Making of Collateral Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Making of Collateral - Essay Example It’s in this perspective that I will critically analyse how creative people have used films to give experience that people will always value. I will look at how the producers and director have put out a finished work that shows creativity and also the practical decisions they have made during the film making process. According to Irving and Rea (2006) filmmaking steps include the preproduction, production, postproduction, and distribution. Filmmaking has two-fold approach in which it is mainly centered on the perspectives of the producer and the director. Their (producer and director) different energies must always merge to create a winning short film or video from script to the final product. On the director’s perspective; Rabiger (2008) explains that directing covers the methods, technologies, thought processes, and judgments that a director must use throughout the fascinating process of making a film. Directing also should help you master technical and conceptual ski lls in the filmmaking process. â€Å"The first time we watch a film; we usually don’t know or think about the artistic decisions that were made during its production.† (Brown, 2002) In my case study, I examine how choices made by filmmakers, lead to artistic results by looking at the production of a single movie. My case study is based on the movie â€Å"Collateral† by Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx directed by Michael Mann. Boucher Geoff (2008) said "The movie had to communicate some inherent truth about the L.A. experience, and only one film per director was allowed on the list" in relation to the movie. Michael Mann’s ‘Collateral† was released in 2004. A psychological crime thriller set in Los Angeles. Vincent (Tom Cruise), a mystifying man hires Max (Jamie Foxx), a cab driver, to drive him to a string of appointments in one night. Max before long learns that those appointments are a chain of killings, he struggles to escape but Vincent forces h im to carry on as a reluctant getaway driver. During that period the two men wrangle verbally and in the end they confront one another. Mann and his crew made numerous decisions during the making of Collateral. Some of the choices made include: one that impacted the film’s form and one apiece for four categories of mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing, and sound. Scriptwriter Stuart Beattie originally set Collateral in New York City. Max was to be portrayed as a loser, hiding from the world in his cab and getting little out of life. Once Mann took charge as a director, he made numerous changes. The setting was changed to Los Angeles. Max became less a loser and more a laid-back, intelligent man content to observe the world from behind a steering wheel and to interact with his passengers, endlessly delaying his plans to start his own limousine service. The story largely consists of this pair interacting, so Mann’s decision to change Max’s traits altered the nat ure of the conflict between them. Max becomes our point-of-view figure for most of the film. Unusually for a film about a professional killer, we don’t see the first murder but stay with Max in the cab until the shocking moment when the body falls onto his cab roof. The switch to Los Angeles affected many aspects of the film’s style. One of the attractions was that this tale of a random crossing of destinies took place almost entirely at night, from 6:04 p.m. to 4:20 a.m. Mann wanted to portray the atmospheric Los Angeles night, this was to make use of L.A night as much of a character in the story as Vincent and Max were. This major decision created much of the film’s look. Mann was determined not to use any more artificial light than was absolutely necessary. He relies to

A typed report concerning Herman Melville's overall style, typical Essay

A typed report concerning Herman Melville's overall style, typical subjects, influences, etc incorporating specific references to works - Essay Example Melville shows his criticism of the rich Dives who prospers at the expense of orphans at the end of Chapter Two. Melville’s narrator, Ishmael says; ‘Now, that Lazarus should lie stranded there on the curbstone before the door of Dives, this is more wonderful than that an iceberg should be moored to one of the Moluccas. Yet Dives himself, he too lives like a Czar in an ice palace made of frozen sighs, and being a president of a temperance society, he only drinks the tepid tears of orphans.’ Melville incorporated stage directions in his character’s monologues. These helpful directions are in brackets. For example, Ishmael narrates this in Chapter Two; ‘Euroclydon! says old Dives, in his red silken wrapper- (he had a redder one afterwards) pooh, pooh!’ The narrator has long soliloquies in order to explain to the reader what is happening. Melville’s Bartleby the Scrivener is his famous short story because it deals with Existentialist and Absurdist elements. The character Bartleby works for his lawyer boss. Initially he is hardworking but he changes when he stops working but stays around the office doing nothing. The lawyer tries to help him but Bartleby refuses to cooperate when he answers all requests with; ‘I prefer not to.’ Eventually, Bartleby is imprisoned for being a nuisance to society and he slowly starves himself to death because he prefers not to eat. Bartleby demonstrates his Existentialist unique position as a responsible individual who makes his own choices. Melville incorporates his philosophies of anti-rationalism and anti-empiricism into Bartleby. Melville wanted this work to have absurdist ideas so he made Bartleby behave in absurd ways. Melville’s poem, John Marr And Other Sailors, speaks to the reader in a direct manner which is typical of Melville’s style of narration that he used in his novel and short story. His philosophies of anti-rationalism

Air traffic control Essay Example for Free

