Developing Solutions :: essays research papers

Developing and Selecting Solutions Graham Parker’s Structured Problem Solving Guide describes the problem solving process in four phases, one of which is Developing and Selecting Solutions (Phase 4). The other phases are not summarized here, however, it is noteworthy to mention that Phase 4 is the entering into solution development, whereas during the first three Phases of the process, specific problems of study have already been defined, a selection process is undertaken to decide which problems to address, and finally the problem to be studied is characterized by the collection and analysis of the data to be studied. We then pick up the process of developing solutions for addressing the problems identified in the previous phases, as we enter Phase 4. This particular stage of the Creative Problem Solving process is regarded as the primary decision-making stage. The function of implementing solutions hinges on two basic ideas: (1) consideration of the possible solutions by studying the results of the previous stages and the ideas they generated; and (2) development of evaluation criteria. A simplified approach to solution development is the "in-house" search for solutions on the presumption that there are no new problems, only unsolved ones. This simply suggests the research team ask, "has anyone else had this problem?" Consideration would be given to a problem of similar circumstances, how they solved the problem previously, if the solution was successful, and if any disadvantages resulted from the solutions implemented. This method simply uses history to our advantage so that don’t find ourselves re-creating a solution that perhaps has already been developed that would serve current needs. A second consideration would be to find out if anyone else is looking at the same, or a similar, problem. We could determine what, if anything, they have learned to date, determine if we can be of help to each other, and perhaps pool resources to broaden the prospects of ideas and solutions. In-house efforts can quickly bring solutions to common problems, that are frequently dealt with which minimizes effort in coming to a successful solution. Parker explains that sometimes solutions can be found simply by restating the problem, so by examining other problems/solutions with a view toward solving current problems, a solution from previous events, can potentially be redesigned to fit an existing event. When causes of particular problems have been identified, the problem solving process can be directed in several directions, but we concern ourselves with elimination of causes.

aristotle Essay examples -- essays research papers

Aristotle Politics Aristotle in his book politics, argues that the political association is the highest form of human association , and making all his conclusions based on the assumption that ‘polis’ is the best and only sensible political system. He further adds that political association is the most sovereign and aims at the highest good Politics is largely an attempt to determine or rather prove that political association is the best suited way for securing the happiness of its members or as called in ‘politics’ the citizens .The interest of the polis and its citizens were seen to be the same since both the city and man aimed for happiness as the ultimate goal. According to Aristotle, life has no existence outside the confines of the city and that it is not the city that exists to serve the needs of the individual but is a mere part and the city is more important than the individual Aristotle’s admiration of the social system in a polis shows his support to the slavery. The polis consisted of citizens which men were born to citizen parent’s women children and slaves. Men were considered to be the only rational creation and had to engage and contribute in the political association of the city, while slaves were used for work. Aristotle’s above argument had some major weakness and flaws in it, he address the salves as non-rational, and it’s in there best interest to serve there masters, who would give them a rational vision. The main drawbac...

