Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn Essays - English-language Films

Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn Essays - English-language Films Adventures of Huckleberry Finn All children have a special place, whether chosen by a conscious decision or not this is a place where one can go to sort their thoughts. Nature can often provide comfort by providing a nurturing surrounding where a child is forced to look within and choices can be made untainted by society. Mark Twain once said "Don't let school get in the way of your education." Twain states that this education which is provided by society, can actually hinder human growth and maturity. Although a formal education shouldn't be completely shunned, perhaps true life experience, in society and nature, are a key part of development. In the novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain throws the curious yet innocent mind of Huck Finn out into a very hypocritical, judgmental, and hostile world, yet Huck has one escapethe Mississippi River constantly flowing nearby. Here nature is presented as a thought provoking environment when experienced alone. The river is quiet and peaceful place where Huck can revert to examine any predicament he might find himself in: "They went off, and I got aboard the raft, feeling bad and low?Then I thought a minute, and says to myself, hold on,- s'pose you'd a done right and give Jim up; would you felt better than you do now? No, says I, I'd feel bad?" (p.127). Only a few weeks with Jim and still feeling great ambivalence, Huck returns to the river to think. Twain tries here to tell the reader how strong the "mob" really is, and only when totally alone is Huck able to make the morally correct decision. The natural flowing and calm of the river cause this deep-thought, show! ing how unnatural the collective thought of a society can be. The largest and most obvious test of Huck's character is his relationship with Jim. The friendship and assistance which he gives to Jim go completely against all that "sivilization" has taught him; at first this concept troubles Huck and causes him a great deal of pain, but over time, through his life experiences and shared times with Jim, Huck crosses the line upheld by the racist South and comes to know Jim as a human being. Huck is at a point in his life where opinions are formed, and by growing on the river, Huck can stand back from society and form his own. Eventually he goes as far as to risk his life for Jim:"And got to thinking of our trip down the river; and I see Jim before me, all the time, in the day, and in the night-time, sometimes moonlight, sometimes storms, and we a floating along, talking, and singing, and laughing. But somehow I couldn't see no places to harden me against him, but only the other kind?I studied a minute sort of holding my breath, and then I s! ays to myself: 'All right, then, I'll go to hell'?" (pp.270-271). After a long and thought-provoking adventure, Huck returns to the raft one final time to decide the fate of his friend. Symbolically, Huck makes the morally correct decision away from all others, thinking on the river. Although it might not be evident to himself, Huck causes the reader to see that "sivilization", in their treatment of blacks especially, is not civilized at all. Every person Huck and Jim come across seems to just be following someone else blindly, as the whole country were some sort of mob. In the last few chapters, Tom Sawyer is re-introduced and the reader is left to examine how different environments: "sivilization" and nature (the river), have affected the children's growth. It is distinctly evident that Huck has turned out to be the one with a clear and intelligent mind, and Tom, although he can regurgitate worthless facts about Louis XVI and Henry VIII, shows no real sign of maturity. "The first time I catched up to Tom, private, I asked him what was his idea, time of the evasion?- what it was he planned to do if the evasion worked out all right and he managed to set a nigger free that was already free before? And he said, what he had planned in his head, from the start, if we got

Disambiguation - Definition and Examples in Language Studies

Disambiguation s in Language Studies In linguistics, the process of determining which sense of a word is being used in a particular context. In computational linguistics, this discriminative process is called word-sense disambiguation (WSD). Examples and Observations: It so happens that our communication, in different languages alike, allows the same word form to be used to mean different things in individual communicative transactions. The consequence is that one has to figure out, in a particular transaction, the intended meaning of a given word among its potentially associated senses. While the ambiguities arising from such multiple form-meaning associations are at the lexical level, they often have to be resolved by means of a larger context from the discourse embedding the word. Hence the different senses of the word service could only be told apart if one could look beyond the word itself, as in contrasting the players service at Wimbledon with the waiters service in Sheraton. This process of identifying word meanings in a discourse is generally known as word sense disambiguation (WSD).