Frederick Douglas Essay -- Frederick Douglas report

Paper on Frederick Douglass In the 1800's, slavery was a predominant issue in the United States, one that most Americans in the South dealt with daily. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass reveals much about American history during the time of slavery as well as expounds arguments for the abolition of slavery. As a historical document, it conveys information about the slave family, work, the master-slave relationship, and the treatment and living conditions of slaves. As an antislavery tract, it argues against commonly held beliefs about slavery's benefits and its morality, making strong points for getting rid of slavery. In The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass reveals, through the story he tells "the core of the meaning of slavery, both for individuals and for the nation."(2) Slave families were often torn apart by the master separating them. Douglass states that often mothers were taken away before the baby reached one year old. He believes this was probably done to break the bond of affection between the mother and the child. In Douglass' own case, he only remembered seeing his mother four or five times, during the night, when she had to walk twelve miles each time just to be able to see her own son for a little while. When she died, Douglass wasn't allowed to go to her burial. He was just told she was dead afterwards. Douglass didn't feel much hearing the news because he barely knew her. Douglass also wrote of how members of the slave family were always at risk of being separated. They could be sold at the master's whim, or when the master died, the slaves would be gathered with the rest of the property to be sold to different masters. Frederick Douglass tells how after his master died, th... ...ample, when he tells how people who could be chosen to work on the Great House Farm would sing songs filled with great anguish. When he heard these songs, he got his "first glimmering conception of the dehumanization character of slavery."(51) The second main idea was how knowledge equals power. His growing understanding about how education would be "the path from slavery to freedom."(64) He tells how the more his master, Mr. Auld, argued his education, the more clearly he knew its supreme importance. His third main point was that freedom is essential for every human being. He showed all of his renders a glimpse of this when he "imagines himself on one of [the ships] ‘gallant decks,' speaks to us and the ships alternating voices of anguish and triumph, pouring out his ‘soul's complaint,' and converting it into an unforgettable image of the meaning of freedom."(23)

Essay --

Mount Vernon; George Washington's Mansion There are many historic Memorial in the United States, but Mount Vernon is the most popular and visited site. It is one of the most unique home built in the eighteenth century. Thousands of people visit Mount Vernon yearly become educated about the life of George Washington and how he lived. Mount Vernon is a beautiful, luxurious estate home to the first president of our country, George Washington. Mount Vernon sits at 3200 Mount Vernon Memorial Highway in Mount Vernon, Virginia. Washington’s family owned the land since the time of Washington’s great grandfather in 1674. Washington older brother owned the land until he died in 1752. Lawrence’s will said that his widow should own a life at Mount Vernon. Two years after George’s brother died, George began leasing the land from Lawrence’s widow, Anne Fairfax. George got possession of the estate in 1754, but did not become it’s sole owner until 1761. In 1739 George Washington launched on an expansion of the estate. He constructed the mansion between 1757 and 1778. Its currently 11,028 square feet, ten times larger of an average home in colonial Virginia. Over four decades, Washington expanded and refurnished Mount Vernon twice. The architect of this estate is unknown, but George Washington is said to have many helpers and sources to constructing his dream home. The exterior of his mansion appears to look like stone, but is actually made of yellow pine siding.It is built of wood in a loose Palladian style. Most rooms at Mount Vernon have been touched up since George Washington and his wife, Martha, lived in the mansion. Mount Vernon is not only a mansion; it also includes the Ford Orientation Center, mansion outbuildings,Gardens, Martha and G... ...t. In the months March, September, and October, its opened from nine to five. In November through February the estate is open from nine to four. Mount Vernon is open 365 days a year. When travelling with a school group student’s tickets cost eight dollars, while adult tickets cost fourteen dollars. An adult chaperone is required to visit Mount Vernon. Mount Vernon will help our class understand how George Washington lived. This is an extremely important site because George Washington was the first leader of our country. I think our class will get a ton of information from visiting this ancient estate. Mount Vernon will remind why George Washington is called â€Å"the father of our country.† This gorgeous estate is a must see site. Its beauty and perfection will hopefully change they way we viewed how George Washington lived his life when he was not serving our country.

