Administrative Management Theory Essay -- essays research papers

Our group project is on Henri Fayol’s â€Å"Administrative Management Theory†. As a group member I took on a task of researching his theory. Henri Fayol began his career as a junior Engineer in French Mining Company. His key work was â€Å"Administration Industrielle et Generale† which he published in 1916 ad later o pulished in Eglish I 1949. The administrative theory "emphasized management functions and attempted to generate broad administrative principles that would serve as guidelines for the rationalization of organizational activities" (Scott p. 36). Fayol played a main role in the turn-of-the-century Classical School of management theory. Fayol believed that techniques of effective management could be defined and taught and that managerial organization hold as much importance as management as workers organization. He was the first to identify functions of management. The five functions of managers, according to Fayol were plan, organize, command, coordinate, and control. Planning is the act of anticipating the future and acting on it. â€Å"Planning reduces uncertainty by forcing managers to look ahead, anticipate change, consider the impact of change and develop appropriate responses.† (Robbins, 2000, p.247) Organization is the development of the institution's resources, including material and human. Commanding is keeping the institution’s actions and processes running. Co-ordination is the alignment and harmonization of the groups’ efforts. Finally, control means that t...

A Worn Path :: essays papers

A Worn Path The story  ³A Worn Path, ² by Eudora Welty, tells the journey on foot of an elderly black women, Phoenix Jackson, from her home to the nearest town. She makes the journey to go to the doctor to get medicine for her sick grandson. On the trip, she runs into some trouble here and there with her dress getting caught in the underbrush and old age getting to her. She encounters a big dog that knocks her over, but is soon rescued by a passing hunter. As she gets to town, Phoenix asks a woman to her to help her tie her shoes then, proceeds to the doctor ¹s office. When she arrives there, her memory fails her and she forgets what her long trip was for. The light comes on and she remembers her grandson ¹s medicine. She gets the medicine and the money the nurse gives her, goes and buys a gift for her grandson and sets off for home. In this story, old age and class alienate Phoenix from society. Old age alienates Phoenix from a hunter she encounters on the trail. Age alienates Phoenix from the hunter when he assumes her age enables her to continue her trip to town. The hunter states,  ³Why, that ¹s too far! That ¹s as far as I walk when I come out myself and I get something for my trouble... Now you go home, Granny! ² (Welty, 215) By saying the trip is too far, the hunter shows he does not believe Phoenix can make it to town due her elderly age. When he says  ³... and I get something for my trouble ² (Welty, 215), the hunter infers that he feels Phoenix has no business being out there making the long trip, and there is no reason good enough for her to be venturing that far. The hunter alienates Phoenix because her age by telling her the trip is too far and calling her Granny. Class alienates Phoenix Jackson from the attendants in the doctor ¹s office. As Phoenix walks in the door one attendant says,  ³A charity case, I suppose ² (Welty, 216). Based on appearance alone, the attendant makes the assumption that she was a charity case.  ³A poignant scene at the story ¹s close confirms the reader ¹s suspicion of Phoenix ¹s extreme poverty... ² (Magill, 2432). This scene proves to the reader Phoenix is not very high class. She is automatically assumed to be a charity case and then asked what was wrong with her, implying she does not look very good. Aldridge writes,  ³[In Welty ¹s stories] [t]here are members of racial minorities, the

Free Narrative Essays - Making Plans :: Personal Narrative Essays

Making Plans It was a gorgeous summer morning as I, my brother David, sister Marcia, mom, dad, and baby girl were traveling home to Laramie from Colorado Springs where we had gone to visit my grandma. The atmosphere in the car was fun and filled with laughter. We were glad to be together. Our chatter was constant and our conversations often overlapped. One learned young that if you want to be heard in my family, you must merely speak louder than everyone else. Or, you might simply say, "Would you please shut up for a minute so I can say something important?" We all understood that such a plain and politely spoken command was not meant to be offensive or at all disrespectful. We were a bit louder than usual that morning as we had great plans for the day. Since we had to travel through Denver, we all agreed that we should eat at a nice restaurant and then go to the zoo where we could eat some more and see the animals then probably eat some more. Daddy was a bit tense and growly, his usual demeanor when traffic was thick as it was on that Friday morning. "Everyone and their Grandma is on this one road to Denver," he grumbled. My Daddy is claustrophobic. He hates traffic which is the main reason I think we moved long ago to Wyoming, the land of wide-open spaces. "You can drive more than a hundred miles on a Wyoming highway without seeing another car," Daddy would often brag. That was not the case, however, in Colorado. The cars were lined up one after another, traveling 75 miles per hour, to the horizon and beyond. We passengers paid scant attention to the outside world as we were involved in a thought-provoking discussion regarding the strengths and weaknesses of the highly educational hit movie of the summer, Independence Day. The movie answered the question: Are we alone in the Universe? with a loud no when aliens arrived and began demolishing major cities all over the world. We all gazed out the windshield as we laughed at my sister's comment about the president in the film: "He was so broken up over the

