Importance of Historical Perspectives free essay sample

The organised use of labour or Management as we now call it, is as old as time. However it was only in the 19th century that management and the idea of management thought emerged as an important element of political, economic and social development. I believe that historical perspectives have been critically important to the development of management thought through the centuries. Management ideas have been developed out of social and cultural circumstances, over time the social and cultural circumstances have radically changed and developed but the principle of management and management thought has been slow in keeping up with these developments. From my reading, I would argue that there have been three main phases that have fundamentally shaped management thought since ancient times. These phases are; the early autocratic management approach, the change in management thought following the reformation and thirdly, the new work practices required to support the industrial revolution. We will write a custom essay sample on Importance of Historical Perspectives or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page From my research, it is evident that major historical events have also had an important role to play in the development of different management styles and structures. In ancient times, management of people was purely autocratic. Many of the work force in these times were slaves. This early practise of management seen in ancient Egypt, continued through to feudal times. It was very effective in supporting some of the great construction projects which ancient Egypt is famous for, such as the building of the pyramids, the irrigation of the Nile and the building of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings. Similarly in ancient China, the building of the Great Wall of China. These great works provide us with evidence of a very organised and autocratic approach to the use of labour and also project management skills . This early autocratic period of management was heavily dominated by cultural values such as; fear of punishment, fear of god, where people had no sense of individual achievement and they could only look forward to a better life after death. This form of management continued through the middle ages and in these non-industrialised circumstances there was no â€Å"no need to develop a formal body of management thought†(Wren Bedeian, 2011: 37) As long as society was dominated by fear and oppression this form of management was sustained. As long as Christianity and the divine right of kings maintained their hold on society, management thought could not evolve and develop. However, these feudal times where religion was invincible and demanded total subservience ere coming to an end. The crusades were a major catalyst for change in these times and by weakening the strength of the catholic church they were the beginning of a cultural rebirth which led to the protestant reformation. With the reformation came the protestant work ethic which I would argue has transcended the history of management and has fundamentally changed work practises opening the door to completely different and new management styles and structures. Prior to this commerce was viewed as an evil that corrupted peoples’ minds and the idea of trade could undermine the obedience demanded by the catholic church. Max Weber in â€Å"the protestant ethic and spirit of capitalism† urges strongly that the spirit of capitalism grew out of Protestantism and the protestant work ethic. (Wren Bedeian, 2011: 26) It is clear that the transformation in attitudes in society due to the reformation brought with it the need for new management structures which would support creativity and competitiveness. These changes did not happen quickly, but they were pivotal in the fundamental shift to the organisation of labour being managed by many people and many different types of people rather than the autocratic few. These new managers began to think about personal gain and had to consider the best ways to achieve these gains. The shift to personal gain was accompanied by the strengthening of national economies in Europe and further afield as new countries and colonies were being discovered and established. The scene was being set for the industrial revolution. Historical perspectives were changing and along with them, new principles in management thought were emerging. Adam Smith was one of the evangelists of management thought during the early stages of the industrial revolution. One of Smith’s new thoughts on management was that the market economy would be se self regulating, that is to say that the market would be ruled by the â€Å"invisible hand†(Wren Bedeian, 2011: 34). His other contribution were his thoughts on the division of labour culminating in the substantial productivity that the use of technology brought to replace human man power. Smith’s principles are fundamental to modern management thought. The industrial revolution brought with it the move from agrarian life to urban living. Production became large scale and the increasing number of factories coming into production demanded more managers who would have to be capable of successfully organising and managing all aspects of these new work places. There is no doubt that historical perspectives have been mportant in bringing about great changes for the better in management thought as evidenced by the evolution of the three phased covered herein. However I would conclude, that despite the advantages of having historical perspectives, society and the management of society does not really learn from these perspectives. I think this is well summarised in Will Durant’s quote in â⠂¬Å"the story of civilization part 1† where he states that â€Å" a nation is born stoic and dies epicurean†(Durant, 1935: 259). There is no clearer example of this than in Ireland today. We have spent centuries struggling against the autocratic management of Irish society both by the catholic church and by British rule. The adversity of these times was eventually replaced by the development of new management structures bringing with them creativity and competiveness. However, as with many developing societies and civilisations, with this development came affluence and opportunism which in turn undermined the integrity of these management structures. Like the Epicureans, poor thought was given to how this would impact tomorrow. So as in Greece and Rome, the lack of long term prudent management and the lack of learning from the historical perspectives on management thought have meant that we have not escaped the Epicurean death blow that has been rendered to Ireland.

