How Does Knowledge Management Influence Innovation and Competitiveness?

How does knowledge management influence innovation and competitiveness? The Authors Alberto Carneiro, Alberto Carneiro is Assistant Professor in the Polytechnic College at the University of Lisbon, Portugal. Abstract Is concerned with human value management, examines the relationships between organizations’ competitiveness, innovation advancements, and knowledge management and presents a set of considerations regarding how these relationships affect strategic management and the formulation of competitive strategies. By considering how knowledge development is related with personal characteristics and personal development, this study review attempts to provide useful insights on the linkages between innovation and competitiveness. These considerations point out the importance of knowledge development and the role of knowledge management in order to assure competitiveness. This work proposes also a conceptual model, with special focus on the relationships between knowledge management, competitiveness, and innovation. The major factors are presented and directions for future research are suggested according to the proposed model. Introduction Management is increasingly aware that knowledge resources are essential to the development of their organizations. Nowadays, the knowledge and the information technology (IT) are critical success factors for strategic formulation. Critical success factors refer to those managerial and organizational constructs that need to be effectively addressed in order to further the likelihood of implementation success. Since industry attractiveness depends on those factors, strategies and their implementation should be supported by a set of informational data and a knowledge development process. Knowledge is becoming progressively more useful because management is taking into account the value of creativity, which enables the transformation of one form of knowledge to the next. The perception of the existing relationships among several systems elements leads to new interpretations and this means another knowledge level where a new perceived value is generated. This relationship indicates that the innovation highway depends on the knowledge evolution. On the other hand, all the technologies that are present in the activities of the chain value have to be articulated and assisted by an efficient knowledge level. Some of the knowledge involved in the use and improvement of technologies can be written down in detail in procedures manuals and use instructions. Others are tacitly transmitted and learned through practical knowledge. Moreover, the success of technological modifications needs to be supported by more clarified and enhanced knowledge. With but few exceptions, most firms have had difficulty in developing a viable strategic knowledge system. There are manifold reasons for this, but certainly a major one is the omnibus nature of the sources required. Knowledge may flow into the organization in a continuous but unsystematic manner, probably because the amount of information processing resources varies by level of management activity. The lack of specific system objectives inevitably led to a data bank of enormous magnitude. It is necessary to consider the structure of such a system and to implement it, in accordance with the organizational functions that use information to realize activities and to decide. Considering the need to increase managers’ concerns, this work sustains that a set of factors is dramatically useful to justify the relationship between innovation process, competitive advancements and a strategic knowledge management (KM). First, it presents a brief review of the relevant literature on the role of knowledge in the management processes. Second, and in a modelization perspective, we will discuss the relationships among these factors to suggest a better way to deal with human value, to improve KM, and to attain a higher level of competencies. Finally, this article discusses the implications of KM on innovation and competitiveness and presents suggestions for future research. Knowledge: an organizational asset What kind of knowledge should organizations develop? Organizations need to use adequate information to check the status of business activities as well as to make informed business decisions (Martin et al. , 1998). According to their tasks, managers must have the adequate information and the ability to analyze and evaluate alternatives in the light of the goal sought. This information comes from different internal and external sources and their credibility is crucial to provide an adequate knowledge (Joyce, 1993). Managers have to consider that the most valuable human attributes should be developed because they are one of the most important assets of many corporations. To do so, they need to adopt a new KM philosophy, based on search of information and innovative efforts. In this philosophy, managers should distinguish between different levels of knowledge. Initially, everybody can be aware of various facts and use data coming from those sources. This means that knowledge is reduced to a basic level, although each individual already has a professional understanding of his/her role in the organization. In the next phase, knowledge tends to specialization. The knowledge level and the fields of specialization will increasingly be taken as standards to measure the companies’ value of their assets. However, without being stimulated, it may stay in a static relation within functional areas, although tasks are performed in a qualified manner. If management is interested in knowledge development, it is necessary to consider that knowledge workers should be included in a dynamic process. This process demands the support of motivation, creativity and the ability to improve an intellectual and comprehensive vision of the relationship between the organization and its environment. Management should differentiate these levels, because the core of the decision-making process could be severely damaged if they were intended as similar. In fact, knowledge workers (strategists, engineers, technicians, researchers, etc. ) are able to offer insights in what concerns problems and/or new situations. In an upper level they can also contribute drastically to include more evident values into the company’s offering in order to generate the client’s preferences. Knowledge workers are the core intellectual competence of many firms. In fact, they dominate their expertise fields and, for example, they know how to optimise the systems software that is relevant to strategic decisions. Knowledge workers create most of the value in some industries. The benefits are immediately visible in some innovative industries, such as software, pharmaceutical, health care, financial services, communications, and consulting. That is, knowledge influences competitiveness. At this moment, it is necessary to underline a question: can knowledge be seen as a specific value for the organization or is management only using the employees’ brain capacities in a very innocent manner, because they are human resources? In the past, the returns on investment came predominantly from physical assets like physical products and equipment. Today, knowledge is the main source of another type of assets: intellectual assets. Knowledge levels can be an asset only if they are enhanced and efficiently used. Being so, managers must purposely organize, motivate and control the development of their knowledge workers. These ones are able to provide new solutions in the complex network of organization-client relationships. Owing to technologies, materials, and competitiveness, several industries find themselves in complex scenarios. Knowledge is not the solution, but, in the near future, the intellectual capital will be required to deal with this complexity, and to support innovation and creativity (Brooking, 1996). Usually and specially in the context of dynamic industries, higher knowledge levels live near a frequent dissatisfaction and the capacity of questioning what seems to be already understood. The need of search is one of the consequences. In various industries, the search activities can lead to new products and to innovative processes. Undoubtedly, the increasing complexity of research militates in favor of formal institutions like universities and government laboratories. Nevertheless, if KM is able to stimulate and support their commitment, individual innovators may have an important role in the changing process. Moreover, research activities in the business sector tend to be integrated within manufacturing firms (Mowery, 1983) and they can propose incremental innovation. Considering their missions and strategic objectives, organizations have to define what kind of knowledge will be more important to take care of. Managers should develop the ability to stimulate knowledge workers in order to obtain better effective levels in what concerns the analysis of target markets, technological innovations, and economic trends. Knowledge and information technology Data and information are used for a variety of purposes in organizations, namely for improving the possibility of increasing knowledge potential. Some information is simply data obtained from the database in its initial stage, which is mainly supported by internal documentation and tacit knowledge. Sophisticated or specific information is included in a management information system. Based on various subsystems of information, KM may use many combinations of factors in accordance with the database system and data that are provided by the users (DeSanctis and Gallupe, 1985). In general, firms’ search for information can be viewed as part of a process, through which an organization adapts to its external environment in order to survive and to become more competitive. Particularly, organizations look for information about specific activities, such as the purchase of new equipment and launching of new products, to obtain benefits of improved final decisions. Information requirements depend on the nature of each situation and on the need to formulate competitive strategies (Wetherbe, 1991). Building effective information systems is a very important challenge that managers are facing today, but it is necessary to pay attention to the need of comprehensive information systems architecture. A firm and its managers use a variety of approaches to combine, sort, and process the environmental data to produce timely and relevant information for forming, monitoring, evaluating, and modifying strategy. This variety should reach a high integration level in order to be possible to obtain a strategic information system. Knowledge professionals do have a decisive role in this integrative task. Summarizing, aggregating, comparing, or combining various sets of data collected in the environment and from competitors and customers produces other information sets, which are used, for example, to measure performance and report on the financial health of the organization. Knowledge workers are often exposed to incomplete information on new events and modifications, but they also have the option to search for additional information in order to update their knowledge levels (Ozanne et al. 1992; Burke, 1990). KM is also a question of cultural way of operating in the market. To enable this culture to prevail, IT is needed. Nowadays, IT is assuming a decisive role in KM and is one of the most important tools, which is used to decide, to fight competitors, and to catch target markets. In fact, adequate software can capture and distribute to knowledge workers all the useful information the company has stored over t ime. Taking this operation as a training process, knowledge workers can integrate several types of data and try to find new solutions for their problem tasks. This is true because they can use information about clients and competitors, technical databases, decision support systems, management models, successful solutions to competitive situations, and