Zen Buddhism and Oneida community

Table of Contents Introduction Oneida community practices and beliefs Zen Buddhism practices and beliefs Comparison and contrasts Conclusion Introduction Various communities have emerged from religions each with its own beliefs, practices, and purpose. Examples of these communities are the Zen Buddhism and Oneida community. These two communities share certain beliefs and differ in others. Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Zen Buddhism and Oneida community specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Zen community and Oneida community were formed with the objective of creating a community where people would live on earth without suffering. The founders of these two communities established the cause of suffering, and then found ways of eliminating it. Oneida community practices and beliefs The Oneida community was established by John Humphrey Noyes in the name of â€Å"free love.† Love was expressed through sexuality . Noyes was against the normal marriage because of two reasons, marriage made a woman a productive drudge and secondly, it was an obstacle to true Christian community because of the issue of staying as couples. To solve this issue, Noyes created a method where men would restrain themselves as a method of birth control and members of Oneida community had liberty to have sexual relations with the opposite gender. In addition, monogamous marriage was not allowed. Noyes stated that his teachings came from the bible. From the book of Genesis 1-3, sexuality served the purpose of expressing love and also that of recreation. However, after the fall, harmony between human beings was no more and this resulted to sufferings. As a result of this fall, human beings experienced financial struggles in catering for their families while women suffered in giving birth. Men separated from their wives in such of support for their families. The purpose of the Oneida community was to bring back the lov e that was lost between man and wife. People worked as a community for short hours, therefore reducing the burden of working. The path taken to live a life without suffering was, first, eliminating sin, shame, and then the burden of child birth.Advertising Looking for essay on religion theology? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Zen Buddhism practices and beliefs The Zen community followed Buddha’s teachings. They had many practices such as zazen, where a person sat in meditation. Through this process of meditation a person experienced harmony. During meditation, thoughts passed through the mind but did not remain there. In this state of mind, everything that a person did came from natural impulses. A person was able to fully concentrate in his actions without interactions. Koan was another practice done in Zen tradition. Koan used a question that puzzled the brain of a person. One was made to view the world in its origi nal form. To understand a koan, one focused on it without reflecting on it, interacting directly with it. The significance of koan was to bring the understanding that every person was an interdependent whole of the world. The purpose of Zen practice was enlightenment, or satori. One felt the harmony of all beings by realizing that everything was whole. Every living thing became valuable and at the same time invaluable. This enigma was understood only with consciousness rather than intellectuality. Comparison and contrasts The founders of both communities were human beings. The initiator of Buddhism was Shakyamuni. He was fully enlightened through meditation and opened ways of spirituality and liberty. The initiator of Oneida was known as John Noyes. He formed Oneida community in the name of love. They two founders had one main objective of reducing suffering in human beings. Though Zen Buddhism and Oneida community shared common values, they also differed in some beliefs. Buddhism b elieved in no supreme power. Furthermore, they did not worship Buddha. Buddhism was not a religion of God; instead it was of wisdom, insight, and kindness. Oneida community believed in God, who was the creator of the universe. Oneida community believed that salvation came through confession of sin; however, Buddhists believed that salvation and enlightenment came through meditation and taking away of defilements and illusion. Oneida community believed that there God lived separately; while Buddhists believed that Buddha was inherent in them. The Buddha did not pay attention to aspects such as the soul, life after death, or how the earth was formed. Buddhists focused on the things that existed such as birth, aging, death, suffering and how they could be eliminated from people. Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Zen Buddhism and Oneida community specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The teachings of Buddha were facts of existence and the way to freedom; nirvana. The Oneida community believed in life after death, where they stated that the kingdom of heaven would come to earth. According to Buddha, life was about suffering which came from the desires of humans, and could end through the Noble Eightfold Path. Therefore, Buddha was neither negative nor positive about life. Buddha outlined ways that would liberate people from suffering. The Eightfold Path gave procedures to eliminate past mistakes, abstain from keeping any wrongs, and forming values for a good rebirth. One step in this path was to know reality perfectly. This was done through knowing the four noble truths. Every action was controlled by the mind. Therefore, the actions of people could either produce happiness or suffering. The second aspect was to have the right intention, then right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, and right mindfulness, and the eighth factor right meditation. According to John Noyes, suffering be gan with the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. From that time onwards, women suffered during child birth, while men had to toil hard to support their families. This separated men and their wives, and the love that existed before ceased. To stop this suffering, Noyes formed a community of â€Å"free love.† People worked as one, therefore reducing working hours. Men restrained themselves as a method of birth control, therefore reducing the suffering of women in child birth. Zen Buddhism and Oneida community differed in their view of birth and death. In Buddhism, a changing form of being provoked another into motion. Every good or evil deed created another personality with time which was realized after death. For freedom to occur even after death, people had to live a life without desires. A liberated person experienced an eternal, calm, and permanent state. Oneida believed in eternity which would be on earth.Advertising Looking for essay on religion theology? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Conclusion Zen community and Oneida community shared common values and differed in others. Both were formed with the intention of reducing suffering in human beings. Buddha gave teachings to its followers that acted as guidelines to a liberal life. The main idea of these teachings was to flee from desires, which was the main cause of sufferings. On the other hand, John Noyes who was the founder of Oneida community stated that suffering began with the fall of man in the Garden of Eden and this suffering would end through birth control and a complex marriage. However, the Zen and Oneida community differed in various aspects. The Zen community was non-theists, while Oneida community believed in God. The Oneida community followed biblical teachings while Zen community followed Buddha’s teachings. This essay on Zen Buddhism and Oneida community was written and submitted by user Juliet Forbes to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Commentary on Lorna Sage, Bad Blood Essay Example

