Critical Thinking Questions Essay

Labeling is a societal way of correcting wrongs within the community by giving names related to the kind of wrong committed. Unfortunately, this does not always correct the deviant’s behavior. The labeled character internalizes the label and gets accustomed to it so as behave as labeled. Once one is called a thief they become one because the society is already aware of their character and they have no fear. They abide to the ascribed label, (Labeling and Crime, 2001). 2). What is the difference between primary and secondary deviance? Primary deviance, according to Edwin Lemert, is the initial act in which a person is identified to have committed a social wrong. When the society tries to correct it by punishing the offender they may or not stop committing this act depending on their perception of the form of correction. Secondary deviance is a kind of deviance that results from the reaction of the offender to the initial societal corrective measures. The offender tends to acquaint themselves with stubbornness against first hand correction to mistakes. As result of being labeled they develop a mind set that they are deviants. The community may try to punish them harder only to realize that they harden and commit the crime more frequently and fully become criminals rather than just deviants, (Crime and Criminology, 2010). 3). What are some examples of master status not in the text? A master status is acquired when one is successfully labeled and develops that particular kind of label making it his/her personality. For example, one may acquire a master status as a prostitute, rapist, gay or homosexual. This may have resulted from an act out of curiosity, desperation or poverty. When it is known to the public they may be labeled. The community does not want to associate with them and they may not get jobs due to the label and they decided to make it their personality for survival. 4). What are traits associated with them? Master status may result to a complete change in the character and personality of an individual. The new state makes them express low self esteem, shyness to the public, wild reactions that make them commit the crime more even after harsh punishment. They may tend to be closely associated with other criminals and may indulge in other related crimes other than the one they were labeled after. This mixed reaction results from victimization of the labeled person by capitalizing on his weakness rather than promoting their strengths. 5). How do those assumed traits affect our perceptions of people with that status? The perception of the community on a person who has acquired master status is transformed towards the description of this person in accordance to their label. They are called thieves other than teacher or father which would still be his other roles in the society. The community perceives them as evil and criminals despite any attempt to act well. 6). What are decision-making types used by rational choice theory? Decision making in rational theory may be in two types. Criminal event decision type and criminal involvement decision type. Criminal involvement type of decision making involve the criminal weighing options on whether participating in a criminal activity would yield more benefits or negatives. A cost benefit analysis is first taken before one commits crime. Crime event type of decision making involve the issues related to a particular crime that respond to the questions where, when, and how. The person must have decided to commit a crime and but they are either held back by either of the above mentioned situations which would promote the success of the crime, (Vito, Maahs, & Holmes, 2007). 7). How do these decisions apply to crime? The rational decision making applies in crime in a number of ways. If a criminal decides that it would be beneficial, advantageous, and lucrative to commit the crime then they would commit it at particular location and specific time as deemed appropriate. When the analysis is completed the criminal does not fear any punishment emanating for the crime they intend to commit. This is applicable in theft and burglary cases. References Crime and Criminology: retrieved in 2010. http://www. sociologyindex. com/crime. htm 2010 Labeling and Crime: edited in March 2001: http://www. le. ac. uk/education/resources/SocSci/labelling. html 09 Vito, GT F. , Maahs, J. R. & Holmes, R. M. (2007). Criminology: theory, research, and policy. Canada: Jones and Bartlett’s publisher.

