Critique assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Critique - Assignment Example In this context, it is clear that the model has solemn faults when used as a cognitive and psychosocial explanation of religious faith, but to some extent, it has strong points to be noted. The Stages of Faith and moral development model is characterized by Fowler’s designation of faith. He defines it as â€Å"worldwide quality of human being meaning making†. It describes the fundamental meaning-making process utilized by all individuals regardless of their beliefs. To the author, faith occurs as persons place individual loyalty and trust in or many â€Å"centers of value† such as money, religion, power, and family The model of development suggests that this structure remains uniform in spite of whether individuals are side with a spiritual or unspiritual centre of value (  Fowler 67). As a result, the faith development model centers at the psychological issues that make possible the operation of faith but does not address any detailed faith content; that is, t he specific faith beliefs and values of a given religion. The use of a structural technique by Fowler to systematize the faith developmental phases and how he defines faith are challenging in a manner. Being a structural theory, most readers assume that faith development clarify in a consistent way across hierarchical, universal, and irreversible stages. According to psychological research, development entails much more variability and a rigid stage as theory is inadequate in its capability to confine diversity and richness of religious development. Further, critics differ with the logic behind Fowler’s elimination of sacred content from the development stages of faith. The exclusion was based on the concept that faith entails trust and loyalty to centre of value and has no need of intellectual accord to any definite assertions. One scholar by the name of Jones T.P (20040 criticized this element of Fowler by arguing that Christianity involves trust and loyalty in Jesus Christ . As a centre of value, yet at the same time, it is a â€Å"content-requisite faith† that is base on recognition of certain beliefs like the existence of God, Jesus’ resurrection from the departed, and Jesus as the son of God and messiah. Agreeing to other contents and beliefs apart from Christian principles is regarded as idolatry. The weakness of Fowler’s description of faith as a worldwide construct detach from religious context is that it is contrary to faith’s definition of content requisite spiritual groups (  Fowler 70). 3 strong points of James Fowler’s theory Concrete operational thinking This is a strong idea developed in the first stage of Fowler’s theory. Affectively, the decree of oedipal factors or their immersions in latency are vital accompanying factors. In the middle of transition from one stage to another is a child’s growing concern to basically know how things are and to make clear personally the foundations of differences between what is factual and what solely seems to be. The birth of imagination This is a strong point in the first stage of Fowler’s theory. He puts forward the ability to grasp and unify the experience-world in influential images as illustrated in

Pivot Column Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Pivot Column - Assignment Example The column (r) becomes an r-nth column. In a tableau the pivot column is the column that has the most negative integer. If there are no negative indicators then the tableau is already considered final and the solution is already evident. The pivot row is the row with the smallest non-negative ratio (quotient). The pivot element is the number that sits at the intersection of the column with the most negative indictor (pivot column) and the row with the smallest quotient (pivot row). The example below is from â€Å"The Simplex Method† (n.d. web). This scenario was based on three different products ( s , t, u) and three different machines required to make those products. Note all calculations are done from the basic solution that x, y, and z, (number of units per product) are all zero. The original numbers used and the full calculation can be found in the reference section. In this first set of calculations the pivot column is in blue, the pivot row is in yellow and the pivot element is in green. The pivot element is found by first selecting the pivot column (the one with the most negative indicator) – in this example it is column 1 with -6. Then the constant on the right of the bar needs to be divided by the corresponding non-zero element in the pivot column and this will give you the smallest quotient (pivot row) and the intersection of these two (row and column) will give you the pivot

I.T Implementation Plan for ProComm Technology Solutions, an IT Term Paper

I.T Implementation Plan for ProComm Technology Solutions, an IT Consulting Company - Term Paper Example This is effectively realized through our wide range of products and services that seek to deliver a new way of handling day to day business affairs with the incorporation of IT infrastructure. Business Overview and Structure ProComm responds to a dynamic market and is therefore structured uniquely to handle the challenges that come with such changes. It consists of various departments and technical specialists organized into multidisciplinary teams. The organizational structure of ProComm is considered an adhocracy characterized by several levels of management (Laudon & Laudon). The business is characterized by a senior management staff consisting of a top CEO/President, VP/Sales & Marketing. Their role in the company is to make long-range strategic decisions about products and services as well as ensure the financial performance of the company. Middle management will consist of a Director of Sales and a Director of Operations. They carry out the programs and plans of senior manageme nt while monitoring the daily activities of the business. Knowledge workers will consist of a small team of sales people with regional territories. Their job role is to identify and interact with potential customers, make customers aware of the products and services offered and procure work for the firm. The production and service workers are the employees that actually produce and implement the services of the company. They will be led by a team leader/supervisor. Their main function is to assemble products and implement services, check for quality assurance and produce bills of materials when jobs are completed. Business Process and Services The performance of a firm depends on how well its business processes are planned and synchronized. Business processes can be a source of competitive advantage if they enable the company to execute better than its rivals. The major business functions of the company will consist of Business Process Management, Sales and Marketing, Production and Services, Finance and Accounting, and Human Resources. Business Process Management Business Process Management (BPM) is a "holistic management" approach to aligning an organization's core processes with the needs of clients. This promotes business efficiency while at the same time striving for flexible innovation, and technology integration. It makes the organization's workflow more effective, and capable of adapting to a dynamic market. Senior management will be in charge of BPM, and also have at their disposal Executive Support System functionality. The system offers a powerful management tool to gather and analyze information throughout the firm. It produces user-defined reports instantaneously, enabling decision makers at all levels to view integrated financial, clinical, and statistical information from all departments (Meditech 2010). In the middle management hierarchy the Operations manager will be entailed with a Transaction Processing System to keep track of elementary act ivities and transactions of the organization. These transactions include: sales, receipts, cash deposits, payroll, credit decisions and service flow that make up the day o day company activity. The Director of Sales will be entailed with a Decision Support System focus on problems that are unique, and the solution may not be fully predefined. They try to answer questions of possible future outcomes based on certain circumstances (Laudon & Laudon, 2010). Sales and Marketin