Commentary on Lorna Sage, Bad Blood Essay Example Commentary on Lorna Sage, Bad Blood Paper Commentary on Lorna Sage, Bad Blood Paper This passage revolves around a young girls life, how it has changed and what it has become. It is ironically, how a friendship has evolved into something that the two girls who are exposed in this passage have never thought it would become. Sage introduces us to what we can conclude to be herself in the first paragraph of this passage, whilst introducing us to her dear friend (or shall we say greatest enemy?) in the second paragraph. The relationship between Gail and the narrator is one of typical young girls relationships with another girl. Sage develops the relationship between these two young girls from two very contradicting ways; Hate to Love. As the narrator mentions; now she was my sworn enemy. This quote makes it quite obvious how the narrator felt about Gail. When you use the word sworn enemy, it emphasizes the amount of hatred you have towards that person, which makes it crystal clear to us how the relationship between Gail and the narrator was. Yet, ironically, this all changes, within no more than 2 words from that quote, when the narrator opens up the relationship between her and Gail when she says; (she even had a funny name, like me) In this quote, the narrator starts to open up to Gail, accepting her, as she starts to compare her to herself. That is where the relationship actually began. Although they started off bullying each other and beating each other up, as shown when Sage says; Once shed thoroughly trounced me in public this quote, also, is pretty much right to the point, very straight forward, the narrator speaks openly and sort of what proud of being trounced, of being whitewashed by Gail, because it let to something they both treasure now a days, a relationship that could never go astray, a relationship and friendship that they dont want to let go ofbut, does that mean anything? holding hands painfully, giggling together hysterically If this was read about a guy and a girl, the reader would quite quickly come to the conclusion of a special kind of relationship being introduced, but this one friendship isnt like this. This friendship is consistent of the truth and of the honestly and loyalty towards the other. That is what the holding hands painfully can be referring to. The girls do not want to let go of this friendship, theyve been through a lot and they are not willing to let something come in and take that away from thembut, also, does that imply on anything? days of our adolescent intimacy In which point of view can we take this quote? Doesnt this usually imply on a strong relationship between two people? One that consists of love, warmth and of for sure intimacy? You cant go around now and hear a girl saying that she has had days of adolescent intimacy with another girl without thinking that something isnt rightright? And, adolescences is a period of time when two people should come together and figure out the feelings they have towards each otherto figure out why it is really classified as intimate and not something different, something filled with a little bit less of love. The word hell, what does that imply to? Pain? Ache? Struggle? Or all three? The first passage, or to be more specific, the first line, the first phrase even, emphasizes what hell is in perspective of the narrator. The use of the ; means that there is a list after that word that will make it clear what the narrator meant to say, or what the narrator meant when he/she put the word into the passage itself. small peoples purgatory. The word purgatory is linking itself to hell, because it means that this person is being pulled into a world that is painful for no reason. The description techniques of this passage are very straight forward, no awkward words are being used or tongue-tied phrases being put into place. The way the narrator describes Gail is indeed straight to the point, and that makes it much easier for the reader to become acquainted with the character, with Gail. Although, if taken into deep consideration, the way the narrator actually goes through Gail, can seem like there is a sense of jealousy towards her, because maybe she is better in some things that the narrator is; Was she already going to dancing lessons? Straight forward rhetorical question, we, the readers wouldnt know the answer to because we havent had the full life of Gail, but what we can conclude is that she is asking this out of jealousy, not out of interest. If she was going to dancing lessons, the narrator would want to be just like her and start going to dancing lessons as well, which leads to the respect felt towards Gail from the narrator, although they were once sworn enemies. admire the ringlets and the dresses with smocking on the yokes it does mention somewhere before this quote that Gail lives with her grandmother, we havent come to know the reason for this yet, but what we can tell is that Gail is being treated like a doll by her grandmother, maybe because the grandmother doesnt have anything better to do. She does these beautiful embroideries that are referred to as smocking on the yokes on Gails dresses and makes it look like she is very high class, maybe even if she really isnt. The fact that this passage is written by the real point of view of the narrator, we get to actually feel what Sage felt through those horrible days at school during those first few days and what she felt when her and Gail actually got to know each other and carry their friendship forward well into the future. I guess this plays a really important part on the way we can understand this passage, for example, would you enjoy a passage that was all about two girls (or even two guys, let us not be sexist!) that was all about bullying and all about racism and socialism and so on? This passage, with the emphasis of the narrators feelings into it, shows us exactly how real friendships turn out to be, and it is true, this passage does reflect on the real way strong relationships are actually made! (I would know, its happened to me!) but for me, this passage was really a play back to my old life. Ive gone through exactly what Sage, or the narrator has gone through, and turned out with a friendship stronger than ever! When youre young, without a doubt you ought to feel jealousy towards a certain person in your grade/year, for some reason or another, which will, believe it or not, lead to a really strong friendship.

