Team Data Collection Essay Example for Free

Team Data Collection Essay BIMS, Ballard Integrated Managed Services, Inc. is a corporation specializes in the services of food and housekeeping to corporations and institutions. The general manager, Barbara Tucker, has noticed that over the last four months the turnover rate has shot up to 64%. Not only is the turnover rate higher than usual, but also employees seemed unmotivated to do their job. There are more employees walking around doing nothing and more employees not doing their job well enough, resulting in complaints from the hospital administration in which they are working. Debbie Homer, HR manage, has developed an employee survey instrument to try to identify why employees are leaving and why each employee is no longer motivated. Overview Ballard Integrated Managed Services, Inc, BIMS, has a turnover rate of 64%. There is normally a high turnover rate; however, this is a big increase over the last four months. Barbara Tucker is concerned about this increase along with sick days more frequently used and employees wasting time instead of doing their assigned jobs. The cost of replacing workers and the lost hours due to sick time and malaise is causing BIMS to lose profits. Barbara Tucker agreed to allow Debbie Horner to conduct a study on workers satisfaction. Debbie Horner is a HR manager with experience in conducting such a study. Debbie Horner created a survey that focused on work conditions, shift hours, quality of training, pay levels, job security, and demographics. Debbie Horner hypothesized that the high turnover rate would correlate with the level of job satisfaction. Instrument for Data Collection The instrument to gather the data will be a 10 question work related survey and a four question demographic section. This survey will be given to all non-management employees. The 10 work related questions are given a numerical value starting at one for very negative to five being very positive, giving Debbie Horner a quantitative statistic. The four demographic questions will require a direct answer giving Debbie Horner a qualitative result. Types of Data The way the data is being collected is by handing out satisfaction surveys to the staff. The staff is to answer the questions based on a numerical scale  in reference to their satisfaction levels. The types of data being collected are quantitative data as well as qualitative data. The survey can gather more information as well as what is being collected, such as gender group and age range. This would fall under the qualitative data section. The results alone would be considered qualitative data. Level of Measurement There are different levels of measurement by which data can be classified. For this situation, the ordinal level of measurement would be useful for measuring the data. Ordinal measurement scales are for relative ranking and ordering the attribute into different categories. One benefit of using an ordinal scale over a nominal scale is ordinal scales more information and more precise data. The support for the office is Sally. She has been given the responsibility and the task of data entry, made some errors where she put in the number six instead of five for the rankings but was very accurate in the amount of time an employee has worked for the company. From these results, one could see differences in the employees that have worked here several years and those who have not. One can also see the difference in someone who is in a management position and someone who is not. Code the Data and Clean the Data In the case of the BIMS research survey the data is coded in terms of numbers. The spreadsheet created has been done so with all of the responses placed in a numerical data set. The spreadsheet has the question numbers at the top of the sheet and then following the lines of the data set the number responses file down the sheet. If there was any data missing when the information was entered, the decision  was made to just enter a zero. After entering the data, it must be reviewed to catch any errors. Cleaning the data is done with basic steps. Of course the data is imported from the source, but there should always be some backup involved in order to keep the integrity of the data. In some cases the next step would be manipulation or spellchecking. This depends on what kind of data is involved. However, in this case spell checking is not necessary, but manipulation is. For instance with manipulation, they may have to add a column or two, or even add a zero randomly for missing data. Below is numbers 6-10 on the data set, the data has been cleaned up by changing the number 6 to the number 5 thus correcting the errors Sally made. Where a question wasn’t answered a zero was added to indicate missing data. Conclusion Understanding that there was a need to increase productivity at Ballard Integrated Managed Services, Inc., information on how to increase productivity was an important plan to implement. It was the responsibility of the Human Resources manager, Barbara Tucker, to ensure that methods were used to observe the employees in their operative positions to find out why there was such an increased turnover rate. After collecting all of the quantitative data, there was a clear connection between the employees overall job satisfaction, and customer service. One of the most important components of Barbara’s management efforts was the use of a survey. The survey provided critical information that led to an increased effort in changes from upper management. The satisfaction survey provided critical clues as to the overall performance of employees. There were even some data issues that included opinions from employees who had been on the job for more than five years. Using survey tools are important to the overall  productivity of employees and upper managerial staff. Often times, employees may find it difficult to communicate with direct supervisors because they may be intimidated; however, developing the ability to express themselves through employee satisfaction surveys, they may feel more relaxed and open to further discussions. In summary, customer satisfaction surveys can provide critical information about what the market needs and what your company may need in order to move forward.

