Saints and Sanctity

Saints and Sanctity Saints and Sanctity Saints and Sanctity By Mark Nichol The Latin adjective sanctus, meaning â€Å"consecrated† or â€Å"holy,† is the root of a family of words that sometimes but not always have a religious context. Definitions of those words follow. Saint (from the Anglo-French word seint) originally was simply an adjective applied to the name of a person who had been canonized, or officially designated as holy, but it soon became a noun and eventually a verb as well, though that latter usage is rare. By extension, it informally describes a person of remarkable patience or virtue. Saint, in reference to a person or as part of a place name, is spelled out in formal contexts, but occasionally it is abbreviated to St. (In place names, the Spanish masculine and feminine equivalents, San and Santa, respectively, are never abbreviated.) As a surname, it is spelled out or abbreviated according to personal preference (in French usage, it is spelled out and hyphenated to the following word); consult a biographical dictionary for accuracy. Sanctity is the quality of holiness; sanctimony and sanctitude are less common synonyms, though the former is often seen in its adjectival form, sanctimonious, to refer pejoratively to someone who is falsely pious. (The positive sense is obsolete.) To sanctify is to make holy. A sanctum is a holy place; the Latin phrase sanctum sanctorum, meaning â€Å"holy of holies,† has been borrowed directly into English, and in secular contexts, â€Å"inner sanctum† refers to a private place of retreat. Sanctuary originally referred to a building designated for worship (it also applied to a sacred relic or any other holy object), and because some churches served as refuges where fugitives were generally immune from arrest, the word was applied outside of religious contexts to a place of protection or safety, including one set aside as wildlife refuge. The adjective sacrosanct means â€Å"especially sacred† and, by extension, applies to any belief adhered to with great devotion. (A follow-up post will discuss sacred and related words.) To sanction is to make sacred or to confirm or decree; the word also applies, as a noun, to an act of doing so or the confirmation or decree itself. As with other related terms, it also has a secular connotation, and in this sense is a near contronym (also known as a contranym or autoantonym): Sanction means approval or permission, but it also applies to punitive but nonviolent measures one or more nations take to compel another nation to conform to international law. (The word also pertains to something that prompts action or judgment in response to a question of morality.) Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Apply to, Apply for, and Apply withUse a Dash for Number RangesPeople vs. Persons

Never share this information at work

Never share this information at work Networking is what gets you in the door, but building real relationships with coworkers is what keeps you there and earns you respect. And you can’t really connect to people- even colleagues- if you don’t open up and share every once in a while. But sometimes the bonding goes too far. When sharing becomes oversharing, you can erode any credibility you’ve built up in a workplace. Here are a few things smart and successful people make a rule of never  bringing up in the workplace.How much you hate your coworkersNo matter how terrible Bob in Sales is at his job, it’s not something you can talk about with your coworkers- even your friends. Unless you’re talking to your best non-work friends or your partner, there’s no cause to broadcast someone’s ineptitude. Be kind. Take the high road. And for that matter, don’t smack talk about your boss or how much you hate your job either.PoliticsBy far the easiest way to alienate someone is t o casually discuss politics. Things are quite simply too fraught these days. A haphazard comment here or there could really lose you points. In general, it’s best not to mix office and politics in general- tense times or not. You never know where someone (or the cubemate quietly listening) stands. If others are talking politics, listen and smile and step outside.  How much you makeEven if you’re sharing your salary to commiserate with other low-level earners, you never know what those people might be making. It could be even less than you. Don’t run the risk of humblebragging. And definitely don’t outright brag. First of all, nobody cares. Second, they’ll just assume you’re a materialistic jerk.Your sex life†¦ or anybody else’sReally, there’s no reason to divulge any details about what goes on in your bedroom. Or worse- to speculate about what might or might not go on in someone else’s. It’s just gossip, wh ich is never a good idea. Plus, it’s likely against company policy. You just never know when you might make someone feel uncomfortable, so respect work and personal boundaries.Your ongoing job huntIf you’re job hunting because you’ve outgrown your position or you just plain hate your job, that’s fine. Keep it on the DL. Nobody wants to be friends with the kid who doesn’t even want to be on the playground with the other kids.Your online presenceUnless you become actual friends with a coworker, it’s best to keep your social media networks separate. LinkedIn is great for work friends, but keep your Facebook and Twitter and Instagram to people who won’t be annoyed by your vacation photos of margaritas and tequila shots.Offensive jokesAgain, anything off-color is probably going to get you in trouble with your human resources department. If you have a racist, misogynist, or intolerant joke in your pocket, do yourself a favor and keep it to yourself. You  will offend someone and people  will think less of you. Is it really worth the forced laughter?Your dreams of a promotionIt’s fine to covet rungs above yours on the ladder. It’s not fine to tell people that you’re out to unseat your coworker or your boss. The news will definitely get back to that person, ruining a relationship for good. And whether or not you get your way, you won’t have the respect of everyone around you.Personal dramaYou might be having problems at home, or in your relationship, or with your health. Save intensely personal tales for your besties and your therapist. At the very least, save them for lunch hour with one or two close work friends, not your water cooler buddy. Work is not the place to be blabbing about your issues and emotions- it’s a professional setting, no matter how casual the office and how kind the people.

