Saturday, August 31, 2019

General Certificate of Education Ordinary Level Essay

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE INTERNATIONAL EXAMINATIONS General Certificate of Education Ordinary Level .c rs om 1123/11 ENGLISH LANGUAGE Paper 1 Writing Additional Materials: * 4 0 7 9 5 7 8 4 2 9 * October/November 2011 1 hour 30 minutes Answer Booklet/Paper READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST If you have been given an Answer Booklet, follow the instructions on the front cover of the Booklet. Write your Centre number, candidate number and name on all the work you hand in. Write in dark blue or black pen. Do not use staples, paper clips, highlighters, glue or correction fluid. Answer both Section One and Section Two. At the end of the examination, fasten all your work securely together. This document consists of 3 printed pages and 1 blank page. DC (CW) 33870/3  © UCLES 2011 [Turn over 2 Section 1: Directed Writing You are advised to write between 200 and 300 words. Total marks for this part: 30. Task Recently you witnessed a major disturbance at a railway station when many people were injured. You are asked by the local police to write an account of what you saw. Write your account. You must include the following: †¢ when and where the incident happened and how close you were to the scene the cause of the disturbance and what exactly happened some of the ways in which people tried to help. †¢ †¢ Cover all three points above in detail. You should make your account informative and helpful for the police to show you are a reliable witness. Start your account ‘To the Police†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ and remember to add your signature and the date.  © UCLES 2011 1123/11/O/N/11 3 Section 2: Creative Writing Begin your answer on a fresh page. Write on one of the following topics. At the head of your essay put the number of the topic you have chosen. You are advised to write between 350 and 500 words. Total marks for this part: 30. 1 Describe a time when you prefer to be alone and a time when you like to be part of a crowd. (Remember that you are describing the atmosphere and your feelings, not telling a story.) 2 What are the advantages and disadvantages of attending either a small school with few students or a large school with many students? 3 Write a story which includes the sentence: ‘As we entered the building, the other people smiled as if they knew something we did not.’ 4 Bullies. 5 Write a story about someone who returned to a village or town after a long time away. (You should include full details of why the person went away to show that it is an important part of your story.)  © UCLES 2011 1123/11/O/N/11 4 BLANK PAGE Permission to reproduce items where third-party owned material protected by copyright is included has been sought and cleared where possible. Every reasonable effort has been made by the publisher (UCLES) to trace copyright holders, but if any items requiring clearance have unwittingly been included, the publisher will be pleased to make amends at the earliest possible opportunity. University of Cambridge International Examinations is part of the Cambridge Assessment Group. Cambridge Assessment is the brand name of University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), which is itself a department of the University of Cambridge.  © UCLES 2011 1123/11/O/N/11

