Definition and Examples of Paragrams and Textonyms

Finance Minicase - 1062 Words

MINI CASE For your job as the business reporter for a local newspaper, you are asked to put together a series of articles on multinational finance and the international currency markets for your readers. Much recent local press coverage has been given to losses in the foreign exchange markets by JGAR, a local firm that is the subsidiary of Daedlufetarg, a large German manufacturing firm. Your editor would like you to address several specific questions dealing with multinational finance. Prepare a response to the following memorandum from your editor: To: Business Reporter From: Perry White, Editor, Daily Planet Re: Upcoming Series on Multinational Finance In your upcoming series on multinational finance, I would like†¦show more content†¦The indirect quote indicates the number of units of a foreign currency that can be bought for one unit of the home currency. Indirect quote = foreign currency / home currency |Contract |S/ foreign | |Spot |.8450 | |30 days |.8415 | |90 days |.8390 | |Indirect quote |[pic] |$ | |Spot |[pic] = |1.1834 | |Forward | | | |30 days |[pic] = |1.1883 | |90 days |[pic]= |1.1918 | h. You own $10,000. The dollar rate in Tokyo is 216.6752. The yen rate in New York is given in the preceding table. Are arbitrage profits possible? Set up an arbitrage scheme with your capital. What is the gain (loss) in dollars? Data ââ€" ª $10,000 dollars ââ€" ª Dollar rate in Tokyo is $216.6752 yen per dollar ââ€" ª Yen rate inShow MoreRelatedMr. Old Alfred Road763 Words   |  4 PagesMr. Old Alfred Road Page 1 Mr. Old Alfred Road Minicase Leek-Nunoo November 3, 2012 Mr. Old Alfred Road Page2 Abstract Old Alfred Road, who is well-known to drivers on the Maine Turn-pike, has reached his seventieth birthday and is ready to retire. Mr. Road has no formal training in finance but has saved his money and invested carefully. Mr. Road owns his home—the mortgage is paid off—and does not want to move. He is a widower, and he wants to bequeath the house and any remainingRead MoreStrategic Human Resource Practices2550 Words   |  10 Pageskind of business strategy. If the business is to be successful, or Strategic, human resources professionals will have to be the ones that must recognize the business of their organization and also communicate the language of both the finance and business finance. Whenever this is done right, human resources professionals will have the knowledge to establish a strategy together and then make arrangements consistent with business needs. Moreover, some of strategy is the capability to acquire buyRead MoreInformation Technology Project Management ,31215 Words   |  125 PagesWrite a one- to two-page paper summarizing who the key stakeholders were for the project and how they influenced the outcome. 5. Write a one- to two-page summary of an article about the importance of top management support for project success. MINICASE You have been part of your company’s Information Technology Department for three years. You have learned a lot about the company and about many new technologies in your latest assignment—developing applications for your corporate intranet. SinceRead MoreInvestment Chapter 11 Answer3404 Words   |  14 Pagesto find a bond issue with approximately 10 years until maturity (as of January, 2007) for Bear Stearns. Luckily, Bear Stearns has quite a few outstanding bond issues to choose from, and we can access the information on these issues on the Yahoo! Finance page. Go to http://finance.yahoo.com/ and start by clicking on â€Å"Investing† and then â€Å"Bonds† as shown to the right: Then enter Bear Stearns in the â€Å"Bond Lookup† box and click on â€Å"Search† as shown below: You’ll be presented with a list of BearRead MoreImpacts of Information Technology on Individuals, Organizations and Societies21097 Words   |  85 PagesManagerial Issues Discuss the impacts of information technology on the quality of life and interpersonal relationships. Recognize the legal, ethical, and moral issues that become particularly critical due to proliferation of information technology. Minicases: 1. Megachurches 2. RFID for Consumer Products Integrating IT ACC FIN MKT POM HRM IS SVC 663 MOVIE PIRACY The Problem Generations of moviegoers went to movie theaters to enjoy the latest films. They accepted the idea of paying for theirRead MoreProject Managemant29326 Words   |  118 Pagesdeveloping a method for measuring the true benefits of ResNet before making major financial investments in new reservations systems. This project cost about $500,000. The ResNet Phase I project, also called ResNet 1995, was approved by NWA’s finance committee in November of 1994. This project involved installing personal computers in the call centers in Baltimore and Tampa and the international portion of the Minneapolis/St. Paul reservations offices. It also involved developing ResNet softwareRead MoreSolution Manual, Test Bank and Instructor Manuals34836 Words   |  140 Pages7th Edition International Student Version_Ken Black (SM+TB +Cases) Applied Calculus, 6th Edition_Geoffrey C. Berresford, Andrew M. Rockett (TB) Applied Calculus, Brief, 6th Edition_Geoffrey C. Berresford, Andrew M. Rockett (TB) Applied Corporate Finance, 3rd Edition_Aswath Damodaran (SM+Instructor Manuals + Derivatives and Discussions) Applied Management Science Modeling, Spreadsheet Analysis, and Communication for Decision Making, 2nd Edition_John A. Lawrence, Barry A. Pasternack (SM+TB) AppliedRead MoreManagement Course: Mba−10 General Management215330 Words   |  862 PagesCourse: MBA−10 General Management California College for Health Sciences MBA Program McGraw-Hill/Irwin abc McGraw−Hill Primis ISBN: 0−390−58539−4 Text: Effective Behavior in Organizations, Seventh Edition Cohen Harvard Business Review Finance Articles The Power of Management Capital Feigenbaum−Feigenbaum International Management, Sixth Edition Hodgetts−Luthans−Doh Contemporary Management, Fourth Edition Jones−George Driving Shareholder Value Morin−Jarrell Leadership, Fifth EditionRead MoreLibrary Management204752 Words   |  820 Pageswell as reemphasized those that had stood the test of time. This seventh edition uses contemporary examples to illustrate discussions on such themes as strategic planning, marketing, measurements, and human resources management. Thought-provoking minicases and other activities have been incorporated to elicit discussion of points being made. The volume has been rethought, reworked, and reedited, indeed renewed, to reflect recent changes and new issues in the information services environment. Citations

Why Was Stalin Able to Become Leader of Russia by 1926 Free Essays

Why was Stalin able to become leader of Russia by 1926? (7) In January 1924, Lenin, the Leader of the Russian communist party died. Trotsky, the leader of the Red army seemed like Lenin’s successor at the time as he played a major role in the civil war. Meanwhile, Stalin held two positions: People’s commissar for Nationalities (responsible for the different nationalities in the Soviet empire) and General Secretary (responsible for the day to day running of the party. We will write a custom essay sample on Why Was Stalin Able to Become Leader of Russia by 1926? or any similar topic only for you Order Now He was also a member of the Politburo, the party leaders who ran the country after Lenin’s death. They consist of Stalin, Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Bukharin, Rykov and Tomsky. As Lenin’s funeral was organized by Stalin since he was regarded as the party’s administrator because of his position as General Secretary, Stalin was able to deliver the oration. This enabled him to portray himself as the chief mourner, and heir to Lenin. Stalin also telegrammed Trotsky the wrong date. Many saw Trotsky’s absent as disrespect for Lenin who had assumed a God-like status so his reputation was damaged. As a result, Lenin’s funeral gained Stalin support and made Trotsky unpopular, contributing to his success in being the leader of Russia. Apart from that, the fact that the Politburo decided not to publish Lenin’s Testament which contains criticisms of them also contributes to Stalin’s success. This is because in his testament, Lenin had wanted Stalin removed from his position. Members of the party may not have supported Stalin if they had read the testament containing criticisms of him. They would probably support Lenin’s desire for Stalin to be removed from his position. Apart from enabling Stalin to gain support during Lenin’s funeral, his position as General Secretary also contributes to his success in becoming Russia’s leader in many ways. As it enabled him to access personal files of party members, Stalin gained information which he could use against his rivals. Furthermore, it also gave him the right to appoint new party members so he appointed his supporters. During Lenin Enrolment between 1923-5, over half a million new members joined the party as it gave them privileges. This made them loyal to Stalin as he had allowed them into the party. New members could easily identify with Stalin because of his humble, peasant background and support for Stalin grew. On the other hand, Trotsky was unpopular. He came from a wealthy Jewish background and had a late conversion to Bolshevism. He was an intellectual who appeared arrogant. He also did not cultivate support but worked alone. This could be because of his poor judgment regarding other people. Trotsky also believed in the ‘Permanent Revolution’ but in contrast, Stalin promoted ‘Socialism in one country’. Many feared that Trotsky’s idea of world revolution would ruin Russia so support increased for Stalin. In 1924, Trotsky said the party’s bureaucracy was too big and was working for its own benefit. He was isolated by Stalin as Stalin had joined with Zinoviev and Kamenev to form the ‘Triumvirate’. This happened before Lenin’s death and the aim of this alliance is to prevent Trotsky from being the next party leader. They campaigned against Trotsky by publishing his disagreement s with Lenin during 1903-7. They also used Stalin’s position as General Secretary and the 1921 ban against factions to remove Trotsky’s supporters from their influential positions. This led to Trotsky being constantly isolated and outvoted. In 1925, Trotsky was forced to resign from his position of Commissar for War. Stalin, as a member of the ‘Triumvirate’ has partly defeated the Left Opposition. However, In April 1926, Zinoviev and Kamenev realized that Stalin is exploiting his position as he used it to appoint his supporters into the party. They joined forces with Trotsky to form the United Opposition. They planned to restore Party and Soviet democracy and end the NEP (New Economic Policy). They were defeated in 1926 at the central committee meeting because Stalin called in his support and banned them from speaking. He also used his control of Party Congresses and elections to outvote them. They worked secretly but were then accused of factionalism (breaking the party) and were expelled from the party. The United Opposition was successfully defeated by Stalin and the party is now full of his supporters. As a conclusion, Stalin’s political schemes with the aid which his position as General Secretary offered enabled him to remove his rivals, gain support and power so he was able to become leader of Russia by 1926. Beatrice 11. 1 How to cite Why Was Stalin Able to Become Leader of Russia by 1926?, Essay examples