Human Recourse Management and Personnel Issues Essay - 1

Human Recourse Management and Personnel Issues - Essay Example There are a number of occasions when assessment is done. Such as when a student is admitted into a high school, he is often required to take some test, likewise, during his educational, time to time, his educations is assessed under certain standards. Finally, when he wished to enter the professional life, there too, he is assessed for certain skills that the employer expects to be essentially present in an employee. Out of all these assessments, the pre-employment assessment is considered to be one of the crucial ones. This is so on the account of the fact that this test will enable him to enter into the professional life through the gate he wants. There is one complexity involved with the assessments. The complexity is that what factors should be tested in order to determine that who is the most deserving candidate is. This complexity is enhanced when it comes to the assessment for the recruitment. So far as the assessment for academic entry such as admission in masters is concerne d, it seems quite logical that you primarily test the academic skills and a bit of Intelligent Quotient etc. But, when we talk about employment, the purpose is to find the deserving candidate and what factors make a person a deserving candidate differs from person to person. From organization’s perspective too, it is also essential to filter the right person so as to make their organization run more effectively and efficiently.

Autobiography on how my life led to the decision of becoming a nurse Essay

Autobiography on how my life led to the decision of becoming a nurse - Essay Example I have overcome many obstacles and have made many difficult decisions to get where I am in life. The journey that I was meant to take has recently become clear. Ultimately, this decision was there all along; however I did not recognize it or realize that the calling of a nurse was one that was right for me. After having spent what seemed like forever wandering and searching for my life’s purpose, I reached the lowest point in my life. After much thought, I decided I needed to go back to school; yet my options were limited as the only thing I could afford was a technical school. I enrolled in a Medical Assistant School and instantly fell in love with the subject matter. For the first time in my life, I felt like a part of something greater than just the information that was being presented to me. I got a job the week I graduated and became a Medical Assistant in a large Allergy and Asthma practice. I went above and beyond my job and felt like this was finally the path I was meant to be on. My motivation kicked in and I knew this was what I needed to do; moreover, rather than it merely being a job, I craved more. I tried to figure out a way to go back to school in order to realize my dream of becoming a nurse, and there was no way I was going to settle for anything else. I wanted to go all the way and pursue my degree; however, the biggest obstacle at this point was purely financial. It just so happened that my older cousin moved in with my family at this time; because he too was feeling a little lost. The only thing that made him happy was looking back at memories he made while he was in the military. He kept talking about how much he needed motivation so that he could go to college and get a degree and how the military would now pay for it. This is when it all started to click for me. I finally realized this was what I needed to do to get where I wanted to go in life. I decided that I was

Decoding the Dna of the Toyota Production System Essay Example for Free

Decoding the Dna of the Toyota Production System Essay Many manufacturing industries such as aerospace, consumer products, metals processing and industrial products had tried to adopt the TPS in their factories. But they have failed and get frustrated. The essence of the TPS could be in the system itself, the connections, activities and production flows. Also the great flexibility of their operations and this push the system to innovate and improve. The scientific method plays an important role inside the improvements and creation of any new methodology. Toyota uses a rigorous problem-solving process that integrates the sm. The system simulates workers ad managers to engage in the kind of experimentation that is widely recognized as the cornerstone of a learning organization. The four rules guide the design, operation and improvement of every activity, connections, and pathway for every product and service. The output of an ideal person, group of people, or machine is very specifically and clear. This kind of knowledge helps Toyota to reduce batches. The rules make workers capable and responsible for doing and improving their own work, by standardizing connections between individual customers and suppliers. The flow problem must be push to the lowest possible level of the organization. What did you learn? The first factor I learned is that we can’t copy o try to implement any system, no matter how success is it; we have to know the essence of the methodology and then try to apply it to another industry sector. In other case, we could fail as the article mention. The second factor I learned was the concept of the four rules that could have the essence of the success of the TPS system. These rules complement the entire philosophy of kanban, poka yoke, wastes, TPS house, etc. The problem is that many observers (managers, workers, teachers†¦) may forget to study the rules. The third and last important concept was the implementation of the scientific method in order to design new improvements that push the company to a higher level of quality, innovation and profit. It is the first time that I heard about a real application (outside a laboratory) of the scientific method. How can you apply them into your professional career? As I have told in other articles, the TPS is part of any Industrial Engineer but more in those who will specialize or work on the manufacturing industry. Also, the article mentions that today many industries want to try this methodology in order to success. So it’s important to understand the four rules or the whole Toyota system to make an improvement on our workstations, any working area or entire industry. It will depend in the position or level of organization we are. Conclusions  The Toyota’s system success is based on the way of managing, how rules are followed and implemented, the specified and rigid methodology, the connection between the levels of the organization, and of course the high variety of tools and techniques that TPS has. But what makes this system effective is the four rules that other companies hadn’t did at all. These rules make the production system more flexible with a high variety of products at low cost. The great benefit of nested, modular organizations is that people can implement design changes in one part without unduly affecting other parts.

