Beyond Blogging

BEYOND BLOGGING: MAKING YOUR COPY STAND OUT So, we all know that a blog is essential to any well-rounded marketing strategy: A good blog helps you connect with your customers and lets them see you as more than just a faceless company or organization. It builds content and credibility for your web site, and it allows you to share industry news and connect with others in your industry. Problem is, everyone has a blog nowadays, from marketing gurus to Fortune 500 CEOs. Some are fantastic – interesting, with no-fluff content and good information. Some are mediocre at best. But, regardless of quality, they’re everywhere. Do a search for â€Å"copywriting blog† for instance, and you’ll get thousands of results. Ditto for â€Å"marketing blog, â€Å"advertising blog† – you name it. A blog in itself is no longer a big differentiator. Now, don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying that you should give up on blogging. But, if you really want to stand out, try some of these strategies: †¢ Get on Social Media. Social media  sites let you connect easily with potential customers and business partners. Create a profile for your business and start reaching out to people in your industry – be sure to include a link to your company web site and share your blog posts. It’s a great way to build connections in a casual setting. Even better: Start a group or forum and invite people to join you for a discussion about the latest industry news. †¢ Be Interactive. Why simply dump information on your readers when you can invite them to join the conversation? If you’ve got a blog, invite comments and make sure you respond to the readers who take the time to leave them. Have contests and invite your readers to get their creative juices flowing, whether it’s coming up with a name for a product or writing a catchy tagline. The more fun and interactive your blog is, the more likely it is to develop a following of regular readers. †¢ Leave Comments. If you’re like me, you probably have a handful of blogs that you read regularly. Next time you read something you really like, why not leave a comment? A good blog isn’t a one-way street. But remember: No sales talk. Keep comments insightful and don’t use them simply as a chance to toot your own horn. †¢ Write a Whitepaper. A whitepaper is a great way to connect with potential business partners and establish yourself as an industry expert. They’re meatier than a simple blog entry and require a lot more work, but the payoff for an interesting, well-written whitepaper is worth all the effort. †¢ Blog often. Sure, you’re busy. Projects, meetings, phone conferences, and the day-to-day business of running a business can leave you strapped for time. It’s easy to let your blog fall by the wayside in favor of more urgent deadlines. But, your blog doesn’t do you any good if you’re only posting once every six months. Set aside some blogging time at least once a week to keep your content fresh and give readers a reason to come back. Got any tips for making your blog stand out? I’d love to hear them.

Muscular Dystrophy is a disease with no cure essays

Muscular Dystrophy is a disease with no cure essays Muscular Dystrophy is a disease with no cure. While there is medication, physical therapy, and surgery, which can help with the symptoms, only research trials are providing hope for those with this disease. The stress is only compounded when the side effects of using one of these palliative treatments cause more harms than good. Inevitably the patient must make an informed decision before deciding on which treatment is best for them. With all the medications in the United States not one works on curing muscular dystrophy. Doctors will often prescribe Corticosteroid medications such as, Prednisone, which may help improve muscle strength (Discovery Health.com). For some patients, their doctor may prescribe phenyotin, which may be used to treat the delayed muscle relaxation (CNN.com) As with any medication there are side effects to these drugs that may cause more harm than good. According to a article by Ana Lucia Langer, the side effects with prednisone use can not be dismissed. Ms. Langer states nine side effects of this drug. Some of the worst ones are diabetes, osteoporosis, and suppression of the supra-renal or adrenal glandule (www.distrofiamuscular.net). One of the best treatments for muscular dystrophy is physical therapy. According to an article on A Healthy Me website, Physical therapy is used to maintain the range of motion of affected muscles and to prevent or delay contractures. Braces may also be worn, but starting exercise early can have a great effect on the muscles. The author of this article states that strenuous exercise is not recommended, since it may damage muscles further. Surgery is never without the presence of risk. Some types of surgery has been effective in providing relief from contractures, such as tenotomy surgery. Ahealthyme.com states that this surgery is used to cut the contractured muscle and the limb is braced in its normal resting position to he...

Art and surreal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Art and surreal - Essay Example Both artists could be considered as actively employing the technique of action painting, defined as â€Å"a highly-charged, impulsive abstract painting technique during which paint is energetically splashed, spilt or dribbled onto a canvas, usually placed face-up on the floor† (Action painting, par. 1). Pollack’s One: Number 31 created in 1950 is basically shown in colors black, white and grey on a brown backdrop with obvious but artistic rendition of the drip technique. Miro’s The Birth of the World, was shown to indicate that â€Å"Miro applied paint to an unevenly primed canvas in an unorthodox manner—pouring, brushing, and flinging—so that the paint soaked into the canvas in some places while resting on the surface in others† (MOMA: Gallery Label Text, par. 1). The same colors are prominent, black, browns, grey, with intermittent white. A connection between the two art works could be deduced from the similarities in style and drips formin g long elongated lines that curve into an intricate web of patterns interwoven with other colors.

Banded Iron Formation of Bonai-Keonjhar Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Banded Iron Formation of Bonai-Keonjhar - Essay Example BK is the youngest iron ore in the horseshoe belt. The focus is on Banspani-Jilling–Jajang bit of the iron ore. BIF of Banspani-Jilling–Jajang section of BK belt covers a section of the Precambrian super crustal north Odisha iron ore super group. Geology: the BIF hosts tabular strata-bound bodies mainly formed of high-grade hematite ores. Banspan-Jilling–Jajang covers about 40 sq. km. above the BIF lie the high-grade hematite ores which cover three stratigraphic positions. The southern range has massive and hard laminated cores. These ore bodies form the bulk of the resource. They are tubular in shape, irregular in size and have a thickness ranging from 2 and 50m. Langalata forms the bulk of the ore deposit, taking about 73% of it. Banspani-Jilling–Jajang deposits have a total reserve of about 61.7 million tons. Petrography: the rock types in the study area include banded hematite Jasper (BHJ), banded manganese formation (BMnF), banded hematite shale (BHS), banded shale, banded hematite quartzite (BHZ) and iron ore bodies. BHJ and BHZ are dominant rock types. They have alternating bands of silica and iron mineral. Some of the iron minerals in the BIF include goethite, martite, partitioned magnetite, hematite, and specularity. Hematite is the dominant iron mineral in the area. The varieties of silica forming alternate bands with the mentioned iron minerals include jasper, quartz, and chert. The iron minerals are formed by three distinct processes; thematization, marketization, and graphitization.

Network Security setup Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Network Security setup - Research Paper Example WAN domain is a necessary domain especially when connecting with remote users. In Richman investments, it means connecting with several branches in places such as Atlanta, Georgia, Cincinnati, Ohio, and even Los Angeles, California from the headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona. In order to ensure security at this domain, it is recommended to ensure proper addressing schemes, proper protocol selection and enhanced encryption of communication equipments. In Richman investments, the database software, operating system, client-server applications, and data stored in the organizations center and their hardware is collectively under this domain. Security measures necessary at this stage is proper authentication, quality network design, authorization, node security, and accounting are an imperative security considerations at this domain. Other security measures that can be implemented within the company’s IT infrastructure includes eliminating single point of failure, improving security access to sensitive data and ensuring that there is data backup in servers outside the main data centre.

