Margaret Atwood Essay

I came across the quote â€Å"Context is all; or is it ripeness? One or the other†[1] when reading Margaret Atwood’s novel â€Å"The Handmaid’s Tale† for English. I didn’t give it much attention, because since I was 12, I had come to the conclusion that there was no such thing as a â€Å"fact† and every thought depended on other factors for it to be true. However in this essay I’m going to see if my original assumption was true or if there is a way to reach a truth through different branches of knowledge. I’m going to take the definition of â€Å"truth† from the dictionary, solely to have a base for which to compare the rest of the essay to; â€Å"A verified or indisputable fact, proposition, principle†[2].Which means that that there are facts that are backed by evidence, such as; it is 14:24 (at the time of writing). However in this case we can apply Atwood’s ‘context is all’, and change it to â€Å"context is location†, as this scenario isn’t necessarily true, seeing that in Sydney the time is 22:25, therefore the truth can be considered relative. Relativism is a doctrine where there is no absolute truth; that truth is always relative to some particular frame of reference, such as a language or a culture[3]. Which brings up a paradox as if someone were to say â€Å"context is irrelevant† meaning the truth would remain a truth in every situation, it would contradict themselves, as that statement would be relative depending on the context. Francis Bacon’s Empiricism or otherwise known perception, is the process of arriving at the truth through sense experience.[4] People use their five senses to arrive at a truth, however depending on the context, the exact same senses can make that truth false. An example that happens to me frequently is; when I look at a shirt, to me it looks black, but then when I put it under a stronger light and look at it carefully it often turns out to be dark blue. It doesn’t mean the senses are â€Å"faulty† or can’t be trusted, but the observation; truth, arrived from the use of perception, isn’t congruent when the context is changed. Another very bizarre example that happened to me last year when I bought my new phone; is before purchasing it, I didn’t know of anybody that had one, but as soon as I had it in my pocket I started realising that a lot of people around me had it as well. Language is the use of characters, symbols, images and sounds as a means of communicating a message.[5] We assume that language is a truth, as we have a general consensus of the different characters, symbols, images and sounds in language. However once again the truth is challenged with the â€Å"context is all† axiom, where in certain cases the truth behind language doesn’t stand. My father told me the following example; when Vice-President Richard Nixon, at the end of the 1950’s was visiting Colombia, he used the commonly known â€Å"OK† hand sign, denoted with a circle formed by the thumb and the first finger, with the remaining three fingers outstretched, to which the Colombian people, thought they were being called assholes. Rene Descartes’ Rationalism is the use of reason, be it inductive or deductive to logically arrive at the truth.[6] Descartes used reason to arrive at his famous; ‘Cogito Ergo Sum’, I think therefore I am.[7] He was asking the question â€Å"How do I know I exist ?† and he deduced by no more than reason that it all boiled down to; I doubt that I exist, therefore I think, ergo I am.  When I first heard this deduction, it seemed to me that it was flawless. However I remember looking around the room I was in at the time; I realised that objects such as the chairs, tables and even trees to an extent, couldn’t deduce their existence like Descartes did, therefore according to his deduction they wouldn’t exist. Once again I came to the conclusion that context will undermine truth.

