How to Analyize and Argue an Essay Essay Example for Free

How to Analyize and Argue an Essay Essay A critique is an essay in which you evaluate (comment on the positive and negative aspects of) an essay or article. A critique can be positive (reasons the argument worked), negative (reasons the argument did not work), or shaded (reasons parts of it worked and parts of it didn’t). When you write a critique, it is important to keep in mind that you are not making suggestions for the author odds are the author isn’t interested in what you think she could have done differently—you are writing for another reader. A critique is often born out of reaction (you liked or disliked the argument), but is based on and supported by close reading and evaluation, not just how you feel. Writing a critique requires that you have a clear understanding of the essay. You should know the argument, the purpose, and the ways that the author supports the argument. If you can’t clearly articulate those things, you’ll have a hard time critiquing them. For tips on that process, see the summary page. Sometimes a critique is called an analysis or a close reading. In all cases you’re offering your own reasoned response to the ideas that the writer presents and the way the writer presents them. What to do: Begin by summarizing the piece. You’ll likely need a brief overview in your introduction anyway, and it never hurts to have a firm sense of the argument in your head before you begin a critique. In many cases your instructor will require you to begin a critique with a summary. Decide whether your critique will be positive or negative. Are you interested in the positives of the piece or the negatives? Did the author convince you or not? Do you want to highlight a combination of positive and negative? Pick several specific points from the essay that you wish to use as your supporting claims. You might take issue with an author’s organization or tone, or with her use of supporting arguments. The more specific you are in your points, the better your critique will be. See below for a list of possible critique points. The thesis of a critique is relatively straightforward. You simply need to present your evaluation of the article you’re critiquing. You then support that thesis using the several points you’ve chosen. In each paragraph of a critique, develop one of your points. Use specific examples from the text. If you want to say that the author’s tone was inappropriate for the subject matter, find a quote and then explain how the tone is inappropriate and why. Usually each paragraph explains only one example. You might have two paragraphs that discuss different examples of the same general point—for instance, two different examples of inappropriate tone. The number of body paragraphs depends on the length of the assignment. A two-page critique might not have more than two or three body paragraphs. A four-page critique might require five or six body paragraphs. Choose enough examples so that you can discuss each one in its own body paragraph. A general rule of thumb is that body paragraphs should be about a half a page long, double-spaced. In your conclusion, you want to remind readers of your thesis and pull all of your examples together. You don’t want your conclusion to simply restate your introduction, nor do you want to provide entirely new information. You want to naturally draw readers to an end. *Elements to Critique Here is a list of various elements you can look for in an article you want to critique. Keep in mind that not every item will be appropriate to every article. Logic: Has the writer picked examples that logically support her claim? Is her reasoning (the way she works out her ideas) in line with the claim and what you know to be true? Logic: Does the writer have reasonable support but is the overall claim itself flawed? (one might claim that global warming doesn’t exist, and then use sources that describe the recent temperature shifts as normal geological cycles. The supporting claims are logical, but the overall claim that global warming doesn’t exist is not logical because the temperatures are, in fact, rising. Does the writer use enough evidence to support his claims? Is the evidence the writer uses appropriate? For example, using outdated statistics is not effective, nor is using evidence that is not actually relevant to the topic. Tone: Is the writer’s tone appropriate to the subject matter? Is the tone at an appropriate level to the audience? If the writer is overly sarcastic, for example, that tone might not be appropriate to a subject like drunk driving. Tone: Does the author seem overly critical of a single person or movement in ways that do not support his or her thesis? Is the word choice appropriate for the audience? (If the article is from a popular magazine such as MacLean’s, but the language is highly technical and specialized, that might be less appropriate. ) Organization: Is the article organized in a way that makes sense? Does the organization make the article easier to read or more difficult? Expertise: Does the author establish herself as an authority on the subject? If so, how? Does she describe her credentials? Use technical terms? Refer to sources? These are just some of the different aspects of an article that are open to critique. Pick a few, look for very specific examples in the text, and build your body paragraphs around them. What it looks like: Below you will find two different samples. Each one contains the introduction and one body paragraph of a critique. One is a mostly positive critique, and one is a negative critique. Positive Critique: In â€Å"Game Theories† Clive Thompson uses the story of a man, Edward Castronova, to discuss online gaming worlds and their economy. He begins with a long introduction about Mr. Castronova, and then proceeds to outline several points about online gaming while still using Castronova’s story throughout the essay. His intent is to bring to light several opinions, facts, and debates regarding virtual reality games. In writing this piece, Thompson is effective in reaching this goal. He does so by using Edward Castronova as a credible example and reference, by his language and word choices, by quoting people highly involved in the virtual world, and by using recognizable and interesting examples of specific online gaming worlds. Thompson begins his essay by introducing readers to Edward Castronova, an economist who investigated the economy of online gaming worlds, and who submitted his findings on an academic website. Right off the bat Thompson draws the attention of readers by presenting Edward Castronova in a simple, story-like way. Readers find stories easy to read and to relate to, and for the first several paragraphs Thompson is in fact telling a brief story. Once Clive Thompson has successfully given readers Castronova’s background, he brings himself into the piece in a brief paragraph telling how he met Castronova. This is very effective because it associates him with the person whom readers are now interested in, and gives them more reason to find his writing credible and worth interest. Being able to associate with a real-life person allows readers to be more connected to the piece and to the author. It brings the entire piece closer to home, so to speak, which makes the entire essay more readable. Readers are more likely to enjoy an essay if they feel they can relate to its topic and to the author. Thompson accomplishes this reader comfort by introducing Edward Castronova and by connecting himself to this man. Negative Critique: In â€Å"Image World,† Michael Posner analyzes society’s dependence on visual stimulation using daily events as examples. Posner demonstrates society’s inability to distinguish reality from fantasy through numerous examples such as theme parks, rock concerts and political campaigns. Posner emphasizes on society’s attachment to imagery because he believes it is the only way to capture our attention, he also believes that it is the only way for people to understand the significance of a piece of writing or event. Posner’s primary audience include readers of Queen’s Quarterly and his secondary audience include students. Although readers recognize Posner’s argument on the effects of imagery within the culture of society, they are not convinced because of his negative outlook; therefore, he is not effective in his argument. In this essay I examine the different methods in which Posner is not effective: the use of excessive examples, tone and language, and organization. Posner’s use of excessive examples to support his argument distracts the reader. Although some readers may believe that using numerous examples further supports Posner’s argument, that writing alone is not enough to captivate the attention of the reader, students would argue against. For instance, he lists â€Å"Logos, billboards, banks of televisions, video monitors, camcorders, games downloadable to cellphones,† examples that have been mentioned already (p. 326). When using example after example, the reader is temporarily distracted and must figure out his point again. As Posner asks, â€Å"More examples? † he insults the reader suggesting that his audience cannot recognize and perceive his main purpose (p. 327). By insulting the reader Posner subtly suggests he knows better, separating himself from his audience. This separation causes the audience, students mainly, to not take him or his writing seriously.

