Sunday, December 29, 2019

United States Public Health And Marine Hospital Service

In 1899, after the Spanish- American war, Bailey K. Ashford found a parasite in the New World that was widespread among the rural inhabitants of Puerto Rico. Intrigued, he conducted several studies of the anemia caused by hookworm, which was responsible for many deaths in the area, and set up a treatment plan to cure the infected. Ashford set up dispensaries for the Puerto Rican population. Between 1904 and 1910, American officials treated 287,568 hookworm cases, nearly 1/3 of the population (Sledge 129). Meanwhile, in the United States, Charles Wardell Stiles of the United States Public Health and Marine Hospital Service was informed by Ashford of the hookworm outbreak. Interested in the information, Stiles took a preliminary survey†¦show more content†¦Stiles spent seven years trying to get his voice heard, until he finally convinced the John D. Rockefeller philanthropy to contribute to the cause. Rockefeller donated one million dollars to fight hookworms in the south. How ever, the south became outraged with the donation. Warren Chandler even said, â€Å"it is our hope that our people will not be taken in by Mr. Rockefeller’s fund and hookworm commission†. The south did not want help with anything, especially if it was coming from up north. Regardless, the creation of the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission for the Eradication of Hookworms began. The commission had several strategies in order to not only treat people but to also inform them. Surveys went out in certain states as well as newspapers and public notices. If one had hookworms they would be diagnosed at the dispensary then given thymol to be taken at home. The commission also built sanitary privies and tried to improve existing living spaces. However, there was a flaw, only 50% had access to sanitary privies and most people do not have shoes or toilets. The commission was getting rid of the worms inside but neglecting to get rid of them outside. One million dollars were not spent and they came nowhere near to getting rid of the hookworms. The commission did however change the involvement in the federal role in public health. By 1917, the south not only had hookworms but they now had malaria

Saturday, December 21, 2019

Iagos Revenge in Othello - 680 Words

Murder, deception, and tragedy are all found in the play by Shakespeare, Othello. The play Othello is set in the Elizabethan era, and is found on the streets of Venice. Shakespeare was a playwright, from the Elizabethan era (1600’s),who wrote many great plays that are still read to this day in age. Othello is a war general, an older man, and a black man, who, by the end of the novel, goes from having it all, to having nothing. This wouldn’t be possible though without the help of the incredibly deceitful Iago, who at all costs wants to ruin Othello and take his job as general. Othello isn’t the only target though, for Cassio, the young right hand man of Othello, will also taste the trickery that is Iago. Iago is a man with a plan, but at what cost does he go to get his way. Iago went too far from his original plan for revenge, and that is why he will be caught in the end. Before one can say Iago went too far, one must know his original plan. Iago is talk ing to himself after talking to his â€Å"friend† Roderigo when he says, â€Å"I hate the Moor, and it is thought abroad that ‘twixt my sheets he’s done my office. I know not if’t be true, but I for mere suspicion in that kind, will do as if for surety† (105; 378-382). Iago hates the Moor, or Othello, because Cassio was given the spot of Othello’s lieutenant over himself. Now, Iago says that it is a common knowledge that Othello has once slept with Iago’s wife, even though he says he doesnt know it to be true.Show MoreRelatedIagos Revenge to Othello1892 Words   |  8 PagesRevenge is the main theme in the play Othello by William Shakespeare and it is portrayed from the character Iago. Through Iago’s soliloquies he reveals his horrible doings. Iago wants to get revenge on Othello and his loved one Desdemona. The reason why he wants to get revenge at Othello is because he promotes Cassio to Lieutenant. Iago takes advantage of his reputation â€Å"Honesty Iago† to manipulate other characters in the play to get revenge from Othello. Iago is aware that he can easily manipulateRead MoreOthello, By William Shakespeare1353 Words   |  6 Pagesâ€Å"Othello† is a tragedy play written by William Shakespeare in 1603. The play explains the story of a solider, Iago, that destroys a powerful general named Othello’s marriage, reputation, and overall life. The actions of the protagonist in the play, Iago, will be analyzed for their importance and domino effect throughout the play. Iago is a soldier of the army in Venice. He is a flat character in the play that is selfish, but on the exterior appears to value other individual’s concerns more thanRead MoreOthello, By William Shakespeare1480 Words   |  6 PagesMahatma Ghandi once said â€Å"An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.† This quote that was said by a very wise man appeared to be very relatable and s ignificant to the play Othello. Othello is a tragedy play written by William Shakespeare in 1603. The play explains the story of a solider, Iago, that destroys a powerful general named Othello’s marriage, reputation, and overall life. Iago is the antagonist of the play and a soldier of the army in Venice. He is a flat character in theRead MoreWhat Do Iagos Two Soliloquies Tell Us (the Audience) About His Motives and Character?680 Words   |  3 PagesIagos intentions and motives for the malicious and evil acts he performs can be fully realized when he reads his soliloquies to the audience. It gives Iago the chance to be completely honest for once and provides the irony when the audience knows Iagos plans but the other characters are unaware and call him ‘Honest Iago. In Iagos soliloquy in Act 1 Scene 3, Iago exclaims I hate the Moor; he repeats this sentence many times during the first act of the play. The reasons for his hatred areRead MoreTheme Of Jealousy In Othello1102 Words   |  5 PagesThe Mediterranean Sea of Jealousy Harriet Williams delves into the waters of jealousy and deceit in Oliver Parker’s Othello.Adapting Shakespeare for the screen can be problematic, as Oliver Parker discovered with his 1995 directing debut, Othello. Portraying the actions of a noble Moor who brutally sacrifices his beloved wife over a strategically placed handkerchief, or Justifying Iago, whose evil manoeuvrings create an irrevocable wreckage out of the lives of at least six people, all because heRead MoreJealousy By William Shakespeare s Othello1075 Words   |  5 Pagestragic play Othello, jealousy plays a major role throughout the tragedy. Iago, Othello s ancient , acts as the antagonist and is very manipulative. Iago envy of Othello’s position of power causes issues between Othello and Desdemona. His premeditated motives are used in the tragedy to manipulate the other characters. Iago’s wicked actions of revenge causes destruction in the play. To begin, Jealousy is a strong emotion that can affect an individual from seeing the truth. In Othello, ShakespeareRead MoreOthello Character Analysis1076 Words   |  5 PagesThe Mediterranean Sea of Jealousy Harriet Williams delves into the waters of jealousy and deceit in Oliver Parker’s Othello. Adapting Shakespeare for the screen can be problematic, as Oliver Parker discovered with his 1995 directing debut, Othello. I sat down with Oliver Parker, to discuss the challenge of portraying the actions of a noble Moor who brutally sacrifices his beloved wife over a strategically placed handkerchief. The characterisation of Iago, whose evil maneuverings create an irrevocableRead MoreEssay on Iago; The Representation of Villainy in Othello808 Words   |  4 PagesDictionary. In Othello, Iago fits this definition perfectly though Othello does not recognize that Iago is his enemy until the end of the story. Iago is the evil-minded, backstabbing character in this dramatic story. He demonstrates this villainy act all through out the story beginning with being angry with Othello for not appointing him as lieutenant, his revenge on cassio for taking his place as lieutenant, and setting up Desdemona to look like she is cheating on Othello. His machinationsRead MoreWilliam Shakespe are s Othello And Othello Essay1282 Words   |  6 PagesOthello speaks to Iago in Act Three of the play saying, â€Å"certain, men should be what they seem† (3.3.131). This excerpt foreshadow events in which Othello will begin to question the actions and morality of Cassio and Desdemona, all orchestrated by Iago’s scheming nature. This is a very important concept to showcase because Othello devoutly loves Desdemona and trusts Cassio until conniving language from Iago causes him to think otherwise. Drawing on Shakespeare’s source story by Cinthio and otherRead MoreThe Most Gifted : Othello By William Shakespeare770 Words   |  4 PagesVillain in Literature The tragedy of Othello by William Shakespeare takes place in Venice and Cyprus approximately in 1603. Othello, the valiant Moor of Venice and the play’s protagonist, is a noble gifted leader looked up to by the people of Venice. His â€Å"free and open nature† (1.3.390) allows Iago, the play’s antagonist, to be able to identify Othello’s tragic flaw: credulity. Iago’s consuming desire for power fuels his meticulous plot to hurt and manipulate Othello. Through the use of jealousy and