Security Planning for Global Data Organization

Question: Discuss about the Security Planning for Global Data Organization. Answer: Introduction The report includes the security planning of the network structure designed for Global Data in Australia. The project is already partially implemented as per the checklists and relevant IP allocation process (Aldribi, Traore and Letourneau 2015). The network architecture requires a proper security planning to ensure scalable communication and data storage in Global Data. The project is incorporated with essential Gantt chart along with several activities to setup the entire project, according to the allocated timeline. The security requirements are included along with best practices of maintaining the secure data transmission (Damenu and Balakrishna 2015). The network components are identified with the network architecture following the specific IP addressing. Network Components Figure 1: Network Architecture (Source: Created by author) The network architecture is designed as per the office floor planning and basic blueprint of each store requirements. The included components are presented under the table: Components Specifications Purpose Hypervisors GDhvSRV001 Hypervisor for Primary DC and DFS1 GDhvSRV002 hypervisor for Secondary DC, VOIP, DFS2 GDhvSRV003 Hypervisor for Web GDhvSRV004 Hypervisor for Mail Server and Media Server Virtual Machines GDdc1SRV001 Primary DC GDfl1SRV002 Primary DFS GDexSRV003 Mail Server GDmdSRV004 Media Server GDdc2SRV005 Secondary DC GDvpSRV006 VOIP GDwbSRV007 Web Server GDfl2SRV008 Secondary DFS Devices GDfwRTR001 LAN, WAN, for Web server GDvSW001 Physical NIC on 192.168.1.1 Hypervisor GDvSW002 Physical NIC setting GDvSW003 Mode access GDvSW004 Mode access GDpSW001 Physical Switch with POE with 1 vLAN Workstations GDraWS001 Remote Access via Vsphere, VPN, Putty, Table 2: Network Components (Source: Created by author) Security Risks The risks that are depicted under this section are basically attached with every network component in any architecture. The inherent problem is identified as lack of operational logs in auditing trails that enables the services with shallow operation mechanisms (Kim and Jeon 2016). The mechanisms may include the hyper-calls; the enforcement of any hypervisor is very crucial and difficult work. Most of the enterprises avoid the hypervisor incorporation because of infeasible yet risk-intensive applications. In any virtual network, the penetration testing and scanning rather than only setting the physical implementation is quite difficult (Lim et al. 2015). Again, these essential and proactive functions are essential for setting a hypervisor setting. The primary focus is put forward with setting the performance and hypervisors are hardened in security aspects. The performance expectations are from physical machines without holding up the similar machine tools hosting multi-tenant services in case of scalability (Lincke 2015). The hypervisor security is relevant for remembering the security risks and vulnerabilities. The security risks are mostly in open server network with potential exploit of code flow on other platforms. Again, the mail and data servers required to be set up without sharing any default permissions (Neystadt, Fitzgerald and Verny 2015). The potential and unwanted security issues mainly the client face as stolen, lost, or corrupted files under the DC architecture. Security Planning The security planning is required to be implemented in order to serve the architecture with natural yet processed data within the region of network. The hypervisor security planning required to follow systematic steps as following: Hyper-call risks and privilege escalation issues: The exploit of security under the hyper-call setting includes the methods as buffer overflow. The exploit system calls are made from the virtual machines to the hypervisor resulting in buffer overflow (Somani, Gaur and Sanghi 2015). The virtual machines should consider the hardened security systems with preventing this vulnerability. The VMs should access the hyper-call property with preventing the necessary privilege escalation that is mitigating the attackers to gain access of it. There are certain add-ons to incorporate the hyper-call security. The network threat management is suitable process here. Segmentation of duties: The duties must be divided under the compliance requirements in Information Technology setups. The privilege escalation can be minimized with planning legitimate access to the administration domain (Bleikertz et al. 2015). The division of duties may raise some issues as conflicting the instruction / policies. The virtual machines would face such situations in terms of mis-configuration of hypervisor. Performance calibration and planning requirements: The planning requirements are important for security settings for unusual allocation of resources under the process layers of the virtualization setup (Neystadt, Fitzgerald and Verny 2015). The single-core security setup can be used for ensuring the smooth functions in security layers. Dealing with clusters: The clusters of physical addressing in virtual setup require bigger complexities with multiple risks. The multiple physical machines run with virtual environment in hypervisor (Lim et al. 2015). The security solutions may be validated with compatible clustering solutions for effective hypervisor security controls. The least security areas, most importantly the configuration of file server with proper connectivity is required (Kim and Jeon 2016). The considerable security planning steps for virtual and physical machines are to be included underneath: 1. Ensuring the physical security of the servers 2. Making schedules for the baseline security on the server operating systems and the services (Aldribi, Traore and Letourneau 2015) 3. Planning essential anti-virus or malware installation for protecting the servers 4. Setting access plan for shared and unshared files and folders including the share permissions 5. Incorporation of Encryption File System (EFS) 6. Planning for Distributed File System (DFS) and Replication Service (RS) security techniques (Damenu and Balakrishna 2015) 7. Planning for suitable audit services These are the primary security planning requirements in this context. However, most security vulnerabilities lie in password setting. Therefore, the password should be secured and long-keyword based as well. Conclusion The hypervisor security is relevant for remembering the security risks and vulnerabilities. The virtual machines should consider the hardened security systems with preventing this vulnerability. The privilege escalation can be minimized with planning legitimate access to the administration domain. The single-core security setup can be used for ensuring the smooth functions in security layers. The security solutions may be validated with compatible clustering solutions for effective hypervisor security controls. Incorporation of Encryption File System (EFS), planning for Distributed File System (DFS) and Replication Service (RS) security techniques are generally identified as most important in this report. Planning for suitable audit services are accounted in Global Data for monitoring the entire security process. References Aldribi, A., Traore, I. and Letourneau, G., 2015, August. Cloud Slicing a new architecture for cloud security monitoring. In Communications, Computers and Signal Processing (PACRIM), 2015 IEEE Pacific Rim Conference on (pp. 18-22). IEEE. Bleikertz, S., Vogel, C., Grob, T. and Modersheim, S., 2015, December. Proactive security analysis of changes in virtualized infrastructures. In Proceedings of the 31st Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (pp. 51-60). ACM. Damenu, T.K. and Balakrishna, C., 2015, September. Cloud Security Risk Management: A Critical Review. In Next Generation Mobile Applications, Services and Technologies, 2015 9th International Conference on (pp. 370-375). IEEE. Kim, J.N. and Jeon, Y.S., 2016. Implementation of Domain Separation-based Security Platform for Smart Device. International Journal of Applied Engineering Research, 11(10), pp.7017-7019. Lim, K.S., Park, S.W., Kim, J.N. and Lee, D.G., 2015. Functional considerations in military-grade security platform using a mobile hypervisor. In Computer Science and its Applications (pp. 1413-1418). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. Lincke, S., 2015. Planning for Network Security. In Security Planning (pp. 135-158). Springer International Publishing. Neystadt, J., Fitzgerald, R.E. and Verny, L., 2015. Security virtual machine for advanced auditing. U.S. Patent 8,955,108. Somani, G., Gaur, M.S. and Sanghi, D., 2015. DDoS Protection and Security Assurance in Cloud. In Guide to Security Assurance for Cloud Computing (pp. 171-191). Springer International Publishing.

The Great Gatsby Essays (694 words) - The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby

The Great Gatsby Book Review The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is set in the 1920's during the Jazz Age. Nick Carraway is a man in his late twenties residing on West Egg island in Long Island, New York living a ?normal? life. That is, until he meets his mysterious neighbor, a wealthy man named Jay Gatsby. He is a man of mystery, living in a mansion that is constantly full of people, music, and fun. Nick's ?normal? life gets thrown topsy-turvy when he gets involved in the life of this extraordinary millionaire. Marred by jealousy, cheating, and lying, Nick begins to feel the essence of living a glamorous life in the ?20's. He showed this when he said, ?Everyone suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known.? All along, I felt sorry for Nick being dragged into more and more tragedy, but I especially felt bad for him during one instance. His friend Daisy was married to Tom, but Tom was having an affair with Mrs. Wilson and Daisy had a thing for Gatsby. Daisy and Gatsby were driving home from town after an argument amongst the group of friends when they passed the Wilson's gas station. Mrs. Wilson ran out to Gatsby's car, because they were driving Tom's car, and was hit. Mr. Wilson went positively crazy, and Nick felt torn by his mixed feelings towards his supposed friend Gatsby. ?I disliked him so much by this time that I didn't find it necessary to tell him he was wrong.? Gatsby's insensitivity brought on by his lifestyle made Nick despise him. This is the part where I think Nick really started opening his eyes to how Gatsby really was. This book really displays how the life of an important person is, especially in that time period. At first, Nick is awed and drawn in by the glamour and prestige, but he eventually figures out for himself how rough it really was. Although this book was set back in the ?20's, the lessons you learn from it still apply to society and life in general today. Anyone could read this book and draw a few lessons about life from it. Summary The Great Gatsby was set in the 1920's. It's about the lives of a group of people who all become entangled in a web of, lying, scandal, and cheating together. Nick Carraway lives a ?normal? life on Long Island, until he meets his neighbor, Jay Gatsby. Parties went on every weekend, and Nick gets caught up in Gatsby's ?glamorous? lifestyle. Soon, everyone is involved in scandal, Daisy's cheating on Tom with Gatsby, Tom's cheating on Daisy with Mrs. Wilson, and Nick's caught in the middle. Gatsby ends up convincing Nick to get Daisy to come to Gatsby's house, because they had a history together. Daisy comes, and both she and Gatsby find out that their love for each other never went away. The trouble really begins when Tom finds out that Daisy's love for Gatsby has rekindled. One day while in town, Tom and Daisy fight, so Gatsby drives Daisy home in Tom's car. On the way, they hit a woman who turns out to be Mrs. Wilson who was thought the person in the car was Tom, and was trying to talk to him. All the while, Nick starts realizing how terrible a life like Gatsby's is despite the outer glamour. He also becomes emotionally attached to golf player, Jordan Baker. After Mr. Wilson finds out who was in the car that killed his wife, he goes crazy and kills Gatsby. In the end, two people wind up dead, and everyone winds up hurt in one way or another. Daisy and Tom remain together, Mr. Wilson is crazy, and Nick is hurt by Jordan who never loved him back. After all of this emotional suffering, Nick realizes that he learned a valuable lesson about life: Some of the supposed happiest people with the best lives often are a lot worse off, or end up a lot worse off than people with ?normal? lives. The only thing he can do is go on living his life the way it was meant to be lead: not as a millionaire, or a prestigious person in society, but as a normal guy-the only way he knows how. Book Reports