Variable of Organization Culture and Characteristics

Variable of Organization Culture and Characteristics Purpose Literature has studied the variables of organization culture and managerial characteristics separately in various dimensions. This study investigates the effects of organizational culture and managerial characteristic on the tradeoff between organizational sincerity and work performance for promotion. Design/methodology/approach The data was collected using self-administered questionnaire, from managers of different departments. The final sample size was 250 managers. Findings The result showed that there is a positive relation between organizational culture, work performance, and organizational sincerity. A positive association also exists between managers education level and work performance given that the gender is male. Research limitations/implications Few limitations would be the shortage of time and resources. In future studies other managerial characteristics should also be examined. Practical implications In this era of immense competition, companies may ask themselves what to criteria to choose while promoting employees. Result shows that there is a positive relation between organizations culture, work performance, and organizational sincerity. Originality/value The most interesting and significant finding is that there is a positive relation between organizational culture, work performance, and organizational sincerity. Accordingly the stronger the culture of the organization the better work performers and sincere employees it has. Keywords Organizational culture, Managerial characteristics, Work Performance, Sincerity CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Overview It has been argued that loyal and sincere employees are very important for success of organizations (Jaunch, Glueck, Osborn, 1978). It is said that coherent and carefully developed corporate values play an important role, in making employees, loyal to organizations (Smith Rupp, 2002). Work performance has been studied in different dimensions. Earlier the study of work performance was limited only to job satisfaction (Martin Shore, 1978). Ovadje, Obinna and Muogboh (2009) also studied the relation between job satisfaction and individual performance, according to their study the relationship between the two was high and consistent. Jaunch, Glueck and Osborn (1978) have argued that loyalty has no relationship with work efficiency. They used five point scales to measure organizational sincerity, commitment and productivity. Avolio, Waldman, and McDaniel (1990) studied the effect of age and experience on work performance and concluded that experience is a better predictor of performance than age. It is argued that health of organizations depends upon health of employees, if employees are healthy they will perform better and organizations will grow (Baptiste, 2008). Paswan,Pelton and True (2005) studied perception of managerial sincerity in context of motivation and job satisfaction, they concluded that loyalty of employees is very important in getting good feedback as they are employees are more interactive and motivated. The relationship between employees and organization depends upon how they perceive the organization (Martin Shore, 1989). Baffour (1999) also argues that organizations in which employees are part of decision making perform better than those with centralized decision making. Employees loyalty may lead to employees satisfaction and productivity or it may result in dissatisfaction and absenteeism (Becker, Billings, Eveleth Gilbert, 1996). Previously supervisory ratings and questionnaire have been used to measure organizational sincerity and work performance respectively (Jaunch et al, 1978). It is argued that participative management makes employees satisfied (Kim, 2002). Therefore loyalty and sincerity of employees to organization is considered as an important factor in promotions (Jaunch et al, 1978). It is also said that quality has relationship with satisfaction (Ilias, Rahman Razak, 2008). Barney (1986) argued that that firms which do not have the required cultures cannot sustain optimal financial performance because their respective cultures are neither rare nor difficult to imitate. Weick (1987) also argued that organizations whose cultures value reliability more than efficiency often face unique problems in learning and understanding, which could affect the performance of the organization. It is argued that top management involvement is very essential to handle strategic change efficiently and effectively (Boecker, 1997). Gupta and Govindarajan (1984) also argued that tolerance of mangers contribute positively make business unit more efficient Although work performance is studied by different researchers in different dimensions, but no one has tried to link organizational sincerity to work performance. This study aims to identify the interrelation of work performance and organizational sincerity. Today in the world of immense competition both traits of sincerity and hard working in an employee is hard to find. Through this study we want to find whether a manager will prefer an employee who is hard worker or an employee who is sincere towards his organization. Problem Statement To study the effects of managerial characteristics and organizational culture on managers trade-off between organizational sincerity and work performance for employee promotion. Proposed Research Hypotheses H1: There is a relationship between managerial characteristics and promotion criterion due to organizational sincerity. H2: There is a relationship between managerial characteristics and promotion criterion due to work performance. H3: There is a relationship between organizational culture and promotion criterion due to organizational sincerity. H4 : There is a relationship between organizational culture and promotion criterion due to work performance. H5: There is a relationship between managers education and work performance due to male gender. H6: There is a relationship between managers education and work performance due to female gender. Outline of the Study Chapter one includes the an overview of variables, problem statement that shows the possible relationship between managerial characteristics, work performance and impact of both on promotion criterion and six proposed research hypotheses with a brief outline of the study. Chapter two includes the literature review. In this chapter organizational culture, organizational sincerity and work performance are explained. Chapter three is comprised of method of data collection which is personal survey, sampling technique which is non-probability convenient sampling ,size which is two hundred and fifty, instrument of data collection, research model developed which supports the problem statement and statistical technique which is correlation. Chapter four includes the results which show the relationships between variables. Lastly Chapter five includes conclusion, discussions, implications and possible future researches. CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW The labor markets are becoming competitive day by day and it is very rare to find an employee that performs efficiently and whose goals are compatible with those of organizations. Therefore, most of times managers have to choose between a loyal employee and an efficient employee. Several factors influence this phenomenon. Culture It has been argued that there are considerable differences in the attitudes of managers as well as employees in the geographically and historically similar countries. These differences have been found across such variables as control, supervision, commitment, and decision type and leadership style. It was further revealed that these differences in the attitudes of managers and employees was associated with their respective countrys position on the Hofstedes cultural dimensions.(Mockaitis, 2005). Glinow, Huo and Lowe argued that despite numerous researches conducted on International Management styles, the studies have still failed to illustrate how ideal leadership or management style is affected by the specific cultural characteristics in different countries. They argued that although multinational firms should maintain some form of consistency in terms of management style, yet the management style used overseas (in different cultures) should be enfused with the local culture to maintain acceptability within the cultural context. Ralston, Holt, Terpstra and Cheng argued that economic ideology and national culture has a deep impact on individual work values of managers. Barney argues that organizational culture can be a source of sustained competitive advantage. He argued that some organizations have developed a culture which provides means to achieve competitive advantage. Schein argued that organizational culture has profound effects on its survival. He stated that an organization cannot survive if it cannot manage itself as an organized one through the use of deeply entrenched culture. He further argued that organizational culture brings in stability and thus it must be instilled into the new members. Schein argued in another paper that culture needs to be understood thoroughly and analyzed if an organization intends to take advantage of it in the field of organizational psychology. Denison and Mishra argued that there was a relationship between organizational culture and effectiveness. According to them organizational culture can be measured and can be related to critical organizational outcomes. Chatman and Jehn argued that the use of organizational culture to attain competitive advantage may not bear as much fruit as some scholars have argued it to be. They argued that there may be some constraints in the way to achieving this competitive advantage by using organizational culture. According to Sheridan (1992), organizational culture and employee retention are related. His study showed that the differences in employees cultural values and the organizational values resulted in significant cases where employees deliberately left their jobs indicating that cultural fit is imperative to job retention for the organizations. Gordan DiTomaso (1992) argued that a strong organizational culture is positively associated with better performance. Their research also concluded that a strong culture lends itself to a short-term performance hike. Organizational Sincerity Loyalty is directly related to corporate vision, mission and values. As the business world is multifaceted therefore approach should be chosen with great care to analyse the gap between promise and performance gap (Fassin Buelens, 2011). Managers role in encouraging employees, giving them feedback regarding their performance and guiding leading them towards right career is very important. When employees are motivated because of management support they deliver quality sevice. Except of that employees whose goals are compatible with those of organizations are more productive and enthusiastic (Paswan, Pelton and True). Ali and Kazemi (1993) argue that loyal employee are real assets of an organization because they are those who do not quit in rainy days and stand by the organization as they own the problems of organization. Furthermore they say that sincere employees are more productive and are punctual. In case of loyalty, in US skills are preferred on seniority and seniority is not as important promotion criterion as skills are. While in Japan seniority is most important to be qualified as leader. But in Taiwan connections with owners are also valued along with seniority as important criteria to be qualified as leader (Glinow,Huo Lowe,1999). In US mangers are considered more competent than employees therefore speaking skills are important criteria to be promoted as leader and leaders tend to be good speakers to communicate corporate vision. While Japanese believe in equality and homogeneity of human talent therefore subordinates input is considered very important. Taiwan is hybrid of both (Glinow et al, 1999). In US a leader needs to develop specialized skills to be promoted as leader while in Japan to be a leader one needs to possess broad-cope skills and experience. In Taiwan both, specialized skills and broad-scope skills with experience are important criteria to be an effective leader (Glinow et al, 1999). Chen and Tjosvold (2006) have argued that to strengthen the relationship between