(Oi Yee Kwong, New Perspectives on Computational and Cognitive Strategies for Word Sense Disambiguation. Springer, 2013) Lexical Disambiguation and Word-Sense Disambiguation (WSD) Lexical disambiguation in its broadest definition is nothing less than determining the meaning of every word in context, which appears to be a largely unconscious process in people. As a computational problem, it is often described as AI-complete, that is, a problem whose solution presupposes a solution to complete natural-language understanding or common-sense reasoning (Ide and VÃ ©ronis 1998).In the field of computational linguistics, the problem is generally called word sense disambiguation (WSD) and is defined as the problem of computationally determining which sense of a word is activated by the use of the word in a particular context. WSD is essentially a task of classification: word senses are the classes, the context provides the evidence, and each occurrence of a word is assigned to one or more of its possible classes based on the evidence. This is the traditional and common characterization of WSD that sees it as an explicit process of disambiguation with respect to a fix ed inventory of word senses. Words are assumed to have a finite and discrete set of senses from a dictionary, a lexical knowledge base, or an ontology (in the latter, senses correspond to concepts that a word lexicalizes). Application-specific inventories can also be used. For instance, in a machine translation (MT) setting, one can treat word translations as word senses, an approach that is becoming increasingly feasible because of the availability of large multi-lingual parallel corpora that can serve as training data. The fixed inventory of traditional WSD reduces the complexity of the problem, but alternative fields exist . . ..(Eneko Agirre and Philip Edmonds, Introduction. Word Sense Disambiguation: Algorithms and Applications. Springer, 2007) Homonymy and Disambiguation Lexical disambiguation is well suited particularly for cases of homonymy, for instance, an occurrence of bass must be mapped onto either of the lexical items bass1 or bass2, depending on the intended meaning. Lexical disambiguation implies a cognitive choice and is a task that inhibits comprehension processes. It should be distinguished from processes that lead to a differentiation of word senses. The former task is accomplished fairly reliably also without much contextual information while the latter is not (cf. Veronis 1998, 2001). It has also been shown that homonymous words, which require disambiguation, slow down lexical access, while polysemous words, which activate a multiplicity of word senses, speed up lexical access (Rodd e.a. 2002).However, both the productive modification of semantic values and the straightforward choice between lexically different items have in common that they require additional non-lexical information.(Peter Bosch, Productivity, Polysemy, and Predicate Indexicality. Logic, Language, and Computation: 6th International Tbilisi Symposium on Logic, Language, and Computation, ed. by Balder D. ten Cate and Henk W. Zeevat. Springer, 2007) Lexical Category Disambiguation and the Principle of Likelihood Corley and Crocker (2000) present a broad-coverage model of lexical category disambiguation based on the Principle of Likelihood. Specifically, they suggest that for a sentence consisting of words w0 . . . wn, the sentence processor adopts the most likely part-of-speech sequence t0 . . . tn. More specifically, their model exploits two simple probabilities: (i) the conditional probability of word wi given a particular part of speech ti, and (ii) the probability of ti given the previous part of speech ti-1. As each word of the sentence is encountered, the system assigns it that part-of-speech ti, which maximizes the product of these two probabilities. This model capitalizes on the insight that many syntactic ambiguities have a lexical basis (MacDonald et al., 1994), as in (3): (3) The warehouse prices/makes are cheaper than the rest. These sentences are temporarily ambiguous between a reading in which prices or makes is the main verb or part of a compound noun. After being trained on a large corpus, the model predicts the most likely part of speech for prices, correctly accounting for the fact that people understand price as a noun but makes as a verb (see Crocker Corley, 2002, and references cited therein). Not only does the model account for a range of disambiguation preferences rooted in lexical category ambiguity, it also explains why, in general, people are highly accurate in resolving such ambiguities.(Matthew W. Crocker, Rational Models of Comprehension: Addressing the Performance Paradox. Twenty-First Century Psycholinguistics: Four Cornerstones, ed. by Anne Cutler. Lawrence Erlbaum, 2005) Also Known As: lexical disambiguation

Imperfection Markets and Unemployment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Imperfection Markets and Unemployment - Essay Example Joblessness is experiential in any kind of inflationary economies where the restriction on take-home pay was not lessening is most probably not compulsory and certainly, there is little persuasive confirmation that industries with better wage and cost flexibility (for example construction) display less unpredictability in service (Keynes, 1973). This article helps us understand that the arrangement of defeatist in the last analysis is indefensible. As per the authors in the actual world there is hardly any perfect competition in the markets and thus this causes unemployment. Murray Milgate and John Eatwell range extensively across the backdrop which describes their subject matter. Both are globally well-known authors famous for their inscriptions on Keynesian economics. A unique characteristic is the argument which Keynesian imminent into the procedure of present market economies offer a rich seam of wherewithal that can help build a more reliable, effectual and pragmatic explanation of today’s multifarious economic with regards to imperfect market and unemployment. They believe in the powerful Keynesian ideas which could be applicable to present as well as past economic problems. They demonstrate how supportive these ideas are when it comes to explaining the link between imperfect market and unemployment and how these are correlated to one another. They embark a blueprint for a substitute which offers an obvious, more reliable, and more appropriate approach to recognizing how the markets work. Besides they also emphasize the interpretive inadequacies which typify Keynes erudition itself. They carry out every single aspect of this in the context of a stimulating re-examination of a number of the most vital economic tribulations which confront financial markets and the worldwide economy today. Finally they wrap up that

