Business Article review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Business Article review - Essay Example The Department of Labor reported that unit labor costs increased by 1.4% while inflation-adjusted compensation rose to only 0.4 %. The higher rate of increases in productivity relative to the mount in hourly wage indicates that "companies are still able to keep a significant share of productivity gains for themselves and their investors." An implication of this is that companies are able to keep a larger share of their revenue as gross profits which can dampen the possibility of inflation as they allow companies to absorb more costs. However, the article also recognized that as companies have strong pricing power, they are hesitant in absorbing higher input costs but are inclined to pass these costs to consumers. The decline in the number of unemployed is indicative of a strong job market (Whitehouse). The article revealed the interrelation of different macroeconomic variables in the society as well as showed how the economic climate affects the position and decision making of business entities. The concepts such as inflation, productivity, and employment levels which are presently tackled in the class and their relationships are more elucidated and understood in the business article. Theoretically, labor productivity and wages are closely li

Democracy and Technology Essay Example for Free

Democracy and Technology Essay While technologies such as the use of internet and e-democracy have made the dissemination of ideas quicker, they have also resulted in the increase in a groups power to manipulate general opinion. The technologies aiding democracy today, such as computers, satellites, radio, telephones and television have undeniably changed the face of modern democracy. What constitute positive spill outs of these technologies for democracy also in some cases have a detrimental effect on it. While it increases the reach among people and nations, enriching both formal and business communication, it also provides these opportunities to fundamentalists to create rumours and channels individuals or a group of people against democracy. However a little caution such as verifying the news from multiple sources will easily reveal these elements and thus the negative influence of misleading a large group of rational individuals can be easily curtailed. The rise in literacy level and the positive trend of e-democracy deepens the process of democracy and empowers the individuals not only to have a say in the election of their government as earlier, but also empowers the citizens to have greater say in the decision making process of the government. With increasing literacy levels, as the citizens become more aware of the power of technology, they will find it easier to organise themselves for pressing on social, economic and political reforms from the government at helm thus ushering a truly democratic era where the citizens role is not only limited to electing their representatives but also to correct them if they are being found negligent in fulfilling their duties. However for this to happen in the future, it should be ensured that technology and their benefits are not limited to a select few in the upper echelons of society and that they are made available to those at the lowest level for complete integration of the masses to the democracy. References Allison, Juliann Emmons. (2002). Technology, development, and democracy. SUNY Press.