Being Tall

7/30/12 â€Å"Six, seven†. That’s what I would say about twice a day when asked how tall I was. I’ve always been tall so over time I had gotten used to and annoyed of this question and I would usually make these feelings evident in the tone of my response. However, it wasn’t the only response I was used to giving. â€Å"I don’t have it†. That’s what I would say about twice a day when asked where my homework was. †C†. That’s what I would say when my friends asked me how I did on the big test. I repeated the same answers over and over again but never really thought about them.Over the past year I began to question these responses and came to the conclusion that they were the wrong answers. I wasn’t lying about my height or my homework, or my grades or my studying habits, but ever since I started to think about these questions I’ve been able to change the answers. I haven’t gotten any shorter or mor e intelligent but by actually thinking about the question I’ve been able to give the correct answer. I started to realize that I was being asked the same questions over and over around sixth grade.I wasn’t even thinking about high school back then let alone college and beyond so I still had some time to figure out the right answers to these questions. â€Å"Wow do you play basketball? † Teachers would ask as they saw me struggle to fit through the doorway. â€Å"Uhh yeah† I would flatly reply. â€Å"Why didn’t you study, you knew you had a test†. â€Å"I don’t know,† I wasn’t even thinking about what those words meant but it was still just the practice round for the real thing so I still had time to find the right answers.I was explicitly warned when high school rolled around that â€Å"it counts now†. It was spelled out to me multiple times that high school was the real deal and even my Freshman grades would coun t towards college. I was also told that I wasn’t done growing yet and I would only be getting taller. I wasn’t thrilled about either of these facts, but instead of using my height to my advantage or taking school seriously I continued to wander through my life getting increasingly tired of the questions I was being asked. Do you even want to go to this school? † â€Å"Yeah, yeah of course† I would jadedly reply, solely to humor the asker. â€Å"How great is it to be that tall? † â€Å" Yeah its pretty great, ha-ha† I would say politely, but emptily none the less. As my high school career continued and the college clock kept ticking I failed time and time again to find the right answers to these questions. Around the middle of my junior year the college process had begun and I had decided to go visit a college over March vacation.As I got out of the car I immediately fell in love with the school, the campus was perfect and the students looked like they were straight out of a brochure. All the school’s features were amazing and while on the tour I began to grow increasingly excited about the school and the idea of college. As the tour came to a conclusion all the prospective students gathered in a room to hear a lecture about the application process from an admissions officer. As I stood amongst the other students I realized that I was the tallest one there.I was used to being to the tallest person at a given place but this was different. I realized that because of my height, I stood out, but in a good way; all the admissions officers and faculty noticed me before the other kids there. I saw my height for what it really was: and untapped advantage I had been given. I realized that when people were asking me how tall I was, it was because they were astounded, almost impressed at my height. As I happily chewed on this realization, I was slapped across the face by a second epiphany.As the speaker went more into the ap plication process, he began to talk about the school’s average GPA for high school students; my GPA wasn’t even remotely close to this average. â€Å"They just boost those numbers up for the presentation† I lied to myself â€Å"I’m sure everyone else here is just as shocked by those averages† I looked around and literally every other student nodded in agreeing upon hearing the numbers. My separation from the group continued as the other students began to ask questions like â€Å"Are 3 honors courses enough or are you looking for more in an applicant? and â€Å"I only have a 3. 5 GPA but I take six courses, is that taken into consideration? † I started to feel something I had never felt before, an impending sense of doom that came over me like a tidal wave as I started to mentally panic that I wasn’t going to end up here, that I had thrown away a golden opportunity that was given to me. The feeling was sharp and it stung. I felt sick to my stomach on the ride home as I wallowed over the idea of not ending up at college at all. As I continued to think this over at home I came to the onclusion that this could be a good thing, I should take this realization and use it to turn my grades around with the little time I had left. I thought about the questions I had always been asked and realized that the answers I grew accustomed to giving were not in fact the right ones. I remembered hearing an old proverb that now seemed to be directly speaking to me: â€Å"No matter how far you have traveled down the wrong road, turn back. † Turn Back. That night I decided to turn back, even though I had traveled so far down the wrong road.When I came back to school after the vacation I felt stronger than ever, I was so ready to attack school. The second day I was ready to hear those oh so familiar words: â€Å"Where is your homework? † It was a small homework assignment and the teacher undoubtedly expected me to have b lown it off. â€Å"Right here† I proudly retorted to the impressed teacher. Later that day a man at the gas station asked me if I was a basketball player. Again, I proudly said that I was and made a friendly joke about having a tough time with it because I’m so short.As the semester went on I continued to walk towards the right path, correctly answering life’s questions. Every night as soon as I got home I would sit down and complete every homework assignment with consciousness and pride as opposed to half-heartedly completing three or four out of five assignments. With the new found knowledge that people naturally notice and look up to me, I am setting a good example around the campus for others to follow, from cleaning up trash in the student center to starting a new club. A began to find myself on the right road, even though I was a little late.My hard schoolwork paid off when my grades landed me on the honor role for the first time. I also decided to put my size to good use by playing football in the fall of my senior year. With all this being said, I am the first one to admit that I was the definition of a late bloomer academically. Having already experienced low academic performance I can honestly say that I want to excel through college and beyond, not just with grades, but in all aspects of life. In the end the answers are what count, not the questions, and I’m ready to answer any question life gives me, correctly.

