The Battle for Stirling Bridge Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

The Battle for Stirling Bridge - Case Study Example Employees are the superior stakeholders of the company. Employees work towards the objective of the company. The skilled metal workers of the Stirling Bridge Company manufacture power tools including the Braveheart tools and other light and heavy industrial machinery and thus they exert their sphere of influence in maximizing the profit. Employees are the superior stakeholders of the company. Employees work towards the objective of the company. The skilled metal workers of the Stirling Bridge Company manufacture power tools including the Braveheart tools and other light and heavy industrial machinery and thus they exert their sphere of influence in maximizing the profit. Customers: Customers play a major role in the development of the organization as they are the consumers of the product produced by the company. The customers influence the company by giving feedback about the quality of the product. Suppliers: Raw materials are the main resources of an organization. Suppliers provide the necessary raw materials and influence the continuous production of the tools. Government: The organization should get the approval of the government before commencing its productions. The concern should abide by the rules and the standard acts imposed by the Government. The Government has full authority to take legal action against the company if any of its activities harm society.   Thus each of the stakeholders exercises their own influence in different areas of interest in the company thereby promulgating the production to a profitable extent.2. How might the actions of Stirling Bridge, with respect to its Braveheart line of tools, be regarded more as a stakeholder approach as opposed to a strict shareholder approach and which of Lantos’ types of Corporate Social Responsibility might be demonstrated by each of the actions taken?