All About Me Letter

My favorite sports are football and basketball. I play the recorder. I participated in football for three years and basket ball for one year. I played the recorder for one year in the fourth grade and earned all the belts for each skill level.On the other hand I don’t like to read what so ever, but I’m going to improve my reading this year. I don’t like to read because I fall asleep as soon as I begin to read books. The books that I like are adventurous and action-packed books because they interest me so I won’t fall asleep. These kinds of books stimulate my imagination and help me visualize the story. In order to keep me interested in reading I would like to have audio or graphics books. I did great academically last year as I made A’s and B’s.My academic goals this year are to make straight A’s and to receive scores above 900 on the CRCT. Considering that I do not like to read, it’s hard for me to brainstorm ideas and write an essay. Therefore, I do not think of myself as a good writer, as I prefer digital images to awaken my creativity. The few times that I must write, I like to write narratives about my family vacations in new places. Narratives allow me to express my emotions. Unfortunately, brainstorming ideas causes me to have headaches that turn me off from writing.I hope to learn how to overcome this obstacle and improve my writing skills. In conclusion, you can help me achieve my academic goals by suggesting some action-packed or adventurous book titles for me to enjoy reading. I learn best by following examples and listening to instructions. The activities you can help me with are reading and sentence-structure in writing assignments. I welcome the opportunity to learn from your expertise. Sincerely, Phillip Harrington Phillip Harrington