Foreign Clultures Example

Foreign Clultures Example Foreign Clultures – Coursework Example FOREIGN CULTURES Over the years, demographics in the United s of America have been used to reveal quite a numberof developments in the country’s population. These trends are known to create a relationship between changes that relate to age, location, gender, marital status, employment status, race, religion and others. In most cases, the above stated trends are used to group people in different social roles.For instance, the current market demographic segmentation can be identified to consist of market divisions that are based on variables such as the above named trends. As expected, the demographic variables are considered the most popular ways of dividing consumer groups. These divisions can be linked to association of business and variables like income and age.Although it is easy to accept that the effects of the trends named above are unavoidable in the community, it is essential to realize that they can cause differences in the society. According to the second email, the people who have low education are associated with achieving low education. Furthermore, the email tries to bring some information about gender whereby most of the lowly educated employers are women.Race is a factor that has contributed to the success or failure of various individuals in the country (DeVita 23). For instance, the minority sub cultures are believed to acquire low quality education, resulting to low paying jobs. Concurrently, the people in that bracket end up living below the poverty line. Although Christianity has dominated in the United States of America, there is lack of equality. In America, the greatest cultural influence is identified with education achievement, income, and wealth.Work citedDeVita, Philip R. America as a Foreign Culture. New York: Wadsworth Publishing, 2001. Print.

Responsibilities of a Team in Managing Resources Assignment

Responsibilities of a Team in Managing Resources - Assignment Example It is evidently clear from the discussion that the organization has to make use of its resources to achieve its objectives. Therefore, the team has to ensure that the group members aim at attaining the set standards by making proper use of the resources to avoid wastage. The team acts as the organization’s ambassadors. The team together with the stakeholders and the board develop strategies for future operations and give recommendations on the appropriate course of actions in the management of resources. More often, management of resources depends on the recommendations of the team-leaders and leadership of the organization. The team plays a critical role ensuring that it gives relevant information on the management of resources. It also keeps an eye on the progress of the organization in its operation. It acts as a watchdog on how the organization operates and making use of its resources. Constant monitoring of the organization ensures those resources are used appropriately a nd wastage is reduced significantly. Lastly, the team has a duty of advising the management team on the proper use of resources. There is no doubt that most managers cannot manage the organization effectively without the help of other staff and groups. These are the information sources on how the organization can be managed. The team, advice on particular areas the organization can do to manage its resources effectively. Resource plan is a document that explains the aim and purpose of the team, how it operates as well as the expected outcomes. They are simply the ‘roadmaps’ that ensures that the organization achieves its goals. Most importantly, this plan ensures that the organization uses its resources as intended thus achieving its objectives. Although the organization may face challenges, it provides a guideline on how to make use of the available resources and attain its success.

All medical care should be free in our society Essay

All medical care should be free in our society - Essay Example The word professional is the key here. In the dictionary it is defined as a person "engaged in a profession or engaging in as a profession or means of livelihood". Since profession is an occupation from where the professionals earn their livelihood, this expense has to be paid out of somewhere. Expecting the medical center to pay for the services of doctors, nurses and other staff would be a heaven at earth. Furthermore expecting the professionals to not get paid for their services would be implausible as they have to feed and live themselves. So therefore this cost has to come from somewhere, be it the patients, charities or the government. Charities exist for the welfare for the people. They collect from the willing donors and distribute the income to take care of the needy. If a person is in need of an operation, a local hospital may conduct the operation free of cost for the patient, but pay for the surgeon and the resources used in the operation through the charities received. Interestingly, this process is not at all free since somebody in the society is paying for it. Even if that person is not the patient himself/herself, a member or members of the society are paying for the medical bills of that patient. This sort of 'free' medical aid provision is also seen in some of the European countries and in the US.