Air traffic control Essay Situation 1: Adapted from WAFBLA â€Å"Everyone Else Does It! † Ethics Project You have been struggling in your Engineering Models class. The content does not come easily, so you have put in countless hours to understand and do the assignments. There is another student who breezes through the assignments, getting high marks for the work he turns in. You know for a fact that he has used his college-aged cousin to do some of the assignments for him. You don’t know how many assignments were turned in this way, but you are certain that he, in fact, did not do all the work. Your frustration increases over the last assignment that you worked overtime on, but did poorly. Of course, this other student scored well on the same assignment. You drop the teacher an anonymous note about the implied cheating on the part of this other student. Questions: 1) What do you believe are the ethical issues related to this situation? Not being prepared to turn in the assignment. Trying to use someone elses work as your own. | 2) Write an argument supporting the actions taken. Be sure to tie your response to one of the ethical frameworks discussed. This is the rights approach as you are telling the teacher that another student is not turning in his actual work. This will make the challenge of the assignment fair for everyone. | 3) Write an argument against the actions taken. Be sure to tie your response to one of the ethical frameworks discussed. You should just let the other student do what he wants to and tell him that he won’t be able to get help when he does the exam. | 4) Were you in this situation, what would your response be? Why? I would also tell the teacher that he is cheating so that it would be fair for everyone who turns in their homework. | Situation 2: Occidental Engineering Author: Michael McFarland, S. J. Wayne Davidson is a software engineer in the aerospace division of Occidental Engineering, a large engineering firm. For the past two years he has been working as a test engineer for Operation Safe Skies, a project to build a prototype of the next generation air traffic control system. This project, which is funded by a contract from the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA), is a very important one for Occidental. With all the cutbacks in defense spending, the aerospace division has been losing business. The Safe Skies project has provided much needed business, and could lead to a much larger contract if successful. Mindful of its strategic importance, the company had bid very aggressively for the original contract. In fact they had low-balled it, bidding less than it would take to do the work properly. They felt that was the only way they could beat out their competitors, who were just as hungry for the work. Because of their somewhat shaky financial position, the company was not willing to take a loss on the project, so the project has been underfunded and understaffed. Nevertheless those working on the project have made a heroic effort, working eighteen hour days seven days a week to meet the deadline, because they know how much it means to the company, not to mention their own jobs. They are now very close to success. A version of the prototype has been completed and turned over to Wayne for testing. He has run extensive simulations on it and found that it works as it should except for one little problem: when there are too many aircraft in the system, it will sometimes lose track of one or more of them. The forgotten aircraft will simply disappear from the screen, there will be no trace of it anywhere, and it will be ignored by all of the collision avoidance and other safety tests. Wayne has been working with the software designers to identify the cause of the problem, and they have traced it to a subtle error in memory allocation and reuse. They are confident that they can fix it, but it will take a month or more to do the redesign, coding and testing. Wayne meets with his boss, Deborah Shepherd, the project manager, to discuss the implications. She tells him that what he is asking for is impossible. The contract requires that the company deliver a fully certified, working version of the software in three days for system integration and test. The government has developed a new, get-tough policy on missed deadlines and cost overruns, and Occidental is afraid that if they miss this deadline, the government will make an example of them. They would be subject to fines and the loss of the remainder of the prototype contract; and they might not be allowed to bid on the contract for the full system. This would have a devastating effect on the aerospace division, resulting in thousands of lost jobs. They consider whether they can do a quick patch to the software before turning it over, but Wayne adamantly refuses to release any code that has not been tested thoroughly. There is always a chance that the patch would interact with some other part of the program to create a new bug. Then well have to deliver the software as is, Deborah says. I cant jeopardize this project or the jobs of my people by missing that deadline. We cant do that! exclaims Wayne. Thats like delivering a car with defective brakes. Dont worry, Deborah reassures him. We have contacts in the FAA, so we know their testing plans. They will do a lot of simulations to make sure the software works with the hardware and has all the functionality in the specs. Then they will do live tests, but only at a small airport, with a backup system active at all times. There is no way they will overload the system in any of this. After that they will have some change requests. Even if they dont, we can give them an updated version of the program. We can slip the bug fix in there. They will never see the problem. Even if they do, we can claim it was a random occurrence that would not necessarily show up in our tests. The important thing is no one is in any danger. Maybe they wont find the bug, but I know its there. I would be lying if I said the system passed all the necessary tests. I cant do that. Anyway, it would be illegal and unprofessional. You can certify that it is safe, because it is, the way they are going to use it. And so he does. In the end Wayne signs off on the software. It is delivered to the FAA and makes it through all the preliminary tests, including live tests at a small airport in the Midwest. As a result of these tests, the FAA requests some changes in the user interface, and when Occidental delivers the new software it includes a robust solution to the problem of the disappearing aircraft. No one outside of Deborahs group ever learns of the problem. In fact Occidentals success with the prototype leads to major contracts for air traffic control software, giving much-needed business to the aerospace division. This saves hundreds of jobs, and allows the company to add hundreds more. Wayne Davidson, however, takes early retirement once the prototype project is finished, in order to write a book on software testing. He feels that the book should have a chapter on ethics, but he can never bring himself to write it. Questions: 1) What do you believe are the ethical issues related to this situation? Lying about a completed project when it isn’t. | 2) Write an argument supporting the actions taken. Be sure to tie your response to one of the ethical frameworks discussed. There was no productive way to get all of the project done, so they had to give what they had. | 3) Write an argument against the actions taken. Be sure to tie your response to one of the ethical frameworks discussed. It wasn’t a good choice because they didn’t tell the company that the project wasn’t finished and handed them an incomplete project. | 4) Were you in this situation, what would your response be? Why? I would ask for more people to help so we could get the project done on the day its due and assign each person a different part to do. |

Intrinsic And Extrinsic Compensation Instruments Commerce Essay

