Iran from 500 - 100 BC - Artistic Research Paper

Iran from 500 - 100 BC - Artistic - Research Paper Example It was eventually restored to Persian control between 330 and 100BC, and prospered into the modern era again. The area covered by modern day Iran was then called Persia, and as mentioned in the Bible and in Greek history and literature, it was a proud nation at the heart of a great Empire. Much of our knowledge comes from Greek and Jewish sources because original writings from that location have been lost. This means, unfortunately that some of the historical information is somewhat biased. The Greeks admired the skills of the Persians in producing fine works of art in metal, with precious jewels, and in sculpture, painting and weaving, but at the same time saw them as a threat, and dismissed their culture as â€Å"barbaric.†i Some scholars have noted that the best Greek imperial artefacts of this period such as statues and monuments demonstrate the use of styles and materials, such as gold, which they borrowed from the so-called â€Å"barbarian† culture of Persia.ii Al though very little in terms of writings has survived from Persia in this period, there is fortunately quite a lot of archaeological evidence in the form of metalwork, such as precious armlets in silver and gold, and carved stonework with a distinctive theme: â€Å"The realism of Achaemenian art manifests its power in the representation of animals, as can be seen in the many reliefs at Persepolis. Carved in stone or cast in bronze, the animals served as guardians to the entrances or, more often, as supports for vases, in which they were grouped by threes, their union a revival of the old traditions of tripods with legs ending in a hoof or a lion’s paw.†iii Some of these animal images are realistic, like bulls and horses, while others are more figurative, like griffins and strange creatures with lion’s heads and wings. Another art form that was perfected by the Persians in this period was inlay work, using precious stones that were obtained via the extensive tradi ng networks that the empire had built up over the preceding centuries. The devolved system of government used by the Persians meant that local governors (called â€Å"satraps†) looked after the infrastructure of the empire, and collected taxes. They also made sure that great cities were built and maintained with impressive architecture, including tombs for great leaders, temples for the predominant religion which was Zoroastrianism, and buildings for legal and commercial activity. This infrastructure is evidence of considerable wealth, allowing citizens to learn new decorative trades and arts. The city of Susa, which is often known by its Greek name Persepolis, is a fine example of the high level of planning in city architecture that the Persians were capable of. Another major innovation which the Persians enjoyed was the creation of a postal system, consisting of good roads with posting stations placed a day’s ride from each other.iv Official documents, trade items, a nd all kinds of ideas travelled along this network, making Persia the envy of the civilized world in those days. Reflection It was very interesting to read that even in this early period Persian carpets were famous across the world for their luxurious quality. I think that the cold of the desert areas at night in winter time caused the

Discussion Board Week 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Discussion Board Week 3 - Essay Example On the other hand Aristotle has always appeared to me as a proponent of a closed society (Keuth pg, 22). His work is always aimed at maintaining the social order. His philosophy is actually state centered and not people centered. He tells the society to behave in a way that is appropriate for the state. The doctrine of mean is also just an extension of this aim of Aristotle. It really doesn’t do any good for the society except for the fact that it helps to make the members of the society docile. The idea behind this doctrine is that people should try to behave in a manner that is not extreme in nature. For example according to this doctrine, one should not be rash nor he should be coward, but one should be somewhere in the middle of these two extremes thus one should be courageous. This is just an attempt to preserve the status quo of the society and avoid an upheaval of the public. Because of the greatness of benefit Utilitarianism provides to humanity, the principle of Mill is the best moral philosophy. The doctrine of Aristotle is not only state driven but also calls for a submissive and a closed society. That is the reason of its

Ppt About Forbidden City Essay Example for Free

Ppt About Forbidden City Essay 1 Introduction The Forbidden City, also called the Palace Museum, which was the imperial palace during the Ming and Qing dynasties. The Forbidden City was built from 1406 to 1420 by the Yongle Emperor who was the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty. The English name of the Forbidden City is a translation of its Chinese name Zijin Cheng, which means that the Forbidden City is the residence of the emperor and his family, and no one could enter or leave the palace without the emperors approval. The Forbidden City is a rectangle 961 metres from north to south and 753 metres from east to west. Besides, it consists of 980 surviving buildings with 8,886 bays of rooms. It is obviously the largest palace around the world. As the home of 24 emperors, 12 of the Ming Dynasty, and 10 of the Qing Dynasty, the palace was the political centre of China for more than 500 years, and this is one of the reasons why we interested in this topic. In the following sections, we will introduce the Forbidden City’s three main halls, The Hall of Mental Cultivation, the famous emperors and the stories of the palace, famous music about the Forbidden City, online virtual Forbidden City, and the best time to travel. 2 Descriptions 2-1 The three main halls There are three halls stand on top of a three-tiered white marble terrace of the square of the palace. They contain the Hall of Supreme Harmony (Chinese: Ã¥ ¤ ªÃ¥â€™Å'æ ® ¿), the Hall of Central Harmony(Chinese: ä ¸ ­Ã¥â€™Å'æ ® ¿), and the Hall of Preserving Harmony (Chinese: ä ¿ Ã¥â€™Å'æ ® ¿). The Hall of Supreme Harmony is the largest and highest level hall of the Forbidden City. Every emperor’s coronation, birthday ceremony, wedding ceremony, and other important ceremonies or political affairs had taken place in this hall. The Hall of Central Harmony is a smaller and square hall, used by the Emperor to rehearse and rest before and during ceremonies. Behind the Hall of Central Harmony, the Hall of Preserving Harmony, it was used by the emperor to banquet the nobility on every Chinese Eve, or other important festivals. In Qing Dynasty, the emperor had taken the most important imperial examinations, Dian Shi (Chinese: æ ® ¿Ã¨ © ¦) in this hall. 2-2 The Hall of Mental Cultivation The reason why we introduce this hall separately is that the Hall of Mental Cultivation is a particularly significant building of the Forbidden City of Qing Dynasty since 1722. The Hall of Mental Cultivation is well-known for the Yongzheng Emperor, who was the 5th emperor of the Qing Dynasty, and son of the Kangxi Emperor. He ruled the Chinese Empire from 1722 to 1735. During his ruling time, the emperor lived in this hall. After his death, other emperors lived in this hall continually, thus the hall had been the actual dominate centre of the Chinese Empire from 1722 to 1911, the ruin of the Qing Dynasty.

