Leadership and Nursing

Leadership and NurseProductivity Leadership and Nurse ProductivityThis paper will review an article by Elizabeth Curtis and Rhona O’Connell in Nurse Management-UK. â€Å"Essential leadership skills for motivating and developing staff† reviews the importance of leadership skill and empowering staff (Curtis & O'Connell, 2011). This article discusses the effect manager has on the staff they supervise, and how a negative attitude can produce negative results; whereby a positive and supportive environment can produce staff Nursing Leadership and Developing Staff Productivity. In the article, Curtis and O’Connell discuss the difference between transactional and transformational leadership. Transactional leadership is based on working on an agreed level of performance for a reward. Managers only intervene when something goes wrong. It is a reactionary type of managing. Transformational leadership, on the other hand, is supportive of the employee. Transformational leadership results in higher employee performance, positive relationships and greater employee satisfaction. When employees have job satisfaction is leads to increased productivity and retention. Data Analysis In reviewing and analyzing this article, the transformational leader has four main elements. These elements are charismatic leadership, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individual consideration (Curtis ; O'Connell, 2011). This leadership style is important in today’s healthcare. With all the increasing demands and changes being placed on nursing staff, nurses need a supportive and inspiring leader A charismatic leader is admired and respected by the staff. The leader can affect their staff by being a positive role model. Skilled communication is a strong key in to promote self-confidence and respect in their staff. Inspirational motivation shows a team spirit and enthusiasm for the position. This can affect the staff’s development and potential. The staff is very knowledgeable about the role they play. When problems arise, asking the staff for solution encourages participation and motivation. This also shows the staff they are a valuable part of the team. Intellectual stimulation demonstrates the aptitude for creativity and advancing knowledge base. These leaders encourage their staff to continue their knowledge of the field. They provided mentorship encourage nurses to become certified or get advanced degrees. Individual consideration is where leaders are supportive to their staff’s needs. In this article, Curtis and O’Connell determined that staff will leave a position because the manager did not show concern for the staff. Managers must realize that staff needs social contact and friendship and should be treated with dignity and fairness. Through these leadership skills a manager can create an environment that encourages staff to behave in a mature way, express creativity and enable participation in decision making processes. This will increase job satisfaction, staff retention and productivity. Importance of This Article This article discusses skills for motivating and developing staff. This article also discusses transformational leadership verses transactional leadership. Transformational leadership is important because it provides not only direction but it also creates opportunities for professional development (O'Brien et al. , 2008). Through the information here on encouraging staff to participate, to be creative and to continue gaining self- confidence, a manager can excel in leadership. It is important to have excellent leadership skill a manager should strive for the best unit possible. This will include motivated enthusiastic staff and maintain the staff. This will also have an added benefit of decreasing the financial expenses through reduced turnover and improved job satisfaction. Strong Nursing Leadership In society there are always leaders and followers. It is important to know how to lead to have successful followers. Once a leaders has the skills necessary to assure satisfied followers or staff members then the process of job satisfaction will be a natural progression. Followers do not simply follow. Leaders in community nursing should be aware that successful leadership is the result of a cooperative process involving leaders and followers. They argue that leaders who ignore followers and their contribution to leadership do so at the peril of their organizations (Kean ; Haycock-Stuart, 2011). Therefore, it is important to have skills and guidance how to nurture and develop the followers (staff members) to be productive and satisfied. Conclusion In this review, it was discussed the importance of transformational leadership. With transformational leadership the manager can lead the staff (followers) toward job satisfaction. When a staff member has job satisfaction, productivity increased and staff turnover decreases. Job satisfaction is accomplished through charismatic leader, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individual consideration. The transformation leader that understands and nurtures the staff will have a productive effective team. References Curtis E O'Connell R 2011 Essential leadership skills for motivating and developing staff. Curtis, E. , & O'Connell, R. (2011). Essential leadership skills for motivating and developing staff. Nursing Management – UK, 18(5), 32-35. Kean S Haycock-Stuart E 2011 Understanding the relationship between followers and leaders. Kean, S. , ; Haycock-Stuart, E. (2011). Understanding the relationship between followers and leaders. Nursing Management-UK, 18(8), 31-35. O'Brien J Martin D Heyworth J Meyer N 2008 Negotiating transformational leadership: a key to effective collaboration [Abstract]. O'Brien, J. , Martin, D. , Heyworth, J. , ; Meyer, N. (2008). Negotiating transformational leadership: a key to effective collaboration [Abstract]. Nursing ; Health Sciences, 10(2), 137-143.

Law of nature Essay

There are several books that deal with philosophical questions of liberty, social restrictions, pursuit of property and freedom versus enslavement. I have selected six related to these themes to be reviewed and closely analyzed to understand those themes better. The second treatise of Government by John Locke has been ever since its first publication in 1689 an influential source of political and social interpretation. The USA constitution is based on the principles and themes John Locke deals with in this master piece of philosophical reasoning. His main argument in the book is that the sovereignty is in the hands of the people and that the government is in their service. Locke underscored the importance of being aware as people of our natural and fundamental rights but that we have had to relinquish certain aspects of this human freedom to be able to coexist peacefully within a society regulated by laws established to maintain the order. People are thus originally endowed with certain inalienable rights in a state of nature where freedom exists in absence of laws or rules to abide to. This law of nature does thus not require people to obey each other but instead people are free to be themselves. The state of nature is defined by Locke himself as: â€Å"To properly understand political power and trace its origins, we must consider the state that all people are in naturally. That is a state of perfect freedom of acting and disposing of their own possessions and persons as they think fit within the bounds of the law of nature. People in this state do not have to ask permission to act or depend on the will of others to arrange matters on their behalf. The natural state is also one of equality in which all power and jurisdiction is reciprocal and no one has more than another. † Locke deals thus with the topic of civil society in this book and how we can politically coexist together as people. To understand the true and best form of a civil society we need to comprehend the fundamental right we are born with as humans which is simply freedom in its complete sense. Taking this into consideration we have also to acknowledge the full meanings this brings along with it for everybody despite color, ethnicity, religion or race. Since all people are born with this right then it follows that all people are equal and deserve to live in a system that secures this equality and freedom of pursuit of one’s dreams. Locke’s second main argument is how governments should only rule with the consent of the people and that any government that does not becomes as a result illegitimate and deserves to be overthrown by the people through their right to revolution. He also deals with the themes of conquest and slavery, property and representative government. Property for instance lead to the creation of the civil society as men sought to protect his property through the law. People exchanged some of their natural rights in order to achieve this form of civil society where they could coexist peacefully with other people in a safe and secure atmosphere. The representative government on the other hand is only legitimate if it is acknowledged by the people and serves the needs of the people. It is this way that Locke established the rule that governments should be there for the service of the people rather than vice versa. Locke’s ideas about slavery on the other hand are that it is essentially a form of involuntary servitude and the only way slavery could be justified as a system that goes against the order of the natural state is through the absence of the state of nature and the presence of the opposite which is the state of war during which exceptions were allowed. The discussion of slavery leads us to another major work concerned with the subject: The Life of Olaudah Equiano which is an autobiographical work that was first published in the 18th century and recounts the story of slavery and its horrors. The story of his enslavement, acquired freedom and pursuit of work as a seaman and merchant is a very fascinating tale of forward movement and determination at achieving success, despite the hardships encountered along the way, in order to earn the natural right of freedom back. Olaudah, like Locke, was a fighter for a cause. Locke’s book helped revolutionize the ideas about government and shaped the USA constitution the way we know it now. His defense of the rights of the human continues to influence the discourse on democracy, human rights and politics. Olaudah’s journey and struggle for freedom has also left tremendous impact in the literature of slavery and he also helped in the process of abolishing slavery later on. Those two prominent men had a social vision of what a society was supposed to be like and fought to achieve it. The book starts with the recount of Olaudah’s personal life before enslavement when he used to live in an African region called Assaka. He was kidnapped and forced into slavery(something that enforces Locke’s opinion about the forced status of slavery as an institution) at the age of ten and transported to the New World or to be more specific the plantations of Virginia. He was purchased by a lieutenant in the Navy called Michael Pascal who named him Gustavus Vassa, a name he also came to be known by. His life as a slave was a continues struggle and suffering. He could not tolerate the idea of deprivation of his right of freedom and chose to rebel through denying the new name his owner gave him which lead to his punishment as if he was a mere dog whose job was to obey without reluctance. Being deprived of his freedom reduces the human being into an animal. The life of the slave was really hard according to the journals of Olaudah. He was later sold in the Caribbean and acquired by a Philadelphian Quaker who taught him how to read and write better and educated him in the Christian faith. He allowed him to trade to earn the money required to buy his freedom as young man in his twenties and traveled to England where he fought for the cause of slavery abolition. Olaudah observed in his book how slaves were treated as inhuman subjects with no feelings. It was almost as if the masters considered them to be a different specie or an alien creature. Our third book or novel is concerned with a creature that displays those characteristic: Frankenstein. Frankenstein by the author Mary Shelley refers to the scientists within the book Victor Frankenstein who knows how to create life and decides to create a creature that is like man but with more powerful characteristics. The novel is made up of the correspondence between the Captain Robert Walton and his sister. Walton happens to know about Frankenstein’s creature and recounts the story to his sister in his letters. The story starts with Walton traveling to the North Pole where he will be trapped by a sea of massive ice rocks. This is how Walton meets Victor Frankenstein and this is also how he comes to know about the monster Victor had created. Victor is himself terrified by what he has created and runs away thereby allowing the monster to be released. The troubled scientist feels sick with guilt and his depressed state only worsens when he hears about the murder of his brother. It appears that the monster was who murdered his brother and this was explained by the monster himself as an attempt at taking revenge of Victor who had treated him with horror and disgust. He begs Victor for a companion since he cannot stand the loneliness. Victor does decide to oblige but later on regrets it and destroys his second creation to which the monster vows revenge that he soon fulfills through killing one of his friends. The monster manages to also kill his bride and Victor decides to follow the monster which led him to meet Walton and dies a few days later on. Walton concludes his letters by recounting how surprised he was to find the monster weeping on his body in agony and loneliness. It turns out that the monster had feelings like any other human being and could be good or evil like any other normal person. But Victor’s fear and prejudice blinded him from seeing that. The same thing happened with the white owners of slaves in the era of Olaudah. They stopped seeing the slaves as human beings and regarded them as mere properties to be feared and doubted if they acted differently the way Olaudah did through educating himself. The fear of the unknown is a characteristic of the human psyche but what is also a common aspect between the white and black man and the monster of Frankenstein is the need of freedom. Our fourth book is the Communist manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The first publication of the book took place in 1848. Just like John Locke’s The Second Treatise of Government the Communist Manifesto is a very influential political manuscript. The main theme of the book is the class struggle and the weaknesses of the capitalist system. The Communist Manifesto is what the communist party strengthened the ideology of the Communist party. The Manifesto’s main aim was to make communism more understood by a larger number of people since the party was feared and doubted by many. Karl Marx continues then to mark the differences between the bourgeois and proletariat class since his main focus will be throughout the paper on how the proletariat has been victimized by the capitalist system and bourgeois class. He states in the first section that: â€Å"The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary re-constitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes. † Marx arguments of class struggle resemble those of Locke to a certain extent. He also echoed the claim that the human need for property is what leads to the creation of civil society as we know it today. Marx acknowledges this human need for the acquisition of property but seeks to regulate it more through establishing laws that do not allow for a minority of rich people to subject and benefit from a larger group that is the real driving force of any society: the proletariat class. The proletarians will, according to Marx, rise to power through class struggle. The bourgeois continues exploiting the proletarians but the latter will use their right to revolution (Locke again) to throw this form of social establishment and create a new reality more fit for the general and larger public. This vision was eventually realized by the Bolsheviks in the former Soviet Union. Our human need for freedom equality and development is according to Locke, Olaudah, Marx and Shelly a fundamental aspect of our psychological nature. This leads us to the fifth book to focus on: On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin who explains in this work how humans have developed from their natural state to their current one and how they have been able to survive. The natural state described by Darwin in his book is different from that of Locke in that he focuses on how we developed physically as people from the shape of monkeys to that of humans. It is needless to say that his book has caused the necessary controversy in the religious circles. Darwin presents a very interesting evolutionary idea in this particular book to explain the process of human evolution: the survival of the fittest. The idea of the transmutation of the species was however not welcomed by the Church establishment of that time and is still not looked at with favor by several even nowadays and despite the many scientific data that has been supplied to enhance his theory. Natural selection or to use the other phrase, the survival of the fittest, has been described by Mr. Herbert Spencer as: â€Å"Owing to this struggle for life, any variation, however slight and from whatever cause proceeding, if it be in any degree profitable to an individual of any species, in its infinitely complex relations to other organic beings and to external nature, will tend to the preservation of that individual, and will generally be inherited by its offspring. † Charles Darwin’s book has also helped in reshaping the human thought regarding its origin and nature and developed the notion of the necessity of strength and relentlessness to succeed and earn the right to exist since only the fittest survive. Our last book is also closely related to the themes we have seen so far in relation to human rights and natural states and the preservation of an efficient civil society. Civilization and its discontents was first published in 1929 and became one of Sigmund Freud’s most renowned works. Freud’s main theme in this book is the state of conflict between the individual and his society. Just like with Locke’s book we come to wonder how much the relinquishment of our fundamental right of total freedom affects our psyche and therefore our performance within the civil society we created. The primary source of conflict, according to Freud, is the individual’s desire of freedom and the clash that creates with society’s expectation of the individual to conform to the general rules. The majority kills with this the individuality and our natural states are denied for the sake of preserving the general picture agreed upon by the majority of the citizens. Humans have certain desires and characteristics that are hard to control. The desire for sex is the most prominent one which has lead to the creation of many laws to regulate sex conduct in public and punish the acts of rape and sexual aggression. The natural instincts come to be subjected to laws and regulations to allow for the peaceful existence within a society. The six books that we have seen so far all deal with several issues related to humanity’s primal needs that can clash at times with society’s expectations of the individual. Our quest for freedom and property creates conflict all along but we never are able to let go of one of the two. Humans have always wanted the two together and the need for more property led to the enslavement of millions to satisfy the need for cheap labor thereby violating the natural human state of being free by birth. But humans are creatures who seek pleasure and understanding and bonding with the other. That is also another reason why we co-exist within a society and try to abide to the rules to sustain the civil form. Works Cited Darwin, Charles (2002). The Origin of Species. W. W Norton & Company. Equiano, Olaudah (1999). The life of Olaudah Equiano. Dover Publications. Freud, Sigmund (1989). Civilization and its discontents. W. W Norton & Company. Locke, John (2002). The Second Treatise of Government. Dover Publications. Marx, Karl (1998). The Communist Manifesto. USA: Oxford University Press. Shelley, Mary (2004). Frankenstein. Pocket.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Effective Budget Control

