Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Comparison Between Brave New World and Freuds Future of...

Freud and the Brave New World: Science can replace religion as a means of creating a stable civilization. This is what Sigmund Freud believes, and this is what Aldous Huxley tries to prove. Freud in his Future of an Illusion states that religion allows men to act according to reason, and not their instincts. People are taught with a religious background and are taught about a balance of crime and punishment. Punishment will be cast upon men if men are unable to control their instincts and commit a crime. However, those who are not taught in a religious way see no reason to act according to reason just for God. In fact, they fight their instincts for another morality that they are taught. Similarly, if science was taught as a moral†¦show more content†¦The State can then use these technologies to create and alter babies and their minds. In addition, the State also uses science to create complicated entertainment machines that can generate both harmless leisure and high levels of consumption and pr oduction. These machines satisfy the peoples needs and reduce any kind of rebellious thoughts. The result of these technologies gives stability and control to the State of Huxleys world. The results of these machines are part of the basis of the World States stability. Although the only science seen throughout the book is the creation of technology, the results of science is already enough to bring stability and happiness to the society. Huxley not only shows that science can replace religion, but also gives his own reasons as to why religion has no place in his world. Huxley presents his ideas through an argument between Mustapha Mond and John the Savage. When John asks him, then you think there is no God? (Huxley, 234), Mond replies, No, I think there quite probably is one (Huxley, 234). Huxley and Mond never deny that there is no God and religion. However, God manifests himself as an absence (Huxley, 234) and allows war after war to happen. God doesnt do anything to stop the wars and peoples fear, especially, in Huxleys world, the Nine Years War. In Huxleys view, God, science, and art prevent people from obtaining true happiness and stability. Therefore, Mond and hisShow MoreRelatedOrganisational Theory230255 Words   |  922 Pagesothers who should know better) to trivialize this very problematic and challenging subject. This is not the case with the present book. This is a book that deserves to achieve a wide readership. Professor Stephen Ackroyd, Lancaster University, UK This new textbook usefully situates organization theory within the scholarly debates on modernism and postmodernism, and provides an advanced introduction to the heterogeneous study of organizations, including chapters on phenomenology, critical theory and psychoanalysisRead MoreStrategic Marketing Management337596 Words   |  1351 PagesProfessor of Business Administration The Business School Loughborough University and Colin Gilligan Professor of Marketing Sheffield Hallam University and Visiting Professor, Northumbria University AMSTERDAM †¢ BOSTON †¢ HEIDELBERG †¢ LONDON †¢ NEW YORK †¢ OXFORD PARIS †¢ SAN DIEGO †¢ SAN FRANCISCO †¢ SINGAPORE †¢ SYDNEY †¢ TOKYO Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP 200 Wheeler Road, Burlington, MA 01803 First published 1992 Second edition 1997 Reprinted 1998Read MoreLogical Reasoning189930 Words   |  760 Pages........................................................................... 251 False Dilemma Fallacy....................................................................................................................... 253 Fallacy of Faulty Comparison .......................................................................................................... 256 Fallacious Appeal to Authority .....................................................................................................

Monday, December 16, 2019

President Obama Health Care Plan ” What It All Mean for Us” Free Essays

More than a week after President Obama signed the sweeping new health care law, which eventually provides insurance coverage for 32 million uninsured American, many of us are still scratching our head (Parker). What just happened? And how and when will we start feeling its effect? Effective this year, in six months, children with preexisting condition cannot be denied health care. In 2014, Medicaid will cover individual up to 133 percent of the poverty levels (Landau and Parker) also, in 2014, insurance companies will not be able to deny adults with preexisting conditions coverage or charge them higher premium. We will write a custom essay sample on President Obama Health Care Plan: † What It All Mean for Us† or any similar topic only for you Order Now Some adult won’t likely qualify for Medicaid under the 2014 rules (4). More immediately however, they will benefit from the expansion of funding for community health center, which offer free and reduced-cost care. While the biggest change will not take effect until 2014 some important provision will begin as early as June, the question that everyone want to know is â€Å"How soon will the new law help me† (Obama Plan). The answer depends on your age and reason for not having insurance. If you can’t afford or don’t qualify for insurance because of a preexisting Medicaid problem (1). You may be eligible for a new federal â€Å"High risk† pool to be offered by the end of June (2). The federal plan is expected to offer more affordable coverage than the existing state plan and will not impose the same income restriction as Medicaid (Obama Plan). The new plan will begin immediately to close the Medicare â€Å"donut hole†, by giving you 50 percent discount on brand-name prescription drug for senior who qualify. It will end insure practice of charging different premium or denying coverage based on gender, and will limit premium variation based on age. The new bill will provide new tax credit on a suding scale to individual and families that will limit how much of their income can be spent on premium. People with nongroup plan may see increase, but more than half the enrollees in nongroup plan will qualify for federal subsidies, lowering cost for middle and moderate-income families on average by about 60 percent (Obama Plan 7 ). And also this year tax credit as high as 30 percent of premium will be available to many small businesses, which offer health coverage to employee. The President plan will also cap out-of pocket expanse and will prohibit insurance companies from imposing annual or lifetime caps on benefits payments. Under the new rule companies generally can’t rescind a policy for a minor application error. Many people look at this as a better law for health care. Better for all American families; like there are now no more worries about if you will be coverage because you don’t have insurance or if you worried about losing your job and now have no money to pay for your child Medicare bills. This plan will protect all that qualify for better health care. Although there are still people that feel that this isn’t much and that feel we have went from a full plan with a small deductible and great prescription coverage to a plan now that is basically a high-deductible plan. But I feel that it’s a winner. How to cite President Obama Health Care Plan: † What It All Mean for Us†, Papers