Effect of Motivation on Employee Performance

Effect of Motivation on Employee Performance Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Study In todays competitive world, employee is an important asset to every organisation. An organisation cannot progress without employees. However, the success of an organisation depends on how the management utilise their workers capabilities in achieving organisation goals and objectives. Employees need to be inspired as well as motivated to perform well and perform efficiently. According to Smith (n.d.), employees who like where they work will help the company make more money. Sears conducted an 800-store survey that showed the impact of employee attitudes on the bottom line. When employee attitudes improved by 5%, customer satisfactionjumped 1.3%, consequently increasing revenue by one-half a percentage point. Seeking ways to motivate and build worker morale pays dividends to any business or organization. The motivated worker is more committed to the job and to the customer. This shows that happy employees performed well which increases the quality and quantity of their work. Long time ago, employees were considered as merely an input to the production of good and services. However as time goes by, this way of thinking has changed as many studies has been done on the employees behaviour and job performance. An employees performance may affect the production of the company, from the quality to the quantity of the products and services. This is why the management must identify the factors affecting their workers performance. A high performance workforce is the most important foundation for organisations success no matter how big or how small the organisation is. Job performance is the ability and skill that an employee possesses in performing the job required by the employer. The level of performance by the employee is going to affect the organisations goal and productivity. Besides, employees performance may also be affected by the management of the company, the job itself or even the employees own behaviour. Good job performance provides great achievement to the organisation, harmony in the workplace and also employees self-accomplishment. Thus, to have a good workforce and good employee performance, organisation must firstly identify and understand the factors which affect the employees job performance in achieving companys goal. 1.2 Research Problem For centuries, individuals have questioned and performed research on the factors affecting employees job performance and yet the answers may vary from one another. Some researcher said that employees performance is influenced by their pay and some said they are not. Employees are an organisations important asset which is why good performance by the employees is essential in producing good job quality and productivity. Employees are the ones who are running the organisation on behalf of the company. They have the responsibilities to perform well for the company in order to achieve organisation goal and compete with other organisations in the same industry. Employees are the one who plan, manage, organise and run the business activities of an organisation. This means that poor employees job performance may reduce the quality of services and productivity which will eventually slow down the operation of the organisation and lead to wastage of resources such as money and time. Organisations may find ways to solve the problem by terminating poorly performed employees or even choose to ignore it which may lead to unsuccessful business or bankruptcy. By choosing to terminate underperformed employee could not solve the problem as time is needed to hire new employee and extra cost will be incurred for training new employee. Management should find ways that inspires their workers to perform well in order to achieve organisations goal and in order to fully utilise their resources. Management believes that by paying employees more (increase of wages), employees will tend to perform better. Perhaps it might be true according to some researcher. However, there are also recent studies that have shown that employees motivations are not solely affected by pay. Thus, this research is carried out to investigate the factors that affect employees performance. This research will attempt to evaluate the effect of four variables which are motivation, job commitment, job design and work environment. 1.3 Research Objectives The reason for this research is: To investigate if motivation has the significant affect on employees job performance. To investigate if job commitment has the significant affect on employees job performance. To investigate if job design has the significant affect on employees job performance. To investigate if work environment has the significant affect on employees job performance. Job design is techniques that are use in the job design exercise are such as job enlargement, job enrichment, job rotation and job simplification. The work environment or working place which an employee performs in, can affect his or her performance. Work environment can be divided into two categories which are physical environment and social environment. The physical environment includes safe working place with ample resources and equipment such as comfortable chair, lighting and etc whereas the social environment includes people that the employees are working with in the organisation such as working colleagues or subordinates, supervisors and etc. 1.4 Scope of the Study This empirical study consists of dependent and independent variables. The dependent variable is employees job performance whereas the independent variables consist of factors that affect employees job performance such as motivation (pay, benefits, rewards, etc), job commitment, job design and work environment. The population for this study take into account the employees working in the manufacturing companies in Penang and is randomly selected by using convenience sampling method. Questionnaires will be distributed to 150 employees. Questionnaires will then be collected back and data will be analysed using the regression testing that is use to test the effects of the independent variables onto the dependent variables. 1.5 Significance of Study It is definite that every organisation no matter how big or small in size the company is in the whole wide world needs people or employees to operate and manage their company. The significance of this study is to investigate the four factors relationship with employees job performance, as employees job performance is important in producing good job quality and maximum productivity. This study is also essential to find out the influences of the four factors to the organisations. An organisation is considered dead and cannot operate without workers. Well performed employees may lead the organisation to success and earn competitive advantage over competitors while poor performed employees may lead company to failure and even bankruptcy. Besides poorly performed workers causes insufficiency in productivity which indirectly waste company resources. It might also cause company to be defeated by its rival. Therefore this study will help managers and employees to understand better the problem affecting their performance and reduce the negative effects to the company. Chapter 2 LITERATURE RREVIEW 2.1 Introduction These days, the business world is becoming more challenging than ever. This increases the managements awareness that good job performance is the key success to the organisation. To have well-performed employees, various ways or techniques should be conducted to manipulate humans nature and needs to produce desired behaviours and well performance. For that reason, the first thing the management should do is to understand human (employees) needs and wants. Employee job performance is the ability of employees to perform effectively in their job required and they need to have understanding of complete and up-to-date job description for their position. Besides that, they also need to be aware of the job performance requirements and standard that they are expected to meet. Supervisors or the management of the organisation should then review their employees job description and performance requirements. Job performance can be reviewed in terms of overall efficiency in the job or in terms of specific components that the job compromises. The purpose of performance standards is to communicate expectations. Some supervisors prefer to make them as specific as possible, and some prefer to use them as talking points with the specificity defined in the discussion (University Human Resource Services, 2005). In general employees and supervisors use the performance assessment annually to sum up an overall review of how the job has been done over the previous 12 months, to identify whether organisational goals have been met, to identify areas which require additional efforts, and lastly to identify the achievement and development goals for the forthcoming year. Performance reviews typically take place annually, but can be scheduled more frequently. Performance review processes vary depending on whether your appointment is as classified or professional staff. For classified staff covered by a labour contract, the contract establishes the performance review process requirements (University of Washington, 2007). People who are joining the workplace today are not only looking for jobs that earn money, but are also looking for more opportunities such as self-development. They are willing to put more effort on their job when their own needs, goals, expectation and desires are met. For that reason, the management of the organisation have to find out the factors affecting the employees performance and come up with techniques to improve employees job performance. Management must also make sure that employees goals are in line with organisations objectives. As the world become more competitive, organisations around the world are also alerted by the need to compete effectively against each other. In order to do so, organisations need to prepare themselves by making sure the people in their organisation are able to perform well and compete competently. Job performance will be the key success for organisation as it enables employees to work at their best and maximize their contribution to the organisa tion. 2.2 History of Research on Job Performance According to Hersen (2004), â€Å"job performance is a complex, multidimensional construct that can be defined and assessed in varying ways. Job performance can be defined (and assessed) in terms of quantifiable outcomes of work behaviours (e.g., amount of sales measured in dollars, productivity level, number of academic journal publications, number of lines of computer code written) and in terms of behavioural dimensions (work-related communication, decision making, attention to detail) that are less quantifiable†. Employees job performance also stands for the level ability of every employee to work efficiently (in terms of quantity and quality) in their job as required or expected by their employers. The employees job performance is then evaluated by the employer, supervisors or the people in charge. The job performance can be evaluated in terms of effectiveness all together in the job and in terms of particular components that the job compromises. The employees performances will show the personalities, knowledge and experiences of themselves. Each employees performance level is