Political Economy Theories Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Political Economy Theories - Assignment Example Marxism is a system of economic, social, and political philosophy based on ideas that view social change in terms of economic factors. This theory asserts that for human beings to survive they must produce and reproduce the materials necessary for life. As a result, the societies are therefore governed by forces of production. Karl Marx believed that although capitalism develops the productive powers of human societies to historically unprecedented heights, it does so in ways, which are also disabling, exploitative, and undemocratic. In order to change this unjust order in the society Marx advocated for a revolution which would see the distribution of wealth from the few owners of production to all members of the society. â€Å"Neo† refers to a new kind of liberalization carved out by an elite group of capitalists from the old liberal school of economics that belonged to famous economists such as Adam Smith. Neoliberalism is in the first instance a theory of political economic practices that proposes that human well-being can best be advanced by liberating individual entrepreneurial freedoms and skills within an institutional framework characterized by strong private property rights, free markets, and free trade. The political economy under neoliberalism is as a result of the following key points. Firstly, there is the liberation of any enterprise imposed by the government regardless of the social damage done to the people. Secondly, neoliberalism calls for the cutting of public expenditure for social services such as healthcare and education. This removes the safety net of the poor leaving them at the mercy of the private enterprises. Thirdly, there is the reduction of government regulation on anything that may diminish business profits. Fourthly, there is the privatization of state owned enterprises under the

Organizational Culture Essay Example for Free

Organizational Culture Essay Organizational culture is the sum total of the organization’s past and current assumptions, experiences, philosophy, and values that hold it together and are expressed in its self-image, inner workings, interactions with the outside world, and future expectations. It is based on shared attitudes, beliefs, customs, express or suggest contracts, written and unwritten rules that the organization develops over time and that have worked well enough to be considered valid. Culture is a very powerful force at the workplace, which is consciously and deliberately cultivated and is passed on to the incoming employees. It reflects the true nature and personality of an organization. Basically, organizational culture is the personality of the organization. Culture is comprised of the assumptions, values, norms and artifacts of organization members and their behaviors. Members of an organization will sense the particular culture of an organization soon. Culture is one of those terms that are difficult to express distinctly, but everyone knows it when he or she sense it. For example, the culture of a large profit corporation is quite different than that of a hospital which is quite different from that of a university. You can tell the culture of an organization by looking at the arrangement of furniture, from employees behavior, what members wear, and many more. Similar to what you can use to get a feeling about someones personality. Corporate culture can be looked at as a system. Inputs include feedback from, for e.g., society, professions, laws, stories, heroes, values on competition or service, and many more. The process is based on our assumptions, values and norms, e.g., our values on money, time, facilities, space and people. Outputs or effects of our culture are, e.g., organizational behaviors, technologies, strategies, image, products, services, appearance, and many more. The concept of culture is particularly important when attempting to manage organization-wide change. Practitioners are coming to realize that, despite the best-laid plans, organizational change includes not only changing structures and processes, but also the corporate culture. Theres been a great deal of literature generated over the past decade about the concept of organizational culture particularly in regard to learning how to change organizational culture. Organizational change efforts are said to fail the majority of the time. Usually, this failure is credited to lack of understanding about the strong role of culture and the role it plays in organizations. Thats one of the reasons that many strategic planners now place as much emphasis on identifying strategic values as they do mission and vision. To a lesser degree, an organizational structure can get in the way of, or support, the overall success of your projects. This is a lesser problem because, to a certain extent, you can change your organizational structure. In fact, you can change the organization chart frequently, and some companies do just that. Culture, on the other hand, is not easily changed. It can take years for a large organization to develop a culture of excellence. Some organizational structures can definitely impair your ability to deliver projects. First are those organizations whose project teams are doing to support work. If your project organization does support as well, it usually means that support issues will pop up and take the focus away from the project. A lot of multitasking and thrashing takes place as you move from support work to project work to support work. It’s usually very difficult to prepare good estimates and meet your scheduling commitments. You may be forced into this structure if your staff is small. For example, a company for instance, has 15 people who worked on support, projects, and enhancements. However, they didn’t have enough people to specialize in either support or project work. This made it difficult to meet all of the project commitments. Instead, employees had to do a good job of managing expectations. Organizational structure may also prevent the ability to share resources. For instance, if your project team needs a resource with a specific expertise, you may not be able to easily share that person with another functional area. Some of this is also related to your culture. Ask yourself whether a different organizational structure would help. If it would, you may have an organization problem. If it wouldnt help, your culture is probably not supportive of resource sharing. Creating positive culture in an organization is a competitive advantage. Organizations with a positive culture are proven to be more productive. Many organizations are implementing participative management. More recently, the concept of empowerment has added to participative management by encouraging employees to internalize their organizations culture and make independent decisions. Empowerment can be an integral element of organizational culture change. Good leaders and good followers are necessary for empowerment to be influential in developing an organization with a strong culture. Experts suggest managers with empowered people on their staff are more effective. They achieve more of their objectives and they achieve them more easily. Empowerment embodies the concepts of internal motivation, internal justification for decision making, shared responsibilities, and integration for problem solving. As employees mature in an organization, they gain more knowledge, internalize justification for the actions they take, and become more intrinsically motivated. Besides this internalization process, employees tend to take a more active role in intervening in the actions of newer employees and offering feedback regarding culture-consistent behaviors. Managers should recognize this model in their organizations and manage their employees accordingly. Reference Jeffrey Kerr. (1987). Managing corporate culture through reward systems. Academy of management Executive, 1(2), 99-108. Daft, R.L. (2008). Management. Canada: Nelson Education. Heithfield, Initials. (2006). culture enviorment. Retrieved from http://humanresources.about.com/od/organizationalculture Freeman, Initials. (2008). Environment ethics and business . 5-10. Schachter, Initials. (2005). The importance of understanding organizational culture. Retrieved from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FWE/is_6_9/ai_n1

