Mentoring Programme Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Mentoring Programme - Assignment Example The mentor believed that this element of experiential learning would assist the mentee in understanding how to communicate and respond during the important interview process. It was also believed, initially, that role playing would increase the willingness to engage and communicate with the mentor successfully. The mentoring program was also structured to include elements of transformational leadership, whereby the mentor leader utilises inspirational attitudes, role models desired behaviours, and impart a specific vision or mission to give the mentee a specific focus and goal (Fairholm 2009). The goal was to improve the mentee’s interest in strategic thinking to achieve long-term gains, however literature on leadership suggests that in order to motivate and encourage, change must be negotiated between two different parties (Grieves 2010). This is why there was significant emphasis on utilising contemporary leadership theory to better enthuse the mentee and make them intrinsic ally focused on achieving the mentoring program objectives. Increasing communications skills of the mentee was very successful and it is attributed to utilising the role playing exercises. The first method of improving communications was to remove noise that complicated receipt of positive feedback for the mentor. Noise is any specific factor that prevents a message from getting through to the receiver (Mullins 2010). During the first and second mentoring sessions, the mentor discovered that the mentee was quite reserved and her uneasy and anxious emotional state was preventing the message from being received properly, thereby serving as negative noise. By engaging the mentee through role playing, it seemed to establish a sense of trust that reduced anxiety and allowed the mentee to provide feedback illustrating that the concepts being taught and discussed were understood and could be applied practically to real-world business scenarios. The mentor realised, also, that the mentee ma intained many unrealistic perceptual filters that were serving to complicate the communications process. The mentee maintained many assumptions and expectations about the commercial environment, noticeable in the first three sessions. The mentee believed that job qualifications were not as important a how the job seeker presented themselves and communicated in order to find a job position. There seemed to be a culturally-developed set of beliefs, though not realistic, that the mentee could find employment without the necessary and listed credentials on job descriptions simply by creating an outstanding cover letter along with the CV submission. These perceptual filters were serving as noise and created moderate resistance to change when the mentor attempted to reinforce the absolute importance of having the proper credentials to achieve landing a position with a desired company. To overcome this element of noise, the mentor found many different research articles showing that it was absolutely critical to gain employability and educational skills to

MGT 671 LEADER PROJECT INTERVIEW PAPER Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

MGT 671 LEADER PROJECT INTERVIEW PAPER - Essay Example Finally, during the early part of the first quarter of year 2000, the company was able to gain business eligibility by completing all the necessary documentations necessary for its operations. Shortly thereafter, the first flight of JetBlue Airways took to the skies. The company then proceeded to add more routes as it expands its business operations. Before the year 2000 ended, the company reached a major milestone by reaching a million customers serviced while at the same time earning $ 100 million revenue for the year. All these have been achieved prior to the company’s first anniversary and shortly afterwards the company has flown about 2 million customers (JetBlue Corporate History 2011). The company further expanded its operations as the delivery of its Airbus units continues giving the company about 20 units of operational crafts. The company’s massive fleet continues to grow when in 2003 the company was able to receive its 50th Airbus. As such, a new hangar compl ex was needed and acquired at JFK International. The company grew rapidly and operations expanded extensively necessitating the additional order of 65 more airbuses and 100 more Embraer 190 aircrafts. In flight entertainment was improved further the following year and by the early half of 2004 the company already has on its laurels the honor of flying 25 million passengers. In just five years, the company was able to secure its 71st airbus and was subsequently awarded the prestigious Diamond Certificate of Excellence Award from the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA). Also, JetBlue was able to receive its Embraer 190 aircraft, the first airline to have such a unit. Furthermore, the company was able to acquire a bigger hangar and is also able to secure a partnership with American Express to integrate credit card payments with their operations. The company further improved its in house entertainment and was even able to pioneer in-flight email and even instant messaging services. In 2008, J etBlue even became the official airline of the Red Sox and the following year even became the official airline partner of the New York Jets. All the while, the company is introducing innovations of the jet liner service and is also expanding its routes. With all these achievements and despite breaching the top 50 in just half a decade, JetBlue was not yet a member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) . After a decade, JetBlue established its office in the bustling city of New York and was officially included into the folds of the IATA. Brief Biography of Robin Hayes – EVP, Chief Commercial Officer Mr. Robin Hayes joined JetBlue last May 2008. He was appointed to the commercial side as the Chief Commercial Officer handling the airline’s marketing strategy including sales and revenues as well as the network of the airline. His appointment gave him an Executive Vice President position, a title he also had before he left his previous company (JetBlue Airwa ys, Press Release May 2008). Prior to joining the JetBlue, Mr. Robin Hayes was with British Airways also as an EVP. JetBlue is banking on the experience Mr. Hayes had when he was with British Airways to help their company surge forward faster. No less than JetBlue’s CEO, Mr. Dave Barger, highlighted the vast capabilities of Mr. Hayes emphasizing on the years that he had in the industry as well as the knowledge that he amassed from his