Historical Transformation of Class essays

Historical Transformation of Class essays Historical materialism is the Marxist approach for interpreting history. It is the interpretation of relations between groups of people and the resulting class struggles. According to Marxist theory, there exists a sequence of historical stages each with its own ruling class. Under feudalism the ruling class is the nobility, whereas the capitalists are predominant in capitalism, and socialism has its proletariats. An understanding of historical materialism is of importance to the ideology of a Marxist, working-class party, and therefore, its program and policy must be based on an understanding of the same in order to be successful. Without knowledge of and ability to apply these laws, the party will be oblivious to tackling the problems arising in the class struggle of a socialistic revolution (McCarthy). Within feudal society, the serf lives and works on a manor, which is owned by a feudal lord, and the lord confiscates a portion of the value gained from production. There were regular conflicts between the landowners and the serfs of the feudal society due to the exploitation of the serfs giving rise to frequent peasant uprisings. The landowners repeatedly infringed upon the peasants prerogative with his time to work on his personal holding. Nobility would forcefully demand more labor services and taxes, hence, accentuating serf exploitation and class differences. When the peasants first began their revolts, they were unsuccessful. This was largely due to their individual mode of production and their lack of ability to maintain an army in the field as it conflicted with harvesting and their families needs. However, as time passed, the growing middle class (the bourgeoisie) fought for independence from feudal rule. They sought to improve their methods of production with superior tools and efficient planning. The use of fertilizer, animal power for plowing and transport, and water and windmills g...

Market Potential Indicators for Laptop Computers Research Paper

Market Potential Indicators for Laptop Computers - Research Paper Example While all of these indicators provide clues to the countries listed as emerging markets, some of these indicators are more critical to laptop marketing than others. We want to know population and electricity consumption because we need to ascertain that there is a sufficient number of potential consumers and that those consumers are likely to have the needed electricity required to charge and operate our laptops. In a country where there is low electricity consumption, we can assume that people are without refrigerators and other power-intense kitchen appliances, and do not use air conditioning. This suggests a lifestyle that will not lend itself to the perceived need and purchase of a laptop, considering that desktop PCs cost far less. We want to know how active the middle class is in earning money and spending it, and what percentage of the total they earn and spend, because we need to tailor our product design and marketing accordingly.

Science, Health, and Wellness Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Science, Health, and Wellness - Essay Example From the arguments set forth by Lisa Katic, it is evident that the GMA does not claim any responsibility for the prevailing obesity epidemic. To the contrary, she asserts that the GMA is going out of its way to promote healthy lifestyles among its consumers. The GMA believes that restricting access to unhealthy foods not only interferes with consumer’s choice but is also difficult to implement. For example, no food item is unhealthy per se; the quantity consumed, the frequency with which it is consumed and the pre-existing health condition of the consumer are all factors that determine if a particular food item is healthy or not. Hence, the GMA believes that blankly labeling foods as unhealthy does not make sense. A better approach to tackling obesity and overweight, the GMA believes, is through educating the consumer about what comprises a balanced and optimal diet, and letting the consumer make the choice themselves. This way the burden of responsibility will be on the consumer as it rightly should be. After reading through the GMA’s argument in its entirety, one can easily see that their actions in terms of manufacture and marketing of food products are ethically sound. It would be hasty to judge them as responsible for the widespread obesity problem that exists. But to the GMA’s credit, and as a mark of their concern for their consumers’ health, its allied institution the American Council for Fitness and Nutrition (ACFN) has come up with several innovative programs. These include Vermont Fit and Healthy Kids Initiative, The Carol M. White Physical Education for Progress, The 5-a-Day Better Health Program, Kidnetic.com, America on the Move, etc. When seen in the contex t of this plethora of initiatives Lisa Katic’s testimony to the Vermont House Committee is definitely a step forward in tackling

Individual Reflection and Personal Development Plan Case Study

Individual Reflection and Personal Development Plan - Case Study Example The components of 'personal development' include changes in the individual from minor alterations in work routines to changing habits leading to major developments. Role development entails in far reaching consequential changes such as adapting to a new role to suit individual as well as organizational requirements such as changes in work schedules, changes in organizational goals et al. Before seeking to bring about behavioral changes in others, managers must first identify their intra and inter personal skills, which they have or should acquire to be effective in the new role. They are: Intra-personal skills: Self-awareness, self-monitoring and stress-management skills Inter-personal skills: Communication, motivation, team building, conflict management and feedback. Inter-organizational skills: Networking alliances Yukl mentions supporting, developing, recognizing, rewarding and conflict management as essential managerial behavior for "building and maintaining co-operative relationships." These behaviors may have other objectives such as "to influence task motivation and facilitate effective completion of the task." (Yukl 1998, p. 94) Drucker argues that 'managing oneself', essentially begins with making an inventory of individual strengths and asking the question: 'how do I perform'' While it is not possible to change oneself, one can change one's way of working to improve performance. (Drucker 2005) Managers can learn effectiveness by adopting a pro-active approach of not just acquiring knowledge but to putting it to practice and holding themselves accountable for their actions. This involves four stages: understanding why events have occurred the way they did (reflection);... Managers can learn effectiveness by adopting a pro-active approach of not just acquiring knowledge but to putting it to practice and holding themselves accountable for their actions. This involves four stages: understanding why events have occurred the way they did (reflection); thinking about the application of theoretical frameworks to practical situations and their consequences (conceptualization); implementing concepts to influence/motivate behavior (implementation) and evaluation of emotional and informational outcomes of plan implementation (immersion). Kolb’s questionnaire is a useful tool to analyze managerial learning style of these four aspects. The questionnaire has forty questions to be rated on a scale of 1 to 7. Some of the questions read as:   â€Å"I often spend time thinking about what I am really trying to achieve†, â€Å"I am often more interested in novel ideas than in those that are practical† and â€Å"I regularly devote time to seeking f eedback on my projects† etc. (Kolb 1985). The answers are then tabulated in ten rows of four columns each starting with answers to questions 1 - 4 in the first row. The questions thus arranged in four vertical columns pertain to ‘reflection’, ‘conceptualization’, ‘implementation’ and ‘immersion.’ Areas in which the manager scores high are his/her strengths and those in which he/she scores less than the mean score obviously need improvement. The objective of mapping self-awareness is to develop the ability to identify and diagnose important differences with others.