Human Resources Performance Appraisals

This paper should include sections on the strategic advantages of performance appraisals, potential forms of bias within the appraisal system, as well as how performance appraisals can contribute to the achievement of strategic objectives. Performance appraisal is considered a key tool for managerial needs of today’s organizations and is the process by which organizations evaluate job performance. A performance appraisal system usually requires a manager to rate each employee’s performance according to performance criteria’s that have already been established over a period of time.Performance appraisal systems also provide a basis for planning improvement as well as means for determining merit increases, transfers and even dismissals. The most important purpose or goal of the appraisal is to improve performance and hence productivity in the future. Performance appraisals allow employees to see where they are at and managers can get valuable information from emplo yees to help them make employee's jobs more productive.As a result of appraisals, managers’ control over work and results may increase, problems can be identified early, employees are motivated by being allowed to input into and own their objectives, enhances communication, objective feedback given back to employees, facilitates decision making in regard to pay scale and promotion, centralized record of performances. Some strategic advantages of performance appraisals are that it can provide a record of performance over a period of time.Meaning that if you have been on the job for 5 years and the current appraisal is not up to par the employer can go back and look at past appraisals and see if it’s worth it to fix the problem to keep you or let you go. They provide an opportunity for a manager to meet and discuss performance with an employee. In larger companies an HR manager may hardly ever see the employees; by doing the performance appraisal it allows for a one on o ne with each employee.Another strategic advantage is the appraisal provides the employee with feedback about their performance and how they completed their goals. Thus it also opens up the subject of how the employee could improve on the lower rated performances and provides an opportunity for an employee to discuss issues and to clarify expectations with their manager. Finally some strategic advantages could be an opportunity to think about the upcoming year and develop employee goals and can be motivational with the support of a good reward and compensation system.Some potential forms of bias within the appraisal system could be a Personality conflict between a manager and an employee and this could cause the manager to inaccurately assess an employee's contributions to an organization. The manager could be comparing the skills and contributions of one employee to another and it could result in an unfair assessment of the employees. A manager should be assessing an employee's perf ormance after a pre-determined amount of time. A first-impression performance appraisal isn't enough time to make an assessment.It has the potential to be swayed either positively or negatively. A manager should never rate an employee's performance based on recent behavior rather than on past performance. If an employee has a spotless record except for a recent mistake, the manager should not forget all of the good he or she has done. The last potential form of bias with in the appraisal system is that a manager should avoid political bias. This happens when non-performance related issues cloud the judgment of a performance appraiser such as religious beliefs or lifestyle choices.

Marriot and Body Shop Aims and Objectives Essay

introduction Marriot is an international brand however the purpose of this controlled assessment, they will be my local business known as London Heathrow Marriott-LHM. Marriott is currently a private limited company (PLC) and has two other private investors as owners of the company. The Marriott hotel was founded in 1993 and is located in Harlington, Hayes. Currently its labour turnover for the month of September (2010) is an increase of 10.1%. Marriott acquires approximately 133,000 employee’s world wide and between 8,000-9,000 employees in the UK. My other local business is The Body shop. The Body Shop is an international business Definition of Aims The long-term goals a business wants to achieve. Goals that a business wants to achieve to be successful. Explain what aims are Definition of objectives The specific steps taken by a business to achieve a goal Objectives have to S.M.A.R.T, this stands for: * Specific * Measurable * Achievable * Realistic * Time Marriott’s aims * Guest Satisfaction Superiority * Marriott Profitability & Owner Return on Investment * Associate Satisfaction Marriott’s objectives * GSS (Customer Target) 75% (satisfied with overall service) * Sales turnover of  £20m per annum * Labour turnover less than or equal to 25% Summarising Marriott’s aims and objectives Marriot have set themselves three aims that they hope to achieve. These three aims vary from making a profit on their investment to guest and employee satisfaction. Marriott’s first aim and objective focuses on customer satisfaction. They are going to meet this goal by being customer focused and meeting customer needs. To achieve this they will do everything in their power to keep their customers happy to give recommendations to other people and for them to keep coming back to their hotel. They need to deliver the â€Å"wow factor† by providing the best quality of service. They intend to meet this aim by encouraging their guests to complete a â€Å"Guest Satisfaction Survey†. To achieve their aim they need 75% of their customers to be satisfied. The management team reviews all these surveys to find out what they need to improve on to make the hotel and make it the best in the industry. They also focus on associate satisfaction which focuses on the employees. They are striving for labour turnover less than or equal to 25% therefore Marriott hope not to lose more than 1 in 4 of their employees. They aim to make employees satisfied by ensuring their staff is happy. They will achieve this aim by motivating their staff and rewarding them with staff benefits for example LHM offer â€Å"Valuable room rate, food and beverage, and retail discounts at global Marriott locations.† This gives the employees the feeling that Marriott cares about them. Also the amount of pay that is offered by Marriott is higher than most equivalent jobs. This makes the employees want to stay as they know that there is a very slim chance that they will find this amount of pay anywhere else, or they may not get the same amount of bonuses-motivating them to do better- The want the communication between the staff and Marriott management to be strong as this gives the employees the sense that they are involved within the business. Their third aim and objective focuses on Income and money made. Marriott want to make a profit and have a sales turnover of  £20m per annum. By doing this they will be able to maintain share prices and reward shareholders with dividends. Furthermore they will be able to do this by increasing sales revenue for this hotel. This has been set out by the management & senior Marriott personnel in the US. The will achieve this by providing the best quality of service. body shopAims * Leading business in the beauty industry * Fair trade * Protect human rights – customers and staff * Protect the Environment and planet body shop objectives * Continue to grow by maximizing sales * All our suppliers have signed the Code of conduct supporting ethical, fair trade program. * Improving working conditions for body shop employees and protecting their Human rights * Every product packaging is made from 100% recycled materials Summary of the body shop aims and objectives