Hotels in Bangkok

Hotels in Bangkok The Regency Grand Hotel is one of the most prestigious and luxurious hotels in Bangkok, Thailand. Since its inception, it has earned a brand name in the industry owing to the exceptional salaries and benefits offered. The hotel staff and managers felt privileged being a member of the hotel, and perceived that they were being taken well care of under the leadership of the then General Manager. The following case study illuminates the dilemma of the employees undergoing the management changeover following its acquisition by an international group. In the earlier set-up, the employees were expected to follow the orders of their managers without questioning them. Initiatives to solve problems at personal level were discouraged and it led to lack of innovation and risk-averse behavior. Eventually, the hotel staff got accustomed to the style of management over the past fifteen years, and it made the work go smoothly with minimal number of conflicts. However, the recent sale of the hotel to a new American group introduced an altogether new style of administration to the employees. The management style of the new GM was entirely opposite to what the staff was familiar to, and it caused problems bringing the hotels performance and reputation down the drain. Problem symptoms and indications The former style of management gave limited authority to the front line employees and did not permit them to take any action on the spot without referring to their superiors. On the contrary, the new General Manager (John Becker) encouraged them to perform beyond their routine duties to provide customized services and thus make them feel special. This is directly related to empowerment, which is a key aspect in the service industry especially the hotels (Hubrecht Teare, 1993). Beckers motive in employee empowerment was linked with his intention to achieve competitive advantage through upgrading the staff competencies. As stated by Wall, et.al (2002, p.147) employee empowerment results in motivation, inventiveness, implied knowledge, participation, and enthusiasm necessary to survive in todays cutthroat competition. Although, Becker saw empowerment as a means to enthuse employees and delight the customers (Barbee Bott, 1991, p. 27) the hotels current managers expressed their disappointment. They were discontented with the idea of giving bottom line employees more authority and decision powers. The disparity in management approach is attributed to the cultural differences in these countries, for instance power distance, and uncertainty avoidance (Hofstede, 1980, p.45-55). Thailand and USA fall in the extreme ends of the cultural continuum presented by Hofstede (1980). Efforts are generally focused towards equal distribution of power in USA, while only a few people are given authority in Thailand given the larger power distance in the latter. Also, there is strong uncertainty avoidance in Thailand, calling for more written rules regulations, whereas uncertainty is easily accepted in USA and emphasis is laid on minimal formal rules (Hofstede, 1980, p.51). Becker failed to recognize these cultural differences while implementing his theories into practice. Joining a new organization and country demands awareness about the various social and cultural issues involved before transforming the existing practices (Lane Beamish, 1990, p.88). What worsened the situation further was his previous experience in places with poor performance and low employee morale. It is noticeable that his new assignment was doing sound business; therefore, his approach ought to be different in this case. Becker spent a great deal of time with the employees in an effort to elucidate his expectations from them. The role theory (Bush and Busch, 1981; Teas et al., 1979) mentions that the frontline employees have a greater need for role precision to carry out their duties efficiently. Role clarity perceived by the customer-contact employees is not only advantageous for customer satisfaction, but is also associated with employees job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and performance (de Ruyter et al., 2001). Yet, he did not succeed in putting a clear demarcation between complex and small issues. This kind of uncertainty was a continuous threat and led to higher anxiety and stress among the employees since strong uncertainty avoidance prevails in Thailand (McShane and Travaglione, 2007, p.47). The employees did not have a clear role perception due to role ambiguity. In this regard, Saks (1996, p.301-23) states that role perception is a result of role ambiguity, and with time this may result in stress specially when working under a new management. In addition to that, the employees were not able to distinguish between a major and a minor problem because of the lack of training (assumption). They had never been assigned a decision-making role before, and unfortunately did not receive a proper guidance from their seniors in such difficult situations. A further study into the Regency Grand Hotel shows that in quest of employee empowerment, power was transferred from the middle-line managers to the lower rank staff. Daft (1995) suggested that the recent trend of flatter organization structures have considerably altered the traditional role of supervisors. Consequently, the managers found their job meaningless and reversed employees decisions by terming them complex issues. They insisted that upper managements approval is required to address such problems and thus, tried to regain their supremacy. The managers reactions are associated to their control needs, achievement needs, and recognition needs () that forced them to maintain their grip on routine decisions. Furthermore, the employees did not receive any kind of support, feedback or appraisal for taking initiatives and going out of their way to enrich customers experience. As per Herzberg (1959) theory, motivation techniques such as superiors support and a positive and timely feedback have enduring productive influence on the employee behavior and resulting performance. In this context, experts have referred to the ABCs of behavior modification theory (McShane and Travaglione, 