Friday, December 13, 2019

Freedom of Pakistan and India Free Essays

The Freedom of Pakistan and India Plan of the Investigation: In this essay, I chose to further investigate the freedom of Pakistan and India. On August 14, 1947, there was the birth of the new Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The very next day India had won its freedom from colonial rule lasting three hundred fifty years. We will write a custom essay sample on Freedom of Pakistan and India or any similar topic only for you Order Now The partition of India, following World War II, is the most tragic political event to affect India in its history. The partition divided Hindus and Muslims, who had lived together for nearly three hundred fifty years. It led to endless boundary disputes, three wars between the two neighbors, a nuclear powered arms race, and state-sponsored terrorism. Summary of Evidence: The freedom movements started when the Englishman Allan Hume helped a group of Indians start the Indian National Congress in 1885, which didn’t compete with British power. In the early 1900s, Bal Gangadhar Tilak brought a new faction within it, whose aim was independence. The Indian National Congress also had socialist impacts. In 1906, a big split occurred and the few Muslim that’s were in the Indian National Congress left, and a group called the Muslim League was formed. There are three main reasons that the Muslim nationalist movement emerged later than the Hindu movement. The first one is because the Muslims had their own religious schools and did not care about western thought as much as they should have. This was a problem because it was an important characteristic of the leaders of the revolutionaries. Secondly, the Muslims in the Indian National League were decreasing due to the increase in Hindu nationalism. Thirdly, the â€Å"big bang† was a dispute that occurred 1905-1911 in Bengal. In 1905, the British redrew the borders, giving the Muslims a majority of the districts. This upset the Hindus and in 1911, this decision was reversed. In 1906, as a result, there were two parties working for independence: the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League. In 1915, Mohandas Gandhi arrived in India. Gandhi obtained a degree in law with experience in nonviolent protests. Gandhi had the qualities to find peace with the Hindus for a greater cause, which was independence. He was well qualified. In his work, he actually caused pressure, causing the British Parliament to pass the Government of India Act. The act gave Indians the chance to have a law-making group, but the British Viceroy had the power to veto and the British were still the supreme rulers of India. The Hindus and Muslims were not satisfies with this act. The elected Indian legislature was formed by popularity. The Muslims had little representation, which upset them that the Hindu had more power over them. Gandhi tried to make peace, but in the elected congress there was no room for Muslims. The Hindus in the congress made it so the Muslims had limited rights. This upset the Muslims tremendously and was the final break between Hindus and Muslims. Evaluation of Sources: There are three main reasons for the partition of India. The first is that the British used the â€Å"divide and conquer† principle to rule India and had to instead use the â€Å"divide and relinquish† demands of Muslims. Secondly, the British thought that there were more people in the Muslim League pushing for Pakistan than there really were. They also didn’t understand why the Muslims were in every village and couldn’t move to Pakistan. Analysis: In India, many nationalistic movements had started and nationalism had grown tremendously. For example, the British made advances in transportation and communication. The British did not care about the customs of the people of India, which caused a distance between the ruler and the people. Therefore, the Indian National Congress was trying to get Britain to Quit India. The Muslim League came up with the idea for the British to divide up the land and then quit. The British implanted on this idea, but were also fearful of the potential threat that the Muslims. They had previously ruled the subcontinent for over 300 years under the Mughal Empire, so the British didn’t wanted hostility amongst them. They decided to separate the Muslims in India. In order to do so, the British helped establish the M. A. O. College at Aligarh and supported the All-India Muslim Conference, which were institutions that leaders of the Muslim League and Pakistan ideology came from and were placed on a separate electorate. The Muslims and the Hindus of India had religious conflicts amongst one another. The people that were rooted from India felt that the nature of Islam called for a communal Muslim society because that is all that they know. This idea made it hard for Muslims to accept change and refused to learn English or associate with the British especially because the Hindus were in high ranked positions in the government. The Muslims felt like the British favored Hindus. The Hindus resent the Muslims because of their formal rule. They wanted to make Hindi the national language, rather than Urdu. The Hindus and Muslims merely just fought for power. The Muslim League was further convinced by the Congress that it was impossible to live in an undivided India due to religious issues. For example, the â€Å"Bande Matram† was the national anthem that was forced to be sung in the schools, which expressed anti-Muslim sentiments. Conclusion: After years of oppression, at midnight on August 14, 1947, India was deemed an independent nation. Jawaharlal Nehru ruled as the first Prime Minister of the newly emancipated country. Gandhi was opposed to India being divided. In response, he spent the day in Calcutta fasting and praying. Muslims in the northern region of India were absorbed into Pakistan, and riots ensued. Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs found themselves at war with each other, and Kashmir and the surrounding area became a callous that greatly contributed to the First Indo- Pakistani War, lasting for two years, from 1947 to 1949. India and Pakistan were both granted full self-rule, with the King- Emperor being crowned Head of State of both countries. The Governor General served a King-Emperor’s representative, and in 1948, Chakravarti Rajgopalachi ensued Mountbatten. Mohammed Ali Jinnah stepped up as Pakistan’s Governor General, and Liaquat Ali Khan became Prime Minister. Sources and Word Limit: Hasan, Mushirul (2001), India’s Partition: Process, Strategy and Mobilization, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 444 pages Kamat, Vikas. â€Å"The Partition of India. † Kamat’s Potpourri — The History, Mystery, and Diversity of India. N. p. , n. d. Web. 8 Feb. 2010. . Provincial, and Central Governments. â€Å"Pakistan, or, The Partition of India, by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. † Columbia University in the City of New York. N. p. , n. d. Web. 8 Feb. 2010. . Wolpert, Stanley. 2006. Shameful Flight: The Last Years of the British Empire in India. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. 272 pages. Words: 1,283 How to cite Freedom of Pakistan and India, Papers

Thursday, December 5, 2019

Necessity Entrepreneurship and Competitive Strategy

Question: Discuss about the Necessity Entrepreneurship and Competitive Strategy. Answer: Introduction: The paper focuses on IKEA case study to understand how it uses it cost leadership strategy in the market. A companys relative position in the market and within the industry largely determines the level of profitability. According to Lebherz and Hartmann (2017), there are strategies which are combined with the scope of activities essential in attaining competitive advantage. These events lead to generic strategies namely differentiation, cost leadership, and focus. Ikea uses cost leadership strategies to ensure and enhance its competitive ability in the market. The market approach in different countries is based on the culture and other social aspects. IKEA Cost Leadership Strategy IKEA is one of the largest furniture firm operating in the international business environment that sell furniture to the consumers who assemble them at home for use. The company was founded more than half a century ago in Sweden and has been successful in carrying out business for the last 74 years (Block et al. 2015). The main question to be explored is how did the IKEA group operate and gain a market dominance for quite a considerable period? What strategies has the management employed to maintain and enhance the success? Looking for Porters Generic Strategies that were proposed by Michael Porter, the group follows the Cost Leadership Strategy which is visible in its operations. The company is driven by a simple and clear mission which includes selling a range of furniture products and accessories at a fair and reasonable price at the reach of various demographic groups (Jin-Yuan et al. 2016). This means that the designs are excellent and fashionable but lower price which makes many people afford them. By proving a broad range of assortment with excellent functionality, the buyers can find all they want under one roof, and that is why consumers find everything at IKEA (Block et al. 2015). Therefore, the success of the group is founded on the relatively simple idea that includes reducing the pricing to the customers. When a firm wants to achieve and follow cost leadership strategy, it implements activities that reduce the price of the products. In regard to this, Ikea, a Swedish furniture retailer has revolutionized the industry through the provision of cheap and stylish furniture which fetch higher prices in other countries and firms. The company can sell the product at lower prices because the products are sourced in low-wage countries and provision of basic level service to the consumers (Johnson, Scholes Whittington, 2008). Ikea does not deliver or assemble the finished furniture; the buyers collect them in a particular warehouse, and assemble them at home. Such strategy makes it capable for the firm to offer the product at lower prices and attract customers from various categories (Lebherz Hartmann, 2017). Conclusion In conclusion, IKEA group use cost leadership strategy to provide products of excellent designs at considerably low prices compared to that of the competitors. This strategy has been successful in offering innovative design to attract and retain consumers. Further, IKEA approach has been replicated in many countries, and it has enabled increase the brand awareness to the market. Besides it is more than a furniture merchant as it also offers lifestyle to consumers across the globe. Bibliography Block, J.H., Kohn, K., Miller, D. and Ullrich, K., 2015. Necessity entrepreneurship and competitive strategy.Small Business Economics,44(1), pp.37-54. Jin-Yuan, Y.U.A.N., Miao, W.A.N.G. and Xiao-Ming, Y.U.A.N., 2016. Analysis for Cost Leadership Strategy and Core Competitiveness Points of IKEA CO.DEStech Transactions on Economics and Management, (iceme-ebm). Johnson, G., Scholes, K. and Whittington, R., 2008.Exploring corporate strategy: text cases. Pearson Education. Lebherz, M. and Hartmann, J., 2017. Applying the value grid model to the furniture industry: the example of IKEA.

Thursday, November 28, 2019

Anthem Essays (745 words) - Anthem, Egalitarianism,

Anthem A young man lives in a place where the word "I" does not have meaning. It is a society where there are no individuals. It is, however, a place where you strive to serve your brothers. Equality 7-2521 was taught from birth that the individual is not important. He is in a crazed society where the only form of government is collectivism. Equality, at age 21, has absolutely no freedom. He is a a strong, tall young man who stands about six feet. However, in this society, anyone who is six feet tall was considered to be evil. His dream of going to the House of Scholars is lost and he is sent to the Hose of Street Sweepers instead. Here the rules are very strict. He is not allowed to laugh or sing for any reason. These are a couple of hardships that Equality has to face so far in this mixed up society. His troubles get greater and greater until finally he does something about it. All through his life, Equality thinks he is not capable of accomplishing anything. Through time though, he discovers that he is capable of doing many things by himself and more importantly that he is an individual. When he is in the tunnel, he discovers a light. This provides him with the confidence that he is able to do things. Other experiences, such as falling in love with Liberty and seeing his reflection in the pond also help him to believe in himself as a strong individual. Equality later realizes that he has commited sins as he was growing up. He thinks by showing his invention to the House of Scholars that he would be forgiven for his wrongdoings. He hopes to show his invention to society and find a way into the House of the Scholars. He also wants to prove that being tall does not make you an evil individual. He feels that he has sinned because he was sent to the Palace of Corrective Detention when he did not reveal where he has been. He wishes to be forgiven for being sent there. Even though entering the tunnel is against the law, he feels that he is going to discover things that would improve the society that he is living in. Equality tries to get the House of Scholars to accept him for the last time. He finds out when and where they are going to meet and devises a plan. He decides to escape from the Palace of Corrective Detention and go to where the meeting is being held. He arrives at the Council of Scholars and look at him in astonishment. The members are afraid at first because they do not know exactly what Equality is presenting to them. After they realize what it is that Equality is showing them, they are very insulted that a mere street sweeper was belittling their intelligence as Council members. Upon hearing that his idea is rejected, he leaps out the window and runs to the Uncharted Forest where no man survives. He finds out that Liberty has followed him into the forest. They come together and find an abandoned house. They enter it and see things that they have never seen before. They find clothes, 2 beds in one room, and one thing that shocked them the most, a mirror. After looking at the mirror, he now knows for sure that he is an individual. He now understands that the word "I" that he had learned from the manuscripts of the Unmentionable Times has meaning. He knows that he lives for himself and not for others. He realizes that he is his own self and he determines his own fate. He then changes his name to Promethus which is a Greek God who stole the light of the 600's and gave it to man. Promethus had suffered just as Equality had, and Equality admired him very much and chose his name to be his own. Liberty also changed her name. Equality gave her the name Gaea after the Greek Goddess who was the mother of earth and all the God's. Gaea becomes pregnant and they both decide to raise their child as an individual and to never let it experience the hardships they had faced in the crazed society of Collectivism. Equality makes it his duty to rescue the other friends he had left behind. He feels that they deserve the same freedom that he is now experiencing. He plans to "save all