employees must tbe cooperative and not the competitive especially when mangers are from different countries. Work Performance There is a noteworthy impact of HRM practices that a company adopts on the wellbeing and positive performance of employees (Baptiste, 2007). Performance can be improved by employee participation and flexibility in job design. (Gershenfeld, 1988; Jaikumar, 1986). Managers should encourage employee participation and flexible structures to enhance the performance. Firms that are changing their traditional rigid organizational structure and bringing flexibility in work design are able to improve their performance and output quality (Baffour, 1999). Age and experience have non linear relationship with performance. Experience, rather than age, is a better predictor of performance ( Avolio, Waldman McDaniel, 1990) Blumberg and Pringle (1982) emphasized a model of work performance which says that performance is a result of ability motivation and opportunity. It is argued that health of organizations is directly influenced by health of employees, if employees are healthy they will perform better and organizations will grow and become healthy (Baptiste, 2008). Gillespie and Mann (2004) and Dirks and Ferrin (2002) have argued that trust is an important feature in the relationship that leaders have with their subordinates and that it is through this subordinate trust and respect for their leader, that subordinates are motivated to perform well. This view is supported by Bijlsma and Koopma (2003) who claim that trust is an important factor to organizational performance, because it facilitates discretionary effort to assist the organization. Standing (1997) argues that the critical areas of labor insecurity that should be considered as they effect work performance are those that relate to income insecurity (unsteady earnings or where earnings are contingency-based), working time insecurity (irregular hours at the discretion of the employer, and insufficient hours worked) and representation insecurity (where the employee has limited power to negotiate or participate). Design and physical properties of work place can have negative or positive effect on work performance of employees. A greater environment innovative work settings, a greater task performance in innovative work settings and a greater interaction with innovative work settings are associated with greater satisfaction and enhanced productivity (Ilozer, 2002) According to Armstrong (2000), performance management is a way of getting better results from the whole organization or individuals within it, by understanding and managing performance within an agreed framework of predetermined goals, standards and competence requirements. According to Walters (1995), performance management is about guiding and supporting employees to work as effectively and efficiently as possible according to the goals of the organization. A drug-free workplace helps to enhance output and performance and lowers the chance of injury. Many companies feel testing employees has helped to bring about lower costs, lower absenteeism, and lower medical costs (Bacon, 1989). CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODS Method of Data Collection As our research study is descriptive and sources of information are primary, therefore we have used personal type of survey to collect the data. First of all data collection process was planned properly and then instrument was developed accordingly. After the development of instrument, pilot testing was done. Lastly actual data was collected and compiled. To collect the data through questionnaire we approached managers of different organization and used snow ball technique. Sampling Technique As the number of elements is unknown, we have used Non-probability sampling technique. To collect data in proper and convenient way, Convience sampling is used. The managers are easily accessible so it is most beneficial of all other sampling techniques. First of all the population was defined, and then sampling frame was determined. After determination of sampling frame, sampling technique was decided. Once the technique is decided, sample size was decided too. At last, the sampling process was executed. Sample Size The proposed number of respondents is two hundred and fifty (250). Instrument of Data Collection To study the effects of managerial characteristics and organizational culture on managers trade-off between organizational sincerity and work performance for employee production, a questionnaire is developed comprising of nine questions. First question is about the work practices of mangers and their individualistic approach towards the work and how they perceive and conceive it. This question is further divided in ten questions in order to become more specific. Second question, which is further subdivided into twenty questions, is about the organizational culture. The number of questions is higher as compare to previous one because culture is more descriptive and a lot of information is required to comprehend it. Third question is about gender. It will tell us that whether gender makes any difference in giving promotion either to an efficient or loyal employee. Question four is about the age. It will also help us to see whether attitudes and beliefs regarding loyalty and efficiency change with respect to age. Fifth and sixth questions are about employee experience with current organization and overall experience respectively. The seventh and eighth questions education and functional department is asked from respondents. It will enable us to comment whether perception of employee importance as education level and department change. Ninth and last question regarding name is optional because we are studying role of managers in promoting efficient or loyal employees impartially and irrespective of name, caste or color. In short the questionnaire was designed to collect about employees work practices, the culture of organization they work in and the managerial characteristics. Validity and Reliability test. The instrument used here is valid and reliable. Because it is specifically designed to collect data specifically required to study the effects of managerial characteristics and organizational culture on managers trade-off between organizational sincerity and work performance for employee promotion. To check the validity and reliability of instrument we did pilot testing and found the instrument valid and reliable in accordance with our study. Therefore data collected through this instrument is also valid and reliable and leads us to more useful and specific results. Research Model Developed Figure 3.1 Managerial Characteristic Organizational Sincerity Work Performance Organizational Culture Organizational management has to deal with different types of employees. Some are very hardworking and efficient while others are very loyal to the organizations. It is of great importance to an organization to understand the relationship between the organizational sincerity and work in order to grow, compete and even survive. Statistical Technique Correlation will be used for data analysis. We have used correlation because it is the statistical technique which enables us to understand and interpret the interdependence between organizational sincerity and work performance for employee performance. CHAPTER 4: RESULTS Table 4.1 Promotion criteria Managerial characteristics Organizational culture Organizational Sincerity Work Performance Age (Male) .055 (.404) -0.13 (.837) Age (Female) .226 (.418) -.170 (.546) Working Experience With Current Organization (Male) .058 (.376) .077 (.238) Working Experience With Current Organization (Female) .262 (.346) -.025 (.930) Overall Working Experience (Male) -0.19 (.768) .049 (.455) Overall Working Experience (Female) .269 (.333) -.239 (.390) Education Level (Male) -0.25 (.706) .117* (.073) Education Level (Female) .107 (.704) .314 (.254) Organizational Culture .395** (.000) .299** (.000) *, Correlation is significant at the 0.10 level (2-tailed). **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). P value is written in parenthesis. All the Managerial characteristics except for Education Level of Male are insignificant as their P value > ÃŽÂ ±. A positive relation is shown between organizational culture, organizational sincerity, and work performance having P-value CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION, DISCUSSIONS, IMPLICATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH Conclusion Data analysis shows that there is no relation between managerial characteristics and organizational sincerity for both the genders, male and female. But in case of managerial characteristics and work performance, a relationship is established between managers education level and work performance but only for male gender. For female gender no such relationship exists. Analysis also shows that organizational culture is positively related to organizational sincerity and work performance. That suggest that stronger the organizational culture, better the wok performance and sincerity. Discussions, Implications and Future Research Organizational culture, sincerity and work performance are very important and crucial towards the achievement of organizational goals. Therefore work performance has been studied in relation to job satisfaction and consistent relations are established. But few attempts are made to find out the impact of organizational culture on achievement of organizational goals which is dependent upon work performance which leads to greater output and organizational sincerity. As we have found out a positive relationship between organizational culture and sincerity and between that of organizational culture and work performance. We can say that organizations in order to improve performance and build stronger relationship with their employees should work on building stronger and compatible organizational culture. It will not only improve employees productivity but employee turnover will also reduce which will save the training costs et cetera ultimately. Except of that competencies and skills which are developed in employees over a period of time can also be retained and even competitive advantage can be achieved on basis of it. 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Sheb (2005),Perceived managerial sincerity, feedback-seeking orientation and motivation among front-line employees of a service organization, Journal of Services Marketing Volume 19  · Number 1, 3-12. Ralston A. David, Holt H. David, Robert H. Terpstra and Cheng Kai Yu (2007). The impact of national culture and economic ideology on managerial work values: a study of the United States, Russia, Japan, and China. Journal of International Business Studies, 1-19 Schein Edger H (1984). Coming to a new awareness of organizational culture. Slogan management Review. Vol 25, Issue: 2, Publisher: Samfundslitteratur, Pages: 3-16 Schein, Edgar H (1990). Organizational culture. American Psychologist, Vol 45(2), Feb 1990, 109-119. Sheridan E. John (1992). Organizational culture and employee retention. Academy of management journal 1992. Vol. 35, No. 5, 1036-1056. Smith D. Alan and Rupp T. William (2002),Communication and loyalty among knowledge workers: a resource of the firm theory view, Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 6,No. 3,pp250-261. Standing, G. (1997), à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"Globalisation, labour flexibility and insecurity: the era of market regulation, European Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 3, pp. 7-37. Walters, M. (1995), Performance Management Handbook, Institute of Personnel and Development, London. Weick KE (1987), à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Organizational culture as a source of high-reliability, The California Management Review , volume 29, Issue: 2, Pages: 112-127. Variable of Organization Culture and Characteristics Variable of Organization Culture and Characteristics Purpose Literature has studied the variables of organization culture and managerial characteristics separately in various dimensions. This study investigates the effects of organizational culture and managerial characteristic on the tradeoff between organizational sincerity and work performance for promotion. Design/methodology/approach The data was collected using self-administered questionnaire, from managers of