Industrialised Countries Essay

‘Newly industrialised countries have been, and continue to be, the driving force of globalisation’ To what extent do you agree with this statement Globalisation can be seen as the increased flow of goods, services and information across countries, and it is driven by rapid technological growth and increased connectivity between countries of the world. It also establishes and maintains economic and political relations between these countries. Some of the factors that have affected globalisation include technological innovation as it had made transport and communication around the world easier, trade has also played an important role in encouraging globalisation. Trade between countries in the developed world and the developing world has specifically been the biggest driving force of globalisation. Newly industrialised countries or NIC’s are countries whose economies have not yet reached first world economic status but their economic growth are still increasing more than other developing countries. NIC’s are switching their current agriculture-based economy into a more industrialised, urban economy. Current NICs include China, India, Brazil, Malaysia, Mexico, South Africa, Philippines, Thailand and Turkey. The average growth rate between these countries is approximately 7.6% compared to the world average of 3.7%. The first group of NIC’s came from the Asia area, they included Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore. They called these the Asian Tigers. The Asian Tigers were notable for maintaining exceptionally high growth rates (in excess of 7% a year) and rapid industrialization between the early 1960s and 1990s. By the 21st century, all four have developed into advanced and high-income economies. There are several factors that make Newly Industrialised countries the driving force of globalisation. Firstly, most newly industrialised countries have a large population; this makes the countries more attractive for investment as these countries have lots of cheap labour. Therefore, these countries seem more attractive to TNC’s as they can make more profits when the cost of labour is cheap. A Transnational Corporation or a TNC is a privately owned company that is based in 2 or more countries. They take advantage of the NIC’s cheap labour and large growth rate. For instance Toyota is one of the world’s leading car manufacturers and is the third largest in the world. Although based in Japan, Toyota produces most of its cars in its transplants in Georgetown, Kentucky, and Burnaston and Derbyshire.

Early Childhood Essay

Every child is unique in terms of life experiences, developmental readiness, and cultural heritage. A high quality early childhood program should provides a safe and nurturing environment, which promotes physical, social, emotional, language and cognitive development will ensure a positive continuation of the child’s education process. Kindergarten for children is very important. Most parents and children are excited about this stage in life for their child, as well as children might be a scared or nervous. Kindergartens are still mastering new physical skills. They are more able to move their body the way they wants to and, most likely, can run like the wind. Throughout the year kindergarten children will show a number of new physical skills, some are more important than others to help make her kindergarten year a highly successful learning experience. Kindergarten is the year to get used to the routine of school, and the idea of being accountable to a new authority figure and to make new friends, but it’s a crucial year to build the foundation for learning. Kindergarten learns differently, some may learn hands on, or visual. Kindergarten are at the most important stage in life so it is up to the educators to make a difference that can help them in the long so they are able to reach the next grade level as well as overcome any milestones that they may reach throughout their education. First, the classroom is loving, kind, caring, sharing, and motherly to all the children just like my own. The way I envision my classroom is that as you walk in the door you see art and picture of children playing and eating and doing different thing that supports the area such as dramatic play would be children in doctor jackets or something in that nature. The classroom has warm colors around it for each season. Each area of the classroom would be label with such as blocks would be block area, art, dramatic play, water area, science, literacy, etc. The children cubbies are label with their name and picture so they are able to recognize themselves. The library has age appropriate books for the children. The classroom should off the children art and learning. If there is a theme in the classroom the room will represent that specific theme. Each child is at a table that is color coded that will identify each table as a group, each table seats about 3-4 students depending on the class size. Each child has a portfolio so children are able to see their progress throughout the year. The classroom is based on play and material and the children have a teacher child relationship. While planning the curriculum I will provide free play that will allow children their individually time to choose an area of involvement (Eliason, Jenkins 2012). An effective curriculum children should be active and engaged, the goals are clear and shared by all, evidence based, the valued content is learned through investigation, play, and focused, intentional teaching (Eliason, Jenkins 2012). The curriculum builds on prior learning and experiences and is comprehensive and most important benefit the needs of the children (Eliason, Jenkins 2012). Curriculum should be planned around the developmental needs of the children in my classroom (Eliason, Jenkins 2012). Curriculum will builds upon what children already know and are able to do to enable them to connect new concepts and skills. The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) urges that as a teacher my curriculum is thoughtfully planned, challenging, engaging, developmentally appropriate, culturally and linguistically responsive, comprehensive and likely to promote positive outcome for all children (Eliason, Jenkins 2012). While planning the curriculum I will provide free play that will allow children their individually time to choose an area of involvement (Eliason, Jenkins 2012). The experiences should be developed to help the young children in the classroom to help improve their skills in problem solving, thinking, reasoning, and creating (Eliason, Jenkins 2012). The National Association for the Education of Young Children states that high quality, developmentally appropriate programs should be available for all children. A separate statement of the NAEYC divides the concept of appropriateness into two aspects: age appropriateness and individual appropriateness. Philosophies that reflect how I envision my classroom and curriculum are Friedrich Froebel. Friedrich Froebel was a German educator of the nineteenth century who developed an Idealist philosophy of early childhood education. He established kindergarten and education for four and five-year-old children. Kindergarten is now a part of education worldwide. Friedrich Froebel was born in the small town of Oberwiessbach, Germany in 1782. His mother died when he was a baby (Froebel, 2011). His father remarried, but Froebel never liked his stepmother. His feeling of rejection and isolation remained with him for life. This had a strong effect on his theory of early childhood education. He believed the kindergarten teacher should be loving, kind and motherly (Froebel, 2011). Froebel studied at the University of Jena for a short time. In 1805, while studying architecture in Frankfurt, he was persuaded to become a teacher by the model school at Frankfurt. Friedrich Froebel changed the way we think about early childhood education. He designed balls, wooden blocks, tiles, sticks and rings to demonstrate that children learn by playing. Known around the world as the Froebel Gifts , these objects were an important part of his Kindergarten (Froebel, 2011). Froebel also included in his kindergarten philosophy the study and nuture of plants in a garden for stimulating children’s interest in nature. He felt it was important for children to grow up in harmony with nature. The Froebel Gifts have been widely imitated and adapted by educators and toys makers. Because of Froebel my classroom will have the right material to that I am able to teach my children with the right material so they can play and learn at the same time. He felt that the teacher should be loving caring and motherly and I feel that I am that way in the classroom as well. â€Å"Treat peoples how you want to be treated† and that’s how I feel as a teacher. Treat other children how I would want my children to be treated. Having that motherly character can also make it easier for a child to be more comfortable in the classroom especially if it the first time being away from the parents. Being that Froebel knew what it was like losing his mother and not liking his stepmother he knew what it was like to feel neglect and isolated so he incorporated that in with teaching and realized that no child should ever feel that way. Froebel’s kindergarten used free play, games, songs, stories, and crafts to stimulate imagination while developing physical and motor skill. In most classrooms free play is welcomed as well as games, stories, songs, and craft that will encourage children motor skills as well as solving problems. The kindergarten program was designed to meet children’s needs for physical activity, sensory awareness, creative expression, exploration of ideas and concepts, the pleasure of singing, and the experience of living among others. His educational approach was for â€Å"self-activity,† the idea that allowed the child to be led by his own interests and to freely explore them. Children are more independent and they want to explore new things on their own. Children become aware of numbers early in life, because of daily experience involve various use of numbers. Math is more than learning about numbers and how to add, subtract multiply and divide (Eliason, Jenkins 2012). The National Council for Teachers of Mathematics suggests 10 curriculum standards. The standards provide a guide in mathematics curriculum planning ; content standard are numbers and operation, algebra, geometry, measurements, and data analysis and probability. The process standards are problem solving reasoning and proof, communication, connection and representation (Eliason, Jenkins 2012). The standard gives an overview of math content and process for prekindergarten through the second grade(Eliason, Jenkins 2012). While teaching math to the children I will also incorporate promotes such as blocks, legos, cheerios, etc so that the children are able to see what they are doing visually . At the end of the year children will be able to understands one-to-one correspondence, sorts and classifies objects according to common characteristics, recognize and create patterns. (e.g. red, blue, red, blue or boy, girl, boy, girl), understand simple bar graphs and interpret how they help us gather information, count to 100, identify and print numbers 1-20, identify and draw basic shapes such as rectangle, square, circle and triangle. Reading is a communicative art that involves recognizing and understanding words(Eliason, Jenkins 2012). Children cannot read with understanding and comprehension something they don’t have the background knowledge about. Learning to read takes time, patience, desire, and readiness (Eliason, Jenkins 2012). Kindergarten is a year of discovery in reading and literacy. Child will learn to recognize simple words in print, including his own name and those of his classmates. Letter-sound correspondence, phonemic awareness, sight words recognition, rhyming and words families and concepts about print are the areas in which your child will expand his knowledge this year. By the end of the year some kindergartners will even be reading a little bit. Kindergarten science explores topics that are meaningful to students and can be applied to everyday life. Children will learn about good health habits, including nutrition and an introduction to dental hygiene. Children will spend time learning the process of inquiry as we learn about the five senses. Children will be able to collect information , observation, and data record information while exploring science projects. We will observe outside, take field trips, walks, and be able to talk about what we see. We will explore cause and effect. Science will be integrated into everyday activities including cooking projects Fine Arts are any art form. For example, painting, sculpture, architecture, drawing, or engraving that is considered to have purely aesthetic value (Encarta, 2004). The arts can open the minds of students in ways mere reading and writing will never be able to accomplish. Teaching through arts helps students experience concepts rather than simply discussing or reading it or have it read to them. This approach is consistent with educational theories that highlight the importance of reaching multiple learning styles or intelligences (Jacobs, 1999, p. 2). By working through the arts, instead of about the arts, the students’ educational experience will be achieved in a different way than just teaching the standard style of learning. Education of art helps students develop creativity, self-expression, analytical skills, discipline, cross-cultural understandings, and a heightened appreciation for the arts† and that â€Å"students who develop artistic expression and creative problem solving skills are more like to succeed in school. An activity that I would teach would be fine art such would be painting. Friedrich Froebel, the father of kindergarten, believed that young children should be involved in both making their own art and enjoying the art of others. Children will have a sheet of paper and would be able to pick two different colors out of four. I would allow them to chose if they want to finger paint, or use a paint brush. Once children have made their decision they would be able to self express.. Washington state standard for Art is through dance, music, theatre, and visual arts provide detailed recommendations and guidance for K–12 arts education. These documents include: Washington State K–12 Arts Learning Standards (one document encompassing all four arts disciplines—dance, music, theatre, and visual arts). Another activity would be science. We would see how long it takes an ice cube to melt. The Washington State K-12 Science Standards is a detailed document describing what all students are expected to know and be able to do at each level of our educational system in the area of science. The purpose of these standards is to provide strong support for students, parents, teachers, and the broader community by guiding the alignment of the school curriculum, instruction, and assessment at local and state levels. To accomplish this purpose it is essential to use this document in the following ways: Those responsible for curriculum alignment should refer to this document in selecting or developing instructional materials that enable students to acquire core conceptual knowledge and abilities in science. Those responsible for assessment alignment at the local and state levels should refer to this document in selecting and/or developing assessment tools and rubrics that measure student achievement of the core content in these standards. Those responsible for instructional alignment should refer to this document in designing classroom instruction and professional development of teachers to ensure that achieving these core content standards is a priority. It is also important to point out what the standards. In conclusion early childhood program should provides a safe and nurturing environment, which promotes physical, social, emotional, language and cognitive development will ensure a positive continuation of the child’s education process. References. â€Å"Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852) – Biography, Froebel’s Kindergarten Philosophy, The Kindergarten Curriculum, Diffusion of the Kindergarten. † Education Encyclopedia. StateUniversity. com. < http://education. stateuniversity. com/pages/1999/Froebel-Friedrich-1782-1852. html > 21 Dec. 2010. Froebel. (2011, April 04). † Education Encyclopedia. StateUniversity. com. < http://education. stateuniversity. com/pages/1999/Froebel-Friedrich-1782-1852. html > 21 Dec. 2010. Eliason, C. F. , Jenkins, L. (2012). A practical guide to early childhood curriculum (9th ed. ). New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc. Cluff, D. (2005, October 6). The Importance of Fine Arts in the Classroom. Retrieved October 1, 2012, from http://ezinearticles. com/? The-Importance-of-Fine-Arts-in-the-Classroom&id=80061.

