The City Planners and the Planners Essay Example for Free

The City Planners and the Planners Essay In ‘The City Planners’ by Margaret Atwood and ‘The Planners’ by Boey Kim Cheng, both poet uses the structure of the poem and language techniques to form the difference between the place itself and its identity. The uniformity between these two poems is the feelings of the poet expresses for this place. In ‘The City planners’ Atwood describes the place as â€Å"dry August sunlight†, this portrays an imagery of no lighting, dark and negative and also suggests to the readers that she do not like where she are. Similarly, in â€Å"The Planners† where the poet expresses to the readers that he dislikes the atmosphere because â€Å"All spaces are gridded† which gives an imagery of there is no free space around this area. Both the poet highlights the identity of the city is perfect but in a negative way. Atwood uses sibilance in â€Å"cutting a straight swath in the discouraged grass. † This emphasizes that even nature is not freely grown, and it must get permission from the planners. Of no difference in â€Å"The Planners† Cheng also uses nature and the same language techniques of sibilance o â€Å"skies surrender† which is suggesting the buildings are so high that the sky is scared of it. The city gives a feeling of unpleasant but the image of the city seemed to be perfect. Both poet is starting to introduce to the readers that the city is not as perfect as they have seen, they expresses the feeling of resentment. In â€Å"The City Planners† Atwood uses sibilance of â€Å"the roofs all display the same slant’ this portrays an imagery of the roof is facing the same way. The words â€Å"same slant† which hints that the house is all the same, the image of the house, the direction its facing, and also the lighting is coming from the same way. The surrounding of this place, gives a feeling of boring and lost. Because everything is the same and she cannot recognise where she is and when will the journey is going to finish. In â€Å"The Planners’ Cheng uses personification of â€Å"The country wears perfect rows of shining teeth†, this creates an imagery of the city itself is looking so perfect but with â€Å"dental dexterity† which suggesting that the powerful people ‘they’ are creating a perfect image for the city. Both poem refers to the place is not in beauty itself and when you spend more time and being very focus at it, you will realise its flaws. Atwood and Cheng use structure of the poem to highlight the exact opposite between the place and its image. Atwood is contradicting what she said in the beginning of the poem where nature is not allowed to be grown anywhere they like. But toward the end of the poem Atwood says that the â€Å"houses, capsized, will slide†, this listing creates a strong feeling of fearfulness and how danger is this place in the future. But â€Å"right now nobody notices. † Atwood finishes the poem of using contradictions that the â€Å"panic of suburb† which hints that this place is getting closer the problem. Cheng uses irony in â€Å"The Planners† where â€Å"history is new again†, history is something that is true which is happening in the pass. No one can change history. The planners can only change the image (identity) of the place but they can never change its pass. History is something that will remain in people’s mind as memory and therefore they can remember it forever. Both poems show the difference between the identity and its background and what the place really are. Atwood and Cheng express the difference of the identity to itself of the place. The contradictions and irony hints that the image of the place and itself can be very different. Give the message to the readers that do not judge a someone or a something by its appearance because the external may look perfect but its internal or the interior can be vice versa.

