Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Why do some pupils achieve more than others in mathematics Essay

Why do some pupils achieve more than others in mathematics - Essay Example An issue means something significant that needs to be finalised, an argument that is not settled. ‘Taking an issue’ means disagreement and ‘to issue onwards’ means to illustrate. Among the contemporary issues, Peter Bailey‘s statement is of value to everyone. He proposed that â€Å"teachers of mathematics can play a crucial role in making the world a fairer place† (Gates, 2001, p. 10). Different pupils think differently to a same mathematical problem. This creates trouble for teachers in devising the most appropriate method in the best interest of all. Some students do achieve more because of the individual differences in terms of abilities, motivation levels, preferences etc. (Orton, 2004, p. 136). Mostly mathematical calculations are thought to be convergent - having a limit however there are also divergent questions whose answers could be manifold. Hudson (1966) tested the convergent and divergent thinking ability of sixth form students in a research study of individual differences and concluded that students weak at the IQ tests were much better in subjective questions. Most of the students that perform better in mathematics are convergent thinkers, who likes logic, definite solutions etc. They are bound to have mathematics as their favourite subject while divergent thinkers have difficulties (Orton, 2004, p.139). â€Å"Mathemetical abilities are not innate but are properties acquired in life that are formed on the basis of certain inclinations†¦ some persons have inborn characteristics in the structure and functional features of their brains which were extremely favourable to the development of mathematical abilities†¦anyone can become an ordinary mathematician; one must be born an outstandingly talented one† (Orton, 2004, p.142). Generally Maths is considered a subject you cannot humanize. Russel (1938) proposed that most students have the common perception of considering

Monday, October 28, 2019

The Impact Of How Organisational Structure

The Impact Of How Organisational Structure The organisational structure has a great influence on the people working for the organisation. The way the employees are organized and dealt with, has a noticeable influence on each employee of the organisation. If the organisation has a strong leadership, it helps other people working for it to get motivated and to be influenced by the works of leader and they eventually get boosted. This leads to the betterment of organisation and promotes more people to work for the organisation. Leadership has a direct influence on the organization, with the leadership style the organization can be moulded in the direction which is best suited for it. The surveys and researches done so far have proved that the attitude of an employee to the organization is dependent on the structure of organization. If the individual is happy with his job and show positive attitude towards the job the organization is more likely to be get benefited from it, if the employee has a negative impact then preferably th e organization gets suffer (CITEHR 2005). The organization consists of people with different nature and aptitude. Each person has its own skills and knowledge, so he is capable of handling stuff in his own way. The organization impacts the person in a way that he has to manage himself according to the needs of the organization. The person has to mould his skills to suit the requirements. Many factors are included which strengthens or weakens the ability of people working in an organization. The main factors included are adaptability; this is that how much a person can get adapted to the working environment he is going through. Then comes the social values; this explains the values which are to be maintained in order to continue the friendly employee to employer and employee to employee relation respectively (SACHING 2009). Through this the risk of conflicts can be minimised. Analyse how Organisational culture plays a vital role in employees efficiency and effectiveness. Efficiency is the time taken to do some particular task. The efficiency is when you complete your task in the minimum time. Whereas effectiveness is the height of results achieved from tasks. This is actually the actions of employees which brings about the results and helps the organization getting effective results (CHRON 2012). The organization has a great influence on both the efficiency and effectiveness of the employee. The culture of an organization particularly helps in constructing an efficient employee and it can harm the efficiency of an employee as well. So basically it has a great influence. The organizations with proper planned structures and stabled culture are more likely to bring about a positive change in their employees. If the organization has a setup which includes proper trainings, sit-ups with the manager and discussions about the relevant matter, then no doubt the organization is going to bring about efficient workers. For example the company has got and Entrepreneur resource planning ERP system installed in place, this helps employees getting in touch with each other and they can access each other directly wherever they are eventually saving time and making their work efficient. Similarly if the organization wants the best result it needs to have an effective planning of actions need to be performed in order to achieve those results. The factors that can improve the effectiveness of the employee are through having a proper individuals performance review over a specific period of time. This will help the organization figuring out the strengths and weaknesses of the employees, which should be recorded and monitored on preceding tasks. The other way to improve effectiveness is through organizing tests and tasks for employees, the results will clearly show the level of effectiveness the organization can gain from that employee that can be changed later with training in the field where employees lack, if things like these are in place then organizational culture is really improving the employee skills and will eventually get benefited. So this shows that the organization culture has indeed a great influence on the efficiency and the effectiveness of the employees working for it (CHRON 2012). Understand approaches to managing the differences between individuals that impact on their performance at work Employees behaviour at work is highly influenced by personal differences. Explain. Employees in an organization work as a team and bring about changes to the organizations. Every employee has its special character and the behaviour it possesses. Some lacks in some capabilities and others have access of some capabilities, so they make up a