Dawn of the (Evil & Symbolic) Dead Essay Example for Free

Dawn of the (Evil Symbolic) Dead Essay Over the past decade, interest in zombies in pop culture has sky rocketed. There have been over 100 games and movies featuring the living dead. George Romero’s 1978 film Dawn of the Dead, sequel to Night of the Living Dead, gives its audience insight into these evil symbolic structures known today as zombies. In this film, there are four survivors that take refuge in a huge shopping mall, sealing the doors and creating a zombie-free hideout. This movie is often referred to as one the best horror films of its time and a door way to today’s interest in zombies. Throughout the film, the four survivors deal with hundreds of zombies and at the climax are also having to deal with a biker gang. Although not all four of these characters survived, the mall was a perfect spot for the movie to take place according to a review done by the Spinning Image Company. â€Å"The mall is a brilliant location, not just for the satirical possibilities it offers Romero, but also for creating some clever, unsettling imagery,† said Daniel Auty in his review. Auty is speaking of the several times throughout the film where Romero would cut to a scene of just zombies roaming random parts of the mall. These zombies were different than what we see today however. â€Å"[The zombies] look silly, they fall over a lot, and Romero mostly shoots them in either broad daylight or the stark fluorescence of the mall† (Auty). The zombies in Dawn of the Dead appeared from the first minute without Romero giving any sort of insight on how it happened. So in order to understand the body in its monstrous state, one must know the origins of the zombie. Many scholars agree that the term zombie originated from the voodoo religion in Haiti. In â€Å"Slaves, Cannibals, and Infected Hyper-Whites: The Race and Religion of Zombies†, writer Elizabeth McCalister discusses these origins in great detail. â€Å"The word zonbi appears in writing as far back as colonial Saint- Domingue, glossed by travel writer Moreau de Saint-Mà ©ry as the slaves’ belief in a returned soul, a revenant†(3). The Haitians still heavily believe that this is a part of the spiritual world. They say that these entities separate the body and the soul and compel one to work without the other, in this case the body without the soul. Over the years, however, these origins have begun to vanish due to new forms of the zombies. In the early 20th Century, films began to show Eurocentric ideas that created African-Americans to be viewed as these zombie creatures. Films such as White Zombie (1932) and I walked with a Zombie (1943) â€Å"invariably cast black sorcerers plotting for conquest of and control over white women, and blackness is unmistakably linked with primitive menace, superstition, and the diabolical† (5). These views began to change by the time Romero’s films came out. Now this monstrous creature is as simple as â€Å"a ghoul who lumbers around trying to eat people.† Today’s society is used to seeing these ghouls in pop culture. Because of the more than 100 shows, movies and video games on the market now, people are more accepting of this idea of a â€Å"zombie apocalypse.† In many places, they have held events, such as 5K races and obstacle courses, that center around a zombie theme. In Muskegon, Michigan they held a zombie apocalypse day where civilians dressed as zombies and chased after those that were dressed as civilians. â€Å"Zombie participants got creative and tore up and stained their clothing. They also added scars and bloody makeup,† said an article in the Muskegon Chronicle. This goes to show how immune today’s society has become to the idea of these flesh-eating monsters. Not everyone is taking it lightly though as some have plans set in stone for when the apocalypse may happen. The CDC, Center of Disease Control, has its own website dedicated to a zombie outbreak. The blog includes a brief history of the creatures, a list of survival tools for a kit and their own plan for survival if it would ever happen. â€Å"If zombies did start roaming the streets, CDC would conduct an investigation much like any other disease outbreak.† The CDC tells us that it would be taken just as seriously as any other disease, and thanks pop culture and today’s society in helping to prepare for that day. Christopher Moreman takes a look past the plan in his book Zombies Are Us: Essays on the Humanity of the Walking Dead. The author looks into a world that is already ruled by the dead and sees how society would have to live to survive. He speaks for society as a whole through one line by referencing the graphic novel The Walking Dead: â€Å"In a world ruled by the dead, we are forced to finally start living† (5). The creatures in Romero’s Dawn of the Dead may not be the scariest or deadliest of monsters, but it is when they are in large numbers that they can cause havoc. It is hard to deal with hundreds of flesh eating monsters at once no matter how fast or intelligent they may be. Much of the films’ audience saw Romero’s zombie as a symbolic structure of other things that could take down America. McCalister analyzes all of Romero’s films on the living dead and the time frame that they were made. â€Å"Night of the Living Dead attacks the nuclear American family, patriarchy, and racism; Dawn of the Dead fastens its attention on the deadening effects of rampant consumerism; and Day of the Dead offers an indictment of militarism and American misuse of science and technology† (17). These things were on the minds of Americans in the time the movies were made. Now they can be related to something different such as the events going on in the Middle East. Stephen Asma takes a look into the torturing of Iraqi soldiers and how the Americans may be the ones viewed as the evil creatures. In his book On Monsters, Asma references Dr. Philip Zimbardo and his theory called The Lucifer Effect. This idea helps to explain how good people can become evil in specific ways. He focuses on the torture of Iraqi soldiers. â€Å"The fact that seemingly normal American soldiers engaged in torture and degradation techniques on Iraqi detainees offers more evidence, Zimbardo thinks, for his view t hat abuse and aggression are not the results of inner character flaws† (Asma 413). He goes on to explain how Zimbardo believes these soldiers were not just a case of just one spoiled apple, but a bad barrel that spoiled anything put into it. In the case of the zombies, one can make the case that everyone on this planet will eventually fall to the disease and it is not because of the one zombie who started it all, but because everyone is infected to begin. These kinds of ideas are what bring the monstrous view of zombies into society. Kyle Bishop writes in his book American Zombie Gothic about how the use of the zombies in Dawn of the Dead creates a connection with the audience. He says that because the zombies look very similar to just another regular human being, it can make the audience feel terrified of the creatures. However, the way that the zombies act can tell the audience obvious differences between one that is still human and one that has turned. â€Å"Romero’s monsters are primarily ‘othered’ creatures, possessing virtually no subject ive, human qualities and encouraging almost no psychological suture with the audience† (Bishop 159). The comparison of zombies to human qualities can go on forever. Asma continues to analyze the psyche of the