Tall or Short Powerful or Weak free essay sample

For most people, meeting my eyes requires tilting their neck several degrees beyond the norm; watching them awkwardly pan upward is a part of my everyday life. My height is something that is impossible not to notice. When I am walking on the street or hanging out with friends at a party, people might stare. People might wonder what it feels like, as if the weather were different up here. For some teenagers, being tall feels like being a random tree towering above the short grass; their height becomes a form of insecurity, even as it offers one-of-a-kind access to the best views at a crowded concert. Height can also be perceived as intimidating or frightening, and influence the way that others form opinions of me. A recent incident, though, has cemented my understanding that there is nothing I can do to control my height, so I might as well embrace it. We will write a custom essay sample on Tall or Short? Powerful or Weak? or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page It was a Saturday night, 10:16 pm to be exact. Suddenly, my annoying ringtone goes off; it was my mom. Already at that moment, I was confused as to why she was calling me; she was supposed to be attending an event, and at that time she would usually send a text message if she had something to say. As I answered my phone, I could barely hear my mother’s voice above the chatter and laughter of my close friends; I asked them to quiet down. Hearing the ripple of worry in my mother’s voice, who is usually as calm and serene as a mountain lake, I already suspected that something unforeseen was about to come my way. Fleeing the chaos of my friend’s bedroom, I headed down the staircase to speak to my mom, so distracted that my slippery socks almost dragged me down the bumpy incline. I settled in my friend’s kitchen, and took a seat at the table, telling my mom to go ahead. â€Å"So you know Jennie’s mother, Lucia, right?† â€Å"What about her?,â₠¬  I said, standing up and pacing around the kitchen island in nervous loops like an agitated tiger in a circular cage. â€Å"Lucia came up to me and told me how beautiful and tall you were.† I paused, confused, and suddenly my mounting adrenaline dropped; I had not been expecting a compliment from this acquaintance’s mother to be the reason behind my mother’s odd tone. Unfortunately, it did not end there. â€Å"And?† â€Å"And then she told me that you, Emma, needed to ‘cool down.’† My jaw dropped. I was out of breath, as if I had just ran 20 miles. My palms began to sweat and I felt like my face was going to explode. At first I had no idea where this was coming from, or where it might be headed. She continued to interrogate my mother about my height, of all things! I felt as if this lady had just invaded my sense of self worth, attacking my personal space. â€Å"She said that you were taking your power and putting it on other girls , demanding that they follow you.† At this point, the reason behind my mother’s uncomfortable tone became lucid, and my own outrage began to bubble up again. It was evident that this woman had made this assumption because of my height, influenced only by appearances, and not by experience or valued evidence. Her rambling implied that because I am a tall and a social girl, I have power and am negatively forcing it on others. Of course my height is something that ensures my confidence, but in no way does it give me ‘power’. I left my friend’s house that night, still pondering the distressing idea that someone could have formed such a mistaken image of me. After taking some time to reflect the following week, I have come to acknowledge that my height and the way other people feel about it, are simply beyond my control. It is sad that people make prejudiced assumptions about one another without interacting with them. This experience confirmed for me that prejudiced behavior exists, but in reflecting on the things Lucia said, I began to see how distant they are from myself, and from reality. This distance, however, makes me feel empowered. It helps me to realize what is controllable in my identity and what is not, and to see how much more important the parts are that I can control. Therefore, I refuse to let her comments interfere with my self-assurance. I now know that I need to focus on the controllable aspects of myself, such as my behavior and confidence. Those are things that are more important than the uncontrollable traits with which I was born. Because of this incident, I have begun to look beyond the surface of a persons uncont rollable traits, and more into the things that are controllable in a person. And if you were wondering, the weather is indeed nicer up here.

Centripetal Force Lab Report Essay Example

Centripetal Force Lab Report Essay Example Centripetal Force Lab Report Paper Centripetal Force Lab Report Paper An object hat moves at a constant speed and changes direction is also experiencing acceleration even though its speed never changes. Both the acceleration produced by changing speed and the acceleration produced by changing direction require a net force. This force that is produced in called the centripetal force and the acceleration that causes a change in direction is called centripetal Centripetal force means center seeking. It is the force responsible for keeping an object in circular motion. If there were no centripetal force the object would fly off at a tangent because of Newtons First Law. This is demonstrated by spinning an object on a string. Fifth string were to break or be cut, the object would fly out of its circular path at a tangent. An equation can be used to represent the relationship between centripetal force, mass, velocity, and the radius of the circle. This equation is: [pica] Equipment and Setup Plastic tube Nylon cord Several rubber stoppers of different sizes Hanging masses Stopwatch Meter stick Tape Setup Procedural Summary String a plastic tube on the nylon cord and place a rubber stopper on one end and a hanging mass on the other end. Sometime it would not start or stop correctly. Other times it would stop and start again when the button was only pressed once. This means the timing of the 20 revolutions may not have been the most accurate, which would change our period lengths as well. Finally how we spun the stopper may not have been consistent. The path may have been slightly different or may have been spun faster or slower than necessary. This would change our periods. Questions and Conclusions Based on these diagrams one can see that the tension is what is actually causing centripetal force to be placed on the stopper as it rotates in circular motion. The mass remained stationary during the trials. This is because the tension applied to it and the force of gravity acting on it were equal. This means the only force left is the tension and centripetal force to keep the stopper rotating. 2. If the string were to break the stopper would fly in a direction tangent to the circle. This means it would be a 900 angle relative to the radius at that point. The reason for this is that when the string breaks centripetal force is no longer keeping the stopper in circular motion. It will therefore follow its normal path because of Newtons first law. It didnt go straight before because an external force was acting on it, but now that the centripetal force is gone, it will stay in its normal motion path until acted upon by another outside force. When the stopper is in circular motion it has acceleration because its direction is constantly changing. When the string breaks, however, the stopper will move at a constant elicit therefore producing no acceleration. This also means there is an absence of force according to Newtons Second Law. 3. As centripetal force increased, the velocity increased. 4. As the radius of the circle increased, the velocity increased. 5. As the mass of the moving stopper increased, the velocity decreased. 6. The centripetal force would need to decrease. This is because the radius is in the denominator and increasing the denomination with a constant numerator (mass and velocity) causes the quotient (centripetal force) to decrease. Conclusion This was a very successful lab overall. The graphs, the trend lines, and the slope of the trend lines really helped me to understand how changing the different factors in the centripetal force formula affects the results. I was able to verify the relationships in a statistical and visual way. While not always the case, most of the time I was able to visually see how the velocity changed with each trial. This certainly helped me understand the relationship and trends between the variables. Our data was able to show a clear trend as well, so the error must have been minimal. It seems like the correlations of the lines of best fits re close to 1 or -1 as well, so this also shows OUr data had quite regular trends.

Analysis of semco and pixar animated studio as an example of innovative organizations

