Fredric Jones' Positive Discipline Model Research Paper

Fredric Jones' Positive Discipline Model - Research Paper Example Fredric Jones assessed the classroom environment of those he considered as natural teachers. On the basis of his research and observation, Jones created the Positive Discipline Model for the management and success of the classroom. The purpose of this paper is to consider Jones’ Positive Discipline Model, discussing its inherent features and applicability. Jones’ model concludes that discipline must always take precedence over instruction. Consequently, Jones suggests that teachers should take time to explain, re-teach and reexamine procedures inherent in the classroom throughout the academic year. According to Jones, a classroom routine is a critical teacher’s labor-saving device. Notably, it is not sufficient to merely define discipline standards required for the classroom, but rather take the time to teach these standards and procedures as though they are part of other lessons taught in the classroom. According to Tauber (2007), all discipline-based procedures must be taught the same as other lessons within the curriculum, complete with stage setting, molding, clarification, and application until students get these procedures right. Therefore, when discipline is required, instruction should be terminated in order to provide an opportunity for the engraining of discipline in the students’ classroom mannerisms. For Jones, the maxim of prevention is better than cure holds true. At the heart of his model is the need to establish proactive and deterrent discipline measures in all teachers’ strategies such as motivation, discipline and instruction. Therefore,

Cross-content Lessons Essay Example for Free

Cross-content Lessons Essay Instructional design is very important towards the success or failure of children to understand the lessons that are thought by teachers. This essay will look at the instructional design of lessons for children ages 5 to 7, who have difficulty reading and studying mathematics. Designing a lesson has to do with a number of target related issues such as the level of the children, target practices and novel ways of ensuring that learning is top priority. Teachers have to be skilled enough to deal with children that bring to the classroom different learning habits and backgrounds; two factors that might impinge on their learning paces and study habits. READING LESSON: Standards – The standards set for the understanding of reading has to do with the importance of it. Mainly, the lesson should help to ensure that children by age 7 years can read fluently even in front of audiences. Their articulation habits and ways of pronunciation should be consistent with a child who has learnt how to read properly. Objectives By the end of this lesson, students should be able to: a) Pronounce words and read fluently. b) Learn how to spell words. c) Notice punctuation and learn how to use it. d) Make reading on of their pastimes. Lesson Plan and Practice – One hour of reading time is recommended after lunch or first session in the morning when children have been settled. Session 1: Learning about vowel sounds and other sounds. Intended to use the IBG Phonics tapes and voice over for children. For example, simple words like apple. Children need to understand that words are broken up into syllables. Rhyming sounds and simple sentence reading. Interestingly approaches to making out words and pronouncing them. Session 3: Spelling and recognition of words. Encouraging them to read out loudly, practice with parents or even do choral speaking sessions. Assessment – Allow children the opportunity to opportunity to engage in reading efforts and Spelling Bee competitions. a) Give the children a story to write and ask them to read it aloud in class. b) For written exams, test them on breaking words into syllables and spelling. Reflection – There are advantages and disadvantages of productive integrated instructional design. One major advantage is that the lesson structure is easy to follow and that one step leads to the other. There is supposed to be a natural progression even in the student’s mind. A disadvantage of this form of design is that sometimes the assessments are not a true indication of whether the student has learnt the art of reading. MATHEMATICS LESSON: Standards – Students should be able to do simple mathematical practices. It is important that they understand that mathematics is about knowing the principle behind formulas and practicing. Objectives – By the end of the lessons the students should be able to: a) Realize the different mathematical signs b) Understand the principle behind each of them and begin to practice working out sums. Lesson Plan and Practice – Children should at least spend quality time with the practice of mathematics. Following the lesson plan is important, but more interestingly is encouraging the student to practice the sums on their own. Session 1: Understanding the power of sums. Teaching simple adding and subtracting practices for example: If you have 10 marbles and John takes 3 marbles but puts back one marbles, how many marbles are you left with? Session 2: Understanding tables and learning them. Starting with the two times tables. Session 3: Division is tricky, so the student needs to know their tables properly first. Objects can be used to ensure that children can actually visualize the equation. Assessment Simple sums, for an end of term examination. For take home assignments, practicing sessions with parents. Reflection – This lesson design is easy to use and to follow. I believe that the best and most successful approach to learning is that the teacher spends time with each student or attempt to work in groups, so that the children can voice their challenges in grasping the formulas. A disadvantage to it is that a teacher must have a keen eye to know that the student does not understand the sum of the principle behind it. Reference Butt, Graham. 2006. Lesson Planning. Great Britain, Continuum International Publishing.

Philosophy-imputable Acts :: essays research papers

Dr. Kitchel Ethics 2314 "Imputable Acts in Regards to the Fate of a World" An act is called imputable when the person committing the act is in possession of both knowledge and consent in regards to the action at hand. Imputability is a thing that is always completely possessed or completely not possessed by a person. Imputability causes accountability. Accountability has degrees upon which it is based and these degrees depend on whether or not the person was influenced by some modifier of either the intellect or the will. Imputability's requirements, knowledge and consent, have to do with the relationship between the act in question and whether or not it is a good or evil act. An act is either objectively, morally good or evil. To the degree that the person committing the act is aware of this in the form of either knowledge or consent is the degree to which the act itself is imputable and thereby also the person is accountable for the act. The characters in C. S. Lewis' novel, "Prelandra", make choices and perform acts that drastically effect the outcome of the world in which the novel takes place. Some of these acts are wholly imputable while others are not. However, all of the acts are either good or evil. As a result of this, the novel illustrates the importance of being able to distinguish the difference between good and evil acts in the consequences that befall its characters from their own actions within the novel. The novel's protagonist, John Ransom of Thucalandra (Earth), is sent by Maleldil (God) to the planet of Prelandra (Venus) in order to stop the Bent Oyarsa (Satan) from corrupting that planet as he did with Earth though Ransom has no knowledge of the exact purpose of his journey upon leaving or even once he is there on the planet. Once he arrives on the planet, he encounters the person he deems "the Green Lady." Lewis' character, the Green Lady, is Prelandra's counterpart to the Eve character in the Genesis story of creation in the Bible. After meeting her and realizing who she is, Weston the villain from the first book appears in Prelandra. He is there on a new "mission." This new mission is no longer for the survival of the human race as it was on his journey to Malacandra but is now for the survival of the "Human Spirit.

Career Plan Building Activity, Work Culture Essay

I am grateful surprise with the results of my Career Plan Building Activity; Work Culture Activity Based on my Work Culture Preferences results I am: Ethical Emphasis on fairness, promoting equal rights and justice, the chance to make a positive contribution to the society, emphasis and social and environmental responsibility. Expert Control your own work schedule and organization, high engagement-people encouraged to express opinions, innovative, creative atmosphere, and emphasis in specialist expertise Supportive Secure, stable environment defined job and expectations, no conflicting demands, focus on employee welfare, recognition and celebration of success, open communication, personal development support Work culture is the link that connects employees with organizations. A great work culture generates the foundation of its success, is the backbone of any organization. Work cultures are diverse between organizations, it is important to know how to communicate and maintain an effective communication channels. Companies differ in philosophy, culture and style, and could (Hanly, 2012) impact in how employees work with each other. â€Å"Workplace culture is derived both from the imposed organizational structure as well as from the personalities of individual employees. Workplace culture affects how people feel while at work† Understanding elements of the work place culture will help managers to create a comfortable workplace environment in which employees become more efficient and productive (Samantha Hanly, Demand Media, 2011) * What do your results tell you about how you communicate? Effective communication is critical in business; it could make the difference between success and failure. Most workplaces are the reflection of the employee’s personality and management style, is very important that management establish, distributing and reinforce the Business Values as: respect, customer satisfaction, safety and integrity, etc. Management needs to decide what is more important to the business and communicate to the employees; leading by example *What steps will you take to improve the quality of your message? †¢Identify the audience that I would like to communicate, considering job titles, background, ethnicity, culture. †¢Establish a well-defined communication channels †¢Analyze the message that I want to communicate †¢The message must be clear, direct, shortest possible, with a little sense of humor