Training And Development Play An Important Role Management Essay

Training And Development Play An Important Role Management Essay Training and development is a system, a set of activities or process designed to help expand and improve a persons skills and knowledge which are related to his or her job scope. It is also a good way to help to improve the attitudes and competencies of employees. Training focuses more on current and present jobs, whereas development emphasizes more on long term and future jobs. Training and development programs can enhance the capabilities of employees to achieve organizational goals and effectiveness and efficiency of the operations within the organization. Trainings make better for business development and help the company to become more competitive and profitable. Training and development plays an important role in human resources management. One of the reasons is due to the significant changes of technologies in this modern era, where some business functions are becoming older and outdated. If the organization does not introduce new methods of accomplishing tasks and make changes to its existing business functions, the organization will fade out from its market eventually. Therefore, it is of paramount importance for an organization to implement training and development strategies to ascertain that the employees possess the skills and knowledge needed to operate the latest technologies. In addition, training and development programs will help to save cost for a company in the long run. An organization can launch training and development program to train and improve the skills of existing employees instead of hiring new employees to handle a project as the cost of training existing employees will be cheaper than hiring a new employee. Besides reducing the turnover rate of employees, effective training programs will help to increase job satisfaction, motivation and morale of employees. This is because employees will feel that the company cares for their welfare and appreciates their contributions, thus they will be loyal and work for the company for a long period of time. When a company gives its employees an opportunity to learn and develop new skills, they will feel that they have value in the company and try their best to contribute in building a stronger and more competitive organization. In short, training and development programs are essential for increasing pro ductivity, effectiveness and efficiency of an organization besides enhancing the image of the company. The major aim and objective of training and development is to add value to a firms human assets. These programs raise the capacity level of the company and help the company to overcome the rapid changes of technology in the globalized business world. Furthermore, it tends to increase the power of a company to compete with its competitors in the global market. Training and development programs also act as motivational tools to boost the enthusiasm of employees in performing their jobs. This will reduce the requirement for close supervisions and improve the effectiveness, efficiencies and performance of employees in the organization. Content Theories and Concepts Training and development is a set of planned programs and procedures aimed to improve employees capacity and organizational performance. The performance of employees in terms of ones attitude, behavior, skills and knowledge can be improved through the training programs implemented by an organization. Therefore, training and development programs can effectively improve the overall performance of the business. Trainings are normally targeted at technical staff, lower level management, middle and also senior level management. Normally, when programs are applied to lower and middle level management, they are known as trainings whereas when applied to senior level management, they are called development programs. Some general purposes of training and development are to enhance employees growth, improve the quality of workforce, bridge the gap between planning and implementation and help new comers. There are few relevant theories which are associated with training and development, namely the sensory stimulation theory, the reinforcement theory, the action theory, the experiential learning and the adult learning. Sensory theory states that when multi-sensory stimulation effect is great, learning takes place. In order words, efficient training will occur when the senses are inspired or stimulated. Some research found that 75% adults knowledge is learned by seeing, hearing and the other 13% is by other senses like smell, taste as well as touch. Reinforcement theory can be further classified as positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement. In positive reinforcement, trainee will repeat the desired behaviour; in negative reinforcement, trainee can strengthen behaviour when a negative condition is stopped. This theory focuses on the significance of experience, meaning, the development of insight and problem-solving skills. For instance, many trainers believe that trainees will develop problem-solving abilities when they are exposed to various situations and varied experiences. Action learning is a dynamic process that involves a group of people solving real-life problems. But at the same time, they must concentrate on what they are learning and how the learning can benefit the group members, the group itself as well as the organization as a whole. Nowadays, action learning becomes one of the key training and problem-solving tools for some large companies such as Nokia, Motorola, British Airways, US Department of Agriculture and Marriott. (Michael, 2004) Experiential learning defines learning as a process of creating the trainees knowledge via the transformation of experience. There are four stages in experiential learning. Firstly, the experiential learning is through concrete experience, which is putting something into practice. Secondly, it is through observation and reflection, in which one objectively analyzes the outcome. Thirdly, it is through abstract conceptualization, in which one review your conceptual understanding. Lastly, it is through active experimentation, which is experimenting to find solution. The diagram below shows the experiential learning cycle and the basic learning styles. stage.jpg Lastly, adult learning is a theory that holds six assumptions about how adults learn and this theory emphasizes on the value of the process of learning. There are six assumptions of adult learning, which are adults need to know why they need learning, readiness to learn, self-concept, motivation to learn, orientation to learning and learners experience. This approach is problem-based and collaborative rather than precept and also focus on more equality between the trainer and trainee. (Benefits and Problems, n.d.) In addition, there are two dimensions of training and development processes, which are the degree of formality and the balance between self-directed as well as other-directed learning. These two choices of the dimensions result in 4 overall methods. For instance, one can take a formal training to self-directed or other directed learning, likewise one can take informal training to self-directed or other directed learning. Trainers make decision about what approach to be taken into training depending on several factors, such as the amount of money which can be invested for training, timeliness of training needed, specificity and complexity of the skills and knowledge needed as well as capacity and motivation of the learner. Undeniably, formal and other-directed learning and development programs are more expensive than other approaches. However, through this approach learner can achieve the desired skills and knowledge in a timely basis. This form of learning is mostly used in colleges, universities and training centres, which normally grants diplomas and certificates. Employee development plans is another form of formal and other-directed training. Employee development plans help to identify performance goals, the ways to achieve the goals, by when and whom to verify their result. Besides, in formal and self-directed training, learner should set his or her own learning goals, methods and means to verify the accomplishment. For example, supervisors and employees work together to achieve formal and self-directed learning in the workplace, at the same time they collaborate to accomplish continuous learning for continued productivity and learning. Informal training and development is more casual and incidental. Normally, there are no specific training goals and ways to evaluate their level of accomplishment of goals. Make an example of informal and other-directed training, supervisors send their employees to training regarding sexual harassment in the workplace. Informal and self-directed learning can be very low cost and this training approach may take longer time than other-directed forms. However, the learner must have the capacity and motivation to pursue their own training. For example, there are informal discussions among employees on a certain topic or organizations sending their employees to attend talks by famous speakers, as long as the learners select the activities and topics by themselves. (Carter Mcnamara, n.d.) Contributions and Significance Training and development programs can contribute to an organization by helping it to save cost. Normally, a successor will be trained by someone who is an expert in a particular field to refill a position if there is a sudden vacancy within the organization. This can help the company to save recruiting cost, training cost, and keep the organization operating smoothly. By this way, the company need not hire someone outside the company to train since the training is easily attainable by present employees. Training the successors is better than recruiting people from outside of the organization. In addition, recruiting professional with high skills is much more expensive than training current employee to acquire those skills. Secondly, training and development can improve the relationship between bosses and subordinates. Training programs will involve different levels of employees in an organization and this increases communication among each other. When the communication breakdown between bosses and subordinates, the business will suffer, the tension will increase and cause other negative consequences to happen. Through training and development process, they can understand their jobs better; therefore some accidents and misunderstanding can be avoided. At the same time, productivity of employees may increase. Thirdly, training and development will lead to an increased profitability and more positive attitude towards an organizations goals. These can be done by enhancing employees knowledge and polishing their skills at all levels within an organization. When the satisfactions of customers are fulfilled by well-trained employees, this will increase the number of repeated business. At the same time, the reputation of the company is also enhanced because of good services performed by the employees. Therefore, training and development helps an organization to achieve competitive advantage over others in the industry. Case Development Companys Background Resorts World Sdn Bhd was a private limited company established in year 1980. In year 1989, the company was listed into the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange market to become a public listed company on 14 July. It was subsequently renamed as Resorts World Bhd, in which this company name had been used from year 1989 to 2009. Resorts World Bhd then changed its name again to Genting Malaysia Berhad on 18 June 2009 and this name has been used until today. As everyone knows Resorts World Genting is built in the high mountain areas; the cool and refreshing air is an indispensable factor in attracting visitors. Besides, Resorts World Genting excels in offering full-of-fun entertainment attractions and the luxurious international class destination, in order to satisfy different cultures and needs of tourists. Generally, Resorts World Genting has established six hotels, namely the First World Hotel, the Theme Park Hotel, the Awana Hotel, the Maxims Genting, the Resort Hotel and the Highlands Hotel. The First World Hotel with a total of 6,118 rooms was the Worlds Largest Hotel according to Guinness World Records (Knowles, 2011). In addition, Resorts World Genting also offers close to 200 distinctive dining outlets and shopping stores, business convention facilities and mega shows. The most attractive features of the company are the two theme parks with more than 40 rides and non-stop entertainment. Adult Bumper Car, Flying Dragon, 4D Motion Master, Ride de Paris and other entertainment facilities are provided in indoor theme parks. Moreover, outdoor theme parks provide more fun rides than indoor, such as Pirate Ship, Spinner, Flying Coaster, Corkscrew, Boating, Dinosaur land and Rodeo Rider, which have successfully attracted visitors from all walks of life. Resorts World Genting also monopolizes the legal gambling market in Malaysia as it operates the one and only casino in Malaysia. Many locals frequent the casino to gamble. The casino offers international gambling games such as Tai Sai, Baccarat, Roulette, Blackjack, slots and Pokers. Resort World Genting not only operates the entertainment facilities but also the longest cable car system in Southeast Asia, named as Genting Skyway. The cable cars are crossing 3.38km from the hillside to Highlands Hotel at the peak. Therefore, it is obvious that Resorts World Berhad focuses its businesses in entertainment and tourism industry. Training and Development Practices, Advantages and Disadvantages of the Practices Resorts World Genting supports and promotes employee development and organizational effectiveness by pursuing personnel policies in training and development, which is in line with the organizational culture, mission and vision. The organization has been actively involved in providing high quality trainings, development programs and opportunities for career development of individual workers. In fact, Resorts World Genting recorded more than 8,500 employees attending internal and external training programs in year 2009. The various training programs carried out to produce competent workers include etiquette, grooming and personal impact, customer service and service delivery aimed at front-line employees and consistent departmental team-building activities. To improve productivity and effectiveness within the organization, Resorts World Genting offers internal trainings such as on-the-job training and job rotation from time to time. As an effort to support the Skim Latihan 1Malaysia (SL1M) launched by the Prime Minister in year 2011, Resorts World Genting has gone all out to provide on-the-job placements to unemployed or underemployed graduates with appropriate qualifications. This scheme requires candidates to achieve a minimum CGPA of 2.5 for a degree from any recognized tertiary institution and possess the ability to converse in Bahasa Malaysia and English. Shortlisted trainees will be given 2 to 3 months soft skill trainings and 9 to 10 months on-the-job training. During the training period, trainees will assist in organizational projects and departmental functions and involve in departmental or organization-wide planning and decision making. Subsequently, trainees are evaluated on their suitability for vacancies in Resorts World Ge nting. There are several advantages that can be yield through the on-the-job training. Resorts World Gentings effort has actually helped to enhance the employability of unemployed graduates to compete for jobs that match their qualifications. Through SL1M, trainees acquire necessary soft skills such as communication skills, critical thinking and organizational adaptability to increase their competency in the job market. As the organization usually customizes