The Purchase of Paris Saint German Football Club by Qatar Sports Case Study

The Purchase of Paris Saint German Football Club by Qatar Sports Investments - Case Study Example It was an effective strategy because purchasing the football club by QSI was one way of showing national pride. The strategy motive was also the belief in the future growth of sports and enable PSG to achieve their big dreams. It was also an effective strategy for transforming the PSG into one of the biggest teams in the globe. Thus, placing people in power who have knowledgeable and effective skills about the sport would be significant for the success of the PSG club. The project also focused on the other argumentative side by revealing that to a smaller extent, the purchase of Paris Saint-German FC by QSI was not a good strategy. This was because selling the PSG FC to Qatar is one of putting the football club under risks. It was not a good strategy because it might be due to political interest and the aim for Qatar to achieve its business objectives. Lastly, the conclusion was included that provided a brief summary of the argumentative points presented in the project. In What Way i s the Purchase of Paris Saint-German Football Club by Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) a Good Strategy for the Company? Paris Saint-German FC is a qualified association football team, which is based in Paris, France. It was founded in 1970 by Saint-Germain and Paris football associations who joined and formed the association, which has been always representing Paris. PSG (Paris Saint-German) is an interesting football association across the globe. This team was bought by QSI during summer 2011, thus the French club has shocked many people because of its immense transfer expenditure. The Paris team has always been on the forefront and it has been in the competition record since it began its football association in 1974. PSG is among the teams that have won main European cup, and it became the major team in 1994 after it won the tournament cup. It was also ranked among the best leading teams in the UEFA tournament winners in 1998 and is currently ranked 16th in the IIHS (International F ederation of Football History & Statistics) and 46th in the UEFA team ranking. The purchase of PSG football club by Qatar is a good strategy for the company because of varied reasons. First, Qatar sports could be investing in football as one way of promoting Qatar business interest at large. For instance, Qatar will offer football companies a patronage pact to enhance their brand. Moreover, there is not team across the globe with higher interest than PSG. Since this football club was purchased by QSI, the club has greatly improved; thus shocked the world with its massive transfer cost. Many people are expecting a lot from QSI over the coming decades because they invest a lot; hence good for benefiting of the club. This is because it will enable the company to achieve their dreams of building a competitive team which will become among the best teams across Europe (Hytner, D. (September 11, 2012). The company owner has pledged to spend a lot in the coming years in order to enable the PSG to become the greatest football club across the globe. In addition, the purchase of PSG by QSI was a good idea because it is a big advantage to the company. This is because investing in the football club can enable them to develop a powerful team; thus contributing to increased performance level.  

Employee Relations Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 4

Employee Relations - Term Paper Example As a general rule, under the Fair Work Act of 2009, unfair dismissal happens when an employee has been dismissed from his or her job but the dismissal was â€Å"harsh, unjust or unreasonable,† â€Å"not consistent with the Small Business Fair Dismissal Code† and â€Å"was not a case of genuine redundancy† (S.385). All these instances shall be determined by Fair Work Australia (FWA). The determination, however, shall depend on the facts and circumstances surrounding each case. The FWA is given the authority to evaluate to its satisfaction the respective allegations of the employer and employee with regard to the root cause of the dismissal. In such case, if the FWA is satisfied that the case is one of unfair dismissal, it will give due accord to the employee’s claim and if not, it will dismiss the claim in favor of the employer.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã ‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   FWA will dismiss an application due to either of the following grounds: (1) â€Å"application is not made in accordance with the Act† (2) it â€Å"is frivolous or vexatious† (3) it â€Å"has no reasonable prospects of success† (S.587 (1)). In Ms. Toni Potter vs. Darwin City Council, [2010] FWA 6129, FWA dismissed Potter’s application for unfair dismissal remedy. The FWA commissioner deemed the application as inappropriate since the substantive issues of the case had already been settled (â€Å"Potter vs. Darwin City Council,† 2010, para. 62). To provide a clear case of dismissal, the law enumerates the instances when an individual is considered to have been dismissed or not from his or her employment. In such delineation, the employer’s fault is emphasized as well as the importance of complying with the terms and conditions contained in a contract of employment. As stated, if â€Å"the person’s employment has been terminated on the employer’s initiative or the person has resigned from his or her employment, but was forced to do so because of conduct, or a course of conduct engaged in by his or her employer,† that individual is said to have been dismissed (S.386 (1)).

Conscious (Mindful) Communication Day Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Conscious (Mindful) Communication Day - Essay Example At times when I hang out with my friends, we find ourselves talking politics in our country. Definitely not all of my friends hold similar political ideologies as mine. So, we tend to differ in most cases and end up in unending argument, sometimes resulting even to insults. This happened one day when we were walking to the movie show. It later came to my conscience that I was doing the wrong thing; I changed the topic and ensured that I and my friends maintained the friendship. It felt good achieving my goal of maintaining unity though my friends never realized the reason behind the topic change. Some situations seem challenging and tricky to face especially when truth is unveiled. During my last holiday, I attended a wedding ceremony in which my uncle was the bridegroom. I had been advised by mom never to leave my younger sister Laura alone as mom too had to attend the occasion (Shafir, 2003). I became disobedient and left the 2 year old kid in our house. On coming back, I found almost all valuables were missing including mom’s laptop, television set and other households. I knew I would face the worst moment in my life. I had an idea to lie about gunpoint robbery of the house but conscience kept refraining me from telling lies. I told my mom what actually happened. Laura was well, she warned me never to disobey her to that extent. She felt disappointed, and praised my innocence in telling the truth. Another aspect of mindful communication derived from this context is never to speak with an aim of pleasing other people but say what you feel is truth and just, what you feel you can say

Fahad alhajri Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Fahad alhajri - Research Paper Example One would even go further and state that the American government has chosen to keep the Native American areas of New Mexico at bay because it feels that they are more trouble than productive members of American society. This neglect has brought about a negative stigma within the populations where poverty in the state is most prevalent and this has led many of the individuals involved to give up hope of working towards the ending of their own poverty. The poor residents of New Mexico have little political voice and this may account for their being left out of the mainstream American way of life as they continue to sink deeper into poverty. In fact, the suicide rates among the residents of this state are actually quite high and this is often due to the loss of hope in improving their own lives. The political neglect of the people of this state is so great that their problems are not even highlighted during campaigns, and this has ensured that the area in which they live has become an u nappealing location for growing businesses to set up base in. the negative stigma caused by the poverty of the state has made it the least attractive place for those professionals, such as doctors and teachers, to work. This has created a situation where the state even lacks the most qualified professionals who would help to improve not only its health system but also the education of its children. The fact that people are discouraged from working in the area creates a dilemma, because with low quality of education and health care that results, there also develops the problem of high unemployment rates and coupled with low healthcare, the poverty is made even worse within the population. Considering the absence of public and private investment in the neglected areas of the state, better communication between the State and tribal governments, and more consideration to the requirements of the people of these areas, the poverty rate is estimated to upsurge (Kusel). While this may be a fact, it is also true that there are many underlying causes of the rampant poverty within the state and some of these shall be considered in greater detail. The causes of poverty in New Mexico have to be understood in order for decisions to be made on how to remedy them and bring the state into prosperity. Page-Reeves (33) states that New Mexico has the 13th highest rate of food insecurity in the United States and is related to the state of Mississippi as among the states with the highest poverty rates. It has further been seen that one in every four children within the state do not know where they will get their next meal, and this is a source of concern for the strategic planners of the state (Ramirez). Because of the arid nature of the state, there has developed the need for distributing food to the poor and this has led to the setting up of more than 600 emergency food distribution sites that serve more than forty thousand people every week. In some parts of the states, it has b een estimated that quite a large number of the population did not have the required meals in a day to remain healthy. Because of the chronic poverty which has been made worse because of the lack of opportunity within the state, an approximate of 17,000 people in New Mexico are homeless, and these, for instance, include five