Globalization of Financial Markets SLP Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Globalization of Financial Markets SLP - Essay Example nd of the Second World War, organizations such as the International Monetary Fund, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the GATT has spearheaded efforts for trade and development the world over (Caruana, 2007). Thus the goal of globalization is fast becoming a reality. The GATT gave way to the WTO or World Trade Organization on January 1, 1995. The WTO is a better representative of world trade with a membership of more than 150 countries of all sizes from various parts of the globe. However, globalization has been regarded as a two edged sword by some developing nations. They state that opening their borders to the more developed nations result in a gain to the developed economies while putting themselves at a loss. This is because the international franchises fast take over the new territories. People are attracted to them and spend a lot of money there, resulting in capital outflows to the developed world. There is a strong case for protecting the home industries from being ruined by opening the doors to globalization. Also the membership of the WTO requires adherence to the principles of non-discrimination, reciprocity, binding and enforceable commitments and transparency, the larger and more stable economies generally get more favorable status . Standards of quality control demanded by developed nations like the ISO certification may be hard to achieve by less technologically developed nations (Berniker et al., 2001). Let us take the case of Brazil. Brazil is one of the world’s leading economies and has the fastest growth in Latin America. It imports machinery, oil, electrical and transport equipment, chemicals, electronic goods and auto parts (CIA World Factbook, 2011). It exports steel, paper, iron ore, soybeans and coffee. China, the USA and Argentina rank among its best trading partners in terms of volume of trade conducted with them. Exposure to world markets has undoubtedly affected the price of coffee and soybeans both at home

Homeopathic remedies (argumentative Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Homeopathic remedies (argumentative - Essay Example The second principle is that the natural property of homeopathic remedies is maintained and retained even after the repeated dilution and sucussion beyond the Avogadros number. The fundamental theory of Homeopathic remedies is that the micro doses of these materials are used to stimulate the natural protective and healing mechanism of the body resultantly aiding as a remedial system. The interesting part of homeopathy is that this alternative medical branch utilizes diluted doses of such materials which are assumed to cause similar symptoms as that of the actual disease. The basic theory involved is that imparting such foreign materials would cause and prompt the body to formulate a defensive mechanism which ultimately would help the remedy of the actual disease. This possibilities branch of such a remedial system was first explored by Samuel Hahnemann, a German physician in the year 1796 (Jonas, Kaptchuk & Linde 2003, 393-399). The continued dilution of the naturally extracted mater ials is achieved by serial shaking and the dilution is expected to continue till a stage where least of the original ingredient remains. The remedial outcome is assumed to increase with the continued dilution. The general strategy followed by the homeopaths in determining the remedial measure is through the assessment of the disease symptoms with reference to a calibrated index of symptoms (Rite Care, 2009). Along with this, the physical and psychological state of the patients is taken into account while recommending the remedial measure (Rite Care, 2009). In the present scenario of clinical research, homeopathy is increasing growing in importance. A lot number of researches are seriously undertaken so as scientifically to confirm the benefits of homeopathy as an effective remedial branch of medicine. This should be read together with the fact