Sunday, November 24, 2019

Reflection †Thank You for Smoking essayEssay Writing Service

Reflection – Thank You for Smoking essayEssay Writing Service Reflection – Thank You for Smoking essay Reflection – Thank You for Smoking essayThe movie under consideration is entitled â€Å"Thank You for Smoking† and is a successful adaptation of the novel by Christopher Buckley. Jason Reitman’s media sharp satire deals with cigarette industry and a brilliant career of the tobacco lobby Nick Naylor, whose job is to present daily proof that there are no problems with tobacco indeed killing many each year. On continuing to defend them he promotes a cover anti-smoking advertising and wins several arguments demonstrating his moral flexibility. It is a true challenge to defend a controversial issue that is evidently harmful, analyze the issue and demonstrate it from another angle. Nick insists on tobacco being overreacted as a social issue and finds it important for everyone to decide for himself what is best. He has to do his job though it seemingly goes against what he believes as a young father. However, speaking to the audience in the assembly, the spokesman accen tuates that tobacco education should be first and foremost at family level. He teaches his son that nothing can be totally proven and that the beauty of an argument is that if you argue correctly, you’re never wrong. Nick talks fluently of challenging things, but the climax is when he is straightly asked if he gives his son the first cigarette, he appears to lose part of himself at the very moment he acknowledges it. Nick demonstrates liberal tolerance and his toleration of his son’s future smoking contradicts with his moral obligation to his son to safeguard his life and health.Thus, the spokesman violates the ethical to reestablish it later. He sacrifices his son’s future health for a greater ethical good, that is freedom of choice. He shows that he won’t compel his son act this or that and sacrifices his personal victory for the benefit of society. Freedom is high above that and his son’s health doesn’t outweigh the right of every citizen to make free choices. Nick’s job lies in making dangerous products like tobacco more appealing to the American public along with other members of the MOD Squad. But only he demonstrates how his own maxims and intentions contradict with his actions and results. On the one hand, he probably uses others as mere means in his scheme of action, during anti-tobacco advertising campaign or deceives people on TV show when he proves that tobacco industry wouldn’t like to lose its consumer and kill him by the example of a 15-year old boy dying from cancer. He gives his audience who doesn’t now his real maxim some false promises that he is not going to keep. On the other hand, the character acts beneficently as he tries to achieve what others want and lobbies freedom of choice, his beneficence being selective.   Though we cannot say that from the very beginning his words express his true intentions, but according to the Formula of the End in Itself   his intentions fos ter others ends and promote freedom of choice without any constrain. Nick Naylor definitely faces moral dilemma when human happiness demands the sacrifice of someone’s lives and welfare. Despite using his audience as mere means at first, his intention at the end is to bring them to happier result valuing the life and choice of each and every person. The character shows that no one should be an instrument and mere means in others hands, humans should be treated as ends in themselves for their own benefit.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Experimental Communities, Schools, Organizations Essay

Experimental Communities, Schools, Organizations - Essay Example Their capacities to understand themselves increases and if they are wrong in taking any decisions they would never commit the mistake again. The children in their childhood at the tender age are highly humiliated and scolded like hell for not scoring good marks in their academics. The students of Utopian schools do not face such a humiliation. Education must wipe away sorrows and humiliation but should not bring fever and pain and tension to the little hearts. In these Utopian schools happiness boosts their primary strength to pursue their goals. The students here gain self-respect by accommodating and giving place to their thoughts opinions and decisions. Their creativity comes to light and they prove how competent they are. There are some negative points because which the theory could be sidelined or is not appealing and that points are, in these theory based schools the family values are given least important. Children are the dreams of their parents and they wish to play a very important and active role in the upbringing of their offspring. If parents too give them freedom and in school to get freedom, then there is an over dosage of freedom which may cause damage to their attitude at times. The children without the fear of anybody may turn out to be a daredevil. Another quality that is missing is self-discipline, which is needed by good citizen and the nation too which the Utopian students lack in them. Time is not always favorable and what if they fail in their attempts, will they turn violent and rapacious. Are they controllable by any one Will they have patience All these aspects are discussed and mentioned anywhere. Are all the children so perfect in their persona who never does any crime If some of them doesn't have any special skill or talent then whatAnother minus point is education. Personal skills and talents are given importance but education is not a must. If they neglect education with the play mood what then, If the children doesn't know about the place they stand, from where they have come, and the country witnessed, the struggles and sacrifices of their ancestors, they will not have any words in their mouth when their country is ridiculously criticized. It is like a child looses all his memory due to some accident after he or she has grown up. Who knows nothing about the past Knowing our ancient history is like paying homage to the brave and great ancestors. Also to u nderstand the political scenario of the nation, that is civics to understand the topography of the country, that is geography are necessary. In my opinion basic minimum education about all the subjects is a must for any well-groomed person. Is the life so precious that one cannot spend small part of life with the books It is the book that makes the man from a wild homo sapiens to a civilized man. Devoid education man is a beast. Some theories are not realistic because the real life doesn't match with the imaginary world. The life is the mixture of all sorts of emotions and feelings. A man cannot be happy always or in a same state or mood whole of the life, this is not philosophy it is the way of the world. For any one the pleasure and the pain are in equal amounts, otherwise, he may turn dull, sick or boring if the weather is same all the time and thus the things may not look that interesting as they were when

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Problems of Performance Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Problems of Performance Management - Essay Example In view of this information, the Systems Model of Performance Management is adapted. The paper is concluded with a discussion and recommendations for future research. By definition, Performance Management generally includes performance planning, i.e. goal setting, ongoing coaching and development of subordinates, formally reviewing performance and rewarding performance. It was first introduced by Michael Beer as an innovative appraisal and development system that combines the developmental facet of performance appraisal with the goal-setting facet of MBO (Beer & Ruh, 2000; Beer, Ruh, Dawson, McCaa & Kavanagh, 2001). At the time, it was considered an improvement on the performance appraisal system, which was generally considered as subjective and plagued by rather problems. In considering the value that could potentially be added by Performance Management, it is important to bear in mind that Performance Management as a process was developed because of the failure of performance appraisals. In essence, Performance Management represents a move from an isolated, mechanistic, HR-driven approach to performance appraisal towards a comprehensive, integrated business-driven system aiming at organisational and people development. (Cawley et al. 2003) It was believed that by participative setting goals that are aligned with higher organisational goals, conducting performance reviews and coaching on an ongoing basis, and rewarding an individual's performance based on the outputs of the Performance Management system, desirable outcomes would follow. While conducting a survey among Performance Management facilitators from major British organisations on potential problems experienced with Performance Management in the early 1990s, a wide range of problems was identified. In fact, so many problems emerged that in collaboration with these Performance Management experts a Systems Model of Performance Management was developed. The reasoning was that a systems approach would be required to address the wide variety of problems at different levels. The Systems Model is described elsewhere in detail (Spangenberg, 2003b). The Systems Model comprises inputs, processes, outputs and linkages to other systems. The effectiveness of Performance Management is greatly influenced by inputs into the system. (McDonald 2000)Strategic drivers comprise, firstly, the purpose or purposes of Performance Management. The desired purpose, or purposes, should be determined beforehand, should not contain contradictory elements, and should be clearly communicated to all. Secondly, the transformational framework comprising leadership, corporate strategy and culture is critical to changing the strategic direction of the organisation in order to exploit opportunities in the environment. (Neely 2002)A fair degree of sophistication is expected from all internal stakeholders, namely management, supervision and employees, to understand and apply the principles and procedures of Performance Management. A productive working relationship with unions or other employee representatives is essential. Because of the often-negative impact of discussing rewards during the final performance review, the reward issue may be separated from the annual review. In the Systems Model, it is considered as a linkage to the

Monday, November 18, 2019

Swimming pools Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Swimming pools - Essay Example There are many reasons for beaches being contaminated. "Fecal contamination occurs due to improperly constructed and operated septic systems and sewage treatment plants, manure spills, storm water runoff from lands with wildlife and pet droppings, or direct contamination from waterfowl, livestock, or small children in the water" (Iowa Department of Natural Resources). Other reasons are the presence of pathogens in the intestines of warm-blooded animals including human beings. The best way to identify fecal contamination is to use indicator bacteria. Escherichia coli or E. coli and Enterococcus sp. are the indicators used by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) office to identify fecal contamination in seas, lakes, ricers, etc. The indicator bacteria, which are used to identify fecal contamination don't make anyone sick. They are found everywhere in the environment. Presence in high levels of these indicators indicates that has come into contact with fecal material and pathogens or disease causing organisms may be present. Diseases like Diarrhea may be the result when anyone comes in contact with the contaminated water. Illnesses like sore throat, vomiting, sinus infections, stomachache, fever, headache and other skin related diseases might be caused due to the fecal contamination. One of the difficult tasks for every health organization is to monitoring the beaches.