access to specialized sources of knowledge. Understanding, interpretation, and the use of IT may enable a possible competitive advantage to be identified and obtained. These three aspects cannot be done without specific and organized knowledge of the relationships among hardware, software, processes, and required results. In fact, some equipment replaces human command-and-control procedures, but knowledge advances have o be used to optimize this equipment utilization. Knowledge workers have adequate qualifications to communicate the information that is needed. Information sharing is a very usual practice. However, some of them avoid this communication flow, because they are not able to see the organization as a system, where the global objectives should be accepted as a common value. In some organizations, information sharing should be stimulated, because it is one of the most important tools of creativity and, moreover, intellectual assets, unlike physical assets, increase in value with use. Knowledge management: some guidelines Management has to analyze in the right time all the environmental elements because they affect the organization performance. Managers must intend to come to the best solution by selecting the alternative that best satisfies goal achievement. The main role of environmental analysis is to detect, monitor, and analyze those current and potential trends and events that will create opportunities or threats to the organization. A number of companies have developed effective means of learning about their environments and, most importantly, have implemented strategic decision systems which allow them to capitalize on opportunities and to defend themselves against threats. These analyses and systems are based on IT and KM. KM improves the conditions for strategic action by way of appreciating and treating problems and challenges by the company. Strategically, the success of most management decisions depends also on a competitive effort, which includes a deep knowledge of customers’ attitudes and an adequate analysis of the stronger competitors (Curren et al. 1992). This means that managers must learn: weaknesses, strengths and movements of their direct competitors; and how their customers perceive their products. Finally, all these findings should be integrated into a management information system. Managers should become aware that the great challenge is settled on the efforts to innovate, to exploit te chnological advances, competitors’ failures, industry opportunities, and the investment in knowledge processes and knowledge workers. In fact, knowledge and knowledge workers can be interpreted as a company’s intellectual capital, and also as a key factor to its sustainable development. According to Kao (1996), some companies are already able to carry out internal knowledge audits in order to quantify the innovative effort for competitive advantage. Most of the times, the intellectual capital is not well recognized and remains largely hidden from the view of financial analysts and executives alike. As a consequence, it is undermanaged. This means that its potential is not entirely used. Top management should focus their attention on these situations because the intellectual capitals of their companies and innovation infrastructure are one of the real sources of future competitiveness (Leonard-Barton, 1995). It is well known that managers have to face uncertainty, that is, they must make decisions under uncertain conditions, often before all the required data are in. Today, managers must be able to embed more knowledge-value in their decisions. Doing so, they will become much more prepared to come out with a new improved and even better alternative before their competitors. Knowledge workers may help in these situations. In fact, they are adequately able to deal with information and present hypotheses and proposals. Therefore, they can have an efficient role in the reduction of uncertainty. This point of view demands new directions of KM. To stimulate the development of creative skills, management should point out some directions to the most important knowledge workers: †¢to be able to define objectives of each task in a systemic network in order to share knowledge and available information with others; †¢to increase the level of individual commitment; †¢to be entirely aware of the amount of resources (equipment, software, materials, assistance) that they are going to need; and †¢to ask for answers, creativity, and innovative solutions. Management needs to show some interest in the intellectual capital, the crucial importance of creativity, the need to sustain a constant flow of innovation, and the new concept of learning organization. Competitiveness and knowledge management Knowledge and the formulation of competitive strategies The success of a strategy depends also on a co-ordinated resources management. Resources may be divided into two groups: physical resources (money, equipment, materials, facilities, and time) and conceptual resources (data, information, and knowledge). Managers have to decide how available resources will be distributed throughout their organizations. In fact, the organizational context calls for or demands certain decisions and results. Being a manner of finding a solution for a problem or formulating a strategy to achieve the objectives previously defined, every decision should be based on: an integrated set of information; the knowledge skills of human resources. In what concerns dynamic organizations, KM is a valuable strategic tool, because it can be a key resource for decision making, mainly for the formulation of alternative strategies. KM should be able to combine innovation efforts, updated IT, and knowledge development in order to achieve a set of capabilities to increase competitiveness. In fact, when this combination is adequately managed, the company can formulate competitive strategies, which integrate innovative products and new technological weapons to face its competitors. Management decision is a very complex process whose evolution integrates several stages. The first step in solving a decision problem is its formulation. In a practical perspective, defining its boundaries and critical components depends on information resources. The analysis of input data needs also a complete and updated understanding of several realities and the capability to find relationships among them. Further, the decisionmaker is able to predict the outcomes because they result from each available alternative. These stages are always based on data, which need to be organized in order to be useful; that is, every management decision must be supported by a set of information because of each situation, the context where it is occurring, and the organization objectives achievement. In a fast-changing environment, the competitive advantage of many companies is based on the decision to exploit, to develop the power of knowledge development. That is why some corporations try to provide opportunities for personal and professional development and are seeing that they should stimulate knowledge development to formulate competitive strategies. To find out and exploit opportunities, companies need to establish the main orientations of KM in order to enlarge their growing possibilities based on innovation and competitiveness. Managers know that it can be disastrous to enter or compete in an industry without being aware of changing critical success factors that define their target markets, since they play a significant role in determining the likelihood of implementation success or failure. If a firm is entirely aware of the vital importance of these factors, management decisions have to consider a complex background where the knowledge of the clients’ needs and preferences and the competitors’ strategies is decisively important. Practically, this means that a market orientation includes the concept of competitive orientation (Slater and Narver, 1994; Day, 1994, 1990). In this context, a company can decide its competitive advantage as a function of the capability to generate radical change in its processes and technologies and of the flexibility to adapt its resources to the strategic formulation. For example, if an organization decides to become a fast innovator, managers should co-ordinate the ability to formulate a competitive strategy and to build advantages against competitors. This ability depends on the capacity of speeding up creative operations to generate innovations (Page, 1993). These considerations are already known and well accepted, but we need to extract from them the logical consequences. A competitive decision should be based on a wide and quite firm support, which shall integrate the different relationships among several types of knowledge. As a consequence, a comprehensive knowledge is the vital ground where competitiveness should be built. Increasing competitiveness using knowledge benefits According to modern approaches, KM is already considered as a key factor in the organization’s performance, because it deals with different resources that can aid decision makers in many ways (Keen, 1991). Managers require complete and updated information and, according to their level of activity, they hope to rely on their knowledge workers. Nevertheless, this hope is useless if these experts are not effectively motivated to deepen continuously their levels of knowledge. Some companies know that the innovation effort and the adoption of new procedures and new technologies may increase competitiveness (Goel and Rich, 1997). This relationship seems to have the following reasons: †¢the innovators can be inventors if they are able to manage research and development function (Gilbert, 1995); †¢knowledge workers can perceive and deal with what target market accepts or expects as value; †¢knowledge development is a fruitful background where incremental innovation may be attempted; †¢if a company can use a knowledge-based competitive edge, it is able to defend itself against the aggressive movements of its competitors. The need for scientific and technical information flow within the firm is well recognised. Knowledge and information derived from data are required for competitive initiatives such as improving customer satisfaction, developing new products and markets, and providing faster response. The link between knowledge and systemic databases should be understood within the context of information resource management (McFadden and Hoffer, 1994). This means that effective decision making requires a rational selection of inter-related data and the possibility of these data being integrated into KM. This orientation can be applied in the strategic planning area, and it presents flexible capabilities. In fact, managers have the possibility of asking for more updated information, using pre-programmed models based on the integrative knowledge of previous situations, considering alternative solutions, and stimulating the construction of innovative proposals. A KM can lead managers to anticipate problems better and to experiment and innovate. Based on a good KM, managers are more able to analyse and evaluate environmental scenarios, and adequate response alternatives in the light of the global objective previously determined (Dutta and King, 1980). At this point, managers can desire to come to the best solution by selecting the alternative that best satisfies the achievement of global objectives. This means that they are deeply concerned with increasing competitiveness. A primary objective of this orientation in modern business organizations is to contribute to greater efficiency in achieving organizational objectives. To assure this contribution, researchers should reinforce their efforts to explore the relationship between the competitiveness optimisation and the KM optimisation, and also the effectiveness of a KM, which has not been entirely clarified. Innovation and knowledge management Can knowledge management support innovation? The innovative efforts include the search for, and the discovery, experimentation, and