Friday, August 30, 2019

Requirement I

G51REQ Coursework 1 REQUIREMENTS ELICITATION REPORT Group: Authors: Muhammad Khidhir Hein Min Htike Ang Rhu Zen Date: 10/11/2011 Part 1 Report Summary The report is about the activities done and observed before, while and after the trip to Zoo Negara. The main activities were deciding where and when to go, making the trip, arriving at the place and doing a visit, returning from the trip and activities after the visit. Initially, we were planning to visit A’ Famosa in Malacca, but it was canceled as Malacca was a big distance away from the campus, and the travelling will take most of our time.After searching on the internet about places to visit in Kuala Lumpur, we decided on visiting Zoo Negara on Saturday, which is much closer compared to Malacca and almost none of us had visited the place yet. On Saturday morning, we met at the SA building and drove to the zoo. Having a driver who knows the routes in Kuala Lumpur, we reached Zoo Negara in about an hour. However, we had a har d time finding parking spots as it was the eve of Hari Raya. In the end, we had to park our car a long distance away from the entrance, but at least we have arrived at the zoo.Inside the zoo, we saw different kinds of animals and there were several centers that function as a sanctuary for famous local birds, reptiles and fish. We collected data by taking pictures and interviewing a few individuals while having a break at one of the train stops. After we went to see the tigers and lions in the Mammal Kingdom, we finally left the zoo from another entrance, which was not far from where we parked. On the way back, we stopped at a Burger King in Damansara for late lunch before heading back to Nottingham. When we got back to our own home s, we saved the pictures hat were taken and started on writing the report. In the end, the problems we had on that trip was based on finding places within the zoo and wasting our time seeing some of the same attractions. Part 2 Approach to requirements el icitation Requirements elicitation is also known as requirements gathering, which is part of the process upon enquiring the requirements of a particular system from users, customers and stakeholders. In other words, it can also be considered as consul tation with the people who are involved in the process as mentioned above.Stages of elicitation include objective setting, background knowledge, knowledge organisation and stakeholder requirements collection. There is various specific approach of requirements elicitation which includes interviewing, soft systems methods, prototyping, scenarios, and requirements reuse and participant observation. These are some of the familiar approach to requirements elicitation. Firstly, the requirements engineer will talk about the system with numbers of stakeholders and boost the understanding of their requirements.Therefore, an interview will be conducted in order to get the necessary information. This can be done in two different ways, either thro ugh closed interviews or open interviews. Closed interviews will be conveyed by looking for answers from a pre-defined number of questions which has been set by the requirements engineer. Unlike closed interviews, open interviews let the requirements engineer to dispute with the stakeholders in an open-ended way about what they want from the system. Interviewers can never approach the interview with disapproving ideas about what is needed and must be open-minded.Besides that, stakeholders must be given an idea about the discussion by requirements proposal or show examples of an existing system. Secondly, scenarios technique is used for elicitation which explains the way a system is being used through stories description. It starts with an introduction of the system before the scenario starts, then the usual flow of events with some exception and information about coexisting activities. At the end of the scenario, a description of the system is being stated. Scenarios describe how a user communicates with a system.Participant observation is observing people at work because they find it difficult to tell what they do because it is normal to them. Moreover, ethnography method also has proved to be precious in understanding actual work processes. An ethnographer can observe people at work and create an image of how work is done. Furthermore, another method in requirements elicitation is requirements reuse. It involves taking a developed system and uses them in different system. These reused requirements have already been checked and validated in other system, thus saves time and effort.But, currently it is an informal process but through this, it could lead to bigger cost savings. By reusing, it could lead to a consistency of pattern through applications. While being at the zoo, we walked throughout the whole area of the zoo to get a better view and some first-hand experience on how things work there. We could see that, the signage doesn’t really give accur ate direction to the place we wanted to go. The signage tells us to go towards the direction they give but in the end we were in a different pathway from the one we were supposed to be at. They should provide a clearer signage for people to understand it better.Additionally, I think there should be more staffs in and around the zoo to explain further information on the kind of animals we are looking at and provide some interesting details on how they eat or the kind of food that they eat and many more. These are the things that they should focus more on, and who wouldn’t like list ening to interesting stories of animals? Likewise, I can also observe the backgrounds of people who were there, so that a wider view can be seen on the people who we can put more focus on. I must say that, most of the visitors were foreigners and only a nu mber of Malaysians were there.This might be because of the past experience they had at the zoo. Therefore, I conducted interviews and ask them a few questions related to the zoo to know exactly what they think of the place and get some opinions and ideas from them. In my opinion, the interview gave us a lot of useful information on what the zoo can improve on and the things that should be maintained for them to get a better experience of the zoo. And hopefully, this will result in an increase in the numbe r of visitors and a better review from everyone Part 3 Practicalities of field study Anonymous1 Nationality: Malaysian Age: 42Gender: Male Race: Malay Date of Birth: 12/05/1979 Occupation: Teacher Location: Ampang Marital Status: Married Anonymous2 Nationality: Malaysian Age: 18 Gender: Male Race: Chinese Date of Birth: 06/12/1993 Occupation: Student Location: Kampung Pandan Marital Status: Single Our group went to the National Zoo for up to almost 6 hours, including the journey of going to the zoo and coming back from the zoo. Later on, we went for a late lunch in Burger King which took us about half an hour to get there a nd left at approximately 30 minutes later. Then, we went back to our campus which took us another 40 minutes.In total, the duration of the whole trip was about 8 hours. There are a few data that we gathered which includes photos, informal interviews and field notes. From the informal interview, we interviewed two different people from completely different background, thus the answer from both of them gave us the idea of how people in their respective age think. When we did an interview with anonymous1, he complained about the number of staffs who were working in the zoo. It results in a poor service and maintenance of the place and also dirty cages and walkways that are fu ll of leaves.In addition, anonymous also complained about the lack of choices when it comes to food. There were only one