Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Pythagoras of Samos Biography

Pythagoras of Samos Biography Pythagoras, a Greek mathematician and rationalist, is most popular for his work creating and demonstrating the hypothesis of geometry that bears his name. Most understudies recall it as follows: the square of the hypotenuse is equivalent to the total of the squares of the other different sides. Its composed as: a 2 b2 c2. Early Life Pythagoras was conceived on the island of Samos, off the shore of Asia Minor (what is presently generally Turkey), around 569 BCE. Very little is known about his initial life. There is proof that he was knowledgeable, and figured out how to peruse and play the lyre. As an adolescent, he may have visited Miletus in his late young years to concentrate with the scholar Thales, who was an extremely elderly person, Thaless understudy, Anaximander was giving talks on Miletus and potentially, Pythagoras went to these talks. Anaximander took an incredible enthusiasm for geometry and cosmology, which impacted the youthful Pythagoras. Odyssey to Egypt The following period of Pythagorass life is somewhat confounding. He went to Egypt for quite a while and visited, or if nothing else attempted to visit, a large number of the sanctuaries. At the point when he visited Diospolis, he was acknowledged into the brotherhood in the wake of finishing the customs fundamental for affirmation. There, he proceeded with his training, particularly in arithmetic and geometry. From Egypt in Chains Ten years after Pythagoras showed up in Egypt, relations with Samos self-destructed. During their war, Egypt lost and Pythagoras was taken as a prisoner to Babylon. He wasntâ treated as a wartime captive as we would think of it as today. Rather, he proceeded with his instruction in arithmetic and music and dove into the lessons of the clerics, learning their sacrosanct rituals. He turned out to be incredibly capable in his investigations of arithmetic and sciences as instructed by the Babylonians. A Return Home Followed by Departure Pythagoras in the long run came back to Samos, at that point went to Crete to read their legitimate framework for a brief timeframe. In Samos, he established a school called the Semicircle. Inâ about 518 BCE, heâ founded another school in Croton (presently known as Crotone, in southern Italy). With Pythagoras at the head, Croton kept up an inward hover of supporters known as mathematikoi (ministers of arithmetic). These mathematikoi lived for all time inside the general public, were permitted no close to home belongings and were exacting vegans. They got preparing just from Pythagoras, following extremely exacting rules. The next layer of the general public was known as the akousmatics. They lived in their own homes and just went to the general public during the day. The society contained the two men and women.â The Pythagoreans were a profoundly clandestine gathering, keeping their work out of open talk. Their inclinations lay in math and regular way of thinking, yet additionally in transcendentalism and religion. He and his inward circle accepted that spirits moved after death into the assortments of different creatures. They felt that creatures could contain human spirits. Therefore, they considered eating to be as cannibalism.â Commitments Most researchers realize that Pythagoras and his adherents didnt study science for indistinguishable reasons from individuals do today. For them, numbers had an otherworldly significance. Pythagoras encouraged that everything is numbers and saw scientific connections in nature, craftsmanship, and music. There are various hypotheses ascribed to Pythagoras, or possibly to his general public, yet the most celebrated one,â the Pythagorean hypothesis, may not be totally his innovation. Clearly, the Babylonians had understood the connections between the sides of a correct triangle in excess of a thousand years before Pythagoras found out about it. In any case, he invested a lot of energy chipping away at a proof of the theorem.â Other than his commitments to science, Pythagorass work was basic to space science. He felt the circle was the ideal shape. He likewise understood the circle of the Moon was slanted to Earths equator, and found that the night star (Venus) was equivalent to the morning star. His work impacted later space experts, for example, Ptolemy and Johannes Kepler (who defined the laws of planetary movement). Last Flightâ During the later long stretches of the general public, it collided with supporters of vote based system. Pythagoras reproved the thought, which brought about assaults against his gathering. Around 508 BCE, Cylon, a Croton honorable assaulted the Pythagorean Society and promised to wreck it. He and his adherents oppressed the gathering, and Pythagoras fled to Metapontum. A few records guarantee that he ended it all. Others state that Pythagoras came back to Croton a brief timeframe later since the general public was not cleared out and proceeded for certain years. Pythagoras may have inhabited least past 480 BCE, potentially to age 100. There are clashing reports of the two his introduction to the world and demise dates. A few sources think he was conceived in 570 BCE and kicked the bucket in 490 BCE. Pythagoras Fast Facts Conceived: ~569 BCE on SamosDied: ~475 BCEParents: Mnesarchus (father), Pythias (mother)Education: Thales, AnaximanderKey Accomplishments:â first mathematician Sources Britannica: Pythagoras-Greek Philosopher and MathematicianUniversity of St. Matthews: Pythagoras BiographyWikipedia Altered via Carolyn Collins Petersen.