development of new technologies, new products and/or services, new production processes, and new organizational structures. The consequences of these efforts are sometimes seen as a raw material of information industry. New management philosophies are aware that information is the result of knowledge evolution and that a solid network between intellectual effort and technological innovations is enlarging. The innovative efforts are also the right consequence of the investment in knowledge and knowledge workers. If KM is positively influenced by the search of innovations, the investments in the development of new knowledge may propel companies into new business in more rewarding markets. To achieve better results, innovative efforts have to be strategically combined with a competitive orientation and its consequent movements. This combination depends vitally on the highest level of individual knowledge and on its technological basis. Many companies are taking into account that new technologies and management approaches are changing the traditional perspective of managing intellectual resources. According to some works (Harari, 1994; Nonaka, 1994; West, 1992), the organizations that are able to stimulate and to improve the knowledge of their human capital are much more prepared to face today’s rapid changes and to innovate in the domain where they decide to invest and to compete. Managers should recognise that the skills of human resources and the motivation level make possible creative suggestions, different proposals, and research activities to build up innovations. Due to the new insights of KM, a creative knowledge worker can contribute to face the problems that need new kinds of resolution, the situations that demand innovative approaches, and the relationships that can be discovered in the more and more complex markets where companies are operating. In old times, capital was the company’s most critical and scarcest resource and human attributes were used to contribute decisively to obtain the return of the company’s investment in equipment and plants. Presently, companies are trying to understand and to use a new logic of value, which is founded on its competencies, customers’ evaluation criteria, and competition. It should be underlined that the knowledge development in the fields of technological innovations, specialisation on business processes, and innovative products is the strongest source of competencies. Moreover, all competitive efforts, which come from competitors’ knowledge and innovations, dramatically affect the success of strategies (Gatignon and Robertson, 1993). Innovation should be viewed as a complex process, which involves a set of investment possibilities. In this investment perspective, knowledge has to be considered as a sort of capital. Owing to this reason, its development process is a managerial concern, because it can lead to the launching of a new product. The success of an innovative product is notoriously connected to research activities and changing orientation. On the other hand, these two elements depend on the development of knowledge levels and the innovative efforts of knowledge workers. Knowledge development How to intensify learning involvement One of the most important objectives of a competitive KM should be to increase frequently the different levels of knowledge. Increasing them implies: †¢to straiten the links among the latest advances of IT and the processes of gathering and process information; †¢to motivate knowledge development by recognising its importance in companies’ evolution; †¢to promote the acquisition of scientific culture, specially in the fields directly connected with the company’s main activities; †¢to invest in theoretical courses and practical training; †¢to intensify an effort to get updating in industry. According to the usual characteristics of all learning and experience curves, the knowledge level may grow exponentially if management is able to stimulate the conditions to learn more and to increase experience. Considering the power of these stimuli, which should be integrated into a global human resources policy, management has to define the adequate procedures to enlarge and to deepen knowledge development. Within a scenario of competitive imperatives of speed and considering the need to innovate constantly, learning will be the essential hedge against the possibility of negative consequences. Organizational learning should be seen as one of the most important responsibilities of top management. In fact, organizations may use the individuals’ learning activities and learn through them to create an organizational learning system, which provides the possibility of enhancing the capacity to generate new offering proposals (Coopey, 1995; Sinkula, 1994; Senge, 1990). Some authors consider that an organizational learning includes the ability to increase the understanding level from experience through analysis of problems, experimentation of solutions, and evaluation of results (McGill and Slocum, 1994; McGill et al. 1992). Organizations’ development needs to have the support of the positive changes in the education and training of the work force. This means that management should stimulate and organize this changing process. In general, there are two main ways that managers have to consider: 1. (1) updating efforts: scientific and technological knowledge is almost constantly changing and everybody in the organization should be conscious of the state-of-art of their fields of work; 2. 2) knowledge progresses have to be transformed in a more effective effort in order to obtain better production processes and more competitive technological advances. Learning involvement could be defined as a state of energy that a knowledge worker experiences in regard to an effort to increase his/her knowledge level (McQuarrie and Munson, 1987). A knowledge worker who is highly involved in learning is likely to expect more abilities to create and to suggest new ideas. A set of adequate information technologies should be foreseen. In fact, at any time during the learning process, errors or imprecision can occur. To avoid their negative consequences, KM should take into account the reliability of the information sources and also the data accuracy. These factors will affect positively the objectives’ achievement. Knowledge development as a strategic management instrument If management has a true strategic orientation, the knowledge development is a systematic, integrated, and planned approach to improve the effectiveness of intellectual capital of an enterprise (Edvinsson and Malone, 1998). It is designed to solve problems that adversely affect operating efficiency at all levels. Knowledge is one of the branches where development movements can occur to help managers in their decision-making process, to create new responses, and to enable a set of competitive reactions and/or pro-active proposals. In the last two decades, we have seen a knowledge explosion and a change of the labour force. In fact, knowledge workers are not directly involved in manual activities, but make up a greater proportion of the labour force than ever before. Many companies try to provide an internal environment for experiential learning in which knowledge workers become more and more involved in solving job-related problems. In a quickly changing environment, the organization’s flexibility is one of its key success factors. This flexibility should be strategically combined with knowledge workers’ adaptability and high-quality standards to obtain two types of competition tools: 1. (1) sustainable advantages against competitors; 2. (2) capability to offer to the target market new alternatives. Knowledge development is a sort of response to changes in the external environment and nternal situations. It can be adapted to solve problems that negatively affect operating efficiency, including the need to replace obsolete products by new ones. In what concerns knowledge development, the improvement of products (incremental innovation) and process innovation (radical innovation) should be integrated. The aim is to improve the horizo ntal flow of information, because this flow is a very important tool to understand the relationship between the organization, its clients and its competitors. To make better decisions, managers have the option to search for more accurate information. One of the most important sources is the knowledge development of their collaborators, because they have been adequately trained to find out what are the new advances of science and technology. Training and motivational measures can be used to leverage professional intellect, but human intellectual capabilities can not be managed as if it was the only goal. In fact, top managers must consider the critical knowledge bases, the intellectual skills, and also the accumulated experience that can be used to increase the organization performance and to support their strategic decisions. Most developments at enterprise level are not possible without changes in education and training of the human resources, namely the intellectual capital. In fact, this capital is focused on innovative effort, on the information about competitors, and on proactive strategic decisions (Prescott and Gibbons, 1993). In many important complex problems there simply are not enough empirical data to provide a basis for complete analysis. Many aspects of a decision process require personal judgement, that is, the presence of updated knowledge workers. The problem-solving capabilities of knowledge workers lie in education background, professional training, creativity, and motivation. Non-routine processes demand for more skilled workers, because innovative solutions should be found and adapted to market needs. Sometimes, an organization needs to assimilate competitors’ technologies, to imitate them, and, in a benchmarking perspective, to adapt them in order to obtain specific benefits (reduction of costs, faster capacity to satisfy their market needs). This strategic effort demands a sufficiently motivated intellectual capital. In fact, even people with exceptional talent will not be able to develop potential without the adequate motivation (Twining, 1991). Moreover, knowledge development should include an effort to integrate the intellectual power of the organization’s human resources. Skills that are integrated according to a systemic perspective are more effective than a set of disconnected and/or uncoordinated talents. The co-ordination of the various abilities and aptitudes may lead to a learning process with a holistic approach. Being so, knowledge workers can learn more, recall information more accurately and use all their resources to build up innovative solutions. Influence of KM on competitiveness and innovation The influence of KM on management decisions effectiveness should be considered to support and also provide insight into how knowledge workers can contribute to obtain better results. However, management must consider that knowledge is not a simple and unique entity. The commitment to generate new discoveries and a more demanding understanding is not enough. The organizations need to look for the knowledge that is able to add value. Value adding knowledge is very different to an information-mix. This mix can be important, but first it is necessary to find out how the markets perceive the presence of value. These considerations can be taken as a guideline for KM. There are perhaps an unlimited number of factors that can define management attitudes regarding the role of intellectual capital into organizations’ life. Some managers evaluate significantly this capital as a very important resource that should be used to obtain adequate profits. Therefore this capital should be constantly improved. As can be seen in Figure 1, a conceptual model of KM is proposed. It emphasises that innovation and competitiveness can be a function of the KM. This model takes into account numerous determinants (determinant factors) of the relationships among various fields. The top portion