Performance Enhancing Steroids in Major League Baseball Essay -- pros

Performance Enhancing Steroids in Major League Baseball The issue that our group is tackling is the use of illegal performance enhancing steroids in Major League Baseball. Major League Baseball is big business in the U.S., with 30 franchises valued at over 8.8 billion dollars. Player salaries range from the league minimum salary of three hundred twenty five thousand per year to ten million or more per year, and are based on the market value of each player when his current contract expires. It is in this hyper-competitive environment that a growing specter of foul play has erupted – the use of steroids. Anabolic steroids and other similar performance enhancing substances allow muscles to recover at a much faster rate than normal. This rapid recovery permits athletes to train harder, for longer periods of time, and with greater frequency. This unnaturally intensified training leads to the development of greater muscle mass and strength, which has a causal effect on physical performance. Another effect of steroids is that game-to-gam e muscle recovery is more rapid, which allows the player to be more fully recovered on an every-day basis, which is a huge advantage in a season where 162 games are packed into 6 months. Many issues surround the use of such performance enhancing substances. One issue is the removal of a level playing field. In a business where competition is the business, any such illegal advantage can injure the integrity and legitimacy of the enterprise. ...

Fathers and Daughters Relationships in Shakespeare’s Literature Essay

The fathers and daughters relationships in Shakespeare drama and literature have attracted a great deal of scholarly attentions specifically in the influence of feminist criticism. There is an apparent shifting affection towards fathers and daughters when the latter struggle to negotiate a passage into adulthood and marriage with their father’s blessings, and when the fathers struggle to surrender or relinquish their young daughters to other men—their future husbands. Most of the time the fathers, who often belongs to royalty or upper class, rejects the men that their daughters choose because of their lower standing. Apparently, some fathers judge the appropriateness of the men through their properties, strength and social positions. Also Shakespeare incorporates fathers from the middle life who are also reluctant to release their daughters at the threshold of adult commitment in marriage. The conflicts, fears, and insecurities, as each faces a crucial challenge of adulthood, cast new light on questions of moral development, male and female sex roles, and traditional and progressive social norms. In earlier marriage, the father is the one who mostly manipulate his daughter’s decision making and thus making a woman’s sense of free will powerless. Meanwhile, some appraisals in fathers and daughters relationship in Shakespeare’s literature are typically more sympathetic to the fathers. Some daughters manifest tyrannical possessiveness taking advantage to her social standing and the excess parental affection of her father. Some are being manipulated by the daughters’ exemplary conduct such as capriciousness, coldness and disloyalty. While some rebels against father’s possessiveness towards them â€Å"as a love corrupted by the power a patriarchal society confers on him†. Juliet and her father Old Capulet in the story of Romeo and Juliet, Desdemona and her father Branbantio in the story of Othello, Portia’s submissiveness to her father’s standard in The Merchant in Venice, though she knows it is quite wrong, all consciously or unconsciously moves to the whims of patriarchy. Meanwhile the character of Cordelia, the youngest daughter of King Lear, refused to go over board in her statement of love towards her father, and Jessica shows her disobedience and rebellious nature towards her father Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. Apparently, there are two facets of fathers and daughters relationships in Shakespeare literature; first, some of his literature shows daughters’ submissiveness towards the standards of patriarchy as the daughters allow their fathers to dominate their lives to the extent that they are helpless to change their fate, and second, some daughters boldly oppose their fathers’ standards through escape and rebellion. These two facets creates such ambiguity as to whether Shakespeare is a pro feminist as he presents sexist oppression or did Shakespeare somehow remains within the tradition of patriarchy? Most of the tensions and conflicts between the fathers and daughters revolve around