Recycling in the hospitality Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Recycling in the hospitality - Case Study Example This is done by a mutual exchange and fulfilment 'f promises." [1] There has been a very notable change in the concept 'f using traditional transactional marketing to building and maintaining relationships. This assignment talks about relationship and direct marketing and how it is used in today's world. To make things comprehensible, a company was chosen and the focus was made on this company and their dealings. Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, the founder 'f the Tata Group, incorporated the Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL) on April 1, 1902, for the ownership and operation 'f the Taj Mahal Hotel, Mumbai. The Taj Group's first hotel, The Taj Mahal Palace & Tower, Mumbai was opened on December 16, 1903. The Taj has had momentous innings spanning the last three decades both in India and overseas and has established itself as the premier hospitality body in this country. Indian Hotels' presence spans the entire gamut 'f the market, across different brands and price segments. It is renowned for providing world-class, personalized service to guests, even as it retains an old-world charm by upholding the traditions and heritage 'f India. Today the Taj brand is synonymous with luxury and service, in India and abroad. The Taj brand is divided into 3 categories, namely business, leisure and luxury. This is done to make things easier and more approachable for a customer. All these hotels use product differentiation. This is made evident and clear through their marketing activities. However, the services offered here are the same. Each type 'f category uses a set 'f procedures and policies to maintain relationship marketing. The focus at IHCL is on customer valuation, which then leads to attracting new customers and customer retention. The Taj believes in maintaining customer relationships. As shown in the value chain earlier, Taj has two main customers. This is her guest and the Travel agencies that she deals with. A customer is valued and identified by market research. He is then attracted with schemes and programs. Once a customer is attracted and starts using Taj services, a focus is made on building a strong and special relationship with him. Taj has an alliance with Thomas Cook. This is the main travel agency, which promotes Taj. Besides Thomas cook, there are hundreds 'f travel agencies which deal with Taj. These range from the biggest agencies in India like the travel corporation 'f India and Sita Travels to the smaller agencies all over the country. Taj has won international acclaim by winning various international awards. Recently, at the 2000 Selling Long-Haul magazine Travel Industry Awards, UK and Irish travel agents have awarded Taj Hotels as the Best Individual Hotel/Hotel Group in India/Indian Ocean. The travel agencies are offered discounts, schemes, promotions and packages, which they can further sell, to the customers. It also has alliances with a few

Russian history, Dr. Zhivago Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Russian history, Dr. Zhivago - Essay Example The discussion about land reform weighs heavily on their minds and takes place on the country estate of an aristocratic patron of the arts. Kolya is described as a future famous writer, and it is important to note the future that Russia and its upper class were soon to face: one in which people like the Zhivago's were to lose their possessions and their status under the new Socialist system. The second chapter elucidates the political implications of the strikes, and the various characters' involvement in them. Madame Guishar is called a member of the aristocracy, but she is dependent on Komarovsky for her well-being and financial stability. Lara feels that she is enslaved by the lawyer, and Yura immediately senses Komarovsky's power over her. The Guishar family is not enmeshed in the political changes taking place, but Lara's association with the young rebels and her family's fear of attack shows the all-encompassing power of the imminent societal changes rumbling below. There is a sense of impending and wide-sweeping transformation taking place, though some feel that the final resolution lies in the czar's manifesto. The connections between all the various plot lines seem to imply that there is no action that is not tied to others, and there is no life that stands independently. At the same time, Pasternak creates the sense that all of the diverse movements leading up to Madame Guishar's attempted suicide exist largely to bring Yura and Lara together. In the fourth chapter, many young characters of the novel find themselves in the throes of World War I, in which Russia suffered heavy casualties. The Russian army was ill equipped to fight on such a large scale, and many soldiers fought without weapons or shoes. The war was devastating, of course, not only to soldiers, but also to Russia at large. By the end of 1915, there were manifold signs that the economy was breaking down under the heightened strain of wartime demand. The main problems were food shortages and rising prices. Inflation rapidly forced down real incomes, and shortages made it difficult to buy even what one could afford. Shortages were especially a problem in the capital, Petrograd (formerly the City of St. Petersburg), where distance from supplies and poor transportation networks made matters particularly bad. Shops closed early or entirely for lack of bread, sugar, meat and other provisions. And lines grew for what remained. It became increasingly difficult both t o afford and to buy food. Not surprisingly, strikes increased steadily from the middle of 1915. And so did crime. But mostly people suffered and endured--scouring the city for food (working-class women in Petrograd reportedly spent about forty hours a week in food lines ), begging, turning to prostitution or crime, tearing down wooden fences to keep stoves heated for warmth, grumbling about the rich, and wondering when and how this would all end. With good reason, government officials responsible for public order worried about how long people's patience would last. The war affects the characters in the novel in different ways. Pasha sees it as an opportunity to escape from his unsatisfactory marriage, Zhivago is called upon to apply his medical skills toward an unsavory task, and Misha finds himself contemplating his own position as a member of the

Report on Panama Canal Expansion Project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Report on Panama Canal Expansion Project - Essay Example The project has been rocked with a strike which could threaten the completion of work as scheduled. Contents Abstract 1 Contents 2 Introduction 3 Background 4 Strengths and weakness of the project 6 Findings 7 a.Finances 7 b.Environmental Impact 8 c.Stakeholders 9 d.Governance and oversight 9 e.Risk mitigation 10 f.High level risks and insurances 10 g.International Governance 11 h.Procurement Policies 12 i.Strategic Human Resource Management and HR concerns 12 j.Performance Assessment of the Panama Expansion Project 14 k.Earned Value management 15 Professional Reflective statement 16 Conclusion 16 Recommendations 18 Bibliography 19 Appendices 22 Introduction Many infrastructural mega projects are prone to suffer from cost overruns, delays, poor performance or inability to give customer satisfaction. Interaction of several factors can cause complexities which can either promote success or inhibit it depending on how they are approached. It is crucial for project managers to thus criti cally analyze a mega project before undertaking it. One such project is the Panama Canal expansion project. Panama Canal is one of the busiest waterways globally. Opened in 1914, Panama Canal is a critical prop of international trade (Gagne, 2011, p. 1267). Nevertheless, the growth of international shipping in the last century and in the present times continues to be hampered by the Canal’s capacity (Gagne, 2011, p. 1267). This necessitated Panama Canal Authority to embark on an ambitious project of expanding the canal. Currently, the canal accommodates vessels of not more than 965 feet (294.1m) in length, 39.5 feet in depth, and a beam width of 106 feet (Sayre, 2010, p. 16). Vessels that can navigate in this canal are known as Panamax and have the ability of can carrying 4000-4500 Twenty Four Equivalent Units. Vessels larger than Panamax are able to navigate in other trade canals which and therefore Panama Canal Expansion project seeks to position the harbor as an internatio nal trade channel able to attract bigger ships and therefore enhance international trade and increase profitability. The expanded canal will be able to handle vessels of up to 1200feet in length, 160 feet beam and a draft of 49 feet (Sayre, 2010, p. 16). After completion, the canal will help reduce waiting times and bring down the costs of shipping significantly (Berman, 2006). According to the projections by Panama Canal Authority, canal expansion project is going to result to between 7 to 17 percent savings to shippers due to increased capacity (Panama Canal Authority Announces Expansion Plans, 2006, p. 12). The decision to expand the canal took into consideration various factors that could be affected by its expansion both locally and internationally. This report highlights some of the areas that have been considered since the decision to embark on Panama Canal Expansion Program was made. It will also evaluate the issues of international governance, change leadership, performance and procurement management and human resources issues surrounding Panama Canal expansion. Background The genesis of a canal running across the Isthmus of Panama goes back to 1534. At this time, the king of Spain, Charles V ordered a survey to be carried out in search for a route passing through the Americas that ships traveling Between Spain and Peru could use (Caso & Welsh, 1978, pp.72 . This discovery of gold in California was met with interest to cross between the Atlantic and Pacific