Integrated Performance Management Through Effective Management Control

9 Integrated Performance Management through Effective Management Control WERNER BRUGGEMAN Performance measurement and performance management are vivid themes in the literature on management control. So, it is only natural that we investigate how this literature has contributed to the field of Integrated Performance Management. The purpose of this chapter is to describe how management control systems can be used to effectively manage company and business performance.First, we define the scope of management control and describe the link with organizational strategy. Then, we focus on the three elements of the management control system: (1) the management control structure; (2) the control process; and (3) the management control culture (beliefs systems). We will describe these three elements in greater detail and give an overview of the findings in mainstream contingency research studying the effectiveness of control systems in various environmental and organizational contexts.Manageme nt control defined Management control and the link with strategy Following Anthony and Govindarajan (1995), management control can be defined as a process of motivating managers to perform actions and activities in line with the goals and strategies of the organization. According to this definition, an organization is ‘under control’ when its members do what the management wants them to do. Management control comprises various tasks, among which are:Planning the future activities of the organization; Coordinating the activities of the various members of the organization; Communicating information; Evaluating this information; Deciding on the actions to be taken; and Influencing people to adapt their behaviour according to the company goals (Anthony and Govindarajan, 1995). Integrated Performance Management through Effective Management Control ? 153 From the definition above, it follows that management control plays a central role in managing the company’s perform ance and the implementation of its strategies.Therefore, it is of vital importance that management behaviour, which is stimulated by the management control system, is consistent with the strategy to be implemented (the so-called ‘intended strategy’ – see also Chapter 6). The starting points of the management control process are the mission, the vision and the strategies of the organization. We refer to Chapter 6 for a more thorough discussion of each of these concepts, but recapitulate them very briefly here. The mission of an organization is a description in general terms of the role of the company towards its stakeholders.It describes the reasons for the company’s existence, its strategic focus and values, as well as how the long-term goals should be realized. The goals are descriptions of the long-term desired future of the company. The mission and goals translate into strategies, which specify the way in which the vision aspired to should be reached. T he strategy in turn is translated into concrete performance objectives or targets. This is usually done through formalized action plans.Management control and goal congruence The purpose of management control is to maximize congruence among the goals of the organization, its various entities and its individual managers. This is called goal congruence. The way in which managers react to management control information depends to a large extent on their personal goals. For effective management control, it is important to be able to measure the impact of these motivators, because they largely determine the behaviour of people in an organization, as well as the desirability of the consequences of their behaviour.Business Management Study GuideThe management control system should be designed in such a way that, whenever managers take decisions that fit into their personal goals, these decisions should also be in the interests of the company as a whole. In other words, the management contr ol system must create the conditions to foster a feeling within the members of the organization that they can best realize their personal goals by contributing as much as possible to the realization of the general company goals.It is clear that the way in which managers are evaluated and financially rewarded for their performance plays a significant role in reaching ‘goal congruence’ (see also Chapter 13). Goal congruence is an important condition for effective performance management. The problem of goal congruence can be described in more detail in the following way. Corporate goals are translated into departmental goals, and in these departments people are working who also have their personal goals. A first problem that can arise is a lack of congruence between the corporate and departmental goals.For example, a department or division of a company can have a long-term vision that says it is desirable to stay small and be profitable (in other words ‘small is 154 ? The Integrated Performance Management Framework beautiful’). On the other hand, top management might be striving for a company goal of strong growth and therefore wants the division to grow. In this case, there is a lack of congruence between the different visions, and a number of meetings will have to be organized to align the goals and strategies.However, there is also the possibility that the division manager is opposed to the growth of his division because he is personally reluctant to make the required efforts. In this case, there is a conflict between the personal goals of the manager and the goals of the company. Role of management control in performance management Verifying whether the company (or the business unit or department) is on track is an important management function. Management control is an important instrument for motivating personnel to act in accordance with the goals and strategies of the organization.This motivation is one of the major driving force s of the performance and the value of the company. The management control system must be adjusted to the goals and the strategies of the company and it must be optimally aligned. The contribution of control to strategy implementation Robert Simons (1995) has outlined how management control can contribute to effective strategy implementation. In his book, Levers of Control, he introduced four key constructs that must be analysed and understood in order to implement strategy successfully: core values, risks to be avoided, critical performance variables and strategic uncertainties.Each construct is controlled by a different system, or lever, the use of which has different implications. These levers are: †¢ Beliefs systems, used to inspire and direct the search for new opportunities. †¢ Boundary systems, used to set limits on opportunity-seeking behaviour. There are three broad categories of boundary systems: business conduct boundaries, internal controls and strategic boundar ies. 1 †¢ Diagnostic control systems, used to motivate, monitor and reward achievement of specified goals.Diagnostic control systems attempt to measure output variables that represent important performance dimensions of a given strategy: critical performance variables. These factors must be achieved or implemented successfully for the intended strategy of the business to succeed. Diagnostic variables should be measured, monitored and controlled, but reporting on them to higher management is on an exception basis only, when a value falls outside a normal control limit and corrective actions must be taken. Interactive control systems, used to stimulate search and learning, allowing new strategies to emerge as participants throughout the Integrated Performance Management through Effective Management Control ? 155 organization respond to perceived opportunities and threats. As a fourth lever of control, these systems focus attention on strategic uncertainties and enable strategic r enewal (i. e. , emergent strategies). Figure 9. 1 Levers of control Source: Simons (1995: 159) Control of business strategy is achieved by integrating these four levers of control.The power of these levers in implementing strategy does not lie in how each is used alone, but rather in how they complement each other when used together. Two of the control systems – beliefs systems and interactive control systems – motivate organizational participants to search creatively and expand the opportunity space. These systems create intrinsic motivation by creating a positive informational environment that encourages information sharing and learning. The other two levers of control – boundary systems and diagnostic control systems – are used to constrain search behaviour and allocate scarce attention.These systems rely on extrinsic motivation by providing explicit goals, formula-based rewards and clear limits to opportunity-seeking. These four levers create tension between creative innovation and predictable goal movement. This tension requires managers of effective organizations to know how to achieve both high degrees of learning (innovation) and high degrees of control (efficiency) (Simons, 2000: 304). Levers of control and the organizational lifecycle Developing an integrated control system does not happen overnight. Managers of small entrepreneurial firms perform their strategic control 56 ? The Integrated Performance Management Framework rather informally. As the business grows larger, however, informal processes become inadequate. Simons (1995, 2000) illustrates how the levers of control can be successfully implemented as a business grows and matures (see Figure 9. 2). Figure 9. 2 Introduction of control systems over the lifecycle of a business Source: Simons (1995: 128) In their most recent book, Kaplan and Norton (2001) point out the importance of using the Balanced Scorecard (see Chapter 3) as an interactive control system.It is clea r from Figure 9. 2 that an organization must have some experience with other control systems before it can exploit the Balanced Scorecard in this way. Diagnostic systems, boundary systems, and internal control systems are all necessary, but they do not create a learning organization aligned to a focused strategy. Some Balanced Scorecard implementation failures occurred because organizations used their scorecard only diagnostically, and failed to get the learning and innovation benefits from an interactive system.The CEOs of successful Balanced Scorecard adopters succeeded because they use the scorecard interactively, for communication and to drive learning and improvement. They set overall strategy and then encouraged people within their organization to identify the local actions and initiatives that would have the highest impact for accomplishing the scorecard objectives. (Kaplan and Norton, 2001: 350) Management control versus task control Anthony and Govindarajan (1995) distingui sh management control, which ultimately is about implementing strategies, from strategic planning and control and task control:Integrated Performance Management through Effective Management Control ? 157 †¢ Strategic planning and control is the process of determining and evaluating the goals of the organization, and formulating or reformulating the broad strategies to be used in attaining these goals. Strategic control refers to the maintenance of the environmental conditions of strategies. Strategic control is used to evaluate the background of existing strategies and the environmental assumptions on which the strategies were formulated.It can also involve the reformulation of strategies. †¢ Task control is the process of ensuring that specific tasks are carried out effectively and efficiently. For example, internal audit and internal control are often associated with task control. Elements of a management control system In the previous paragraphs, we have described the i mportance of management control for strategy implementation and for performance management. In the remainder of this chapter, we go deeper into the details of the management control system and focus on its compounding elements.A management control system consists of three basic elements: (1) the management control structure; (2) the management control process; and (3) the management control culture. The first element, the management control structure, deals with the division of the organization into ‘responsibility centres’. A distinction needs to be made among the various types of responsibility centre, such as ‘revenue centres’, ‘expense centres’, ‘profit centres’, and ‘investment centres’. Determining the optimal structure is part of the task of management control.The second element in a management control system, the management control process, comprises the cycle of: planning for the expected input and output; mea suring the results; comparing plan to reality; and, finally, adjusting if necessary. The third element is the management control culture or the beliefs systems. This is the combination of communal values and behavioural norms, which determine the behaviour of managers and staff. Choosing an effective management control structure To manage an organization according to certain objectives, you must first choose an appropriate management control structure.A management control structure is the system of basic principles for the functioning of the organization or the organizational structure in which the management control will take place. Hellriegel, Slocum and Woodman (1992: 5) define the organizational structure as ‘the structure and formal system of communication, division of labor, coordination, control, authority and responsibility necessary to achieve the organization’s goals’. 