Does Leadership Affect Employee Commitment Management Essay

Does Leadership Affect Employee Commitment Management Essay In this thesis, the influence of different leadership styles, on the commitment of employees will be researched. According to the literature, commercial performances of companies depend on the commitment of employees. (Bovenlander en Timmer, 2007). However there are different interpretations of commitment. According to Sheldon (1971, p.143) commitment appears when the identity of the person (is linked to organization. Hall et al., (1970 p. 176) commitment appears when the goals of the organization and those of the individual become increasingly integrated or congruent In general one can argue that when commitment of the employees towards the company is high, this will have a positive influence on the organization. In fact, managers or leaders have an influence on the commitment and motivation among their employees. Managers have a great influence on their staff. They have an influence on the commitment of employees to achieve the business objectives. Earlier research points out that HRM investments provide a good job experience and thus commitment of the employees (Steijn, 2003). Not only HRM managers, but also other managers must ensure the commitment of the employees. Avolio et al. (2004) argued that leaders can have a positive influence on work motivation. They also argued that this study is not completed yet. Future research also needs to collect ratings of leadership, empowerment, and outcomes from multiple sources over time to adequately test the mediating effects of psychological empowerment on the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational commitment. (Avolio et al., 2004 p. 964) A lot of research is done about commitment and leadership, but which way of leadership is the best way to create commitment among employees? This reason makes this field a very interesting field of research. This literature review focalizes on different leadership styles and their influence on commitment. This will be examined in this paper, by means of a literature review. This will result in a clear and proper insight in commitment, leadership and the connection between these two variables. Problem statement How does leadership influence the commitment of employees? Research Questions An answer on the problem statement will be given by the following sub questions: What are the different leaderships styles and what are the characteristics of these styles? What is commitment and how can commitment be measured? How can leaders improve the commitment of their employees? Methodology This literature review will be a exploratory research. This is done on a descriptive basis. The typical approach for this thesis will be to rely on available literature: existing theses and studies from well-known scientists. (Sekaran and Bougie, 2009) For this research it is necessary to investigate the following variables: commitment and the different leadership styles and his characteristics. The results of this research will be the basis for further empirical research. Further empirical research will consist about the link between the variables commitment and leadership. The scientific papers that will be discussed are located on websites or the Tilburg Universitys library. Structure To give an answer to the main question of this thesis, how does leadership influence the organization with respect to work motivation, you first need to find an answer on the two sub questions. To give an answer on the sub questions, it is necessary to investigate the variables leadership and motivation. Regarding motivation it is important to know all the factors that may have an influence on the work motivation of employees. Leadership will be examined using two different styles. Namely transactional and transformational leadership. After that it is possible to connect leadership with work motivation. This will be the last chapter of the this thesis and will give you a clear and proper answer on the main question. Chapter 1: Leadership In the following chapter different leadership styles will be analyzed. What are the different leaderships styles and what are the characteristics of these styles? This question is the main question that will be answered in this chapter. Although several approaches to leadership, the distinction made between transformational and transactional leadership is the most prominent in the literature (Keegan and Den Hartog, 2004). Firstly, the different leadership styles will be described. After that transformational and transactional leaders will be further explained. Finally, a short conclusion will be made. 1.1 Leadership styles In this paragraph will be analyzed which leadership styles are mainly used by prominent researchers. In the second part of this paragraph these leadership styles will be further analyzed. A distinction between transformational and transactional leadership will be made. In the past, there have been several studies on leadership. So did Alice H. Eagly, Mary C. Johannesen-Schmidt (2001) research about the difference between the leadership styles of men and women. Eagly and Johannesen-Schmidt (2001) argued that women face more barriers to become leaders than men do. They try to make a distinction between female and male managers using transactional, transformational and Laissez-Faires leadership. Researcher Weber (1947) described four different leadership styles. He was one of the first who made a distinction between transformational and transactional leadership. Also prominent researchers did further research with respect to transformational and transactional leadership. Bass (1985) and Burns (1978) developed new thoughts on transformational and transactional leadership. Therefore is chosen only to discuss transformational and transactional leadership in this literature review. In the next paragraph these two styles will be further analyzed. 1.1.1 Transactional leadership Transactional leadership occurs when the initiative of one person towards others to make contact for an exchange of something valuable. (Burns,1978) (Bass, 1985) (Kuhnert and Lewis, 1987) Bass (1990) made a distinction between four types of transactional leaders. Contingent reward: The manager gives rewards if employees perform well by giving pay increases and advancement. But he also gives penalties if they do not perform well. Management by exception (active): A transactional leader only takes action when things went wrong. He is constantly looking for deviant behavior and then he takes corrective action. (Bass,1990) Management by exception (passive): In this typology the manager intervenes only if the standards are not met. Laissez-Faire: Some researches argued that this is a separate leadership style (Eagly and Johannesen-Schmidt, 2001), but Bass (1990) argued that this is a part of transactional leadership. A Laissez-Faire manager constantly avoids decision making, he takes no responsibility. Bass (1990) find this kind of leadership ineffective and, in the long run, counterproductive. Also he found out that the effectiveness of this style depends on the control that the leader has on the rewards or penalties. 1.1.2 Transformational leadership Transformational leaders are charismatic leaders, that is why they inspire their employees. Employees wants to identify with this leaders. They give each employee personal attention and treat them individually. He intellectually stimulates his followers and gives advice and coaches them individually. He gains respect and trust. He tries to solve each problem carefully (Bass, 1990). This is a general description of a transformational leader. In a more recent attempt to define a transformational leader, Avolio, B.J., Bass, B.M., Jung, D.I. and Berson, Y. (2003) made a distinction between four different types of transformational leaders: Idealized influence: These leaders are admired, respected and trusted. Followers identify with and want to emulate their leaders. Among the things the leader does to earn credit with followers is to consider followers needs over his or her own needs. The leader shares risks with followers and is consistent in conduct with underlying ethics, principles and values. (Avolio et al., 2003) Inspirational motivation: Leaders behave in ways that motivate those around them by providing meaning and challenge to their followers work. Individual and team spirit is aroused. Enthusiasm and optimism are displayed. The leader encourages followers to envision attractive future states, which they can ultimately envision for themselves. (Avolio et al., 2003) Intellectual stimulation: Leaders stimulate their followers effort to be innovative and creative by questioning assumptions, reframing problems and approaching old situations in new ways. There is no ridicule or public criticism of individual members mistakes. New ideas and creative solutions to problems are solicited from followers, who are included in the process of addressing problems and finding solutions. (Avolio et al., 2003) Individualized consideration: Leaders pay attention to each individuals need for achievement and growth by acting as a coach or mentor. Followers are developed to successively higher levers of potential. New learning opportunities are created along with a supportive climate in which to grow. Individual differences in terms of needs and desires are recognized. (Avolio et al., 2003) 1.1.3 LMX Leadership In the available literature there is done a lot of research with regard to the relationship between LMX and commitment. Howell en Hall-Merenda (1999) argued that LMX and transformational leadership can be seen as complementary. The effects of transformational leadership and LMX on the commitment of employees are equal. Consequently, when the term transformational leadership is used in this review it is also applicable to LMX. For this reason, in this thesis only the term transformational leadership will be used. Furthermore in this paragraph, LMX leadership will be shortly explained. The theory of a LMX is based on the fact that not every employee receives the same treatment from his leader. Every leader develops his own unique relationship with every individual employee. (Liden Maslyn, 1998). Every relationship of leaders and subordinates has his own characteristics with respect to the interaction between the leader and the subordinate. There are four different components who describe the relationship between a leader and his subordinate. Affection, loyalty, task-related behavior and respect. Affection is related to the like-factor. Loyalty means that