Value Chain Management Essay Example for Free

Value Chain Management Essay Explain how operations strategy is influenced by customer and business prospective and where in a standard value chain you would expect to see your chosen topic addressed. INTRODUCTION Every organization’s operations strategies are concerned with getting things done; ie producing merchandise for customers. However, most people believe that operations management is only concerned with short-term, day-to-day issues. In essence, all business organisations are concerned with how their business will survive and prosper in future. In contemporary terms, most business strategies are recognised with a plan as part of or a set of intentions that will set theirr long-term directions of their actions that are needed to ensure future organisational success. Thus, no matter how strong their plan is or how noble their intentions, are, any organisation’s strategy can only become a meaningful reality, in practice, if it’s operationally instigated. Every organisation’s operations are equally important because most organisational activity comprises the day-to-day activities within the operations function. It’s the process of daily actions of operations, when considered in their totality that constitute the organisation’s long-term strategic direction. The relationship between an organisation’s strategy and the operations involved is a key determinant of its ability to achieve long-term success or even survival. Organisational improvement is only likely to result if short-term operations activities are consistent with long-term strategies and hence, make a contribution to competitive advantage. The relationship between corporate operations and the other business functions is similarly important. The objective of the operations function is to produce goods and services required by customers whilst managing resources efficiently. This can then lead to conflicts within an organisation. Conflicts between operations and selling functions are likely to centre on the marketing aspect to ensure that operations concentrate on satisfying customers. Whilst this may seem enduring, marketing will usually want operations to suit customer needs under usual circumstances. Therefore, this is likely to lead to demands to produce  bigger volumes, more varieties, better quality, a faster response, and so on, all of which are likely to lead to less efficient operations. Conflicts within the operations, the accounting and finance functions, on the other hand, are likely to centre on the desire of accounting and finance to want operations to manage resources as efficiently as possible. This will pull operations in exactly the opposite direction of that desired by marketing. Conflicts within operations and the human resource management function are likely to centre on issues of recruitment, selection, training, management and the reward of those employed within operations. For example, operational managers may want to vary organisation-wide policies in order to meet local needs; a move likely to be resisted by human resource managers. The operations function lies at the heart of any organisation and interacts with all the other functions. As such, achieving agreement about what decision areas lie within the remit of operations, and what should be the basis of decision-making within operations is an essential part of ensuring the consistency of action over time necessary for a successful organisational strategy. OPERATIONS STRATEGY My introduction towards operational strategic purposes has highlighted the strategic importance of operations to organisational performance. The importance of operational strategy is essential to an organisation as this will determine the extent to which its business strategy can be implemented, but also as its operations can be a source of competitive advantage within any businesses value chain. First I will outline what exactly is meant by the term operations strategy. Slack et al, argues that an operations strategy concerns the pattern of strategic decisions and actions which set the role, objectives and activities of operations. His use of this term ‘pattern’ implies a consistency in strategic decisions and actions over time. This concept is consistent with a theorist guru, Henry Mintzberg’s view of strategy as being a ‘pattern in a stream of actions’ (Mintzberg and Waters, 1985). Henry Mintzberg, views strategy as being realised through a combination of deliberate and emergent actions. An organisation can have an intended strategy, perhaps as a set of strategic plans. However, only some  of his intended strategy may be realized through deliberate strategy. Some of the intentions may be unrealized. Strategies which take no regard of operational feasibility are more likely to have low marketing prospects, remaining merely as a set of intentions. Strategies may also emerge from actions taken within the organisations functions, which over time form a consistent pattern. Actions of this kind will, almost inevitably, arise from within the operations of the organisation. So, whether intentionally planned or otherwise, the business operations are bound to have a major impact on the formation of organisational strategy. It’s often said that strategy is an issue which is somehow separate from day-to-day organisational activities. If taken to extremes, this can result in strategies being regarded as some kind of cerebral activity performed by superior’s who need to be removed from day-to-day operational pressures. Theorists such as Mintzberg is amongst those who point out to the dangers of managers becoming detached from the basics of the enterprise. Mintzberg and Quinn (1991) call this the ‘don’t bore me with the operating details; I’m here to tackle the big issues’ syndrome. They caution that, ‘the big issues are rooted in little details’. Operational strategy, the processes and content: A. Operational strategy processes: How an organisation sets about developing appropriate operation strategies and B. Operational strategy content: What the key decision areas are and what needs to be addressed in developing any operational strategy. OPERATIONS STRATEGY PROCESS As discussed above, operational strategies have a vertical relationship in the corporate hierarchy within business and corporate strategies, and horizontally with the other functional strategies, mostly recognised within marketing strategies. Operations strategy might come about in a top-down or a bottom-up process with regard to business and corporate strategies. Similarly, an operations strategy might be developed in response to market requirements (i.e. market-led) or be based on the capabilities of its operational resources (i.e. operations-led). As this gives rise to four  perspectives on operation strategy (Slack and Lewis, 2002). Each perspective places a different emphasis on the nature of the operations strategy process. Top-down The top down perspective is the operations strategy which it comprises of, and is supportive of the organisation’s business purposes; an operations strategy that the organisation uses to realise its business strategy within any value chain. This concept follows in line with the perspective of the Hayes and Wheelwright stage 3 organisational strategy process. According to this theory, the process of developing an operations strategy would follow Skinner’s approach of identifying an operation’s ‘task’ (Skinner, 1969). The task for operations would be determined logically from the business strategy. Using Slack et al.’s, five operations performance objectives theory, as one way of articulating the operations task. For example, if the organisation’s business strategy involves the offering of low pricing, then the operation’s task should be one of achieving low costs in operations. If the business strategy is based on offering customers fast delivery, then the operations task should be one of achieving speed in operations, and so forth. In a multi-business organisation, the top-down perspective emphasises operations strategy being linked to corporate strategy via the business strategy of each business unit. This then raises the question of whether it is possible to talk of ‘corporate’ operations strategy. If corporate operations strategy means commonality, in all aspects of operations, then this would only be possible if each business unit has similar business strategies and similar operations tasks. (Johnson and Scholes, 1999) However, some