Companies like Semco, Gore and Associate, 3M and Pixar have made a reputation for themselves due to their emphasis on creativity. Innovation is a product of collaborative learning, idea generation, sharing and idea realization practices of workers in an organization (Dovey, 2009, p.311). For innovation to occur an organisation must foster an environment and culture that give room for creativity which is what Semco and Pixar have achieved. To this end, this report will analyse Semco and Pixar as an exemplar of innovative companies and the relationship that exist between them using some key theories of innovation and the defining features and managerial actions that set them apart as innovative organisations. SEMCO Semco is a loose organisation that encourages innovation and self organisation leading to trust, collaboration and cooperation. Semco was a small family engineering company originally called Semler and Company established in 1952 in Sao Paulo, Brazil by Antonio Curt Semler and renamed Semco after Ricardo Semler, the 24 year old son of the owner resumed office as the new chief executive officer in 1984, firing more than half of the top managers on his first day of resuming office as chief executive officer and eliminated all secretarial positions (CNN, 2004). The company prior to Ricardo taking over was characterised with autocratic style of management with control and rules being the order of the day and operating at the edge of collapse. Ricardo Semler favours a participating style of management, profit sharing and free flow of information. The company product range includes dishwashers, pumps, mixers, cooling units for air condition, biscuits factories among others (Semler 1999, p. 1). It is one of the most innovative companies in the world and has become the subject of study for most business schools all around the world due to its peculiar management style. There is no organisation structure that feeds managers ego, subordinates choose their own bosses, employees set their salaries, production targets and achieve them at their own time, and are encouraged to participate, share ideas and also share in the profit (Semler 1999, pp.1-7, 130 131). PIXAR Pixar animated studio was established in 1986 after Steve Jobs purchased the computer graphics division of Lucas films for $10 million with Ed Catmull being named co-founder and Chief technical officer, Smith as vice president alongside Steve Jobs (Price, 2008, p.74 85-197). In 2001, Ed Catmull was named Pixar’s president. The company originally manufactures and sell hardware and software that enable computer graphics to develop animations. In 1987, the company began the making of short films with its first computer generated movie, Toy Story being released in 1995. The company which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Walt Disney acquired 2006 at $7.4 billion and located in Emeryville, California (Paik, 2007). The acquisition will help Pixar gain economies of scale and access to new technologies. Pixar has a range of films under its belt that has surpassed box office expectations from Rango, Hop, Toy Story 3, finding Nemo, the incredible and many others (Emerald Group Review, 2 011). Its target audience cuts across all ages and nationalities and include families and children and its product range include short films in DVDs, soundtrack CDs, animated films among others (Price, 2008, pp.3-7). It fosters an environment that gives room for mistakes and encourages collaborations among teams and departments and devoid of micro management by executives to ensure creativity and innovation (YouTube-imperial college, 2009). THEORIES OF INNOVATION USING EVIDENCE FROM SEMCO AND PIXAR What makes Ricardo Semler and Ed Catmull exceptional in the way they run their companiesCould it be that they were born to innovation, an act of God, divine intervention, grace, or years of experience and acquisition of knowledge and educationAnalysts and business tycoons have called these men genius. Some critics of Semler and Pixar would have called the transformation at these companies as a gift from the gods. However, it is worthy of note that Semco was a company already in operation prior to Ricardo taking over and Pixar had several failed attempts before its major breakthrough in 1995 with Toy Story. Emerald group, 2011 quoted Ed Catmull in Harvard Business Review ‘I don’t think our success is largely luck. Rather, I believe our adherence to a set of principles and practices for managing creative talent and risk is responsible.’ Was grace far from the transformation in these companiesRicardo was one of the youngest graduates at Harvard Business School who wo uld have learnt some of the traditional management theories in school but choose to manage in a uniquely different way that suite his life and believes suite those of his employees. Moreover, having had an encounter with a doctor who told him to change his work style, he decided to change his way of management, a factor that has led to the key changes at Semco today. Thus innovation at Semco may be a combination of association having graduated from Harvard, accident-a chance meeting with the doctor, personality-considering that while at high school he raised some money for the school vacation program which he reinvested to yield a return before the vacation, feature of life and a bit of cognitive considering the fact that innovation at Semco had evolved over time. It is far from being grace or act of gods. Several forms of innovation can be said to have taken placed at these organisations. They are: Organisational innovation: An organisational innovation is one that entails the implementation of a new organisational method in the firm’s business practices, workplace or external relations (Stoneman, 2010, p.17; OECD, 2006). It is often intended to increase a company’s performance through improvement in workplace satisfaction and labour productivity and access to knowledge. It entails an adoption of an organisational method such as flatter organisation structures, employees’ participation among others that have not being used before in an organisation and often results from strategic decisions taken by management (Stoneman, 2010, p.18). Semco and Pixar posses a great deal of organisational innovation. Semco had implemented theories that have never being tried before such as the satellites programs that allow ex-employees to open their own companies with financial help and resources and become partners with Semco and employees cutting their wages by 30% to Semc o at difficult times to get a higher returns when trading conditions get better. What drive such innovation are the organisational culture, structure and learning. Social innovation: This is the innovation that supports and it is beneficial to the society. Pixar is an example of such innovation whose films though animated have a lot of influence on the society both young and small. Its latest film, hop for instance gives social lessons about the role of adult and children in society. Semco has also contributed to the Brazilian society through employment and a reduction in job cuts. Traditional innovation: This is technological innovation and is measured in different ways such as through patents, expenditure and development among others. Semco and Pixar have shown a lot of innovation and creativity in technology with Pixar having a lot of patents. All these types of innovation create social capital which will be discussed later in this report. FEATURES OF INNOVATIVE ORGANISATIONS OR MANAGEMENT ACTIONS SEMCO and Pixar’s success is built on a lattice or flatter organisational structure devoid of control culture that has gone through series of transformation through the years which has enhanced their innovative ability. An organisational culture devoid of control fosters innovation as individuals are giving the freedom to self organise and make their own decisions just like Semco where employees set their salaries and take decisions on production targets and the time they meet such targets (Semler, 1999, p.1). These companies have been able to manage innovation in the following ways: Structure and culture: Organisational design is crucial to the continuous innovation of an enterprise. As the business environment becomes complex and uncertain, so is the organisational design changing to meet up with customers’ demands for value maximising products. Traditional management scientists like Max Weber emphasised formal structure which is a top-down approach characterised with command, control, rules, position power and neglect social and psychological influences on behaviours of employees and teams (Burnes 2000, p.45). Employees are likely to respond to a good leader who they trust and respect than being managed in a bureaucratic way as argued by Adair 1986:54. Semco operates a lattice structure and considers all workers as equal and has reduced bureaucracy from twelve layers of management to three (Semler 1999, p.7). Reduced hierarchies and high involvement will lead to faster decision making and idea generation and information sharing, leading to innovation. F ormal organisational structure stifles individual creativity. In the words of Semler, authoritarianism diminishes productivity and as such no privileges or rules that discourages flexibility (Semler, 1999, p. 4). At Semco, People are made to enjoy their job and feel good about themselves, not just to survive. Business strategy in the company is determined without interference from the top. Similarly, Pixar is free from the thick layers of formal management and executives are not involved in the day to day running of the organisation. All employees are equally important and all work together for the success of a story. Both companies are devoid of micro-management which ensures creativity and innovation. To have these kind of organisations require a conducive organisational culture that is devoid of control. In the words of Ed Catmull, ‘Management really doesn’t tell people what to do.’ Thus both companies give employees freedom to take risk and there is reflecti on, learning and feedback. However , not everyone can work in an environment with such a structure as some people like being told what to do, also, people wants to know what their responsibilities are and who they are report to while others do not like responsibility. It means that such environment will attract liked minded individuals. Trust and Freedom: Due to the flexible organisational structure and lack of formal reporting structures, employees can be trusted to carry out their roles. However, there is a tendency for employees to abuse the system giving the few reporting structures. Semco has absolute trust in her employees and encourages them to be self managing and governing and have made partners with them. There is so much trust that Semco made entrepreneurs out of its workers through assistance with setting up their own company through its satellite programs, buy from them and encourage them to sell to its competitors. One will assume trust will not be a possibility giving the large number of employees of over 3000. Semco has defiled business school expectations and has gone as far as allowing workers to participate in managerial decision making from deciding how much they get paid, to unlimited access to financial information and freedom to work whenever and wherever they choose and meet targets at their own set time and set their salaries which has resulted in impressive growth, long term loyalty and increase and better productivity. To Semler, his interest is in the final result not where, how and hours worked (Easen, 2004). Freedom drives performance and encourages innovation. Staff can work better if given more independence (Handy, 2004). Semco adopts a participating or democratic management style that create an atmosphere where both bosses and subordinates ( partners and associate) interact regardless of jobs and position and all are involved in decision making (Semler, 1999.pp.6 81). In the words of Semler (1999, p. 6), ‘We don’t have as many bosses as we used to. As workers began to exercise more control over their jobs and assume more voices in our policies, the need for supervisors diminished.’ Having trust in individual will give them a sense of belonging and being wanted and encourage new ideas and sharing of ideas among one another. Semco and Pixar re alised that the most powerful resources at their disposal are the people who make things happen in their organisations and have learnt to trust, believe in them and give them the freedom to express their innovative capabilities and drive production forward. Trust is seen as an outcome of social capital and shared values (Cote and Healy, 2001). However, the problem with freedom is that not everyone like being free. Some people want to be controlled and directed to get their job done. Some see control as a motivator. Moreover, some top managers may resist the need for reduced hierarchies for fear of losing control and power. Social capital and Collaboration: At Semco and Pixar, there is collaboration and teamwork as people work together for common and shared values and not get in each others’ way but are committed to the achievement of the common goal of the company. At Semco, employees participate in managerial decision not just relating to their jobs but the business as a whole. They are included in decisions that pertain to choosing who their boss becomes (Easen, 2004). Before people are hired or promoted to leadership positions, they are interviewed and approved by all who will be working for them, and every six months managers are evaluated by their subordinates. Semco has autonomous business units established by ex- employees who open their own business with help from Semco and have become partners, associate and collaborators and has made Semco a leaner and agile organisation (Semler, 1999 P.7). Also different departments and business units and teams work collectively to drive innovation f orward at Semco and Pixar. Easen, 2004 reported Semler as saying that ‘Growth and profit are a product of how people work together.’ There is a balanced collaboration at Pixar as artist and technologists are paired together. Every offer or idea is accepted and then people get the chance to plus it (Nelsen, 2008). A term Nelsen called ‘plussing’- taking an idea or a piece of work and find a way to add or improve upon it without judging it. At Pixar, collaboration means amplification whereby employees who are listening and interested in each other are joined together to work and bring separate depth to the problems and breadth that gives them interest in the solution as well as allow teams to communicate at different levels. The brain trust at Pixar is a framework or forum that gives an opportunity for some of the best brains to use their expertise and experience to share their understanding and knowledge with others and to get feedback. The Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation, OECD defines social capital as ‘networks together with shared norms, values and understandings that facilitate cooperation within or among groups’ (ONS, 2001; Cote and Healy, 2001:41). It is the glue that holds organisations together and enables employees to join forces more effectively and pursue shared objectives. In a culture of continual change and uncertainty, sustainable communities are those who are collaborative and always growing with and towards each other in the formation, sharing and adaptation to new knowledge (Smith and Paquette, 2010). Some of the outcomes of social capital are social relations, trust, collaboration, mutually enforceable agreement, general reciprocity and innovation (ONS, 2001). In Semco there is mutually enforceable agreement resulting from profit sharing. In the past, Pixar had used stock to motivate employees and encourage them to stay. Also, the need to produce quality output at Pixar could be a form of mutually enforceable agreement (Price 2008, p. 114). Pay recognition: Motivation such as adequate pay, interpersonal relations and work and group dynamics are some factors that increase productivity and workers satisfaction (Mullins, 2007, p.53). Employees will be committed to work if they are being paid fairly and feel that their contribution is appreciated in the organisation. Semco’s employees set their salaries and share in the profits. As Semler (1999, P. 4) says, ‘Profit-sharing is democratic. We negotiate with our workers over the basic percentage to be distributed- about a quarter of our corporate profit.’ This has worked so well at Semco as there is very low labour turnover and when the need arises, those laid off are assisted to form their own company. Reward systems and benefits retain people and lead to workers’ satisfaction, commitment and loyalty (Chiu et al, 2002). There were times when workers salary proposal were rejected in instances of over- statement. Contrary to this is the argument that financial rewards are not enough to motivate people and that group pressure has more influence on employees than financial rewards (Mullins, 2007, p.301). In addition, people also have intrinsic motivation derives from within the individual which propels them towards the need for self actualisation and fulfilment. Learning and feedback/ Gives room for mistakes/Risk taking: Learning within projects teams depends heavily on the inflow and transfer of knowledgeable among them. Semco and Pixar are learning organisations. Such organisations give room for failure and learning from mistakes and encourage risk taking and have a wide tolerance for new ideas and do not punish mistakes. A learning organisation was defined by Johnson et al (2008) as, ‘One capable of continual regeneration from the variety of knowledge, experience and skills of individuals that encourage mutual questioning and challenge around a shared purpose or vision.’ Semler pointed out that mistake is welcome and a sign that the employee is taking enough risk. Without mistakes, there will not be learning and consequently, innovation will be stifled. Likewise at Pixar, continuous innovation requires that executives resist the natural tendencies to minimise risks and accept uncertainty to ensure originality and ability to r ecover from failures resulting from taking risks. It encourages creativity by allowing people to experiment with new ideas and mistakes genuinely made are treated as part of the learning process Emerald Group review, 2011). Mistake are not punished at Pixar but seen as building block for new ideas and innovation just like 3M. Pixar endorses and encourages a creative by rejecting hierarchical and controlled system, instead the taking of risks and recognizes the importance of serendipity in the creative process (Smith and Paquette, 2010) It has been argued that employees’ collective knowledge exceeds those of the organisation and its capabilities and managers should aim at encouraging processes that unlock employees’ knowledge and encourage information, knowledge and idea sharing which is the sort of environment both companies have created for their employees. As a narrator said, each movies produced by Pixar contains a combination of tens of thousands of ideas arising from risk taking, failure and learning. Ed Catmull said that ‘Innovative people are failure recovered not failure avoider.’ Both companies give room for reflection, learning and feedback. The benefits of learning cannot be over emphasis. Learning increases employees’ commitment, improve quality as mistakes are identified. Senge 1999 reiterated that organisational learning leads to organisational performance. Commitment: At Semco, everyone is committed to the achievement of the organisation’s objectives as they all feel a sense of belonging and part ownership of the company arising partly from the profit sharing. Employees are seen as being importance and valued. A worker in an interview said if an employee is idle, another worker will often ask why he or she is not working, reminding him or her that failure to work will reduce their profits and subsequently reduction in money for their pockets. So there is peer pressure. If employees feel that they are being trusted to take decision on their own and self manage, they will be committed. Semco operates an egalitarian company where there is no preferential treatment. Parking lots are for first come basis and all employees eat on the same canteen. Meetings are held based on the first two employees to be present. This makes employees feel as being a part of the team and big family and give them a sense of being wanted by the company. B y removing privileges of ranks, employees will see themselves as a wider community, thus feel comfortable voicing their opinion, leading to generation of new ideas. Dynamism: Semco is a highly flexible company with no boundaries to the type of business and products, making it difficult to say exactly what kind of business the company is in. There is no fixed business and it is open to any form of business that comes their way. It is also characterised with the absence of business plans and company strategy. In the words of Semler (2003, p.4), ‘ Once you say what business you are in, you create boundaries for you employees, you restrict their thinking and give them a reason to ignore new opportunities as they will say we are not in that business.’ Semco is so dynamic in its operations and processes that employees must not use one desk two days in a row. This is to make them difficult to track and are free to move and work anywhere that appeals to them be it home office. There is time flexibility as they are not concerned about when the employees arrive at work. However, contracts are negotiated on the basis of what to be achieved at a set period and what it stands to gain for paid value and what the employees get in return. It is a mutually enforceable agreement as both parties- employees and Semco benefit. Pixar, though in a core line of business of animated films, it is not to say it is not a dynamic company as different forms of films that benefits both adult and children have being produced over the years. There is effective communication at both companies due to the organisational culture and flatter structure devoid of control. There is information, idea and knowledge sharing. At Pixar, technologists communicate with the artists. SUMARY AND CONCLUSION Semco and Pixar are said to be innovative even though the companies are different in what they do and how they approach innovation. Nevertheless, some common factors in both companies is the delegation of a large amount of control to their employees and absolute freedom to take risk and give room for mistakes and failure, giving them freedom to generate new ideas and thus take a more active role and commitment. Both companies have decentralised the management structures to get employees more involved in decision making and give them a sense of belonging. They have created a culture that gives room for mistakes, failures, sharing of information, and ideas. There is also collaboration between employees, teams, departments, business units and partners, trust, social capital, communication, lack of micro-management and similar organisational culture and structure which encourages innovation. However, both companies differ in a number of ways such as absence of profit sharing at Pixar, la nguages, products, country of location and time scales. Having carried out a detailed analysis of Semco and Pixar, it is possible that what works at these companies can be applicable to other companies. However, some disadvantages will be accrued if these features are applied in another company characterised with hierarchical control culture and structure such as resistance from top management who are control freaks and unwilling to relinquish power. Moreover, not everyone will be able to self manage as some people like being controlled and told what to do. In addition, that trust and freedom work well in these organisations does not mean it can be implemented in other organisations as differences in culture and environment will play a role in determining its effectiveness in another company with different organisational culture and business environment. Having said this, nothing is worth not trying, so these managerial actions that have worked so well in these organisations can be applied to other organisations. The reward may not be see n immediately, but in the long run, it will pay off. REFERENCE ADAIR, J. 1986. Effective Team Building: How to make a Winning Team. London: Gower Publishing Co Ltd.BURNES, B. 2000. Managing Change: A Strategic Approach to Organisational Dynamics. 3rd edn. England: Pearson Education Ltd. CHIU, R. K, LUK, W.V AND TANG, T.L (2002) Retaining and motivating employees: Compensation preferences in Hong Kong and China. Personnel Review [Online journal], 31 (4), pp.402-431. Available from Emerald at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/search.htm?st1=Retaining+and+motivating+employees%3A+Compensation+preferences+in+Hong+Kong+and+Chinact=allec=1bf=1 . (April 19 2011). COTE, S AND HEALY, T. (2001) The Well-being of Nations. The role of human and social capital. 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[WWW] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTB5S2mc3wA (20 March 2011). PRICE, D. A.2008. The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company. USA: Alfred A. Knopf. SEMLER, R. 2003. The Seven-Day Weekend. London: Century. SEMLER, R. Semco – Ricardo Semler – MIT SF 11 – Leading organizations. [WWW] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1qJ2W9cVDM (14 April 2011). SEMLER, R. (1999) Maverick! The Success Story Behind the World’s most Unusual Workplace. London: Random House Business Books. SEMLER, R. 2007. Interview with Ricardo Semler. [WWW] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJkOPxJCN1wfeature=related (13 March 2011). SENGE, P.M. (1999). It’s the learning: the real lesson of quality movement. The Journal for Quality and Participation, 22 (6)Pp.34-40. STONEMAN, P. 2010. Soft Innovation: Economics, Product Aesthetics and Creative Industries. New York: Oxford University Press.SMITH, S. AND PAQUETTE, S. (2010). Creativity, chaos and knowledge management. Business Information Review, 27 (2), pp. 118-23. BIBLIOGRAPHY BESSANT, J. 2003. High Involvement innovation: Building and Sustaining Competitive Advantage Through Continuous Change. England: John Wiley Sons. CHRISTENSEN, C.M, AND ERIK, A.R. 2004. Seeing What is Next: Using the Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change. USA: Harvard Business school Press. BURDETH, O.J. 1994. The Magic of Alignment. Management Decision [online journal], 32 (2), pp. 59-63. Available from Emerald at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/search.htm?st1=alignmentct=allec=1bf=1go=Go. (March 3 2011). Analysis of semco and pixar animated studio as an example of innovative organizations Companies like Semco, Gore and Associate, 3M and Pixar have made a reputation for themselves due to their emphasis on creativity. Innovation is a product of collaborative learning, idea generation, sharing and idea realization practices of workers in an organization (Dovey, 2009, p.311). For innovation to occur an organisation must foster an environment and culture that give room for creativity which is what Semco and Pixar have achieved. To this end, this report will analyse Semco and Pixar as an exemplar of innovative companies and the relationship that exist between them using some key theories of innovation and the defining features and managerial actions that set them apart as innovative organisations. SEMCO Semco is a loose organisation that encourages innovation and self organisation leading to trust, collaboration and cooperation. Semco was a small family engineering company originally called