Dubliners Themes and Motifs Essay

In what concerns Joyce’s style of writing we can observe that he balances the objectivity – the attitude of â€Å"scrupulous meanness â€Å" and sympathetic understanding of characters with the help of the stream of consciousness and epiphanies Scrupulous meanness – ‘Scrupulousness’ is a crucial element both in Joyce’s use of language, and in the structure and form of the stories. ‘Scrupulous meanness’ refers to a most complex and heavily allusive style that determines the reading of Dubliners. From the minimum of words Joyce succeeds to extract the maximum effect. Joyce puts this style forward as a means to express his moral intent The Sisters * â€Å"sensation of freedom as if [he] had been freed from something by the priest’s death â€Å" * â€Å"desired to confess something. I felt my soul receding into something pleasant and vicious region [†¦] I too was smiling feebly as if to absolve the simoniac of his sins† * â€Å"†¦I wouldn’t say he was exactly†¦but there was something uncanny about him. I’ll tell you my opinion†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (incomplete sentences of aunt) * â€Å"one of those †¦peculiar cases† * â€Å"scrupulosity in the Catholic Church is a very real, potentially paralyzing, mental disease†(Bremen) Stream of consciousness – Depicts the multitudinous thoughts and feelings which pass through the mind. Eveline * â€Å"She had consented to go away, to leave her home. Was that wise? She tried to weigh each side of the question. In her home anyway she had shelter and food; she had those whom she had known all her life about her. Of course she had to work hard, both in the house and at business. What would they say of her in the Stores when they found out that she had run away with a fellow? Say she was a fool, perhaps; and her place would be filled up by advertisement. Miss Gavan would be glad. She had always had an edge on her,especially whenever there were people listening.† Araby * â€Å"What innumerable follies laid waste my waking and sleeping thoughts after that evening! I wished to annihilate the tedious intervening days. I chafed against the work of school. At night in my bedroom and by day in the classroom her image came between me and the page I strove to read. The syllables of the word Araby were called to me through the silence in which my soul luxuriated and cast an Eastern enchantment over me. I asked for leave to go to the bazaar on Saturday night. My aunt was surprised, and hoped it was not some Freemason affair. I answered few questions in class. I watched my master’s face pass from amiability to sternness; he hoped I was not beginning to idle. I could not call my wandering thoughts together. I had hardly any patience with the serious work of life which, now that it stood between me and my desire, seemed to me child’s play, ugly monotonous child’s play.† Epiphany – an experience of sudden and striking realization. Eveline * â€Å"Derevaun Seraun! Derevaun Seraun!’ â€Å"She stood up in a sudden impulse of terror. Escape! She must escape! Frank would save her. He would give her life, perhaps love, too. But she wanted to live. Why should she be unhappy? She had a right to happiness.Frank would take her in his arms, fold her in his arms. He would save her† A painful case * â€Å"As he sat there, living over his life with her and evoking alternately the two images in which he now conceived her, he realized that she was dead, that she had ceased to exist, that she had become a memory. He began to feel ill at ease. He asked himself what else could he have done. He could not have carried on a comedy of deception with her; he could not have lived with her openly. He had done what seemed to him best. How was he to blame? Now that she was gone he understood how lonely her life must have been, sitting night after night, alone in that room. His life would be lonely too until he, too, died, ceased to exist, became a memory − if anyone remembered him.† The dead * â€Å"His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.† Themes General/ Contextual themes – themes surrounding the entire narrative discourse giving it homogeneity .They deal with Dublin biggest issues that have a great influence in every character behaviour.In relation with each individual story they can be central themes or hidden after a detail ,an action ,an answer or a thought. * Poverty * Paralysis * Irish politics and religion issues Central/Characteristic themes * Mortality * Escape * Isolation * Powerlessness * Alcoholism

