Management and Organisational Behaviour Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Management and Organisational Behaviour - Essay Example It deals with the understanding of thoughts, feelings and behaviors of the members; the interactions being necessary in an organizational context towards achievement of organizational objectives (Martin & Fellenz, 2010, pp.9-14). Human behavior at work has been studied by researchers since early times and the concept of behavioral approach implies that human resources are the major contributors in the output of a business. Gradually with time several approaches towards understanding the human behavior have been focused for enhancing the performances of business organizations (Gupta, 2009, pp.24-25). It has been studied that several external factors may affect the organizational processes and internal behavior. These factors may also include the global economic movements, the regulations of government, alterations in technology and culture or other environmental issues (Capitalism and organizational behavior, n.d., p.11). In case of the UK, it has been obtained that the booming econom y that was prevailing in the nation was collapsed by the impacts of the recent global recession, thus affecting the organizational performances and behaviors as well. This report would primarily focus on the effects of the recession on the UK business organizations and find out the modifications in behavior approach that might benefit the firms, based on a case study of a Kingfisher plc. Impact of Recession on the UK economy and Organizational Behaviors: Until the latter part of the last decade the economy of the United Kingdom seemed to be in a period of endless boom. Levels of unemployment were relatively low, house prices were rising pretty quickly and people seemed to be reaping the rewards.  However, the Credit/Liquidity Crunch and subsequent recession brought this to a crashing halt and a number of organizations have subsequently gone into administration / receivership and many more have had to tighten their belts and cut costs just to survive.  The UK economy was to a gre at extent dependent on the services of finance and business particularly in the last decade. With an assumption that growth would take place inevitably, the government of the nation had an increased rate of debt, implying the recession to have had a severe impact on the economy of the country (Killick, 2008). The crisis in the UK was mainly realized in the financial sector, which represented the most active business area for the country. The rest of the economy was thus subsequently affected. The financial calamity had developed into a credit crisis that had severe impacts on the business organizational performances affecting their abilities. Also, the consumers’ capability to borrow and purchase was affected and declined to a great extent. The availability of finances from the public also started getting limited thus impacting the â€Å"ability of the UK government to use fiscal policy to combat the crisis† (Killick, 2008). A very significant consideration in this con text of study relates to the association between the recession and the behavior among organizational members. Recession impacts the motivation of the human resources primarily with respect to unemployment. The issue of unemployment as a consequence of economic crisis also focuses on the welfare of the employees as well as motivation. The Expectancy theory of organizational behavior, reflecting focus on individuals, facilitates the understanding of members’ ability to motivate themselves during the periods of recession (Sinclair, 2010). Countries like the UK have been found to manage the circumstances of recession through cost cutting measures that include undertaking administrative and receivership measures or layoffs leading to unemployment. Behavioral

Constructivism Essay -- Philosophy Philosophical Learning Essays

Constructivism What is constructivism? Constructivism is a philosophy of learning that "refers to the idea that learners construct knowledge for themselves---each learner individually (and socially) constructs meaning---as he or she learns (Hein, 1991, p.1). In other words, "students construct their own knowledge based on their existing schemata and beliefs"(Airasian & Walsh, 1997, p.1) Constructivists deny the existence of one "true" body of knowledge that exists independently of the learners and espouse the idea that "there is no knowledge independent of the meaning attributed to experience (constructed) by the learner, or community of learners (Hein, 1991, p.1). Knowledge is "a personal and social construction of meaning out of the bewildering array of sensations which have no order or structure besides the explanations...which we [the learners] fabricate for them (Hein, 1991, p.1). To construct a meaning to the philosophy of constructivism, the misunderstandings of constructivism, its value in the world of teaching, a nd its influence in instructional technology will be discussed. Misunderstandings lead to an Understanding Because constructivism is sometimes viewed as a new pedagogy rather than a new philosophy of learning, many incorrect assumptions are made about its implications and applications to learning and the learners. By examining some of the misunderstandings surrounding constructivism, one can gain an understanding of the nature of constructivism and how its implications can be successfully applied to teaching. The first myth of constructivism is that "students should always be actively and reflectively constructing"(Clements, 1997, p.1). The constructivists view learning as "an active process i... ...The fallacy of constructivism. Clio, 24(3), 4 pages. Available at: Galileo Periodical Abstracts. Hein, George E. (1991, October). Constructivist learning theory: the museum and the needs of people. Paper presented at the CECA Conference in Jerusalem, Israel. Kamii, Constance and Janice K. Ewing. (1996). Basic teaching on Piaget’s constructivism. Childhood Education, 72(5), 4 pages. Available at: Galileo Periodical Abstracts. Lunenberg, Fred C. (1998, June). Constructivism and technology: instructional designs for successful education reform. Journal of Instructional Technology, 25(2), p. 75- 82. o’Donnell, Angela M. (June, 1997). Constructivism by design and in practice: a review. Issues in Education, 3(2), p. 285-294. Wilson, Brent G. (1997, March). Reflections on constructivism and instructional design. Instructional Development Paradigms, 18 pages.