restaurant inside the zoo and the price of the snacks is more expensive than outside. I think they should provide better facilities all around the zoo and increase the number of restaurants or j ust improve the quality of the restaurant that is inside there. There should be more places where people can sit and r elax in an airconditioning environment especially when time comes noon, it would be very hot in Malaysia nowadays.Other than that, we experienced the bad condition of the toilet where the water were flushing out from the floor and clogged sinks and toile t bowls. This issue should be resolve for it to be a better place. Part 4 Activities observed and their sequential orders The main activities involved in visiting places are finding a place to visit, planning the trip, performing the journey or going to the destination, doing the actual visiting, leaving and returning home, and after visit. The activity of finding a place to visit is composed of not only deciding where to go but also when to go. This activity is closely related to planning the trip.As a product of this activity, we will get a confirmed destination of visit and confirmed time-frame for the visit. The activity of performing journey is the process of actually going to the decided destination. This activity has to be carried out as planne d in the first activity. The product of this activity is that, we actually reach to planned destination. The processes in the activities of doing actual visiting are the processes carried out at the planned place. In our case, the processes like going ar ound and seeing the zoo and conducting the interviews are the processes that form the actual visiting activity.Data for ethnographic analysis can be obtained as the product of this activity. The activity of leaving and returning trip is the processes in volved in returning home from zoo. The product of is that, we get back home. The processes that made up the activity â€Å"after visit† are like transferring the pictures from cameras and writing the report base on the experiences from the above activities. T he products are saved pictures in pc and a report to submit. Sequential order of a ctivities –Deciding and planning the trip Performing Journey Doing the visit Leaving and returningAfter Visit Part 5 Work Practice 1 (Deciding where and when to go and planning the trip) The work of visiting places begins by deciding where to as a group. We sat down in SA and decided where to go by using information from the internet. The first suggestion by Khidhir to choose as a visiting place was â€Å"D-paradise and A’ Famosa in Malacca†. But we the main problem with going to Malacca was the distance from our places. Malacca is 130 km from our place and the driving time to get there is 2 hours with no heavy traffic . The round trip will take approximately 4 and half hours.So, with the time frame we got, we will not have much time to do the actual visiting in Malacca. So, we decided not to go to Malacca and the other option is to visit a place near Kuala Lumpur. We s earched on the internet for places to see in KL. We got 3 options to visit in KL, namely, Bat u Caves, Aquaria KLCC, Kuala Lumpur Bird Park, and Zoo Negara. We chose zoo Negara because two of the group members have not been there and thought it would be int eresting to see Malaysia major zoological park. We decided to go there on Saturday and to depart from Nottingham at around 9am.One of the group members own a car, so we decided to go with his car. Then, we discussed about the time allocation for the trip and what to do during the visit. Zoo Negara is only 43 km from Nottingham and can be reached within an hour drive. So, we will be at the zoo at around 10, and then we planned to do visiting and stay at zoo until after 3 pm because there is animal show at 3 pm. We planned to do some interviews at the zoo for the ethnographic analysis. We also discussed about what should be interview questions and we finally agreed for ten questions which will be stated in â€Å"Work Practice 3†.The products of this activity are that, we have definite idea of where to go and we have a plan for what to do during the trip. Work Practice 2 (Undertaking the journey) We met up on Saturday as planned and went on to have breakfast at the SA building. Then, we departed for zoo at 9:35 am. Khidhir was driving and Rhu Zen took the front seat beside him and Hein Min Htike was at the back seat. The driver knows KL routes insi de out, so, we didn’t need to any work of way-finding. We went to zoo directly except one pit -stop for fuel. It took us 50 minutes to get there and we were at zoo at 10:30.The problem when we reached zoo was that we could not find a parking space easily. Since we visited there on Saturday which was not only normal public but also eve of Hari Raya, there were so many visitors’ cars. We have had to park our car six streets away from entrance. The product of this activity is that, we really reached the zoo. Work Practice 3 (Arriving at the zoo and doing the visit) We took some photos at the entrance and then bought tickets and entered zoo. The ticket price for Malaysian is 20RM and for foreigner is 30RM. We first went to visit the â€Å"hornbill center† where they keep many hornbill species, monkeys and hippopotamus.Then, we visited the â€Å"bee museum†. Bee museum is a Kiosk selling honey and other bee related souvenirs. It also features displays of all the integrated honey industry activities from bee breeding to honey extracting. Then, we went on to see the Indian cows and the bears’ complex. Then, we took the Savannah Walk and saw a variety of African animals like Sable antelopes, Scimatar oryx, giraffes, ostriches, zebras, and white rhinoceroses. At the end of Savannah Walk road, we sat down at train stop 5 to give a rest to our legs and to make some interviews.We firstly interviewed â€Å"Anonymous1† from KL who was there with his family. Khidhir conducted the interview in Malay Language. We then interviewed â€Å"Anonymous2† who also lives in KL and he was there with his fri ends. We will write the main points of those interviews in â€Å"Question and Answer† format to save word count and to avoid repetition. Question: With whom you came here today and how many peop le are there with you? Is there any particular reason to come here? Anonymous1: I am visiting here with my family and there are total of 4 people with me, my wife and my two kids and myself. We are just having our week-end day out.Anonymous2: I am here with my friends and there are total of 5 people in my group. We have not been here for very long time, so we just wanted to see the changes inside the zoo. Question: How did you come here? Was there any problem getting here like parking problem? Anonymous 1: I drove here and there was not any particular problem to get here. We arrived here really early and so, we could manage to find a parking space easily. Anonymous 2: We came here with LRT and taxi. We reached Wangsa Maju station and we took taxi to get here. This place is easily acce ssible and there was no problem to get here.Question: Any comments about the animals in zoo? Anonymous1: Quite a lot of varieties of animals are kept in this zoo and the animals seem happy. Anonymous2: We have been walking around the zoo for only 2 hours and we have been to almost all the places inside the zoo. There are not much interesting animal in here except penguins. I have not seen penguins before. Question: How do you think of animal show available in this zoo? Anonymous1: The animal show at 11 am was quiet good, they spoke in Malay, so my kids could understand very well, and they really enjoyed it. Anonymous2: We arrived here at around 11 am.So we missed the morning show. But we really are not into seeing the animal show as