Saturday, August 22, 2020

Georges T-Shirts free essay sample

Georges T-Shirts Synopsis: George Lassiter was a venture engineer for a significant protection contractual worker. He had an intriguing side business of assembling and structuring T-shirts for live performances, games, and raising support occasions. George offered the shirts to his standard group of merchants for $100 per dozen, and these sellers sold people in general for $10 per shirt. He needed to sell his shirts on a stage performance that would have been held in two months. He was certain that 20,000 tickets for the standing territory around the stage would be purchased by gave fans, yet he didn't know of the quantity of individuals who will go to the show, and the level of the participants who will purchase the shirts. George thought as far as three prospects explicitly 80,000, 50,000 and 20,000 thousand seats which he thought to be high, medium and low separately. The likelihood of 50,000 was as likely as both of the two prospects joined. We will compose a custom paper test on Georges T-Shirts or on the other hand any comparative subject explicitly for you Don't WasteYour Time Recruit WRITER Just 13.90/page Also, 80,000 and 20,000 were about similarly likely, or 80,000 was more probable than 20,000. He additionally thought with respect to his plans and nature of the shirts, his deals could be 10% (around multiple times out of 10), five percent, or fifteen (1 break of 10) percent of the participation. George mentioned a quote of shirts flexibly which is introduced in the underneath table: Order Size Cost 10,000 $32,125 7,500 $25,250 5,000 $17,750 1. Standing Area Attendance 20,000 2. Deal Price to George from Concert Sales: $100 per Dozen or $8. 33 for each T-shirt 3. Deal Price of extra T-shirts to limit garments chain $1. 50 Per T-shirt Georges Predictions Item/Option Qty Probability Grandstand Attendance-High. Show off participation Medium 50,000 0. 5 Grandstand Attendance-Low 20,000 0. 2 Percent of Concert-goers to purchase Shirt-High 15% 0. 1 Percent of Concert-goers to purchase Shirt-Medium 10% 0. 6 Percent of Concert-goers to purchase Shirt-Low 5% 0. 3 Objectives: 1. To discover what number of individuals will go to the show? 2. To discover what number of individuals will purchase T-shirts? 3. To figure the monetary results of these three situations. 4. To augment the benefit. Choice Problem: what number shirts to arrange for the up and coming stage performance? Options: The potential choices are 10,000, 7,500 and 5,000 shirts. The choice will influence the expenses and incomes produced from the offer of the quantity of shirts. The income will be influenced by the deal cost and deals volume. The business volume is thus influenced by the quantity of participants at the show.