different as each individual has different capability and behaviour. Employees poor level of performance may be affected by many factors which include motivation, job commitment, job design and the work environment of the organisation. Historically, many researchers have attempted to study the factors affecting job performance but it is not as simple as one may think and the answer may vary from one another. Buchanan (n.d.), who has done a study on the relation of job satisfaction and performance, pointed out in her study that â€Å"the relationship between job satisfaction and performance is an issue of continuing debate and controversy. One view, associated with the early human relations approach, is that satisfaction leads to performance. An alternative view is that performance leads to satisfaction†. She also mentioned that many researchers tend to relate job satisfaction and job performance in a specific fashion, which is a happy worker, is a good worker. Job satisfaction is defined as the extent to which people like (satisfaction) or dislike (dissatisfaction) their jobs (Spector, 1997). This definition suggests job satisfaction is a general or global affective reaction that individuals hold about their job (Williams, 2004). Job satisfaction is usually linked with motivation, but the nature of this relationship is not clear. Satisfaction is not the same as motivation. Several numbers of studies has found that there is only a limited amount of relationship between employees satisfaction and their job performance. For example, it was found by Brayfield and Crockett (1955) that there is only a minimal relationship between job performance and job satisfaction (Judge et al., 2001). The increased of job satisfaction does not necessarily mean increased of employees job performance. If the goals of the organisation are not aligned with the goals of employees, then employees are not effectively working towards the mission of the organisation. Therefore, Buchanan concluded in her study that each employees performance is normally determined by motivation, ability, and the work environment. The motivation factor is the desire of the employee to do the job; ability is the capability of the employee to do the job and lastly the work environment which is the tools, materials and information that is needed by the employee to do the job required. 2.3 Past Research on Motivation Affecting Job Performance In the past, employees job performance are traditionally been looked at in terms of ‘motivation. Many researchers have come out with a conclusion that employees levels of performance are influenced by the motivation factor. Examples of researchers are like Maslow (1954), who developed ‘the hierarchy of needs or Hezberg (1966), who developed the idea of ‘hygiene factors, such as pay and conditions which, if not ‘right in the eyes of the employee, act as de-motivators. There is also the work of McClelland who argued that people struggled to fulfil needs of power or influence and social interaction, amongst others. All these ideas have uses in the management of the poor performer. Sometimes, however; they seem to be too complex to use on a day-to-day basis and are more suited to giving the manager a theoretical understanding rather than a useful tool (Proud, n.d.). From the theory of motivation such as Maslows hierarchy of needs,modern leaders, executive managers or supervisors findmeans of motivation for the purposesof employees performance and workforce management. Motivation is always view as an important issue in the business world. This is because motivation is vital in every organisation as it will affect the productivity of the organisation. When the employees in an organisation are unmotivated, the productivity of that organisation will be decreased whereas compared to an organisation which have motivated employees the labour turnover will be lower and production will be higher. According to Dev (n.d.), â€Å"A Gallup organisation study indicated that companies with positive employee attitudes are 50 percent more likely to achieve customer loyalty, and 44 percent more likely to achieve above-average profits. Additionally, the study finds firms that measure in the top quartile with regard to employee engagement averaged 24 percent higher profitability, 29 percent greater revenue and 10 percent less employee turnover than businesses in the bottom quartile. The evidence is clear. Better people management practices produce better business results.† According to Bartol Martin (1998), â€Å"motivation is defined as the force that energises behaviour, gives direction to behaviour, and underlies the tendency to persist. This definition recognises that in order to achieve goals, individual must be sufficiently stimulated and energetic , must have a clear focus on what is to be achieved, and must be willing to commit their energy for a long enough period of time to realise their aim†. Thus, motivated behaviours are performed and controlled voluntarily by the employees themselves whereas supervisors or managers only act as the motivator to encourage employees to increase their level of job performance. Many people who are not motivated keep their performance to an acceptable level by expending only 20% to 30% of their ability whereas managers who know how to motivate their employees can achieve 80% to 90% ability levels and consequently higher levels of performance (Geoff, n.d.). Motivation comes in many different forms. It can be in a simple form like praise by the supervisors or managers, in the form of monetary (increase in pay), rewards, promotion, job security and etc. These factors are important because it will affect the employees level of job performance. Hence it is truly essential that managers and supervisors of an organisation knows how to motivate its employees in performing well and achieving organisation goals. According to Wagner (n.d.), â€Å"Abraham Maslow first introduced his concept of a hierarchy of needs in his 1943 paper, ‘A Theory of Human Motivation. This hierarchy suggests that people are motivated to fulfil basic needs before moving on to other needs†. Maslows hierarchy of needs is most often displayed as a pyramid, with lowest levels of the pyramid made up of the most basic needs and more complex needs are at the top of the pyramid. The basis of Maslows theory is that human beings are motivated by unsatisfied needs, and that certain lower needs need to be satisfied before higher needs can be satisfied. A satisfied need is not a motivator as the most influential employee need is the one that has not been satisfied. From the Maslows hierarchy of needs, management should understand and identify what their employees need and then satisfy them from the lowest to the highest level. Physiological needs are needs which are at the bottom of the pyramid, are the most essential needs to human living. In the workforce, organisation helps employees to satisfy their needs by giving them basic salary. Safety needs are security needs that include the needs for shelter from the environment and health insurance. In the organization context, employees express their security needs as a desire for job security with fringe benefits. The management should provide employees with safe working environment with ample tools and resources. These will be the factor that helps employees to perform well. Social needs are needs related to the need for friendship, love and sense of belonging. At the workplace, these needs include having good relationship with colleagues, superiors or etc. When employees enjoy working closely with each other, it may result in positive behaviour at work which will also result in better employee performances. The management can also help to satisfy employees social needs by showing direct concern for them. Esteem needs are the needs of self-respect, respect or recognition from others and a sense of personal achievement. When these needs are satisfied, the person feels self-confident and valuable as a person in the world (Simons et al., 1987). In the organisation, the management can fulfil employees esteem needs by showing their appreciation through promotion, rewards, recognition and etc. Self-actualisation needs are place at the highest level of the pyramid. These needs are associated to personal growth, self-fulfilment and the realisation of ones full potential. In this stage, the management can help the employees by giving them tasks that challenges their own intelligence. All the elements in the Maslows hierarchy of needs are the motivator for employees to perform well in their job. A motivated employee is usually someone with clearly defined goals who takes action which he or she expects to achieve. Besides that, motivated employees will be likely to put in more effort towards the organisation objectives and goals. A leader that recognises employee efforts and helps employees achieve and grow can help improve motivation which therefore increases job performance. According to Hong et al. (1995), Vroom maintained in his expectation theory that everyone works in expectation of some rewards (both spiritual and material), and welfare is one of them. In other words, the degree of reward influences the quality and quantity of work, and in turn productivity. So it is important for management to explore how to give the stimulus (welfare) in order to promote work motivation and performance. Image. Relationship between the type of employee benefit and impact on job performance However, there are some researchers that found out that motivation has limited relationship with employees job performance. They do not believe that money (salary and bonuses) is a good motivator. McNamara (n.d.), who did a research on employee motivation, said that â€Å"certain things like money, a nice office and job security can help people from becoming less motivated, but they usually dont help people to become more motivated. A key goal for the company is to understand the motivations of each of their employees†. Another researcher, Urichuck (n.d.), stated that â€Å"organisations could provide employee motivation through a bonus in the form of money at the end of a period. For sure they will be glad and grateful. They may even perform better, but what are their expectations at the end of the next period will be more money. External employee motivation is temporary and it is never lasting. Money is an external employee motivator. Its an incentive that once acquired, leads to expectations for more, bigger or better. Nevertheless the employees will not even realise that the company is facing a crisis. They will want a bonus at least equal to what they got last year, but preferably more, not less†. According to him, there is a survey on thousands of workers around the world that uses compared rankings by supervisors and employees on employee motivating factors. The typical supervisory group ranked the factors in the following order; high wages, job security, promotion in the organisation, good working conditions, interesting work, personal loyalty of supervisor, tactful discipline, full appreciation of work done, help on personal problems, and feeling of being in on things. However, when employees were given the same exercise and asked what affects their morale and employee motivation the most, their answers followed this pattern; full appreciation of work done, feeling of being in on things, help on personal problems, job security, high wages, interesting work, promotion in the organization, personal loyalty of supervisor, good working conditions, and tactful discipline. Note that the top three employee motivating factors marked by the employees are the last three felt to be important for them by their supervisors (Urichuck, n.d.). As a result, this research shows that motivation through the form of money, has limited amount of relationship with employees job performance while recognition is the most influential motivator that affects employees job performance. 