good team with difference in their aptitude with which they approach the tasks. The personal differences help each other in getting motivated and bring in employees the power to compete and excel in their fields. It does have a negative influence as well sometimes that employees can take one with abilities as their rival rather than following him they can just get to the worse of developing personal grudges against him. Organizations have people from different sectors and these bring about the people with different life styles and different working styles as well. To counter these differences employees work in a way so that they can manage with each and every person in the working area. The ones that are unable to manage starts getting irritated each other and may develop hatred as well. But mostly organization trained the people with fewer abilities to follow the ones with abilities to get the most out of them. This is because companies want to have a growing structure rather than destructive approach. Employees may sometimes come from different ethical backgrounds that practices things which are of bad influence to the other employees. This brings about personal rivalry in the work place. Then sometime people with different ideas trigger each other against them if the seniors listen more to one employees ideas rather than listening to all equally. So this difference in treatment can also influence the employees. Some people are in habitual to change while some are not, if the organization brings about some changes to the way it is working this is seen to be an act of decreasing the employees ability to coup up with the change as he may not like changes to the way he works. What methods management would require tackling the issues related to personal behaviour of employees at work? Support your answer with relevant organisational citation. The personal behaviour of the employees can be tackled with the following ways. The organizations should carry out the audits and equality test and check for the results through surveys that how the employees respond to each the question they have asked. Also try giving flexible hours of work so they can relax and can get fresh start when they want. Implement a strategy which stops the people from getting to personal or give them only right to talk about work issues and not of the personal stuff when they are in the work place. Companies such as McDonalds and also others such as HSBC bank and all have their own specific terms and conditions. In fact every organization has these terms which they ask from their employees to agree to it before signing for the job. This ensures that the personal rivalries and behaviour that is ignorant should not be used in the premises. To tackle such conditions the organizations should train managers and staff so they can handle the situation without creating any more stress. People sometimes makes mistake and manager should be there to tackle that as well as it is the responsibility of the manager to see to it that all the processes are in place and are running fine. The organizations should try things like friendly gathering or socializing team members so that they get to familiarize each other in a better way and can understand personal differences of each other. This method can bring the work force together and can make them realize the importance of working in a team with enthusiasm and respect. The respect factor is most important as it allows the understanding of both the position of one another in the organization as well as it is better to know on the human front as well. So these are the methods to tackle the people behaviour in work place. Understand the organisational factors that impact on people performance What is leadership? How many types of leaderships are there; and how these styles effect on individuals and teams work performance? Leadership is basically managing a group of individuals to accomplish a particular task. Leadership can be of basic school level for making simple science projects and it can be of government level for running a developed state. So all group tasks involves leadership but of different types. The recent leadership studies and theories give description of the leaders through their traits. This also includes use of power to achieve an objective. In this description the leaders are figured out as autocratic, bureaucratic, democratic and charismatic (ALA 2010). Autocratic: Autocratic is the kind of leadership which involves one man taking decision for the entire group. These decisions are kept to the leader only and the other team members only get orders by the leader to do what they are assigned to do. The main decisions are all centralized and only leader has the authority to govern the team as he wants. This is taken as one of the good leadership style because one person has to make every decision which is efficient and it provides motivation to the person as well (WIKIPEDIA 2012). Bureaucratic: Bureaucratic is almost of the same kind like autocratic but it relies mostly on making policies and bringing out objectives and strategies as described in the policy that has been made. These leaders work as dictated in the policy, which has all points mentioned and written properly. So its a direct message to the other members that they need to follow what has been told them and they cannot make any changes to it. This type of leadership sometimes demotivates the people in the group as if some point is harsh or strong which members resist following blindly (ALA 2010). Democratic: Democratic is in which all members get chance to put forward their decisions. It is not only dependent on the leaders decision but the leader asks the members about the issue and they suggest solutions which are then dealt with to get the best possible results. This democratic leadership is also referred as shared leadership which is because of the distributed decision making power rather than centralized decision making power. So this type of leadership motivates team workers as their suggestions are considered as well (WIKIPEDIA 2012). Charismatic: This is considered to be the best and the successful leadership. This brings on the creativity and allows bringing new and innovative ideas in practice. These types of leaders have long sightedness and a vision which let them govern the group with enthusiasm and motivation. This leadership is based on the personality of the leader and one compete another to come in front, so this brings on the chances for the most efficient person to come as a leader of the other hence bringing strength in the organization. The members get influenced and bring about positive results in the organization (ALA 2010). These are the given ways of leadership and everyone has its own influence on the members and the performance of the team is affected differently in all of