the learning to fit business purposes, trainees will be well-prepared to perform real job tasks because they will be taught to master the tools needed to perform their specific roles. Therefore, SL1M improves the quality and helps fresh graduates to be more marketable in the labor market. On the contrary, there are also certain drawbacks towards Resorts World Genting through the implementation of SL1M on-the-job training. This scheme lacks of consistency as the training is closely dependent on experienced senior workers to give out instructions that are purported to be essential in completing a task efficiently and effectively. As the instructions vary with each trainer, there is no standardized learning carried out across the organization. It is also insufficient for a trainee to learn the skills and knowledge from only a trainer. Besides, when there is no structured guidance on training lessons, trainees will only learn about the routines and solve daily problems that arise in the normal course of working. They will face difficulties and feel humiliated in the future when they are confronted with complex and rare problems which are not taught during the SL1M scheme. Under close supervision by a trainer, the trainee can be easily influenced by the trainers habits and attitudes towards various aspects of the job such as management and interaction techniques. They can quickly adopt lazy habits and take shortcuts in performing their tasks, which in return will bring unfavorable consequences towards Resorts World Genting. Resorts World Genting also offers Management Trainee Program which provides job rotation opportunities to potential employees. Its purpose is to discover and develop the next generation of leaders to hold higher managerial positions in the future by equipping them with the required skills, judgment and qualities of an effective manager. Under the Management Trainee Program of Resorts World Genting, trainees will be given the chance to conduct cross-functional assignments and special projects to develop leadership skills. The 18-24 months program allows trainees to explore different areas of the corporation such as Casino Operations, Theme Park Operation, Theme Park Technical and Human Resource. Successful trainees will be posted to Senior Executive or Assistant Manager positions. According to the official website of Resorts World Genting, 19 management trainees successfully graduated and recruited as permanent employees in year 2009. The Management Trainee Program has benefited Resorts World Gentings employees in many ways. Selected trainees will have good prospects in their career advancement as they are exposed to all facets of the business, from marketing to customer service, to human resource and operations. Thus, they can be easily promoted to a managerial position once a vacancy comes up within the organization. Besides, the program helps to identify and develop potential talents as a means of providing a good succession planning and enhancing morale in the organization. It helps to foster teamwork within the organization, promote good camaraderie and improve communication among teams because trainees usually collaborate with different team members at different levels. A major disadvantage of the Management Trainee Program is that successful trainees tend to be more self-centered and expect preferential treatment such as higher compensation and benefits from the organization. They might think high of themselves with the qualifications possessed. As the management trainees undergo job rotation, there is a tendency that the trainees could not master the operations and have an in-depth understanding of the functions in a department before switching to another department in just a few months. Consequently, they will become Jack of all trades and a master of none. The result might be harmful to the organization as these future-to-be managers might not be good managers. In addition, off-the-job learning is conducted by Resorts World Genting. Scholarships were awarded to 21 high-performing employees in the year 2009. Deserving employees received scholarships to further their studies at MAHTEC, Kolej Antarabangsa Genting Inti and Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). In year 2011, 22 scholarships worth RM1.7 million were awarded under the Genting Malaysia Education Fund to outstanding employees and other external recipients. Moreover, the organization partners with colleges and universities and professional associations such as Genting INTI International College (GIIC), ACCA, CIMA and ICAEW to provide the opportunity for employees to enhance their qualifications. For instance, Resorts World Gentings Finance Department has been recognized by professional accountancy bodies such as ACCA, CIMA and ICAEW to provide trainings to accounting fields employees to become qualified accountants. One of the advantages of Resorts World Genting offering further studies opportunities is that the employees with higher qualifications and professionalism can contribute more to the organization in various aspects of the organization. These professionals such as accountants, risk management experts and investment analysts can make better planning, professional evaluations and decisions for the organization in the business dealings. This will in turn help Resorts World Genting to minimize cost, maximize profits and penetrate into more profitable markets in various countries. When the organization has a good reputation of offering scholarships to high-performers, there will be a larger pool of qualified unsolicited candidates for the organization to make selection for a vacancy. Therefore, Resorts World Genting is less likely to face the problem of lack of qualified candidates for selection process. However, offering scholarships might be costly to Resorts World Genting as the organization has to fork out a whopping amount to support the increasing cost of living and tuition fees of scholarship recipients. This is much more expensive compared to other internal training programs. The organization also faces the risk that it might lose its high-quality employees after they have finished their studies. This is because when the high-performers have completed their duration of work as stipulated in the scholarship agreement, they might be poached by Resorts World Gentings competitors by being offered a higher compensation and more benefits. Furthermore, Resorts World Genting has also organized many seminars and conferences to help develop the professionalism of the senior management. For example, in October 2011, the organization carried out the 23rd Genting Malaysia Senior Managers Conference in Awana Kijal, Terengganu to encourage workers to be passionately committed to achieving the organizations goals and core values. Last but not least, besides organizing departmental team-building activities, Resorts World Genting emphasizes on work-life balance programs which improve employees wellbeing. To highlight holistic development of all levels of employees, the organization has also organized sports events and self-improvement activities. Some of the programs involved in inculcating team-spirit and lifelong learning include Coaching Leadership A Future for Women in Leadership, Sexual Harassment in the Workplace, Labour Day celebration and Genting Employee Carnival. The conferences organized by Resorts World Genting have benefited the organization as the senior managers and top management have the chance to exchange various viewpoints regarding the course of businesses run by the organization. This encourages communication and collaboration among all levels of managers of different departments within the organization instead of emphasizing on only one department. As a grand decision made by one department affects another, it is essential that all departments involved discuss and analyze a matter before making a final decision. Besides, the programs and activities carried out help to drive the behaviors and personal goals of employees to be in line with the organizational purpose, which in turn contributes to a highly-productive working environment. These activities are effective motivators for the employees to perform better and achieve organizational objectives. In contrast, attending various seminars and programs may be a loss of productivity and a waste of time for the employees of Resorts World Genting. Discouraged workers tend to take these activities as distractions to escape from work. There are also times that the information presented during seminars or the activities organized do not interest a particular individual. Moreover, the information presented by external parties may be incorrect, flawed and biased. The information cannot appeal to all the needs of the employees from different departments in the organization and it may be just a reiteration of what the employees have known. What the speakers provide are mostly theoretical and these theories cannot be applied in real-life situations due to various factors. The above are the human resource practices implemented by Resorts World Genting to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of the employees. There are advantages and disadvantages for each activity organized by the organization. The top managers should look into the boon and bane of a practice before implementing it to maximize productivity within the organization. Critiques of Practices on the Effectiveness of the Company There are several critiques on the effectiveness of training and development practices implemented by Resorts World Genting on the normal course of business. The first method used by Resorts World Genting is on-the-job training, which is Skim Latihan 1Malaysia (SL1M). This method mainly helps the unemployed or fresh graduates to brush up their qualifications so that they have the capacity to meet the skills and knowledge needed by the jobs. This scheme is actually less effective to the operations of the organization as there is no structured and detailed handbook or guidelines to follow. Since this scheme has so many disadvantages such as inconsistency in training, too subjective and only dependent on one senior worker for each trainee, it would be cost-consuming to retain workers which are not well-trained. In long-term, this method will reduce the productivity of the company. Therefore, SL1M might be useful in decreasing the unemployment rate in the country but this scheme is unfavorable towards Resorts World Genting as it reduces the effectiveness of the organization. The second method applied by Resorts World Genting is job-rotation trainings that are offered to train potential employees to hold managerial positions in the future. Overall, the management trainee program increases the productivity and effectiveness of the organization. The disadvantages of the management trainee program are minor as they can be easily eliminated through some modifications of the program. This program usually has a higher requirement from its trainees as the trainees must be able to work under high pressure. Since they will be exposed to the functioning of every department within Resorts World Genting, they will be able to master all the operations when they have completed their training. Thus, the high-performing and well-trained employees will be able to manage high positions effectively and meet the organizational goals. In addition, Resorts World Genting also provides off-the-job learning by offering scholarships and opportunities to further studies to high-performing employees. This will be cost-saving in a way that the actual amount spent on scholarships is much lower than the cost of recruiting and selecting a new employee. The organization will have low turnover rate as this increases the job satisfaction of the employees. It will also be able to retain its pool of talents, and this human asset will provide comparative advantage to the organization to compete with other competitors. Professionals trained by the organization could make better professional analysis and decisions which in turn will increases the effectiveness in the business dealings. Therefore, off-the-job training increases the effectiveness and efficiency of Resorts World Genting in the long-run. Seminars and talks organized by Resorts World Genting appear to be less effective in training the employees as majority of these seminars involve only theoretical presentation. It is also not cheap to invite external speakers to give talks to the employees which will then be considered as a waste of time. As it is difficult to control human behavior, the company also cannot avoid the fact that some lazy employees take this chance to escape work. In short, organizing seminars and talks would decrease the effectiveness and productivity of the operations in Resorts World Genting. Recommendation There are some recommendations for Resorts World Genting to improve their training and development programs. First and foremost, there are few recommendations to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of on-the-job training, which is Skim Latihan 1Malaysia (SL1M) implemented by Resorts World Genting. The organization can set a standardized and structured on-the-job training scheme, alongside with clear and detailed handbook for every trainer and trainee. Trainers can follow the scheme and handbook which detail all workplace procedures to train the new employees and make sure that the trainees fully understand their jobs. Besides, Resorts World Genting has to choose the trainers carefully. Trainers must achieve the level of qualification required to train the new employees and the organization must make sure that they do not show bad habits or examples. This is because a good trainer will influence a trainee to become a good employee in the future. Besides teaching the trainees on how to solve their daily problems, the experienced trainers should also emphasize on rare and potential probl ems that might happen in the future, or at least the trainees are taught about these problems using theories. Furthermore, Resorts World Genting can assign more supervisors to observe how trainers and trainees work in their positions and require weekly report from the trainers. Trainers and trainees will then concentrate and pay more effort on their jobs because they do not wish to obtain bad comments in their report. Secondly, there are some recommendations for Management Trainee Program. Resorts World Genting can first try to observe the characteristics of potential employees and then decide which department is suitable for the individuals. Besides, managers can also interview the potential employees and tests their abilities in each and every sector. This can help to enhance the skills and knowledge that the management trainee lacks in a particular sector. Furthermore, Resorts World Genting also can set the period of job rotation longer. Potential employees can learn and discover more on a post before they change to another position if the job rotation duration is longer. Since these potential employees are going to handle managerial positions in the future, it is important for them to practice job ethics. Therefore, Resorts World Genting should show their employees that the organization emphasizes ethical ways of doing jobs. This will influence the employees and may change their decisions and actions to become more ethical in performing their job. In addition, to achieve cost-effectiveness, Resorts World Genting can offer their employees scholarships to further studies in local educational institutions instead of overseas. The tuition fees in local educational institutions are much cheaper compared to those abroad. Furthermore, the cost of living is also lower than staying overseas. Resorts World Genting can also plan to set up their own educational institution instead of partnering with other colleges. By taking this initiative, Resorts World Genting can save much cost for scholarships and attract more students to study in