Semler and Company established in 1952 in Sao Paulo, Brazil by Antonio Curt Semler and renamed Semco after Ricardo Semler, the 24 year old son of the owner resumed office as the new chief executive officer in 1984, firing more than half of the top managers on his first day of resuming office as chief executive officer and eliminated all secretarial positions (CNN, 2004). The company prior to Ricardo taking over was characterised with autocratic style of management with control and rules being the order of the day and operating at the edge of collapse. Ricardo Semler favours a participating style of management, profit sharing and free flow of information. The company product range includes dishwashers, pumps, mixers, cooling units for air condition, biscuits factories among others (Semler 1999, p. 1). It is one of the most innovative companies in the world and has become the subject of study for most business schools all around the world due to its peculiar management style. There is no organisation structure that feeds managers ego, subordinates choose their own bosses, employees set their salaries, production targets and achieve them at their own time, and are encouraged to participate, share ideas and also share in the profit (Semler 1999, pp.1-7, 130 131). PIXAR Pixar animated studio was established in 1986 after Steve Jobs purchased the computer graphics division of Lucas films for $10 million with Ed Catmull being named co-founder and Chief technical officer, Smith as vice president alongside Steve Jobs (Price, 2008, p.74 85-197). In 2001, Ed Catmull was named Pixar’s president. The company originally manufactures and sell hardware and software that enable computer graphics to develop animations. In 1987, the company began the making of short films with its first computer generated movie, Toy Story being released in 1995. The company which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Walt Disney acquired 2006 at $7.4 billion and located in Emeryville, California (Paik, 2007). The acquisition will help Pixar gain economies of scale and access to new technologies. Pixar has a range of films under its belt that has surpassed box office expectations from Rango, Hop, Toy Story 3, finding Nemo, the incredible and many others (Emerald Group Review, 2 011). Its target audience cuts across all ages and nationalities and include families and children and its product range include short films in DVDs, soundtrack CDs, animated films among others (Price, 2008, pp.3-7). It fosters an environment that gives room for mistakes and encourages collaborations among teams and departments and devoid of micro management by executives to ensure creativity and innovation (YouTube-imperial college, 2009). THEORIES OF INNOVATION USING EVIDENCE FROM SEMCO AND PIXAR What makes Ricardo Semler and Ed Catmull exceptional in the way they run their companiesCould it be that they were born to innovation, an act of God, divine intervention, grace, or years of experience and acquisition of knowledge and educationAnalysts and business tycoons have called these men genius. Some critics of Semler and Pixar would have called the transformation at these companies as a gift from the gods. However, it is worthy of note that Semco was a company already in operation prior to Ricardo taking over and Pixar had several failed attempts before its major breakthrough in 1995 with Toy Story. Emerald group, 2011 quoted Ed Catmull in Harvard Business Review ‘I don’t think our success is largely luck. Rather, I believe our adherence to a set of principles and practices for managing creative talent and risk is responsible.’ Was grace far from the transformation in these companiesRicardo was one of the youngest graduates at Harvard Business School who wo uld have learnt some of the traditional management theories in school but choose to manage in a uniquely different way that suite his life and believes suite those of his employees. Moreover, having had an encounter with a doctor who told him to change his work style, he decided to change his way of management, a factor that has led to the key changes at Semco today. Thus innovation at Semco may be a combination of association having graduated from Harvard, accident-a chance meeting with the doctor, personality-considering that while at high school he raised some money for the school vacation program which he reinvested to yield a return before the vacation, feature of life and a bit of cognitive considering the fact that innovation at Semco had evolved over time. It is far from being grace or act of gods. Several forms of innovation can be said to have taken placed at these organisations. They are: Organisational innovation: An organisational innovation is one that entails the implementation of a new organisational method in the firm’s business practices, workplace or external relations (Stoneman, 2010, p.17; OECD, 2006). It is often intended to increase a company’s performance through improvement in workplace satisfaction and labour productivity and access to knowledge. It entails an adoption of an organisational method such as flatter organisation structures, employees’ participation among others that have not being used before in an organisation and often results from strategic decisions taken by management (Stoneman, 2010, p.18). Semco and Pixar posses a great deal of organisational innovation. Semco had implemented theories that have never being tried before such as the satellites programs that allow ex-employees to open their own companies with financial help and resources and become partners with Semco and employees cutting their wages by 30% to Semc o at difficult times to get a higher returns when trading conditions get better. What drive such innovation are the organisational culture, structure and learning. Social innovation: This is the innovation that supports and it is beneficial to the society. Pixar is an example of such innovation whose films though animated have a lot of influence on the society both young and small. Its latest film, hop for instance gives social lessons about the role of adult and children in society. Semco has also contributed to the Brazilian society through employment and a reduction in job cuts. Traditional innovation: This is technological innovation and is measured in different ways such as through patents, expenditure and development among others. Semco and Pixar have shown a lot of innovation and creativity in technology with Pixar having a lot of patents. All these types of innovation create social capital which will be discussed later in this report. FEATURES OF INNOVATIVE ORGANISATIONS OR MANAGEMENT ACTIONS SEMCO and Pixar’s success is built on a lattice or flatter organisational structure devoid of control culture that has gone through series of transformation through the years which has enhanced their innovative ability. An organisational culture devoid of control fosters innovation as individuals are giving the freedom to self organise and make their own decisions just like Semco where employees set their salaries and take decisions on production targets and the time they meet such targets (Semler, 1999, p.1). These companies have been able to manage innovation in the following ways: Structure and culture: Organisational design is crucial to the continuous innovation of an enterprise. As the business environment becomes complex and uncertain, so is the organisational design changing to meet up with customers’ demands for value maximising products. Traditional management scientists like Max Weber emphasised formal structure which is a top-down approach characterised with command, control, rules, position power and neglect social and psychological influences on behaviours of employees and teams (Burnes 2000, p.45). Employees are likely to respond to a good leader who they trust and respect than being managed in a bureaucratic way as argued by Adair 1986:54. Semco operates a lattice structure and considers all workers as equal and has reduced bureaucracy from twelve layers of management to three (Semler 1999, p.7). Reduced hierarchies and high involvement will lead to faster decision making and idea generation and information sharing, leading to innovation. F ormal organisational structure stifles individual creativity. In the words of Semler, authoritarianism diminishes productivity and as such no privileges or rules that discourages flexibility (Semler, 1999, p. 4). At Semco, People are made to enjoy their job and feel good about themselves, not just to survive. Business strategy in the company is determined without interference from the top. Similarly, Pixar is free from the thick layers of formal management and executives are not involved in the day to day running of the organisation. All employees are equally important and all work together for the success of a story. Both companies are devoid of micro-management which ensures creativity and innovation. To have these kind of organisations require a conducive organisational culture that is devoid of control. In the words of Ed Catmull, ‘Management really doesn’t tell people what to do.’ Thus both companies give employees freedom to take risk and there is reflecti on, learning and feedback. However , not everyone can work in an environment with such a structure as some people like being told what to do, also, people wants to know what their responsibilities are and who they are report to while others do not like responsibility. It means that such environment will attract liked minded individuals. Trust and Freedom: Due to the flexible organisational structure and lack of formal reporting structures, employees can be trusted to carry out their roles. However, there is a tendency for employees to abuse the system giving the few reporting structures. Semco has absolute trust in her employees and encourages them to be self managing and governing and have made partners with them. There is so much trust that Semco made entrepreneurs out of its workers through assistance with setting up their own company through its satellite programs, buy from them and encourage them to sell to its competitors. One will assume trust will not be a possibility giving the large number of employees of over 3000. Semco has defiled business school expectations and has gone as far as allowing workers to participate in managerial decision making from deciding how much they get paid, to unlimited access to financial information and freedom to work whenever and wherever they choose and meet targets at their own set time and set their salaries which has resulted in impressive growth, long term loyalty and increase and better productivity. To Semler, his interest is in the final result not where, how and hours worked (Easen, 2004). Freedom drives performance and encourages innovation. Staff can work better if given more independence (Handy, 2004). Semco adopts a participating or democratic management style that create an atmosphere where both bosses and subordinates ( partners and associate) interact regardless of jobs and position and all are involved in decision making (Semler, 1999.pp.6 81). In the words of Semler (1999, p. 6), ‘We don’t have as many bosses as we used to. As workers began to exercise more control over their jobs and assume more voices in our policies, the need for supervisors diminished.’ Having trust in individual will give them a sense of belonging and being wanted and encourage new ideas and sharing of ideas among one another. Semco and Pixar re alised that the most powerful resources at their disposal are the people who make things happen in their organisations and have learnt to trust, believe in them and give them the freedom to express their innovative capabilities and drive production forward. Trust is seen as an outcome of social capital and shared values (Cote and Healy, 2001). However, the problem with freedom is that not everyone like being free. Some people want to be controlled and directed to get their job done. Some see control as a motivator. Moreover, some top managers may resist the need for reduced hierarchies for fear of losing control and power. Social capital and Collaboration: At Semco and Pixar, there is collaboration and teamwork as people work together for common and shared values and not get in each others’ way but are committed to the achievement of the common goal of the company. At Semco, employees participate in managerial decision not just relating to their jobs but the business as a whole. They are included in decisions that pertain to choosing who their boss becomes (Easen, 2004). Before people are hired or promoted to leadership positions, they are interviewed and approved by all who will be working for them, and every six months managers are evaluated by their subordinates. Semco has autonomous business units established by ex- employees who open their own business with help from Semco and have become partners, associate and collaborators and has made Semco a leaner and agile organisation (Semler, 1999 P.7). Also different departments and business units and teams work collectively to drive innovation f orward at Semco and Pixar. Easen, 2004 reported Semler as saying that ‘Growth and profit are a product of how people work together.’ There is a balanced collaboration at Pixar as artist and technologists are paired together. Every offer or idea is accepted and then people get the chance to plus it (Nelsen, 2008). A term Nelsen called ‘plussing’- taking an idea or a piece of work and find a way to add or improve upon it without judging it. At Pixar, collaboration means amplification whereby employees who are listening and interested in each other are joined together to work and bring separate depth to the problems and breadth that gives them interest in the solution as well as allow teams to communicate at different levels. The brain trust at Pixar is a framework or forum that gives an opportunity for some of the best brains to use their expertise and experience to share their understanding and knowledge with others and to get feedback. The Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation, OECD defines social capital as ‘networks together with shared norms, values and understandings that facilitate cooperation within or among groups’ (ONS, 2001; Cote and Healy, 2001:41). It is the glue that holds organisations together and enables employees to join forces more effectively and pursue shared objectives. In a culture of continual change and uncertainty, sustainable communities are those who are collaborative and always growing with and towards each other in the formation, sharing and adaptation to new knowledge (Smith and Paquette, 2010). Some of the outcomes of social capital are social relations, trust, collaboration, mutually enforceable agreement, general reciprocity and innovation (ONS, 2001). In Semco there is mutually enforceable agreement resulting from profit sharing. In the past, Pixar had used stock to motivate employees and encourage them to stay. Also, the need to produce quality output at Pixar could be a form of mutually enforceable agreement (Price 2008, p. 114). Pay recognition: Motivation such as adequate pay, interpersonal relations and work and group dynamics are some factors that increase productivity and workers satisfaction (Mullins, 2007, p.53). Employees will be committed to work if they are being paid fairly and feel that their contribution is appreciated in the organisation. Semco’s employees set their salaries and share in the profits. As Semler (1999, P. 4) says, ‘Profit-sharing is democratic. We negotiate with our workers over the basic percentage to be distributed- about a quarter of our corporate profit.’ This has worked so well at Semco as there is very low labour turnover and when the need arises, those laid off are assisted to form their own company. Reward systems and benefits retain people and lead to workers’ satisfaction, commitment and loyalty (Chiu et al, 2002). There were times when workers salary proposal were rejected in instances of over- statement. Contrary to this is the argument that financial rewards are not enough to motivate people and that group pressure has more influence on employees than financial rewards (Mullins, 2007, p.301). In addition, people also have intrinsic motivation derives from within the individual which propels them towards the need for self actualisation and fulfilment. Learning and feedback/ Gives room for mistakes/Risk taking: Learning within projects teams depends heavily on the inflow and transfer of knowledgeable among them. Semco and Pixar are learning organisations. Such organisations give room for failure and learning from mistakes and encourage risk taking and have a wide tolerance for new ideas and do not punish mistakes. A learning organisation was defined by Johnson et al (2008) as, ‘One capable of continual regeneration from the variety of knowledge, experience and skills of individuals that encourage mutual questioning and challenge around a shared purpose or vision.’ Semler pointed out that mistake is welcome and a sign that the employee is taking enough risk. Without mistakes, there will not be learning and consequently, innovation will be stifled. Likewise at Pixar, continuous innovation requires that executives resist the natural tendencies to minimise risks and accept uncertainty to ensure originality and ability to r ecover from failures resulting from taking risks. It encourages creativity by allowing people to experiment with new ideas and mistakes genuinely made are treated as part of the learning process Emerald Group review, 2011). Mistake are not punished at Pixar but seen as building block for new ideas and innovation just like 3M. Pixar endorses and encourages a creative by rejecting hierarchical and controlled system, instead the taking of risks and recognizes the importance of serendipity in the creative process (Smith and Paquette, 2010) It has been argued that employees’ collective knowledge exceeds those of the organisation and its capabilities and managers should aim at encouraging processes that unlock employees’ knowledge and encourage information, knowledge and idea sharing which is the sort of environment both companies have created for their employees. As a narrator said, each movies produced by Pixar contains a combination of tens of thousands of ideas arising from risk taking, failure and learning. Ed Catmull said that ‘Innovative people are failure recovered not failure avoider.’ Both companies give room for reflection, learning and feedback. The benefits of learning cannot be over emphasis. Learning increases employees’ commitment, improve quality as mistakes are identified. Senge 1999 reiterated that organisational learning leads to organisational performance. Commitment: At Semco, everyone is committed to the achievement of the organisation’s objectives as they all feel a sense of belonging and part ownership of the company arising partly from the profit sharing. Employees are seen as being importance and valued. A worker in an interview said if an employee is idle, another worker will often ask why he or she is not working, reminding him or her that failure to work will reduce their profits and subsequently reduction in money for their pockets. So there is peer pressure. If employees feel that they are being trusted to take decision on their own and self manage, they will be committed. Semco operates an egalitarian company where there is no preferential treatment. Parking lots are for first come basis and all employees eat on the same canteen. Meetings are held based on the first two employees to be present. This makes employees feel as being a part of the team and big family and give them a sense of being wanted by the company. B y removing privileges of ranks, employees will see themselves as a wider community, thus feel comfortable voicing their opinion, leading to generation of new ideas. Dynamism: Semco is a highly flexible company with no boundaries to the type of business and products, making it difficult to say exactly what kind of business the company is in. There is no fixed business and it is open to any form of business that comes their way. It is also characterised with the absence of business plans and company strategy. In the words of Semler (2003, p.4), ‘ Once you say what business you are in, you create boundaries for you employees, you restrict their thinking and give them a reason to ignore new opportunities as they will say we are not in that business.’ Semco is so dynamic in its operations and processes that employees must not use one desk two days in a row. This is to make them difficult to track and are free to move and work anywhere that appeals to them be it home office. There is time flexibility as they are not concerned about when the employees arrive at work. However, contracts are negotiated on the basis of what to be achieved at a set period and what it stands to gain for paid value and what the employees get in return. It is a mutually enforceable agreement as both parties- employees and Semco benefit. Pixar, though in a core line of business of animated films, it is not to say it is not a dynamic company as different forms of films that benefits both adult and children have being produced over the years. There is effective communication at both companies due to the organisational culture and flatter structure devoid of control. There is information, idea and knowledge sharing. At Pixar, technologists communicate with the artists. SUMARY AND CONCLUSION Semco and Pixar are said to be innovative even though the companies are different in what they do and how they approach innovation. Nevertheless, some common factors in both companies is the delegation of a large amount of control to their employees and absolute freedom to take risk and give room for mistakes and failure, giving them freedom to generate new ideas and thus take a more active role and commitment. Both companies have decentralised the management structures to get employees more involved in decision making and give them a sense of belonging. They have created a culture that gives room for mistakes, failures, sharing of information, and ideas. There is also collaboration between employees, teams, departments, business units and partners, trust, social capital, communication, lack of micro-management and similar organisational culture and structure which encourages innovation. However, both companies differ in a number of ways such as absence of profit sharing at Pixar, la nguages, products, country of location and time scales. Having carried out a detailed analysis of Semco and Pixar, it is possible that what works at these companies can be applicable to other companies. However, some disadvantages will be accrued if these features are applied in another company characterised with hierarchical control culture and structure such as resistance from top management who are control freaks and unwilling to relinquish power. Moreover, not everyone will be able to self manage as some people like being controlled and told what to do. In addition, that trust and freedom work well in these organisations does not mean it can be implemented in other organisations as differences in culture and environment will play a role in determining its effectiveness in another company with different organisational culture and business environment. Having said this, nothing is worth not trying, so these managerial actions that have worked so well in these organisations can be applied to other organisations. The reward may not be see n immediately, but in the long run, it will pay off. REFERENCE ADAIR, J. 1986. Effective Team Building: How to make a Winning Team. London: Gower Publishing Co Ltd.BURNES, B. 2000. Managing Change: A Strategic Approach to Organisational Dynamics. 3rd edn. England: Pearson Education Ltd. CHIU, R. K, LUK, W.V AND TANG, T.L (2002) Retaining and motivating employees: Compensation preferences in Hong Kong and China. Personnel Review [Online journal], 31 (4), pp.402-431. Available from Emerald at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/search.htm?st1=Retaining+and+motivating+employees%3A+Compensation+preferences+in+Hong+Kong+and+Chinact=allec=1bf=1 . (April 19 2011). COTE, S AND HEALY, T. (2001) The Well-being of Nations. The role of human and social capital. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Paris. CNN. 2004. Ricardo Semler, Semco SA. [WWW] http://edition.cnn.com/2004/BUSINESS/06/29/semler.profile/index.html?iref=allsearch(27 April 2011). DOVEY, K. 2009. The role of trust in innovation. The Learning Organization [online journal] 16(4). Pp.311-325. Available from Emerald at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/search.htm?st1=role+of+trust+in+innovationct=allec=1bf=1 . (March23/3/2011). EASEN, N. 2004. Interview with Ricardo Semler. [WWW] http://edition.cnn.com/2004/BUSINESS/05/19/go.semlar.transcript/index.html (15 April 2011). EASEN, N. 2004. Democracy in the Workplace. [WWW] http://edition.cnn.com/2004/BUSINESS/05/19/go.democratic.workplace/index.html?iref=allsearch (15 April 2011). EMERALD GROUP, 2011. How Pixar animates its talent team: not knowing the answers can be the way ahead. Development and Learning in Organizations [Online journal], 25 (1), pp. 30-32. Available from Emerald at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/search.htm?st1=pixarct=allec=1bf=1. (April 8 2011). HANDY C, 2004. Giving your Staff More Freedom. [WWW] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/ hi/ business /4058519.stm (1 April 2011). JOHNSON, G, SCHOLES, K AND WHITTINGTON, R. 2008. Exploring Corporate Strategy: Text and Cases. 8th edn. England: Pearson Education Limited. MULLINS, L. J, 2007. Management and Organisational Behaviour. 8th edn. Essex: Pearson Education Limited. NELSEN, R. 2008. Pixar’s Randy Nelsen on the Collaborative Age. [WWW] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhXJe8ANws8 (1 April 2011). OFFICE OF NATIONAL STATISTICS. 2001. Social Capital: A review of the literature. [WWW] http://www.statistics.gov.uk/socialcapital/downloads/soccaplitreview.pdf (26 April 2011). PAIK, K. 2007. To Infinity and Beyond: The story of Pixar Animation Studio. London: Virgin Books Ltd. PIXAR GROUP 24. 2009. Innovation Management: Imperial College. [WWW] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTB5S2mc3wA (20 March 2011). PRICE, D. A.2008. The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company. USA: Alfred A. Knopf. SEMLER, R. 2003. The Seven-Day Weekend. London: Century. SEMLER, R. Semco – Ricardo Semler – MIT SF 11 – Leading organizations. [WWW] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1qJ2W9cVDM (14 April 2011). SEMLER, R. (1999) Maverick! The Success Story Behind the World’s most Unusual Workplace. London: Random House Business Books. SEMLER, R. 2007. Interview with Ricardo Semler. [WWW] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJkOPxJCN1wfeature=related (13 March 2011). SENGE, P.M. (1999). It’s the learning: the real lesson of quality movement. The Journal for Quality and Participation, 22 (6)Pp.34-40. STONEMAN, P. 2010. Soft Innovation: Economics, Product Aesthetics and Creative Industries. New York: Oxford University Press.SMITH, S. AND PAQUETTE, S. (2010). Creativity, chaos and knowledge management. Business Information Review, 27 (2), pp. 118-23. BIBLIOGRAPHY BESSANT, J. 2003. High Involvement innovation: Building and Sustaining Competitive Advantage Through Continuous Change. England: John Wiley Sons. CHRISTENSEN, C.M, AND ERIK, A.R. 2004. Seeing What is Next: Using the Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change. USA: Harvard Business school Press. BURDETH, O.J. 1994. The Magic of Alignment. Management Decision [online journal], 32 (2), pp. 59-63. Available from Emerald at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/search.htm?st1=alignmentct=allec=1bf=1go=Go. (March 3 2011).