Essay --

Tough on criminals, soft on crime: power, drugs and the failure Over the recent past one of the major problems has been that of conflicts between the criminals and the society on the whole. There has been debate regarding the facts whether we have handled the problems more aptly or not. Because there are certain schools of thought that are of the opinion that we should not go soft on the crime side in any case or form. It is this world of the organized crime that is responsible for all the power abuse and the drugs and they have caused, instigated and at times bribed the people to bring the social system to a standstill. It is all their doing which can prove to be too costly for the people and the culture as well as for the economy on the whole in the long run. As per the conflict perspective, the differential structure of social power necessarily requires that dominant groups to exercise control over subordinate groups but is that really the case? Yes we do need some form of domin ance and the other over the period of time but is that really all that there is to life? In reality if we look at things this is the way we have begun to perceive things because a bigger and a better society needs people to be more open and they need to be more apt. They are the ones who have to look at the things and it is up to them to interpret the meanings of the things in the literal sense. If we start to believe that the people are going to dominate others and there are some who are very docile and innocuous and there are others who are good at governance and who are good at controlling things is that the good enough reason to allow them to do the things their way? In my opinion it should never be that way simply because those who have the power ... ... move all the time. It is about the nature of addiction and the ancillary crime associated with it, which causes so many people to get entangled in it all. Although there has been a lot of talk about the treatment and rehabilitation and the reason for that is that it is significantly less expensive and more effective. Public safety is something that is completely dependent on how well we are able to control the above-mentioned social evils because in front of them it becomes a secondary thing. Incarceration is not always the only solution that is available to the authorities because that may deter the world of organized crime but it does not strike at the very roots that it is founded on. That is the whole objective that we should avoid going soft on the world of crime at all costs if we want to have any chance of preserving the sanctity of the future generations.

Challenges of the Fire Department.

Todays fire service faces multiple challenges, one of the biggest challenges that threatened our existence is the waning of public support. Since the decline in our economy, many politicians have made firefighters their enemy and attacked the fire service. Recently, fire department wages have been blamed for our municipality’s dire fiscal condition. A majority of the public has taken note of these attacks and has taken the side of the politicians. Through our actions, we must work hard to regain the publics respect and trust. Without the publics support the fire department would not exist.Throughout our nations history the fire service has been held in high esteem and very well respected. It has taken generations to establish this reputation and now it is now up to us to carry and build upon this foundation. The majority of firefighters do a great job on and off duty but it is the poor judgment of a few individuals that discredit and tarnish our organization’s reputatio n. Just in the last few years, there have been numerous charges against firefighters that include; murder, DUI, soliciting prostitution and grand larceny.All these charges are from within the Las Vegas Valley and do not mention the charges faced by our brothers and sisters across the nation. These charges coupled with political attacks have resulted in eroding the relationship between the fire service and the general public. It is up to our generation of firefighters to win over our citizens and regain their trust. We must do this by performing our duties with the outmost professionalism and customer care in mind. It all begins with our appearance. Whether we recognize it or not, we are judged not only by our actions but also by our appearance.Our uniforms and conduct must reflect the professionalism that is expected from the fire department. Our equipment must also be well maintained and organized. We must show pride and take care of the equipment granted to us by the public. Durin g emergency calls we must show compassion and understanding even if by our definition the call does not warrant an emergency response. We are in the business of serving the public and we must show our citizen’s that we are here for them and are willing to respond and mitigate their emergency regardless of the time of day.Once an emergency is mitigated, it should be our goal to have our citizen’s completely satisfied and be astonished to level of care provided by their neighborhood fire department. We should not leave the scene until our customers needs have been completely met. I understand and have responded to calls where people are less than friendly, but we must also treat these customers with the same level of professionalism and respect. Our profession places us under the scrutiny of the public’s eye and we must not forget about the multiple spectators that are always on scene.With the popularity of cell phones and cameras our every word and actions could easily be recorded and posted on social network sites. We have all benefitted by the hard work and dedication of previous firefighters. We cannot take their effort for granted and we must work hard to rebuild our public image. We must police and hold ourselves to a higher standard. Our conduct on and off duty must reflect that of a professional if we want our legacy to continue and be passed forward.