Friday, November 15, 2019

Theology Essay: Church State Relations

Theology Essay: Church State Relations Church-State Relations and Secularization Throughout history there has developed a variety of relationships between Christian churches and governments, sometimes harmonious and sometimes conflictual. The major forms of relationships between Christian churches and governments are in large measure grounded in various perspectives in the Christian Bible. The Christian Bible is not a single book, but a collection of books written over more than a millennium and containing very diverse perspectives on religion and government. One perspective, represented by the Psalms, which were hymns sung in the Temple in Jerusalem, exalts the king to an almost divine position, sitting at the right hand of God (Ps 110:1) and receiving the nations of the earth for an inheritance (Ps 2:8). Coronation hymns celebrate the king’s special relationship to God. This perspective dominates the self-understanding of the kings of Judah, the southern part of ancient Israel. In sharp contrast, the prophet Samuel denounces kings as crooks and oppressors who are allowed by God only as a concession to human sinfulness. Samuel warns the tribes of Israel that if they choose to have a king, the king will draft their young men into his army and put the young women to work in his service. In this trajectory, prophets, armed only with the conviction that they have been called by God to proclaim the Word of God, repeatedly stand up to the kings of ancient Israel and denounce their sinfulness. Thus Samuel condemns Saul, Nathan condemns David, and later prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah condemn the kings of their times. Meanwhile, in the Gospel of John, Jesus tells the Roman governor Pontius Pilate that his kingdom does not belong to this world (Jn 18:36). This suggests a separation of responsibilities between civil governance and religious leadership. Repeatedly in the gospels, when people want to make Jesus a king, he slips through their midst and escapes. His mission is to proclaim the reign of God, not to establish a worldly kingdom. There are also various covenants that set forth the relationship of God and God’s people (Gen 9:8-17; 15:18-21; Ex 20; Deut 5); a covenant in the ancient Middle East was a solemn agreement that bound both parties to observe certain obligations. The covenant with Noah was made by God with all of creation. The covenant with Abraham initiated a relationship with Abraham and his descendants forever. The covenant made with Moses at Mt. Sinai became the central framework for the relationship of the people of Israel to God. The Book of Deuteronomy renews and reflects upon this covenant a generation later, as Moses is at the end of his life. These four options would shape, respectively, later Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and Calvinist views of the proper relation between church and state. The political theologies of the later Christian tradition consist in large measure of a series of conflicting appropriations of these perspectives. One can read the major political options taken by later Christian communions as developing one or more of the biblical trajectories. The Byzantine Orthodox tradition and some aspects of the Roman Catholic tradition continue the tradition of sacred kingship. Later strands of the Roman Catholic tradition view earthly rulers as prone to corruption and in need of repeated rebuke by religious leaders, such as popes. The Lutheran tradition focuses on Jesus’s statement to Pilate that his kingdom is not of this world and concludes that there are two kingdoms: the kingdom of God, which is ruled by the gospel, and the kingdom of this world, which is ruled by civil governments. The Calvinist tradition focused on covenant in a way that none of the earlier traditions had done, placing covenant at the center of relationships both with God and with other human beings. In this lecture, I will not discuss the original biblical texts themselves, but I would like to explore the way in biblical perspectives have guided later Christian political theologies. Divine Kingship The ideology of the Judean monarchy, with its lofty view of the monarch as favored by God and called to mediate divine justice in the world would shape the Byzantine Orthodox tradition’s view of the Emperor as a sacred figure with responsibility for the empire and the church together. Psalm 110 proclaims: â€Å"The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool† (110:1). That is, God says to the king: be enthroned beside me. This strand of the Bible sees God as entrusting a special responsibility to the king, which included particular care for the rights of widows and orphans, who were usually the most vulnerable persons in the ancient world. In this perspective, kings are divinely chosen beings with both rights and responsibilities of proper rule. This perspective would influence later Eastern Christian views of church-state relations. For example, after Constantine had unified the Roman Empire in the early fourth century and made Christianity legal, the fourth-century bishop Eusebius of Caesarea in Palestine described the Emperor who was formally only a candidate for reception into the church, as receiving, â€Å"as it were, a transcript of divine sovereignty† from God and directing the administration of the entire world, including the church, in imitation of God (Life of Constantine). That is, Constantine had a divinely given responsibility to govern not only the Roman Empire but also the Church. This view of a sacred emperor would shape the self-understanding of Byzantine Emperors until the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and the self-understanding of the Russian Czars until 1917. All of the first seven ecumenical councils—meetings of bishops from throughout the worldacknowledged by the Byzantine Orthodox and C atholics were called by Roman Emperors and were presided over by them or their legates. If the pope did not wish to have a council, pressure would be applied. In the sixth century CE, the Byzantine Emperor Justinian wanted to call a council, but Pope Vigilius disagreed with him. Justinian had Vigilius kidnapped by the Byzantine police while he was saying Mass and held until he agreed to the council. Then the council was held in Constantinople, where Justinian wanted it, not in Sicily, where Pope Vigilius wanted it. At the end of the council Vigilius did not like the idea of condemning men who had died two centuries earlier in communion with the church. Justinian applied further pressure to the Latin clergy, and Vigilius eventually accepted the Condemnation of various bishops from two hundred years earlier. The model of sacred kingship would also dominate early medieval Western views of kings and emperors from the eighth to the eleventh centuries. During the first millennium of Christian history, lay rulers, inspired by the ideology of the Judean monarchy, regularly called bishops and popes to account for their misdeeds and had recognized authority to depose unworthy ecclesiastical leaders and appoint new ones. In one year alone, 1046, Emperor Henry III, imbued with the divinely given mission of sacred kingship, deposed three popes (Sylvester III, Benedict IX, and Gregory VI) and appointed a new pope, Clement II. Before his death in 1056, Henry would appoint three more popes. There is certainly the danger of abuse of power here, but there was also a genuine concern that the papacy not be dominated by corrupt Roman nobility. This tradition leaves a heritage that challenges Christian political leaders to accountability to God for the way they enforce justice in this world and charges them with responsibility for good governance of the Church. During the first millennium popes from Gelasius I onward would insist on a distinction between sacred and secular authority in order to limit the role of Emperors in the church. Like Samuel and other prophets who challenged the pretensions of biblical monarchs, Augustine rejected Eusebius’s exaltation of a Christian Roman Emperor and the entire model of sacred kingship. Like Samuel, Augustine thought earthly rulers were largely thieves and saw monarchy as a tragic necessity because of human sinfulness and not as directly willed by God. Augustine believed that no form of government could assure true justice in this world, and he questioned: â€Å"Justice removed, what are kingdoms but great bands of robbers? What are bands of robbers but little kingdoms?† Empires in principle are not Christian. This perspective would buttress the Gregorian Reform in the eleventh century, when a series of popes and reformers would reject the model of sacred kingship. Pope Gregory VII, echoing Samuel and Augustine, insisted that kings are largely thugs and oppressors who need to be called to accountability by religious leaders and who can be deposed by papal autho rity. The inability of either popes or emperors completely to dominate Europe would lead to new distinctions between secular and sacred in the twelfth century and in later medieval and early modern thought. From about the year 1100 on, emperors and pro-imperial apologists insist on a distinction between the sacred and the secular to limit the power of the papacy in politics. The suspicion of great empires as great robbers that need to be called to account by religious leaders would inform the battles of popes against emperors and kings for centuries and hovers in the background of Pope John Paul II’s challenge to the Soviet Empire on his trip to Poland in 1979 and his eloquent defense of human rights against oppressive governments around the world. The claim of papal authority over kings and nations could manifest itself in dangerous ways as well. In Psalm 2, God promises the king: â€Å"I will give you the nations for an inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession. You shall rule them with an iron rod; you shall shatter them like an earthen dish.† Even though never fulfilled in ancient times, that promise, buttressed by the conquest narratives of the Hebrew Bible, lived on in Christian memory, and fifteenth-century popes saw themselves as the trustees of this inheritance. In 1452, as the Portuguese were inaugurating their journeys of discovery and conquest, Pope Nicholas V granted to the king of Portugal the right to conquer and enslave the entire non-Christian world: â€Å"In the name of our apostolic authority, we grant to you the full and entire faculty of invading, conquering, expelling and reigning over all the kingdoms, the duchies . . . of the Saracens, of pagans and of all infidels, wherever they may be found; of reducing their inhabitants to perpetual slavery, of appropriating to yourself those kingdoms and all their possessions, for your own use and that of your successors† (Nicholas V, Dum Diversas, 1452; quoted in Peter Schineller, A Handbook of Inculturation, 34). In 1493 and again in 1494, shortly after the discovery of the New World, Pope Alexander VI drew a line on the map of the Americas, marking a partition between the areas that Spain and Portugal could dominate. The dream of empire, inspired by biblical promises, would shape centuries of modern colonial history. Reformation During the Reformation, the two major Protestant traditions rejected both the Byzantine Orthodox and the Roman Catholic models, but they drew sharply contrasting visions of politics from the Bible. Citing the Gospel of John, where Jesus denies that his kingdom belongs to this world, Martin Luther used the distinction between two kingdoms as a central principle structuring his theology. Luther insisted that God rules God’s own people by the Gospel and God rules those outside the church by the Law (â€Å"Secular Authority: To What Extent It Should be Obeyed,† in Dillenberger, 368). However, Christians remain sinners throughout their lives, and so God also rules Christians by the Law insofar as they are sinners and part of a sinful society. Luther shared Augustine’s and Samuel’s skepticism about earthly rulers, but he interpreted Paul’s Letter to the Romans (chapter 13) as calling the Christian to obey even rulers whose policies offend a Christian cons cience. He insisted on freedom to preach the Word of God, but he generally trusted governmental authorities to rule the temporal realm. In the later history of Lutheranism, contrary to Luther’s intention, the Lutheran church was generally subservient to the state, and the state often supervised ecclesiastical governance. In contrast to all the earlier models, John Calvin placed the covenant at the center of his political theology, with implications that would echo through much of European and American history. For Calvinists, covenants governed relations not only between God and Christians but also between earthly rulers and their subjects. In various countries the Calvinist tradition developed a forceful critique of monarchy based on the mutual obligations of each party. For Calvin, God alone is truly king, and all humans are radically fallen and subject to constant temptations to idolatry. No figure, whether pope or emperor or king or even a Protestant preacher, can claim infallible, final authority. Since rulers are forever tempted to rebel against God, all earthly power must be limited. Calvin distrusted democracy because a majority can be just as tyrannical as an individual, and he thought democracy could easily lead to sedition. He judged that in a fallen world, no single figure can be trusted, and thus all political powers must be checked by the self-interest of others. He advocated a mixture of aristocracy and democracy, a model that would be very influential on political developments in North America. Calvinists often suffered attacks and persecutions. After the St. Bartholemew’s Day Massacre in France, when Roman Catholics murdered thousands of Protestants, Theodore Beza, Calvin’s most faithful disciple, proclaimed the sovereignty of the people, the right of revolution, and the binding nature of a constitution. Presbyterians in Scotland insisted on mutual responsibilities of the covenant as a way of limiting the powers of the Stuart monarchs. When Mary Stuart accused John Knox of grasping for power, he denied the charge and insisted: â€Å"My one aim is that Prince and people alike shall obey God.