Advantages and Disadvantages of Effective Budget Control This paper will look at what is required of an effective budgetary control mechanism and try to assess the advantages and disadvantages of using a system imposed from above, or externally, over a decentralized system controlled by lower level management as task level. Using an empirical case study from the international banking sector, it will be shown that too much managerial autonomy can lead to disaster not just for the manager concerned but also for the whole organization. In contrast the role of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in imposing nation-state loan budgets will be critiqued to highlight the potential flaws of centralizing and dominating budget control management. Effective budgetary control Henderson (2003) notes that regardless of the situation or workplace, in order to be effective it is crucial that budgetary control systems: Account for money received and spent Make sure that the organization’s financial policies are adhered to Ensure that m oney is not wasted Assist managers to run, and develop, services or departments These controls have developed from the need to account for large sums of money but are equally applicable to any budgetary situation. However, from a managerial perspective they have often been criticised for being insensitive and restrictive at the lower levels of management. As the number of stakeholders increases so does the need to be fully accountable and therefore more controls are also needed. This is particularly noticeable in the public sector National Health Service. Here lower level management are extremely subservient to imposed and tight budgeting restrictions from a distantly senior level. This is arguably a result of the need to satisfy a multitude of stakeholder interests and a concern that empowering lower management with the autonomy to control their own budgets would fail to include the number of interested parties from politicians to doctors and patients. With organisations as comple x as the NHS whether public or private sector – It is safer and easier to plan and control from above using imposed budget control methods. Politically imposed budgeting is preferably because senior managers, directors, or institutions who set the budgets are arguably best placed to recognise the wider implications of budgeting decisions but, according to Marginson (1999), financially imposed budget controls make sense too. Financial losses, which can occur for such damaging reasons as incompetence, error, negligence or fraud, are most likely to be minimised, or avoided altogether, by well constructed control systems. Imposed budgets benefit from the experience, acquired knowledge and full backing of senior management. They arguably encourage a sense of confidence in lower level management to do their job whilst reducing the massive levels of stress that come with having to create and manage your own budget. Another advantage of imposed budgeting is that it encourages regular monitoring, reporting, progress reports and ultimately improvements in the budgetary system. This enables problems to be uncovered and dealt with quickly and efficiently. Henderson (2003) states that it is advantageous to review arrangements occasionally. Even if procedures within your work area operate well, you should ensure that the budgetary responsibilities of staff at all levels are clear and understood by everyone. It would be unfortunate if problems arise because people do not know the extent or limit of their responsibilities (p33).

The Quality of Aircraft traffic control at Dubai international airport Essay

The Quality of Aircraft traffic control at Dubai international airport sultan - Essay Example The research objectives include analyzing the qualifications of employees working in the air traffic control department, the number of employees working in the air traffic control department, the efforts by the airport to reduce and overcome air traffic in Dubai international airport, and the future air traffic control strategies cater for future expansion of the airport. Air traffic controllers are known to be individuals who are educated to keep up the safe, methodical and swift flow of air travel within the worldwide air travel control structure. Various nations have Air travel Control educational institutions, academies or universities, often managed by the serving source of air travel services within that nation, but from time to time in confidence. These institutions train apprentice controllers from the wherever they have been to the standards needed to embrace an Air Travel Control certificate, which will hold one or additional ratings. Air travel controllers are in the main people who have excellent organization skills, are swift with numeric computation, along with mathematics, have confident and firm resolution making proficiencies, have the capacity to uphold their cool and tranquility under pressure, in addition to possessing an outstanding short-term recollection. An air traffic control officer is an individual who offers service and is accountable for the secure air travel flow, from one airfield to the next. Growing congestion within the skies over the Arabian bay is one serious predicament among the predicaments threatening the development of the areas aviation business. As one would expect, one of the resolutions for augmenting the airports capability is their expansion. It is comprehensible that as the air travel demand develops, carriers are attempting to expand their business operations as much as probable. Therefore, one of the developments people have been witnessing

After reading a mini-case, and writing a summary with your opinion Essay

After reading a mini-case, and writing a summary with your opinion - Essay Example that Twitter was more compatible for their needs than Facebook, as Twitter was more mobile friendly and allowed them to create needed content immediately. JetBlue used Twitter to market new deals and sales without turning into spam or the usual â€Å"promotional lingo† (2). It created a separate Twitter account known as â€Å"JetBlue Cheaps† to cater to the different needs of their customers. This led to an exciting offer in JetBlue’s history in the summer of 2009 known â€Å"All You Can Jet† (3). This allowed customers to travel many routes under just one ticket. Twitter basically allowed them to market this offer for free. The AYCJ pass was sold out before the company’s expectations leading to millions of blog references, search engine hits, and increased traffic. Media channels, newspapers, and blogs also propelled this offer, further highlighting its publicity. The already booming loyal followers became ecstatic over this historical offer and shared it on their other social networks. JetBlue was able to get a hold of even more customers and satisfied followers. The offer allowed JetBlue to gain i mmense profits as well as more TrueBlue flyers, where its members soon hit the 8 million member mark. JetBlue also used Twitter in March of 2010 to give away 1,000 free roundtrip tickets because of its 10th anniversary (4). The company established itself further as a customer oriented service gaining even more positive publicity. JetBlue realized that its profits and public support were not solely the result of its few Twitter team members but instead due to â€Å"the crew members who are on the front lines all across the company† (4). Furthermore, JetBlue used Twitter to closely and carefully monitor customer complaints and concerns as they were occurring in real time. This way instead of targeting a problem or issue, no matter how big or small, a week down the road, they were able to handle it on the spot with satisfying results. For example, when the company