of the model shows the most common factors that usually define management’s attitudes and deals with the following questions: †¢How important is intellectual capital? †¢How does management evaluate knowledge development? Is training one of the important aspects to be planned? †¢Is knowledge considered as a strategic tool? †¢Are managers prepared to motivate knowledge development? †¢Are managers able to stimulate the potential capacities of their knowledge workers? KM has to deal with two domains: 1. (1) personal characteristics of each knowledge worker; 2. (2) factors that affect personal development. The most common factors t hat affect initially the personal characteristics of a knowledge worker are education level, attitudes and values, innovativeness and creativity (Eagly and Chaiken, 1993; Allen et al. 1992; Mayo and Marks, 1990; Bearden et al. , 1986; Hirschman, 1980). Innovativeness is an important factor for supporting innovative efforts and it contributes also to define the personality. However, it is not enough to desire new products or new processes. In fact, an innovation that an enterprise presents into the market may be also due to the creativity of its knowledge workers. Personal development is directly related to professional experience. Any personal experience may be an information source and a learning situation. As a result from a personal or a managerial decision, training courses may contribute to reawaken previously acquired knowledge and to facilitate the access to a higher knowledge level. The development of each knowledge worker has its own dynamics, which is related with personal objectives. The more demanding the objectives are the more the learning efforts should be intensified. Nowadays, learning processes and knowledge updating procedures depend on information technology. Moreover, it has a decisive role on knowledge development because competitive advantage can only be maintained by the use of information for innovation (Huffman et al. 1990). Nowadays, managers have to decide whether they want to obtain better results from their knowledge workers or they prefer to lose the creative power that they possess in their minds and their professional experience. Managers’ attention must be focused on personal development. To obtain an effective knowledge level, investment in knowl edge development is needed. Managers should improve their ability to motivate knowledge workers to attain higher knowledge levels, because the arousal of this set of intellectual needs may be caused by external stimuli. Motivations should be intensified, because they should impel knowledge workers to increase their knowledge levels. This movement will be decisive in terms of innovation and can contribute to a stronger competitiveness. Even when no innovation is possible, an improved knowledge of the market and competitors can lead to more competitive movements. The technical capacities of a modern information technology will help this motivational scheme. Companies have to find ways to reach knowledge workers’ involvement. A person’s level of involvement plays a role in how much effort is used to learn new subjects or to deepen knowledge. Moreover, this involvement is an adequate condition for information sharing among knowledge workers. Adding IT, creativity and knowledge leads to a particularly potent combination. Managers can obtain impressive results in what concerns the companies’ abilities to innovate if they are able to develop the stimulation of innovative proposals through motivational methods and adequate rewards. The same can be said in what concerns key success factors: managers should practice frequently the stimulation of competitive efforts, provided through utilisation of both existing and new technologies. This conceptual model intends to interpret the relationship between KM, innovation, and competitiveness. It may contribute to an integrated understanding of the knowledge development process and its influences into the domains where management efforts should be focused. Conclusions This article intends to provide insights to a better understanding of KM in what concerns the possibility of influencing innovation and competitiveness. Its considerations provide considerable support for the importance of knowledge workers as a decisive contribution to the strategic enhancement. The implications for managers have been underlined. Regarding these implications, some concluding remarks can be made: †¢define methods for measuring the degree of KM effectiveness; †¢develop effective strategies for integrating innovative efforts, professional experience, skills, interactive capacities to create value for a company’s competitiveness; †¢determine the means to capture, transfer and leverage knowledge effectively; †¢let KM enter into strategic decisions concerning the profitability of intellectual assets. The suggested model also enables us to extend some of the frameworks for understanding managers’ evaluation criteria. This extension to traditional models of management strategic decisions is a direct result of the informational complexities in modern organizations. Consequently, these considerations intend to represent an important step forward in unravelling the KM as an efficient support for innovation and competitiveness relationships. Directions for further research Deepening the analysis of managers’ interest on knowledge is critical to understand how KM can contribute to improve strategies’ formulation. Future research should examine the differences among industries, and measure accurately the relative importance of the factors that affect personal characteristics and knowledge development. Because these relations are not fully investigated, we suggest additional studies concerning the industries where knowledge workers have a more defined and important role. Future research on managers’ attitudes facing the linkages between strategic management and human value may have to examine carefully the role of a KM orientation as an effort to support adequately successful strategies. This discussion contributes to a better understanding of the consequences of a management orientation, which is able to leverage knowledge advances. It is the task of management to improve the types of knowledge that best fit innovative efforts and competitive strategies. If this management orientation is well pursued, the organizations are likely to profit from knowledge development and from their human resources creativity. Figure 1Influence of KM on innovation and competitiveness References Allen, C. T, Machleit, K. A, Kleine, S. S (1992), â€Å"A comparison of attitudes and emotions as predictors of behavior at diverse levels of behavioral experience†, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 18 pp. 493-504. Bearden, W. O, Calcich, S. E, Netemeyer, R. G, Teel, J. E (1986), â€Å"An exploratory investigation of consumer innovativeness and interpersonal influences†, in Lutz, R. J (Eds),Advances in Consumer Research, Association for Consumer Research, Provo, UT, Vol. 13. Brooking, A (1996), Intellectual Capital: Core Asset for the Third Millennium Enterprise, International Thomson Business Press, London, . Burke, S. J (1990), â€Å"The effects of missing information on decision strategy selection†, in Goldberg, M. E, Gorn, G. , Pollay, R. W (Eds),Advances in Consumer Research, Association for Consumer Research, Provo, UT, Vol. 17 pp. 250-6. Coopey, J (1995), â€Å"The learning organization, power, politics and ideology†, Management Learning, Vol. 26 No. 2, pp. 193-213. Day, G. S (1990), Market Driven Strategy: Processes for Creating Value, The Free Press,, New York, NY, . DeSanctis, G, Gallupe, B (1985), â€Å"Group decision support systems: a new frontier†, Database, pp. 3-9. Dutta, B. K, King, W. R (1980), â€Å"A competitive scenario modelling system†, Management Science, Vol. 26 No. 3, . Eagly, A. H, Chaiken, S (1993), The Psychology of Attitudes, Harcourt Brace Janovich, Chicago, IL, . Edvinsson, L, Malone, M. S (1998), Intellectual Capital: Realizing your Company’s True Value by Finding its Hidden Brainpower, HarperBusiness, New York, NY, . Gilbert, J. T (1995), â€Å"Profiting from innovation: inventors and adopters†, IM, pp. 28-32. [Harari, O (1994), â€Å"The brain-based organization†, Management Review, Vol. 83 No. 6, pp. 57-60. Hirschman, E. C. (1980), â€Å"Consumer modernity, cognitive complexity, creativity and innovativeness†, in Bagozzi, R. P (Eds),Marketing in the 80’s: Changes and Challenges, American Marketing Association, Chicago, IL, pp. 135-9. Huffman, C. D. , Loken, B. , Ward, J (1990), â€Å"Knowledge and context effects on typicality and attitude judgements†, Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 17 pp. 355-60. Joyce, J (1993), â€Å"The industrial buyer’s use of information sources: an empirical investigation of source type and topic interrelationships†, AMA Winter Educators’ Proceedings, pp. 260-5. Kao, J. (1996), Jamming The Art and Discipline of Business Creativity, HarperBusiness, New York, NY. , . Keen, P. W. 1991), Every Manager’s Guide to Information Technology, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA. , . Leonard-Barton, D. (1995), Wellsprings of Knowledge: Building and Sustaining the Sources of Innovation, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA, . Martin, E. W, DeHayes, D. W, Hoffer, J. A. , Perkins, W. C (1998), Managing Information Technology: What Manage rs Need to Know, 3rd ed. , Prentice-Hall, New York, NY, . Mayo, M. A, Marks, L. J. (1990), â€Å"An empirical investigation of a general theory of marketing ethics†, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 18 pp. 163-71. McFadden, F. R, Hoffer, J. A (1994), Modern Database Management, The Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company, Inc, Menlo Park, CA. , . McGill, M. E, Slocum, J. W. Jr (1994), The Smarter Organization: How to Build a Business that Learns and Adapts to Marketplace Needs, John Wiley & Sons, New York, NY. , . McGill, M. E, Slocum, J. W. Jr, Lei, D. T. (1992), â€Å"Management practices in learning organizations†, Organizational Dynamics, Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 5-17. McQuarrie, E. F. , Munson, J. M. (1987), â€Å"The Zaichkowsky personal involvement inventory: modification and extension†, in Wallendorf, M. Anderson, P. F. (Eds),Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 14 pp. 36-40. Mowery, D (1983), â€Å"The relationships between intrafirm and contractual forms of industrial research in American manufacturing, 1900-1940†, Explorations in Economic History, Vol. 20 No. 4, pp. 351-74. Nonaka, I. (1994), â€Å"The dynamic theory of organizational knowledge creation†, Organizat ion Science, Vol. 5 No. 1, pp. 14-37. Ozanne, J. L, Brucks, M, Grewal, D (1992), â€Å"A study of information search behavior during the categorization of new products†, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 8 pp. 452-63. Page, A (1993), â€Å"Assessing new product development practices and performance: establishing crucial norms†, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Vol. 10 pp. 273-90. Prescott, J. E. , Gibbons, P. T (1993), â€Å"Global competitive intelligence: an overview†, in Prescott, J. E, Gibbons, P. T (Eds),Global Perspectives on Competitive Intelligence, Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals, Alexandra, VA, . Senge, P. M (1990), â€Å"The leader’s new work†, Sloan Management Review, Vol. 32 No. 1, pp. 7-23. Sinkula, J. M (1994), â€Å"Market information processing and organizational learning†, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 58 No. 1, pp. 35-45. Slater, S. F. , Narver, J. C. (1994), â€Å"Does competitive environment moderate the market orientation-performance relationship? â€Å", Journal of Marketing, Vol. 58 pp. 46-55. Twining, J. E (1991), Strategies for Active Learning, Allyn & Bacon,, Needham Heights, MA. , . West, A (1992), Innovation Strategy, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliff, NJ, . Wetherbe, J. C (1991), â€Å"Executive information requirements: getting it right†, MIS Quarterly, pp. 51-65.