The Ethics of Nanotechnology Essay -- Nanotechnology Science Research

The Ethics of Nanotechnology Introduction Imagine a world in which cars can be assembled molecule-by-molecule, garbage can be disassembled and turned into beef steaks, and people can be operated on and healed by cell-sized robots. Sound like science fiction? Well, with current semiconductor chip manufacturing encroaching upon the nanometer scale and the ability to move individual atoms at the IBM Almaden laboratory, we are fast approaching the technological ability to fabricate productive machines and devices that can manipulate things at the atomic level. From this ability we will be able to develop molecular-sized computers and robots, which would give us unprecedented control over matter and the ability to shape the physical world as we see fit. Some may see it as pure fantasy, but others speculate that it is an inevitability that will be the beginning of the next technological revolution. Laboratories, such as the Stanford Nanofabrication Facility (SNF), have already been researching nanofabrication techniques with applications in fiber optics, biotechnology, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), and wide variety of other research fields relevant to today's technology. MEMS, "tiny mechanical devices such as sensors, valves, gears, mirrors, and actuators embedded in semiconductor chips", are particularly interesting because they are but a mere step away from the molecular machines envisioned by nanotechnology. MEMS are already being used in automobile airbag systems as accelerometers to detect collisions and will become an increasing part of our everyday technology. In 1986, a researcher from MIT named K. Eric Drexler already foresaw the advent of molecular machines and published a book, Engines of Creation, in ... ...searchers in this field put together an ethical set of guidelines (e.g. Molecular Nanotechnology Guidelines) and follow them, then we should be able to develop nanotechnology safely while still reaping its promised benefits. References Drexler, K. Eric Engines of Creation. New York: Anchor Books, 1986. Drexler, K. Eric Unbounding the Future. New York: Quill, 1991. Feynman, Richard P. There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom. 03 March 2002. http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/feynman.html The Foresight Institute. 03 March 2002. http://www.foresight.org/ Institute for Molecular Manufacturing. 03 March 2002. IMM.org National Nanotechnology Initiative. 03 March 2002. http://www.nano.gov/ Thibodeau, Patrick. "Nanotech, IT research given boost in Bush budget". 03 March 2002. (April 11, 2001) CNN.com [Definitions]. 03 March 2002. Whatis.com