The Importance Of Knowledge Management Management Essay

The Importance Of Knowledge Management Management Essay Knowledge is quite distinct from data and information in nature. Data includes facts, observations, or perceptions which may or may not be true. Information, according to is the content that represents analyzed data. Knowledge is defined in an area as justified true beliefs about relationships among concepts relevant to that particular area. The skills required for effective knowledge management are to identify, generate, acquire, diffuse and capture the most valuable benefits of knowledge that sets up a strategic advantage to the organizations. Knowledge life cycle consists of: creation, mobilization, diffusion and commoditization to explain the early emerging knowledge to it maturity. INTRODUCTION The knowledge has been created more and more nowadays. The important of knowledge management is recognized and effectively implement by many organizations. In this brief essay, I will explain the differences between knowledge and information. After that, there will be the discussion of the importance of knowledge management in the organization as well as how effective knowledge management can create competitive advantage for the organization. Also, the essay explains the skills required to effectively implement knowledge management process in the workplace through the explanation of knowledge life cycle. NATURE OF KNOWLEDGE According to Fernandez (2004), to define knowledge, we need to distinguish it from data and information. Although they are sometimes used interchangeably, knowledge is quite distinct from data and information in nature. Firstly, data includes facts, observations, or perceptions which may or may not be true. By itself, data shows the raw numbers or assertions and may therefore be devoid of context, meaning, or intent. However, it can be easily captured, stored, and communicated using electronic or other media (Fernadez, 2004). For example, the schedule of movies will be show in a day, or observation of number of left-handers in a group of people illustrates data. Information, according to Dalkir (2005), is the content that represents analyzed data. Also, Fernandez (2004) defined information as a subset of data, which only includes those data that possess context, relevance, and purpose. It means that information manipulates raw data to obtain a more meaningful indication of trends or patterns in the data. For example, for the cinema director, the numbers indicating the daily sold tickets (in dollars, quality, or percentage of daily sales) of each movie are considered information. So, the director can use such information to make decisions concerning pricing and extra or cancel some movie shows. According to Fernandez (2004), there are two different ways to distinguish knowledge from data and information. The first one considers knowledge to be at highest level in a hierarchy with information at the middle level, and data to be at the lowest level. By this view, knowledge refers to information that enables action and decisions, or information with direction. Although, knowledge is the richest and deepest of the three, and is consequently also the most valuable, it is intrinsically similar to information and data. In the more complete perspective way, according to which knowledge is intrinsically different form information, knowledge is defined in an area as justified true beliefs about relationships among concepts relevant to that particular area (Nonaka, 1994). For example, the daily sold tickets can be used, along with other information such as information on the pop corns and soft drinks sold at the cinema, to compute the total revenue. The relationship between the information is an example of knowledge. Hence, as what I understand, knowledge is how people get information from data, or more valuable information from less valuable information. THE IMPORTANCE OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN THE ORGANIZATION Knowledge management was defined by Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) as the process of applying a systematic approach to the capture, structure, management, and dissemination of knowledge throughout an organization in order to work faster, reuse best practices, and reduce cost of rework from project to project. It means that Knowledge management is the logical process that helps people to use knowledge effectively and efficiently. There are 4 business drivers that make knowledge management become important and increase in application for today according to Dalkir (2005). Firstly, the globalization of business means that the expansion of organization to global with multisite, multilingual, and multicultural in nature. The expansion results in the more complex work environment that all organizations have to face because of the increase in the number of subjective knowledge items. The second driver is the leaner organization. As the required work environment, people need to work faster and smarter as knowledge worker to adopting an increased pace and workload. Another business driver is the corporate amnesia. This driver explains that people as a workforce is no longer expect to spend entire work life with the same organization which will create problems of knowledge continuity for the organization and places continuous learning demands on the knowledge worker. Finally, technological advances make people more con nected. The advances in information technology not only have made connectivity ubiquitous but have radically changed expectations, which workers are expected to be on at all times. Base on the importance of the knowledge management, all organizations need to develop a suitable and effective approach to manage their knowledge. By doing so, they will get many benefits to create competitive advantages. At first, effective knowledge management approach will provide many benefits to each individual employees of the organization. It helps the employees in doing their job and save time through better decision making and problem solving. It builds a sense of community bonds within the organization and helps people to keep up to date. It also provides challenges and opportunities for employees to contribute. The effective approach also brings benefits to organization. It helps drive strategy for organization, solves problems more quickly, and diffuses best practices. Also, it improves knowledge embedded in products and services. It cross-fertilizes ideas and increases opportunities for innovation. In addition, it enables organizations to stay ahead of the