Point of View Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Point of View - Essay Example At the same time, I felt it was also the time for everything in the surrounding to listen to me pour out the nostalgic feelings that filled me; how just the other day we lived in the structure with dad, mommy and my sisters and how things have changed beyond the point of no return. At the door, I am welcome by the woodpecker, which takes a flight. As the door opens, it seems to it cannot mince the joy of meeting one of its masters again, as evidenced by the production of screech sounds by the hinges. As I get in, I find the building inclusions smiling at me. The pictures on the wall, the furniture, the falling ceiling seem to be saying ‘son, welcome back. We have never missed you’. It is a place that one would love to stay. I take a walk around to explore the full feelings. I rediscover the other part of this world. I discern that the structure stands isolated at the end of the ranch. The structure is now old seem to be on the final stages of its life. By looking at the structure, one can derive a lot of unpleasant memories. The remaining trees and few stumps do not seem to be moved by the unfolding events. As walk, my feet interact with the dried leaves that seem to give unwelcoming sound. Even the few daffodils at the entrance can only be described as lonely and displaced. The woodpecker has taken over the cottage door and takes a scary flight. As I open the door, it is apparent the hinges were hardly prepared to see me again. As I come to face with what is in the building, everything, including the pictures on the wall, the furniture and the falling ceiling seem to be lamenting on why I had forsaken them. The only smell is that of the decomposing woods and memories. I totally feel out of place. I chose to write on dad old cottage because it grants me the opportunity to describe both positive and negative attributes from my own experiences. In my first impression of the

MHR2006 MENTAL HEALTH Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

MHR2006 MENTAL HEALTH - Essay Example 1049). It is estimated that this adolescents have a greater risk of developing drug and substance abuse as compared to adults. About 7.6 percent of adolescents, aged 12-17 meet the criteria of dependence on abuse of illegal drugs or alcohol (Burn, et al., 2004, p. 964). In terms of mental health problems, it is usually caused by abuse of drugs such as marijuana, and alcohol and it is the case in most situations that the mental problem tends to increase abuse of these substances. The above facts relate to johns situation in which case he started abuse of drugs such as marijuana at the age of ten. It is most likely that his drug abuse habits have been the root cause for his mental health problems. A comprehensive assessment of John’s situation will require the use of the basic screening and assessment approach of persons with co-occurring disorders given by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2010). This will require a systematic assessment process that will be able to lead to an appropriate treatment plan for John. The first step towards assessing John’s co-occurring disorder is to engage with him and let him open up to share freely by creating a good rapport and comfortable environment. With this achieved john is able to share his situation and share important information that is required for the assessment process and diagnosis. Fortunately, the practice nurse attending to John has been able to achieve this state by making John feel free to share his story and problems. The second step involves identifying John’s family or any other collaterals who may be familiar wit h his history. This is because his condition may inhibit him from reporting accurate instances of his past or present. It is also important considering John’s

The contributions of perfomance management systems

The contributions of perfomance management systems The need for effective performance management has grown in organizations for various reasons. Such reasons include providing appropriate employee rewards, managing employee competencies, indicating the degree, nature, acceptability or unacceptability of work and measuring extent and process of goal attainment (Shields 2007). To ensure an effective and efficient performance management, performance management systems (PMS) have been developed and implemented in many organizations today. Linge and Schiemann (1996), de Waal and Coevert (2007) and Lawson et al. (2003) cited in de Waal and Counet (2008) agrees that PMS is a critical contributor to top class performance and quality output of organizations. Consequently, when critically assessing the main contributions of PMS to organizational and individual performance, the impact of such contributions on the organization and individuals will be considered as the measuring unit. 2.0 Contributions of Performance Management Systems The nine main contributions of PMS to organizations and individuals includes: consolidating operational information to reflect a single meaningful picture of the organization, developing realistic performance and business goals, developing well-structured business plans with proper risk management measures, developing