† (Ernst Troeltsch, The Social Teaching of the Christian Churches, vol. 2, p. 634). The rebellion against King Charles I began in Scotland with the proclamation of the National Covenant. Precisely because covenants spelled out mutual obligations for both ruler and the ruled, they could become the basis for rebellion and revolution when the terms were judged to have b een violated. Through reflection on covenants in the Hebrew Bible and on natural law, Calvinists influenced early modern theories of government based upon a social contract and thus relying upon the consent of the governed. Calvin saw the Gospel as a transformative social power, and there is a militant utopianism in Calvin’s vision of Christianity that would change the world. Geneva was to be the New Jerusalem. Puritans frustrated by the Stuart monarchs in England brought this energy and vision to New England, determined to build the city on the hill to inspire the world. Puritans understood themselves as the new Israelites fleeing slavery and coming to the Promised Land. As in earlier papal and imperial models, there was a negative side to the appropriation of biblical promises. Remembering that the ancient Israelites were instructed to destroy other tribes lest they tempt them to worship other gods, Puritan settlers viewed Native Americans as temptations to sin and sought to exterminate them or, at least, contain them in separate areas, reservations that were called â€Å"praying towns† (Richard Slotkin, Regeneration through Violence: The Mythology of the American Frontier 1600-1860, 40- 42). When the Puritan Revolution in England failed in 1660, Puritans in America gave up hope for Europe and saw themselves as the millennial people, with a divine mission to convert the world after the failures in Europe. Secularization and Religious Freedom in North America Thus far we have seen the major models of church-state relations through the 17th century. Every pre-modern government with which I am familiar looked to religion for a source of legitimation. Emperors, kings, sultans, aristocrats all claimed to rule by the will of God. In China emperors ruled through the Confucian notion of the Mandate of Heaven. Buddhist kings cultivated harmonious relationships with Buddhist monasteries to demonstrate their devotion and piety. All this came under suspicion in early modern Europe. During the 16th and 17th centuries, European Christians, both Protestant and Catholic, fought a series of bitter and bloody wars of religion. Each side claimed to be fighting on behalf of God; each side assumed that an empire, a nation, or a smaller polity should be unified in its religious belief and practice. Only a small minority of Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries believed in religious freedom for each individual according to the person’s own conscience. Because religious convictions were so strong, and because religion was embedded in manifold political, social, and economic relations, the conflicts were relentless and merciless. The Thirty Years’ War in Germany, which raged from 1618 to 1648, began as a religious conflict among Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists. By the end the war was more political than religious, with Catholic France intervening on the side of the Protestants to weaken the Holy Roman Emperor; but the damage had been done. There were atrocities against civilian populations on all sides. This was the bloodiest war on the continent of Europe prior to World War I. Meanwhile, about the same time, England went through an extremely vicious, bloody civil war, which killed a higher percentage of the population of England than did World War I. In the wake of these wars of religion, thinking people increasingly began to question whether religion could or should be trusted with the task of legitimating any form of government. Enlightenment thinkers began to reflect on the virtue of religious tolerance, of respecting the liberty of conscience of others in matters religious. They also began to reflect on the possibility of separating church from state. About this same time, in the British colonies in North America, some began to question the wisdom of government regulation of religion. In New England Roger Williams surveyed the bitter history of religious conflicts in Europe since the time of Constantine and concluded that imposing religious loyalties was a violation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Williams interpreted Jesus’s parable of the wheat and the weeds as forbidding Christians to attack those with whom they disagreed. Williams daringly judged the Emperor Constantine, who legalized Christianity in the Roman Empire, to have been more of a danger than Nero, who had persecuted Christians. Under Nero, Christians had heroically suffered and died; with Constantine, Christians took power, became corrupted, and began to impose Christianity by governmental authority. Williams also argued that it was unjust for the King of England to pretend to have the right to give away lands where Native Americans had lived for centuries. Fo r Williams, the fact that Native Americans had different religious practices did not deprive them of their right to their homeland. In 1635 Williams was banished from Massachusetts as a dissenter. The following year he moved south, where he purchased land from Native American Indians and established a new community, Rhode Island, as a â€Å"haven for the cause of conscience,† founded on the principle of religious liberty for all. His ideal of religious freedom or, in his phrase, â€Å"soul liberty† was fiercely opposed by the Puritans in Massachusetts but would stand as a model for later generations. About the same time, Lord Baltimore founded Maryland as a refuge for Catholics fleeing persecution in England. Purchasing land from Native American Indians, he intended the colony to be a home for followers of all Christian paths, and the charter founding the colony offered equal rights in religious freedom to all. In 1649 the Maryland Assembly passed a Toleration Act offering freedom of conscience to all Christians. The example of guaranteeing religious freedom spread to other colonies as well, with similar charters of religious liberty in New Jersey in 1664, in Carolina in 1665, and in Pennsylvania in 1682. There was increasing momentum in the colonies to end government interference in religious practice and to accept a variety of forms of faith. The Americans who fought the Revolutionary war were struggling for religious liberty as well as for political liberty. The quest for religious freedom came from both the tradition of dissenting Protestantism and also Enlightenment ideals of religious toleration. Many of the founders of the United States of America were strongly influenced by the European Enlightenment, with its suspicion of Christianity, its critique of the wars of religion, its deist faith, and its doubts about any claims for supernatural revelation. Thomas Jefferson thought that the alliance of clergy and political officials inevitably led to tyranny, and he believed that clergymen should not be allowed to any hold political office. On occasion he excoriated them as â€Å"the real Anti-Christ.† In return, some New England preachers attacked Jefferson himself as the Anti-Christ and warned that if he were elected president, he would commandeer all Bibles and establish houses of prostitution in the churches. Je fferson and George Washington, like many of their contemporaries, were deists, for whom the natural religion of humankind provided the ultimate answer to the conflicts among particular religions. For both, religious freedom was indispensable for human progress. As military commander, Washington forbade the celebration of the English anti-Catholic feast, Pope’s Day, on November 5, 1775, at a time when he was seeking support from French-speaking Catholics in Canada. Ben Franklin was deeply influenced by Deism and is often considered a deist; but he shaped his own idiosyncratic view of natural religion, with a plurality of deities under the direction of one supreme deity. Franklin, Jefferson, and Washington would quietly attend Christian church services without believing traditional theology; more radical deists such as Thomas Paine, Ethan Allen, and Elihu Palmer, rejected Christianity more thoroughly, criticizing the Bible for its multiple contradictions and substituting a reli gion of nature for Christian practice. While many of the founding fathers were deists of one form or another, American Protestants also contributed strongly to the revolution and interpreted the establishment of the new nation in religious terms. Indeed, the evangelical revival movement known as the First Great Awakening in the early eighteenth century did much to foster communication among the colonies, to establish awareness of a new shared American identity in contrast to the British, and also to arouse evangelical Protestant hostility to Anglican and Catholic forms of worship, thereby paving the way for revolt against the British king. The Puritan practice of interpreting the settlement in North America as a fulfillment of promises in the Book of Revelation was influential on supporters of the Revolution. In Virginia the Church of the England was the established Church, and all other forms of worship were forbidden. The young James Madison was deeply shocked by the imprisonment of traveling Baptist preachers who openly expressed their religious beliefs in Virginia; he would later become one of the leaders in the quest for full religious liberty. Madison asserted, â€Å"Torrents of blood have been spilt in the old world, by vain attempts of the secular arm to extinguish religious discord. . . . Time has at length revealed the true remedy.† The remedy for Madison and his colleagues was full religious liberty and the separation of church and state. The founders of the new nation resolved that the bitter religious wars of Europe should not be replicated on American soil. George Mason was the chief author of Virginia Declaration of Rights, which declared â€Å"all men should enjoy the fullest Toleration in the Exercise of Religion according to the Dictates of Conscience.† The Bill of Rights for the Commonwealth of Virginia, approved on June 12, 1776, was a landmark achievement, the first such list of rights in history. On July 4, 1788, a parade in Philadelphia celebrated the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. Clergy from various Christian denominations marched together and with them, arm, in arm, a Jewish rabbi. One observer, Dr. Benjamin Rush, commented, â€Å"There could not have been a more happy emblem contrived, of the section of the new constitution, which opens all its powers and offices alike, not only to every sect of Christians, but to worthy men of every religion.† Two years later George Washington visited the Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, which still stands as the oldest synagogue in the United States. The Jewish community thanked him and the new government for â€Å"generously affording to all liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship†; Washington, in reply, affirmed that the U.S. government â€Å"gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance,† and he went on to distinguish the religious toleration granted by the British and o ther European governments (often on condition that Jews â€Å"improve†) from the American recognition of religious liberty as an inherent natural right. In principle, followers of all religious traditions were to be fully equal citizens in the United States of America. Secularization in the United States was not hostile to religion but allowed a free range of religious debate. One can read the history of the United States in terms of four Great Awakenings, each of which was linked to a movement of social or political reform. Alexis de Tocqueville would note the paradox that in Europe churches were established but languishing. In the United States, by contrast, no church was established, and all were flourishing. The free competition among Protestant churches called forth creativity and vitality. France and the Papal Reaction A few years after the American Revolution, another revolution began in France, which became far bloodier both in attacking established religion and also in devouring its own children. Because the Catholic Church was intimately intertwined with the ancien regime, the old way of life in France, the French Revolution targeted Catholic bishops, priests, nuns, churches and monasteries. Many Catholic leaders were killed, churches were turned into museums—as is the case with the Pantheon in Paris to the present day—monastery farmlands were confiscated by the French Republic and put up for sale to support the Revolution and its armies. The model of secularization in France was very, very different from that in the United States. Because the Catholic Church had been so powerfully established for centuries, the program of secularization aimed to eliminate the influence of the Catholic Church from the political sphere for the sake of laicità ©. This heritage lives on to the prese nt day, continuing to shape relations between the French government and religions. Catholic leaders in Europe saw the French Revolution as a direct attack upon the Catholic Church, and this prompted a profound suspicion of modernity and its newly proclaimed democratic ideals. Napoleon, after all, had humiliated Pope Pius VII, taking him as a virtual prisoner into France in 1808. Napoleon, in the presence of the pope, crowned himself emperor, thereby signaling that the pope had no role whatsoever to play. Many thought that this would be the end of the papacy. After the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, the victorious European powers gathered at the Congress of Vienna to plan the future of Europe. The pope sided with the forces of reaction. It was commented that the victorious European leaders had â€Å"forgotten nothing and learned nothing.† In this context, the papacy returned to a position of prominence and renewed vigor, albeit on the side of the forces of reaction in Europe. In this atmosphere, a French Catholic priest, Felicità © Robert de Lamennais, sought to accept the ideals of democracy, separation of church and state, and freedom of speech, of the press and of religion into Catholicism. He argued against the interference of governments in religious matters and supported revolutions to transform society. Pope Gregory XVI vigorously condemned him and the ideals of modernity. Pope Gregory condemned democracy, freedom of religion, separation of church and state, and freedom of the press. In a wordplay on the French term for railroads, â€Å"chemins de fer† (roads of iron), he even condemned railroads as â€Å"chemins de l’enfer†Ã¢â‚¬â€the roads of hell. His successor, Pope Pius IX, was originally more positively disposed toward the reform movements in Europe, but after the Revolution of 1848 killed his Priume Minister and forced him to flee Rome in disguise, Pope Pius turned vehemently against the ideals of the modern world. In 1 864 Pope Pius IX issued the Syllabus of Errors, which repeated earlier papal condemnations of modern ideals, and concluding by a famous condemnation of the notion that â€Å"the Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and comes to terms with progress, liberalism, and modern civilization.† During this time the Italian movement known as the Risorgimento was fighting to unify Italy into a modern nation. The pope had ruled the central portion of Italy, known as the Papal States, for centuries. By the time of the pontificate of Pius IX, this territory was reduced to the city of Rome, which was effectively defended by French troops. When in 1870 Prussia invaded France, the French troops were called home and the Italian General Garibaldi was able to capture Rome for the new Italian nation. In protest, the pope declared himself a â€Å"prisoner of the Vatican† and refused to leave its precincts for the rest of his life. This precedent was followed for decades. The loss of temporal power profoundly transformed the papacy. For centuries popes had been not only spiritual leaders but also the temporal governors of Rome and central Italy. As such, they were involved in constant political squabbles and frequently papal armies fought in battles for land and power. Popes intervened on the side of their own families and were perceived as partisan political leaders. The papal states were long thought to be necessary to preserve the independence of the pope from domination by a temporal ruler. In 1870 the worst nightmare of the popes came to pass. Pope Pius IX lost all the temporal possessions except for the Vatican itself. Pius refused any negotiations with the new Italian natgion. Finally, in 1929 Pope Pius XI would sign a Concordat with Benito Mussolini, officially establishing the relationship between the Holy See and the nation of Italy. Paradoxically, however, the loss of the Papal States was one of the greatest possible blessings for the papacy. Once freed from the responsibilities of ruling the central portion of Italy, popes were eventually able to become respected moral and spiritual leaders on an unprecedented global level. This came to fruition in the middle and late 20th c. Pope John XXIII, who served as pope from 1958 to 1963, was beloved by many, many people beyond the borders of the Catholic Church. He was, in a sense, the grandfather to the world, a kindly, spiritual man who spoke vigorously for peace and the welfare of the poor. During the Cuban missile crisis in the fall of 1962, when the United States and the Soviet Union came the closest they ever did to nuclear war, Pope John XXIII served as an intermediary, passing messages between them. Pope J