Wednesday, August 12, 2020

9 Good Questions to Ask in a Job Interview

9 Good Questions to Ask in a Job Interview A job interview might sometimes feel like an interrogation but it is in no way intended to be like that. In fact, a good job interview is not just a QA session for the employer about your skills and qualifications. It is also an opportunity for you to ask questions and impress the interviewer with your inquisitive mind.At the end of the interview, the interviewer will often throw the ball in your court and ask you if you have any questions. It’s important that you don’t say ‘No’ but ask a few insightful questions that not only help you learn more but also tell the interviewer more about the reasons you’re right for the job.Indeed, asking questions in a job interview is important for three key reasons:It helps you learn more about the company and the role. This will help you decide whether the company culture and the role are right for you and your career path.It allows you to clarify your own strengths and weaknesses. When you are asking questions, you can use them as an op portunity to highlight your strengths for the role or indeed use the opportunity to understand what worries the employer might have in terms of hiring you.It makes it easier to show expertise and enthusiasm towards the role. Questions will look professional and they allow you to show how you’ve done your research â€" your thirst for knowing more is a positive sign for the employer that you actually care about the role.So, you know now that questions are expected and beneficial to ask in a job interview. What should you ask then? There are nine questions in this post that are worth considering when preparing for a job interview. Before we examine them, let’s briefly consider the reasons they are good.A good question â€" and something all the below nine questions are â€" has three characteristics: Your question should always be based on things you know. Good questions are not obvious or assuming â€" they are based on a certain level of information and are there to clarify or learn more.Furthermore, as mentioned earlier, you need to use the questions to showcase your own talent and to dig deeper into why you’re such a good pick. But you shouldn’t make your questions too easy or meaningless â€" you’ve been asked tough questions and it’s OK for you to do the same. You just have to be polite!So, let’s see what are the nine questions you should ask in a job interview.QUESTION #1: HAVE I ANSWERED YOUR QUESTIONS WELL OR WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO CLARIFY SOMETHING?It’s a good idea to give the interviewer the chance to ask for clarification. They might do this during the interview automatically but asking the question will be beneficial for you in two ways. First, it allows you to get an insight into how well the interview is going. If the interviewer lists a bunch of things for clarification, you know you have some work to do. You can focus on clearing up misunderstandings or pointing out the strengths in a more obvious way. It’s an opportunity to have a second chance at nailing those questions.But there is another benefit to the question. It also forces the interviewer to think and take note. The questions will make him or her think carefully how well the interview is going and what are those big issues he or she might have. Indeed, it might make him or her think how well you are actually doing and what a good candidate you seem to be for the role.QUESTION #2: DO YOU HAVE ANY HESITATIONS ABOUT MY QUALIFICATIONS?This is quite a gutsy question to ask but that’s what makes it a great question to ask in a job interview. It shows your willingness to discuss your strengths and, more importantly, your weaknesses openly.Now, it allows you another chance of seeing how well the interview is going. You get another chance at redeeming yourself and showing that y ou’re actually a good fit and the worries the interviewer has are just worries, not problems. You can use the opportunity to remove doubt â€" to show those gaps in your work history are not as dramatic because you used the time to study and grow as a leader, for example.QUESTION #3: WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE THE PERSON IN THIS POSITION TO ACHIEVE IN SIX MONTHS/A YEAR/FIVE-YEARS?You should also ask something about the position you are applying for. This is to help you understand more about the expectations of the role. Asking about the expectations will help you identify what kind of tasks are ahead of you and how you will be able to measure success. It will not just prepare you for the role but also helps you understand whether you find the job interesting and challenging. If it seems like there are no expectations, you might not feel like the company culture is supportive enough, for example.The question will also give you an opportunity to point out your fit for the role. For example, if the answer talks about the desire to improve their customer retention, you can mention your previous achievement in this and say how you look forward to using those skills in this role.Now, the question regarding the expectations will also tell the interviewer you are interested in succeeding in your role and in helping the business succeed. By showing your interest in understanding the expectations, you show willingness and enthusiasm to actually succeed in the role.QUESTION #4: WHAT DO YOU THINK IS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE IN THIS POSITION?Of course, you shouldn’t just focus on the positive expectations and aspects of the job. No role will just be sunshine and rainbows. You will show a lot of professionalism and determination by asking about the challenges.Now, the question will give a more realistic picture of the role. It helps you see past the marketing speech and perhaps understand whether you are up for the challenge. This is, indeed, the second aspect of asking this quest ion. To help you identify how your strengths and skills would help you overcome those challenges and excel in this role.QUESTION #5: WHAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT QUALITIES TO EXCEL IN THE ROLE?This question is another good way of learning more about the company culture. The answer will help you understand what qualities and characteristics the company and the team value the most. For example, if it’s your ability to take initiative, then you know they want someone who isn’t afraid to take responsibility.It’s another question aimed at learning more about the role and the company. It helps you evaluate whether