Interpersonal Process: Decision Making in Organizations Essay

The crucial part of any organization is making good decisions in the various contexts. To reach good decisions, they need reliable information, experience in interpreting information, and reaching a consensus. However, this process of decision-making remains incomplete without the consultation process as the view and expertise of other people in an organization can help to admit one or alter one’s mind. The process of decision-making is supported by various tools and techniques that help an organization better sort and analyze the information by adding numerical and objective precision to minimize the level of subjectivity. As organizational decision-making process is people-centric and it always has some level of subjectivity in it, some sort of training can enable managers to be better decision makers. A supportive environment where one is fairly criticized for making wrong choices and proper support from other group members and superiors enables managers to make better decisions (Kippenberger, T, 1998). The importance of interpersonal process of decision-making is obvious in all types of decisions made in the organizational context such as strategic decision of investment and direction of future growth taken by the board of director and tactical decision about material handling and effectiveness at departmental levels taken by managers. In addition, in the 21st century of market-oriented and customer focused approach also puts pressure on employees to make decision about their own tasks, responses to customers and improvement to business practice. The process of first collecting alternative possibilities and then converging on a solution is referred as decision making. In fact when we decide we try to cut off from all other alternatives as the Latin root of the world decision suggests and means. In the presence and emergence of new innovative solutions and huge variations in the ways business are being done, decision making process still remains a human process. However, the advance methodologies and MIS have reduced the level of human efforts in collecting  and sorting the information thus making the decision-making process comparatively less complicated and difficult. As we have already explained that decision-making is a human-centric process, the importance of interpersonal skills of influencing others, conflict resolving, communicating, and conveying the messages etc cannot be minimized. Decision-making is not only confined to only choosing among the alternative solutions and diverging but this process also involves dialogs, brainstorming, contemplative reflection, critique and conflict resolution. In addition, interpersonal processes of decision making is much evident in new types of organizational structures such as team-based matrix structure where collaborative and group decision-making are increasingly being used to enhance decision-making process as compared to the conventional decision-making processes. GLOBALIZATION: The fast spread of phenomenon of globalization is increasing the present level of complexity o the ways of decision-making as to collect and process the data becomes a difficult and cumbersome issue. As boundaries of the countries are getting wider and non-evident in the presence of globalization, organizations are under huge pressures to make decisions collaboratively to effectively manage the flow of goods, services, labor and capital. These organizations to win the increasingly competitive environment have started to rely on participatory and inclusive approaches to decision-making and knowledge creation. As global organizations have their offices spread across many countries of the world make use, they have to arrange meeting online, face-to-face discussions and group participations from distant and geographically disparate locations. This process of decision making utilizes certain online technologies and solutions to increase the level of efficiency, however, these tools only support the human-centric decision-making process and don’t become alternative to interpersonal process of decision-making. In addition, these tools enhance and improve  communication, learning, creativity and problem solving abilities of management (Anonymous, 2007). GROUP DECISION MAKING: Over the past few years group decision making has become much common and popular as its important function is to come up with a collective decision through discussions, and diversity of ideas, and thus making this process more interpersonal. Sometimes individual members’ enduring attitudes is shifted to the more polarized group position. One of the benefits of this interpersonal process of decision-making is the group members’ learning from each other and mutual persuasion. However, the view point of one member has strong influence on the behavior and attitude of other members even if they sometimes don’t give due importance to each other’s arguments (Isenberg, 1986). Seeking the arguments of most participants but also resolving and mitigating the minority objections is another from of group decision making referred as Consensus decision-making. It is more participative, collaborative and interpersonal approach of decision making. For instance, many organizations use Robert’s Rule of Order for structuring debate and passage of proposals to reach to a majority decision, however, the goal of full agreement and consensus is often missed. As this process often formulate adversarial debates and competing factions, disturbing group members’ relationships, it become much difficult for a group to cooperatively and collaboratively implement a contentious decision (Jeffery, A. B., 2005). REFERENCES: Kippenberger, T, (1998), â€Å"Strategic decisions: the value of diversity and conflict†, The Antidote, 3(7), Emeraldinsight [Online], Available at: http://www.emeraldinsight.com.ezproxy.scu.edu.au/journals.htm?issn=1363-8483&volume=3&issue=7&articleid=873429&show=html (Accessed: 02 December, 2010) Jeffery, A. B., Maes, J.D., Bratton-Jeffery, M.F., (2005), â€Å"Improving team decision-making performance with collaborative modeling†, Team Performance Management, 11(1/2), pp. 40-50, Emeraldinsight [Online], Available at: http://www.emeraldinsight.com.ezproxy.scu.edu.au/journals.htm?issn=1352-7592&volume=11&issue=1/2&articleid=1464479&show=html (Accessed: 03 December, 2010) Baron, R.S., & Kerr, N.L. (2002). Group Process, Group Decision, Group Action. 2nd edn. Buckingham: Open University Press