monstrous through the Id. â€Å"Rage is a powerful force that, along with other socially deleterious impulses, lives like a frustrated virus in the dark cellars of the Id† (354). The Id is the part of the personality that can make decisions unconsciously based off of desire and instinct. In the case of the zombies, all they want and need is food and in this case, the flesh of the protagonists. The zombies in Romero’s film were often times the ones being killed, whether it is a gunshot to the head, a bat to the head, a car hood to the head or a screwdriver through the ear. However, Romero kept scenes where humans were eaten by these creatures to give the audience a clear understanding of what to expect from the movie and who would be the good guys. In David Gilmore’s Monsters, the author discusses of ways on how to approach the monster. â€Å"Mythologistsâ € ¦ have written much about the theme of the Epic Hero who goes out to fight monsters in order to rescue maidens or to save society as a whole† (12). The monster is obvious in film but no Epic Hero is there to save the day. Taken this perspective into Dawn of the Dead, the audience can tell that it is society as a whole trying to fight the monsters to save the world from the dead. There are several ways to see why Romero’s Dawn of the Dead was up for awards. Much of it was not based off the effects and acting but what thought and background was put into the project. The study behind the zombies was thorough and began giving more meaning to the story. The symbolism of these creatures and how the good human being became an evil, flesh-seeking monster were just two of the things to write about. When all is said and done, the zombies may never come, but if they do, it is because of films like this that could help with survival. Works Cited Asma, Stephen T. On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2009. Print. Auty, Daniel. Dawn of the Dead. Rev. of Dawn of the Dead. n.d.: n. pag. The Spinning Image. Web. Bishop, Kyle William. American Zombie Gothic: The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of the Walking Dead in Popular Culture. Jefferson, NC: McFarland , 2010. Print. Gilmore, David D. Monsters: Evil Beings, Mythical Beasts, and All Manner of Imaginary Terrors. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 2003. Print. Haiti and the Truth about Zombies. Www.umich.edu. N.p., n.d. Web. http://www.umich.edu/~uncanny/zombies.html. McCalister, Elizabeth. Slaves, Cannibals, and Infected Hyper-Whites: The Race and Religion of Zombies. Anthropological Quarterly 85.2 (n.d.): 457-86. Web. Public Health Matters Blog. Public Health Matters Blog RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2012. http://blogs.cdc.gov/publichealthmatters/2011/05/preparedness-101-zombie-apocalypse/.

Understanding Personality In Order To Improve Communication

Understanding Personality In Order To Improve Communication New Britain Oils is a Palm Oil manufacturer who specialises in fully sustainable Palm Oil. The organisation is a subsidiary of New Britain Palm Oil Limited which has been around since the 1980s. The organisation consists of a number of site across the globe with the main plantations growing in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands covering 82,000 hectares and employing over 10,000 workers. There are only two refinery, one in Papua New Guinea and the second is in Liverpool. Liverpool is the only site outside of Australasia and had an opening employment count of 26 in 2010, this number currently stands at 78 in 2016. The Liverpool Refinery opened in 2010 starting with bulk oil supply into 28 tonne road tankers. In 2012 the Packing Facility was opened, this plant converts some of the bulk oil into industrial margarine and other bakery fats. Since opening in 2010 New Britain Oils is now the number one supplier of sustainable Palm Oil in the UK. With the rapid growth of the Liverpool site came an increase in employees and inevitably the dynamic of the working environment changed with it. Some employees left the organisation, who have since been replaced, and new departments have been created to cope with the growth of the business. Consequently this instability has affected the productivity in some areas. This issue couldve been exacerbated by the management teams failure to recognise this variation and react accordingly. Bringing in new workers will bring in differing psychological preferences and according to Jung (1971) preferences influence our choice of careers, ways of thinking, relationships, and work habits. Richard L. Hughes et al. (2015) stated that our preferences play a role in the characteristic and unique ways we behave from day to day. Consequently, could increasing the management awareness of their teams individual preferences promote better relationships, through improved communication, within the organisati on? Mary Uhl-Bien and George B. Graen (1995) discovered that higher quality Leader-Member Exchange relationships have very positive outcomes for leaders, followers, work units, and the organisation in general, the same research also found that the development of Leader-Member Exchange relationships is influenced by characteristics and behaviours of leaders and members. This assignment will first outline what can affect the effectiveness of a leader and why increasing the value of relationships could increase the effectiveness of a leader. Using existing research it will look at why communication is a crucial tool for a leader and how an understanding of how differing personality types interact, prefer to receive information and what drives their decision making,   can enable leaders to communicate more effectively.   A recognised psychological test will be used to gather data about the psychological preferences of some of the employees across different areas of the business with the objective being to identify potential differences in preferences. The overall aim of the research is to increase the management teams awareness of some of the differing personality types within their department and understand the differences between these types. The intention is to educate the management team and give them the opportunity to adapt their leadership s tyle to promote better quality relationships through a better understanding of the individuals within their team. Literature Review Leadership Leadership has been the subject of research for a long time. Burns (1978) stated that due to its importance in human groups, the concept of leadership is one of the organisational topics that have most intrigues researchers for centuries. As a result, attempts to define leadership have proved to be an ambiguous. Leadership as simply a complex form of social problem solving (Miller and Ross 1975), leadership is directing and coordinating the work of group members (McCall Jnr et al. 1988), leadership is creating conditions for a team to be effective (Reason and Mycielska 1982). Powell and Pirsico (rev. ed. 2003) defined leadership as the process of influencing an organized group toward accomplishing its goals. All of the definitions stated have a connection which is the reference to a group or team. This implies that leadership would not exist without individuals to lead. The definitions detailed show the variation in concepts of leadership and this is reflected in the research. Some leadership researchers have focused on the leader-follower relationship and Geoff Thomas et al. (2013) stated that the reason we focus on the