Colonialism in American Literature of Vietnam War Essay

Colonialism in American Literature of Vietnam War - Essay Example The involvement of the American government in the war judged by critics slash historians as taking the nature of colonialism renders the bulk of American literature on Vietnam War as largely colonial in structure, content and focus. Michael Adas in his article, "A Colonial War: The United States' Occupation of Vietnam" argues and historically proves the colonial inclination and interest of America in Vietnam claiming that America veered away from its earlier anti-colonial position under Roosevelt then proceeded to support the continuance of French colonization in Indochina ( 29). In Adas's own words: In the next decade, three American presidents presided over an escalating political and military involvement in Indochina that had most of the main attributes of colonial interventions in the preceding centuries of European global domination. Defying the decidedly anti-colonial rhetoric of the Roosevelt years, they committed the United States to a massive colonial occupation in a postcolonial era. (29) Since the Vietnam War is the result of America's efforts to participate in the colonization endeavor of Europe in an era of decolonization, the subsequent literary product is essentially and categorically colonial. A colonial literature tackles and examines the issues arising from Imperialism such as the moral dilemma(s) of the colonizer or the imperialist as shown in the essay "Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell. In the essay Orwell recalled how as a sub-divisional officer of the town he shot an elephant in Burma to earn the approval of the Burmese and to "avoid looking a fool" (Hunt & Perry 295) even though he thought it wrong to deliberately kill the beast. George Orwell's personal essay demonstrates how an imperialist system morally confuses the colonizer or the member of the colonizing nation who believes that imperialism is "an evil thing" (289) but on the one hand because of a sense of nationality is forced to play his or her part as the oppressor. One of the defining characteristics and key quality of a colonial literature is its denunciation of colonialism and its negative impact both on the colonizer and the colonized. It is highly critical of the system of imperialism, noting the impartiality in the relationship between the oppressor and the oppressed with the oppressor receiving most of the gains while the other party suffers and gets traumatized. Colonial literature discusses the social, economic and psychological implications or consequences of colonialist experience. In structure, colonial literature is "characterized by a strong sense of ambiguity: uncertainty about the morality of imperialism about the nature of humanity, and about the continuing viability of European civilization" ("Colonial Literature" 1). Through its form, colonial literature exposes the contradictions, paradoxes and ironies of imperialism. American Literature of Vietnam War is Colonial in theme, content, structure and focus Novels A.) Robert Olen Butler (The Alleys of Eden) 1981 This fictional narrative centers on Clifford Wilkes, an American soldier trapped in Saigon at the closing of the Vietnam War. In part, it is a romantic tale with Lanh, a Vietnamese lass, serving as his love interest and partner for nearly five years. Clifford's love for Lanh is keeping him from seeking refuge in the United

Introduction to Business Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Introduction to Business - Assignment Example While raising capital to start a small business, an individual can start by financing the businesses himself. Several benefits such as retaining all the profits are associated with this form of financing, but if a small business need to grow large then it needs to look for other options (Alterowitz, 2007. P.14). Next best alternative is to ask for assistance from family members and relatives for finance. For this purpose an entrepreneur has to make the effort of making his relatives realize that he/she has a great investment plan and will be quite successful. In very rare instances family and friends invest in a business; if an entrepreneur faces such a scenario, he/she can obtain assistance from the government (Great Britain, 2006, p.18). Government has various plans where they finance small businesses or provide money in shape of grants to entrepreneurs to start up their own business. If an entrepreneur is not eligible for such government support options, the business can obtain a loan from banks to start small businesses. Due to failure of large businesses and the risk of high amount of loss associated with large businesses, banks and governments are more willing to finance small businesses. One of the major decision made by a manger is to identify the cost of producing a product and then price the product according to make profit when they sell their goods and services. For this purpose they can use activity based costing method, by using this method they can calculate the cost of an activity.