The development of Beatrice and Benedicks relationship Essay Example for Free

The development of Beatrice and Benedicks relationship Essay Benedick and Beatrice’s relationship is very lively throughout the play. At the beginning of the play they mock each other constantly in a jokey banterous fashion. Both of them are very independent and don’t believe in love. Their friends trick them into falling in love with each other and succeed, so that by the end of the play Beatrice and Benedick have a strong relationship and marry. At the beginning of the play (1, 1) Beatrice and Benedick constantly mock each other trying to outwit each other with quite sharp comments. For example Benedick says â€Å"well, you are a rare parrot teacher† to annoy Beatrice he says this in a jibing way to provoke her saying that she is too chatty and talks too much. Beatrice responds by saying â€Å"a bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours†. By this she means she’d rather be a parrot that speaks too much than a beast that can’t speak well. She says this as a comeback. Beatrice insults Benedick by saying he’s untrue to his friends and a backstabber. â€Å"Who is his companion now he hath every month a new sworn brother† when Beatrice uses the words â€Å"a new sworn brother† she’s saying that he swears his trust to a new man every month. The use of the word ‘brother’ implies that they become really close before he turns on them. Beatrice says to Benedick’s face that he is â€Å"dull fool† and pretends that she doesn’t know that he is behind the mask at the masked ball. â€Å"Why he is the princes’ jester, a very dull fool†. When Beatrice is speaking to Benedick behind the mask, she carries on mocking him, the use of the word ‘dull’ shows that she thinks of him as boring, dull and not funny. (2, 1) When Benedick is tricked into loving Beatrice, he declares his love for her. He says â€Å"I will be horribly in love with her†. The use of the word horribly suggests that he is going to be madly in love with her. The audience can feel his strong emotions with the use of these words. (2,3) In the middle if the play, When Beatrice is tricked into loving Benedick she immediately declares her love back to him. â€Å"taming my wild heart to thy loving hand†. When Beatrice says this she is devoting her love to Benedick even though this was all just a big deception to get them to love each other. The use of the phrase ‘taming my wild heart’ suggests that she has finally found love and has been tamed like an animal. The audience get the feeling that both Beatrice and Benedick are quite desperate for love, even though they don’t show it, because as soon as the opportunity for love comes in they both take the chance despite the fact that they used to  mock each other and things Benedick said that implies that he has no intent of marriage â€Å"Shall I never see a bachelor of three againâ⠂¬  (3,1) Benedick says that although he cannot rhyme and write poems he is an amazing lover better than everyone in the world. â€Å"Although Leander and Troilus have a reputation of being amazing lovers they are not as in love as I am† Benedick is saying that the best lovers Leander and Troilus is not as good as loving as him because the best thing he’s got is how much he loves Beatrice.