theorists such as Hayes et al would argue that any corporate operational strategy does not mean that every facet of operations must be the same in each business unit. Rather, operations decisions are considered enormously at the corporate level with a view to meeting corporate strategic objectives. A failure to do this means that operations decisions are taken only at the level of the business unit, with a view to meeting needs of that business unit. The dangers of doing this have been pointed out by theories, who caution against letting the needs of the business unit dominate strategic thinking. This can lead to operational competences being confined  within individual business units, thereby restricting their future development, which includes preventing their spread to other business units and limiting opportunities for synergistic developments across the corporation. This can be particularly important in multi-site, multi-national enterprises. ( Prahlad and Hamel, 1990) Bottom-up The bottom-up perspective is one which sees the operations strategy as an element emerging through a series of actions and decisions taken over time within operations. These actions or decisions might at first seem to appear to be somewhat risky as operations managers respond to customer demands, seek to solve specific problems, copy good practices in other organizations, etc. However, they usually coincide over time to form a coherent pattern recognisable as an operations strategy. The actions then taken within this kind of strategy are likely to be characterized by a continuous series of sporadic improvements rather than the large one-off technologically led changes that require large capital investments in new plant and machinery. The bottom-up perspective is one where the organisation learns from its experiences, developing and enhancing its operational capabilities as operations managers try new things out in an almost experimental routine using their workplaces as a kind of ‘learning laboratory’ (Leonard-Barton, 1992). Easy Jet Case Study Although EasyJet only undertook its first flight in 1995, when it operated two routes (London Luton to Glasgow and Edinburgh), ten years later, the budget airline offered 212 routes to 64 European airports and transported over 29 million passengers in 2005. EasyJet now carries more passengers within Europe than British Airways. Analysts expect EasyJet and its Irish based rival Ryanair, to both overtake all traditional airlines to become the largest short-haul operators in Europe by the end of the decade. The Luton based airline is known as continuously expanding, recently announcing the purchase of a further 20 Airbus A319 planes to service the ever increasing number of routes it operates. In 2005 EasyJet carried up to 30 million  passengers, up from 25.7 million in 2004, making it a  £1.3 billion business! Despite record high fuel level costs, profits were up and around 10 per cent to  £68 million. Passenger numbers rose 21 per cent to 29.6 million and the load factor, indicating how many seats are filled, was 85.2 per cent, reflecting the airline’s popularity. The low cost lines like EasyJet have revolutionised the airline industry in Europe. Modelled on South West Airlines in the USA, these airlines have not only helped create a whole new market of cost-conscious travellers but have taken market share from established operators like British Airways and become the most profitable airlines in Europe. To be profitable, these airlines have to achieve low costs to match the low fares, which are the main attraction to their passengers. With its head office as a large tin shed adjacent to the main taxiway at unfashionable Luton Airport, all of EasyJet’s operations are aimed at minimising costs. This is done in a number of ways: Use of the Internet to reduce distribution costs. EasyJet sells around 95 per cent of all seats over the Internet. Its online booking system uses a variable pricing system to try to maximize load factors.(Prices start very low – sometimes free, and rise as seats are filled.) The fuller the aircraft the lower the unit cost of travel. (Scholes and Johnson,1999, pg12) Ticketless travel Passengers are emailed with their travel details and booking reference numbers. This helps reduce significantly the cost of issuing, distributing, processing and reconciling millions of tickets each year. Neither does EasyJet pre-assign seats on board. Passengers sit where they like. This eliminates an unnecessary complexity and speeds up passenger boarding. No free on board catering. Eliminating free catering on board reduces cost and unnecessary bureaucracy. Passengers can purchase food and refreshments on board. Efficient use of airports. EasyJet flies to the less crowded airports of smaller European cities and prefers the secondary airports in the major cities. These also have lower  landing charges and normally offer faster turnarounds as there are fewer air movements. EasyJet’s efficient ground operations enable them to achieve turnarounds of less than 30 minutes. This means EasyJet can achieve extra rotations on the high-frequency routes, maximising the utilization of aircraft. EasyJet’s ability to offer point-to point travel means that it does not have to worry about onward connections for passengers and their baggage, further simplifying its operations. Paperless operations. EasyJet have embraced the concept of their paperless office, with all its management and administration undertaken entirely on IT systems. These can be accessed through the use of servers from anywhere in the world thereby enhancing flexibility in the running of the airline. (Scholes and Johnson,1999, pg12) Many of the manufacturing practices that are now considered leading edge such as JIT, TQM, Statistical Process Control, were developed in just; such a fashion by Japanese manufacturers responding to the constraints placed upon them in the aftermath of the Second World War. One of the problems associated with this perspective is that the organization may not recognize what its operations strategy is. Mills et al. (1998) have developed a technique that aims to overcome this by enabling managers to construct a visual representation of operations strategy as realized. It does this by tapping into the organization’s collective memory, whether written or verbal, to map all of their most significant events in operations over the previous number of years. This should enable managers to recognise the patterns that now make up the existing operation’s strategy. Market-led The market-led perspective is one where the operations strategy is developed in response to the market environment in which the organisation operates. There’s a number of approaches within operations strategy that suggest how this might be done. The best known of these theorists is that of Terry Hill (1985). He suggests that an organisation’s operations strategy should be linked to its marketing strategy by considering how its products and  services win orders in the market place. He believes it’s possible to identify two types of competitive criteria in any market. Market qualifying criteria are those factors that must be satisfied before customers will consider making a purchase in the first place. Order winning criteria, on the other hand, are the factors in which customers ultimately make their purchasing decision. For example, for many airline passengers, the order winning criteria is price, with criteria such as destination city, time of flights and convenience of travel to and from airports being market qualifying criteria. For others, notably business travellers, the order winning criteria may be factors such as in-flight service or total travel time. Consequently, an operations strategy should be developed which will satisfy market qualifying criteria, but excel at order winning criteria for the market segment that the operation wishes to serve. Platts and Gregory 1990, use an approach that audits the products or groups of products that the organisation offers to its markets. The aim is to identify any gaps between market requirements for particular products and services and the performance of the organisation’s operations in delivering those products and services. First the market requirements for the product or service are analysed in terms of various competitive factors (such as cost, quality, reliability). The performance of the organization’s operations against those factors are then assessed. An operations