The Cave and the Matrix Essay - 993 Words

The Cave and the Matrix Movie critics and philosophers alike agree that the movie â€Å"The Matrix† is indeed based upon certain Platonic themes from Book VII of The Republic. In this story entitled The Allegory of the Cave, he describes a dark underground cave where a group of people are sitting in one long row with their backs to the caves entrance. Chained to their chairs from an early age, all the humans can see is the distant cave wall in from of them. The shadows of statues held by unseen ‘puppet handlers’ reflect on the walls from the light of a fire that is also out of sight of those in the cave. The theme of the allegory is that their reality is a poor copy of the real world. According to Plato, our world is nothing but†¦show more content†¦In the movie, â€Å"The Matrix† this scene directly parallels with Neos scene in the matrix pod. Looking around in shock, Neo sees, for the first time, his true surroundings. He is actually living in a human factory. At first, Plato says that the Freed Prisoner would be confused at what he saw. As for Neo, when he is finally confronted with the truth surrounding the matrix, he is in a state of confusion and denial. In fact, he is so overwhelmed that he throws up and passes out. Plato wrote that the Freed Man might even feel that what he was seeing now was the illusion and the shadows on the wall were actually more real. There is a line in the movie where Cypher tells Trinity, I think the matrix can be more real than this world. Plato also goes on to suggest that the freed prisoner would not only be shock over the realization of his true existence, but that he would suffer physical pain. Like Neo, who says I cant go back, can I? the freed prisoners first reaction would be to return to false reality because it is less painful and more familiar to him. Plato wrote that the Philosopher must have started to question what he saw in front of him and wondered about the origin of the shadows and if there was anything else beyond the cave wall that he saw before him. The only way that a prisoner is able to escape is because he made a choice, wanting to learn the truth. This appears in theShow MoreRelatedThe Matrix And The Allegory Of The Cave1513 Words   |  7 PagesThe Matrix and the Allegory of the Cave focus on one central idea: What is real?. They engage the audience in a fictional world where people live in false realities without knowing it. They make us question our own knowledge. Their storylines connect in that the protagonist discovers that everything he knows is a big lie and now he must discover the truth. The protagonist is thrown all of the sudden into the real world and then, he continues to seek the absolute truth. Neo and the prisoner inquireRead MoreThe Matrix And The Allegory Of The Cave Analysis1102 Words   |  5 PagesWritten over two thousand years apart, The Matrix and The Allegory of the Cave still stir up the same type of intellectual discussions over full enlightenment despite taking place in an entirely different world. Written between 380 and 360 B.C, The Allegory of the Cave, depicts a hypothetical situation in which a group of prisoners have been chained since birth only able to see the shadows casted on to the wall in front of them. They know nothing more than the shadows they see on the wall, completelyRead MoreThe Matrix And Allegory Of The Cave Analysis769 Words   |  4 Pagesboth The Matrix and Allegory of the Cave. The Matrix, written by Lana Wachowski illustrates many questions throughout. The main character, Neo, tries finding Morpheus in need of an answer to his question. What is the Matrix? Considering, Morpheus is the most dangerous man alive, he does all that he can to find him. Neo is approached by Trinity and led to the underworld to meet Morpheus. They soon realize that Neo is â€Å"The One† who can defeat the Matrix. Similarly,The Allegory of the Cave,which tookRead MoreAllegory Of The Cave And The Matrix Essay860 Words   |  4 PagesThe Allegory of the Cave, by Plato and The Matrix have similarities and differences when compared. These two story lines are completely different scenarios, but they both paint the same picture leading you to the question what is real? The allegory of The Cave revolves around prisoners who have been bound to chains their entire lives. They face a blank wall, and only a blank wall. They know nothing of what is outside of the cave. They tend to see shadows that pass by, but because the have no knowledgeRead MoreAllegory Of The Cave And The Matrix Analysis1986 Words   |  8 Pagespossible,† (The Matrix). These words spoken at the conclusion of the Wachowski Brothers’ 1999 film, The Matrix, by the main character Neo represent a deeper meaning and a connection to ancient literature many people viewing the film might not realize. This quote relates to a work of literature more than two millennia old, the narrative by Plato called The Allegory of the Cave. Much like how Neo must endure the stages of enlightenment to rise from the blissful ignorance controlled by the matrix in the movieRead MoreThe Matrix the Cave and Meditations Essay1829 Words   |  8 PagesThe Matrix, The Cave And Meditations PHIL 201 John L. Hill II Liberty University John Hill Professor Allyn Kyes Philosophy 201 October 18, 2012 The Matrix, The Cave And Meditations Thesis: There are many similarities in the Matrix ( Wachowski, Andy, and Lana Wachowski 1999 ), The Allegory of the Cave ( Plato ) and Meditation I of The Things of Which We May Doubt ( Decartes, 1641 ). It appears as you take a close look at the Matrix that it is a retelling of â€Å"TheRead MoreThe Matrix and the Allegory of the Cave Essay948 Words   |  4 PagesTOK Essay The Allegory of the Cave and The Matrix 03 December 2010 Many people think that what we know is not really what is real. This idea is shown through the story of The Allegory of the Cave and the movie, The Matrix. Both the movie and the story are similar (it is said that The Matrix is based on The Allegory) and the main plots of the two can be compared. In The Allegory of the Cave, the people are chained up by their legs and necks in a cave from an early age, facing a wall. FromRead MoreThe Matrix And Karl Marxs Allegory Of The Cave1631 Words   |  7 Pages The Matrix movie conveys what man has been trying to do in a cinematic masterpiece. The creator’s main influences to making The Matrix were Karl Marx and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave (Who Inspired). Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto tries to highlight the social inequalities that have occurred during the industrial revolution between man and machine while Plato’s Allegory of the Cave tries to help inform people that they need to become more self-aware of their oppressors. The film The Matrix combinesRead MoreComparison of the Matrix and the Allegory of the Cave Essay1240 Words   |  5 Pages2012 The Matrix and the Allegory of the Cave What if one were living through life completely bound and facing a reality that doesnt even exist? The prisoners in Platos Allegory of the Cave are blind from true reality as well as the people in the movie The Matrix. They are given false images and they accept what their senses are telling them. They believe what they are experiencing is not all that really exists. Plato, the ancient Greek philosopher wrote The Allegory of the Cave, to explainRead More Allegory of the Cave vs The Matrix Essay1473 Words   |  6 Pagesin Plato’s â€Å"Allegory of the Cave† are blind from true reality as well as the people in the movie â€Å"The Matrix† written and directed by the Wachowski brothers. They are given false images and they accept what their senses are telling them, and they believe what they are experiencing is all that really exists. Plato the ancient Greek philosopher wrote â€Å"The Allegory of the Cave†, to explain the process of enlightenment and what true reality may be. In the movie â€Å"The Matrix†, Neo (the main character) was

The Heroes Of The Trojan War - 1113 Words

There are many hero stories in Greek mythology. Many of these can be interpreted as metaphors when making comparisons to the lives and encounters people today experience. Many Greek myths influenced important pieces of historic literature which have made it easier for people to find their own ways of making these personal connections and better understanding their lives. The Trojan war involved several heroes however Achilles is one that can easily be related to many athletes. Achilles role in the Trojan war has many common themes that can be related to the story of Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel and his journey to the National Football Leauge. Both hero and athlete were considered saviours, they were both very emotional men, and lastly they both enjoyed great success before experiencing failure through their different achilles heels. Johnny Paul Manziel is a quarterback for the American football team the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League. He was drafted 22nd overall in the 2014 draft and was considered one of the most appealing young quarterbacks of his generation. Manziel attended Texas AM University from 2011 until 2013 on a full athletic scholarship. It was in his first season with Texas AM that he made a name for himself after breaking several records. Following his break through season most scouts had him on their radar. Manziel was being compared to some of the best to ever play the game and whichever team was to end up drafting him wasShow MoreRelatedEssay on The Heroes of the Trojan War: Hector Achilles525 Words   |  3 Pagesdescribes the siege and capture of the ancient city of Troy by Achilles and the Achaean warriors. Achilles, being a fearless fighter, defeated many throughout his battles against the Trojan army, including the brave-hearted Hector during the invasion of Troy. Thoug h Achilles has been given the title of the hero of the Trojan War, many historians believe that Hector was a greater hero than Achilles. When comparing the characteristics of an epic hero such as being a national hero and having supernatural abilitiesRead MoreWar Is Naturally Violent, And The Iliad Essay1606 Words   |  7 PagesWar is naturally violent, and the Iliad does not hesitate to describe the atrocities committed by men with spears and swords. They kill each other, descriptively, and although individual heroes may get glory or special recognition for prowess in battle, the detailed depictions of death do not glorify the actual acts of warfare. Even the gods and heroes are critical of taking too much pleasure in waging war, though the epic celebrates the men who are good at it. Several of the heroes, like DiomedesRead MoreEssay An Epic Odyssey1544 Words   |  7 PagesThe stories of epic heroes remain important to many cultures, the Greeks in particular. These tales of her oic men not only entertain, but they teach people about morals and values that most epic heroes exemplify, such as intelligence and bravery. To be an epic hero, characters are usually highly born, favored by the gods, perform great deeds, and have flaws. These tales are told in heightened style and occur in grand settings. Odysseus, the King of Ithaca, meets these traits and is considered a primeRead MoreAchilles, Agamemnon and Hektor, Three Great Heroes with Different Characteristics.1485 Words   |  6 Pagesgreat heroes with different characteristics. In the center of ancient Greek history are the big heroes, Gods and Goddesses but one of the heroes described with mastery is Achilles the Greek hero who is not described with disdain like other Greek heroes but with more love. The wrath of Achilles and the death of Hector, the biggest hero amongst Trojans, are described with rare mastery and love for Achilles despite the fact that he commits a cruel deed by killing Hector, the beloved Trojan hero andRead MoreWar: Unjustifiable and Absurd978 Words   |  4 Pages War is a lot like love: it costs a lot of money, time, and energy; it distracts you from other areas of life; sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but most importantly, in the end, it’s still worth fighting for. But unlike love, war cannot and should not be justified and disregarded, by gods or men. No matter what people try to do to resolve their disputes, sometimes they get so aggravated that they resort to killing each other, and the taking of a life is no light matter. It’s no coincidenceRead MoreResearch Essay - Trojan War1431 Words   |  6 PagesEssay - Trojan War More than eight centuries ago, Gods and Goddesses lived among mortals, controlling every aspect of life. For every act of nature, rain or sun, war or peace, there was a God who was responsible. In the early centuries, religion was often considered the most important aspect of life. Mycenaean Greeks (Spartans) and the Trojans believed that the gods they prayed to were at war and because of this, they were at war too; this lasted for ten bloody years. In brief, the Trojan War beganRead MoreA Comparison of Achilles and Hector881 Words   |  4 PagesThe poem is based on the events of the Trojan War, the siege of the Troy city by a combination of Greek states that took almost ten years. The poem outlines the events and battle that took place between the Greeks and the Trojans. The events captured in the poem cover a few weeks to the end of the war. However, the poem contains deep Greek mythical allusion. It describes the great Greek legends involved in the siege, the events that occu rred before the actual war such as meeting of the warriors planningRead MoreThe Song Of Roland And The Iliad933 Words   |  4 Pagesdefend the rear of Charlemagne’s army. In comparison, The Iliad accounts the triumphs of Achilles during the mythical Trojan Wars to win possession over the beauty of Helen. Despite similarities between the two epics such as the presence of conflict against a formidable foe and volatile alliances, there are also marked differences with regards to the elements which comprise the epic heroes. The key similarities between The Song of Roland and The Iliad can be found in the ambience in which the story isRead MoreFrom The Norton Anthology Of World Literature Book The Epic Of Gilgamesh 865 Words   |  4 PagesAnthology of World Literature book, one could come to the realization that in a majority of those stories, the deities seem to influence or even control the outcomes of the heroes, often in a negative manner. In the first epic, Gilgamesh encounters the gods at various times, and in The Iliad, the gods manipulate the Greeks and the Trojans for their own desires and wants. Two understand how the gods influenced our hero, Gilgamesh, one must first look at the various ways the gods meddled into his life. TheRead MoreThe Iliad: Literary Analysis1552 Words   |  7 Pages Throughout The Iliad, an epic poem written by Homer, there were numerous warriors and other characters that could be looked upon as heroes; some of these heroes included Achilles, Ajax, Diomedes, Hector, and Glaucus. All of these individuals were heroes because of their remarkable mental and physical strength: they were courageous and were better fighters in war than other ordinary men. The trade of battle was a way of life to the Greeks back in Homer’s time. Children were raised to become great