processes that change with the business environment, providing ease of information analysis, providing opportunities for performance improvement, enhancing trustworthy reporting, increasing confidence in business execution and improving the performance culture of the organization (Dresner 2008). Each of these contributions will be considered in details. An effective PMS pulls data from different organizational systems and presents the information in a timely, accurate, relevant, consistent and controlled manner. When relevant and critical information is stored away in individual departments, it becomes difficult for management at any level to see the performance of the entire organization. This hampers or degrades the quality of decisions made since relevant information is not available or is not available in a timely manner. Moreso, management reports about the different business units will not be accurate and consistent since the information is incorrect. When management is able to see the entire organization, it will be possible to determine the key performance indicators of the organization ascertain real performance drivers and produce consistent and reliable organization reports (Dresner 2008, pp. 141-2). A good PMS helps management develop realistic performance expectations of the business units in the organization. When management lacks a basis for setting performance goals for the organization, the goals becomes unrealistic, irrelevant and meaningless and results in wasted resources, demotivation of employees and unnecessary refinements of business goals. Suitable performance management applications enable managers to develop appropriate business and performance goals on a sound basis (such as the organization corporate strategy), communicate appropriately these goals, take responsibility of these goals, and drive the success of these goals. These ensure managers align all the business units goals to the corporate focus of the organization (Dresner 2008, pp. 143-4; Johnson, Scholes Whittington 2008). A properly structured PMS enables an equally structured business plan. Such plans includes appropriate feedback mechanisms and appropriate performance measurement metrics. When management is knowledgeable of the key performance indicators of the business and the plan is properly structured to ensure negative conflict is reduced between the business units, business results can be reasonably forecasted. Additionally, when business plans are aided with contextual information such as industry benchmarks, customer satisfaction surveys, call center reports, revenues, profit and cash flow reports, management will measure relevant performance activities, demonstrate reasonable achievable results to stakeholders and reduce risks because the basis of the plan informs the relevant risks the organization should be concerned about (Armstrong 2006, pp. 48-52, 90-7; Dresner 2008, pp. 144-5). A desired PMS assist organizations to adjust their strategic, tactical and operational plans when the business environment changes (Armstrong 2006; Wiesner Millet 2001, p. 117). Such robust plans do not necessarily sacrifice core business priorities or primal intra-dependencies in the organization rather it is incremental depending on emerging opportunities or changes in business environment (Grant 2005). When managers at all levels develop plans with changing business conditions in mind, the need for a dynamic planning process begins to emerge. Such realization enables an organization to develop the culture of continuously matching corporate plans with current realities, refines previous forecasts based on current knowledge and aligns individual business unit activities to current happenings. As a result management is constantly abreast with the present, improves critical planning competencies and modifies communication across the organization. This competence leads to better perfo rmance and an organization that approaches the future with confidence (Dresner 2008, pp. 145-7). A robust PMS presents information in a way that enables easy retrieval, comparison and evaluation of data. A PMS contributes more to an organization when it does not only pull information to a single point but compiles, compares, contrasts, evaluates and presents meaningful results from such data. Moreso, when actions are critical for the business, built-in prompts in the PMS alert for such critical actions to be carried out. Such automatic features increases the visibility of the organizations performance, ensures managers act efficiently and effectively and ensures the business remains competitive (Dresner 2008, pp. 147-8). Interestingly, a good PMS provides individuals and business units across the organization with an opportunity to improve performance. This performance improvement begins with the performance accountability culture that results when a PMS is used daily in controlling and managing the organization. Hence, accountability enables employees and managers to be responsible for their performance and when mistakes are made, consequences observed, corrections made and positive results emerge from the corrections made, this improves learning and performance (Dresner 2008, pp. 148-9). A functional PMS assures and ensures that organizations publications are trustworthy. When a PMS collates, analyses and consolidates information in a timely manner from all the business units into a single platform, managers at all levels can access, integrate and certify published reports since there is sound basis for its composition. The organization will be able to confidently report key performance drivers to the organization and stakeholders. When the PMS is built with suitable capabilities organizations can publish consistent, relevant and accurate reports in less time