2.4 Past Research on Job Commitment Affecting Job Performance Job commitment is the willingness of the employees to be devoted in completing the job assigned to them at minimum level of commitment or exceeding the amount that is required. The level of employee commitment to their job is often the key determinant of whether the employee performs as expected or exceeding the expectations. The level of employee commitment may affect employees job performance. Committed employees often performed well and results in companys success and increase of productivity level. Besides job commitment includes the level of employee involvement and employee loyalty to the organisation. Simpson (n.d.), who did a research on building employee commitment for business success, stated that â€Å"the indication of lack of employee commitment could be an indication of a company on the way to becoming another business failure. The workplace is changing dramatically and demands for the highest quality of product and service is increasing. To remain competitive in the face of these pressures, employee commitment is crucial. The two keys to success in todays environment of increasing competition and rapid change are an absolute passion for, and dedication to, excellence in customer service and the effective and enlightened management of our workforce. The employees commitment will lead to achieving desired standards in customer service and high job performance. Without employee commitment, there can be no improvement in any area of business activity. In the absence of good management, employees will simply treat their work as a job; a 9am to 5pm routine without any desire to accomplish any more than is necessary to remain employed. It does not take many uncommitted employees to prevent a business from prospering and thereby ceding a big advantage to its competitors†. Another researcher, Fink (1992), asserted that although there are many factors that affect employees performance, the key factor of employees performance is affected by employees job commitment. He defines commitment as an attitude that develops from a process called identification, which occurs when one experiences something, someone, or some idea as an extension of oneself. While all research on commitment treats it only in terms of identification with organisation, that is, its goals, values, and mission, on the other hand, he focuses on three-dimensional concept including identification with the work itself and with co-workers. He is sure that these are equally important because they can have powerful effects upon employee performance. As basis of his research he makes an interactive model that proposes: good management practices result in an effective reward system and employee commitment, an effective reward system results in enhanced employee commitment and employee performanc e, and employee commitment results in enhanced employee performance. As a result of his research in two companies, who has 418 and 430 employees, respectively, he found that there was significant correlation between employee performance ratings and commitment score in all categories, and also the correlation between performance and commitment for managers and operational employees grouped separately were significant in all categories. The higher the level of employee commitment to work; co-worker, and organisation, the higher the level of the performance will be. Based on Sutanto‘s (1999) findings, instead of concluding that job commitment only has significant affect on job performance, he has found that â€Å"there is also a positive and significant relationship between commitment to supervisors and performance. He also stated that employees commitment to supervisors have become a good predictor to performance rather than commitment to organisations†. After conducting a larger project to all 1,803 members of May 1993 graduating class of large north-western university, Becker (1992), has found that commitment to supervisors was positively related to performance. â€Å"Further, internalization of supervisors and organizations values was associated with performance but identification with these foci (targets) was not. A number of theorists and researchers have begun to view employee commitment as having multiple foci and bases. Foci commitments are the individuals and group to whom an employee is attached†. Thus, in order to increase employees performance, the study suggest that managers should focus on creating employees commitment to supervisors rather than creating employees commitment to the organisation. On the other hand, Cohens (1999) research supported the important status of job involvement as an antecedent to organisational commitment. Specifically, Cohen argued that those individuals with high levels of job involvement, which stem from positive experiences on-the-job (Witt, 1993), make attributions for these experiences to the organisation. Thus, having previously received benefits from the organisation and being obligated by the norm of reciprocity (Gouldner, 1960) to repay them, high job involvement employees feel compelled to reciprocate in some form. This increased affective commitment (i.e. where employees adopt the companys goals as their own and, therefore, desire to remain with the organisation to help it achieve its goals; Meyer and Allen, 1984; Mowday et al., 1979) and later was found to reduce turnover intentions, absence behaviour, and/or turnover, as well as increased job performance. Tough many researchers have confirmed that employees commitment result in high job performance, nevertheless some past researchers have also found that job commitment or involvement has limited affect on employees job performance. According to Rotenberry and Moberg (2007), â€Å"research finding a significant impact of job involvement on employee performance has met limited success (e.g. Brown, 1996; Brown and Leigh, 1996; Diefendorff et al., 2006 and Vroom, 1962)†. Diefendorff et al. (2002) stated that â€Å"research has been limited for two reasons. Specifically, they asserted that past studies had predominantly used inferior measures of job involvement, which led to their insignificant findings. In addition, Diefendorff et al. (2002) argued that the performance domain assessed in those previous studies needed to be expanded in order to ascertain job involvements true impact on performance at work. The researchers tested the validity of these propositions, but called for additional research in the area paying particular attention to theory development regarding the job involvement-performance relationship†. 2.5 Past Research on Job Design Affecting Job Performance Job design is the method of arranging various work elements in forming a job that suit the employees. Job design identifies what work must be performed to be precise, the content of the job, how it will be performed, where it is to be performed and the competencies required by the person who will perform it. Job design also facilitates the achievement of organizational goals and performance of the work the job was established to accomplish (Sharon, 1998). Job design is also important to avoid employees dissatisfaction. The design of the job must follow the organisations and employees requirement including the health and safety requirement. Besides, job design implementation includes methods such as job enlargement, job rotation, job enrichment and job simplification. The first, job enlargement, can be used to increase motivation by giving employees more and varied tasks. Tasks that reduce the amount of specialization required by the employee, as well as, extending the length of time he or she has to complete them. The second, job rotation, allows an employee to work in different departments or jobs in an organization to gain better insight into operations. This, in itself, does not modify or redesigns the employees job, but allows the opportunity to increase his/her skills and knowledge about other jobs. Job enrichment, the third method, allows the employee to take on some responsibilities normally delegated to management. The risk here is that the employee would be transferred too much responsibility and autonomy in the planning and control aspects of the job. Done right, however, the newfound control would invigorate the employee to work more effectively and thus increased it Effect of Motivation on Employee Performance Effect of Motivation on Employee Performance Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Study In todays competitive world, employee is an important asset to every organisation. An organisation cannot progress without employees. However, the success of an organisation depends on how the management utilise their workers capabilities in achieving organisation goals and objectives. Employees need to be inspired as well as motivated to perform well and perform efficiently. According to Smith (n.d.), employees who like where they work will help the company make more money. Sears conducted an 800-store survey that showed the impact of employee attitudes on the bottom line. When employee attitudes improved by 5%, customer satisfactionjumped 1.3%, consequently increasing revenue by one-half a percentage point. Seeking ways to motivate and build worker morale pays dividends to any business or organization. The motivated worker is more committed to the job and to the customer. This shows that happy employees performed well which increases the quality and quantity of their work. Long time ago, employees were considered as merely an input to the production of good and services. However as time goes by, this way of thinking has changed as many studies has been done on the employees behaviour and job performance. An employees performance may affect the production of the company, from the quality to the quantity of the products and services. This is why the management must identify the factors affecting their workers performance. A high performance workforce is the most important foundation for organisations success no matter how big or how small the organisation is. Job performance is the ability and skill that an employee possesses in performing the job required by the employer. The level of performance by the employee is going to affect the organisations goal and productivity. Besides, employees performance may also be affected by the management of the company, the job itself or even the employees own behaviour. Good job performance provides great achievement to the organisation, harmony in the workplace and also employees self-accomplishment. Thus, to have a good workforce and good employee performance, organisation must firstly identify and understand the factors which affect the employees job performance in achieving companys goal. 1.2 Research Problem For centuries, individuals have questioned and performed research on the factors affecting employees job performance and yet the answers may vary from one another. Some researcher said that employees performance is influenced by their pay and some said they are not. Employees