leader-follower relationship is because research shows that the quality of this relationship is reliably linked to follower well-being and performance. Other researchers, such as John Adair, looked at how the situation can affect the way leaders act. Adair identified that leadership is affected by three things. The task, the team and the individual and leaders need to balance their time equally between the three areas and at certain times one of the areas will dominate, but over the long run a balance would be achieved (John Adair 1982). Figure 1. shows John Adairs concept of action centred leadership. In different situations the circles will be overlapping different amounts showing which the dominant factor is. Figure 1. John Adair (1982) Researchers have studied the behaviours of the leader and what behaviours are associated with an effective leader. Leadership is earned and it is not granted by role or rite of passage (Lloyd l. Sederer 2012) and through our interactions humans sustain the effect of leadership and we interpret it even though we may not be aware that we do so (Kempster and Parry 2011). This means that leaders could be established by displaying a distinct set of behaviours which followers associate with a leadership role. Research shows that there are behaviours that can be attributed to an effective leader. These are known as The Six Cs of Leadership Credibility (Bamford, 2016) Figure 2. David Bamford (2016) Communication would fall under the Character umbrella and plays a crucial fundamental role in every business. The quality of the communication can be affected by the relationship between two individuals and a key element of the quality of the relationship is the interaction between the personalities. Different personalities and give out information in different ways and how this information is interpreted can affect the quality of the communication.   Leaders who have calm dispositions and do not attack or belittle others for bringing bad news are more likely to get complete and timely information from subordinates than are bosses who have explosive tempers and a reputation for killing the messenger (Hughes et al. 2015). Personality Many theories have been developed to explain what causes individuals to behave the way they behave and why they behave differently to other individuals. The term personality is among the most comprehensive of those in the psychologists vocabulary, clarification of its connotation to the satisfaction of a majority, even of psychologists, is difficult (John K. McCreary 1960). This view begins to explain the range of opinions as to what personality means to people. McCreary goes on to describe some the definitions as experimental, calling for criticism and inviting agreement. This belief is quite ambiguous as all definitions would fall under one of those three categories. Robert Hogan (1991) had a different approach and he stated that the term personality is fairly ambiguous and has at least two quite different meanings rather than a definition. The first meaning implies that personality is the impression a person makes on others. The second meaning is less obvious and focusses more on the unseen processes within a person which explains why we behave the way we behave. These internal processes have been categorized as traits by some researchers. Personality traits as useful concepts for explaining why people act fairly consistently from one situation to the next (Hughes et al. 2015). Traits are characteristics or habits which are specific to an individual. Traits can have one of two outcomes, such as extroversion and introversion however, individuals are not categorized into one these traits but rather they sit on a scale which may show a preference towards one of the two oppositions. If we attempt such scaling, we should remember that we are likely to constrain personalities unnaturally fitting them into one mould (Allport and Odbert 1936) Gordon Allport and Henry Odbert were theorists the idea of traits and trait names. They explored two comprehensive dictionaries and identified 17,953 trait-names in the English language. They reduced the list down to 4500 adjectives. They reported that the unfamiliarity of a large proportion of the trait-names in our list proves that our practical vocabulary is inadequate to the task of representing the complex phenomena of human nature (Allport and Odbert 1936). They arrange the traits into a hierarchy of three: Cardinal Traits the dominant trait Central Traits general characteristics Secondary Traits not obvious, such as attitudes Raymond Cattell further explored the work completed by Allport and Odbert by taking the list of 4500 adjectives and reducing it down to 171 by removing all the synonyms. Cattell was the first to collect data regarding personality traits. The outcome of the data he collected allowed him to come up with 16 personality factors which he used to come up with an assessment called the 16PF. This was one of the first attempts to measure personality. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Measuring personality is difficult because personality cannot be seen but some psychology researchers have devised tools that can be used to give results owing to an individuals psychological preferences. The most commonly used tool is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). This tool evolved over a period of 5 decades and was based on the work carried out by Swiss Psychologist Carl Jung who spent a lot of his career researching personalities within individuals. Jung defined two opposing tendencies in personality: introversion and extroversion and while both tendencies are present in all individuals, one tends to dominate the other (Almerinda Forte 2005). Along with the two opposing tendencies for personality, Jung also identified four functions relating to personality which are thinking, feeling, sensing and intuiting. Katharine Briggs and her daughter Isabel Myers both had an interest in individual differences which they brought together, including the work done by Carl Jung, which resulted in the development of the MBTI. The MBTI is a very popular tool used worldwide mainly for psychiatric patients but also the MBTI has been in extensive use in personal and management development since the early 1970s (Leary et al. 2009). The MBTI is based on the principle that the differences in behaviour from one person to another can be expressed in terms of preferences between the polarities (Amel Behaz and Mahieddine 2012) and the MBTI focuses on two primary human activities: how people gather information and how they make decisions (Richard J. Daisley, 2011). However, note that measurement is only possible if we blindly insist that people are comparable in respect to each common trait (Allport and Odbert 1936) Allen et al. (2002) adapted the Four-Part Framework developed by Susan Brock to demonstrate the difference between each of the oppositions. This is shown below: Figure 3. Allen et al. (2002) In completing the MBTI each of the individuals will demonstrate a preference for one of the two oppositions. For example the introvert/extrovert scale is based how the individual get their energy whilst the sensing/intuitive scale considers how people interpret data. The thinking/feeling scale looks at the factors people take into account when making decisions and the judging/perceiving scale considers the amount of information an individual needs before making a decision. Yuval Cohen et al. (2013) described