Analysis the case of business law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Analysis the case of business law - Essay Example he employer and his/her employees is vital not only for resolving any potential employment disputes in future but for the benefit of the both parties as well. It is mandatory as per the employment law of the country which prescribes the document the sole proof for one’s employment with an employer. The law states that a contract of employment is generally referred to as a contract of service and is governed by general contractual principles as well as employment law principles and is therefore legally binding. There are two forms in which an employment contract can come into force, namely Expressed Contract and Implied Contract. Expressed contract is always preferred as there is written document with the employer and employee as to the relationship between them. An expressed employment contract may be prepared specifically as a document for the purpose or the employment hand book may be used for the purpose. Employers usually would like to add some clauses in the written contract that protect them from the threat of employees entering into business with competitors. Unlike expressed contract, implied contract does not contain any written/documented employment terms. Here, the terms of employment between the employee and employer is understood by implications. This form of contract is suggested for employment for which there is no need for any written contract as a base for future decision making. In this context, a point to be noticed is that unless otherwise expressed, the employees are obliged to work for the employer with due diligence and in such a context, the implied terms includes the following: As stated earlier, the contract of employment is mandatory as per law and the legislation which make it compulsory is the Employment Rights Act, 1996 (ERA) and the Act says that where an employee begins employment with an employer, the employer shall give to the employee a written statement of particulars of his employment within two months of the beginning of

Write a 500 word Market Research Brief from behalf of a company of Essay

Write a 500 word Market Research Brief from behalf of a company of your choice. The brief can be developed on any kind of problem the company has or may have - Essay Example He is known to push people to accomplish goals and objectives more than they thought they could achieve. He also stretched the possibilities of hardware and software design that yielded revolutionary products of which we enjoy today that often drove his people nuts(time). He was known to become rude, [slave driver at times], unreasonable, fickle, arrogant and even took credit for other’s ideas. But despite these seeming weaknesses, Job’s leadership have undeniably drove the company from near bankruptcy to become one of the most envied companies in the world. This management style of Steve Jobs however is no longer emphasized in the present leadership of Apple. Being such, Apple is bound to have problems without a leadership that is driven to innovate because such leadership and organizational discipline that was instilled by Steve Jobs was the main factor that drove the company to excellence that produced radical innovation. Its new CEO Tim Cook did not have the same drive towards excellence nor have the genius of Jobs to think of revolutionary products that would shake the industry. And due to this shortcoming, he is more predisposed towards what he calls as â€Å"incrementalism† which is essentially just to make things better what Steve Jobs already did. And this new leadership is dangerous to the company because it is one of the management traps that lead a company into a downfall. This is the management leadership trap that Robert Schaeffer articulated in the article â€Å"Mistakes Leaders Keep Making† of failing to pu sh for significant improvement for fear that people are already overwhelmed (2010). As a result, Apple is no longer growing and its former competitive edge of being radically innovative is no longer there. In an industry where change happens at a dizzying pace and products become obsolete overnight, doing the same thing even better is problematic because it