Jose Rizal, an exemplary leader Essay

Many were still debating on the credibility of Jose Rizal as the national hero of the Philippines. Many assumes that he was an American hero for he was appointed by the Americans. Others believed that Bonifacio was the real hero for he was the one who fought the battle for the Philippines. Who is who? Who is the real hero, who is the greater leader? I myself believed then that Rizal do not deserve to be the national hero and is not worthy to be called a leader, that was until i enrolled my Philippine Ideology subject. In the course i found out the exemplary deeds of Rizal from his childhood up to his execution. I came to realize why he was chosen to be the national hero. Among his great deeds, his leadership was at its peak when he died at Bagumbayan. Before the his death, he already showed what a leader should be. In his last travel abroad, he was then asked to stay at Singapore and hide their but he opt to continue his voyage though he already knew where will his fate will lead him, a leader must be brave as what Rizal had shown, he was not afraid to face his challenges and he faced these with such bravery. Furthermore, when Spanish armies arrested Rizal, Rizal do not hesitate but he voluntarily go with them, a leader should know when to fight and when to stay calm. In his last days in Dapitan, Rizal was visited by a vast number of friends and relatives, being a leader does not mean â€Å"me† but it is â€Å"we†, because of his characteristics, Rizal gained lot of friends whom together with his family did not left him until the end. Until the death of Rizal he showed that he was an exemplary leader, who among us can face our death as Rizal did? Who among us can sacrifice his own life to the intruders just for the country. Rizal died for me, Rizal died for you. Without his death the eyes of our fore fathers might not been opened and maybe until now we are still wrapped on their arms. Rizal is a hero, a leader, a Filipino.