these types as mentioned above in the respective leadership style. Explain the benefits of flexible working practices to individuals and organisations. Flexible working practices have so many benefits to both the individuals and the organizations. Through flexible working the individuals get convenience, as they can work at the time which is most suitable to them. The flexible working allows people to work in different places together, as you can give time to other activities as well. Organizations on the other hand also get benefits from these flexible working practices as they can ask for the staff at the time when they require the most work. Also this allows reducing costs in form of wages of individuals and also reduces the wastage of time people will have in organization when they have no work. Most organizations prefer people who work part times as this helps them getting fresh labour after few working hours and more individuals can get employment through this. The budget also goes down from this technique. Flexible working also brings about convenience in a way that people can work from their homes and can still be the part of the organization. The terms which come under flexible working practices mainly are job-sharing, flexi-time, career breaks, term time working and compressed hours. These all terms are of benefits to organizations and individuals both, individuals can make use of their time properly and organizations can reduce their budget from these practices (FRESH 2009). Flex time is a term used to define the time which is fixed for people of a state to do their job. Like for many countries it is 9 am to 5 pm at which the most of the people go to work and rest of the time they can utilize in whatever activity they like, which can be getting entertained with family or working for some other organization as a part time to get more earning. These all are considered the practices which can be classified under the flexible working practices. Using motivational theories assess how the working environment impacts on people performance. There are so many motivational theories, which assess the working environment on people performance. These include: Instinct Theory of Motivation: This theory suggests that people in an organization is trained to behave in certain special ways which are required for the organization. This theory is based on the fact that people already possess some qualities which are evolutionary and those are needed to be polished and changed in a way to suit ones own requirements. Incentive Theory of Motivation: The theory suggests that people are given motivation by letting them know that they will be rewarded for doing the good work. The impact this have on people is in a way that the for the reward the people try working at their best and in this way organizations get best results out of their employees. Drive Theory of Motivation: This theory is about the motivation of people in a way that people are motivated to do some particular actions which helps reducing tensions that are the reason of some unfulfilled needs. This theory is basically relying on biological component, like hunger and thirst. So this motivation is all about peoples psychological needs. Arousal Theory of Motivation: This theory shows that the people motivates by certain actions which brings in them a certain level of arousal that they can manage by increasing or decreasing as well. The organization can bring in its employees an arousal that motivates them to work at their best. Humanistic Theory of Motivation: This theory suggests that the people already have in them strong cognitive abilities to do different actions. This describes about people getting motivated to perform actions which fulfil their needs first the basics ones and then the other important needs. Basic needs as hunger thirst and all and other needs of living well in the world so they gets motivated to do work. (PSYCHOLOGY 2012) (WIKIPEDIA 2012) Organisational ethical practices highly influence employees motivation level. Make an assessment with relevant application on McDonalds. Organizational ethical practices do influence the employees motivational level. McDonalds have some basic code of conducts which the employees need to follow in order to maintain a good and healthy environment in the work place. The employees responsibilities involve treating everyone equally at the work place. Managers and supervisors have their own place so treat them with respect and provide them with whatever service they ask for. This ethical practice promotes respect as well as the ability to produce efficient results. Also in McDonalds the employee is not allowed to harass the other employee, it is the responsibility of everyone to make sure that the environment remains calm and friendly. No one should abuse one another and no one is eligible to say about other persons appearance or abuse other in anyway. The employees are considered to be the ambassadors of the company and they are expected to work and behave as such to make sure the organization is getting benefitted from this. These practices and responsibilities allow the employees to get motivated and work in a friendly and well managed way. So that no one feels offensive and degraded from each other. Everyone is placed at the same level and receives equal importance this ensures that the people working in the organization gets what their right is and no one will be treated badly. During training every employee has given special instructions, so they are told not to use any of companys assets for personal use. Also the computers should not be used for personal reasons. The employee has got the responsibility not to harm the company reputation in any case so he is eligible to consider the organization as its own. This ethics of McDonalds help the business grow and produce quality service with the motivation of employees that they give (EHOW 2012). Evaluate how organisations use their corporate social responsibility agenda to motivate employees. Corporate social responsibilities, CSR is a policy with which organization looks towards its bindings with the law, ethical standards and different international norms. It is a process to bring about encouragement in a positive way to the company through the practices that defines the basics of the company. This policy helps the employees get motivated and work accordingly to bring about the positive change. CSR helps identifying the company aim and mission and helps also in providing their customers with good experience. This policy contains all the possible and feasible structured points to enhance business out of scope and can bring about the best results. This agenda signifies the treatment of the company with employees, consumers and stakeholders so in a way it helps in the dealing with the different links attached to a company. The