the employee and leader publicly support each others behavior and character. Task-related behavior is related to the performance in the organization. Finally, respect is related to respect for each others professional knowledge and skills. (Liden Maslyn, 1998). Every relationship can have each of the different components. But it is also possible that all of the components are applicable on the relation. Close rel ationships can be characterized with confidence, respect, mutual influence and likeability. These relationships, with a high LMX, are called in-group. Opposite relations, thus not a close relationship, is just a work relationship because of the contract that is signed. These relations, with a low LMX, are called out-group. (Dansereau, Graen, Haga, 1975). Thus, the theory of Leader-Member Exchange argued that every relationship between a leader and a subordinate is unique and develops in course of time. 1.4 Conclusion This paragraph is a short conclusion about leadership. In the foregoing paragraphs there is an overview of what types are mainly used and most successful. In this paragraph a comparison between transformational and transactional leadership will be made. There is much literature available about leadership. As mentioned above Howell en Hall-Merenda (1999) argued that LMX and transformational leadership can be seen as complementary. For this reason, only transformational leadership will be discussed in this thesis. However, there is no clear agreement with reference to transactional and transformational leadership. Bass (1985) suggested that the best way of leadership is a combination between these two styles. But actually all researchers agree with the fact that only transactional leadership is outdated. Managers who behave like transformational leaders are more likely to be seen by their colleagues and employees as satisfaction and effective leaders than are those who behave like transactional leaders (Bass,1990). As mentioned above transactional leaders can be effective in clarifying the expectations and organizational objectives, but in the long run its ineffective and counterproductive. Bass (1990) also argued that you need to operate as a transformational leader to improve the performance of employees. Several researchers pointed out that there is a positive relationship between transformational leadership and performance, reported in the literature. (Avolio et al., 2003). As mentioned above, in the introduction, commitment is one of the factors that has an influence on the performance. Chapter 2: Commitment This chapter will cover the concept of commitment. Mowday, Porter, and Dubin (1974) suggested that highly committed employees may perform better than less committed ones This further demonstrates that commitment needs to be investigated. In the first paragraph will be explained what commitment actually is according to several researchers. In the second paragraph, the question that will be answered is how commitment can be measured. Finally, a short conclusion about commitment will be given. 2.1 What is commitment? There is a great amount of research done about commitment. It is impossible to give one definition about commitment. Every researcher has his own approach towards commitment, they all have their own interpretation. In this research commitment will be described using uni-dimensional commitment and multi-dimensional commitment. 2.1.1 Uni-dimensional commitment One of the first researches from Mowday, R.T. , Steers, R.M. and Porter, L.W. (1979) argued that many of these definitions focus on commitment-related behaviors. For example when we talk about someone becoming bound by his actions or behaviors that exceed formal and/or normative expectations, we are in effect focusing on overt manifestations of commitment (Mowday et al., 1979). Several researchers described affective commitment in terms of an attitude, as mentioned in the introduction. The identity of the person (is linked) to the organization (Sheldon, 1971, p. 143) or when the goals of the organization and those of the individual become increasingly integrated or congruent ( Hall et al., 1970 p. 176) Cohen (2007) argued that affective commitment is highest and deepest form of the organizational commitment. Further on in this paper commitment will be measured, so only the definition of Porter will be discussed. According to Porter an employee is committed to an organization when he or she identifies themselves with the organization and he or she is involved in the organization. Mowday et al. ( 1979) defined three characteristics related to commitment: a strong belief in and acceptance of the organizations goals and values. a willingness to exert considerable effort on behalf of the organization. a strong desire to maintain membership in the organization. 2.1.2 Multi-dimensional commitment The description of uni-dimensional commitment is the classical approach of commitment and made years ago. More recent attempts to give a clear insight commitment points out that uni-dimensional commitment, as earlier described not covers the whole part of commitment. It only covers the part of affective commitment. (Hackett, Bycio Hausdorf, 1994) There are three distinct types of commitment (Meyer Allen, 1991) : Affective commitment Continuance commitment Normative commitment Affective commitment refers to the employees emotional attachment to, identification with, and involvement in the organization. If an employee has a strong affective commitment, he wants to continue his employment because he want it to do. (Meyer Allen, 1991). This is the part as mentioned above in affective commitment. Continuance commitment and normative commitment complete the multi-dimensional commitment. Continuance commitment refers to an awareness of the costs associated with leaving the organization. Employees who primary link to the organization is based on continuance commitment remain because they need to so. (Meyer Allen, 1991). Normative commitment reflects a feeling of obligation to continue employment. Employees with a high level of normative commitment feel that they ought to remain with the organization. (Meyer Allen, 1991) Thus, employees with a strong affective commitment remains with the organization because they want it. Employees with a strong continuance commitment wants to remain with the organization because they need it. And employees with a strong normative commitment remains with the organization because they ought it. Meyer Allen (1991) argued that affective, continuance and normative commitment will be seen as components and not as different types of commitment. Each component is influenced by his own antecedents. The rate of affective commitment is related with your personal characteristics and work experience. Continuance commitment is determined by personal characteristics, alternatives and investments. Thus, when a employee has no other alternatives for what he is doing now he will continue with the organization. Investments, also known as side bets, means everything that an individual invests in a relationship, such as efforts, time and money, that would be lost or decreased when the individual would end the relationship. The rate of normative commitment is related with the antecedents personal characteristics, socialization experience and organizational investments. Normative commitment develops as a result of socialization experience that gives morale pressure to remain with the organization. Organizational investments comes from the receiving of much advantage by the employee. The employee wants to pay it back (Bovenlander, 2007). In the appendix is shown a figure the relationships between the expected antecedents, forms of commitment and the expected results according to Meyer Allen. 2.2 How can commitment be measured? The main question of this paragraph is how commitment can be measured. Researchers did several approaches to measure commitment. There is a large amount of approaches to measure commitment, but in the foregoing paragraph commitment is defined as uni-dimensional commitment and multi-dimensional commitment. These two explanations will be used to measure commitment. To measure commitment, Mowday, Steers and Porter (1979) developed the Organizational Commitment Questionnarie (OCQ). This questionnaire consists of fifteen different statements, which try to measure the three commitment related characteristics as mentioned in the foregoing paragraph. In the appendix are the fifteen statements according to Mowday et al., (1979). More Meyer Allen argued that this approach to measure commitment only measures the part of affective commitment. To measure the three parts of commitment, affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment, they developed the Three-Component Organizational Commitment Scale. This scale consists of several statements, each component of commitment can be measured by his own statements. Listed below are some examples of the Three-Component Organizational Commitment scale according to Meyer Allen in several studies. Affective Commitment I would be very happy to spend the rest of my career with this organization I really feel as if this organizations problems are my own Continuance Commitment Right now, staying with my organization is a matter of necessity as much as desire It would be very hard for me to leave my organization right now, even if I wanted to Normative Commitment I do not feel any obligation to remain with my current employer Even if it were to my advantage, I do not feel it would be right to leave my organization now The Three-Component Organizational Commitment Scale appears to be a reliable scale to measure affective, calculative and normative commitment. The model and the measurement instrument focus especially on the commitment of a whole organization. In a later stage this model is also translated towards other objects of commitment, such as the appeal to test the generalization of the model. How an employee behave on his work depends on the organizational commitment and the occupational level. The occupational level is the level of commitment with reference to the profession itself. The three components of commitment with the profession are associated with variables who measure the antecedents of commitment as mentioned above. Meanwhile it point out to be that a high organizational and occupational commitment lead to performance improvements and low staff turnover. (Meyer Allen, 1993) 2.3 Conclusion In this paragraph a short conclusion about commitment will be given. The most complete form to describe commitment is the Multi-Dimensional