Lincoln Hospital Case Study Essay

Introduction This case describes a crisis situation that unfolds at the Lincoln Hospital, a 400-bed for-profit facility. At the root of the crisis is a dysfunctional relationship between the newly elected chief of surgery, Don, and the Operating Room (OR) director of 13-years, Mary. As a result of their discord, multiple exacerbated issues are occurring throughout the hospital. These issues are impacting the ability of the hospital to successfully perform the planned surgeries without incurring significant issues. The hospital has lost forty percent of the experienced OR nursing staff during the previous eight months, lessor experienced OR nurses are inefficiently replacing the more experienced nurses, physicians are threatening to conduct their surgeries in different hospitals, physicians are arriving late for scheduled surgeries, the staff is divided, and the necessary equipment is either not available or not the correct size resulting in delays and impacts to performing the surgeries. The president of the hospital is facing a daunting dilemma in trying to figure out how to bring this discord to closure and remedy the perturbating effects of this hostile relationship. He believes the discord is responsible for  the other systematic issues seen throughout the hospital. He considers firing Mary but quickly realizes she is an invaluable asset that he cannot afford to let go. At the same time, he realizes he needs to be accommodating to the surgeons or they will take their patients to another hospital. The competitive market adds complexity to the situation since the hospital is facing escalating costs, changes in regulations, and strict accreditation standards. The president realizes the surgeons are loyal to the new chief of surgery and that he cannot afford to alienate or oppose the newly elected chief of surgery for fear of losing the surgeons to his competition. The president conducts his own initial investigation by speaking with both nurses and doctors. He tells Mary and Don that they must resolve their conflict by meeting with each other until they resolve their issues; the meetings would begin immediately. To ensure Mary and Don follow through with his mandate, the president selects an impartial observer, the new executive vice president and chief operating office, Terry, to mediate the meetings. Both Mary and Don also ask their respective vice presidents to sit in on the meetings to ensure fairness in the process. Neither Mary nor Don wants to participate in these meetings and as such, the results of the meeting are less than fruitful. The initial meeting results in a hostile free-for-all. The president of Lincoln Hospital ultimately contracts with an Organizational Development (OD) consultant to remedy the situation. The OD consultant meets with Mary and Don separately to obtain answers to the following three questions: 1) What does he or she do well? 2) What do I think I do that bugs him or her? 3) What does he or she do that bugs me? Mary and Don were able to see the positive characteristics about the other person through the process of answering the questions. Neither Mary nor Don had openly attributed their respect and admiration for the skills of the other person. Prior to participating in this exercise, their answers revealed the existence of ongoing and escalating frustrations concerning their inability to effectuate good interpersonal skills. As Mary and Don continue to participate in these meetings, they become better equipped to address their confrontational issues. They are better positioned and able  to follow through with identifying specific problems, altering their reactions and their behaviors to effectuate co-existence in a productive way. Contracting and Diagnosis Stages The case did not elaborate much on the contracting stage between the president and the OD consultant. The case stated the president was in communication with the OD consultant. The president described a high level overview of the problem and subsequently hired the OD consultant with the expectation that the consultant would champion resolution of the dysfunction between Mary and Don. The OD consultant did not have the opportunity to talk with either Mary or Don prior to establishing a contract with the president. There was no agreement regarding the time to resolve the issues, or the acceptable solutions versus unacceptable solutions, other than the solution must include ongoing employment for both Mary and Don. The output of the contracting process is make a good decision about how to carry out the effort, define the resources needed to accomplish the tasks and document the assumptions, risks, and constraints. The contract ensures all parties are in agreement regarding the necessary commitments, support, and resources. Suggestions for establishing an effective contract would include carefully approaching the contracting process by laying out a model of how the OD process should flow. The contracting process should include all parties, which would be inclusive of Mary and Don. This ensures they all have an input into establishing expectations for the process in terms of the desired outcomes, establish ground rules that all parties could abide by, and agree upon the time and resources that would be devoted to completing the goals within the given constraints. In addition, the OD consultant should state what his expectations are regarding the process. All parties involved need to be clear about their commitment of time and resources to the effort. In addition, Mary, Don, and the OD consultant should agree upon how they will work together. Some conversations may require confidential conversations or information. This type of information should be part of the contract. The diagnosing process began largely from the description given to the OD consultant by the president and not as a collaborative effort among all affected stakeholders. As stated earlier,  Mary and Don, as well as other affected members of the organization, were not engaged in the early meetings. The OD consultant may have a skewed view of the problem since he did not diagnose the problem but rather received the information second hand. His ability to identify the issues to focus on, how to collect data to measure the progress of a proposed implementation, and how to obtain agreement upon the process for assigning action steps is largely from the president’s view. Suggestions for implementing a better diagnosing process would include engaging all affected parties, in a collaborative fashion, to understand all the issues, analyze them, and draw conclusions for action planning and intervention. They should be involved in actively developing appropriate interventions and implementations. An assessment, of the current state of the organization, will identify ways to enhance the organization’s existing functioning. A diagnostic model will point out what areas to examine and what questions to ask in assessing how they are operating. The diagnostic model should include inputs, design components, and outputs. Third-Party or Other Types of Intervention The third-party intervention is an appropriate intervention. It successfully generated positive results and reduced the friction between the two parties. However an element of tension still exists between Mary and Don. The consultant was able to get Mary and Don see past their differences and work together to resolve the issues in a productive way. This allows Mary and Don to see a side of each other they did not know existed, which allows the tensions to subside between the two. This also allows the organization to benefit since Mary and Don appear to be the catalyst for subsequent symptoms appearing throughout the organization. Since much of the information, for diagnosing the situation, came from Mary, Don, and the other people affected by the discord, the diagnosis stage is utilizing accurate data to implement resolutions to the problems. This data is the basis of the intervention and as such it allows Mary and Don to make commitments regarding resolution of their issues. Mary and Don also have a new tool they can use in future meetings and interactions. Other possible interventions may include utilization of process consultations and  team building events. Process consultations focus on the interpersonal relations and the social dynamics between groups. The team building intervention assists groups in working to evaluate their processes as well as establishing solutions to resolve problems. Third-Party Effectivity and Next Steps The third-party intervention is an effective intervention even though not all of the problems were completely resolved; perturbating effects still exist and fuel the discord between Mary and Don. Other issues are still present that need to be resolved throughout the organization. This intervention allows both parties, Mary and Don, to take ownership for the issues that resulted and changes the way they relate and interact with each other. It allows Mary and Don the ability to collaborate in the solutions and accept mutual responsibility for their part in the situation. In addition, they are now able to focus on solutions versus their problems. Although there continues to be some conflict between Mary and Don, they are trying to work through their issues in a productive way. Process consultation should occur to ensure they are still making the needed progress. This method would allow flexibility regarding time commitments for all involved. In addition, repetitive practice in exercising these newly learned behaviors will result in institutionalized behaviors. References Cummings, T. & Worley, C., (2009). Organization development & change. In (Eds.), Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Wolfgang Keller at Konigsbrau-Krayina