are an organisations important asset which is why good performance by the employees is essential in producing good job quality and productivity. Employees are the ones who are running the organisation on behalf of the company. They have the responsibilities to perform well for the company in order to achieve organisation goal and compete with other organisations in the same industry. Employees are the one who plan, manage, organise and run the business activities of an organisation. This means that poor employees job performance may reduce the quality of services and productivity which will eventually slow down the operation of the organisation and lead to wastage of resources such as money and time. Organisations may find ways to solve the problem by terminating poorly performed employees or even choose to ignore it which may lead to unsuccessful business or bankruptcy. By choosing to terminate underperformed employee could not solve the problem as time is needed to hire new employee and extra cost will be incurred for training new employee. Management should find ways that inspires their workers to perform well in order to achieve organisations goal and in order to fully utilise their resources. Management believes that by paying employees more (increase of wages), employees will tend to perform better. Perhaps it might be true according to some researcher. However, there are also recent studies that have shown that employees motivations are not solely affected by pay. Thus, this research is carried out to investigate the factors that affect employees performance. This research will attempt to evaluate the effect of four variables which are motivation, job commitment, job design and work environment. 1.3 Research Objectives The reason for this research is: To investigate if motivation has the significant affect on employees job performance. To investigate if job commitment has the significant affect on employees job performance. To investigate if job design has the significant affect on employees job performance. To investigate if work environment has the significant affect on employees job performance. Job design is techniques that are use in the job design exercise are such as job enlargement, job enrichment, job rotation and job simplification. The work environment or working place which an employee performs in, can affect his or her performance. Work environment can be divided into two categories which are physical environment and social environment. The physical environment includes safe working place with ample resources and equipment such as comfortable chair, lighting and etc whereas the social environment includes people that the employees are working with in the organisation such as working colleagues or subordinates, supervisors and etc. 1.4 Scope of the Study This empirical study consists of dependent and independent variables. The dependent variable is employees job performance whereas the independent variables consist of factors that affect employees job performance such as motivation (pay, benefits, rewards, etc), job commitment, job design and work environment. The population for this study take into account the employees working in the manufacturing companies in Penang and is randomly selected by using convenience sampling method. Questionnaires will be distributed to 150 employees. Questionnaires will then be collected back and data will be analysed using the regression testing that is use to test the effects of the independent variables onto the dependent variables. 1.5 Significance of Study It is definite that every organisation no matter how big or small in size the company is in the whole wide world needs people or employees to operate and manage their company. The significance of this study is to investigate the four factors relationship with employees job performance, as employees job performance is important in producing good job quality and maximum productivity. This study is also essential to find out the influences of the four factors to the organisations. An organisation is considered dead and cannot operate without workers. Well performed employees may lead the organisation to success and earn competitive advantage over competitors while poor performed employees may lead company to failure and even bankruptcy. Besides poorly performed workers causes insufficiency in productivity which indirectly waste company resources. It might also cause company to be defeated by its rival. Therefore this study will help managers and employees to understand better the problem affecting their performance and reduce the negative effects to the company. Chapter 2 LITERATURE RREVIEW 2.1 Introduction These days, the business world is becoming more challenging than ever. This increases the managements awareness that good job performance is the key success to the organisation. To have well-performed employees, various ways or techniques should be conducted to manipulate humans nature and needs to produce desired behaviours and well performance. For that reason, the first thing the management should do is to understand human (employees) needs and wants. Employee job performance is the ability of employees to perform effectively in their job required and they need to have understanding of complete and up-to-date job description for their position. Besides that, they also need to be aware of the job performance requirements and standard that they are expected to meet. Supervisors or the management of the organisation should then review their employees job description and performance requirements. Job performance can be reviewed in terms of overall efficiency in the job or in terms of specific components that the job compromises. The purpose of performance standards is to communicate expectations. Some supervisors prefer to make them as specific as possible, and some prefer to use them as talking points with the specificity defined in the discussion (University Human Resource Services, 2005). In general employees and supervisors use the performance assessment annually to sum up an overall review of how the job has been done over the previous 12 months, to identify whether organisational goals have been met, to identify areas which require additional efforts, and lastly to identify the achievement and development goals for the forthcoming year. Performance reviews typically take place annually, but can be scheduled more frequently. Performance review processes vary depending on whether your appointment is as classified or professional staff. For classified staff covered by a labour contract, the contract establishes the performance review process requirements (University of Washington, 2007). People who are joining the workplace today are not only looking for jobs that earn money, but are also looking for more opportunities such as self-development. They are willing to put more effort on their job when their own needs, goals, expectation and desires are met. For that reason, the management of the organisation have to find out the factors affecting the employees performance and come up with techniques to improve employees job performance. Management must also make sure that employees goals are in line with organisations objectives. As the world become more competitive, organisations around the world are also alerted by the need to compete effectively against each other. In order to do so, organisations need to prepare themselves by making sure the people in their organisation are able to perform well and compete competently. Job performance will be the key success for organisation as it enables employees to work at their best and maximize their contribution to the organisa tion. 2.2 History of Research on Job Performance According to Hersen (2004), â€Å"job performance is a complex, multidimensional construct that can be defined and assessed in varying ways. Job performance can be defined (and assessed) in terms of quantifiable outcomes of work behaviours (e.g., amount of sales measured in dollars, productivity level, number of academic journal publications, number of lines of computer code written) and in terms of behavioural dimensions (work-related communication, decision making, attention to detail) that are less quantifiable†. Employees job performance also stands for the level ability of every employee to work efficiently (in terms of quantity and quality) in their job as required or expected by their employers. The employees job performance is then evaluated by the employer, supervisors or the people in charge. The job performance can be evaluated in terms of effectiveness all together in the job and in terms of particular components that the job compromises. The employees performances will show the personalities, knowledge and experiences of themselves. Each employees performance level is different as each individual has different capability and behaviour. Employees poor level of performance may be affected by many factors which include motivation, job commitment, job design and the work environment of the organisation. Historically, many researchers have attempted to study the factors affecting job performance but it is not as simple as one may think and the answer may vary from one another. Buchanan (n.d.), who has done a study on the relation of job satisfaction and performance, pointed out in her study that â€Å"the relationship between job satisfaction and performance is an issue of continuing debate and controversy. One view, associated with the early human relations approach, is that satisfaction leads to performance. An alternative view is that performance leads to satisfaction†. She also mentioned that many researchers tend to relate job satisfaction and job performance in a specific fashion, which is a happy worker, is a good worker. Job satisfaction is defined as the extent to which people like (satisfaction) or dislike (dissatisfaction) their jobs (Spector, 1997). This definition suggests job satisfaction is a general or global affective reaction that individuals hold about their job (Williams, 2004). Job satisfaction is usually linked with motivation, but the nature of this relationship is not clear. Satisfaction is not the same as motivation. Several numbers of studies has found that there is only a limited amount of relationship between employees satisfaction and their job performance. For example, it was found by Brayfield and Crockett (1955) that there is only a minimal relationship between job performance and job satisfaction (Judge et al., 2001). The increased of job satisfaction does not necessarily mean increased of employees job performance. If the goals of the organisation are not aligned with the goals of employees, then employees are not effectively working towards the mission of the organisation. Therefore, Buchanan concluded in her study that each employees performance is normally determined by motivation, ability, and the work environment. The motivation factor is the desire of the employee to do the job; ability is the capability of the employee to do the job and lastly the work environment which is the tools, materials and information that is needed by the employee to do the job required. 