Organizational Culture Essay

It is extensively acknowledge that organizational culture plays an increasingly essential role in a successful company. However, in the meanwhile whether organizational culture should be changed constitutes a controversial issue. Many managers assert that organizational culture must be changed while few others argue that organizational culture needs not to be changed. As far as I am concerned, I am in favor of the former view. In this essay, firstly, I will talk about what is organizational culture and what do organizational cultures do. In the second place, I will discuss why organizational culture should be changed. Thirdly, I will analyze the risks of organizational culture change. Finally, I will expatiate how to prevent risks of organizational culture change. What is organizational culture? A number of years back, I watched an American reality television The Apprentice, and I remember a player was asked what he thought organizational culture mean by Doanld Trump. He said: â€Å"I can’t express it, however,I get it when I see it. † Most people cannot define organizational culture accurately by concise word. However there seems to be widely recognized that organizational culture indicates a system of shared meaning held by members that distinguishes the organization from other organizations. (Becker, 1982, pp. 513-27; and Schein 1985 p. 168) This shared system meaning is, on further investigation, a series of important features that the organization values. The investigation advises that there are seven main features that, gather up the threads, constitute the essence of an organizational culture. (Reilly III, Chatman, Jehn, 1991, pp. 487-516; and Chatman, Jehn, 1994, pp. 522-553; Ashkanasy, Wilderom, Peterson, 2000) 1. Innovation and adventure: the extent to which employees are encouraged to be make innovations and adventure. 2. Detail oriented: the extent to which employees are anticipated to exhibit meticulous, analysis and detail oriented. 3. Attention to outcome: the extent to which management attach importance to results or outcomes rather than on the skills and processes used to achieve those outcomes. Attention to people: the extent to which management decision take into regard the influence of results on people within the organization. 5. Attention to team: the extent to which job activities are organized around teams rather than individuals. . Aggressiveness: the extent to which people are aggressive and competitive rather than easygoing 7. Stability: the extent to which organizational activities stress keeping the status quo by comparison to growth and development. There is no denying that organizational culture is just a descriptive concept, because of organizational culture is paid attention to how employees perceive the features of their organization’s culture, not with whether or not they like it. Furthermore, it is obvious that a company cannot have only one organizational culture. As we know, there are many employees who have different background or at different levels in a company, so they must have different perspective with organizational culture. In the mean time, there are two different cultures in one company, dominant culture and subculture. Dominant culture describes the core values that are shared by a most of the employees, when we talk about an organizational culture, we are referring to its dominant culture; In general, subculture develop in a big company to reflex conjunct problems, situations or experiences that staff meet. What do cultures do? Culture has a variety of functions in an organization. First, it creates distinctions between one organization and others. Second, it expresses a sense of identity for employees. Third, it precipitates employees not only care one’s individual self-interest, but also care whole organizational interest. Fourth, it improves the stability of the organization. Finally, culture serves as a sense- making and control mechanism that guides and shapes the attitudes and behavior of employees. (Reilly, Chatman, Staw, Cummings, 1996). Why organizational culture should be changed? Compelling arguments can be made that organizational culture should be changed, immediately. The first point with respect to this is that our society is advancing at an amazing speed in this day and age, more and more organizations face a dynamic and changing environment. As a consequence, all organizations must adapt to the changeable society. ‘Change or die! ’ is the rallying cry among today’s manager worldwide. In the second place, with the development of technology and science, the sense of distance between people getting closer, our world became a multicultural environment. Therefore, many companies have to do adjustment to adapt environment. More precisely, many companies must spend large amount of money and much energy on training to improve skills of employees. Last but not least, in this world, competition is a part of our lives, never disappear. Especially in the business society, the weaks are the prey of the strongs, increasing competition makes it inevitable for builded organizations to defend themselves against both traditional competitors who develop new products and services, and small entrepreneurial firms with innovative offerings. This makes sense in that a good organization will be the ones that can change according to the competition. They followed the steps of the times, able to develop new products quickly and put them on the market. They accelerate production operations, shortened product cycle and constantly produce new products that can adapt to radically-changing environment. The risks of organizational culture On the other hand, colorable arguments can be made that organizational culture should not to be changed. This argument has considerable merit in that every little change can bring huge risks, especially for a business organization. For example, a change is scheduled and employees as soon as possible respond by voicing complaints, demotivation, even threatening go on strike and so on. In general, risk can be divided two big parts, individual risks and organizational risks. Individual sources of risk belong to primary human characteristics such as consciousness, characteristics and requirements. There are five different risks in individual resources. Custom (Habit): Do you go to school or work always through same route every day? Most people’s answer: â€Å"Yes! † Our lives are so complicated, we have to make hundreds of decisions. Therefore, face to life’s complexities, we lean upon habits or programmed responses. However, when faced with change, this tendency to respond in our usual ways becomes a source of risk. For instance, when your department moves to another new building, it means you have to change your habits: get up earlier ten minutes; pass a new street go to work; look for a new parking; adapt to new office’s overall arrangement and so on. . Security: People with a high need for security are likely to resist change because it threatens their feelings of safety. For example, when Sony&Ericsson announced to lay off 17000 employees or Ford will introduce new robots, these employees feel their job unsafe. 3. Economic: Changes in work tasks or job specification can lead to economic fears if people are cared that they would not be able to adapt to new tasks or standards, especially when reward is closely related to productivity. 4. Fear of the unknown: Change replaces vagueness and indetermination for the unknown. When we graduated from high school ready enter university was a wonderful example. In high school, we understood that what things need to do, you maybe dislike high school life, but at least, you know this system. We faced a fresh and uncertainty system in university, you have to sacrifice your know to exchange unknown, it was associated with uncertainty fears. 