different departments. The final sample size was 250 managers. Findings The result showed that there is a positive relation between organizational culture, work performance, and organizational sincerity. A positive association also exists between managers education level and work performance given that the gender is male. Research limitations/implications Few limitations would be the shortage of time and resources. In future studies other managerial characteristics should also be examined. Practical implications In this era of immense competition, companies may ask themselves what to criteria to choose while promoting employees. Result shows that there is a positive relation between organizations culture, work performance, and organizational sincerity. Originality/value The most interesting and significant finding is that there is a positive relation between organizational culture, work performance, and organizational sincerity. Accordingly the stronger the culture of the organization the better work performers and sincere employees it has. Keywords Organizational culture, Managerial characteristics, Work Performance, Sincerity CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Overview It has been argued that loyal and sincere employees are very important for success of organizations (Jaunch, Glueck, Osborn, 1978). It is said that coherent and carefully developed corporate values play an important role, in making employees, loyal to organizations (Smith Rupp, 2002). Work performance has been studied in different dimensions. Earlier the study of work performance was limited only to job satisfaction (Martin Shore, 1978). Ovadje, Obinna and Muogboh (2009) also studied the relation between job satisfaction and individual performance, according to their study the relationship between the two was high and consistent. Jaunch, Glueck and Osborn (1978) have argued that loyalty has no relationship with work efficiency. They used five point scales to measure organizational sincerity, commitment and productivity. Avolio, Waldman, and McDaniel (1990) studied the effect of age and experience on work performance and concluded that experience is a better predictor of performance than age. It is argued that health of organizations depends upon health of employees, if employees are healthy they will perform better and organizations will grow (Baptiste, 2008). Paswan,Pelton and True (2005) studied perception of managerial sincerity in context of motivation and job satisfaction, they concluded that loyalty of employees is very important in getting good feedback as they are employees are more interactive and motivated. The relationship between employees and organization depends upon how they perceive the organization (Martin Shore, 1989). Baffour (1999) also argues that organizations in which employees are part of decision making perform better than those with centralized decision making. Employees loyalty may lead to employees satisfaction and productivity or it may result in dissatisfaction and absenteeism (Becker, Billings, Eveleth Gilbert, 1996). Previously supervisory ratings and questionnaire have been used to measure organizational sincerity and work performance respectively (Jaunch et al, 1978). It is argued that participative management makes employees satisfied (Kim, 2002). Therefore loyalty and sincerity of employees to organization is considered as an important factor in promotions (Jaunch et al, 1978). It is also said that quality has relationship with satisfaction (Ilias, Rahman Razak, 2008). Barney (1986) argued that that firms which do not have the required cultures cannot sustain optimal financial performance because their respective cultures are neither rare nor difficult to imitate. Weick (1987) also argued that organizations whose cultures value reliability more than efficiency often face unique problems in learning and understanding, which could affect the performance of the organization. It is argued that top management involvement is very essential to handle strategic change efficiently and effectively (Boecker, 1997). Gupta and Govindarajan (1984) also argued that tolerance of mangers contribute positively make business unit more efficient Although work performance is studied by different researchers in different dimensions, but no one has tried to link organizational sincerity to work performance. This study aims to identify the interrelation of work performance and organizational sincerity. Today in the world of immense competition both traits of sincerity and hard working in an employee is hard to find. Through this study we want to find whether a manager will prefer an employee who is hard worker or an employee who is sincere towards his organization. Problem Statement To study the effects of managerial characteristics and organizational culture on managers trade-off between organizational sincerity and work performance for employee promotion. Proposed Research Hypotheses H1: There is a relationship between managerial characteristics and promotion criterion due to organizational sincerity. H2: There is a relationship between managerial characteristics and promotion criterion due to work performance. H3: There is a relationship between organizational culture and promotion criterion due to organizational sincerity. H4 : There is a relationship between organizational culture and promotion criterion due to work performance. H5: There is a relationship between managers education and work performance due to male gender. H6: There is a relationship between managers education and work performance due to female gender. Outline of the Study Chapter one includes the an overview of variables, problem statement that shows the possible relationship between managerial characteristics, work performance and impact of both on promotion criterion and six proposed research hypotheses with a brief outline of the study. Chapter two includes the literature review. In this chapter organizational culture, organizational sincerity and work performance are explained. Chapter three is comprised of method of data collection which is personal survey, sampling technique which is non-probability convenient sampling ,size which is two hundred and fifty, instrument of data collection, research model developed which supports the problem statement and statistical technique which is correlation. Chapter four includes the results which show the relationships between variables. Lastly Chapter five includes conclusion, discussions, implications and possible future researches. CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW The labor markets are becoming competitive day by day and it is very rare to find an employee that performs efficiently and whose goals are compatible with those of organizations. Therefore, most of times managers have to choose between a loyal employee and an efficient employee. Several factors influence this phenomenon. Culture It has been argued that there are considerable differences in the attitudes of managers as well as employees in the geographically and historically similar countries. These differences have been found across such variables as control, supervision, commitment, and decision type and leadership style. It was further revealed that these differences in the attitudes of managers and employees was associated with their respective countrys position on the Hofstedes cultural dimensions.(Mockaitis, 2005). Glinow, Huo and Lowe argued that despite numerous researches conducted on International Management styles, the studies have still failed to illustrate how ideal leadership or management style is affected by the specific cultural characteristics in different countries. They argued that although multinational firms should maintain some form of consistency in terms of management style, yet the management style used overseas (in different cultures) should be enfused with the local culture to maintain acceptability within the cultural context. Ralston, Holt, Terpstra and Cheng argued that economic ideology and national culture has a deep impact on individual work values of managers. Barney argues that organizational culture can be a source of sustained competitive advantage. He argued that some organizations have developed a culture which provides means to achieve competitive advantage. Schein argued that organizational culture has profound effects on its survival. He stated that an organization cannot survive if it cannot manage itself as an organized one through the use of deeply entrenched culture. He further argued that organizational culture brings in stability and thus it must be instilled into the new members. Schein argued in another paper that culture needs to be understood thoroughly and analyzed if an organization intends to take advantage of it in the field of organizational psychology. Denison and Mishra argued that there was a relationship between organizational culture and effectiveness. According to them organizational culture can be measured and can be related to critical organizational outcomes. Chatman and Jehn argued that the use of organizational culture to attain competitive advantage may not bear as much fruit as some scholars have argued it to be. They argued that there may be some constraints in the way to achieving this competitive advantage by using organizational culture. According to Sheridan (1992), organizational culture and employee retention are related. His study showed that the differences in employees cultural values and the organizational values resulted in significant cases where employees deliberately left their jobs indicating that cultural fit is imperative to job retention for the organizations. Gordan DiTomaso (1992) argued that a strong organizational culture is positively associated with better performance. Their research also concluded that a strong culture lends itself to a short-term performance hike. Organizational Sincerity Loyalty is directly related to corporate vision, mission and values. As the business world is multifaceted therefore approach should be chosen with great care to analyse the gap between promise and performance gap (Fassin Buelens, 2011). Managers role in encouraging employees, giving them feedback regarding their performance and guiding leading them towards right career is very important. When employees are motivated because of management support they deliver quality sevice. Except of that employees whose goals are compatible with those of organizations are more productive and enthusiastic (Paswan, Pelton and True). Ali and Kazemi (1993) argue that loyal employee are real assets of an organization because they are those who do not quit in rainy days and stand by the organization as they own the problems of organization. Furthermore they say that sincere employees are more productive and are punctual. In case of loyalty, in US skills are preferred on seniority and seniority is not as important promotion criterion as skills are. While in Japan seniority is most important to be qualified as leader. But in Taiwan connections with owners are also valued along with seniority as important criteria to be qualified as leader (Glinow,Huo Lowe,1999). In US mangers are considered more competent than employees therefore speaking skills are important criteria to be promoted as leader and leaders tend to be good speakers to communicate corporate vision. While Japanese believe in equality and homogeneity of human talent therefore subordinates input is considered very important. Taiwan is hybrid of both (Glinow et al, 1999). In US a leader needs to develop specialized skills to be promoted as leader while in Japan to be a leader one needs to possess broad-cope skills and experience. In Taiwan both, specialized skills and broad-scope skills with experience are important criteria to be an effective leader (Glinow et al, 1999). Chen and Tjosvold (2006) have argued that to strengthen the relationship between employees must tbe cooperative and not the competitive especially when mangers are from different countries. Work Performance There is a noteworthy impact of HRM practices that a company adopts on the wellbeing and positive performance of employees (Baptiste, 2007). Performance can be improved by employee participation and flexibility in job design. (Gershenfeld, 1988; Jaikumar, 1986). Managers should encourage employee participation and flexible structures to enhance the performance. Firms that are changing their