2.3 Past Research on Motivation Affecting Job Performance In the past, employees job performance are traditionally been looked at in terms of ‘motivation. Many researchers have come out with a conclusion that employees levels of performance are influenced by the motivation factor. Examples of researchers are like Maslow (1954), who developed ‘the hierarchy of needs or Hezberg (1966), who developed the idea of ‘hygiene factors, such as pay and conditions which, if not ‘right in the eyes of the employee, act as de-motivators. There is also the work of McClelland who argued that people struggled to fulfil needs of power or influence and social interaction, amongst others. All these ideas have uses in the management of the poor performer. Sometimes, however; they seem to be too complex to use on a day-to-day basis and are more suited to giving the manager a theoretical understanding rather than a useful tool (Proud, n.d.). From the theory of motivation such as Maslows hierarchy of needs,modern leaders, executive managers or supervisors findmeans of motivation for the purposesof employees performance and workforce management. Motivation is always view as an important issue in the business world. This is because motivation is vital in every organisation as it will affect the productivity of the organisation. When the employees in an organisation are unmotivated, the productivity of that organisation will be decreased whereas compared to an organisation which have motivated employees the labour turnover will be lower and production will be higher. According to Dev (n.d.), â€Å"A Gallup organisation study indicated that companies with positive employee attitudes are 50 percent more likely to achieve customer loyalty, and 44 percent more likely to achieve above-average profits. Additionally, the study finds firms that measure in the top quartile with regard to employee engagement averaged 24 percent higher profitability, 29 percent greater revenue and 10 percent less employee turnover than businesses in the bottom quartile. The evidence is clear. Better people management practices produce better business results.† According to Bartol Martin (1998), â€Å"motivation is defined as the force that energises behaviour, gives direction to behaviour, and underlies the tendency to persist. This definition recognises that in order to achieve goals, individual must be sufficiently stimulated and energetic , must have a clear focus on what is to be achieved, and must be willing to commit their energy for a long enough period of time to realise their aim†. Thus, motivated behaviours are performed and controlled voluntarily by the employees themselves whereas supervisors or managers only act as the motivator to encourage employees to increase their level of job performance. Many people who are not motivated keep their performance to an acceptable level by expending only 20% to 30% of their ability whereas managers who know how to motivate their employees can achieve 80% to 90% ability levels and consequently higher levels of performance (Geoff, n.d.). Motivation comes in many different forms. It can be in a simple form like praise by the supervisors or managers, in the form of monetary (increase in pay), rewards, promotion, job security and etc. These factors are important because it will affect the employees level of job performance. Hence it is truly essential that managers and supervisors of an organisation knows how to motivate its employees in performing well and achieving organisation goals. According to Wagner (n.d.), â€Å"Abraham Maslow first introduced his concept of a hierarchy of needs in his 1943 paper, ‘A Theory of Human Motivation. This hierarchy suggests that people are motivated to fulfil basic needs before moving on to other needs†. Maslows hierarchy of needs is most often displayed as a pyramid, with lowest levels of the pyramid made up of the most basic needs and more complex needs are at the top of the pyramid. The basis of Maslows theory is that human beings are motivated by unsatisfied needs, and that certain lower needs need to be satisfied before higher needs can be satisfied. A satisfied need is not a motivator as the most influential employee need is the one that has not been satisfied. From the Maslows hierarchy of needs, management should understand and identify what their employees need and then satisfy them from the lowest to the highest level. Physiological needs are needs which are at the bottom of the pyramid, are the most essential needs to human living. In the workforce, organisation helps employees to satisfy their needs by giving them basic salary. Safety needs are security needs that include the needs for shelter from the environment and health insurance. In the organization context, employees express their security needs as a desire for job security with fringe benefits. The management should provide employees with safe working environment with ample tools and resources. These will be the factor that helps employees to perform well. Social needs are needs related to the need for friendship, love and sense of belonging. At the workplace, these needs include having good relationship with colleagues, superiors or etc. When employees enjoy working closely with each other, it may result in positive behaviour at work which will also result in better employee performances. The management can also help to satisfy employees social needs by showing direct concern for them. Esteem needs are the needs of self-respect, respect or recognition from others and a sense of personal achievement. When these needs are satisfied, the person feels self-confident and valuable as a person in the world (Simons et al., 1987). In the organisation, the management can fulfil employees esteem needs by showing their appreciation through promotion, rewards, recognition and etc. Self-actualisation needs are place at the highest level of the pyramid. These needs are associated to personal growth, self-fulfilment and the realisation of ones full potential. In this stage, the management can help the employees by giving them tasks that challenges their own intelligence. All the elements in the Maslows hierarchy of needs are the motivator for employees to perform well in their job. A motivated employee is usually someone with clearly defined goals who takes action which he or she expects to achieve. Besides that, motivated employees will be likely to put in more effort towards the organisation objectives and goals. A leader that recognises employee efforts and helps employees achieve and grow can help improve motivation which therefore increases job performance. According to Hong et al. (1995), Vroom maintained in his expectation theory that everyone works in expectation of some rewards (both spiritual and material), and welfare is one of them. In other words, the degree of reward influences the quality and quantity of work, and in turn productivity. So it is important for management to explore how to give the stimulus (welfare) in order to promote work motivation and performance. Image. Relationship between the type of employee benefit and impact on job performance However, there are some researchers that found out that motivation has limited relationship with employees job performance. They do not believe that money (salary and bonuses) is a good motivator. McNamara (n.d.), who did a research on employee motivation, said that â€Å"certain things like money, a nice office and job security can help people from becoming less motivated, but they usually dont help people to become more motivated. A key goal for the company is to understand the motivations of each of their employees†. Another researcher, Urichuck (n.d.), stated that â€Å"organisations could provide employee motivation through a bonus in the form of money at the end of a period. For sure they will be glad and grateful. They may even perform better, but what are their expectations at the end of the next period will be more money. External employee motivation is temporary and it is never lasting. Money is an external employee motivator. Its an incentive that once acquired, leads to expectations for more, bigger or better. Nevertheless the employees will not even realise that the company is facing a crisis. They will want a bonus at least equal to what they got last year, but preferably more, not less†. According to him, there is a survey on thousands of workers around the world that uses compared rankings by supervisors and employees on employee motivating factors. The typical supervisory group ranked the factors in the following order; high wages, job security, promotion in the organisation, good working conditions, interesting work, personal loyalty of supervisor, tactful discipline, full appreciation of work done, help on personal problems, and feeling of being in on things. However, when employees were given the same exercise and asked what affects their morale and employee motivation the most, their answers followed this pattern; full appreciation of work done, feeling of being in on things, help on personal problems, job security, high wages, interesting work, promotion in the organization, personal loyalty of supervisor, good working conditions, and tactful discipline. Note that the top three employee motivating factors marked by the employees are the last three felt to be important for them by their supervisors (Urichuck, n.d.). As a result, this research shows that motivation through the form of money, has limited amount of relationship with employees job performance while recognition is the most influential motivator that affects employees job performance. 2.4 Past Research on Job Commitment Affecting Job Performance Job commitment is the willingness of the employees to be devoted in completing the job assigned to them at minimum level of commitment or exceeding the amount that is required. The level of employee commitment to their job is often the key determinant of whether the employee performs as expected or exceeding the expectations. The level of employee commitment may affect employees job performance. Committed employees often performed well and results in companys success and increase of productivity level. Besides job commitment includes the level of employee involvement and employee loyalty to the organisation. Simpson (n.d.), who did a research on building employee commitment for business success, stated that â€Å"the indication of lack of employee commitment could be an indication of a company on the way to becoming another business failure. The workplace is changing dramatically and demands for the highest quality of product and service is increasing. To remain competitive in the face of these pressures, employee commitment is crucial. The two keys to success in todays environment of increasing competition and rapid change are an absolute passion for, and dedication to, excellence in customer service and the effective and enlightened management of our workforce. The employees commitment will lead to achieving desired standards in customer service and high job performance. Without employee commitment, there can be no improvement in any area of business activity. In the absence of good management, employees will simply treat their work as a job; a 9am to 5pm routine without any desire to accomplish any more than is necessary to remain employed. It does not take many uncommitted employees to prevent a business from prospering and thereby ceding a big advantage to its competitors†. Another researcher, Fink (1992), asserted that although there are many factors that affect employees performance, the key factor of employees performance is affected by employees job commitment. He defines commitment as an attitude that develops from a process called identification, which occurs when one experiences something, someone, or some idea as an extension of