Social Equality in Childrens Literature Essay Example for Free

Social Equality in Childrens Literature Essay Student Name Professor Name Subject 20 June 2012 Social Equality in Childrens Literature To begin with, we should say what social equality is in general. Social equality is a state of social affairs where all the people within the same group or any other formation have the same rights and, what is more important, the same status in certain respects. Some basic differences may divide people in social hierarchy. The main ones are gender, race, or wealth. But why is it so significant especially in children literature? To my mind, the second question is whether there is any social equality in children literature. I think there are a lot of books which show this problem. To traverse this problem we’ll discuss some children books. And in the books under analysis people suffer from race division. Unfortunately, race is an outdated concept for distinguishing people. Racism has always been the greatest problem for the USA, especially considering African Americans. Equal rights and social value is a matter that needs to be taken extremely seriously. Martin Luther King Jnr, Gandhi, Jesus, Malcolm X, Pope John II, The Dalai Lama, St Francis of Assisi and even John Lennon all believed that social rights and being equal, no matter who you are, is one of the most important things in the world to conquer. Maybe, children books are the first sources of anti-racism and helpers to fight with social inequality. Let’s think broader to understand this. The first book to discuss is The Watsons Go to Birmingham by C. P. Curtis. It is a historical fiction book. And there is 16th Street Baptist Church bombing  in Birmingham. This moment was a critical catalyst of the American civil rights movement. Could we judge a historical book as children one? Let’s dwell on the details. Because Kenny, the main character, tells the story of his family’s trip to the Deep South, the reader gets to experience what is was like to grow up during the height of the civil rights struggle. In the first part Kenny introduces his family, so called â€Å"Weird Watsons†. They live in Flint, Michigan, while Grandma Sands lives in Alabama. Both places are under rather intriguing seasons. The family have to run away to save themselves. That is not the only reason. Kelly is bullied at school. This is both because of his being an excellent student and some civil inequality. But to my mind, children become to bully, as for a civil aspect, only after their parents’ words or actions. They are too young to judge a person properly. Anyway, the book remains just a story about a family, but some moments, such as the church bombings or the murder of Emmet Till, makes it very powerful. What is more, Birmingham, as the centre of action, also is the centre of civil fights and maybe it could be a symbol of that time. As for national equality, not the whole book, but significant moments in it are the greatest examples of the problem. But to understand everything it is better to read and fell it. The second book under analysis is Monster by W. D. Myers. It is a drama novel. To continue our discussing according to the theme let’s say about the characters and the problems described in the novel. Steve Harmon is an African American who is on trial for felony murder in New York City. Peer pressure is the main theme which then affected how Steve ended up. As for humanity, Steve is called â€Å"Monster†. He starts thinking over it. This book could be named autobiographical, because Myers was often laughed at at school. And this story is scribbled on the pages of the novel, as the author took his school teacher’s advice and wrote at night after work just as then Steve did. Although the novel is focused on moral and then social issues, it definitely touches some social problems. Some comment about being black that already may make a person guilty brings up a long-standing social issue about discrimination against African Americans in law enforcement. The question of social equality appears in bullying, and it becomes much greater during the trial. I think Steve is accused as guilty only because of his skin color. Myers was highly prized for his book as the contribution to children’s literature. The next book to pay attention to is Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by M. D. Taylor. It was even adopted as TV series what can say the author is a master. Action takes place in Depression time. That time was harder than ever for the whole America. There are two points of view in this book: fortunate Logans and a lot of people both black and white – are living as sharecroppers. This makes racially motivated crimes common. The novel shows the necessity in owing the lands. But the main theme, to my mind, is the effect of racism. The first sign of racism appears even at school in the state of books. For white students they are new and for black ones the books are in poor condition. The Logans prove that even being black doesn’t prevent anybody to become rich. The Wallace family is the most racist and all the sharecroppers’ families fear them. But as for Cassie, the narrator, and the families, her one owns, the Wallaces don’t play rather great role. The main life lesson Cassie takes is that material independence may be the key to ethical independence. This type of narration enables Taylor to juxtapose childhood innocence and show wonder of bigotry and racism. And the author, through the child’s eyes, without any polemics or even bitterness, shows the greatest problems of that time with surprise and growing disappointment. Taylor doesn’t make any effort to soften the affect of racism problems and shows the influence events of the 1930s had on the civil rights formation and famous Black Power movements of the 1950s and 1960s. And this enables the reader to understand those feelings the girl had. The novel is highly prized by most critics. Now we go to Malcolm X: A Graphic Biography by Andrew Helfer ; Randy DuBurke. This book is like a philosophical reflection. It shows the thoughts about black pride, Black Nationalism and pan-Africanism. Some critics name this book as the most read and influential book among young people of any racial background. What is more interesting, some chapters were silenced by FBI. Characters in the book mostly associate with other people to meet them and treat them like objects rather than human beings. And this aspect is pointed out in the autobiography to show how hierarchy of social status affects self-esteem. Neither his friends nor his family recognizes Malcolm as a person. The use his skin color as demonstration of their tolerance and broadmindedness. The only wish is to gain the status for them. But Malcolm uses his girlfriend as the same symbol or status and then this action turns to him: Malcolm becomes a symbol of the Nation of Islam’s vitality. This all makes any person to degrade. Only after passing through so many phases and seeing the race problem from so many different points of view Malcolm is able to settle on a philosophy in which he truly believes. Malcolm is represented in the book in a lot of guises, beginning from Malcolm Little and then Malcolm El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz appears. And through all this changing eyes we see racism problems and Malcolm’s attitude on them. All problems about equality are surrounded about racism. In this case it is not white people against African Americans but believes in so called â€Å"Black Pride† or black power. Malcolm, using people as marionettes, becomes a marionette partially in fate’s hands and then in the hands of nationalistic organization. Only faith in himself may save Malcolm from losing his soul in the fight for status in â€Å"equal† hierarchy. And at last our attention goes to I Know Why The Cage Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. The book is autobiographical. I was written in 1969. The name speaks for itself. Caged in racism and trauma, a person can overcome it with the help of strength and love. Angelou describes such problems as identity, rape, racism and literacy. All this affects her life less or more. It happens so, that Stamps, Arkansas, is so segregated, that the girl can’t even believe that white people exist. But getting older Maya is confronted by rougher incidents of racism. Children books describe all the events which are no for children at all. BT described from the child’s point of view, they make the reader fell everything by himself with the same curiosity and then growing disappointment. Just skin color makes even her name a great problem. There are also some social events described in the book. Their importance for African Americans is unbelievable. But social realities remain unjust. And all this confine and demean Maya and her relatives. She comes to thoughts that living in racist society and so being under pressure shapes the character, both hers and the members of her family, but she finds some power to surmount them. The book was used for teacher education. As for censors, the prohibited book’s usage at school, because of some scenes, e. g. eight-year-old girl’s raping. To my mind, such books should present in school curriculums to prevent racism development or to teach children how to cooperate with such problems if it happens so. We discussed five different but, at the same time, so equal books.

Satisfying Customers Needs And Wants Marketing Essay

Satisfying Customers Needs And Wants Marketing Essay Marketing has often been defined in terms of satisfying customers needs and wants. Critics however maintain that marketing goes beyond that and creates needs and wants that did not exist before, According to these critics, marketers encourage consumers to spend more money than they should on goods and services they really do not need. Marketing process can be explained as creating value for customers and building customer relationship by doing this the organisation makes profit The various elements of marketing process can be classified as follow Fig 1 Understanding the market place and customers needs and wants is achieved through in-depth market research and thereby identifying a product gap or needs gap. This will involve trends , how to make things easier , comfortable, better and user friendly. In the early 80s there were few or no mobile phones. A thorough market research has created the need for mobile phones, then came the massive first generation mobile phones. This were later followed by smaller ones and these days we can see the smart phones with inbuilt cameras, time online movies and news ability to actual work from your mobile Samsung note to the new tablets. Every day specialist market research companies, innovators, technicians and scientist all work hand on hand to create a new niche market or brand that makes our lives much more comfortable. Even the pay as you go concept became apparent as people could not continue to pay the incredible high cost then been charged by manufacturers who were looking at ways to cover the cost of their research and development. So the critics may not be far from the truth but the ideal is marketers coming with ways and products that makes our lives easy. Design a customer driven marketing strategy. Marketing strategy is a long term means of achieving a corporate objective. If we take the example of the mobile phone industry where the likes of Samsung, IPhone, Nokia are in serious competition each as to design a marketing strategy to capture a share of the market. Like a military personnel will define the art of going to warfare. Marketing program that delivers superior value : This refers to the marketing mix that is the 4ps Usually referring to E. Jerome McCarthys  [1]  Ã‚  4 P classifications for developing an effective marketing strategy, which encompasses: product, price, placement (distribution) and promotion. When its a consumer-centric marketing mix, it  has been extended to include  three more Ps: people, process and physical evidence, and  three Cs: cost, consumer and competitor. Depending on the industry and the target of the marketing plan, marketing managers will take various approaches to each of the four Ps. The benefits and cost of marketing orientation Market orientation is the understanding of customers requirement and creation of marketing mix which will meet these needs. Market driven means the firms capability to understand, attract and keep valuable customers G. Armstrong and P. Kotler define marketing as social and managing process by which the individuals and groups procure what they need by creating and exchanging values with others.  [2]   A market-oriented company is in a position to achieve competitive advantage thanks to its unique innovative approach to customers. In addition to this, according to the opinion of P. R. Dickson, a competitive advantage should be understood in the sense of dynamics of competition. He expresses disagreement with the standpoint of neoclassic theory of market equilibrium and claims that the main characteristic of the market is its disequilibrium. He sees marketing as a science and skill of creating changes (disequilibrium) in the market in the manner that would provide for the changes that are beneficial for the company. Various responses of salespersons and customers to changes in supply and demand, thinks Dickson, create possibilities that could be used by the company that understands market. He underlines the importance of adjusting company to the market occurrences.  [3]   Benefits and cost of market orientation Figure 2: Customer relationship groups Source: G. Armstrong, P. Kotler, Marketing: An Introduction, 7. ed., Pearson/Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2005, p. 25. The above summaries the benefits and cost of market Orientation other advantages and disadvantages. Responding to Demand Building Customer Value Disadvantages Extensive and Expensive Research and Increased cost. Micro and Macro environmental factors that affect marketing Decision The micro environmental factors are factors that can be controlled by the organisation and relates directly with the business these are considered using the factors in fig 3 Micro Environmental factors Fig 3 Fig 4 shows how different public affects organisation. The public that affect the marketing decision of the yet they can be controlled and are regarded as micro are the relation with the following members of this public e.g Financial public this is based on say for example the organisations annual returns. Fig 4 Macro Environmental Factors The Target market for mobile phones companies and IT companies are more likely to be the high income earning spectrum of the society or the new graduates and the city bankers and young people in the top echelon of society who will be able to afford the integrated packages that are about to be launched into the market very soon The package will include home entertainment, office package, security package, phone and video calls and financial/banking package all launched as one integrated hand held device. Market segmentation, and Target is followed by positioning, this should be developed and implemented by creating an image for the product, profiling the target market, High Tech gadgets like this integrated hand held device will be bought based on the technical specification what comfort or ease of doing a task it provide. Buying Behaviourur is the way and act of people involved in buying and using products. To understand these we need to consider, why a buyer will make a purchase, what factors influence will influence a buyer to buy a certain product. Buying Behaviour refers to how people will behave when buying a certain product. A firm needs to consider and study buying behaviourur and peoples reactions to the organisation marketing strategy has this will have great impact on the firms success. The marketing concept show how a marketing mix (MM) that satisfies (gives utility to) customers, hence it important to understand the what, where, when and how consumers buy. Stages of the Consumer Buying Process There are Six Stages to the Consumer Buying Decision Process (For complex decisions). Problem Recognition Information search The evoked set. Evaluation of Alternatives Purchase decision- Post Purchase decision Buying behaviour is often determined by the level of consumer involvement in the purchase decisions, the importance and level of interest the consumer decisions is determined by the motivation to seek information about the product or service. High involvement purchase such as buy a luxury car or other expensive items. Also the element of risk involved in the use of the product that is the social risk and the economic risk. The four type of consumer buying behaviour: Routine Response/Programmed Behaviourr, Limited Decision Making, Extensive Decision Making/Complex, impulse buying, Routine Response/Programmed behaviour this are low involvement very little or no decision effort is required E.g. A can drink . Limited Decision Making- This are product bought occasionally example are like clothing but not brands Extensive Decision Making/Complex: This involves unfamiliar, expensive and infrequently bought goods. It involves a high degree of economic performance, and psychological risk. e.g. cars, homes, computers, it also involves a lot of time seeking information and deciding. and consumers will go through all six stages of the buying process. Impulse buying, this are purchase which are unplanned it like buying chewing gum in the Conner shop without actually thinking about it. Also prices at time lead to impulse buying. They are usually low valued items. Ethan Lyon said The goal of market positioning is to find the ideal opportunity in the market based on customer needs, market forces and financial and strategic considerations. Once the market opportunity is identified then the organisation can further develop its product and elevate its brand to deliver outstanding value. To clarify the market position, the firm will need to find an overarching theme, then define the details. (sparxoo.com) Brand Idea-The idea is an aspirational concept it defines the idea of what the company. For example the Samsung note goes with the concept of designed for human Value Proposition- A customer or a consumer buyers the Samsung note they see high value and high quality Differentiating Attributes-Samsung has distinguished itself from Apple by targeting the main stream yet providing quality and comparable or better phones than those provided by Apple Word count1450

