Participant-Observer Exercise Essay

First of all, I am grateful to all class members and our instructor for the experience that I was able to acquire during this course. This is a good example of experiential learning – here we all had opportunities to transform our theoretical knowledge into real life experience. It really proved effective. I may also note that the last group engagement exercise did not disprove my previous hypotheses: with time and the experience of joint work we all got more confident about the tasks, and with the raise of confidence our productivity increased. I think we all got to know each other better and it increased the level of confidence. My hypothesis for this week is: â€Å"Group work gets real meaning and becomes more productive when group members bring in their personal insights and personal experiences instead of confining themselves to theorizing and relying on common sense. † At first, we knew each other too little to be open and share our personal experience. With time, we got to know each other better and gradually became more relaxed about sharing our thoughts. I think it had a positive impact on our performance. It helped to provide more examples of the concepts we presented. Our task was to discuss experiential learning and how it assists in exercising leadership and understanding group dynamics. We focused on several chosen principles in our presentation, and each of us was able to vitalize theory by referring to specific examples. This level of openness was quite impossible during the first exercise. Personal insights helped us all better understand theory and make a more interesting presentation. In fact, this experience once again proves Principle 9 that we discussed in our presentation: â€Å"The more supportive, accepting, and caring the social environment, the freer a person is to experiment with new behaviors, attitudes, and action theories† (Johnson & Johnson, 2009, p. 51). Since all were open and ready to introduce a personal insight, we felt the environment to be rather supportive and accepting. As a result, we felt more confident and could communicate our thoughts freely. It provided greater value to our group work and helped to fulfill our task more successfully. References Johnson, D. W. , & Johnson, F. P. (2009). Joining together: Group theory and group skills. 10th ed. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

What is academic misconduct Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

What is academic misconduct - Essay Example Students cannot be excused from such clear instincts of cheating, while it is possible that the accusation of academic misconduct may sometimes hurt those students who were not aware in the first place that they committed a mistake. To avoid this, proper measures should be taken to let students know clearly what plagiarism means, and how a lack of understanding about it may lead to academic misconduct. Q: How have you figured out what cheating is here at university? Who has talked to you about cheating to help you understand what is considered cheating? Who have you talked with here at university to help you determine what is considered cheating? What are some things that are considered cheating? A: Before I took a test in the University, I heard that my friend took the same class at summer and he has the midterm paper for that class. So I asked the midterm paper of summer and received. When I took the midterm exam, I found the midterm exam was exactly same from the summer class so I wrote what I had. At that time, I never thought this was cheating because the other class before I took this class, some professor posted the last semester exams and solutions and I had used those things for my exams. But a student conduct told me that was a kind of cheating. First time, I could not agree with him. But I found that I had been mistaken about what cheating was because what I wrote in the last exam was not from my idea and thinking. Even if I did not copy from others in a class, if I used other’s idea or thinking from outside source, that could be cheating. The University expects my answers to be original, based on my exposure to the subject in my classroom and through my ow n reading and observations. If I used ideas and expressions of others without acknowledging it, I was committing plagiarism. Moreover, one has to be very honest in exams. This is what I learned form this incident. A: The

HR AND LEADERSHIP Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

HR AND LEADERSHIP - Essay Example DuBrin (2011) have pointed out that organizational change is organic in nature, which means that leaders and managers need to ensure that the change process includes the employees in the organizational rather than banking on resource and process deployment. Hence, it can be surmised that change management is direction oriented process, which means that, managers and in some cases leaders need to take the responsibility to move the organizational change. On the other hand, research work of DuBrin (2011) shows that organizational change can be three types, 1- strategic- which is relatively low human resource driven, 2- tactical- which is relatively high human resource driven and 3- operational- which requires extensive amount of human resource involvement. Careful observation of the research work of DuBrin (2011) shows that, whatever the strategic orientation of change management, one thing remains constant that is the involvement of managers and leaders for giving the direction to the change. Research works of previous research scholars regarding organizational change and role of leaders have forced the researcher to raise a pertinent question, is there any strategic relationship between leadership dimension and success of organizational change management process? Well, throughout the essay, the researcher will try to find answer of this question with the help theoretical argument of various research scholars and in some cases taking help of real world business cases. At this point of the essay, one thing needs to be clarified that the essay will not use any subjective view to establish the relationship between engagement of leaders and success of change management rather the study will take conjectural view on the research topic. In the next part, the study will try to understand different aspects of change management process. It is essential to know why an organization changes in order to understand how leaders and managers can help the organization to incorpo rate the change. Understanding the macro dynamics of change can help the researcher to understand why some organizations implement successful change management process while others fail to do so. The question may arise that is there any magic formulae or special skill which bifurcate winners from losers in context to change management process. Tichy (1983) has identified that leader’s capability to cope with macro environmental challenges and use organizational learning concept in order to change the existing system. According to the research work of Tichy (1983), leaders and managers need to identify three forces such as economic forces, cultural forces and political forces in order to incorporate organizational change in accordance with the magnitude of these three forces. (Source: Tichy, 1983) According to the above mentioned triangular model, organizations develop three types of systems such as technical systems, cultural systems and political system in order to incorpora te change. Gone are the days when organizations can expect that it would achieve competitive advantage by using age old technologies. Organizations have understood the fact that they need to integrate state of art technology in order to deliver better value proposition to customers, decrease cost of operation, and achieve economies of scale etc. The study will use the example of Toyota

