling HR policies, research has shown that senior managers can be a challenge and be reluctant to their responsibilities as HR mediators. As Pech [2009] quoted in his research that what may be good for the organisation may not be perceived to be quite as good to the organisations senior managers. Research in Europe emphasises the negative impact these defensive managerial behaviours have on organisations and performance in general. The Towers Perrin consulting groups survey showed that 42 percent of employees felt that their senior managers dont have a sincere interest in their well-being and another 37 per cent believed that their senior managers fail to lead by example in demonstrating company values [Towers Perrin Report, 2004]. My Manager Engaged managers are at the heart of this organisational culture as Macleod [2009] said: they facilitate and empower rather than control or restrict their staff; they treat their staff with appreciation and respect and show commitment to developing, increasing and rewarding the capabilities of those they manage. Role of Managers in engagement As Lowe [1992, cited in Blyton and Turnbull:148], highlighted that a consistent theme of the HRM literature is about the responsibility given to line managers for the management of the human resource. While Poole [1990] emphasises that HRM involves all managerial personnel especially general managers. All the studies on motivation and retention of talent identify the critical role of line managers and the quality of the relationship with the boss as a key factor. According to Gallup Management Journal study, line-managers play a critical role in employees well-being and engagement. Macleod [2010] also points out that having able managers is critical as engaged managers lead to an engaged workforce [Macleod, 2010] as there is a positive impact on managers treating people as individuals. Managers are critical of the quality of management training they receive from their company. Senior management need to have a sincere interest in employees well being [Towers and Perrin, 2006] whereas line managers play the vital roles in terms of employee engagement as they are responsible for the most of the front line employees and the day-to-day activities [Cook, 2008]. Line managers are also responsible for bringing reward policies to life, organisational commitment and job satisfaction [Purcell, CIPD, 2007]. The line manager clearly has a very important role in fostering employees sense of involvement and value [Robinson et al. 2004]. Employee engagement is seen as a direct reflection of how employees feel about their relationship with the boss [Seijts and Crim, 2006]. One of the biggest challenges for HR is to support line managers in their role of managing and developing people. A majority of line managers seem to be failing in many or most of the basic elements of good management including providing regular feedback or offering to help improve individuals employment [CIPD, 2010]. Importance of Internal Communication True Communication builds a bridge between two people or within a group via which real understanding and contact occur. [Leary-Joyce 2004:pp53]. Internal communication is known as the most obvious method of generating and maintaining engaged employees. Punjaisri et al. [2008], in his research identified that employees mentioned training and internal communications as the major methods of internal branding. The authors also quoted: although training and internal communication can help employees to fulfil brand promise, the strength of their relationship with the brand is predominantly down to employee attitude. The discovered that brand identification, commitment and loyalty were all partial indicators between internal communication and employee brand performance. [ibid., 2008] Whenever there has been research on engagement, communication has always been a big part of it. It has been long-established that communicating with employees effectively is important in making them feel valued and this is particularly the case in the current economic climate when staff may feel more uncertain and require some additional reassurance [IDS, April 2009]. It is also said to be a mechnism for enabling every aspect of a great company culture [Leary-joyce, 2004] What is Employee Voice? The concept of employee voice focuses on opportunities for employees to be involved in decisions collectively, whether through trade unions or by other means. Gradually this process of two-way communication became known as employee voice. It appeals both to those seeking greater business efficiency and to those looking for employee rights. CIPD research suggests that organisations that seek to promote voice are those that believe that employees want to contribute to the business and that for employees to have an effective voice, the important part of the communication process is not what the employer puts out but what it gets back. Good managers recognise that much of the knowledge required for businesses to be competitive is actually in employees heads. Voice is defined most typically in terms of two-way communications, an exchange of information between