each of the bipolar oppositions in their paper based on personality types of project managers. Figure 4. Yuval Cohen (2013) The first opposition is the most commonly associated when thinking about differing personalities: Introversion or Extroversion. There are three main differences between introversion and extroversion. Energy creation is noted as the most important difference, but the response to stimulation and the approach to knowledge are also different (Heidi Eve-Cahoon 2003). Introverts are energized by the internal world of ideas, impressions, and emotions, whereas extroverts focus outside of themselves and are energized by activities, people, and things of the outside world (Heidi Eve-Cahoon 2003). Extroverts are often seen as possessing the desirable set of personality traits for success in todays fast-paced world, on the other hand, introverts bring a whole host of desirable personality traits to the table, which need to be equally valued, nurtured, and utilized (Shelley J. Schmidt 2016). Samples for the United States suggest that 55 to 60 percent of all people are extroverts (Gardner and Martinko 1996). Fretwell et al. (2013) highlighted some data (Filbeck et al. 2005, Fox-Hines and Bowersoch 1995) relating to each of the four dimensions, which demonstrates the preferences of the U. S. population. This data agrees with other research that a greater percentage of individuals have an extroverted preference. Results of this study will demonstrate any direct correlation to the results of the U. S population. Figure 5. Fretwell et al, (2013) A similar study was documented in Training and Coaching Today (2007) which showed the findings from a recent MBTI study of 1634 individuals in the UK. Figure 6. Training and Coaching Today (2007) As New Britain Oils is situated in the UK, it is predictable that the results from this study will correlate to the results from the study of the UK individuals. As there are four bipolar oppositions for MBTI, this means that there are sixteen possible results which could be given based on the responses to the questions and the scores obtained on the bipolar scale.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Figure 7. One downside to having so many possible outcomes and factors involved is that it takes interest and effort to remember ones type (William A. Lynagh 2006). Psychology researchers and advocates of personality preferences maintain that no one type is better than the others because a team benefits from the presence of varied personality types (Cynthia Plonen 2015). The best way to think of it is that neither set of traits is better or more valuable than the other rather, they are different, often complementary, and both are needed to make the world go round, so-to-speak (Shelly J. Schmidt, 2016), however many more leaders are ISTJs, ESTJs, and ENTJs than other types (Hughes et al. 2015). Gathering data from the management team will be able to demonstrate a positive or negative correlation to this statement. Methodology The data collection process involved 25 employees from a number of departments and all of the employees who completed the questionnaire did so voluntarily. Results were obtained from 100% of the employees in two departments along with 50% of employees from another department. Shift patterns limited one department but a representative sample of 65% was obtained to provide data. In addition, 57.14% of the management team were included in the study to determine the range of the personality preferences amongst the management team. Figure 7 shows the structure of the organisation. Figure 7. Despite there being question marks over the integrity of personality measurement instruments, they are still widely used in organisations. A Humanmetrics Jung Typology Test, based on the MBTI, will be used to gather the data for this study. The questionnaire consists of 64 multiple choice questions which will result in a four letter type based on the Myers-Briggs 16 types. The Humanmetrics Jung Typology Test was selected because the results will correlate directly to the MBTI theory and also this method is more accessible for employees and allows for more data to be collected. The purpose of the questionnaire is to begin to develop an understanding of the personality types that exist within some departments of the organisation because personality questionnaires are ideal for describing personality (Luke D. Smillie 2008). The MBTI has been used widely across a number of business sectors for decades. The instrument has been extensively tested for reliability and validity (James C. Lampe 2004) and the extensive research on the instrument since its development supports its reliability and validity (Moore et al. 2004). Over 2 million copies of the instrument are sold each year (Pittenger 1993) and the MBTI is the most widely used instrument for non-psychiatric populations (A. J. DeVito 1985). Despite its depth of validation there are still many sceptics of the MBTI itself as a viable instrument and future research must use more rigorous designs before greater confidence can be placed in the results (Gardner and Martinko 1996). It has been speculated that subjects of the instrument can falsify their responses in an attempt to achieve different results. This wary approach, when questioning the validity of the responses, could be considered when the instrument is used as part of an organisations recruitment process as subjects could change their responses in an attempt to become more appealing to an employer. The organisation has 78 employees and a sample of 32% were included in the study but statistical generalisation is difficult owing to the low number of cases (Bamford et al. 2003). Some correlations can be made between the existing literature and the results of the MBTI used in the organisation but this cannot be reflective of the organisation as a whole. Findings Key Findings The key findings from the research showed that there are a range of personality types present within the organisation and out of the 16 possible personality types the individuals from the organisation fell into 9 of those types. Over 50% of the results from the individuals who took part in the study fell into 3 of the possible 16 personality types. All 3 of the common personality types included a preference for thinking rather than feeling and judging rather than perceiving. This means that 68% of the individuals included in the study prefer to be analytical, critical and make decisions objectively but those individuals only require a minimal amount of information to make decisions and as a result they can make poor decisions. ISTP ISFP ISTJ ISFJ 7 ESTP ESFP ESTJ ESFJ 1 5 3 INTP INFP INTJ INFJ 1 ENTP ENFP ENTJ ENFJ 1 1 4 2 Figure 8. Introvert/Extrovert Preference As mentioned previously, one of the dimensions that then MBTI specifically looks at is where individuals prefers to focus their energy. This dimension has two bipolar oppositions, introversion and extroversion. The data gathered shows that 68% of the individuals who took part in the research had a greater preference for extroversion. This means that more than half of the employees at the organisation prefer to work in larger groups, get their energy from people and activities. The management team could use this data to adapt their leadership style to suit some of the personality preferences within their team and using a collective approach to problem solving may prove to be more effective. Customer Service Team Personality Types 75% of the customer service team have a preference for extroversion and this would fit well with their role and responsibilities as they obtain their energy from interacting with people. Having this preference could help them to build better relationships with customers and suppliers. 