Global Climate Change and Climate Protection

From September 6 to 10, 1997, the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) held a Cities for Climate Protection (CCP) Campaign – U.S. workshop in Atlanta, sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, The City of Atlanta, The Climate Institute, and The Turner Foundation. ICLEI is the international environmental agency for local governments. It believes from concrete experience that local actions can have a global impact. ICLEI was established in 1990 through a partnership of the United Nations Environment Programme, the International Union of Local Authorities (IULA), and the Center for Innovative Diplomacy. ICLEI's World Secretariat is in Toronto. ICLEI also has offices in Freiburg, Tokyo, Harare, Santiago, and Berkeley. ICLEI's purpose and mission are to: 1) serve as an international clearinghouse on sustainable development and environmental protection policies, programs, and techniques being implemented at the local level by local institutions; 2) initiate joint projects or campaigns among groups of local governments to research and develop new approaches to address pressing environmental and development problems; 3) organize training programs and publish reports and technical manuals on state of the art environmental management practices; and 4) serve as an advocate for local government before national and international governments, agencies, and organizations to increase their understanding and support of local environmental protection and sustainable development activities. By ICLEI's 10th anniversary in the year 2000, ICLEI aims to establish a global system to achieve, measure, and report on tangible improvements in the global environment through the cumulative local performance improvements of ICLEI's member municipalities. ICLEI members include more than 265 local governments of all sizes from around the world from 50 countries, all of whom share a common purpose: to take a leadership role in identifying and implementing innovative environmental management practices at the local level. ICLEI's CCP campaign started in 1990 and consists of about 200 cities from Abu Dhabi to West Hollywood. The cities that sign on to the CCP campaign commit to: 1) estimate their 1990 carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent (CO2e) emissions, 2) develop a CCP plan to reduce their CO2e emissions by 20 percent of their 1990 emissions by the year 2020, 3) demonstrate progress towards reducing their greenhouse gas emissions, and 4) update and implement their plan. Others are becoming involved in the CCP campaign. On September 19, 1997, Ted Turner of Turner Communications announced he would contribute $1,000,000,000 to the United Nations to address the issue of global climate change. On October 6, 1997, President Clinton held a White House Summit on Global Warming to help develop U.S. policy for the planning meetings in Bonn on October 20, 1997, and for the International Meeting on Global Climate Change to be held in Kyoto in December, 1997. Climate change is now recognized as a serious global issue by thousands of environmental professionals, atmospheric scientists, government officials, medical doctors, and health and property insurance companies. Climate change is serious because its adverse human health and physical effects, if unabated, will have vast and undesirable social, economic and political impacts. Ross Gelspan, prize-winning author of The Heat Is On: The High Stakes Battle Over Earth's Threatened Climate (1997. Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., New York) was the featured dinner speaker at the CCP workshop. Cause and Effects of Industrialized Climate Change Because of industrialization, the earth's surface and atmosphere is heating up to our peril as a species. The key issues in global climate change are expanding industrialization which burns carbon fuels in power plants and internal combustion vehicle engines to generate greenhouse gases beyond the capacity of the oceans and the biosphere to absorb the excess gases. These excess gases capture heat from the sun and cause global warming, increase air pollution, induce glacial and iceberg melting, sea level rising, unstable and more extreme and long-lived weather conditions, and shifting, prolonging and intensifying floods, droughts, hurricanes and El Nià ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½o episodes. These effects lead to increases in respiratory diseases, habitat alterations, destruction of forests and wetlands, agricultural shifts, coastal erosion and flooding, societal dislocations and unrest, and perhaps, the demise of democracy as governments become more authoritarian to combat the emergencies induced by climate change. What lies ahead if the developed world cannot reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and the developing world seeks to industrialize and increase its greenhouse gas emissions? Greenhouse Gases, Their Properties, Sources and Emission Rates The major greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), halocarbon and related compounds (fluorocarbons CFC-11, CFC-12, CFC-113; hydrocholorofluorocarbons HCFC-22; hydrofluorocarbons HFCs; perfluorocarbons PFCs; and sulfur hexafluoride SF6), and the criteria pollutants — carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and non-CH4 volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs) [U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration (EIA). October 1997. Emissions of Greenhouse Gases in the United States 1996 DOE/EIADOE/EIA-0573 (96). Office of Integrated Analysis and Forecasting, Department of Energy, Washington, District of Columbia or http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/1605/frntend.html]. CO2 has a carbon equivalency of 0.273, CH4 has a higher carbon equivalency of 5.73, and N2O has an even higher carbon