Pros and Contras About Facebook Free Essays

There are a large number of people that have a Facebook page as it is a great way to get in touch with your old friends and to share information about your life with your friends all over the world. While facebook reigns as the most popular social media site out there, it does caution it’s users to limit the information they post online as it is accessible by anyone and this can lead to identity theft and many other concerns. If you are investigating facebook and trying to figure out if you should start up your own profile, here are some pros and cons to facebook that will aid in making your decision a little easier. We will write a custom essay sample on Pros and Contras About Facebook or any similar topic only for you Order Now Pros of facebook Let’s start with all of the things that make facebook a great thing to have. First of all it has the highest user percentage of all social media sites, which means there is a good chance that most of your friends, co-workers, and relatives will have a facebook page that you can interact with. Facebook is a great way to connect with your old high school and college classmates. This is the biggest selling point to facebook because it really does allow you to reconnect with a lot of old friends and to make new friends. There are a lot of people that use facebook to find dates by checking out the friends of their friends. Do you have loved ones that live far away? Facebook helps you to stay connected but it also allows you to share your pictures with them of recent family vacations and other things. For grandparents and aunts and uncles, facebook provides a great outlet where they can see their grandkids and nieces and nephews grow up. Companies and individuals use facebook to promote their companies and services. If you have a charity event, facebook is the way to get people to connect with you and hopefully support it. Facebook has a lot of opportunities for self-promotion, making it a great outlet for anyone that really needs to find clients and to get supporters. Do you have celebrities and tv shows that you follow? Facebook allows you to â€Å"like† on their page and you will be able to get status updates about what episodes are airing along with other great information like access to concert tickets before the rest of the public. Having the â€Å"insider† scoop to your favorite sports teams will also allow you to hear about who is starting at quarterback this week and other great information about your favorite teams. Cons of facebook Now that you see some of the big reasons why you need to try out facebook, we will look into some of the things that make facebook annoying and also scary to your privacy. The â€Å"friend† game. Remember the old high school bully who has now changed his or her ways? Well what do you do if they want to be your Facebook friend? It seems like everyone takes the term â€Å"Friend† differently. There are some people that want to be your friend and you might have said â€Å"hello† to them once 20 years ago. The good thing is you really don’t have to add everyone. The facebook newsfeed. This is where all the new information is posted or the profiles that have status updates with a lot of comments. The newsfeed can be nice but it can also become really annoying. This is where you will end up blocking a lot of status updates and other things because they do become simply too annoying. The newsfeed is where a lot of information is shared and you may be thinking to yourself â€Å"who cares that your neighbor’s dog barks? † There are a lot of people that just want to talk and they use Facebook as that outlet. Spam is another problem with facebook because it seems like everyone will send you invitations to games and things that they like. Farmville invitations will get old along with other invitations like â€Å"which celebrity are you like† and so on How to cite Pros and Contras About Facebook, Essay examples

Security Protecting Global Enterprise †Free Samples to Students

Question: Discuss about the Security Protecting Global Enterprise. Answer: Introduction IT Security which is also known as cyber or computer security management is the process or actions performed to ensure computer systems are protected from damage or theft in regard to the information they hold and the hardware and software in which they use. IT security and the technology landscape refer how IT security is implemented and maintained based on the technology practices and resources available. IT security models are schemes which are provided to aid in enforcing and specifying security policies (Katsicas, 2009). Access control is the act of restricting access to a system or resource and only allowing a few individuals who have been authorized to access the system. IT security threat and risk assessment is the process or act of performing a risk assessment to establish to what degree a system is at threat or being breached or accessible to unwanted parties. IT Security refers to the protection of systems to avoid misdirection or disruption as they provide their services. IT security and the respective technology landscape covers various spheres. Vulnerabilities are weaknesses which are identified and exploited in a systems design and used to enable an individual gain access to the system. The act of gaining access to a system without authorized access is known as vulnerability exploitation (ISACA, 2006). There are various systems which have been developed to help secure systems. The current technological landscape has been improving to ensure that systems are kept safer (Pipkin, 2000). Though there are new vulnerabilities being discovered and exploited, the technological landscape is improving to ensure that they are being patched so that malicious individuals will not be able to exploit systems management. The changes in the technology landscape have also brought about machines which are very powerful and affordable to individuals who may utilize them in trying to breach various IT systems. It is therefore upon any organization to be innovative and adapt so that they are able to keep their systems from being breached. IT Models Access Controls IT models are necessary in ensuring that a company can come up with policies which can guide them as they face various IT security risks. The models are in place as a guideline to help any company which has them in knowing the most appropriate procedure to take in case a security problem arises. The models are advantageous because they display a companys preparedness in dealing with IT security risks (Schliemger Teufer, 2003). Access control is one such model of IT security. A company can have a policy which limits the kind of clearance any employee has to their system. Here the employees will be granted access to a part of the system which will enable them to perform their duties. A selected few individuals are the only ones who are granted full access to the system because their roles may need such kind of clearance. In the rise of the digital age, information has become an invaluable resource. The large amounts of data generated by people is being used to predict future business and trends that may arise. This is the reason why most companies are increasingly becoming very dependent and careful with their data. They know data is an important resource to their businesses and they protect it so that they are able to operate effectively (Gordon Loeb, 2002). There are individuals with malicious intent who have identified that data is indeed a good resource and they try to access data which belongs to other companies for malicious purposes. Data is stored in the database of a company and therefore it is run and controlled by a system. These individuals are able to gain access to the system and tamper with the data or steal it for purposes such as selling to the companys competitor. Most companies know that this acts are a risk which they face every day and therefore they need to invest heavily in en suring that IT security within the organization is always at optimum levels. Most companies today have a risk assessment strategy in which they evaluate the level of risk they can take while venturing into their business management (McDermott Geer, 2001). When a company has performed a risk assessment especially regarding IT they can plan for all the risks which can occur and even come up with a risk transference strategy where any risk they incur will be transferred to their insurer. Conclusion IT security is very important today especially for companies. The need to ensure that they have setup the necessary steps, infrastructure and resources to maintain a high level of IT security within their organizations. They also need to ensure that they have done risk assessment which will help them plan for any IT issues that may arise (ISACA, 2008). The technology landscape today is such that it is evolving at a very fast pace. Companies also need to do the same to ensure they are always ahead of anyone who may wish to breach their systems. The threat and risk assessment strategies in a company enable them to come up with models which they can use when an IT security issue arises. Preparation or prevention for a company is the best approach in handling IT security issues. The models formed can be used as a guideline in safeguarding an organization and its information from unauthorized access. IT security is therefore a structure in which any company should implement and have in pl ace to protect themselves as they endeavor to achieve their mission. References Engineering Principles for Information Technology Security. csrc.nist.gov Gordon L. Loeb M. (2002). The Economics of Information Security Investment. ACM Transactions on Information and System Security. 5(4): 438-457. ISACA (2006). CISA Review Manual. Information Systems Audit and Control Association. p.85 ISACA (2008). Glossary of Terms. Retrieved from www.isaca.org Katsicas S. K. (2009). Computer and Information Security Handbook. Morgan Kaufmann Publications. Elsevier Inc. p.605. McDermott B. E. Geer D. (2001). Information security is information risk management. In Proceedings of the 2001 Workshop on New Security Paradigms. Pp. 97 -104. Pipkin D. (2000). Information security: Protecting the global enterprise. Hewlett-Packard Company. Schliemger T. Teufer S. (2003). Information Security culture from analysis to change. South African Computer Journal. 31: 46-52.

Perils of Indifference Commentary free essay sample

Ellie Wiesel portrays the full effect of indifference during his speech â€Å"The Perils of Indifference† by using firm language choices, to emphasize indifference. With the use of diction, alongside the use of efficacious allusions, he reveals the suffering â€Å"behind the black gates of Auschwitz† and presents how Jews â€Å"felt abandoned by humanity†. He impudently questions the reader â€Å"Have we really learned from our mistakes? †. He aches to get his point across, to allow people to look at themselves and see how they are indifferent. Wiesel’s use of allusions allow him to uncover the tragedies that have been long forgotten, and use them to invoke a response from the reader. He shows how human â€Å"failures have cast a dark shadow over humanity†. Then he slowly delves into the compassion and kindness of humanity, from the Christians during the Holocaust, the collapse of communism, and the demise of apartheid. Elie Wiesel’s struggle is obvious in â€Å"The Perils of Indifference† through his diction as he ranges from emotions of anger, hatred and hope. We will write a custom essay sample on Perils of Indifference Commentary or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Elie Wiesel allows the people to feel and share his anger and struggle when he speaks out â€Å"now we knew, we learned, we discovered that the pentagon knew, the State Department knew. † Elie Wiesel also allows the people to feel the indifference he felt by speak in the previous quote and shows that the indifference in the world is the greatest punishment of all. Elie Wiesel wants to try to change the views of the world on indifference, but he realizes that in the current mind state the world is in, that that is impossible. Wiesel’s use of his own story allows people to feel the really? this is what you managed to accomplish in an hour and 23 minutes? why aren’t you on here working right now?! and you wanted to help set up for the dance!