5. Selective information processing: Individuals are sinful of selective processing information in the cause of maintain their whole consciousness. They hear what they want to hear and they ignore information that challenges the world they have created. Organization is conservative for its essentially, it resist change energetically. (Hall, 1987) This phenomenon can be seen everywhere, for example, governmental agencies want to continue devote oneself to their work, no matter what the market need to change; The organized religion has ineradicable history, changing religious doctrine need great perseverance and patience; Many business companies also think change can bring many risks. There are six organizational sources of risk. (Katz, Kahn, 1978) 1. Structural inertia: Organizations keep their stability by inner mechanism, like their selection processes that choose employees in or out very systematically; Training and other socialize technology strengthen requests and skills for every concrete role; Organizational normalization provides job specifications, rules and regulations to employees. After selection, the satisfactory employees can enter organization, then, organization will model and guide their behaviors by kind of way. When an organization is meted with change, this structural inertia act as risk (even counterbalance) to maintain stability. 2. Limited Change attention: Organizations are made up of a quantity of interdependent subsystems. One cannot be changed without influencing the others. More exactly, in the meantime, organizations just change technological process, and not change organizational structure for match it, so technological change cannot adapt to. It seems that limited change in subsystems tend to be nullified by the lager system. 3. Group inertness: Even though individuals want to change their behavior, group criterion may act as a force of constraint. For instance, an unionist maybe accept job change from capital, but if union regulation provide that resist any change by capital unilaterally change, therefore risk will appear. 4. Threat to professional knowledge: Changes in organizational model may threaten the expertise of specialized groups. In 1980s, the process of adopting distributed personal computer was a good example. This computer can let user direct got information from host computer of company, but it encountered many information departments’ counterview. Why, because the use distributed computers can bring risks for special technology of information departments. 5. Threat to established power relationships: Any reapportionment of decision-making power can threaten long-established power relationships within organization. Participative decision and self-management work team are belong to this change, it used to be threaten by low-level managers. 6. Threat to established resource distributions: Groups in the organization that control considerable resources see change as a risk. They tend to be gratify with the way things are. For instance, whether change means their budget or members decreasing? Those groups which can get much benefit from existing resource allocations used to be threaten by future allocations. How to prevent risks of organizational culture change? Although Organizational change brings many risks, in some ways, this is positive. It regulates a degree of stability and predictability to behavior. If there were not some risks, organizational behavior would take on the representatives of chaotic randomness. According to these risks, there were six tactics have been suggested for use by change planners in dealing with preventing risks. (Kotter, Schlesinger, 1979) 1. Education and Communication: Risk can be reduced through communicating with employees to help them understand the logic of a change. The fundamental assumption of this strategy is the reason of producing risks that fights the effects of misinformation and miscommunication; if employees see all facts and eliminate entire misread, risks should disappear. Our communication could through talk personally, group discussion, memorandum, report and so on. Indeed, research shows that the way the need for change is sold matters-change is more likely when the necessity of changing is packaged properly. (Dutton, Ashford, O’Neill, Lawrence, 2001) By the way, when the risk of change definitely from miscommunication and labor relations character by mutual trust, this tactic does work; if these conditions cannot be have, it does not work. 2. Participation: It is difficult for individuals to hit back a change decision in which they participated. Before changing, those opposed can be brought into the decision process. Presuming that the participants have the professional knowledge to make a meaningful contribution, their participation can reduce risk, obtain promise, and improve the quality of change decision. However, this tactic has two disadvantages. First, it maybe has potential poor decision; second, it would take much time. 3. Support and Promotion: Change planners can provide a range of supportive measures to reduce risk. When employees feel fear and worried, the company should offer recommendation and counseling psychology, new-technologies training or a short paid leave of holiday may promote adjustment. Research on middle managers has shown that when managers or employees have low emotional commitment to change, they favor the status quo and resist it. (Huy, 2002, pp. 31-69) 4. Negotiation: Another way for the change planner to cope with potential risk to change is to exchange something valuable for waken risk. For example, if the risk is concentrated in some powerful individuals, a detailed payment scheme can be negotiated that will satisfy their individual needs. Negotiation as a tactic may be necessary when risk comes from a powerful provenience. But, planner cannot ignore its potentially high costs. On the side, if change planner negotiates with one party to avoid risk, he or she is open to the possibility of being extorted by other individuals which have power. 5. Control and Cooptation: Manipulation deal with concealed influence attempts. Some illustration of this are twisting and misinterpretation facts to make them more attractive, blocking undesirable information, and creating rumors to get employees to accept change. If managers threatens to closed down a extraordinary manufacturing plant if that plant’s employees do not accept an across-the-board pay cut, and if the threat is actually untrue, managers is using manipulation. Cooptation, on the other side, is a mode of both manipulation and participation. It try to find ‘buy off’ the leaders of against group by giving them an important role in the change decision. The leader’s suggestion is explored, not to seek a good decision, but to get their authorization. Both manipulation and cooptation are comparatively low-cost and easy ways to enhance the support of opponents, but the tactics can backfire if the targets become conscious that they are being tricked or used. If by any chance detected, the change planner’s reputation may drop to zero. It used by change planners in dealing with opponents to change; that is, the application of direct thrusts or force on the opponents. The color is quite mandatory, if the company management indicated to in the previous discussion really is determined to shut down if employees do not agree with a pay cut. Other examples of coercion are threats of transfer, loss of promotions, negative performance appraisal and so on. The advantages and disadvantages coercion are similar to the benefits and drawbacks of manipulation and cooptation. For my part, after considering the arguments above, I would concede that organizational change can bring many risk, the members of conservative not support change. Nevertheless, despite that I think the organizations should be changed, every day is different, anything would be changed as time goes on. Overall, I am convinced that with development of society, managers will discover many effective change plans to adapt to market competition.