traditional rigid organizational structure and bringing flexibility in work design are able to improve their performance and output quality (Baffour, 1999). Age and experience have non linear relationship with performance. Experience, rather than age, is a better predictor of performance ( Avolio, Waldman McDaniel, 1990) Blumberg and Pringle (1982) emphasized a model of work performance which says that performance is a result of ability motivation and opportunity. It is argued that health of organizations is directly influenced by health of employees, if employees are healthy they will perform better and organizations will grow and become healthy (Baptiste, 2008). Gillespie and Mann (2004) and Dirks and Ferrin (2002) have argued that trust is an important feature in the relationship that leaders have with their subordinates and that it is through this subordinate trust and respect for their leader, that subordinates are motivated to perform well. This view is supported by Bijlsma and Koopma (2003) who claim that trust is an important factor to organizational performance, because it facilitates discretionary effort to assist the organization. Standing (1997) argues that the critical areas of labor insecurity that should be considered as they effect work performance are those that relate to income insecurity (unsteady earnings or where earnings are contingency-based), working time insecurity (irregular hours at the discretion of the employer, and insufficient hours worked) and representation insecurity (where the employee has limited power to negotiate or participate). Design and physical properties of work place can have negative or positive effect on work performance of employees. A greater environment innovative work settings, a greater task performance in innovative work settings and a greater interaction with innovative work settings are associated with greater satisfaction and enhanced productivity (Ilozer, 2002) According to Armstrong (2000), performance management is a way of getting better results from the whole organization or individuals within it, by understanding and managing performance within an agreed framework of predetermined goals, standards and competence requirements. According to Walters (1995), performance management is about guiding and supporting employees to work as effectively and efficiently as possible according to the goals of the organization. A drug-free workplace helps to enhance output and performance and lowers the chance of injury. Many companies feel testing employees has helped to bring about lower costs, lower absenteeism, and lower medical costs (Bacon, 1989). CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODS Method of Data Collection As our research study is descriptive and sources of information are primary, therefore we have used personal type of survey to collect the data. First of all data collection process was planned properly and then instrument was developed accordingly. After the development of instrument, pilot testing was done. Lastly actual data was collected and compiled. To collect the data through questionnaire we approached managers of different organization and used snow ball technique. Sampling Technique As the number of elements is unknown, we have used Non-probability sampling technique. To collect data in proper and convenient way, Convience sampling is used. The managers are easily accessible so it is most beneficial of all other sampling techniques. First of all the population was defined, and then sampling frame was determined. After determination of sampling frame, sampling technique was decided. Once the technique is decided, sample size was decided too. At last, the sampling process was executed. Sample Size The proposed number of respondents is two hundred and fifty (250). Instrument of Data Collection To study the effects of managerial characteristics and organizational culture on managers trade-off between organizational sincerity and work performance for employee production, a questionnaire is developed comprising of nine questions. First question is about the work practices of mangers and their individualistic approach towards the work and how they perceive and conceive it. This question is further divided in ten questions in order to become more specific. Second question, which is further subdivided into twenty questions, is about the organizational culture. The number of questions is higher as compare to previous one because culture is more descriptive and a lot of information is required to comprehend it. Third question is about gender. It will tell us that whether gender makes any difference in giving promotion either to an efficient or loyal employee. Question four is about the age. It will also help us to see whether attitudes and beliefs regarding loyalty and efficiency change with respect to age. Fifth and sixth questions are about employee experience with current organization and overall experience respectively. The seventh and eighth questions education and functional department is asked from respondents. It will enable us to comment whether perception of employee importance as education level and department change. Ninth and last question regarding name is optional because we are studying role of managers in promoting efficient or loyal employees impartially and irrespective of name, caste or color. In short the questionnaire was designed to collect about employees work practices, the culture of organization they work in and the managerial characteristics. Validity and Reliability test. The instrument used here is valid and reliable. Because it is specifically designed to collect data specifically required to study the effects of managerial characteristics and organizational culture on managers trade-off between organizational sincerity and work performance for employee promotion. To check the validity and reliability of instrument we did pilot testing and found the instrument valid and reliable in accordance with our study. Therefore data collected through this instrument is also valid and reliable and leads us to more useful and specific results. Research Model Developed Figure 3.1 Managerial Characteristic Organizational Sincerity Work Performance Organizational Culture Organizational management has to deal with different types of employees. Some are very hardworking and efficient while others are very loyal to the organizations. It is of great importance to an organization to understand the relationship between the organizational sincerity and work in order to grow, compete and even survive. Statistical Technique Correlation will be used for data analysis. We have used correlation because it is the statistical technique which enables us to understand and interpret the interdependence between organizational sincerity and work performance for employee performance. CHAPTER 4: RESULTS Table 4.1 Promotion criteria Managerial characteristics Organizational culture Organizational Sincerity Work Performance Age (Male) .055 (.404) -0.13 (.837) Age (Female) .226 (.418) -.170 (.546) Working Experience With Current Organization (Male) .058 (.376) .077 (.238) Working Experience With Current Organization (Female) .262 (.346) -.025 (.930) Overall Working Experience (Male) -0.19 (.768) .049 (.455) Overall Working Experience (Female) .269 (.333) -.239 (.390) Education Level (Male) -0.25 (.706) .117* (.073) Education Level (Female) .107 (.704) .314 (.254) Organizational Culture .395** (.000) .299** (.000) *, Correlation is significant at the 0.10 level (2-tailed). **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). P value is written in parenthesis. All the Managerial characteristics except for Education Level of Male are insignificant as their P value > ÃŽÂ ±. A positive relation is shown between organizational culture, organizational sincerity, and work performance having P-value CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION, DISCUSSIONS, IMPLICATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH Conclusion Data analysis shows that there is no relation between managerial characteristics and organizational sincerity for both the genders, male and female. But in case of managerial characteristics and work performance, a relationship is established between managers education level and work performance but only for male gender. For female gender no such relationship exists. Analysis also shows that organizational culture is positively related to organizational sincerity and work performance. That suggest that stronger the organizational culture, better the wok performance and sincerity. Discussions, Implications and Future Research Organizational culture, sincerity and work performance are very important and crucial towards the achievement of organizational goals. Therefore work performance has been studied in relation to job satisfaction and consistent relations are established. But few attempts are made to find out the impact of organizational culture on achievement of organizational goals which is dependent upon work performance which leads to greater output and organizational sincerity. As we have found out a positive relationship between organizational culture and sincerity and between that of organizational culture and work performance. We can say that organizations in order to improve performance and build stronger relationship with their employees should work on building stronger and compatible organizational culture. It will not only improve employees productivity but employee turnover will also reduce which will save the training costs et cetera ultimately. Except of that competencies and skills which are developed in employees over a period of time can also be retained and even competitive advantage can be achieved on basis of it. Even though we have studied very important relationships among managerial characteristics, organizational culture, organizational sincerity and work performance, a lot needs to be done in this newly identified direction. In this unexplored direction and field of study researchers can study many variables like impact of organizational culture on conflict of interest and can enhance the understanding further. References Ali J Abbas and Kazemi Al- Ali (2005), The Kuwaiti Manager: Work Values and Orientations Journal of Business Ethics , 60: 63-73 DOI 10.1007A10551-005-2626-6 Armstrong, M. (2000), Performance Management: Key Strategies and Practical Guidances, Kogan Page, London. Avolio J. Bruce, Waldman A. David and McDaniel A. Michael (1990),Age and work performance in non-managerial jobs the effects of experience and occupational type, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 33, No 2, 407-422. Bacon, D. (1989), à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Businesss Role in War on Drugs, Nations Business, January, p.5. 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Sheb (2005),Perceived managerial sincerity, feedback-seeking orientation and motivation among front-line employees of a service organization, Journal of Services Marketing Volume 19  · Number 1, 3-12. Ralston A. David, Holt H. David, Robert H. Terpstra and Cheng Kai Yu (2007). The impact of national culture and economic ideology on managerial work values: a study of the United States, Russia, Japan, and China. Journal of International Business Studies, 1-19 Schein Edger H (1984). Coming to a new awareness of organizational culture. Slogan management Review. Vol 25, Issue: 2, Publisher: Samfundslitteratur, Pages: 3-16 Schein, Edgar H (1990). Organizational culture. American Psychologist, Vol 45(2), Feb 1990, 109-119. Sheridan E. John (1992). Organizational culture and employee retention. Academy of management journal 1992. Vol. 35, No. 5, 1036-1056. Smith D. Alan and Rupp T. William (2002),Communication and loyalty among knowledge workers: a resource of the firm theory view, Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 6,No. 3,pp250-261. Standing, G. (1997), à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"Globalisation, labour flexibility and insecurity: the era of market regulation, European Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 3, pp. 7-37. Walters, M. (1995), Performance Management Handbook, Institute of Personnel and Development, London. Weick KE (1987), à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Organizational culture as a source of high-reliability, The California Management Review , volume 29, Issue: 2, Pages: 112-127.