Canadian Women and the Second World War Essay

The changing roles of women throughout history has been drastic, and none more so than the period during and after World War II. The irrevocable changes that occurred once the war started and women went to work were unprecedented. In the end, the changing role of Canada’s women during the War was the beginning of a chain reaction of events that have forever changed the Canadian workplace and also that of men’s archaic views on the capabilities of women in general. Many look back to the period during the war in which women were encouraged to get out of the kitchen and go to work, and wonder how a five year period could be so instrumental in forever changing the norms of society? Two authors, who attempt to sift through a mountain of information and provide a clear picture in response to this question, are Jeff Keshen and Ruth Roach Pierson. Both authors paint a slightly different picture from the piles of papers, minutes, war diaries and publications that covered that pivotal period during World War II where so many Canadians women found their voice and their freedom from domesticity. Canadian Women and the Second World War Ruth Roach Pierson’s essay is written with purely the perspective of women in mind, and the article itself is geared towards a female audience. The writer briefly describes the conditions of Canada at the onset of the war and the societal views of the role of women. Although there are no quoted references sited for this essay, there was a vast amount of alternative reading where I am sure one could draw numerous conclusions. Even with the lack of references, I did find this essay the most compelling especially, given the current climate of women in the work force. Ruth Roach Pierson describes in great detail the plight women faced during the war, when they were encouraged by the government and the needs of their families to get out and help support their families financially while all of the men were away at war. She goes on to describe the working conditions and child care situations for working women which were less than adequate. As a member of the Canadian Forces and a woman, the most interesting part of the article for me was the descriptions of how women became a uniformed part of the military and how all three branches of service came to assimilate women into active duty and the roles they were allowed to serve in. Throughout the essay, we were told about the deplorable conditions, the lack of equality the women faced in the workplace, and the stereotypes that were attached to women that proved very difficult and almost impossible to overcome. At most concern was the inequality found between men and women’s pay, benefits and allowances throughout the World War II era and beyond. The lack of equal pay for equal work caused great contention for women and still does to this day (although it is not quite as blatant in the civilian workforce today). The argument of the writer is that the roles taken on by women during the war forever changed the roles of women in society. I agree with her argument. Had it not been for the war, and the call to work and the military, things would be very different in our society for women, even today. The war was the instrument to get Canadian women to work, and once there, women found their voices to fight the inequality with respect to working conditions and pay, and paved the way for the next generation of women to continue to work and fight for an equal playing field with their male counterparts . Revisiting Canada’s Civilian Women during World War II Jeff Keshen’s essay is without a doubt written from a man’s perspective without much sympathy to the plight civilian women experienced during the World War II era. This article is very well written and cites over 100 references, making for a very factual account of the times. This article was geared more towards what contributions were made by civilian women versus the article by Ruth Roach Pierson which put most of the focus on women’s roles within the military. Jeff Keshen’s article explains how the media plays a of the time played a pivotal role in doing two things specifically, one was to get the women out to work, support their families and contribute to the war cause. The second countered the last by telling women were over and over told how important their role in the home was. Throughout this article the writer makes numerous references towards how the government of Canada attempted to do the right thing towards female workers during the war, but it also shows how the government’s heart wasn’t into it, thus just making offers to female workers just to appease their complaints for the time being until the war was over. The government was terrible on providing financial support to women whose husbands were away at war, offering only meager amounts of their pay each month, thus forcing more women into the workforce. The article goes on to further explain how during the war, women felt empowered by their circumstances and how once the war was over that women continued to fight towards equality and many refused to ‘go back to the kitchen’ after the war and further challenged the norms by continuing to work. In conclusion, the most compelling argument found during both articles was the willingness of women to move forward and support their families, no matter the cost or the inequalities found between their male counterparts. I have always heard said that ‘women are the backbone of society’. Now, this may not be entirely true in the year 2011 with the shared roles of women and men in families, but it certainly can be said for the years during World War II. Women were faced with the challenge of having their spouses and breadwinners away from home, and they were also faced with the uncertainty of their safe return home to their families. When you couple this with the call from their government and society to join the work force to help the war effort and take over the roles of the men in society while they were away. Eagerly the women answered that call, and stepped up to take over the roles the men used to hold before the war. Not only were they working full-time jobs, but they were still in charge of their households and raising their children and taking over and completing the roles of husband and fathers for an extremely long period of time.