Wolfgang Keller, managing director of Konigsbrau-Krayina, the Ukrainian subsidiary of the German beer company Konigsbrau, faces a complicated managerial dilemma. His subordinate, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, is a talented and experienced commercial director who is not meeting his goals appropriately. Keller is an action-oriented manager who likes to use a hands-on approach when dealing with problems. He has the potential to be a great leader as evidence by his drive and people skills. But his lack of experience running a multinational company gives him difficulty in dealing with one of his directors with a different management style. Khmelnytsky’s introvert and highly formal personality had major problems to adjust to the desired organizational culture and getting in touch with customers. Keller must decide the best course of action to take with this difficult employee in an environment in which the industry is rapidly changing and growing and the war for talent is strong. He must also consider what comprises an effective performance review and how his own leadership style impacts Khmelnytsky's poor performance. 1. What is your assessment of Khmelnytsky’s performance? Khmelnytsky’s is rather an administrative, operation-oriented person than a customer-oriented one. His focus is not on sales, he would prefer working in back office and dealing with operational issues where analytical brainstorming is required. He is lacking on motivation, which becomes evident when looking at his behavior. He delegates a lot without proper follow-ups. Also, he is focused solely on his area and does not see the whole picture of the company. Apart from this, he also has a difficult personality, keeping distance to other people. Khmelnytsky also seems to have a higher opinion of himself than of others. Therefore, other people see him as a difficult person to work with. They call him â€Å"MR Problem†. He is not open to his direct reporting line (Keller), so he does not communicate directly with him on every day issues or future plans. Obviously, there is no trust between the two (Keller and Khmelnytsky), especially from Khmelnytsky’s side. This mistrust is affecting directly Khmelnytsky’s performance considering that he is not empowered. Furthermore, Khmelnytsky is more concentrated in showing off and telling everyone that he is doing well than in planning future steps or finding a way how to improve his performance. Also, he is a very unflexible person. He is used to the existing working culture and doesn’t want to believe that things can change and that he should be more responsive to these changes. 2. What has Keller done well and not-so-well in managing Khmelnytsky’s performance? (Our observations expressed to Keller) Things you’ve done well in managing Khmelnytsky’s performance is your honest approach and open dialogue between the two of you. You encouraged Khmelnytsky in things he was good at like planning and implementing a sales reorganization. On the other hand, there are things you did not so well and which therefore could be improved. Managing should always be a two way stream. Saying all the time â€Å"don’t do this, don’t do that† is not an efficient way to direct and manage people. In your letter to Khmelnytsky you used the word NOT very often, like: ‘you are not a leader', ‘your personality does not fit to maintain personal contacts', ‘you do not like personal contacts', ‘you are not well-integrated into the team', etc †¦ Instead of criticizing a person’s traits,, your discontent should refer to concrete tasks/work which Khmelnytsky did not handle well. With your coaching you failed to become an exemplary leader and coach to your subordinates, with no or very little ability to motivate Khmelnytsky. Your managerial capabilities are ineffective since you are too focused on operational, day-to-day operations instead of focusing on more strategic issues of the company. You are not a team player and you intervene too much and too frequently in Khmelnytsky’s scope of work – you are not leading but directing. The current performance management system is ineffective since there are no frequent interviews (once a year is not enough) and quantitative goal settings (only qualitative goals, which are too subjective and therefore source of many conflicts). The steps to be taken which were listed in the explanatory letter to Khmelnytsky were in our opinion too wide and too general. The feedback should have rather been concrete, very precise and action-oriented. Furthermore, your social perceptiveness seems to be very low. You should try to be more open in accepting cultural differences. 3. What actions should Keller take upon returning to Kyiv with regard to Khmelnytsky’s performance? (A letter to Keller) Dear Mr. Keller, First of all thank you very much for your trust in our company’s professionalism and experience in counselling. It is our honour to provide you impartial and objective leadership advice for solving your special managerial dilemma. After a comprehensive analysis of the issue please allow us to be very straightforward. Based on our observations we would like to make the following recommendations to you: 1. Empowerment. Trust the experienced and talented Mr. Khmelnitsky for at least a trial period and let him do his job completely alone. Give him full responsibility and try to get away from getting involved in his daily business. 2. Communication. Improve your communication with Mr. Khmelnytsky. A much more relational leadership style can work like a miracle in bypassing the communication gap between you and Mr. Khmelnytsky. Please be much more emphatic. Cultural biases and immature, extremely task oriented management style can affect the behavior of subordinates in a very negative way. We noticed also in your annual appraisal the lack of tactfulness. Expressions like â€Å"you are not a leader† were undiplomatic and also unprofessional. With this kind of communication you only hurt the feelings and the pride of your subordinates and on the other hand their motivation will be lost very easily after such a verbal offense. 3. Follow your instinct and be a real leader. Don’t be scared to alter the daily duties of the commercial director. You need to keep a talented manager like Mr. Khmelnytsky at the company, however, if you communicate well with him and start a new chapter in your relationship a slight re-organization can take place. Let Mr. Khmelnytsky keep his rank as director of the commercial department but divide the functions and let Mr. Skovoroda allow to lead the sales department as the sales director. You could offer to Mr. Khmelnytsky that he could be the supervisor and mentor of Mr. Skovoroda in the beginning period – by offering him also a slight salary increase for that responsibility – but he has to focus on marketing and give free hand to Mr. Skovoroda. That way you could bring out the most of Mr. Khmelnytsky’s experience and on the other hand you can win the best advisor and mentor for Mr. Skovoroda until he gains enough experience and confidence to work completely alone. Conclusion This case demonstrated how differences in management style, communication, personality and culture can result in a conflict that can jeopardize the business results of a company. It also showed that managers without extensive managerial experience have to learn how to trust their subordinates and how to communicate with them in a constructive and emphatic way in order to be effective.