Intrinsic And Extrinsic Compensation Instruments Commerce Essay Compensation is the remuneration received by an employee in return for his/her contribution to the organization. It is an organized practice that involves balancing the work-employee relation by providing monetary and non-monetary benefits to employees. Compensation is an integral part of human resource management which helps in motivating the employees and improving organizational effectiveness. Components of Compensation System Compensation systems are designed keeping in minds the strategic goals and business objectives. Compensation system is designed on the basis of certain factors after analyzing the job work and responsibilities. Components of a compensation system are as follows: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Job analysis à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Salary structures à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Pay structure Need of Compensation Management A good compensation package is important to motivate the employees to increase the organizational productivity. Unless compensation is provided no one will come and work for the organization. Thus, compensation helps in running an organization effectively and accomplishing its goals. Salary is just a part of the compensation system, the employees have other psychological and self-actualization needs to fulfill. Thus, compensation serves the purpose. The most competitive compensation will help the organization to attract and sustain the best talent. The compensation package should be as per industry standards. The financial assets of a company have always occupied central importance whenever it has come to management decisions. However worlds recent plunge into financial crisis has raised this importance to critical level. This has particularly put direct effect upon financial sector such as banks. The fact that organizations cannot control their external environment in current period of recession has put direct emphasis. Compensation management deals with the ability to effectively compensate the employees to work and create a competitive advantage through highly motivated human resources (HR). Compensation is the cornerstone of an effective talent management strategy. The ability to enable consistent, reliable and standardized compensation processes that are linked to performance drivers of individual and organizational strategies can affect many facets of the business. Some of these facets include: (1) Improved employee morale and retention, (2) Increased employee engagement and productivity, (3) Strengthened governance and compliance with company and regulatory issues. Motivation is the set of reasons that determines one to engage in a particular behavior, having phenomenological and physiological dimensions. The term is generally used for human motivation but, theoretically, it can be used to describe the causes for animal behavior as well. This article refers to human motivation. According to various theories, motivation may be rooted in the basic need to minimize physical pain and maximize pleasure, or it may include specific needs such as eating and resting, or a desired object, hobby, goal, state of being ideal. Employee satisfaction helps the company to maintain a standard increase productivity by motivating the employees. As human resource is the most important resource for any organization, so to study on employee satisfaction helps to know the working conditions what are the things that affect them to work properly or otherwise. These factors become really crucial when we talk about financial institutions that have nothing more than services and that also of financial basis to attract their customers. In this condition it becomes really important for them to deal in an effective and committed way to their customers. Because they have no real brand names to back them up, and also customers feel very protective while dealing with financial products, services or institutions. The strength of any financial service provider lies in it human resources. It is logical that if you have a strength that can be your competitive advantage and is directly related towards your operations it will help in evading your threats in external environment. A satisfied and motivated workforce will have convincing influence upon customers and can attract them even in most gruesome conditions as we can find nowadays. 2. OVERVIEW OF THE BANKING SECTOR IN PAKISTAN Pakistan is a developing country, and being a developing country the recent financial crunch has the worst impact over it. Where developed countries like America and that of European Union managed to sustain their financial institutions through the strength of their governments. But it is evident that countries like Pakistan lack such government strength. So businesses and especially financial institutions in a country like Pakistan has no hope to control the effect of any such calamities through bailing out by factors like government from their external environment. So then what they must do? It is the question that has to arise. We have already discussed the problem of financial institutions for lacking any strong brand and having sensitive customers. In this scenario financial institutions may only count on the strength of their internal environment. Observing financial sector of Pakistan, it becomes clear that banking sector dominates it. Banking sector for Pakistan has been somewhat static and slow moving for decades, until government let go of all banks except National Bank of Pakistan in private hands. This started a new revolution in banking sector, with changes erupting in almost every aspect of private banks. This brought about a serious competitive environment in the banking sector. But with all the positive impacts it also brought some big question marks and doubts. Doubts regarding employees and customer satisfaction. Question marks about who is the best. But with financial crunch these doubts have changed to which bank can survive, and who can still have trust of its customers. In banking sector if one name cant be ignored then it is National Bank of Pakistan, The bank that has not only the largest branch network nationwide but also in foreign country, largest reserves, highest authority and strong corporate brand posi tion with government backing. National Bank of Pakistan National Bank of Pakistan was established under the NPB ordinance in 1949 and was 100% govt.