the impending marriages of the daughters. In various Shakespearean plays, the father is often the one who chooses his daughter’s husband, which normally goes against the daughter’s will. â€Å"The daughters in some Shakespearean literature break the emotional strings that tie them to childhood, defying paternal authority to assert emotional independence† (Dreher 5). One good example that shows defiance in paternal authority is when Juliet proceeds to marry Romeo event though Capulet, her father, strongly disagrees since Romeo is a Montague, the family’s rival clan. This action from Juliet creates conflict between her and her father which eventually leads to added drama throughout the play. Capulet is forced to disown his own daughter because of her act of disobedience; â€Å"Hang thee, young baggage, disobedient wretch/ I tell thee what: get thee to church o’ Thursday/ Or never after look me in the face/ Speak not, reply not, do not answer me!/ My fingers itch.  Ã‚  Wife, we scarce thought us blest/ That God had lent us but this only child;/ But now I see this one is one too much,/ And that we have a curse in having her/ Out on her, hilding.† (Shakespeare 207). Capulet feels like he is not being just rejected as a father but her patriarchal role has been rejected as well. As for Juliet, her opposition towards her father especially in terms of love illustrates her need for emotional freedom and desires for life transition that will give her opportunities for personal growth. But Juliet apparently holds her father’s opinion in high regard and respect because after receiving her father’s judgment, she says; â€Å"Good father, I beseech you on my knees,/ Hear me with patience but to speak a word (Shakespeare 207). She apparently does feel badly for disappointing her father. Therefore, some Shakespeare’s female characters think very highly of their father’s opinions as part of their tradition, but proceed to do what they feel is in their own best interests and advantage. Though Juliet disobey her father after falling in love with Romeo but her love for the man develops her sense of independence and maturity since Juliet in the initial part of the play plays the role of an innocent child who comes at her parents command immediately and who perceives marriage â€Å"an honour that I dream not of† (Shakespeare 48). Similarly, Juliet and Lord Capulet have a strong relationship in the beginning of the play wherein the latter treats her daughter with so much love and compassion but not until he wishes her to marry Paris in Scene 5 of Act III. When Juliet disobeys, he put his judgment against her daughter with rage. But when Juliet returns apologetically to her father, and agrees to marry Paris, he once again returns to being the loving and caring father the readers initially identified. This also shows that Juliet, though has an independent mind, is still attached to the belief that she has a responsibility as a daughter to obey her father. Basically, the play Romeo and Juliet shows how the limitations set forth by the father in a patriarchal society can affect a daughter’s life while she lives under his roof. The patriarchal or authoritarian demands made by Juliet’s father, Juliet’s marrying Paris, in combination to Juliet’s secret marriage to Romeo, her father’s most hated enemy, greatly contributed to Juliet’s suicide and tragedy. â€Å"Although Capulet is genuinely distraught over his daughter’s suicide at the end, leading us to believe that his love for her was greater than his dictatorial display of affection for her throughout the play, he is nevertheless one of the chief culprits for her demise†. Desdemona and Brabantio’s relationship has one of the most unique father and daughter relationship in all Shakespearean’s plays. The subtle conflict between the two starts when Desdemona fallen in love with a man of a different race, culture and color. She marries Othello even though she knows that her father will greatly oppose on it.   