Euthanasia Essay Example for Free

Euthanasia Essay In his accounts, Gay-Williams raised important arguments with regard to euthanasia. Being a serious point of debate for many decades now, there are people who approve of it claiming it provides humane death for someone otherwise not capable of living a normal life anymore. On the other hand, there are others who stay conservative and disapprove of euthanasia believing that in no way can people decide should another person is already bound for death or not. One point of contention is the differentiation between active and passive euthanasia, which further segments the population. Gay-Williams assert that active euthanasia is illegal yet passive euthanasia can be morally favored. Some do not believe on the differentiation and say that whether it is active or passive, euthanasia should be regarded as illegal. Gay-Williams also argued that euthanasia takes out the hope in a patient. This further proves the negative notion on euthanasia. This along with the argument that euthanasia is a practical choice for medical practitioners is raised by the author and was explained in detail. This paper aims to discuss these arguments and evaluate their strength, which may prove or otherwise disprove the motions of Gay-Williams. In developing the paper, it hopes to evaluate euthanasia in light of its moral viability; the distinction cited between active and passive euthanasia and their moral statures, and two arguments that embody mercy killing: the argument that states how euthanasia affects the will to live and survive as well as how it may be used for practical applications—rather surprising conclusions that were taken by Gay-Williams which are worth a lengthy point of discussion, evaluation, and comparison. Passive and active euthanasia Gay-Williams stated that there is a big difference between passive and active euthanasia. In phrases, passive euthanasia is letting die while active euthanasia is killing. It should be noted that passive euthanasia happens when a person was not given relief from a certainly fatal situation which is otherwise medically alterable. For instance, a person with extreme difficulty in breathing who can still be resuscitated but was not given an apparatus or aid for the purpose may die under the circumstance of passive euthanasia. This is often done when there is an order by the patient or the family that the patient should not be resuscitated. Alternatively, the situation can be the other way around. The patient may be in a dying situation, but still technically alive. For some circumstance such as the thought that the patient is constantly in pain, hopeless, or if the patient himself can no longer bear the pain, there may become a request or a suggestion for the pain to be stopped—rather permanently. At this point poison may be intravenously given to end the suffering of the patient. According to Gay-Williams, this big difference between the two is obvious in light of their moral statures. The first one which let the patient die without medical intervention is acceptable as there was no effort in ending the life of the patient. Divinely, the patient may still be saved. On the other hand, the latter-described procedure deliberately put an effort in ending the suffering and the life of the patient. The author stated that this is killing even if the purpose of the act is to save someone from a lengthy and costly suffering. The thought of euthanasia Every one of us is gifted with survival instincts. When the going gets tough, they say the tough gets going. And so when an illness hits someone and he is tough enough, he finds hope rather than despair. He focuses on the positive rather than the negative and strives to find a way to battle the sickness and eventually win it. Thus, when the mind says that it wants to live, the body and the person will most likely follow. (How to live a longer and healthier life, 2007) This is the same argument raised by Gay-Williams as an issue of euthanasia. He states: knowing that we can take out our life at anytime (or ask another to take it) might well incline us to give up too easily. The will to live is strong in all of us, but it can be weakened by pain and suffering and feelings of hopelessness. This will to live is essential as many doctors have proven. Gay-Williams himself stated that there are many miraculous survivals that occur which even medicine cannot fully explain. Many shows, testimonials, and books have discussed how people in the brink of death were able to miraculously survive. Some were from serious illnesses or were declared in comatose. Some claimed to be back from dying. This relationship between the will to live and getting well has been the premise of many studies. Doctors started incorporating psychological therapies to their patients’ treatment plans hoping to get better results. Often, the results even exceed their expectations. This led many doctors to adapt the concept, to the relief and advantage of thousands and maybe even millions of patients around the world. As Gay-Williams says: The very presence of the possibility of euthanasia may keep us from surviving when we might. Euthanasia and practical effects Gay-Williams state that doctors and nurses’ main thrust and aim in their professions is to save lives, and that when a patient dies in their care it becomes a personal failure which may not be too easy to accept. Thus it is not surprising if the author argued that euthanasia is a practical way for practitioners to avoid this quicksand. If they endorse or support euthanasia, any impending deaths in their care can be pre-empted—no one will ever die in their responsibility again. Euthanasia is a product of free will. It takes the patient and/or his family into a higher level of decision-making whereby they choose whether to prolong the patient’s illness and let live or end the suffering and let the patient die in peace. Its proponents agree that approving euthanasia as a social policy lets the people exercise the freedom of will that was given to them by the divine and the constitution. This is true in that even if euthanasia becomes a social policy, it still boils down to the decision of the person if euthanasia should be chosen or not as a way of getting out of one’s suffering. If a patient or his family does not want to exercise it, it is also for them to decline. However, Gay-Williams claim that euthanasia will bring an all new low in the quality of healthcare where euthanasia is acceptable. The quality will be sacrificed because if practitioners know an easier way out of an untreatable disease rather than letting the patient die naturally in their hands, the process may be taken in non-serious cases as well. In connection, Gay-Williams stress that as a social policy euthanasia will bring worse concerns. For one, it can permit authorities to eliminate those who are hopelessly ill, the way those who are mentally ill are sent in mental hospitals—a comparison Gay-Williams was clever in making. Conclusion So did Gay-Williams’ argument win or lose? The argument revolved around the innate willingness to live by people, especially the sick. It played up the fact that the will to live is a fragile characteristic inherent to everyone. It further stated that euthanasia blotted onto this inherent character; that the provision of a choice to end life gave people the reason to end life; that giving patients, their families, and the doctors an easy route out of the situation gave them the authority to take this easy route out as well. With these arguments, Gay-Williams reiterated that whether as a social policy or an open option for patients, families, and medical practitioners, euthanasia is a slippery slope where no one wins. Gay-Williams, theoretically speaking, was able to deliver his points well. It is true that euthanasia is an exercise of free will, but the fact that free will is given and thus the idea of euthanasia is suggested to a patient is already initially detrimental to the patient. It entails responsible choices to be made by the patient, the family, and the doctors. It requires a full understanding of life, and the willingness to allow life to take its course. The doctors can suggest this graceful exit option to the patient or the family but if the patient or the family’s will to live or let live is stronger than the will to end everything, euthanasia becomes out of the options and medication can continue. But if the patient or the doctors already have the way out it will be too tempting to resist. (A plea for beneficent euthanasia, n. d. ) Even if euthanasia is unwise for conservatives, it is a matter of choice and conscience. For the unbelievers, they can go through life without considering it. For modernists, it is an available choice. In the end, one should never and can never decide for another. Gay-Williams failed to include this in his distinctions. It is true that it can be used by doctors as a practical way out of a medical case, or disillusion patients, but it should still be a choice given for all.