Dorian Gray Essay

The Picture Of Dorian Gray Essay There are certain aspects of Dorian Gray’s personality that make me think he is schizophrenic, such an example is multiple personalities. In the beginning of the story, Dorian was a young, attractive boy with cunning wit and a semi-feminine charm. It was just an ordinary day and all of the sudden, Dorian meets Basil Howard. Infatuated with his good looks, the beauty of Dorian hit Basil like a Mata bus. As Basil began painting a picture of Dorian, he met Lord Henry, a close companion of Basil and he too was struck by Dorian in a different way. He had interests of studying him instead of admiring him. Finally, Basil finishes the picture and in the first two chapters of the book and in one paragraph, you have met three contributions of Dorian’s conscience: the painting, Lord Henry Wotton, and Basil Howard. The painting was an obvious representation of Dorian’s conscience in my opinion because as his soul grew weaker, as did his conscience. As Dorian aged, he became evil and he never thought for himself, he either adopted Lord Henry’s views or Basil’s. Dorian clearly listened to Lord Henry more because in the long run, he became evil. â€Å"It had, perhaps, served often as a pall for the dead. Now it was to hide something that had a certain corruption of its own, worse than the corruption of death itself– something that would breed horrors and yet would never die† (Wilde 122). According to the bible, your soul is immortal and I think Dorian is expressing this in his thoughts. In this quote, Dorian wants to cover up his conscience and his soul to avoid listening to it. The portrait represents his constant nagging conscience and bad decisions he has made in the past. Lord Henry and Basil Howard were the good angel (Basil) and bad angel (Lord Henry) on Dorian’s shoulder. Lord Henry always tried to speak aphorisms and spoke of himself as a higher power, such as: â€Å"My dear boy, no woman is a genius. Women are a decorative sex. They never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly. Women represent the triumph of matter over mind, just as men represent the triumph of mind over morals† (Wilde 51). Lord Henry was always trying to force his opinions into Dorian’s head and the sad thing was, he ate every word and practiced it in his life. Lord Henry represents the bad angel/conscience and it was also the side he listened to more often than any other. On the other hand, Basil represents the good angle/conscience. Throughout the book, Basil always tried to steer Dorian in the right direction. Dorian looked up to Basil in the beginning but, as his infatuation became stronger with Lord Henry, the respect dwindled and Dorian listened less and less. The prayer of your pride has been answered. The prayer of your repentance will be answered also. I worshiped you too much. I am punished for it† (Wilde 162). Even in a time of horror, Basil stood behind Dorian and tried to help him in a hard situation but, Dorian did not listen and turned to the dark side when he said: â€Å"Each of us has Heaven and Hell in him, Basil! † (Wilde 161). Dorian had finally shut the door on his good conscience and killed him within minutes. In Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde is telling his readers it is harder to follow the better side of your conscience. There are many temptations to do the right and the wrong thing and this story is an example of when you always make the wrong choices. The ending of this story also showed the final bad decision when a change is presented right in front of you and yet the weak character still follows a bad influence. Wilde is teaching us a lesson in life, to always follow your heart as you take in bad and good influences. Works Cited Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2003.

Philadelphia family Essay

Born in 1856 into a wealthy Philadelphia family, Taylor disappointed his parents by working in a metal products factory, first as a machinist and next as a foreman. Shocked at the factory’s inefficiency, and the practice of its skilled workers of purposely working slowly. As an engineer he was more interested in the practical outcome and not the psychology Taylor proposed solutions that he believed would solve both problems. By studying the time it took each worker to complete a step, and by rearranging equipment, Taylor believed he could discover what an average worker could produce in optimum conditions. The promise of higher wages, he figured, would create added incentive for workers to exceed this â€Å"average† level. Taylor’s time-and-motion studies offered a path away from the industrial wars of a century ago. Now what was needed was a way to apportion the wealth created by manufacturing enterprises. Taylor’s answer sidestepped the class struggle and interest group politics. He believed his principles would create a partnership between manager and worker, based on an understanding of how jobs should be done and how workers are motivated. These workers are motivated by money. He believed a fairs day work deserved a fair day bonus. He thought keeping his workforce happy would keep them producing at a high quality. He died in 1915, whilst on a speaking tour in the mid west he contracted influenza, he was admitted to hospital and celebrated his 59th birthday there and died the next day. Taylor’s second and third theory is used in the McDonalds. The McDonalds ethos is that the food preparation must be done to specific instructions. For instance the fries must be cooked for a 3 minutes at a temperature of 175o, then the buzzer tells the employee to take them out and salt them. Throughout all McDonalds are a series of dedicated, purpose-built machine for producing milkshakes, toasting buns and squirting chocolate sauce and much else. After 150 years this is the most active period working in industry, F W Taylor would feel very much at home ordering a Big Mac. The biggest person that Taylor’s theory’s influenced was Henry Ford. Henry Ford was the first person to try mass production and it was a massive success. Taylor’s practices were first used in 1911 in the factory; by 1913 Ford had introduced a conveyor belt system and had achieved the ultimate Taylorite idea. This method was also used in Nazi death camps. They did not plan whom they would kill until the day they did it. Both Mussolini and Stalin both used his techniques during their communist uprisings. Taylor also wrote many books of these the most famous is ‘The Principles of Scientific Management’ he wrote this in 1911. He split the book into two chapters the first ‘the fundamentals of scientific management† and the second â€Å"The principles of scientific management†. In the first chapter he stated that the principal object of management should be to secure the maximum prosperity for the employer, coupled with the maximum prosperity for each employee. In the second chapter he stated that people should be told what to do and how they do it. They should be motivated by a money incentive. Before Taylor, skilled workers chose their own methods of work, but after Taylor workers were far more likely to have limited, repetitive tasks and were forced to work at a pace set by their manager. To maximise efforts of workers Taylor introduced an incentive system known as a differential piece-rate. This offered a meagre payment per unit produced. 2p per unit for the first 500 per day 5p per unit all those above 500 per day The threshold was set a t a level which those producing barely 500 received barely a living wage. To make 700 was a great incentive, as you would earn double what you would at the 500 mark. But the workers in many places resented this theory that the theory was abandoned soon after introduction. Problems with Taylor’s methods With Taylor’s notion of a ‘quickest and best way’ for all workers does not take into account individual differences. There is no guarantee that the ‘best way’ will suit everyone. Also some people naturally will be able to work faster than others creating a disadvantage for those he is not so fast. Taylor also viewed people as machines, with financial needs, than as humans in a social setting. People felt pressured and did not like being treated this way. He also overlooked the fact that some people work for other reasons than money. In a financial survey in 1982, a large sample of British people were asked whether they would carry on working if they financially did no need to. Nearly 70% of men and 655 of women said they would. Taylor’s Core values The rule of reason, improved quality, lower costs, higher wages, higher output, labour management, co-operation, experimentation, clear tasks and goals, feedback, training, stress reduction and the careful selection and development of people. He was the first to present a systemic study of interaction an d job requirements, tools, methods and human skills, to fit people into jobs both psychologically and physically, and to let data and facts do the talking rather than prejudice, opinions or egomania.

Do's & Don't for Educational Facility Planning Project Essay

Do's & Don't for Educational Facility Planning Project - Essay Example The space should be standard and as per the recommended guidelines. The planner should fit the available finances into the standard plan rather than fit the plan into the available finances. In such a case, there will be concern towards achieving the correct space for present as well as the future. In the development of an approach that will settle the scores between the budgetary constraints and educational requirements. Care should be taken in avoiding an approach that will constrain the facilities due to the available cash. It would be better to develop a few compulsory facilities and leave space for future developments, rather than develop all facilities, but with constraints. This approach will aim at ensuring quality. The facility aims at providing comprehensive educational specifications that link the education programs offered with the design of the facility. In achieving this objective, all features necessary for a certain facility should be incorporated into the design. This will involve the use of relevant personnel. Proper documentation should assist in ensuring the proper steps are followed. The planners, should thus, use the resources available at their disposal to ensure that they get the requirements for the facilities right and not focus on what they think is right. They should apply facts, procedures and standards in determining the requirements. There should be proper communication between the designers and the educators, whereby the educator is responsible for stating what is required and the designer is responsible for stating how the requirements are met. The educator has the requirements in a theoretical perspective and should not be involved in determination of the design. The designer is responsible for ensuring that the required and stated specifications are met fully. The process of planning for the education facility at hand requires consultation with experts, who are responsible for approving some of the required

Global warmming Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Global warmming - Term Paper Example The concerns surrounding global warming revolve around human activities in all productive sectors that are aimed at enhancing the livelihood of the people and the global economies. In the process, the environment has suffered immense damage, and the situation seems to worsen every single day. Dating back to the 19th Century when global warming debates began hitting global headlines, the magnitude and extent of global warming and climate change has persistently moved from bad to worse. The average global temperatures have kept rising, amid interests, campaigns and efforts to reduce climate change in order to contain global warming. Contributing factors to the persistence of global warming are diverse and dynamic. This means that the already existing drivers of global warming continue to worsen the situation, as more emerging factors are realized in the same line. Global warming is seemingly the worst case factor in the climate change context. Global warming and climate change in general is triggered by a number of factors, both existing and newly emerging. As a matter of fact, global warming did not start today, nor did it start few years ago. Global warming has become a realized outcome from a long-lived process, significantly dating back to the 19th Century. The causes of global warming vary from one country to another, but all these causes summed up influence global warming as a whole across the globe. One of the most critical causes of global warming is the greenhouse effect (Filter & Ringward 32). Horticultural agriculture has essentially become a global undertaking due to the ever rising global demand for agricultural produce. Greenhouse effects have resulted in the depletion of the ozone layer, causing persistent increase in global average temperatures over time. Although the extent of greenhouse effects varies from one country to another, the effects are spread across the globe.

Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform - Research Paper Example People had to borrow in order to finance their mortgages. From the periods of 1994, to 2004, the ownership of homes amongst residents of United States of America increased from 64%, to 69.4% (Whalen, 2008, 220). Because of an increase in the demand of the houses, the price of these commodities increased by 124%. These made consumers to refinance their homes, and take on second mortgages resulting to a reduction in their disposable income. By the time 2008 reached, the United States mortgage debts in relation to its GDP increased by 26% reaching a figure of 73%. This is from the periods of the 1990s. The easy availability of credit, and an increase in the house prices led to the building boom, and this further increased the prices of the houses, and eventually to their decline in the periods 2006 (Deminyank and Herbert, 2011, 1851 ). Paying back these mortgages became difficult, because of the fall of the home prices, as compared to the prices in which they initially bought the homes. This had an effect of reducing the value of mortgage backed securities, eroding the financial capability of the banks. This failure led to the emergence of the subprime financial crises. ... Another reason for the emergence of the subprime crises is failure by the government to effectively regulate the financial activities of various banking organizations, and their financial products. This was made possible by the 1982 mortgage transactions parity act. This act allowed credit organizations to readjust their mortgage rates, and its aims was to make it possible for as many people as possible to own homes. This act led to an abuse of the mortgage lending procedures, because credit institutions could offer any amount of interest payments to their loan products. In 1999, the Federal government repelled the Glass Steagal Act, which created an environment of risk consciousness in investment banking (Immerglack, 2011, 247). This act had an effect of regulating the creditors during boom periods, making credit organizations to undertake risk measures while carrying out their duties. Its repeal made banking organizations, to lend freely, without establishing measures that would le ad to the mitigation of risks. The Securities and Exchange Commission also played a role into the emergence of the subprime mortgage crises. The commission changed the rules of calculating its capital reserves, and this enabled credit organizations to increase the percentage of debts they incurred for purposes of financing their operations (Deminyank and Herbert, 2011, 1850 ). The consequences of this action are that it led to the growth of mortgage securities that supported subprime mortgages. This eventually led to the near collapse of the banking system, because of an increase in their debts ratio, and inability to pay. This led to the enactment of the Dodd Frank financial reform act. This act created changes to the

The South Vindicated from the Treason and Fanaticism of the Northern Assignment

The South Vindicated from the Treason and Fanaticism of the Northern Abolitionists (1836) - Assignment Example He explained the life of a poor laborer in the north is far worse than the life of a southern salve. A northern poor laborer might work hard, unrelenting jobs under horrific conditions and still not make enough income to support himself and his family. He may do this his whole life and never come up in the world or provide for his loved ones. He shares that the experience of a southern slave is much more secure. Although they are work hard and tirelessly, they are provided comfortable living arrangements, proper food, and better hygiene and treatment of sickness than the northern worker would ever receive. A slave has fewer worries in life and security, the author believes that the slave’s existence is far more attractive than that of a northern laborer. He believed that educating slaves was dangerous and unfair. It is dangerous for slaves to be influenced by the false messages of abolitionists would rile them up and make them eager to seek freedom, which in turn would force southern whites to take greater and stricter measures to keep the salves in line. By educating them would be to, potentially, expose them to information that will only misinform them and lead them down a path that will only end in punishment and pain. He believes that the southern way of life is more a reflection of what human beings should be like. Because slavery relieves the white man from the day-to-day labors and basic necessity concerns, like food, income, and shelter, they can focus on more important things. Many men had more time to involve themselves in politics and educating themselves. All white men in the south are equal to all other men because there is no labor class per say as in the north. This country was founded on the principals that all men are created equal. The south believes that statement only applies to the white man. Therefore the universal mentality of equality in the south is closer to

You can choose the topic you want Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

You can choose the topic you want - Essay Example stence is all about hope and since the dawn of human civilization on this planet, almost all the major religions of the world have either believed in or alluded to rebirth in one form or other. The early Christians do believed in rebirth and life after death and they carried on with this belief until the Middle Ages. The records of many important and influential church fathers like Origen establish beyond doubt that they believed in rebirth and reincarnation. Yet, by the advent of Renaissance, the Christianity dropped the beliefs about reincarnation from its doctrines and rituals. However, two major world religions that are Hinduism and Buddhism regard rebirth and reincarnation to be an essential part of their creed. Though there are many similarities between the Hindu and Buddhist theologies about rebirth, yet there also exist many marked differences between the way the two religions tend to elaborate on the concept and mechanism of rebirth. The fundamental similarity between the Hinduism and the Buddhist beliefs about life after death is that both of them believe in reincarnation or rebirth. Both Hinduism and Buddhism believe that death is not the end of life, but the extension of life into a second life that is a life after death. Thus, there exists nothing as death and the human beings continue to live after death by taking a second birth after death as some other personality, individual or life form. The Hindus believe that eventual goal of the human existence is to merge with the Brahma or the Supreme Being or God and before the attainment of this state; the human beings continue to pass on from one birth to other, from one state of existence to other and experience many births and deaths. As per Hinduism, every individual has to bear with countless and many experiences and has to live many lives before becoming one with the Divine. According to Buddhism, the eventual goal of human consciousness to attain Nirvana o r enlightenment and on its way to Nirvana,

Communication Styles in Different Cultures Essay

Communication Styles in Different Cultures - Essay Example One major difference between our cultures is knowing when handshaking is appropriate. In Australian culture, this is an acceptable way of greeting both males and females. However, in Saudi culture, there are many restrictions in greeting with regards to gender. Lewis noted this in his interactions with people in the Arab world and concluded that being respectful at all times towards male and female Arabs is the best form of communication ( 2001). Personally, I have been in many uncomfortable situations when I was offered a hand by a female friend and I was not completely certain what I was expected to do. In these situations, I was afraid to offend my close friends but was hesitant to do something that is so taboo in my native land. In Australia, handshaking seems to be appropriate between men and women but in Saudi culture, handshaking between different genders is prohibited from due to religious belief. My Australian friend advised me that if shaking a females hand makes me uncomfo rtable, then I should be open and honest about it. I was assured that this would be acceptable and would not be offensive to most Australians. One of the new things that I learned is how to make refusal in a suitable way. I didn't want to be rude with Jonathan but our cultures differ greatly in this respect. In Australian culture, disagreement can be done in a very direct way and can be confrontational. This is not considered rude. However, in Saudi culture, it is best done in an indirect way avoiding any confrontation because the concept of friendship in Arabic culture is different.

Tanning. Why do people still tan after knowing all the bad effects Essay

Tanning. Why do people still tan after knowing all the bad effects - Essay Example Within the same era as that of Shakespeare, Elizabeth I passed away from white lead cosmetics. Such concept of beauty was also prevalent in Europe during much of the 18th and 19th centuries. This was because tanned skin signifies manual labor, of people who toil under the sun, the fair skinned people were regarded as the elite of the society. However, it was only when the labor practice has changed, where indoor work had become a norm, that tanned skinned became a trademark of people who can afford to do it for leisure purposes. Iconic figure Coco Channel during the 1920's accidentally acquired a tan during one of her holidays. This has had ignited a fad among fair skinned people to get themselves tanned. ( Wikipedia ) The first and the most common is sunburn, where the usual symptoms are marked by the redness of skin and peeling that takes places after a few days of too much sun exposure. This is described to be as a short-term skin damage. The next problem encountered is the premature aging or photoaging. ... Another one that is most dreaded by all is skin cancer. One type is called melanoma which is considered to be the less common but dangerous form of skin cancer that can cause death. UV radiation causes cancer in two ways : 1. By damaging DNA cells that will cause abnormal growth in the skin, that could be benign or malignant, and 2. by making the immune system weak that leads to the inability of the body to defend itself from aggressive cancer cells. Another kind of growth named actinic or solar keratoses is a concern because it has the tendency to develop into cancer cells. Then another risk which most people are not aware of is eye damage. This happens when the eyes weren't protected from the heat of the sun. It causes cataract characterized by the clouding of the lens of the eyes thereby blocking one's vision. Lastly, most people regardless of the race or skin color will most like suffer from immune suppression where the body's natural defenses to fight against diseases were compromised. Apparently, weak immune system makes one susceptible to different diseases where one of them could be skin cancer. (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) Reasons Why People Tan Despite Risks Robin Hornung and Solmaz Poorsattar, students of the University of Washington, conducted a study among 385 UW students about their tanning behaviors. It was revealed that 75% of the students do tanning in order to look good and 41% specified it is a relaxation technique. Due to these reasons, students strive to achieve their aim that the researchers described it to be an addictive behavior. ( Paras ) Steven Feldman, a lead researcher for the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center , said that they believed that tanning has a