there will be a lot of people at the show. Question: Any comments about staffs? Anonymous1: I didn’t see much of staffs. Only staffs I saw were at the entrances of zoo and aquarium world, and the staffs conducting the animal show. I th ink the num ber of staff is inadequate compare to the size of zoo because the animal cages are dirty and walkways are full of dry leaves and did not see anyone cleaning them. Anonymous2: I have nothing special to say about staffs from here. I rarely see the m inside the zoo.Question: How do you think of food shops and souvenir shops inside zoo? Anonymous1: As things inside the zoo are very expensive and I did not buy anything. Moreover, there is only one restaurant to have lunch or breakfast. Anonymous2: We were just discussing to go and have lunch. There are quite a lot of snack shops, but there is only one restaurant for lunch. I think there should be more restaurants, so that, visitors can choose their favorite meal. And drinks here at the snack shops are slightly expensive than outside. Question: Transportation inside zoo? Did you use it?Anonymous1: We preferred to walk to get closer look at the animals. Anonymous2: We planned to stay here until evening, so we are not in hurry. We decided t o walk around the zoo. Question: How do you describe your overall experience at zoo? Things you like most? Things you like least? Anonymous1: We are having a fun time; especially for my children. It has been a good day out so far. What we liked most is Savannah Walk, which is like a small version of African landscape with the animals roaming freely, especially giraffes. Anonymous2: There is nothing much for adults to do in zoo.For sure, this is not one of our best days out. The good point inside the zoo is the tall, shady trees which provide shade for leisure troll. Things I do not like here are that, animals are kept in very dirty environment. The worst thing is aquarium where you cannot even see the fish clearly because of the dirty water and grubby mirrors. Question: What should be done to improve the overall quality of zoo? Anonymous1: More staffs should be stationed inside the zoo, to p rovide information and interact with visitors. And they should also prioritize the cleanline ss of zoo.Anonymous2: There are so many rooms to improve in this zoo. Zoo maps are available for 2RM, which should be given free to every visitor. The signages ar e not around every corner, and even when you see them, they are not quite clear in their pointing direction. With no free map, and no clear signage, I am pretty sure that, visitors will get lost quite often. Moreover, there are no staffs to be seen inside the zoo to ask information or to ask direction. Another important thing there is that they should focus more on the cleanliness of environment. Everywhere inside the zoo is stinking.The toilets are very dirty. Question: Do you plan to visit the zoo again or would you recommend this to your friends? Any tips to organize a good day out to zoo? Anonymous1: My kids would like to come back here, so we might be coming again like 2, 3 months later. I would definitely recommend this place for a family day out fo r those with small kids. I would advise anyone to bring along their own food and drinks as things inside are twice the price outside. Anonymous2: No, we are not coming back here anytime in the future. And we will never recommend a friend to visit here.As a tip, don’t come here. Even when they come, come here early, to avoid extremely hot temperature inside zoo and to avoid heavy crowd. After the two interviews, we continued our visit inside the zoo. We went to mammal kingdom and then went on to see the tigers and lions. After that lion place, we went inside the reptile house and spent around thirty minutes inside. Then, we went inside bird house where so many species of birds are kept inside different compartments. We then sat bough some cold drink and sat down under the shade for about 15 minutes.Then, we went to see the aquarium world which is very dull and boring place. Fishes inside are nothing much interesting. Then we watched the animal show for a while because there were so many people and we could not see or hear the show very well fr om our place. We then went to penguin house and we have completed visiting the whole zoo. We made our way out from entrance B and found out that it was not far from the street where we parked our car. The products of this activity are that, we could enjoy the zoo, we could manage to finish the interviews and we got data for ethnography.Work Practice 4 (Return and getting home) We left zoo at around 3:50 pm and we drove to Damansara Burger King to have a late lunch. Damansara Burger king was 25 km far from zoo and it took us around 30 minutes to get there. Then, we have had lunch until around 4:50 and then we left for Nottingham University. It took us around 30 minutes to reach school and the distance was around 30 km. Once we reached Nottingham, we parted our ways to our houses. The products of this activity are having lunch, and getting back home. Work Practice 5 (After Visit)When reach our houses, we rested for some time. At night, we copied the pictures from camera memories cards to PCs. And we all started writing the report to submit. The products are the saved pictures and the report. Part 6 The Requirements Problem During our trip, we had a hard time navigating the zoo as we did not bring a map and also there were occasions that we had to use some of the facilities that were not well maintained. Another problem while doing the trip was that we may have missed some of the attractions because we did not have a map in the first place.We decided we need a system to be keeping track of what we had seen, what attractions we may have missed, and because there were not many staff members seen inside the zoo to maintain the facilities, which places to avoid. It should also update the group about any show times inside the zoo and keep a watch handy to check how long we were visiting some of the attractions. As a task scheduling system, it should be able to display some main attractions that we should see within the zoo itself, although the place itself is sm all, and not just simply walk around and attempt to understand what every animal is or does.Any group would definitely get bored walking under the hot sun only to see that the animals are sleeping during the mid-day. It should also be able to sort and notify the user or users of any events or shows that are going to start. That way, the group could plan on which places to visit in the zoo before walking back to see the animal show. This will also prevent the group from rushing around as the zoo has some very odd placement of some of the facilities, including toilets. Besides that, it hould have a mapping system so that it will display the locations of all the main attractions, the bus stops, resting spots and the toilets within the zoo as it was difficult to find a sign with the entire map of the zoo easily and therefore avoid wasting time going rounds inside the zoo. Other than that, because there were many places that had the same attractions, which eventually made one of our group mem bers bored, the ta sk scheduling system should also have a notepad for any individual in the group to write their own comments about the zoo.This is to avoid having to see the same attraction under the very hot sun the next time he visits the zoo. Lastly, for any group members who were not familiar with the animals and find the description beside the animal cages confuse them even further, there should be a translator or encyclopedia to make it more understandable. It will also help other tourists who were busy looking for directions from us as they could not read some of the signs.