Need for More Artful and Realistic Porn Essay Example for Free

Need for More Artful and Realistic Porn Essay 1. Introduction For a long time, pornography has been viewed as something exclusively for men. In the 1980’s, pornography was a feminist issue in which feminists claimed that pornography was a form of violence against women (Sun et al., 2008). Often enough, it has been claimed that women do not have any interest in explicit representations of sex. However, in the past years, women have increasingly started to become interested in pornography. But most pornographic materials are made for and by men. However, there are even some pornography magazines aimed at women readers (Smith, 2007). Not only the consumption of porn, but also the production and direction of pornography seem to be activities where women are involved in more than ever before. Pornography has been a subject of philosophy for a number of philosophers. Some of them, including Larry May, believe pornography harms groups of people. In contrast to Larry May, Sallie Tisdale argues that pornography can be of help to individuals. THESIS: There should be different kinds of porn (more artistic/realistic/made by womenmore artistic) so that porn has no negative effects / to enlarge the positive effects of porn / abolish / diminish the negative effects. 2. Exposition -How porn can help Tisdale argues that porn can help in many different ways. First of all, she emphasizes that porn is part of our sexuality. The first advantage Tisdale discusses is that porn can help to see how many different things sex can mean. Secondly, being able to expose your true self makes it easier to expose yourself to others. Thirdly, being exposed to pornography helps letting go judgments about yourself, which, in turn, makes you let go of judgments against the desires and acts of others. Also, porn clarifies your interests (only aware of it after exposure to it) and might create new interests. It reveals aspects of yourself that you were unaware of until then. The last advantage of porn Tisdale discusses is that it can lead to the realization that none of your thoughts are bad, that anything goes. -How negative affects/emotions can get in the way of porn’s helpfulness Even though Tisdale argues that porn can help individuals, she is still sometimes surprised, or even shocked, by her own reaction to pornography. Shame Disgust of own response to porn ‘Disliked my own response’ ‘I felt a heady mix of disgust and excitement’ (p. 423) Body versus mind. Depressed Nausea Why does she even have these reactions? 3. Furthering Tisdale’s project Tisdale wishes for a more craft, a more artful packaging of pornography. (p 426) Furthering Tisdale’s project by establishing how porn could be less negative by being more artful or more artistic. Richard Summer’s ‘Local Porn Project’. Summer desires more realistic porn. He wants people to be able to identify themselves and recognize what is happening in porn. He argues that right now, porn is detached from reality. This is a problem, because sex is actually a very real thing with real benefits, experiences and consequences. Porn right now, does not express sexuality in the right way. Summer’s Local Porn project aims to make thoughtful and genuine porn. Will more artful/realistic porn help to prevent these negative emotions? Tisdale wishes for more artful pornography. There are two ways in which this can be realized: either by making more realistic porn or by having more female directors and producers. As aforementioned, Women are now making films for women viewers. Sun et al. (2008) investigated how the context of pornography made by female and men directors differ. Their results show that, indeed, the content of pornography produced by women differs significantly on several aspects from pornography made produced by men. Pornography produced by women more frequently contained objects designed for genital stimulation. It presented women performing oral sex on men and ejaculation on the face and mouth less frequently. Also, pornography made by women more frequently has a female as main character and more frequently show only women. Pornography produced by men hardly ever contained women only. Female directed porn and male directed porn did not differ in the number of aggressive acts. However, male directed pornography show twice as many men perpetrating. Overall, one can say that pornography produces by  women and men differ significantly.

Truth, War, and Mongols Essay example -- Mongolian Empires History Ess

Truth, War, and Mongols A historic empire that made an immense impact throughout history, it's being influenced the world around it, it's people were advanced and innovative for the time. The Mongolian empire began at around 1200 A.D. and throughout it's long and large existence, influential ideas and developments were created. Their horsemanship, their militancy, their nomadic lifestyle, their leadership system, their fall and their impact make up all of the components that are needed to fully understand and appreciate the history of the Mongolian empire. The seventh grade history text, Across the Centuries, describes all of these aspects, though not all are presented with depth, their basic ideas and concepts are understood by the students reading the text. The Mongols had the privilege and advantage above all other tribes that led to them to excel in their militancy; they had horses. Their ability to ride horses with efficiency and skill, made conquering less fortunate tribes and expanding the realms of their empire a task beyond simple. In the seventh grade text, a quote about the Mongolian expansion, by Ibn al Athir, is cited: " These Tatars [Mongols] conquered most of the habitable globe and the best, the most flourishing and most populous thereofÃ…  in about a year." (Across the Centuries, p. 162) This quote is supported in the text by a statement regarding their excellence in horsemanship. "On horseback, the Mongols could advance up to 200 miles a day." (Across the Centuries, p.146) These examples clearly show how their being excellent horsemen was to their militant advantage when it came to conquering and expanding. Soldiers were able to travel with a sufficient amount of food and water, distributed among three of f... ...he unit in this particular text, will be a basic span of knowledge that will allow them to further explore the Mongols and their empire with a substantial base to support them and eager minds to lead them on to find out details, facts, significance, and truth. Works Cited ----, Across the Centuries, ----- , Chapter 7 Amitai-Priess, Rueven and David O. Morgan, The Mongol Empire and It's Legacy, Brill Publishing Co., Leiden, Boston, Koln, 1999. Andrea, Alfred J. and James H. Overfield, The Human Record: fourth edition vol.1, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, New York, 2001 Bently, Jerry H. and Herbert F. Zeigler, Traditions & Encounters: A Global Perpective on the Past, McGraw Hill Companies, Inc., 2000. Lai, David Chuenyan, Land of Genghis Khan, Universtiy of Victoria, Victoria, 1995. Phillips, E.D., The Mongols, Thames and Hudson, London, 1969.