A danger to public health and welfare Essays - Nutrition

A danger to public health and welfare Essays - Nutrition A danger to public health and welfare In what could be a historic moment in the struggle against climate change, the environmental protection agency on Friday confirmed what most people have long suspected but had never been declared as a matter of federal laws carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases constitute a danger to public health and welfare. The formal endangerment finding names carbon dioxide and five other heat trapping gases as pollutants subject to regulation under the federal clean air act. This in turn sets the stage after a 60-day comment period for broad new rules touching major sectors of the American economy and profoundly influencing how Americans use and generate energy. Labels lift how the FDA could make nutrition facts more palatable. Ill have one serving size with a couple of grams of sugar, please. Chances are youve never spoken a sentence like that out loud, because to most people, it doesnt make sense. Yet thats the kind of lingo food makers have used for years to tell Americans about what theyre eating, via the nutrition facts panel. Now, for the first time in a decade the food and drug administration is ready for a chance. After many rounds of internal debate and hefty criticism from health groups the FDA recently submitted a list of proposed improvements for approval by the white house. Since the nutrition facts label was introduced in 1990, the science and recommendations under lying it have changed, says Juli Putnam, an FDA spokesman. Whereas studies show that there are good and bad fats, for example, the label lumps Who do I talk to I will let them Engineering Consulting Firm Residential That will be wonderful Thank you for your help I talked to Geoff. I can redo it Where are you? Little things How is everything going? Turn it off the computer All the fats together. And daily values for sodium are based one a 2,400 mg diet even though new research says those figures should be lower. Although the FDA wont say when the changes will take effect it could be years or what they will be, many nutrition experts have already chimed in with suggestions. But Dr. Robert Lustig, a professor of clinical pediatrics at the university of California, Sand Francisco, warns that helath advocates should temper their expectations. After all, food processing companies spent over $28 million last year on lobbying efforts, some of which were aimed at the FDA. None the less, even a small tweak could pay big dividends. Now that 42% of working base Americans are reading nutrition fact labels (up from 34% in 2008), they could play a key part in combatting the obesity epidemic. None of these are block-buster changes, says Michael Jacobson, executive director of the center for science in the public Internet. Theyre steps.