you would fit the organization and if you even want to â€" perhaps you start noticing an emphasis on doing it on your own and you are more interested in finding a team to work with.The question will also give you a chance to prove your worthiness. You can answer by pointing out how you’ve been focused on improving this aspect in your work life or point out to an achieveme nt that should help you excel in the role.QUESTION #6: DOES THE COMPANY OFFER FURTHER TRAINING AND CONTINUED ACCESS TO EDUCATION?This question is a clever way of seeing if your career path aligns with what the company has an offer. It’s also a great way of showing your professionalism and interest in developing your skills further â€" and helping the company succeed as a result.Firstly, the question does help you learn about your future in the role. If the company offers now training, then it probably isn’t a good choice for someone who is interested in moving fast on the career ladder. On the other hand, if the interviewer lists a range of opportunities, you can guarantee to have a more fulfilling and challenging future ahead.But as mentioned, you also showcase your interest in developing your skills. It makes you look more professional â€" to be interested in knowing how to gain new skills is always a sign of a hardworking individual.If you want, you can tie this question in w ith another one relating to the history of the position. It can be worth asking, “How has this role changed in the past?” to get a better idea of what it would mean for your career. Has the role evolved? If it’s constantly changing, it might not always be such a good thing. However, you also don’t want a company that is afraid to tweak and adapt.QUESTION #7: WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST IN WORKING FOR THE COMPANY?Your questions shouldn’t just be about the role. You can also learn about the company culture by asking the interviewer what he or she enjoys about the company. Their answer will reveal a lot about the company culture.It also helps you to create a more personal connection with the interviewer. It turns the situation into a less stressful and formal â€" helping you bond with the interviewer on a more personal level.Now, it’s important to remember here the interviewer might not actually work for the company. Sometimes companies use an external recruitment agency and the refore, the interviewer couldn’t really answer this. However, you could turn it around and ask, “What do you enjoy the most when collaborating with the company?”QUESTION #8: HOW DOES THE POSITION HELP THE COMPANY MEET ITS OBJECTIVES?You can further your understanding of the role and the responsibilities by asking about the role’s importance to the company. This question will help you see how your role will influence the bigger vision of the organization.By asking about the company’s direction and your possible role in it, you highlight your willingness to work for the greater good. You show a level of teamwork â€" working to help the company do better, not just your team. It shows you’re not there just to pick a pay check but to achieve together with everyone.But you’ll also learn whether your career goals align with the company’s vision. Are you heading in the same direction?QUESTION #9: IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU’D LIKE ME TO DO AT THIS POINT?At the end of the in terview, you should also ask if you’re supposed to (or able to) do anything at this point of the process. This gives them the opportunity to ask for final clarifications or documents they want to see before making the decision.It can also help you understand the process â€" are you supposed to contact them or will they call you/email you and so on. You will be more on top of the next steps and the timeline in terms of finding whether you’ve been selected or not. It could even help you in writing a follow-up note.Asking this question is polite but it also shows enthusiasm. You are not just walking out of the door but you want to know what happens next. It reinforces to the interviewer that you are serious about the role, confident you did well and eager to get started.THINGS YOU MUST AVOIDQuestions are always great because they show initiative and enthusiasm. Whether you ask the exact above questions or not doesn’t necessarily matter. As long as you have things to ask and you†™ve done your homework, you will boost your chances by being inquiring. Don’t forget, you are often specifically given the opportunity to ask question â€" if you stay silent at this point, you won’t make a good impression.While all sorts of questions are better than no questions, you still need to remember a few things. There are questions that won’t look professional and this is often down to two reasons:You haven’t properly prepared for the interview and you are asking questions you should already know.You don’t adequately understand or respect the interview and application process.Now, questions in the first group are those that you could answer by examining the company website or reading the job interview. These are questions like “What does the company do?” or “What tasks am I supposed to perform in this role?” If you are genuinely unaware of the answers to these before your job interview, you have some work to do! It’s important to be aware of things like t he company culture, the main vision and history of the company, and the kind of job you are applying to.In terms of the second non-professional questions, you can’t start asking the interview things that assume you have the job in the bag. Things like “Can I take a vacation?” or “Can I change my work schedule?” are wholly inappropriate at this point. You still don’t have to job and even if you did, you don’t clear things like that on your first day.Finally, don’t ever end the interview by asking if you’ve gotten the job. They will let you know â€" waiting is hard but it is the name of the game. THE POWER OF THE QUESTIONQuestions during a job interview are not just something thrown your way. You should also be prepared to ask them â€" to learn more about the role and company, as well as to make your case for being selected.The above nine are good questions to ask in a job interview because they have the characteristics of a good question. They show preparedness, a realistic view of the situation, and a good opportunity to showcase job fit. If you want to make a lasting impression, learn more about the company, and present your strengths for the job better, you definitely want to consider popping these questions during your next job interview.