Ionic Bond :: essays research papers

When ionic solids dissolve, they divide to give their positive and negative ions that make up the solids. These ions become hydrates and have the same relative proportions when in solution and when solid. The more the solid dissolves, the more the ion’s concentration increases. This increase and build-up allows for the reverse reaction to occur. In this phase of the reaction the ions crystallise out in order for the reaction to have a greater chance of occurring. Eventually the rate of dissolving will equal the rate of crystallisation. This is the state of saturation. This can be recognised by a constant colour or constant mass.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The solubility product constant, Ksp is given in the following example:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ksp for AgCl is   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ksp = [Ag][Cl]   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ksp for PbI2 is   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ksp = [Pb][I]2   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This gives the relationship between the ions in the saturated solution and is the maximum concentration possible without creating precipitation. In this lab, solutions of lead nitrate and potassium iodide will be mixed at a number of dilutions. The reactions will then be observed to see at which point a precipitate no longer occurs. Ksp will then be stated as a range of values at room temperature, and the precipitate test tubes will be heated until the precipitate is dissolved so that Ksp may be observed and determined at different levels. In this experiment various solutions of lead nitrate and potassium iodide were mixed at a number of different dilutions. Through the observation of the amount – or lack of precipitate formed in each dilution, the mathematical relationship between the ions in a saturated dilution may be determined. This relationship is known as the solubility product constant, or Ksp, and is defined as follows, “The Ksp for an ionic solid is given by the product of the concentrations of the ions, each raised to the power of the coefficients in the dissolving reaction.'; (Heath Chemistry). The Ksp expression gives the maximum possible concentration of ions in a saturated solution without causing precipitation. Based on the equation for this experiment we can conclude that the ksp expression for this experiment is: Ksp = [Pb][I]2   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Ksp for lead iodide at 25oC is 8.5x10^-9. Through the substitution of the values for each test tube, the trial product, or KSPtrial was obtained. A precipitate then formed in those test tubes who’s KSPtrial was greater than the Ksp, whereas if the KSPtrial was calculated as being less than the Ksp, no precipitate formed. Ionic Bond :: essays research papers When ionic solids dissolve, they divide to give their positive and negative ions that make up the solids. These ions become hydrates and have the same relative proportions when in solution and when solid. The more the solid dissolves, the more the ion’s concentration increases. This increase and build-up allows for the reverse reaction to occur. In this phase of the reaction the ions crystallise out in order for the reaction to have a greater chance of occurring. Eventually the rate of dissolving will equal the rate of crystallisation. This is the state of saturation. This can be recognised by a constant colour or constant mass.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The solubility product constant, Ksp is given in the following example:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ksp for AgCl is   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ksp = [Ag][Cl]   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ksp for PbI2 is   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ksp = [Pb][I]2   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This gives the relationship between the ions in the saturated solution and is the maximum concentration possible without creating precipitation. In this lab, solutions of lead nitrate and potassium iodide will be mixed at a number of dilutions. The reactions will then be observed to see at which point a precipitate no longer occurs. Ksp will then be stated as a range of values at room temperature, and the precipitate test tubes will be heated until the precipitate is dissolved so that Ksp may be observed and determined at different levels. In this experiment various solutions of lead nitrate and potassium iodide were mixed at a number of different dilutions. Through the observation of the amount – or lack of precipitate formed in each dilution, the mathematical relationship between the ions in a saturated dilution may be determined. This relationship is known as the solubility product constant, or Ksp, and is defined as follows, “The Ksp for an ionic solid is given by the product of the concentrations of the ions, each raised to the power of the coefficients in the dissolving reaction.'; (Heath Chemistry). The Ksp expression gives the maximum possible concentration of ions in a saturated solution without causing precipitation. Based on the equation for this experiment we can conclude that the ksp expression for this experiment is: Ksp = [Pb][I]2   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Ksp for lead iodide at 25oC is 8.5x10^-9. Through the substitution of the values for each test tube, the trial product, or KSPtrial was obtained. A precipitate then formed in those test tubes who’s KSPtrial was greater than the Ksp, whereas if the KSPtrial was calculated as being less than the Ksp, no precipitate formed.

How to Do Business Like the Mafia: the Italian and American Mafia’s Role in Businesses Essay