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Differentiates Between Sex and Gender Term Paper

Differentiates Between Sex and Gender - Term Paper Example The researcher states that gender role stereotypes in modern society are more constraining for females, but in certain ways, they are also constraining for males. For example, women are expected to be nurturers, expressive about their feelings and readily show emotion, whereas men are expected to take charge, be strong and think logically. The researcher would argue that this role differentiates dates all the way back to early hunter/gatherer societies, when men had to go out to find animals to kill for food and clothing, leaving the women behind to look after the children and perform other domestic chores. Finally, while most people belong to either the male or female sex, transsexuals have the organs of both sexes. This, plus the fact that they may identify themselves as more male than female or vice versa, may cause them great anxiety and confusion in a society which expects everyone to adopt wither male or female gender roles. This article states that in the past 30 years gender roles have been less specialized. This has made it incumbent on men to perform at least some of the traditionally female domestic chores. The article also discusses an interesting research finding that same-sex couples tend to have better relationships with their gender-neutral roles than traditional opposite-sex couples with strongly differentiated male and female roles since they incorporate both perspectives and therefore can better understand their partners’ needs. This source describes an anecdote involving President Coolidge and is therefore called The Coolidge Effect. Space does not permit detailing the story, but the idea behind it is that men want more sex partners than women do. The article describes 2 theories behind this assertion. 1) men prefer sex with strange women and 2) this is sexist claptrap. While there is some truth to both allegations, I feel the second more accurately describes the current situation. The evidence for this is the swinging lifestyle. Men wanting sexual variety often will persuade their wives to join, but once in it is usually the women who embrace it more. When it comes to sex women are the physically stronger sex because they don’t have a refractory (or recovery) period before they can have intercourse again.