competition be tter, and builds organizational memory. Therefore, in my point of view, knowledge management is essential for all type of business nowadays. With an effective knowledge management, the organization can facilitate collaboration and help knowledge worker connected. It also helps organization in making decision base on complete, valid and well interpreted data, information, and knowledge. LEADERSHIP AND THE SKILLS REQUIRED TO EFFECTIVELY IMPLEMENT KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT PROCESSES IN THE WORKPLACE Nowadays, most of organizations realize that the important of managing knowledge effectively. For doing so, they need to be always able to identify, generate, acquire, diffuse and capture the most valuable benefits of knowledge that sets up a strategic advantage to themselves. It also needs to have the ability to differentiate the information, which is digitizable, and true knowledge assets, which can only exist with in the context of an intelligent system (Dalkir, 2005). To be able to clearly understand the requirements for effectively implement knowledge management processes in the workplace, we may discuss the knowledge life cycle and strategies in each stages of the cycle. KNOWLEDGE LIFE CYCLE: Base on the research of Birmingham and Sheehan (2002), knowledge has a life cycle. Their study had showed that new knowledge is born as uncertainty thing, and it form into shape as it is tested, matures through implementation in reality, is diffused to a growing user, and finally becomes broadly understood and recognize as common practice. The knowledge can process through four stages of knowledge life cycle: creation, mobilization, diffusion and commoditization. Creation: At this stage, knowledge first appears in someoneà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s head as an idea. In fact, no one can fully understand the idea or emerging knowledge, even if person creating it. In doing business, the suitable strategy in this early stage is to test the idea on its commercial viability. To encourage this activity, organizations need to create an environment which requires adjustments in the following areas: Informal Knowledge System: the organizations can lay out their space in an open plan that has many common areas, give their employees time to experiment, and provide resources for training programs and conferences in order to grow up knowledge effectively. Information Technology Systems: technology should be considered to connect people who have interest at highly specialized internet forums rather than to codify and store emerging knowledge. Human Resources: organizations regularly create knowledge should hire people in using new knowledge for critical feedback. External Relationship: the contact with external customers and suppliers will encourage the experimental of new idea. Mobilization: In this stage, knowledge continues to be improved, and the organization will extract more value from it. To achieve it, organizations need to mobilize knowledge internally and keep it away from outsiders. There are approaches for doing that: Informal Knowledge System: the organization can encourage the internal transferences among employees by building an internal network. Information Technology Systems: the IT should focus on technology that can enable the informal transfer of knowledge, and the system need to make it possible for adding comments on the subject from users. Human Resources: thinkers, doers, mavericks and pragmatists are needed in order to fully transform new ideas into valuable knowledge. External Relationships: it is still important to maintain strong relationship with customers and other partners in this stage. Diffusion: In this diffusion stage, the organizations will accept the leakage of knowledge, and no longer try to keep the knowledge under wraps. They will spread out the knowledge by selling it to outsiders. Again, the managers should consider following approaches in this stage: Informal Knowledge Systems: knowledge in this stage will be disseminated widely and quickly, which requires a system that focuses on training employees and encourage their use. Information Technology Systems: an extensive knowledge database will be useful for the organization during this stage. The competitive advantages will stem from the ease of access to information. Human Resources: customer consultants will be needed in this stage, so that they can work with customers and recognize the value of applying the knowledge to customersà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ problems. External Relationship: organizations should focus on building strong customers relationship by their services, and using their brand to create the differences with other competitors. Commoditization: The organizations concentrate on managing knowledge that is already well known. The basic knowledge has been completely diffused. However, there are many opportunities to extract value from current knowledge to generate one in this stage. The approached to extract value as follow: Informal Knowledge Systems: in this stage, the use of formal knowledge systems will be more valuable than the informal one. The systems will help the organization to supply the best practices that can add value to well developed processes, and encourage new ways of commercializing existing knowledge. Information Technology Systems: organizations should develop effective search engines and retrieval systems because of the significant volume of documents that have gathered overtime. Human Resources: it is similar to the requirements of the diffusion stage. However, the demand for the knowledge may decline the demand for the jobs will be reduced. It is better to use the contract employees to solve this problem. CONCLUSION Base on my research, knowledge is much different from data and information. It is how people use data to crate valuable information and from less valuable information to more valuable one. In other words, knowledge in an area can be defined as justified true belief about relationships among concepts relevant to that particular area. Every organization needs to implement effectively its knowledge management processes due to four important drivers. By doing so, it will bring many benefits to the business as well as the individual employees. The organizations need to understand the knowledge life cycle in order to manage the knowledge. The cycle comprises four stages, which are creation, mobilization, diffusion, and commoditization, points out the essential skill needs to effectively implement knowledge management process.