Roman And Greek Gods Essay -- essays research papers

Roman and Greek Gods It has been known that the Romans and the Greeks have had many interactions with each other, whether it would be due to trading or just plain traveling, the stories of their myths have crossed each other in one way or another. This is may be the reason why there are many similarities between Greek and Roman Mythology. Even though a Greek god or goddess may have a different name in Roman Mythology they still performed similar tasks and were worshiped for similar reasons. I will compare and contrast Greek gods with their Roman equivalences to see how similar they truly are to each other. Probably the most famous Greek god, Zeus, was the god of all gods. Born to Cronus and Rhea, he was the ruler of the sky, and had the power to create thunderstorms and lightning as well as earthquakes. As the story goes he overthrew his father, Cronus, and became the ruler of Mount Olympus to head the new line of Gods. Jupiter, also known as Jove, was very much like Zeus. He was the predominant power ho lder among the Roman Gods. According to Tripp, Jupiter is a â€Å"contraction of two words meaning ‘Heavenly Father.’†(Pg. 332) He ruled the sky, controlled all of the weather, and had thunderbolts as a weapon. Tripp also wrote â€Å"Jupiter’s cult and his general character were, however, well established in Italy before the Greek religion became influential there.† (Pg. 333) This implies that the idea of Zeus, Jupiter and Jove had very little influence on each other since they were created before the Greek myths and Roman myths had started to cross paths. Hera, the wife and sister of Zeus, was the goddess of marriage, childbirth, and the queen of the heavens. She gave birth to Ares, Hebe, and Eileithyia. She also gave birth to Hephaestus, but it has been believed that she bore him without the aid of Zeus. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, she was extremely jealous of the affairs that her husband had and she often tormented or harmed Zeus’s mis tresses. Juno, the feminine version of Jupiter’s name, is Hera’s counterpart. Juno had many names that served for different purposes. As Juno Pronuba, she was goddess of marriage, as Juno Lucina, she was the goddess of childbirth, and as Juno Regina, she was the special counselor and protector of the Roman state. (Roman Mythological Characters, Juno) In Tripp, there was also a Juno Moneta that was governed finances. (Pg. 332) It seem... ...t Greek gods and Roman gods have many similarities. In the cases of Hermes, Mercury, Athena, and Minerva, they are so similar that they might as well be called the same name. With the comparisons of Hera, Ares, and their Roman counterparts, we can see that everything is the same except for their attitudes. Hera seems to be more of a mean goddess than Juno because humans actually offer praises to Juno and actually expect Juno to help her. Hera was too busy causing harm towards Zeus’ mistress. Ares was just the meaner and more aggressive version of Mars. Venus may as well have been Aphrodite because it was believed that her myths were borrowed from Aphrodite. Zeus and Jupiter were similar, but were written in different times, suggesting a heavy coincidence that the Greeks and the Romans were on the same page. Overall, Greek gods and Roman gods are indeed very similar. If they do have differences, they are always fairly petty and do not affect their general purpose within myt hology. The interactions between the Greeks and Romans have definitely tied each other’s myths together so close that a story from Greek mythology can easily be interchangeable with a story from Roman Mythology. Roman And Greek Gods Essay -- essays research papers Roman and Greek Gods It has been known that the Romans and the Greeks have had many interactions with each other, whether it would be due to trading or just plain traveling, the stories of their myths have crossed each other in one way or another. This is may be the reason why there are many similarities between Greek and Roman Mythology. Even though a Greek god or goddess may have a different name in Roman Mythology they still performed similar tasks and were worshiped for similar reasons. I will compare and contrast Greek gods with their Roman equivalences to see how similar they truly are to each other. Probably the most famous Greek god, Zeus, was the god of all gods. Born to Cronus and Rhea, he was the ruler of the sky, and had the power to create thunderstorms and lightning as well as earthquakes. As the story goes he overthrew his father, Cronus, and became the ruler of Mount Olympus to head the new line of Gods. Jupiter, also known as Jove, was very much like Zeus. He was the predominant power ho lder among the Roman Gods. According to Tripp, Jupiter is a â€Å"contraction of two words meaning ‘Heavenly Father.’†(Pg. 332) He ruled the sky, controlled all of the weather, and had thunderbolts as a weapon. Tripp also wrote â€Å"Jupiter’s cult and his general character were, however, well established in Italy before the Greek religion became influential there.† (Pg. 333) This implies that the idea of Zeus, Jupiter and Jove had very little influence on each other since they were created before the Greek myths and Roman myths had started to cross paths. Hera, the wife and sister of Zeus, was the goddess of marriage, childbirth, and the queen of the heavens. She gave birth to Ares, Hebe, and Eileithyia. She also gave birth to Hephaestus, but it has been believed that she bore him without the aid of Zeus. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, she was extremely jealous of the affairs that her husband had and she often tormented or harmed Zeus’s mis tresses. Juno, the feminine version of Jupiter’s name, is Hera’s counterpart. Juno had many names that served for different purposes. As Juno Pronuba, she was goddess of marriage, as Juno Lucina, she was the goddess of childbirth, and as Juno Regina, she was the special counselor and protector of the Roman state. (Roman Mythological Characters, Juno) In Tripp, there was also a Juno Moneta that was governed finances. (Pg. 332) It seem... ...t Greek gods and Roman gods have many similarities. In the cases of Hermes, Mercury, Athena, and Minerva, they are so similar that they might as well be called the same name. With the comparisons of Hera, Ares, and their Roman counterparts, we can see that everything is the same except for their attitudes. Hera seems to be more of a mean goddess than Juno because humans actually offer praises to Juno and actually expect Juno to help her. Hera was too busy causing harm towards Zeus’ mistress. Ares was just the meaner and more aggressive version of Mars. Venus may as well have been Aphrodite because it was believed that her myths were borrowed from Aphrodite. Zeus and Jupiter were similar, but were written in different times, suggesting a heavy coincidence that the Greeks and the Romans were on the same page. Overall, Greek gods and Roman gods are indeed very similar. If they do have differences, they are always fairly petty and do not affect their general purpose within myt hology. The interactions between the Greeks and Romans have definitely tied each other’s myths together so close that a story from Greek mythology can easily be interchangeable with a story from Roman Mythology.

This Emotional Life Summary

This video talked about how and why we need relationship with others through family, friend and the case of lovers. In the beginning of the video psychologist, Daniel Gilbert, states that successful relationship gives us happiness. Moreover it also led to our emotional well being. On the section of family, it focused on the attachment. Children have problem communicating and building relationship, in most of the time, are lack of the love. Especially from the mother or care givers. When the period of crying and learning the surroundings, they have learned that they were not being pay attention. Also there is no one to protect and comfort them. Oxytocin a hormone plays an important role in social relationship because it helps format the attachment. In other words, to form a close relationship such as friends and parents it is necessary to create that hormone. The experiment between adopted and natural mother-child had shown that natural mother-child’s oxytocin increased. However the adopted one didn’t. It also mentioned that it is not only the child that gets influenced by, but also the parents too. By experimenting where mothers’ brain work by seeing their child’s emotions, stated that the part of â€Å"need to pay attention† have worked actively. On the next section about the friend, it focused on communication. People gets stress when they feel lonely which would led to hart disease, diabetes, accidents, and suicide.