equivalency of 83.2. This means that CH4 has about 21 times the warming effect of CO2 and N2O has about 305 times the warming effect of CO2. SF6 has a very h igh global warming potential (GWP) of 23,900 times the effects of CO2. The currently estimated 1996 U.S. total greenhouse gas emissions are about 1,753 metric tons of carbon or carbon equivalent, or an increase of 8.3 percent over 1990 (EIA 1997). About 98.5 percent of U.S. human-made or anthropogenic CO2 emissions are caused by the combustion of fossil fuels to provide energy; U.S. anthropogenic CH4 emissions are due primarily to production and transportation of coal, natural gas and oil; anaerobic decomposition of municipal waste in landfills and raising livestock. N2O emissions are primarily from agricultural soils associated with fertilizer use, industrial process emissions, and emissions from fossil fuel combustion. Carbon dioxide. CO2 emissions are by far the largest percentage of greenhouse gas. Caused primarily by the combustion of fossil fuels to provide energy from energy plants and internal combustion engines, anthropogenic CO2 emissions are also produced by forest, agricultural, and other fires. At 1,496 metric tons of carbon or carbon equivalent, about 85.3 percent of the currently estimated 1996 U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are as CO2, based on GWP, or an increase of 8.8 percent over 1990 (EIA 1997). Methane. CH4 emissions are dwarfed by CO2 emissions (a ratio of 1 ton of CH4 for every 175 tons of CO2). Because the heat-trapping capacity of CH4 is about 21 times that of CO2, the overall effect of CH4 on global climate is significant. There is, however, substantial uncertainty in estimates of emissions from most U.S. CH4 sources, ranging from 25 percent to as high as several hundred percent. CH4 emission trends from each source tend to be more reliable than their overall estimated magnitude. At 177 metric tons of carbon or carbon equivalent, about 10.0 percent of the currently estimated 1996 U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are as CH4, based on GWP, or a decrease of 2.2 percent over 1990. Nitrous oxide. Compared to CO2 or CH4, N2O is released in small quantities from anthropogenic sources; however, N2O's 100 – year global warming potential (GWP) of 305 makes it a significant contributor to atmospheric warming. Although there are many known natural and anthropogenic sources, N2O emissions have been difficult to quantify on a global scale because it has been one of the least-studied greenhouse gases. The largest source of anthropogenic N2O emissions is energy use, which includes mobile source combustion from passenger cars, buses, motorcycles, and trucks, and stationary source combustion from residential, industrial, and electric utility energy use. The second-largest source of N2O emissions is agriculture, primarily fertilizer application and a small amount released from the burning of crop residues. However, there is substantial uncertainty and debate regarding the emissions implications of use of N-based fertilizers. Models used for estimation are based on limited sources of experimental data. Another important source of N2O emissions is industrial production of adipic acid and nitric acid. At 38 metric tons of carbon or carbon equivalent, about 2.2 percent of the currently estimated 1996 U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are as N2O, based on GWP, or no net change over 1990. Halocarbon and Related Compounds. CFCs, HCFCs, HFCs, PFCs and other compounds that act as greenhouse gases are emitted from their use as refrigerants in cooling equipment, as solvents, or as blowing agents, or from fugitive emissions from industrial processes; these halocarbon compounds are being phased out under pollution prevention measures because they damage the stratospheric ozone layer. The best known class of synthetic greenhouse chemicals are the CFCs, particularly CFC-12 (trade name Freon -12). CFCs have many desirable features: they are relatively simple to manufacture, inert, nontoxic, and nonflammable. Because CFCs are chemically stable, they remain in the atmosphere for hundreds or thousands of years. These synthetic molecules absorb reflected infrared radiation at wavelengths that would otherwise be largely unabsorbed, and they are potent greenhouse gases, with a direct radiative forcing effect hundreds or thousands of times greater than that of CO2. Though molecule for molecule, CFCs absorb many hundreds of times more infrared radiation than carbon dioxide, their net warming effect is reduced because of their effect on ozone. Ozone (O3), beneficial in the stratosphere for its ability to absorb harmful ultraviolet radiation, is also a potent greenhouse gas. While the direct effect of CFCs is a warming potential far greater than that of CO2, their indirect effect on ozone reduces their net radiative forcing effects by half. SF6 is used as an insulator for circuit breakers switchgear and other electrical equipment; it also occurs as a fugitive emission from certain semiconductor manufacturing processes. At 42 metric tons of carbon or carbon equivalent, about 2.4 percent of the curr ently estimated 1996 U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are as HFCs, PFCs and SF6, based on GWP, or an increase of 68 percent over 1990. Criteria Pollutants. CO, NOx, and NMVOCs are reactive gases, which usually decay quickly in the atmosphere. Most CO emissions result from incomplete oxidation during combustion of fuels used for transportation. NOx emissions are related to air-fuel mixes and combustion temperatures during the burning of fuels evenly split between transportation and stationary sources. NMVOCs are a main component in the chemical and physical atmospheric reactions that form ozone and other photochemical oxidants. About half of the NMVOC emissions come from solvent-related industrial processes and most of the remaining emissions are from combustion of transportation fuels. Climate Protection Strategies The remedial strategies all have unintended consequences. These strategies are 1) greenhouse gas source reduction (Gelspan, 1997; ICLEI, September 1997, web page at http://www.iclei.org); 2) ocean modification to absorb more greenhouse gases (Joos, F., J.L. Sarmiento and U. Siegenthaler. 