2007, p. 85-86) which states that employee behavior can be modified by managing its antecedents (for example encouraging staff to take initiative) and its consequences (for instance approving their decisions and constructive feedback). The theory further states that people have a propensity to repeat behaviors and actions that are followed by pleasant consequences, and extinction occurs when no consequences follow at all. Since the managers did not provide any support to the employees engaged in the desired work behavior, their self-driven decision-making process disappeared. The absence of motivation from the superiors eroded the employees self-confidence and they started to totally rely on their superiors to make decisions on their behalf. This is because of the high collectivism in Thailand (Hofstede, 1980, p. 45) where there is a strong need for consensus. The overall problem with the Grand Regency Hotel is directly linked to the MARS model, which identifies four key factors that have a direct effect on employee behavior, viz. motivation, ability, role perception, and situational factors. The employee performance levels drop if any of these factors is absent from the organizational context (McShane and Travaglione, 2007, p. 36). It is apparent from the study that the employees were not motivated to continue the new task behaviors, and they lacked the ability to define the complexity of the decisions, which again led to ambiguous role perceptions. Moreover, the dissatisfaction of the hotels staff affected their work behavior as evident by the increase in the number of turnovers and absenteeism. These are undoubtedly identifiable with the EVLN model of employee responses to dissatisfaction at work. It is found that exit is the most frequently used response of the four reactions in a notion that no better alternatives exist. (Withey Cooper, 1989, p.533). As indicated by (Lau et al., 2003, p.77) role conflict and a low degree of job involvement leads to a higher absence rate. Low levels of supervisory support and immediate social control resulted in increased absenteeism. (Price, 1998, p.227-246). The number of employees mistakes reported to upper management increased; this is because of the lack of training, feedback and motivation. With passage of time, an organization wide culture emerged in the hotel where lower level employees throw their work over the wall to upper level employees indulging in counterproductive act (Lau, et al., 2003, p.75). As a result, the performance of the employees dragged the overall hotel performance down leading to an increase in the number of guest complaints.(Heskett, et al., in Koys, 2001, p.113) This was demonstrated in the heightened criticism in the newspaper and magazine reviews where the hotel was named as one of the Asias nightmare hotels. The hotel General Manager and the employees experienced high levels of stress. Beckers stress was clear from his statement unless the hotel is on fire dont let anyone disturb me. He was annoyed by the increasing number of consultations from managers regarding minor issues, which otherwise were supposed to be sorted out by themselves. This reflects lack of training on the managers front as well. The role ambiguity was the main reason behind the employees stress as they misunderstood their roles. Role conflict and role ambiguity have been found to be the major causes of role stress (Boles Babin in Siegall, 2000, p.427). The ever-increasing stress levels experienced by the employees weakened all the good relationships that were existent under the older management. The employees were no longer united, and because of that, counterproductive behaviors surfaced in the form of backstabbing and employees not taking responsibility for their actions. In brief, even though Becker introduced empowerment with kind intentions, his plan failed because of poor implementation. He acted too fast that the spontaneous empowerment in fact snatched power from everyone involved. He did not give sufficient time to the newly empowered to be trained or get mentally prepared for their new roles. The next blunder Becker made was of believing that the managers would readily pass on their powers to their subordinates the minute he declared empowerment program. In his zeal to initiate empowerment, he ignored all other factors to support his decision. RECOMMENDATION The recommendations for improving the performance of Regency Grand Hotel are presented for all the three hierarchal levels mentioned in the case study. General Manager The current managers of the hotel backlashed on the new General Managers decision of giving more decision powers to the front line employees. Those dissatisfactions were the consequences of cultural differences (low power distance in America, while high power distance in Thailand). Obviously, dealing with cultural clashes is difficult since cultural patterns change very slowly (Hofstede, 1980, p.53). Therefore, Becker should consider these issues and address them beforehand. We would recommend higher degree of compatibility in his leadership style. In this situation, he should conduct meetings with the managers in order to clarify their doubts, and communicate the same down the hierarchal levels. It would be logical to check on their performance on regular intervals of time. Next, he should try to lessen the power distance between the managers and the front office staff by means of social events and gatherings. It would definitely ease out the managers egos and identify the hidden potential of their subordinates. In the end, this would help them to act like mentors to facilitate change rather than being directive in their approach. As said by Quang William (1998, p.361) influence of multicultural leadership on flexibility, empathy, understanding problem solving, and communication leads to a successful organizational change. Moreover, emphasizing on trust, communication and mutual objectives should be taken into account. Becker should train the managers in their new roles as coaches to assist the employees in taking independent decisions. Goal sharing for improving customer service and hotels overall performance should be implemented to bring them together