Putnam [email protected] Case

Cost and Benefit Analysis of [email  protected] One of the primary advantages of the [email  protected] program is that it creates a cost advantage. Having employees work at home as opposed to in-facility is significantly less costly. According to Table A in the case, annual recurring costs for each individual working in-facility is around $10,650. That is over twice the recurring cost of the average [email  protected] employee with an ISDN connection and over 20 times the annual recurring cost of a [email  protected] employee with a cable modem connection.Given the large quantity [email  protected] employees at Putnam, this program provides a method of greatly reducing recurring costs in the short and long term. Additionally, the e-learning program costs less than half of what the traditional training process costs. It even better prepares employees for the job because the quality of the training is higher and individuals can complete the training at their own pace. Moreov er, [email  protected] employees feel that Putnam has made a sizeable investment in them, and feeling is supported by high productivity rates and decreased turnover.The turnover rate among [email  protected] employees is around 8% which is significantly lower than the Putnam average of 30%. By training employees for less and retaining them for longer, Putnam decreases both recruiting and training costs by a significant margin. Furthermore, the [email  protected] program allows Putnam to expand their business into new areas without having to invest in additional real estate. And because the majority of these [email  protected] employees are from rural areas where the cost of living is lower than locations near Putnam’s office facilities, Putnam can get away with paying [email  protected] employees less than their in-facility counterparts.All these factors contribute to the low cost advantage that the [email  protected] program creates. Because Putnam only allows hi gh productivity workers the option of working at home, the [email  protected] program can provide an incentive for employees to increase their productivity. According to a Putnam manager, anyone who is eligible to work from home and who wants to can work at home as long as he has higher than average productivity. Anyone at Putnam who desires to work from home will have the incentive to increase productivity above the mean so that they will have the option of working from home. However, this ncentive only applies to workers who have jobs that allow them to work from home. Also, many people like the social experience that the office brings and have no desire to work from home. One of the pitfalls of using this program as an incentive is that there is no reason for employees to produce anything higher than the company average. However, all things considered, this program does incentivize a select group of individuals to boost their productivity levels. Various costs arise from the [e mail  protected] program as well. It takes a special type of person to succeed in a [email  protected] position.Employees must be willing to sacrifice the social aspect of work and must be good at solving problems on their own because immediate help cannot always be obtained. Unfortunately the workers who fit the [email  protected] criteria do not necessarily bring about optimal production for Putnam. The most qualified and potentially productive candidates may find the [email  protected] program to be unfulfilling. Consequently Putnam is forced to accept candidates who while still productive, may not produce optimally. In fact, overqualified candidates in Vermont and Mane tended to have higher turnover rates due to the unfulfilling nature of the work.One of the other primary costs of the program is the communication barrier. By not being in-facility, [email  protected] employees cannot as easily talk to co-workers or supervisors about work-related problems. Also they are not exposed to the culture and are unable to get as good of a sense of how the company operates compared to in-facility workers. Putnam has tried to mitigate these costs through the advent of the chat system and other communication methods, but the fact remains that communication is not as good as it is among in-facility workers. Finally, employee performance needs to be monitored a bit more closely with [email  protected]Due to the lack of social pressure among co-workers to perform, employees could be tempted to shirk. But Putnam’s performance evaluation process has eliminated this problem, and in fact, [email  protected] employees have been equally if not more productive than in-facility workers. Human Resources Policies Overall I think Putnam is doing a pretty good job with regards to its human resources policies in the [email  protected] program. However, I feel a few changes could be made that could improve the program. According to some Putnam managers, monitorin g an employee working at home is not significantly different from monitoring employees in-facility.Rather, supervisors just have to monitor what’s going on â€Å"in different ways†. If it really isn’t much more costly or time consuming to monitor [email  protected] employees as opposed to in-facility employees, I see no reason to offer [email  protected] opportunities exclusively to high productivity employees. My recommendation is that Putnam rank workers on a relative scale in quintiles and assign each quintile a grade of A, B, C, D, or E with A workers being the top 20% and E workers the bottom 20%. Employees should not be made aware of their rankings.Next, my recommendation is that Putnam select a sample of employees from each of the bottom three quintiles to work at home for a period of 6 months to a year. The reasoning for only using the bottom three quintiles is that the top two quintiles are already eligible to work at home. The purpose of the experi ment is to determine from a cost standpoint whether or not it is advantageous to allow average and below average employees to work at home. Putnam should use the exact same evaluation process and compensation system with these employees. In other words, they should be treated no differently from the typical [email  protected] employee.Putnam should then compare the productivity numbers of the experimental [email  protected] employees and compare them to their respective productivity numbers from when they worked