Take home final Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Take home final - Essay Example Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis is just one enlightening example among many others which proves the idea that literatures helps people to overcome general differences, media stereotypes, prejudices, and develop interest in empathizing with others. Persepolis is an autobiographical novel by Satrapi which introduces people from foreign cultures to the experience of being raised in a country like Iran. Research also confirms that Persepolis is a ground-breaking novel which instead of dwelling on fictitious accounts narrates real life childhood experiences (Schroeder 6). An important point to be realized here is that people unacquainted with authentic sources of information like Persepolis end up being unable to sympathize and care for others. It is because lack of credible information easily causes them to believe in flawed and misguiding concepts popularized by the biased media. Orientalism is an important concept worth mentioning here because it explains how the western media adopting a highly biased approach portrays the Middle Eastern people as naà ¯ve, backward, and even dangerous. Satrapi herself comments on this subject in her book expressing that the great Iranian civilization has always been discussed by media since the 1979 Islamic revolution â€Å"in connection with fundamentalism, fanaticism, and terrorism† (Satrapi cited in Schroeder 14). In times when media acts to deliver mostly stereotyped messages about certain matters, developing a close relationship with authentic literary sources is critically important. This is because such a relationship in addition to enlightening the mind of a person also helps him/her to understand myriad differences between him/her and others which is very important to be able to demonstrate empathy. For example, Satrapi’s account of growing up in Iran helps to convince people around the globe who sit outside the highly closeted social environment of Iran that Iranians

EU Law Coursework 2008 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

EU Law Coursework 2008 - Essay Example of a Member State to fulfil its obligations under an EC Directive was raised in the case of Commission of the European Communities v Portugese Republic.1 The European Commission brought action against Portugal under Article 226 for a declaration that a feature of its national legislation contravened the objectives of the EC Treaty and interfered with the objectives of the Treaty to permit free movement of goods throughout the European Union. The Court in this instance rejected all its arguments supporting its legislation on the grounds of safety and public policy, stating that the Portugese Government was going beyond what was necessary to achieve the objectives being pursued.2 The Court held that the Portuguese legislation was in contravention of EC Directives and ordered it to pay the costs because it was the unsuccessful party in its submissions.3 The Commission was able to bring against the member State of Portugal on the strength of Article 226. One of the problems in enforcing Community legislation, especially in environmental issues for example, has been the â€Å"problems of communication and conformity† by the Member States which in turn have led to an inadequate application of EC law 4. The objective of Article 226 is to address the insufficient levels of Member state transposition of Directives, because it allows the Commission to start infringement proceedings against the Member State that is not complying with a Directive. Earlier, proceedings under Article 226 appear to have been brought forward by the Commission on an ad hoc basis; moreover since Member States can delay the implementation of an Article 226 judgment until the penalty provision under Article 228 begins to operate, this provides them with several years wherein the infringement can continue. In its response to the Commission, the UK contends that its legislative process has not yet been fully completed, which has delayed the specific legislation, but that the Courts will apply the