Since the Mafia’s appearance in the 1800’s, these Italian criminal societies have infiltrated the economic and social realms of Italy and now play a large role in many countries throughout the world. Today the Mafia is considered one of the most notorious and widespread criminal organizations that has ever existed. The most prominent parts of the world that the Mafia exists are in Italy and America where they play a large role in these countries economies, most notably through their control of small and large businesses. Just like the origin of the word mafia, the history of Sicily, which is considered the birthplace of the Mafia, and its relationship with this organization, is very unique. Because of its geographic location, Sicily has always been a desirable location for trade and colonization. Generally speaking, the mafia is thought of as an Italian secret crime society, but the origins of the Mafia start way before the introduction and use of automatic weapons and illegal drugs. It was born long before it was given its name, through a long historical process in which the administration of justice was extremely fragmented and corrupt, guaranteeing impunity to the criminals. In a time of hardship and poverty, the Mafia began as a way of life: a way to protect one’s family and loved ones from the injustice of the government. Sicily’s violent and oppressive government history and its numerous corrupt and inconsistent rulers, especially regarding their justice system, fostered an atmosphere of self-reliance and cooperation among the Italian people. Through fear, inspired by threats and violence and supported by an organization of family and friends, the Mafia was able to gain and maintain this reliance and respect. It is important to acknowledge the origin of the Mafia because it is through these institutions and social structures that the Mafia was able to gain an immense amount of power and thus control businesses around the world today. In 241 BC the Romans gained control over Sicily in the first Punic War. The Romans introduced the economic and social system called the Latifundia, which created a hierarchy of people and a system of taxation that would be central to Sicily’s economy until Italian unification in 1861. Although the Roman’s actions in Sicily have no direct influence in the creation of the Mafia, they did set up the social structure of hierarchy from which the Mafia would emerge and eventually control areas of land and inadvertently control a large part of the Italian economy. In 826 the Roman Empire fell to the Arabs who brought an important aspect of life to the Sicilian people that would eventually become part of the Mafia culture; internal justice. Instead of having a system of authorities to deal with crime and misconduct, they used personal and internal justice to avenge crimes and set records straight in order to keep their businesses under their own control. The Normans were the next group to annex Sicily in the 11th century and they greatly magnified the feudal structure established by the Romans. The Spanish conquered Sicily in 1500 and they are considered the longest and most important foreign presence in Sicily. The Sicilian people were not represented by the government and eventually organized into guilds that acted as a judicial system. These guilds were unlike other European guilds and took care of their problems internally and did not include state or local authority. Internal justice led by these guilds was another step towards the formation of the Mafia (Servadio). In the late 1500’s and the early 1600’s Sicily’s feudal system went through some administrative changes. In the early 1600’s large landholders in Sicily lived in Palermo, handing over the command of their estates to estate managers called gabelloti. Appointed by the landlord, these men who were usually already prominent and respected within their region could use their power to control the people who inhabited the land. The use of the gabelloti continued through a succession of leaders and became the principle method of rule. The gabelloti, using the power given to them by the landlord, began to create entourages consisting of uomo di fiducia. The uomo di fiducia served as tax ollectors, and they had direct contact with the people. They were accompanied by campieri who were armed forces that kept the peace through fear. The emergence of these new groups also marks the creation of the middle class in Sicily, and from the middle class emerged the Mafia. All members of the Sicilian middle class used dissident tactics to gain power and money. Middlemen exploited peasants for money, artists kept people out of guilds to perpetuate their own success, and magistrates and attorneys delayed cases in an already twisted legal system. During the late 1700’s and early 1800’s these separate but powerful groups started to make contacts with each other. In addition to befriending each other, they also befriended local and regional magistrates. It is clear that as these groups began to unite themselves with the government to become a stronger and more formidable force in Sicily’s justice system, they were also gaining political ties that would allow them to carry out their business without interaction from the authorities (Servadio). Sicily’s long history with multiple judicially inept governments led to the creation and necessity of the Mafia. The Mafia was able to give people the business and protection that they not only wanted, but needed. These corrupt government institutions fostered an environment where those who were clever enough could manipulate the system to their advantage creating wealth, power and prestige through the exploitation of land, peasants and political officials in Italy as well as America. The Mafia was never just a group of gangsters, even from the beginning. There were those who carried out the dirty work, but the leaders, known as the godfathers, were often more political and business thinkers than gangsters. The Mafia used their power, gained through fear, to not only exploit the landowners and peasants but also used their political ties to carry on illegal activities without problems from local or state authorities. As the Mafia gained power and influence over the various regions and government officials, these illegal activities would expand greatly, inadvertently increasing their overall control as an organization. By the 1900’s the Mafia had become a very powerful and widespread organization throughout Italy despite an extensive amount unemployment and overty that permeated not only Sicily, but the rest of Europe as well. This is still true to this day when many countries around the world are suffering economically, the Mafia manages to stay afloat and even increase their success. Many underprivileged Italians began to immigrate to America to find better jobs to support their families. This is also when the Mafia formally entered America and began to set up small organizations throughout the country. By 1922 Mussolini and Fascism had taken a firm grip on Italy and began to crack down on the Mafia, either sending them to prison or assassinating them. Mussolini assigned Cesare Mori prefect of Italy in order for him to defeat the Mafia. Prefect Mori wanted to bring Sicily under control of the state so he suspended their rights, humiliated and arrested them and took women and children hostage in order to force the Mafia to surrender. Mussolini’s wrath pushed more and more Mafiosi out of Italy and into America (Servadio). The Mafiosi originally settled in large cities, like Chicago and New York, where industry was predominant and there were opportunities for crime, fraud and racketeering everywhere. Initially the American Mafia gangs focused primarily on â€Å"protection rackets†, but with the coming of Prohibition they began to expand to gambling, bootlegging and prostitution. It is in these fields that the American Mafia became enormously wealthy and powerful. One of the main reasons the Mafia in Italy, as well as America, has been so successful is due to its influence and heavy involvement in businesses around the world. These businesses allowed the Mafia to maintain a powerful presence in various regions by exploiting landowners, construction companies and other lucrative industries, such as drug trafficking, through fear. Despite the global recession that hit Europe in 2009, the Mafia was the one business that continued to thrive during this lean economic time. The Italian Mafia’s revenue for 2008 jumped 40 percent and sales increased to 130 billion Euros, or $167 billion, up from 90 billion Euros in 2007 according to figures supplied by Eurispes and SOS impresa (Harwood). Over the past 50 years, the main source of revenue for the Mafia has been drug trafficking, which brings in around 59 billion Euros a year (Harwood). â€Å"Studies show the criminal market never suffers during a crisis,† says Roberto Saviano, author of the best-selling book Gomorrah, the story of the Camorra crime bosses. â€Å"I’m convinced that this crisis is bringing huge advantages to criminal syndicates† (Harwood). The Italian mafia also relies on its â€Å"tried and true profit generating scheme: the protection racket† (Harwood). It is estimated that the mafia takes away over 6 percent of Italy’s Gross Domestic Product, GDP, through extortion. That’s 92 billion Euros a year, 250 million Euros a day, and 10 million Euros an hour (Harwood). Crime organizations have never been more powerful or more profitable. A small-business association called Confesercenti estimates that the Mafia collected revenues of â‚ ¬90 billion, $128 billion, in 2006, a sum equivalent to 7 percent of Italy’s GDP indicating that the Mafia’s influence as well as success continues to increase (Harwood). The Mafia does not only focus on exploiting businesses and trafficking drugs in Italy but has also extended its power to the UK; British cities are key locations in the Mafia’s vital money-laundering operations (Kington). In December of 2009, a British gambling company known as Paradise Bet Ltd was suspended when Italian police froze its assets. This action was an attempt by the Italian police to break up a Mafia clan who was in control of this company; members were accused of drug smuggling, money laundering and attempted murder. In an operation code-named â€Å"Domino†, police raids seized 227 properties, 680 bank accounts, 61 luxury cars, nine stables, 71 horses and 35 businesses said to be worth ? 200 million (Kington). Members of the Secondigliano Alliance, which is a group within the Camorra, are suspected of owning shops in London that turn out fake designer goods and act as hideouts for fugitives and fronts for drug trafficking. These are two prime examples of the Mafia’s control and dominance over businesses, land and other profitable assets. In 2000 it was reported that the Mafia controlled one in five business in Italy. Their profits were being invested in real estate, clinics, retirement homes, supermarkets, hotels and restaurants. The fortunes made by the mafia through these exploitations would be enough to pay off the public debt (BBC News) By obtaining power over these types of businesses the Mafia eventually gains authority over entire areas and even regions. The Mafia is notorious for gaining control of institutions by using a mixture of bribery and fear, and then murdering those that cross them. Control over businesses is the main reason why the Mafia is able to maintain its income as well as overall power. The Mafia uses discreet tactics to acquire land and businesses so they do not attract attention from authorities. By owning a group of small companies or even a restaurant, the Mafia is able to exploit money from them without being obvious, adding to the reasons why the inner workings of the Mafia are so secretive. Francesco Forgione, Italy’s leading expert in organized crime describes how the Nadrangheta’s Fazzari clan has two suspected members that are buying up property in London’s Wed End district. They have yet to kill but are instead investing in property and other companies to gain control over various areas in this region (Kington). Another example of the Mafia’s role in business is Antonio La Torre, a Camorra boss, who was arrested in 2005 for setting up a small commercial empire as a money-laundering operation in Aberdeen. This business included an olive oil and prosciutto-importing company and restaurant that offered jobs to Neapolitans (Harwood). It is here that you can see that the Mafia does not always resort to drug trafficking but is able to gain the same amount of power and money through what seem like legitimate businesses in order to cover up their corrupt actions. Recently, the Italian Mafia has also begun to infiltrate the wind farm business. Known in parts of Italy as â€Å"Lords of the Wind† the Mafia now owns many wind farms in Sicilian mob strongholds like Corleone (Schwartz). The reasoning behind this sudden takeover is quite simple; the power from wind farms is sold at a high rate because of generous government subsidies intended to expand the renewable energy sector. With 30 wind farms already built in Sicily and another 60 on the way, it is suspected that the Mafia will eventually control many of them. Not all 30 wind farms are owned by the Mafia but many are and locals are afraid to do anything to combat this issue, thus exemplifying the Mafia’s ability to maintain their influence and control over businesses through fear. Green energy could be the next big company that becomes a casualty of the Mafia’s criminal activity (Schwartz). Once the Mafia began to arrive in American in the 1920’s, it became clear that their initial business ventures were different from that of their homeland. Many who fled here in the early 1920’s helped establish what is known today as La Cosa Nostra or the American Mafia. Learning from their organizations back in Italy, the traditions of the Sicilian â€Å"honored society,† which absolutely forbade involvement in either narcotics or prostitution, the Mafia left the eroin business to the powerful Jewish gangsters who dominated organized crime in the 1920’s (Servadio). The Mafia was content with the substantial profits to be gained from controlling the bootleg liquor industry. By the 1920’s The United States and the provinces within Canada had adopted prohibition. It was during that era that North America gave birth to some of the largest crime syndicates, most vicious criminals, and mafia leaders. For the Mafia, prohibition meant employment, easy money and control over businesses and the people. The tainted money, prostitution, extortion and other criminal rackets did not make nearly as much money in comparison to the intake from bootlegging. Prohibition created an atmosphere that allowed crime to flourish; an atmosphere, which the mafia exploited and used to gain control over the people, businesses and subsequent regions of the United States. Prohibition was the first step that allowed the American Mafia to gain control over one of the most lucrative business America had ever seen. The leader of this Mafioso movement was Salvatore C. Luciana, known to the world as Charles â€Å"Lucky† Luciano. Lucky pioneered organizational techniques that are still the basis of organized crime today and forged an alliance between the Mafia and prominent Jewish gangs that has survived for almost 40 years. With the end of Prohibition in sight, Luciano made the decision to take the Mafia into the profitable prostitution and heroin rackets. This decision was determined more by financial considerations than anything else. The dominance of the Mafia over its Jewish and Irish rivals was built on its success in illegal distilling and rum running. Its continued supremacy, which Luciano hoped to maintain through superior organization and business, could only be sustained by developing new sources of income; drug trafficking (Servadio). Heroin was an attractive substitute to illegal distilling because it had recently become illegal. This in turn left a large market that could be easily exploited and expanded. Although heroin addicts in no way compared with drinkers in numbers, heroin profits could be just as significant: heroin’s light weight made it less expensive to smuggle than liquor, and its limited number of sources made it more easy to monopolize. Although illegal, this was a smart business venture for the American Mafia and enabled them to control a significant part of the liquor and drug trafficking business. Heroin, moreover, complemented Luciano’s and subsequently the Cosa Nostra’s other new business venture: the organization of a prostitution ring. Luciano found that addicting his prostitutes to heroin kept them quiet, steady workers, with a habit that could only be funded by this occupation. This also forced many small-time pimps out of business. By 1935 Luciano controlled 200 New York City brothels with twelve hundred prostitutes, providing him with an estimated income of more than $10 million a year (Servadio). Supplemented by growing profits from gambling and the labor movement, The Cosa Nostra was once again on a secure financial footing due to their influence and involvement with profitable and productive business ventures such as alcohol and drug trafficking as well as prostitution; they acknowledges what the people wanted and provided them with a service they would be unable to find anywhere else thus monopolizing that specific industry. It is clear that the Mafia has not only infiltrated the business of Italy but America as well and through these institution it has remained a dominant part of these societies. Although illegal in many aspects, the business ventures that Mafia undertake are incredibly lucrative and give them the opportunity to expand their organization on a large scale. Although governments are taking significant action in combating the Mafia, they continue to grow and dominate the economies of many societies to this day.