managers and employees or having a say about what goes on in the organisation. However, there are differences in interpretation. Some managers see voice as enabling all employees to represent their views to managers, and for those views to be taken into account. Other managers take the more limited view that voice is not so much a dialogue or two-way exchange of ideas as a mechanism for employees to transmit ideas to managers in order to improve organisational performance. Mechanisms for employee voice There is a range of different and often complementary mechanisms for employee voice. The CIPD research referred to above put them into two broad categories: upward problem-solving and representative participation. Upward problem-solving which refers to any technique that managers use to tap into employee ideas and opinions, either through two-way communications channels or through specific systems that are set up for employees to express their voiceà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦the structures are management-initiated and operate directly between managers and employees rather than through employee representatives. Techniques include Electronic media, Two-way communications, Suggestion schemes, Attitude surveys, etc. Representative participation refers to schemes under which employee representatives meet managers on a regular basis in the case of scheduled committees, or through more ad hoc arrangements. The essential characteristicà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦is that participation is not direct between individual employees and their managers but is mediated through representatives. Partnership schemes, Joint consultation, Collective representation are known as a few techniques All these mechanisms are formal. But informal mechanisms in effect, simply having a word about a problem to a manager who listens and takes action if necessary can be a very effective form of voice. Informal mechanisms may be relatively more important in smaller organisations where fewer formal structures are needed. 2.5.3.1 Two-way communications IDS Report, [2009] has highlighted the fact that while it is important to keep employees well-informed, an organisation seeking to engage employees should also encourage upward communication. For example, carrying out surveys or holding discussion groups as a way of encouraging employees to provide feedback which would involve employees in a dialogue with the company. The very act of carrying out research on engagement within the organisation can be engaging particularly where employees are directly involved in discussions. [IDS, Apr 2009] Encouraging people to have their say and this emphasised as a core value of the organisation that management at all levels must be prepared to listen and respond to any contributions their people make. Employee involvement and participation are (EIP) are regarded by Marchington and Wilkinson [2008] as a key feature of high-commitment HRM. Excellent leadership and management are built of effective communication and is a source of creativity and innovation. 2.5.4 Trust Important determinants for achieving trust are demonstrations of managerial passion for the work and managerial concern for employee welfare, hiring the right employees in the first instance, and then providing them with a sense of control over their lives. Employees will ask for trust and a sense of control in order to be engaged in their work [Pech 2009] (See Figure 2). Managerial passion for the work Employee sense of trust and control = Employee Engagement Managerial concern for employee welfare Effective recruitment Source: Pech, J. [2009] Fig. 2 Determinants for establishing and sustaining employee engagement Well-Being In the Best company survey well-being is used to measure stress, pressure, the balance between work and home life and the impact of these factors on personal health and performance. It has been reported that employee engagement is more likely to be sustainable when employee well-being is also high [Robertson and Cooper, 2009]. CIPD Flexible working perceived flexibility and supportive work-life policies were related to greater employee engagement and longer than expected retention. [Richman, et al., 2008] Guest[1987], in his model of flexibility, underlined that the three components of flexibility are: (a) related to the organisational design, (b) job design and (c) employee attitudes and motivations. [cited in Legge, 2005]. Flexible work practices have been viewed by employees as valuable workplace tools to facilitate work-life management. Employees report that workplace flexibility influences decisions to join an employer, satisfaction with their jobs, and plans to stay with their employers. Recently, some employers have come to recognise that workplace flexibility positively influences valued business outcomes such as attracting, motivating, and retaining key talent in competitive labour markets, increasing employee satisfaction and engagement, as well as improving efficiency and effectiveness. However, although several studies have examined the role of organizational characteristics and work experiences as