100% of the customer service team had a preference for thinking which means they are more concerned with operational considerations and are able to detach themselves from the decisions they make which is a good characteristic to have relative to their role. Engineering Team Personality Types          50% of the engineering department contributed to the research and 100% of the employees who contributed showed a preference to extroversion so using team meetings when tackling engineering issues would give the extroverts the forum to think out loud, share ideas with each other and has the potential to be very effective. The Engineering Manager showed a preference to introversion and so he would prefer to take the information gathered from the team meeting and spend some time thinking about in order to come up with the most effective solution. This approach to engineering issues has the potential to be very productive by considering the individuals preferences in order to maximise their input and provide the Engineering Manager with lots of information before making decisions. Shift Workers Personality Types The responses from the shift workers presented a large amount of variation, however, 69.23% of the shift workers, who completed the questionnaire, showed a preference for extroversion. This outcome is reasonably foreseeable in having a higher number of extroverts in this department as all of the individuals work on a shift consisting of four employees. Individuals with a preference for introversion would be less attracted to work which would include them working within shifts, although only having four employees on a shift would be more attractive than organisations with high numbers of employees on each shift. 92.3% of the shift workers showed a preference for judging rather than perceiving and individuals with this preference only require a minimal amount of information before making a decision. Shift workers operate on a 24 hour rotation system therefore they work outside of normal hours and so they are expected to make quick decisions independently. Individuals who have a preference for perceiving like to intake as much information as possible before making a decision and so too many perceivers on one shift could delay decisions and corrective action which could result in reduced output from that shift. Management Team Personality Types 57.14% of the organisations management team took part on the study. The data shows that the management team fall into three different personality types: ISTJ, ESTJ and INTJ. The results showed that 50% of the individuals who contributed had a personality type of ISTJ which displays characteristics which would typically be associated with someone who is in a senior position, such as being serious, practical and realistic. 75% of the management team, which would equate to 42.8% of the total management team, demonstrated a preference for introversion rather than extroversion and these members of the management team are responsible for technical, engineering and the safety department. All of these departments are smaller, in team size, than all of the other departments and each of these members of the management team have their own individual office and so it is foreseeable that they would have a preference for introversion. The extroverted individual from the management team is responsible for a large team consisting of 20 shift workers and their workspace is located in the production area and so having the extroverted preference is advantageous to their ro le. All of the members of the management team showed preferences for thinking and judging rather than feeling or perceiving respectively. This again is a predictable outcome given their position within the organisation as this indicates that they prefer to be analytical, approach decisions objectively and pay careful attention to any potential operational impacts. Discussion The first of the four dimensions provides data on the individuals preferences towards introversion or extroversion. Samples from the United States suggest that 55 to 60 percent of all people are extroverts (Gardner and Martinko, 1996). The data obtained from this study appear to validate this statement as 68% of the individuals showed a preference for extroversion. The data in the study by Fretwell et al. (2013) noted that 70 75% of individuals in the U. S. have a preference towards extroversion and that data would correlate more closely with the data obtained in this study. The study of the U. K. showed only 52.6% of the individuals have a preference towards extroversion which is contradictory to the results of this study. Consequently more than half of the employees, involved at the organisation have a personality focused on the outside world, get motivation from interaction with other people and by doing things (Yuval Cohen, 2013). The data could be used by the management team in order to improve productivity by using groups sessions allowing the individuals share ideas. Comparison to Existing Research The data previously mentioned in the study by Fretwell et al. (2013) and the data shown in Training and Coaching Today (2007) showed results for individuals in U. S. and U. K respectively and some of those results are closely correlated to the results of this study. Dimension U.S. U.K. New Britain Oils Extrovert 70-75% 52.6% 68% Introvert 25-30% 47.4% 32% Sensing 70-75% 76.5% 60% Intuition 35-30% 23.5% 40% Thinking 60% males 40% females 45.9% 68% males 36.6% females Feeling 40% males 60% females 54.1% 32% males 33.3% females Judging 55% 58.3% 88% Perceiving 45% 41.7% 12% The similarity of results for the extrovert and introvert dimension has already been discussed but there are similarities with results for the other dimensions. The sensing and intuition dimension results are similar to the results from the studies of the U. S and U. K. albeit closer to the results from the U. S study, as there is a greater preference towards sensing. This means that the individuals prefer concrete details of a situation and rely on the five senses to observe facts or happenings (Fretwell et al. 2013)This also means that they tend to be practical, orderly, and down-to-earth decision makers (Hughes et al. 2015). When comparing the thinking and feeling dimension, the results are more closely correlated with the results for the study of the U. S. population. 72% of the individuals, in this organisation, showed a preference to thinking, however in the study of the U. K. the majority of the individuals showed a preference to feeling. This means that individual from this organisation prefer to assume a more objective approach to decisions and show more consideration to operational factors. Individuals who show a greater preference towards thinking are associated with careers such as consultants, lawyers, executives and engineers. (www.similarminds.com). The results for the final dimension show that overall the individuals from the organisation have a much greater preference for judging rather than perceiving. These results compare with the studies from the U. S. and U. K., in terms of the majority of the individuals showing a greater preference towards judging, however nearly 90% of this organisation shares this preference as were the other studies show just over 50%. This could impact the organisation because individuals with this preference tend to make up their minds quickly and as a result can make poor decisions (Hughes et al. 2015). The management team in the organisation presented results which partially correlated with the work done by Hughes et al. (2015), who stated that more leaders are ISTJs, ESTJs, and ENTJs than other types. In this organisation, the management team demonstrated personality types matching ISTJ and ESTJ however there were no ENTJ personality types from the results collected. 50% of the management team showed a personality type of ISTJ and this preference would be associated with behavioural characteristics such as being responsible, organised and punctu