Buddhism Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Buddhism - Research Paper Example Siddhartha got distressed by all the sufferings around him and decided to leave his family and all the material comforts he possessed, and set out on a wondering life. It was in this journey that he sat under the Bodhi tree and staunchly decided not to move until he got enlightenment (Harvey 45). Buddha decided to leave the palace at the age of 29 on four different occasions to explore. During his first visit outside the palace, he witnessed an old man who was bent over and had problems walking when Siddhartha passed by; the man faced him, his red eyes squinting from his terribly wrinkled old face. In his second trip, he saw a sick man, crying in pain. On his third outing, Siddhartha came upon a corpse. He was saddened by these sights of sickness, old age and death. On his fourth outing, he met a monk who inspired him to leave the palace and all his mundane possessions, including his wife and son (Harvey 46). He sought to understand more about life and why human beings suffer, and ho w he would help in ending suffering in the world. During his enlightenment, he found the power to observe his former life, the power to see the rebirth of all forms, power to see death as well as the realization that he had left all the desires and ignorance that he had possessed. He had by all ways become a Buddha, meaning the â€Å"awakened one†. ... The Basic Tenets of Buddhism Reincarnation According to Buddhism, human beings possess the ability to get free from sufferings by observing, meditation and cultivating a lifestyle as prescribed by Buddha. Buddha gave a number of teachings known as Dharma. The wheel is a distinguished symbol in Buddhism since it depicts the perpetual cycle of life and death. According to Buddhism, after human beings die, they are born in a new form. They could either take the form of a deity, a human being, a ghost, an animal or even an inhabitant of hell. It is the belief that all the positive thoughts and people’s actions bring good karma, and may direct an individual into getting reborn in a higher form. The consequences caused by a person’s negative deeds, or evil karma, may lead to rebirth in a lower form (Gethin 22). Buddhism as a religion does not agree with the existence of a permanent self that will reincarnate from this life to the next. The assumption of an existing self gets created by the following five aggregates: Skandha, that suffers from a constant becoming and possesses a functional cause-effect relation; the body is the material form. Feeling, or Vedanta, is the sensation that develops from the sense organs in the body. Cognition, or sanna, is the process of classifying and labeling of experiences. Mental constructions, or Sankara, are the states that initiate action. Consciousness, or vijnana, is the awareness of a mental or sensory object. These five elements become impermanent, pass constant transformation, and have no abiding principle or the self. All human beings think that they got a self because of the consciousness. However, consciousness by being in a constant process of becoming and

Finance Essay Example for Free

Finance Essay Quiz 1 1. The raw fundamental data on the human genome cannot be patented but the genes and gene-based discoveries can. 2. The map of the human genome produced by Collins and his co-workers is available from the internet for free all over the world. In other words, the map of the human genome created by the HGP is a public good. 3. Celera genomics has no patent over the human genome. However, celera does have proprietary rights over its version of that genome. It is private good. Quiz 2 1. Any new idea applicable to the essential function of finance is termed a financial innovation. This is the loosest possible definition of financial innovation. Credit card automatic teller machines venture capital firms. 2. The distinguishing feature of ‘modern banking’ emerges from the financial innovation known as ‘securitization,’ namely: banks pool assets (from mortgages to car loans) and sell the repackaged assets. Securitized debt’ is one of the financial innovations at the heart of the financial crisis 2007-08, and refers to the creation of bonds of different seniority (known as ‘tranches’) that are fixed-income claims backed by collateral in the form of large portfolios of loans (mortgages, car loans, credit cards, etc.). 3. The CDSs are insurance contracts. The main function of the CDSs is to hedge against default. More specifically, the buyer of the CDS makes payments to the seller in order to receive protection. The buyer re ceives a payment if a credit instrument (for example, a loan or a bond) goes into default or in the case of a specified credit event such as bankruptcy. In particular, CDSs allow people to insure against the failure of new-fangled financial products. Quiz 3 1. Real A financial innovation that provides economically valuable benefits constitutes a real financial innovation. Concrete examples of real financial innovations are the Credit Card and the ATM. Nominal Nominal financial innovations are financial instruments that increase compensation without providing lasting economic benefits. Toxic A toxic (or economically malignant) financial innovation is a nominal financial innovation which singly or jointly with other financial innovations provokes a financial crisis. Sub-prime mortgage innovation. It is generally agreed that the sub-prime mortgage innovation in combination with other financial innovations and factors led to the financial crisis 2007-08, and thus, the sub-prime mortgage is an example of toxic financial innovation. Quiz 5 1. Risk means that we can compute the probability distribution of a particular event. For example, when you buy a lottery ticket there is ‘risk’ in the sense that you can compute the probability of winning a prize. Uncertainty means that the probability distribution of an event cannot be computed because there is not enough information. For example, suppose that you buy a ‘scratchy’ that offers among other prizes a maximum reward of $250,000 and that you want to compute the probability of winning this prize after one day of the release of the ‘scratchies.’ In this case, you experience ‘uncertainty’ because you have no way of knowing whether someone else has already won the maximum prize, and therefore, you cannot compute a unique probability of success. 2. The fundamental reason serving to account for the metamorphosis of risk into Knightian uncertainty can be easily understood: the investors (for example, mutual funds) who bought t he CDOs had no real comprehension of the size and location of the risks underlying these financial products. Quiz 6 1. The loosest possible definition of ‘shadow banking system’ is ‘the collection of financial institutions and activities that in some respects resemble banking activities but are subject to less regulation than commercial banks.’ 2. The investor lends $D for interest (i %) to the financial firm and requires collateral.The financial firm gives CDOs as collateral and agrees to recuperate the CDOs some time later for $E, where E = D +iD The preceding financial trade is known as ‘sale repurchase agreement,’ or briefly, ‘repo’ agreement