La Estrategia de Chochueca Summary Essays

La Estrategia de Chochueca Summary Essays La Estrategia de Chochueca Summary Essay La Estrategia de Chochueca Summary Essay and has in the eyes, those rare situations of those people who were tortured in the twelve years and now work together torturers. (Page 69) There is no ideological defect in the narrative. I realized that everything is the same, in the end, everything is a lie, we all want a Japanese cart and a pool (p. 70). It is a disappointment and a visceral boredom, lived from the inside and sharpened by an inhospitable environment that denies that segment of youth, of which the narrator is the part, some possibility of redemption. That is why small or large crimes that try to give color to a gray and tedious existence, the tumble of horns, drugs, forgery of checks, fraudulent use of credit cards. Those parents who have left their children, this illogical gelatin. After so much we want the world and we want it. So much historical laughter, both Marx and companion for this, this prank of small beasts without the idea, this Mac universe in the That you or tomb to contemplate the bubbles in the screensaver or you are tomb; In the Chochueca Strategy, the many talents of this writer appear, which, although very young, already occupies a space between the authors to be in sight in the next years.; Conclusion Rita Indiana Hern;ndez is a young author from Dominican whose first novel La Estrategiadewhich was published when she was 25. Also, she was known as the most important commitment to the Dominican story in 20 years. Amazing. There is an intriguing interview in English with her in his work in which she speaks regarding her poetry work as well as her 2005 novel Papi none of which I can discover about the issue.; The novel speaks of the social evils that sorround Dominica, the author believes that the youths have the power to make changes in their society, but they are falling to do so. The city has fallen to the alien hands and its being characterized by a lot of evils. The atmosphere in the city is unpleasant and boring, people are not living below their expectation and there is a need to revolutionize and bring change.; Work Cited Hern;ndez, R. I. (2003). La Estrategia de Chochueca: novela. Isla Negra Editores.

Management - Operations Decision Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Management - Operations Decision - Assignment Example These professionals converge as a team to develop and enhance production outcomes to achieve the required level of profitability. Business organizations require outside research to estimate the demand for products and services and will have to entailing information to explore access and capture market places. My role here is as managing consultant to this company, to offer advice that will help them to arrive at a decision as to whether it should shut down totally or continue its operations. The plant operation sector is extremely fragmented in nature, characterized by a large number of small and micro companies. The capacity to react rapidly to emerging opportunity is an absolute necessity to achieve success in the sector. In a swiftly altering atmosphere, it can be complex for small and medium sized companies to cope up with market developments Current Environmental Scan Factors: Current â€Å"environmental scan† (Environmental Scan, 2005, Pg.1) factors of this company inclu de an analysis of both internal and external environmental factors that affect the overall functioning of the company, as experienced below: Internal Factors:  · Organization of equipment and machinery  · Capacity of the technological  · Culture of the organization  · Management systems  · Worker morale  · Financial management External Factors Competition Behavior of the customer Economy Political interference and movement Social atmosphere Technological alterations General environmental alterations All these factors have great impact on plant operations and the management’s decision to continue or discontinue their operations. Both internal and external environment are the foundation in which the organization operates. Environmental scanning also concerns the gathering of relevant information about conditions that affect the business. Appropriate information about internal and external factors of the company will help in understanding the overall performance of t he company. It is also a process of using information of the environment in decision making. This has to be seen from the perspective of improving the overall organizational capability to deal with quick changes. The external environment of plant operation company refers to both its operational atmosphere such as competition, consumers and suppliers, and general atmosphere such as regulatory, economic, technological, and socio-cultural aspects. A firm scans the environment in order to recognize the external factors of change so that they may build up effective responses, which can improve or secure their position in the future. Scan will also help in avoiding surprises, recognizing opportunities and threats, increasing competitive advantage, long-term and short-term planning of performance. The organization's capability to adapt to its outside atmosphere is dependent on knowing and understanding the external alterations that are taking place. Environmental scanning forms a primary m eans of organizational learning. Evaluate the financial performance of the company using the information: The firm presently employs 100 workers to produce 6,000 units. The daily wage is $70, and the price of the firm's output is $32. If the firm continues to work in this capacity, its total revenue will be $192000 = $32 times 6000 units of output. This is the advantage of operating the facility. The price of operating the

Merger, Acquisition, and International Strategies Research Paper - 4

Merger, Acquisition, and International Strategies - Research Paper Example Currently, Nokia focuses on developing telecommunications infrastructures on a large scale, provision of online mapping services, and the development of mobile communication technologies (Slater, 2004). Nokia also played a great role in contributing to the development of the mobile phone industry in the early years of 2000 (Park, 2014). The company played a role in developing GSM standards, and for a considerable period of time, Nokia was one of the largest producers and sellers of mobile phone products, in the world. Nokia also entered the Smartphone industry, and this is through its platform referred to as Symbian. However, the dominance of this company, in the Smartphone industry was challenged by the emergence of Apples. This is through the production of its Android devices, and its iPhones. Furthermore, because of stiff competition from companies such as Samsung, Alcatel, etc, the market share of Nokia was beginning to fall, and it experienced a series of losses (Park, 2014). Microsoft on the other had is an American company, that specializes in the development of computer software. The headquarters of Nokia is in Redmond, the state of Washington. The company is able to develop, manufacture and sale personal computer gadgets, consumer electronics, and computer software (Slater, 2004). However, because of stiff competition from Apples, the company has also experienced a reduction in its market shares. Because of this stiff competition emanating from Apples, Nokia sought a strategic partner, who could help it, in the development of electronic and computer gadgets, that could help it achieve a competitive advantage over Apples and other companies such as Samsung. In the year 2011, Microsoft was able to enter into a pact with Nokia. Park (2014) explains that the method which Microsoft used in entering into a partnership with Nokia was through an acquisition. In 2013, the chief executive of Microsoft was

Musclar Sclerosis Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Musclar Sclerosis - Research Paper Example According to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society of the United States of America, there are 250,000 people in the country who suffer from this disease. Furthermore, it points out that the total number of people with this condition may be the double of this figure owing to the fact that many people do not chose to consult their physicians and misdiagnose their own condition (Rosner et al 2008 p7). The disease is considered to have a greater predisposition towards females and the ratio of the affected females to affected males is 2:1. The disease does not present in the early ages of life and nor are there any presenting cases after the fifth decade of life. Individuals are mainly affected between these age groups (Robbins et al 2005 p 1382; Mitchell et al 2007 p 887). Multiple sclerosis is not a congenital disease and it is a condition which affects a person later in life and is acquired. It is considered to be caused by an autoimmune mechanism. But definitive causes for this dise ase have still not been identified. It has been highlighted that the condition may also be stimulated and caused by external environmental factors. The condition is not infective and hence does not spread from one individual to another. Studies in the United States and England have highlighted interesting aspects of the disease and it has been seen that this pathological condition mainly affects the upper classes and it is more common in countries with proper hygienic measures. It has been seen that in the developing nations where the hygiene is low, the disease is not prevalent and it is hypothesized that these populations tend to acquire an immune mechanism against this disease. Furthermore, it has also been presented that the pathology is more prevalent in areas with lower temperatures (Robbins et al 2005 p 1382; Rosner et al 2008 p 8; Ganong 2005 p51). The disease has been suggested to be an autoimmune response of the body against the myelin sheath. This reaction of the body is considered to have a genetic link as well. This has been highlighted due to the fact that there is 15 times increased vulnerability of developing the condition if â€Å"first degree relatives† suffer from the disease. If one twin suffers from the disease, the other twin also has a high susceptibility of developing the condition (Robbins et al 2005). Multiple sclerosis follows a clinical course where attacks of the symptoms appear between intervals of weeks or months or years. These symptoms may even subside for extended periods of time and the patient retains normal functioning but they have a tendency to recur as well. With increasing time, the symptoms tend to subside but there may be long lasting damage to neurological function (Robbins et al 2005 p 1382). The disease presents with many symptoms which include optic neuritis and retrobulbar neuritis. The patient may complain of visual disturbances. The involvement of the brainstem tends to result in ataxia, nystagmus and in ternuclear opthalmoplegia. The spinal cord is also involved and the demyelination of the nerve fibers in the spinal cord results in problems of the motor and sensory conduction in the arms and the legs. The functioning of the urinary bladder is also affected and it loses its normal working. The patient may also present with an injury of the spinal cord which would not be painful. The patient may