strategy should be developed which will enable operations to match the level of performance required by customers in each of the competitive criteria. Operations-led The operations-led perspective is one in which its excellence in operations is used to drive the organisation’s strategy. This is in line with the Hayes and Wheelwright stage 4 organisation and fits with the resource-based view (RBV) of strategy that currently dominates the strategic management literature. The premise of the RBV is that superior performance comes from the way that an organization acquires, develops and deploys its resources and builds its capabilities rather than the way it positions itself in the market place (Barney, 1991; Wernerfelt, 1984). Thus, the process of strategy development should be based on a sound understanding of current operational capabilities and an analysis of how these could be developed in  the future. This can then provide the basis for decisions about which markets are likely to be the best in which to deploy current and future capabilities, which competitors are likely to be most vulnerable and how attacks from competitors might best be countered (Hayes et al., 2005). Mills et al. (2002) have developed methods through which organizations can apply these ideas in practice. This involves undertaking an analysis of the resources that have underpinned the activities of a business unit over an extended period of time (at least the previous three to five years). Six resource categories, which are not mutually exclusive, are used: tangible resources, knowledge resources skills and experience, systems and procedural resources, cultural resources and values, network resources and resources important for change. The resources are evaluated against three criteria: value, sustainability and versatility. Resources that individually or collectively score highly in these criteria are considered to be important resources. They are sources of existing or potential competitive advantage to the organization. OPERATIONS STRATEGY: CONTENT What then are the key decision areas of operations management that need to be considered when an organization is developing an operations strategy? Although there are a number of classifications in use, operations management scholars generally agree (e.g. Leong et al., 1990) that the major strategic decision areas in operations can be conveniently divided into ten categories under two broad headings: structure (the physical attributes of operations; the hardware) and infrastructure (the people and systems of operations; the software). The structural decision areas comprise: Facilities: the location, size and focus of operational resources. These decisions are concerned with where to locate production facilities, how large each facility should be, what goods or services should be produced at each location, what markets each facility should serve, etc. Capacity: the capacity of operations and their ability to respond to changes in customer demand. These decisions are concerned with the use of facilities, for example through shift patterns, working hours and staffing levels. Decisions about capacity will affect the organisation’s ability to serve particular markets from a given location.  Process technology: the technology of the equipment used in operations processes. For example, the degree of automation used, the configuration of equipment, and so on. Supply network: the extent to which operations are conducted in-house or are outsourced. Decisions about vertical integration are also concerned with the choice of suppliers, their location, the extent of dependence on particular suppliers, and how relationships with suppliers are managed. Structural decisions often involve major capital investment decisions, which once made will set the direction of operations for many years to come. They invariably impact the resources and capabilities of an organisation, determining its potential future output. It may be prohibitively expensive to change such decisions once implemented, and hence these must be considered to be truly strategic decisions for the organisation. It may be much easier to change the organisation’s marketing strategy (e.g. its target markets, or its promotional activities) than it is to change its operations strategy with respect to the structural decision areas. Infrastructure decision areas comprise: * Planning /Control: the systems used for planning and controlling operations. * Quality: the use of quality management policies and practices. * Work Organisation: Business structures, responsibilities and accountabilities in operations. * Human Resources: recruitment and selection, training and development, management style. * New Product Development: the systems and procedures used to develop and design new products and services. * Performance Measurement: financial and non-financial performance management and its linkage to recognition and reward systems. These issues are important to every organisation as this involves the use made up of the operating hardware as discussed above. It is possible to change aspects of operations infrastructure more quickly and easily than the case for operations structure. Nonetheless the difficulty of doing so should not be underestimated or neither should the impact of making inappropriate infrastructural decisions parallel. Conclusion Organisational strategy is concerned with the actions a company takes in order to survive and prosper within the environment it operates over the long-term. Strategy can exist at three levels in an organisation: which are; corporate, business and functional. Any organisation’s operations strategy includes the totality of the actions and decisions taken within the operations function. The decisions or actions taken have a direct impact on the organisation’s business and corporate strategy. An organisation’s operations can be a source of competitive advantage if they are managed strategically in pursuit of a clear goal for operations. These are five possible operations objectives; cost, quality, speed, dependability and flexibility. It is unlikely that any operation can excel at all of these simultaneously, so competitive priorities must be determined on which to base the operations strategy. The process of operations strategy concerns the way in which an organisation develops its operations strategy. This might be top-down (i.e. formed in pursuit of its business and corporate strategy), bottom-up (i.e. formed from the actions and decisions taken with operations), market-led (i.e. formed in response to market requirements) or operations-led (based on the resources and capabilities within its operations). The content of operation strategy consists of the key decision areas concerned with the structure (i.e. the physical attributes of facilities, capacity, process technology and supply network) and infrastructure (i.e. planning and control, quality, organisation, human resources, new product development and performance measurement). Through a value chain, operations strategy would be placed in line with the company supply chain strategies and perspectives where business process are involved. This concerns the pattern of strategic decisions and actions which set the role, objectives and activities of operations. (Slack et al., 2004). References Johnson, g and Scoles, k Exploring corporate strategy, 6th Edition. England: Prentice Hall Ltd Miller, R Jentz, G (2009) Fundamentals of Business , 2nd Edition. England: Cengage Learning Soulsby, S Marsh, J (2002) Business , 8th Edition. London: Nelson Thornes Ltd Rush, J Ottley, M (2006) Business for students. London: Thomson Learning www.wikipedia.org Accessed: 15.20pm: 24.1.12

True and something believed to be true