in-facility. If there is not a huge discrepancy in their productivity, then it may be advantageous for Putnam to allow employees of average to below average productivities to participate in the [email  protected] program. In fact, because overhead costs are so low for [email  protected] employees compared to in-facility counterparts, it could still be advantageous from a cost standpoint for Putnam to allow these employees to work at home even if their productivities drop off a bit.There are two major concerns I would have with employees in the bottom 3 quintiles working at home. One is that worker productivity will drop without direct monitoring. The second is that monitoring costs will spike due to the employees’ lack of motivation to do the job alone at home. If the increased costs of monitoring and the value of lost productivity do not exceed the difference in overhead cost between [email  protected] and in-facility employees, then Putnam should definitely consider allowing more employees to work at home.Doing so could decrease operating costs and increase profits in the long run. By performing this experiment Putnam can figure out how to optimally take advantage of its unique [email  protected] program. The limitation of this is that it may not be possible to assign a dollar amount to the cost of increased supervisory monitoring or the value of lost productivity. In light of this, it may be difficult to determine any cost advanta ges from performing this experiment. With regards to employee evaluation and compensation, I believe Putnam is doing a more than adequate job.By using both quantitative and subjective measures of performance like accuracy and call screening, Putnam keeps [email  protected] employees on their toes and producing at a high level. Additionally, by offering bonuses tied to performance of up to 20% of base salary, Putnam does a solid job of aligning [email  protected] employees interests with the company’s. The high level of productivity and low turnover rate among [email  protected] employees is proof that these policies work. One other aspect of HR that could be improved is making a clear cut path of promotion from [email  protected] employee up to a higher level position like manager or supervisor.By establishing a clear path to a higher level job in the company, Putnam can inspire its [email  protected] employees to work harder than ever. However, this could result in employee sabotage and decreased collaboration among [email  protected] employees. Employees may refrain from helping each other out because they are all seeking the same promotion. Experimental [email  protected] The first thing the travel agency should do is come up with a method of measuring employee performance. Without an accurate method of measuring performance, the experiment will not yield any meaningful results.The travel agency ideally would find a quantitative measure of performance that helps predict the total profit or revenues of the firm. By finding a quantitative measure that drives revenues, the travel agency can be sure that their method of evaluation will tie closely into firm performance. For the sake of simplicity in this exercise, I will assume that the number of clients served is the quantitative measure that most closely measures firm profitability and employee productivity. The next step in performing this experiment would be to research the costs associ ated with having a call center employee work at home as opposed to in-facility.If it is not any cheaper to have employees work at home, then there is no reason to even perform the experiment. This difference in cost is between work at home and in-facility employees will eventually determine whether or not a work at home program would be advantageous for the travel agency. The major cost would likely be installing the work phone in each employee’s house. There could be other costs in addition, however, like increased supervisory costs. Next, similar to my strategy for Putnam, I would rank all call center employees on a relative scale based on productivity and divide them into quartiles.Then I would take a random selection of a given amount of employees from each productivity quartile. These randomly selected individuals would be the ones taking part in the work at home experiment. These individuals would work at home for a lengthy period of say 6 months to a year. The travel a gency should heavily monitor their productivity during their time working at home, which in this case would be keeping track of clients served. At the end of the trial period of the work at home experiment, the travel agency should collect all the data regarding the participating individuals’ productivity.Their productivity should be compared to each individual’s respective productivity in the 6 months to a year prior to the experiment. Also, to adjust for possible seasonal factors influencing productivity, the travel agency could compare each work at home employee’s productivity to other employees in the same quartile who work in facility. The main concern here should be that worker productivity could decrease to the point that it would not be cost effective for the travel agency to have employees work at home, in spite of the fact that it probably costs significantly less in overhead to have employees work at home.If possible, the travel agency should attempt to assign dollar values to the additional costs of productivity loss and supervision from having employees work at home. If these additional costs are less than the difference in overhead cost between work at home and in-facility employees, then implementing a work at home program would probably be advantageous for the travel agency. There is a reason workers are ranked on a relative scale at the beginning of the experiment. Call center employees of different productivities may respond differently to working at home.The highest productivity employees are probably the most intrinsically motivated, and thus we would expect to see not as large a drop off in their performance as employees in other quartiles. Based on the data collected at the end of the experiment, the travel agency could decide that it is only profitable to allow employees above a certain level of performance standard to work at home. The firm could then use this standard as a benchmark and incentive for employees to o btain in order to get the option of working at home.