Trepanation, Spirituality and Loneliness :: Biology Essays Research Papers

The search for a "higher level of consciousness" is one that seems to be as old as consciousness itself. Practices such as the ritualistic or religious consumption of peyote, ayahuasca, psilocybe mushrooms or other such naturally-occuring hallucinogenic drugs, self-deprivation and transcendental meditation are just a few of the countless ways in which mankind has sought to expand the limits of human experience; these practices are still a mainstay in many modern countercultures. They are also very well-known and documented practices. There exists, however, a radical surgical procedure, as old as the aforementioned practices but far less notorious in the general public, which purports to result in the same sort of enlightenment: trepanation, also known as trephination. (Be prepared: likely, the primary reason that trepanation has not received so much attention from popular culture is that it is far more extreme than the other methods mentioned above.) What is trepanation? Strictly speaking, it is the practice of drilling, scraping or in any other way creating a small hole in the skull down to, but not through, the dura mater, or the thick, tough membrane that contains the brain. Archeological evidence tells us that it was performed by ancient cultures on every continent; the oldest trepanned skulls that have currently been found date as far back as 3000 B.C (approximately). In almost all cases, the evidence points to the trepanation having been performed with skill and a great deal of precision - it was clearly a procedure that had ritualistic import. (1) What purpose could this operation possibly serve? In early documented incarnations, trepanation existed as a cure for mental illness - it was believed that mental illnesses were the result of demons living within the skull, and thus a hole was made in the skull through which these demons could escape. The more modern perspective on trepanation as a means of expanding consciousness was started in by Bart Hughes when his text "The Mechanism of Brainbloodvolume ('BBV')" was published in 1962. (1) Bart Hughes' theory can be summed up as follows: "...as we mature and age our skulls harden, restricting blood flow to the capillaries of the brain....children, especially babies with their "soft spot", had a clearer outlook on the world because their brains were free to receive more cerebral blood volume than...our adult brains with hermetically-sealed skulls." (1) There are many ways to increase brainbloodvolume (the self-explanatory term coined by Hughes, hereafter referred to as BBV) tempor arily, such as standing on one's head, quickly moving from a hot to a cold bath, or the consumption of psychedelic drugs; however, according to Hughes trepanation is the only way to increase BBV permanently.

Will Smith

Will Smith is one of the greatest actors, singers and rappers of our time. Even from his youth to his adulthood, he has become one of the most influential people of America. He has become a gifted and talented actor, demanding millions of dollars for his parts in number one hits movies at the box office. With his charm, his talent, and his generosity he will be a household name remembered for years to come. Williard C. Smith, Jr. known as Will grew up in a middle class area in West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, called Winnfied located in the Overbrook section of West Philadelphia.Will Smith is the youngest of four children born to Caroline and Willard Smith, Sr. Will Smith’s heritage is both African American and Native America. He attended a Baptist church near his home with his family. As a young boy, Will loved to sing and rap. He was a talented little boy who loved to be in the spotlight. As a young boy, he was given the name Prince, because he always talked his way out of tr ouble and because of his charming looks. He was a very smart child growing up. Will was one of those kids everyone wanted to be like and be around.He was close to parents; unfortunately they divorced when Will was young. Will was then raised by his mother, Caroline and three other siblings. He attended the prestigious Julia Reynolds Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School in Philadelphia. He was later transferred to Overbrook High School, where he graduated. His good SAT scores didn’t satisfy him to get into a college he wanted to enroll. His plans were to study computer engineering. Therefore, he pursued music. He then met Jeffrey A. Townes at a party that he attended and they soon began performing together.They were known as â€Å"DJ Jazzy Jeff and Fresh Prince. † He was the first hip-hop artist to be nominated for an Academy Award. He won a Grammy Award for the song â€Å"Summertime† during his rap career and received the first ever Grammy Award for Bes t Performance for the song â€Å"Parents Just Don’t Understand† in 1989. In 1990, Will Smith was almost near bankruptcy, and that was when Benny medina and NBC had an idea for a sitcom based on his life in Beverley Hills. NBC television network signed Will to a contract on the hit sitcom, â€Å"Fresh Prince of Bel-Air†.It was this sitcom that prepared him for his acting career. The sitcom lasted six years; during that time, he ventured into movies. Starring in his first movie,†Six Degrees of Separation† in 1993. After that movie, he was offered major roles in Independence Day, in which he played a fearless and confident fighter pilot. He was also starred in Men in Black, where he played the confident agent J. From then on he has gained lead in many successes including Men In Black II, Bad Boys II, I Robot, and Hitch.Will met his first wife, Sheree Smith at a taping of â€Å"A Different World† in 1992. They had one son together, Willard Smith, III (Trey), he was born on November 11, 1992. Will and Sheree divorced in 1995. Will Smith then met his second wife, Jada Pinkett in 1995 when she tried out for the role of his girlfriend on â€Å"The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. † They have two kids together, Jaden Christopher Syre Smith, he was born July 8, 1998, and a daughter, Willow Camille Reign Smith born October 30, 2000.