Effect of Superstition on the Perception of Control

Effect of Superstition on the Perception of Control The Effect of Superstition on the Perception of Control over a Partially Uncontrollable Situation The effects of superstition on the an individuals behaviour has long been an area of interest in psychological research. Matute (1994, 1995) showed that an individuals response to uncontrollable circumstances is dictated by their level of superstition. Individuals with low levels of superstitious belief tend to show a decrease in cognitive capacity motivation, known as learned helplessness (Abramson, Seligman, Teasdale, 1978; Hiroto Seligman, 1975). Whilst individuals with high levels of superstitious belief, on the other hand, do not appear to develop this learned helpless, and it has been hypothesised superstitions provide an individual with an illusion of control (Matute 1994, 1995). Likewise, Dudley (1999) suggested that superstitious beliefs inhibit the learned helplessness effect by provided participants with an external locus of control. Conversely, it has been suggested that there may be other factors which inhibit the learned helplessness effect, such as attribution style (Abramson et at., 1978). Seligman (as cited in Rudski, 2004), conducted an experiment which showed that individual who formed particularly pessimistic attributions were susceptible to learned helplessness, in addition to depression. Furthermore, many studies which investigate superstitious belief the illusion of control do so by utilising judgements of contingency from the participant. Contingency judgements are useful as they help to explain how the illusion of control develops in participants (Yarritu, Matute, Vadillo, 2013). Blanco, Matute Vadillo (2011) showed that a participants contingency judgement is dependant on their level of action. It has been suggested, that the this combination with this level of action effect, and the high probability of a specific outcome, even when that outcome is uncontrollable, is what caused the participant to develop the illusion of control (Yarritu et at., 2013). This study aims to build on pre-existing research by investigating whether an individuals perception of control over a partially uncontrollable situation is impacted by their level of superstitious belief. To do this, participants were asked to perform a contingency judgement task, the results of which were then compared in relation to their level of superstition. It is hypothesised, firstly, that individuals with higher levels of superstition will report having higher levels of control in the active condition, when compared to individuals with low superstition and secondly, that this effect will be less apparent in the passive condition. Method Participants The participants were 996 undergraduate psychology students from the University of New South Wales (mean age = 19.8 years; 644 females: 352 males). They participated in this experiment as part of their week 5 tutorial class. Design This study took the form of a quasi-experiment, as it assessed the participants perception of control over a partially controllable situation, in relation to their level of superstition. As such, the independent variable, high or low superstition, was determined by the Superstitious Beliefs Questionnaires (SBQ). Participants were divided into the high superstition and low superstition groups based on a median split of the SBQ score. Based on the responses given, 492 participants (mean age = 19.7 years; 320 females: 172 males) were allocated to the high superstition group, whilst the remaining 504 participants (mean age = 19.9 years; 324 females: 180 males) formed the low superstition group. This experiment then tested two conditions, dubbed the active and the passive condition. The dependent variable, that is, the participants perception of control, was then measured, by self-report. Materials The experiment was carried out on standard computer terminals in one of the universitys computer labs. Inquisit software (Millisecond Software, Seattle) was used to present the experimental stimuli. In the active condition, participants were presented with a light bulb graphic button. Participants could choose whether or not to press the button, and the light bulb would either light up, or remain off as a result of their decision. As a result, there were four categories of trial: press with light, press without light, no-press with light and no-press without light. After 10 trials participants were asked to rate how much control they felt they had over the light bulb. In the passive condition, participants were only presented with a light bulb graphic, and informed that they would observe an imaginary friend, Bob, perform the task. As in the active condition, there were four categories of trial, and after 10 trials, participants were asked to rate the level of control they perceived Bob had over the light bulb. Participants completed the Superstitious Beliefs Questionnaire (SBQ), a demographic survey, and were asked if they were aware of the experiments design. The SBQ is a 26 item scale, designed to measure the level of superstitious belief in an individual. Each item of the SBQ can be scored from 0 up to 4, making a maximum score of 104 points possible. Participants who scored less than or equal to 46 on the SBQ were placed in the low superstition group, whilst those who scored above 46 were placed in the high superstition group. Procedure The participants were asked to complete a contingency judgement task, in two conditions. Each condition consisted of four sets of 10 trials. In the active condition, participants were instructed to choose between pressing or not pressing a button on the screen. This action or inaction then lead to a light bulb on the screen being illuminated. After 10 trials of this, participants were asked to rate how much control they had over the light bulb, using a sliding scale displayed on the screen. In the passive condition, participants were informed that they would observe an imaginary friend performing the task. The participants were able to observe the outcome (whether the light turned on or remained off) and were informed of the imaginary friend action (pressing or not pressing the button). Participants were again asked to rate how much control the imaginary friend had over the light bulb. References Abramson, L. Y., Seligman, M. E. P., Teasdale, J. D. (1978). Learned helplessness in humans: Critique and reformulation. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 87(1), 49–74. Blanco, F., Matute, H., Vadillo, M. A. (2011). Making the uncontrollable seem controllable: The role of action in the illusion of control. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 64(7), 1290–1304. Dudley, R. (1999). The effect of superstitious belief on performance following an unsolvable problem. Personality and Individual Differences, 26(6), 1057–1064 Hiroto, D. S., Seligman, M. E. P. (1975). Generality of learned helplessness in man. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 31(2), 311-327. Matute, H. (1994). Learned helplessness and superstitious behavior as opposite effects of uncontrollable reinforcement in humans. Learning and Motivation, 25(2), 216-232. Matute, H. (1995). Human reactions to uncontrollable outcomes: Further evidence for superstitions rather than helplessness. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 48B, 142–157. Rudski, J. (2004). The illusion of control, superstitious belief, and optimism. Current Psychology, 22(4), 306-315. Yarritu, I. Matute, H. Vadillo, M.A. (2013). Illusion of control: The role of personal involvement. Experimental Psychology, 61(1), 38–47.