Individual’s Human Development Essay

The environments or â€Å"contexts† of life play a major role in the development of human beings throughout the lifespan. Even the most ardent genetically oriented human beings acknowledge that the environment contributes to human development. Thus Nurture is important in this respect.   However, it is not enough simply to state that environment is important in the analysis of a person’s character. This is where the importance of nature comes in.    Although developmental theories have emerged to describe the growth and maturation of the individual, a parallel trend has been to describe the changing pattern of the family life cycle as a series of developmental stages (Watson, 1913). Family developmentalists view the family, like the individual, as having certain prime functions at certain points in the life cycle. In the case of Pavlov, both his environment and his innate nature contributed to his stature as one of man’s most famous scientists. Classical conditioning refers to the formation of a single association by means of a procedure developed by Ivan Pavlov in the early 1900s. Pavlov’s special field of study was the digestive secretions of the body, for which he received the Nobel Prize in 1904.On of the secretions being studied was salivation. To obtain a precise measure of secreted saliva under varying conditions, Pavlov inserted a small tube into the salivary glands of experimental dogs. When the dog salivated, the fluid was routed into Pavlov’s measuring cups. By this method, he could determine not only when the salivation occurs, but also how much and at what rate. For one time—indeed, even for today—it was a remarkably clear and rigorous estimate of response strength. It has become one of the most productive areas in all of psychology. This paper shall look into the environmental and internal factors that influence human behavior and attempt to explain how these two factors interact in a person’s life to bring about his present personality and character. During his studies of salivation, Pavlov noted what he called â€Å"psychic secretions.† If food is placed in the mouth of the animal, it will secrete saliva automatically – this response is innate not learned. But the dogs in Pavlov’s apparatus, soon began to salivate to other stimuli as well. For example, the sight of food, the sight of the person who fed them, and even the feeder’s footsteps in the hall, were enough to elicit salivation. These associations had to be learned. They were in effect anticipations of food in the mouth. Because the response (salivation) was not controlled by the simple reflex connections, come higher neural processes had to be involved. T was as if the mind took over the control of the reflexive act—hence, â€Å"psychic secretions—as if the thought of food was enough to produce the same response as food itself. It stressed that children are active, curious explorers who seek to adapt to their environments, rather than passive biological urges who are molded by their parents. Pavlov, as a child, was indeed a curious, precocious youngster. His father has a big influence into what he turned out to be. Meanwhile, Watson (1913) behaviorism is the conclusions about human development should be based on observations of overt behavior rather than on speculations about   unconscious motives or cognitive processes that are unobservable. Moreover, Watson also believed that well-learned associations between external stimuli and observable responses are the building blocks of human development. When Petrovich Pavlov was a child, he was involved in an accident that prevented him from going to school. Thus, it was only when he was 11 years old that he was able to go back and have a formal schooling. He went to theological seminary and eventually at 21 he decided to pursue psychology. It is said that â€Å"he was ironically diverted from becoming a second-generation clergy, by the works of Charles Darwin and Russian physiologist Ivan Sechenov, which he read while in seminary. Even his marriage was not spared the cyclic heartbreak then elation pattern that appeared to prevail in his life.† (Pavlov.). He had tragedies to deal with when he had a family of his own. Two of his six children died. Like Watson, Skinner believed that habits develop as a result of unique operant learning experiences. Pavlov’s curiosity for learning developed because he had the supervision of his mother during those years he stopped schooling.   He formed the habit of   having the passion for learning, investigating and experimenting. Meanwhile, nowhere is Bandura’s cognitive emphasis clearer than in his decision to highlight observational learning as a central developmental process. Observational learning is simply learning that results from observing the behavior of other people.   