as a team. In order to have a successful implementation of empowerment we must have strong self-determination, meaning, competence and impact. If any of those four dimensions is weak then it reflects directly on the empowerment process. (Forrester, 2000) Though Beckers idea of empowerment was positive in itself, yet his plan proved disastrous. One way to make the process more effective is selective empowerment, which limits delegating power to employees who display the appropriate competencies. Invest in enhancing their knowledge and skills through formal training, mentoring, and self-learning because rightful application of power depends on ones capabilities. Employees should be given a chance to demonstrate expertise by employing simulations, case studies, mentors, and supervised trials. They should be assigned low-risk decisions first, and progressively work up to challenging judgments since achievement at the safer levels would boost confidence through expectancy of success. The employee pe rformance could be improved due to the self fulfilling prophecy of the managers. (McShane and Travaglione, 2007, p.80) Becker should influence the managers perceptions that better results are obtained through empowerment than not. This may be done by following a sequential approach. First, focus on empowerment that does not steal complete authority from the mid level managers. Instead, enhance employees power by widening their knowledge set and providing them with more training and development opportunities. Second, begin the process from the top levels of management and trail down the changes to the subsequent lower ranks. This would allow the seniors exercise greater power and, going through a successful empowerment experience would raise their expectations from the change. Finally, concentrate on specific materialistic results, for instance initiating a performance appraisal and reward system based on the level of power demonstrated by a managers subordinate and reward more generously to team work as compared to individual performance. For successful implementation of empowerment, managers need to believe that they are in control of their outcomes. Middle Managers The employees were confused in differentiating major and minor problems, which originated from their lack of role clarification. Role clarity implies the required information that is provided for employees in order to do their jobs efficiently (Kelly and Hise, 1980 cited in Mukherjee and Malhotra, 2006, p.446). In the given case study, it could be prevented by following the three key essentails of role clarity, i.e. feedback, participation and finally team support. The effectiveness of employees depends on their perception about wielded power by superiors. (Yukl, 1981). Managers should focus on providing their employees with feedback, paying more attention to normative feedback as it positively affects the individuals performance by improving either perceived competence, competence valuation (Sansone 1989) performance pressure (Butler . Nisan, 1986; Ryan, 1982) or a combination these factors. The effect of positive normative feedback on the performance would not be relevant unless employees were well trained in a way that their skills would match the tasks they were entailed to handle. This would enhance their perceived competence (Sansone 1988), which is handling customers minor problems without referring back to their supervisors. The employees were uncomfortable in their newly assigned role and hesitated to accept the responsibilities. In addition, lack of motivation from the seniors wore down their confidence. Instead, the performances should be followed by adequate rewards to ensure staff that they are on the right track (Locke and Latham, 1990, p.241). Providing on the job training to employees should be one of the middle managers priorities, as it has been proven a good way to learn (Wood, 1994). Also, well-trained employees will be better prepared to face the organizational change (Lange, 2006) occurring at the Regency Grand Hotel, which will in return help them overcome the challenges involved with the process of empowerment. Employees Apart from General Manager and the managers, the front line employees should also share responsibilities for making the empowerment program successful. McShane Tavaglione (2007, p.186-89) identifies four core necessities in employees behavior, namely competencies, self-monitoring and designing natural rewards. To participate in the empowerment process, employees should possess adequate capabilities to deal with the additional decision making roles. Another suggestion for the employees proposes practicing self-leadership. Certainly, it was the managers duty to provide the employees with proper training and feedback, but we should not overlook the part of employees themselves. They should try to set goals for themselves to create self-direction and self-motivation required to execute the new tasks. Self-leadership incorporates five key elements that is personal goal setting, constructive thought pattern, designing natural rewards, self-monitoring, and self-reinforcement. Employees who indulge in all the above-mentioned practices would perform jobs better than the ones being supervised by others, and as Larkin asserts, high self-monitor generates more confident individuals to adapt to the empowerment approach. In addition, speaking up of the employees should be regarded as an important solution (Premeaux Bedeian, 2003, p.1537). They should express their point of views about work related issues, recommendations, or requirement of changes and alternative approaches. The problem rose in Grand Regency Hotel because employees were hesitant to speak out their positions due to the fear of punishment. McShane Travaglione (2007) argue that the voice of employees should be established as a way to communicate dissatisfaction and to propose ideas to the manager to improve situations. Finally, employees who possess self-awareness, as one of the four dimensions of emotional intelligence, would have better emotional responses. Higher level of working emotions and attitudes would help employees attain better performances and prevent the tensions