For school Essay

The New York City Marathon is acknowledged as one of the Greatest Races. The short races, like 100 to 10,000 meters are sports events—this marathon has evolved as a unifying force in USA. Fred Lebow, who chalked out the blue-print for this race, was a visionary and he succeeded in creating a unique connectivity within the people of cross-sections of the society. â€Å"Fred Lebow was a dreamer, the kind of dreamer who pursued his dream and made it a reality. And the world is still reaping the rewards. â€Å"(Rubin, 2004, p. 7) He foresaw the extraordinary commercial potentialities of this event, in which many thousands actively participated and some millions viewed, thanks to the technological advances and internet revolution. Lay people from the remotest countryside enjoyed the event live! In any race, only one is the final victor but the satisfaction derived by large numbers of participants donning colorful attires is also great. They have the special reason to be proud of, because they have participated in the NYC marathon of Fred Lebow! Why does it give the Big Apple its happiest and unifying day of the year? The expression â€Å"Big Apple† is as glorious as the popularity of the marathon. It refers to the era of Depression-of the 1930s. Many issues are associated with this name. The side-walk apple vendors are credited with extensively using this expression. A popular dance of the 1930s was also known as the â€Å"Big Apple. † The Morning Telegraph carried a regular column with the title, â€Å"Around the Big Apple. † It was immensely liked by the readers. The marketing strategists began to cash on the popularity of the expression, â€Å"Big Apple. † Its status enhanced to become a popular brand! Many consumer items like shopping bags, ties, lapel pins, ashtrays, tie tacks, magnets and T-shirts began to flood the market. Fred Lebow fully utilized the commercial aspect of â€Å"Big Apple† for his marathon. He made participation in the marathon race the ambition of life of every runner. He believed, â€Å"In running it doesn’t matter if you come in first, in the middle of the pack, or in the last. You can say, ‘I finished. ’ There is a lot of satisfaction in that. † Ron Rubin, the author of this book, is Professor of political science at Borough of Manhattan Community College. NYC marathon has united Americans of all categories and classes transcending man-made barriers. That which is popular with the youth of the country has to be popular at all levels. Lebow applied power, the central concept of political science, for his role in mass marketing, capturing the keys to the city, squeezing money from sponsors: One can not make the sweeping statement that Fred Lebow squeezed money from the sponsors. To secure money from the sponsors, who are marketing wizards and sales strategists, is no ordinary task. Lebow won over them with his expertise and guile. He outsmarted them by presenting the well-researched statistics as for the popularity of the marathon. The science of marketing was at the infancy in the 1970s, and without being a marketing expert in the professional sense, without any academic qualifications in marketing, what he did was indeed a marvel. Marketing experts had to accept defeat and accept his proposals. In the College of self-education, Lebow’s mind was his Principal; his initiative, the Professors; his hard work the tutors! He was a man to decide and act; start and finish! He was willing to work very hard to translate his marathon dream into a reality. The most important part of his style was he worked intelligently. Otherwise, how could he convert a small countryside sports exercise into a mega-event that demanded the attention and appreciation world over? He knew how power worked. How power can support and push up issues. Lebow hails from Romania. He immigrated to New York in 1949 and began to run by joining New York Road Runners. Perhaps he was thinking deep and high as he ran across the jogging tracks of Central Park, Manhattan! Power and high-pitched ambition with right attitudes, makes a great combination. When in 1969, he became the Club President Lebow knew what he was up to! This volunteer based leisure club became the business enterprise of Marathon. He set a profit target and was out to achieve it. For promoting the event, he made appropriate use of the print and the electronic media. He gave them ample quotes and real-life stories. He undertook all publicity gimmicks that helped the cause of the marathon. His capacity to inspire the common man was immense. And surprisingly he was not a competitive runner. He also ran with other runners and that did the trick! The 800-acre park race became the five boroughs race! The marathon turned out to be the â€Å"Apple City† event. The topics in the book covered by Ronald Ruben provide the correct picture as for the innovative marketing strategies followed by Lebow. He has been rightly labeled as a Showman, apart from a sports-loving individual. His marathon-show was to inspire the people; for benefit to the people; by the people and for the people! He groomed runners! Some of his boys proved to be outstanding marathon runners! The noticeable chapters in the book that speak about the personality and the marketing capacity of Lebow are, From Arad to Central Park, Framing a Five-Borough Party, King of New York for a Day â€Å"Running† the Show, Unschooled Mass Marketing, Wrestling the Keys to the City, Squeezing Money from Sponsors, Manipulating the Media, Shrewdly Assembling His International Entourage of Runners, Amassing a Crew to Help The Race to the Finish and finally and unfortunately, The Race against the Cancer! And finally ‘the nature said that the work is done’ and Lebow’s race was run! With undaunted spirit, and with never-say-die attitude, he ran the last mile of the race, as a brain cancer patient. The sportsperson spirit prevailed over his physical ailment. Lebow was a bachelor and he nursed the marathon like his own child. As a person, he was loveable, pushy, manipulative, charming and hotheaded –all clubbed into one! Lebow was a shrewd planner. He knew well that no big event can be managed without adequate resources. His mission, therefore, had a commission (money) angle! On the day of the marathon, he was unstoppable and was seen everywhere, from the beginning of the race to the finish! He was there at the starting line, made sure that the race went smoothly, and at the finish line he was the first one to congratulate all the runners. He made everybody feel important. He could well understand how the finishing line was emotionally important to every marathon runner. He dealt with the sponsors superbly. He tendered before them unchallengeable facts and figures, to prove to them how the sponsorship would work to their advantage. Here is the example of his extraordinary salesmanship. He quoted $75,000 for the honor of providing the pace vehicles for the male and female leaders. The proposal was promptly turned down by the party and the counter proposal that he made, showed how the sixth sense of Lebow worked. He offered to pay them $10,000 to appoint an independent market analyst, as for making the assessment of the benefit the company will derive of this exposure, of which Lebow would take 10%. He hoped to net $ 100,000 thus! The company relented and gave him $50,000 and the use of a Buick for one year! â€Å"Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon ‘em. † (Shakespeare†¦. ) Fred Lebow belongs to the second category. He had a dream and he worked to make it a reality. He made the NYC marathon a mass movement and now half a million Americans run marathons all over USA. Top marketing Managers emulate his strategies. He instilled the sense of competition and fighting spirit among the common runner. The wise saying goes, ‘Life is to be lived in is trials and tribulations; its duty and beauty. ’ Lebow lived up to every syllable of this quote. â€Å"Fred Lebow was a dreamer†¦ the kind of dreamer who pursued his dream and made it a reality. And today, more than thirty years later, the world is still reaping the rewards of his vision and hard work†¦. Fred Lebow’s life was [truly] a story just waiting–and deserving–to be told. † (Rubin, 2004†¦Preface) Of the 69 marathons, he ran only once! Conclusion: One feels marathon race is part of one’s life, once you go through the contents of the book. â€Å"For me, running is a lifestyle and an art†¦Ã¢â‚¬  said Lebow. He evolved the culture of marathon. He converted a sports event into a cultural and social saga and people looked forward and participated in it with extraordinary enthusiasm. This book, â€Å"†¦. T-Shirt† is no ordinary shirt. Below that shirt one can hear the throbbing beats of the References: Rubin, Ron (Author) Burke, William A(Foreword) Book: Anything For A T-shirt: Fred Lebow Paperback: 328 pages Publisher: Syracuse University Press (October 31, 2004) Language: English ISBN-10: 0815608063 ISBN-13: 978-0815608066 Shakespeare, William: Book: Twelfth Night, Act ii, Scene 5

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in the Mexican-American War

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in the Mexican-American War Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo Background: With the Mexican-American War raging in early 1847, President James K. Polk was convinced by Secretary of State James Buchanan to dispatch a representative to Mexico to aid in bringing the conflict to an end. Selecting Chief Clerk of the State Department Nicholas Trist, Polk sent him south to join General Winfield Scotts army near Veracruz. Though Scott initially resented Trists presence, the two men quickly reconciled and became close friends. As the war had been going favorably, Trist was instructed to negotiate for the acquisition of California and New Mexico to the 32nd Parallel as well as Baja California. Trist Goes It Alone: As Scotts army moved inland towards Mexico City, Trists early efforts failed to secure an acceptable peace treaty. In August, Trist succeeded in negotiating a cease fire, but subsequent discussions were unproductive and the armistice expired on September 7. Convinced that progress could only be made if Mexico were a conquered enemy, he watched as Scott concluded a brilliant campaign with the capture of the Mexican capital. Forced to surrender following the fall of Mexico City, the Mexicans appointed Luis G. Cuevas, Bernardo Couto, and Miguel Atristain to meet with Trist to negotiate the peace treaty. Unhappy with Trists performance and inability to conclude the treaty earlier, Polk recalled him in October. In the six weeks it took for Polks recall message to arrive, Trist learned of the appointment of the Mexican commissioners and opened talks. Believing that Polk did not understand the situation in Mexico, Trist ignored his recall and penned a sixty-five page letter to the president explaining his reasons for remaining. Pressing on with negotiations, Trist successfully concluded the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and it was signed February 2, 1848, in the Basilica of Guadalupe at Villa Hidalgo. Terms of the Treaty: Receiving the treaty from Trist, Polk was pleased with its terms and grudgingly passed it to the Senate for ratification. For his insubordination, Trist was terminated and his expenses in Mexico were not reimbursed. Trist did not receive restitution until 1871. The treaty called for Mexico to cede the land comprising the present-day states of California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and parts of New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming in exchange for a payment of $15 million. In addition, Mexico was to relinquish all claims to Texas and recognize the Rio Grande as the border. Other articles of the treaty called for the protection of Mexican citizens property and civil rights within the newly acquired territories, agreement on the part of the United States to pay American citizens debts owed to them by the Mexican government, and the compulsory arbitration of future disputes between the two nations. Those Mexican citizens living within the ceded lands were to become American citizens after one year. Arriving in the Senate, the treaty was heavily debated as some senators wished to take additional territory and others sought to insert the Wilmot Proviso to prevent the spread of slavery. Ratification: While the insertion of the Wilmot Proviso was defeated 38-15 along sectional lines, some modifications were made including a change to the citizenship transition. Mexican nationals in the ceded lands were to become American citizens at time judged by Congress rather than in one year. The altered treaty was ratified by the US Senate on March 10 and by the Mexican government on May 19. With the ratification of the treaty, American troops departed Mexico. Besides ending the war, the treaty dramatically increased the size of the United States and effectively established the principle borders of the nation. Additional land would be acquired from Mexico in 1854 through the Gadsden Purchase which completed the states of Arizona and New Mexico. The acquisition of these western lands gave new fuel to the slavery debate as Southerners advocated for allowing the spread of the peculiar institution while those in the North wished to block its growth. As a result, the territory gained during the conflict helped contribute to the outbreak of the Civil War. Selected Sources National Archives: Treaty of Guadalupe HidalgoLibrary of Congress: Treaty of Guadalupe HidalgoAvalon Project: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

Progressive Era during the Great Depression Essay

Progressive Era during the Great Depression - Essay Example The progressive era that transpired through the 1800s to 1920s established a critical moment of change for the American society and world in general. The period characterized by massive urbanization coupled with high rate of industrialization. In nutshell, the Progressive era became synonymous with high levels of poverty that touched lower class that constituted the biggest percentage of the American population. No sooner had the impacts the Progressive era fade than America and world, in general, bumped into yet another tempting moment of Great Depression. This period began in 1929 and ended in early 1940, before giving way for World War II. According to Sage, the spirit of progressive started to signalize in the early 1890s when small businesspersons, farmers, and other reform-oriented leaders merged to form the Populist Party. The purposes of the party were to confront and address the problems faced by the American societies such unemployment, injustice, poor leadership among other. It is from Populist Party that Progressives would later develop after the former gained national trust. As mentioned earlier, Progressive era entailed numerous events ranging from urbanization and industrialization that necessitated the need for change in the American societies. The rate at which urbanization took place alongside industrialization could only translate to the effects of poverty. Increased poverty among the majority of citizens translated to poor health services, high crime rates, racism, violence, class warfare, and greed, together with corruption. In the description of Burt, poor working conditions and environments were als o justifiable causes of concern by the Progressives. By 1890, 18% of the total labor in the country constituted of the women and children.