Saturday, May 23, 2020

The Trials Of A Christian s Life - 889 Words

â€Å"6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.† As the end of my first semester in college comes to a close I feel blessed that I am able to write about the purpose of trials in a Christian’s life. Within this paper I hope to enlighten those who question the trials and difficulties that God gives us to face. By developing understanding that the reason for trials are to build up and test your faith, to help you mature as a Christian, as well as give new insight to something beyond your current circumstance. Testing of Faith God gives us trials that knock us down to the point that we feel hopeless and the obstacle is far too difficult to overcome. His purpose is not to turn us away from Him, but instead He wants us to seek comfort and strength in Him alone. Strong not only in the Christian faith, but also in Jewish culture, it is stressed that the endurance of testings from God should be viewed as a blessing, and to find joy in them as they express faith in God’s sovereignty. Trials are not meant to create bitterness or anger in a person’s heart. When God gives us trials he has a purpose in mind that pertains only to us. Patience One of the most important virtues of the bible is patience as theShow MoreRelatedConfronting Guilt In Franz Kafka’s The Trial Essay1275 Words   |  6 PagesIn Franz Kafka’s The Trial, Josef K. is guilty; his crime is that he does not accept his own humanity. This crime is not obvious throughout the novel, but rather becomes gradually and implicitly apparent to the reader. Again and again, despite his own doubts and various shortcomings, K. denies his guilt, which is, in essence, to deny his very humanity. It is for this crime that the Law seeks him, for if he would only accept the guilt inherent in being human (and, by so doing, his humanity itself)Read MoreFear And Its Effect On The Way People Act Toward One Another849 Words   |  4 Pageslarge populations have are associated with religion; Christianity in particular. Religion is an aspect of one’s life that is used as guidance, as a set of rules to live a moral life, and as a comfort blanket; because of this, it is easy to instill fear into a religious person when they are presented with something that is able to compromise their security, in both life and their eternal life. Religion is organized in a way that unites people of common faith through social gatherings such as church,Read MoreAnalysis Of Shylock : The Vulture1063 Words   |  5 Pagesappears to be irrelevant. Which really questions what is fair or unfair. Shakespeare projects to the reader in his play The Merchant of Venice that Shylock received a fair trial. Shylock was certainly dehumanized and diminished. The adjectives that other characters use to refer about him creates the setting for his trial. For example, Gratiano addresses Shylock as an animal, he says, O, be thou damned, inexecrable dog (4.1.130). 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Tuesday, May 12, 2020

Yales Five Stage Developmental Model - Ronald Reagan -...