Literary Analysis: Clay and The Dead Essay -- Essays Papers

Literary Analysis: Clay and The Dead In the fifteen Dubliners stories, city life, religion, friends and family bring hope to individuals discovering what it means to be human. Two stories stood out in James Joyce’s Dubliners. One story attempts to mislead readers as it is hard to follow and the other story is the most famous story in the book. In the stories â€Å"Clay† and â€Å"The Dead,† James Joyce uses escape themes to deal with the emotions of the characters, Maria and Gabriel living in the Dublin society. Both stories take place during the winter on Halloween and Christmas, which are the holiday seasons and the season of death. In â€Å"Clay,† the main character, Maria is a patient, old woman and a former maid for rival brothers Joe and Alphy Donnelly. Now that they’re all grown up, she seems to be â€Å"lost† in her life, childless and unmarried, and is now an employee at a Laundromat. Maria has struggled for what seems like most of her life both financially and socially. Maria lives on a small but independent income from a job that earns her the respect of co-workers and bosses. Glimpses of poverty are seen in this story when Maria becomes concerned that she lost the cake that she bought for the Donnelly family. â€Å"Maria said she had brought something special for papa and mamma, something they would be sure to like, and she began to look for her plumcake† (99). Maria’s loss of the cake is painful because she paid a big price for it. Maria was trying to treat her loved ones despite her limited income. Although Gabriel from â€Å"The Dead† isn’t poor like Maria, he isn’t very wealthy either unlike his aunts. Gabriel is just an average writer. He doesn’t hold annual parties like his aunts do every year to make him seem snobbish to others. J... ... U.S.A: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2002. Langbaum, Robert â€Å"The Epiphanic Mode in Wordsworth and Modern Literature.† New Literary History Vol. 14 (1983): 335-358. JSTOR. University of Dayton, Roesch Library. 18 February 2004 . Munich, Adrienne â€Å"Form and Subtextt in Joyce’s ‘The Dead’† Modern Philology Vol. 82 No.2 (Nov. 1984) 173-184. JSTOR University of Dayton, Roesch Library.20 February 2004 Norris, Margot â€Å"Narration under a Blindfold: Reading Joyce’s ‘Clay.’† PMLA Vol. 102 (1987): 206-215. JSTOR. University of Dayton, Roesch Library. 18 February 2004 . Orfe Literature. Ed. James Joyce. 17 February 2004. . Owens, Coilin. â€Å"Clay (3): The Mass of Mary and All the Saints.† James Joyce Quarterly 28 (1990): 257-266.

Marriage: Easy Divorce :: essays research papers

Marriage: Easy Divorce   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Although I do not agree with getting married until you are positive that you want to have a huge commitment to another person, I favor the easier divorce. I think that a divorce is not really anyone's fault. (unless it is) The divorce should be done as quickly as possible in either case.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  If you find yourself getting married to the person that you thought you loved-but later on in life you find that you weren't ready for marriage, then it's not really anyone's fault. You may have made a mistake by getting married to quickly, but people make mistakes.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Sometimes, you may find that your spouse and you make better friends than husband and wife. That could happen and I'm sure it's probably already happened once or twice. In this case, it is not really anyone's fault. You just go on with life just as you always had before.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I think that people shouldn't get married until they are totally positive that their spouse is the person that they want to have a lifetime commitment with. If they even think twice, then they are not ready for marriage. I know that not everyone will feel the same way that I do on this subject, but if everyone did, it could improve the divorce rate. I think that we should just get the divorce over with as quickly as possible and get to living our lives again.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I know someone's dad who got into a relationship with another woman. This person's mother got married at a very young age. She thought she was ready, but she wasn't. After being married and having three children, her husband told

Rape Fantasies by Margaret Atwood :: Margaret Atwood Rape Fantasies Essays

Rape Fantasies by Margaret Atwood "Rape Fantasies" is written by Margaret Atwood in 1977. Basically this short story is about the narrator, named Estelle, recalling a conversation of several women during their lunch hour. It starts with one of Estelle's co-workers, asking the question 'How about it, girls, do you have rape fantasies?'(pg 72) The story goes on with each woman telling their supposed 'rape fantasy' to one another. As each is telling their fantasy, Estelle is doing her best to try to deflect the situation by making jokes about their fantasies. After all the women have told their fantasies, Estelle says, 'those aren't rape fantasies. I mean, you aren't getting raped, it's just some guy you haven't met formally who happens to be more attractive than Derek Cummins . . . and you have a good time. Rape is when they've got a knife or something and you don't want to.'(pg 74) Estelle then goes on to talk about her 'rape fantasies' from about to be raped by a short, ugly guy dieing from leukemia to squirting lem on juice in another attacker's eye.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I believe that her use of characters in the story was good. This type of story telling would seem typical to me for girls in an office setting. I don?t think that they would really talk about the fantasy of being forcible raped by telling their sex with a stranger type story instead. I also think that the point of view is important. Estelle is retelling the story through her view to someone else. She is probly at a bar or something, telling her story to some random man she met. I believe that she is trying to control a possible bad situation, maybe avoiding a rape, because she says in the last page ?..how could a fellow do that to a person he?s just had a long conversation with, once you let them know you?re human, your have a life too, I don?t see how they could go ahead with it, rights??(pg 78)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I actually enjoyed this short story. I really like the way Margaret Atwood laces the humor into her stories, like making fun the blond receptionist and the other blond, and how they compete with one anther.