among the hotel employees. REFERRENCES Barbee, C. Bott, V. (1991). Customer treatment as a mirror of employee treatment, Advanced Management Journal, Vol. 5, p.27. Boles, J.S., Babin, B.J. (1994). in Siegall,M., 2000, Putting the stress back into role stress: Improving the measurement of role conflict and role ambiguity, Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 15 (5), p.427. Retrieved from www.emerald-library.com on 25 September 2009. Butler, R., Nisan, M. (1986). Effects of no feedback, task-related comments, and grades on intrinsic motivation and performance, Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. l, p. 210-216. Cohen, J., Ryan, R. (1982). Control and information in the intrapersonal sphere: An extension of Cognitive evaluation theory, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 43, p.450- 461. Daft, R. (1995). Organization theory and design, 5th Edition, West Publishing Co., St Paul, MN. Forrester, R. (2000). Empowerment: rejuvenating a potent idea, Academy of Management Executive, Vol. 14 (3), p.67-80. Herzberg, F., Mausner, B., Snyderman, B. B. (1959).The motivation to work(2nd Edition) New York: John Wiley Sons, p.134. Heskett, J.L., Sasser, W.E., Schlesinger, L.A. (1997) in Koys, D.J., 2001, The effects of employee satisfaction, organizational citizenship behavior, and turnover on organizational effectiveness, Personnel Psychology, Vol. 54(1), p. 113. Hofstede, G. (1980). Motivation, Leadership and Organization: Do American Theories apply Abroad? American Management Association, p.45-55. Hubrecht, J. Teare, R. (1993). A strategy for partnership in total quality service, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 5 No. 3. Lange, T. (2006). Knowledge and Innovation for New Zealand: Dynamic Benefits of a Two-Stage Wage Strategy an Its Unlikely Application, Policy Studies, Vol. 27(1), p.71-85. Mukherjee, A., Malhotra, N. (2006) Does role clarity explain employee-perceived service quality? A study of antecedents and consequences in call centres, International Journal of Service Industry Management, Vol. 17 (5) p.446. Price, J. L. (1998). Estimation of Causal Model of Absenteeism, Indian Journal of Labour Economics, 41(2), p.227-246. Lau, V.C.S., Au, W.T., Ho, M.C.J. (2003). A Qualitative and Quantitative Review of Antecedents of Counterproductive Behaviour in Organizations, Journal of Business and Psychology, Vol. 18(1), p.75-77. Saks, A.M., Ashforth, B.E. (1996). Proactive Socialization and Behavioural Self- management, Journal of Vocational Behaviour, Vol 48, p.301-23. Sansone, C. (1989). Competence feedback, Task feedback, and Intrinsic interest: An examination of process and context, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Vol.25, p. 343-361. Wall, T.D., Cordery, J.L., Clegg, C.W. (2002). Empowerment, Performance, and Operational Uncertainty: A Theoretical Integration, Applied Psychology: An International Review, Vol 51 (1), p.146-169. Withey, M.J., Cooper, W.H. (1989). Predicting Exit, Voice, Loyalty, and Neglect, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 34 (4), p. 533. Wood S. (2004). Fully on-the-job training: Experiences and steps ahead, National Centre for Vocational Education Research. LARKIN, The implicit theories approach to the self-monitoring controversy, European Journal of Personality, Volume5, Issue1, Date:March 1991, Pages:15-34 Premeaux and Bedeian, Breaking the Silence: The Moderating Effects of self-Monitoring in Predicting Speaking Up in the Workplace, Journal of Management Studies 40:6 September 2003 p1537-1562

Self-censorship Essay example -- Essays Papers

Self-censorship During the time of my life age zero to six, I watched television. I listened to music. I watched movies. From a stroller, my mother would push me around the grocery store as she shopped. I would read various signs posted around the store. â€Å"Frozen.† â€Å"Watermelon.† â€Å"Pasta.† Where did I learn to read? Not from books, teachers, or educational toys. I learned to read from a daily diet of â€Å"Sesame Street† and â€Å"Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood.† Individuals who blame media for the downfall of society are shortsighted. The existence of television’s â€Å"Power Rangers† or video game consoles' â€Å"Grand Theft Auto† does not explicate violence in schools, or on the playground. There are more factors influencing today’s children. As I came home from preschool to â€Å"The Price is Right† to now as I sit in front of my Internet-connected computer and type this paper, screen time has always been a part of my life. Has this given me a distorted view of reality? Has my media use desensitized me, making me prone to committing acts of violence? Do I feel that my sense of self is defined through spending money and purchasing material goods, or that I have distorted views of reality and of the other people in my life? I grew up with media. I was raised in a media-containing environment. Then what sets me apart from the student shooters at Columbine? As our surroundings shape and influence who and what we are, the media in our lives influences and impacts our worldviews. Currently, there is fault on both the "transmitting" and "receiving" ends of today's media. Inappropriate messages are received by the wrong audiences due to inactive parenting and irresponsible media. Corporations who are driven by p... ...he comedy of the sexes." The Velvet Light Trap. Fall 1990. Found in: Pomerance, Murray and Sakeris, John. "Popping culture." Pearson Education, Boston: 2004. 6 Lull, James. â€Å"Media, communication, culture: a global approach.† Columbia University Press, New York: 2000. 7 Postman, Neil. Amusing ourselves to death: Public discourse in the age of show business. New York: Penguin Books, 1984. 8 AskMen.com readership statistics retrieved from <http://www.askmen.com/whoarewe.html>. Accessed on 1 May 2005. 9 Ahlers, M. â€Å"Expert: Malvo said he was the spotter, not shooter.† CNN.com 8 Dec. 2003. Accessed from <http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/12/08/sprj.dcsp.malvo.trial/index.html> on 15 Dec. 2003. 10 Holloway, Sarah L., and Gill Valentine. Cyberkids: children in the information age. New York: RoutledgeFalmer, 2003.