The Tragedy of Domestic Violence :: Violence Against Women Essays

Domestic Violence towards women is a problem that is often overlooked by Society. Violence is defined by the Webster's Dictionary (p.755) as: 1. Physical force employed so as to damage or injure. 2. As an instance of violent action. If this is the case than why is it that so many women are beaten by loved ones each year and little or nothing is done to correct this violent and hostile situation? In this paper I will attempt to answer this question along will a slue of others which place women in these war zones each day. "The battered women is pictured by most people as a small, fragile, haggard person who might once have been pretty. She has several small children, no job skills, and is economically dependent on her husband. It is frequently assumed that she is poor and from a minority group. She is accustomed to living in violence, and her fearfulness and passivity are emphasized above all. Although some battered women do fit this description, research proves it to be false stereotype.''(Walker p.18) In fact most batte red women have highly lucrative jobs such as doctors or lawyers, Corporation executives and nurses. Most are heavy set women whose assets are controlled by there husbands and cannot defend themselves physically. Battered women are found in all racial, rel igious and ethical backgrounds as well as age groups and educational levels. ''Who are battered women? If you are a women, there is a 50 percent chance it could be you!''(Walker p.19) Statistical data on battered women is difficult to find because most records are buried in medical records, domestic disturbance calls to the police or the records of social service agencies. During my research I found that characteristics in numerous c ategories for both the batterer and battered were the same. Here is a list of those categories that were the same or in a similar fashion the same for both individuals. Commonly shared characteristics between Battered and Batterer. 1. Has low self-esteem. 2. Believes all myths about battering relationships. 3. Is a traditionalist about the home, strongly believes in family unity and his or her roles in the family unit. As with the women all racial, religious, educational levels equally represent the men, cultures socioeconomic groups. "Batterers typically deny that they have a problem, although they are aware of it; and they become enraged if their women should reveal t he true situation." (Walker p.36) "Researchers Eisenberg and Micklow found 90 percent of the batterers in their study had been in the military. Twenty five percent received dishonorable discharges.

IT Doesn’t Matter by Nicholas G. Carr Essay

Over the years the importance of IT has increased a lot. So much so that whole business processes revolve around the IT system. According to Nicholas Carr, the huge increases in investment in IT systems may be because of the assumption by companies that IT provides them with a strategic advantage. However, this assumption is flawed. A technology doesn’t give strategic advantage because of its ubiquity but because of its scarcity. As IT becomes cheaper and available to everyone, its strategic advantage vanishes. Secondly, IT being an infrastructural technology, it’s meant to be shared as it provides more value when shared than in isolation. Mangers believe that the innovations brought by infrastructural technology will last forever. However, this isn’t the case. As huge amount of investment pours in, competition increases and the technology becomes cheaper and commoditized. The same thing has happened with IT (Carr, 2003). After establishing that IT isn’t that important, Nicholas then proposes some recommendation for today’s managers. Firstly, managers should start spending less on IT. They should rigorously analyze alternatives before investing in a particular IT system. Moreover, managers should look for open source or cheaper alternatives. Furthermore, managers should focus on reducing waste. More than thirty percent of storage capacity is used to serve the customer – the rest is used to store Mp3s, video and emails (Carr, 2003). Secondly, companies should follow instead of leading. With every new technology becoming obsolete the next month, it’s better to wait and then make a move for the right kind of IT system (Carr, 2003). Finally, IT should now be seen as important to the competition but insignificant to the company’s strategy. Managers should now focus on sustaining the current IT system rather than upgrading it, as a small disruption can have a destructive effect on the company’s profitability and reputation but an upgrade doesn’t contribute much to profits (Carr, 2003).