Conflict Between Mole National Park And Larabanga Community Politics Essay

Conflict Between Mole National Park And Larabanga Community Politics Essay Historically, conservation strategies have been dominated by exclusive management approaches, reserving places for nature, and to separate humans and other species. According to Adams and McShane (1996) the method for establishing parks has always involved the expensive operation of removing those people living on the newly protected land. In almost all cases, the result is a park surrounded by people who were excluded from the planning of the area, do not understand its purpose, receive little or no benefit sharing and hence do not support its existence. As a result, local communities develop a lasting distrust of park authorities, in part because of the glaring lack of attention those authorities, supported by conservationists, have traditionally paid to the link between park ecology, the survival of wildlife and the livelihood of the displaced people. In the longer term the effect of the de-linkage of park wildlife from village livelihoods, encouraged by the preservationist views of nature on which the national park as an institution is founded, is to make local people hostile to wildlife conservation (Knight, 2000). In Ghana, the Mole National Park and one of its surrounding communities, Larabanga, have for a long time being involved in a series of conflicts that have negatively affected the peaceful co-existence of man and nature. This paper explores the causes of the conflict and the values, interests and positions of the key stakeholders involved in the conflict. An analysis of the conflict using the social conflict theory and various techniques in conflict management is also employed. The authors also present a new view of the conflict and present alternative dispute resolution methods that are applicable in resolving the conflict. Inclusive governance as a key participatory process is also discussed in the paper. Key words: Environmental Conflict, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Inclusive Governance, Protected Area, Stakeholders Introduction National parks and other wildlife reserves are a major source wildlife conservation conflicts in most parts of the world. In Ghana, wildlife conservation conflicts are prevailing in the north of the country between the park authorities of the Mole National Park (NP) and the park-adjacent communities especially Larabanga (Marseille, 2004). Mole NP is a typical example of coercive conservation or exclusive management, during its creation a policy of externally enforced exclusion was pursued and no serious attempts were made to involve the local communities in the management of the park (Marseille, 2004). The control of Mole NP is vested in central government by means of the Ghanaian Wildlife Division [WD]. Throughout the years the WD and the communities have been engaging in a poor relationship which created a breeding chamber for different conflict situations (Marfo, 2003). Marfo (2003) however states that recently there has been a shift from the traditional preservation approach in p rotected area management to the more flexible concept of conservation through sustainable use. Despite a range of protected area [PA] outreach strategies targeted at improving the relationship with the local communities and reducing the conflicts tension still exists. The lack of communication and the tension between local people and park staff is a common theme from different parks (Newmark et al 1993 in Bergin 2001). The WD holds the view that local communities have done little to change their negative perceptions about the activities of the Park. Particularly the communities surrounding the Mole NP are notorious in violating park boundaries and regulations. Among the local communities both suspicion and mistrust for wildlife staff and bitterness over the process by which the Park was created is prevailing. Hulme and Infield (2001) found that the community attitudes towards protected areas is influenced by the nature of community use of park resources, the physical proximity to the park, influencing both problems caused by wild animals and negative interactions with game officials, and the history of both positive and negative interactions with park staff. Problem statement Though the Mole NP authorities have made efforts to reduce local conflicts there appears to have been little concerted effort to apply the principles of conflict management to protected area-people relationships (Hough, 1988). It is almost universally evident that the question of power and how it plays itself in specific conflict setting is an important dimension to the conflict management problem. The crucial role of power in natural resource conflict management has driven the debate in search for its dynamics and how to deal with it in policy and practice. Conflict is a complex phenomenon, with the possibility of involving several actors. However, at a superficial level there are only two actors involved in wildlife conservation conflict, namely the local national park administration and the local communities (Hough, 1988). Within natural resource management one major reoccurring issue relates to the question of how to control and manage natural resources on an official level while simultaneously taking into account the needs of the local population (Caspary, 1999). The emerging challenge is to encourage a scientific and policy rethinking of wildlife conservation conflict management intervention processes, guiding wildlife conservation conflict towards constructive rather than destructive results favors both the communities living on the fringes of the Mole NP as well as the park management. 1.3 Aim of the study The aim of the study is formulated as follows: To explore conflict management strategies in wildlife conservation conflict using Mole National Park and the Larabanga Community in Ghana as a case with a view to making appropriate recommendations for wildlife conservation conflict management Objectives In order to achieve this aim, the following specific objectives are formulated: To identify the background and basics of the conflict To explore the positions, interests and values of the key actors and the strategic action exercised during the conflict To examine the linkages of the conflict to the foundations and theories of conflict and conflict management By identify conflict management approaches that are currently being used to address the conflict To propose alternative conflict management and participatory approaches that could be used Research questions What is the basis of the conflict? Why? Which actors are involved in the conflict? Why? What conflict management approaches are being used or could be used Which concept(s) of inclusive governance, which theories of democracy, is Is the governance process participatory and which theory of democracy is it built on? The analysis of this case study will focus clearly on conflict management techniques and interventionist strategies. A third party intervention strategy will focus on understanding the strategies different actors use to empower themselves during conflict and providing alternative ways of resolving the conflict towards a constructive end. Mole National Park The Ghanaian Wildlife Division is responsible for 15 integrated protected areas covering a total area of 13,489 sq. km under which Mole National Park, see map of Mole NP in figure 1. Mole NP is one of the six national parks in Ghana and one of the three established in the interior savannah. Fig. 1: Map of Ghana showing Mole NP and LarabangaThe IUCN defines a National Park as a protected area managed mainly for ecosystem protection and recreation. Mole NP is a category II park by IUCN classification of protected areas (IUCN, 2010). A National Park is a national asset and as such remains under the jurisdiction of a central authority personified by the WD (Symonds and Hurst, 1998). The Mole NP Protected Area in Ghana and it is considered to be the most prestigious in terms of its attraction to visitors facilities for visitors (IUCN, 2010). The protected areas system in Ghana is designed to conserve key representative areas of Ghanas varied wildlife habitat (Symonds and Hurst, 1998). ontextMole National Park (4840 km2) is found in the western half of the Northern Region in the Guinea grassland zone (see figure 1). Mole is named after the river Mole which runs through the conserved area. In the 1930s about 2330 km of Mole was initially designated a Game clearance area for purposes of tsetse control. The policy of game clearance was abandoned and in 1958 an area of 1,916 sq. km. was officially constituted as the Mole Game Reserve and placed under the Forestry Department (FC, 2010) In 1971, the reserve was almost doubled in size (4912 km) and gazetted a National park under legislative instrument 710 of the wildlife reserves regulations. In 1992, with the removal of another village in the North west the park (Gbantariga), Mole NP was subsequently extended to the present 4840 km (Marseille, 2004). The park is very popular with tourists visiting northern Ghana, 93 mammals, 33 reptiles, 9 amphibians and 304 bird species have been recorded at Mole. The dominant faunal species are elephant (Loxodonta africana cyclotis), buffalo (Syncerus caffer), waterbuck (Kobus defassa), roan antelope (Hippotragus equnus), kob antelope (Kobus kob), bushbuck (Tragelaphus scriptus), warthog (Phacochoerus aethipicus), green monkey (Cercopithecus aethiops), patas monkey (Erythrocebus patas) and olive baboon (Papio anubis) (FC, 2010). Larabanga community Approximately 4 kilometres from the entrance gate of Mole NP lies the village of Larabanga, or Home of the Arabs as its name signifies. The Larabanga community is a 100% Muslim which has being in existence since the 15th century and originally a hunting tribe (Marseille, 2004). Larabanga is poor rural community whose main source of livelihood is farming closely followed in importance by hunting and fishing. Basic social amenities and infrastructure are critically lacking in the community (UNDP, 2007). Larabanga has a population size of about 3800 people, most community members are engaged in farming subsistence crops such as yam, maize, guinea corn and cassava (UNDP, 2007). The farm lands surround the village in all directions and are communally owned with most farmers practicing shifting cultivation. The ancient mosque of Larabanga is of Sudanese architectural style and is recognized officially as a World Heritage Site. A few retailers in the village also generate some profit by selling provisions to visiting tourists. In Larabanga 99% of the community is illiterate, the same situation counts for all other fringed communities (Marseille, 2004). Causes of the Conflict Knight (2002) describes human-wildlife conflict as relations of rivalry or antagonism between human beings and wild animals which typically arise from territorial proximity and involve reliance on the same resources or a threat to human well-being or safety. It is proposed there are two dimensions of human-wildlife conflicts: political and social. Political An increasingly important factor in the political determination of wildlife conservation conflict is the role of the established political actor, the state. Many wildlife conservation conflicts are informed by people-state conflict. When wild animals become the object of official protection measures whether in the name of game management or wildlife conservation, local victims of wildlife damage may well attribute blame to and seek political redress from, state authorities (Knight, 2000). In this case study wildlife conservation conflict is defined as follows: a situation where an actor experiences the action of other actors in the use and management of wildlife resources as an impairment to their interest in those wildlife resources The state through the Wildlife Department (WD) has adopted a preservationist approach in managing the Mole NP (Jachmann, 2008). This has resulted in the alienation of local communities and has excluded opportunities for participatory rural development activities and the sustainable use of the reserves resources, thus generating antagonism resulting in conflicts between local communities and wildlife/forestry officers (Marseille, 2008). One of the key obstacles to establishing key processes for the effective management of national park-people conflict identified by Hough (1988) is the large difference in power between government-backed parks and local people in rural areas. Central government has the weight of the legal and enforcement mechanisms of the nation state. The key infraction during the creation of the park was the compulsory acquisition of land without due compensation being paid to the evicted communities. The state has also being accused of using its power to expand the park several times without the consent of the local communities (Bosu, 2010). The local communities however are relatively powerless, the villagers try to get something back by poaching park animals or by collecting inside the park and thereby restore some degree of balance in the village-park relationship. According to Hough (1988) this difference in power is the root cause of the conflict in that the desires of central government were initially forced on the relatively powerless resident populations. Social The conflict is manifested through three major social conflict bases; issues of illegal hunting, crop damage and land access into Mole NP (Marseille, 2004). Source: Marseille, 2004 Illegal hunting Illegal hunting can be defined as the unauthorised harvesting of any wildlife species for either subsistence or commercial purposes (FC, 1994). Regulation 2 of the wildlife reserves regulations of 1971 (L.I. 710) prohibit any person at any time to hunt, capture or destroy any animal or collect or destroy any plant within the reserve (FC, 2010). Group hunting, a group of two or more individuals hunting together, is with or without a license prohibited. Nearly all hunters surrounding the park however do not carry valid licenses and hunt mainly inside the park (Marseille, 2010).Once hunters and patrolling scouts clash with each other conflict is initiated, this practically means that causing arrest is similar to causing conflict Crop damage Crop damage occurs when animals cross the boundaries and move into the farm fields to feed on the cultivated crops like maize, millet, cassava, yam, guinea corn and ground nuts. The most troublesome animals are elephants, baboons, green monkeys and red monkeys. The WD is seriously concerned about crop damage and problem animals but does not have financial resources available to grant compensation for lost crops (Wildlife Division, 2001). The current legislation does not provide sufficient incentive for farmers to care and protect wildlife on their properties. The result is that wildlife for most farmers is considered a pest that in many cases is directly competing with their agricultural activities (Wildlife Division, 2001). The farmers feel the WD should take responsibility of their animals to reduce the amount of damage. The WD has the opinion that the farmers are exaggerating the actual amount and frequency of damage, farmers are using crop damage only to create resentment (Wildlife Division, 2001). Resource access The wildlife reserves regulations of 1971 (L.I. 710) states that no person at any time can enter a reserve except with the consent of the Senior Wildlife