and with less effort (Dresner 2008, pp. 149-50). An enterprise wide PMS ensures proper guide is provided for smooth execution of business plans across the organization. When a PMS has all the planning information, integrates all the changes and relevant refinements of business decisions and goals across the organization, incorporates all the resources required to achieve the set out objective of the business units, management will be able to provide clear direction on the execution strategy of the task. Managers at all levels will be able to carry out the business executions confidently, communicated appropriately and effectively the progress and status of the executions. When a PMS can provide an end-to-end operational support structure, managers can confidently decide, monitor and report real time impacts on business decisions which enhance top quartile performance (Dresner 2008, pp. 150-1). A comprehensive PMS builds a generally performance-driven and accountable business organization. When a business operates a PMS that is used to control and manage the organization daily, enormous data of information gained from various business aspects would provide enormous insight into key performance criteria of the organization. An organization emerges that focuses and gains experience in performance-related information gathering, performance-related activity alignment, performance-driven business planning, performance-related analysis, performance-related monitoring, forecast and reporting and a general performance driven culture. These make an organization and employees of the organization more competent and perform better and manage the organization better (Dresner 2008, pp. 151-2). The impact of the main contributions of PMS begins with the nature of PMS implementation in the organization. 3.0 Lessons learned from Performance Management Implementation The article Lessons learned from performance management systems implementations reveals problems that are encountered during the implementation and use of PMSs. Serious problems with PMS implementations could mitigate the contributions expected to be derived from the use of PMS. The article records that fifty six percent of PMS implementations fail before organizations can realise any meaningful benefit from the system (de Waal Counet 2008). In other words, PMS only contributes to organizational and individual performance forty four times for every hundred attempts at its use. 3.1 Causal factors The consideration of the causal factors resulting in PMSs failing at the implementation stage or if implemented not effectively used in organizations is therefore significant. Identified problem areas contributing to this failure includes senior and middle level management paying less importance to the PMS implementation, prolonged, extended and unanticipated resource requirements during implementations, complete lack of resources for the PMS implementation, unfavourable environmental pressures during implementations, perceived lack of focus of the PMS implementation by employees, lack of or not long enough enthusiasm by senior and middle level management on the PMS implementation, mounting resistance or low commitment by employees to the implementation and use of the new PMS, lack of adequate information and computer technology (ICT) infrastructure to support the implementation and use of the PMS, poor use of the PMS by management (such as using it as a punitive tool for employees), incompatibility of PMS with the organizations main objectives, constricted use of PMS (such as only a reporting tool), poor definition and/or poor linkage of the relevant measurable key performance indicators (KPIs) to different individuals and departments of the organizations, lack of competence in the use of PMS, too many or wrong KPIs measured by PMS, lack of an organization change strategy for the use of the new PMS, lack of and/or poor motivation mechanisms for employees in the use of new system, poor performance culture in the organization, no single point responsibility of PMS, lack of or poor general maintenance of the system, difficulties in getting relevant data for performance calculations, no plan to embed its use in the organization beyond management changes and perceived lack of improvement in the organization after using the system for sometime (de Waal Counet 2008). The most important problem areas that had the severest consequences were a lack of top management commitment; not having a performance management (PM) culture; PM getting a low priority or its use being abandoned after a change of management; management putting low priority on the implementation; and people not seeing (enough) benefit from PM (de Waal Counet 2008, p. 367). The enormity of the problems relating to PMS implementation and use reveals the seriousness of removing these impediments if PMS must have a chance to positively contribute to the performance of organizations and individuals. 