Exercise #4 Social Movements 1) STAGES OF THE CAMPAIGN Using Yale’s five-stage developmental model, identify the stages of Ronald Reagan’s first presidential campaign giving specific examples from history. Give specific attention to applying the stages of a campaign history. Document your sources using APA format. You must use EBSCO or other on-line sources available through Amberton Library. You may also use books available through Ebrary and net library to complete this assignment. These on-line books are available on the library’s on-line resources. Do not try to complete this assignment by using websites for speeches. Yale’s five stage developmental model gives us examples of what should†¦show more content†¦But let our friends and those who may wish us ill take note: the United States has an obligation to its citizens and to the people of the world never to let those who would destroy freedom dictate the future course of human life on this planet. I would regard my election as proof that we have renewed our resolve to preserve world peace and freedom† p. 171. Although his contenders would try to portray Reagan as a warmonger, he repeatedly told voters that it was not his intent to make war but rather to create peace by building superior forces. Legitimacy is the second step in Yale’s model and simply put is being considered trustworthy and believable by your target audience. An example in the text states that a candidate, Larson (2010) â€Å"gains legitimacy by winning his political party’s primary election† p. 285; thus us the case in 1979 when Ronald Reagan won the Republican’s nod as the candidate for president in the election of 1980. In fact, it was more the illegitimacy of the Carter Campaign that helped Ronald Reagan charm voters. Voters that were upset over low employment, the economy, and foreign policy were a driving factor behind the fears Americans felt. Voters were ripe and the Reagan Campaign was there for the picking. Scheele, Henry Z (1981) â€Å"Ronald Reagan benefited in part from the conditions of his times, the unpopularity of the seemingly inept incumbent President, the division within the Democratic Party, and the resurgence of conservative thought in

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Do Personality Traits Predict Behaviour Free Essays