-owned. NBP acted as an agent of the Central Bank wherever the State Bank did not have its own Branch. It also undertook Government Treasury operations. Its first branches were in jute growing areas in East Pakistan. Offices in Karachi and Lahore followed. In1950 NBP established a branch in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. By this time NBP had branches in London and Calcutta, in 1955. In1957 NBP established a branch in Baghdad, Iraq. In 1962 NBP established a branch in Dar-as-Salaam, Tanganyika. In 1964 The Iraqi government nationalized NBPs Baghdad branch. In 1965 the Indian government seized the Calcutta branch on the outbreak of hostilities between India and Pakistan. In 1967 The Tanzanian government nationalized the Dar-Es-Salaam branch. In 1971 NBP acquired Bank of Chinas two branches, one in Karachi and one at Chittagong. At separation of East Pakistan NBP lost its branches there. NBP merged with E astern Mercantile Bank and with Eastern Bank Corporation. In 1974 the government of Pakistan nationalized NBP. As part of the concomitant consolidation of the banking sector, NBP acquired Bank of Bahawalpur (est. 1947). In 1977 NBP opened an offshore brain Cairo. In 1994 NBP amalgamated Tehran Bank (EST. 1991). In 1997 NBPs branch in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan commenced operations. In 2000 NBP opened a representative office in Almay, Kazakhstan. In 2001 State Bank of Pakistan and Bank of England agree to allow only 2 Pakistani banks to operate in the UK. NBP and United Bank agreed to merge their operations to form Pakistan International Bank, of which NBP would own 45% and United Bank 55%. Also that year, NBP closed its branch in New York. In 2002 Pakistan International Bank renamed itself United National Bank Limited (Ileana Gumby, 2009). The ownership structure of the UNB remained as before. The only change to the shareholding structure is that UBL had recently been privatized in Pakistan and was now owned 49% by the Government of Pakistan and 51% by a joint foreign consortium of Abu Dhabi. In 2003 NBP received permission to open a branch in Afghanistan. Today NBP has 1450 domestic branches nationwide spread over 23 regional segmentation. It has assets up to 350 billion rupees (NBP, 2011). 3. PROBLEM STATEMENT This paper will look in to the perspective of compensation management system in banking sector by knowing about what motivates employees in baking sector. Nowadays banks have become extremely decentralized in nature and due to privatization of banks the level of competition has entered in a new dynamic phase, which directly has its effects over employees of banks. Continuous increasing market demands have literally over loaded employees of banking sector and stretched their working hours in an absurd way. All of this has resulted in employee complaints about work pressure, stress, strain, lack of fulfilling family expectations etc which really have a bad impact over employee motivation of banking sector and ultimately their performance. To handle this situation banks are using different compensation (both intrinsic extrinsic) and reward policies for motivating their employees. The question is whether banks are applying the appropriate compensation strategies with respect to their em ployees? Are these strategies achieving the desired results? Which type of compensation has more motivational effects? These issues if remained unaddressed then can lead to problems like de-motivation, dissatisfaction of employees and customer, high turnover etc and therefore needs to be studied with care. 4. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES The paper will find out different aspects of a compensation system having motivational effects by finding what employees perceive to be the most motivating factor in their compensation system by the assessment of instruments used for extrinsic as well as extrinsic compensation through checking the effectiveness of different intrinsic instruments regarding job satisfaction and motivation to work among the employees of National Bank of Pakistan, Attack city. 5. LITERATURE REVIEW Swinton (2006) described a relationship between Maslows hierarchies of needs with Herzberg theory. Maslows theory state a persons needs hierarchy with basic needs at base followed by security needs, social needs, esteem needs and self actualization needs. She is of the opinion that up to esteem needs level employee motivation or satisfaction can be maintained by factors which Herzberg called hygiene factors. This includes salary, benefits, job security, company policy etc while to deal with people at self actualization level factors known as motivators would be needed. This includes employee achievement, employee recognition, and employee growth. By keeping in mind this relationship among two basic theories of management organization may find it easy to manage their HR and other operations. Kidman and Golding (2006) are of the view that knowledge management system could play an integral part in increasing any organizations performance and can help it to compete in such highly competi tive environment as todays. They say that knowledge management system if applied can bring improvements in decision making, increase in customer value, improving relationships with consumers and bringing new value in to sight by including the concept of innovation. Sureshchandar et al (2002) in their research studied banking sector of India and analyzed how different banks apply concept of total quality service in their functions. They found that these applications are inconsistent and incongruent with in all banks. Which makes it highly sophisticated sector. According to them banks of India can be divided into three groups based upon their perception about total quality services in operations. Barney and Wright (1997) describe that although human resources are accepted to be organizations most important assets yet organizations decision often depicts contradiction with this belief. They further say that HR should not be neglected because they can bring competitive advantage to orga nization. Therefore they should be managed with equal importance with other functions of the business. Hustled (1995) has emphasized on the fact that usage of high performance work practices i.e. comprehensive employee recruitment, Incentive compensation and performance management, extensive employee training and involvement programs surely increase competence of employees, it increase their motivation and reduce turnover. This results in retention of quality employees and also is a useful way to eradicate poor performers from the organization. Nowadays organizations have been persuaded by competitive environment to apply a progressive HR strategy. As stated with the relevance of Pfeiffer (1996) the past decade has presented with many testimonials to the value of progressive HRM practices and system of such practices. In particular, employee participation, empowerment and job redesign, extensive employee training and performance contingent incentive compensation, are widely believed to improve the performance of organizations (John T Delaney and Mark A Hustled, 1996, Mark A Hustled, 1995). Human Resource management and productivity of organization has a direct relationship with each other. If employees are managed appropriately i.e. job analysis, recruitment, training, motivational tools like compensation etc they are destined to give high performance in their operations so will improve the overall productivity of the organization (Casey Ichniowski et al., 1997). While Catanzaro (2001) described the effects of compensation over employee motivation, he stated that compensation has a