Cyberpunk and Science Fiction Essay Example for Free

Cyberpunk and Science Fiction Essay Cyberpunk and Science Fiction in the Information Age Cyberpunk science fiction is considered to be the â€Å"literary manifestation of postmodernism† (Elements149). According to McHale, as a sub-genre of science fiction, cyberpunk stands as the product of the convergence between â€Å"science fiction poetics and postmodernist poetics† (Elements 149). In Constructing Postmodernism, McHale states â€Å"cyberpunk†¦as science fiction derives certain of its elements from postmodern mainstream fiction which itself has†¦already been ‘science-fictionized’ to some greater or lesser degree† (229). The correlation of cyberpunk and postmodernism however is not limited to the existence of cyberpunk as a coagulation of the different factors within science fiction tales. Postmodernism, as a school of thought and as a movement in the different arts, may be characterized by its â€Å"incredulity toward metanarratives† (Lyotard xxiv). Metanarratives refer to the â€Å"‘grand narratives’ or stories that go to legitimize particular practices† (Warren and Warren 78). In the same manner that postmodernism debunks the idea of grand narratives, cyberpunk debunks such grand narratives by placing emphasis on the construction of a separate individual reality within the sphere of cyberspace. Works considered as a part of the sub-genre of cyberpunk are named as such due to their focus on â€Å"technological revolution and its social and psychological implications†¦on online publication† (Stierstorfer 109). The correlation between cyberpunk and postmodernism may thereby be traced to the existence of various worlds within cyberspace presented within cyberpunk texts. It is important to note that the importance of cyberspace is attributed to the space that it provides the individual user for the creation of fictional production. Cyberspace, within these works, stand as a space which is in continuous creation. The creation is determined by each individual and hence it provides the individual with both the freedom and the power to create and determine the worlds created by other individuals within the cyberspace. Within the aforementioned context, reality stands as an individual construction determined by a set of rules for how such a creation may occur. These rules however are not moral rules but merely substantive rules. In a sense, one may thereby state that ‘reality’ within these texts is in continuous flux since what is ‘real’ is determined by one’s point of view, one’s perspective of the world. The act of reading these texts are in a sense determined by the sequence in which these texts are presented however within the context of the assumptions of reality within the text it is possible to imagine a space wherein all acts do not merely interact or collide but occur at the same time since cyberspace is a boundless space and such is the world presented by the texts within the genre of cyberpunk fiction. In line with this, what follows is a discussion of William Gibson’s Neuromancer and Spook Country and Stanislaw Lem’s Imaginary Magnitudes. Online communication creates a space of social contact out of intertextual materials that may end up relying on the very conventional social narratives that many participants hope to escape. These hidden conventional structures within social interaction are the subject of the novel that gave us the term ‘cyberspace’ that being William Gibson’s Neuromancer. A discussion of Gibson’s novel not only provides a glimpse of the very different understanding of identity that results from this intertextuality but also suggests how best to negotiate these narratives. At the most general level Neuromancer is the story of Case’s quest to be re-integrated with cyberspace and the information that it possesses. The story opens with Case’s nervous system intentionally harmed in subtle ways by a past employer so that he is unable to access cyberspace and perform his past role as a ‘cowboy’ who infiltrates computer networks and steals information. Case is mysteriously offered surgery to repair his system if he participates in a complicated scheme to free an artificial intelligence named Wintermute from the limitations placed on it by its creator. Gibson describes Case’s experience of cyberspace in terms of the pleasure of reintegration. The experience is described in the following manner. Found the ridged face of the power stud. And in the bloodlit dark behind his eyes, silver phosphenes boiling in from the edge of space, hypnagogic images jerking past like film compiled from random frames. Symbols, figures, faces, a blurred, fragmented mandala of visual information. Please, he prayed, now†¦Expanding- And flowed, flowering for him, fluid neon origami trick, the unfolding of his distanceless home, his country, transparent 3D chessboard extending to infinity†¦And somewhere he was laughing, in a white-painted loft, distant fingers caressing the deck, tears of release streaking his face. (Neuromancer 52) In the aforementioned passage, Case’s movement into cyberspace is a kind of homecoming that brings him back into contact with a network of human information. Given the lyrical tone of this passage, it is not surprising that interpreters of Neuromancer have concluded that the connection to networks of human information that Case pursues is a uniformly positive thing. Cyberspace subculture frequently takes the disembodied integration into electronic information systems quite literally as a next stage in human evolution. Rather than asserting the value of social integration for its own sake, this story treats such connections as merely showing the protection and evolution of individuals. The links between individuals are similarly ambivalent in Neuromancer. Probably the novel’s clearest statement of the ambivalence of social connection comes late in the novel when Case reflects on his involvement with unseen ‘bosses’. Case has been hired by the mysterious Armitage, who turns out to work for Wintermute. As Case realizes the degree to which Armitage is a puppet or even a construction of Wintermute, he reflects on his involvement with larger political and social powers. It goes in the following manner, Case had always taken it for granted that the real bosses, the kingpins in a given industry, would be more and less than people†¦Hed always imagined it as a gradual and willing accommodation of the machine, the system, the parent organism. It