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Shakespeare Breaks the Way for Feminism Essay -- ophelia, hamlet, gende

â€Å"Gender hardly determines the nature of a character, in the plays of Shakespeare. It is for this very reason, that his plays are read, viewed and enjoyed by both the sexes equally, even after five hundred years of their composition† (Singh). Gender is not something that defines what a character is going to be like in Shakespeare’s plays. This quote illuminates that in Shakespeare’s writings females and males were on equal level playing fields when it came to their traits. Females during the time period were considered inferior to men. Over the course of the semester, we have read some beautiful plays from comedies to tragedies; Shakespeare’s later plays exhibited an extensively wide range of female characters from the weak, obedient to the strong, empowering woman. One of the examples of this would be Ophelia in Hamlet exhibits weak and obedient characteristics whereas Viola in Twelfth Night is a strong female role that breaks the gender roles by disguising herself as a male and proving women are equivalent to men. Even Shakespeare’s weakest female characters seem to break some of the stereotypical role of the period. For example, Ophelia does listen to her father, however, talks back to Hamlet which during the Renaissance breaks the stereotypical role. Shakespeare was an early feminist because of his nontraditional female characters; despite his weak female characters, Shakespeare still provides his female characters with some trait that follows a nontraditional role. I will focus on in this paper are King Lear, Twelfth Night, and Hamlet. I will use Hamlet to show that even the weakest of female characters have gender breaking characteristics. A feminist is someone who is trying to advocate for the equality of women. I believe ... ...ed Atkin, Graham. Twelfth Night : Character Studies. London: Continuum, 2008. eBook Academic Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 13 Apr. 2014. Callaghan, Dympna. Shakespeare without women. Routledge, 2002. Jajja, Muhammad Ayub. "Women In Shakespearean Comedies: A Feministic Perspective." Journal Of Educational Research (1027-9776) 16.1 (2013): 112-119. Education Research Complete. Web. 13 Apr. 2014. Orgel, Stephen, and Sean Keilen. Shakespeare and Gender. New York: Garland Pub., 1999. Online text. Sharma, Pankaj. "Depiction Of Woman As Human: A Reading Of Excesses Of Feminist Readings Of Shakespeare's King Lear." Language In India 13.12 (2013): 433-446. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 13 Apr. 2014. Singh, Rahul. "Shakespeare's Plays: Men Celebrated, Women Despised?." Language In India 14.2 (2014): 141-156. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 13 Apr. 2014

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Formal Sales Process in Small and Medium Size Enterprise (SME) Essay