State, Market and Social Policy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

State, Market and Social Policy - Essay Example At most of part of this paper is the provision of the answer to the question on whether we should be concerned on market failure or government failure. There are inefficiencies brought about by monopolies. One in which is that they can get away with imposing higher non-pecuniary (non-financial) costs on buyers (Lewis and Widerquist 2001). For instance, assuming a small local market for counseling had just one provider of psychotherapy. Clients who went to this provider's office might have to spend long periods in waiting areas. This would have been the time that the clients could have spent engaging in other valuable activities; as a result their waiting time would be a cost. The therapist might be able to do some things to lessen clients' waits, other than as a monopolist, the therapist faces no viable demands to do any of them. In response to this, Lewis and Widerquist (2001) assert that a government has three things it can do to lessen and improve the inefficiency caused by monopolies. First, it can attempt to promote competition in monopolistic markets through breaking up monopolies or by avoiding them from forming. This is the reason why the United States has antitrust laws. Antitrust laws limit mergers (the joining together of firms in order to create bigger firms) between firms that sell goods in the same market. Moreover, antitrust laws also limit price-fixing between firms in the same market through preventing competing firms from performing as if they were monopolists. Evidently, the U.S. government utilized antitrust laws to break up American Telephone and Telegraph's monopoly on long-distance phone service, and the Justice Department has taken Microsoft to court. Second, governments have the power to decide whether to permit the monopoly to survive but regulate its price. As an application and realization, the U.S. government has employed this solution for phone companies and electricity companies, and local governments on occasion use it for cable television. This preference is frequently used for industries that are supposed to be natural monopolies. For the reason that a group of smaller firms would have a higher cost than one large firm would, breaching up a natural monopoly would not work very well. On the other hand, leaving the natural monopolist alone generally is not a good suggestion since natural monopolies have the same aspiration to get the most out of profit as any other firm, subsequently they will increase prices higher than costs and have the tendency to raise prices well above costs. For instance, one may think that his/her water bill is high now, but how high would your bill have to go before you seriously considered drilli ng a well You would probably let it go quite high (as cited in Lewis and Widerquist 2001). Therefore, if the water company were an unregulated monopolist, it could get away with a very high price. It is not easy for government to determine the right price to tolerate a natural monopolist to charge, and firms that face a regulated price have efficiency problems, but regulation may be the best solution, basing on the options. Lastly, the government may perhaps plainly take the monopoly over and run it itself. The U.S. government

''Have courage to use your own reason''-that is th motto of Essay

''Have courage to use your own reason''-that is th motto of enlightenment. What according to Kant is the the task for mankind in - Essay Example Kant argued that enlightenment in a man pertains to a state when the latter has overcome or emerged above his immature self whereby it is claimed that beyond man’s immaturity, there exists sufficient capacity to understand in the absence of external guiding principle. In this proposition, the immaturity of an individual is considered to be imposed upon oneself and an immature person ought to be relieved of anxiety in seeking the ability to discern. On this ground, humans are summoned to initiate with a certain level of responsibility by acknowledging the significance of courage in order to be willing to acquire pertinent means to understand. Otherwise, Kant further stressed that, people who think themselves capable find it rather of an advantage to their ends to obtain guardianship for those who become weakened either by cowardice or indolence. This, if well-managed apart from any trace of corruption or bribery, can serve to put the immature ones on a learning situation where they can start to gain insights which would in turn drive them to exertion. Guardianship or assuming a role with a sense of significant accountability for a portion of incapable multitude occurs to be a serious deed of necessary guidance toward enlightenment, at least the initial step in launching a mature realization. On exercising such potentials, obstacles and frustration are inevitable but a guardian must not cease from anticipating good and poor results alike since the majority of common public who are slaves to idleness have, by frequency of being, been accustomed to remain as they are. Bringing them to the level of maturity entails breaking away from a lifelong habit, hence, enlightenment would be gradual in teaching and learning process that extends to the willful duty to look after the manner by which a thinking is reformed from inaction to the stage filled with sensibility and dynamic rationalization. Enlightenment comes with the wisdom to ascertain which set of reasons is mature enough to be helped at improving one’s well-being upon which the government can act by exposing a dumb nation to several areas of knowledge and non-academic programs that naturally foster a mentally stimulating atmosphere. Once the unknowing citizens begin to recognize both their worth and unique abilities along the way, this marks the first stage of enlightenment that, little by little, proceeds in yielding the desired maturity to deal satisfactorily with personal growth and development. Considering the basic principle behind the motto of enlightenment, in taking courage to avail of one's unique rationalization, a will to freedom breaks off the leash of underdevelopment that makes man complacent with ordinary living without seeing the essence of risks to meet ends that are far more rewarding and sensible in human existence. Where one acknowledges this step as a way to be emancipated out of the old self accompanied with foolish habits, there comes the necessary initia tive or assertion followed by a transforming act to acquire a firm stand over matters. Having courage to use one's own reason gradually progresses in abolishing slavery to the contentment of avoiding fear toward responsibility for one's unique position because then the person sees possibilities of

Obtaining services within community Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Obtaining services within community - Essay Example ing the notable move from the medical based models for care to the social models, which incorporate an interdisciplinary approach to identification, support and delivery of support services and recourses within the community (Sheppard & Unsworth, 2011). However, despite these milestones in the care services and resources in the community, considerable barriers to the entire integration and establishment of maximum independence for the developmental disability care. Nonetheless, within the community setting, several structures, resources and services are evident for supporting the development of the disability cases. The Washington state facilitates a vast composition of resources to assist the parents and families of children and youth among other individuals with developmental disabilities (Sheppard & Unsworth, 2011). The course entails focusing on the successful support for the individuals with developmental disabilities to achieve independence in their lives. The vast composition of developmental disability cases in the community demands a comprehensive establishment of support services and resources that enable the care within the community. There are vast services and resources for support across the Washington State, allowing for the families and individuals to make a choice of the intermediary support best fitting for the needs. For instance, there is the Division of Disability and Aging Services, whose partnership with the developmental disabilities support systems is significant component (Moore, Washington, Ningning, Johnson, Davis, Eugene-Cross & Quinn, 2015). The Division facilitate s funding which is a key resource for developing the systems and, training, quality assurance and technical assistance entailed in the disability care programs. Additionally, the Division is also key in its conceptual support through providing guardianship services to the individuals with developmental disabilities and who the court determines that they need the guardianship

Change Management Plan Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Change Management Plan - Research Paper Example However, this leadership position was short-lived since towards the end of the 20th century, a company called Google emerged and gave Yahoo tough competition for its share in the Silicon Valley, especially after the bursting of the dot-com bubble in 2000 (The Guardian, 2008). Google soon gained an upper hand over Yahoo through its effective policies and talented personnel and Yahoo has not been able to gain its initial top ranking to date. The HR policy that this report proposes to change is that of ‘stack ranking’ or ‘Quarterly Performance Review’. The employee appraisal process was introduced by CEO Marissa Mayer in late 2013, and required that managers rate their employees on the basis of meeting their goals from a scale of 1 to 5. This system is an adaptation of GE’s forced ranking system (Pfeffer and Sutton, 2006) and here too some employees are forced to fall into the lowest category, even if they did not miss any goals. Since the lowest 5% percent employees have to suffer adverse consequences, including firing, this system seems unfair to many and raises questions about Mayer’s policies. According to Forbes (2013), more than 600 employees were fired because they had gotten low scores in two quarters of appraisals, which does not necessarily mean that they were poor performers, only that there were others (possibly) better than them. The forced ranking system was adopted because of its claimed benefits of eliminating inflated ratings and proving as a check and balance system (Grote, 2005), but for Yahoo it appears to be more troublesome than beneficial. Owing to the adverse effects that Mayer’s QPR is having on employee morale and motivation, it is proposed that the forced ranking system should be discontinued and the performance appraisal process should be modified in order to make it employee friendly. The ranking scale of meeting goals (from ‘misses’ to ‘exceeds’) should