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Respectable pharmacist Essay In some point in time, an individual encounters a crossroad in his life. I have been in a few and those influenced my current decision to pursue the degree of pharmacy. I hopped from one job to another in the last few years. I have experienced working in retail, became a massage therapist, a medical assistant, a medical coder and lastly, being employed at a pharmacy. Among the jobs that I have mentioned, my undertaking in the pharmacy was most fulfilling. From observing a respectable pharmacist, I was inspired by the way he works. I believe that the task of a pharmacist does not end by merely helping the patients understand the prescriptions. A pharmacist is also dedicated in making sure that the medications are effective in curing the patients. It is also very challenging to know that being a pharmacist entails big responsibility in dispensing medications. I came to realize that my mind and my heart belong to the cradle of pharmacy through all these. I am aware that in order to be qualified in a prestigious school like the Touro College, a good set of grades is needed but when I was still studying my undergraduate degree, I failed to handle my priorities. I was working to be able to get through my expenses. Thus, I was not able to set my focus on my studies alone. Still, I decided to continue my schooling despite the result of having a low GPA. The said experience taught me well that I should know how to strike a balance in the aspects of my life. I managed to accomplish my Bachelor’s degree and from then on, I realized that I should not dwindle with the time to learn. A low GPA does not necessarily mean that a person is of weak character. I will not be easily swayed off by incoming events that will cause me difficulty when I am already in the College of Pharmacy. If and when I will be given a chance to pursue the degree of Pharmacy, I will not put to waste the opportunity. I know that the education that I will gain will help improve my personality and outlook in life. I am the kind of person who will definitely go for the goal, fight for it so that I will be able to win.