Please read the second half(starting from chapter 4) of the book ''War Essay

Please read the second half(starting from chapter 4) of the book ''War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning'' of Chris Hedges and pr - Essay Example I can understand why the media would work with the military and lie or over-sensationalize the war. First, it is easier for them to do what the military tells them to do, rather than put up a fight and face what I can only guess is an unpleasant punishment – or at least a one way ticket home. But the press also has hidden motives: war makes them money. When a war breaks out, like when the USA invaded Afghanistan right after 9/11, people were glued to their TVs. People were watching CNN and all the commercials for products that came on in between the latest war updates. Reporters come back from war and write books – just like Chris Hedges did – that make them money. Why is the media not talking much right now about the war in Afghanistan or the war in Iraq? People grew tired of seeing it on their TVs. The wars have become like a TV show that has been on the air for too long and no one watches it anymore. So the media doesn’t report on it much. Where I canno t really agree with Hedges is his belief that Americans see war as entertainment.

Business Failure Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 10000 words

Business Failure - Essay Example The following year saw liquidity dry up, businesses lose their orders or defaulting on their payments, and layoffs become widespread. Then, businesses started closing; the larger conglomerates relied upon government bailout money, at the risk of nationalization, but â€Å"too large to fail† was exactly that – critical industries and the economic framework relied upon the survival of these key enterprises (Peters, Shane & Torgerson, 2009). While there were some companies that were saved at all costs – especially at the cost of public money being used to purchase toxic assets – other companies were left to die out because they were not crucial to the coming recovery. Several of these hardest hit are in the retail sales business. And in the United Kingdom, one of these companies that had to close its books for the last time was Woolworths, the high-street retail firm in existence since 1909, and owned by the Woolworths Group plc. This case study shall deal with the phenomenon of business failure, and its occurrence in the UK retail sector. Highlighted will be the case of Woolworths plc, which presents several controversies concerning the circumstances surrounding its closure. The case of Woolworths is one that defies an easy and clear-cut solution; as many serious observers believe that the company should not have been closed down because its two or three core businesses could have been demerged and allowed to operate; apparently, the administrators and regulators felt otherwise, and finalized the group’s demise. A small remnant of Woolies (as it is affectionately called) continues to operate as an online retailer, having been acquired by the Shop Direct Group (Anon, Cabinet Maker, 2009). This study shall examine the case of Woolworths from the point of view of theory, and from the indicators and accounts that comprised the facts of its operations.

Civilization history Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Civilization history - Essay Example How would her rule be different in the modern world? The term ‘absolutism’ indicates the absolute monarchical power enjoyed by the rulers during the 17th and 18th century. The main features of absolutism are the ending of feudal partitioning, consolidation of power with the monarch, increase in state power, unification of state laws, and a fall in the influence of Church and nobles on the rulers. Moreover, absolutism is marked by the existence of ideologies that justified the absolute power of monarchs. On the other hand, ‘constitutionalism’ refers to the principle that the government derives its power from the people; and hence, is limited by a body of fundamental laws. So, constitutionalism argues that government is not free to do anything as its power is limited. Instead, it is bound to follow the rules and procedures which are set out in the constitutional law of the community. According to Birn, one can say that while absolutism is based on the concept of the absolute power of the ruler, constitutionalis m believes in the balance of power between government power and the rights of people1. Absolutism in Europe tried to ensure order by developing both philosophical and secular ideologies that support the absolute power of the monarch. Some examples are the divine right theory of Bishop Jacques Bossuet (1627-1704) and the Leviathan from Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679). The rulers took all the decisions in absolutism and all the decisions came from the ruler. Also, the ruler ensured control over religion and economy. Another important feature was the clear class distinctions. On the other hand, the methods adopted by constitutionalism were entirely different. As constitutionalism took birth, it replaced the absolute power policy by a rule by law. In addition, the concept of social contract arose as the very basis of government. Thus, the rules developed are the rules that are

Marketing - Sunshine Foods, Inc Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Marketing - Sunshine Foods, Inc - Case Study Example The main cause identifiable with these problems is inappropriate business strategy that is not aligned with the changing market demands. Market demands include customer preferences and competitors’ offerings. Sunshine Foods Inc lacks focus on consumer requirements in terms of choice of quality, quantity and variety. Thirdly, its business strategy stalled at products with high potential sales volume resulted in limited sales potential by confining to bigger shops and excluding smaller retailers. This created limited market for the wide variety of Sunshine Foods’ products because the smaller retailers could not conform to the high volume sales policy, unaffordable in terms of cost and space. Next, lack of ownership is also a major contributor of low profits attributable to lack of focus on reducing operational costs. Lack of focus on employee retention and motivation caused the downfall of Sunshine Food Inc. Lack of co-ordination between production and sales department ad ded more problems. Lack of diversified expertise in the staff is one of the major problems in Sunshine Food Inc as most of its staff was from its parent company. Recommendations to improve the situation include strategic changes in different aspects of business; this should include change in corporate strategy, marketing and sales methods, research, and human relations. Firstly, the corporate strategy has to be aligned to the organizational goal of improving profits. Next, developing a research team to check profitable and non profitable products on a periodic basis will help the company assess customer requirements, market performance and efficiency of the strategies followed. This research can be used to formulate sales and marketing strategies accordingly. Sunshine Foods needs to expand its offerings to all kind of stores including smaller stores