way. According to this description of Meyer Allen commitment consists of three components. The affective component, the continuance component and the normative component. In fact, employees with a strong affective commitment remains with the organization because they want it. Employees with a strong continuance commitment wants to remain with the organization because they need it. And employees with a strong normative commitment remains with the organization because they ought it. These components where influenced by the different antecedents as shown in the figure of paragraph 2.1. In an approach to measure affective commitment Mowday et al., (1979) developed a Organizational Commitment Questionnarie (OCQ). To measure affective, continuance and normative commitment, Meyer Allen developed the Three-Component Organizational Commitment Scale. It measures the three different components of the Multi-dimensional commitment. This model appears to be a reliable scale to measure commitment. A positive organizational and occupational commitment lead to performance improvements and low staff turnover. This could be a very interesting outcome for organizations and managers. Chapter 3: Commitment and leadership As mentioned in the introduction transformational leadership has a positive connection with organizational commitment. (Avolio et al., 2004). In the two foregoing chapters of this research leadership and commitment is discussed. In the first paragraph the connection between leadership and commitment will be described. Additionally will be explained what exactly this connection is and an answer on the main question of this research will be given: What is the influence of leadership on the commitment of employees? 3.1 Connection between leadership and commitment The following chapter will provide information about the link between commitment and leadership. First, shortly will be explained which connection there is between leadership and commitment according to the two foregoing chapters. Commitment is one of the factors that have an influence on the performance. And as mentioned in a foregoing chapter, several researches pointed out that there is a positive relationship between transformational leadership and performance, reported in the literature (Avolio et al., 2003, 2004). Bass (1990) also argued that you need to operate as a transformational leader to improve the performance of employees. Thus, the conclusion that transformational leadership has an influence on the organizational commitment can be made. Transactional leadership will not be discussed in this chapter, because researches cannot find a positive connection between transactional leadership and organizational commitment. As mentioned above transactional leadership is ineffective en counterproductive on the long run. 3.2 Transformational leadership and affective commitment Earlier research points out that it is mainly the part of affective commitment of an employee who is related to various organizational issues as leadership. (Purcell Hutchingson, 2007). As mentioned in the foregoing paragraph there is only a positive connection between transformational leadership and commitment. Thus, this review will only cover the part of transformational leadership and his connection with affective commitment. According to Truckenbrodt (2000) appears that a high quality of exchange between leader and employee lead to a high organizational commitment. And a low quality of exchange lead to a low organizational commitment. In practice, a high quality of exchange means that a leader gives an employee responsibility. A leader involves the employee in the decision making and gives him autonomy. Several researchers pointed out that a high quality relationship between a leader and an employee creates more commitment among the employees. (Gernster and Day, 1997) (Basu en Green, 1997) As mentioned earlier in this paragraph, there is a positive connection between affective commitment and transformational leadership. Which means that when a leader operate as a transformational leader and the quality of exchange is high, it creates high affective commitment among employees. The rate of affective commitment is related with personal and organizational factors and characteristics and work experience of an employee. So, now it is clear that there is a relation, and what that relation is. However, it is interesting to know how leaders can have an influence on this and so create a high quality of exchange. According to Shamir, House, Arthur (1993) transformational leaders are capable to have an influence on the organizational commitment of employees by promoting higher levels of intrinsic value associated with goal accomplishment, emphasizing the linkages between follower effort and goal achievement, and by creating a higher level of personal commitment on the part of the leader and followers to a common vision, mission, and organizational goals. But how can transformational achieve these goals. Avolio (1999) argued that transformational leaders influence followers organizational commitment by encouraging followers to think critically by using novel approaches, involving followers in decision-making processes, inspiring loyalty, while recognizing and appreciating the different needs of each follower to develop his or her personal potential. In summary, transformational leaders can have an influence on the affective part of commitment. They need to get their employees involved by the organization. There are different components that has an influence on the commitment. For example, the involvement of an employee in the decision-making is an important issue to create commitment among employees. 3.3 Psychological influence on commitment of employees Another issue that cannot be underestimate is the psychological influence that transformational leaders can have on organizational commitment. In this paragraph will be explained what several researches suggested about this subject. Transformational leaders can have an influence on several aspects such that employees are capable to get everything out of themselves (Lowe et al., 1996). Aspirations, identities, needs and preferences are some of these aspects that Lowe et al. (1996) argued about in his literature review. Transformational leaders are able to ensure that employees wants to identify with them. Transformational leaders have the potential to make clear towards their employees how essential a wealthy career and future is. That is how they can create committed and motivated employees, because their employees want to meet this expectations (Avolio et al., 2004). As mentioned earlier commitment is one of the factors that has an great influence on performance. Several researches pointed out that these leaders try to create a working climate which results in good performances. They try to do it with their enthusiasm, high moral standards, integrity, and optimism and provide meaning and challenge to their followers work, enhancing followers level of self-efficacy, confidence, meaning, and self-determination (Avolio et al., 2004). Leaders are constant seeking for different ways to let employees perform well. Transformational leaders wants give their subordinates new insight of getting things done. They try to intellectual stimulate them. (Bass Avolio, 1997). As mentioned earlier it is from great importance to give employees responsibility and getting them involved in the decision-making. The more committed an employee is, the better the performance. Hughes, Ginnett, Curphy (1999) argued that an intensive supervision by means of coaching, giving feedback and encouragement, ensure that the self-confidence of an employee in his performance increases. This occurs through a transformational leader, who try to have close ties with every employee, so that he or she knows exactly what is in the employees mind. Shamir (1995) suggested that physically close leaders have a greater opportunity to show individualized consideration, sensitivity to followers needs, and support for the development of employees. Transformational leaders, as mentioned above, who knows exactly what is in the mind of an employee, give intense supervision, give feedback and so on, are called close leaders. Leaders with a less close relationship, which are on distant of their employees are named, as the term suggest, distant leaders. Close leaders have a very positive effect on organizational issues as performance and commitment. Thus, when an employee believes that their leader involves them in the organization, due to the foregoing ways, they feel a high commitment towards the organization. 3.4 Conclusion In this paragraph a conclusion about the connection between commitment will be summarized. In fact, an answer on the main question of this research will be given. How does leadership influence the commitment of employees? Avolio et al. (2004), suggested that transformational leadership has a positive connection with organizational commitment. Commitment is one of the factors that have an influence on the performance. So commitment could be a very interesting organizational issue for transformational leaders. Earlier research points out that it is mainly the part of affective commitment of an employee who is related to various organizational issues as leadership. (Purcell Hutchingson, 2007). Thus, transformational leaders can have an influence on the affective commitment of employees. Several researchers pointed out that a high quality relationship between a leader and an employee creates more commitment among the employees. (Truckenbrodt, 2000) (Gernster and Day, 1997) (Basu and Green, 1997) An interesting question that now arises is, how transformational leaders can ens

Hawks Essay -- essays research papers