Media Shaping Women Essay

The media has clouded women’s perceptions in their body image by demonstrating the ‘ideal bodies’ on TV and magazines through print and film advertising, increasing the pressure for women and young girls to be ‘thin’, further leading to a more complex issue of Eating Disorders. Women who do not live up to societies expectations, and are suffocated with the phoney concept of the ‘ideal’ are treated with disregard and discrimination. For instance, Adrian Furnham and Nicola Greaves (1994) argue that the core of body image dissatisfaction is a discrepancy between a person’s perceived body and their ideal. They further argue that a failure to match the ‘ideal’ leads to self- criticism, guilt and lowered self worth. This effect is stronger for women than for men due to the cultural pressures on women to conform to an idealised body shape are more powerful and more wide spread than those on men. Psychologists have suggested that the media can affect women’s body esteem by becoming a reference point against which unfavourable body shape comparisons are made (Grogan 1999). These visions are then propagated through popular culture via television reality make over shows of re shaping the body, â€Å" if films of body transformation provide the vision that inspires women to re- make their bodies, the cosmetic and â€Å"aesthetic medicine† industry sell them the equipment† (Fox-Kales, 2011, p. 74. ) Women are objectified by an unrealistic expectation of beauty, put forward by models and actresses who do not reflect the average appearance of women in society. Print advertising, in particular, provides a not only unrealistic, but unhealthy ideal of what it means to be physically attractive. By these false images being presented, the media has created an ideology of attractiveness. Images have powerful effects on their readers, serving to maintain a ‘cult of femininity’ and supplying definitions of what it means to ‘be a woman’. Marjorie Ferguson (1985) investigated women’s magazines from a sociological perspective. She argued that women’s magazines contribute to the wider cultural process, which helps to shape a woman’s view of herself, and societies views of her. The media is littered with mages of females who fulfill these unrealistic standards, making it seem as if it is normal for women to live up to this ideal. Dittmar and Howard (2004) made this statement regarding the prevalence of unrealistic media images: Ultra-thin models are so prominent that exposure to them becomes unavoidable and ‘chronic’, constantly reinforcing a discrepancy for most women and girls between their actual size and the ideal body (p. 478). Research has repeatedly shown that constant exposure to thin models and actresses fosters body image concerns and disordered eating in many females. Eating Disorders are a direct result from the medias influence to look ‘thin’. Eating disorders theorists and feminist scholars have long indicated fashion magazines, movies, television, and advertising for their advocacy of disordered eating (Levine & Smolak, 1998). Media images of women make it difficult for individuals to hold an internalized ideal body that is realistic and attainable. With exposure to repeated images of ultra thin women, an individual’s internalized ideal body often becomes much thinner. This increases the gap between what a person feels their physical appearance is, and what it should be. Researchers have found that women who have an internalized ideal body that closely resembles the socially represented ideal body are at a particularly high risk to develop body image disturbance and disordered eating patterns (Sands & Wardle, 2003). Naomi Wolf argues that our culture disempowers women by holding them prisoner to an unattainable beauty ideal (Wolf, 1990). The epidemic proportions of drive for thinness, body dissatisfaction, and unsafe weight control methods among women have led theorists to posit the existence of mechanisms that are capable of reaching a large number of women (Levine & Smolak, 1998). Today’s expectations reveal that looks matter more than personality and intelligence as seen on various dating shows. It is universally agreed upon that people on these shows usually pick the best looking counterpart out of the group of contestants. Both men and women are concerned with appearance than personality on these types of programs. This phenomenon is transferred into the job market, where people are now more prone to hire the more attractive candidate. Research has found that more attractive workers even receive higher compensation than unattractive counterparts even where they perform the same work and have similar levels of work experience. The media targets young women drilling thinness and having no flaws as the height of being beautiful. Now, with the common use of plastic surgery you can change your overall appearance. Plastic surgery has become a more than 8 billion a year industry† (Hess – Biber, 2005:96). Women feel they need to have the perfect nose, and cheek bones to fit in to the media’s criteria, in order to appear more attractive to the opposite sex. Therefore, it is evident that the media has played a significant role in ‘shaping women’s bodies’ to suit ‘societies expectations’ by showcasing the recurring idea to be ‘thin’. These ideas are brought upon through various television shows and magazines, which further stimulate eating disorders.

Leading Change Custom Research by Essay Writers

As the modern business world becomes more complex, so too do the things that are required for organizations to emerge as viable competitors in the challenging international environment of the 21st century.   In his book â€Å"Leading Change†, John P. Kotter discusses the needs of 21st century organizations at length; through the course of his discussion, Kotter makes several assertions that correspond directly to certain areas of education.   In this paper, two of these areas will be further discussed. The Impact of Kotter’s Book on Educational Administration Generally stated, from Kotter’s point of view, the organizations and organizational leaders that will be most successful in the 21st century will be those that embrace learning as a lifelong pursuit (Kotter, 1996), which of course should lead to better leadership, decision making and hence stronger organizations. With this premise in mind, the impact of Kotter’s theories on educational administration becomes much clearer; administrators in the modern educational system must not make the mistake of viewing education as something that the individual pursues in their earlier years as a means of starting a career, but must view education as a holistic process that is the common denominator in the life of an individual, even after starting on a career path to upgrade skills, become more proficient in present job responsibilities, and perhaps to be promoted to higher positions where they can have more of a positive organizational impact. The demand that will exist for lifelong learning will mould the role of educational administrators into a sort of career coach or adult mentor, whereby they will be consulting the long-term learner on the best educational path to take; moreover, based upon the demands for certain curricula, the administrator will undoubtedly be involved in the creation and implementation of new courses to meet growing demand. How Kotter’s Work Could Shape the Knowledge of Educators As a consequence of the directional change of educational administrators, Kotter’s work could also shape the knowledge of educators in several significant ways.   Kotter, in â€Å"Leading Change†, puts forth the philosophy that without learning, no major positive change can take place in an organization, and with this end in mind, the members of a given organization need to be encouraged to â€Å"learn how to continue learning† and â€Å"learn how to lead† (Kotter, 1996). Therefore, just as the administrator will play a mentoring role in this new learning process, the educators themselves will become the main drivers of these new learning strategies, in pursuit of the end result.   Educators will also need to renew a commitment to lifelong learning, as they return to the classroom as students in order to learn the kinds of material that they in turn will be required to teach to the lifelong learner. In addition, their educational approach to the student will surely change extensively due to the fact that they will be directing lessons toward a much different demographic than usual, with different goals and ways of retaining material that is given to them.   Lastly, the educators will need to keep in mind that the adult learner may be resistant to the educational process, at least initially. Summary John P. Kotter poses a challenge to leaders, organization members, and the educational community in â€Å"Leading Change†.   This challenge comes in the form of a call to action that, if followed, will undoubtedly advance the modern organization and change the face of business for generations to come.   With business and education working in tandem, a new revolution is on the horizon that will provide, along with challenges, endless opportunity and promise. References (Kotter, 1996) (Kotter John P 1996 Leading Change)Kotter, John P. (1996). Leading Change. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.   