Genre Defense of Shakespeares As You Like It Essay Example for Free

Genre Defense of Shakespeares As You Like It Essay As You Like It represents, together with Much Ado About Nothing and Twelfth Night, the summation of Shakespeares achievement in festive, happy comedy during the years 1598-1601, proclaims David Bevington his The Complete Works of Shakespeare (288). Bevington is obviously not the first editor to have categorized Shakespeares plays. In fact, part of the plays popularity might be based upon the fact that audiences know what to expect when they begin viewing the productions. For example, As You Like Its title hints that audiences should expect the play to end happily. This plays name is not, however, all that helps classify it as a comedy. Every element of the play drips with comedic elements, as Shakespeare characteristically critiques love, while highlighting the pastoral motif. The theme of the play is an obvious remark on its classification. Shakespeare exploits literary convention by mocking the foolishness love generates in us all. Kenneth Muir, in Shakespeares Comic Sequence, declares, His [Shakespeares] lovers-Rosalind, Orlando, Celia, Oliver and Phoebe-would all make answer to Marlowes question Who ever loved that loved not at first sight? with a chorus of No one.'(88) Each of the characters do and say impulsive things based solely on emotion. The Forest of Arden gives the characters freedom to act in such silly manners. Once their love relationships have been realized in marriage, the couples can prepare to return to the order, and presumably reason, of the court. The plot of As You Like It centers on the love relationships of four couples. Made up of the lovers stories and the story of the overthrown Duke Senior, who has fled into the Forest of Arden, the plot is quite complex. It centers on the movement of the characters from the court to the forest and then readying themselves to return to court. The play begins with the instantaneous falling in love of Rosalind and Orlando at court and the nearly simultaneous retreat of each into the Forest of Arden, due to Duke Fredericks sudden disdain for Rosalind and Olivers intention to kill Orlando. The plotline continues with Rosalind disguised as Ganymede, a boy, blocking Rosalind and Orlandos love. The plot moves from disorder to order, though, and the play concludes with a typical comic ending: a marriage ceremony. The marriage masque further solidifies the plays comedic classification. Helen Gardner notes in her article that the masque of Hymen returns order as it is able to end the whole with courtly grace and dignity. This is an image of civility and true society, for Hymen is a god of cities (59). A song sung at the wedding feast declares Hymens dominion over towns: Tis Hymen peoples every town / High wedlock then be honored. / Honor, high honor and renown / To Hymen, god of every town! (Shakespeare, V. iv. 142-145). Furthermore, the scene accounts for all of the characters happy state: Rosalind and Orlando have finally overcome all obstacles to be united; Oliver and Celia are able to immediately marry and Oliver has changed his ways; Silvius finally obtains Phoebes love; Touchstone and Audrey are married; and Duke Frederick has repented and joined a monastery, leaving Duke Senior to assume his rightful throne. All problems have been resolved, which leaves no room for arguing that the play is a comedy. The characters also prove that the play has been appropriately classified. The different lovers demonstrate stereotypical kinds of love. Commentator Kenneth Muir remarks, In As You Like It different kinds of love are examined-the lust of Touchstone, the self-love of Jacques, the pride and vanity of Phoebe, and the sentimental idealism of Orlando-and all are found wanting (91). The central relationship is between Rosalind and Orlando, whom Bertrand Evans describes as the brightest of Shakespeares bright heroines and the least conscious of his unconscious heroes (92). Orlando seems a typical jock. He wrestles Charles in the court and then falls hopelessly in love with Rosalind-so hopelessly in love that he, despite being a poor poet, carves Rosalinds name and poems about her into tree trunks. Although Oliver has denied him a gentlemans education, he is a noble character, who is loyal to his servant Adam, brave enough to fight Charles, and loving when speaking about his beloved Rosalind. Nonetheless, Orlando must have some naivetà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ in order for Rosalind to continue fooling him. Evans expounds, Despite the deserved praise which Oliver heaps upon Orlando [,] Orlando is exposed repeatedly in situations of which the truth eludes him. [] His abrupt disposal of Charles the wrestler; his first tongue-tied meeting with Rosalind; his sword-brandishing, valiant, but frightfully unaware entrance to demand food of Duke Senior-all these are parts of the preparation. (92-3) Orlandos good intentions are mocked somewhat by his actions. Rosalind is also a good person, as is evident in her devotion to Celia, her father, and Orlando. However, Rosalinds disguise leads to some humorous scenes as the (at least, original) audience is aware of the fact that, as Muir describes, when Ganymede is helping Orlando, We have a boy pretending to be a woman, pretending to be a boy, pretending to be a boy, pretending to be a woman, satirising feminine behaviour (90). Her disguise provides numerous incongruities as the audience continues to see the male Ganymede in opposition to Rosalind. Taking on a masculine role helps Rosalind to develop inner strength. In fact, Diane Dreher explains in her analysis of androgynous Shakespearean characters that Rosalinds disguise enables her to examine Orlandos motives, allowing her to say and do things that traditional feminine modestly would not permit (121). Despite her depth of character, the audience is constantly aware of her super objective: to marry Orlando. This goal in and of itself is a romantic convention that cannot be ignored. While Oliver and Duke Frederick appear as antagonistic characters in the beginning scenes when they are at court, both make a turn around after entering the forest. Shakespeare utilizes a romantic convention, the sudden conversion of a villain, to further illuminate the plays comedic nature. When Orlando rescues Oliver from a lioness, Oliver finds favor in his younger brother, and the two are reunited. Oliver and Orlandos brother Jacques explains that Duke Frederick has changed: And to the skirts of this wild wood [Duke Frederick] came, / Where, meeting with an old religious man, / After some question with him, was converted / Both from his enterprise and from the world, / His crown bequeathing to his banished brother, / And all their lands restored to them again / That were with him exiled. (Shakespeare, V. iv. 158-164). Entering the woods leads the characters to become better people. The characters language, although sometimes a bit poetic, is rather common. The plays pastoral elements make prose a more likely language choice. In fact, Dr. Sharron Cassavant, professor of English at Northeastern University has calculated that 54.5 percent of the plays 2, 636 lines are written in prose. The opening scene, exposition in conversation between Orlando and Adam, is entirely prose. Rosalind and Celia also interchange in prose. Prose dominates the dialogue between the lovers. Rhymed verse is generally used when Orlando attempts to write poems about his beloved Rosalind. Blank verse, a higher form, is used most often by Jacques, but Duke Senior also utilizes to proclaim the good that nature has offered him. In this critique of love, blank verse is reserved most often for use by those characters unaffected by love. The language lends itself to the plays love-at-first-sight theme in that the lovers do not have time to organize their thoughts in a collected way, but rather sp eak whatever first enters their mind. The play appeals to the comedic audience visually and aurally as well. Most notably, Rosalinds disguise allows the audience, aware of the fact that the boy they see pretending to be a woman is actually the woman he is pretending to be, to laugh at the incongruities of Orlandos pretend love for and Phoebes real love for Ganymede. The disguise also presents funny sounds as Rosalinds voice must change depending on the character she is playing. The other pastoral characters also lend country-bumpkin accents to the plays aural elements, as they are less sophisticated than the courtly characters. As You Like It could not be more comedic. Each of the plays elements presents stereotypical characteristics of comedy. Shakespeare obviously knew the requirements of each genre and managed to control those requirements while never ceasing to dazzle his audience. His works were all as we like them. Works Cited Bevington, David. Introduction to As You Like It. The Complete Works of Shakespeare. By Bevington. NY: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc., 1997. 288-91. Cassavant, Sharron. As You Like It Main page. Introduction to Shakespeare. Course Website. Dept. of English, Northeastern University. 11 December 2004 http://www.atsweb.neu.edu/uc/s.cassavant/AYLImain.html. Dreher, Diane Elizabeth. Domination and Defiance: Fathers and Daughters in Shakespeare. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 1986. [OBU] Evans, Bertrand. Shakespeares Comedies. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1960. [OBU] Gardner, Helen. As You Like It. Shakespeare the Comedies: A Collection of Critical Essays, Ed. Kenneth Muir. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.,1965.

ICT in Logistics Management Essay Example for Free

ICT in Logistics Management Essay Surviving in the competitive nature of the modern-day business environment calls for organizations to be creative and robust enough in securing competitive advantages. For this to be achieved, all aspects within an organization ought to upgraded to counter these challenges while at the same time reducing running costs and delivery time. Logistics management is not an exception to this. Fortunately, technological advancement offers wide range opportunities for firms to improve the functioning of logistical operations. This is because it has become vital for any firm in logistics management to review the working of its logistical processes as key strategy to create a competitive edge. Developments in the business world as well as the rapidly evolving customer preferences has made provision of services and goods a challenging task, since customers prefer to receive better quality products at an even shorter time. While it is still a recent development, Information Communication Technology (ICT) has a lot to offer the logistics industry. The most compelling truth is that ICT is not industry specific but rather is applicable to all types and all sizes of industries. Statistical data shows that a number of firms have already adopted the technology and are already reaping the benefits (Bourlakis Bourlakis, 2006). Application of the internet, computers and information communication systems into various aspects of logistics management such as procurement, warehousing, transportation and inventory management has been shown to be highly beneficial. As business operations change with the changing consumer markets, businesses are pursuing opportunities by integrating, coordinating, collaborating and cooperating with respect to the supply chain management. It is essential that businesses work together to benefit from collective advantages resulting from working as a chain rather than a single entity. This calls for effective information sharing and this is only capable with the application of ICT. However, the most challenging task for firms then is to identify the best ICT model that fits their logistical processes.