benefit it has on the company is very much impressive and attracts the employees with providing them motivation of working hard and up to some noticeable standards. CSR has different approaches and they are all for the organization to provide good services. One approach is incorporating CSR directly in the business strategy. This is all about fair trading and this gives company an edge. Another approach is the increase in corporate responsibilities. This brings about CSV, which is creating shared value, this model illustrated that the corporate wellbeing and social welfare depends on each other. Companies make sure to make a policy which motivates employees and enhance business structure as well. This is how they can organize a strategy that helps them working on the defined pattern. Employees motivation are most important as this is the only possible way of getting profitable business if the employee will not be satisfied then he will not be able to work up to the mark to produce sufficient results (WIKIPEDIA 2012). Understand methods for developing human resources Apply Maslows theory of motivation to develop people in any organisation (or organisation of your choice). Maslows theory of motivation suggests that people gets motivated according to their needs. Maslow divided the needs of people in pyramidal structure starting from the basic needs which makes the base of the pyramid. He suggested that basic need of a person such as food, water, sleep, and homeostasis are the ones which should be satisfied to make him motivate to work for his satisfaction and so on to fulfil other needs. HSBC is a bank which has a strategy of motivating its employee with the rewards. The first thing that comes up is the basic needs of the employee which is fulfils through the wages they get and can live, eat and sleep well. Others can be achieved as the employees shows interest in the organization and motivated him to get the best possible work which brings about the promotions and all. The Maslows theory divides the structure on 5 parts, which are physiological, safety, love/belongings, Esteem, and self-actualization. These are the stages through which a person develops motivation and work hard. Human resources are the main thing which companies need to fulfil; this is so with the HSBC they look towards their employees as well as their clients. If they satisfies the employees this in turn results in the satisfaction of the employees. Give people their basic needs, safety of life and way to live a friendly life in a healthy environment and this will help them get motivated to do their work with interest and satisfaction. If these d-needs as Maslow called it the deficiency needs will not be fulfilled the person cannot be able to work for the organization and will change it by getting negative influence from it. Human brain works in a way that it can relatively generates the all or multiple level of pyramid hierarchy at the same time. So this can motivate to the highest level when the needs be fulfilled at the same time (WIKIPEDIA 2012). Explain the different uses of coaching and mentoring in organisations. Coaching and mentoring is a technique used to make both the clients and the people involved make use of their full potential. Coaching is where a person trains the other to make them work best to its potential. The coaching can bring about the abilities which a person lacks. Whereas mentoring is also considered to be of the same kind that is guiding a junior to work in your position or to get him the skills that can make him work ahead. In an organization these techniques are used in many ways such as by questioning the client you can bring about the desired structure of the product he is looking for and you can then identify solutions from approaching the query. Also organizations apply techniques which included one to one training. This helps getting face to face understanding of each other. This also encourages people to practice in the field of competence where they feel reluctant and then come up with better performance, this can be achieved by the practice and only practice makes a man perfect. Coaching and mentoring provides employees skills where they lack and help them make their deficiencies into their strengths. With coaching one can achieve the goal which he is capable of achieving but is lacking behind due to some minor irresponsibility. These techniques help covering up those gaps and organization gets benefits with the employees they train for specific purposes. One thing which needs to be kept in mind is that the individual should achieve it in a positive way and develop skills rather than getting dependent on the coach or the mentor. If this will happen the individual will get a negative influence and that will be a disadvantage to the organization. These are the uses which an organization can have from techniques like this (WALES 2012). By investing large amount of money in employees training and development programmes, organisations strategically meet corporate objectives. Analyse comparative benefits (individual and organisational) of TD programmes within organisations. These training and development programmes are very much important to the organization betterment and success. The organization needs to spend money in these programmes in order to achieve corporative benefits. The outcome indeed will be greater than the spending. As if they will spend on training staff the trained staff will yield out better performance which is the basic requirement of the organization. If an organization does not spend on the training and development of the company they definitely cannot make progress and this will stop them from going forward in the competitive world. The large organizations such as banks have their staffed trained on regular basis so that to avoid any of the lacking which the employees may possess. In this way spending funds on training can make them get high benefits over the end, which can be clearly visible in the revenue that generates. The benefits which the organization gets are in many different forms. These can be either in the form of good client to employee relationship which helps encouraging more clients to get involved in the service that are offered by the company. Also they can get benefits from the other competitors in having trained staff which knows everything and is up to date with the latest development and technology. The TD programme makes the basis of the organization growth. Funding this is the major spending of many companies. As to gain something you need to spend something and this is from where they can gain the ultimate high performance. Without training the organization cannot make better decisions. The benefits also includes advanced used of ERP systems, trained personnel to operate it, high productivity, time can be saved as results