Sunday, December 8, 2019

Organizational Social Responsiveness free essay sample

This paper will first briefly discuss the CSR theory by reviewing its development history. Focus will then be paid on the study of organizational social responsiveness, which includes two basic processes, namely first monitoring external social demands and expectations and then developing internal social mechanisms (Bartol, 2011). To be more precise, the author would like to study the social responsiveness from a CSR perspective. The following part of this research will make two case studies to further explain the theory abovementioned. 1. Definition of CSR There is no clear definition of CSR. EC defines CSR as the responsibility of enterprises for what impact they can have on society. Since Oliver Sheldon (1924) first proposed the concept CSR, it has been defined as that corporate should not only shoulder economic and legal responsibility, but other social undertakings as well. Based on previous study, Carroll (1979) proposed CSR as a multi-leveled concept. This concept contains four interrelated aspects, i. e. economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic responsibilities. In addition, Carroll put forward a pyramid which can be used to analyze the dimension of CSR. The pyramid begins with economic responsibilities; people create companies to produce goods and services to the public while making profits. All the other three responsibilities rely upon this foundation. The next layer comprises the legal responsibilities of a company. As to the ethical responsibilities, they are practices belonging to what social public expect a company to do what is right and fair, but that are not covered by law. Lastly, companies have a philanthropic responsibility at the top of pyramid (Carroll, 1991). 2. Organisational social responsiveness Instead of Corporation Social Responsiveness, this term expands the main body f social response, referring to the development of organisational decision processes. Managers make decisions during the processes by anticipating, responding to and managing areas of social responsibility (Bartol, 2012). Two aspects are included in the processes : First, monitoring social demands and expectations; Second, internal social response mechanisms. In order to be socially responsive, organizations need to both analyse and evaluate social environment and management stakeholders relations, i. e. monitoring external environment. Apart from the first process, organizations need also create social response mechanisms. 2. Monitoring social demands and expectations The following methods can be used to serve this purpose: a. Social forecasting: often using futurists systematically identifying social trends. b. Opinion surveys: polls and surveys either generally available or specially commissioned. c. Social audits: study of an organisation’s social (rather than economic) performance. Some combine regular audits with surprise audits. d. Issues management: identifying specific issues for attention (to â€Å"reduce surprises† from environmental forces). e. Social scanning: monitoring task-environment elements less formal and systematic than issues management. . 2 Internal social response mechanisms a. Individual executives: often used by smaller and medium sized companies. This can be risky without appropriate individual selection. b. Temporary task forces: small groups to enforce orders and settle problems. c. Permanent committees: fix the process as a general conduct d. Permanent departments: make it one of the basic function of the organization e. Combination approaches: in practice, organisations generally use some combination of approaches. 3. Case Study 3. 1 Case Study 1: Conoco Phillips Company ConocoPhillips Company is an American  multinational  energy  corporation headquartered in  Houston, Texas  in the United States. It is the worlds largest independent pure-play exploration production company and is also one of the  Fortune 500 companies. Through the  merger  of  Conoco Inc. and the  Phillips Petroleum Company  in 2002 ConocoPhillips was created and became the fifth largest integrated oil company then. 3. 1. 1 Analysis of Conoco Philips oil leak Incident Environmental analysis and evaluation This analysis is of great importance to all corporation because, in essence, only those who fit the environment survive. Technical, legal, social, political and economical factors constitute key parts that impact the Penglai 19-3 Field Incident in Bohai Bay. To focus on the CSR aspects of the response mechanism, the author excludes technical, legal, and economical factors concerning this event. As the oil spill unfolded, society as a whole paid ever more attention to this issue and media kept making in-depth reports, all of which suggested a strong ecological protection awareness. The environmental factors played an important role in encouraging Conoco Phillips to pursue a better outcome of social response. Stakeholder management This oil leak incident involved different sides of stakeholders, including   China National Offshore Oil Corporation, National Bureau of Oceanography, Ministry  of  land  and  resources, fishing and marine culture units and individuals, non-governmental environmental protection organizations, media and social public. A clear and comprehensive understanding of stakeholders is a prerequisite to the effectiveness of social response. Conoco Phillips should take into account the long-term effects of the exterior stakeholders on itself. Conoco Phillips can classify them into distinct types so as to take different measures. 3. 1. 