158 ? The Integrated Performance Management Framework Elements of a management contro l structure When defining the management control structure, the following questions must be answered: What are the various departments in the organization? †¢ What are the responsibilities of the various department managers? †¢ How are the activities of the various departments coordinated, and what are the coordination mechanisms? Defining the departmental structure In organizing for effective performance management, the company may choose a functional organization structure, a multidivisional structure, a matrix organization or a network organization structure. When choosing the functional organization structure, the tasks are grouped based on the functional specialty to which they belong.Traditionally, the following departments are presented in the organizational chart: ‘Sales and Marketing’, ‘Engineering’, ‘Production’, ‘Distribution’, ‘Purchasing’ and ‘Finance’. An organization can also be co ntrolled within a multidivisional structure, which is a structure based on products or markets instead of functions. If based on products, we have a product-oriented department structure. The sales, development, production and purchasing activities with regard to a certain product are concentrated in one, individual department. On the other hand, the organization could also be structured around markets.In this case, all tasks that deal with a certain geographical market are grouped. The multidivisional structure groups management tasks in divisions, each of which focuses on a certain product or geographical area where the products are sold. Division managers are responsible for the daily operational decisions within their division. Top management no longer wants to engage itself in daily problems, but instead focuses on the important strategic decisions (e. g. , investment decisions, acquisitions and divestments). When designing a multidivisional structure, the business unit concept can be taken as a starting point.In this concept, the organization is structured around strategic business units or SBUs. An SBU is an operating unit of a planning focus that groups a distinct set of products or services sold to a uniform set of customers, facing a well-defined set of competitors. Many companies have a combination of functional and product- or market-oriented structures in their organizational structure. They prefer to work in a matrix organization. On the horizontal line, we find an R&D manager, a production manager, a financial manager and a purchasing manager.On the vertical line, we see the various business or product line managers. They are responsible, first of all, for the marketing and sales of their product line, but they must also take care of the coordination between the various functional departments. Staff members in the various functional departments are thus led by two managers. Integrated Performance Management through Effective Management Control ? 159 Defining the responsibility of managers After determining the department structure by which the organization will be controlled, it is important to define the responsibilities of each department.A department or an organizational unit, led by a manager with clearly specified responsibilities, is called a responsibility centre. An organizational structure is therefore a hierarchy of responsibility centres. Delegated responsibility demands appropriate authority. When assigning the responsibility for a specific output to a certain department, this department should also have control over its output. So, responsibility requires the existence of ‘controllability’. Delegated responsibility also requires an appropriate ‘accountability’.A manager is considered to be ‘accountable’ when he or she is assessed according to the realization of his or her objectives. In other words, performance is monitored, and if his or her performance turns out to be b ad, management will take the necessary actions. A responsibility centre is not only assessed on its output (which result has been achieved? ), but also on its input (how many inputs were used? ). In general, a responsibility centre should be assessed on two basic criteria: efficiency and effectiveness. Efficiency is the relation between output and input.The more cars that are made in a car manufacturing company with the same production costs, the more efficient the operation is. The cost per unit (i. e. , the total production cost divided by the number of units produced) is therefore an efficiency norm. Effectiveness expresses the extent to which the realized output is aligned with the goals and strategies to be realized. It could be that the sales department has become more efficient by selling more with the same people, but that the sales efforts were focused on markets in which the company has chosen not to be active for strategic reasons.In this case, the sales efforts were not effective, i. e. , they did not contribute to the realization of the corporate strategy. When designing a management control system, one must determine what efficiency and effectiveness mean concretely for each department and how these can be measured. Assigning responsibilities to the departments means determining the right performance measures. The responsibilities of the manager can be divided into financial, strategic and operational responsibilities. Performance measures must be defined for each of these responsibility areas.We call them financial, strategic and operational performance measures. With regard to the financial responsibilities, we can distinguish among the following types of responsibility centres: expense centres, revenue centres, profit centres and investment centres. †¢ Expense centres are departments that are responsible for the costs they have made (input), but whose output is not measured in financial terms. In a functional organization structure, typic al expense centres are the production department, the R&D department, the purchasing department and the financial department.Staff functions are also usually controlled as expense centres. 160 ? The Integrated Performance Management Framework †¢ Revenue centres are departments in which the output, but not the input, is measured in financial terms. Typical revenue centres are the sales departments. Their management task is not concerned with the costs incurred; instead, they strive to reach a turnover objective. †¢ In a profit centre, the manager is responsible for the costs and also for the revenues of the department. Thus, the ‘profit centre’ manager receives a profit report for his or her department. In investment centres, the profit as well as the investments (‘assets employed’) are measured. The department manager has the authority to take investment decisions and is also responsible for the profitability of the investments made. A typical per formance measure for investment centres is the return on investment (ROI). Regarding strategic responsibilities, a manager’s task not only involves realizing financial goals; the manager and his or her team may also be charged with contributing towards realizing the competitive strategy of their division and the general strategy of the company.For example, the general company strategy may be concerned with growth in all business units and with global operations. Choosing and formulating this strategy may be the work of general management, but translating it into the business unit may be the responsibility of the division manager. The division manager may also be responsible for defining and developing a competitive advantage (in the areas of quality, flexibility and customer service, for example) for his or her business unit. The manager may be responsible for constantly tracking the evolution of customer satisfaction and adapting the competitive strategy in time to this evol ution.When strategic responsibilities are also delegated to a lower level in the organization, the manager responsible should be evaluated with regard to the level of success of the chosen strategies. Performance measures must be determined for this as well. The method of the Balanced Scorecard (see Chapter 3) may be of help here. Finally, regarding operational responsibilities, it is obvious that managers of responsibility centres are also responsible for managing daily operations. A number of ‘key performance measures’ can be defined for this, which are followed up closely by top management.The division manager may be asked to realize objectives with regard to inventory levels, processing times, products out of specification, revision times, etc. Restriction of responsibilities and freedom of action Each responsibility centre is restricted in its activity by a number of rules and procedures. Rules are formal expressions of the behaviours that are permitted and not per mitted to the members of a department. Procedures are descriptions of steps to be followed in executing a task or in making decisions.Rules and procedures provide a detailed specification of the kinds of responsibility and freedom of action the responsibility centre has or does not have. They indicate how the responsibilities and freedom of action are restricted. The Integrated Performance Management through Effective Management Control ? 161 indicated restrictions can be expressed in a positive or negative way. Positive responsibility restrictions describe what the responsibility centre manager may do. Negative restrictions describe what the manager is not allowed to do.Some restrictions relate to responsibilities, others are involved with the manager’s freedom of decision. The freedom of an individual in an organization can also be restricted by general codes of behaviour, which result from existing laws, statutory provisions and ethical values. These are meant to prevent t he potential mix of personal and company interests (e. g. , they indicate in what way confidential information should be treated). Restriction of responsibilities and freedom of action are all part of the boundary systems of a company.These are ‘explicit statements embedded in formal information systems that define and communicate specific risks to be avoided’ (Simons, 1995: 112). Coordination mechanisms When the department structure and the responsibilities of the various departments are defined, rules must be set up with regard to the actions between departments as well. The responsibility for realizing the global company goals and strategies cannot be split up into independent partial responsibilities. Departments and divisions must cooperate in various areas.Therefore, it is important that rules with respect to this cooperation be defined that motivate the managers maximally to target their efforts towards realizing the global company goals. There are two important kinds of rules that coordinate actions between departments: (1) formal coordination mechanisms (task forces, standing committees, integrating managers); and (2) transfer price systems. Choosing the optimal management control structure Designing the management control structure involves a number of choices. The decision can be made to manage in a functional structure or in a divisional tructure. Within a divisional structure, the divisions can be structured around products, markets, business units, or a combination of these. One can also choose to work in a matrix organization. Then, a choice must be made regarding the degree of delegation of responsibilities. A department can be led as an expense centre, a revenue centre, a profit centre or an investment centre. The responsibilities of these centres can be restricted in various ways, and cooperation between departments can be coordinated by several coordination mechanisms and rules regarding transfer prices.In some companies, manage ment control is characterized by a detailed set of formal rules, centralized decision power, limited delegated responsibilities and a strict hierarchy of authority. Such a structure is called mechanistic. At the other end of the spectrum, we have the organic organizations. They are characterized by few rules, decentralized power of 162 ? The Integrated Performance Management Framework decision, group decision-making, broadly defined functional responsibilities and a flexible application of the hierarchic relations.We can now ask the question: Do optimal choices exist? In order to answer this question, we must first define what makes a management control structure optimal. The answer to this question can be found in the description of the task of management control: the objective of management control is to motivate managers maximally to realize the corporate goals and to implement the strategies. So, a management control structure is optimal when it maximally stimulates the desired goal-oriented behaviour and minimally leads to undesired (or dysfunctional) behaviour.To be able to choose a management control structure, one must predict what the effect of the choice will be on the management behaviour and whether the expected effect is desired or not. For example: †¢ A company that wants to realize a competitive strategy of flexibility (custom-made work) in its business units wonders if it is optimal to manage the departments in a functional organization structure, in which the sales department is responsible for the turnover and the production departments (as expense centres) are responsible for the price of the products made.To be able to answer this question, we need to know to what extent the production managers are inclined to handle specific customer demands in a flexible way when the price of the products is the most important performance measure. †¢ Universities lead their faculties and departments as discretionary expense centres with respect to educational activities. In the short term, the deans and department heads are responsible for the costs of their faculties and departments, and not directly for the number of students and the revenues.As a consequence, the professors are not motivated to have many students, and they organize very few (if any) activities to influence and increase the number of students in the short term. Faculties and departments could also be managed as profit centres. The question is: What would be the effect on the management behaviour of deans, chairmen and professors? Would they act in a more commercial way? Would they lose their interest in research? Would this lead to overly aggressive competition among universities and, if so, is aggressive competition a corporate strategic choice within educational policy?To be able to make an optimal choice of management control structure, good insight into the strategy that is to be realized is crucial. The choice of the management control structure mus t be aligned with the strategic choices of the company. Knowledge of how managers will be influenced by certain structural choices is also important. One can learn from one’s own experience or from the experiences of other companies. In most cases, companies learn from their own experience. Setting up a management control structure is a dynamic process. The key is to look forIntegrated Performance Management through Effective Management Control ? 