Jo Goodwin Parker. What Is Poverty? Essay

Jo Goodwin Parker’s essay, â€Å"What is Poverty? † is about Parker who has personally experienced rural poverty. She explains her story from childhood to adulthood. Parker’s struggles are overwhelming; look at any sentence, the evidence of her daily struggle is there. From her underwear to living arrangements, and everything in between, Parker resides in poverty. In her essay, she says to listen to the story of what poverty is. Then she talks about the different aspects of poverty. Parker talks about the lack of health conditions she and her three children suffer from. She decides to be a mother even though she has no ability to provide for them. She talks about the government only giving her a small amount of money per month. That is why she cannot afford nutritional foods and soap to clean her kids. She thinks that the outside world will not help and even criticize her for not doing something. After reading Jo Goodwin Parker’s essay, I did not feel pity but instead I felt respect. She was in an unfortunate situation that forced her into a life not easy to live or deal with. But, with three children to care for, plus herself, she continued on with her life no matter what obstacles kept jumping in her path. I had an idea of what poverty was but after reading Parker’s essay, the ideas I had are shattered into a new realization of the true meaning of poverty. Her definition provides vivid images of what poverty truly means. Parker uses an angry tone, imagery, and repetition to inform readers the dehumanizing effects of poverty. She explains poverty in an angry tone so readers can understand the true meaning of being poor. Parker is capable of causing the reader to feel many emotions, mainly guilt. She makes the reader feel guilty for the possessions we may have. â€Å"You say in your clean clothes coming from your clean house, anybody can be clean† (Parker 168). This causes the reader to feel guilty for having the opportunity to be clean when we know that she does not have the same. Parker then goes on talking about how she has no hot water for herself and her kids. â€Å"Hot water is a luxury. I do not have luxuries† (168). Here again, she makes the reader feel guilty that having hot water is a luxury. I agree with her writing about middle class people having things she does not have because it makes the reader appreciate the things they have in life. People do not think about hot water being a luxury, but Parker explains that having things like soap and hot water are something extravagant. Even though Parker makes the readers feel guilty of her situation, I actually appreciate the things I have now. Parker uses imagery in her essay to make the readers actually see what she is going through. She explains what her living situation is like. â€Å"This is a smell of urine, sour milk, and spoiling food sometimes joined with the strong smell of long-cooked onions† (167). The smell of her home is overpowering and the reason is because she cannot wash the mattresses or bathe herself and her kids with soap. Her and her three kids live like this, it sounds miserable and unhealthy. It is just downright disgusting. I could not imagine living a life like hers, but she went through every moment taking care of herself and her children. She had no help, no husband, and no friends. Parker puts all this in the readers mind; she makes you see the physical and mental effects of her life. Physically she looks older than she looks, her back is bent from washing clothes, and she has chronic anemia because of her poor diet. Mentally she is just tired of being poor. She is tired of having no capability to provide for herself and her children. She is always scared that something bad will happen. The use of imagery she uses in her essay shows the dehumanizing effects of poverty. The technique Parker uses in her essay is repetition. She constantly restates what is poverty. â€Å"Poverty is getting up every morning from a dirt- and illness-stained mattress. † â€Å"Poverty is living in a smell that never leaves† (167). Parker uses repetition to hammer an idea, image, or relationship so the reader can pay attention. In this case, she wants the reader to pay attention to the odor and the dirtiness of her living. â€Å"Poverty is staying up all night on cold nights to watch the fire, knowing one spark on the newspaper covering the walls means your sleeping children die in flames. † â€Å"Poverty is hoping it never rains because diapers won’t dry when it rains and soon you are using newspapers† (168). Here, Parker is explaining how she is scared that her children will be hurt if she does not keep one eye open and the inconvenience of rain that troubles her children. All of these phrases create a different image of poverty and each one is successful in evoking sympathy from the reader. Her technique is to force the reader to imagine poverty in a new way. Parker makes us realize how bleak poverty is and she shows us that there is no hope for the poor without understanding. Parker gives outsiders a glimpse into what she goes through on a daily basis. Being a single mother and seeing your children sick and dirty is devastating. I cannot image having to go through this. I think the purpose in writing this is not to give them pity but to understand and help people who need it. I think Parker wrote this essay so we can open our eyes and see the truth. This is happening in our towns and most times people do not choose that type of lifestyle. This essay is devastating and is hard to read. I defiantly have a more clear understanding of what poverty truly means.