2 Conoco Phillips CRS policies As a worldwide known multinational, Conoco Phillips promotes the idea of corporate citizen, with  its spirit value being core principles of Safety, People, Integrity, Responsibility, Innovation and Teamwork.. The environmental policy of Conoco Phillips is However, there has been absence of social responsibility at early stage of Conoco Philips’ social response. One was the incomplete investigation and disclosure of the causes of oil leak. The dishonest attitude has been doubted as an excuse to avoid responsibility. The other was that Conoco Phillips failed to fully meet the requirement of National Bureau of Oceanography. The inactive performance at early stage of dealing with this issue aggravated the harm of the incident, which reflected the deficiencies of monitoring social demands and expectations and lack of sense of social responsibility. Eventually, it is the concept of corporate citizenship that Conoco Phillips has always been promoting and social responsibility culture that played a guide role and set the company onto the right track. The company made sincere apology to the China society and promised fair compensation while financing program of future environmental protection in Bohai Bay. 3. 1. 3 Conclusion Effective social response requires opinion surveys on certain issues and facilitating a provocative approach to surrounding changes. 3. 2 Case Study 2: Apple’s social response and CSR policies. 3. 2. 1 Apple’s conflicts Apple has made the headlines for several times during the last few years thanks to Foxconn, Apple’s supplier, which has seen employee suicide again and again. The largest contracted electronics manufacturer in the world, Foxconn is the main manufacturer of apple products and employs more than 900,000 employees. Apple was once challenged by labor and human rights issues, which the author sees as a critical moment to test Apple’s social responsiveness. In 2006 Foxconn was reported by Chinese local media about the long working hours. Reports had also suspected the discrimination against mainland Chinese workers by their Taiwanese supervisors. In May 2010 several media sources reported several cases of suicide at Foxconn. A total of 13 young workers had committed suicide from 2009 to 2010. Using individual executives as a social response mechanism, Steve Jobs, the former CEO , responded that ‘Foxconn is not a sweatshop’ when being inquired about the suicides at Foxconn (The Guardian, 2010) Steve Jobs’ over frankness invited heavy pressure later on. Yet, they didn’t make another mistake facing another issue concerning health and safety. With regard to safety and health conditions at the suppliers plant, an explosion at Foxconn killed two workers and sixteen employees were injured during in May 2010. An Apple spokesperson expressed his sadness toward this tragedy and claimed responsibility to this terrible event. The Guardian, 2011). 3. 2. 2 Apple’s CSR policy Apple makes sure that the Supplier Code be observed by suppliers by conducting audits. The audits cover not only working and living conditions, safety and health but environmental conditions at the facilities as well. Apple has developed advanced internal social response mechanisms by conducting social audits. The company conducted 102 audits in 2009, to quote Apple’s Supplier Responsibility Report 2010. In 2011, Apple Supplier Responsibility team conducted a total of 229 audits-an 80 percent increase compared to 2010. Cristina, 2012). Facilities Apple conduct repeat audits show fewer violations and a majority of them get higher scores year after year. Apart from scheduled audits at Apple’s suppliers, they conduct a certain amount of surprise audits every year. The intention of this method is â€Å"reducing surprise† (Bartol, 2011). A surprise audit is when the audit team pays a visit to a supplier without former information and insists on inspecting the faculty and seeing employees at once. These surprise audits must start within short notice of t he audit team’s appearance. The combination of regular audits and surprise audits makes sure that the suppliers are not showing the surface of their management. The author found in the Supplier Responsibility Report 2010 a part of words responding to the suicides at Foxconn, published in February 2011. Besides, Apple reports in the Supplier Responsibility Report 2011 that Apple discovered ten facilities with underage labour violations during inspections. Among them one was found of employing a large amount of underage labour force. Apple terminated businesses with this facility simply because the management did not display their willingness to address the problem. As long as they found underage labour, suppliers are required to provide education fee and living expenses and support them through shool until 16. In November 2010, a training program was set up by Apple to prevent the future employment of underage workers. The human resources managers are trained in Chinese labour law. Despite of that, the training will not address underage labour issues. The reason seems rather obvious. The past few years have seen the rise of the costs of labour, energy and raw materials, which resulted in a shortage of labour. To cut costs and find cheaper labour, factory owners are force to violate the code. What’s more, to prevent child labour who want to work to support their families is rather difficult. The Supplier Responsibility Report of 2012 states that suppliers are supposed to return underage workers to school and finance their education through Apple’s Child Labour Remediation Program. Regarding abolishing underage labour. The CEO of Apple Tim Cook claimed that they would like to totally eliminate every case of underage employment (The Guardian, 2011). Conclusion There have debates on distinction between Corporation Social Responsibility (CSR1) and Corporation Social Responsiveness (CSR2). By looking into details of CSR management, The author finds more agreement on Carroll (1979), who believes that CSR2 is more of a action stage in managerial response. To put it more precisely, Wartric and Cochran (1985) argues that CSR2 provides a method to perform CSR1. The author tries to display how corporations perform in face of challenges, or â€Å"social issue†, and how they learned their hard way to shoulder social responsibility. The organizational social responsiveness theory is of great explanatory power in studying enterprise behaviors.  Therefore, it also proves useful in corporation management.