163 both well-motivated and dysfunctional management behaviours in the existing structure. Ultimately, the process should yield new ideas for improving the structure to promote the desired behaviour and eliminate the dysfunctional behaviour. Experiences from other companies can also be helpful. A significant part of the literature on management control focuses on research of the general tendencies and patterns in management behaviour in various types of management control structure.A general conclusion is that there is no management control structure that is optimal for all control situations. The optimal management control structure depends on the situation. The research that studies which management control structure best suits which type of environment is called ‘contingency research’. This contingency research has focused on two major contingency variables: (1) the environment; and (2) a firm’s strategy.Study of the first contingency variable has helped identify the appropriate structures to fit the levels of uncertainty in the environment (Burns and Stalker, 1961; Lawrence and Lorsch, 1967; Galbraith, 1973; Drazin and Van de Ven, 1985). Structure is generally discussed in terms of mechanistic versus organic approaches to organizing, and it is believed that more organic structures are best suited to uncertain environments. These are structures that focus on ‘clan control’, i. e. , social control coordinated by integrative mechanisms such as task forces and meetings.Contingen cy research also shows that management control structures should be well suited to the company’s chosen strategy. Different strategies may require different control structures. A popular typology deals with the strategic mission of business units, which may vary from a ‘build’ strategy, to a ‘hold’ strategy, a ‘harvest’ strategy and, finally, a ‘divest’ strategy. The objective of a build strategy is to increase market share and production volumes, while a hold strategy tries to protect the existing market share and maintain the current competitive position.A harvest strategy focuses on maximizing cash flow and profit in the short run, even if this is at the expense of market share. Last, the divest strategy concerns the decision to withdraw from a certain business. Other strategy typologies that are often used in the management control literature come from Porter (1985) and Miles and Snow (1978) (see Chapter 6 for more infor mation). Evidence from the strategy/organizational design research suggests that for strategies characterized by a conservative orientation (defenders), harvest and cost leadership are best served by entralized control systems, specialized and formalized work, simple coordination mechanisms, and directing attention to problem areas (Miles and Snow, 1978; Porter, 1985; Miller and Friesen, 1982). For strategies characterized by an entrepreneurial orientation (prospectors), build and product differentiation are linked to a lack of standardized procedures, decentralized and results-oriented evaluation, flexible structures and processes, complex coordination of overlapping project teams, and directing attention at curbing excess innovation. 164 ?The Integrated Performance Management Framework Designing an effective management control process Phases in the management control process The management control process can best be represented by a closed loop control cycle (see Figure 9. 3). Th e process starts from the strategy of the company, from which the action programmes are derived. Once the programmes are set up and approved, their financial implications for the coming year can be expressed in a budget. At the end of the budget period, the actual performance is measured and compared to the budget.The results of this analysis are then reported to top management and used in the evaluation of the efficiency and effectiveness of the responsibility centres concerned and their managers. The management control process thus starts from strategic planning and target setting and consists of the following five phases: Figure 9. 3 The management control process Integrated Performance Management through Effective Management Control ? 165 †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Planning action programmes (programming); Preparing the budget; Executing the plan; Measuring performance, following up the budget and reporting; and Evaluating and rewarding.Important design parameters o f the control process When used in an appropriate way, the budgeting process may motivate managers to improve performance. The motivating impact of the budget is influenced by the following parameters. The level of management commitment to budget targets First of all, companies may use the budget to assess the financial impact of their strategic action plans. In this case, budgeting is primarily used as a feed forward control mechanism and its primary function is to support the planning process (‘budgeting for planning’).Budget targets are an indication and show the direction in which the company wants to go, but managers do not feel a strong pressure to realize the targets. Budget targets can also be seen as commitments for the managers. In this case, the budget is used for control. Top-down versus bottom-up budgeting Budget targets may be imposed topdown by executive management (in consultation with the division managers, or not). Besides this, there is also a bottom- up process, in which each division sets up its own budget, yet within the general goals and directions of the company.The global company budget is then formed by combining the various sub-budgets. The level of participation during the budgeting process When setting up a budgeting process, an important parameter is the level of participation managers may have in the target-setting process. We can talk about participative budgeting when subordinate managers participate in the budgeting process and in defining the budget objectives. Participative budgeting involves back-and-forth communication between superiors and subordinates – they share information and converge on a mutually acceptable budget.It is generally agreed that involvement in setting up the budget leads to higher acceptance than when the budget is imposed fully from the top. Moreover, it is assumed that participative budgeting has a positive effect on the commitment of the division managers who have to realize the b udget later on. The difficulty of budget targets It is necessary to think about guidelines regarding the degree of difficulty in realizing the budgets (‘goal difficulty’). Certain companies have a policy of realistic budgets, where the budget objective will be accepted if it most probably can be reached.Other 166 ? The Integrated Performance Management Framework companies prefer challenging budgets, where top management expects the division managers to work very hard. The basic assumption behind challenging budgets is that managers can always achieve more with their team than they think they can. The task of top management is to stimulate managers to try to excel themselves over and over again. In this situation, managers who submit realistic budgets are evaluated poorly beforehand and a more challenging budget is imposed on them from the top.Whatever the budget philosophy, a budget can be accepted if it holds sufficient task content, i. e. , if the team in the departme nt will have to exert a lot of effort to realize the budget. As a general rule, the set targets ought to be realistic but challenging. This means that they may not be set unattainably high, which results in frustration and manipulation of data, but they may also not be too easily achievable, because then most of the performance stimulus disappears. Tolerance for budget slack It should also be verified whether or not the budget is too pessimistic.Some managers may be inclined to build a certain ‘slack’ into their budget. The phenomenon of budget slack occurs when a manager submits a budget in which a certain ‘buffer’ is built in so that the budget objectives are relatively easy to reach. Indeed, in a participative budgeting process the tendency might exist to ask more than one strictly needs to cover oneself against unforeseen circumstances or out of fear that top management will reduce the budget by a certain amount.For example, if the purchasing department fears that it will no longer be able to buy raw materials at the prices that were budgeted in the past, it can ask for extra means for this part of the budget. It can also be that managers prefer not to set the budget standards too high in companies where their bonuses are calculated on the degree to which they have reached their budget objectives. In all these cases, the general interests of the company are not respected because, by building in budget slack, the company funds are not optimally allocated.Fairness in budget target setting When assessing the budget, one should verify whether the task content of the budgets of the various departments are of equal value. The budget negotiation process is not only a vertical negotiation process in the organization, it is also a process of comparing the planned efforts of the various departments. Dynamic managers, who always work with challenging budget objectives, may become demotivated when they discover that other departments are tole rated when they exert less effort (i. e. , make less profit or be less productive).However, equally balancing the task content of the budgets of the various departments presents difficulties because the management problems may differ widely per department (e. g. , different management functions, product groups, markets, etc. ) and the concept ‘task content’ is difficult to measure objectively. The task content of a budget depends on the experience of the manager and his or her team. There is also a certain Integrated Performance Management through Effective Management Control ? 