Personal Development Plan Essay

I have always been interested in the financial and investment sector. The movements of the stock market and the forces driving the stock values hold considerable degree of interest. I realize that a stockbroker needs to add value to financial information in order to satisfy the customer queries and investigative requirements of the companies being dealt. The consumers today have easy access to a vast range of financial knowledge and data available on the Internet coupled with company specific details that provides extensive information on the current and projected financial trends. The stock broker under such circumstances needs to be highly alert and aware of the market trends and fluctuating stock values in order to meet the needs of an increasingly knowledgeable customer. (Asia One Business Article, Sep 2007) A career as a stock broker requires a complete understanding of the financial markets and environmental forces that drive the stock trading market. A stock broker is an individual responsible for a business deal on a stock exchange. This primarily involves buying and selling of securities on behalf of people and institutions. Usually, a negotiation is made between two authorised members of the exchange. (Eduquity.com) For the purposes of convenience, an ordinary person is no longer needed to walk into the premises of any institution, for instance, the New York Stock Exchange, to enquire on the trade stock. This exchange is done through a broker. However, a stock broker is not just confined in such plain participation in a transaction as there are other stock broking opportunities such as execution-only, advisory dealing, and discretionary dealing, and other related services. Execution-only stock broker involves the implementation of the client’s instructions to buy or sell. A stock broker who focuses on advisory dealing informs and gives important information to the client on which shares to buy and sell, but leaves the task of final decision-making to the jurisdiction of the investor. Meanwhile, a stock broker who is in-charge with discretionary dealing determines the client’s investment intentions and serves as the mainly involved person in all transactions and decision-making functions done on the client’s behalf. In general, stock brokers provide relevant and useful information on trading stocks, for instance on the cases of which stocks or mutual funds to be bought. (estockwise.com) Keeping in mind these specific requirements and my interest in the financial market I aspire to be a stock broker. In order for me to be a full-pledged stock broker, I must be involved in activities and related opportunities that will increase my competencies, particularly those that I need to be a successful stock broker. Of course, it is necessary to finish my studies first. I will begin by providing assistance to a certified stock broker. This is my short term aspiration. By being an associate, I will have direct exposure to the business transactions that my employer deals with. Gaining experience is my key motivation. My medium aspiration is to get promoted or trusted with bigger responsibilities. For example, my employer will ask me to do things that are similar to his/her functions, allow me to decide on important things, expect me to be reliant to classified tasks, and the likes. After staying on this position for a significant period of time, I will try to evaluate myself if I am already capable of entering my long term aspiration – that is – being a stock broker. This can be achieved once I qualify the preconditions to obtaining a stock broker license. I will immediately take up the needed examinations and eligibility requirements. My career goal is to provide my clients with the necessary guidance and direction towards investments that meet their specific needs and requirements. (estockwise.com) Skills Required For the Chosen Role A stockbroker can offer three types of services depending on their individual capabilities and interest.  · Discretionary stock broking service constitutes management of client investments and making financial decisions on their behalf. This type of service requires building of huge trust and confidence within the customer.  · Advisory stock broking service that involves advising the clients on various investment options available and the desirable course of action with predictive impacts on finance. The client needs to decide on the action or alternative that suits his needs best.  · Executing stock broking service where the stock broker is only involved in buying and selling of stocks as per client’s instructions. In this case the advice or knowledge of market expertise is not required. He merely acts as per the client’s instructions. The basic essential job responsibilities of a stock broker are –  · Managing and reviewing investment portfolios for their clients  · Research the financial market with the cooperation of investment analysts who can provide actual and factual information on the performance of companies and markets  · Provide accurate information on stock market performance and stock values to the customers  · Provide various advisory and specialized services to the clients In view of the type of service and role specific needs of the stock broker the skills or competencies required to fulfill their responsibilities have been identified as follows:  · excellent oral communication  · self-confidence and decision making ability  · Persuasive nature  · Professional approach  · Numeric ability  · Logical reasoning  · In-depth market knowledge and attention to detail  · knowledge of current socio, political, and economic trends  · good judgment of risks  · honesty and a trustworthy attitude In addition to the above mentioned competencies an individual aspiring to be a stock broker needs to keep his cool and have the ability to work under pressure. The drive and urge to succeed and excel in their work is a primary requisite to achieve career objectives as a stock broker. (www.Learndirect-advice.co.uk) Personal Strengths A review of my personal strengths and abilities reveal communication as one of the strongest points that can work to my advantage in career management. Petit, Goris and Vaught (1997) noted communication’s function is essential for cases like allowing employees to conduct meetings, make memos, provide feedback and share corporate-wide information. I believed that the previous exposures and experiences that I gained has greatly assisted me in acquiring this core competency. Good communication skill was gained from giving presentations at seminars, supplier and customer service transactions (e.g. issuing clear and concise instructions, advising and assisting customers, etc). I am also used at working on team projects particularly during my course. As a member of the team projects I have proved my abilities as a good and empathetic listener that has enabled me to judge the situation and present effective solutions to the issues in hand. My team leader noticed my natural sense of persuading others in the team to coordinate and cooperate better and agree to the objectives and milestones that were vital for the success of the project. This particular observation was quite helpful since I was given the team coordinator responsibilities in the subsequent projects. My involvement in the capacity of a team coordinator greatly improved my skills of communication and persuasion. Considering the significant role of communication in stock broking, coordinating is among the basic ingredients of my professional success. I also believed to the spill over effects of effective coordinating function like the development of teamwork and successful working relationship. Teamwork is also attributed to the positive effects upon the psychological health and well-being of organisations member (Carter and West 1999). Through effective communication, people are motivated to work in unity and towards the achievement of individual and organisational goals alike. Personal Weakness In my previous job I had landed into an argument with my team member while discussing the feasible alternative that can be adopted to complete the task objectives nullifying the associated risks. The heated argument was not seen in a favorable light by my managers. Indulging in the process of self introspection I realized that I tend to be quite dictating and adopt a more commanding tone while communicating with other people. Though I can persuade and coax people into agreeing to my views and observations the commanding tone that I use to communicate the message is not liked by most people. This is not a favorable attitude and causes problems in development of harmonious relationships with fellow colleagues. This weakness is more a form of autocratic leadership that has become outdated and irrelevant in today’s business world. People and institutions do not favor this style of leadership anymore and this can pose serious limitations to career growth and development prospects. The current management style prefers a softer approach to people in order to develop a productive and effective team. As stated by a few authors (e.g. Cohen and Brand 1993; Hyde 1992), management requires leader’s full participation and involvement instead of designating individual groups who will shoulder all the responsibilities. Furthermore, this also helps in creating a sense of commitment and loyalty (Hill 1991). In the business point of view, good leadership proves to be quite beneficial as aids in effectively meeting job-related demands, creating higher-performing teams, fostering renewed loyalty and commitment, increasing motivational level, and reducing absenteeism and turnover of employees (Drucker 1995).   I presumed that I am the opposite of a favoured leader. I am autocratic which means I tend to be overly manipulative and domineering. This attitude hinders the development of harmonious relationship or esprit de corps among colleagues and most importantly on the part of potential clients. I recognised the need to learn a leadership style that will be instrumental on the achievement of my intended career role as well as the development of other important values useful in my future as stock broker and person as whole.

