Wednesday, December 18, 2019

Essay about European Gothic Architecture “Los Angeles...

The history of Architecture started long time ago. The nomadic were groups of people whom move from one place to another in order find shelter and food to survive. As they progress, their techniques to survive evolve. The need for a permanent shelter became vital for a better stability of the group. This is the time when the first structures that provided protection appeared. Post and lintel were the first forms of Architecture, that satisficed the basic needs. Architecture evolved to be more sophisticated and fulfill the people’s needs. Consequently, Architecture evolved throughout different periods such as: Ancient architecture, Romanesque, The medieval, Renaissance, Early modern, and the industrial age, Modernism and Contemporary†¦show more content†¦These buildings would be the largest buildings that humans would admire for a long period. Gothic Architecture is mainly relating to cathedrals and churches from that time. The majestic building is very powerful when i t comes to feelings and emotions. Some of those main characteristics of the Gothic Architecture are the pointed arcs, ribbed vaults and flying buttress, stained glass windows, complex decoration, towers and some other details. The origins of the pointed arcs used in gothic Architecture come from the pre-Islamic and Islamic Architecture. Two-barrel vaults intersecting in a perpendicular way compose the ribbed vaults; this would give more strength to the building allowing for more windows at higher places. Flying buttress has to purpose to resist horizontal forces, by redirecting to force to the ground. The stained glass windows were ecclesiastic windows that allow light from the highest points of the building. Some of the complex decoration refers to the amount of detail such as statues, paints, and scripts on the walls. All of the above are the characteristics that the Gothic Architecture presented during that period. Now days, some of the main concepts are being taken and applied to modern buildings such as the Cat hedral of our Lady of the Angels, also known as the Cathedral of Los Angeles. It was design by the Spanish Architect Josà © Rafael Moneo (1937-present). In 1996, he was appointing

Tuesday, December 10, 2019

Organizational Leadership of Wal-Mart †Myassignmenthelp.com

Question: What are the focus areas of your organization? For example, is your organization focused solely on the pursuit of a profit, or is it focused on corporate citizenship and stewardship, or somewhere in between? How do these focus areas relate to the Seven Levels on an Ethical Organization? What level(s) is your organization operating at? What challenges or opportunities does this present when leading Project Teams? Answer: Introduction Seven levels of ethics of an organization define the stage of growth and development of the organization. This model can be applied to all type of organization like government, institution, Municipal Corporation and also the non government organization. The seven levels of ethics are service, making a difference, internal cohesion, transformation, self-esteem, relationship, survival (Garriga Mel, 2013). The company that has been chosen in this study for showing the seven levels of ethics is Wal-Mart in USA. Wal-Mart is a multinational retail corporation in USA that operates chain of discount department, Hypermarket and grocery shop. The company was founded by Sam Walton in 1962. It is the largest company in the world by its revenue. The products that this company sold are Home furniture, electronics, footwear, jewelry, pet, grocery and craft (Walmart.com, 2016). This study introduces the corporate citizenship of Wal-Mart and also relates that things to the seven levels of ethics. Focus area of the organization As per the survey of 2014, the revenue of Wal-Mart is US$485.651billion. It shows that the profit earning of the company is very high. The company serves worldwide customers. Most of the people consume their home furniture and jewelry from this company. The jewelry that this company sold is targeted toward the young generation because the jewelry is made in modern pattern. In January 2011, Wal-Mart announced a program that it will increase the nutritious value of the food that it supplies (Walmart.com, 2016). It has been seen that with making profit the company is also focused on the making corporate citizenship. In the beginning of 2005, Wal-Mart started to address the global impact adopting the sustainability program that revamped everything of the company. The Company is mainly famous for providing low cost product. Wal-Mart has implemented some of the initiatives toward the corporate citizenship which are explained below: Social responsibility: The Company has promoted economic empowerment of the women. It also gives more American access to the healthy food and relieves the hunger of the people. Local responsibility: The Company makes microloans and implement nutritious school program. The local responsibility of the company can also be viewed as it assists in disaster relief and local farming (Wang et al. 2013). Wal-Mart has contributed $1billion for the improvement of the society. Environmental responsibility: The Company started to reduce plastic uses in the business. It has also eliminated landfill waste and maintained stricter guideline in corporate responsibility. Company responsibility: Wal-Mart has increased the stakeholder engagement. It has been seen that 28% of the female are the corporate officer of the company. From the above point it can be said that Wal-Mart runs its business in between the profit making strategy as well as corporate citizenship. Relation of the organization to seven levels of the ethics Service: The activity of Wal-Mart can be related to the service stage of the seven levels. This Company is working with Stylr Company for providing a mobile app that would help the customers to access the local store in their locality. Make a difference: Strategic alliance with the Stylr Company is mutually beneficial for the company (Carroll Buchholtz, 2015). The company hired a lot of women employees after the alliance with Stylr Company. It increases the internal communication of the organization. Internal cohesion: The Company provides high salary to its employees and most of the women employees are the corporate officer of the company. The vision of the company is being the top retailer in the mind and heart of the customers. This vision motivates the employees toward the goal and it also increases the internal cohesion of the organization. Transformation: Wal-Mart allows their employees to participate in the decision making process. The company also provides continuous learning to their employees. Wal-Mart has a special training program for the development of their employees. Self-Esteem: The organization creates the pride of the employees by setting appropriate policies and procedures that enhance the capability of the employees (Bhanji Oxley, 2013). The focus of the organization is to reduce the bureaucracy in the organizational hierarchy. Relationship: The organization reduces the use of plastic bag in their business. It builds strong relation with the community as it does not harm any person. Through providing low priced product the organization increases the customer loyalty. Survival: For the survival of the business, the organization focuses on the health and safety of the customers (Pavez Beveridge, 2013). The organization started to provide low fat and healthy food to their customers. From the above discussion it can be said that Wal-Mart is operating at the relationship stage where it is trying to build a strong relationship with the community by reducing the use of plastic bag and hiring women candidate for the vacant position. Challenges and opportunity for leading the team While Wal-Mart started to produce low fat food, it had faced challenges in getting good supplier for food material. At the time of packaging it has selected tin container rather than plastic containers. As a result the price of the food products has increased. On the other hand, it has been found that US citizen is too much educated regarding health and safety. Thus, such customers have never compromised in buying higher priced product (Dahan et al. 2013). The organization has hired 28% of corporate officers to be women but such candidates are lacking practical knowledge of management, which is a challenge for Wal-Mart. On the other hand, these women officials are always engaged in developing creative ideas in the field of marketing, which is an opportunity. Conclusion While concluding the study, it can be said that Wal-Mart is the highest revenue generated retail organization in united state. However, the organization not only runs its business on only profit basis, it also maintains a high level of corporate citizenship. Organization reduces the use of plastic packets for reducing the pollution of the environment. It has been found that the corporate citizenship of the organization can be related with the seven levels of ethics. References Bhanji, Z., Oxley, J. E. (2013). Overcoming the dual liability of foreignness and privateness in international corporate citizenship partnerships. Journal of International Business Studies, 44(4), 290-311. Carroll, A. B., Buchholtz, A. K. (2015). Corporate Citizenship: Social Responsibility, Responsiveness, and Performance. Classics of Organization Theory, 439. Dahan, N. M., Hadani, M., Schuler, D. A. (2013). The governance challenges of corporate political activity. Business Society, 0007650313491470. Garriga, E., Mel, D. (2013). Corporate social responsibility theories: Mapping the territory. InCitation Classics from the Journal of Business Ethics(pp. 69-96). Springer Netherlands. Pavez, I., Beveridge, A. J. (2013, January). Corporate social responsibility, corporate citizenship and corporate sustainability: A critical review. In73rd Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Orlando, USA. Walmart.com,. (2016).Store Finder - Walmart.com. Retrieved 22 January 2016, from https://www.walmart.com/store/finder Wang, Y. J., Tsai, Y. H., Lin, C. P. (2013). Modeling the relationship between perceived corporate citizenship and organizational commitment considering organizational trust as a moderator.Business Ethics: A European Review,22(2), 218-233.