Major Groups of the Animal   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The major group that hawks belong to is the bird group. Hawks have wings and feathers to fly. Which all are characteristics of birds. The hawk has eyes on the sides of its head so it can see all around, similar to a normal bird. The differences between the hawk and other birds is that the hawk is a bird of prey. “Birds of prey'; or raptors make their living by hunting, killing, and consuming live animals. They are at the top of the ecological food chain which makes the hawk a top consumer. Evolution   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The hawk is closely related to all birds of prey. Any bird that makes its living by hunting, killing, and consuming live animals has a characteristic similar to the hawk. Even though owls are not related to eagles, falcons, and vultures they have similar hunting habits and similar equipment for catching and killing - sharp, hooked beaks, and strong, sharp, curved toenails or talons. Owls are nocturnal for the most part and the others hunt during the day. Hawks evolved from raptors which also were birds of prey. Hawks evolved with eagles and falcons mainly but also with some other birds as well. Habitat and Biome   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hawks live in all different habitats. Some in the foothills of the mountains while others live in the brushy open country and badlands of Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and South-central California. Also in North and Central America for a more wide variety of hawks. Its biome would be in the Deciduous area as well as the Grassland and parts of the desert. Tropic Level/Niche   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The hawk is at the top of the ecological food chain. It is the top consumer of the food chain. Nothing eats it because it is at the highest level. The hawk eats almost everything and anything that is living. From starlings and sparrows and pigeons and quail to reptiles and amphibians. Even ground squirrels and field mice. Almost all rodents along with fish which are eaten by certain kinds of hawks. The hawk lives amongst the tallest trees in the woods. They plant their nest very high up so they can keep a close lookout on everything that is going on. It also helps to have the nest high to keep predators away from the hawks young. Feeding and Defense Adaptations   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hawks are not nocturnal, li... ...ks will chase down birds such as pigeons or sparrows. With the hawks great maneuvering skills, it can chase its prey through trees and bushes. The hawk uses its talons to protect itself and its young. Humans are the predators which rarely effect the hawk and its life. We usually kill it by destroying the hawks habitat indirectly. Its young may be in the tree that we cut down, therefore lowering the number of hawks. Not very drastically though. Hawks only predators are coyotes and other such animals that can attack their young if it is out of the nest. The hawks will defend their young at all costs. Reproduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hawks reproduce once a year. They have one mate for their whole life. Unless, of course if one dies then the other hawk will find a new mate. It usually lays 3-5 blotched or spotted eggs a year, depending on food supply. Hawks reproduction has many factors that determine weather or not the bird will reproduce. If the food isn’t abundant then the hawks may not reproduce as many eggs, if any. If the mate dies or finds a new mate then the other hawk may not reproduce for that year. Hawks will leave their mate, under certain conditions. Hawks Essay -- essays research papers Major Groups of the Animal   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The major group that hawks belong to is the bird group. Hawks have wings and feathers to fly. Which all are characteristics of birds. The hawk has eyes on the sides of its head so it can see all around, similar to a normal bird. The differences between the hawk and other birds is that the hawk is a bird of prey. “Birds of prey'; or raptors make their living by hunting, killing, and consuming live animals. They are at the top of the ecological food chain which makes the hawk a top consumer. Evolution   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The hawk is closely related to all birds of prey. Any bird that makes its living by hunting, killing, and consuming live animals has a characteristic similar to the hawk. Even though owls are not related to eagles, falcons, and vultures they have similar hunting habits and similar equipment for catching and killing - sharp, hooked beaks, and strong, sharp, curved toenails or talons. Owls are nocturnal for the most part and the others hunt during the day. Hawks evolved from raptors which also were birds of prey. Hawks evolved with eagles and falcons mainly but also with some other birds as well. Habitat and Biome   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hawks live in all different habitats. Some in the foothills of the mountains while others live in the brushy open country and badlands of Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and South-central California. Also in North and Central America for a more wide variety of hawks. Its biome would be in the Deciduous area as well as the Grassland and parts of the desert. Tropic Level/Niche   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The hawk is at the top of the ecological food chain. It is the top consumer of the food chain. Nothing eats it because it is at the highest level. The hawk eats almost everything and anything that is living. From starlings and sparrows and pigeons and quail to reptiles and amphibians. Even ground squirrels and field mice. Almost all rodents along with fish which are eaten by certain kinds of hawks. The hawk lives amongst the tallest trees in the woods. They plant their nest very high up so they can keep a close lookout on everything that is going on. It also helps to have the nest high to keep predators away from the hawks young. Feeding and Defense Adaptations   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hawks are not nocturnal, li... ...ks will chase down birds such as pigeons or sparrows. With the hawks great maneuvering skills, it can chase its prey through trees and bushes. The hawk uses its talons to protect itself and its young. Humans are the predators which rarely effect the hawk and its life. We usually kill it by destroying the hawks habitat indirectly. Its young may be in the tree that we cut down, therefore lowering the number of hawks. Not very drastically though. Hawks only predators are coyotes and other such animals that can attack their young if it is out of the nest. The hawks will defend their young at all costs. Reproduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hawks reproduce once a year. They have one mate for their whole life. Unless, of course if one dies then the other hawk will find a new mate. It usually lays 3-5 blotched or spotted eggs a year, depending on food supply. Hawks reproduction has many factors that determine weather or not the bird will reproduce. If the food isn’t abundant then the hawks may not reproduce as many eggs, if any. If the mate dies or finds a new mate then the other hawk may not reproduce for that year. Hawks will leave their mate, under certain conditions.

The secret to success of East Asian economies Essay examples -- Intern

Since the end of the second world war, many East Asian economies have seen a â€Å"miraculous† growth. And with so many other nations still in poverty, economists and leaders are turning their eyes towards the â€Å"East Asian tigers† to see if they can replicate their results. When looking at the facts it is obvious that the the circumstances facing the East Asian nations were quite different than the ones that nations face today. But outside of these differences a loose model of the East Asian miracle can be utilized in Third World nations today and, considering the high success rate of so many of the East Asian economies, would most likely see positive results. The secret to success of East Asian economies is the hand that the government has had in industrial affairs. Starting in the 1950s nations like china began taking steps towards centralized government through reform. One example of this would be the Chinese land reform of the 50s under the new Mao Zedong's communist regime (Blecher, 2010:p.27). This land reform took away the oligarchic control of the landlords, changing the feudalistic policy of landlordism over to a more capitalistic form of socialism in which the government has the control. This is clearly a very vital part of the industrialization process as many nations that have failed with the agrarian reform continue to find themselves struggling to get out of poverty. A modern example of this would be Brazil, where the rural landlords have stalled any sort of reform that might dismantle their rule over peasants farmers and tenants (Kay, 2002:p.1076). The institution of land reform was a vital part of industrialization in East Asia, unlike other nations it was introduced before the economies had gotten on their feet and w... ... to ever truly practise total free trade, only even opened its borders in the 19th century (Chang, 2003:23). Despite this, Industrialized nations, with the United States at the forefront, continue to advocate for more 'freedom' in the economies of developing nations, claiming that there is no other way to be free from poverty. By doing this they make themselves out to be hypocrites calling for more market-freedom when in fact nations who practice state intervention, as they did during earlier stages, have seen more economic success. Two great examples would be China and India who both have a high level of state involvement in their respective markets, yet both nations have become the model for developing nations in the 21st century (Chang and Grabel, 2004:13). But for whatever reason the West continues to advocate a policy that they themselves have barely used.

Legalization Essay -- essays research papers

  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‚   The legalization of marijuana   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Legalization of Marijuana   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  For the last fifty or so years it has been a crime to possess, consume, or distribute marijuana. Any rapid change in legislation toward legalization would be impossible in today’s culture. Due mostly to the overwhelming popularity of this drug it could never possibly be legalized. Any process of legalization would create unrealistic demands upon society that would affect every facet of life both domestic and abroad. Marijuana is the most widely used illegal substance in the world, and in America nearly a third of all citizens have admitted to being exposed to it at one point in their lives. Some people have been subject to harsh criticism by admitting to using marijuana even once in their lives. This guilt that is associated with the use of marijuana is probably the only reason for its illegality. Marijuana is seen as a reckless expenditure of adolescent rebels, or as a habit of minorities that consumes their lives and forces them into the common stereotypes of poor huddled masses that contribute nothing to society except ...