Feminist Criticism Essay -- Feminism Female Essays

Feminist Criticism Contemporary feminist criticism focuses on various specified topics such as women’s biographical writings, lesbian and literature, and the role of film and the media in portraying feminine gender. It is no longer easily separated into categorical goals by nationalities or land boundaries. Instead, feminist criticism is now characterized according to whether the category of "woman" is the major focus, or whether gender identity is defined by sexual and other identities as well. These other differences include, but are not limited to, cultural identities as a woman, lesbian writings, sexual preference, and religious differences. Most feminist critics today stress the fact that while all women are female, they are much more than that. Each woman’s goals and problems make them who they are by creating a unique identity. The understanding of woman not as a single group has led modern feminist critics to advocate personal and autobiographical criticism. It has also fostered contemporary gender criticism. Gender critics explore different categories of gender and sexuality. Gender criticism does not only focus on women’s gender and sexuality, but also includes male gender issues. Gender criticism began solely as feminist criticism, and now the two are still overlapped. Elaine Tuttle Hansen has applied feminist criticism in her analysis of "The Miller’s Tale" in a segment of the chapter "Women as the Same" from the book Chaucer and the Fictions of Gender. While earlier critics have focused on the humorous side of what they consider an innocent prank, Hansen focuses on Alisoun’s escape from punishment. At the same time she recognizes that it was only by accident that Nicholas intervened to receive the punish... ...astly, I found reference to Alisoun being objectified as something only to look at in two separate, yet closely related examples. First, in lines 3247-3248 of her portrait, the Miller states that "She was ful more blisful on to see / Than is the newe pere-jonntte tree." Secondly, Absolon refers to Alisoun’s objectification by stating "to loke on hir him thoughte a merye lyf" (3344). Valued objects are often set away from "normal" areas to look upon for enjoyment purposes. And happiness is sometimes thought to be achieved through viewing a thing of beauty; this is how these men viewed Alisoun. In conclusion, it is clear to see through these examples how Chaucer used animal characteristics to objectify Alisoun. Furthermore, I feel that Hansen’s views on "The Miller’s Tale" were correct and justified. Overall, I feel that the views expressed by Hansen are enlightening.