Egyptian Pyramids Essay -- Egypt Pyramid

In the deserts of Egypt lie the colossal remains of an ancient civilization. These enormous works of human endeavor are the only member of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World that time has passed down to us. These are, of course, the great pyramids of ancient Egypt. But these imposing structures were not built to impress civilization millennia down the road. The pyramids in fact had a purpose to the ancient Egyptians. While they seem very simple in nature, as they are simply four-sided pyramids with square bases, they had a meaning for those that had them built. Even by today’s standards, the pyramids of ancient Egypt were an impressive feat of engineering, due to their enormous size, both in building materials and finished product. Indeed, there is more to these mysterious pyramids of the ancient Egyptians than meets the eye. Before a decent discussion of the pyramids is begun, a bit of background history must be set forth. The ancient Egyptian empire lasted for over 3,000 years, beginning at around 3,100 BCE and ending just shy of 300 years before the dawn of the Common Era. Historians break up the empire chronologically into nine separate eras. The second of these eras, known as the Old Kingdom, is when all of the pyramid construction took place, and dates from 2,686-2,181 BCE (Edwards 1). During this era, Egypt’s kings and queens were buried inside these pyramids. Presently, there are about ninety such pyramids—or remains of pyramids—which stretch along the desert just to the west of the Nile River (Edwards 2). The previous style of burial of Egyptian pharaohs was the mastaba, a flat-roofed structure made of brick. However, at the beginning of the Old Kingdom, stone was introduced as a building material. Building with... ...never be known, but some, such as Senefuru and Khufu have, in a sense, reached immortality. Imhotep, the architect of many of these great monuments, has too become immortalized in history as being one of the first known architects as a result of his work on the pyramids. These pyramids have solidified these ancient rulers as well as others in the pages of history. These pyramids have stood the test of time, and most likely, thousands of years from now, when all our modern skyscrapers have either toppled or been dismantled, the pyramids of the ancient Egyptians will still stand tranquilly in the desert and invoke the same mystery and inspiration to the future generations who gaze at them. Works Cited Edwards, I.E.S. The Pyramids of Egypt. Middlesex, England: Viking Books, 1985. Fakhry, Ahmed. The Pyramids. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1961.

Use of Humor in William Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet :: William Shakespeare

Use of Humor in Romeo and Juliet Romeo and Juliet is one of Shakespeare's most famous plays. One, could give many reasons as to why this play became such a huge success, but one of the most important reasons could be the use of humour in the play. The main reason for doing this could be to relieve the tensions in the play, and to entertain and keep the Elizabethan audience interested. Humour plays a very significant part in the play as it allows Shakespeare to create a lot of contrasts and moods, as and when he wants to. In Romeo and Juliet humour occurs in three forms. The first being, humour by the use of puns, irony and jokes. The second being through the actions of characters and by their behaviour and the third by the incidents of the play. Shakespeare uses characters like Mercutio and the Nurse to bring out the comical element of the play, and each character does this in a different way. One of Shakespeare's tools used to evoke humour is the mockery that is aimed at a particular character. Some of the funniest moments are when one character is sarcastic to another. One of the best examples of this is when Capulet asks Lady Capulet for a sword and she replies "A crutch, a crutch! Why call you for a sword?" In this line the mockery of Capulet is obvious and appealing to the audience as it is direct. Shakespeare is known to be fond of puns and uses them quite regularly but he doesn't use them as often as the Elizabethan audience expected him to. Shakespeare starts of the play with a lot of humour, with the conversation between Sampson and Gregory, both of them using a lot of puns. This type of punning, for example on the words "coals," "collier," " choler," "collar", goes on till the end of the play. The Elizabethan audience used to like puns and hence although Shakespeare has used many vulgar puns, it still has a positive effect on the popularity of the play. Although in the Act I Scene 1 there is a fight between the families the humour in the scene makes us forget the seriousness of the fight.

Multiple Sclerosis Essay -- essays research papers

Multiple sclerosis, or MS, is a disease of the central nervous system. The central nervous system is made up of the brain and spinal cord. Both have nerve fibers that are wrapped in a myelin sheath. In MS, the myelin sheath becomes inflamed and gradually is destroyed. With the destruction of the myelin sheath comes an array of symptoms that may include numbness or tingling, balance problems, weakness, muscle spasms, and blurred vision.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Anyone can develop MS, but many patients share the following characteristics. The majority experiences their first symptoms between ages 20 and 40. Caucasians are more than twice as likely as other races to develop MS. MS is two to three times more common in women as in men. MS is five times more common in temperate climates like those of the northern US, Canada, and Europe. And people whose close relatives have MS are more susceptible to developing the disease, but there is no evidence the disease is directly inherited.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  No single test detects MS, which makes it difficult to diagnose. Symptoms can mimic those of a number of other conditions and they can change depending on the area of the central nervous system that loses myelin. Some symptoms of MS are numbness or tingling in parts of the body, usually an arm or leg, unexplained weakness, dizziness, and fatigue, and blurry vision, double vision or blindness.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  To diagnose the disease, healthcare providers...