Bandura stressed observational learning in his cognitive social learning theory simply because this active, cognitive form of learning permits young children to quickly acquire thousands of new responses in a variety of settings. Indeed, the environments or â€Å"contexts† of life play a major role in the development of human beings throughout the lifespan. Even the most ardent genetically oriented human beings acknowledge that the environment contributes to human development. Thus Nurture is important in this respect.   However, it is not enough simply to state that environment is important in the analysis of a person’s character. This is where the importance of nature comes in. Born on Sept 14, 1849 in Russia, Pavlov was prepared for a life of discipline and excellence. Pavlov’s father Peter Dmitrivich was a priest while his brother Ivan was also part of the church staff.   It was his father Dmitrivich who was highly influential in carving Pavlov to be the way he turned out in his later years. His early environment under the tutelage of a highly educated and dignified father became one of the biggest factors that explain his passion for excellence in life. In practical life, the one that plays a more dominant role for example, in crime control policy, is the one that centers more on the role of the biological setup of the person and the family with whom he grows up with.   The majority of children grow up in a family context that usually includes a father and/or a mother and, in many instances, brothers and sisters. The family has been shown to have an impact on important processes, including the development of self-concept, sex roles, language, intellectual abilities and interpersonal skills (Bronfenbrenner, 1986). Explanation of the interaction of heredity and environment is not a simple matter. Hereditary factors operate from the moment of conception in determining the features of human growth and development. Our current understanding of human genetics makes it fairly clear that many human physical traits are inherited. We know that genetic factors are involved in the development of the human body from the time of conception. However, we do not fully understand the scientific mechanisms of the interaction of genetic and environmental factors in controlling human growth and development. The relationship of this nature versus nurture interaction to human behavior is indeed a much-debated issue. Where do differences in personality or temperament come from? Friends or relatives are frequently quick to comment that an infant has a temper â€Å"like his father† or is easygoing â€Å"like his mother,† suggesting that such differences are inherited. Does this mean that infant temperament is generically determined? Not necessarily, since the environment plays an important role in the expression of temperament. Researchers say that temperament is best viewed as a natural bias toward a given behavioral direction (difficult, easygoing, introverted and extroverted). The expression of this bias depends on one’s environment or experience: the child with a temperamental â€Å"bias† for a high activity level may in fact be easygoing and mild-mannered in a relaxed family environment. The bias for high activity levels may in fact be easygoing and mild mannered in a relaxed family environment. The bias for high activity levels may appear only in a stressful or competitive situation (Wiggam, 1923). Temperament and personality depend for their expression on the joint contributions of heredity, environment (parenting strategies) and individual behavior (through the active selection of environments, particularly as the child grows older). Children need to be exposed in an environment where they must have opportunities to feel free to be choice-makers, to know that they can have justice for themselves. A school ought to encourage children to feel appreciative of their own individuality. They need to feel playful and to see life as fun, and to have their teachers and parents join in on this approach to fun living. And mostly, they need to feel creatively alive, to have a burning sense of desire and appreciation for everything in life. To eschew boredom and dullness, and to glow in the excitement of each and everyday. This is not some farfetched ideal. Pavlov thought that the cortex was the only site of new neural connections in learning. His evidence was that members of his laboratory were not able to condition dogs from whom the cortex had been surgically removed. But later, in Pavlov’s laboratory, and elsewhere, investigators found that they could obtain conditioning in mammals even after all the cerebral cortex had been removed. For example, a dog with its cortex removed can learn to lift its paw whenever a light flash occurs to avoid shock. Such conditioning occurs slowly   and irregularly. However, because such animals tend to be distractible and irritable and they do not have keen sensory discrimination. But the evidence is clearly antagonistic to Pavlov’s   claim that cortex is necessary.