Psychology Project Racism Essay Example for Free

Psychology Project Racism Essay Racism People see it every day across the world. A group of whites burn down a black , someone gets hurt or murdered from a racial insult, or fights break out at school or in public. These are the extremes of racism. Racism is definitely not a good thing; it’s a power that has taken over through the present daytime. What will the future bring for Racism? What are the main problems of racism? Can we get a hold on racism throughout the world or will we self-destruct in our own hate? Racism is everywhere, as much as today tries to hide it or say that we resolved it years ago. Racism is still all over the place. Definition of Racism: Racism is the belief that a particular race is superior or inferior to another, that a person’s social and moral traits are predetermined by his or her inborn biological characteristics. Racial separatism is the belief, most of the time based on racism, that different races should remain apart from one another. Racism has existed throughout human history: It may be defined as the hatred of one person by another or the belief that another person is less than human because of skin color, language, customs, and place of birth or any factor that supposedly reveals the basic nature of that person. Prejudice: If someone is a racist they are of course, prejudiced. Prejudice is when someone doesn’t like someone else for the way they look.. It flies right over their heads schools, the workplace, our community, our friend’s  house, even our homes. Racist or prejudice jokes are not harmless and it is a reality today. Racist jokes are just the start of it. Many people think the jokes are funny. Maybe they are, but they still hurt the people the jokes are about. Superiority: Superiority is a big part of racism. Every race thinks that they are superior to other ,that they are the best . The power issue may make the difference, that’s one of the main reasons. Each race thinks they are a better race.. Therefore, they fight and create violence to justify who is the greater race. But the reality is, that it doesn’t matter who you are or what color you are. Forms of Racism: †¢Individual Racism takes the form of individual attitudes, beliefs, values and be haviors. Some examples of racist attitudes are racial prejudice, belittling, jealousy and bigotry. †¢Institutional or Systemic Racism takes the form of the practices, customs, rules and standards of organizations that unnecessarily disadvantage people because of their race, color or ethnicity. †¢Cultural Racism is the cultural values and standards that disadvantage people because of their race, color or ethnicity. . Bio-psycho-social-spiritual phenomenon of racism: Racism is the outward manifestation of an inward system. This system justifies power of position by placing a negative meaning and value on perceived or actual biological/cultural differences. This system gives biological differences, such as skin color, texture of the hair, physical features; or cultural differences, such as language, religion, ethnicity, or accent, a negative value and meaning. In real they are merely biological or cultural necessities. Thus, there is nothing wrong with the color black, brown or yellow. It is not skin color that forms the basis for discrimination, but the negative meaning and value given to the color of skin. Color is neutral; it is the mind that gives it meaning. Neither are women discriminated against because of their gender. If gender were the problem then the solution would also be to have a sex-change operation. But the problem is not gender but value systems.. Women are discriminated against because of the negative meaning and value given to their gender. How one defines a situation depends on how one perceives it. That’s the psycho pattern. The meaning that  people therefore give to their reality, whether or not true, causes people to behave in a manner that makes the original meaning actually come true. The interpretive meaning called perception.. The same goes with the spiritual dimension, the fourth factor. In order to justify such evil use of power, people will appeal to those moral systems which give them a sense of meaning, rightness, and ultimate value in life, their ideological belief systems, which serve as the highest authority in their lives, the moral basis of their existence. Like this the bio-psycho-social-spiritual framework works -and how it shapes our world. Common factors of Racism: †¢Color: Prejudice or discrimination in which human beings are treated differently based on the social meanings attached to skin color †¢Religion: Religious discrimination involves treating a person (an applicant or employee) unfavorably because of his or her religious beliefs. Religions, such as Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism, but also others who have sincerely held religious, ethical or moral beliefs. †¢Gender: Granting or denying rights or privileges to a person based on their gender. No Boundaries: Victims and perpetrators of racial prejudice are not confined to any period in history, place, skin color, income group or other boundary. No one is immune! But the images we associate with the term racism depend largely on the part of the world in which we live. For instance, in different countries most commonly think of tension between whites and blacks, or increasingly, Hispanics and blacks or whites. Further back, though, other forms existed. Racism –different countries: Racism world-wide is manifested in every continent. In Europe, extreme racist groups have gained more and more acceptability in countries like France, Germany, and Austria. In Australia, the Aborigines have lost much of their land and have been the victim of extreme prejudice. Not only has Apartheid legalized separation been practiced in Australia, it has been a well-publicized condition in South Africa. Many African countries have endured long-term civil wars, some beginning shortly after that nation’s freedom from former colonial  countries. In Asia, Cambodians harbor extreme prejudices against the Vietnamese, and Chinese students have been forbidden access to higher education in Malaysia. In the Middle East, antagonism between the Israelis and the Palestinians continues to exist. Racism in Pakistan: In Pakistan people do face problem regarding racism and its done on the following bases. †¢Socio economic status †¢Gender †¢Color †¢Religion †¢Cast †¢Provincial Causes of racism: Major causes of racism common in all societies are: †¢Lack of self love †¢feeling of unworthiness †¢desire to feel superior †¢Fear of loss and displacement †¢lack of understanding †¢false perceptions †¢Ignorance, †¢Xenophobia †¢Brainwashing †¢ upbringing, †¢negative experiences with individuals of a given race, †¢negative images portrayed in media and societal stereotypes, †¢hate †¢ lack of education, †¢distorted thinking †¢ fear †¢Selfishness †¢Environmental Factors Effects of racism: It is said that â€Å" Racism always breaks a country and spoils a society.† The effects that are commonly observed are: †¢Self hate †¢ Suicide †¢Self harm issues †¢Eating disorders †¢Fear of going to school/public places (agoraphobia) †¢Bullying †¢Knife and gun crime †¢Panic attacks †¢Violence †¢hate crimes †¢inequality †¢inhumanity †¢intolerance †¢trade imbalance †¢depression †¢self loathing Racism and future: Today we are living in a load of social issues that we have to deal with and racism is one of them. People blame their faults and disappointments against society and the whole race in which they live in. but anyone can do good or excel if they put their mind to it. The future, when you hear the word – Racism you start to think about advancing our technology and furthering science. You think of exploring new boundaries and seeing new places. A better world, but a worse world is what we see. The technology may improve as we go deeper into the next century, but what about the children of today that are responsible for the future? Right now, we are only hurting ourselves with racism and hate. We have taken many steps in controlling this disease, but like most diseases, they spread. Does God do favoritism? God is the  Creator of all the races—yellow, black and white (with brown and red). Each has strengths and gifts as well as weaknesses. For our better future it is important to finish this discrimination. If He has created everyone equally then who are we to judge? Who are we to complain? Who are we to discriminate? We being a Muslim, how can we do such a thing? Our religion has a clear concept about equality. It’s clearly written in the Holy book that no one is superior to another. Our God has created everyone equally. Its His choice how and what He do†¦ What Can We Do? â€Å"Racism isnt born, its taugh† Where there is a problem, there is a solution. The only solution that seems to be found is to stop the hate. Dr. Martin Luther King said: â€Å"I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.† He had a dream.Its up to us that how and what we make a world without racism†¦. Changes: self-awareness†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Reengineering our attitudes about race means that we must examine ourselves. †¢Closely examine your values and beliefs; why do you think, believe, and behave toward others as you do. †¢Remember, one of the bases of prejudice is ignorance. Try not to ignore but to know other. †¢Measure your words carefully before you speak to others. †¢Try to be a human first . Society is formed by us †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.society changes can be . †¢Do not tolerate prejudiced people, prejudiced talk, or racist action. †¢Give good literature, recommend films, lectures, meetings to your friends and family. †¢Write letters to newspapers, magazines, and TV sponsors giving your opinion on statements and actions that demean people. †¢Organize a cleanup or rebuilding campaign †¢Make an effort to support minority cultural events †¢ Make an effort to teach the value of equality and tolerance For Institutions-Effecting Change: †¢For institutions to change, their culture, vision, values, and ideology must change. All policies must be based around a single ideology. †¢Examine an institutions deep belief and value systems †¢Hold training seminars in intercultural competence: †¢self-acceptance. †¢Put people to work and interact in interracial learning teams so as to develop positive attitudes and cross-ethnic friendships. †¢Make a commitment and act on it! Things You Can Do in the Schools: This can be done in a school or university setting. †¢sponsor panel discussions †¢awareness activities †¢cultural †¢projects that will promote cultural understanding and inclusiveness. †¢anti-racism education in your schools curriculum †¢events relating to a variety of cultures.. †¢Example: The Book of Dreams To sum it up: Figuring out what to do about the ugly reality of racism in our communities presents a difficult challenge. There is no single or easy set of instructions that will eliminate racism once and for all. Instead, it is something we must continually work against choosing the strategies and actions that will be most effective in our own individual communities. In this resource, weve suggested such strategies and actions, and shown examples of how many of them have been put into practice in real communities. When you start deciding how to reduce racism in your own community, feel free to use any of these ideas, but also feel free to be creative and come up with your own solutions as well. Remember: â€Å"Rainbows arent just one color. Theyre every single color. Be a rainbow. Enjoy all of the colors in the world.†