Erics perfect society :: essays research papers

ERIC’S VERY GOOD CITIZENSHIP ESSAY I have learned that I have the freedom to be who I am. I know that everyone else has freedoms and rights. I have the right to make decisions along with the rest of the world. We all have opinions that matter. We all can benefit society and ourselves. Everything else I have learned can help benefit myself. I personally have benefited from this course by learning that I can make a difference to every endeavour and challenge I pursue for the rest of my life. Civics is really a course on everyday life that I believe to be very important to society and myself.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I have learned how to use my legal privileges with regard to rights during my everyday life. It gives me a sense of freedom and even though I am a teenager I know I have an opinion and an important position in society. There were times when I went places when there where adults and really was quiet because I didn’t think what I had to say was important. I feel comfortable meeting with people who may be more knowledgeable and more experienced than I am. I have much more self-confidence than before I took this course because I know my rights. I am much more comfortable even with teachers thanks to you Mr. Harris.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   I know that when I am old enough and able to vote that my vote will be important. I know that my vote will mean something. I know that my vote will count. I can get involved in politics and assist with the important issues in life. I have confidence that I can make a difference and help others with their issues and concerns. I listen to others opinions with more interest. I also give my opinion with much more confidence and enthusiasm. For example, when my family is making a decision on something I am much more confidant putting my two cents in the conversation. I know that no matter how old or young we are we all have opinions that count. Freedom is a wonderful thing. We really are interesting individuals and all should be heard. When we where young and in public school we felt intimidated and sometimes suppressed when forming our opinions. I wish they taught civics and the rights of freedoms in public school. It really is important to know you have an opinion.

Psychology as a science Essay

In this subject, Psychology will help you understand yourself and others. You will gain insight about why people behave the way they do, presented from a biological, behavioral, social and clinical perspective. We will explore the inner workings of the brain. It will help you to learn how to apply what you learn to yourself and your environment. Psychology is a science because it is systematic and empirical, and it is dependent on measurement. Behavior means activities that can be observed objectively, such as the reactions of the muscles and the glands, as well as the organized patterns of responses as a whole. It also includes internal processes such as thinking, feeling and other reactions which cannot be directly observed but can be inferred from external behavior. Behavior may be classified as overt or covert and intrinsic or extrinsic behavior. In this subject, Psychology will help you understand yourself and others. You will gain insight about why people behave the way they do, presented from a biological, behavioral, social and clinical perspective. We will explore the inner workings of the brain. It will help you to learn how to apply what you learn to yourself and your environment. Psychology is a science because it is systematic and empirical, and it is dependent on measurement.  Behavior means activities that can be observed objectively, such as the reactions of the muscles and the glands, as well as the organized patterns of responses as a whole. It also includes internal processes such as thinking, feeling and other reactions which cannot be directly observed but can be inferred from external behavior. Behavior may be classified as overt or covert and intrinsic or extrinsic behavior. In this subject, Psychology will help you understand yourself and others. You will gain insight about why people behave the way they do, presented from a biological, behavioral, social and clinical perspective. We will explore the inner workings of the brain. It will help you to learn how to apply what you learn to yourself and your environment.

Free Will in Experimental Philosophy Essay

Although the â€Å"free will† problem envelops a spectrum of ideas, I agree with the following belief: â€Å"The folk are compatibilists about free will. † While there are, of course, incompatibilists and indeterminists, for the most part, the general population consists of compatibilists. Now, I know experimental philosophy has a problem with the use of generalizations without actual statistics, but throughout this paper, I will explain exactly why the world revolves in a generally compatibilist manner. Firstly, to speak of compatibilism, you’d have to assume that the world is deterministic, meaning that everything that happens from here on out, including human action, is caused by the facts of everything that has happened before it. With that assumption in mind, compatibilist believe that we still have free will as long as we aren’t operating under external limitations. The problem with that is that although compatibilists believe we are free, there is still disagreement on just exactly how free we may be, which is the weak spot indeterminists and incompatibilists use to try to break the argument. One nature of compatibilism is referred to as classic compatibilism. This means that we’d be acting freely as long as we, without being impeded by any outside force, take a course of action that we personally choose for ourselves. These compatibilists believe that it is the presence of impediments such as â€Å"physical restraints, lack of opportunity, duress or coercion, physical or mental impairment, and the like† that would cause us to not act freely (Caruso, 2012). However, this line of reasoning is not accepted by those who support the Consequence Argument. In the simplest terms, this argument states that no one has power over the facts of the past and the laws of nature. Also, no one has power over the fact that the facts of the past and the laws of nature entail every fact of the future (i. e. , determinism is true). Because of that, no one has power over the facts of the future (McKenna, 2004). Compatibilists respond to this by saying that the focal point should be the differentiation between free and un-free, and not by the absence of causes. Other philosophers argue that we act freely when our first order and second order desires become aligned. Because our mental processes are more developed than those of younger children and simpler animals, we have the rationale to decide whether our instincts or raw desires should be acted upon. That rationale is referred to as the second order desires (Frankfurt, 1971). For example, Chris is at the bar with his girlfriend Ana. While Chris has stepped away to the restroom, Jose approaches Ana and flirts with her in a manner that she does not feel comfortable with. Once out of the bathroom, Chris sees this. Enraged, he initially wants to go and physically put Jose in his place. In spite of this, he remembers that he is up for a promotion at work, and getting into a bar fight probably won’t help his chances of receiving it. He tells Ana to collect her things. They leave. What we see here is the protagonist, Chris, experiencing first order desires that make him want to hurt Jose. His second order desires are what tell him that although he is feeling those first order desires, his second order desires are not in agreement and therefore, he shouldn’t act on them. Although some compatibilists seem to be satisfied with this reasoning because it justifies the causation of our actions, it doesn’t explain whether our thoughts and desires are consequences of the past as well. An example would be that Kate feels the desire to take a run in the park and does so. Yet, if determinism is true, which compatibilists believe it is, she is already determined to feel that way, and although she may want to feel that way, without any outside force acting on her she is not free (McKenna, 2004). Her first order and second order desires may even align, but without the ability to do otherwise, due to determinism, she would not be free. Even so, compatibilist Michael Levin says â€Å"minding or accepting one’s desires is as much an effect of past causes as the desires themselves,† but if our internal desires are causally determined, they cannot also be free. All it would be is a different form of causality (Caruso, 2012). Nevertheless, compatibilists argue that it isn’t necessary for an individual to have been able to do otherwise (Nahmias, Stephen, Nadelhoffer, & Turner, 2005). If there were the choices of A through Z and someone that could manipulate me into doing A that would do so if I didn’t do it on my own, I would still have free will if I picked A without the manipulation. In this case, compatibilist see me as having had free will because I chose A on my own. My 1st order desires were aligned with my 2nd and that is why A happened. If I had been manipulated to do so, then the problem of free will would once again come into question, but being that the manipulator is fairly irrelevant to the story since I acted on my own accord, and would have done the same thing without the potential manipulative factor. Also, there a couple of studies done to determine what relationship non-philosophers believed existed between free will, determinism, and moral responsibility. In Study 1, there were three scenarios. Scenario 1 was negative. Scenario 2 was positive, and Scenario 3 was neutral. In all three cases, between 68 – 79% of folk said there was free will. While there were some fluctuations in percentages when it came to the association between free will and the ability to choose otherwise, the amount of participants making judgments that disagreed with incompatibilism was two to three times greater than those that followed along with incompatibilist intuitions. This study was supported by their second study. In this study, they tell the subjects that everything in the universe is caused completely by their genes and environment. The scenario takes twins, Fred and Barney, and places Fred with the Jerksons and Barney with the Kindersons. One day they both find a wallet with $1000. Fred keeps it, while Barney returns it to its rightful owner. When polling the participants, 76% said they both acted on their own free will and could have done otherwise. This shows that the majority of folk believe that compatibilism is true, and while external factors and facts of the past might influence the choice making process, it does not define it; therefore we are free within the confines of a determined universe (Nahmias, Stephen, Nadelhoffer, & Turner, 2005). Now, why do I personally find â€Å"the folk are compatibilist about free will† to be true? Aside from the aforementioned statistics, the reason is that if we did not find a middle ground between free will and determinism, we wouldn’t do any of the things we do. Everything from the grading systems used in schools to receiving a promotion at work all the way to fighting wars is done in a compatibilist manner. The premise of all these concepts is the idea that if you choose do X, having the option of Y, Z will happen. If you work hard enough in school (X), you will receive good grades (Z), even though you can just be lazy (Y). If you are the most productive and pleasant at your job (X), you will receive a promotion (Z). If we go into a war (X), we have the chance of winning (Z). While all the factors in each of those scenarios might have also been determined, there is no reason for us to feel disappointment when we really studied but still managed to only get a B on a test or when we lose troops across seas. Though the previous paragraph does explain that folk believe in free will, it doesn’t explain why folk have the compatibilist view of free will. The reasoning for that is because while compatibilists believe that you can control some aspects of your life, you can’t control all of them. As Michael Levin said, â€Å"Compatibilist usually agree that free will does require behavior at least to be determined, since you cannot freely do what is beyond your control. † For example, we are born and we die. The sun rises. The sun sets. We inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. There are certain laws of physics that we must adhere to. Some will argue that we believe those to be stable laws of how the universe will operate, but only because that’s what it’s done until now. Tomorrow we might not have the sun rise, and tomorrow we might inhale carbon monoxide and exhale nitrogen. However, since certain things have been fixed for a trustworthy amount of time, we, the folk, have accepted it as determined facts of the universe. The determined factors of the universe are the skeleton upon which we place the flesh that is our free will. ? References Caruso, G. D. (2012). The Folk Psychology of Free Will: Arguement Against Compatibilism. Kriterion – Journal of Philosophy, 26, 56-89. Frankfurt, H. G. (1971, January 14). Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person. The Journal of Philosophy, 5-20. McKenna, M. (2004, April 26). Compatibilism. Retrieved from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato. stanford. edu/entries/compatibilism/ Nahmias, E. , Stephen, M. , Nadelhoffer, T. , & Turner, J. (2005, October). Surverying Freedom: Folk Intuitions about Free Will and Moral Responsibility. Philosophical Psychology, 18(5), 561 – 584.