Officer. It is thus illegal to enter Mole NP without official permission. The denial of land access is the third identified social conflict base, meaning that the villagers are not allowed to enter the reserves, also for purposes other than hunting such as fetching water, collecting fire wood and NTFPs as well as visiting sacred groves (Marseille, 2004). The sacred stream case for example is a conflict relating to the issue of land access. Villagers are not permitted access to the stream creating disagreement which is primarily values and interest-based. The villagers value the stream based on its traditional and spiritual importance whereas the WD values the stream for its biological and ecological features. The villagers also have a different interest in the stream, they would like to use the stream for both swimming and fishing purposes as well as the fetching of water. The interest of the WD in the stream is linked to conservation purposes (Marseille, 2004). Also, more indirectly the conflict is history-based, culture-based due to the way the park was created and the influence of government institutions. The situational circumstances that surround the initial conflict setting determine the actual conflict base. The identified conflict bases are the surfacing fundamentals of the wildlife conservation conflict in general, however, these conflict bases have by no means static characteristics. As the conflict evolves the initial conflict base might develop into another conflict base. Conflict bases are also interrelated with each other. Ghana ´s Wildlife laws Ghana ´s wildlife policy states that although the Government cannot be liable for damage caused by wildlife, it will take reasonable measures to protect people, crops and property against wild animal damage. The 11th and 12th item of the Policy states that the conservation of wildlife within Parks and Reserves will over-ride all other interests in them (FC, 2010). No use of Parks and Reserves that will conflict materially with wildlife conservation will be allowed. It presents specific principles on rights of local access to basic natural resources, local democracy, participatory management and protection of forest and wildlife resources (Kotey et al, 1999). The policy entrenches a biocentric approach to wildlife conservation which is reflected in exclusive management and thus denies human access to resources because degradation of biodiversity has been verified (Caspary, 1999) Stakeholder analysis The stakeholders, generally referring to all the people who affect and/or are affected in the conflict situation, are hereby classified into these three broad groups namely; government, local community and third party. By analyzing using the conflict onion, the positions, interests, needs and fears/hopes of these stakeholder groups were identified and presented in the table 1 below. Table 1: Stakeholder classification using the conflict onion Elements of conflict Stakeholder Government Local Community Third party Position In favour of the national park Against the national park In favour of the national park Interest Biodiversity conservation Exertion of authority Access to resource Protection of heritage Resource conservation Social justice need Income (tourism) International convention Subsistence Employment Cultural values Sustainable resource management Political success Fear/hope Biodiversity loss Loss of land and cultural heritage funding The government being in favour of the creation and maintenance of the national park could be considered as the proponent in contrast with the local community as opponents in this conflict situation. The third party could be regarded as social based group which is also in favour of the national park in terms of position in the conflict. There are varying interests from the stakeholder groups with only resource conservation overlapping between the government and the third party as opposed to resource access by community. However, while the governments interest is to show that it holds the final authority over all forest and natural resources, the local community is also interested in preserving the heritage their ancestors had handed over to them from generation to generation and the third party is also interested in social justice for the local community. Power structure of stakeholders The government represents all agencies in favour of the national park comprising the Ministry of Land and Natural Resources (MLNR), Forestry Commission (FC), Wildlife Division (WD). These are state agencies are mandated by law to manage the forest and wildlife resources for the common good of all Ghanaians. With the decentralized system of governance, the Ministry of Local Government (MLG) and the District Assembly (DA) form an allied group that supports the government in its decision. Though the MLG and the DA have the mandate to see to the sustainable development of the district, with respect to forest and wildlife resources the MLNR and the FC wield more power in this conflict situation. Hence, the DA is seen to be indifferent in this situation. The local community comprises farmers, hunters, youth group, women group and community-based organizations. These are mostly individuals and informal community associations which are easily alienated from any formal decision making processes. The third party in this conflict case is the Netherlands Development Cooperation (SNV) and other local and international non-governmental organizations such as Plan Ghana. These are considered to be social based group which operate as watch dog to ensure social justice. They serve as intermediary between the government and the local community. The power relation is depicted in the figure 1 below. Figure 3: Relationship between key stakeholders in the conflict Conflict Theory The power relation between the stakeholders is asymmetrical and could be analysed with the social conflict theory. This theory argues that in any conflict situation where power is unevenly distributed, the stakeholder group with more power exploits those with less power (Bartos and Wehr, 2002). This is the case where the government by executive instrument forcefully evicted the inhabitants during the creation of the national park without adequate compensation and resettlement plan. Type of conflict The conflict is basically over the forest and wildlife resource. The land and the wildlife resources served as the source of livelihood to the local community. The denial of access and use right to the park signifies the removal of the local communitys source of livelihood and threat to their lives. The use of arms to guard the borders of the park and ward off entry by local community members has resulted in the conflict taking on a relational dimension. Hatred and unfriendly relation between local community and staff of the park is a key factor in the conflict. Moreover, the conflict encompasses different form and nature of incompatibility. These interconnected elements culminate in the complexity of the conflict. The different bases of incompatibility (Wehr, 1979 in Walker and Daniels, 1997)), see table 2, are all to a varying degree included within the different conflict bases. Table 2: examples of incompatibility in the conflict Nature of incompatibility: Example: Fact-based The actual amount of crop damage reported by farmers Value-based The elephant :a farm pest or a valuable species Interest-based The presence of fertile arable land within the park Person-based Suspicion and mistrust among villagers about the wildlife staff History-based The way the park was created; exclusive management Culture-based Traditional linkages with sacred places within the park It could be seen that this case of a resource conflict is multifaceted and all these elements presented in table 2 above must be addressed and an acceptable agreement achieved through a participatory decision making process. The conflict phases Using the conflict escalation model, the conflict has been a long standing one with multiple phases. The resource area was first created as a wildlife reserve in 1958 and later re-designated at a national park in 1971 (FC, 2010). The period between 1958 and 1971 could be considered as the pre-conflict phase because during this period the local community started to sense the threats to its very existence. Though during this period the local community members could have access into the reserve and some communities were actually sited in the reserve, they were not allowed to engage in any commercial activity from the resources they have customary rights over (Marseille, 2010). However in 1971 when the reserve was re-designated as a national park, all the local communities within the area were forcefully evicted by the use of state security apparatus and that led to the first eruption of conflict (Marseille, 2004 ). Prior notices had been given to the local communities to evacuate from the area where they lived to outside the borders of the national park without any resettlement plan by the government for the local communities. Hence, the community readied itself to engage in open confrontation and the government knowing this also deployed the military to maintain order. The violence continued because the local communities were not ready to give up the historical heritage but with the heavy presence of military forces the violence finally calmed down (Marseille, 2004). After the eruption of the first conflict, no efforts were made to address the concerns of the local communities but between 1971 and 1992 the conflict became latent largely due to the military political regime. However, from 1992 when Ghana became a multi-party democratic state the local communities started to mobilize themselves for an action to attract attention to their plight. In 2004, an invasion of local community farmlands by wild animals, particularly elephants, triggered a massive community protest with attack on the national park through killing of animals and bushfires (Marseille, 2004). This represents the second eruption of conflict and being a democratic society, a peaceful solution was sought to resolve the conflict this time. This brought in the third party group in 2005 to address the conflict situation. Hence, the conflict is in its second post-conflict phase till date. The figure 2 below gives a representation of the stages of the conflict. Fig.4: Phases of the conflict between Larabanga and Mole NP Previous conflict resolution approaches The first formal process of conflict resolution started in 2005 with the coming in of the Netherlands Development Organization (SNV) as a third party to bring the opposing sides together to find a peaceful agreement between them. Two alternative dispute resolution (ADR) approaches were employed; namely facilitation and mediation. The facilitation process sought to deal with the strong emotions and to prepare the two sides to engage in a formal process of dialogue towards finding a common solution to the conflict. This was followed by a mediation process where the opposing sides presented their cases to the neutral mediator. In the end, the mediation process saw to the shifting of the position of the local community from opposing the existence of the national park to a new position of acceptance for the common good of the whole country (Marseille, 2004). Consequently, a agreement was successfully negotiated with the local community demanding adequate compensation, proper resettlement plan and participation in the management of the national park. (Mason and Danso, 1995) Challenges of the conflict resolution process It is indisputable that the facilitation and mediation processes employed by SNV were successful in dealing with the strong emotions and bringing these opposing sides to sit down to dialogue. Also, a peaceful agreement was reached with some level of satisfaction by both sides at the end of the negotiation (Marseille, 2004). However, the implementation of the outcomes and the action plan of the mediation process were faced with some challenges that were overlooked during the negotiation process. Stakeholder representation: from the stakeholder analysis above it could be realized that not all stakeholders were represented at the negotiation process. Typically, only the leaders of the community and the park managers were brought at the table. Hence the issue of legitimization became a limiting factor to the implementation of the outcome of the process. The park managers do not have the constitutional mandate to pay compensation and to meet the other demands of the local community. It is not clear the strategic behaviour of the MLNR, which have the ultimate authority to implement the outcomes, to stay out of the negotiation process. The legitimacy of the outcome was questioned since the creation of the national park was by executive instrument and the conflict transcends the domain of the local community and the park management team to the bigger domain of national politics. Non-binding agreement: the non-binding agreement was not appropriate for the conflict resolution process since the outcome required more of a legislative or executive instrument to implement. Again, because the agreement is non-binding, with every change of government the new administration tends not to continue with any programme of the previous government if it is not legally binding. It must be emphasized that when a new government comes to power, certain positions in the state organizations, mostly the Ministers, Chief Executives and directors, are replaced by new ones for political reasons. A new view of the problem A theoretical approach to the conflict Conflict may involve various kinds of issues: substantive, procedural and relationship. Substantive issues refers to interests that relate to tangible (observable, definable, measurable) products such as availability of firewood, protection of crop-raiding animals or stopping illegal hunting activities (Walker and Daniels, 1997). Procedural issues include a groups need to be included in decision-making, to have their opinions heard and to be respected as a social entity (Borrini-Feyerabend et al, 2000). Conflict management involves making progress on these three fundamental dimensions of a conflict situation. Any conflict situation includes substantive, procedural and relationship dimensions (the type of conflict) and a conflict situation is initially addressed through any of the three dimensions. Natural resource policy conflicts are complex; they arise within some context which typically is defined by a complex array of factors, such as numerous parties, multiple issues, deeply held values, cultural differences, scientific and technical uncertainty and legal and jurisdictional constraints (Walker and Daniels, 1997). It has been contended that natural resource conflicts are inevitable and unavoidable but also desirable to the extent that it can lead to negotiated, innovative agreements among stakeholders (Daniels and Walker, 1997). While conflicts over resource use are never favourable, when they do occur they can be used to demonstrate the need for a conflict management approach. According to Walker and Daniels (1997) well-managed natural resource conflicts can lead to better decisions, improve social cohesion, stimulate innovation and increase morale. Complex conflict situations may never be resolved, so that an agreement is reached that puts an end to those incompatibilities that caused the conflict. Whatever the conflict situation and how it is characterized, co