Personal Sacrifices for Career Success Essay

I) Introduction We are studying at Vietnam Commercial University and in the future, we will receive a bachelor’s degree of economy. With this degree, maybe someone would like to find the suitable work and try to be successful in this work. There is a question that â€Å" what is the success?†. Famous? High salary? High position? Or simply, have a job that you like?. Depending on the particular people, who will have different answers. However, everybody knows that the road to success should always be accompanied by sacrifices. If you want to succeed, you need to sacrifice. These sacrifices, we couldn’t describe it in a sentence or so. Therefore, we are here today to discuss thoroughly about â€Å"Personal sacrifices for career success†. II) Development 1) What is career success and personal sacrifices ? First of all, we will learn about the basic concepts of career and personal sacrifices. Most people consider career success to be the chain of small continuous achievements to form a big achievement which has a very important role in one’s career. By taking that big achievement, we are successful in career. In other words, career success is taking and confirmed the chain of important achievements which is related to the action, life, career or valuable idea. Personal sacrifice is something you lose then get something else as the compensation. Following the result, we could assess the sacrifice to be much or not much, worth or not worth. Success in career brings us a lot of things such as money, fame, and prestige†¦.but we also have to sacrifice; maybe as little as effort and time, however, sometimes it is the big deal. Personal sacrifice is to leave behind voluntarily personal precious things and serve for benefits of others (or society) without any rewards. 2) Advantages and disadvantages of personal sacrifices. Next, we will discuss about kind of sacrifice that people have made to success. The first is time life. Arranging a reasonable time for the job is very important. However to achieve success in your career; you’ll spend almost all your time on the job. You use your whole day in the research planning implementing plans to achieve the goals already set. When starting  a new job to create a good impression with your boss, to get everyone’s attention, you must express yourself more than other. You must be hang person in work. You care about your job, you spend more time on it, you’ll go to word earlier than everyone, and when to workload its too much, that you had not done enough to in the day. you are willing to work overtime to complete them. That efforts will be more successful for you. Every year you have about 100 days-off. They include of weekend, vacation,..althought they are days-off, you still have to work hard while people are using to their time to going to cinema, going shopping with family, friend or simply resting at home, you are working as a workaholic. While people breathing fresh air, chatting with friends,laughing loudly †¦; you are busy with a lot of papers and plans †¦ after all. You take sometime to rest after the plan was completed, to relieve stress and create the excitement to work for the next step. To success in your career, you can sacrifice their family. You work day and night even in days-off. You don’t have must time for your family. It consumes most of the time of career of you and only afford them a very minimum time for your family. All members don’t have dinner together because you go home late or don’t have much time take care them. When your family have some problems that important, you can’t go home immediately to resolve thet problem because you are very busy in office. When relatives visit, you can’t welcome a warm although you want to invite them to stay in your home for several days. Each person has the prionty in life and each person should decide which prioritize what to do. Having a career is a guarantee for a secure futer of the family which means that though you want to have a career it is because of your family. Besides, you also have friendship which is very important in relationship in your life. But you want to complete all the tasks you’ve been assigned you have to work hard and have no time for your friend. And you can’t have coffee every night or go to the cinema with your friends. Those are reason of bad relationships with your family and friend. You want to have a successful career, you have to sacrifice many things to achieve, although it is the important stuff, like money and pleasure. When you want to invest in a domain, you need a sum of money. But may be due to the opportunity or luck that you did not succeed, so that money was lost. But in return, you have more experience and knowledge to firmer times. Think that it’s a worthy sacrifice, because you know you can make a lot of many times more than that amount, with that experience. The logic is simple: If you do an average job and save some money, you will earn an average income. If you do an extraordinary job by spending some of your money, you can earn an extraordinary income. Not only money, when you want to really succeed, you have to give up your pleasure. Why? Because if you want to do both, you will be distracted and unfocused. Only you give up it, you can put all your mind and energy on the job you are pursuing. And ability to succeed will be higher. Successful individuals let go of ‘immediate pleasure’ for long-lasting success. If you haven’t reached where you are headed, then dig your head in practice and study till you get there. Instead of spending time and money for your pleasure use the time to further your career. 3) How to balance your career and personal life? * Clearly defined objectives Money can not be the primary goal for you to reach in his life, so do not be determined because the money that is willing to sacrifice everything * Don’t be afraid to ask for help. If you have stress in work or trouble at home, be sure to ask for help from people. Your boss may not even realize that you are being overburdened unless you make it known. You should not feel as if the fate of your company rests solely in your hands or as if the happiness of your family rests only on your shoulders. * Written goals: write a list of priority tasks must be completed in a day. You are not only happy when it’s completed but also avoid feeling stress. – Sharing with someone : a close friend, a consultant who will help you a lot in the process of  finding the balance between work and life. Although busy but you should also take the time to meet your friend and talk to relieve the knots themselves. They can give you some advice, appropriate solutions to help you overcome stress. The balance in your life will go back to you. * Do not bring too many projects go to home on the weekend. Keep a distance of work will give you time to relax, so you are more alert and productive work when the second day. III) Conclusion The sacrifices you need to make which depend on your ultimate goals. Only you can decide what is more important to you and whether you are ready and prepared to change! In order to obtain anything worthwhile in life, you have to make sacrifices. You have to give up something NOW in order to obtain something that you perceive to be better LATER. It’s always been that way and it always will be. Remember, first you make your choices, then your choices make you. There is No Success Without Sacrifice. Our presentation’ve finished. Hope it could provide you some useful information and knowledge. Thank you!