CTV Newsnet Case Analysis Essays

CTV Newsnet Case Analysis Essays CTV Newsnet Case Analysis Essay CTV Newsnet Case Analysis Essay Chapter 3 CTV Newsnet [pic] 1. Abstract In January 2000, the CTV Newsnet was confronted with a threat to its reputation and growth. A tape with offensive remarks made by the News broadcaster Avery Haines’ were aired mistakenly, and it aroused great public indignation. By means of OB analysis, we found that Haines’ dispositional characteristics such as low emotional stability and lack of conscientiousness, heavy workplace stress, and different attribution processes conducted by the anchor, her coworkers and the audience may all be causes of that crisis. Therefore, we suggest that CTV Newsnet could deal with its reputation crisis and prevent the similar technical and behavioural mistakes in the future as the following: 1) communicating effectively with the viewers about the company’s value and attitude toward this incident, 2) setting up positive reinforcers and punishment rules to encourage desirable behaviour and eliminate undesirable behaviour, 3) holding periodical seminar to strengthen employees’ awareness of work ethics, 4) doing job redesign to verify job tasks and reduce working pressure, and 5) providing proper training programs to improve employees’ cognitive abilities and professional skills. Table of Contents 1. Abstract 2 2. Introduction 4 3. Case Analysis 4 3. 1 Personality 4 3. 2 Stress 5 3. 3 Actor-observer Effect7 4. Solutions8 4. 1 Operant Learning Theory8 4. 2 Coping with Stress 9 4. 3 Attribution Theory 10 5. Conclusion 11 6. Bibliography12 7. Appendices13 2. Introduction The news channel, CTV Newsnet, had been playing important role in practicing the CTV Inc. ’s philosophy which emphasizes the social commitment, such as caring about farming issues. However, in January, 2000, CTV Newsnet had faced a severe challenge to maintain its reputation. This incident started with the CTV Newsnet anchor Avery Haines, who had stuttered and flubbed while recording a report introduction on farmer issues. In order to cover her own embarrassment and ease the tension for other co-workers in the studio, she made a private self-deprecating joke which included inappropriate remarks about various minorities. Of course, they retaped this part, but later that day, a CTV technician mistakenly aired the wrong tape which included the error and the offensive comment to the public. Soon after, mountains of criticism and suspicions about CTV’s professionalism and integrity flooded into the company. The happening of this fatal mistake indeed had adverse impacts on the company’s reputation as well as its further expansion plan. Thus, the purpose of our report is to decrease the possibility of making small but fatal mistakes among employees and to improve their sense of responsibility. 3. Casa Analysis 3. 1 Personality and the Big Five Personality can be described as the individual’s personal style to deal with the world. For Haines, there is a whole mixture of features that describe her personality. When hiring Haines as a â€Å"Hostess† for CTV, Kowalski, the CTV News senior vice-president and general manager was applying one of the key concepts of OB: the fit concept (textbook P41). Indeed, Kowalski felt immediately that Haines is the right person to fit in the fast-paced and demanding milieu of TV. Kowalski was impressed by her personal and professional qualifications. At the professional level, Haines had won many awards, shown a high level of performance, and earned wide popularity. At the personal level, and according to the five-factor model of personality, Haines showed her openness (she was creative and eager to move forward from radio to television), agreeableness (she humbly accepted criticism and advice, and completely committed to the job) and extraversion (she was interested in everything and had quickly gained the support and affection from her co-workers) (Ng, et al. , 2005). However, her lack of emotional stability (self-confidence) and consciousness (responsibility) didn’t appear to Kowalski until the fatal errors occurred. In fact, Haines’ self-depreciating joke to cover her embarrassment and hide her vulnerability and awkwardness is a display of the lack of confidence and consideration of the consequences. According to the intereactionist approach, organizational behaviour is a function of both dispositions and the situation (George, 1992). Indeed, Haines was facing a weak situation where there are loosely defined roles and few rules, so it’s hard to define appropriate behaviour (Adler Weiss, 1988). As a result, personality tends to have most impact in weak situations, which was the case of Haines behaviour. 3. 2 Stress It was a very long day in CTV, they were preparing for a show talking about the farmers’ story which attracted growing attention all over Canada, and Haines due to being stressed made her famous mistake. Stress can be defined as a psychological reaction to the demands inherent in a stressor that has the potential to make a person feel tense or anxious (McGrath, 1970). In our case, the viewers of the broadcasting on the farmers’ issue were the potential stressors to Haines, whereas Haines was also the potential stressor to her co-workers. Haines’ personality which was discussed earlier can mainly determine the extent to which the potential stressor becomes a real stressor, and it also determines how she reacted to stress behaviourally, psychologically, and physiologically. This can explain why Haines can be a potential stressor who exerted in turn stress on the work environment in which employees actions were affected and the wrong tape mistake was made. In terms of Locus of control (which is a set of beliefs about whether one’s behaviour is controlled by mainly internal or external forces), Haines reacted in this way since she was an external person. This type of people are more likely to feel anxious in the face of potential stressors (Ng, et al. , 2006), and that’s the case of Haines when she made her famous mistake; she was stressed and started making jokes to overcome her mistake, unlike if she was an internal person (which internal factors determine her personality) she would have confronted her stressors. Furthermore, Haines suffered from managerial and executive stress, since she had a work overload on the day of the incident. Also, Haines has a heavy responsibility and her work carried considerate significance to CTV’s philosophy which addresses social commitment; thus, not only she was under great pressure but also her co-workers, which increased the possibility of the occurrence of the tape mistake. Finally, other general stress factors such as work-family conflict, Job insecurity, and role ambiguity might affect the level of stress among CTV employees and led to the problem in the workplace. 3. 3 Actor-observer Effect According to Attribution theory, people’s behavior can be attributed to dispositional and situational causes though they are not always accurate. When people are forming attribution to explain others’ behavior, biases and errors are hard to avoid. Thus, in the CTV Newsnet case, Haines and her colleagues in the studio did not perceive her joking as a big problem  ; on the other hand, viewers were more likely to attribute her comments to her real disposition. The fact that viewers and her co-workers had different perceptions of Haines’s joking reflected the actor-observe effect in attributing process (Watson, 1982).. In this case, Haines tended to attribute her making joke to some external factors. They may include her extreme tiredness with the heavy workload, the attempt to ease the embarrassment, and the certainty of a second recording. This is because Haines as an â€Å"actor† is more sensitive than â€Å"observers† (the audience) of the pros and cons that the environment offered (Textbook, p83). Moreover, she knew exactly her own thoughts and intentions which is to get herself and her co-workers relaxed. In general, people know better anout how and why their behavior varies by situations, while the observers tend to guess. In terms of the perspectives of Haines’ co-workers, they would also attribute Haines’ behavior to the external causes because they understood Haines’ motivation and thoughts in that specific situation, and they also know her personality well. They usually saw Haines as a talented, reliable and unbiased person. Thus, coworkers might perceive her making improper joke as an accident due to the low consistency and high distinctiveness of her this behaviour (Medcof, 1990). As the observer of Haines’s behaviour, CTV viewers had high possibility to commit the fundamental attribution error through overemphasizing dispositional causes and ignoring the possible environmental factors that may incur her joke making (Jones, 1979). Because viewers lacked the knowledge about the constraints, private thoughts, feelings, and intentions regarding Haines’s behaviour, they intuitively assumed that the anchor’s making discriminatory remarks reflected her real thoughts. Hence, they inevitablly felt horrified and annoyed. 