Environmental Effects of Fossil Fuel Exploration and Extraction Essay

As the fossil fuels, such as coal, gas, LPG and coal mixed gas and so on, has been used in the modern production process since the industrial revolution happened, the environment effects of fossil fuels’ exploration and extraction is the biggest concerns for public life. To illustrate this, data collected by Marland, Boden, Andres, Brenkert and Johnston (2003) points out that the fossil fuels industry has caused the release of approximately 337 billion metric tons of carbon to atmosphere since 1751, and the greenhouse gases’ accumulation caused by the industry can increase the risk of heat waves, droughts, malnutrition and other disasters (Haines, Kovats, Campbell-Lendrum and Corvalà ¡n, 2006), leading to social panic and complaints. Fossil fuels’ exploration and extraction in this essay refers to an industrial process of prospecting the petrochemical resources and transferring it to consumable goods. The environmental effects of this process could be varied; th is essay will focus on air pollution, land subsidence and the degradation of water quality. Initially, air pollution is considered as a negative effect of exploring and extracting the fossil fuels due to the increasing content of carbon dioxide and air dust. Since fossil resources were found and applied, the global warming issues become worse due to the increasing content of carbon dioxide. For instance, Arup(2013) states that 759 million tons more carbon dioxide will be produced if coal production keeps expanding over the level of 2011 and this will push emissions over carbon budget, causing the failure to control the climate change. Moreover, the increasing content of solid particles or air dust during this procedure may also a threat to general air quality. According to G... ...& Johnston, C. A. (2003). Global, regional, and national fossil fuel CO2 emissions. Trends: A compendium of data on global change, 34-43. http://cdiac.ornl.gov/trends/emis/overview Moffatt, S., & Pless-Mulloli, T. (2003). â€Å"It wasn’t the plague we expected.† Parents’ perceptions of the health and environmental impact of opencast coal mining. Social science & medicine, 57(3), 437-451. doi: 10.1016/S0277-9536(02)00369-6 Shi, T. G., Jiang, L. G., Li, Y., & Yang, Y. L. (2013). Disaster Analysis and Countermeasures of Land Subsidence caused by Coal Cutting in China. Chinese Geographical Science, 13(2), 130-133. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11769-003-0006-7# Tiwary, R. K. (2001). Environmental impact of coal mining on water regime and its management. Water, Air, and Soil Pollution, 132(1-2), 185-199. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1012083519667#

Business Value of Cloud Computing Essay

The significant development of information technology over past few years has led to the increasing demand of resources, extra bandwidth and computational power. Small and medium business companies with their limited budget are finding themselves in the middle of balancing between its client/employee needs and maintaining efficient work environment. In today’s economy the answer for the above problem is ‘Cloud Computing’. Cloud computing offers software and hardware resources and in some cases human services over a distributed environment that can be shared and utilized on demand through internet. Business owners can use these resources as per their requirement even if that is for few hours a day or few days a month and have to pay only for that actual use. Thus this relatively new concept is becoming highly popular among IT organizations because of its flexibility and cost effectiveness. It is highly scalable and also can span quickly according to the requirements of individual organization yet still sharing the same resources. Classification of Cloud services: The broad concept of Cloud computing can be classified into the following categories: 1)Software as a Service (SaaS): In this classification traditional or custom made software applications can be served over the internet rather than purchasing the licensed version individually. For example companies like Salesforce.com which provide CRM software to various business owners, Google Apps (word processors, spreadsheet applications) etc which are commonly used. All these are relatively cheaper than purchasing licensed versions and installing them in the internal infrastructure. Here the provider is responsible for updating the product and troubleshoot in case of any issues. 2)Platform as a Service (PaaS): This service includes providing the entire framework and all necessary products to support an entire Software development life cycle (SDLC). Starting with Analysis going all the way through design, coding, testing and deployment of the end product. The leading providers of this service are Microsoft Azure platform, Google App Engine. A classic example is SharePoint application from Microsoft where users from different location can collaborate to develop a common application that can be customized and shared individually according to the requirement of each client. 3)Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): This classification focuses on renting storage equipments (servers and high end networking devices) as well as processing devices (CPUs) to clients who don’t wish to invest in buying dedicated devices as per their requirement. Companies are billed for these resources as per their actual use and can save lots of money. IaaS providers include Amazon S3 serving storage needs, EC2 for computation services and SQS for networking needs. The provider’s infrastructure is pre-setup and can scale up and down according the each client’s needs based on real-time situations. These resources can cater occasional peaks in the situations where there is sudden increase in data or can scale down when the data flow is less. Another small classification that can also be mentioned is of offering Peoples’ skills as a service, e.g. Programmers with knowledge of Cloud services can be provided per hour basis which can help organization in developing the application as well as integrating in the existing cloud services rented by the organization. This scales down cost of hiring a programmer and also benefitting by using his/her services to merge the application with the infrastructure. (Motahari-Nezhad, Stephenson, Singhal, 2009) Werner Vogels, CTO of Amazon.com has quoted â€Å" if you run your services inside the company, utilization becomes an issue. It amortizes your cost over number of cycles. If you run services outside, on a public service, it is no longer an issue for you†. (Mache, 2009, p.55) This could be supplemented by Guy Rosen, CEO of Vircado. A starter firm in cloud computing, according to him Cloud computing can benefit a organization in many ways: 1)The company does not have to pay anything upfront, instead they are billed only for the services they use. This is a huge advantage of small organizations which have budget constraints and cannot afford large payments initially. Even in the annual balance sheet there would be no assets to declare, that could be a huge relief to accounting department. 2)Secondly if you don’t own huge infrastructure, the cost of maintaining it also comes down. There could be marginal savings in electricity which can be a significant factor in budgetory expense. 3)If the company recieves cloud services, they don’t have to worry about recruiting and maintaining IT personnel, they can concentrate on their core business goals without worrying about constructing server rooms, purchasing expensive software and maintainence contracts. (Rosen, 2010) Companies don’t have to worry about traffic or bandwidth, they even don’t have to worry about advertising on the internet by developing their web application inhouse. They can take help of SaaS and once deployed in the cloud they can wait till the time customers start hitting the webpage. Till then all the resources are not optimally utilized thus they have to pay only for that actual utilization. In a recent survey by Guy Rosen, he used market analytics vendor Quantcast to get the list of companies using cloud and their service provider. The results are displayed below in graphical format: Figure1. Adapted from â€Å"The business of Clouds† by G. Rosen, 2010, Crossroads 16(3), p 26. As per the graphic, Amazon EC2 is highest provider of cloud services hosting amongst sample of 500k. With more and more companies using cloud computing and the providers constantly adding services, businesses can save lot of money while the management can concentrate on achieving core goals.

Lassiez-faire essays

Lassiez-faire essays Laissez-faire policy has always been a fundamental principle of the federal government. New government policies are almost nonexistent and the few policies they enforced were standard government administrations. However, toward the end of the century, economic growth in the US can be linked to direct government intervention. The federal followed standard government procedure and maintained the national military, conducted foreign policy and collected tariffs. The lone exception to being standard was the distribution of Civil War pensions to veterans and their widows. Rather, the economic growth of that time was due largely to industrial expansion and development. Major innovations of the steel industry by Carnegie and electrical energy by Thomas Edison revolutionized American industry. The federal government in 1887, passed the Interstate Commerce Act (Doc I-L). This allowed congress to oversee interstate commerce and regulate prices. The national government began to take a more active role in the US economy and anti monopoly measures, protective tariffs and a billion dollar budget are on the top of the agenda. The Sherman Anti Trust Act of 1890 makes corporate monopolies officially illegal. Although the Sherman Anti Trust proves to be useless, it shows that the federal government was taking a stand in controlling corporate trusts (Doc Q). The McKinley Tariff of 1890 was a tariff that included reciprocal trade agreements that allowed the president to retaliate against countries that discriminated US products. The federal government also dealt with the issue of gold through the Sherman Silver Purchase act, the Bland Allison Act and the Gold Standard Act of 1900. Congress deleted the treasury so much that it was faced with the first billion dollar budget. The economic growth of America during this time period can be linked to many things. The industrial growth of the country boosted the...

Sohrab moving to America Essays

Sohrab moving to America Essays Sohrab moving to America Essay Sohrab moving to America Essay Five years have passed since Sohrab moved to America. Now he talks and lives happily with Soraya and I. He goes to school and loves running kits, just like his father did. Sohrabs relationship with me has improved a lot, we always remember all the moments I and Hassan spent together, our adventures, our fights against Assef, the kite tournament and winter time in Kabul. I love Sohrab as if he was my own son. I would always do my best to teach him what Baba had thought me once. We always talk about my childhood in Baba’s house and I use my experiences as an example to teach Sohrab. I tell him how Baba’s relationship changed over the years and I would also talk about the guilt I felt because of my mother’s death. I remember once when Baba was talking with Rahim Kahn and said, if I hadn’t seen the doctor pull him out of my wife with my own eyes, I’d never believe he is my son. We also talk about the important role Rahim Kahn played in my life, unlike Baba, he would always give me his support and understand me. I always remember Baba saying this to Rahim Kahn about me, a boy who won’t stand up for himself is a boy who can’t stand up to anything. My father was worried because the neighbourhood boys pushed me and took my toys and I never fought back. Your father would step in and fend them off. You see Sohr ab? We got home, and Baba would ask, how did Hassan get the scrape on his face? And I would answer he fell down. That is not how things are supposed to happen, you know? This was a really useful way to teach Sohrab. I also decided to tell him about the day that Baba said no matter what the mullah teaches, there is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft when you kill a man, you steal a life, you steal a wife’s right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to know the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. At this precise moment I knew what I had to do. I didn’t want to steal Sohrab’s right to the truth, so I made the brave decision to tell him everything. I mentioned how jealous I was, I talked about Hassan being raped, I talked about the watch and the money, I talked about everything. I could see the confusion in Soharbs face. Actually, he was disappointed. He didn’t know what to say or to think. He was sad because he thought I was different. Sohrab started yelling and said he would have preferred to stay in Afghanistan. I felt so horrible. As he already did once, Sohrab stopped talking. He needed to think and reorder his thoughts in his mind. He wouldn’t eat or leave his room. He wouldn’t want to run kite. I just had to let him be alone, I didn’t bother or try to talk to him, I just wanted to give him space. Sohrab was really sad because he knew things could have been different. Hate started to grow in his heart. I just couldn’t understand how it could be possible that what happened so many years ago could heart him that much. He knew that if I had of reacted in a different way, now, his most beloved relatives would have been there with him, happy all together, being a family. It was almost a month and Sohrab is still continuing to lock himself in his room. He barely ate what Soraya jan made him. I couldn’t help myself but to be concerned about his health. I was terrified that he might try and kill himself again. The situation continued the same until one day Soraya went into the Sohrabs room to give him his dinner and she stood there longer than she usually does. When she went out she sat on the sofa, next to me and said to me don’t worry, he will be fine, we just need to give him some more time, don’t feel guilty he also understands you, he just told me that his problem is that he is too young, and it is very difficult for him to accept this. Soraya’s words were very important to me. Now I felt better, and calm know that he juts needs time. She made me feel this way†¦. she always does. I fell asleep and when I woke up, Soharb was sitting next to me. Soraya wasn’t there Sohrab was. At the moment, Sohrab started to c ry and gave me something he had in his hands. I opened it and saw a kite Sohrab had made for me. On it there were some photos of the five of us; Baba, Amir, Hassan, Sohrab and Rahim Kahn. I couldn’t help myself but to give Sohrab a hug and after a while he said when guilt leads to good, that’s what true redemption is. What astounded me was he remembered this from one of the stories I told him as Rahim Kahn once said this to me. It is hard to accept that things could have been different, and we could all be living together now, but this is my reality, this is my life and you are my family. Thanks a lot Amir agha and thank you for telling me the truth. At this exact moment Soraya came in the room again and on her face, there was a tear and in her eyes a strange but happy look. I’m pregnant! Soraya says. I’m going to have a brother! Sohrab answered while a bis smile invaded his face. And I myself couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