profound effect over employee motivation. He also discussed several factors of compensation which include both intrinsic and extrinsic factors and their possible effects over motivation in detail. He also emphasized that monetary values are not the only motivators but non monetary factors have more importance towards motivating employees. In Hong Kong, base salary, merit pay, year-end bonus, annual leave, mortgage loan, and profit sharing were the most important factors to retain and motivate employees. In China, base salary, merit pay, year-end bonus, housing provision, cash allowance, over time allowance, and individual bonus were the most important factors to retain and motivate employees (Randy K Chiu et al., 2002). Reward and recognition programs can positively affect motivation, performance and interest within an organization. While a little more problematic, team-based incentives, if designed appropriately, can also encourage and support a range of positive outcomes (Patricia Milne, 2007). Promotion and wages positively influence employees work motivation. A comparison of the relative strengths of the effects reveals that fair promotion was a more powerful motivator than wage level and wage increase. The reason why fairness in promotion was more effective than wage to motivate employees was discussed in light of the unique career system existing in Japanese companies and the agency problems between companies and their supervisors. Takahashi (2006) explores past and present attitudes of employees concerning work-related motivational factors. Understanding the factors that employees consider motivating lends insight to the rewards to which they more positively respond. It compares the results of four motivation surveys conducted in 1946, 1980, 1986 and 1992. The comparisons revealed that employees motivational preferences vary over time. In addition, the results of the 1992 survey indicate that the factors that motivate todays workers are more extrinsic than they used to be. Although employees differ on how they rank these factors, they overwhelmingly selected good wages as the top motivator. A good wage is an extrinsic reward with intrinsic potency. On the surface good wages seem to be purely extrinsic. Yet, at a deeper level, monetary rewards communicate what the company values and affect employees emotional and familial wellbeing (Carolyn Wiley, 1997). 6. HYPOTHESIS After conducting literature review the following hypotheses have to be tested. H1: Compensation plans are significantly associated with extrinsic and intrinsic factors of motivation. H2: Extrinsic factors are significantly contributing to the overall compensation plan. H3: Intrinsic factors are significantly contributing to the overall compensation plan. 7. METHODOLOGY AND RESEARCH DESIGN A case study research design was adopted by taking National Bank of Pakistan as special case. In fact case study is research, which is an intensive analysis of an individual unit (e.g., a person, group, or event) stressing developmental factors in relation to context. Total 50 bank employees were interviewed, including officer cadre employees like branch managers and operation managers and non officers cadre employees like cashiers, tellers and dispatchers of the branches located in Attack city, Karma, Makah and Ghorghushti of the district Attock. Structured Interview technique was adopted as primary data collection tool. Five sub variables were developed for extrinsic compensation variable and four sub variables were developed for intrinsic compensation variable. Total 30 statements were asked from the respondents regarding both intrinsic as well as extrinsic compensation factors, which can motivate them, in such way that 17 statements were about intrinsic compensation and 13 statements were about extrinsic compensation. The statements were firstly scaled according to the Likert Scaling technique by assigning weights to it on poly-cot scale from 1 strongly dis-agrees to 5 strongly agree. The weights of each statement were added in such way that they were multiplied with total statements, that is, (30X5=150) to get total score of 150. Then low, medium and high categories were made. The score of (30-to 60) was considered as low score. The score of (70 to 100) was considered as medium score and the score of (110 to 140) was considered as high score. The framework of the study consists of two main variables for the total compensation system, i.e. Intrinsic and extrinsic. The intrinsic variable has been further divided in to five sub variables, i.e. salary, benefits, short term incentives, long term incentives and perquisite. On the other side, the extrinsic variable has been divided into four sub variables, i.e. job itself, career development, autonomy and delegation. These factors are the motivational elements for the employees. 8. PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS The data has presented in shape of tables, in such way that the table, 1 is about the Demographic Characteristics of the respondents Scores of the Respondents, and the table 2 is correlation Analysis for knowing the relationship between the intrinsic and extrinsic variables. The above table shows the demographic characteristics of respondents as well as the scores achieved in each variable. The data shows that gender wise, there are more males employees in the National Bank of Pakistan, Attock Branch. On other side age wise there are more employees in 20-25 years age as compared to other age groups. Marital statuses wide there are more married as compared to single employees. The scores of the employees shows that gender wise females were more motivated both about intrinsic as well extrinsic compensation factors by having 137 out of 150 score as compared to counterpart males, who have got 119/150 score. Age wise the young employees in age category of 20-25 years had got more score i.e. 138/150, which mean that this age category was more motivated as compared to other age categories. Marital status wise, the single employees had more score 131/150 as compared to married one. The correlation analysis shows that there has been strong positive relationship between the both types compensation factors used by the National Bank of Pakistan, Attock branches. The 1st sub variable, salary is highly positively correlated with job (r: 0.78), career development (r: 0.69), autonomy (r: 0.73) and delegation (r: 0.64). In same way Benefits is also highly positively correlated with job (r: 0.81) and career development (r: 0.71), but moderately positively correlated with autonomy (r: 0.68) and delegation (r: 0.58). In same way short term incentives is also is highly positively correlated with job (r: 0.82) and career development (r: 0.78), but moderately positively correlated with autonomy (r: 0.73) and delegation (r: 0.67). So far as the long term incentives is concerned. It is strongly positively correlated with Job (r: 0.76) but moderately positively correlated with career development (r: 0.67), autonomy (r: 0.64) and delegation (r: 0.59). In the last there is perquisite which is strongly correlated with job (r: 0.80), but moderately correlated with career development (r: 0.68), autonomy (r: 0.59) and Delegation (r: 0.62). This moderate, and high correlation between the compensation variables show that in one or other way all of the compensation variables have impact on each other and they motivate the employees at the National Bank of Pakistan, Attack branch. 