The evolution of the Humanitarian Intervention doctrine with a focus Dissertation

The evolution of the Humanitarian Intervention doctrine with a focus on the most important developments of post 90's - Dissertation Example No, doubt the notion for HI has received some flash light in recent years but the inclination trend has been notifies only among western countries while G-77 which consists of 133 states and among them 122 states have rejected the doctrine of humanitarian intervention. Endorsing humanitarian intervention has been controversial only due to the lack of consensus and willingness about the legitimacy and legality of this doctrine which has contained HI doctrine. Regarding the practice of Humanitarian Intervention during 1990s in Iraq, Haiti, Rwanda Bosnia, Chechnya and Somalia showered the interests and willingness of Security Council to sanction Chapter VII of the UN Charter for enforcing operations in reaction to interior conflicts and human rights abuses but in purview of disorder to international peace and security and yet the authorization and legitimacy remained in function of the authorization from SC and use of force was called justified and legal. However, this harmony among per manent member states of the Security Council does not represent the voice of the global community. Although this harmonization among permanent member states was apparently dissipated during the crisis when China and Russia showed intentions for rejection of the resolution for humanitarian intervention which later was conducted by NATO without any authorization from the Council. This illustration of use of force against the norms of the International Law provoked another frenzied debate about whether this unilateral military action was symptomatic of the legality of humanitarian interventions which has not been authorized by the Security Council. Undeniably, the Kosovo intrusion was questionable which aggravated the present niggle with this regime because it was inimitable and it raised the problems of the legitimacy while some analysts asserted that this use of force against humanitarian violence was a new emerging norm and custom of International Law by which states practice use of force to eliminate human rights violations , on the other hand some scholars simply admitted the fact that this humanitarian intervention can gradually be accepted as legal and justified practice because considering the sufferings of Albanians it can be sanctioned as legitimate. 25 Humanitarian intervention in Kosovo soon became the renowned action of NATO against human rights violations, which then ended up with Independent International Commission on Kosovo (IICK) . No doubt that under the Article 51 and Article 52 of United Nations states that the ultimate legitimacy of any humanitarian intervention rests within the powers of Security Council. The purpose of this commission was to inquire the legitimacy of NATO’s intervention and analyse the implications of this intervention whether it can be declared legitimate or NATO’s actions require further punishment for its violation of UN Charter. Although the intervention was declared illegal but appropriate in accordance with International Law. However the Commission’s definition of legality turned seemingly narrow and irrespective of its illegalities, the commission focused exclusively on the moral and ethical aspects besides respecting the preferences of super power USA under whose

Current Ethical issues in International HRM Coursework

Current Ethical issues in International HRM - Coursework Example Furthermore, the task of IHRM is to find, attract and manage gifted employees, which are the most valuable resource for any organization (Kramar et al 2011). a) bribery. When a company appears in the international environment, it can appear in the middle of the conflicts existing in the new society. Bribery is one of them. For example, while the bribery laws in the USA are strong, they are not so strong in Africa or China. The companies which recently faced such problem are: Transparency International Australia  and The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)  (Collings & WoodÐ ± 2009) b) breach of contract. The main task of IHRM is to make employees perform in accordance with ethical norms. Only adhering to ethical rules can increase the standard of living and bring benefits to employees and their families. IHRM has a very difficult task to instruct on the code of ethics and its application in the international environment. The violation of ethical rules can lead to breach of contract. The company, which recently faced such a problem, is Ocean & Earth (Klerck, 2009). c) abuse of human rights. Here the human resources managers meet many challenges and these challenges are much more serious than in those companies, which do not perform internationally. This situation is typical for the work in developing countries. Globe International  Limited faced the situation where the rights of their employees were violated. This negatively influenced the performance of the organization (Klerck