A ghost story Essay

The Turn of the Screw is a story written in 1898 and from a governess’ point of view. In the main story the governess thinks the two children she is caring for are under the evil influence of two ghosts, Miss Jessel and Peter Quint. What we would expect from an opening to a ghost story written in 1898 is to be launched straight into the plot. We would expect this because this grips the reader’s attention and makes you want to read on. We would also expect the setting to be introduced because this makes you become involved in the story. We would expect the language to be complex because this is the style that was used in the eighteen hundreds. We would expect the characters to be introduced and to become real to the reader. We would expect this because the reader will not believe in the characters if they do not seem realistic. We would also expect atmosphere to be created because this prepares the reader for a ghost story and makes the reader feel part of the story. We would also expect tension to be created because this makes us want to read on. The Turn of the Screw is in some ways typical of an opening to a ghost story written in the eighteen hundreds because the style is complex: for the first sentence, which is long, dense and contains four conjunctions. This however suits the Turn of the Screw because it mirrors the complexity of the story. Similarly the Turn of the Screw is typical of an opening to a ghost story because atmosphere is created. There is a sinister feel created; this is because it is set ‘on Christmas Eve in an old house’. This prepares us for a ghost story that is about to be told. The group of strangers is sat ’round the fire’ in an old fashioned house. This gives the impression of a traditional setting for telling ghost stories. The fact that it is a group of strangers also makes it seem spookier. The atmosphere is emphasised when the members of the group pick up their candlesticks before they go to bed. This adds to the feeling that everything is very old fashioned and spooky. This is in keeping with ghost stories as they are usually set in old fashioned and have spooky atmosphere to them especially the setting. It also lets you imagine the scene of flickering candles in an old fashioned house. When Douglas goes up to bed the rest of the group ‘heard his step on the stair’. This gives the reader the impression that Douglas’ footsteps are echoing through ‘the great brown hall’. This adds to the atmosphere because the footsteps are echoing and spooky. The great brown hall also adds to the idea of the old fashioned house.