antecedents of engagement and retention [Burud Tumolo, 2004; Gibbons, 2006; Meyer, Stanley, Herscovitch, Topolnytsky, 2002], few have investigated the influence of workplace flexibility in particular. Work Life Balance Employee-focused initiatives such as implementing work-life balance initiatives are important in order to connect with employees [Seijts and Crim, 2006]. Employers seek to promote work-life balance by introducing policies that fall within three broad categories: flexible working, including reduced and compressed hours; time off and special leave; and staff support, such as employee well-being programmes and childcare provision [IDS, April 2009]. The mere existence of work-life policies and is associated with positive outcomes for the individual and the organisation. Employees who worked for organisations that had family-friendly policies in place, had higher levels of commitment towards the organisation and lower intentions to leave [Richman et al. 2008] Organisations are better able to portray an image of being a caring employer if they show an obligation and importance to work-life balance. Work-life balance initiatives should seek to improve employees working lives together with their personal lives to the mutual benefit of both employees and employers. Employees should have greater flexibility to pursue their interests outside work and to fulfil any caring responsibilities at home. In the workplace, they are likely to be more in control of their workload and, as a result, feel a greater sense of well-being. In turn, employers may benefit from greater employee engagement. [IDS, Apr 2009] Stress at work Stress has been moving steadily up the workplace agenda in recent years. Any stress can reduce employee well-being and excessive or sustained work pressure can lead to stress [CIPD, 2010]. Hence, it is important to develop a culture that encourages positive attitudes to work, reducing stress and promoting interest and excitement in their jobs (role of top and line managers and leaders). Also communication, involvement, work-life balance are key feature of high-commitment HRM [Marchington and Wilkinson 2008]. Personal Growth Learning is a satisfying and rewarding experience that makes a significant contribution to intrinsic motivation. Alderfer [1972] as cited in Armstrong [2008] emphasised the importance of giving employees the opportunity to grow and develop as it is said to be a motivating factor that directly impacts on engagement when it is an intrinsic element of the work [Armstrong, 2008]. IDS report points out that designing roles that are challenging and giving employees varied responsibilities can help make work more intrinsically engaging [IDS, 2009]. 3.7.1 Career Progression Providing clear and transparent career paths can be vital to engaging em

The Afro-Cuban Struggle for Equality :: Race Racial History Historical Cuba Essays

The Afro-Cuban Struggle for Equality I. Introduction: The legacy of slavery and the legacy of systematic racial discrimination imposed on Afro-Cubans are grim realities that are imbedded in Cuban societal and cultural fibers. Despite the abolition of slavery in 1886 and its gaining of independence in 1902 Cuban society, politics, and ideology have been haunted with the specter of the ‘race issue.’ According to Aline Helg, "the myth of Cuban racial equality has proved remarkably enduring, even since the revolution of 1959" (p. 247). Thus, in order to comprehend the current political and social conditions in Cuba as well as the conditions that led to the revolution in 1959 one must examine the afro-Cuban struggle for equality that emerged at the turn of the 20th century. II. The Afro-Cuban Struggle for Equality (1886-1912): Jose Marti, in his idealistic pursuit for a free Cuba, envisioned a revolution that would not only allow Cubans to gain their independence from Spain, but also a revolution that would revitalize and redefine the Cuban social structures. This sentiment was indeed shared by the many Afro-Cubans who joined the ranks of the Liberation Army en masse in order to rebel against Spanish racism and inequality. In fact, as Helg states, "although few orientales were able to leave written testimony of their motivation to join the insurgency, their goal was probably not only independence from Spain but also the creation of a new society in which they would fully participate" (p. 57). Besides the Afro-Cuban motivations of ceasing racism and inequality were the motivations of members from other factions of society such as the landless peasants who desired land, the popular cabecillas who strove for political authority, and the orientales who fought to gain control of their regions destin y. This war for independence had the potential to become a social revolution, a revolution that would ultimately seek to alter the status quo of Spanish colonial order with its strict social and racial hierarchy. However, this social revolution never truly came into fruition for the many Afro-Cubans who fought and died en masse. Even though the Liberation Army seemed to consist of members of all classes and races, there ensued a systematic repression of Afro-Cubans.