Joint Venture of the France Based Company Alcatel

A joint venture, according to Adler and Graham (1989),along with mergers and acquisitions, licensing and distribution agreements, and sales of products and services – critical aspects of all such interorganizational relationships, are face-to-face negotiations. This would mean the interaction between people. In today’s society, as the world becomes much more globalized than we could ever think of, with the fast growth of the internet industry, we are connected with people from another country at an instant. However, business to business deals and negotiations are still at a stage where face-to-face communication is still required. As interpersonal communication is brought onto the table, with the clash of different cultures as companies today all have the tendency to become globalizes and multi-nationalized, the understanding of another’s culture and cultural values plays an important role in the negotiation, and the interactions thereafter. As the proportion of foreign to domestic trade increases, so does the frequency of business negotiation between people from different countries and cultures. To successfully manage these negotiations, businesspeople need to know how to influence and communicate with members of cultures other than their own (Adler and Grahamd (1989)). Through the analysis of the case study on the joint venture of the France based company Alcatel and the U. S. based company Lucent Technologies, issues of cross-cultural management, the weakness and strength of an international joint venture, including the rights and wrongs of the particular case study will be discussed. As Shenkar (2001)said in an article, establishing a measure gauging the â€Å"distance† between cultures has understandably presented an even greater challenge. At the end, recommendations will be provided for future companies seeking joint ventures. Body The major differences between the initial negotiation in 2001 and the final successful negotiation in 2006 was the division of power. In 2001, in the original negotiation, the base company was Lucent, which was based in the US. Because it was a joint venture, the amount of power on Alcatel cannot be decided. Due to this inequality, the joint venture was called off in 2001. In 2006, as this inequality no longer stands between the two companies, it established the final negotiation of the joint venture, and at least in the beginning, both companies were satisfied with the negotiation. According to Barkema and Vermeulen (1997), differences in uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation cause problems. Differences in how IJV partners perceive and adapt to opportunities and threats in their environment are more difficult to resolve. Cultural differences regarding power distance, individualism and masculinity are more easily resolved because they are mainly reflected in different attitudes towards the management of personnel, something firms can make explicit agreements about before entering the partnership. As Berkema and Vermeulen (1997) already said, issues on power distance, individualism and masculinity are considered to be more easily resolved cultural issues, and realizing the fact that if the joint venture between Alcatel and Lucent Technologies could not even solve the more easy problems, it is pointless to say the success of the negotiation. Since the merger in 2006, it is now the fifth year for the joint venture to be in business. With the resignation of Russo, the company is now led by The company is under the leadership of Chief Executive Officer Ben Verwaayen and the non-executive Chairman of the Board is Philippe Camus. Verwaayen and Camus joined the company in the third quarter of 2008 after Alcatel-Lucent's first CEO Patricia Russo and first Chairman Serge Tchuruk resigned. For 2008, the company posted revenues of â‚ ¬16. 984 billion and a net loss of â‚ ¬5. 215 billion (Alcatel-Lucent (2009)). As Powell and Dent-Micallef (1997) found in their article, ITs alone have not produced sustainable performance advantages in the retail industry, but that some firms have gained advantages by using ITs to leverage intangible, complementary human and business resources such as flexible culture, strategic planning–IT integration, and supplier relationships. The results support the resource-based approach, and help to explain why some firms outperform others using the same ITs, and why successful IT users often fail to sustain IT-based competitive advantages. Alcatel-Lucent has done what it was suppose to do a long time ago, which was to appoint leaders based on expertise, and not nationality. As the entire industry was going downhill during 2006, for the past few years, with the correct leadership of Verwaayen and Camus, the joint venture is in much better shape than it was before. As Tchuruk commented initially that the merger is â€Å"a giant transatlantic experiment in multicultural diversity,† the company has run into some major cross-cultural problems since its merger in 2006. One major issue is the fact that the appointed CEO of the joint venture could not effectively run the business, resulting