167 psychological insight involved here.Some managers, along with their teams, feel more quickly swamped with work than others. In any case, clear imbalances in the performances of the various departments need to be eliminated as quickly as possible. For instance, in a profit centre structure, where all divisions are making profits and a certain division is constantly in the red, a thorough restr ucturing plan must be set up in the short run to make the department profit-making as fast as possible. Tightness of budget control With regard to following up the budget, a choice can be made between tight and loose control.The tightness of the control is determined by the degree to which restrictions are imposed on the freedom of subordinates and emphasis is placed on reaching the predefined objectives. In most cases, it is assumed that tight control provides more certainty that the people in the organization will act as is expected of them. This can be done by determining the activities in detail, by following up very accurately the results of the departments, and by exerting pressure on the responsible managers to adjust quickly potentially unfavourable anomalies. With tight budget control, it is frequently (e. g. monthly) verified whether the real costs and revenues are in accordance with the planned short-term objectives. Undesired anomalies in the budget are not tolerated and must be eliminated quickly. The advantage of tight control is that managers become more aware of the importance of costs and profitability, and they actively seek ways to eliminate inefficiencies. However, tight control may also have undesired dysfunctional effects. Focusing on short-term results too intently may encourage managers to organize actions that optimize profitability in the short term, but that are disadvantageous in the long term.For example, in order to reach its budget figures, the purchasing department may decide to buy cheaper, but qualitatively inferior, raw materials. However, this may lead to significant quality problems in production and possibly to lower quality end products, which result in losing the goodwill of the customers. When the emphasis is primarily on reaching budget objectives in the short term, managers may also not be motivated to make the strategic investments that are necessary for the long-term survival of the company.Moreover, excessively tig ht budget control may lead to building in ‘slack’ when setting up the budget objectives or to playing accounting tricks to artificially boost the short-term results. On the contrary, with loose budget control deviations from the budget that arise in between are overlooked by top management, and there is a trust that potentially unfavourable anomalies will be eliminated by the divisional managers at the end of the budget period. The budget is used more for communication and planning, and there is less pressure to undertake immediate short-term actions to adjust the results.The use of budget performance in rewarding managers When setting up the budget, for managers of responsibility centres it is required that the 168 ? The Integrated Performance Management Framework proposed objectives be realized (although we know some companies that start paying bonuses when only 80 per cent – and even 60 per cent – of the budget target is realized). At the end of the yea r, the actual results are compared to the planned objectives and are further analysed by means of variance analysis.In this way, the budget is an ideal basis for evaluating the performances of the responsible managers. Managers who succeed in realizing the proposed objectives must be rewarded for their good performance. This reward may be of a financial nature (e. g. , bonus, salary increase or other financial advantages), but the reward may also be more focused on non-financial motivators, such as promotion, extension of responsibilities and recognition. A bonus for performance relative to the budget can be determined subjectively or by formula.To be effective, the reward system must be designed in such a way that it optimally motivates the managers to act in accordance with the corporate goals and strategies. Optimizing management control process policies A management control process (and more specifically, the budgeting process) is effective when it motivates managers on the vari ous levels of the organization to perform actions in line with the organizational goals and strategies. From contingency research on management control, evidence suggests links between strategy and the characteristics of the management control process.Defenders, and companies with conservative, cost leadership strategies, find cost control and specific operating goals and budgets more appropriate than entrepreneurs, prospectors and companies with product differentiation strategies (Simons, 1987; Dent, 1990; Chenhall and Morris, 1995). Chenhall and Morris (1995) have found that tight control is suitable for conservative strategies; they also found tight control in entrepreneurial situations but, importantly, operating together with organic decision styles and communications.Some research has been focused on the relationship between the chosen competitive strategy and the management control process. Differentiation strategies are associated with a de-emphasis on budgetary goals for pe rformance evaluation (Govindarajan, 1988). Govindarajan and Fisher (1990) found that product differentiation with high sharing of resources (between functional departments) and a reliance on behavioural control was associated with enhanced effectiveness.Bruggeman and Van der Stede (1993) found that business units implementing differentiation strategies based on a make-to-order strategy preferred loose control in budgeting, while business units with a cost leader strategy or a differentiation strategy based on standard products found tight budget control more suitable. They also found that bottom-up budgeting and a commitment to budget targets was considered optimal for all competitive strategies. Overall, Van der Stede Integrated Performance Management through Effective Management Control ? 169 2000) has shown that product differentiation strategies are associated with less rigid budgetary control, but this is also associated with increased budgetary slack. It has also been suggeste d that bonus systems must be suited to the strategy. Anthony and Govindarajan (1995) suggest that formula-based bonus determination approaches should be used with a harvest strategy and that subjective bonus determination is optimal for build strategies. Contingency research has also found relationships between characteristics of the management control process and the level of uncertainty in the environment.Companies operating in an environment of unpredictable change require an appropriate set of control process characteristics. Uncertainty has been related to performance evaluation characterized by a more subjective evaluation style (Govindarajan, 1984; Moores and Sharma, 1998), less reliance on incentive-based pay (Bloom, 1998), non-accounting style of performance evaluation (Ross, 1995), and participative budgeting (Govindarajan, 1986). As environmental uncertainty increases, using more participative budgeting increases performance. In contrast, when environmental uncertainty is low, participative budgeting ecreases performance. In situations where environments are stable and predictable, there is little informational benefit from participation because superiors have sufficient information to develop budgets. Companies may also operate in a hostile, difficult environment. This is an environment that is stressful, dominating and restrictive. Environmental hostility has been associated with a strong emphasis on meeting budgets (Otley, 1978). Hostility from intense competition has been related to a reliance on formal control and sophisticated accounting, production and statistical control (Khandwalla, 1972; Imoisili, 1985).The optimization of target-setting approaches seems to be related to task complexity. Locke and Latham (1990) found that difficult goals lead to higher performance, but this effect is moderated by task complexity. The result leads us to expect that performance will be higher when managers are invited to work towards challenging targets, exc ept when the performance task is too complex. The appropriateness of bottom-up budgeting has been associated with information asymmetry between superiors and subordinate managers (Shields and Young, 1993).When subordinates have much better information about their business than their superiors do, bottom-up budgeting leads to more accurate budgets, arising from the use of the subordinates’ better information. When top-down budgeting is used in the case of high information asymmetry, subordinates may reject the budget because it is not consistent with their information. Top-down budgeting is beneficial in situations where superiors have sufficient knowledge about the subordinate’s activities being budgeted. 170 ? The Integrated Performance Management FrameworkThe role of beliefs systems The management control culture is the third and final part of the management control system. Managers’ behaviours and actions are not only influenced by structural and procedural e lements, but also by the formal beliefs systems in the organization. Simons defines beliefs systems as ‘the explicit set of organizational definitions that senior managers communicate formally and reinforce systematically to provide basic values, purpose, and direction for the organization’ (Simons, 1995: 34).Beliefs systems are an important element of an organization’s corporate culture. The corporate culture is the set of values, beliefs and norms of behaviour shared by members of a firm that influences individual employee preferences and behaviours (Besanko et al. , 2000). Ouchi (1980, 1981; Ouchi and Johnson, 1978) considers culture as an alternative control system in the organization. He introduces the idea of clan control, by which he means control through an internal system of organizational norms and values. Culture influences the behaviour of individuals.Individuals who value belonging to the culture will align their individual goals and behaviours to th ose of the firm and pay more attention to selfcontrol. A culture that is intensively held by most employees is called a strong culture. Culture can support a company’s competitive advantage (Barney, 1986). It is supportive when the values espoused by the culture are very much in line with the chosen direction and the performance objectives of the firm (e. g. , a company with a product leadership strategy where all employees love to change things and learn from new experiences).In this case, we talk about a ‘high performance culture’. In other words, the culture is clearly aligned with the strategy of the firm. Of course, the opposite also holds. If there is a cultural misfit, culture can also be a source of persistently poor performance. This occurs when the values underlying the firm’s culture are in conflict with the chosen strategic direction. For example, a culture stressing efficiency, stability and routine behaviour will not support the implementatio n of a flexibility strategy. In this case, culture may be a barrier to change and managers will experience a ‘low performance culture’.So, it is important that the majority of the employees believe what top management believes. It is the task of management control to define a set of common beliefs. It frequently happens that top managers have explicitly expressed the vision, the mission, the goals, the key values and the strategies of the firm, but lower-level managers and employees do not share the underlying beliefs. Goal statements about creating shareholder value are experienced as ‘grand terminology’ when employees do not feel the passion of working on value-creating projects.A strategy of highquality products will not succeed if all employees are not convinced that they should work to ‘zero defect’ and do their work ‘right the first time’. Many flexibility strategies fail because people do not like ‘to change their Inte grated Performance Management through Effective Management Control ? 171 Figure 9. 4 The origins of unhealthy corporate cultures Source: Kotter and Heskett (1992: 145) 172 ? The Integrated Performance Management Framework plans. ’ In general, successful strategy implementation needs beliefs systems supporting the chosen strategy.The beliefs of employees and managers may be hard to change, but they can be influenced by training sessions, by inspiring leadership, and by demonstrating the success of the new strategy and successful strategic projects. John Kotter and James Heskett (1992) have written a book about corporate culture and performance in which they propose a stepwise approach to the creation of a high-performance culture and focus on the origins of healthy and unhealthy corporate cultures. Their ideas are presented in Figure 9. 4 and Figure 9. 5. Figure 9. 5 The creation of a performance-enhancing culture Source: Kotter and Heskett (1992: 147)Integrated Performance Ma nagement through Effective Management Control ? 173 Conclusion Control and evaluation is the fourth component of our Integrated Performance Management Framework. In this chapter, we have shown the important role of management control for strategy implementation and for performance management. Developing an appropriate management control system is a prerequisite for effectively managing an organization. On a broader level, Simons (1995) has shown that control of business strategy is achieved by integrating four levers of control.These levers create tension between creative innovation (emergent strategies) and predictable goal movement (intended strategies). This proves the crucial role of control in the strategy implementation and performance management process. We then focused our attention on the three basic elements of the management control system: (1) the management control structure; (2) the management control process; and (3) the beliefs systems. We have analysed optimal manag ement control structures and processes from a goal congruence perspective.That is, we have investigated how to design a management control structure and process that maximally stimulates goal-oriented behaviour and leads to minimal dysfunctional behaviour. Attention is also paid to how strategy affects the choice for a particular management control system. It is clear that management control also interacts with the organizational behaviour component. From Chapter 10 on, we investigate this fifth component in greater detail. Note 1 Business conduct boundaries are those that define and communicate standards of business conduct for all employees.Like the Ten Commandments, they specify actions that are forbidden. Internal controls are the policies and procedures designed to ensure reliable accounting information and safeguard company assets. Strategic boundaries define what types of business opportunity should be avoided, thereby drawing a box around the opportunities that individuals a re encouraged to exploit. Strategic boundaries are installed to ensure that individuals throughout the organization are engaged in activities that support the basic strategy of the business (Simons, 2000: 289).