How Sports Can Improve Team Relations

Team sports are a great fun way to instil strong teamwork values in staff that have to work effectively together off the field. Team Sport Spirit As a sports team functions in much a similar way to a workplace team – with members cooperating with one another to achieve a common goal, sport participation is a good way of further instilling the important principles of teamwork in a group. A lot of the same rules of the workplace team can be played out on the field or court. For example, if one person fails to pull their weight then the whole team performance will suffer. And conversely if one individual dominates then the performance of others will be adversely affected. Feeling undervalued and second best, their morale and motivation will droop. In both arenas the only way to achieve a victory is with a team working in harmony and on equal terms with one another. As with sport, a team may comprise of the most brilliant individual talents but if they don’t work well together then the team will be worthless. The Mechanics of a Good Team It’s easy to accept that the key lessons of team sport are the same as those in the workplace, but beyond that what can sport teach employees about teams that they can’t pick up in the workplace? For starters, the benefit of taking team relations out onto the field is in providing a more direct and boiled down display of how a team should function. On the field success is made or broken based on the effort – or lack of – of the competing players. If there are any weak links on the field, for example, then the upshot will be swift and decisive. It’s not so clear cut in the workplace where success and failure is not judged in super fast one hours bursts. Lazy individual members can generally drag the team down for a long time before the negative effects become apparent. Therefore by participating in sports, team members learn the effectiveness of ‘pulling together’ in achieving a goal and hopefully apply the same principles to their work. Team Bonding and Communication Team sports not only instil a belief in the power of effective teamwork but also they help improve team bonding and the relationships between team members, so that they can better achieve that goal. Encouraging staff to participate in team sports together on a regular basis is an excellent way to allow team members to get to know one another better and build up stronger and more productive relationships both on the field and in the workplace. Sport promotes a numbers of qualities that are valuable in the office, such as trust, respect, effective communication and good old fashioned comradeship. If team members find success together on the football field or badminton court, for example, then the bond they form with one another will hold strong in the workplace context. Often it doesn’t even matter whether certain people don’t get on in the workplace. On the sports field there is no room for frosty relations – for the sake of the team players must put their differences aside and cooperate. Hopefully success together can help people to put their petty differences aside off the field too.

Case analysis on Gen Y in the workforce Essay

After reading the case of â€Å"Gen Y in the Workforce† it can be understood that Generation Y in the workforce is interested to not just sticking to the regular schedule but also going beyond and thinking out of the box. In the case Josh had some new and fresh ideas to promote the Triple-F movie, which was appreciated by the CEO. As talked about the Generation Y, the Millennial are tech-savvy, smart and wants faster results and recognition. All these qualities can be very well seen in Josh with several instances like; he is always busy with his Iphone, his ideas regarding promoting the movies and the way he wants faster results from his work and recognition for which he went to the CEO directly with his idea. Whereas Generation X in the workforce believes in step-by-step work, and achievement of results. They believe in following the protocol and are workaholics. They have a little traditional view and are struggling hard to cope up with the fast moving Gen Y. All these features are very well visible in Sarah. She believes in hierarchy and her role in the hierarchy. She understands the system of the workplace and follows it very religiously, works till late night keeping her personal life at bay. Clashes are bound to happen when these two generations come face to face. Both the generations would dislike the format of each other’s work. But when coming together at a workplace, differences have to be kept aside and looked at the bigger picture. To do this both the generation need to understand and accept these differences, like in this case the way Josh by passed his direct head and met the CEO because of his hyper active demand for recognition and results shows his disregard for his boss and his team. Here, rather than meeting the CEO directly he could have explained his plan to Sarah with facts and figures, he could have dug more information regarding his idea to support his idea. This would have led to a peaceful workforce. On the other hand, Sarah could have given a thought about Josh’s idea more  before disregarding it completely with a counter argument. She could have discussed Josh’s idea in detail and how it might help the company. While making her presentation she could have mentioned about Josh’s idea and have given him the credit for it. This would have not only led to Josh’s motivation and interest towards his work, it would have also led to his organization commitment, overall a very effective solution to the problem so mentioned. The management of the company is also working hard to mould the new and younger hires to get integrated to the team. Since all the company now-a-days have started to realize the difference between the generations they are working hard to bridge the generation gap through training of both the generations and increasing the cohesiveness of the team. Hence, as a result for both the generation to work together, they need to understand the gap between the two generations and deal with the problem in a calm and composed manner so as to avoid conflict.