in six quarterly losses, which led to the restructuring of the company, and a cut of 16,500 jobs in total. As the case study states, it was a poor decision to appoint leaders based on their nationality rather than skills. For the time that Russo was CEO, she struggled greatly to bring together a company that consisted of two entirely different cultures, especially when she has no background knowledge of any French language at all. In addition, because there was a lack of understanding between the cultures, the two companies, although formed as a joint venture, were literally pushed into each other out of desperation because of the down sliding industry. However, more importantly, it was the cultural clash that brought the JV into a poor state initially. As Adler, Doktor, and Redding (1986) wrote in their article, with the growing shift of business from the Atlantic to the Pacific Basin, East-West cultural differences are becoming increasingly significant. Research in developmental psychology, sociology, and anthropology shows that there are major differences among the cognitive processes of people from different cultures. In the era of the global corporation, cultural diversity has to be recognized, understood, and appropriately used in organizations. It is suggested that cross-cultural management would greatly benefit from comparative studies considering the impact of the cognitive aspects of culture on managerial practice. Moving forward as a combined company, the JV faces great competition from low-cost Chinese rivals, and as the internet technology is increasingly changing the industry, Alcatel-Lucent is faced with much deeper challenges as demand in the entire industry is decreasing tremendously. Yet one challenge would also be the challenge to integrate the French culture with that of the American Culture. As Shenkar (2001) pointed out, establishing a measure gauging the â€Å"distance† between cultures has understandably presented an even greater challenge. With the globalization of the firm into the Eastern side of the world, and with the JV servicing clients all over the globe, it is not hard to imagine the importance of cross-cultural management as the firm takes its role onto the global stage. In Ralston et al. (1993)’s research on onvergence/divergence of managerial values, the four Western-developed measures (Machiavellianism, locus of control, intolerance of ambiguity and dogmatism) and the four dimensions of the Eastern-developed Chinese Value Survey (Confucian dynamism, human-heartedness, integration, and moral discipline) were used to find that often times both culture and the business environment interact to create a unique set of managerial values in a country. It is the values of the management, the values of a company, that makes up the success of an industry. Conclusion Soderberg and Holden (2002) defines cross cultural management as a discipline of international management focusing on cultural encounters between what are perceived as well-defined and homogeneous entities: the organization and the nation-state, and offering tools to handle cultural differences seen as sources of conflict or miscommunication. However, in the business world today, with its transnational companies that face the challenges of the management of global knowledge networks and multicultural project teams, interacting and collaborating across boundaries using global communication technologies. There is the need for an alternative approach which acknowledges the growing complexity of inter- and intra-organizational connections and identities, and offers theoretical concepts to think about organizations and multiple cultures in a globalizing business context. Today’s world has become a big clash of all different types of culture. Not only it is seen in the business world, but this clash of cultures has become part of today’s society, and the whole world. This phenonmenon not only suggests more research topics for scholars, as Thomas and Mueller (2001) said in their study, that the relationship between culture and four personality characteristics commonly associated with entrepreneurial motivation. By demonstrating systematic variation in entrepreneurial characteristics across cultures, we raise important questions about the boundaries of international entrepreneurship research and the challenges of transcending them, in the real world, cross-cultural management is also becoming more important and is discussed and faced by many entrepreneurs in the business world. With the case study of Alcatel from France and Lucent Technologies from United States as an example, it has proven the fact that the importance of understanding the different cultures that one’s engaging in, and the importance of acknowledging cross-cultural management has become a requirement for any company leading to a JV or entering into a foreign country. Everyone country has its own unique culture, and every country has its own set of rules. In order to gain profit, in order to become globalized, one must take the time to learn about the culture, and go by their rules, because ultimately, in the business world, you are never alone.