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Homeless English Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Homeless English - Assignment Example I based this research on homelessness on a total period of two months and the strategy chosen by me was to interview as many of the homeless people in the local park as possible in the evening time, when the park is really full of public. In an order to draw results by doing interviews, I first made myself familiar with the local homeless people. This study was based on a qualitative and observational approach, while the interview questions to be asked from the homeless participants of my study were very personal and meant to gain information about the nature of difficulties and the level of illegal activities occurring as a result of homelessness. Almost all the poor and homeless people are often found in very old apartment buildings and living with other people while not being considered as their family members. A portion of these homeless people can also be found living on the street and footpaths during the night while hanging around uselessly in the local park for spending the d ay, thus very forced on going along with the bad and bitter life. This small portion of homeless people also faces the threat of eviction continuously by the host family members with which they are forced to live and share living and as a result of which they are often found wandering in the local park in a great number. The looks of hunger, helplessness, and greed which these homeless people spare the financially stable and well-off passing by people in the hope that some of them might give them the opportunity to spend their lives in a better and decent manner simply creates a very sad and tragic atmosphere at some special spots in the park. Such particular spots are especially found full of these homeless people where some of them may even go out of control for bringing a change in their lives, like annoying the well-off park goers and irritating them very much. This observation both goes in favor and against of the highly accepted idea that majority of the homeless people think very little about bringing a good change in their lives and doing something for earning a decent living. This is because the homeless people I observed in the park liked to find a good and decent opportunity for earning a living, though some of them were also found to be very annoying and disturbing due to the amount of trouble they created for the financially stable park visitors. It is also a big reality that I found the risk of theft and crime to be fairly average in this local park, though those criminal incidents that did occur and involved theft were more often than not justly connected to these homeless people by the police forces. One very important finding by the ethnographic research made on homelessness and observing the nature of issues faced by each homeless person I interviewed during the two month period is that the health issues faced by such people often go unreported and unresolved. The risk of substance abuse is also very high among these people, which leads to ot her criminal activities like burglary, rape, and murders. The facts told by the homeless peop