She conceals her intentions and weds without her father’s consent which as a result, she loses her father’s affection. Brabantio is a Venetian Senator with definite ideas on the subject and behaviour of his daughter. He, as much as possible, wants her daughter to choose a husband who he feels is of her caliber, someone that will fit her complex psychological traits and as well as someone who will raise their family’s esteem in Venetian society. But Desdemona acts contrary to what is expected of her. She instead marries a Moor and not a Venetian man and an army general who does not have a lot of money but only prestige. Furthermore, Othello is also old nearly like her father’s age since the two are friends. Brabantio apparently wants her son in law to have a long life expectancy to inherit the family’s wealth and so that Desdemona would not be widowed or have to return to her father’s dependence. Meanwhile, Desdemona’s father doesn’t also understand Desdemona’s judgment in marrying Othello since her actions are so out of keeping with his sense of her character. He apparently believes that Desdemona’s decision to marry Othello is so incongruous with both the social norms and Desdemona’s usual self. Thus Brabantio then believes that she must have been bewitched since he couldn’t believe that his actions are all voluntary, â€Å"For I’ll refer me to all things of sense,/ If she in chains of magic were not bound,/ Whether a maid so tender, fair and happy,/ So opposite to marriage that she shunn’d/ The wealthy curled darlings of our nations,/ Would ever have (t’ incur a general mock)/ Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom/ Of such a thing as thou—to fear, not to delight† (Shakespeare â€Å"Othello† 10). Though Othello says that Desdemona was captivated by his tales of adventure and suffering not bewitched, â€Å" My story being done/ She gave me for my pains a world of sighs/ She swore, in faith, t’was strange, ‘twas passing strange;/ ‘Twas pitiful, ‘twas wondrous pitiful† (Shakespeare â€Å"Othello† 16). But nonetheless, whatever the intentions behind Desdemona’s decision, her actions illustrates disobedience to social norms and ultimately to her father’s expectations. In the Merchant of Venice, two separate father-daughter relationships play an integral role in the central narrative of the play. The play illustrates the strained relationship of Venetian and Jewish money lender Shylock and his daughter Jessica and the non existent association on Portia’s relationship with her deceased father. Shylock, devastated with the death of his wife Leah many years earlier, kept his house and environment with great mourning out of her respect for her. The continuous dedication or even obsession of Jessica’s father to her mother created distance between Shylock and his daughter Jessica, who can never completely understand the great love her parents shared. Jessica’s father is strictly puritanical too, wherein he keeps Jessica locks up in their small world isolating her from the outside. Moreover, Shylock also shows little love and affection towards his daughter that perhaps motivated the latter to be rebellious and disloyal. She meets secretly with Lorenzo who is a Christian. When the two fled together, Shylock becomes even more upset discovering that his valuables disappeared with them, â€Å"My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter ! / Fled with a Christian! O my Christian ducats! / Justice! The law! My ducats and my daughter! / A sealed bag, two sealed bags of ducats, / Of double ducats, stol’n from me by my daughter! / And jewels—two stones, two rich and precious stones, / Stol’n by my daughter! Justice! Find the girl! / She hath the stones with her, and the ducats!† (Shakespeare â€Å"The Merchant of Venice† 40). Jessica is not a good daughter at all since she let her rage against her father to dominate her actions and decisions. Likewise, Shylock is not a good father since he gives more importance to tradition, mourning and wealth giving little attention to his daughter. Portia’s father on the other hand is just as controlling as Jessica’s father however, Portia approach her father’s wishes with submissiveness. Though Portia is one of the strongest female characters in all Shakespearean’s plays, she respects her father’s wishes. King Lear, who is old enough to retire from power, decides to divide his royalty amongst his three beautiful daughters. He offers the largest share to the one who loves him best. Goneril and Regan, who significantly give importance to position and royalty, proclaim passionately and with all hypocrisy that they love their father more than anyone and any material thing in this world. Their statements completely please the King. However, Cordelia, the King’s youngest daughter, refuses to flatter him exaggeratedly, displaying a mild and forbearing temperament. Cordelia’s honest assertion annoys and offends the King. Easily persuaded by the hollowness of his two daughters’ pretensions due to his blindness and wrong judgment of character, King Lear then decides to disinherit Cordelia and divides the kingdom only between the two. The subtle conflict of the Cordelia and King Lear starts on this. King Lear is basically hurt with what he perceived as an insult. He is expecting a flattering affirmation for him by his daughter but the latter’s genuine statement insulted him.