Things a Service Business Must Get Right Assignment

Things a Service Business Must Get Right - Assignment Example This paper illustrates that the business strategies that are applicable in a commodity market are totally different from those applicable from the service markets, owing to the tangibility of the commodity as opposed to a service. While promoting a product, it is much easier for the customer to inspect and try out the product before making a purchase decision, since the product is tangibly available for inspection. This is different with a service market since the prospective buyer cannot try out a service before he/she purchases it. Thus for a service business to earn good profits, more efforts in strategizing must be applied as opposed to a business dealing in goods. This forms the subject of this Journal Article review, covering a brief summary, critique of the article and offering concluding thoughts. The fundamental reason for choosing this article is the realization that the service industry operates completely different from a commodity market. While some business strategies a re applicable to any form of business whether product or service business, there is some uniqueness in the service industry that calls for applying different strategies. This article is relevant to advance this realization, since it covers four things a service business must get right, in order to survive and succeed. Most of the management tools that have been established over time have specialized in addressing the challenges of the product companies. Although such management tools are of considerable value to managers operating in the service businesses, they fall short of the requirement for effective and efficient management of such businesses to enhance successful growth and profitability. Frei has introduced four main elements that would help see the service business grow towards profitability. These elements, which constitute the new management tool for the service industry, are the design of the offering, employee management, customer management, and the funding mechanism, which collectively forms the service model. To start with, the service offering by any service business should be well designed, tailor-made to meet the desires and the needs of the most attractive customer groups.

Amending the U.S. Constitution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Amending the U.S. Constitution - Essay Example Second, by integrating the Balanced Budget Amendment in our Constitution, it becomes an imperative for politicians to follow. Without this policy, politicians will be left squandering our national budget and leave us in deficit again. Experience taught us that our politicians does not have the fiscal discipline and cannot make hard choices to arrest our deficit. While Balanced Budget Amendment has its advantages, it has its drawbacks also. The most obvious would be the lack of flexibility in allocating budget since expense has already a ceiling on what we make as a country. Second, it is prohibitive towards loans that create value in the future. For example, high cost infrastructure such as roads and schools are often loaned due to its huge budget requirement with the expectation that better infrastructure will benefit us in the future. Discouraging loans which is inherent in the Balanced Budget Amendment will deprive us of making long term investments through loan. Of all the popular Amendments, Balanced Budget Amendment is the one that will most likely pass the ratification process because lawmakers realize that it is now time to clip our deficits which Balanced Budget Amendment could

Frankenstein (1818 Book) Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Frankenstein (1818 Book) - Research Paper Example Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein effectively renders the audience horrified at the chief thought that humans themselves can create life from the dead. Through science, the epistemological capacity of Shelley’s work reflects the possibility to explore the yet unknown so that by fiction, it is able to promote varied concepts whose substance may impress upon a range of perceptions from being a magical wonder to an object of fright. The ensuing madness in Victor as a science student who has severely detached himself from the norms of the living to defy human limits potentially makes a horrifying attribute to the story where one could well associate mental derangement with crime or a series of morbid acts to follow scheming beyond sanity. Frankenstein, hence, is psychologically addressed in the light of this context. As a tool of suspense, similarly, the laboratory settings where Frankenstein conducts crude experimentation all the more appear to intensify the creepy effect of sce narios in which one is led to anticipate the horrible triumph of reconstructing life from the patches of grave-buried fleshes. Shelly manages to stir anxiety into audience sensation by directing the theme to be understood in the nature of ancient alchemy blended with some futuristic science as portrayed via the notion that high volts of electricity would ignite reflexes to the initially lifeless man-made creature. The monstrous appearance of Victor’s creation as well as the serial killings that follow upon the creature’s escape from his workplace further constitutes the elements to gothic mystery and horror. The author gradually relieves the story from this stage in pursuit of demonstrating the capacity of the creature to separate beastly instincts from its recognition of moral values. In the novel, the creature is said to have attained self-realization by guiding himself to obtain knowledge through literature, as by reading Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’ . On the contrary, while he remains speechless with only grunting or growling to express, the 1931 film agrees to indicate development of rational qualities as the creature observes the cottagers to figure how humans communicate to share sensible concerns through emotions and use of intellect or reasoning. From these circumstances, he weaves and even struggles to acquire concept of himself in relation to humanity and the affinity of human beings to values based on spiritual beliefs. Shelley alludes in her story that although the brutish entity possesses a culprit’s brain, a portion of his nature still tends to innocent quest for self-identity and yearning to earn society’s approval. If one asks who the actual monster is in Frankenstein, by meditation of each principal character, the question may adequately draw response from the story’s ontological approach when the monster finds himself wandering with delight as he randomly explores with knowledge of human expe rience and spiritual faith or conviction. The burden of guilt may not be readily designated upon a brute who is amoral prior to self-awareness of which Shelley’s justification adequately provides evidence. Apparently, it is Victor Frankenstein who should receive the blame for following his instincts of mechanically forming life without paying regard to sound logic and the appalling consequences of his irrational endeavor. He deliberately neglects moral thought and this is the primary ground for the loss of his loved ones, so in effect,