Nutritional Facts Essays - Iron Metabolism, Dietary Supplements

Nutritional Facts Essays - Iron Metabolism, Dietary Supplements Nutritional Facts The first nutritional "fact" most Americans learn is that iron builds strong and healthy bodies.1 The beef lobby, cereal manufacturers, bread makers, and drug companies have bombarded the public with iron being the cure-all for fatigue and "iron-poor blood." People have been mislead by drug companies pushing iron supplements and by old-fashioned ideas about iron, the magical nutrient of strength. Even the cartoons of the past pushed iron as the secret ingredient in Popeye's spinach. Television advertisements used to urge people to "perk" up their "tired" blood with a liquid iron supplement called Geritol, but the Geritol ad was illegal. The Federal Trade Commission began an ineffective seventeen year battle with J.B. Williams Company, the original makers of Geritol, in 1959. In 1965, the company was ordered to stop airing its fraudulent ads. Americans saw the advertisements for six years before the stop order was given. By that time, there had been much damage to lots of people. The company continued to broadcast ads that stated that Geritol could make you feel better, improve your sex life, and marriage. Five out of eight of its new ads showed the transformation of a tired worn-out housewife into a "tigress." In 1970, the Justice Department filed a $1,000,000 suit against the J.B. Williams Company, charging that they did not stop their deceptive advertising as ordered by the Federal Trade Commission. In 1973 a judge gave J.B. Williams Company a total of $812,000 in fines. This was the largest ever for a Federal Trade Commission violation.2 Even today breakfast cereals are fortified with 25 - 200% of Federal Drug Administration's recommended daily intake of iron. Iron is also added to multivitamins, pastas, breads, and other processed food. Iron supplements are meant to prevent anemia, a condition in which blood is not able to carry the required amount of oxygen.3 Only two to six percent, mainly women and children, ever develop anemia. Human body contains about 2 to 5 grams of iron. Sixty to seventy-five percent of the iron is present in the form of hemoglobin. The center of the hemoglobin molecule is iron. Hemoglobin is found in the circulating red blood cells. Each red blood cell lasts about 120 days. Specialized scavenger cells in the liver, spleen, and bone marrow take up the old red blood cells and recycles the iron, fat, and protein. Iron is treated as "gold" by the blood. This careful recycling of iron means that our daily requirement of iron from food is quite small. The human body loses about 1 milligram of iron a day in the form of sweat, urine, and the natural sloughing of cells in the intestinal wall, hair, skin, and nails. Premenopausal women do not need more than one-half of a MacDonald's hamburger or a small bowl of Kellogg's corn flakes to prevent anemia. The iron stores are like water in a camel's hump. The human body can draw from them at any time. Most humans could live for long periods of time without iron from the diet. Premenopausal women, that lose 1.6 milligrams of iron per day, could last for three to seven months without depleting their iron stores of 200 - 300 milligrams of iron. Most men and postmenopausal women could go on without iron for two or more years. This assumes an average daily iron loss of one milligram and iron stores of at least 600 milligrams. The iron is transported and stored until needed. The extra amounts of iron are stored in the protein ferritin that is found inside the cells. In a normal person, the small intestines only absorb iron from food when the iron stores are low. If the body really becomes iron deficient, more iron is absorbed from food. As the body's stores of iron increase, the absorption of iron by the intestinal walls decreases.4 Some research shows that the intestinal cells do not have a way to decrease the percentage of meat iron absorbed from food when the iron stores are sufficient. The iron sneaks in because it is chemically attached to the heme in red meat. Only two to ten percent of the iron from fruits, vegetable, and grains is absorbed. Several studies show that vegetarians have lower iron stores

Hamilton Street Railway Strike essays

Hamilton Street Railway Strike essays Hamilton Street Railway Strike: A Violent Clash...A Lasting Legacy We who make up the Local Division today, owe very much to their foresight and courage, in forming and building this union. We of Division 107 have benefited much in these long 75 years. We have achieved our standard of today at the expense of many tireless and frustrating hours put in by the members before us. It has been a very long and hard road and we have many members to remember and give thanks to. Spoken sixty-eight years after the street railway strike of 1906, the 1974 Local 107 President Henry Austin, could have been directly thanking his predecessor, Mr. John Theaker, President of local 107 during the 1906 Hamilton street railway strike. Labour unions are formed on behalf of workers to ensure that their needs and interests are being addressed. These needs and interests usually are comprised of wages, working hours, and working conditions in general. As in the case of the Hamilton street railway employees of 1906, workers will go on strike to ensure that their employer will recognize these unions during contract negotiations. The Hamilton street railway strike occurred, primarily because the management of the Hamilton street railway company would not recognize Local 107, by not honouring the terms of a joint-drafted contract. The strike lasted twenty-nine days, and was one of the most violent strikes in Hamilton history. The strike had both positive and negative effects on the workers directly involved. Positively, the workers acquired gains by the strike action. Negatively, the company took further action against the officers of the union. The strike had a lasting effect on the labour movement. Allan Studholme used the strike generated public support for workers, to successfully run as an independent working class candidate in Hamilton East. On April 5, 1899 Division 107 of the Amalgamated Association of the Street Rai...