How will future changes affect Human Resource Management Essay

Introduction Human Resource Management (HRM) has become more important to society in the past twenty years, going through many changes already. But how will it adapt in the future. What are the predictions for the future and how will HRM cope? The forthcoming document analyses the history of HRM, predicts what will happen in the future of employment and the changes that HRM will have to consider to be able to keep functioning. The History of HRM According to Winning (Online), Personnel Management has been around since the early 1920’s but mainly just to support employees and also keep them away from being part of unions as it wasn’t in the company’s interest to encourage unions then. It was the 1960’s where Personnel Management started to get recognised slightly more, at this time it was still being called Personnel Management. This changed in mid 1980’s when Personnel Management started to be seen as something that is actually important to a company. The image of Personnel Management got given a face-lift and was now referred to as Human Resource Management or HRM. The reasons for this being that the powers of the trade unions were decaying slowly. Staff functions also began to change with more technology being introduced, which introduced the start of HRM (Mullins, 1999) Personnel Management was recognised on a low level before the introduction of HRM, but still had a part to play in the negotiations of machinery in the 1960’s and 1970’s. The introduction of HRM brought around many questions about the similarities and differences between HRM and personnel management. The main differences are stated that Personnel Management is an employee centred activity including more opinions than facts, and that HRM is a resource centred activity with more planning, monitoring and control. Functions of HRM The HRM department varies from organisation to organisation. But there are some specific tasks that need to be completed by every organisation. Some organisations are just too small to have a separate HRM department, but they still need to complete these specific tasks by whichever means. All organisations have to recruit employees by going through the recruitment and selection process. Larger organisations will have specific guidelines by which they follow to complete this process; some smaller companies may not have these guidelines, but they still have to abide by the law. Any staff that are employed need to be trained in their job with compliance to any laws relating to the role. Larger companies will offer a development plan to run along side the training, but even smaller companies need to train staff. The HRM function in the company adheres to any legislation set by the Government. All organisations must have a motivation and reward scheme or the employee turnover will be high as everyone has needs, whether it is basic or social needs. Employee records need to be maintained in accordance with the data protection act. If things are not kept legal in the organisation then it will be in trouble. The HRM department/function sees that everything operates correctly. Specific HRM departments looks after the employees and their welfare in the organisation, taking care of wages and dealing with personal issues that may arise with particular employees. Although many line managers will carry out such functions in smaller organisations. Predictions for the future and how it will affect HRM HRM has come along way over the years. Since the 1980s there has been a significant but gradual change from Personnel management to HRM, being recognised as something that is becoming more important to organisations. With many people not joining unions and expecting more care from companies, it is something that had to happen to keep good relations. The key issues to discuss are the acceleration of technology and homeworkers having an affect on HRM in the future. Such issues such as outsourcing, planning and future attitudes also need to be considered. The future is always hard to predict but an issue that is becoming obvious is that technology will play a huge part of what is to come. The Internet and computer technology is moving very fast, one business year is seven Internet years according to Dr Patrick Dixon (online). With growth like this, the Internet will be a backbone for society before long. In 2000 62% of all businesses functioned with Internet access as table 1.1 shows in Appendix 1. This demonstrates how important the Internet has become to businesses and the way they operate. 50% of businesses in the UK have their own web site now as well, so only 12% of the businesses with Internet access don’t choose to have a web site. Having a web site catches another corner of the market and makes a company grow considerably, this would allow employees to work from home and brings lower costs for the businesses. E-Commerce is beginning to take off as table 1.3 shows in Appendix 1, 16% of businesses trade in this way over the Internet. E-Commerce is quite a new concept and the fact that 16% of businesses trade this way already is shocking. Since 1999, table 1.4 on Appendix 1 shows that the supply of ICT products has escalated by 150%. This is a very clear indication that technology is growing at a very high speed. Therefore the future of HRM will have to work around this and face the facts that with the lower costs for businesses and job losses HRM will have to seriously change the way operations are conducted. The question is where do they start making changes. Perhaps an Internet based solution could be planed and trailed, but part of HRM is face-to-face communication with employees, which is also something else that will need to be considered when bringing in any changes. Home and work integration is already starting with 0.7% of the population in 1996 working from home (Appendix 2a), this figure is practically unchanged from 1996 with the 2000 figure being the same. But in 2001 there are some significant findings, the figure not being vastly different from the above but, as the Office of National Statistics states (Appendix 2b), â€Å"Homeworking is most common among women, but among men it is the associate professional and technical occupations where homeworking is most common.