and procedures will be more efficient. Advanced gadgets can be used rather than old traditional ways. For example in banks instead of queuing up and wait for your turn you can go and deposit amount directly in the pay-in machine, which saves time. The employee gets confidence through these trainings and feels more confidence when they talk to the customers and the other fellow members of the organization. People might take it as a difficult task and a responsibility other than their job to get this training and hesitates to attend and get the training, but they can be made reluctant by offering extra incentives so that they can come and get the training without any reluctance and hesitance. Managers should get the special training which is different than of the other employees. All staff members need to be trained at specific levels and then they should be given a task to see whether they can fulfil it. These benefits are long termed benefits as the company not only makes profit at the front face to face communication but the technology they are learning can bring them so much to know for the future use as well. Companies can enhance and expand their businesses out of the countries and can multiply with the advanced and developed procedure they have to follow. These are the benefits which they can avail from TD, so it is good to spend on such process. Be able to review how people are managed within organisations People management strategies. The strategy which involves management of people in an organization is known as people management strategy. this strategy enables an organization to work for better results by managing people according to their skills and requirements. The company has to look to this that the individual which is chosen for a job is best suitable for that place if not he should be given other responsibilities. In this way the company allows to get the room for making progress. These strategies need to be in placed as to avoid any circumstances of situation which will arise due to mismanagement of people or human resources. So people management strategies must be in place within developed organizations. Impact on people of management strategies used. The individuals do take impact from these strategies. These impacts can be identified such as if the individual is placed in the position which is best suited for him he definitely would work best to his aptitude as that position is best suited for him. His skills will replenish more in that place and he will eventually get the best outcome for the organization, which at the end going to make profit out of it. Also management strategies help people remain under influence of a leadership as the employee knows that he has to follow these specific procedures which is defined by the higher management so all the points and duties are made clear to the employees. In this way all the work gets handled perfectly without any hap hazards. Sometimes people get a negative impact as well and think that they have the potential of working in a higher place and they have been given a wrong position to work at in such a situation they get demotivated towards their work and sometime can produce losses to the organizations as well. In these kinds of scenarios management needs to handle them with the tests on the basis where everyone is given equal rights and whoever succeeds will get the position and will be able to work at it. Through these strategies people feels a sense of responsibilities on their shoulders and they think of themselves as the stakeholders and work like as they are working for themselves and are making profit for their own good not for the company. This thinking should be in the employee mind so that the potential they have can be bring out and the organizations can make it work in the best possible way. These can be the impacts which people mostly gain from the management strategies when it gets implemented on them. Recommend strategies to support high levels of performance. Implementation of right strategy helps an organization from getting out of financial crises or any kind of crises they are facing. The strategies which support high performance includes two way communications, this is the communication between the employee and the manager or the CEO. If the communication gap will be low and the meetings or lectures will be done on regular basis this will help the employee get to know the strategy of the companys stakeholders and through this they can put their potential to work in a better way. The other strategy could be strengthening employs engagement to work; this can be achieved by giving training in a field where he lacks and by also making him understand the situation through which the company is going in order to make him work accordingly to achieve the targeted results. The employee can be motivated and engaged more towards work if he will receive incentives and rewards for doing the job he is responsible for. In such situations the companys sets up a strategy of getting this much targeted clients in return the employee get reward for doing his job well. The strategy which is most important is that the managers and leaders should have the skills and knowledge of dragging the situations out of the uncertainty. This is very important, for example if an organization is getting towards the verge of destruction the manager should have skills so to avoid the loss and can be able to manage to the extend where the company has to face the minimum loss. This strategy can help enable the performance level which can in any case save the organization from having a down fall. All the responsibilities finally come to the shoulders of the manager so this is the position which should be offered to the highly competent individual who has the courage to face all even and odds. These are the strategies which can bring about high level of performance from individuals and from the management as well (PACONSULTING 2012).

Friday, October 25, 2019

Anglo-Saxon Values Essays -- essays research papers

Throughout the Anglo-Saxon and Middle Age periods the main characters always had a similar established value; honor. This value is prominent in Beowulf, â€Å"The Seafarer†, and The Canterbury Tales. Each of the main characters portray honor either to himself, his followers, his king, and/or his God. These poems are the different aspects of honor intertwined together to form the most prevailing value during this time frame.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Beowulf is a story of a brave warrior who fights Grendel in the timeless battle of good versus evil. This era was an age of fierce battles coupled with equally fierce honor and loyalty to rulers. â€Å"†¦He and all his glorious band of Geats thanked God that their leader had come back unharmed.† The author is referring to the universal devotion expr...