1991. Estimates of the effect of Southern Ocean iron fertilization on atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Nature, Vol. 349, No. 6312, p. 772-774); and 3) forest, wetland, and agricultural practices to sequester more gaseous CO2 (Hodges, Carl N., T. Lewis Thompson, James L. Riley and Edward P. Glenn. November 1993. Reversing the Flow: Water and Nutrients from the Sea to the Land. Ambio, A Journal of the Human Environment, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Vol. 22, No. 7, p. 483-496). The most likely success strategy is greenhouse gas source reduction. Greenhouse gas source reduction activities include: à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Replace greenhouse gas generating activities such as coal, petroleum, and natural gas burning power plants with non-CO2 emitting power plants like nuclear, solar, wind, wave, hydraulic, and geothermal. à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Reduce the amount of paper and other carbon-rich discards that go to landfills, which generate CH4 by source reduction, reuse, recycling, and composting and/or mulching of organic discards. à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Control industrial plant greenhouse gas emissions. à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Prevent and control forest and agricultural fires that generate CO2. à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Replace internal combustion vehicle, tools, and power sources with electrical, compressed natural gas , and hydrogen sources. à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Recover greenhouse gases, such as from landfills, for reuse and treatment prior to release to the atmosphere. à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Improve the greenhouse gas sequestering mechanisms of the vegetative cover by restoring and enhancing landscape trees, forests, wetlands, gardens, and agricultural practices. Do we have a reason to be optimistic? We have reason to be cautiously optimistic about climate protection. Human history is full of examples where we learned from our mistakes, misfortunes, or undesirable trends. The agricultural revolution of the 18th century, the discovery of bacteria in the 19th, and the invention of vaccines in the 20th are some of the examples of what humanity can achieve when challenged with a seemingly unsolvable problem. True, we must overcome several hurdles, the resistance of political and profit-centered structures which have short-term benefits in an economy based on carbon fuels. But these barriers can be overcome in the 21st century through education and promotion, successful cases, and the inherently superior economics of a sustainable and renewable energy and resource based society. We will need political leadership at all levels to make it happen.

Martin Luther King Jr.s States Segregation Not Only Hurts...

Martin Luther King Jr. On April 16, 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail, in which he responded to the Southern Clergy men’s letter appealing to the end of the demonstrations to end the demonstrations against segregation. King responded with his own letter pleading with the clergy to end segregation. In his letter he used examples of pathos, ethos, and logos to express himself to the clergymen. He also used his knowledge as a minister and a leader in his community to advance his argument. Throughout the letter Martin Luther King Jr. expresses his argument through the appeal to logic and authority. â€Å"To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a law that is not rooted in eternal law†¦show more content†¦He appeals to his fellow African-Americans to continue the fight for the end of segregation. He tells them to continue fighting to put a stop to the horrible brutalities that have happened to their families. I t is because of segregation that families have been attacked and have lost loved ones do to hate. With his appeal to emotion he is able to convey a message to his followers to keep fighting and appeal to the emotions of the clergymen to end segregation. Martin Luther King Jr. used his knowledge as a minister and his leadership in the community to advance his argument to end segregation. â€Å"Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their ‘thus saith the Lord’ far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco-Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my home town.† (King Letter from Birmingham). King knew that the clergymen could not go against his arguments because they would then look like hypocrites going against the world of the bible as Catholics. According to King, Jesu s Christ preached his beliefs and thoughts of freedom in ancient times. King argues that he to is arguing and fighting for the freedom of his people just as Jesus did. In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a letter in response to the Southern Clergymen’s letter to stop all protests to endShow MoreRelatedRhetorical Analysis Of Martin Luther King Jr.1046 Words   |  5 Pagesactivist, Martin Luther King Jr. gave his memorable â€Å"I Have a Dream† speech while standing at the feet of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. His uplifting speech is one of the most admired during the civil rights era and arguably one of the best in American history. On August 28th, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke about the true American dream: equality. 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