9. DISCUSSION The Findings of this study shows that nine compensation factors have been used in the overall compensation strategy by National Bank of Pakistan and these factors have positive relationship with each other in such way that all of them are contributing positively towards development of motivation among the employees of bank. The scores of the employees shows that female employees were more motivated by these motivating factors of compensation as compared to male employees, this could be because the female employees are more contended with their jobs and family lives and have less responsibility. On other side the young employees regardless of gender, in the age category of (20-30) were more motivated by these compensation factors as compared to other age groups. This is probably because the young employees are more energetic and have more involvement towards job as compared to old employees, who get fed up from job. Furthermore the young employees have less home as well as job related responsibilities as compared to old people who have tension of both family as well as job. Marital status wise, the single employees were more motivated with the compensation factors, most probably because the single employees have less familial responsibilities and less expenses as compared to married one, who have more familial responsibilities and expenses, and thus they remain under tight budget and their motivation level is less. It was found that employees had general acceptance that their salary and benefits package are better. And a high level of satisfaction was felt and observed in employees regarding their extrinsic factors. However intrinsic factors of compensation were more important, like the permanent nature of the job. So employees can deliver their best with a sense of satisfaction. Employees who were interviewed strongly advocated that no other bank in Pakistan except National Bank of Pakistan keeps its employees this much close. Nor do they really do much for employee loyalty, and development. For instance regular promotions of employees cannot be observed in other banks like Habit Bank as quoted by several employees. Also creation and observation of this sense of belongingness to a prestigious organization to and by Employees of NBP cannot be seen else here. Reason for this claim was related mostly towards privatization of other banks. From interviews it became a reality that National Banks employees are one of the most loyal Human Resources an organization may find regardless of the fact that they have to work more hours and hectically than other banks. There were complaints about low staff distribution in many branches of small cities and long working hours disturbing employees social life but even these overcame by the positive effects created by National Banks compensation strategy upon its employees over the years. 10. CONCLUSION The paper had concluded that Compensation management has a direct relationship with employee motivation and performance. Extrinsic benefit plans plays a delight role in perception of an employee towards its organization and its work. And these factors play the role of satisfiers. Instruments of intrinsic factors have a profound impact upon an employees loyalty and an organizations turn over. Intrinsic factors play the role of motivators for the employees and associate them with their job and organization. They feel important and consider their performance as organization performance and image of organization as their own image. It is recommended that banking sector must focus a lot upon the well being of its Human Resources by properly designing their compensation system. So that banks can achieve a competitive advantage through their employees and stand apart as well stand strong in such hard times as in current global financial crisis when financial sector is experiencing a tight squeeze in external environment. Intrinsic Instruments are strongly advised to be more aligned for the entire banking sector. The paper recommends extrinsic factors as the basis but intrinsic as the beauty as only the inner satisfaction can produce optimum quality. For the future research, studies which can find out the relationship of other factors of compensation, especially the subjective one, with motivation would be of great value. 11. THEORY AND PRACTICE The final findings were compared with the Best Practices Compensation policies. This led to the following observations. 1. The bank offers very few pay incentives. Best Practices recommend little emphasis on pay and therefore the banks policy is in line with Best Practices recommendations. Most employees however demand higher pay incentives. 2. The bank does not have any policy for rewarding individual level job performance. This is contrary to Best Practices Compensation recommendations 3. The Bank does not have any policy for rewarding team or group performance. This is in accordance with the Best Practices recommendations. 4. Most employees suggest that the bank should pay certain rewards on the basis of individual level job performance as does Best Practice theory. 5. Bank policy indicates an increased emphasis on seniority when it comes to pay decisions. This is contrary to Best Practices recommendations. Most employees also suggest that seniority should remain an important factor when it comes to pay decisions. Although the Bank has based its policies on long-term goals but it appears that it is unable to implement this. It seems that short-term goals have been given priority in practice. The Bank offers excellent benefits package in accordance with the Best Practices Compensation policies. However most employees want more benefits. 12. RECOMMENDATIONS The following recommendations have been suggested in accordance with the Best Practices Compensation policies:- 1. The bank must device policies to reward individuals for the individual level performances. This could be in the form of performance bonuses, rewards or profit sharing. 2. The Bank must consider reducing the emphasis on seniority. Although it is not a matter of concern for most of the employees, but in the long run, this may adversely affect the performance of the Bank. 3. The Bank must continue with it exists benefit package in accordance with best practices. 4. The Bank must communicate the importance of its excellent benefit package to the employees of the Bank. This may help to increase the motivation level of the employees. 5. The bank must continue its policy for not awarding any incentive for group performance. 6. The bank must refocus its attention on long-term goals.