Ratio Analysis of Ryanair Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Ratio Analysis of Ryanair - Essay Example First we chose Operating Profit as our initial measure of economic performance. Since Operating profit is the cornerstone of the success of any company, and it serves to provide an overall picture of a business in general. It is clearly an indicator of the success of the strategic planning and decisions made during the course of the course of the year by management in general. One can clearly gauge also how the company performed compared with the competition. In order to calculate the operating margin you have to divide operating income by the total revenue. The Operating Profit for RynAir for the year 2007 was 21.09% (471,745/2,236,865) compared with an industry average of 0.6 % (Dun & BradStreet, 2007). Here we can perceive that management definitely is plating their cards right at RynAir. They are demonstrating a level of efficiency and profitability that is vastly superior to any competitor. The financial ratios we have chosen portray a clear image of the Rynair’s profitability, solvency and resource efficiency. The first two ratios we have chosen measure the firm’s level of solvency, or its ability to pay its liabilities. These two are the Quick Ratio and Debt to Equity Ratio. The Quick Ratio or Acid test ratio is the most demanding and clear portrayal of a company’s true level of liquidity.   It serves as one of the main metrics used by financing institutions in order to gauge the credit worthiness of a business or corporation. In order to compute the quick ratio, first obtain the current assets and subtract the inventory, this number represents the "quick assets" or the type of assets that can be converted to cash immediately.  From this total of quick assets the total of current liabilities must be discounted. The result from this formula is the quick ratio. Due to the fact that inventory is rarely sold as quickly as the more liquid assets, this is why inventory levels are excluded from the

Write in your own words about the life of saint Bernadette Assignment

Write in your own words about the life of saint Bernadette - Assignment Example They had no means of survival and the family of six had to live in one room and eat any food that came their way. She lived in poor health during her early life and was struck by illnesses such as asthma, tuberculosis and had survived cholera, and these attacks made her be cut off from the religious lives. One day in 1858 when she was sent to fetch firewood with her sister and a friend, she met a beautiful lady who smiled at her and made the sign of a rosary. Bernadette knelt and took her rosary and started praying. Mary mother of God had appeared to her as a beautiful lady, and she also appeared seventeen other times after this day and had a conversation with her. She told Bernadette that sinners should repent their sins and be accepted back by God and also that a church be built. When she told people about her vision, many did not believe her, and she had to suffer a lot before people could believe her (Paulos, 2003). One day our lady to dig a hole where water sprung out, began to flow out and began growing bigger and bigger. When people begun using this water, miracles happened. Bernadette w as very humble, and when she grew older she became a nun. She got too much attention, which she dint like and went to a school run by catholic sisters where she learnt to read and write. She spent the rest of her life working as a helper in the infirmary, a job she liked a lot. She died at the age of 35 in 1879 and her body put to rest the Saint Gildard Convent (Paulos,

The Historical Evolution of the European Union from Its Earliest Research Paper

The Historical Evolution of the European Union from Its Earliest Post-War Beginnings under the Schuman Plan and the European Coal & Steel Community - Research Paper Example Introduction European integration was initiated in 1950 through the Schumann Plan, which established The European Coal and Steel Community (EASC). The aim was to confront fears that the dominance of Germany’s coal and steel industries could be detrimental to European post war reconstruction efforts or be harnessed to build a war machine (Lipgens and Loth, 1988). At a personal level, the plan’s chief architect, jean Monnet, hoped that the project would shore up French reconstruction plans and capacity by Europeanizing the technical planning process. Most proponents of the project hoped that ECSC would pave way for integration beyond coal and steel, and induce a more profound relationship (Sloan, 2005). The Robert Schuman Speech Robert Schuman, the French foreign minister acting on advice from his adviser jean Monnet, made a historical speech on 9th may 1950. The speech addressed pertinent issues affecting Europe such as the just ended World War Two, economic situation in European states, the unfolding cold war between Soviet Union and the US, the plague coup that facilitated the communist takeover in Czechoslovakia, the Berlin blockade, the first soviet atomic bomb, and forces in the USA advocating for a German rearmament (Lipgens and Loth, 1988). ... A high authority, later named as European Coal and Steel Community, was to overlook the Franco-German coal and steel industry. The perceived fusion of economic interests would raise standards of living and inspire the formation of a European community. Decisions of the proposed High Authority were to be binding on member states while the high authority was to be independent and have equal representation. The founding partners had to invent a unique law and avoid the principle of unanimity. As a result, the law designed was neither national nor international, but transnational or supranational as such; the EU law was in violation of some national laws and required a high social competence to practice (Gerber, 1998). Initially, the EASC had six founding members who consisted of Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The 1957 Treaty of Rome created the European Common Community (ECC) or Common Market. The founding nations of the European Union sacrificed some of t heir sovereignty in favor of economic integration, supranational governance, and collective peace. The motive was to rise above nationalistic heroism that had dominated the early decades of the twentieth century, precipitating two world wars, loss of life, and economic destruction (Sloan, 2005). European political leaders wanted to end international strife, promote economic well being, foster social harmony, and build a better world free of rivalries and hatred. Therefore, the initial functions of the EU were to foster peace and prosperity (Sloan, 2005). There were two ideological approaches to European integration; the federalist approach advocated for local, national and regional authorities to cooperate and complement each other while the functionalist