English Immersion Programs: Who is Targeted? Essay -- Essays Papers

English Immersion Programs: Who is Targeted? The topic of immigrant students entering not only our country but our public school systems, is slowly becoming a bigger and bigger controversy within the United States. Students are coming in from all over the world and entering our English-speaking school system without a word of English in their vocabulary. When they are thrown into the melting pot of today’s pubic schools, their presence affects so many more people than one would think. My belief that English immersion should replace bilingual programs can be correlated with three main groups all taking opposing stances on my argument. The three primarily affected groups are the immigrant students themselves, today’s workforce, and the bilingual education teachers. These three groups, all things considered, all take different approaches to the abolishment of bilingualism. Students would most likely agree with English immersion so that they can adapt better and sooner, while teachers would most likely disagree because their entire curriculum and teaching style would be subject to drastic changes. While these two groups are extreme opposites, today’s workforce serves to go either way. The three groups: students, the workforce and bilingual education teachers, serve as representatives for the many sides of the controversial changing of bilingual education in today’s high schools. Students are without a doubt, the most affected group within the bilingual education controversy. They are the children who are entering a new environment at one of the most crucial time in their lives. They need to learn the academics to help them succeed in the future, but how can they learn anything if they don’t even speak English? Fo... ...English immersion programs. There are perhaps thousands of groups that are and will be affected by bilingual education now and in the future. However, three main groups are affected more directly than most. Their correlation with the bilingual education controversy makes their standpoint on English immersion very biased. Students, today’s workforce, and bilingual teachers take very different sides when the education debate is considered. These three groups represent different sides of the growing controversy over the replacement of bilingual education with English immersion education in the United States. Works Cited: Valdà ©s, Guadalupe. Learning and Not Learning English. New York: Teachers College Press, 2001. Valdez, Elsa O. â€Å"Winning the Battle, Losing the War: Bilingual Teachers and Post-Proposition 227.† The Urban Review 33 (2001): 237-53.

Capote Essay -- Analysis, Journalism, Literary Adaptations

Even though it is problematic to define the happening of an event as a â€Å"text† or â€Å"hypotext†, works of literary journalism are closely related to the framework of adaptations because an adaptation is defined as the process of making a work of art upon the basis of elements provided in a different medium; furthermore, works of literary journalism often resemble the filmic construction of a screen play. Before I support my argument by using Stam’s theories about literary adaptations into film from his essay "Beyond Fidelity: The Dialogics of Adaptation", I will start with a short summary of Stam’s article. He starts his essay by complaining â€Å"The language of criticism dealing with the film adaptation of novels has often been profoundly moralistic, awash in terms such as infidelity, betrayal, deformation, violation, vulgarization, and desecration, each accusation carrying its specific charge of outraged negativity† (54). He claims that a more effective criticism will be based in â€Å"contextual and intertextual history† (75), and less concerned with vague ideas of fidelity. He believes that absolute fidelity is impossible due to (1) the difference in medium between novel and film, (2) the lack of a single absolutely correct reading of a novel, and (3) the intertextuality of all novels and films. He claims that: â€Å"Each medium has its own specificity deriving from its respective materials of expression† (59), and explains that the written word is the novels only component of expression, while the film has more components such as â€Å"moving photographic im age, phonetic sound, music, noises, and written materials† (59). Therefore, certain changes are inevitable. Stam is also concerned with the term ‘faithfulness’ in film adaptations. Is it... ...e subdivided into eighty-six scenes which tell the facts of the case by constantly alternating the viewpoint (132), which is obviously a technique of screen writing. In his biography Capote, Clarke also identifies Capote’s style as cinematic when he claims that: â€Å"Despite Brook’s effort, it [the movie In Cold Blood], has little of the book’s impact. Paradoxically, it is also less cinematic than the book† (386). To conclude, the similarities in the process processes of transforming a body of hypotexts, the similarities between mediation filters in the process of adapting a novel into a film and adapting a factual case into a non-fiction novel, as well as the fact that most adaptations are realized in a style that creates a cinematic experience for the reader, are factors that proof my proposal that works of literary journalism can also be seen as adaptations.