Great Teachers, Bad Students :: essays research papers

Great Teachers, Bad Students "I have a student in my second hour class who is an idiot ." Students probably have never heard their teachers complaining about them in the halls. In contrast, a person could roam Jefferson and hear conversations about how terrible teachers are from every corner of the school. "I got an F- on the final but it's only because Mr. Doe* is a crappy teacher." This a common attitude among students who fair poorly on a test. It is not bad teaching that causes a student to fail a class, it is bad learning. Laziness, foreign substance abuse, and truancy are a few characteristics of a bad learner. The word "lazy" is frequently used to describe high school students who do not turn in their homework, study for tests and are constantly ill prepared for class. One form of laziness is the dreaded disease that only affects seniors, "Senioritis." The symptoms include lack of motivation and falling grades. Yet the seniors who have the most severe case of "Senioritis" are the same ones who complain about poor teaching. Of course all lazy students are not seniors. There are students from every grade level who do not do their homework or study. Effort must be put forth by the student in order for learning and retention to occur. Students who use illegal substances show the characteristics of a poor learner. The abuser may consistently forget homework assignments and do poorly on exams. Recovered drug user Bob* explains, "The pressure from your friends and society to use drugs is sometimes overwhelming. Once I started, everything went downhill, especially my grades." Drugs soon consume the student's life, leaving no time for studying or homework. Truancy is obviously going to produce a poor learner. By not showing up at school there is no possible way he or she can get assignments or take tests. Even skipping only once or twice in a semester can be detrimental. "I skipped one day when we had a pop quiz. My teacher never let me make it up because he said I skipped," said Susie* a junior at Jefferson. The teacher had every right to not let Susie make up the quiz that she missed because she skipped class. This is a classic example of a student who is a bad learner. Every day the teachers show up prepared to teach their classes.

Uncle Toms Cabin: Stowes Paradoxical Christian Message Essay

Uncle Tom's Cabin: Stowe's Paradoxical Christian Message Perhaps the greatest criticism levied against Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin is that it comprises of nothing more than Victorian sentimentality, and that the death of its two moral exemplars, Tom and Little Eva, do little which actually remedies the injustices of slavery. Critic Ann Douglas sees the novel as emblematic of the "feminization of American culture," which in religious terms figures as "a move away from the morally forceful Calvinism to the sloppiness of the humanistic cult of gentle Jesus" (Rachel Bowlby's paraphrase, 205). In order to recoup the novel from such charges, critics such as Jane Tompkins have attempted to demonstrate that the novel's coupling of sentimentality and Christianity results in far more than a luxuriating in lachrymose emotions. For Tompkins, the force behind the novel's sentimental Christianity is its subversion of the power hierarchy. Incidents like the deaths of Tom and Little Eva enact a "theory of power" in which "the powerless die to save the power ful and corrupt, and thereby show themselves more powerful than those they save" (128). Thus, the traditional locus of power, is in effect, decentered, and religious faith gives marginalized figures like slaves, children, and women a power, to which in strictly secular terms, they have no access. One problem with readings which stress the salvific function of the deaths of Tom and Little Eva is their failure to account for the novel's self-conscious acknowledgment of the social forces which constantly challenge the brand of Christianity which it advocates. The Christian message of Uncle Tom's Cabin is ultimately paradoxical. On the one hand, the examples of Tom and Little Eva demonstrate ... ...f sustaining one's Christianity within the context of slavery, as well as the limitations of the individual's power to challenge such a large institution. George, in deferring his acceptance of Christianity until he reaches a place of freedom, ultimately comes closest to Stowe's agenda of establishing a true Christian nation, uncorrupted by slavery, on earth. Works Cited: Bowlby, Rachel. "Breakfast in America--Uncle Tom's Cultural Histories." Nation and Narration. Ed. Homi K. Bhabha. New York, NY: Routledge Press, 1990, 197-212. O'Connel, Catherine E. "`The Magic of the Real Presence of Distress': Sentimentality and Competing Rhetorics of Authority." The Stowe Debate. Eds. Mason I. Lowance, Jr., Ellen E Westbrook, R.C. De Prospo. Amherst, MA: U. Massachusetts Press, 1994, 13-36. Tompkins, Jane. Sensational Designs. New York, NY: Oxford U. Press, 1985.

Essay --

Unethical business practices have been an issue over the past decade, from Enron to Wall Street. Pilot Flying J recently was prosecuted for defrauding many of their clients. The scandal extended all the way to the senior management. The scandal was driven by greed and could have easily been prevented by applying one or all of the following five systems: written contracts, external auditors, compliance officers, handbook training, and moles. Pilot Flying J only had informal verbal agreements with their partners; they did not have firm contracts. When combined with the complexities needed to calculate the constantly varying average cost of fuel and the sophistication needed to interpret these numbers, PFJ had some flexibility to fudge the numbers if inclined. Due to constantly varying fuel prices the average cost of the fuel was constantly changing, leading to relatively significant changes in the amount of the rebates. Since their clients complained about being cheated due to the varying rebates, PFJ decided to manually change the rebates so that they are more consistent. This manual change often reduced ones rebate. This reasoning illustrates the senior management’s lack of ethics. PFJ and their clients had somewhat of a rough verbal contract. Verbal contracts are just as enforceable as written contracts on paper, but it is not as easy to enforce them in the real world. Written contracts between Pilot Fly ing J and their customers would have forced PFJ to become more accountable to their customers. A written contract should have been made between PFJ and their customers that stated the discount rate and all of the other factors that went into the relationship. PFJ was not transparent in their inner workings, often ... ...to ensure that they are both doing their duty. Neither of these options for placing a mole within ones organization would be difficult or time consuming. Either option would be a valid way to ensure that nothing illicit is going on inside the business. Although having a mole in one’s organization can be seen as borderline illegal and unethical, if having a mole prevents fraud on a significant scale, then it is considered justifiable. By following any of the aforementioned ways to enact systems that create a lawful work place PFJ could have prevented this scandal from happening. All PFJ had to do was spend a little time reiterating their daily rules and procedures. These systems were probably not in place because the executives were the ones that were committing the fraudulent activities. Greed has cost Pilot Flying J $85 billion dollars and their good name.

Finance Foundation

LB5212:03 FINANCIAL FOUNDATIONS FOR MANAGERS Singapore Campuses Study Period 3, 2012 LB5212:03 Financial Foundations for Managers SUBJECT GUIDE 2012 Study Period 3, Singapore Campuses Contents Contents1 1. School Overview0 2. Subject at a Glance0 3. Subject Details0 4. Subject Readings and Resources0 5. Assessment Details0 6. Grading Criteria0 7. Student Assistance0 8. Important Policies & Guidelines0 9. Postgraduate Skills & Qualities0 10. Lecture & Tutorial Schedule0 11. Annexure0 School OverviewThe School of Business is at the forefront of innovation in business and information technology education. With a focus on internationalisation, growth and innovation, the school exploits its unique regional location and expertise in courses that combine discipline-based excellence with practical application. JCU aims to empower responsible managers with practical skills underpinned by cutting edge theory. The school is one of the largest schools at JCU in terms of student numbers and offer s programs at Brisbane, Cairns, Singapore and Townsville.Graduate coursework degrees include the flagship program the Master of Business Administration (MBA), Master of Professional Accounting (MPA), Master of Economics (ME), and Master of International Tourism and Hospitality Management (MITHM). The school also includes Information Technology, offering a Master of IT (MIT and MIT Extended). Within the coursework masters suite of degrees there are opportunities for joint degree combinations. JCU’s recently ‘refreshed’ MBA is committed to an agenda of responsible management, in which all our activities are consistent with sustainable and ethical business practices.Across the four campuses, there are majors available in Marketing, Human Resource Management, Managerial Accounting, Dispute Resolution and International Tourism. Research degrees are also available at honours, masters, and Doctoral levels. Honours students from JCU have an outstanding record of gaining quality jobs in government and consulting circles and a number of students have won Australian Postgraduate Award scholarships and progressed into doctoral courses. There are a number of different pathways into the postgraduate study areas, with direct entry for those already holding an undergraduate degree.For those who do not have a first degree but have relevant work experience and professional experience, the pathway to postgraduate study starts with a Graduate Certificate, progresses through the Graduate Diploma, and reaches the Masters level and above by following these indirect entry strategies. Our staff are friendly and approachable and our degrees are designed to help you develop skills for application anywhere in the world in the dynamic business environment of the twenty-first century. A number of our staff have been recognised through independent rankings as world leaders in their field.School of Business staff have also recently won national awards for teaching excelle nce, and are committed to helping students achieve their career goals. JCU’s School of Business is committed to working towards achievement of genuine and sustainable reconciliation between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the wider community, as outlined in the JCU Reconciliation Statement at