oneself. While all research on commitment treats it only in terms of identification with organisation, that is, its goals, values, and mission, on the other hand, he focuses on three-dimensional concept including identification with the work itself and with co-workers. He is sure that these are equally important because they can have powerful effects upon employee performance. As basis of his research he makes an interactive model that proposes: good management practices result in an effective reward system and employee commitment, an effective reward system results in enhanced employee commitment and employee performanc e, and employee commitment results in enhanced employee performance. As a result of his research in two companies, who has 418 and 430 employees, respectively, he found that there was significant correlation between employee performance ratings and commitment score in all categories, and also the correlation between performance and commitment for managers and operational employees grouped separately were significant in all categories. The higher the level of employee commitment to work; co-worker, and organisation, the higher the level of the performance will be. Based on Sutanto‘s (1999) findings, instead of concluding that job commitment only has significant affect on job performance, he has found that â€Å"there is also a positive and significant relationship between commitment to supervisors and performance. He also stated that employees commitment to supervisors have become a good predictor to performance rather than commitment to organisations†. After conducting a larger project to all 1,803 members of May 1993 graduating class of large north-western university, Becker (1992), has found that commitment to supervisors was positively related to performance. â€Å"Further, internalization of supervisors and organizations values was associated with performance but identification with these foci (targets) was not. A number of theorists and researchers have begun to view employee commitment as having multiple foci and bases. Foci commitments are the individuals and group to whom an employee is attached†. Thus, in order to increase employees performance, the study suggest that managers should focus on creating employees commitment to supervisors rather than creating employees commitment to the organisation. On the other hand, Cohens (1999) research supported the important status of job involvement as an antecedent to organisational commitment. Specifically, Cohen argued that those individuals with high levels of job involvement, which stem from positive experiences on-the-job (Witt, 1993), make attributions for these experiences to the organisation. Thus, having previously received benefits from the organisation and being obligated by the norm of reciprocity (Gouldner, 1960) to repay them, high job involvement employees feel compelled to reciprocate in some form. This increased affective commitment (i.e. where employees adopt the companys goals as their own and, therefore, desire to remain with the organisation to help it achieve its goals; Meyer and Allen, 1984; Mowday et al., 1979) and later was found to reduce turnover intentions, absence behaviour, and/or turnover, as well as increased job performance. Tough many researchers have confirmed that employees commitment result in high job performance, nevertheless some past researchers have also found that job commitment or involvement has limited affect on employees job performance. According to Rotenberry and Moberg (2007), â€Å"research finding a significant impact of job involvement on employee performance has met limited success (e.g. Brown, 1996; Brown and Leigh, 1996; Diefendorff et al., 2006 and Vroom, 1962)†. Diefendorff et al. (2002) stated that â€Å"research has been limited for two reasons. Specifically, they asserted that past studies had predominantly used inferior measures of job involvement, which led to their insignificant findings. In addition, Diefendorff et al. (2002) argued that the performance domain assessed in those previous studies needed to be expanded in order to ascertain job involvements true impact on performance at work. The researchers tested the validity of these propositions, but called for additional research in the area paying particular attention to theory development regarding the job involvement-performance relationship†. 2.5 Past Research on Job Design Affecting Job Performance Job design is the method of arranging various work elements in forming a job that suit the employees. Job design identifies what work must be performed to be precise, the content of the job, how it will be performed, where it is to be performed and the competencies required by the person who will perform it. Job design also facilitates the achievement of organizational goals and performance of the work the job was established to accomplish (Sharon, 1998). Job design is also important to avoid employees dissatisfaction. The design of the job must follow the organisations and employees requirement including the health and safety requirement. Besides, job design implementation includes methods such as job enlargement, job rotation, job enrichment and job simplification. The first, job enlargement, can be used to increase motivation by giving employees more and varied tasks. Tasks that reduce the amount of specialization required by the employee, as well as, extending the length of time he or she has to complete them. The second, job rotation, allows an employee to work in different departments or jobs in an organization to gain better insight into operations. This, in itself, does not modify or redesigns the employees job, but allows the opportunity to increase his/her skills and knowledge about other jobs. Job enrichment, the third method, allows the employee to take on some responsibilities normally delegated to management. The risk here is that the employee would be transferred too much responsibility and autonomy in the planning and control aspects of the job. Done right, however, the newfound control would invigorate the employee to work more effectively and thus increased it

Wordsworth, Social Reform Literature, and Politics of the 1790s Essay

Wordsworth, Social Reform Literature, and Politics of the 1790s The historical mix of social fictions in England and France at the end of the 1780s greatly impacted the literature of the period. Tom Paine's The Rights of Man (1791) and Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France (1791) were the two most widely read works that spurred a decade long debate on how the nation of England was to be governed and by whom. As a young man during this period, William Wordsworth formed part of the circle of writers who fought for the Republican cause of democracy and its ideals. Similar to the poet William Cowper, Wordsworth's early poetry contributed to a larger framework of social reform literature that the publisher Joseph Johnson promoted throughout his career from the late 1770s until his death in 1809. Some of Wordsworth's early prose works mark what he was to later reflect upon in his poem, "Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye During a Tour, 13 July 1798". "Tintern Abbey" reminds Wordsworth's readers of the solitude and "sad perplexity" (61) that its author experiences five years after his dreams of a democratic republic and love for Annette Vallon are dashed by France's Reign of Terror and war with England. He recounts: Five years have passed; five summers, with the length Of five long winters! . . . . . . . And so I dare to hope, Though changed, no doubt, from what I was when first I bounded o'er these hills, . . . Flying from something that he dreads than one Who sought the thing he loved. (1-2, 66-67, 72-73)[1] "Tintern" suggests Wordsworth's wish to move beyond the sentiments and views he once held, as reflected in his unpublishe... ... a friend of Benjamin Franklin, Joseph Priestley, and Horne Tooke; Mary Wollstonecraft listened to Price's occasional political sermons, and was influenced by his view that all people were entitled to equal education. Todd, Janet. Mary Wollstonecraft: A Revolutionary Life. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 2000: 59-61. 4. Edmund Burke. Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), in, Paul Keen, (ed. compiler). Reading (at) the Limit of the Bourgeois Public Sphere. Burnaby: Simon Fraser University Publishing, 1999: 145. 5. Ibid, 147. 6. Tom Paine is referring to William the Conqueror, quoted by E. P. Thompson in, The Making of the English Working Class. Middlesex: Penguin Books Ltd., 1963: 94-95. 7. Ibid, 94. 8. Christopher Hill. "The Norman Yoke," in Intellectual Origins of the English Revolution Revisited. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997: 361.

The Inside Perspective Of An Outsider Essay -- China Anthropology Stud

The Inside Perspective Of An Outsider I read everything I could find. I spoke with natives who were visiting the United States. I studied the language diligently. I scrutinized pictures, noting each detail. Nothing prepared me for that first long walk along a Beijing street. I smelled for the first time, the smells that were to become a familiar component of my three-month stay in The People's Republic of China. I made eye contact with people who had formerly just been captured still-lifes on a reference book's glossy page. I attempted to speak my broken Chinese with people who did not care that my book at home had taught me the words for "ambassador" and "diplomat." I took my first tentative step towards cultural understanding. The China surrounding me collided with the China I ignorantly thought I had prepared myself for. I. Anthropology Allyn Maclean Stearman graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1964 with a degree in Spanish. In conjunction with her foreign language major, she spent her junior year studying abroad. Her travels in Columbia certainly influenced her decision to join the Peace Corps immediately following commencement. Peace Corps placed her in Bolivia where she ended up staying for four years. Her community development work in Bolivia not only made her fall in love with the Bolivian Amazon, but also inspired in her that first recognized interest in the study of anthropology. According to James P. Spradley, the goal of anthropology is "to describe and explain the regularities and variations in social behavior" (p.10). John H. Bodley (1997) takes the purpose of anthropology one step further. He makes the claim that the acquisition of some basic anthropological tools will prep... ...etite. The long periods of loneliness and alienation alerted me to the daily struggles of an outsider attempting to be an insider. Works Cited: Bodley, J. H. (1997). Cultural Anthropology: Tribes, States, and the Global System. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company. Grindal, B. & Salamona, F. (1995). Bridges to Humanity: Narratives on Anthropology and Friendship. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press. Spradley, J. P. (1979). The Ethnographic Interview. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Spradley, J. P. & McCurdy, D. W. (1972). The Cultural Experience: Ethnography in Complex Society. Kingsport, TN: Kingsport Press. Stearman, A. M. (1989). Yuqui: Forest Nomads in a Changing World. Chicago, IL: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc. Stearman, A. M. (n.d.) "Fighting the Odds for Cultural Survival: The Story of a Yuqui Development Project".