Early life environment and a childs temperament

Early life environment and a childs temperament The question of how dependent a childs temperament is on their environment, biology and other individual differences has been the subject of much debate in the world of psychology. To critically discuss to what extent such factors have on temperament, we should consider what this term means- individual differences in emotional, motor, and attentional reactivity and self-regulation (Rothbart, 1998, p.105-76). This definition considers the childs emotional responses; physical ability; how passionate or responsive the child is and how regulated their sleeping and eating habits are, for example. Possible influences on temperament are nature, including innate characteristics, and nurture, the childs early life environment and socialisation. A childs early life environment itself is affected by a number of factors, such as social-economic status; parenting; culture; school entry age and extracurricular activities to name a few. For the purpose of this essay, the focus will be on social-economic status and parenting. Firstly, individual differences were noted for dimensions such as distractibility and intensity of reaction in children in Chess Thomas (1987, as cited in Roberta, 2009) development of the 9 NYLS (New York Longitudinal Study) dimensions on child temperament. Some newborns were found to cry a lot louder than others if hungry, which showed more apparent intensity in the childs temperament. This indicates that temperament is a result of innate characteristics as at such a young age, little environmental influence is likely to have taken place. Behavioural profiles were also produced using the dimensions and 3 types of temperament were developed from this: Easy, Difficult and Slow to warm up, which were apparently identifiable in children as young as 2-3 years old. There is evidence that caregivers awareness of such individual differences is highly important as this can affect the childs socialisation process developing in early life. For example, those with a Difficult temperament might have more intense reactions and harsher parenting techniques used as a result may not always be helpful. Therefore, though aspects of a childs temperament can be seen as innate, environmental factors and social influences also hold a degree of influence. Parenting practices should be adapted to a Difficult child in order for the parent to optimise their ability to nurture their childs temperament. The NYLS dimensions are still in use today and the construct of child difficultness has been further developed and used in many other measures. However, this could cause issues when considering such research as results will depend on which measure and definition of difficultness is being referred to. Secondly, Kagans (1994) work (as cited in Chess Alexander, 1996) studied temperament by also using a biological approach. 43 children had their heart rates recorded and were observed and rated during 2 simple laboratory tasks. Statistical analysis was used to assess the difference between behavioural inhibitions of the children. Inhibition serves certain social functions such as preventing impulse acts, for example, losing your temper and hitting someone. This relates to impulsivity as an aspect of ones temperament. It was found that inhibited children had a higher and more stable heart rate than uninhibited children. At approximately 5.5 years old, there were a number of significant correlations between heart rate and physiological factors such as pupil dilation during cognitive stress and adrenaline levels. This suggests that individual physiological differences are indicative of varying temperaments in children, in line with other biological studies (Fox Calkins, 1993 as cited i n Rubin et al., 1993). Nevertheless, Kagan commented that environmental factors should be investigated too in order to gain a full picture. The effects of social-economic status can be seen in Dearing et al.s (2001) work investigating associations between children aged 1-36 months and effects of changes in family income by 36 months. Results showed a significant effect of income on children from poor families but no significant effects of income on non-poor families. For families in poverty, childrens school readiness; expressive language and positive social behaviours were negatively affected and behavioural problems more prominent and vice versa. Such research gives support for environment affecting a childs temperament, even at the early age of 36 months. Also, a higher risk for negative outcomes at 36 months was found for those that had spent longer in poverty. Even so, associations cannot be directly translated as causal relationships. It is difficult to be certain that extraneous variables, such as parenting; genetic ability and school standards did not affect the results recorded. Differences could have been due t o variables other than family income but the effect of the duration spent in poverty discourages this assumption. Parenting practices and child temperament were investigated using the questionnaire method. Parent perceptions of toddlers social wariness and shyness at 2 years old predicted their preferences for socialisation strategies at 4 years old (Rubin, Nelson Hastings Asendorpf, 1993). Observations of child-parent interactions were also recorded. It seemed that those parents perceiving their children to be shy, somewhat limited their childs opportunities for independence. This was more evident in those parents that were more anxious. Such parenting styles could make it more difficult for self-regulation to develop and for potential interactions with other children to take place. Those children less capable of self-regulation at an early age may develop independent feeding skills later than others for example, which would probably negatively affect temperament with more irritability occurring during meal times. So not only are parenting styles an influence on temperament, parents perception s of their childs abilities and temperament (inclusive of the factors defined by Rothbart, 1998) and how this affects their child-rearing is also extremely relevant. As parent perceptions were being studied, the questionnaire method used is quite fitting. Despite this, we should take into account social desirability bias and demand characteristics potentially affecting validity. For example, parents may be unwilling to convey their children as shy due to partaking in psychological research. Studies on twins have been carried out in attempt to determine whether biological or environmental factors attribute to a childs temperament. Spinath Angleitner (1998) collected separate mother and father ratings on 354 monozygotic and dizygotic twins ranging from ages 2-14. The twins Emotionality, Activity, Sociability and Shyness were also assessed using the EAS Temperament Survey (Buss Plomin, 1984, as cited in Spinath Angleitner, 1998). On all EAS dimensions, except Emotionality, dizygotic twins showed negative or near-zero correlations and the similarities between monozygotic twins were more than half those held by dizygotic twins. As dizygotic twins are expected to experience similar environmental stimulation, it seems that the much stronger correlations between monozygotic twins similarities would arguably be explained by their genetic similarity. Related findings seem to be obtained in further behavioural genetics research (Kimberly Saudino, 2005) which supports the impor tance of innate characteristics in temperament. Nevertheless, we cannot be sure whether parents ratings were affected by demand characteristics and therefore, the validity of the similarity ratings made between the twin pairs. It could even be argued that similarities were rated on perceived zygosity that is to say, perhaps parents and rating family members perceived more similarities between monozygotic twins because of their physical similarities. Experimental methods would conceivably be more useful for identifying the genetic factors contributory to temperament, but familial observations over time may well be more valid, naturalistic observations of child temperament and similarities. Although such research may suggest that the greater monozygotic correlations support the importance of biology in child temperament, results do not explain how relevant it is and certainly does not definitively give evidence for the nature or nurture debate. For more clarity, it seems that a combi nation of methods should be used to explore the dimensions of temperament. Perhaps teacher ratings could have been used in addition to parent and family member ratings alone. Exploring more within-family differences (Kimberly Saudino, 2005) to account for differential treatment of children within the same family, for example, offers more insight to why different family members temperament can vary across a whole range of behaviour. A greater understanding of the influences on child temperament has major practical implications. For example, certain teaching techniques may help Difficult children focus more in school and increase their productivity as a result. Biological influences are arguably less important, as it would imply that temperament is less changeable than a lot of research seems to suggest. For example, a child of slow to warm up temperament, whilst explicable by nature, could benefit greatly from practice of specifically identified socialisation skills. In addition, labelling children with certain temperaments could prove detrimental to their developing temperament during early years and being aware of this is exceptionally important. To conclude, there is evidence to advocate both nature and nurture contributions to child temperament. Although there is significant evidence for biologys role in temperament, there seems to be a general consensus that environmental factors are ultimately of higher importance, as human experiences and surroundings are so varied from person to person. To better understand child temperament, we should look at the interaction of such biological and environmental factors more closely rather than isolating them. A good example is portrayed by Chess Alexander (1987, as cited in Roberta, 2009), where individual differences from birth are apparent, but, what marks a difference is how those innate characteristics are dealt with by parents, and the effect this will have on other social interactions and thus, how child temperament is developed early on in life.

Free College Admissions Essays: Geography :: College Admissions Essays

Geography The diverse nature of Geography has always attracted me to the subject, and the bridge it forms between the Arts and the Sciences reflects many of my interests. I am greatly enjoying the work which I am doing for the A level syllabus, on both the human and physical sides of the course, and would like to continue to study in both these fields. Geography gives the opportunity to accumulate a valuable range of skills, and I particularly enjoy the variety of analytical, numerical, bibliographical and research skills which I am called upon to use. The study of Geography will enable me to consider complex interactions between the human and physical environments, and the scope for useful research within the subject is very appealing. I have attended a number of Geographical Association lectures organised by my local branch, and look forward to taking responsibility for my own work in response to such stimulus. My interest in Geography is reflected in my choice of supporting A level subjects. I have found them very helpful in furthering my understanding of issues such as ecology and the processing of raw data, where subjects overlap. The study of French has also helped me to appreciate European issues whilst maintaining a language which I enjoy. I plan to take a Gap Year with the G.A.P. Organisation, to work as a support teacher in a developing nation. This, I believe, will be a valuable experience, and allow me to gain some first hand case studies in social, spatial and physical geography, which may provide a foundation for further study. I am very interested in the developing world, and have actively supported Christian Aid campaigns, as well as speaking on the Economic and Environment Committee at a "Model United Nations" Conference. Whilst completing the Bronze and Silver Duke of Edinburgh Awards, I have been able to improve my cartographic skills, and observe a variety of landscapes, w hich has added to my interest in physical geography. Taking part in the Tall Ships race on an S.T.A schooner for my Gold Residential Award has also helped me to appreciate the value of team work and perseverance.

Leadership and Ideology in Animal Farm Essay -- Animal Farm Essays

The Theme of Leadership in Animal Farm Sub-theme: Power Corrupts The sub theme of power corrupting people is very eminent in animal farm. The leaders on the farm - the pigs, were the brains of the farm. The animals let the pigs lead the farm, thereby placing them into a position of power. This power corrupted them as they became more and more greedy and their ideology became more and more corrupted. Also, the pig’s transgressions of the rules of animalism worsen as they grow in power. In chapter 2, when the 7 commandments were first written down, there was already a slight corruption in the pigs. The pigs steal the milk and apples and explain it with the lie that these foods have nutrients essential to pigs, which need these nutrients to carry on their managerial work. This chapter was the chapter in which the farm was closest to Utopia. In chapter 6, the pigs started trading with the other farms, which was another sign of the growing corruption. The also broke a commandment by sleeping on a bed and furthermore, they masked this by changing the commandment to brainwash the other animals. This was a clear sign that the pigs were corrupt. From chapter 6 onwards, things went downhill as the pigs got more and more powerful and greedy and at the end of the story, all 7 commandments were broken. Also, this sub theme is also reflected in the state of the farm. As the pigs grow in power, the state of the farm worsens. Although this fact is masked from the animals by the pigs, it is quite clear. Immediately after the rebellion, food was plentiful and the animals could get a double ration of corn, but as time passed the animals began to starve, even though Squealer’s figures showed otherwise. â€Å"At times the animals felt that the... ...a means to stop violent revolutions and to keep the discontented workers docile. Another example is in Muslim suicide bombers, whose fanatic belief in their religion blinds them from the truth that they are not doing the right thing. However, it is irrelevant in some cases. For example, people who believe in an ideology are not necessarily taken in by falsities or misinterpretations in the ideology in the same way as people who are Muslims are not necessarily fanatics to their religion. Orwell treats this tone in a satirical manner and uses irony to convey its message. This can be seen from the fact that at the start of the novel, nobody believed in Moses but at the end, many did. Orwell included this in the storyline to tell the reader not to be taken in by falsities or misinterpretations in the ideology or religion hey believe in and to do what is right.