Communication Skills in a Diverse Workplace

Communication Skills in a Diverse Workplace The focus of my essay will be on effective communication skills in a diverse workplace, were going to find out the barriers of communication between different cultures, how to improve our communication style/skills and how to become better listeners in order to avoid any lack of communication in the near future interactions. Anybody in a work environment having a good understanding of effective communication skills in a diverse workplace entails will enhance every persons ability to experience a successful and professional work experience. Misinterpretations in the workplace can be rooted from a variety of cultural differences among distinctive ethnic backgrounds. Lack of proper communication skills in diverse workplace can cause many discrepancies among co-workers. People live in an increasingly complex world. Effective communication between Fellow co-workers from different cultural backgrounds ensures a very successful organization. As we already know in todays workplace is very important to be able to communicate we our fellows co-workers. If you ever been around and listened to a monotone person communicate, its hard to understand their feelings on a subject. Unless they incorporate their gestures and tone, we are not going to be able to see their point of view and understand their meanings. We live and work around different cultures which it make us more aware of the different people around us, by dealing with diversity on the daily basic this will help us communicate better in the Workplace as well as personal interactions. We live in a diverse society and career success depends on communicating effectively with people whose customs and values are different (Adler Elmhorst, 2004). There are so many effective way we can use to communicate in the workplace and so many languages that it becomes hard to communicate with other people. Also a person with a strong accent can cause someone who speaks the same langu ages to become confused and misinterpret the meaning of the whole speech. Nevertheless how and where we are raised determine both our verbal and non-verbal language. Also when a person from a different country translate something in their head like from (Spanish to English) it more likely have a different meaning, and thats why we have to know what type of audiences we are dealing with in the workplace and on our everyday life, to become better communicators. Being an effective communicator means interacting with people from various racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds (Pearson, Nelson, Titsworth, Harter 2003). In today society culture seems to be biggest factor in our communication skills. With United States being as diverse as it is now, we have to learn different ways and style on how to improve our communication skills. United States is habited with so many cultures that its almost impossible to have a single communication without the lack of it. The impact that ethnicity has on individual behavior cannot be ignored. Every day ethnicity influences the experiences we have at work, Diversity needs to be viewed as a competitive advantage and a business opportunity to achieve an inclusive diverse workforce. The problem that can arise from ethnicity is everybody comes from a different background. What one may think is normal can be totally different from what another person thinks. Prejudice is a preconceived judgment about an individual or group of people. Discrimination is unfair or inequitable treatment based on prejudice (Certo, 2008, p130). Minorities of all types of employment find themselves caught between the different lifestyles. There are several options that companies can use to educate people concerning the issues of ethnicity in the workforce. Training about the differences each culture has and the need to obey the rules set-forth by the company and human resources. Human resources are an excellent place to review all the employment laws that affect the workplace diversity. Communication is a solution we thought would benefit all concerning ethnicity in the workplace. Everyone should communicate just how they see, hear and do things that are not the standard. If youre not as caring toward others as you could be, you need to get the focus of yourself (Maxwell, 2009, p109). Communication is the key to bridging the gaps between different lifestyles. It is important to not make assumptions in communications with others, regarding the way ones own words and actions are interpreted (Certo, 2008). Its beneficial that we draw talent and value diversity and enable to attract and value diverse customers. Corporations will succeed when they have an environment that allows employees to work to their full potential. Furthermore your idea might be brilliant but is invaluable and worthless unless you can share it with others and get different point of view. This is the main reason why, effective communication is crucial at every level in any organization. However, to be able to communicate properly and effectively does not come easily to many people especially in diverse organization, and it is a skill that requires practice. Before we even begin walking we start practicing our communication. As a newborn child we communicate by crying, but we slowly learns to mimic our parents speech. A while later, the newborn discovers that certain speech patterns elicit different responses; one of the satisfaction of parenting is trying to decipher the meaning behind certain words. As working adults and on our daily life, one of the golden rules that we should follow is: We need to be able to organize our thoughts in our minds before sharing them with others. This rule involves conveying and comprehending before and during a two-way conversation. One idea often prompts a torrent of others. In order to share your ideas, you must first shape them correctly and coherently. To organize your thought properly is very important, because it creates a pattern for your listener, allowing him or her to grasp the larger picture intuitively. This allows the listener to focus on the details of your message, without struggling to understand how you went from Point A to Point B. Nevertheless, to be a very effective communicator one most speaks in a manner that is not offending to the receiver. When individuals are extremely well- educated in a particular field, they more likely have a tendency to use industry language in conversations or presentations. While this might be comfortable for the expert, it often causes confusion on the part of the listener. If, for example, you are discussing Business Credit Profile, you might be talking about Tradelines, Line Of credit and shelf Corporation. However, unless you are speaking to someone who is equally well- informed about business credit profile, that person will have no idea what you are saying. When we communicate, we need to put ourselves in our listeners shoes. Put yourself on the other side of the table.That way we can have a better feeling of our own words. In a company communication plays the biggest role. Everyone needs to be able to communicate at all time, also its very important to understand what effe ct the various components of communication on our success. As we already know verbal, vocal and visual components are the most important part of any communication. There is no secret whatsoever that todays workplace is growing tremendously, as the business environment expands to include various geographic locations and span numerous cultures. Having so many diversity can also be somewhat difficult to understand and communicate effectively with other fellows co-workers who speak another language or who rely in others meaning to get their point across. Workplace interaction /communication are not easy for everyone. Your workplace is a place where you meet and rely to people from different walks of life and from different cultural background. Sometime Language can be a major barrier to effective communication. However, a communication becomes successful only if the receiver comprehends to the fullest what the sender is trying to deliver in that message. When your message is not clearly comprehended you should expect a lack of communication by creating confusion within your audiences. Plenty of times in business, people forget common courtesy and t act. When you are interacting with co-workers, be prudent of their time and points of view. Always Separate emotion from intellect, and do not be condescending. As a part of the management you need to set an example and never allow anger to overrule reason. Always Conduct yourself in a professional manner in all aspects of you business dealings and treat others with the same respect that you expect yourself. Businesses are facing many challenges today trying to ensure that diversity in their workplace is not a source of conflict, but a foundation of strength. The environment is constantly changing in the workplace. The employers needs change and so does the workers. In today workplace there are great deals of companies that have employees from many different cultures that speak different languages and practice different religions. Companies are responsible to ensure a safe and comfortable environment for their employees, it is also important that every employee play a role in helping to make a diverse environment a comfortable one as well. Many situations occur in diverse workplaces that rely upon good communication. The method of communication can cause conflicts among co-workers. Understanding differences among co-workers of various cultures is a key element to success in the workplace. The success and failures of a business rely on its management. Communication is very essential in our everyday life. We all communicate in a different sort of ways: Talking, sign language, or written words are forms of communication. We can define communication as the exchange of Ideas, opinions, and information through written or spoken words, symbol or by our actions. Communication is the most essential element system on every corporation. All corporations depends everyday on all aspects of communication from verbal to nonverbal to perform their daily business routines. Every corporation also depends on all communications being properly conveyed to ensure that all communications are understood by the respective audience. Communication is important in all levels in any corporation. For example, co-workers may communicate very well amongst themselves when they are from the same culture. Effective ways to do so obviously depend on the environment. Let say that you work in a loud factory that require you to stay in contact with your co- workers, verbal communication would not be the right approach because it could be ineffective due to all the noises, so employees may communicate nonverbally with hand signals, gestures, or facial expressions. When employees need to communicate to management personnel this also can be done verbally in person, or in writing. If any management personnel are trying to communicate in the workers assigned work area, or desired production for the day, verbal communication should work just fine, if important information needs to be communicated, written communication would be the best choice, so there will be no lack of communication. Also, its one of the best forms of communication because it can be delivered uniformly and easily referenced back to. All communication is complex with plenty of room for conflict and misinterpretations. For a corporation to be successful, it must have employees capable of sending and receiving information quickly, clearly, effectively, and error free. Mistakes caused by misinterpretations can cost any corporation thousands of dollars due to missed deadlines, lost time, and wasted product. In order to have effective employee communication in the workplace, we must become better listeners and always put ourselves in their position in order to have good internal communication in the workplace. With a basic understanding of what we do wrong while communicating, one will be able to improve communication skills and recognize communication problems that arise during employee communication in the workplace. Communication plays a big part on our lives whether, emotional, intellectual or social call for communication at some point in our lives. In order to address any issue we might in the workplace we have to communicate. An individuals identity and persona is developed and brought out by our action and interaction with each other via communication. We are not all similarly motivated nor are we all compatible and it is only by way of association that we are able to positively identify with our suitable counterparts. Additionally, for those of us who are so cultured, our belief in the Superior Being, leads us to seek fulfillment of our spiritual needs. As we already know by now Communication is the process of transferring information up, down, and across the network of managers and employees in a corporation and is the key to whether an corporation functions effectively or ineffectively. Some of the challenges for an organization is to make sure their managers are trained accurately on how to properly communicate the organizational needs to their employees so that they serve to improve customer relations, keep employee morale up, build knowledge-sharing throughout the organization, and most importantly, and enhance the companys . Effective communication is very important and a requirement for employing organizational strategies as well as managing day- to-day activities through its employees. Management personnel spend more than three-fourths of their time daily in communicating or exchanging information. In Conclusion: In today Business world, Companies are becoming more diverse each and every day there are people from all over the world working with all kinds of different organization. Different problems can and will always occur with communication: like moral and ethical issues. We also need to remember that everyone does not view the world the same. Employee should know understand the important of each team member background. Trust is widely accepted as a part of communication within employee, not a big part still listening and communication. Great communication always starts at the top. For us to become great communicators we first need to be great listeners.