Compare and Contrast of Short Stories Essay

In â€Å"The Ones That Walk Away From Omelas† and â€Å"The Lottery†, Ursula Le Guin and Shirley Jackson portray a supposedly perfect society built on clandestine secrets. In the short story â€Å"The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas†, Omelas’ inhabitants are smart and cultured, and it seems like a utopian city of happiness and delight. Everything about Omelas is your every desire, disregarding the secret of the city: the good fortune of Omelas requires that a single unfortunate child be kept in never-ending filth, darkness and misery, and that all its citizens should be told of this when they come of age. After the truth is told to the people of Omelas most are initially shocked and disgusted and somehow manage to live there life and make it worth it for the child’s existence; others just walk away from the city of Omelas. In the short story, â€Å"The Lottery†, a small village of about 300 have an annual lottery; women, men, and children participate, to see who will be the chosen one to guarantee enough rain for the corn crops. The winner is to be stoned to death. The way the authors use irony to depict the story societies as wonderful and perfect then towards the end the dark secret is discovered is very intriguing and captivating, which makes you want to keep reading. In the story, â€Å"The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas†, Omelas seems to be this beautiful and cheerful place. The story takes place during a festival and there are children running around laughing and there is music. It talks about a race and how the horses are excited, â€Å"(the horses) flared their nostrils and pranced and boasted to one another â€Å" with silver, gold, and green braided into their manes. The story has and air of excitement and celebration that is soon questioned when the author begins to talk about the child.

Learnings in Operations Management from Henry Ford, Sloan and Toyota Essay

The success of Henry Ford till 1925s Henry Ford did not invent the automobile. He didn’t even invent the assembly line. But more than any other single individual, he was responsible for transforming the automobile from an invention of unknown utility into an innovation that profoundly shaped the 20th century and continues to affect our lives today. Model T (A car for everyman) In simple terms, the Model T changed the world. It was a powerful car with a possible speed of 45 mph. It could run 25 miles on a gallon of gasoline. It carried a 20-horsepower, side-valve four-cylinder engine and two-speed planetary transmission on a 100-inch wheelbase. It was Henry Ford’s foresight which saw the potential market of automobiles. In his opinion transportation was a basic need of human and if affordable anyone would be willing to buy it. It was with this vision of delivering automobiles to everyman that Ford started to experiment with different production methodologies to lower the cost of production. Influence of Frederick Taylor on Henry Ford Frederick Taylor was a contemporary of Henry Ford. His theory of scientific management had a big impact on Henry Ford. According to Henry Ford, the assembly line was based on three simple principles: â€Å"the planned, orderly, and continuous progression of the commodity through the shop; the delivery of work instead of leaving it to the workman’s initiative to find it; an analysis of operations into their constituent parts.† A scientific approach to these principles, the next logical step in the organization of work, had already been enunciated by Frederick Taylor in what is now called as scientific management. Henry Ford used the techniques specified by Frederick Taylor in increasing the efficiency of his process. Taylor’s scientific management consisted of four principles: 1. Replace rule-of-thumb work methods with methods based on a scientific study of the tasks. 2. Scientifically select, train, and develop each employee rather than passively leaving them to train themselves. 3. Provide â€Å"Detailed instruction and supervision of each worker in the performance of that worker’s discrete task†. 4. Divide work nearly equally between managers and workers, so that the managers apply scientific management principles to planning the work and the workers actually perform the tasks. Learnings from Henry Ford and Model T Assembly Line/Mass production In 1913 Henry Ford started production of Ford Model T in a sliding assembly line. Though assembly line was used previously used in different industry but it was mostly for products which had small number of parts. Model T on the other hand had many more components. Sliding assembly line of Henry Ford was inspired by overhead trolleys used to dress up beef. Henry Ford thought that the same technique can be used for automobile too. A breakthrough came in April 1913. A production engineer in the flywheel magneto assembly area tried a new way to put this component’s parts together. The operation was divided into 29 separate steps. Workers placed only one part in the assembly before pushing the flywheel down the line to the next employee. Previously, it had taken one employee about 20 minutes to assemble a flywheel magneto. Divided among 29 men, the job took 13 minutes. It was eventually trimmed to five minutes. This approach was applied gradually to the construction of the engine and other parts. According to Henry Ford: The principles of assembly are these: (1) Place the tools and the men in the sequence of the operation so that each component part shall travel the least possible distance while in the process of finishing. (2) Use work slides or some other form of carrier so that when a workman completes his operation, he drops the part always in the same place—which place must always be the most convenient place to his hand—and if possible  have gravity carry the part to the next workman for his own. (3) Use sliding assembling lines by which the parts to be assembled are delivered at convenient distances. Advantages of assembly Line : In his autobiography Henry Ford (1922) mentions several benefits of the assembly line including: Workers do no heavy lifting. No stooping or bending over. No special training required. There are jobs that almost anyone can do. Provided employment to immigrants. The gains in productivity allowed Ford to increase worker pay from $1.50 per day to $5.00 per day once employees reached three years of service on the assembly line. Ford continued on to reduce the hourly work week while continuously lowering the Model T price. Interchangeable/Standard Parts Centre to the concept of assembly line was the concept of interchangeable parts. Interchangeable parts meant that all the cars had same components at same place. This saved time which could have been wasted in sorting and identification of different parts. Henry Ford made sure that all components were standardised in the production of Model T. But it was not only parts which were standardised, Henry Ford also standardised all the processes. Following Frederick Taylor’s â€Å"One right way  to do the task†, Henry Ford devised the best possible way for a process. These were usually devised by detailed study of every task, time measurements and dividing tasks into small, controllable and reproducible steps. Labour policies Ford astonished the world in 1914 by offering a $5 per day wage ($120 today), which more than doubled the rate of most of his workers. The move proved extremely profitable; instead of constant turnover of employees, the best mechanics in Detroit flocked to Ford, bringing their human capital and expertise, raising productivity, and lowering training costs. Ford announced his $5-per-day program on January 5, 1914, raising the minimum daily pay from $2.34 to $5 for qualifying workers. It also set a new, reduced workweek. Ford’s policy proved, however, that paying people more would enable Ford workers to afford the cars they were producing and be good for the economy. Ford explained the policy as profit-sharing rather than wages. Franchising Ford pioneered the franchise system that would be applied to other industries, such as MacDonald’s and many other franchise giants. He put a Ford plant in every country that was on good terms with the U.S. and started the trend toward global corporations. Ford mapped out the whole system, from standardizing the car to franchising dealerships to creating a global network, and he did it all with no precedents to learn from. Just in Time (Henry Ford’s Contribution) Ernest Kanzler worked with Henry Ford in reducing the inventory costs at Fordson tractor plant. Kanzler noticed that during the Great War, excessive supplies were brought into the Fordson Tractor Plant prior to production. He found that these excess supplies tied up valuable plant space and millions of dollars. To remedy this, Kanzler reorganized inventory schedules so that raw materials and pans were bought only when needed and that the freight cars used for  delivery of these pans were used immediately to transport finished Fordson tractors to dealers. The success of General Motors post  1927 (Sloan) Mr. Sloan was elected President of General Motors in 1923, succeeding Pierre S. du Pont, who said of him on that occasion: â€Å"The greater part of the successful development of the Corporation’s operations and the building of a strong manufacturing and sales organization is due to Mr. Sloan. His election to the presidency is a natural and well-merited recognition of his untiring and able efforts and successful achievement.† Mr. Sloan had developed by then his system of disciplined, professional management that provided for decentralized operations with coordinated centralized policy control. Applying it to General Motors, he set the corporation on its course of industrial leadership. The next 23 years, with Mr. Sloan as Chief Executive Officer, were years of enormous expansion for General Motors and of a steady increase in its share of the automobile market. Changing with times While Henry Ford’s success with Model T was based on providing a mean of transport to everyone, Sloan realized that by 1925s just getting a mean of transport was not important. People were now more conscious about the looks and features of car too. He changed the organisation and production system at General Motors to keep up with these changes and provide an advantage over Ford who were still producing only one model at a time. Learnings from Alfred Sloan and General Motors Annual Model Change/Planned obsolescence To maintain unit sales, General Motors head Alfred P. Sloan Jr. suggested annual model-year design changes to convince car owners that they needed to buy a new replacement each year, an idea borrowed from the bicycle industry. In his autobiography, â€Å"My Years with General Motors,† he penned this thought  Ã¢â‚¬Å"The changes in the new model should be so novel and attractive as to create demand . . . and a certain amount of dissatisfaction with past models as compared with the new one.