True and something believed to be true In the gospel of John in the New Testament (18:28-40), Jesus is brought before Pontius Pilate, a Roman governor. Pilate, who is a sensible and experienced man, is perplexed as to what Jesus has done to warrant a meeting with him. After a short exchange between the two men, we begin to see truth in two different ways. On the one hand, Jesus has a very firm idea (18:37): You are right in saying I am a king. For this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me. To which Pilate merely replies: What is truth? as if to say, You think truth exists independently of everyone as a standard by which we can judge our beliefs?[1] The question, what is truth, is central to everyday life and the ways of knowing help us begin to answer it. When you know something, you are certain about it and have no doubts regarding the matter; when you believe something, you merely think it is true and are not completely certain about it. There are many things that people assume are true but a quick look at specific ways of knowing might prove otherwise. The ways of knowing-language, perception, reason and emotion-serve to distinguish the truth and remind people that some claims arent meant to be taken at face value. There are many types of perception. Nave realism is a view of perception that asserts that we directly perceive the world as it is. Objects are simplified; the way that things smell, look, taste, sound and feel is how they smell, look, taste, sound and feel. We hear a sound when a tree falls because the tree made a sound when it fell. Though, reasonably, there is a lot more to perception. For example, Though thing s may appear to be colored to us, our experiences of color are merely representative of the surface properties of objects[2]; the physical property of reflecting certain wavelengths of light and the actual color as we experience it are two different things.[3] This eventually leads to the idea of representative realism, which suggests that perception is not as simple and passive of a process that the naive realism is. Representative realism follows the idea that we simply are not able to obtain enough information about our surroundings with our senses. Instead, it involves the person; we supply most of the content of our experience.[4] For example, to most people touching a table means that contact had been made. But this perception is a mistaken one; science refutes that claim and states that when someone touches a table, no physical contact had taken place. According to physics, the table is made up of millions and millions of atoms and it is in their nature that when coming into contact with another atom, they repel each other. So when a hand, also made up of millions of atoms, comes into contact with a table, the atoms repel each other and scientifically, the hand touched nothing. Our sense of perception allows us to take the claim of touching the table to be a true claim and there is little or no doubt regarding it. But after studying the ways of knowing that involves perception, it has been ascertained that it has several weaknesses and learning about them helps us re-evaluate what we considered to be true. Language is a matter of syntax, in this case, representation of meaning. When communicating, the first step is to encode meaning in syntax and then convert it back into something significant. Thus language is the medium of communication. But not everything can be expressed in language, though it is a dynamic part of peoples lives language changes. Words go out of fashion, they start to mean different things and people invent words and different ways of stringing them together. So things that might have been one thing during a certain period of time might not be the same now, and since knowledge also differs with every language, something that is considered to be the truth in one language may not be in another. The quest for knowledge and truth is limited by our language and its ability to control what we can and cannot know.[5] Language is ubiquitous and something that surrounds us so completely that we rarely are consciously aware of it. Language is relevant to the theory of knowledge because it is the primary way we acquire knowledge about our surroundings. But truth sometimes becomes ambiguous due to the variety of interpretations of language. For example, the U.S government has been accused of approving the usage torture such as water-boarding on extrajudicial prisoners by the CIA. The government denied it as torture and instead claimed that it is an enhanced interrogation technique. The truth remains ambiguous in this case , is it really a severe technique of interrogation or is it torture? Water-boarding is classified as torture but the government manipulated the words used to describe the action to blur the truth of the matter. Language can be misinterpreted because what one person means when they have said something may not be what another person understands. If a person sometimes does not understand the implied meanings of certain words, they can be misled to believe that it is something else, leading to misunderstandings. Meaning is an integral part of language; to discover the truth, one must first try to understand what is meant by this sentence before the decision of whether this sentence is true or not can be made. Emotion sometimes makes it harder for us to differentiate between what it true and what is believed true. Strong emotion distorts the other ways of knowledge.[6] Emotion influences the way we think and many of our intuitions are based on gut feelings, so when it is linked with find ing the truth, it can be described as a sixth sense, or having a feeling, we do not know that there is truth in what we believe, we just feel it.[7] Feelings cannot be trusted all of the time because we do not know whether or not they are indicating the truth. Because emotions affect the way we perceive, perhaps finding the truth based on emotions isnt the best way to start, it does one thing. It allows belief to bloom. Peoples strong beliefs considering some matter is able to power their notions that what they believe is in fact the truth, and even though it may not be, it is the truth to them. A definition of knowing could be the awareness of the truth of something; for instance a belief or faith in something; which is regarded as truth beyond any doubt.[8] To reason means to let logic take the reins of trying to find the truth. People are able to use past experiences to work out what has happened in situations. Rationalists believe that reason is the most important way to find kn owledge. The central principle of rationalism is that we can discover important truths about reality through the use of reason alone.[9] Cogito ergo sum, a famous saying by a famous rationalist Renà © Descartes, was used as the foundation to build a rational system of philosophy. The two ways of reasoning are deductive and inductive. Deductive reasoning allows a person to work from a general case to a more specific instance whereas inductive reasoning is reasoning from a specific case or cases to a general rule. Deductive reasoning uses a general claim to classify something. So it can sometimes be unreasonable to come to a conclusion and simply claim it as the truth without being more thorough about the matter. For instance, the premise all humans are mortal is true, and we know that Socrates is human, so we are able to come to the conclusion that Socrates is, indeed, mortal. Another example uses another premise, everyone who drives at 90 mph is breaking the law, and we know that P aul is breaking the law, so do we come to the conclusion that Paul is driving at 90 mph?[10] No, it is important to remember that when coming to such a conclusion, that it can be a conclusion of an invalid argument. Inductive reasoning goes beyond the immediate evidence of our sense, so we cannot always trust it to be truth.[11] People have a tendency to generalize too fast and jump to wrong conclusions, a result of faulty and unjustified reasoning. Confirmation bias makes these generalizations even worse as people tend to only remember the facts that support what they believe and leave out anything that goes against what they have believe to be the truth. Truth is hard to find when reason and logic are clouded with prejudice. There is a huge difference between knowing something is true and believing that it is true. The various ways of knowing have many drawbacks and may lead one to believe something is true when it isnt. Understanding these shortcomings can only help us recognize that claims of knowledge cannot be taken at face value. Bibliography Goleman, Daniel. Know Thyself, Emotional Intelligence. New York: Bantam Books, 2005. Print. Holt , Tim. Theories of Perception. Theory of Knowledge. 2006. theoryof knowledge.info, Web. 10 Jan 2010. . Orwell, George. Politics and the English Language, Norton Reader. New York: W.W. Norton Co., 6th ed., 1984. Print. Sacks, Oliver, The Case of the Colorblind Painter, An Anthropologist on Mars. New York: Knopf, 1995. Print. Southwell, Gareth. Knowledge. Theory of Knowledge. 