Temptation week 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Temptation week 2 - Essay Example ?bahan’ and is used to denote either ‘testing of buildings and precious metals’ (see 1 Cor 3:13; 1 Peter 1:7 New Revised Standard Version) or testing of the Christian character (Rom 5:4 New Revised Standard Version, cited in Deasley, 1997). Another Greek term in the New Testament for ‘testing of persons’ is (peirazw) peirazo. The theme of testing runs through most of the Bible, including the Old and New Testaments (see Gen 22:1, 42:15; Deut 4:34; also 1 Peter 1:7; 2 Cor 13:5; Rom 5:4; James 1:2-3; Gal 6:1; Heb 11:17 New Revised Standard Version). Thus, not only Christians are encouraged to test their belief, strength of will and fortitude, but also people are tested for their honesty, knowledge, etc. Even Jesus has been tested, though with intent to be discredited, by the Pharisees (see Matt 16:1; Mark 10:2 New Revised Standard Version); while people have been put to the test by God in order to reveal their qualities, thoughts and obedience (see Jer 12:13; 1 Chron 29:17 New Revised Standard Version). This is especially the case of those who exercised an all-important role in God’s purposes, such as Abraham, as well as the prophets and the people of Israel (see Gen 22:1; Exod 15:25; Deut 8:2 New Revised Standard Version). Another theme that appears noticeable in the Holy Scripture is the one of temptation (Gen 3:4-6; Matt 4:3; Mark 1:13; Acts 5:3 New Revised Standard Version); the theme is especially prominent at the critical points in Jesus’s ministry and redemptive mission, most notably His baptism and death on the cross (Deasley, 1997). Being tempted by the devil in the wilderness, Jesus rejected protection, provision and power over the world, though fake one, which were offered to Him in exchange for deviation from His divinely appointed mission, and thus succeeded where Israel had failed (Matt 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-12 New Revised Standard Version). The second major test had been in the garden of Gethsemane, where, according to the Synoptic Gospels,

The role of affirmative action in society Research Paper

The role of affirmative action in society - Research Paper Example The main reason this topic has been chosen is that we live in very diverse societies and are faced with a very wide range of people every single day. With the increasing change of roles of households and the increasing recessions in place, there is a clear need to understand in depth the steps that are taken to positively represent the women and minorities. Body: Impact of Affirmative Action on Society Considering the beneficiaries of the Affirmative Action it is evident that the cause is very noble. Yes, it is true that the law was introduced and passed for the safety and need of many people in need. However considering the people involved and the amount of damage that it has on the society, there have been a number of doubts that have surfaced. The law has also stirred up a number of questions and has built up a number of doubts about the accuracy of the law. Kate Johns has in a very effective manner explained the same. She explains the case of Martin Luther King who had focused on what the person is worth in terms of skills, behavior and performance rather than on the color of the skin. As quoted by Johns, â€Å"Don't judge a man by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character† (Johns). ... ople are actually being judged by their skin color and being place in jobs and higher places of learning due to their skin color, and their ethnic background† (Johns). This is the concept there several white victims of affirmative action and those from majority groups now refer to as reverse discrimination. Most affirmative action policies have always operated on the assumption of that the group that is on the receiving end of the policies is at an advantage. There are members of this group who are not necessarily under such circumstances. It is hard to believe but there are researchers who have argued that these policies, including those that are founded on racial principles, targets and goals at times have a serious impact on the majority race too. Lately, there have been several instances of white men complaining of reduced opportunities as a result of affirmative action policies that favor women and because of those that favor the minority races. This phenomenon goes by sev eral names and has been employed by a number of groups that criticize the philosophies on which affirmative action policies have been founded. While at the initial stages, the affirmative action policies or frameworks work in a positive way. This is because at this stage, they introduce the terms and define the boundaries for which to sell the concept and idea of gender and racial preferences, goals and targets. However, they ultimately turn their heads and start biting the class of people who had been believed to be strongly protected or favored by the system. It is essential to note that impact of the affirmative action is not completely negative in society and the actual intension of the law is clearly a good one. As explained by Mitchell W. Pearlman and Gregory Daniels, Affirmative action

Does the threat of prison serve as a deterrent Discuss with reference Essay

Does the threat of prison serve as a deterrent Discuss with reference to the work of at least two academic theorists - Essay Example Across the societies and in all nations, a prison system has been set and mandated with primary responsibility and authority of punishing these criminal offenders who have been found guilty by court. To deter is to use punishment as way of averting criminal acts. A prison is a setting where criminal offenders are contained legally as way of punishment for the crimes they have committed (Perrier and Pink, 2003:58). The question that, therefore, rises is if prisons actually serve to deter crime from happening. This essay will discuss the extent and ways in which prisons function in their attempt to reduce and deter crime and demonstrate if actually this objective is achieved. This will be based and compared to the theoretical perspectives of prison and role in crime deterrence. It is of great concern to anyone who has interest in crime prevention to critically analyse the role of prison system in curbing crime through preventing a reoccurrence and initiation of a new one. There has been a massive transformation in the recent time in the prison departments with different people expressing divergent opinions concerning the main role of a prison. Some people would argue that the prison should be a rehabilitation centre with structures and facilities that are suppose to empower the offenders and show them a new perspective in life. Other people from a different school of thought would say that availing positive and empowerment tools to offenders would be reinforcing criminal acts and, therefore, no one would learn from the mistakes. Punishment is the best way to unlearn behaviour rather that exposing a criminal to positive and enabling conditions. While it appears to be a motivation and reinforcement of a criminal behaviour, a holistic rehabilitative measure have been put in most prisons to make sure that prisoners come out of their dens afresh with clearly set goals and ambition so as to make a change in the society. This has

The National Literacy Strategy Essay Example for Free

The National Literacy Strategy Essay The following essay will consider some of the components of the literacy hour and discuss the strategies teachers use to utilise these methods within the classroom. Literacy is at the heart of the drive to raise standards in schools (DfES, 2001, pg2) The above quote is taken from the National Literacy Strategy framework for teaching which, since 1998 has highlighted the importance of teaching English to all schoolchildren. The framework was introduced to couple the National Curriculum document and builds on theories and ideas from previous reports (such as the Kingman report: 1988 and the Cox report: 1989) and documentation which since 1975 have highlighted the importance of having certain attainment targets that children should be achieving. These targets are the acquisition of good speaking, listening, reading, writing and spelling skills, and the Literacy strategy influences teachers in planning and delivering at least an hour long literacy lesson each day, focusing on one or more of these targets. According to the National Literacy document children use a range of strategies, or searchlights, when reading to help them make sense of text. These searchlights fall into four categories. These are; phonic knowledge, grammatical knowledge, knowledge of context/word recognition and graphic knowledge (DfES: 2001. p 4) When teaching reading teachers will break their lesson down into shared (whole class) and guided (independent with support from teacher) sessions. When delivering shared and guided reading sessions teachers can model to children how to draw upon all four of the searchlights to aid them in their reading. Shared reading normally focuses on word and text level work and so teachers will plan for a whole class read in which specific features such as spelling patterns, alliteration, punctuation or the intention of the piece that is being read will be highlighted for to the class. (Ibid). Practitioners are also able to model how clues contained within the piece (such as pictures, exclamation or speech marks) can be used to predict how the story is to be read. However, during guided or independent reading children have to use what knowledge they have of the English language to read on their own. It is for this reason that practitioners will plan to teach the use of phonics to children from an early age. As young children find it hard to discriminate the sounds of letters automatically the teaching of phonics or letter sounds is used by teachers to help children to recognise the correct spelling of a word (DfES 2001). The most effective practitioners will teach children how to identify the phonemes in spoken language and then build an understanding of how each phoneme is correctly spelt. When children have acquired a sound knowledge of these phonemes, practitioners will educate them in two new skills known as segmentation and blending.