Debt and Equity Financing - Advantages and Disadvantages Research Paper

Debt and Equity Financing - Advantages and Disadvantages - Research Paper Example It is of great significance that the ratios must be benchmarked against a standard in order for them to possess a meaning. Keeping that into account, the comparison is usually conducted between companies portraying same business and financial risks, between industries and different time periods of the same company. The company under consideration is Marvel Toys, and in this report the analysis of the financial performance of the company over the last seven years has been conducted in order to draw attention to various financial trends and significant changes over the period. The analysis is divided into three main categories: namely Profitability, Liquidity and Gearing. Profitability ratios identify how efficiently and effectively a company is utilizing its resources and how successful it has been in generating a desired rate of return for its shareholders and investors. Liquidity ratios measure the ability of the company to quickly convert its asset into liquid cash to settle its sh ort term liabilities. Whereas, the Gearing ratios identifies the extent to which the company is financed through debt and to what degree the operations are being conducted from the finance raised through raising equity capital or otherwise2. Following ratios have been used in order to evaluate the financial outlook of the company: Current ratio Acid-test (quick) ratio Collection period Inventory turnover Debt to total asset ratio Times interest earned Return on assets Return on Equity Fixed Asset turnover Total Asset turnover Gross Profit margin Net Profit Margin The profitability ratios of the company appear to be stable, but the company is facing liquidity problem as apparent from the ratios. Also, the company has more than 50% of its assets financed through debt. But the company has great earning potential based on which it has been decided to sanction the long term loan facility to the company. Answer to part A Financial Analysis Profitability Ratios    2011 2010 2009    Pro fitability Ratios Gross profit margin 20.18% 19.23% 20.14% Net profit margin 6.88% 6.15% 7.50% ROE 11.68% 12.20% 35.71% ROA 4.50% 4.36% 7.03% Fixed Asset Turnover (times) 2.04 2.27 2.53 Total Asset Turnover (times) 1.27 1.35 1.57 Gross profit margin is an analyzing tool which assists in identifying how effectively and efficiently the company is utilizing its raw materials, variable cost related to labor and fixed costs, such as rent and depreciation of property plant and equipment3. The ratio is calculated by dividing the sales revenue by the gross profit. The gross profit margin of the company was quite stable in the financial year 2009, but moving forward in the financial year 2010, the ratio has seemed to decline a bit. The decline in the ratio was primarily due to the decrease in the net sales of the company by 9% which caused the gross profit margin to decrease by around 0.91%. But the ratio appeared to show an inclining trend again the financial year 2011 as the company was ab le to curtail and manage its cost of sales although the quantum of its sales

Describe the regulation of PFK-1 and PFK-2 and the production of Essay

Describe the regulation of PFK-1 and PFK-2 and the production of fructose-2,6-bisphosphate - Essay Example When the glucose levels are low, F-2,6-bisP is converted to F-6-P. This reaction is catalyzed by the phosphorylated form of PFK-2 called fructose bisphosphatase-2 (FBPase-2). PFK-2 and fructose bisphosphatase-2 (FBPase-2) are similar bi-functional enzymes. Phosphorylation of PFK-2 is done by protein kinase A (PKA). PKA is activated by increased levels of cAMP driven by the hormone glucagon during fasting state. The reverse reaction is catalyzed by a phosphatase, which is activated by the hormone insulin. Postprandial, there is an increased level of insulin, which is produced in response to increased glucose levels. During low glucose levels, glucagon increases the levels of cAMP in the liver cells. cAMP then activates PKA, which phosphorylates PFK-2 to form FBPase-2. FBPase-2 in turn converts F-2,6-bisP to F-6-P, this in general is inhibiting the glycolysis (Rider 562). In muscle cells too, fructose-6-phosphate is converted to fructose-1,6-bisphosphate, by PFK-1 using ATP. In muscle cells, PFK-1 is activated by AMP. The muscles use up ATP and convert it to AMP. Increased levels of AMP stimulate glycolysis and increases ATP production. However, increased levels of ATP inhibit PFK-1allosterically. High levels of citrate also inhibit PFK-1 in muscle cells. In liver cells the major regulators of PFK-1 are F-2,6-bisP and F-6-P, while in muscle cells, the major regulators of PFK-1 are AMP and ATP. Thus, it can be seen that PFK-1 and PFK-2 are regulated differently in liver cells and muscle