2006. Philosophy Online, Web. 09 Jan 2010. . Trochim, William. Deduction and Induction. Research Methods: Knowledge Base. 20 Oct 2006. Social Research Methods, Web. 10 Jan 2010. . Van de Lagemaat, Richard. Theory of Knowledge for the IB Diploma. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Print. Van Dyke, Frances. Venn Diagrams and Logic. Illumination; Resources. 2010. thinkinfinity.org, Web. 09 Jan 2010. . Whiteley, C.H.. Physical Objects as Not Reducible to Perceptions, in Klemke, E.D., A. David Kline, Robert Hollinger, eds. Philosophy: The Basic Issues. New York: St. Martins Press, 1982. Print. [1] Southwell, Gareth. Knowledge. Theory of Knowledge. 2006. Philosophy Online, Web. 09 Jan 2010. . [2] Whiteley, C.H.. Physical Objects as Not Reducible to Perceptions, in Klemke, E.D., A. David Kline, Robert Hollinger, eds. Philosophy: The Basic Issues. New York: St. Martins Press, 1982. 90. Print. [3] Holt , Tim. Theories of Perception. Theory of Knowledge. 2006. theoryof knowledge.info, Web. 10 Jan 2010. . [4] Sacks, Oliver, The Case of the Colorblind Painter, An Anthropologist on Mars. New York: Knopf, 1995. 32. Print. [5] Orwell, George. Politics and the English Language, Norton Reader. New York: W.W. Norton Co., 6th ed., 1984. 392. Print. [6] Van de Lagemaat, Richard. Theory of Knowledge for the IB Diploma. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 146. Print. [7] Goleman, Daniel. Know Thyself, Emotional Intelligence. New York: Bantam Books, 2005. 50. Print. [8] Van de Lagemaat, Richard. Theory of Knowledge for the IB Diploma. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 160. Print. [9] Ibid, 143. [10] Van Dyke, Frances. Venn Diagrams and Logic. Illumination; Resources. 2010. thinkinfinity.org, Web. 09 Jan 2010. . [11] Trochim, William. Deduction and Induction. Research Methods: Knowledge Base. 20 Oct 2006. Social Research Methods, Web. 10 Jan 2010. .

panama canal :: essays research papers

The Panama Canal is one of the greatest works of engineering and modern achievements of mankind. An all-water passage through the continental divide of the Panama region had been suggested since early Spanish colonial times of the 16th century. The reality of a canal through the Isthmus of Panam In the 16th century, Europeans dreamed of building a ship canal across the Isthmus of Panama. Spanish kings considered building a canal to carry treasure from their South American colonies back to Spain, but no attempt was made. Such a project only became possible in the 19th century, wPart of Teddy Roosevelt’s dream of making America a global power was realized through the construction of the Panama Canal. The French began construction in 1880 but nine years and about 20,000 lives later they realized their plans were flawed and abandoned the project. Panama declared independencThe history of the Panama Canal goes back to the 16th century. After realizing the riches of Peru, Ecuador, and Asia, and realizing how long it took the gold to reach the ports of Spain, someone suggested to Charles V, that by cutting out a piece of land somewhere in Panama,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The year is 1835, and an announcement is mad eby a group of American busnessmen. This announcement is of their intention to build a canal system on the ithsmus of landformerly known as Norhtern Calumbia. That land is now known as Panama. The citizens of the U.S. at that time were i  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Panama Canal is a waterway that cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and links the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. It ranks as one of the greatest engineering achievements in the world. Thousands of laborers worked on it for about 10 years, using steam shovels and dredgesIs it really worth building a canal in Nicaragua? With news of Nicaragua adopting the idea of a dry canal the first question that should come to mind is, is it really worth building a canal in Nicaragua? Many people look at Panama with its enviable economy and say that Nicaragua needs a canal but thThe canal is joining the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

The End of The Storm :: Free Essays Online

The End of The Storm I've heard it said that an institution is the sum of it's parts, but I prefer to think of it as the average of them. My high school, Campbell Hall, was a great school not because of the fact that it had a large number of great faculty members and students, but because it had an eclectic mix of great people. Campbell hall has a diverse mix of forward thinking people being lead by one of the most regressive and closed minded men I have ever met, the Reverend Canon Thomas C. Clark. When I arrived at Campbell Hall in ninth grade I knew that it was Episcopalian, and being a person who is never quite happy with one religion this scared me a little. But I soon found out that chapel included services for Jewish high holy days, Ramadan, and any other religious holidays that were celebrated by the student body. I was extremely impressed with this. But I soon found out that the Administration was not as tolerant as the chaplain in charge with these services. My first problem with Reverend Clark was when, in ninth grade, a friend of mine's older sister was asked to leave school because she was pregnant. I was too young to truly appreciate the lack of compassion shown for this girl then, but I was old enough to know that this was not the right way to handle the situation. My first true confrontation with Reverend Clark was when four people in my twenty-two person sophomore English class were caught cheating on an exam. The high school principal got to the bottom of it and punished the guilty accordingly. A week later my class found out that Reverend Clark had decided to make an example out of these four by suspending the entire English class for a day in hopes of making any future cheaters fear the wrath of their peers as well as that of the administration. Well myself, my class, and the entire student body were not very pleased with this decision, so we decided to show up to class on the day of our suspension anyway. Clark caved in, and we all went to class. But the event which truly confirmed my abhorrence of Reverend Clark was when my friend Andrew wrote a stunning essay for his A.P. English class on the confusions of growing up gay. The End of The Storm :: Free Essays Online The End of The Storm I've heard it said that an institution is the sum of it's parts, but I prefer to think of it as the average of them. My high school, Campbell Hall, was a great school not because of the fact that it had a large number of great faculty members and students, but because it had an eclectic mix of great people. Campbell hall has a diverse mix of forward thinking people being lead by one of the most regressive and closed minded men I have ever met, the Reverend Canon Thomas C. Clark. When I arrived at Campbell Hall in ninth grade I knew that it was Episcopalian, and being a person who is never quite happy with one religion this scared me a little. But I soon found out that chapel included services for Jewish high holy days, Ramadan, and any other religious holidays that were celebrated by the student body. I was extremely impressed with this. But I soon found out that the Administration was not as tolerant as the chaplain in charge with these services. My first problem with Reverend Clark was when, in ninth grade, a friend of mine's older sister was asked to leave school because she was pregnant. I was too young to truly appreciate the lack of compassion shown for this girl then, but I was old enough to know that this was not the right way to handle the situation. My first true confrontation with Reverend Clark was when four people in my twenty-two person sophomore English class were caught cheating on an exam. The high school principal got to the bottom of it and punished the guilty accordingly. A week later my class found out that Reverend Clark had decided to make an example out of these four by suspending the entire English class for a day in hopes of making any future cheaters fear the wrath of their peers as well as that of the administration. Well myself, my class, and the entire student body were not very pleased with this decision, so we decided to show up to class on the day of our suspension anyway. Clark caved in, and we all went to class. But the event which truly confirmed my abhorrence of Reverend Clark was when my friend Andrew wrote a stunning essay for his A.P. English class on the confusions of growing up gay.