Philippines Economy Essay

Philippines has displaced Indonesia as Asean economic leader — S&P I consider this as a good news for us Filipinos. We may not feel the economic growth for now but it’s actually a good thing that we have indicators of how well or poor our economy is doing. This article only means that we will now be able attract more investors to invest in the Philippines. More foreign investors means more job opportunities just like jobs for construction workers. And yes, it is not permanent but if this will continue, life will be a lot easier for the future generations. Our concern should not just be for ourselves but for the future of our country. We need to work the common good. We should all be positive in dealing with our problems and consider news like this as a blessing. More positive news like this is an indication that our economy is doing very well. It feels really good to know that this is actually happening. Despite all that we have encountered in the past years, during the past administration, we are still able to survive and are trying to improve even more. If we really want to contribute to the growth of our economy, we should learn to be productive. Don’t contribute to the growing rate of unemployment. Look for a stable job instead to help feed your family and in that simple way, you can greatly help the economy of our nation. Anything worth having is worth working hard for. Those things that we have quickly achieved will not last long. So we have to continue to work hard for ourselves and for other people. And little by little, we will be able to save our nation. Let us believe in what our leader can do and what we can do for our country. News like this is favorable to us. This only means that our President is really trying to fulfill his promises. Philippines is fastest growing Asian country for first quarter of 2013 I believe that this is more of a reminder for us to do the best that we can do to help our country. This article shows two sides of the story – the negative and the positive which I consider a good thing. Good thing because it depicts reality. â€Å"Philippines is fastest growing Asian country for first quarter of 2013,† only for the first quarter, not for the whole year. Yes, we are just halfway through the year. But what I mean is, nothing is permanent and everything doesn’t happen in a blink of an eye. With all the bad news that we can hear everyday, having this kind of article does not mean that we are able to get through it all. I am not trying to be negative. I just want to give emphasis to those negative things that we can turn into positive. The Philippines is still facing many challenges. One of which is still the growing rate of unemployment. I would like to give emphasis on issues of job mismatch. I believe that the only way to solve this is through education. For me, we should never stop learning. Even when we graduate from school and even when we are already working. We have to continue to enhance our skills to do better things. Before students graduate from High School, they should already have an idea of what they want to become in the future. That will bring out the best in themselves. And when they graduate, they have to look for a job that they love and they will never get tired of doing it. How is this possible? Let everyone be informed of the importance of education. Continue to inspire and Motivate. Share stories of hope. Pay it forward. Economic Expansion slows down in Japan This is kind of surprising to know but I believe they can get over this. They are very hardworking, very creative, unique and one of the countries we all look forward to. With how they are able to maintain a good economy, good people, that is something. But then again, let’s face the reality. Japan’s public debt surpassed the 1 quadrillion yen ( £6.7tn) mark last week and the country needs a strong recovery to boost tax revenues enough to begin reducing its debt burden. It will raise pressure on the leader. Japan has always been competitive and this is a challenge for them. Many of Japan’s corporations have enjoyed higher profits due to the yen’s fall against other currencies, boosting the value of their overseas earnings when counted in yen terms. The recovery in exports has been a boon for global corporations, such as Toyota.But corporate investment has remained flat, falling 0.1% in April to June. Residential investment also weakened, despite signs of a recovery in housing construction. Meanwhile, wages have risen only for some workers, accentuating concerns over whether household income will keep pace as prices rise under the government’s campaign to end deflation through extreme monetary easing.

Jose Garcia Villa Essay

Jose Garcia Villa (August 5, 1908 – February 7, 1997) was a Filipino poet, literary critic, short story writer, and painter. He was awarded the National Artist of the Philippines title for literature in 1973,[1] as well as the Guggenheim Fellowship in creative writing by Conrad Aiken.[2] He is known to have introduced the â€Å"reversed consonance rime scheme† in writing poetry, as well as the extensive use of punctuation marks—especially commas, which made him known as the Comma Poet.[3] He used the penname Doveglion (derived from â€Å"Dove, Eagle, Lion†), based on the characters he derived from himself. These animals were also explored by another poet e.e. cummings in Doveglion, Adventures in Value, a poem dedicated to Villa. Early life Villa was born on August 5, 1908, in Manila’s Singalong district. His parents were Simeon Villa (a personal physician of Emilio Aguinaldo, the founding President of the First Philippine Republic) and Guia Garcia (a wealthy landowner).He graduated from the University of the Philippines Integrated School and the University of the Philippines High School in 1925. Villa enrolled on a Pre-Medical course in the University of the Philippines, but then switched to Pre-Law course. However, he realized that his true passion was in the arts. Villa first tried painting, but then turned into creative writing after reading Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson. Writing career Villa was considered the leader of Filipino â€Å"artsakists†, a group of writers who believe that art should be â€Å"for art’s sake† hence the term. He once pronounced that â€Å"art is never a means; it is an end in itself.