Communications essays

Communications essays When our group started picking out a project we were going to do an experiment. But, then we thought about it and the more we did we decided that it would be better to give back to the community. So, we sat down and looked around to see what we could do. We decided that we were going to give back by donating out time to people that needed that extra bit of support. We decided that we were going to become volunteers for a day at the Special Olympics. As I look at our group I see that there is no clear leadership role that was shown. We all had a part in the research, planning, and implementation of the project. However, there are two figures that stand out a bit, Nancy and myself. She had the leadership role in the original planning stage of the project. She was the one that brought forth the idea for the Special Olympics. However, I was the one that organized the meeting locations and times. The others all did their parts to the fullest. Jen, Frank, and Edwin did their best to put together the power point presentation that was planned originally. Ava and Jasmina both did an excellent job with the photography part of the project. We all became leaders in the assigned roles that we played, so this project would not have been a success without the cooperation and dedication that all the team members put forth. Individually we would have been great, but as a team we were awesome. For many of us this was a first time experience in a project like this. Along the way we hit quite a few bumps. We were disorganized at first and didnt know what we were doing. But as we sat down to brainstorm, our critical thinking skills took over. We were able to solve many problems that came along the way through group communication. A big problem that hit us was that we placed a huge chunk of our presentation to be implemented and demonstrated to the class to through the power point presentation. The night before the presenta...

SAT Essay Examples for the 6 Types of Essay Prompts

SAT Essay Examples for the 6 Types of Essay Prompts SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips There's a persistent myth about the SAT Essay: the idea that you can't prepare content because you don't see the prompt until the day of the test. This is a myth because, in order to be standardized, the test has to require the same complexity of argument in every SAT essay question: yes or no, this or that, what causes what. And since all these arguments are very simple, almost every SAT essay argument can be boiled down to one of the 6 we list here. In addition to that, though, we also explain how to argue each one, and give you sample support for both sides of every argument. Read on for the inside scoop on this important aspect of the SAT. Overview SAT Essay prompts are unlike any other writing assignment. The questions are extremely general, asking things like "is the world changing for the better," but they only ever require a very simplistic thesis statement about a complex idea. There are, for example, many ways in which the world is and is not changing for the better. The most "accurate" answer would have to be "yes AND no," but that's the opposite of what you should say on the SAT. Because on the SAT Essay, simplicity and clarity is the name of the game. You are expected to make a broad, definitive statement about what people 'should' do or whether something is possible. You don't have to believe it, you just have to present a few examples (between one and three) that can show why your statement is correct. In this way, the SAT Essay is easier than most students think. All of the essay questions in this article are taken from real SATs or College Board prep materials. We've categorized them not by their contentfor example, "success" or "personality"but rather by their reasoning. This is because the logic of the question, not its content, is what determines the best argument on which to build your essay. For each type of SAT essay question below, we give you 3 sample prompts similar to what you'll run into, and a breakdown of how to argue either side of any SAT essay question of that type. You'll get detailed SAT essay examples that guide you through how to construct an argument. SAT Essay Prompt Type 1: Discuss what people should do This type of SAT essay question lends itself to many different kinds of examples. Anything that involves people and their choices is fair game. See the diagram below for more information on how this works. Should people†¦. be valued according to their capabilities rather than their achievements? weight all opinions equally, or place more weight on informed opinions? always value new things, ideas, or values over older ones? Step 1: Pick a side. "Yes, people should always value new things, ideas, or values over older ones," or "no, people should not always value new things, ideas, or values over older ones." Step 2: Consider what would logically support your statement (see green boxes for a breakdown of the types of support you should use). For example, if you argue "Yes, people should value new things" as your thesis, you can give evidence of a time when people valued new things and it turned out well, or of a time when people didn't value innovation and it turned out poorly. Step 3: Quickly think of 1-3 real-world or literary examples that fit the criteria in Step 2 (see blue boxes for ideas). To support the Yes thesis with evidence of when people valued new things with success, we could talk about Civil Rights in the United States, the Industrial Revolution, FDR's new deal, or any other example dealign with positive innovation. We could also discuss evidence where refusal to accept new things turned out poorly, like fear of vaccinations and Galileo being excommunicated for his (true) scientific beliefs. SAT Essay Prompt Type 2: Discuss which of two things is better These questions can be fodder for 12-scoring essays because they can be answered so simply: this thing is better than that thing. Then you just have to think of 1-3 examples in which that thing worked and/or in which the other thing didn't work. See the diagram below for more information on how this can be done. Is it better... to take an idealistic approach or a practical approach? to do fulfilling or high-paying work? to use cooperation or competition to achieve success? Step 1: Pick a side. "It is better to use cooperation to achieve success," or "it is better to use competition to achieve success." Step 2: Consider what would logically support your statement (see green boxes for a breakdown of the types of support you should use). Similar to Prompt Type 1 above, in this case you can use evidence that supports your thesis, or argues against the opposite thesis. For example, if you write that "Cooperation is better to achieve success," you can use evidence on a time when cooperation led to success, or when competition led to failure. Step 3: Quickly think of 1-3 real-life or literary examples that fit the criteria in Step 2 (blue boxes). Following our "cooperation is better" thesis, we can talk about when people cooperated to great success - like the Civil Rights movement, or Abraham Lincoln's cabinet during the Civil War. We could also discuss how competition is inferior through examples like the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008, or the North Korea vs South Korea standoff. SAT Essay Prompt Type 3: Support or refute counterintuitive statements These can be the toughest SAT essay promptsif you don't know how to tackle them. The easiest way to really knock this essay type out of the park is to say yes, it is possible, and then think of an example. The other sideno, it isn't possibleis harder to logically prove, but it can be done. See the diagram below for more information on how this works. Is it possible for†¦. deception to have good results? working to reach an objective to be valuable even if the objective is not reached? any obstacle to be turned into something beneficial? Step 1: Pick a side. "Yes, it is possible for any obstacle to be turned into something beneficial," or "no, it is not possible for any obstacle to be turned into something beneficial." Step 2: Consider what would logically support your statement (see green boxes for a breakdown of the types of support you should use). Unlike the two prompt types above, this one is more simplistic - just find evidence that can support your thesis in a straightforward way. If you write "No, it's not possible for any obstacle to be turned into something beneficial," you just need to find evidence for when obstacles exist but don't lead to anything helpful. Step 3: Quickly think of 1-3 real-life or literary examples that fit the criteria in Step 2 (see blue boxes). To support the No thesis, we could use the example of how gender discrimination against women and income inequality has caused far more harm than the good it has caused. SAT Essay Prompt Type 4: Cause and effect These can be logically complicated, depending on which side you choose. If you say x is the result of y, then you just have to think of 1-3 examples that illustrate it. If you choose the other side, though, then you have a harder logical task in front of youyour examples have to fit a much narrower definition to make sense. See the diagram below for more information on how this works. Is __ the result of __? Is a successful community the result of individuals sacrificing their personal goals? Is accomplishment the result of freedom to do things one's own way? Is learning the result of experiencing difficulties? Step 1: Pick a side. "Yes, learning is the result of experiencing difficulties," or "no, learning is not the result of experiencing difficulties." Step 2: Consider what would logically support your statement (see green boxes for a breakdown of the types of support you should use). For example, if our thesis is "Yes, learning is the result of experiencing difficulties," we can either argue with evidence of a time when learning IS the result of difficulty, or when a lack of difficulty led to an absence of learning. Both types of evidence support your thesis. Step 3: Quickly think of 1-3 real-life or literary examples that fit the criteria in Step 2 (see blue boxes). For our Yes thesis, we could talk about how the difficulty of unmanageable healthcare costs in the USA led to learning and the Affordable Care Act. We could also use the other type of evidence and talk about how Jay Gatsby's lack of difficulty in having immense wealth led to poor learning about what really makes him happy. SAT Essay Prompt Type 5: Generalize about the state of the world These kinds of SAT essay prompts are so open-ended that they lend themselves to all kinds of examples and interpretations. But for this same reason, they can be overwhelming and confusing. See the diagram below for more information on how this works. What is the modern world like? Is the world more in need of creativity now more than ever? Is the world actually harder to understand due to the abundance of information now available? Is the world changing in a positive way? Step 1: Pick a side. "Yes, the world is changing in a positive way," or "no, the world is not changing in a positive way." Step 2: Consider what would logically support your statement (see green boxes for a breakdown of the types of support you should use). Let's consider the Yes thesis. We can use evidence that problems in the past that are being solved today, or innovations today that didn't previously exist. Step 3: Quickly think of 1-3 real-life or literary examples that fit the criteria in Step 2 (see blue boxes). To support our Yes thesis, we can find examples of problems that are better now - women's rights, slavery, and reduced violence. We can also discuss recent innovations that dramatically improve quality of life, like the Internet and widespread access to education. SAT Essay Prompt Type 6: Generalize about people Much like the "state of the world" questions, these can be supported by almost anything, but can also get away from you if you're not careful. See the diagram below for some ideas of how to manage these prompts. What are people like? Do people underestimate the value of community due to our culture of individualism? Are people defined by their occupations? Do people learn from the past? Step 1: Pick a side. "Yes, people learn from the past," or "no, people do not learn from the past." Step 2: Consider what would logically support your statement (see green boxes for a breakdown of the types of support you should use). Let's consider the No thesis that people don't learn from the past - we would have to find an example of when someone repeated a mistake that they could have avoided from history. Step 3: Quickly think of 1-3 real-life or literary examples that fit the criteria in Step 2 (see blue boxes). A great example to use for our No thesis is comparing Hitler and Germany to Napoleon. In 1812, Napoleon fought a war on multiple fronts, fighting the Spanish army and the Russian Empire simultaneously. This led to a drastic dilution of focus and led to his defeat. A century later in World War 2, Hitler fought on two fronts as well, facing the Allies in Europe and Russia at the same time. He too was defeated through this mistake. What do I do now? Now that you know the basic types of SAT essay prompts and the types of arguments they require, what can you do with this information? A few different things: one is to practice with these questions, thinking of one or two examples to support at least one answer to each question. We've written a guide to 6 SAT essay examples you can use to answer nearly every prompt. We show you how to construct an SAT essay, step by step. If you want to get a perfect SAT essay score, read this. Another is to take a look at our comprehensive SAT essay prompts article, which gives you lots more questions to think about answering and supporting with the arguments above. Finally, make sure you read our 15 SAT essay tips to know how to get an edge on the essay. Want to get serious about improving your SAT score? We have the leading online SAT prep program that will raise your score by 240+ points, guaranteed. Exclusive to our program, we have an expert SAT instructor grade each of your SAT essays and give you customized feedback on how to improve your score. This can mean an instant jump of 80 points on the Writing section alone. Check out our 5-day free trial and sign up for free:

What is Work-Life Balance Anyway

What is Work-Life Balance Anyway Work-Life Balance is one of those concepts that was assumed to be valuable up until recent years, when many people are turning the concept on its head and saying â€Å"work-life† balance is really about LIFE balance. While I agree to some extent, I don’t see the reason to toss out the concept of work-life balance altogether. To me, work-life balance is a moment-by-moment experience. I have chosen to own my own business because I have certain things I want in my life: the ability to work remotely so I can visit family and not take â€Å"vacation days†; the option to do yoga or go for a swim in the middle of the day; and the flexibility to work early in the morning or late at night. These things might not be non-negotiable, but they are important to me. For me, they create â€Å"work-life balance† or just plain â€Å"life balance.† Of course they also create challenges for maintaining that balance when things get busy in the business and threaten to infringe upon my â€Å"me† time. You might be examining for yourself what constitutes work-life balance or any sort of balance as you move toward a new job, your first job out of college, getting into college, or any other venture. Are you interested in creating a life where you work less than 40 hours per week, are not stressed out constantly, are fulfilled and have fun? If so, you have a lot of company! I don’t often write blogs based on infographics, but I found this one- Careers with Great Work-Life Balance- to be enlightening. I realize that work-life balance is just one aspect of balance; you can have the right amount of time at work vs. personal life, but then get out of balance taking care of others in your personal life when you need to be taking better care of yourself! Or you can run into challenges in your work life itself in finding balance with the types of activities you do or relationships you create. Nevertheless, here are some of the main points to consider when planning for your quality of life in relation to your work: Flexibility at Work Nine out of 10 Americans feel that their current jobs don’t afford them enough time to attend to their family’s needs: a major indicator that they do not have work-life balance. Furthermore, half of these employees believe that if they were allowed more flexibility in their jobs–with work hours, vacation days, clock management, etc.–they’d be able to perform their jobs better. Flexible schedules, in fact, have become so much in demand that the U.S. Department of Labor has devoted a whole page and many articles to the topic. Consider the things that are most important to you in terms of your working hours. Does your career path provide the flexibility you desire? Are you getting to spend enough time with your family? Can you take the vacations you want to take? Can you work from home when necessary? If you are seeking to change careers, or change the structure of your current work life, it will help to know what you want in terms of schedule flexibility so you can create a structure that provides the work-life balance you need. What are the Indicators of Successful Work-Life Balance? According to the OECD Better Life Index, an organization dedicated to promoting policies that improve economic and social well-being, popular indicators of successful work-life balance include: Total hours worked per week Time devoted to leisure Average pay Growth potential Flexibility Stress Are these barometers of work-life balance important to you? Will considering these factors change the way you pursue your education, your next career, or how you conduct your job search? Perhaps it will be informative to check out the jobs listed in the infographic that make top honors. You might be surprised by some of them! Creating Successful Work-Life Balance is up to You What constitutes work-life balance is subjective: what is most important to you in your work and personal life may be completely different from what matters to your friends, family or even colleagues. So define the non-negotiables in your life, then do your best to create a career path that meets your unique definition of balance. I for one can tell you it’s a constant challenge!

Operating System Windows XP Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Operating System Windows XP - Research Paper Example Each of these possesses their own benefits and disadvantages. However, the most popular system among IT professionals is Windows XP Professional. Windows XP is a very good thing to have in the computer world. There are several programs that you can choose to use to manage your personal data and calculate certain mathematical equations. You can open more than one program at a time. Each window contains a different program. (Spring, 2007) A good example of a program is Microsoft Excel. When you get Microsoft XP Home Edition you also get many other programs that come with it, for instance, go to start and then all programs and then go to Microsoft Office. There is Microsoft Office Excel, Microsoft Office Access, Microsoft Office Word, and Microsoft Office Publisher. Each program has its own purpose. Microsoft Excel is spreadsheet software that organizes data in columns and in rows. (McFedries, 2007, 210) The first thing that you will need to obtain is a copy of Windows XP Pro. You can easily obtain this from your local computer store or make use of a copy from a friend. Next, you will need to check to see if your computer system is compatible with MS Windows XP Professional. You will need to make sure that your system has enough random access memory, or RAM, and be sure that your hard drive is large enough to hold the MS Windows XP Professional files with enough room left to save your own files. Another thing to check before going ahead and installing MS Windows XP Professional is the speed of your processor. (Youg, 2001, 510) It should be running at a minimum of 800 MHz. One processor that I prefer is the AMD-K7 processor. Your system will also need to have an installed CD-ROM drive and an available floppy drive. Now you are ready to begin the installation.

Perception Of Nature Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Perception Of Nature - Essay Example For years, the imagination that all other organisms are less intelligent and incapable of expressing themselves in the same as humans may be utterly wrong. There seems to be an intelligent interconnection of nature between all its components. Science is a growing field whose previous conclusions have made us have a mindset of how nature should be. However, some of the findings that are coming up tend to disapprove the traditional notions. Therefore, there is an intelligent interconnection in nature amongst all its components. Nature is very intelligent and it is highly unlikely that one of its components can fully fathom of this intelligence. As noted by Marten (256), there are various perceptions that human having towards nature. He points out five common perceptions that people have considered nature. Looking at each one of them, there are valid basis in which it is established. However, these basis are not in any way conclusive. The interconnectivity of all the components of nature provides a platform in which understanding of nature becomes a bit more complex hence making humans incapable of having a full understanding of nature. However, through science humans have been able to grow their knowledge of nature bit by bit. Humans are part of the nature and to a large extent they have a limited scope of understanding the view of other components of nature. This makes its unreasonable to rely on the perception that humans have harbored over years about their supremacy and intelligence. Below is a good ex ample that demonstrates the capacity of other animals (elephants) to demonstrate some so called ‘human character.’ Empathy is a virtue that is highly prevalent among people and it is unimaginable that elephants too have this virtue. This worldview is based on the basic assumption that other animals are subject to our manipulation and hence they do not have their own discretion. This indicates that humans have for