The Unjustified War in Iraq Essay -- Politics Political Essays

The Unjustified War in Iraq History has many times been tainted with the blood of war. Lives have been lost, homes have been destroyed, and families have been torn apart. Once again, our nation is about to witness a terror that no one can really comprehend. We are on the threshold of an unjustifiable war. The United States should refrain from war with Iraq because of the lack of concrete evidence in regards to weapons of mass destruction. Instead, they should be working towards peace. Following September 11, Bush claimed Iraq to be connected with Al Qaeda in Prague or Kurdistan (Alter 29). This was played up even though the CIA and FBI determined that "evidence is fragmentary and inconclusive and that the administration is exaggerating information to make a political case for war." (Heuvel) Later, the Bush Administration stated that Iraq possessed terrible weapons of mass destruction. Secretary of State Colin Powell was sent to the United Nations, to make the Bush administration's case for preemptive war against Iraq. His case presented several accusations but very little new information or proof that weapons of mass destruction are actually present in Iraq. "Nearly all of his evidence was largely circumstantial or speculative"(Heuvel). Not only will this war take the lives of a nation where over 50% of the population is children under the age of 15, but it will also endanger our own troops because of inexcusable negligence by our government. The pentagon was finally forced to admit, last October, that 250,000 faulty battle-dress over garments (BDO) suits have been lost among 800,000 usable BDO suits, and they are unable to determine which are the damaged suits. With the type of chemical warfare our soldie... ...st option but as a distant final option. "Let us declare peace a civil right in a democracy, and a human right in this world." (Kucinich) Works Cited Alter, Jonathan. " 'Trust Me' Isn't Good Enough." Newsweek 3 Feb. 2003: 29. Byrd, Robert. Senate Floor Speech. U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. 12 Feb. 2003. Dickey, Christopher. "Perils of Victory." Newsweek 3 Feb. 2003: 30-32. Heuvel, Katrina Vanden. "Powell Fails to Make Case." The Nation. 6 Feb. 2003. 10 Feb. 2003 <http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml> Kucinich, Dennis. Peace as a Civil Right. Martin Luther King Day Celebration. Ministerial Alliance. Lakewood Presbyterian Church, Lakewood, OH. 19 Jan. 2003. Wolfe, Richard and Hirsh, Michael. "War and Consequences." Newsweek 3 Feb. 2003: 22-28. Zakaria, Fareed. "Looking on the Bright Side." Newsweek 3 Feb. 2003: 33

Cry Freedom

Donald Woods is an editor of the Daily Dispatch, a Journal in East London, South Africa. One morning he gets news of a police raid in the black township Crossroads which lies in Cape Town. He also gets photos of the raid and he decides to print them although the government doesn ‘t allow to print such photos. Woods doesn t believe the demand of the black people but he is trained as a lawyer and doesn ‘t like police brutality against black people. So he also writes an editorial about a Biko, the leadership of ?The SC†. The next day Dr.Mamphela who works for Biko in is clinic, comes to Woods office to speak to him, about this article. She is very angry, because she thinks, that Woods has printed rubbish about Biko and that he is uninformed about the ideas that Biko has. So she invents him to meet Biko in his banning area. chapter 2 and 3: Some days later Woods meets Steven Biko in an old church were he wants to make a centre for black people. First he is critical agai nst Biko, but then he listens to Biko's opinion and they mentally changed the roles. Biko also goes with Woods to the clinic, which Biko has built.The clinic is only for black people, with black workers and a black doctor. But Woods already think that black and whits should work together, but he also understands, that the blacks wants something that they put up themselves. At the end Biko invites Woods to come and see how black people in South Africa really live. chapter 4 and 5: In the black township, they eat with a black family. Biko, the family and are discussing about the system, the history how the white came to South Africa and how the black people got their bad situation which they have now.After this visit Woods change his mind, because he sees for the first time how worse the black has to live, how big their espair is but also how strong their togetherness stay. At the end of this day Biko and Woods become friends. chapter 6: Six weeks later Woods gives TenJy and Mapetla, two friends of Biko, a Job in his newspaper. Mapetla takes Woods and Ken to a footballmatch of the black. Instead of the match Biko helds a speech. Ken and Woods were convinced by this speech and the ideas Biko represent. hapter 7: After the match Biko is caught by the police because an informer of the government had told the police about the speech. In the police office Biko gets hit by Captain De Wet. After he fght between Biko and De Wet two policemen throw Biko out of the office. Two weeks later Biko is a main witness for the defence of two student organizations who arranged two years before a large meeting in support of the new government in Mozambique. Woods prints the words of Biko although it is against the law. chapter 8: In this night Captain De Wet and two other policemen smash all things of value in the church.Donald Woods cannot print this in his newspaper because the witness is a black man called Dilima and if Woods prints his name, Dilima would kill by the police. So Woods approach to Kruger, the Minister of Police, and speaks with him about the incident. The minister declares him that he will pursues that matter because he doesn ‘t want that such sort of things happen. Woods thinks that the police men aren't as worse as many blacks think, Woods unfortuantely trust him. chapter 9: But on sunday afternoon two policemen come and want to know the name of the witness from Woods.Woods explains them that he was by Kruger and he gets angry because Kruger had betrayed him. Because the two havent a warrant Woods could send them away without saying the name. It does not happen anything for weeks and Woods thinks that it is alright. But it is not. chapter 10: One night the two policemen check the passport of Woods black housekeeper Evalina. Woods throws them out of his property. The next day, the police take revenge: Three men jump out of a car and take Mapetla in it. Donald Woods thinks that Mapetla gets beaten by them and that they make an example so that no other black person will dare him.Two days later TenJy gets arrested without any charges. After a week Mapetla is dead. The official explanation of the death from Mapetla is, that he anged himself. But Biko and Woods cannot believe that, so Biko demands a inquest. TenJy is the main witness at