Philosophy and Technology Essay -- Philosophy Philosophical Papers

Philosophy and Technology ABSTRACT: This paper deals the place of technology in contemporary culture, and the relationship between science and morality. A definition of technique as a social process has to emphasize the fact that technique means developing and enabling different fabricated material systems; it is also the action of environment transformation according to human necessities. The area of culture is not limited to classical values, conceived with traditional meanings, arts and human sciences, but also covers the values of the natural and technical sciences as well as the whole set of values implied by technique and technology. Far from being a marginal component of culture, technology interacts internally with philosophical fields such as epistemology, ontology, value theory, and ethics. It also partly overlaps partly with other fields. I suggest that science should not be considered as free of value and neutral from a moral viewpoint both because the scientist makes valuable judgments during sci entific activity and because the applications of science have moral value and raise moral problems. There is thus a need for moral control that would deter the scientists from evildoing. The need for wisdom and a clear scientific attitude in our contemporary technical civilization is emphasized. Technology and culture. Some of the philosophical problems the nowadays technique and technology are confronted with are related to the definition of concepts, the cultural value contained in them, and place they have in the European culture. In what it concerns the concepts of technique and technology, a consensus does not exist. The Romanian Encyclopedic Dictionary (1966) gives the following definitions, according to a wide-... ..., Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1989 3. Edem GOBLOT, Traità © de logique, A. Colin, Paris, 1941 4. P.P. NEGULESCU, Istoria filosofiei contemporane (The History of Contemporary Philosophy), Monitorul Oficial si Imprimeriile Statului, Bucuresti, 1941 5. Constantin NOICA, Incercare asupra filosofiei traditionale (Essay on Traditional Philosophy), Bucuresti, 1950 6. Liana POP, Nevoia de intelepciune in civilizatia stiintifico-tehnica contemporana (The Need of Wisdom in the Contemporary Scientific and Technical Civilization), Scientific Journal of the Polytechnic Institute of Cluj-Napoca, 32, 1989 7. Liana POP, The Place of Technology in the Contemporary Culture, Proceedings of International Symposium Constructions 2000, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 1993 8. Tudor VIANU, Studii de filosofia culturii (Studies of Philosophy of Culture), Editura Eminescu, Bucuresti, 1983

The American Education System; Cause For Rebellion :: essays research papers fc

The American Education System; Cause for Rebellion   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  If America's Schools are to meet the needs of the twenty first century, they must be reinvented. It is not enough to try to fix the schools; they must be reconstructed in both fundamental and radical ways. The school system must be restructured. The future of the American public school system is significant because the maintenance of an informed and productive citizenry is vital to the future of this country. Historically Americans have strongly asserted the importance of public schools in a democracy and despite growing disdain for the perceived value of the school system, public schools remain central to democracy in the United States.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  For more than a century, America's public schools have been an indispensable source of the country's strength. Public education has allowed citizens to become productive members of society by providing them with the skills and knowledge necessary for the labor force. Schools prepare students to be literate, informed and reasoning citizens. According to Philip Schlechty, author of Schools for the twenty-first century, â€Å"Public schools are the ties that bind this pluralistic society into a nation. Our Nation's thirty-sixth president, Lyndon B. Johnson, also believed that there is no institution more fundamental to American society and democracy than its public schools.†(36)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Public schools are the cornerstone of America's future. The development of youth's knowledge, skills and social dispositions has always been critical to the country's success. In the next century, America's youth will play an increasingly important role in the country's survival and well-being. By the year 2025, one out of five Americans will be 65 or older, and by the year 2040, one out of four Americans will be 65. In less than 15 years, the first baby boomers will reach the age of 65 (Peterson 64). It is clear that the economic success of America will be in the hands of youth to unprecedented extent. It is time to invest in education in order to maintain the American way of life.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the competitive knowledge-based world of the twenty-first century, the education of America's youth will be more important than ever. More responsibility will be placed on schools because of greater diversity in classrooms, languages, preparedness, motivation, and the dynamics of the future workplace. Schools also must assume more responsibility because of increasing enrollment. Entering the 1996-1997 school year, there is an all time high enrollment of 51.7 million students in public schools throughout the country (Good 6). Because of enhanced enrollment and technological advances, there is more material that needs to be taught if students are to be competitive and productive in the future job market.

Perception of a Tragic Hero: “Hamlet” Essay

Perceptions and understanding of Shakespearean language evolve as time passes. It is reasonable to believe that Laertes is more of a tragic hero than Hamlet. In order for this to be seen effectively, a comparison must be made between Laertes and Hamlet. In the play Hamlet, Laertes is a character who grabs the audience’s attention. His devotion to succeed, despite disadvantages is both motivational and tragic situations, is inspirational to some extent. His portrayal as the antagonist is very effective in conveying the message that, the easy way may not always be the right path to pursue. In the end, people are accountable for their own actions. To Laertes, the urge to avenge a loved ones death was worth taking, and is understandable in all cultures. One must remember that Laertes is not only after revenge, but also after loyalty to avenge. If Laertes were to take revenge on Hamlet, this would show only that he is interested in satisfying his own needs. However, by performing t hese acts in the name of loyalty, Laertes is ensuring that his father Polonius does not die in vain. Laertes can be thought of as more of a tragic hero than Hamlet due to greater loss in his fall, the fact that he is optimistic, his nobility and him showing a tragic flaw. A tragic hero must show a considerable loss in their fall. Hamlet went through many hardships. He lost everyone close to him, but sustained his legacy. This differs from Laertes who simply died. Unlike Hamlet, who was carried out