was the root of street cool, too, the knowing posture that implied connection, invisible lines up to hidden levels of influence. (Neuromancer 203) Case’s reflections about the nature of social connection suggest both its positive and negative qualities from the perspective of the individual. Positively, these connections position the individual as a kind of parasite within the ‘parent organism’, sheltering the individual who may not share the goals of the larger system to which he or she belongs. Within this context, one might perceive individuals as pieces of a larger puzzle whose form is partially known but whose image is only available through the different vantage points available to different individuals. Such vantage points however are only accessible or can only be known to one individual unless it is penetrated and in a sense controlled by another one. Knowledge within this space is thereby continually in flux as a result of the power struggles of the entities within it. Imagining people as ‘assemblages’ whose subjectivity is constructed from sources of which they are rarely aware and whose elements do not necessarily cohere certainly seems unappealing at first glimpse since it works against traditional ideas of self-consciousness and personal coherence. However, Neuromancer also suggests that much more dangerous than this disunified subjectivity is the attempt to deny multiplicity and to hide behind some apparent unity. Precisely this tension between unity and incoherence is at issue. One might state that cyberdiscourse enables individuals to raise their consciousness about their own identity however it is also possible to state that it is nothing more than an intertextual concoction of mass media cliches and stereotypes. Gibson’s other novel Spook Country also raises these issues. Spook Country stands as a continuation of Pattern Recognition. As opposed to the futuristic setting of Neuromancer, the later novel is set within the current century. It presents the story of a former rock singer named Hollis Henry who turned into a freelancer researching about locative art for Node magazine. In the process of the research, Hollis discovers that locative art is an art form that combines virtual reality with GPRS technology. As a result of this combination, an individual is able to replicate the events occurring within a particular place thereby allowing the spectator of the artwork to participate within a different reality. This is evident in the following passage from Spook Country. As Hollis and Chombo discuss locative art, they specify the experience that one may achieve in it. They state We’re all doing VR, every time we look at a screen. We have been for decades now†¦VR was an even more specific way we had of telling us where we were going. Without scaring us too much, right? The locative, though, lots of us are already doing it. But you can’t just do the locative with your nervous system. One day, you will. We’ll have internalized the interface. It’ll have evolved to the point where we forget about it. Then you’ll just walk down the street†¦ (Spook 65). In the aforementioned excerpt, one sees the tension between unity and coherence not only in the definition and specification of reality as a result of technological innovations but also the tension that it creates in the process of determining individual identity. This tension is apparent if one considers that an individual’s conception of the ‘self’ is partially dependent upon his surrounding environment. Within the virtual space of locative art, one may thereby create and in a sense develop one’s own space separate but at the same time placed within the sphere of immediate reality. The tension brought about by the existence of the various possibilities of reality within these cyberpunk texts is also evident in Stanislaw Lem’s Imaginary Magnitude. Lem’s Imaginary Magnitude is composed of different introductions and prefaces to non-existent books. The various texts serve satirize the current trends and movements within literature and the other arts. An example of this is evident in the following passage. He states, In an extreme instance, in which there is a Propervirt of less than 0. 9%, the TEXT OF THE PRESENT PROSPECTUS may likewise undergo an ABRUPT change. If, while you are reading these sentences, the words begin to jump about, and the letters quiver and blur, please interrupt your reading for ten or twenty seconds to wipe your glasses, adjust your clothing, or the like, and then start reading AGAIN from the beginning, and NOT JUST from the place where your reading was interrupted, since such a TRANSFORMATION indicates that a correction of DEFICIENCIES is now taking place. (Lem 86) The aforementioned passage may be seen as alluding to a period in the future when it is possible for human beings to directly interact with their reading material. In another context, one might also see it as a parody of the impositions regarding the proper position and manner that individuals ought to read texts. Either way, the book in itself as well as its content of imaginary texts presents the reader with yet another conception of reality that allows the fluidity of experience. Within the aforementioned contexts, one considers how one is to understand the concept of reality, self, and knowledge within the context of cyberpunk science fiction. Within this genre, one sees reality, the self, and knowledge in itself as continuously in flux. Within a text which creates worlds determined by intertextuality, the process of reading the text becomes an act of recognizing the interrelation of its parts to the extent that one is willing to recognize that the events within it and in a sense the realities within it may all occur within the same time and space. Works Cited Gibson, William. Neuromancer. Np: Ace Books,1984. ___. Spook Country. Np: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2007. Lem, Stanislaw. Imaginary Magnitudes. Michigan: U of Michigan, 1984. Lyotard, Jean Francois. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Minnesota: U of Minnesota P, 1984. McHale, Brian. Constructing Postmodernism. London: Routledge, 1992. ___. â€Å"Elements of a Poetics of Cyberpunk. † Critique 33. 3 (Spring 1992): 149-75. Warren, William and Bill Warren. Philosophical Dimensions of Personal Construct Psychology. London: Routledge, 1998. Stierstorfer, Klaus. Beyond Postmodernism: Reassessments in Literature, Theory, and Culture. Np: Walter de Gruvter, 2003.