the inquest but the Judge closes the inquest without fix the death of Mapetla on anybody. chapter 1 1: Biko drives to Cape Town to speak in an important meeting of black students although he knows that it's forbidden for him. On the way back form Cape Town the car was stopped by the police and they want to see the papers from Biko.As they recognize the person in the car, they arrest him promptly to the prison in Port Elizabeth. Six days later the police call a doctor to look at Biko. The body is covered with bruises, the forehead and eyes seriously injured. On the chest and lips are cuts. The doctor orders to bring Biko in a hospital. Although the doctor tells them that Biko possible has a brain damage they want to bring him to the police hospital in Pretoria a 1000 kilometres away and not to Port Elizabeth Wich is only 4 kilometres away because they would have the control about him.The doctor cannot do anything against the police and so they put Biko on a blanket at the floor in the back of a Land Rover. Then they drive with Biko on thousand km rough country roads and during the Journey Biko's head is bumping on he floor. chaper 12: Biko dies and Woods prints a article about him with the headline â€Å"BIKO DIES IN CUSTODY†. The Minister of Police denies police responsibility and he says that Biko has been arrested outside his banning area and died because he starved himself to dead.One day after Bikos dead Ntsiki, who is the wife of Biko, Woods and Ken go to the mortuary to find out how Biko actually died. They were all shocked by the appearance of Biko's body, the lips are swollen, a huge lump on the forehead and many bruises around his eyes. Ken sudde nly puts out a small camera and makes photos of Biko's body. Woods and his wife arrive at the funeral and they see thousands of black people with pictures of Biko. There would come more black people but there are road-blocks of the police. The mood of the crowd is angry but also sorrowful.After a speech the crowd begin to sing the African Song which Steven Biko loved. chapter 13: Woods wants that other newspapers write about Biko's death, because if he does, the government would shut the Daily Dispatch. But all the other newspapers are also afraid and wouldn't fight the system this way. So Woods decides to fly to New York under a false name. The day he leave he sends the photos to England an America printed the pictures of Biko's body and demands on an inquest. But on the airport two securitys stopp Woods and bring him in an office.There Lieutnant Beukes reads from a warrent to Woods that he becomes a banning person for five years. chapter 14: Although the police forbid Woods to wri te he starts to write a book about Biko ‘s life, because he thinks that Bikos ideas have to live on. family has to escape from South Africa if they don ‘t want to get killed. Wendy first doesn't agree with this idea and the two have a big conflict. A few days later, the hildren of Woods reached a anonym parcel with poissoned Shirts. After this awful experience Wendy also wants to publish the book. hapter 15: So Woody quickly begins to plan the escape with Father Kani and Bruce McCullough. The 31st December in the night Woods escape begins: He disguise himself in father Curren and Wendy drives Woods to King Williams town, from where he hitch-hike to a place beyond Queenstown. There he meet Father Kant, who drives him to the edge of the river Telle. In the early morning of the 1st January Woods should crossover the river but it doesnt work because the river was too wide and deep. So he went back to the edge of the river. chapter 16: Woods knows that Tami, a friend of Biko lives near, so he walks to him.Tami brings him by car to the Telle Bridge, when Woods wants to open the gate, a Land Rover stopp in front of him. Fortunately the man, called Moses, was from the postal service and he even take Woods to Maseru. At the passport station he has no problems, so he gets to Lesotho without more problems. There he quickly phones to his family, they also follow. chaper 17: Moses brings Woods to the point where he meets Bruce, who brings him to Maseru, where he talks to the Brithis cting high Cmmisioner to ask him to enter their country. chapter 18: The next morning Woods family also arrives in Lesotho.The whole family gets passports from the United Nations and flyes with a private pilot, who wills to fly over South Africa without landing. Woods felt a little sad when he sees his homeland because he might never see it again. But he was also happy, because he will publish his book and show Biko's ideas to the whole world. He hopes that men's minds could be chan ge, before the price become too high. In his mind he hears the crowd of thousands singing at Biko's funeral. Donald Woods is one of the important persons in the story. He is married with Wendy and has five children.Woods is 42 and the editor of the Daily Dispatch. In the beginnig of the book he doesn t believe that black people should be allowed to vote and he also accepts the laws that forced blacks and whites to live in separate areas. He only disagree the police brutality against the black. The meeting with Biko in the curch, when they change the roles mentals, the speech of Biko at the stadium and his first view of the township, when he feels the strong sense of togetherness Woods change his mind about his political ideas. He becomes a good friend of Biko and he helps him to fght for more rights for the black.So he gets troubles with the government and in the end he has to escape of the country where he has born, because he wants to publish the book about Biko. Stephan Biko is a serious, intelligent and handsome young black man. He is a warm and gently person. Stevenn is married with Ntsiki and has two children. He is a banned person which means that he can only be in his banning area and he is able to speak only with one person except his family. Biko gets in this situation because he fghts for more rights for the black. He is one of the most important leader of the Black Consciousness.Steven often goes out of his banning area and so once he gets caught and finally kill by the is dedicated to the struggle for black rights. For him South Africa was for black and white, they only had to find a way to live together without violence. Biko is banned because of his leadership of a movement called â€Å"The Black Consciousness† (equal rights for blacks and whites, live together without violence, black should be proud of being black, blacks should know their history, not anymore accept the handship imposed by the system, confrontation without violence)

Review of Psychology and Christianity 5 Views