Treasure Island

Journals Writing about your favorite book If you are a fan of adventure books, Treasure Island is what you are looking for. It is not because I'm a fan of the book, but is Treasure Island itself is one of greatest fictional adventures in the pirates' world. Robert Louis Stevenson, who is the author of this book, tells the story under the narration of the young Jim Hawkins. Jim and his mother own an inn, living a normal life. But when the destiny comes and knocks the door, his life changed forever. A treasure map from an old pirates who stays in his inn somehow comes to Jim's hand.Not long after that, Jim is forced into the adventure to the pirates' world to find the treasure island. There are many unforgettable characters, such as young Jim Hawkins, kind-hearted Captain Smollett, brave doctor Livesey, and the one-legged cook Long John Silver, who is firstly appeared to be a funny and friendly person and the next a dangerous pirate leader! My favorite part of the book is when Jim has to say goodbye to his mother, gets extremely critical of his replacement at the inn, and then goes on to forget all of those things when he gets to Bristol and experiences things he'd never dreamed of.I love this section of the story because it's one of the few periods in this novel that show the simplicity of innocence, and that's what Jim really was: an innocent. This is again show how talented the author is. He describe each of his characters distinctively and freely. Each character in this adventure has free will and do anything they want. There are no restraints such as good man always do good things in this book. The one-legged cook plays the two-face games easily and smoothly as if it is his nature. This man is opposite is the young Jim Hawkins.While Jim shows his bravery toward hardships and treachery during his adventure, Long John Silver always lean to the side which gives him the most benefits. That is why Jim has many friends around him while John has no one. It seems th at Jim push away the obstacle and treachery while John pull it toward him. It is interesting that despite of all those settings, Long John is still a Jim's so-called friend, who help each other in the adventure. This book was a part of my childhood, but of course, in Vietnamese language translated. It was lucky that the book is interesting in any languages translated. Let us make a special effort to stop communicating with each other, so that we can have conversation† As I know, this is a famous quote of writer Mark Twain. The meaning of this quote is that people spend too much time talking but they don't listen. Communication and conversation seem to have many similarities. However, in my opinions, a conversation is much more complex and interactive than simple communication. While communicate, you often focus on speaking. It means you are basically conveying your own ideas to others, but during a conversation, we don't only speak. We also listen to other people's ideas.In ad dition, I believe that our speaking are more likely responses to others' opinions or arguments. In a conversation, people often interact with rather than dominate others with their own ideas. They together build up and support the general topics. While most people think it is easy to make a conversation, they are actually wrong. Conversation is listening as much as talking. The ability to listen is as important as the ability to convey ideas. That is the meaning that the quote wants to convey. Many people say that â€Å"Pumped up kicks† is a better song about abusive school kids than â€Å"Jeremy. However, most of them do not know what makes those two songs so popular and why their lyrics, melodies and public receptions, not other songs’, are compared with each other. By comparing those two songs in those characteristics, we can reveal the uniqueness of each song and know more about what â€Å"Jeremy† and â€Å"Pumped up kicks† want to convey. Both of th ese songs are about kids who lack of care from family and society. Pearl Jam started writing this song when their leader Eddie Vedder read about a high school student suicide in front of his classmates and decide that they have to do something about it.It is also about the kid who engaged in a gun shooting that Vedder knows back in his high school time. As we go further in lyric of â€Å"Jeremy,† we can see the kid named Jeremy who is ignored by his parents and his friends. His classmates treat him as wicked, having problem kid. Jeremy doesn’t know what to do and whom he should share his feelings with, so he represses it until he can’t bear it anymore and ends up shooting himself in front of the class. â€Å"Pumped up kicks† is more likely a warning about gun violence among youth. The song is about a kid playing cowboys with a â€Å"six shooter gun. As the kid named Jeremy in Pearl Jam’s song, this kid thinks he can rule everything because he has a gun. The image of a â€Å"cowboy† is similar to â€Å"King Jeremy† because they both have a gun and they are lonely. In Pump He is bullied and his dad beats him when he is drunk. He has a gun and he is going to shoot the kids with those fancy shoes to get pay back on his father and the kids who have bullied him. In the chorus, Mark Foster writes â€Å"better run, better run, faster. † That makes us feel like we are watching a chasing game where everything is speedy and furious.Despite having different lyrics, both of these two songs talk about regrettable consequences which result from the ignorance from the family that lead the kid to unsteady, unpredictable behaviors. Critical reaction also triggers a controversial topic between the two songs. As we know, both â€Å"Jeremy† and â€Å"Pumped up kicks† is talking about the abused school  kids. Both of  the  two songs got huge attentions from the public when they are released. However, †Å"Jeremy†Ã‚  had to face much more negative reception from public. In this video, we are telling about the life of a kid named Jeremy.Words such as â€Å"bored,† â€Å"problem,† â€Å"harmless† or â€Å"wicked† appear frequently. His parents, his classmates seem to be motionless whenever he tries to express himself. Especially the  scene  Jeremy putting the gun in his mouth has made a big impact on people who watch this video. With this video, Pearl Jam wants to show us the painful reality of being ignored and being unable to share the feelings with others. They want people to take an action so that there won’t be any kids have to face the same problems as Jeremy. â€Å"Pumped up kicks† did not have such a  strong negative effect on  listeners like â€Å"Jeremy.   The music video â€Å"Pumped up kicks† shows how the Young enjoy their life. They find the place for themselves, where they have friends and not to be ignor ed. Although the lyric is about an isolated psychotic kid, the video expresses that idea in a more comfortable way than the video â€Å"Jeremy. † In the video, there is not any kid carrying gun around and chasing other kids with â€Å"pumped up kicks. † That is why people feel this song more acceptable. However, the statement was that people should not sing and dance the song  in funny mood because this song did not bring a positive message.People seem to care more about the funny tunes than the real message that the song conveys: violence and ignorance, abusive kids. Drinking age often trigger controversial debates in America about which age is suitable for minors to drink legally. Some people argue that age limit should be lowered to 18. They support their opinions by claiming that the 21 age limit fails to decline the number of kids using alcohol, and lowering drinking age to 18 will be more suitable comparing to voting, having driver license or signing up for U. S. Army.Lowering drinking age to 18 seems to be more fair to minors, but the changes it propose would in fact damage American youth. Some people believe that setting the drinking age to 21 is a failure because 21 age limit hasn't stop minors from drinking. They claim that kids often drink before they are 21. They still drink whether ignoring the age limit. That is why they believe the 21 age limit should be changed into lower age limit, such as 18. However, it is not the age limit that makes minors decide to drink or not. When the 21 age limit law takes place, it stops minors from buying alcohol from any bars, stores or restaurants.Current drinking restrains many college students from buying alcohol easily and thus slowing down case of drinking among youth. Some argue that 18 age limit is more suitable than 21 age limit. When kids are 18 years old, they become adults and they have the citizenship. They have the rights and responsibilities for what their behaviors. They can vote, hav e driver license, sign up for U. S. Army and of course drink if they want. In my opinions, lowering drinking age to 18 may result in potential effects that we don't even know. Drinking is different from having a driver license or voting.If we lower the drinking age, it will create a stimulation among young. They will think that drinking is a good behavior and start drinking more and more alcohol. They spend more time to get drank rather than studying. Also, it drinking accompany with driving, minors can cause accidents and face legal troubles for months or years. It may ruined up American youth. Through the current drinking age limit doesn't have clearly effect in lowering the number of minors using alcohol, it still prevents majority of college students from buying alcohol and thus reduces the amount of drinking ases and drunk driving among minors. Also, 18 drinking age limit has more disadvantages than advantages that makes it not feasible to replace current drinking age limit. Sp ecial situations define person. In our life, we experience many situations that show us and others who we are. It happened to me when I was in high school. I had a close friend and also my classmate in high school. We are the two best student in math. I couldn't control my jealousy and thus lost one of my best friend.We still met after that but our friendship was not the same as before I remember the sentence that my old grandpa used to say when I was small: â€Å"Everyone is hungry for something: happiness, love, desire†¦. â€Å"With me is being number one. Sometimes the desire of being number one dominates me and leads to negativity. However, I don't think jealousy is a bad characteristic. It is a part of human nature. Attempting to remove jealousy is attempting to remove the incentive for you to develop. It is better if you learn to control jealousy. You will have incentive to be better off if want to be number