Introduction History and evolution of formal sales process Formal sales process refers to sales strategies that provide organization sales management with the direction on how to ensure effective and efficient sales. The process can also refer to the steps taken by the management to ensure satisfaction of customers buying process in a more successful way. Notably, formal sales   process allow companies especially Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to enhance their competitive advantage, and ensure effective sales by teaching sales teams how to succeed. The sales process dates back to ancient times but for the purpose of this study I will be focusing on post World War Two. It is surprising that there is little research on the history and development of the sales process as sales are vital to the survival of business. The earlier sales process models stem from the behavioral model AIDA (Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action) attributed to E. St. Elmo Lewis in 1898.   This was developed to help guide the sales force (Kotler 1999; Sheth and Sharma 2008). The sales process is inextricably linked to the buying process, which has developed significantly over the decades. It has changed from a transactional activity into a strategic supply chain function looking to add value to the business (Axelsson and Wynstra 2002; Cousins and Spekman 2003; Ketchen and Hult 2007). Through the development of the sales process there have been three key changes. The first is the development of the ‘seven steps of selling’ (Dubrinsky 1980) which is based on the AIDA model. The second is the ‘evolving selling process’ (Moncrief and Marshall 2005) which expands on Dubrinsky’s model and brings it up to date, with the advent of the internet and changes in the buying process. Third is ‘value based selling’ (Rackman and DeVincentis 1998) which analyses each element of the sales process, with specific focus on the buyer’s ‘problem’ and the real ‘implications’ of the problem. This model provides focus to the sales process into adding value to the customer. In their report, Davies et al, highlight the fact that ‘no-one was measuring true sales ability’ and goes on to study the behaviors and skill set of sales professionals. Regarding measurement, Sharma said ‘what gets measured gets improved’ which start to address the critical issues of visibility and what to measure. Neely states, ‘an organization need to identify an appropriate set of measures to assess their performance’ (Neely 2007; p149).   Regarding behavior, Covey (1999) talks about responsibility and accountability which is a critical area of any sales process, be it formal or not. Weather, or not, an organization has a sales process, the world, and customers, are changing and the approach to sales has to change to ensure complacency does not set in (Kotter 1996). The culture and management of an organization will also impact the sales process, and vice versa, in positive and negative ways (Handy 1991). Womack and Jones (2003) are pioneers in lean thinking and believe manufacturing processes and the elimination of waste can be transferred into the back office side of the business including sales. One of the key themes that have surfaced from initial reading is that sales is a process, which needs to be followed, measured and improved to help increase the sales funnel, or pipeline, in order to grow sales (Miller and Heiman 1994; Zoltners, Sinha and Lorimer 2004; Thull 2010; McClay 2010). Porter (2004) believes that when working with customers it is important to add value and create a competitive advantage. In addition to this, Doyle suggests that the sales process can add value and create competitive advantage, which will ‘contribute to achieving the company’s objectives of growth and profitability though meeting the needs of the customers’ (Doyle 2002: p.2).   When a formal sales process has been implemented, there is much evidence to support that the sales process should be aligned to the sales strategy and to the company strategy (Kaplan and Norton 2006; Johnson, Scholes and Whittington 2008; De Wit and Meyer 2010). In contradiction to the majority, Adamson, Dixon and Toman (2013) challenge the need for a formal sales process and believe the sales function’s approach should be based on insight and judgment. Effects of a formal sales process on an SME and its people Selling is a communal as well as a business activity and can be defined quite simply as â€Å"making a sale† underpinned by several strategies and personal skills across a range of tasks and promotion situations (TAS Group, 2014). The sales task within a business is accountable for the vital creation of revenues, delivers financial stimuli and forms the fundamental connection between a business and its customers (McClay, 2010; Moncrieff and Marshall 2005). Moreover, business dealings rely on persons and more so how they transact with customers, making the buyer-seller edge a highly capricious interface. On the other hand, formal sales process is the sales strategies that provide the sales management force with the direction on how to sell.   It is the process that allow companies especially Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to scale their sale force by teaching sales teams how to succeed. According to Johnson et al (2006), formal sales process provides the sales management team with a framework from which to manage and enable measurement and continuous improvement of the sales force performance. More specifically, a formal sales process enables sales managers maintain control over specific sales behaviors as dictated by the system adopted in Small and Medium Enterprise (SMEs).   Formal sales processes in the SMEs context help sales management teams. They also help managers understand which measures should be adopted for understanding prospecting, qualifying and performance measurement. Additionally, formal sales processes enable sales managers learn how to replicate good behaviors and eliminate undesirable ones besides recognizing problems before they turn to be major roadblocks (Lii, 2011). If there is one component of the selling system that is most taken for granted is the sales process. Although executives spend some of their times forming strategies, developing   entrepreneurial skills and measuring performance   of their employees, they hardly strategize on the formal sales process; that is the activities their salespeople must execute to   shift an activity from lead generation to closure (Lii, 2011). In a broad spectrum, the sales process, be it be formal or informal is the backbone of any sales force.   According to Lii (2011), the formal sales process is selling strategy, which was introduced to facilitate a sell-aside process in sells concerning public mergers and acquisition context. Moreover, the sales process is a much more advantageous in the sales process involving Small and Medium Enterprises’ and is quite distinct from the traditional means of executing sales.   Notably, for a sales process to be termed as good and successful, the right steps at the right time should be initiated and adopted within the Small and Medium Enterprises   vicinity as well as   making the right decisions. As argued by Blair (2005), for the formal process to work in the SMEs, the sales management team should work  Ã‚   tirelessly to keep the correct movement in track. This owes to the fact that without a good flow in selling and buying for the prospective customers to follow and for the sales management team to follow, the sales will remain to be low and potential customers may look elsewhere (Blair, 2005). Formal sales process allows SMEs to scales its sales force by teaching its sales people how to success. Contrary to the informal process that is normally adopted by many and characterized by unorganized techniques, formal sales process in SMEs measures and manages the sales force. Consequently, Sales management teams understand this and strive to develop standard operating strategies for their workforce to follow hence the formal sales process (Johnson et al., 2006). Essentially, the nature of sales process has critically changed. Sales organizations are being reinvented to better address the needs of the changing marketplaces. More evidently, there are different drivers of change in diverse sales organizations that have been identified in reinventing sales organizations and are perceived to help an organization compete successfully in today’s selling environment. With the use of the formal sales process, different Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have realized a measurable change in the levels of sales they acquire. The formal sales process has enabled SMEs to build long-term relationships with their customers. According to (Dar, 2006),this is because formal sales process is a structured line of attack that enables time-to-time assessment of customer’s value hence focusing on the high- priority customers. Secondly, formal sales process aids in creating sales organizational structures that are more nimble and adaptable to the needs of different customer groups. It is in this perspective that formal sales process is beneficial in that it enables Small and Medium Enterprises’ (SMEs) compete well in the entire markets when willing to customize   their sales efforts to meet their customers preferred ways of doing business (Adamson et al., (2013). In addition, in the modern markets; especially SMEs related markets, flexibility which is important to the formal sales process is viewed as an asset, which can determine the level of sales. Thirdly, according to Dar (2006), with the adoption of formal sales process, SMEs gain greater job ownership and commitment from sales management team. Moreover, this is only accomplished when the formal sales team removes functional barriers within the sales organization more so by leveraging the teams experience as a whole. More importantly,   formal sales process helps shift the sales management style from commanding to coaching. In this, the sales management team and managers create a conducive environment that allows the sales team uses their talents and abilities to secure, build and maintain relationships with the profitable customers. Davis et al (2011) discuss that for the formal sales process to work efficiently and yield the desired results, the management style has to change. Nevertheless, the other visible formal sales impact on Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) is that formal sales process enables leveraging of the available technology for the success of the sales management team ( Dar, 2006). For instance, formal sales have greatly changed the traditional (informal) sales process in that, its adoption leads to adoption of technological tools. Therefore, sales teams that use the available technology well have a strong competitive edge over others. Consequently, firms globally are investing millions of money in technological advancement in the sales sector to help improve their sales performance. Finally, According to Hayes, (2003), the integration of the formal sales process in then SMEs sales platform encourages the acceptance of better integration mechanisms for sales-team performance evaluations.  Ã‚   Essentially, a real weakness of the informal sales process in the verge of the Small and Medium Enterprises SMEs is on how to evaluate and ultimately reward the sales personnel. However, the use and integration of the formal sales process has solved these problems and instead provided well-marked evaluation strategies hence bringing a positive image of the SMEs and works successfully as a strategy for sales Different sales processes A sales process or strategy is not all about closing business deals; it is about defining a sales process that vividly reflects the image of the organization or firm, the firm’s customers, the products or services it offers and the solution that it offers in the market. By truly understanding its customers and by desiring to solve its customer’s problems, a business can plan to execute a sales process that will accelerate the likelihood of reaching its ultimate goal (Sales educators, 2006). According to the sales educators (2006), there is no specific best way to conduct the sales process. A company’s personality and the sales team desire to achieve as well as the firm’s background determines the type of sales technique that best suits its sales endeavors ( Porter, 2004).   Even though every company in the corporate world has its own sales methodologies, it is always advised that trying different sales processes is healthier. This is because new sales methods keep a company out of rut and may even work better than expected. Therefore, many salespersons even those operating in the B2B environment use a combination of different approaches (Rackman & DeVincentis, 1998). The different sale processes mostly utilized by different sales teams include; older takers, inside sales, outside sales, the guru, the consultant, the networker, the hard seller and active sales among others. Most importantly, every sales process is aimed at increasing the sales to the current customers and finding new ones. However, different businesses and organizations deploy numerous sales processes with shockingly ineffective results. In some cases, when sales management teams use more than one sales process, customers are to same point confused by the different methods of every firm and probably cross selling is limited (Neely, 2007). Sales processes vary significantly according to how much a seller adapts to different selling situations and how much the selling team adapts to customer encounters during the entire sells encounter. According to Neely (2007), among the best sales processes or approaches are the problems solving models, needs satisfaction and consultative selling. Among the three mentioned types of selling processes, in terms of rethinking the sells process, researchers endorse their use to fit any situation on the ground. Neely (2006) argues that consultative selling process is appropriate when the customer is willing to share strategic priorities with the seller and sees the seller as being capable of supporting the customer’s strategic initiatives. Universally, every business is inimitable, hence it should have exceptional sales process to sell service and manage different customers under diverse conditions (Kotter, 1996). Therefore, sales researchers including sales managers across the world are disturbed by the question on whether business should adopt generic sales processes or implement and strengthen a specific sales strategy.   