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Perfect Pizzeria Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Perfect Pizzeria - Case Study Example This research will begin with the statement that in the situation where the manager changed the time period required to receive free food and drink from 6 hours to 12 hours of work, it could be deduced that the manager was restricting the provision of rewards to the employees. Instead of the perceived rewards (free food and drink) being provided four times per day, by adjusting (extending) the length time within which this particular reward could be availed, the manager actually limited the reward to only two times a day. The motivational theory that seems to be applied here is Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory which actually suggests that the factors involved in producing high job satisfaction are separate and distinct from those that allegedly lead to job dissatisfaction. In the situation, the reward is not linked to the employees’ job performance; but this stimulus is actually linked to the performance of the manager. Thus, the stimuli could be considered hygiene factors (company policy regarding percentage as a determinant of bonus for the manager; and quality of supervision); the absence of which evidently lead to high job dissatisfaction. In the situation where the manager worked beside the employees for a time; and then later to his office; it was evident that the same motivational theory applies. The aim of the manager to work beside the employees is to take the place of inefficient employees; while at the same time, train new employees for the position.

Monday, August 26, 2019

Organisational Behaviour Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Organisational Behaviour - Assignment Example Hofstede explains that culture is a group of individuals with a collective mind programming. Schein (1992) explains the need for individuals to adapt to change without the need to impact the culture. It is crucial to understand the term culture before entering into the organisational culture. Cultures are deep-seated and pervasive. Schein (1992) explains that change is not possible without affecting the culture. Similarly, organisation culture is a concept used to explain the ‘similar collective mind programming’ of the individuals in the organisation. In most cases, when individuals work together in a wok environment, with the set down regulations and framework on the job, the approach to work becomes a common aspect for all employees, hence making them a group of people with similar mind programming. Based on Hofstede’s definition, this clearly makes an organisational culture. For around two and a half decades, the concept of organisational culture has been grow ing and being accepted to a great extent. Considering an open systems perspective, it is clear that the culture of an organisation is important element and environmental condition which affects the systems and the subsystems. The organisational culture is also a very valuable tool for analysis of a company and is very effective in getting a clear understanding of the company. To be able to understand the concept of culture better, it is essential to understand the definition. The next sub section details the definition of culture for organisations. Culture has been described in many different manners and various different ideas have been put forth to explain the concept. Anderson explains nations to be an ‘imagined community’ and Wallerstein explains that he is â€Å"skeptical that we can operationalise the concept of culture ... in any way that enables us to use it for statements that are more than trivial† (Wallerstein, 1990, p. 34). Another renowned author Hof stede has explained that there are four (later turned to five) main dimensions of culture (Hofstede, 1880, 1984, 1991). In 1998, he claimed that the true shift in paradigm was proved by the acceptance of the concept of unique, specific and powerful national cultures. Considering his theory, this model can be evaluated in a number of manners. The theory portrays to a great extent the national cultures that have emerged in the recent years and his theory has been more focused on the rich origin of the culture. This has been argued to be misleading as it is to a great extent considered to be immeasurable. The findings have been argued to be based mainly on the predictive value and the reviewing of smaller scale replications is also essential. Hofstede has provided a very different approach to the concept of culture. He classified culture based on dimensions. These are a) Power / Distance, b) Individualism, c) Masculinity, d) Uncertainty/Avoidance Index, and e) Long Term Orientation. Th ere have been a number of arguments regarding the accuracy of the theory. As explained by Brendan McSweeney, â€Å"Hofstede's apparently sophisticated analysis of extensive data necessarily relies on a number of profoundly flawed assumptions to measure the 'software of the mind' as did Morton's measurement of the hardware, as it were, of the mind† (Mc Sweeney, 2002, p. 116). Mc Sweeney moves on to also explain, â€Å"Hofstede's claims are excessive and unbalanced; excessive because they claim far more in terms of identifiable characteristics and consequences