Globalisation and Americanisation

McNationalizations probably the most obvious in terms of its connection with AmAmericanizationas the McDonald's franchise is a purely American product. Other than the obvious, McNationalizationoncerns the spread of an American product – or in this case, as RiRitzierould argue – a method of supply and demand momodeledn the American fast-food industry.It could be argued that AmAmericanizationinders our understanding of the process of Cultural Appropriation, because Cultural Appropriation usually deals with the taking of aspects of a minority group's culture and adopting these elements into a more dominant cultural group, whereas with AmAmericanizationthe elements of a dominant group (America) are aaopiatento cultural mlmolesterssociety InNineame can De sasalsaor Cultural Imperialism and AmAmericanization/p>Cultural Imperialism describes the process of enforcing a culture or language onto another cultural group, which, in a way, is what Europeans and early Americans during the settlement of America – English became the dominant language of the United States, with an English and European society acting as the foundation of the American society. The native peoples of America were forced out of their homes and forced to interact with the now dominant settlers in English, and adopt a more European way of living – a ChChristianizeswhite way of life.In contemporary society, AmAmericanizationoesn't necessarily help our understanding of this term, as American culture isn't enforced on minority groups around the world, but rather it is slowly adopted by them. In conclusion, the label ‘AmAmericanization as an umbrella term for the cultural, social and economic processes mentioned, helps our understanding of the terms, as it provides a specific, well-known example of an influential, globally dominant culture that ututilizeshe processes for its own global expansion and power.

Unconstitutional - The Patriot Act essays

Unconstitutional - The Patriot Act essays President George Washington led the patriots through the Revolutionary War, not to conquer but to begin building the American Dream. Since that time, the Constitution that bound the colonies into the United States of America has continued to represent the preservation of freedom. This precious document was forged by the brilliant minds of our Founding Fathers, encompassing all the great ideas of past republics creating what is arguably, the greatest synergy of freedom and government ever established. The quest for freedom has been passed along from generation to generation and the Constitution has played a significant role in offering every American the possibility of standing on a common ground, experiencing true freedom and living with a sense of personal and national pride. The patriots of the Revolutionary War had a simple dream - freedom from tyranny and a functioning government to protect those freedoms. This dream had been upheld until 2001 when President George W. Bush signed the USA PATRIOT Act. The Patriot Act was designed to protect America post 9/11. The elements of this bill that have compromised the dream of freedom are FISA, Sneak and Peak, and the Strengthening the Criminal Laws against terrorism. Ironically, the named bill the USA PATRIOT Act, has quietly eroded civil liberties and has undermined the writings of the Founding Fathers. Benjamin Franklin said, "Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither libert y nor safety [sic]." The Patriot Act is unconstitutional and has undermined the very founding of America; the bill must be reversed for the continuation of preservation of freedom. The  Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 provides procedures for requesting judicial authorization for electronic surveillance and physical search of those engaged in espionage or international terrorism against the United States on behalf of a foreign power. (Aftergoo...

Business Ethics Case Study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

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