Civil Rights Movement Was Slow Between 1955-68 Essay

Explain why the civil rights movement was slow between 1955-68 The civil rights movement was slow between 1955-68 for multiple reasons, these being the falling out of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King along with the Civil rights groups splitting and changing their tactics between violent protest or peaceful protest which consequently lead to them being less effective. Also Presidential action could be said to be lacking therefor acts to improve civil rights weren’t passed or were unaffected. One reason that the civil rights movement was slow was due to Eisenhower’s stance on the topic during his presidency (1953-1961). Eisenhower believed that the position of the black people would improve of its own accord over time. In this sense he did not think that it was the government’s job to improve conditions for black people. We can see this form his reaction in regards to Little rock campaign and his reluctance to become involved with it. This is a reason why the civil rights movement was slow because the president was unwilling to pass civil rights laws to change the situation of the blacks due to his belief that it would change in their favour in time. Also because of conflict between Malcolm and King the two main black men that were leading the campaign the African Americans were side tracked, essentially forgetting their main aim; racial equality. Malcolm X was very critical of Martin Luther King calling him the â€Å"Twentieth century Uncle Tom† and banding around rumours that he was being paid by the white government to preach Christian love and forgiveness which was all in aid of preventing the black people from effectively fighting for their freedom. This conflict would not achieve anything for the black power movement because it could potentially divide public opinion. People who supported King may have lost some faith if they believed there could be any truth that he was really working with the white American government, whereas the camp who were following X may have felt a sense of divide between them and the people who liked Kings ideals. The reason why this wasn’t going to help the black power movement is that the African Americans needed to fight together to gain equality but their fight was being split into their fight for this and for who’s leader was strongest. A final reason as to why the progress for civil rights was slow was because the civil right groups split and were no longer co-operating with each other. CORE and the SNCC took a stance closer to that of X’s beliefs. They became more violent unlike the NAACP who stuck to  peaceful protest. The problem that this created the civil rights movement is that they are now sending the government mixed messages and are not helping their cause. Also staging violent protest didn’t seem any way near as effective. Because the government and the media generally seemed weighted to the whites side, violence of black was blown out of proportion and shown as propaganda as to why the blacks shouldn’t have power on equal terms with whites. This would mean that blacks wouldn’t be taking steps on the right direction because they would be setting themselves up for a fall in public opinion, something which needed to be on their side for them to gain equality. In conclusion the civil right gains between 1955-68 were slow due to the fact that there was conflict between the blacks who were fighting over the best way to gain their goal when there focus should have been solely on trying to get this goal. They were side tracked and this proved detrimental giving their reputation further dents, even if there are minor positives amidst the movement along with the fact that the resident weren’t too focused on helping the civil rights movement.