4.0 Successful Performance Management Implementation The assessment of a properly implemented PMS is important to the performance health of any organization. The American Productivity and Quality Center (2004) reveals the results of successfully implemented PMSs in five companies namely Bank of America, Crown Castle International, JetBlue Airways Corporation, L.L. Bean and Saturn Corporation. It highlights ten success factors that ensured such successful PMS implementation as including the organization measuring its important objectives, incorporating the performance system into its daily operations, reflecting the organizations maturity level in the PMS, making provisions for flexibility in the PMS, simplifying processes in using the PMS, creating successful change plans from the old PMS (if existent) to the new PMS, ensure transparent communication from the PMS to the organization, incorporates the PMS into the organizations culture, structure the PMS with organization structure and ensure a commitment to action based on the results of the PMS. 4.1 Analysis Therefore, the successful implementation of the PMS impacted positively on the organizations. Since the use of PMS represented ninety-four percent of the organizations activities, it can be said that the PMS was applied to the daily operations of the organizations. The result is that business objectives were directly impacted positively. For example, the Bank of America recorded an increase in customers checking account and increase in earning per share. Crown Castle was able to improve their cash flow positively and in some cases beat market expectations for the company. Similar successes were recorded by the other organizations studied. Additionally, organizations were able to demonstrate these positive impacts easily since the use of the system makes all the organizations efforts visible and transparent. For example, Bank of America incorporated a customer performance analysis that enabled the bank demonstrate how and where it had to improve in relation to their customers. Similar ly, L.L. Bean was able to demonstrate analysis of its normal activities in comparison to its seasonal engagements. Other organizations shared the same positive outlook. Subsequently, PMS contributed to the continuous improvement efforts in the organizations. The organizations were able to manage their corporate balance scorecard, manage improvements to the company process and develop future plans based on such improvements. For example, Saturn was able to improve their customer relationship by adapting its PMS to focus on six core values of customer enthusiasm, retail partnership, passion to excellence, teamwork, trust and respect for the individual which resulted in their retailers sharing the same system, consistency in reporting and measurement of criteria. The use of PMS ensured that all the levels of the organization were able to predict future impacts on the business which means that future strategic, tactical and operational plans will be easily broken down and aligned with t he organizations departments. For example, L.L. Bean linked the lower level plans to individuals and the various expected individuals activities calculated to determine the corporate performance indicator. Another area of positive impact was the ease or review and reporting with the use of PMS. Unlike traditional staff performance appraisal that occurs at the end of the year, functional PMSs made it easy to observe, assess and report daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or when required. If the PMS is not delivering on the intended objectives, amendments can be made with little disruption and impact to the business. For example, business performance in Bank of America and Saturn are inputted and analyzed daily to determine gaps, causes, corrective measures or changes in business approach (American Productivity and Quality Center 2004). 4.2 Lessons learned from successful Performance Management System Implementation Hence, the key lessons from these successful implementations highlights the criticality of organizations leaders and employees maintaining commitment to the PMS, populating it, using it daily, embedding it into the organizations culture and training staff. Interestingly, this finding agrees with de Waal and Counet (2008) in the article Lessons learned from Performance Management Implementations in which lack of management commitment was among the severest detriment to successful PMS implementations. Moreso, the implementation revealed that when the organization is assisted by the PMS to be proactive and the organization feels that it is achieving its strategic plans, the PMS continues to remain relevant and effective to the organization. When the PMS is perceived as uncomplicated, provides information to the different departments when needed and enables rewards of hard working employees, the PMS will be easily maintained to provide the critical performance measurements needed by the organization (American Productivity and Quality Center 2004). 4.3 Assessment of the contributions Therefore, a critical assessment of the impact of PMS on Bank of America, Crown Castle International, JetBlue Airways Corporation, L.L. Bean and Saturn Corporation based on successful implementations of PMS could be stated as ensuring business objectives are positively achieved, visible and transparent demonstration of efforts towards goal attainment, highlight of organization improvement areas and efforts applied, prediction of future impacts on the organization, ease of reporting and review of key performance criteria of the organization. Thus, it can be said that these organizations have been impacted positively through the use of the PMS. Therefore the author in its critical assessment is in favor of the argument that PMS delivers enormous value to both individual and the organization and its use should be sustained when implemented. 