The Downside of Social Media and Technology Essay -- social issues, c

As children of the 90’s, and previously, we spent childhood days outside discovering things in the woods and exploring everything we could. With minds full of ideas and with our imaginations running wild, we were engineers of possibilities. Days were passed playing make-believe and running amuck with friends. Time passed slowly and enjoyment came from the friends we shared our imaginings with. This pure creation has taken a nose dive over the past generations. Imagination is slowly being snuffed out by technology. With the advancements in modern technology, such as social media, people have become more self-absorbed and the pace of life has increased. Not only does this technology spike affect the adult and teen world, but it can cause huge problems in the development of children. The digital world is one of creation and ingenuity; however, this is only partially true because it is actually an escape from reality. With technology, kids no longer have to come up wit h ideas all on their own. Why should they spend their energy being creative when they can find an idea online in about two minutes? Social media is a growing fad in the world. Teenagers are constantly checking for status updates and are posting new things online. Instead of actually enjoying moments with each other our generation has become obsessed with documenting. Pictures and statuses are posted immediately after something occurs. Picture this†¦ A basketball game is tied up at the last minute. One team has the ball and they work their way down the court. The player takes a shot, but misses! There’s only five seconds left and the other team catches the rebound, passes it up the court to a teammate who makes a half court shot just as the buzzer sounds. T... ...olving, it is being over used and is slowly taking control of our lives. Technology may seem to be all glitter and gold, but watch out for the malevolent addiction of it that can pull you in. All good things come in moderation. Return to the days before technology’s domain and go explore and imagine. Escape the digital box. Go dance in the rain, listen to live music, find shapes in the clouds, and don’t forget to enjoy life’s littlest wonders. Works Cited Allday, E. (2013). Technology, a fundamental change in child development. SFGate. Retrieved December 17, 2013, from http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Technology-a-fundamental-change-in-child- 4958199.php Statistic Gate. ( June 8, 2013). Mobile device / cell phone statistics. Statistic Gate. Retrieved December 17, 2013, from http://www.statisticbrain.com/mobile-device-cell-phone-statistics/

Kellogg Book Essay

This book is intended to be a resource for members of the Kellogg School of Management Class of 2005 as they look for summer internships in the consulting industry (as well as for general management internships) for the summer of 2004. The book will also be useful to current first-year students during the fall of 2004 as they look for full-time postKellogg consulting jobs, as well as to the yet-to-be-admitted Kellogg Class of 2006 in their summer and full-time job searches. While we hope this document results in more Kellogg students reaching their employment goals, we are also confident that using this resource to prepare for case interviews will reduce the stress associated with the interviewing process. Additionally, students will find this document to be a useful reference for Kellogg’s core strategy course, MGMT 431, regardless of whether or not they plan to interview for consulting jobs. This introduction will provide an overview of the different sections of the book, recommend how it is to be used, and offer general thoughts of how this fits book in to the bigger picture. To this last point, the book is not intended to be the only resource that Kellogg students will need during the recruiting process for consulting. Rather, it is meant to be a central body of work that provides a complete and thorough introduction to the process, offers its reader a road map of the basic toolkit needed to succeed in these interviews, and also points him or her to other resources that may be helpful. Background on this book and acknowledgements can be found in Appendix A. 2004 Kellogg Consulting Club Case Book 2 Sections This book is divided into six sections, plus five appendices. Section I is this introduction, whose goals are stated above. Section II provides an overview of the case interviewing process and offers general advice on how to perform magnificently during the interviews. (It is adapted primarily from the Fleischmann, Fong, and Marciano article that is alluded to in Appendix A, and has been reorganized into seven sub-sections. ) Section III provides ten sample cases. The first seven of these are meant to be solved in a 30-to-45 minute interview; the first six contain slides. The last three cases are shorter and attempt to emulate the 10-to-15 minute case nterviews that are used by some consulting firms. After all of the practice cases, Section IV discusses fit interviewing, which is a typically smaller, but no less important, part of the overall process. Again, this section is adapted primarily from the earlier work of Fleischmann et. al. Section V provides one-page overviews of each of the eleven consulting firms that are currently planning to in terview Kellogg first-years for jobs during the summer of 2004. Of special interest in this section are the interview formats used by various companies. Students who are interviewing should use this information to customize their case practice and preparation, based on the formats used by the companies that are most of interest to them. Finally, Section VI provides some concluding thoughts and attempts to synthesize the key â€Å"take-away† points of the book. How To Use The Book We would like to conclude this introduction by orienting the reader as to how we envision this book being used. We have mentioned previously that it is not designed to be the only available or necessary resource on the subject. Students who attempt to use it in this way are doing themselves a disservice. Instead, it should be used in tandem with the many other 2004 Kellogg Consulting Club Case Book 3 resources that are available, such as case books from other business schools, Kellogg Career Management Center (CMC) counselors, students at Kellogg who have worked in consulting or are planning to, company representatives and literature, and the rest of the list of resources that is summarized in Appendix B. As for this book, sections I, II, IV, and VI are written to be read straight through (not necessarily in only one sitting). Section III provides practice cases that should be used or studied one at a time. Section V provides thumbnail data on companies that are interviewing at Kellogg, and is meant to be a quick reference for students who are interviewing in those firms. Particular attention should be placed on the various interview formats used by each different company. To maximize results, candidates should study cases that most closely mimic the ones that are given by the firms that they are planning to interview with and/or most want to work for. It is our hope that the combination of this book and of other available resources will maximize the effectiveness of Kellogg students during the winter quarter 2004 interviewing process. If anyone has any questions about the book or the process, they should feel free to directly contact me, either of the Associate Editors, Prof. Marciano, the Kellogg CMC, or any of the 2003-2004 Kellogg Consulting Club co-chairs1. We are all here to help Kellogg first-years get as many summer consulting job offers as possible. Best of luck in the process! Edwin Van Dusen Editor, 2004 Kellogg Consulting Club Case Book Evanston, Illinois December, 2003 1 The co-chairs are Leo Castro, Ami Fadia, Hanna Norfleet, Jason Greenwald, Brian Oxley, and Ojas Wadikvar, all from the Kellogg Class of 2004. 2004 Kellogg Consulting Club Case Book 4 II. How to Ace Case Interviews2 Overview of Section This section provides a complete and comprehensive overview of the case interview process and is probably the single most important section in the book, along with Section III on practice cases. It offers advice on how to best navigate the process, and is divided into seven sub-sections to make the material easier to understand and digest: 1. Sub-section one provides an overview of the case interviewing process. 2. Sub-section two discusses the use of frameworks, and the need to strike a balance between a structured approach and the pitfalls of an overly regimented analysis. 3. Sub-section three walks through a step-by-step illustration of a case interview and is in turn sub-divided into five parts. 4. Sub-section four reviews several common case situations and how to handle them. These include public math, how to get unstuck, and the infamous estimate questions. 5. Sub-section five reviews seven common types of cases that are frequently found in case interviews. 6. Sub-section six goes through some overall tips on how to handle the process. Please do not be put off by the â€Å"laundry list† format of this section, for it contains some important nuggets of advice and wisdom. 7. Finally, sub-section seven provides some concluding thoughts about the process. 2 As mentioned in the Introduction, the text in this section has been primarily adapted from the 2001 Fleischmann, Fong, and Marciano article, although some of the content and wording are new. They, and we, would like to give special thanks to Jason Moss and Chris Riley (both members of the Kellogg Class of 2001) for their invaluable contributions to the initial document, from which this section is primarily adapted. 2004 Kellogg Consulting Club Case Book 5 We have endeavored to distill the most important aspects of the case interview process into this section while keeping it to a manageable length. Obviously, since entire books have been written on this subject, it was not possible for us to include every detail or every opinion on the matter. Students should probably begin by reading this section to get the major points, and then can consult some of the additional resources listed in Appendix B if they feel that they still need to get more depth and detail. Sub-Section One of Seven – Overview of Case Interviews This section will describe the format and structure of case interviews, discuss the various types of cases that one may encounter, and provide practical tips and advice on enhancing one’s chances for success. Fit interviews will be discussed in Section IV later in this book. The consulting interview process may be unlike any series of interviews that a person has been through before Kellogg. While each consulting firm has its own distinct style and method of interviewing, virtually all screen candidates using a combination of â€Å"fit† and â€Å"case† interviews. Understanding and being prepared for both of these types of interviews improves one’s chances of obtaining a position in the field and also reduces the angst associated with the process. The framework is simply a tool to help you structure your response, so do not get too hung up here and waste valuable time that you could be using to advance the discussion. Your initial framework should be a broad sketch, not a detailed blueprint, of how you intend to go about solving the case problem. The details of your analysis should evolve interactively with the interviewer as you progress through the interview. Based on the framework you have developed, you should be able to identify several possible paths towards addressing the case issue. For example, consider a case about Firm X whose profits declined last year. Firm X’s reduced profits could be due to sagging revenues, rising costs, or both. Given that your interview time is limited, it is important to prioritize the issues you will investigate in the case. Investigate the most likely solution to the problem first, followed by the second most likely, and so on. The initial information that you have been given 2004 Kellogg Consulting Club Case Book 14 may steer you towards a particular path. Take cues (subtle or overt) from your interviewer about which paths hold the most merit. For example, if you were told that Firm X recently altered its product mix, you might want to start by examining the prices of its various products. Based on the information you have received, and the framework you have developed, you should formulate an initial hypothesis about the case problem you are evaluating. In the parlance of case interviews, a hypothesis is what you believe to be the central issue of the case, or the solution to it. With regard to Firm X, your initial hypothesis could be that the root cause of its declining profits is that it is selling relatively more low price/low margin products than it had in the past. You may not be given enough information at the onset of a case to develop a reasonable hypothesis from the start. If that happens, progress through your framework, elicit information from the interviewer, and develop a hypothesis as soon as you can. If your initial hypothesis turns out to be wrong, which is often the case, try another one. It is not an automatic â€Å"ding† to not guess the answer correctly on the first try. But it is a likely â€Å"ding† to give up or to lose sight of the main issue, which is to eventually solve the client’s problem. Some firms are more or less receptive to hearing an interviewee, very early on, state a hypothesis for analysis. The key lesson here is to know the firms that you are interviewing with. If you are interviewing with a firm that conducts its cases/engagements with an â€Å"Answer First† approach, then you should probably state a hypothesis early and then relate findings to it as the case progresses: â€Å"this supports my initial hypothesis†¦Ã¢â‚¬  or â€Å"that seems to refute my initial belief, my revised working hypothesis is now†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . Other firms may conduct their work by doing much more detailed data collection before forming a hypothesis. In this case, strive to form a hypothesis, but hold back on stating it until you have collected more data: â€Å"OK, I think I now have enough information to form a hypothesis – based on facts A, B and C, it looks like X might 2004 Kellogg Consulting Club Case Book 15 be happening. Here’s how I would evaluate whether X is truly going on†¦Ã¢â‚¬  With these firms, you may look like you’re jumping to conclusions if your hypothesis isn’t fact-based. Ask members of the firm about their firm’s preference prior to your interview (that’s what all those cocktail receptions are for). Step Three of Five – Articulation After you have developed your analytical framework, prioritized potential solution paths, and formulated your initial hypothesis, the next step is to articulate them to the interviewer. In the case of Firm X, it might go something like this: â€Å"Given that Firm X has experienced a decline in profitability, I am going to begin my evaluation by investigating the various elements that make up profit, namely revenues and costs (framework). Since you mentioned that Firm X has seen its product mix change over the past year, I will begin by analyzing the firm’s revenues, focusing first on pricing (prioritization). It could be that a decline in Firm X’s average price is causing its profits to suffer (hypothesis). If that turns out not to be the case, then I will look at changes in the company’s cost structure. † It is critical in case interviews to demonstrate a structured, logical, and thorough thought process. If you do not verbalize your thought process to the interviewer, (s)he will not be able to evaluate your performance. In addition to talking through your thought process, you may find it beneficial to sketch out your analysis framework on your note pad. Writing down your framework will help you to organize your thoughts, and to regain focus if you get stuck or your analysis becomes very complicated. Just as importantly, an illustrated framework shows the interviewer that you are thinking in a structured manner, and makes it easier for him or her to guide you. Many successful consulting interviewees extol the importance of â€Å"paper management† in case interviews. Interviewers often encourage candidates to take notes, and some even keep 2004 Kellogg Consulting Club Case Book 16 those notes to help remember the path that the interviewee took during his or her case. Whether or not this happens to you, your notepad is an excellent communications medium during your interview. Consultants are generally graphical thinkers – even if they didn’t start this way, they now communicate in slides, charts, and graphs. Speak their language – sketch out your thoughts on your paper, write large, and show the interviewer what you are doing. It is not uncommon for an interviewer to look under an interviewee’s shoulder onto his or her notepad, and comment on it and/or ask questions about its contents. For example, â€Å"I see from your notes that you have come up with five reasons why Firm A should acquire Firm B, and the first one is distribution synergies. What do you mean by that? † Draw out your framework so that the interviewer can see where you’re going, and steer you accordingly. Many interviewees divide their paper into three sections. In the first section, they note facts about the situation (both those given in the initial situation explanation as well as facts uncovered through questions). In section two, analysis is performed, and in section three key findings/conclusions are noted (this section is especially helpful when the candidate is asked to â€Å"sum up† at the close of the case). Note: this does not have to all occur on the same page – feel free to use multiple sheets of paper; the clearer your actions are to the interviewer, the better. Be as graphical and as structured as possible whenever you seek to convey concepts like organizational structure or whenever you do quantitative analysis. Quantitative analysis, in particular, should be laid out in rows and columns â€Å"Excel-style† (ideally with the equation noted above the columns) so that interviewers can follow your calculations. Doing fancy math in your head is great, but it’s more important to illustrate to the interviewer how you are coming to your numbers than to wow them with calculation speed. Your arithmetic may be correct, but your equation may be missing a critical variable. Drawing out your thoughts helps the interviewer 2004 Kellogg Consulting Club Case Book 17 identify this and correct your course. This is far preferable to leaving the interviewer wondering why your number does not match the number that is given in the case solutions. To err is human, but to do so in a way that leaves the interviewer wondering about whether the problem was with your arithmetic or your thought process is likely to prove fatal. Step Four of Five – Analysis: Ask Questions, Gather Information, and Test Hypotheses Having articulated your framework and initial hypothesis, you are ready to move into the analysis phase, which should be the bulk of the interview. In the analysis phase, you should ask questions, synthesize the information provided, and draw conclusions based on the facts. By asking questions and bringing to light new information, you will be able to determine whether your initial hypothesis was valid or invalid. If the data proves your hypothesis to be invalid, systematically follow your framework and progress to the issue with the next highest priority. In addition, based on new information you receive, develop a new hypothesis as soon as possible. For example: â€Å"Based on what I’ve learned so far, it appears as though Firm X’s product mix and revenues are not the most important cause of its declining profitability. So now I’ll move on to investigate the firm’s costs (transition to next branch of the framework). You mentioned that Firm X recently signed a new agreement with its unions, so I’ll start by examining its labor costs. It could be that an unfavorable union contract has inflated the firm’s labor expenses and negatively impacted its profits (new hypothesis). † Asking questions, collecting information, and developing and testing hypotheses is an iterative process, and constitutes a good case interview. As you receive answers to your inquiries, you should be able to hone in on the solution to the problem, and the interviewer may point you in the right direction. Even if all of your hypotheses are ultimately proved invalid, if 2004 Kellogg Consulting Club Case Book 18 you have solicited relevant facts and drawn conclusions in a structured, logical manner, you will have done well. Do not forget that it is important to verbalize your thought process throughout the entire interview. Avoid long periods of silence — the interviewer is attempting to evaluate how you think, and mute introspection precludes this. When doing calculations, tell the interviewer everything that you’re doing. This maximizes the interviewer’s ability to coach you and illustrates your thought process. It takes practice to be able to do this with aplomb, but it is a skill well worth developing. Asking questions is a fundamental part of the process, but remember to do so within the context of your framework, as opposed to firing off questions in no particular order. As you work through the case, it is a good idea to verbally summarize where you are, what you have learned, what the information means in diagnosing the problem, and where you are headed next. Summarizing can also be a useful technique to buy yourself time to think if you become stuck. Take caution not to summarize too frequently, however, because it takes away from the time that you should be using to analyze the case issue. Step Five of Five – Summary and Recommendation When you feel you have covered all the bases in your analysis, or when you have run out of time, end by summarizing the situation and providing a recommendation. If at all possible, always end your interviews with a succinct recommendation. Try not to recap the path of analysis that you have just performed. Instead, draw on key facts to give a clear answer to the central question of the case. For example, â€Å"I do not recommend that the firm enter the market, given that the industry in question is characterized by low barriers to entry, intense rivalry, and significant supplier power† (all of which you discovered through your analysis). 2004 Kellogg Consulting Club Case Book 19 You might also add next steps or additional considerations, as appropriate, to make your analysis more balanced and thorough. For example, â€Å"Based on the discussion that we had today, I would not recommend at this point that the firm enter the market. However, I would also want to know more about the regulatory trends in the market, and about the industry’s distribution channel mix, before making a final decision in a real situation. † Remember, cases are usually complex. If you imply to the interviewer that you have completely addressed the issue in 30 to 45 minutes, you may be perceived as short-sighted or arrogant. It’s much better to state what you’ve found and can reasonably infer, and then identify the areas that you’d like to further penetrate (if given more time) and the assumptions that you’ve made that you think your conclusions are most sensitive to. An important point to keep in mind is that even if you are dead wrong, if you have approached the problem in a logical, structured, and thorough manner, you have done well. You will likely encounter the â€Å"elevator test† at the end of some of your interviews. It typically goes something like this, â€Å"We’re out of time. Sum this up in 30 seconds so I can tell the client our major findings. The purpose of this exercise is to see whether you can identify the most important elements of the case, distill complex issues into concise, easily understandable terms, and maintain your poise when thrust into a stressful situation.