† Villa’s tart poetic style was considered too aggressive at that time. In 1929 he published Man Songs, a series of erotic poems, which the administrators in UP found too bold and was even fined Philippine peso for obscenity by the Manila Court of First Instance. In that same year, Villa won Best Story of the Year from Philippine Free Press magazine for Mir-I-Nisa. He also received P1,000,000 prize money, which he used to migrate to the United States. He enrolled at the University of New Mexico, wherein he was one of the founders of Clay, a mimeograph literary magazine.He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree, and pursued post-graduate work at Columbia University.Villa had gradually caught the attention of the countryâ€℠¢s literary circles, one of the few Asians to do so at that time. After the publication of Footnote to Youth in 1933, Villa switched from writing prose to poetry, and published only a handful of works until 1942. During the release of Have Come, Am Here in 1942, he introduced a new rhyming scheme called â€Å"reversed consonance† wherein, according to Villa: â€Å"The last sounded consonants of the last syllable, or the last principal consonant of a word, are reversed for the corresponding rhyme. Thus, a rhyme for near would be run; or rain, green, reign.† In 1949, Villa presented a poetic style he called â€Å"comma poems†, wherein commas are placed after every word. In the preface of Volume Two, he wrote: â€Å"The commas are an integral and essential part of the medium: regulating the poem’s verbal density and time movement: enabling each word to attain a fuller tonal value, and the line movement to become more measures. Villa worked as an associate editor for New Directions Publishing in New York City between 1949 to 1951, and then became director of poetry workshop at City College of New York from 1952 to 1960. He then left the literary scene and concentrated on teaching, first lecturing in The New School|The New School for Social Research from 1964 to 1973, as well as conducting poetry workshops in his apartment. Villa was also a cultural attachà © to the Philippine Mission to the United Nations from 1952 to 1963, and an adviser on cultural affairs to the President of the Philippines beginning 1968. Death On February 5, 1997, at the age of 88, Jose was found in a coma in his New York apartment and was rushed to St. Vincent Hospital in the Greenwich area. His death two days later was attributed to â€Å"cerebral stroke and multilobar pneumonia†. He was buried on February 10 in St. John’s Cemetery in New York, wearing a Barong Tagalog. New York Centennial Celebration On August 5 and 6, 2008, Villa’s centennial celebration began with poem reading at the Jefferson Market Library, at 425 Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue) at the corner of 10th St. In the launch of Doveglion, Collected Poems, Penguin Classics’ reissue of Jose Garcia Villa’s poems, edited by John Edwin Cowen, Villa’s literary trustee, will be read by book introducer Luis H. Francia. Then, the Leonard Lopate Show (on WNYC AM 820 and FM 93.9) will interview Edwin Cohen and Luis H. Francia on the â€Å"Pope of Greenwich Villages† life and work, followed by the Asia Pacific Forum show. Personal In 1946 Villa married Rosemarie Lamb, with whom he has two sons, Randy and Lance. They annulled ten years later. He also has three grandchildren. Works As an editor, Villa first published Philippine Short Stories: Best 25 Short Stories of 1928 in 1929, an anthology of Filipino short stories written in English literature English that were mostly published in the literary magazine Philippine Free Press for that year. It is the second anthology to have been published in the Philippines, after Philippine Love Stories by editor Paz Mà ¡rquez-Benà ­tez in 1927. His first collection of short stories that he has written were published under the title Footnote to Youth: Tales of the Philippines and Others in 1933; while in 1939, Villa published Many Voices, his first collection poems, followed by Poems by Doveglion in 1941. Other collections of poems include Have Come, Am Here (1942), Volume Two (1949), and Selected Poems and New (1958). In 1962, Villa published four books namely Villa’s Poems 55, Poems in Praise of Love, Selected Stories, and The Portable Villa. It was also in that year when he edited The Doveglion Book of Philippine Poetry in English from 1910. Three years later, he released a follow-up for The Portable Villa entitled The Essential Villa.Villa, however, went under â€Å"self-exile† after the 1960s, even though he was nominated for several major literary awards including the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. This was perhaps because of oppositions between his formalism (literature)formalist style and the advocates of proletarian literature who misjudged him as a petty bourgeois. Villa only â€Å"resurfaced† in 1993 with an anthology entitled Charlie Chan Is Dead, which was edited by Jessica Hagedorn Several reprints of Villa’s past works were done, including Appasionata: Poems in Praise of Love in 1979, A Parliament of Giraffes (a collection of Villa’s poems for young readers, with Tagalog language Tagalog translation provided by Larry Francia), and The Anchored Angel: Selected Writings by Villa that was edited by Eileen Tabios with a foreword provided by Hagedorn (both in 1999). Among his popular poems include When I Was No Bigger Than A Huge, an example of his â€Å"comma poems†, and The Emperor’s New Sonnet (a part of Have Come, Am Here) which is basically a blank sheet of paper.