Do personality traits predict behaviour? The trait approach to personality is focused on differences between individuals. After type theorists such as Sheldon, who focused on body parts to determine temperament, and lexical researchers such as Galton who provided the first dictionary of words to describe behaviour, the principles underpinning trait theory were first outlined by Gordon Allport (1937). He found that one English-language dictionary alone contained more than 4,000 words describing different personality traits and suggested that it is how the traits come together that produces the uniqueness of all individuals. We will write a custom essay sample on Do Personality Traits Predict Behaviour? or any similar topic only for you Order Now Rather than relying on intuition or subjective judgement as did Freud and many other neo-Freudians, trait theorists used objective measurements to examine their constructs. The use of factor analysis was a major breakthrough in the trait approach and Raymond Cattell was the first to make the use of this to reduce the lists of traits to a smaller number. This marked the beginning of the search to discover the basis structure of personality. This essay will discuss the issues surrounding the use of personality measures such as Eysencks personality questionnaire (EPQ) and Costa and Mc Crae’s Big Five model (NEO-PIR) to predict behaviour. Cattell’s 16PF hasn’t had much of an impact but personality measures that followed such as Eysenck’s personality questionnaire, who claimed that 3 types/ supertraits, Extraversion, Neuroticism and Psychoticism, make up the basic structure of personality, and Costa and mc Crae’s Big Five Model measuring Openness, Conscientious, Extraversion, agreeableness and Neuroticism, have received a high level of support. The personality factors are found cross-culturally, in children as well as adults and specifically for Eysencks model in identical twins raised apart, evidence which seems to demonstrate that the observed personality differences are stable across time and have a genetic basis, although the underlying heritability estimate used in studies has been questioned by Plomin. Nevertheless, trait measures have great practical applications; they have been embraced by psychologists from almost every perspective and used by professionals working in a wide variety of settings, such as in the workplace and the education system etc, and are used to make important judgements about an individual’s behaviour in different situations. Employers have used scores from personality tests to make hiring and promotion decisions for many years (Roberts and Hogan, 2000). The methodology used to identify the dimensional structure of personality traits, factor analysis, is often challenged for not having a universally-recognized basis for choosing among solutions with different numbers of factors. More than one interpretation can be made of the same data factored the same way, and factor analysis cannot identify causality. However, some of the most common criticisms of trait theory centre on the fact that traits are often poor predictors of behaviour. While an individual may score high on assessments of a specific trait, he or she may not always behave that way in every situation. This was highlighted by Walter Mischel (1968, 1973) who stimulated a huge debate that raged until the early 1980s, concerning whether personality traits predict behaviour. At the heart of this debate was the questioning of the stability of traits across situations, known as the ‘personality paradox’. He demonstrated with his CAPs model that there is a complex interaction between situations and enduring individual personality differences, however the effects of many variables still have to be examined. Mischel criticised how personality measures were interpreted and used, demonstrating that on average personality measures statistically account for only around 10% of the variance observed in behaviour, therefore 90% is due to something other than the effect of personality. This reflects the fact that many factors contribute to any one piece of behaviour, such as: the characteristics of the specific situation, the person’s mood at that time, competing goals, etc. However an argument in trait theories defence is in regard to the . 30, . 40 correlation co-efficient. How high does a correlation have to be before its considered important? Research by Funder and Ozer (1983) looked at social psychological findings often cited for their â€Å"important† findings and found that they had similar co-efficient of . 36 and . 42. In their defence trait theorists argue that researchers often fail to provide a strong link between traits and behaviour is because they don’t measure behaviour correctly, only measuring one behaviour. As an alternative researchers can aggregate data, one study looked at trait measures of aggression and the number of aggressive acts students preformed, not only on one day but over the course of two weeks and found a correlation of . 1 between the aggregated measure and the trait score (Wu and Clarke, 2003). Burger (2008) states that when all the complex influences on our behaviour are taken into account we probably should be impressed that personality psychologists can explain even 10%. Mischels criticism has had beneficial effects in work settings, with the use of multiple measures of p ersonality such as, psychometric assessments, interviews, individual and group tasks used together as an assessment package to prevent overreliance on the psychometric tool. Furthermore, Mischels views led researchers to look very critically at their methodologies, admitting that measures were often weak and the selection of which traits to study was sometimes inappropriate (Funder, 1999,2001). Today most psychologists agree that the person and the situation react to determine behaviour ( Maggnusson, 1990) and Swan and Seyle (2005) conclude their review on Mischels work by saying that there are still instances where it is helpful to make distinctions between personal and situational determines of behaviour. How to cite Do Personality Traits Predict Behaviour?, Papers