† Decentralisation in Organisational structure Alfred Sloan split General Motors into divisions, and each division was run as a company within a company. Sloan said the company was  Ã¢â‚¬Å"coordinated in policy and decentralised in administration†. He supervised the decentralisation of the organisation into divisional operating units, placing in charge of each an executive with total authority for his own activity. In order to give coherence to the decentralised organisation, Sloan deliberately maintained a degree of central control. Decentralisation he saw as analogous to free enterprise, and centralisation to regimentation. He believed that elements of both were necessary to successful business. At the same time as dividing the company into separate units, he developed a system which enabled the units to support each other, therefore establishing a much stronger organisation as a whole. Price Segmentation Sloan realized that he can’t compete with Ford in price wars. Instead what he did was to have a model in every price segment. This way they can take some chunk of Ford’s low price range with Chevrolet cars while giving multiple options to users at higher ends. His theory was to provide â€Å"A car for every purse and purpose†. This proved very successful in the long run and have become a must do thing for big businesses in all kind of industries. Financing A company was founded in 1919 by General Motors Corporation as the General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC) to be a provider of financing to automotive customers. This proved very beneficial in the long run as Ford had no such system and it negated the effect of low prices provided by Ford to some extent. Inventory  control and production control Sloan devised a system where inputs from retailers and individual organisation was used to decide the production plans for future. He asked every office to give three estimates- pessimistic, realistic and optimistic. These reviews were used to forecast and plan the future production. Also, it was used to decide how much inventory needed to be kept. Fact Based planning and Decision Planning Sloan always put an emphasis on fact based decision making. Even when working under his predecessors Durant and du Pont, he always went to them with changes in system based on data. Something which du Pont readily accepted and was important in selection of Sloan as next President of General Motors. The success of Toyota in the 70s and 80s The history of Toyota started in 1933 with the company being a division of Toyoda Automatic Loom Works devoted to the production of  automobiles under the direction of the founder’s son, Kiichiro Toyoda. Kiichiro Toyoda had travelled to Europe and the United States in 1929 to investigate automobile production and had begun researching gasoline-powered engines in 1930. Toyoda Automatic Loom Works was encouraged to develop automobile production by the Japanese  government, which needed domestic vehicle production, due to the war with China. Need for innovation After WWII, Levels of demand in the Post War economy of Japan were low and the focus of mass production on lowest cost per item via economies of scale therefore had little application. Kiichiro Toyoda again visited many automobile companies in US and Europe. He found that production strategies haven’t changed much in last 20 years. He asked Taiichi Ohno to devise a system as cost efficient as Ford for the Japanese economy. Taiichi Ohno took his own tour of different facilities in US. Having visited and seen supermarkets in the USA, Taiichi Ohno recognised the scheduling of work should not be driven by sales or production targets but by actual sales. Given the financial situation during this period, over-production had to be  avoided and thus the notion of Pull (build to order rather than target driven Push) came to underpin production scheduling. The working of Toyota production system has been very well documented in Jeffrey Liker’s book â€Å"The Toyota Way†. Some tools from Toyota production System Jidoka It may be described as â€Å"intelligent automation† or â€Å"automation with a human touch.† This type of automation implements some supervisory functions rather than production functions. At Toyota this usually means that if an abnormal situation arises the machine stops and the worker will stop the production line. It is a quality control process that applies the following four principles: 1. Detect the abnormality. 2. Stop. 3. Fix or correct the immediate condition. 4. Investigate the root cause and install a countermeasure. Kanban (Just In Time) Kanban cards are a key component of kanban and signal the need to move materials within a manufacturing or production facility or move materials from an outside supplier in to the production facility. The kanban card is, in effect, a message that signals that there is a depletion of product, parts, or inventory that, when received, the kanban will trigger the replenishment of that product, part, or inventory. Consumption therefore drives demand for more production, and demand for more product is signaled by the kanban card. Kanban cards therefore help create a demand-driven system. Kaizen Kaizen is a daily process, the purpose of which goes beyond simple productivity improvement. It is also a process that, when done correctly, humanizes the workplace, eliminates overly hard work (â€Å"muri†), and teaches  people how to perform experiments on their work using the scientific method and how to learn to spot and eliminate waste in business processes. In all, the process suggests a humanized approach to workers and to increasing productivity: â€Å"The idea is to nurture the company’s human resources as much as it is to praise and encourage participation in kaizen activities.† Successful implementation requires â€Å"the participation of workers in the improvement.† People at all levels of an organization participate in kaizen, from the CEO down to janitorial staff, as well as external stakeholders when applicable. The format for kaizen can be individual, suggestion system, small group, or large group. 5 Whys The 5 Whys is an iterative question-asking technique used to explore the cause-and-effect relationships underlying a particular problem.The primary goal of the technique is to determine the root cause of a defect or problem. (The â€Å"5† in the name derives from an empirical observation on the number of iterations typically required to resolve the problem.) 5S There are five primary 5S phases: They can be translated from the Japanese as Sort, Systematize, Shine, Standardize and Self-Discipline. Sort: Remove unnecessary items and dispose of them properly Systematize: Arrange all necessary items in order so they can be easily picked for use Shine: Prevent machinery and equipment deterioration Standardize: Maintain everything in order and according to its standard Self-Discipline: To keep in working order Ohno Circle Taiichi Ohno was well known for walking onto the shop floor and drawing a circle on the ground. He would then go and stand in the circle and observe, think and analyse. Learn what was actually going on. From this study he would then have enough knowledge to improve the process. Three types of waste Muda: any activity in your process that does not add value. MUDA is not creating value for the customer. Mura: Any variation leading to unbalanced situations. In short: UNEVENNESS, inconsistent, irregular. Muri: Any activity asking unreasonable stress or effort from personnel, material or equipment. In short: OVERBURDEN Andon Andon is a manufacturing term referring to a system to notify management, maintenance, and other workers of a quality or process problem. The alert can be activated manually by a worker using a pullcord or button, or may be activated automatically by the production equipment itself. The system may include a means to stop production so the issue can be corrected. Learning from Toyota Production System The Toyota Way A brief summary of points given in Toyota Way: Section I: Long-Term Philosophy Principle 1. Base your management decisions on a long-term philosophy, even at the expense of short-term financial goals. Section II: The Right Process Will Produce the Right Results Principle 2. Create a continuous process flow to bring problems to the surface. Principle 3. Use â€Å"pull† systems to avoid overproduction. Principle 4. Level out the workload (heijunka). (Work like the tortoise, not the hare.) Principle 5. Build a culture of stopping to fix problems, to get quality right the first time. Principle 6. Standardized tasks and processes are the foundation for continuous improvement and employee empowerment. Principle 7. Use visual control so no problems are hidden. Principle 8. Use only reliable, thoroughly tested technology that serves your people and processes. Section III: Add Value to the Organization by Developing Your People Principle 9. Grow leaders who thoroughly understand the work, live the philosophy, and teach it to others. Principle 10. Develop exceptional people and teams who follow your company’s philosophy. Principle 11. Respect your extended network of partners and suppliers by challenging them and helping them improve. Section IV: Continuously Solving Root Problems Drives Organizational Learning Principle 12. Go and see for yourself to thoroughly understand the situation (genchi genbutsu). Principle 13. Make decisions slowly by consensus, thoroughly considering all options; implement decisions rapidly (nemawashi). Principle 14. Become a learning organization through relentless reflection (hansei) and continuous improvement (kaizen). References http://corporate.ford.com/our-company/heritage/heritage-newsdetail/672-model-t http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembly_line http://www.sloan.org/about-the-foundation/who-was-alfred-psloan-jr/ http://corporate.ford.com/our-company/heritage/historic-sitesnews-detail/663-highland-park http://www.thehenryford.org/EXHIBITS/HF/ http://www.investopedia.com/articles/financial-theory/08/henryford.asp http://www.vectorstudy.com/management-gurus/frederick-taylor http://www.shmula.com/fords-contribution-to-just-in-time/371/ http://www.willamette.edu/~fthompso/MgmtCon/Scientific_Manage ment.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence http://inspiredeconomist.com/2012/09/20/the-greatest-inventionplanned-obsolescence/ http://www.mbsportal.bl.uk/taster/subjareas/busmanhist/mgmtthin kers/sloan.aspx http://www.economist.com/node/14298890 http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/anil.kashyap/research/papers/gene ralmotors.pdf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Ford http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_P._Sloan The Toyota Way – Jeffrey Liker My Years with General Motors – Alfred Sloan