How Risky is Risk

â€Å"The human understanding, once it has adopted an opinion , collects any instance that confirm it, and though the contrary instances may be more numerous and more weightily, it either does not notice them or else rejects them, in order that this opinion will remain unshaken. † Francis Bacon, 1620. Risk is a very interesting thing; people normally tend not to realize the real effect that risk takes in their lives.There are many kinds of risk, we want to focus on studying the financial risk, the perception of it, the effect that it has on the private banking behavior, their clients, and how they would be treated, the effect that it has on decision making, and the effect that it has o behavioral finance. Because when you start talking about behavioral finance you need to try to understand what risk represents and all of the effects it has. During this article we want to show why over 10% return margins shouldn't be viewed as something risky, but as something worth analyzing. Because in this times people are going to need over 10% margins if they still want to be making profits out of their investments. And once people understand what risk represents, what it represents ND all of its effects, they can start analyzing what they want and need out of their investments. And once they understand that, they are going to do anything to accomplish it, because as it is said in the quote at the beginning once the human understanding acquires a goal and an opinion on how to get to the goal, he will do anything to end up successfully. . Risk Risk by definition, is the potential of gaining something of value, weighed against losing something of value but, The term â€Å"risk†, means financial risk or uncertainty of financial loss† (Raglan, 2003). After using these terms for the purpose of this paper e will divide the study of risk into 3 parts: types of financial risk, the ways to measure IR and perception of risk. 2. 1 Types of risk There are many types of risk; we are going to focus on 5: credit risk, market risk, operational risk, regulatory risk, environmental risk.All of these are top priorities for banks to analyze throughout the operational process. Credit risk, is the potential that a borrower fails to meet his obligations on the terms that were agreed. There are 2 key components on defining credit risk, quantity of risk and the probability of default. The banking system manages credit risk using exposure ceilings, review renewal, risk rating, risk based in scientific pricing and portfolio management. Market risk is the possibility of loss caused by changes in market variables, it sums up to four components.Liquidity risk, this is divided into funding risk, time risk and call risk. Interest rate risk, which is the potential of negative impact coming from changes in rates. Foreign exchange risk and country risk. Operational risk: Human error risk. Regulatory risk: The risk implied by the government ‘s ability to make n ew laws and modify regulation. . 2 Wars to measure risk There are several methods to measure risk, we will be focusing on the most common ones and the ones that are better suited for Hedge Funds. Vary is used to quantify the exposure to the market risk, using standard statistics techniques.It measures the minimum expected loss that a firm may suffer under normal circumstances, over a set time period at a desired level of significance. One of the biggest setbacks with Vary is that it's useless in times of booms and crisis as it doesn't prevent you from being part of them. Another big problem with Vary is that it is one of the most moon risk measures and people tend to trust it too much without hesitation. (CITE) Standard deviation is a measure of dispersion of a set of data from its average. It is usually applied to the annual rate of return of an investment to measure the investment ‘s volatility. CITE) After taking a look at these 2 methods that are the most commonly used, we will be talking about the ones more suitable for the Hedge Fund industry, which are the following: Seminarian's or downside deviation is the average of the squared deviation of values that are less than the mean or a â€Å"minimum acceptable return†. This method is similar to variance, the difference between the two is that seminarian's focuses only on the negative fluctuations of the asset neutralizing all the values above the mean. This method primarily provides the estimate of loss that a portfolio could incur, keeping the estimated risk realistic. CITE) Kurtosis is a statistical measure used to describe the distribution of observed data used around the mesas. Kurtosis is also known as the measurement for the volatility of volatility. Its main purpose is to describe the trends in charts. Keenness describes asymmetry from the normal distribution in a set of statistical data. Keenness can come in the form of â€Å"negative keenness† or â€Å"positive keenness† , depending on whether data points are skewed to the left (negative skew) or to the right (positive skew) of the data average. CITE) After analyzing these methods, we can conclude that for a Hedge Fund and especially for clients investing in these it is better to use the seminarian's, kurtosis and keenness methods to analyze the risk of an investment. These three focus more on the downside risk of the portfolio instead of using the Vary that is only good on stable periods and doesn't account for drastic mimes, besides standard deviation and variance can be very deceiving in the context of analyzing the real risk that a portfolio can have focusing also on outlying positive returns. 3.Private banking What we want to analyze is the way private banks operate and especially how clients needs are met, how they are treated, how their money gets almost frozen with interest rates that barely covers their money from the effect of inflation, and how private banks earn a lot of money while clie nts barely earn real returns. Banks offer annulled returns between 3 and 5 percent which is usually not enough to meet paving expenses or inflation for the wealthy clients. An American study showed the following: â€Å"Americans said they need to earn average annual gains of 9. Percent above inflation to make their financial needs. Natives officials noted that inflation since 1964 has averaged 4. 2 percent annually, which means the average American has to generate 14 percent to meet their needs. â€Å"fee,2014) having this in mind clients can realize that they need to expect a bigger profit on their investments because they are actually losing money, their money is losing value and the only way f stopping this from happening is by demanding higher returns using alternative investments. High returns while taking minimal risk is a pipe dream; if asset growth is your priority, taking risk is crucial† Oaf,2014), and that is why clients need to be sure that risk is being managed in the most efficient manner. 3. 