Sunday, May 3, 2020

Changing Corporate Culture at Vodafone free essay sample

French (1982, p. 640) defines Organizational Development (in the following abbreviated OD) as â€Å"long-range effort to improve an organization’s problem-solving capabilities †¦ to cope with changes in its external environment with the help of†¦change agents†. Different from other change approaches, OD focuses not only on parts of a system but rather on relationships and the system as an interconnected whole (Cummings and Worley 2005). OD deals with planned, episodic change but is an adaptive process for planning and implementing change in the same time. Focused on a core set of humanistic, democratic and developmental values (Palmer et al 2009), OD interventions may target changes in the organizational structure, mission, strategy, leadership or culture of a firm and wish to improve organizational effectiveness (Burke and Bradford 2005). All this is the reason why Palmer et al. (2009) use the image of a coach when referring to OD and managing change. The coach, used as a metaphor, understands managing and thus implementing change as shaping capabilities inside a system. We will write a custom essay sample on Changing Corporate Culture at Vodafone or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Possible actions might include the introduction of self-managed teams, quality circles and various methods for implementing and diagnosing change in connection with action research. Change processes in accordance with the image of coach are often pictured using Kurt Lewin’s change process model (Palmer et al. 2009). This model contains the following steps: (1)Unfreezing the context (2)Moving the situation (3)Refreezing the new state. In the following I will use this model to describe implications of the above introduced coach image when managing change. As a company of reference I chose Vodafone, a multinational telecommunications company, which was undergoing a larger change in organizational culture in the mid-1990’s (Eaton and Brown 2002). As explained earlier, the first phase of managing change is meant to unfreeze the status quo and establish the prerequisites for change (Palmer et al. 2009). Speaking in terms of OD, this includes the identification of the problem, subsequent engagement in a collaborative dialogue with an OD practitioner as well as gathering data for an initial diagnosis. According to the managing change image of the coach, classical OD interventions involve the top of the organization and are planned, action-oriented long-term undertakings (Palmer et al. 2009). Referring to the initial situation at Vodafone in the mid-1990s the company was facing an increased competition in the telecommunication market. The Management at Vodafone saw the necessity for a change of corporate culture as the rigid culture of ‘command and control’ management was weakening the ability to remain innovative in their challenging market (Anderson 2011). Knowing about the necessity for a change, Senior Management started an initial dialogue with HR specialists of the firm. As a result of this collaborative dialogue with OD practitioners (Palmer et al. 2009) the company started an intensive assessment and feedback activity with their employees (Eaton and Brown 2002). This was involving employees on different levels in the organization and resulted in more detailed information about the problem in the same time, which enabled the Management to detailed planning of necessary initiatives. The result clearly showed that the current culture was blocking teamwork and mutual accountability and employees wanted to be more included in decision making as well as participate in information exchange (Eaton and Brown 2002). Following Lewin’s model, the second stage is moving and involves the effort to â€Å"new behaviour through cognitive restructuring (Palmer et al. 2009:195)†. After the diagnosis actions are identified and implemented. As Palmer et al. state about the coach image of managing change, â€Å"he relies upon building in the right set of values, skills, and ‘drills’ that are deemed to be the best ones that organizational members, as players, will be able to draw on adeptly in order to achieve desired organizational outcomes (Palmer et al. 2009:31)†. It means the coach image centres on altering attitudes and behaviours to effect the intended change and accordingly supportive should be the actions that are implemented. For Vodafone this meant that a number of initiatives were implemented, including the development of shared values, the introduction of IT systems that shared and exchanged information inter-divisional learning as well as setting up a team-building program (Eaton and Brown 2002). As a major support to all initiatives Vodafone implemented a leadership coaching program. The goal was to teach top manager skills to conduct performance reviews, help employees to set goals, and general team coaching (Eaton and Brown 2002). Managers became change agents and sills training was used to reinforce and accelerate the change initiatives. Yet another advantage of using this method of supporting the transition to new methods was dissemination of information and individual objectives needed to create cultural change were actually carried out (Eaton and Brown 2002). The image of coach to managing change is also partly based on assumptions of group dynamics (Palmer et al. 2009). That means if one property of a system is changed (or trained differently in the case), it will activate connected parts of the system to change as well. According to Lewin’s model, the final step is refreezing the organizational operation again. This takes place after new behaviors have been incorporated into social and organizational relationships (Palmer et al. 2009). As mentioned earlier, managing a change according to the coach image is a long term undertakings. For the case of Vodafone the refreezing phase only was reached after a management of mutual accountability, delegation and empowerment was established (Eaton and Brown 2002). The result of the program became visible and managers began to trust more in teams and these teams started to solve problems themselves because feeling more confident. Palmer et al. (2009) conclude this process by referring to the importance of collecting and appraising post-action data. Even though, the change is implemented as intended, review seminars provide further data on possible follow up actions. Referring to Vodafone review seminars were held a couple of month after the leadership coaching program was finished. As Eaton and Brown (2002, p.287) determine â€Å"cultural change takes time† and â€Å"traditional attitudes to management do not die away overnight†. However, as mentioned previously, the coach image regards changes as affecting an interrelated system rather than only a single, closed entity. It holds high values as growth, self-realization and involvement as well as integrity. Maybe an organizational culture does not change all of a sudden but giving a right foundation to an evolutionary change could make this change more sustainable.