The View of Scholar on the Kingdom of God

by David W. Baker. It is posted with permission from the author. I. Introduction The Kingdom of God has been one of the dominant topics of New Testament study in this century. The reason is obvious. Many scholars, both conservative and critical, regard the kingdom of God as â€Å"the central theme† of Jesus’ public proclamation. 1 In fact, a plethora of monographs has poured forth since Johannes Weiss and Albert Schweitzer made the case that Jesus’ teaching was profoundly Jewish, drenched in intense eschatological hope. This new view contended against nineteenth century views, which moralized the kingdom and made it palatable to modern taste by arguing it was merely an expression of ethical sensitivity raised up in the hearts of men. In contrast, Weiss and Schweitzer argued that Jesus’ claim for the kingdom anticipated God’s stark intervention in the very near future that would reshape the creation. The view became known as â€Å"consistent,† â€Å"thorough-going† or â€Å"imminent† eschatology.For Weiss, the kingdom was purely religious, not ethical; purely future, not present in any way. The Kingdom would be God’s final miracle with Jesus functioning in his current ministry as Messias designatus. 3 For Weiss, Jesus believed that he would one day become the Son of Man. At first, Jesus believed that this would occur during his lifetime, and later in his ministry, he anticipated it to come shortly after His death. 4 It is a heritage that Jesus believed he possessed, though he had not yet entered into it.For Schweitzer, Jesus expected the end to come at first in his ministry. As he sent out the twelve in mission (Matthew 10:23), he believed that before they finished their tour of the cities of Israel, the Son of Man would come and bring the kingdom. Its appearance would mean the end of the present age, and he would be transformed into the Son of Man. When the disciples returned from their mission with out this taking place, Jesus’ hopes of the end changed. It would take suffering, his own suffering, for the Kingdom to come. His death would bring the Kingdom. Though very different than Schweitzer, the oldest dispensationalists also stressed the Jewish roots of kingdom hope and placed its ultimate expression, as originally expressed through the hope of Israel’s scriptures, strictly in the future, what they referred to as the â€Å"kingdom of heaven. † Whatever relationship Jesus’ work in the present had to the kingdom, it was part of a previously unrevealed â€Å"mystery† that made its current expression something istinct from what had been promised to Israel and distinct from what was to come one day in fulfillment. This distinction between what would happen for Israel one day and what happens to the church today was a major element in the traditional dispensational distinction between Israel and the church in the plan of God. However, in the mid dle of this century, that clear distinction was somewhat blurred, though how it worked precisely was never agreed to or clearly set forth as four separate views were espoused. Unlike Schweitzer, these dispensationalists, saw no â€Å"error† or â€Å"change† in Jesus’ understanding, but like him they regarded the promise of the future to be so rooted in Jewish hope and so grand in its scale that nothing Jesus did currently could be seen as the fulfillment of that great promise of old. For both classical and revised dispensationalists, the mystery introduced into the kingdom program, conceived in various ways in this century, represented an â€Å"intercalation† in the kingdom program of God, distinct from the hope given to Israel.So throughout this century, the idea that kingdom hope was richly Jewish and pointed strongly, if not exclusively, to the future has been prominent in New Testament theology, whether conservative or not. 7 As we shall see, this emp hasis on the future form of the kingdom is well grounded in biblical hope. Other views also have emerged in this century. Two approaches were like the nineteenth century â€Å"romanticized† efforts to redefine the kingdom in ways moderns could embrace.So efforts were made to demyhtologize Jesus’ image of the apocalyptic Kingdom into either an existential claim for a crisis decision (Bultmann) or to turn kingdom language into a mere metaphorical symbol of hope and transformation (Wilder and the later Perrin). 8 Both of these attempts, representing more liberal readings of Scripture, tried to redeem the kingdom concept by redefining it. However, two other approaches seriously sought to engage the biblical text and assess the model Weiss and Schweitzer introduced.These two other main views of the kingdom in this century have reacted to the â€Å"strictly future† model of the kingdom in two very diverse ways. One view, associated with C. H. Dodd, opted for a reading that the Kingdom hope was totally realized in Jesus’ ministry. 9 This became known as â€Å"realized† eschatology. The other, rooted in the work of Werner Kummel, R. H. Fuller, and Joachim Jeremias, argued that the view of the kingdom had both present and future elements. 10 This became known as the â€Å"already/not yet† view of the kingdom or eschatology in the process of realization. † In fact, Jeremias in his conclusion to his volume on the parables closes this way, â€Å"In attempting to recover the original significance of the parables, one thing above all becomes evident: it is that all the parables of Jesus compel his hearers to come to a decision about his person and mission. For they all are full of ‘the secret of the Kingdom of God’ (Mark 4. 11), that is to say, the recognition of ‘an eschatology in the process of realization. The hour of fulfillment is come, that is the urgent note that sounds through them all. †11 Th is view was made famous in evangelical circles by George Ladd. 12 It is probably the most prominent view currently in New Testament circles at large, both conservative and critical. It is known as â€Å"inaugurated† eschatology. 13 The kingdom was inaugurated or was dawning in Jesus’ words and deeds, but its consummation was yet future. As we shall see, there are also good reasons why this view is held.I lay out this â€Å"map† of views at the start, because the issue of what the kingdom is, when it begins, and how it proceeds have been the key questions in this century. But treating the theology of the kingdom involves far more than these questions, as we hope to show and survey. In fact, I hope to consider a series of issues tied to the kingdom. They include: (1) Linguistics and the Kingdom in Jewish Expectation: A Static or Tensive Symbol; (2) Kingdom as Apocalyptic (Imminence; Remaking of This World Into The Age to Come or Renewing This World in This History or Both); (3) Kingdom: Present, Future, or Both? (4) Defining the Kingdom: â€Å"Dynamic†Ã¢â‚¬â€œGod’s Powerful Presence in Rule (God in Strength) or â€Å"Realm† (Church, Israel, World, or â€Å"Eschatological†) or All the Above; (5) The Kingdom and Ethics; (6) Beyond the Term Kingdom (Messiah, Spirit, Son of Man, Salvation, Gospel, Overcoming Satan and Sin); (7) Kingdom outside the Gospels (Why Is The Term Less Prevalent? ); and (8) So What? : The Kingdom and Today. So not only is the kingdom theme an important New Testament concept generating a rich history of discussion, it is also one of the most complex topics in Scripture. II.The Kingdom, Jesus, the Hebrew Scriptures, and Second Temple Jewish Kingdom Hope: A Static or Tensive Symbol? When Jesus used the expression â€Å"kingdom of God,† how much of its meaning can we assume he and his audience shared? This becomes an important question because the expression itself, surprisingly, is totally absent in the Hebrew Scriptures. 14 Here is a case where the study of an idea has to move past a study of the set phrase to get anywhere. The idea, however, is more frequent. 15 Yahweh is King (1 Sam 12:12; Ps. 24:10; Is. 33:22; Zeph. 3:15; Zech. 14:16-17). He rules over Israel (Exod. 15:18; Num. 23:21; Deut. 33:5; Is. 43:15).He rules over the earth or the creation (2 Kings 19:15; Is. 6:5; Jer. 46:18; Ps. 29:10; 47:2; 93; 96:10; 145:11, 13). He possesses a royal throne (Ps. 9:4; 45:6; 47:8; Is. 6:1; 66:1; Ezek 1:26). His reign is ongoing (Ps. 10:16; 146:10; Is. 24:23). Rule or kingship is His (Ps. 22:28). It is primarily God’s special relationship to Israel that is in view here as the Son of David is said to sit on Yahweh’s throne (1 Chron 17:14; 28:5; 29:23; 2 Chron 9:8; 13:8). When Israel was overrun by the nations, a longing existed that one day God would reestablish his rule on behalf of his people and show his comprehensive sovereignty to all humanity.After all, God had committed himself to David concerning a dynasty of duration (2 Sam. 7:13). It is here that the hope of a future kingdom of God, made not with hands, came to be contrasted with the kingdoms of men in Daniel 2 and 7. It is in the context of such expectation that Jesus used the term â€Å"kingdom of God. † What was hoped for was something that had existed in the past, but only as a mere glimpse of what had been promised–a rule to come involving total peace for God’s people. In sum, Kingdom hope by the time of the Babylonian captivity is driven forward by the vision of the fullness of God’s rule showing up one day.It was to this hope that Jesus preached. Such a hope had been nurtured in some circles of second temple Judaism. 16 The kingdom became linked (sometimes) to the messianic hope, but (always) to judgment of the nations, and vindication of the saints. Some Jewish documents, content with the current arrangement, do not reflect any such hope. The concept is expressed with some variety, but central to its expression is that God will assert his comprehensive rule (1 Enoch 9:4-5; 12:3; 25; 27:3; 81:3).God’s powerful presence will involve the removal of Satan’s influence (Assumption of Moses 7–10). He will destroy his enemies and free his people. These enemies are described in both earthly terms, like the Romans in Psalms of Solomon 17–18 and 2 Baruch 36-40, and in spiritual terms, where Belial stands among the evil forces who will be defeated (1QS 3–4). Often the coming of the kingdom was seen as preceded by a period of intense upheaval and tribulation (Sib. Or. 3:796-808; 2 Bar. 70:2-8; 4 Ezra 6:24; 9:1-12; 13:29-31; 1QM 12:9; 19:1-2). The cry of the prayer of 2 Macc. :24-29 summarizes well the hope of deliverance. The call was for God to deliver and vindicate his people. The text of Psalms of Solomon 17–18 gives the most detailed expression of messianic hope in all the texts, though the idea of kingdom in this period of Judaism did not always entail a messianic hope. 17 In fact, sometimes the Messiah is seen in very earthly terms as in the Psalms of Solomon, while in other texts, he clearly possesses a more transcendent power (1 Enoch 37–71) or has a seeming mix of the two (4 Ezra 7:28-29; 12:32-34; 13:26).Thus, associated with the consistent idea of God’s coming comprehensive and vindicating rule for his people is a complex and varying array of sub-themes tied to the kingdom’s coming. In Judaism, there was no unified view of the kingdom beyond the hope of God’s powerful coming and vindication. It is important to appreciate that it is into this somewhat confused backdrop that Jesus preached this hope. This complex background raises the question could Jesus use the phrase and really be understood? More importantly, in presenting his understanding of the idea represented in the kingdom could he assume an understanding of the term by hi s audience?Given the paucity of Old Testament use of the phrase and the variety of details attached to the hope within Judaism, Jesus needed to explain his usage in order to be clear. It is this complexity that raises the issue of whether Jesus’ use of the term was â€Å"static† (steno) or â€Å"tensive. † 18 Norman Perrin posed two options. Did Jesus use the term one way all the time with a fixed referent (steno)? Or was his use of the term something that he used with symbolic force but that could not be contained in one referent alone (tensive)?We opt for a third possibility, did Jesus’ use operate within a fixed parameter, which he filled with a variety of detail because of the richness of the base concept he was defining and detailing (tensive yet with a steno-like base)? 19 How one approaches Jesus’ terminology will impact how one reads it. Four factors favor this third option. First, the number of and variety within the gospel kingdom sayings placed alongside the paucity of older references in the Hebrew Scriptures suggests that Jesus is developing the concept along additional lines from what the Old Testament taught.However, Jesus’ respect for that revelation means that he is not altering the concept, but developing and complementing it. We hope to show the variety within his teaching that validates this point. Second, the very consistency of the fundamental image within Judaism means that a basic understanding of kingdom did exist on which Jesus could build. It is God’s kingdom and rule that is presented as the hope. The sheer number of texts that discuss judgment and vindication under this theme both in Scripture and in later Judaism show that Jesus works with a given understanding at its base.Reflection taking place within Second Temple Judaism represented attempts to put the hope of Scripture together in terms of the details. Jesus both accepts and rejects elements of these reflections. Third, this id ea that Jesus works with a rarely used Old Testament term and yet develops it using larger categories of scriptural teaching has precedent elsewhere in his own use. Jesus does the same type of thing with the Son of Man concept. That description of a human invested with eschatological authority appears in Daniel 7 (note the conceptual overlap with the kingdom theme–Dan. is a key kingdom text). Jesus takes this one image and uses it as a collection point for his christology. In the same way, Jesus takes the kingdom concept and uses it as a collection point for both soteriology and eschatology. 20 Fourth, the very confusion of detail within Judaism of Jesus’ time demanded that he take this type of approach to the concept. Here was a phrase that basically did not exist in the Old Testament. However, by Jesus’ time, multiple concepts swirled around it, even though its basic meaning was well established.The phrase clearly sought to summarize a major strand of Jewish h ope, yet it needed defining. Its absence in the Old Testament gave Jesus room to make it a helpful synthesizing concept. Its familiarity and importance within Judaism, because of the hope it encapsulated, made it a key term to nail down. The very diversity in its contemporary usage required that Jesus explain and develop the term. Thus, as we turn to Jesus’ use, we can expect that on the one hand he was referring to a hope his audience understood in its most basic terms, but something that also needed more detail and development.