Governing Global Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Governing Global Business - Essay Example Liberalism is the most accepted theory in this regard and the main principles of globalisation are based on this theory. Research Question Since the theory of liberalism is most close to the topic of globalisation, the theory has got a wide acceptance among the research scholars who have written about the state and the effects of Globalisation. This paper makes an attempt to analyse how far the principles of Liberalism are applicable to the globalisation and how it has been actually applied in practice. Literature Review Globalisation is a phenomenon that the world experienced through the opening up of the networks of communication and trade relations across countries in different parts of the world. As a result of the globalisation the world would be a single village of people where the flow of ideas would be free and the cultural exchange between people would be more liberal (Smith, 1980, p. 119). There are several facets of the process of globalisation. First of all it means the l iberalisation of the foreign policies of the state. Along with this it includes the privatisation of the government enterprises and investments in projects across the barriers of nationality (Waters, 1995, p. 11). The phenomenon would also include the easy mobility of the employable people and exchange of business ideas. But the idea chiefly includes mainly communication across cross country borders. The advent of Globalisation was seen mostly towards the fag end of the twentieth century (Appadurai, 2000, p. 82). With the inception of the World Wide Web, the people could easily establish the relations that lie at the diametrically opposite part of the globe. The time taken to carry out this communication process was also less which in turn facilitated trade across countries. The free flowing ideas and exchange of information had also brought the nations with the common interests on a same platform. On the other hand, a state in the sense of politics are a group of people living in a definite area of land and are controlled and guided by the rules laid down by a powerful body known as the government (Featherstone, 1990, p. 73). Often the term government is used interchangeably with the state. There are several states or nations in the world that have their specific set of rules and regulations. The process of globalisation would encourage the interaction of all these states from an economic, social, cultural and religious perspective on a common field. The terms that are commonly used along with the term globalization include Liberalism, Marxism and Realism. The political philosophy of Liberalism believes that a state should allow liberty and equality to all the citizens of the state. The people of the state should provide each and every citizen to take part in the election in the most open manner. The country should take part in free trade and the people should be allowed to have ownership of property (Rosefielde, 2008, p. 60). This is completely opposed to th e theory of Marxism that does not believe in the possession of private property but believe that the surplus value that comes out of any production process should be sent to the government who will have the responsibility of allocating the resources according to the needs of the people. The ownership of the means of production should lie in the hands of

Dynamic and Static Elements of Marketing Communications Assignment

Dynamic and Static Elements of Marketing Communications - Assignment Example The communication is said to be successful if 'a customer goes to buy the shoes of a particular brand, not for keeping his feet warm and dry but because the shoes make him/ her feel masculine/ feminine, rugged, young, glamorous etc.' This is indeed the real task for the marketing team in general and the marketing communication guys in particular. The marketing team is supposed to thoroughly understand the customer's needs, buying habits and then plan the launch of the product in the appropriate market. UK market today boasts of an increasing number of young spenders. An increasing use of credit cards has further fueled these spending habits. These spending habits further vary with cities across the UK because a flow of wealth and income also depends upon the extent of industrialization of the city, 'mood/ attitude' of the city etc. as flows of income and wealth correspond to such an extended system of industrialization and stages of growth of the city. London, for example, can be cla ssified as having class, design, retailing, and a big share of the resulting income and wealth. More and more of the international corporate players prefer to make London it's home and such corporations orchestrate and finance production and marketing at the expense of firms into the operations business. They take stock of the size of the market, competitor's presence, and their communication strategies. At times it is advisable to plan out the communication strategy taking a leaf out of the strategies of existing companies. This holds particularly useful for service industries because in this case the consumer is lured with the help of innovative ideas of service delivery for example in the tourism industry, a market is segmented depending upon the paying capacity, existing preferences of tourists and bouquet of discounts etc. enjoyed by them. Marketing communication tools play a crucial role in the process. UK market is an advanced market in term of IT and communication technology . In most of the commercial environments, a technically advanced product finds more acceptance. A big chunk of working IT professionals is from Asian countries, for which different types of strategies are required than used for the residents Englishmen. The working communities from other nations are generally here to 'earn'. Their main concern is how to optimize their savings. At the same time, they are a crucial factor in the nation's economy. They help in the production of goods, materials etc. and they are the consumers as well. In fact, it is said that marketing people are the most secular lot. They don't believe in favoritism or any such discrimination. For them, the customer is one community with different attitudes and profiles. UK is in fact considered to be the most liberal regime amongst the OECD. UK has implemented reforms with far-reaching consequences over the last decades (OECD, 2006). A network of local authority local trader schemes is also functional which helps in giving consumers by way of providing them with a reliable way of finding trustworthy businesses and offers them adequate help when required. Such networks empower the consumers and assist them in making 'well-informed choices' when purchasing goods and services.