Food Web

ecosystem. In a forest, if deer become rare or get wiped out by a disease of any natural calamity, the predator. such as lion. can feed on other animals such as fox, *olf, crane etc. till the usual prey animals are available again (see Fig. 14. 3). In brief, we can say that many interlocking food chains make it possible for the living beings to survive minor or major ‘setbacks and changes in their surroundings. Thus, inteiloctiig food chains provide st;bility td the ecosystem.Fig' 14'3: A food web showing the main food links. Note that the starting point for each chain is a plant, and several food chains are interconnected to form a food web. 14. 3. 4 Energy Flow in the Ecosystem The principal source ofenergy for any ecosystem is sunlight. In the earlier sub-section (14. 3. 1) you have studied that solar energy is converted by plants into food materials, and is stored within the body of the plant. All food materials that we or other animals consume are anufactured directly or i ndirectly by plants. Think of your breakfast, bread is made of a cereal that is produced from plant material. egg from hen which has fed on plant products; and milk from cow which has consumed grass or fodder derived from ptants. In a nutsheli, the energy that we obtain from plants either by burning wood or by eating them, represents the solar energy trapped by the plants. We are dependent on the stored resources of solar energy.When we eat meat, we obtain energy that had been stored by plants several years before and then taken up by an animal like a goat through grazing. ffi†n *† cut firewood for fuel, we obtain energy accurnulated and stored by trees for perhaps a century or more. when we burn coal or petroleum, we obtain solar energy rto. â€Å"d by piant life, millions of years ago. Now let us trace the energy flow through an ecosystem. This is represented diagramatically inFig. l4. 4. Fig. 14. 4: Energy flow in an ecosystem.