Answer the quastions Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Answer the quastions - Assignment Example The reason for the lack of this universal answer is because situations, organizations, and people vary and change with time. In this view, everything in management is unique in its own way. Principles are not universal and one learns about management by experiencing challenges in the process. Therefore, the right thing to do entirely depends on the complex varieties of critical internal and environmental contingencies. Environmental uncertainty and change, size of the company, and work technology are identified as the environmental factors that impact on the effectiveness of various forms of organizations. According to the contingency perspective, all stable environments will suggest mechanistic structures that tend to emphasize on formalization, centralization, specialization, and standardization to achieve efficiency and consistency. Predictability and certainty allow for the use of rules, policies, and procedures to offer guidance while making decisions for routine duties and problems. For unstable environments, they use organic structures that emphasize on decentralization for them to achieve adaptability and flexibility. Unpredictability and uncertainty need general methods of solving non-routine tasks and problems. Management practices and perspectives change in response to social, political, end economic forces in the larger society. During such difficult times, managers look for ideas that can help them cope with environmental turbulence and keep their organizations vital. Management tool surveys have revealed an increase in the variety of management ideas and techniques used by managers. Challenges facing organizations such as the rocky stock market and a tough economy , environmental and organizational crises, lingering anxieties over terrorism and war, and the public suspicion resulting from corporate scandals, have left the executives looking for new management tools. They are looking for

The asset pricing models CAPM Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The asset pricing models CAPM - Essay Example For instance, if investor A buys more of stocks of X than Y, then every investor in the market will react the same by buying of stocks X and less of Y. Therefore, from this illustration and the aforementioned explanation, it is evident that the two models assumes that the investors in the market evaluate the information they have in the same way, hence arriving at the same decisions regarding their investment activities. However, given that investors have homogeneous expectations concerning their returns, level of risk inherent and investment strategies, they will always tend to remain risk averse (Sharpe, 1964). From the explanation above, it is clear that the models of APT and CAPM depend on the publicly available information concerning the returns and level of risk inherent in specific securities (Watson and Head, 2007). Therefore, the models do not specify any particular information that investors should use regarding their investment decisions but assume the investor will use the most current information available in the market concerning the different securities, thus, helping them choose the best investment strategies. The proponents of the APT argue that the model is the best alternative to the CAPM because it has more assumptions requirements that are flexible (Reilly & Brown, 2011). For instance, whereas the capital asset pricing model uses the expected return of a security, APT uses a security’s risk expected return, in addition to, the risk premiums of a couple of macro-economic elements. Therefore, from this proposition it is undeniable that CAPM has more strong assumptions compared to the APT. For instance, whereas the CAPM assumes that there exists a risk free rate in the market, the APT model tries to identify risk premium to enable investors take advantage of any mispriced securities, which is different from the

The Kissnger Qiestion Essay Example for Free

The Kissnger Qiestion Essay The Vietnam War resulted in the deaths of 1.5 million to 3 million Vietnamese and other Indochinese and 58,000 Americans. It was the catalyst for Richard Nixon’s self-induced disgrace. Henry Kissinger played a pivotal role in guiding America’s foreign policy as the war torn nation reeled under the loss of one president to assassination and another to fraud. The Vietnam War singed the conscience of the world and Kissinger found himself where foreign policy and national security converged. National Security Advisor is the one that holds the most strategic meetings at the highest levels of US administration. External and internal threats to the nation’s security and well being should be calculated well in advance; otherwise the entire fabric of security planning lies in shreds. There must have been some constructive and sensible proposals to avert the Vietnam fiasco. It’s fair to ask what alternative course Americas critics would have followed. Some serious people argued for complete withdrawal, on the grounds that the war was already lost. Some have argued that Nixon, after taking office, should have declared that the situation in Vietnam was far worse than he had thought, blame it on the Democrats and seek a deal with the North Vietnamese like the one that was ultimately reached. Meanwhile, the argument goes, Nixon could have used tough rhetoric at home to appease the foreign policy makers. Whether the approach would have worked can’t be known, but had it worked, it certainly would have been preferable to what happened instead. Once in office, Kissinger and Nixon said they were seeking peace with honor: the abandonment of our South Vietnamese allies would be a dishonorable betrayal and would undermine our credibility in the world. America ended up abandoning them anyway. Even overlooking for the moment how the whole thing turned out, the peace with honor formulation was riddled with flaws. And the South Vietnamese regime was known to have been inept and hopelessly corrupt. In writing about the importance of our allies in South Vietnam, Kissinger gives minimal attention to the Vietnamese people but a great deal to South Vietnam’s president Nguyen Van Thieu, calling him a great patriot and a dauntless leader. McNamara and Kissinger, not unlike some American presidents, including Nixon, had myopic affinity for strongmen like the Shah of Iran, Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos. A student of Metternich, the 19th-century Austrian statesman, Kissinger was a practitioner of the realist (or realpolitik) school of diplomacy, which places emphasis on the state’s interests and the use of military power to achieve them, and he preferred to deal with the strong leaders of nation-states who could deliver. The US administration’s complicity in the 1963 overthrow of South Vietnam’s leader General Ngo Dinh Diem conferred legitimacy on the North Vietnamese claim that the South Vietnamese government was illegitimate. Ironically, when all this was happening in Vietnam, the rest of the world could only look and expect. Even the Nobel society that conferred the peace prize to Kissinger made almost no mention of the American lives lost during the Vietnam War, and none of the fact that USAs pursuit of what many saw as a patently hopeless cause may have damaged Vietnam permanently. To see the US side of the story, Nixon had a peculiar governing style. He hated to give direct orders and sometimes issued orders he hoped or expected would not be carried out. He had an aversion to controversy among his advisers. And after Vice President Spiro Agnew said in one meeting that the South Vietnamese, with American support, should attack two North Vietnamese sanctuaries in Cambodia rather than just one, as had been proposed, Nixon agreed. But, according to Kissinger, Nixon was so annoyed that Agnew had staked out a more hawkish position than his own that he excluded Agnew from the next meeting on the war. Even Kissingers colleagues are portrayed as politically astute Mel Laird, secretary of defense, to be slippery. Though, Laird was often proved right about the likely public reaction to proposed U.S. actions. Unfortunately, the men surrounding the president were accomplished charmers, masterly manipulators in a field where manipulation was the job requirement. The Vietnam War was not without its tragicomic aspects. There was the futile hunt for the elusive COSVN, supposedly the North Vietnamese military headquarters in Cambodia—and a leading rationale for U.S. military incursion into Cambodia in 1970. The South Vietnamese troops and their American advisers found only deserted huts. Nevertheless, USA describes the attack as a success, leading to the capture of documents, arms and ammunition, which, according to Karnow, were quickly replaced. There was also the raid by American commandos on the Son Tay prison in North Vietnam, which was believed to hold American prisoners of war but turned out to be empty. U.S. intelligence had said the prison was closed. The war did infuse sacrifice, though not entirely based on moral lines. Historians omit several relevant matters or deals with them in triumphs of understatement. The two senior members of the National Security Agency, Anthony Lake and Roger Morris, quit in 1970 in protest over the expansion of the war into Cambodia. And as for the national upheaval and constitutional crisis that was Watergate, Nixon felt unappreciated for his effort to withdraw troops, that antiwar sentiment touched Nixon on his rawest nerve and that he saw enemies all around him and so engaged in methods of all-out political combat. That’s it. No mention of Nixon’s enemies list; of the White House’s hiring a goon squad (the plumbers) to conduct break-ins; or of Kissinger’s supplying names to the FBI for wiretaps of his own aides and of journalists, to trace leaks about the war. Vietnamese people had to face brutalities of warring factions and deceit of their power hungry leaders. Many years on, we still cannot confidently classify the leaders who could have been true to the national cause or the people of Vietnam. Some critics persisted in believing that given enough time and resources, Americas Vietnam policy would have succeed. In 1975, after Ford had taken office as president with sole card to prevent Saigon’s collapse was additional money from Congress to fund the war effort—an appropriation that Congress was resisting. The denial of the money may well have sped the collapse of the South Vietnamese government, but how long it could have been sustained is another matter. If leaders truly continued to believe in enforcing the type of government, one is forced to conclude that USA would have deluded the world. Kissinger and Nixon were in a bunker of their own, clinging to the false promise of Vietnamization, holding to a misbegotten concept of national honor and railing at the war’s opponents. Great nations have the intent to make the right decisions in critical circumstances. Unfortunately, the reputation of USA is doomed to carry the fact that they failed to take a timely decision in Vietnam. References    John Prados, LOST CRUSADER: The Secret Wars of CIA Director William Colby, Oxford University Press, 2003