Since business aim at working with the most profitable strategies, studies prove that nonspecific approaches are demanding and possess numerous demerits that include; lack of custom customer profile, lack of metrics that matter, and its association with inflexible business management approaches among others (Johnson et al., 2008). Therefore, sales process needs to be specific. How a formal sales process can improve performance and competitive advantage? According to Thull, (2010), sales process is one of the most components of the selling system that for many decades has been abandoned by many Small and Medium Enterprises (SME). The author eludes that failure to effectively execute a well established formal sales process acts as an impediment to performance and successes of the organization. As a matter of fact, sales process is a vital component in an organization that if well implemented can lead to enhanced competitive advantage and performance or an organization. TAS Group, (2014), affirms that sales process is the backbone of an organization and should not be overlooked at any cost. Notably, most sales managers in many organizations spend most of the time coming up with strategies, building tools, measuring performance and developing skills (Rackman and DeVincentis, 1998). Nevertheless, the author affirms that only a few organizations consider and ensure effective implementation of a well established and organized formal sales process. A sales process in this case is regarded as series of task that must be undertaken by salespeople within an organization to tap and generate opportunities from the lead to closure (Thull, 2010). In a broad spectrum, sales process is an essential component of any sales force in an organization and if carefully and effectively implemented can impact on the success of the organization even in a highly competitive business environment (Thull, 2010). According to Rackman and DeVincentis, (1998), overlooking sales process within an organization hinders sales performance and output even though the organization sales executive have laid down well established sales strategy, tools, skills and metrics in place. Without doubts, this implies that effective of formal sales process implementation in a SME is a strategy of enhancing the performance or the company (Rackman and DeVincentis, 1998). More importantly, sales process can be used to improve the competitive advantage of an organization especially when the process is aligned properly with the customer’s target. In this case, effective alignment of the two lead to enhanced competitive advantage through creation of a world class sales force (TAS Group, 2014).   Performance of an organization is enhanced by the sales process in the sense that the process provides mechanisms of measuring performance. According to Rackman and DeVincentis, (1998), an organization has nothing to measure if it does not have a process.   The author adds that it is difficult improve organization performance if there are no mechanisms of measuring the current performance. Ultimately, sales process is undoubtedly an effective component in an organization to stir performance as it provides mechanism of determining the current performance of the organization and propose changes that need to be effected to improve the performance in the long run.   Essentially, the sales process is critical in SME as it provides a logical framework with various activities, milestones and targets that are used to measure performance (TAS Group, 2014). In this case, an organization which effectively implements sales process is likely to have improved performance. Use of diverse measure in the process of sales process such as calls reports by the salespersons are vital in ensuring they work hard and thus improve the overall performance of the Small Medium Enterprises. According to TAS Group, (2014), the major focus to enhance the organization performance and competitive advantage is simply ensuring effective alignment; implementation and renewal of sales process faster and efficiently than other competitors. Sales process in some way behaves like manufacturing process. In this case, improving sales productivity within a SME, various measures must be put in place stating from the initial sales stage to the end point (TAS Group, 2014). Development of measures ensures that the sales process adopted and implemented by a particular organization is able to address all the need and expectations of the customers through effective alignment of the buying and selling processes. The process of formal sales in SME can never be undermined owing in mind that the process aims to ensure a close relationship between the buyers and the sellers through the use of salespersons. Creation and maintenance of a good relationship between the two parties is imperative as it ensure the needs, concerns and expectation of the buyers are addressed in time and thus result to loyalty (Thull, 2010). This in turn helps to improve the performance of an organization since there will be enhanced sales volume. The presence and implementation of formal sales process is evidently a vital component in ensuring organization have close contact with their customers including prospective customers. In a broad spectrum, development of an effective relationship and alignment of the buying and selling process is crucial in ensuring customer’s loyalty. In this regard, improved customer’s loyalty creates confidence to the organization in terms of increased sales volume and thus enhanced competitive advantage compared to its rivals (Thull, 2010).   In addition, the relationship helps the organization to work harder to ensure maximum satisfaction of the customers need and concerns through addressing various challenges facing the process and discovering opportunities that may arise. This also helps to improve the performance and competitive advantage of organizations especially Small and Medium Enterprises. Essentially, sales process aims to ensure an effective alignment of the salesperson’s selling process with the customer’s buying process. Effective alignment of the two processes is vital to organizations as it ensures needs and expectations of the customers or rather the buyers are met in every step of the buying process. In addition, the alignment leads to an effective and efficient sale in the long run hence improved performance (Porter, 2004).Similarly, if the customer’s needs and expectations are carefully addressed through the sales process, it is more likely that the competitor will not have the opportunity to entice the same buyer to turn to their organization in this way, sales process helps to enhance competitive advantage of Small and Medium Enterprises (Porter, 2004). A critical assessment of how a sales process aligns with a customer buying process According to Davis et al, (2011), sales have two different sale view points, that is, the seller’s and the buyer’s perspective. However, the two sale point differs based on their importance. The buyer’s perspective is more essential compared to the seller’s point of view due to the fact that satisfaction of the buyers is the utmost objective of the sales process. Davis et al, (2011), affirms that organizations have to ensure diverse initiatives and means to ensure satisfaction of the buyers needs and expectations as their purchasing power depend wholly on their perception on organization’s effort to ensure satisfaction (TAS Group, 2014). The buying and selling process are mirror images of each other. Notably, buying process refers to the various steps that current customers use to identify and fulfill their need and expectations (Zoltners et al, 2004). Buying process may vary in time based on the type of product or services a customer want to purchase. However, being short or long, the work of a seller is to ensure buyer or rather customer satisfaction in every step. On the other hand, selling or sales processing is simply the steps or activities that are undertaken by sellers to ensure accomplishment of buyer’s goals, needs and expectations. According to Handy, (1991), buying and sales processes are mirror image of each other in an effective sale.   The two processes align together in that they usually start together and end together having common steps or activities between them. According to Kaplan and Norton, (2006), successful alignment of sales or selling process with the buying process in as essential component within an organization especially SME as it ensure effective and efficient sales. The author affirms that the alignment is based on the way the buyer go from one step to another (buying process), as fast as possible with the aim to find goods and services that satisfy their needs and expectations from the seller, while the seller undertakes and closes all steps with the aim to meet customers or rather buyer’s need throughout the process (Handy, 1991). Dubinsky, (1980/81), suggests that when selling and buying process work together, the result is that sales will be successful and efficient and most importantly, the expectations and the needs of the buyer will be met. In broad spectrum, the alignment of buying and sales process tends to ensure that every step of buying process correspond to a particular step of the sales or the selling process (Dubinsky, 1980/81).   The figure below illustrate how the customer’s buying and salesperson selling processes are aligned to ensure satisfaction of buyers at every step and ensure effective and efficient sales within and organization over a given period of time. Aligning buying and selling processes Customer’s buying process    Salesperson selling process    However, if there is no close relationship between the two process (customers’ buying and salespersons selling processes), the entire sales process is likely to be inefficient and ineffective. In this regard, the expectations and needs of the customers will not be fully met by the salespersons. According to Kaplan and Norton, (2006), sellers should be keen during sales process to ensure they do not omit any step or in other words ensure every buying process step correspond with a particular selling process step. According to Kaplan and Norton, (2006), misaligning the two processes has greater negative impacts to an organization. For instance, omitting a particular step in the sales process that is aimed to correspond to a particular step in the customer’s buying process means that specific need and expectations of the buyers will not be met. This in turn interpret that the customers will turn to other organizations that keen in addressing their needs thus losing their competitive advantage and lead to decline in performance (Dubinsky, 1980/81). Critical assessment of alignment of customer’s buying process and the salespersons selling process brings out the need for SME to adopt and implement an effective sales process within their organization to ensure they meet their customers need and enhance sale, competitive advantage and performance in the long run (Kaplan and Norton, 2006).    Factors to consider when designing, or redesigning, a formal sales process and to make recommendations to the owners of an SME Traditionally, the sales departments have operated informally, with each sales person acting in their distinct ways that in most cases are non-documented, personally derived and non-measured. With the current escalating competition in terms of sales, price war and technological development and design of new and redesign of the existing formal sales processes is inevitable. In response to these forces, small and medium size enterprises need to plan, implement and control their personal contacts programs in order to achieve sales and profit motives of the firms. Designing of formal sale process is a complex and critical undertaking that requires careful scrutiny and a logical examination in its development since it is core in the success of a business (Rickman and DeVincentis, 1998). The going concern of a business entity largely relies on the effectiveness and operativeness of the sales processes in place. Small and medium size enterprises exist with a view to making profit and there fore effort should be made to ensure that they remain competitive and retain a reputable status in the market. Due to, the fragility and sensitivity of formal sales process design and redesign, several factors should be put into considerations in order to safeguard the successful life of the firms. For instance, competencies and skills available in the firm, encompasses the qualification and experience of employees especially management and the Sales department staff. For example the less experienced low level manager spend most time in staffing, monitoring and giving directives to salespersons. The top managers on the other hand, are generally concerned with complex issues of planning, budgeting organizing and coordinating sale strategies with other objectives of small and medium size enterprises. The new design should accommodate the available skill and technology. In the event of limitation of the part of staff qualification, it is worthy to reconsider redesigning the sales strategies, to make them possible to implement operate and eventually achieve the objectives set by the management.   According to Lodato (2006), business sale strategies should be implemented with efficiency with the sole priority of increasing sale despite the completion from rivals. Further more, a look at the geographical coverage and the nature of clients helps determine the correct direction to take. Expansion of business to include a wide coverage necessitates redesigns of sale s process to incorporate the needs and worried of new clients explored. This is through studying and examining their lifestyles, culture and believes and the consumption behavior (Tas Group, 2014).The formal redesign will be there fore necessary in as a way of reinforcing new ways of behavior. Additionally, the sales price and the customers’ economic status should be put into attention. It is worth noting that people consumption pattern entirely depends upon their social economic position and the value of goods and services offered in the market. Visions of the firm should not be trodded underfoot in the process of designing and redesigning the firm’s formal sale process. The necessity of vision and plan in implementation of firms’ objectives is immense (Porter, 2004), Incorporating the vision of the firms is instrumental in determining whether or not the existing strategies are sufficient or not and the need to streamline them to preserve attractive culture of internal work. Solely adding more marketing and sales people is not sufficient .however it should be back up by the firms operational capabilities may produce sale revues needed to increase continuous growth and improvement. Other issue to reflect in designing of formal sales process (FSP) is the workers’ motivation. The current level of employee’s inspiration should be assessed and its effectiveness determined. According to Lauby (2005), motivated workers are highly productive compared to their counterparts irrespective of the qualification and skills possessed. There for the factor that drives employees to their peak performances are determined, followed by implementation of the motivation program. Since not every employee is motivated by the same thing, there is need to include diverse programs ranging from bonus pools individual recognition rewards and group performance acknowledgment. This makes workers feel appreciated for the job well done (Lauby, 2005, p.291) With a view to improving the sale level with business organizations, the manager and owner need to make realignment and readjusted of the operations within the entity and incorporate mechanisms to link product buying process and formal sales process. Majorly, emphasizing on the competence of sales and marketing staff to ensure the easy and efficient implementation of developed marketing strategies at all level of business operations. Recruiting personnel with high qualification that met the current market demands and cope with the stiff competition. The owners should use this as a competitive advantage to maintain their status and reputation. Additionally they ought to explore the nature of their customers with respect to culture, social economic and consumption behavior and pattern especially in new markets discovered. Moreover, the owners should institute programs aimed at motivating the workers. Establishing individual and group recognition reward will make employees feel acknowledged for their work well done and as a result stimulate their peak performance. References Adamson, B., Dixon, M., and Toman, N., 2013. Dismantling the Sales Machine. Harvard   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Business Review Axelsson, B., and Wynstra, F., 2002. Buying Business Services. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Ltd. Blair, C. (2005). Four characters of selling: Speak the way your buyers listen, listen the way   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   your buyers   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   speak. 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