Succubus Heat CHAPTER 1

Sleeping with my therapist was a bad idea. I knew it too, but I couldn't really help it. There were only so many times I could hear â€Å"Why don't you explain that† and â€Å"Tell me how you feel.† So, I finally snapped and decided to show the guy how I felt. I've gotta say, for a decent guy who had never cheated on his wife, he wasn't that hard to take advantage of. And by â€Å"not hard,† I mean â€Å"ridiculously easy.† His pseudo morals gave me a strong succubus energy fix, and when you consider that what we did was probably the most productive thing that ever took place on his couch, it was almost like I did a good deed. Still, I knew my boss was going to be pissed, seeing as he was the one who'd ordered me to seek counseling in the first place. â€Å"Do not tell Jerome,† I warned my friends, tapping my cigarette against the ashtray. â€Å"I don't want to deal with that kind of fallout.† My friends and I were sitting at a booth in Cold July, an industrial club down in Seattle's Belltown district. The place was dark and loud, with crisscrossing pipes on the walls and ceiling forming the bulk of the d? ¦cor. Because it was a private club, it didn't have to adhere to the city's public smoking ban, which was a perk for me. In the last few months, I'd found nicotine was one of the essential things helping me cope. Other things on the essential list: vodka, Nine Inch Nails, a steady supply of moral men, and an all-purpose bitchy attitude. â€Å"Look, Georgina,† said my friend Hugh. He was an imp, a type of hellish legal assistant who bought souls for our masters and did assorted middle-management tasks. He had dark-cropped hair and was big without being fat. â€Å"I'm no expert in mental health, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that probably wasn't a helpful step on the road to healing.† I shrugged and let my eyes scan the crowded room for potential victims. There were some pretty good pickings here. â€Å"Well, he wasn't that good. At therapy, I mean. Besides, I don't think I need it anymore.† Silence met me, inasmuch as silence could meet me in a place so noisy. I turned back to my friends. Hugh was making no pretense of hiding his you're fucking crazy look. Our vampire friends, Peter and Cody, at least had the decency to avert their eyes. I narrowed mine and put out the cigarette. â€Å"I don't suppose,† said Peter at last, â€Å"that this is anybody you'd maybe, uh, like to date long term?† â€Å"Yeah,† agreed Cody, eyes wide and hopeful. â€Å"I bet a therapist would be a great listener. And you wouldn't even have to pay for it.† â€Å"My insurance pays for it,† I snapped. â€Å"And I don't really appreciate your passive-aggressive attitude about my boyfriend.† â€Å"It's not that passive,† said Hugh. â€Å"You could do better, sweetie.† â€Å"The guy's corrupt and going to Hell. How is this a problem for you? And you didn't like my last boyfriend either. Maybe you should stop worrying about my love life and go back to figuring out how to get your latest secretary into bed.† In what had to be a weird twist of the universe, none of my friends liked my current boyfriend, a dark magician named Dante. Dante's morals were pretty nonexistent, and he owned stock in bitterness and cynicism. That would make you think he'd fit in perfectly with this group of damned souls, but for whatever reason, he didn't. â€Å"You aren't meant to be with someone bad,† said Cody. We were all immortal now but were considered â€Å"lesser immortals.† That meant we had once been human before selling our souls into Hell's service. Cody was young compared to the rest of us in our little circle. Hugh claimed almost a century. Peter and I had millennia. As such, there was almost a naà ¯vet? ¦ about Cody, a charming idealism that rivaled the kind I used to have. It had been shattered when my previous boyfriend, a human named Seth, had left me for a friend of mine. Seth was a good soul, quiet and infinitely kind. He'd made me believe in better things, like that maybe there was hope for a succubus like me. I'd thought I was in love-no, I had been in love. Even I could admit that. But as a succubus, I brought a dangerous element to any relationship. When I had sex with a guy (or a girl-it worked either way), I stole their life energy, which was the power that fueled every human soul. It kept me alive and sustained my immortal existence. The purer the guy, the more energy I took. The more energy I took, the more I shortened his life. With Dante, I had almost no effect. He had little energy to give, so our sex life was relatively â€Å"safe,† and I therefore sought my fixes from meaningless guys on the side. With Seth†¦well, that had been a different story. Sleeping with him would have had very detrimental effects-so I'd refused to do it. For a while, we'd lived on love alone, our relationship being about a lot more than a physical act. Over time, however, that had taken its toll, as had a number of simple relationship complications. Things had finally blown up when Seth had slept with my friend Maddie. I think he'd done it to encourage me to break up, hoping to spare me future pain. Whatever the initial intent, he and Maddie had actually gone on to establish a fairly serious relationship in the following months. I hadn't taken that very well. â€Å"There's no pleasing you guys,† I growled, beckoning the waiter for another drink. He ignored me, irritating me further. â€Å"You don't like good ones. You don't like bad ones. What the fuck does it take?† A new voice suddenly cut into our circle. â€Å"Please tell me we're discussing your romantic hijinks, Georgie. There's nothing I enjoy more.† There he was, standing beside our table: my boss Jerome, archdemon of Seattle and its greater metropolitan area. I glared. I didn't appreciate the mocking tone-or him calling me Georgie. He sat down beside Hugh, and the waiter I'd been trying to summon dashed over immediately. We ordered a new round of drinks. Jerome was clearly in a good mood today, which always made our lives easier. He had on a black designer suit, and his hair was styled exactly the same as John Cusack's had been in a recent TV interview I watched. That probably bears mentioning: Jerome's human body of choice was a clone of John Cusack. Succubi can change shape because that's part of what helps us with seduction. Demons can change shape simply because-like angels-they're insanely powerful beings who have been around since the beginning of time. They're â€Å"greater immortals.† Because of a weird fan obsession that he adamantly denied, Jerome chose to interact in the mortal world looking like the actor. The strange thing was that when we were out like this, humans never seemed to notice the resemblance. â€Å"You haven't been out with us in a while,† I pointed out, hoping to change the subject. â€Å"I thought you've been busy with demon stuff.† Rumor had it that Jerome was sparring with another demon, though none of us knew the details. He took one of my cigarettes out of the pack without asking. A moment later, the end of the cigarette lit on its own. Show-off. â€Å"Things have actually taken a pleasant turn,† he said. He inhaled deeply and then let the smoke swirl around him. â€Å"One less thing to deal with. I'd hoped the incessant babbling about your romantic woes was also going away, but I suppose that's too much to hope for. Are you still with that charlatan?† I threw up my hands. â€Å"Why does everyone hate Dante? You guys should be embracing him as a brother.† Jerome considered, dark eyes thoughtful. â€Å"He annoys me. You can do better.† â€Å"Jesus Christ,† I said. â€Å"Maybe she'd see that if she'd stop doing stupid shit like sleeping with her therapist,† noted Hugh, in what was apparently supposed to be a helpful tone. I turned on him, eyes wide. â€Å"Did you listen to anything I just said?† â€Å"Plenty,† he said. Meanwhile, Jerome's lazy, pleased expression disappeared. He fixed his gaze on me, eyes burning like flame yet inexplicably making me feel cold all over. He smashed the cigarette out and shot up from his seat. Grabbing my arm, he jerked me up from my own spot and started dragging me from the table. â€Å"Come with me,† he hissed. I stumbled with him out to the hall that led to the restrooms. Once out of the sight of others, he pushed me against a wall and leaned toward me, face filled with fury. It was a sign of his agitation that he was behaving like a human. He could have simply transported both of us to some isolated place. â€Å"You fucked your therapist?† he exclaimed. I gulped. â€Å"I wasn't making much progress.† â€Å"Georgie!† â€Å"Why is this a problem? He was a good soul. I thought that was what you wanted me to do!† â€Å"I wanted you to get this fucking chip off your shoulder that you've had ever since that boring mortal dumped you.† I flinched. It was kind of a weird thing. I'd been so depressed after the Seth breakup that Jerome had finally flipped out and told me to go seek help because he was tired of listening to me â€Å"bitch and moan.† The strangeness of a demon encouraging counseling for one of his employees wasn't lost on me. But honestly, how could he understand? How could he understand what it was like to have your heart smashed? To be ripped from the person you loved most in the world? My whole existence had lost meaning, and eternity had seemed impossible to bear. For weeks, I wouldn't go out or talk much to anybody. I'd isolated myself, lost in my own grief. That was when Jerome had thrown up his hands and demanded I snap out of it. And I had, kind of. I'd swung the other way. I'd suddenly become angry-so, so angry at the way life had treated me. Some of my misfortunes were my own fault. But Seth? I didn't know. I didn't know what had happened there, and I felt wronged by the world and the lifetimes of hurt it kept giving me. So, I'd started getting back at it. I'd stopped caring. I'd thrown myself into full succubus mode: seeking out the most moral men I could, stealing their life, and breaking their hearts with little remorse. It helped with the pain. Sometimes. â€Å"I'm doing what I'm supposed to!† I yelled. â€Å"I'm scoring soul after soul. You have nothing to complain about.† â€Å"You have a bitchy attitude and keep picking fights with everyone-and you aren't getting better. I'm tired of it. And I'm tired of you.† I froze, my antagonism turning to pure fear. When a demon said he was tired of you, it often resulted in being recalled to Hell. Or being smote. â€Å"Jerome†¦Ã¢â‚¬  I tried to assess my best strategy here. Charm? Contrition? He stepped away and took a deep, calming breath. It didn't help much. His anger came through loud and clear. â€Å"I'm sending you away. I'm going to outsource you to someone.† † What ?† My anger returned, pushing my fear away momentarily. Outsourcing was a huge insult to a succubus. â€Å"You can't do that.† â€Å"I can do whatever I fucking want. You answer to me.† A lanky guy turned down the hall, heading toward the restroom. Jerome fixed him with a piercing, terrifying look. The guy yelped and hastily headed back the other way. â€Å"There's an archdemon in Vancouver who wants someone to keep an eye on a cult he has an interest in up there.† â€Å"Up there†¦Ã¢â‚¬  My mouth dropped open. â€Å"You mean Vancouver, BC? You're sending me to Canada ?† Fuck. I really had gone too far. There was also a Vancouver in Washington. That wouldn't have been so bad. At least I would have stayed domestic. â€Å"He'd wanted a succubus since he only has one and couldn't spare her. They've got their work cut out for them up there, you know. I almost considered sending them Tawny.† He made a face at the mention of his recently acquired and very, very inept succubus. â€Å"But, well, she's not†¦optimal. I hadn't wanted to give up you either, but now I think it'll be worth missing my useful succubus for a while to get you out of my hair. I need some peace and quiet.† â€Å"Look, Jerome,† I said, hoping I sounded penitent. â€Å"What do you want me to do? Get another therapist? I can do that. I'll get a woman. An ugly one. And I'll try to lay off the attitude and-â€Å" â€Å"That's my decision, Georgie. You need something to occupy you, and this'll make Cedric happy. He figures a succubus is the best choice to infiltrate his little devil-worshipping cult.† â€Å"Devil wor-what, you mean like, Satanists?† â€Å"Something like that.† I stared. â€Å"Canadian Satanists? You're sending me to a group of Canadian Satanists?† His only answer was a shrug. â€Å"If this were happening to anyone else, it would be hilarious,† I said. â€Å"But why are you doing it? Since when do you help anyone-let alone another demon?† Demons tended to be insanely competitive with each other. Again, Jerome didn't answer. He took out a cigarette-honestly, if he had his own, why'd he steal mine earlier?-and did the lighting trick again. He seemed a little less tense after taking a deep drag on it. â€Å"Something else is going on,† I said warily. â€Å"You're using me to use him. What's this really about?† â€Å"Altruism,† he said, rolling his eyes. â€Å"Jerome†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Georgina,† he returned, eyes hard. â€Å"You have no right to question this, not as much as you've pissed me off lately. Now go pack your things and brush up on the metric system.†