Effects of Mercury Contaminated Fish on Consumer’s Health Essay

Mercury is an element that comes naturally in nature, or manufactured by humans.   It comes in different forms.   According to the New Jersey Department of Health, mercury may be found as metallic mercury, a kind of silver-gray liquid that is harmful when exposed into the air and breathed in; methylmercury, which may be ingested by eating fish; inorganic mercury which can be found in over-the-counter drugs, batteries, and other pharmaceuticals, and is harmful when breathed in or swallowed; and phenylmercury in household products like paints, cosmetics   and toiletries and is harmful when breathed in, swallowed or passed through the skin (Kapsch, et. al, 1999).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   This paper delves into the mercury and its harmful effects on the fish population and ultimately, adverse effects on   human health. Mercury in the Environment   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As noted above, mercury is found naturally in the environment.  Ã‚   Paul Kapsch, Matt Landi and Sarah Scwartz writes that natural incidents and accidents like forest fires and volcanic eruptions spew mercury into the air (1999).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Natural Resource Defense Council adds that   power plants and certain chemicals manufacturers, as well as other industrial facilities release mercury into the air through their daily operations.   The released mercury eventually ends up in the waterways and oceans.   Fish in these ecosystems ingest the mercury, which people, in turn ingest by eating the fish. (NRDC, 2006).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Mercury is also present in many things that one has at home like fluorescent and neon lamps, mercury switches in chest freezes, thermostat probes, thermometers, barometers and other gauges, laboratory solutions and even dental amalgam (Kapsch, et. al, 1999).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Paul Kapsch and his partners outlined the environmental impact of mercury.   Citing ExtoxNet (1999), Kapsch, et. al, stated that while mercury enters the environment, concentrations in the air and atmosphere is generally very low.   Mercury, however, is deposited into forest ecosystems where it accumulates in highly toxic forms.   Eventually it leads up to aquatic ecosystems, which in some cases contribute to human health problems.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Natural Resource Defense Council added that when mercury enters into the various water systems, bacteria take it in and convert it into a type of methyl mercury, which is easily absorbed by humans (1999).   The NRDC also explained that the mercury then â€Å"works it way up the food chain† as larger fish eat smaller contaminated fish.   Mercury, however, does not break down.   Instead it accumulates in fish (1999).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   To illustrate the point, the NRDC stated that predatory fishes like sharks and mackerel have been found to have 10,000 times higher mercury concentration (1999). How Mercury Enters the Body   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Mercury can enter the body by breathing it in, swallowing or eating contaminated food, drinking contaminated water , or through the skin (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, 2008).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Consumption of contaminated fish, however, is one of the most dangerous way of getting mercury in the body since it involves methylmercury, which is easily absorbed through the gastrointestinal tract into a person’s bloodstream (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, 2008).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In 2003, Dr. Jane Hightower, doctor of internal medicine at the California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, found that 89% of participating patients had high mercury levels.   Most of these participants had as much as four times the safe level of mercury in their blood stream.   Participants in Dr. Hightower’s study were chosen precisely because of their fish-heavy diets. (NRDC, 2006).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Once in the bloodstream, the mercury goes into various parts of the body.   Methylmercury in pregnant women gets passed on into the child’s blood stream and then into the child’s brain.   A nursing mother may pass the methylmercury through breast milk. (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, 2008). Health Risks   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The NRDC says that mercury exposure can be particularly hazardous for pregnant women and small children.  Ã‚   The NRDC adds that mercury exposure can lead to cerebral palsy, mental retardation, blindness and deafness in infants and fetuses.   Even with a minimal exposure, the child may be delayed in learning how to walk and talk, have low attention span and may later on develop learning disabilities   (NRDC, 2006).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   And the numbers are alarming.   In July 2005, researchers at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 1 in 17 women of childbearing age have more than 5.8 micrograms of mercury per liter of blood.   The CDC stated that this level may pose a risk to the developing child (NRDC, 2006).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Mercury-contaminated fish is not just dangerous for children and pregnant women but it is also dangerous for adults (Mercola.Com, 2003).   Mercola.Com related that mercury destroys the nerve tissues, the visual cortex and the cerebellum.   It affects complex movements and balance.   It also leads to problems in attention span and language.   It also decreases concentration, deftness and verbal memory in adults.   (Mercola.Com, 2003).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   For some adults, mercury poisoning can lead to fertility problems and blood pressure regulation problems.   It also causes memory loss, vision loss, numbness in the fingers and toes, and tremors.   It is suspected that mercury exposure also leads to heart disease (NRDC, 2006).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry warned that the nervous system is prone to mercury contamination.   The Agency said that in this type of mercury poisoning, some people who consumed seed grains and fish contaminated with large amounts of methyl mercury developed severe brain and kidneys damage.  Ã‚   The Agency explains that mercury accumulates in the kidneys, so it damages it more.   (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, 2008).   * * *   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The above discussion shows that consumption of mercury contaminated fish is very dangerous for consumer’s health, and is a source of different diseases especially in   (but not limited to) children and pregnant women. Studies have concluded that mercury poisoning have caused several conditions and diseases from simple memory loss, loss of concentration, fertility problems to something as grave and irreparable as mental retardation and kidney ailments.   And studies on the relationship between mercury and other, more life-threatening diseases like heart ailments are currently underway.   The growing body of evidence all points to some disease that can be traced to mercury poisoning.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Consumers have to actively control their fish diets.   If they are fond of eating fish, they might find it useful to regularly check and look for advisories regarding mercury contamination in their area.   It is also recommended that they regularly check their own mercury levels and if they found their mercury levels higher they have to consult with their doctors immediately.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Since mercury poisoning is more dangerous to pregnant women and small children, it might be best to veer away from eating fish altogether, and take up healthier choices such as vegetables and dairy products.   Being more vigilant with regards to one’s diet can reap long-term prevention that would help ensure optimum health.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Authorities need to take much stronger steps to protect a far greater portion of people.   Authorities must examine their antiquated safeguards designed to protect an average person   from an average amount of methyl mercury in fish and take more protective and realistic actions against exposure to methyl mercury through food. Authorities need to constantly update themselves, as â€Å"safe levels† of mercury in the diet are constantly changing.   In fact, the trend is that the required safe levels are getting higher with each new research that goes out of the pipeline.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Public health authorities, as well as community leaders, or any health-related organization, must come together to inform, educate and empower the public about the dangers of fish consumption, mercury contamination, and adverse health effects.   Information is the best weapon against mercury contamination, without it, no amount of public policy will be sufficient or effective.   The public needs to be aware of what mercury does to the body, the diseases associated with it, where mercury could be found, how it gets into your body, what measures are to be done.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   More than anything, it is high time to look at more efficient ways of disposing all types of mercury.   Since mercury could be found in nature, it will be next to impossible to eradicate it.   What one could hope for is to reduce environmental damage from the mercury that we can control.   If people could somehow take care and reduce the amount of mercury that goes into the environment as waste, people would be protecting not only the oceans and the fish, but also themselves.   Taking care of the environment would ensure sustainability in the future and would drastically decrease mercury–and in fact and principle–all types of contamination.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In effect, stopping or greatly reducing mercury contamination and all the ill effects associated with it takes the effort of everybody in the community, but it starts mainly with your self.          References Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (Content source); Sidney Draggan and Emily Monosson (Topic Editors). 2008. â€Å"Public Health Statement for Mercury.† In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [First published in the Encyclopedia of Earth November 13, 2007; Last revised January 24, 2008; Retrieved April 2, 2008]. Jeremy Laurence, (8 March, 2007) Fish Contaminated With Mercury ‘Pose Worldwide Threat to Health. The Independent.   Retrieved on 3 April 2008. Kapsch, Paul, Landi, Matt and Schwartz Sarah. (1999). Mercury. University of Vermont. Retrieved on 3 April 2008. Learn About Mercury and Its Effects, (2006) Natural Resource Defense Council. Retrieved on 23rd March 2008. Mercury-Contaminated Fish Poses Health Risks to Adults, (2003) Mercola.com. Retrieved on 25th March, 2008.