Assessment 1 Assessment 1 What does psychology have to do with the Christian faith? In Psychology and Christianity: Five Views, by Myers, Jones, Roberts, Watson, Coe, Hall, and Powlison (2010) is an introductory textbook for Christian psychology that provides sound arguments for an array of positions on psychology and faith. Each author contributed an essay and in return the other essayist respond by either agreeing or disagreeing by pointing out faults and explaining why. The first position by David G.Myers titled, â€Å"A-Levels-of-Explanation View,† who is a psychological scientist who supports that Christian theology and psychology are two very distinct disciplines, but they do share similar goals. Myers defines psychology as, â€Å"the science of behavior and mental processes† (2010, pg. 49) and that over time different variations of this definition have agreed that psychology is a science. By having curiosity and humility we should seek out to test each other†™s ideas. He has high regards towards empirical psychological research that it can reveal about a person’s personality, behavior, attitudes, relationships and more.He also confirms that psychology can affirm aspects of Christian faith, for example psychological science supports family values, and that at time psychological science might cause us to change our view on Christian theology and interpretations of scripture. Myers admits that he has changed his stance on homosexuals, as there is more research on psychological findings and genetic research. He concludes that, â€Å"sexual orientation is a natural disposition, not a voluntary moral choice† (2010, pg. 72). Secondly, Stanton L.Jones writes about, â€Å"An Integration View,† where psychology and Christianity should be intertwined with each other. He believes that science is a tool that God uses as an instrument of revelation. Although Jones upholds that scripture determines the foundational beliefs and u nderstanding of Christians, it does not provide us with the full knowledge of understanding humans. Throughout Jones view, he emphasizes the importance of â€Å"a thoughtful Christian appreciation for science† (144) and as Christians we should be able to engage with secular psychology, but he also acknowledges this engagement has its limits.Furthermore, Jones uses homosexuality, like Myers, as a test case, but is very clear on what scripture says about this behavior and does not let data change his mind on this topic since the Authority of Scripture cannot be mistaken. The Christian Psychology view by Roberts and Watson, have a more historical and philosophical approach. They do not deny modern psychology, but argue that psychology has been around for the past 2500 years. For example, he brings up issues relevant today with the Sermon on the Mount instead of the science offered by todays establish psychologist.Roberts and Watson also claim that Christian psychologist should a pproach psychology with the bases of the Christian tradition. â€Å"Christians must approach the subject matter of humanity embracing what God has told us about what it mean to be fully human first; that then is our framework for engaging psychology as a social science† (p. 183). Roberts and Watson purpose a two-stage method: â€Å"to first appropriate the resources of the rich, Christian psychological tradition, and then to employ it in the advance of empirical science and applied science† (p. 184).This is how a Christian understanding of the person can come to hypotheses that can be tested, therefore advancing our comprehension on humans. Lastly, the Biblical Counseling Model, by Powlison opens up his view with, â€Å"Christian faith is a psychology† and that â€Å"Christian ministry is a psychotherapy† (p. 245). He uses these terms differently when compared to modern psychologist.. He further illustrates that psychology can be categorized into six line s (Psych-1 to Psych-6): the raw experiences of life, organized knowledge, interpretive and explanatory models, psychotherapy, institutional and professional arrangements and the ethos of culture.He goes on and uses these terms with numerous biblical themes by providing a test case. Powlison is more interested in assisting the individual using biblical insights to better understand. I found that Stanton L. Jones, An Integration View, was the most persuasive for me. He emphasizes that if we Christians believe that Jesus Christ is Savior and Lord of all and that there is no life outside of the scope of his sovereignty. An integrationist view believes the Christian psychologist should draw on the resource of God’s answers to these ultimate questions as the foundation both for how we engage the science of psychology and how we structure our practice in the profession of psychology† (p. 101). I also strongly agree with him that our human experiences should be based on scriptu re, but he also acknowledges that Scripture alone could provide every aspect for understanding people as well as their problems and solutions. He also argues that the Christian faith â€Å"can and should relate to science in general and psychological science in particular† (p. 06). He emphasizes that if Christian psychologist focus more on the Bible and Christian theology, it will help shape their work because they will embrace biblical truth and theological principals. Jones also argues not just for the Christian faith in psychology, but for the science as well. â€Å"Because by his sovereign choice, God’s acting and speech are limited. Further, he has created humans as rational beings capable of knowing more and more about reality around them through the exercise of their reason and curiosity† (p. 10). Therefore we should integrate the discipline of psychology with one’s commitment to Scripture to shape their work. Although I agreed with most of what My ers argued for, I strongly disagreed with his view on sexual orientation. He professes that he is a Christian who reads the word, spends time with the Lord daily, but also confesses that over time data has swayed him to change his mind and now believes that â€Å"sexual orientation (most clearly for males) is a natural disposition, not a voluntary moral choice† (p. 73).I believe that Scripture has clearly stated what is right and wrong in our sexual lives. Myers also states that, â€Å"our assumptions and beliefs always shape our approaches to science† (p. 81). Since Myers is heavily influenced by science, this has led him to change his moral views on sexual orientation, therefore, ignoring the moral aspect that biblical teaching that the act of homosexuality is immoral and is a disorientation of what God meant for human life. I thoroughly enjoyed learning and reading the four out five views in this book.It has made me acknowledge that I need to spend more time in theo logy and in the word in order to better grasp the understanding of people. By doing so I hope to become not only more knowledgeable in the area of psychology, but a better servant for Christ. References Myers, D. G. , Jones, S. L. , Roberts, R. C. , Watson, P. J. , Coe, J. H. , Hall, T. W. , Powlison, D. (2010). Psychology and Christianity five views. E. L. Johnson (2nd ed. ). Downers, IL: InterVarsity Press.