5.0 The Scorecard System More specifically, a popular performance management system in use today is the scorecard system. Many companies have deployed the use of the scorecard system in strategic management of their organizations performance (Hatch, Lawson DesRoches 2008, p. 7). The impact of using the scorecard system on Suzano Petroquimica Company is assessed next. 5.1 Application of Scorecard System to Suzano Petroquimica Suzano Petroquimica Company (SPQ) is a Latin American industry leader producing polypropylene resins and a major producer of thermoplastic resins in Brazil. With a production capacity of 685,000 tons/year distributed across Latin America, SPQ continued to expand to consolidate its leadership position in the polypropylene business with the goal of being the second largest producer of thermoplastic in the region. SPQ advanced to becoming joint controlling shareholders in other companies that supplied them the raw materials for their business. In 2005, SPQ earned a gross income of $980 million representing a 126 percent sales increase with its 474 employees (Hatch, Lawson DesRoches 2008). That same year SPQ was inducted into the Balanced Scorecard Hall of Fame due to its massive success in the use and application of the balanced scorecard framework in managing and improving its company performance. To fully understand the impact of the performance management tool (scorecard system) used by SPQ, consideration of the process that resulted in such massive success is explored. To achieve their vision of industry leader in 2003, SPQ followed the process of change management, implementation and observation. During the change management phase, SPQ had to inform the employees clearly of the planned change to the use of the scorecard system, the reason for the change, benefits of employees embracing the change, develop a strategy for measuring, monitoring, assessing and correcting performance at all levels in the organization. During the implementation, SPQ dissected the corporate strategy and assigned actionable parts of the strategy to individuals and departments making the individuals and teams responsible for the outcome of their assignments. To align the entire perspectives of the organization, 650 measures were monitored by the scorecard system. Measures relating to finances were tied to the financial planning system and automated to enable real time cost monitoring. Short term, medium term and long term goals of the organization were also tied to the scorecard system wherein senior management would review the relevant measures to determine the performance and needed performance adjustments required for the different range of goals. Furthermore, to align employee actions to the scorecard system and ensure organization wide use and acceptance, SPQ linked the remuneration system, bonuses, individual objectives and corporate team incentives to the scorecard system. Apart from SPQ achieving industry leader status, it was observed that SPQ noted many benefits from its implementation of the scorecard system. Such benefits included improved and integrated communication between individuals and teams and between teams and management, corporate strategy communicated in a simplified manner, corporate goals performance were linked to remuneration, effect of performance on the measures monitored were visibly related to the corporate strategy, employee actions were aligned to corporate goals and strategy, entire organization worked as shareholders in the company and positive changes of employee behavior since rewards were tied to performance (Hatch, Lawson DesRoches 2008, pp. 131-3). 5.2 Assessment A critical assessment of the contributions of the performance management system scorecard system reveals many positive impacts on SPQ. Implementing the use of PMS in 2003 and within two years achieving the industry leader status as an organization is a massive feat. Additionally, the application of the PMS to individual performance in the organization is significant wherein individuals objectives were not only linked to corporate objectives but hardworking individuals would be rewarded accordingly based on their performance. The author agrees with the evidence that Performance Management Systems contribute positively to organizational performance. However, the author recommends that the linking of individual performance to remuneration and rewards should be categorized (years of experience, degree of training etc.) and with a reasonably fixed remuneration baseline. This is to ensure that new recruits are kept reasonably motivated to continue improving their performance since they w ill not necessarily be able to perform like the more experienced employees. 6.0 Criticism of Performance Management Systems Notwithstanding the benefits of PMS, the current applications of PMS have been criticized on many grounds. Earlier scholars believed that there is too much emphasis on performance rather than individual learning embedded in the PMS. It is argued that a learning approach should be encouraged more in organizations than a performance-based approach towards employees. For example, Barrie and Pace (1999, p. 295) cited in Swanson and Elwood (2009) argues that it is the performance perspective that denies a persons fundamental and inherent agency and self-determination, not the learning perspective. All of the negative effects of training come from a performance perspective. Moreso, Bierema (1997, p. 23-4) cited in Swanson and Elwood (2009) adds that the machine mentality in the workplace, coupled with obsessive focus on performance, has created a crisis in individual development and that valuing development only if it contributes to productivity is a viewpoint that has perpetuated the mech anistic model of the past three hundred years. Dirkx (1997, p. 43) cited in Swanson and Elwood (2009) decries that even the so-called learning that seems to be projected in PMS are defined according to the perceived needs of the sponsoring organization and the work individuals are required to perform regardless of its contribution to the ultimate societys economic competitiveness and therefore the learning is simply a market-driven education. Additionally, Smither and London (2009) criticises four aspect of PMSs namely performance appraisal, accountability, excessive goals and contesting priorities. The philosophy of the performance appraisal aspect of PMS have been criticised as often being poorly developed in organizations and which is usually ill-executed. Also, when