Monday, December 2, 2019

Jeremy Bentham Essays - Utilitarianism, Social Philosophy

Jeremy Bentham Jeremy Bentham Over time, the actions of mankind have been the victim of two vague labels, right and wrong. The criteria for these labels are not clearly defined, but they still seem to be the standard by which the actions of man are judged. There are some people that abide by a deontological view when it comes to judging the nature of actions; the deontological view holds that it is a person's intention that makes an action right or wrong. On the other hand there is the teleological view which holds that it is the result of an action is what makes that act right or wrong. In this essay I will be dealing with utilitarianism, a philosophical principle that holds a teleological view when it comes the nature of actions. To solely discuss utilitarianism is much too broad of topic and must be broken down, so I will discuss specifically quantitative utilitarianism as presented by Jeremy Bentham. In this essay I will present the argument of Bentham supporting his respective form of utilitarianism and I wi ll give my critique of this argument along the way. Before the main discussion of the Bentham's utilitarianism gets underway, lets first establish what utilitarianism is. As stated in the introduction, utilitarianism is a teleological philosophy that is primarily concerned with the results of an action when determining the nature of that act. Utilitarianism operates primarily under the greater happiness principal, in other words, utilitarians believe that one should only act in such a way that the results of that act should produce the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest for the greatest number of people. It is due to this view that utilitarianism is often criticized for being too hedonistic because it places the moral value of an act only on how much that act effects happiness. The teleological nature of utilitarianism also can serve as a problem because it pays no attention to the intention an action and can make acts of an immoral nature justifiably right. I will use the example that a professor of mine used in which a ma n tries to snatch an old lady's purse and in his struggle to do so he pulls her out of the way of a speeding vehicle thus saving her life. This act, although it started with mischievous intent, ended with a life being saved and surely produced the greatest amount of happiness for the old lady. In the utilitarian eye this act is morally acceptable and right due to the fact that happiness was produced. Jeremy Bentham was a utilitarian philosopher with his own version of this particular of this teleological view called Quantitative Utilitarianism. Bentham's utilitarianism argument starts by giving his principle of utility which judges all actions based on its tendency to promote or diminish happiness of whoever is involved, be it a community or an individual. According to Bentham, an action is right if, it increases happiness and decreases suffering and is wrong it does not. Also included in his view of utilitarianism is a way to calculate the general tendency of any act and its affect on a community. The calculation is based on the seven circumstances of the act, which are: its intensity, its duration, its certainty or uncertainty, its propinquity or remoteness, its fecundity (tendency to be followed by sensations of like kind), its purity (tendency not to be followed by sensations of unlike kind), and its extent (number of people affected). With these circumstances in order, one c an start to calculate the nature of the act and according to Bentham after the completion of the process, one can make an accurate assessment of the true nature of the act. Here is where my critique of Bentham's Quantitative Utilitarianism comes into the picture. I will present Bentham's process in his own words and then offer my observation as to where he went wrong. The community is a fictitious body composed of the individual persons who are considered as constituting as it were members. The interest of the community then is, what?-the sum of the interests of the several members who compose it..To take an exact account then of the general tendency of any act,