TheTitanic essays

TheTitanic essays The sinking of the Titanic was a catastrophic event that could have been easily prevented with a little attention to detail. For instance, a couple of things were ignored. Ice warnings were one of them as well as the distress rockets fired from the Titanic. The rockets were ignorantly disregarded by the Californian. Another factor working against the vitality of the ship was the ideology of an unsinkable object. In the time period in which the Titanic sailed, a new technology called wireless was still an erratic novelty. Wireless was the basic tool used between ships and other vessels to communicate. With this being the new technology of the day, people were fascinated with how it worked. They would often bribe wireless operators to send messages to relatives or friends on other ships. The operators were more than willing to receive these bribes and send the messages without a second thought. On April 14, 1912 wireless operator John George Phillips had been getting requests to send personal messages all day. Due to the inadequacy of the wireless, messages often had to be resent or repeated. Operators frequently were frustrated and this was exactly the case on the Titanic. Phillips was so overwhelmed with personal messages that he apparently didnt have time to receive any warnings about the potentially fatal icebergs. When the Californian sent her sixth iceberg sighting to the Titanic, Phillips responded, Shut up, shut up. I am making Cape Race (Lord 29). If Phillips would have taken these warnings a little more seriously, the Titanic might have had a fighting chance at missing these foreordained icebergs. Flares and rockets usually signify danger or distress. They were a signal of just that during the sinking of the Titanic. A total of 8 rockets were fired into the sky that fateful night. Each one instilled a new hope in people when they saw these beautiful fireworks. However, when the Ca...

Marshal vs. Martial

Marshal vs. Martial Marshal vs. Martial Marshal vs. Martial By Mark Nichol Marshal and martial are a pair of words that, perhaps aided by similar associations, are often confused. Marshal The first image that marshal provokes in one’s mind, at least for Americans, is likely a lawman of the Old West, but the word’s origin is hundreds of years older. The term comes from a Germanic compound meaning â€Å"horse servant.† (The first word in the compound shares its etymology with mare, the word for a female horse.) From this humble beginning, the word was later associated with the leader of a medieval nobleman’s cavalry and later became a military rank equivalent to general. (It is this meaning that speakers of British English are more familiar with, because this military rank persists in the United Kingdom and in countries with military traditions inspired by that country.) It was then adapted to civilian usage as a law-enforcement position, so that now, in addition to your run-of-the-mill federal marshals, there are fire marshals, who enforce fire-prevention ordinances, and air marshals informally also referred to as sky marshals who provide security on commercial passenger airplanes. (The latter terms became much more ubiquitous after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when their numbers were increased significantly.) â€Å"Air marshal† is also a high military rank in certain air forces. In addition, the equivalent of a police chief in a large military unit is known as a provost marshal; the first word in that title, borrowed from French (and originally from Latin), is pronounced â€Å"PRO-vo.† Marshal is also sometimes used to identify a person in charge of a ceremonial event, though it appears more often modified to â€Å"grand marshal,† indicating the honorary leader of a parade. It is also a verb that means â€Å"to lead† or â€Å"to organize,† as in â€Å"The general marshaled his forces.† (Note that the preferred spelling for the past tense and other inflections is with a single l.) Marshal, influenced by the occupational surname Marshall (from an obsolete spelling), is often incorrectly spelled like the name. Martial Like marshal, martial has a belligerent background: It stems from the Latin word martialis, meaning â€Å"pertaining to Mars.† That Roman god, borrowed from the ancient Greeks’ similar god Ares (not to be confused with name of the Zodiac sign Aries, from the Latin word for ram), was the god of war, though he also had protective aspects lacking in his blindly bellicose Greek counterpart and was also an agricultural god. (He also gave his name to the third month of the year, the beginning of the season for both planting and campaigning.) Martial is used in the phrase â€Å"martial arts,† referring to disciplines for hand-to-hand combat ranging from Brazil’s capoeira to Israel’s krav maga to more familiar Asian practices such as karate and judo. It also modifies nouns in terms such as â€Å"martial law,† referring to extreme measures put in place by a government in times of national emergency, and court-martial (hyphenated as a holdover from its French origins), which refers to a military trial or a court in which a panel of military personnel presides over such proceedings. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:12 Signs and Symbols You Should KnowWhat to Do When Words Appear Twice in a Row10 Tips About How to Write a Caption