Implications of change management on organizational behavior

Implications of change management on organizational behavior Change is hard because people overestimate the value of what they have-and underestimate the value of what they may gain by giving that up. (James et al 1994) Change Management is the process, tools and techniques to manage the people-side of change to achieve the required business outcome (Prosci 2009). This report outlines a massive Change Management exercise rolled out at Infosys Technologies Ltd (ITL), India. ITL is a NASDAQ listed fortune 500, Indian IT company with 63 offices across the globe with an employee base of 1, 22,468 (Infosys 2010). Pre-recession scenario in Indian IT companies witnessed employee promotions in every 2-3 years. As a result, a person works on technology for 4-5 years and then moves up to management. This has resulted in clients complaining about the lack of technically strong people. To urgency to meet the client expectations triggered the launch of iRACE (Infosys Role and Career Enhancement) change management exercise in October 2009 amidst peak recession climate (Huczynski et al 2010 pp. 563). iRACE, implemented by global HR services firm Mercer Consulting, was a career transformation exercise with 24 career streams to ensure the growth will no longer be defined by movement up due to frequent promotions. This review sights the analysis of the nature of iRACE transformation using Scale Of Change and Change Leadership Style plot (Stace and Dunphy, 2001), change agents approach, communication strategy and implications of iRACE change and compares it with theory. Also suggestions that could have led to effective change management at Infosys with minimum resistance and impact on the employees have been proposed. Change characteristics Scale, Leadership style Context Analysis: With approx. 1, 00,000 employees getting affected by the iRACE change rollout the analysis of the scale, leadership style context of the change becomes very significant. Stance and Dunphy (2001) defined that the change of scale using four characteristics: fine Tuning, incremental adjustment, modular transformation and corporate transformation. Stance and Dunphy (2001) also defined the categories of change leadership style: collaborative, consultative, directive and coercive. Plotting Scale Of Change against Change Leadership Style and Dunphy Stace contingency approach to change implementation helps to analyze the scale of change, leadership style and evaluate the approach of iRACE change whether it fits in the right context or not . (Huczynski et al 2010 pp. 574). Fig1 : Scale of change and leadership style Scale of change Style of change leadership Fine Tuning Incremental Adjustment Modular Transformation Corporate Transformation Collaborative Type 1 Type 2 Consultative Participative evolution Charismatic transformation Directive Type 3 Type 4 iRACE Change was a necessity for survival. Had to rely on external support for doing the change. Coercive Forced evolution Dictatorial transformation Source: Adopted from (Huczynski et al 2010 pp. 574). This matrix analysis categorizes iRACE into a Corporate Change with Coercive leadership style and fits iRACE into a Dictatorial corporate transformation context. Role and approach of Change Agents in fostering the change: Effective management of change is necessary to sustain the competition. Balogun and Hope Hailey (2004) report a failure rate of around 70% of all change programmes initiated. The facts thus suggest that there is no well-defined framework across domains that outlines the management and implementation of change. What is available is a wide range of confusing theories and approaches (Burnes, 2004). Guimaraes and Armstrong (1998) support this by saying that mostly superficial analyses have been published in this basic area. With the lack of a fundamental framework of change, the role of change agents becomes exceedingly crucial. A change agent is defined as a manager who seeks to reconfigure an organizations roles, responsibilities, structures, outputs, processes, systems, technology or other resources in the light of improving organizational effectiveness (Buchanan and Badham 1999). Buchanan and Boddy (1992) list competencies of effective change agents: clarity of specifying goals, team building activities, communication skills, negotiation skills and influencing skills to gain commitment to goals. Gronn (2002) and Bennett et al (2003) sight that distribution of change agency means that more people need to have the skills required. Also contrary to Gronn (2002) and Bennett et all (2003) sighting, iRACE change agency was not distributed as major part of the change was formulated by Mercer Consulting (external change agent) and a committee of only 65 top level managers (internal change agents) Fig2 : iRACE Change Management and Communication (Phases and Timelines) Source: Self-understanding of knowledge of iRACE gained at Infosys (2009) Kanter (1989) speaks of superhuman change agents, with wide-ranging expertise, as a business athlete. Although the change agents seemed to be effective in Phase I but contrary to Kanter (1989) argument, change agents in Phase II couldnt perform effective organizational diagnosis and Phase III IV were ineffective because of the lack of expertise the change agents took much longer time than expected in dealing with the design complexities. This resulted in excessive delay in (Phase V) and thus delayed communication led to mismatch with the stakeholders expectations of the change resulting in resentment of the stakeholders (Kubler Ross, 1969). Importance of Communication- An underestimated picture An effective communication smoothens the delivery of the change. Bovee and Thill (2000, p.4) believe that effective communication only takes place when participants achieve a shared understanding, stimulate others to take actions and encourage people to think in new ways. Opposite to Bovee and Thills (2000) saying iRACE change communication lacked shared understanding at the managerial level. Gibb (1961) argues the importance of Communication Climate. Contrary to Gibb (1961) argument the climate was not favorable for iRace change with global recession cloud, layoffs and other stringent policy amendments (e.g. 9.15 work hour policy, ISTAFF policy) and communications taking place simultaneously. The communication process also lacked effective communication strategy. The communication was merely based on tactical analysis. Even though communication involved just tactical analysis, It failed to cater to all the areas of tactical analysis i.e. it lacked right channels for communication flow, timeliness and efficient monitoring. Communication was made highly complex. The delay in design phase worsened the communication by percolating the delay in delivery phase and as a result of shrinked timelines, communication process lacked two-way communication, dialogue and feedback, review exercise for the communication delivered and last but not the least the employee discomfort went un heard during the entire communication phase (Huczynski et al 2010 pp. 226-27). Fall out of the Change Impact on Organizational Behavior : Role Restructuring Demotions: Over 4,500 people got demoted because of the iRACE implementation. This created a furor. Loss of Loyalty of Employees: The employees criticized iRACE and the HR leadership through use of social media to express their resentment and the fading out loyalty. Unprecedented Attrition- A key failure indicator: In the initial half of 2010- Infosys lost 4000 employees in the month of February 2010 alone accounting for 3% of its total strength (Dexter 2010). Over 10,000 that have quit since October 2009, 4,000 left in February10 alone. About 1,000 e-separations were filed on the intranet on a single day: December 31st (Current IT Market 2010). Fig3 : Attrition Rate at Infosys Pre and Post iRACE change implementation Source: (Infosys Reports Filings 2010) Pre iRACE Implementation- Q3-09 to Q2-10 relate to Peak recession scenario iRACE design phase. iRACE Implementation- Q4-10 iRACE Implementation phase Post iRACE Implementation- Q1-11 to Q2-11- iRACE fall out phase. Refurbishing process- The Resolution : Unitarist frame of reference views organization as fundamentally harmonious, co-operative structures, consisting of committed, loyal, worker-management teams that promote harmony of purpose (Huczynski et al 2010 pp. 662-63). Ackroyd et al (1999) and Johnston (2000) identified the key features of unitarist frame of reference which use communication failures between management and employees to explain the workplace conflict. To overcome the communication failures continuous impacts, management must re-structure the communication process so that the objective of the change is communicated to the employees clearly. Firstly, using Gronn (2002) and Bennett et al (2003) theory of distribution of change agency management must involve more skilled persons in the communication thus distribute the change agency. Secondly, iRACE change agents should restructure the communication process by using a Strategic Planning- Iceberg which outlines the strategic approach to communicating change based o n four levels of planning outlined below (Clampitt et all N.D.). Fig3 : Strategic Planning Iceberg Source: (Clampitt et all N.D.) The Ice Berg strategic planning will benefit iRACE change agents in focusing on all four strategic approaches contextual analysis (anticipate possible resistance points), audience analysis (isolate key groups of employees that may be directly or indirectly impacted by the change) and strategic design (development of a sustainable strategy based on the outcomes of contextual and audience analysis) unlike the previous approach which focused on Tactics (how to s?) only. As the market is stabilizing after the recession, substantial rewards (salary hikes, exceptional performance promotions, role progressions if not role change) can be given to the employees which will be beneficial for the employees and the organization as a whole. Conclusion: The Scale Of Change against Change Leadership Style and Dunphy Stace contingency approach helped in accessing the characteristics of the change. The analysis also uses Gronn (2002) and Bennett et al (2003) change agency distribution theory to analyze the importance of distribution of the change agency viz a viz emphasizes on competencies of effective change agents. These strategies, if used, strategically, would have led to the involvement of more competent people into the change process as change agents. Diversification of change agency if ignored like in case of ITL leads to inefficient change strategy. The unitarist frame of reference helped to identify the causes of conflict in ITL. This analysis further highlights the (Clampitt et all N.D.) Ice Berg strategic planning approach to understand the significance of strategic communication of the change and communication climate Gibb (1961) and its benefits in communicating the objective of the change. Value of the strategic communic ation in fostering the change, if undermined, wreaks serious threats to the organizational behavior. The solutions suggested may involve extra manpower, extra effort and time in restructuring the communication process and communicating the essence of change. Given solution may also incur cost to give wage hikes initially but are competent enough to solve the problem and lead to a smoothened and sustainable organization change viz a viz improvement in organization behavior. References Ackroyd, S. and Thompson, P. (1999) Organizational Misbehavior. London: Sage Publications. Balogun, J. and Hope Hailey, V. (2004) Exploring Strategic Change, 2nd edition (London: Prentice Hall). Bennett, N., Wise, C. and Woods, P. (2003) Distributed Leadership. Nottingham: National College for School Leadership. Bovee, C.L. and Thill, J.V. (2000), Business Communication Today, 6th edition., Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ. Buchanan, D.A. and Badham, R. (1999), Politics and organizational change: the lived experience, Human Relations, Vol. 52 No. 5, pp. 609-29. Buchanan, D.A. and Boddy, D. (1992), The Expertise of the Change Agent, Prentice-Hall, London. Burnes, B. (2004) Managing Change: A Strategic Approach to Organizational Dynamics, 4th edition (Harlow: Prentice Hall). Clampitt, Phillip, G. and Berk, Laurey, R. (N.D.) Strategically Communicating Organization Change. http://www.imetacomm.com/otherpubs/pdf_doc_downloads/strat_commg_org_change_v5.pdf [Accessed 28/10/2010]. Current IT Market (2010). Most Viewed Posts Today: Infosys to give unheard of increments. http://www.currentitmarket.net/2010/03/infosys-to-give-unheard-of-increments.html [Accessed 27/10/2010]. Dexternights (2010). Daily dose of Technology and Reviews: Infosys iRace makes employees say I QUIT. http://www.dexternights.com/2010/03/20/infosys-irace-makes-employees-say-i-quit/ [Accessed 27/10/2010]. Gibb, J.R. (1961) Defensive Communication, Journal of Communication, 11(3): 141-48. Gronn, P. (2002) Distributed leadership as a unit of analysis, Leadership Quarterly, 13(4):423-51. Guimaraes, T. and Armstrong, C. (1998) Empirically testing the impact of change management effectiveness on company performance, European Journal of Innovation Management, 1(2), pp. 74-84. Huczynski, A., and Buchanan, A. (2010) Organizational Behaviour, 7th edition. Harlow: Pearson Education, pp. 563-575, 662-663. Infosys (2010). About us: What We Do http://www.infosys.com/about/what-we-do/pages/index.aspx [Accessed 23/10/2010]. Infosys Reports Filings (2010). Quarterly Reports, FY 09-11: Fact Sheet: Consolidated financial data: Attrition. http://www.infosys.com/investors/reports-filings/quarterly-results/2010-2011/Q1/Pages/index.aspx [Accessed 26/10/2010 ] James, A., Belasco and Ralph, C., Stayer (1994). Flight Of The Buffalo http://www.leadershipnow.com/changequotes.html [Accessed 23/10/2010]. Johnston, R. (2000) Hidden capital. In J. Barry, J.Chandler, H. Clark, R. Johnston and D. Needle (eds), Organization and Management: A Critical Text. London: International Thomson Business Press, pp. 16-35. Kanter, R.M. (1989) When Giants Learn to Dance: Mastering the Challenge of Strategy. Management and Careers in the 1990s. London: Simon Schuster. Kubler-Ross, E. (1969) On Death and Dying. Toronto: McMillan. Prosci (2009). Proscis Change Management Webinar Series http://www.change-management.com/Prosci-Webinar-Prereading-2009.pdf [Accessed 23/10/2010]. Stace, D., and Dunphy, D., 2001 The strategic management of corporate change, Human Relations, 46(8), pp. 905-918.