1 Clients The most important part of any financial institution are the clients, and most important thing about them is recognizing that every client is different and every client has different needs. Every client has to be treated differently to help them meet his/her goals. As the investigation of Dry.Rene Fischer and his team in the book â€Å"Wealth Management in new Realities†, â€Å"we identify 7 engagements that are shaping client behavior and needs† (Fischer, De Conge, OK, Topper, 2013), with this in mind we will take a look at those seven trends to give clients the best service possible while maintaining a steady margin of returns. Engagement one: Changing demographics. The population is growing and also the markets, clients need security and information that their money is secure and generating profit.Engagement two: Globalization and future markets. With the Gap's of various developing countries rowing at a fast pace, clients are starting to look at investing in new markets. Engagement three: Scarce resources and climate change. Global awareness is growing for environmental issues that can create new opportunities in clean energies, and a new set of investments in ecological matters for clients. Engagement four: Economic crises and insecurities. With the volatility of the market, clients are starting to be insecure about their money.It is the financial institution ‘s Job to keep clients informed about the situation their money is in, and make them feel safe that their money is in good hands. Engagement five: Dynamic technology and innovation. With all the changes in information technologies, â€Å"more and more people are getting connected and are sharing information on the go' (Fischer, De Conge, OK, Topper, 2013), this makes clients better informed and more aware about what is happening to their money.Engagement six: Sharing global interest responsibility. With the shift towards global cooperati on and MONGO ‘s gaining power, clients are demanding socially responsible investments. Engagement seven: Global knowledge society. This trend goes hand in hand with trend number five, with new technologies of information, society has easier access to new information and the tools to know what is happening.With all these trends happening, clients want to be more informed and still get the same yield, but with the misinformation, manipulation and misunderstood promises from the monetary agents, the clients think that having their money working to win Just a little over inflation Just to avoid losing money might be wrong, because with the globalize economy that we have this days studies that are being made all around the world can be generalized, so if something is happening in Europe you could assume that something similar is happening morpheme else.So with this in mind after taking a look in some studies made in India we saw that the inflation is not the same for every social c lass and that the general inflation that everyone takes for granted does really have much effect on the middle and high class, because it is made out from an average of items that don't really affect does two classes, and we are focusing on them because they are the ones that are clients of the financial institutions, and the prices of the items that they acquire are going up stronger that the regular inflation, so that is why they are not retorted with the interest rates that they receive, and they are in fact losing money which is the one thing that they were trying to avoid. 4. Behavioral finance There are many factors involved in the process of understanding behavioral finance.To understand this you have to start with risk perception, understanding why people tend to make certain decisions, and after that study the behavioral biases investors exhibit to see what drives the intuition of most individuals. Behavioral finance can help a financial institution prevent certain human fa ctors that can be mitigated at the mime of making decisions and preventing psychological factors to play an important role in the decision making process. 4. 1 Risk perception Risk perception is one of the most important elements of psychological effect on the market. Trying to understand why people tend to make certain decisions at certain times is one of the biggest questions in this matter.Many investigations have been made about the subject, one that stood out was: â€Å"The Psychological Impact of Booms and Busts on Risk Preferences in Financial Professionals† by Cohn, Fear and Marcella. During this experiment they decided to manipulate two different kinds of lotteries giving different options in different controlled markets. Their final conclusion was that there will always be a psychological/emotional factor that can't be measured with precision but you can be sure that during times of booms people tend to be overly optimistic and risk is not their biggest concern, and during times of busts people usually tend to be overly conservative and almost allergic to risk.This can be obvious in both cases as it is when biases come into play. This is why risk can be a risky thing when you are not certain that is being measured the right way. If the risk is being measured correctly, psychological factors shouldn't have any weight in the decision making process. 4. 2 Behavioral bias Behavioral biases in finance are tendencies to act in a certain way; they can lead someone to a systematic deviation from a standard of rationality or good Judgment. Five biases that we believe can be the most common ones in an investor are the following: 1. – Confirmation bias is the tendency that makes people believe in information only if confirms their beliefs and hypothesis. 2.Optimism bias is the tendency to think that you are less at risk of experiencing a negative event than others. 3. – Loss aversion bias is the tendency that agents take on when they prefer the option of avoiding a loss than the option of acquiring gains. 4. – Self-serving bias is the tendency to distort a process because of the need to maintain and enhance once self-esteem. 5. – Planning fallacy bias is the tendency to underestimate the time that it will take to complete a task. These are only some of the behavioral biases that play a significant factor in the psychological process of making decisions. It has to be taken into account that all of them could affect an investor 5.Conclusion â€Å"The human brain has evolved to be very efficient at pattern recognition, but as the confirmation bias shows, we are focused on finding and confirming patterns rather than minimizing our false conclusions. Yet we needn't be pessimist, for it is possible to overcome our prejudices. It is a start simply to realize that chance events, too, produce patterns. It is another great step if we learn to question our perceptions and our theories. Finally, we should learn to spend as much time looking for evidence that e are wrong as we spend searching for reasons we are correct. † (Millions, 2008). After looking at previous evidence, it is clear that both Private Bankers and Clients have a misconception about risk.Behavioral biases transform risk into fear which if not mitigated by Private Bankers leads to inefficient allocation in Client's portfolios, and a controlling position in their relationship. This is why Bankers usually oversee those investments that they are not familiar with and reject them or cause Clients to reject them without studying their process and risk/reward ratio. This is the case with vast majority of Alternative Investments. We encourage Clients to keep a critical point of view with regards to their portfolios and continuously question their Banker's recommendations. By being involved in their investment decisions and being up to date on current market trends Clients will have a correct attitude towards risk when it comes to investing.