Theatre Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Theatre - Essay Example The result was the final idea of building the â€Å"Thrust Stage†. The structure of the thrust stage contained three sides for audience to sit and the stage at the center of the whole stage. The purpose of the thrust stage trusted on the reaction and the reception of the audience. The thrust stage configuration was in such a manner that the audience could see and identify one another. All of them could witness the play in full angle. The actors had a close interaction with the audience in a thrust stage performance. Though plays of various playwrights were performed in those times Shakespeare’s plays were the most wanted among the audience and specially the Queen. There were advantages as well as disadvantages in a thrust stage. The advantages were that of a close confidence with the audience. Each side had longer rows of seats and the thrust stage was very helpful in performing plays with a intimate theme in order to gain the Support of the audience. The plays were produces at a lower cost as there was very less chance to provide changes in scenery. Only common scenery was painted on the upper stage so that all the audience could watch it. With out such special scenery background some plays were not been able to perform with the expected effect. The disadvantages were that the provision for special effects was completely little. And as mentioned above the frequent change of scenic background was not possible within a small place. Limitations on set designs were also there and this thrust stage will never suit for a large scale production. Since the stage configuration is straight the performance in a vertical angle was not possible. The intimacy as mentioned in the advantages may lead to immediate interaction of the audience with the actors, in such a situation it might have become very difficult to control the audience. The thrust stage was a stage for actor centered not for

Alcoholism Vision in the 20th Century Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Alcoholism Vision in the 20th Century - Essay Example It can be judged it from the definitions like: â€Å"alcoholism is a disease that affects the part of the brain that controls your feelings, the way you make decisions, and the way you act† (Identifying alcoholism, 2003)   Keller called alcoholism a disease because of the disablement represented in behavioral manifestations. The same concept is offered by American Psychiatric Association which argued that a mental disorder is characterized by present distress, disability, or a significantly increased risk of suffering death, pain, or an important loss of freedom. (Mann, Hermann & Heinz, 1999)   In effect, deviant drinking became medicalized or cast in the perspective of a disease model. Scientists and physicians regarded the disease of alcoholism as congenital, progressive, developmental, and, while incurable, capable of treatment. (Lectures)   Since the dawn of 19th-century alcohol has become a ‘social problem’ in the USA. During the colonial era, drunkenness was common with per capita alcohol consumption being 4 times higher than at present. That’s why alcoholism has attracted much public attention and interest of the researchers.   The modern concept of alcoholism includes the psychosocial and neurobiological foundations and consequences of alcoholism. Neurobiological research explains addictive behavior by the dispositional factor of monoaminergic dysfunction, neuroadaptation, and sensitization.