4. Solutions: 4. 1 Operant Learning theory What happened to the CTV Newsnet indicated two main problems that threatened the maintenance of its reputation and integrity, less professional broadcasting and inferior technical error. Both behavioural mistakes should be eliminated for the sake of the entire company. According to the operant learning theory, two approaches could help CTV newsnet to improve their operationing effectiveness. One approach is to use appropriate positive and negative reinforcement to stimulate desired behaviour. The other is to use extinction and punishment to stop undesired behaviour (Textbook P49-55). In order to avoid such basic technical misconduct on the short-term basis, the CTV managers could adopt positive reinforcement by establishing periodical employee recognition programs. They include offerring financial rewards quarterly or annually to error-free employees and employees who made significant progress in their work. Moreover, a long-term training and development program can be conducted for technicians to learn how to operate the broadcasting equipment properly and efficiently as well as to adopt new technologies and upgrade their professional knowledge. To minimize the similar mishap made by Haines, CTV should create clear communication channel between company and employees to encourage a more direct feedback. It will give help the organization find out their employees’ personal or work-related difficulties so that their performance can be enhanced (Peterson Luthans, 2006). If employees’ problems were incurred by too much workload, managers should consider hiring extra staff or enhancing the efficiency of management to cut the workload for employees. If making mistake was due to the lack of job interest and enthusiasm, the company could offer employees the opportunity to rotate among different positions or grand employees more controling power over their tasks to raise their sense of involvement. Meanwhile, through the negative reinforcement, the upper management may also monitor employees’ job performance and behaviour. Building up a more strict set of operational rules helps prohibit undesirable behaviours in the studio. Any breach of the rules could lead to disciplinary actions such as a verbal warning, a written warning or an ultimate dismissal. Employees’ attemppt to eliminate these unpleasant outcomes (warning and dismissal) can motivate them to obey the rules (textbook, p50). Although punishment might cause unwanted impacts on employees’ working enthusiasm, it is a effective way to prohibit seriously adverse behaviour sometimes. It also serves as a sound warning for other potential mistake-makers and a necessary compromise for easing the public anger. In CTV case, Haines should be fired for her unprofessional behaviour though unintentional since it already incurred a huge wave of public irritation. The technician who played the wrong tape should also be punished for his or her carelessness. However, using punishment should always be careful. 4. 2 Coping with stress In order to reduce and overcome the stress which could occur in the work place now and in future, CTV should start implementing concrete actions. For example, doing job redesign that changes the job depth and breadth can rebuild the job tasks with more diversity and authority. CTV could socially support its employees by planning events and activities which can improve the employee’s social life. The human resource department could establish a family friendly policy for the employees, which will allow the staff to balance better between their job duties and family responsibilities (Grant Parker, 2009). Finally CTV could also introduce stress management programs and work balance programs to allow its employees to arrange their time and tasks effectively with a wisely designed working schedule. . 3 Attribution theory Concerning the above analysis, some work-related attitudes among employees in CTV Inc. should be modified or reinforced. Since attitudes can be modified through persuasively changing people’s beliefs and values (Textbook, p120), holding seminars and developing training programs can indeed help improve the work-related attitudes of CTV workers. First, employees should improve their awareness of the limitation of viewers’ knowledge about the journalists’ or broadcasters’ personal conditions. Interactive activities involving CTV employees and CTV viewers can be conducted to help them establish better mutual understanding. Then, mangers can hold discussion panels to reinforce the belief that working in CTV requires rigorous work ethics and extensive sense of responsibility, especially as journalists and broadcasters. And through these trainings, the employees will be encouraged to ponder internal factors for their own behavior and be more aware that their self-perceived minor mistakes could be fatal to the further growth of their company. Besides, CTV Newsnet should enhancee its employees’ personal skills to maintain its professionalism and reliability. According to the concepts of job performance, individual job performance is heavily affected by his or her general cognitive ability, which refers to intelligence (Textbook, P149). Training programs can be conducted to refine speaking skills of the anchors so that they can be more careful and thoughtful about wording when broadcasting the public information. Moreover, periodical seminars can be held to retain employees’ proper consciousness of political, religious and ethnic issues and to enrich their storage of the relevant knowledge. 5. Conclusion About decade ago, CTV Newsnet anchor Avery Haines’ offensive remarks were aired mistakenly and caused great controversies in the public. The management was facing a severe challenge: the news station’s reputation and growth were threatened. Through OB analysis we have found that certain traits of Haine’s personality, i. e. low level of emotional stableness and ack of conscientiousness, workplace stress from too much workload and pressure, as well as different attribution processes conducted by the anchor, her coworkers and the audience may all causes contributing to the problem. CTV Newsn et could deal with its reputation crisis and avoid these technical and behavioural errors in the future by taking the right steps: communicating effectively with the audience about the company’s value and attitude toward this incident, setting up positive reinforcers and punishment rules to encourage desirable behaviour and eliminate undesirable behaviour, doing job redesign to clarify roles and reduce workload, and providing proper training programs to improve employees’ cognitive abilities and awareness of work ethics. Bibliography 1. Adler, S. , Weiss, H. M. (1988). Recent developments in the study of personality and organizational behaviour. In C. L. Cooper I. Robertson (Eds. ), International review of industrial and organizational psychology. New York: Wiley. 2. George, 1992; Weiss, H. M. , Adler, S. (1984). Personality and organizational behaviour. In B. M. Staw L. L. Cummings (Eds. ), Research in organizational behaviour (Vol. 6, 1-50). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press. 3. Grant, A. M. , Parker, S. K. (2009). Redesigning work design theories: The rise of relational and proactive perspectives. Academy of Management Annal, 3, 317-375. 4. Jones, E. E. (1979). The rocky road from acts to dispositions. American Psychologist, 34, 107-117; Ross, L. (1977). The intuitive psychologist and his shortcomings: Distortions in the attribution process. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 10, 173-220. 5. McGrath, J. E. (1970). A conceptual formulation for research on stress. In J. E. McGrath(Ed. ), Social and psychological factors in stress. New York: Holt, Rinehart, Winston. 6. Medcof, J. W. (1990). PEAT: An integrative model of attribution processes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 23, 111-209. 7. Ng, T. W. H. , Eby, L. T. , Sorensen, K. L. , Feldma, D. C. (2005). Predictors of objective and subjective career success: A meta-analysis. Personal Psychology,58, 367-408. 8. Ng, T. W. H. , Sorensen, K. L. ,Eby, L. T. (2006). Locus of control at work: A meta-analysis. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 27, 1057-1087. 9. Parasuraman, S. Alutto, J. A. (1981). An examination of the organization antecedents of stressors at work. Academy of Management Journal, 24, 48-67. 10. Peterson, S. J. , Luthans, F. (2006). The impact of financial and nonfinancial incentives on business-unit outcomes over time. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91, 156-165. 11. Saks. A. M. , Gary. J. (2011). Organizational Behaviour. Toronto: Pearson Prentice Hall. 8th edition. (textbook) 12. Watson, D. (1982). The actor and the observer: How are their perceptions of causality divergent? Psychological Bulletin, 92, 682-700.