advantages Essays - Software, World Wide Web, Computing, Free Essays

advantages Essays - Software, World Wide Web, Computing, Free Essays 2.0 Importance of Facebook now days: According to this research Facebook is a lawful activity in every country of the world, and from a small child to a busy professional business man Facebook is an addiction to all of them. Facebook has become a part of daily routine of people and for some people part of their hourly routine, people of all ages use Facebook for following different purposes. 2.1 Communication: The main purpose of this social network is communication; the main logo of Facebook is "connect and share with the people in your life". Facebook allows its users to chat, talk and share their daily life activities with their friends and family. 2.2 Entertainment Due to the advance features of this network entertainment has become as equal purpose as communication; as a member logs into his Facebook account his attention is readily diverted towards different entertainment stuff like time line applications, online game applications, picture jokes, funny videos and other interesting content. 2.3 Source of Earning Facebook is also used as a source of earning by people i.e. Facebook is one of the most visited websites on internet so it is an excellent website for advertisement and offers about brands and products, therefore Facebook is also used for marketing of business and hence it assists people in earning money. 2.4 Data Storage and Information Some people also use Facebook as data storage i.e. to store their memorable photos and videos on internet as in case their compute data gets corrupt or lost. Facebook is also sometimes used to obtain information about famous people, locations, cultures and events. Facebook also keeps people up to date about the world. 3.0 Usage of Facebook by people of different ages and different regions According to the research carried out Facebook population is made up of Millions of people around the globe. As compared to males, females lead the population on Facebook; young adults aged 18 to 25, possess the most population of the Facebook due to their interests in chatting, entertainment, cyber dating and other youth stuff. After this age sector Facebook is heavily populated from people aged 26 to 34, due to the same interests as of young adults. The rest of the population is covered by people of different ages including children and people over 45. Coming to the regional statics of Facebook usage, Facebook is a lawful activity in every country of the world. America has the most Facebook users of the world, Brazil has the second most users of Facebook in the World and third country with most Facebook users is India. Ireland possesses 59th position in relevance to the Facebook population. All these statistics show that Facebook is huge and on the present day it is the most popular social network and one of the most visited website on internet. 4.0 Advantages and disadvantages of Facebook: Today the world has become a place of instant communication with the help of social networks like Facebook, twitter, Google plus etc. and by other means of communication like emails and telephones. Facebook is the most popular social network on internet and its use is rapidly increasing, according to research carried out Facebook is the most popular communication tool used, followed by SMS and email. "Facebook is the most popular social network in the world, with over 350 million users, so it should come as no surprise to discover that people are using it as a primary tool for communication," said Hazel Butters, CEO of Prompt Communications. As far as communication and sharing Facebook is considered as an excellent tool, but problems arise when Facebook becomes an addiction. Facebook has become a part of daily routine of people and for some people part of their hourly routine and hence they are moving away from their daily healthy activities by spending hours on Facebook. Teens especially are being accused of constantly logged in their account, some specialists narrate that this develops social skills in them which are essential in practical life. But other people believe that this disturbs their studies and their healthy outdoor activities. Privacy is another issue with Facebook, although the social network offers the users full control of their private information

Oil Price and Petrochemical Manufacturing in UAE Essay

Oil Price and Petrochemical Manufacturing in UAE - Essay Example The research investigates the immediate impacts that falling oil prices pose to UAE’s economy. It explores the effects of falling oil prices on UAE’s economy. The relationship between oil production firms and petrochemical producing industries are essential to the research. The research will investigate the impacts and effects of falling oil prices on petrochemical manufacturing in UAE. The falling prices risk the survival of petrochemical manufacturing industries that also contribute to the economic stability and income of UAE. The risked survival may render some of the employees in Petrochemical sector jobless raising the level of unemployment in the country. The unemployment crisis lowers the per capita within the country reducing the country’s Gross Domestic Income (GDP) in turn. Finally, the research will draft and recommend possible solutions to the effects of falling oil prices on UAE’s economy. The International Energy Agency asserts that the fall in oil prices translates into a cut in the production of petrochemical products. The effect of this is a retard in the growth of the petrochemical industries, which are also a major contributor to the UAE’s economy. OPEC reports that a fall in oil prices slows the global growth. A decline in the oil prices increases demand for oil products at the expense of petrochemical products. The source explains the manner in which falling oil prices undermine the competitive advantage of petrochemical products. The reduced competitive advantage lowers the total sales of the products endangering the firms.

The Roman Republic in Sallust's Account, the Conspiracy of Catiline Essay

The Roman Republic in Sallust's Account, the Conspiracy of Catiline - Essay Example Although an account of personal observations and opinions, this document can be considered as a written eyewitness account of an indigenous intellectual of Rome - an onlooker to the establishment, growth and decline of an ancient superpower. By analysing the contents of the document, it is evident that the Roman historian attributed the ascent of the Roman Republic to the valor of the people, that their strength in arms provided them the security of their rights and liberty from various enemies. The Romans’ might and bravery allowed them to forge allies and supporters, thus having provided a firm respect from neighboring city-states and sovereignties. The people upheld valor by bestowing the military culture amongst their young ones. From the childhood up to adulthood, primarily in all generations of Romans, the republic was well protected. Honour and glory became the primary theme of Rome. Sallust furthered the explanation of Roman beginnings by recounting the virtues that ha d transpired after the military conquests and expeditions of its people. Good morals such as loyalty to citizenship, patronage in religion and the natural adherence to justice molded the Roman society. The historian also mentioned in his account that the Romans’ animosity for opponents and their preparedness for battles caused Rome’s neighbours to make ties rather than to make war. With this, the Roman Republic was born. It was built from brute strength and the consolidation of brilliant minds, which produced a formidable state that caused the creation of the Roman law. These laws were protected by the Senate and implemented by the monarchical nature of the republic. Technically, though Sallust’s account can be classified as merely a product of observation and a product of subjectivity, it cannot be denied that the supposed biography intricately described what the Roman society was through the eyes of a true intellectual Roman scholar. His experiences and role i n the writing of the history of Rome makes his account a strong primary source for subsequent scholars of this particular field. Thus, the observation of the author accounts to a very interesting point of view with relation to the climb of the Roman Republic to greatness. Its origins revealed that force and decisiveness were needed to establish an immovable government. Sallust then went to a pessimistic standpoint - the demise and the eventual fall of the Roman Republic. At the time when Rome had military supremacy in Europe, when the Roman army continuously fought battles and repeatedly won, the toils of war caused a spark in the destruction of the values. Looting the wealth of defeated states were the ingredients for the downfall of the great Republic. The need for an expanding Rome almost immediately transformed into a pure desire for the material. The Romans craved for money and treasures, which distorted the Roman theme of honour and glory. Thereafter, Sallust described the con tinuous corruption from an extreme desire for the material to the unjustifiable claim for power, which created tyranny. This attribution of the demise of Rome was simple but revolutionary for the mainstream history of the republic. Sallust had concretely specified the core causes of the destruction of Rome. This is a very humanistic approach to the problems of ancient empires alike. The temptation of grabbing too much power gets the best of its wielder. In this case, Rome which had an obvious record of