Makayla Fails Essays (1353 words) - Americas, Racism, Free Essays

Makayla Fails Essays (1353 words) - Americas, Racism, Free Essays Makayla Fails Dr. Greg Carr Intro to African American Studies February 16, 2016 Framing Question #2: How Did Africans Preserve and Affirm Their Way of Life and Use Their Identities As a Means to Resist Enslavement? Abstract: The question that we are being asked is a powerful one. Africans were basically completely stripped of their identities when they were forced into slavery. But this question is basically saying that they were indeed not completely stripped, so what did they do to keep their identities. What did they do to keep their souls alive? What did they do to keep their stories alive? It is not easy to keep your culture, your religion and your language alive when you are continuously moving from place to place and when you are forced to adapt to different cultures, religions and languages. But despite all of the hardships and struggles, Africans did preserve and affirm their culture as a means to resist enslavement through many different ways. "Culture never dies, it's passed on; that is why it changes" (Carr). Critical Review of Scholarship: Since the beginning of this course, we have engaged in readings that hit almost every aspect of African studies. Something Torn and New: An African Renaissance by Ngugi Wa Thiong'o happens to be one of these readings. This book talks about how the main goal of Europeans was to overpower the African culture by imprinting their culture and ways of living into the souls of the Africans. When discussing this book in class, we basically came up with the conclusion that the Europeans took everything away from the Africans. So not only did they take their freedom, but they took their languages, their memories, and their culture. So when I say the Europeans wanted to "overpower" the African culture, they wanted to completely wipe it out as if it never existed. This book helps you to realize how much the Africans value their language, memories, culture, and their identity as a whole. Another book that really helped me to understand and answer the question asked is The Coming by Daniel Black. This book follows a group of Africans from the moment they are captured in their villages to the moment they are sold in America. In this novel, Daniel Black depicts the characters' journey to the ship, journey across the Atlantic, and complete loss of self. This book was probably the most helpful with answering the framing question because it really puts you in the time and place of slavery. It is like you are actually there and you know everything that is going on. Discussion: The Africans that experienced enslavement went through too much for us to even try to imagine what it was like. As was said before, they were basically forced into a whole new world. To the white man, they were stripped of their name, culture, religion and language. This made the white man (slave owners/master) feel more than powerful. This made them feel like they had full control on the slaves' lives, which they kind of did in a sense. It was almost like they were puppet masters playing with ventriloquist dolls, only this was real life dealing with real people and real situations. In my opinion, Africans were stuck in a very tough situation, but they were smart with the way that they went about it. In order to preserve their lives, identity and their experiences, Enslaved African-Americans created sacred songs and told stories about their experiences. Since enslaved people were not allowed to formally educate themselves, which includes learning how to write down these memories of the past, oral storytelling was the only way to have a connection to Africa. Of everything that was taken and stripped, the mind was the one thing the white slave owners could not erase. As hard as they tried Africans held onto their identities, cultural traditions, and connections through verbal exchange. As was said before, these slaves were smart. They knew that nobody could tell their stories better than them. If they left it up to the white man to tell of their experiences, we might not even know of slavery or the degree of severity to which it was. It was said in the book, The Coming,

Studying for an exam - Smart Custom Writing Samples

Studying for an exam - Smart Custom Writing Literary Analysis of the Unbearable Lightness of BeingThe Unbearable Lightness of Being is a book written by Milan Kundera and published in 1984.   It is a compelling love story, a must-read that is both touching and sad. This is a novel whose context is set in the late sixties up to the eighties in the communist run Czechoslovakia. It basically explores the themes of love and politics through an in-depth use of various literary devices such as symbolism, imagery and allegory. This has been widely discussed in here-in under the crucial theme of fate in relation to love. In evaluating the literary device of symbolism, imagery and allegory, the concept of lightness, weight and eternal return is well brought out by the German phrase ‘es muss sein’ which implies ‘it must be.’ Kundera explains the origin of the phrase as a motif from the Beethoven's songs. It came up when Tomas was debating after Tereza left him in Zurich as to whether to return to Prague. He phrases the term to his boss since he feels it is beyond his control, induced by fate and he has no choice but to follow Tereza. Fate, as a concept in light and weight, alludes or simplifies Nietzsche's ideas in ‘What's Up with the Title?’ in which Nietzsche alleged that people can attain eternal return and the burden of weight associated with it. Therefore, ‘es muss sein’ is highly relevant in this context since Kundera views Beethoven as a weighty person alluded by the ‘frown’ and ‘improbably mane.’ Further, he is one of the great loves of Tereza who is associated with heaviness and weight. Tomas learns about his music only through Tereza. Tomas feels that Tereza is part of fate and his ‘es muss sein’ and chooses to return to Prague to prove this. He analyses his relationship with Tereza on his way back and identifies six fortuitous events that precipitated their relationship, hence the reference to Tereza as ‘the woman born of six fortuities’ in the novel. This greatly worries him since they could be together by chance, referring to this as 'es konnte auch anders sein' rather by fate. This, is later challenged in Tomas’ thinking as illustrated by his musings on that if fate repeatedly points at a certain event, then the event must be sufficiently ‘significant and noteworthy.’ This is an implication that what happens by chance is a result of the need for necessity which is what is repeated further implying it belongs to the sphere of eternal return. Thi s further contrasts the lightness versus weight dichotomy since he further wonders that the events that occur by chance only once also have an implication. This struggle with the concept of fortuity is further illustrated in chapter five whereby Tomas deliberates on his profession as the narrator phrases: "He had come to medicine not by coincidence or calculation but by a deep inner desire." Kundera also illustrates ‘es muss sein,’ or fate by Tomas’ womanizing habits which he feels is an imperative enslaving him. After a night of erotic dreams and stomach pains, Tomas finally declares that Tereza is the ‘es muss sein’ of his love, though he still cannot control his womanizing habits. He finally comes to the conclusion that love lives beyond ‘es muss sein.’ Therefore, the dichotomy of weight versus lightness is well illustrated since on one hand, Tereza wants Tomas to give up his philandering lifestyle and commit to her but on the other h and, Tomas feels Tereza is in the realm of lightness since she is born of fate rather than compulsion. The literary device of symbolism, imagery and allegory can be furthered by the bowler hat. Kundera mentions that the bowler hat signifies several aspects in philosophy. First, Kundera explains that it signified violence against any woman’s dignity such as Sabina. From Kundera’s point of narration, the lingerie is depicted as enhancing the ‘charm of her femininity’ while the bowler hat, seen as hard and masculine, ‘violated and ridiculed it.’ Further, he depicts this humiliation as seen through Tomas who stood just stood beside her, fully dressed. Sexual humiliation in Kundera’s Unbearable Lightness is illustrated by both Sabina and Tereza. They harbor secret desires to be degraded by the men they have had sex with, For instance, Tereza wants the engineer to watch her go to the bathroom after sex, a desire also expressed by Sabina. With the iteration of certain words, the bowler hat can be therefore seen as a symbol of sexual degradation which contrary to the reader’s thoughts is voluntary and longed for by the women characters in the book. Secondly, Kundera explains that the bowler hat was memento which reminded her of her father. After the death of her father, she adamantly refuses to ‘out of sovereign contempt to fight for her rights’ or to have anything else except the bowler hat. Sabina’s relationship with the father is strained and complex. She feels that the kitsch or ideas instilled by her father during her childhood should be betrayed. She refused to fight for her inheritance; hence the bowler hat in this case alludes to her betrayal and desertion of her father. In conclusion, it is crucial to note that Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being is highly successful due to the fact that he is able to create an exchange between his ‘skeptical critical intelligence and his belief in the autonomy of his fictional characters’ (Andrews). The writer adopts a point of narration whereby he avoids all interior monologue and instead draws attention persistently to its fictiveness and the ability to display the characters imaginatively without resulting in soliloquy.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Andrews, Diane. "Critical Essay on The Unbearable Lightness of Being." Novels for Students. Detroit: Literature Resource Center, 2003. Barnard, John. "The Unbearable Lightness of Being: Repetition, Formal Structure, and Critique." Contemporary Literary Criticism Select. Detroit: Literature Resource Center, 25 January 2003. Kundera, Milan. The unbearable lightness of being. HarperPerennial, 1984.