Knowing Your Audience Paper and Communication Release Essay - 6

Knowing Your Audience Paper and Communication Release - Essay Example After about two weeks, the first borehole reached the survivors (Malone, 1986). According to the Reuters, all the thirty three workers were alive. These people are able to receive emergency lights and rations to stave off the darkness. The company rescue workers are making efforts to getting to a way in which they can pull one by one of the trapped miners to the service. They have estimated the period to about just four months. These miners are supplied with tuna, milk cracks and morsel. Their extreme discipline as the company’s employees has made them survive the incident (Rosssou, 2012). The company is putting efforts to establishing safety measures to the employees. The global press coverage centers put their efforts to rescuing the trapped miners alive, the Chilean mining authorities and al over the world mining authorities; they are trying to put the workers lives at great peril by systematically cutting safety corners. Additionally, the government is aiming at controlling the private mining to ensure safety and health risks to their employees. Generally, the government agencies are working to promote mining investments in our company. On the other hand, the owner of the company has taken an action by taking some short dangerous shortcuts for the safety of the workers. The local worker unions through the introduction of ventilation ducts tunnel reinforcement emergency exits and safety lodges have been enforced for the safety of the employees. The company president has come out with various authorities and the state agency has taken the responsibility for the mini ng safety in the Chilean mining company. The mining minister has also called out for a full investigation of the Chilean collapsing accident (Rosssou, 2012). In that case, there is enough safety for the employees within the Chilean mining company. This shall be done by both the company and the government. There would be more

Murder and Memories Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Murder and Memories - Essay Example The death of Ada and his son have been a controversial issue. It is now up to the students, and researchers to come up with a valid conclusion regarding the incident. This incident remains shrouded in mystery. Other authors say it was the pistol that went off accidentally1. Today, theories on what happened behind the thick walls of the mansions are still being developed. This paper examines the key happenings regarding this incident, with a major focus on sections such as Home, Tragedy, Blood Ties, Settings, Dramatis Personae, and Archives, to give a comprehensive conclusion about the Murder. Firstly let’s take a look at the history that presented itself during this time. In the year 1901, the Redpaths were members of the elites who spoke in English. They lived in a Montreal Square mile that was immensely wealthy. This Square was an intimate and also closed community of its own distinctive making. The Redpaths families used common social, educational, health, and religious ins titutions. Their children also fell victim of intermarriages. These families also shopped for products and also obtained, classic professional services, varying from health, legal and dental services to accounting services. It was mandatory for these professionals to have come from similar class and ethnic backgrounds. In the early 1880’s, many jobs were created through funding of the Canadian Railway. In sectors such as education and health, a lot of efforts were put by the likes of Dr. Emily Stowe of Toronto. Stowe was the first licensed woman doctor in the whole of Canada, and this offered more opportunities for Women. Canadians also passed legislation for protecting working women. They put minimum working age to ten years for boys and fourteen years for girls to protect the youth. The legislation also put working hours to a maximum of ten. In the year 1885, Canadians extended the franchise to married women to own lowly valued property. This franchise never applied to nati ve and unmarried people. In 1887, Mc Donald became the Prime Minister. This was his fourth term. During the early 1890s, Canada’s industrial revolution came in full force. The Industry of Canada started booming especially around the corridor of Trans-continental rail. Ontario’s industries that dealt in the iron, steel, tools, and farm implements were some of the leading companies. At this moment in time, forty percent of Ontarians lived in the cities. Ontario’s economy further booms due to the establishment of a new power house known as Niagara power house. Housing crisis emerged due to the urbanization that caused many people to flock the city of Toronto2. Increased employment caused increased child labor and also increased the level of school drop-outs. During the late first decade of 1900s, most industries relied upon electric power or self-generated steam power. In 1906, workers of the Hamilton street railway erupted to Violence caused by their strike3. In 1 909, Laurier won the Federal election for the fourth term. The Redpath Mystery is best captured in a website named â€Å"the Great unsolved Mysteries in the Canadian History†. Ada Maria and his son Jocelyn Clifford Redpath died on the 13th of June, the year 1901. It is also remarkably clear that their death resulted from gunshot wounds. The

Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 32

Case Study Example This decision is seen to be inconsiderate of the customer sentiments in the location and the news of a rate increase and setting up of the nuclear plant may lead to negative reactions among the customers. The main external issues in this case include the sentiments of the customers regarding the operations of the company and the subsequent increase in the rates of power supply. The power supply rates of Phoenix Power are already high and the customers are skeptical about a nuclear plant in their vicinity. As such, the skepticism and non-reception of the customers are likely to act as the main external issue. The internal issues related to the advertising process would include the business decision regarding the choice of an advertising agency and personnel required for the short term advertising campaign. The alternatives would include making the customers more aware of why it is important to increase the rates of power supply. The positive aspects for building the nuclear plant can be focused on in the advertising. The nuclear plant once completed would be useful for supplying sufficient power to the whole city and Phoenix Power would not have to source power from the plants in California. This would subsequently reduce the costs for electricity after the setting up of the nuclear plant. This aspect should be focused on in the advertising campaign so that the customers become aware of the benefits of the project and also become supportive of the project. The message for the advertising campaign should be based on highlighting the long term positive benefits that can be realized from the project of Phoenix Power to establish the nuclear power plant in Arizona (Jameson and Campbell 170). Since, the consumers already have a negative attitude towards the increase in the rates; therefore, this issue should be handled in a sensitive manner in the advertising campaign. Phoenix Power

Murder and Memories Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Murder and Memories - Essay Example The death of Ada and his son have been a controversial issue. It is now up to the students, and researchers to come up with a valid conclusion regarding the incident. This incident remains shrouded in mystery. Other authors say it was the pistol that went off accidentally1. Today, theories on what happened behind the thick walls of the mansions are still being developed. This paper examines the key happenings regarding this incident, with a major focus on sections such as Home, Tragedy, Blood Ties, Settings, Dramatis Personae, and Archives, to give a comprehensive conclusion about the Murder. Firstly let’s take a look at the history that presented itself during this time. In the year 1901, the Redpaths were members of the elites who spoke in English. They lived in a Montreal Square mile that was immensely wealthy. This Square was an intimate and also closed community of its own distinctive making. The Redpaths families used common social, educational, health, and religious ins titutions. Their children also fell victim of intermarriages. These families also shopped for products and also obtained, classic professional services, varying from health, legal and dental services to accounting services. It was mandatory for these professionals to have come from similar class and ethnic backgrounds. In the early 1880’s, many jobs were created through funding of the Canadian Railway. In sectors such as education and health, a lot of efforts were put by the likes of Dr. Emily Stowe of Toronto. Stowe was the first licensed woman doctor in the whole of Canada, and this offered more opportunities for Women. Canadians also passed legislation for protecting working women. They put minimum working age to ten years for boys and fourteen years for girls to protect the youth. The legislation also put working hours to a maximum of ten. In the year 1885, Canadians extended the franchise to married women to own lowly valued property. This franchise never applied to nati ve and unmarried people. In 1887, Mc Donald became the Prime Minister. This was his fourth term. During the early 1890s, Canada’s industrial revolution came in full force. The Industry of Canada started booming especially around the corridor of Trans-continental rail. Ontario’s industries that dealt in the iron, steel, tools, and farm implements were some of the leading companies. At this moment in time, forty percent of Ontarians lived in the cities. Ontario’s economy further booms due to the establishment of a new power house known as Niagara power house. Housing crisis emerged due to the urbanization that caused many people to flock the city of Toronto2. Increased employment caused increased child labor and also increased the level of school drop-outs. During the late first decade of 1900s, most industries relied upon electric power or self-generated steam power. In 1906, workers of the Hamilton street railway erupted to Violence caused by their strike3. In 1 909, Laurier won the Federal election for the fourth term. The Redpath Mystery is best captured in a website named â€Å"the Great unsolved Mysteries in the Canadian History†. Ada Maria and his son Jocelyn Clifford Redpath died on the 13th of June, the year 1901. It is also remarkably clear that their death resulted from gunshot wounds. The

Communication Research Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Communication Research - Assignment Example 2). Qualitative research on the other hand entails a process of inquiry which enables the researcher to understand the social or human issue confronting the society and enables the analysis of this complex phenomenon through a holistic perspective and reporting of detailed views of those involved i.e. the informants/ participants in the study in a natural setting (Cresswell, 2002: 2). For the purpose of this study a qualitative research design is proposed since it offers a wider platform for the researcher to understand and explore the topic of study by methods which help in gathering information that help in understanding one’s qualitative understanding (Guba and Lincoln, 1998). Qualitative research entails several methods of inquiry for analysis such as biography, phenomenological study, grounded theory, ethnography as well as case study. All these types of method afford the researcher in thoroughly exploring the topic of the study and understand the meaning and intentions o f the participants. For the purpose of this study the case study methodology is proposed whereby some key blogs will be selected and its impact on the traditional mainstream media will be observed and analysed. This method is chosen to avoid a mere theoretical interpretation of the phenomenon and engage in a practical discussion thorugh application of case studies that help in supporting the analysis. The blogs will be carefully chosen based on various parameters number of readers, number of views, types of topics dealt with etc among others. References: Creswell, J. W. (2002). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative approaches to research. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Pearson Education. Guba, E. G. & Lincoln, Y. S. (1998). Competing paradigms in qualitative research. In Norman K. Denzin & Yvonna S. Lincoln (Eds.), The landscape of qualitative resea