one. Treasure Island Journals Writing about your favorite book If you are a fan of adventure books, Treasure Island is what you are looking for. It is not because I'm a fan of the book, but is Treasure Island itself is one of greatest fictional adventures in the pirates' world. Robert Louis Stevenson, who is the author of this book, tells the story under the narration of the young Jim Hawkins. Jim and his mother own an inn, living a normal life. But when the destiny comes and knocks the door, his life changed forever. A treasure map from an old pirates who stays in his inn somehow comes to Jim's hand.Not long after that, Jim is forced into the adventure to the pirates' world to find the treasure island. There are many unforgettable characters, such as young Jim Hawkins, kind-hearted Captain Smollett, brave doctor Livesey, and the one-legged cook Long John Silver, who is firstly appeared to be a funny and friendly person and the next a dangerous pirate leader! My favorite part of the book is when Jim has to say goodbye to his mother, gets extremely critical of his replacement at the inn, and then goes on to forget all of those things when he gets to Bristol and experiences things he'd never dreamed of.I love this section of the story because it's one of the few periods in this novel that show the simplicity of innocence, and that's what Jim really was: an innocent. This is again show how talented the author is. He describe each of his characters distinctively and freely. Each character in this adventure has free will and do anything they want. There are no restraints such as good man always do good things in this book. The one-legged cook plays the two-face games easily and smoothly as if it is his nature. This man is opposite is the young Jim Hawkins.While Jim shows his bravery toward hardships and treachery during his adventure, Long John Silver always lean to the side which gives him the most benefits. That is why Jim has many friends around him while John has no one. It seems th at Jim push away the obstacle and treachery while John pull it toward him. It is interesting that despite of all those settings, Long John is still a Jim's so-called friend, who help each other in the adventure. This book was a part of my childhood, but of course, in Vietnamese language translated. It was lucky that the book is interesting in any languages translated. Let us make a special effort to stop communicating with each other, so that we can have conversation† As I know, this is a famous quote of writer Mark Twain. The meaning of this quote is that people spend too much time talking but they don't listen. Communication and conversation seem to have many similarities. However, in my opinions, a conversation is much more complex and interactive than simple communication. While communicate, you often focus on speaking. It means you are basically conveying your own ideas to others, but during a conversation, we don't only speak. We also listen to other people's ideas.In ad dition, I believe that our speaking are more likely responses to others' opinions or arguments. In a conversation, people often interact with rather than dominate others with their own ideas. They together build up and support the general topics. While most people think it is easy to make a conversation, they are actually wrong. Conversation is listening as much as talking. The ability to listen is as important as the ability to convey ideas. That is the meaning that the quote wants to convey. Many people say that â€Å"Pumped up kicks† is a better song about abusive school kids than â€Å"Jeremy. However, most of them do not know what makes those two songs so popular and why their lyrics, melodies and public receptions, not other songs’, are compared with each other. By comparing those two songs in those characteristics, we can reveal the uniqueness of each song and know more about what â€Å"Jeremy† and â€Å"Pumped up kicks† want to convey. Both of th ese songs are about kids who lack of care from family and society. Pearl Jam started writing this song when their leader Eddie Vedder read about a high school student suicide in front of his classmates and decide that they have to do something about it.It is also about the kid who engaged in a gun shooting that Vedder knows back in his high school time. As we go further in lyric of â€Å"Jeremy,† we can see the kid named Jeremy who is ignored by his parents and his friends. His classmates treat him as wicked, having problem kid. Jeremy doesn’t know what to do and whom he should share his feelings with, so he represses it until he can’t bear it anymore and ends up shooting himself in front of the class. â€Å"Pumped up kicks† is more likely a warning about gun violence among youth. The song is about a kid playing cowboys with a â€Å"six shooter gun. As the kid named Jeremy in Pearl Jam’s song, this kid thinks he can rule everything because he has a gun. The image of a â€Å"cowboy† is similar to â€Å"King Jeremy† because they both have a gun and they are lonely. In Pump He is bullied and his dad beats him when he is drunk. He has a gun and he is going to shoot the kids with those fancy shoes to get pay back on his father and the kids who have bullied him. In the chorus, Mark Foster writes â€Å"better run, better run, faster. † That makes us feel like we are watching a chasing game where everything is speedy and furious.Despite having different lyrics, both of these two songs talk about regrettable consequences which result from the ignorance from the family that lead the kid to unsteady, unpredictable behaviors. Critical reaction also triggers a controversial topic between the two songs. As we know, both â€Å"Jeremy† and â€Å"Pumped up kicks† is talking about the abused school  kids. Both of  the  two songs got huge attentions from the public when they are released. However, †Å"Jeremy†Ã‚  had to face much more negative reception from public. In this video, we are telling about the life of a kid named Jeremy.Words such as â€Å"bored,† â€Å"problem,† â€Å"harmless† or â€Å"wicked† appear frequently. His parents, his classmates seem to be motionless whenever he tries to express himself. Especially the  scene  Jeremy putting the gun in his mouth has made a big impact on people who watch this video. With this video, Pearl Jam wants to show us the painful reality of being ignored and being unable to share the feelings with others. They want people to take an action so that there won’t be any kids have to face the same problems as Jeremy. â€Å"Pumped up kicks† did not have such a  strong negative effect on  listeners like â€Å"Jeremy.   The music video â€Å"Pumped up kicks† shows how the Young enjoy their life. They find the place for themselves, where they have friends and not to be ignor ed. Although the lyric is about an isolated psychotic kid, the video expresses that idea in a more comfortable way than the video â€Å"Jeremy. † In the video, there is not any kid carrying gun around and chasing other kids with â€Å"pumped up kicks. † That is why people feel this song more acceptable. However, the statement was that people should not sing and dance the song  in funny mood because this song did not bring a positive message.People seem to care more about the funny tunes than the real message that the song conveys: violence and ignorance, abusive kids. Drinking age often trigger controversial debates in America about which age is suitable for minors to drink legally. Some people argue that age limit should be lowered to 18. They support their opinions by claiming that the 21 age limit fails to decline the number of kids using alcohol, and lowering drinking age to 18 will be more suitable comparing to voting, having driver license or signing up for U. S. Army.Lowering drinking age to 18 seems to be more fair to minors, but the changes it propose would in fact damage American youth. Some people believe that setting the drinking age to 21 is a failure because 21 age limit hasn't stop minors from drinking. They claim that kids often drink before they are 21. They still drink whether ignoring the age limit. That is why they believe the 21 age limit should be changed into lower age limit, such as 18. However, it is not the age limit that makes minors decide to drink or not. When the 21 age limit law takes place, it stops minors from buying alcohol from any bars, stores or restaurants.Current drinking restrains many college students from buying alcohol easily and thus slowing down case of drinking among youth. Some argue that 18 age limit is more suitable than 21 age limit. When kids are 18 years old, they become adults and they have the citizenship. They have the rights and responsibilities for what their behaviors. They can vote, hav e driver license, sign up for U. S. Army and of course drink if they want. In my opinions, lowering drinking age to 18 may result in potential effects that we don't even know. Drinking is different from having a driver license or voting.If we lower the drinking age, it will create a stimulation among young. They will think that drinking is a good behavior and start drinking more and more alcohol. They spend more time to get drank rather than studying. Also, it drinking accompany with driving, minors can cause accidents and face legal troubles for months or years. It may ruined up American youth. Through the current drinking age limit doesn't have clearly effect in lowering the number of minors using alcohol, it still prevents majority of college students from buying alcohol and thus reduces the amount of drinking ases and drunk driving among minors. Also, 18 drinking age limit has more disadvantages than advantages that makes it not feasible to replace current drinking age limit. Sp ecial situations define person. In our life, we experience many situations that show us and others who we are. It happened to me when I was in high school. I had a close friend and also my classmate in high school. We are the two best student in math. I couldn't control my jealousy and thus lost one of my best friend.We still met after that but our friendship was not the same as before I remember the sentence that my old grandpa used to say when I was small: â€Å"Everyone is hungry for something: happiness, love, desire†¦. â€Å"With me is being number one. Sometimes the desire of being number one dominates me and leads to negativity. However, I don't think jealousy is a bad characteristic. It is a part of human nature. Attempting to remove jealousy is attempting to remove the incentive for you to develop. It is better if you learn to control jealousy. You will have incentive to be better off if want to be number one.

Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail Essay

Those who fail to plan, plan to fail, or at least plan not to improve, according to the management literature. Look at school improvement, and there’s similar agreement pretty much across the literature that the schools that improve are the ones that plan. They establish a clear educational vision and consequent shared mission; identify goals or objectives that enable them to achieve that mission and thereby realise that vision; audit themselves, thereby identifying areas for improvement; and develop and implement educational programs on the basis of leadership 57 that audit that address areas for improvement n ways that help them achieve the mission. That process, much of the literature suggests, is recursive or cyclical. The key in the school improvement literature seems to be that there’s a first step, identifying your vision and shared mission, that then informs the next step, the planning process of identifying goals or objectives aligned with the vision and mission. Whether you look at the management literature or the school improvement literature, at its simplest, goal setting is a way of asking what do we want, do we have what we need so that we can develop and implement what we plan, do our various goals elate to one another or are any in conflict, and is there anything we’ve overlooked, including internal and external blockers? There, in 200 or so words, you have the whole easy-peasy school improvement planning story, and can stop reading and go and get that coffee right now. Or not. The problem, if you’re still reading, is that planning and goal setting can sometimes lead to fragmented, uncoordinated programs with conflicting objectives that actually work against one another. Yes, setting specific, challenging goals, and developing and implementing educational programs to meet them can drive school mprovement, but as Adam Galinsky, author with Lisa Ordonez, Maurice Schweitzer and Max Bazerman of ‘Goals gone wild,’ in the 58 teacher june/july 2009 Journal of the Academy of Management Perspectives, told the Boston Globe’s Drake Bennett, goal setting ‘can lead to crazy behaviours to get people to achieve them. ’ ‘We contend,’ write Ordonez, Schweitzer, Galinsky and Bazerman in ‘Goals gone wild,’ ‘that goal setting has been over- prescribed. In particular, we argue that goal setting has powerful and predictable side effects. Rather than being offered as an â€Å"over-the-counter† salve for boosting performance, oal setting should be prescribed selectively, presented with a warning label and closely monitored. ’ Tunnel vision To be fair, Ordonez, Schweitzer, Galinsky and Bazerman have their eyes set on performance management, and its tendency to an outcome orientation like a defined sales target, say, or reduced time spent on a process, rather than school improvement, and its tendency to the systemic development and implementation of programs. Nonetheless, people in a school who want to improve it will end up setting, or having set for them, some kind of performanceoriented goal. The message from Ordonez, Schweitzer, Galinsky and Bazerman is that they should pursue that goal with care. Let’s consider why goals, as Ordonez and colleagues put it, go wild. The first reason, they argue, is that a goal might be inappropriate or so specific that in pursuing it, people ignore important elements of their behaviour, and maybe even their attitudes and values, that are not specified by the goal. ‘Suppose that a university department bases tenure decisions primarily on the number of articles that (academics) publish,’ they write. ‘This goal will motivate (the academics) to accomplish the narrow objective of publishing articles. Other important objectives, however, such as research impact, teaching and service, may suffer. ’ Worse, say Ordonez and colleagues, referring to Barry Staw and Richard Boettger’s ‘Task revision: A neglected form of work performance’ in the Academy of Management Journal, goals can give us tunnel vision. In their study on the effects of goals, Staw and Boettger asked students to proofread a paragraph that contained both grammatical and content errors. They found that those asked simply to ‘do your best’ corrected both grammatical and content errors, while those who were asked specifically to correct grammar gnored content, and those who were asked specifically to correct content ignored grammar. The reason? Goals ‘inform the individual about what behaviour is valued and appropriate,’ argue Staw and Boettger. The goal-setting problem, Ordonez and colleagues add, is that when we plan we tend to latch on to specific, measurable standards rather than complex sets of behaviours, and the attitudes and values that underlie them, precisely because specific standards are easy to measure and complex sets of behaviours are not. Command performance The goal-setting problem, essentially, depends n whether a goal is set by command or by consultation, negotiation or – horror – genuine collaboration. Goals set by command are, by definition, set by those with the power, whether you like it or not, to set them. The risk of such goal setting is that, first, it may lead to goals that are inappropriate or overly specific and, second, that leaders and their followers can be prone to what could be called target fixation or what Christopher Kayes, calls ‘destructive goal pursuit’ in Destructive Goal Pursuit: The Mount Everest disaster, to which Ordonez and colleagues also refer. As they note, ‘Kayes identifies warning signs of leaders who have become excessively fixated on goals. These occur in leaders who express narrowly- defined goals, associate goals with destiny, express an idealised future, offer goal-driven justifications, face public expectations and attempt to engage in face-saving behaviour. ’ It’s a useful checklist to use to audit yourself or a leader in your institution, but remember, we tend to latch on to specific measurable things rather than complex sets of behaviours, and the attitudes and values that underlie them, precisely The goal-setting problem s that when we plan we tend to latch on to specific, measurable standards†¦ because specific standards are easy to measure. leadership 59 because the specifics are easy to measure and complex sets of behaviours are not. Performance anxiety Of course, one of the main planks of the education policy of this and the previous Commonwealth government is the standards agenda – the benchmarking of student achievement outcomes, which educators and schools then strive to achieve, and which at their worst could end up as ‘league tables. ’ Whether you’re a fan of the standards agenda or not, it’s clearly the mother of all oals in Australian education, and worth considering in terms of goal setting. Ordonez and colleagues have some interesting observations to make, particularly about what they call the serious side-effects of setting challenging or so-called stretch goals. These, they argue, can lead people to choose riskier strategies and to cheat, and can create a culture of competition that erodes cooperation. On ethics, they argue, ‘The interplay between organisational culture and goal setting is particularly important. An ethical organisational culture can rein in the harmful effects of goal setting, but at the same ime, the use of goals can influence organisational culture. Specifically, the use of goal setting, like â€Å"management by objectives,† creates a focus on ends rather than means†¦. Goal setting impedes ethical decision making by making it harder for employees to recognise ethical issues and easier for them to rationalise unethical behaviour. Given that small actions within an organisation can have broad implications for organisational culture, we postulate that aggressive goal setting within an organisation will foster an organisational climate ripe for unethical behaviour. That is, not only does goal setting irectly motivate unethical behaviour, but its introduction may also motivate unethical behaviour indirectly by subtly altering an organisation’s culture. ’ Handle with care If the bad news of the government-mandated standards agenda is that there’s a risk of a form of goal setting that creates a focus on ends rather than means, the good news for schools is that the school-improvement literature puts a premium on one thing that’s evident in the first 200 words of this story: collegiality. With any luck, your school- improvement planning process and the goals that you consequently set are the result of onsultation, negotiation and collaboration, not command and, if they are, chances are yours are learning goals, not performance targets. As Ordonez and colleagues observe, performance goals inhibit learning. ‘When individuals face a complex task, specific, challenging goals may inhibit learning from experience and degrade performance compared to exhortations to â€Å"do your best. † An individual who is narrowly focused on a performance goal will be less likely to try alternative methods that could help her learn how to perform a task†¦. Overall, the narrow focus of specific goals can inspire erformance, but prevent learning. ’ As Edwin Locke and Gary Latham recommend in ‘Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation: A 35-year odyssey’ in American Psychologist, we should be setting ‘learning goals’ in complex situations rather than ‘performance goals. ’ The problem, as Ordonez and colleagues note, is that, ‘In practice, however, managers may have trouble determining when a task is complex enough to warrant a learning, rather than a performance, goal†¦. The goal of setting the right goals is itself a challenging affair. ’ Perhaps it’s time for a new axiom: those ho fail to plan carefully, plan at their peril.