there are external and overarching factors such as effects of organizational structure, technology enablers or supply chain resources shortfalls, even a high performer may fail to reach set goals of which these causes may not be discounted in the PMS. Moreover, the idea of performance appraisal usually disruptive conflicts that negatively affect teamwork and damage relationships. It also confuses workers who wonder if there should always strive for the highest rating or identify areas of personal development and risk low performance rating. Therefore employees are usually placed in a position to do what is expected to be done and not necessarily what is kn own to be right because of the fear of being called the low performer. In this context also, performance appraisal can lower self-esteem which can affect workers motivation (Davidson et al. 2009). Accountability is an important part of the PMS. The competence of managers to truly analyse an individual enough to carry a complex psychological process of setting appropriate goals for many individuals, mentoring and coaching them is questioned. Moreover, the ability of managers in the performance management process to balance the roles of telling an employee that the employee is a low performer while at the same time he is expected to be the coach and mentor is questioned in the process. Goal setting is critical to PMS. Locke and Lotham (1990) cited in Smither and London (2009) emphasizes that if there are many goals and enough time it can be accomplished but when there are many goals to be executed at the same time performance can be mitigated. Practitioners suggests seven goals (Smither London 2009) but many organizations have much more goals and sub-goals designated to individuals and teams which is argued will be counter-productive explaining the reason PMSs are not effective. Contesting priorities is a fact of business that draws on the competence of managers and employees. Managers have realised that in the normal course of business huge tradeoffs usually occur beyond the ability of the manager to control in order to achieve the most pressing goal. The application of the balanced scorecard (BSC) proposed by Kaplan and Norton (1996) focussing on assessing performance on four broad areas of the business has been criticised as unrealistic in measuring individual performance since due to tradeoffs, should not be expected to meet all the goals, hence PMS explained as ineffective (Smither London 2009). 7.0 Conclusion and Recommendations Conclusively, a critical assessment of the contributions of PMS to organizational and individual performance reveals that PMS delivers many benefits to the organization when properly implemented. However, organizations confirm that individual performance is improved when Performance Management Systems were deployed. While the debate continues as to the overall benefit of the PMS from an individuals viewpoint, the author believes that Performance Management Systems should be implemented in a manner that satisfies the needs of the individual while satisfying the organizations objectives. While the balance of objectives between individual and organization will not be easy, organizations that make the effort will continue to benefit by retaining the best of workers in the industry.

They Just Dont Understand Essay -- Personal Narrative Family Culture

They Just Don't Understand As the weekend drew in I knew that it’s going to be another battle between my mom and me. About whether or not it is acceptable for me to stay out till the club closes, or if I should just stay home and live like a hermit and study. I respect my mom very much, and in no way do I want to give her a hard time, but come on If your 18,19 years old don’t you feel that you deserve at least a little bit of freedom. People always tell me that â€Å"she is worried about you because you are her only son† and things like that, which I already understand. I know that every ones parents feel like that about them. I think that what adds to the fire is the fact that she was raised totally different than me, in a totally different country with totally different customs. This I feel has a great effect on the way she treats me here in America people go out to clubs, people party and have fun on the weekends, where my mom grew up it was totally different. My mom was raised on a small farm in Rorzniaty Poland; it is a really tiny town, not even two miles in total going north, south, east, and west. Her parents were pretty religious folks and she was a total study addict. All she would do is help out in the field come back home bathe, eat and study. There were really no clubs or anything she can go to, and only from time to time did the school have a dance. Basically her child hood consisted of studying. After high school she went on to the University of Krakow where she studied education. Only then did she start to live a li... ...e that we are not in Poland any more and that most of my years were spent here so I adapted to the way things are. She should really try to adopt to the way things are here, and I do talk to her and it is getting better but still there are those times where it all just goes back to square one and it seems like all the talks were just a waste of time. Many different cultures and many different generations will be put through the same cycle, some will adapt and others will not, some will try others will not, but either way we all should just try to bare with them because the chances are that the ones who will be against you doing what you do will be your parents, and whether it is going to be because of there age difference or there cultural difference, is up to them, but I guess in a way it is up to us to understand them if its so hard for them to understand us.