Thursday, October 24, 2019

North South Relations Theory

Edward Chien April 5, 2013 North-South Relation Research question: What is the cause and effect of North-South divide? And why is the South experiencing such slow economic growths? What are some solutions to resolving the North-South relation problem? North South relation theory is defined as a socio-economic and political divide between two hemispheres. The North consists of North American, Western Europe, Australia, Japan, and East Asian countries; whereas the south is made up of Africa, Latin America, and South East Asia.The North is considered to be much more economically developed and modernized compared to the South, where there is widespread poverty and slow economic growth. In this paper I will examine the causes and effects of North-South divide. There are many causes to the North-South divide, but I think it is strongly related to colonialism. I am talking about modern colonialism, whereby rich nations are now scrambling to get the best bargains from the poor countries. Ric h countries have relaxed their immigration policies to attract wealth and human capital from poorer countries.This is considered as robbing talents and it is a new form of colonialism that seems to be legitimate. If we look back in history, colonialism is done through coercion and threats, which is outlawed in today’s world. During the colonial era, British trading companies drained wealth from its colonies in Africa by extraction of natural resources and refused to develop social infrastructures. In today’s world, we have a new form of colonialism, which is equally devastating, but is much more subtle and less violent.We see a large number of young and skilled professionals of underdeveloped countries moving to rich countries because they are attracted by new possibilities in more developed countries. â€Å"People are eager to migrate to countries in the South in attempts to better their life standards and get their share in the perceived prosperity of the North†¦South and Central Americans want to live and work in North America. Africans and Southwest Asians want to live and work in Europe. Southeast Asians want to live and work in North America and Europe† (Rafael, 2007, 556).Migration of skilled workers from the South is a serious concern for undeveloped countries. When skilled workers leave the South, they bring with them knowledge, capital, and economic productivity with them to the North. This facilitates an uneven distribution of technological innovation. For instance, if an structural engineer from the South leaves his country, the country loses human capital and essentially both economic productivity of this individual as well as income tax revenue.Now, when skilled labors are migrating in a large proportion, then it the effects are even more detrimental. â€Å"Though the proponents of globalization argue that it ushers in an unprecedented flow and circulation of people which has never been witnessed before in history, the critics of globalization have shown us that the scale and complexity of human movement that is currently occurring has solely benefited the rich nations† (Timsina, 2011). The loss of skilled labor due to migration is a main cause to why undeveloped countries are not experiencing economic growth.In order to solve the problem of migration and help undeveloped countries generate higher economic growth, I would propose that rich countries adjust their immigration policies. Policies should not be geared toward excessive importation of highly skilled and production young people because these people are the future of their country and without them, there will be little economic growth. But simply changing immigration policies of rich countries are not enough; I think there should also be strong monetary incentives on part of undeveloped countries to retain their skilled workers.For instance, I think doctors, nurses, engineers, and technicians from poor countries should be given an in come equal to income given in rich countries; the government should be able to subsidize their annual salary if necessary. Another important cause of North-South divide is that there is capital constraints and governmental corruption in less developed countries. When government officials corrupt and steal from tax revenue, money is directed into individual pockets rather than building public infrastructures.Corrupted money are usually deposited aboard; for example in China, a report unveils that â€Å"the number of government and Party officials who fled the country since the mid 1990s was between 16,000 and 18,000 and the embezzled capital nearly 800 billion Yuan, which is $123 billion dollars† (Chen, 2011). The report also says that corrupted officials are mostly public security officers, high executives of state-owned companies, and member of the judiciary; these government officials lack the confident in the current system in China and believed that their assets and futur e is safer abroad, usually in developed countries.Thus, I would suggest countries in the South that are less developed to strengthen property rights for its citizens. If government officials do not even trust the country in which they serve, they will not serve their country wholeheartedly. There are many problems when capital flight and government corruption takes place. For example, when money goes into individual pockets, society will be left with little improvement in basic public and social infrastructures; the majority of the people will continue to have low living standards, and the country will not be modernized as quickly.This is prevalent in African countries where authoritarian regimes dictate politics. Plus, in developing countries where population growth is very high, the amount of capital per person available for people declines as population grows. There is no much capital to start with and if net capital accumulation is declining due to corruption, poor countries wil l only get poorer in the long run. Bribery is one of the main tools of corruption, often used by private parties to â€Å"buy† things that are provided by the government.For instance, private actors can bribe and influence the government’s choice of firms to supply goods and services through contracts. If business people and government officials are working together to make money, then there is usually monopoly in the market. The government can create barriers of entry and prevent competition from entering to take market share away from their business partners or client. This will usually result in high product prices and little foreign direct investment due to unfair practice in the market.These practices by the government put their country in a vicious developmental cycle that entails slow economic growth in the long run. I think foreign intervention into domestic politics of another country is a violation of sovereignty rights and so it is very hard to