Fantasy Sports on the Internet Essay -- Expository Essays Research Pap

Fantasy Sports on the Internet The Internet is something that is common in today’s society. The internet’s uses vary from talking online to getting information on just about anything one wants. This new phenomenon was an instant hit and in the mid 90’s the internet was being found in more and more households. The internet opened up opportunities for many things such as easy access to any information, online shopping, being able to talk to people on the other side of the world with no cost, and it set up the whole fantasy world in sports. Internet was the key that made fantasy sports into the huge game that it is today. Fantasy leagues make it possible for millions of people to have pick and manage a team the way they think it should be done. However, some people soon realize that they would not make a good coach because they cannot even do well among their peers. The internet allowed for anybody to take place in these various fantasy leagues. Fantasy sports have been around for more than three decades. Fantasy sports like many other fads began in California in the 1960’s when a small group of men at a bar decided they could make better decisions than the coaches playing the game. (â€Å"Fantasy sports leagues score big on Internet†). This new fad caught on with many other guys and it was not too long until a lot of businesses started picking up this new sport. For the first time in history the common people started to get the sense that they could be a coach and manage how a team should be ran. However, this was a tedious task that took a lot of time for whoever ran these leagues. These people had to keep track of the player’s statistics that went on during that week. The internet made it a lot easier and faster to run and mai... ...abled a small group of friends or workers at a business to participate in the fantasy leagues. Without this medium fantasy sports as we know them today would not be anywhere as near as it is. It would still only have thousands of players instead of millions of players. Fantasy sport leagues offer something to the public that gives them a sense of control on how they think sporting teams should be ran. Sources: Works Cited Isidore, Chris. "The Ultimate Fantasy-profits" CNN/Money. 2 Sept. 2003 www.money.com/2003/08/29/commentary/column_sportsbiz/sportsbiz "Fantasy Sports leagues score big on Internet." Dallas Morning News. 25 Sept. 2000. www.jsonline.com/bym/tech/news/sep00/fantasy26092500. "Fantasy Sports participation on the rise, association says." St. Louis Business Journal. 14 August 2003. www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2003/08/11/daily62.html

Nutrition programs Essay

Traditionally, nutrition programs were targeted to the indigent and poor populations in developing countries. Many of today’s Americans are malnourished also, but they are inundated with unhealthy foods and require a multidisciplinary approach to nutrition education. What would be the three most important points to include in a public nutrition program? Provide current literature to support your answer and include two nutritional education community resources. Answer: Although we already know it is essential to eat a healthy diet, we may find it more challenging to sort through all of the information about nutrition and food choices. Nutrition is the provision to cells and organisms of the materials necessary (in the form of food) to support life. Healthy eating helps prevent high cholesterol and high blood pressure and helps reduce the risk of developing chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes. Many people today in America are malnourished and it is mostly due to indulging in unhealthy/poor dietary intake. These problems can be controlled by utilizing a multidisciplinary approach to public education. The doctors, social workers, nurses, dieticians and other health educators involved in health promotion should all have a part in ensuring and promoting healthy dietary intake with appropriate food portions and increasing physical activity. The three most important points to include in a public nutrition program are (a) the relationship between food choices and chronic disease such as high blood pressure (high salt intake), high lipids (high fat intake), obesity/diabetes (high sugar/carb intake/low activity) and much more. Educating the public on how to use natural herbs/ seasonings, or salt substitute, reading labels for nutritional contents and ingredients and eating low carb food are all vital factors to know. It is also very important to increase your physical activity daily. Another important point to include is (b) the nutritional assessment. Individuals need to be assessed for their nutritional status and risk. This will help to â€Å"tailor the food packages, design appropriate nutritional education and make referrals to health and social services† (USDA, 2015). The next would be  the nutrition for mothers and children in regards to lactation counselling and school lunch programs. Newborn maternal nursing along with children’s’ nutrition is also a very important point to address. There are a lot of mother/baby classes in the community to help promote breastfeeding, infant meals, and children lunch box ideas. Schools are also in a unique position to promote healthy eating and help ensure appropriate food and nutrient intake among students. There are many nutritional education community resources that helps families in America to improve their nutritional status. They are (A) MyPlate Program: This was created by Michelle Obama in 2011 to serve as a reminder for people to create/make healthier food choices. It put emphasis on eating lots of fruits, grains, vegetables, protein foods and dietary foods. (B) The woman, infant and children program (WIC): This program assist pregnant women, new moms and young children obtain and eat healthy foods. Qualified individuals can only purchase healthy food items. Nutritional education is also provided for qualified individuals at no cost to them. References: MyPlate, 2015. Retrieved from: http://www.choosemyplate.gov/myplate WIC Program Nutrition Education Guidance, 2006. Retrieved from: http://www.nal.usda.gov/wicworks/learning_Center/ntredguidance.pdf Edelman, C.L., Kudzman, E, C., Mandel, C. L., (2014). Health promotion throughout the Lifespan. St. Louis: Elsevier.