Solomon Northup, Author of Twelve Years a Slave

Solomon Northup, Author of Twelve Years a Slave Solomon Northup was a free black resident of New York State who was drugged on a trip to Washington, D.C. in the spring of 1841 and sold to a slave dealer. Beaten and chained, he was transported by ship to a New Orleans slave market and suffered more than a decade of servitude on Louisiana plantations. Northup had to hide his literacy or risk violence. And he was unable, for years, to get word to anyone in the North to let them know where he was. Fortunately, he  was eventually able to send messages which prompted legal action that secured his freedom. Writing His Narrative and the Impact on Abolition After regaining his freedom and miraculously returning to his family in New York, he collaborates with a local attorney to write a shocking account of his ordeal, Twelve Years a Slave, which was published in May 1853. Northup’s case and his book attracted considerable attention. Most slave narratives were written by former slaves who had been born into slavery, but Northup’s perspective of a free man kidnapped and forced to spend years toiling on plantations was especially disturbing. Northup’s book sold well, and on occasion, his name appeared in newspapers alongside such prominent abolitionist voices as Harriet Beecher Stowe and Frederick Douglass. Yet he did not become an enduring voice in the campaign to end slavery. Though his fame was fleeting, Northup did make an impact on how society viewed slavery. His book seemed to underscore abolitionist arguments advanced by people such as William Lloyd Garrison. And Twelve Years a Slave was published at a time when the controversy over the Fugitive Slave Act and events such as the Christiana Riot were still on the minds of the public. His story came to prominence in recent years thanks to a major film, â€Å"12 Years a Slave,† by British director Steve McQueen. The film won the Oscar for Best Picture of 2014. Northups Life as a Free Man According to his own account, Solomon Northup was born in Essex County, New York, in July 1808. His father, Mintus Northup, had been born a slave, but his owner, a member of a family named Northup, had freed him. Growing up, Solomon learned to read and also learned to play the violin. In 1829 he married, and he and his wife Anne eventually had three children. Solomon found work at various trades, and in the 1830s the family moved to Saratoga, a resort town, where he was employed driving a hack, the horse-drawn equivalent of a taxi. At times he found employment playing the violin, and in early 1841 he was invited by a pair of traveling performers to come with them to Washington, D.C. where they could find lucrative work with a circus. After obtaining papers in New York City establishing that he was free, he accompanied the two white men to the nation’s capital, where slavery was legal. Kidnapping in Washington Northup and his companions, whose names he believed to be Merrill Brown and Abram Hamilton, arrived in Washington in April 1841, just in time to witness the funeral procession for William Henry Harrison, the first president to die in office. Northup recalled watching the pageantry with Brown and Hamilton. That night, after having drinks with his companions, Northup began to feel sick. At some point, he lost consciousness. When he woke, he was in a stone basement, chained to the floor. His pockets had been emptied and the papers documenting that he was a free man were gone. Northup soon learned he was locked inside a slave pen which was within sight of the U.S. Capitol building. A slave dealer named James Burch informed him that he had been purchased and would be sent to New Orleans. When Northup protested and asserted he was free, Burch and another man produced a whip and a paddle, and savagely beat him. Northup had learned it was extremely dangerous to proclaim his status as a free man. Years of Servitude Northup was taken by ship to Virginia and then onward to New Orleans. In a slave market, he was sold to a plantation owner from the region of the Red River, near Marksville, Louisiana. His first owner was a benign and religious man, but when he got into financial difficulty Northup was sold. In one harrowing episode in Twelve Years a Slave, Northup recounted how he got into a physical altercation with a violent white master and was nearly hanged. He spent hours bound with ropes, not knowing if he would soon die. He recalled the day spent standing in the broiling sun: What my meditations were - the innumerable thoughts that thronged through my distracted brain - I will not attempt to give expression to. Suffice it so say, during the whole long day I came not to the conclusion, even once, that the southern slave, fed, clothed, whipped and protected by his master, is happier than the free colored citizen of the North. To that conclusion I have never since arrived. There are many, however, even in the Northern States, benevolent and well-disposed men, who will pronounce my opinion erroneous, and gravely proceed to substantiate the assertion with an argument. Alas! they have never drunk, as I have, from the bitter cup of slavery. Northup survived that early brush with hanging, mainly because it was made clear that he was valuable property. After being sold again, he would spend ten years toiling on the land of Edwin Epps, a plantation owner who treated his slaves brutally. It was known that Northup could play the violin, and he would travel to other plantations to perform at dances. But despite having some ability to move about, he was still isolated from the society in which he had circulated prior to his kidnapping. Northup was literate, a fact he kept hidden as slaves were not allowed to read or write. Despite his ability to communicate, he was unable to mail letters. The one time he was able to steal paper and manage to write a letter, he was unable to find a trustworthy soul to mail it to his family and friends in New York. Freedom After years of enduring forced labor, under threat of whippings, Northup finally met someone he believed he could trust in 1852. A man named Bass, who Northup described as a â€Å"native of Canada† had settled in the area around Marksville, Louisiana and worked as a carpenter. Bass had been working on a new house for Northup’s master, Edwin Epps, and Northup heard him arguing against slavery. Convinced he could trust Bass, Northup revealed to him that he had been free in New York State and was kidnapped and brought to Louisiana against his will. Skeptical, Bass questioned Northup and became convinced of his story. And he resolved to help him obtain his freedom. He wrote a series of letters to people in New York who had known Northup. A member of the family which had owned Northup’s father when slavery was legal in New York, Henry B. Northup, learned of Solomon’s fate. An attorney himself, he took extraordinary legal steps and obtained the proper documents that would allow him to travel into the slave South and retrieve a free man. In January 1853, after a long trip which included a stop in Washington where he met with a Louisiana senator, Henry B. Northup reached the area where Solomon Northup was enslaved. After discovering the name by which Solomon was known as a slave, he was able to find him and initiate legal proceedings. Within days Henry B. Northup and Solomon Northup were traveling back to the North. Legacy of Solomon Northup On his way back to New York, Northup visited Washington, D.C. again. An attempt was made to prosecute a slave dealer involved in his kidnapping years earlier, but the testimony of Solomon Northup was not allowed to be heard as he was black. And without his testimony, the case collapsed. A lengthy article in the New York Times on January 20, 1853, headlined â€Å"The Kidnapping Case,† told the story of Northup’s plight and the thwarted attempt to seek justice. In the next few months, Northup worked with an editor, David Wilson, and wrote Twelve Years a Slave. No doubt anticipating skepticism, Northup and Wilson added extensive documentation to the end of Northup’s account of his life as a slave. Affidavits and other legal documents attesting to the truth of the story added dozens of pages at the end of the book. The publication of Twelve Years a Slave in May 1853 attracted attention. A newspaper in the nation’s capital, the Washington Evening Star, mentioned Northup in a blatantly racist item published with the headline â€Å"Handiwork of Abolitionists†: There was a time when it was possible to preserve order among the negro population of Washington; but then the great majority of that population were slaves. Now, since Mrs. Stowe and her compatriots, Solomon Northup and Fred Douglass, have been exciting the free negroes of the North to action, and some of our resident philanthropists have been acting as agents in that holy cause, our city has been rapidly filling up with drunken, worthless, filthy, gambling, thieving free negroes from the North, or runaways from the South. Solomon Northup did not become a prominent figure in the abolitionist movement, and he seems to have lived quietly with his family in upstate New York. It is believed he died sometime in the 1860s, but by that time his fame had faded and newspapers did not mention his passing. In her non-fiction defense of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, published as The Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe referred to Northup’s case. â€Å"The probability is that hundreds of free men and women and children are all the time being precipitated into slavery in this way,† she wrote. Northup’s case was highly unusual. He was able, after a decade of trying, to find a way to communicate with the outside world. And it can never be known how many other free blacks were kidnapped into slavery and were never heard from again.