solve the pro blem of government corruption from the outside. If a developing country wants to transform itself and become a part of the North, then it’s government must be willing to resist the temptation of corruption, or at least control their level of corruption sustainably.I think we will have to look at some success stories before we formulate a solution. Government intervention is a very important part of developing countries; historically, successful transformation and rapid economic growth are only achieved through state-led programs and government intervention. If we look at the early stages of economic development in South Korea and Taiwan, we will see that there is widespread state involvement and state guidance. Both South Korea and Taiwan were ruled by a military regime from the 1960s to the 1970s that focused heavily on heavy industrialization.Park Chung Hee utilized his experience with Japan’s wartime economic management in Northeast China and applied the model in So uth Korea. He created the economic planning board, ministry of trade and industry, ministry of finance, and moved away from import substitution to an export oriented trade policy. In Taiwan, Chiang Kai-Shek was the military leader and he introduced a similar economic development model, he nationalized the banking system in Taiwan and employed a very conservative approach toward liberalism. During his reign, about 71. % of the assets of all financial institutions were concentrated in the hands of government-owned banks. This approach was highly beneficial to the financial sector in Taiwan because it reduced volatility in the stock market and limited speculative investment from foreign investors; this approach also helped Taiwan avoid the effects of the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997. Both Taiwan and South Korea are small economies compared to other Western countries, but they were very successful in their state-led economic development.I think the biggest take away that we can learn from the economic model of South Korea and Taiwan is establishing effective government intervention in the economy. An efficient government in a developing country should prioritize equity and economic growth before anything else. I would suggest governments in developing countries to invest heavily in human capital, such as health, education and nutrition. Public and social infrastructures are also extremely important and they include roads, power distribution, water and sanitation.Last and the most important type of capital is public institutional capital, which includes a well-run bureaucracy, judicial system, and law enforcement capabilities. Having a strong government intervention is essential component that will help the South transform itself into a North economy. And it is historically proven to be possible when we look the economic miracle in South Korea and Taiwan. Another reason that some South economies are not moving toward a more advanced economy is because it is disad vantaged geographically. We called these countries landlocked developing countries (LLDC).A report estimates that â€Å"Landlocked countries that rely on transoceanic trade usually suffer a cost of trade that is double of their maritime neighbors, and they on average suffer a economic growth of 6% or less compare to their non-landlocked countries† (Hagen, 2003, 13). Theses countries are mainly located in Sub-Saharan Africa. And since these developing countries are primarily focused on exporting natural resources, they incur high transportation costs due to distance and terrain barriers to the ocean; this cause them to lose competitive edge for exports from non-landlocked countries.Furthermore, they also lack direct access to sea routes and are largely isolated from the world market. However, I think there is ways to solve this problem but it requires cooperation with non-landlocked neighboring countries. If we look at Europe, we see that landlocked countries can also become p rosperous economically when there is a well-developed public infrastructure system like roads and communication. If Sub-Saharan African countries want to compensate for its geographical disability, then they should strike negotiation with non-landlocked countries and improve cooperation in developing public infrastructures.Furthermore, they should also try to â€Å"reduce administrative burdens associated border crossings such as bureaucratic procedures, paperwork, custom charges, and traffic delay† (Faye, 2004, 47). This will allow easier access between both countries and increase the volume of trade that is mutually beneficial. Again, this goes back to the importance of government intervention into the market because trade negotiations can not be with good diplomacy; it does not matter if your economy is good, as long as you are landlocked and have no access to a seaport for exportation, then trade volumes will remain low.South economies are also undeveloped due to demograp hic reasons. Many least developed countries have extraordinary high population growth rates, which is caused by little to education and employment that leads to higher fertility rates. When people are not educated, â€Å"families in societies where children are needed to work on subsistence farms tend to have more children, especially in places where infant and child mortality is high† (worldsavvy. org, 2008). When there is high population growth, poverty typically grows as well.In fact, majority of the less developed countries have a large young population due to low life expectancy rates, and these young people have little employment opportunities. A report says, â€Å"Developing countries tend to have a disproportionate number of citizens under the age of 30, which creates a large pool potentially restless and unemployed youth who live in a society without sufficient employment opportunities and often with many groups, militias, and militaries to which young boys in parti cular are often drawn.It is calculated that when the youth population of a country reaches 35%, the risk of armed conflict goes up by 150%† (worldsavvy. org, 2008). A large young population is beneficial to the country only if they are educated and working to generate economic growth; if they are not doing this, then they are most likely wasting resources and perhaps even contribute to high crime rates. Thus I would suggest that there should be government intervention in areas related to healthcare and education when it comes to demographic pressures.The government should plan and develop the country as a whole and not merely focus on modernizing certain cities while leaving rural areas undeveloped. More employment opportunities should be provided through public programs such as construction of social infrastructures. I have explained several main causes of why there is a North-South divide in the world. The South is failing to transform itself due to reasons such as capital f light, migration of skilled workers, government corruption, inefficient government policies, geographic disadvantages, and demographic challenges.I also offered solutions to deal with each problem specifically; I believe that if less developed countries can implement these solutions, then there is a chance for a South economy to transform itself to a North economy just like South Korea and Taiwan. Bibliography Mimiko, Oluwafemi (2012). Globalization: The Politics of Global Economic Relations and International Business. Durham, N. C. : Carolina Academic. pp. 48–54. Mimiko, N. Oluwafemi. Globalization: The Politics of Global Economic Relations and International Business.North Carolina: Carolina Academic Press, 2012. 