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Reflective journal on Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Reflective journal on Leadership - Essay Example In elucidating Vrooms expectancy theory, Pattanayak (2005: 183) posits that "Under conditions of free choice, an individual is motivated towards that activity which he is most capable of understanding and which he believes has the highest probability of leading him to his most preferred goal". Vroom in his theory supposed that human beings are inspired to achieve a particular purpose by anticipated standards or principles, coupled with the inference that the action geared towards the achievement of the purpose will result to the preferred principles (Pattanayak, 2005: 183). Vrooms theory has a number of components, namely valence, instrumentality, and expectancy. According to Pattanayak (2005: 183), valence denotes peoples partiality towards specific end results, and instrumentality denotes peoples acuity with regard to whether a guaranteed reward will essentially be awarded to them. Expectancy, on the other hand, represents the divergent anticipations among people in regards to thei r abilities. Vroom, as asserted by Pattanayak (2005: 183), is of the opinion that inspiration towards achievement of a specific purpose is dependent on valence, instrumentality, and expectancy. In reference to Vrooms expectancy theory, my productivity and performance in my workplace is directly related to my skills, experience, and abilities. An example of one of my skills include effective listening skills. Listening helps me effectively understand or comprehend my responsibilities in my workplace and as a result, I always achieve good results. There are also financial incentives given in my workplace. It is worth noting that these incentives act as motivators. Hard economic times in the contemporary world necessitates people to work harder in order to achieve better results, and as a consequence get better rewards. Additionally, my activities or actions are also motivated by the end results. For instance, recycling

Saturday, August 24, 2019

Jainism and ahimsa Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Jainism and ahimsa - Assignment Example Secondly, the religion helps in reducing violence since it emphasizes on complete nonviolence to all living beings (Kenneth 2014). As such, the religion promotes peace in the society by urging its followers to maintain a serene, peaceful environment that does not harm anybody or anything. Thirdly, the religion promotes equality of all living things. In general, there is an improvement in the moral behavior of people since the followers practice their beliefs in day-to-day life and observe the vows keenly. On the other hand, Jainism religion is seemingly ancient and the followers of the religion are outdated. Moreover, Jainism has many restrictions that are seemingly obscure and senseless. For instance, it is unrealistic to practice vegetarianism when we visit our friends since we cannot question the ingredients of every food. Apparently, Jainism is only reasonable for a minority. The extreme rules are not flexible to changes that apply to modern religions. In addition, many people wonder what the followers think about God and the life after death. Most religions also believe that it is not possible to exist without killing living creatures and

Friday, August 23, 2019

Coke and Pepsi Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Coke and Pepsi - Essay Example cator of working capital, also means that Coca Cola operated within its working capital range and was therefore not in a good position to pay for its current liabilities as they fell due. A comparison of the company’s current ratio with the ratio in the period ended 2011 suggests a decline because 2011 had a current ratio of 1.399. This raises concern because the company could be experiencing a continuously declining solvency potential and may compromise stakeholders such as suppliers and investors. Pepsi reported a current ratio of 1.095. Like the ratio for Coca Cola, this was low, compared to the recommended ratio of 2:1. The organization therefore operated close to its working capital and was unlikely to meet its short-term liabilities as they fell due. Pepsi’s current ratio for the year ended 2011 was however 0.961, an indication that current liabilities were more than current assets. Consequently, Pepsi experienced an improvement in its ability to meet its current liabilities, from the year ended 2011 to the year ended 2012 (Debarshi, 2011). Pepsi is doing better in management of its current assets and liabilities, into better solvency. This is because it reported a higher ratio than Coca Cola did, 1.095 compared to Coca Cola’s 1.071. In addition, Pepsi improved its ratio in the year 2012 while the ratio for Coca Cola decreased to suggest better management in Pepsi than in Coca Cola. Coca Cola had better profitability than Pepsi. Return on assets measures effectiveness in use of assets to generate income. Higher values are therefore preferred. Coca Cola had a return on assets ratio of 11.46, a value higher than Pepsi’s 8.33 percent and this suggests more effective assets management in Coca Cola. The following table summarizes the companies’ return on assets ratios for the years 2010, 2011, and 2012. In addition, Coca Cola experienced improvements in its profitability over the period while profitability of Pepsi declined. Pepsi, however reported