â€Å"like a soldier, to the stage; For he was likely, had he been put on, To have proved most royally,† (V, II, 390-392). Laertes was forgotten. There was no one to remember his legacy, and because of this, Laertes has more to loose in his fall than Hamlet. Hamlet on the other hand, shows little optimism, although this is crucial characteristic of a tragic hero. The audience understands the mourning of a loved one, but the time must come when people move on. In Hamlets case, the time of mourning must have past since he is the only one that continues this. Gertrude, his mother questions this behaviour. She does so by saying, â€Å"cast thy nighted colour off, And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. Do not for ever with thy veiled lids Seek for thy noble father in the dust: Thou know’st ’tis common; all that lives must die, Passing through  nature to eternity,† (I, II, 68-73). On the other hand, Laertes, despite loosing his father by the hands of his friend Hamlet, still shows optimism. He had every reason to mourn, and would have the added feeling of betrayal, but even so, he is not as distraught as Hamlet. This goes to show that his optimism in justice will be served makes him a greater tragic hero than H amlet. However, another characteristic possessed by Laertes is that he is noble. He wins the admiration of the audience because of his bravery and non-hesitant behaviour. Not only does the audience admire this man, so do the characters of this play. We see that men follow Laertes to offer assistance where needed, â€Å"save yourself, my lord: The ocean, overpeering of his list, Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste Than young Laertes, in a riotous head,† (IV, V, 96-99). The devotion he has towards his cause can be shown with his self-sacrificial statement, â€Å"and like the kind life-rendering pelican, Repast them with my blood,† (IV, V, 143-144). Perhaps, the flaw that leads to Laertes’ detriment is that he is easily manipulated. Claudius, who is Hamlet’s uncle, uses Laertes for his own revenge on Hamlet. This begs the question if the first two blows encountered within the fencing match were intentional. Because of the death of his beloved sister, and the fact that his father was murdered, Laertes may have felt he no longer had anything to live for. His friend Hamlet can be linked to both deaths. Only towards the end is Hamlet able to rationalize his actions by saying, â€Å"this presence knows, And you must needs have heard, how I am punish’d with sore distraction. What I have done, that might your nature, honour and exception roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness.† (V, II, 217-223). Another factor which would lead the audience to believe Laertes intentionally let Hamlet hit him, was that Hamlet was not confident in his own fencing skills. In this statement, Hamlet is quoted saying â€Å"I will win for him an I can; if not, I will gain nothing but my shame and the odd hits,† (V, II, 171-173). This gives circumstantial evidence that Laertes was better at the sport, and therefore let Hamlet hit him the first two times on purpose. This would go with the plan set by Claudius; the first hit, he would drink to Hamlets health and then put a poisonous gem in the  wine. The second hit, Hamlet would drink the poison. Because of this manipulation, and not seizing the appropriate opportunity, Laertes was killed by Hamlet. The flaws shown in Hamlet are that he is procrastinates and that he is indirect. Hamlet shows his procrastination with the delayed killing of Claudius. An example of when Hamlet was indirect is with his feelings towards Ophelia, Laertes sister. It is clear to see what is going through her mind, when making reference to Hamlet with this song she sings while presumed insane, â€Å"by Gis and by Saint Charity, Alack, and fie for shame! Young men will do’t, if they come to’t; By cock, they are to blame. Quoth she, before you tumbled me, You promised me to wed. So would I ha’ done, by yonder sun, An thou hadst not come to my bed,† (IV, V, 57-62). The irony in this is that Laertes warned Ophelia earlier to be cautious of Hamlet by saying:Perhaps he loves you now, And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch The virtue of his will: but you must fear, His greatness weigh’d, his will is not his own; For he himself is subject to his birth†¦ Then if he says he loves you, It fits your wisdom so far to believe it As he in his particular act and place May give his saying deed; which is no further Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal. Then weigh what loss your honor may sustain, If with too credent ear you list his songs, Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open To his unmaster’d importunity. Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister, And keep you in the rear of your affection, Out of the shot and danger of desire (I, III, 14-35). In this statement, Laertes is warning Ophelia about Hamlet, he is telling her to watch out because of Hamlets status. He claims that Hamlet will never truly love her. Common characteristics of both Laertes and Hamlet are that they are obligated to commit murder. What is unique about this situation is that they both are compelled for the same reason, the murder of their father. Depending on the perspective of the audience, one of these two men can be looked at as a tragic hero. They both demonstrate the characteristics needed to be a tragic hero, but what separates Laertes from Hamlet is that he was optimistic from  the beginning and shows more ambition. He ventured into a journey in which he knew that he would never be successful. This did not stop him from attempting to achieve his objective. Laertes made it clear to Claudius that he would do anything in order to reach where he was going, he says:To hell, allegiance! vows, to the blackest devil! Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit! I dare damnation. To this point I stand, That both the worlds I give to negligence, Let come what comes; only I’ll be revenged Most thoroughly for my father. (IV, V, 129-134). Hamlet on the other hand is contradictory to himself. In one scene, he talks about how he does not want to commit suicide because it is a sin, this is shown by saying, â€Å"to be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep; No more,† (III, I, 57-62). Yet in another scene he comes up with a scheme to get Rosencrantz and Guildenstern killed, and plots the same as Claudius. What divides our society on a literary level is the understanding of meanings and perspective on which we see them in. Because of our culture, the audience has the ability to analyze in a way impossible in Shakespearian time. It is understandable now that Laertes is an inspirational character that was destined on a path of failure. Despite all obstacles, he accomplished his task, which represents the ambition and virtue within all people. This inspiring struggle symbolizes similar hardships known to many. Due to this, Laertes can signify the life of a realistic character. He meets the criteria of a tragic hero and represents the eternal struggle. Laertes looses more in his fall, he showed optimism and nobility, while demonstrating a tragic flaw, and by understanding the information given above, one may conclude that the memory of Laertes will no longer be forgotten.