47-54. Print. Kacowicz, Arie M. â€Å"Globalization, Poverty, and the North–South Divide. † International Studies Review 9. 4 (2007): 565-580. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 23 Oct. 2009. Therien, J. P. Beyond the north-south divide: the two tal es of world poverty. Third World Quarterly. pp. 723–742. Preece, Julia. â€Å"Lifelong learning and development: a perspective from the ‘South’† Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education 39. 5 (2009). 23 Oct. 2009. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/North–South_divide

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Joyce Carol Oates`s Short Story Essay

The story ‘Where are you going, where have you been? ’ is a story about a girl about fifteen years of age and having behavioral problem originated from her poor relationship with her mother. She is described in the story as stubborn, rebellious, self-centered, and vane. The story is a tale of insecure woman and romantic but a skilled flirt; and she is drawn in a situation where she could not handle. Connie’s relation with her family and the way she thinks of them shows they were not close. Connie seemed to lament the way her mother would treat her and her older sister June to the point that she â€Å"wished her mother was dead and she herself was dead and it was all over. † She lamented to her friends, â€Å"She makes me want to be thrown up some times. † Connie at fifteen still has childish behavior perhaps typical for young woman like her, showing little concern with house works as her mind was all filled with trashy day dreams. Connie’s behavior though seemed to be very selfish as she cares only of her looks and her own happiness as if she was her own world. She is less interested in family relationship as she would rather go with her friends than going with her family, or prefer to just listen to music. Her behavior is quite a little less to be described as a spoiled brat. She seemed to lack positive traits particularly family values. There might have some reasons for these. First, her mother seemed to show favoritism as she is often compared to her older sister. Her ways and action are viewed as un-acceptable without considering that she is only fifteen and surely needs guidance. Her mother can only appreciate the simple or maybe almost naive orientation of her older sister June. Second, her father does not care of them, as when he comes home, he only cares for the supper, newspaper and his bed. There seems to have no legitimate authority except her mother’s voice always scolding her which to her, â€Å"she had a high breathless, amused, voice that made everything she said a little forced. † The way Connie thinks of her self shows that she was not positively motivated to have a more meaningful outlook in life which at her age, she suppose to have already. Her mind is full of fantasies about someone she meets and the imagination that comes along with it. Her relations with her family have not helped or motivated her toward having a more mature attitude and outlook in life. John Updike`s Emphasis on Marriage relates to larger American issues. In other words, do you think the marriages he portrays result from certain social conditions typical of the U. S.? The novel â€Å"Separating† was about a couple who had lived together for quite long years, a couple with four young children who seemed to be aware of how their parent’s relation ships are going on over some years of the married life. Richard and Joan had been married for quite long years already as they have four young children who were all in school and seemed to have capability of understanding the situation which their family faces. The novel did not mention exactly why Richard and Joan’s marriage come to that point that it was not working well for each other any more except that â€Å"they felt they no longer love each other. † Richard seemed to just short of saying that all those years of living together under one roof was just pretensions which was merely for the sake of the children. But now the situation has grown worse that requires him to make decision to put an end with all these pretentious relation ships. Certainly, Richards wants to be happy. He might have thought it, he deserve happiness and this is now just the right time to reveal the situation to their children. So he announced that bad news while all the kids were gathered at the table for the post welcome celebration of his daughter Judith’s arrival from England. As he revealed his decision, his children seemed to be prepared to hear the bad news as they have not shown hysterical or any strong reaction. Richard must have thought that they understood the situation that everything will come this way which separating would just be the best option. That their dad will leave them to find his happiness in the comforts of another woman which he has already found. Richard feels comforted by the mild reactions of his children as if they had accepted it that the family which they found warm embrace, comforts when they are hurts or having problems, love, care, safety, affection, and shared laughter that only intact family can provide, now stand to break up. But behind the mild reaction and seemingly prepared feelings, as Richard bent to kiss his son good bye, â€Å"turned and with wet chicks embraced him and gave him a kiss, on the lips, passionate as woman, and in his father’s ear as he moaned one word, the crucial intelligent word â€Å"why†? John Updike has powerfully related his novel to larger American social issues affecting the society by emphasizing the consequence of divorce among children and their family that cares for them. Updike also strongly demonstrated the emotional struggles, and the pains the children suffer when their parents come to a point of making a decision of separating. Updike was also able to point out that children are innocent of their parents’ problems and they are victims because their parents instead of cultivating their relationship opted to find their happiness in the comforts of another. Work Cited Updike, John. â€Å"Separating† American Since Mid-Century Updike, John. â€Å"Where are You Going, Where Have You Been? † American since Mid-Century