Star Formation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Star Formation - Essay Example Some of the widely known astronomical substances that represent mainly the basic building blocks of most galaxies are stars. This therefore means that the composition, age and distribution of stars in a galaxy usually suggest the dynamics, evolution and history of that particular galaxy. Furthermore stars are mostly responsible for the manufacturing and dispensing of heavy elements for instance oxygen, carbon and nitrogen and therefore their distinctiveness is closely tied to the uniqueness of the planetary systems that may possibly unite around them. As a result the study of the origin, life and ultimately death of stars is key to the astronomical field (Whitworth, Thompson, 2012). Stars usually are formed within comparatively dense concentrations of interstellar dust and gas referred to as molecular clouds. These areas are mostly very cold and temperatures may fall to around 10 to 20K, just over absolute zero. Gases under these temperatures become molecular which means that there is binding together of atoms. Within the interstellar gas clouds are mostly Hydrogen and carbon monoxide molecules .These low temperatures result in extremely cold conditions causing the gases to clump together to high densities. It is when the density attains a specific point when stars are formed. The regions are mostly dense and consequently opaque to any visible light and are referred to by the name dark nebula. They also do not shine by light that is optical which means that they are observed and investigated by use of IR as well as radio telescopes (Whitworth, Thompson, 2012). Formation of stars starts when the denser regions of the cloud’s core collapse due to their own gravity or weight. The cloud’s core usually has got masses to the tune of 104 solar masses and is mostly in the structure of dust and gas. Being of higher density than the outside clouds,