† Office of National Statistics (Online) This means if technology keeps progressing like it is today, more and more people will work from home. As most men that are homeworking have professional and technical occupations, the growth of technology keeps the doors firmly opened for men to easily work from home (Appendix 2b). The impact on HRM is huge, it will have to keep up with this and find a way to be able to carry on functioning. But with homeworkers, if they are located all around the country, communication is hard. HRM may have to become like door-to-door salesman, having HRM representatives knocking on employees door for a review. Some organisations are already predicting this in the future and have taken certain measures to try and either delay or combat the problem. For example Google, ironically an Internet based company, keep their workers on-site and have brought in excellent benefits for employees, a few examples being a free gourmet lunch five days a week and a doctor, dentist and massage therapists on-site (Google job opportunities, 2004) In the past employers have been thinking of schemes to try and boost the company and its profits, but before long schemes will have to be brought in to retain and motivate employees. Employees are the way of the future whether they work from home or stay on-site. On-site workers will need an incentive to stay on-site and home workers will need support with the issues that arise from homeworking such as motivation, friendship and fulfilment. Has Google set the trend for the future? There are other issues that have to be considered such as outsourcing, planning, and future attitudes. Outsourcing, according to Deloitte Research (Appendix 3), by 2008 will have two million financial service jobs moved to India, as it is cheaper for companies to locate there. If other companies follow the trend that financial services has started, lower paid jobs may become reduced to a minimum in the UK leaving unemployment at an all time high. HRM will be cut in this case and only used in the higher paid jobs. Another alternative for HRM is being told by employers to still look after branches in India. How will this be achieved? Perhaps Video Conferencing or relocation for many workers is an option. If more people are having to think about highly paid jobs in the future, things such as friends and family may have to become very planned out for people. The society we live in may become false with everyone focused on getting a job leaving things in our lives, such as finding friends, being all about getting into a certain job. HRM employees will have to be very careful; they may find they are finding many new friends that are very interested in where they work. HRM will have to become a very tight profession to go into, everything being planned to the fine detail, even perhaps who your friends can or cannot be. Future Attitudes will pave out a lot of what the future will be like. Some jobs may become redundant if no one in the future wants to do it. What will happen when young workers cannot get onto the house ladder? Many people now work to support their family and cannot afford to leave a job, will workers of the future feel the same, if they have no house and no young family, what will attitudes be like? How will the HRM department stop young workers from leaving and moving from job to job? How will HRM try and get employees to have company loyalty. These are issues to be addressed for the future if social attitudes hit an all time low. The effect of these changes on traditional HRM functions If people will be working from home the whole recruitment and selection process will have to change. Perhaps a home visit interview will have to be deliberated by companies to find the correct candidates. How will training be issued and measured? Possibly by post, email or web site even. Will HRM representative have to go to employee’s houses to deliver a training package? HRM will have to investigate what would be the most effective measure. How can HRM deliver motivation to a self-motivated homeworker? There is no way possible that HRM can motivate homeworkers when they work at home on their own all day. A homeworker just have to motivate themselves, but HRM can think of social activities designed to get homeworkers out of the house and perhaps targets that they get rewards for. Personal issues and employee welfare will be the hardest thing to monitor. If the HRM department are not getting to know employees through the work place, they do not know what this person is like which makes it harder to get to know them let alone assess their needs. Conclusion HRM will face many problems of how they are going to plan and organise people in the company, facing difficulties of how and where people are working and monitoring this. As HRM is also responsible for employee well-being, but without being in a specific work place more issues of motivation, friendship, respect and fulfilment will have to be addressed and dealt with in a specific manner. If the predictions come true HRM will be under a lot of stress to completely change over the next few years. The operations they undertake from day to day will have to be managed in such a way it incorporates every eventuality.

Fantastic Tips on Effective Editing

Fantastic Tips on Effective Editing Steps to Improve Your Written Work   It makes no difference whether you are a renowned author of best-selling books or a part-time blogger, all written work needs to be edited. Most first drafts are a complete mess of stray thoughts and wandering off into tangents. A lot of written work begins in a chaotic way and ends up being well-ordered and beautifully-organized. This is how it has always been. The objective of most writers is to save time while simultaneously polishing their work. The seven top tips outlined below should help achieve this two-pronged goal. Seven Great Tips to Ensure Your Work is Top-Quality Once a first draft is complete and the time has come to begin editing, use these strategies in order to end up with a perfectly-written end product that hits all the required notes. Remove any Unnecessary Filler Words and Phrases There are certain phrases such as there may be and here is/are that take the emphasis away from a sentences nouns. Essentially, these combine with other space fillers to flesh out sentences. So, look out for words and phrases of this type and learn how to correct or remove them:It is really good fun writing blogs Writing blogs is good fun A lot of writers around the world like to blog Lots of people like to blogThe following are a few topics you could consider A few topics you could consider are: If the subject has already been described, then it is acceptable to use such words as it, here and there. Look at this example: A lot of people like blogging. It is a very good career option! Use High-Powered Adjectives In describing things, avoid such words as very or really. It is better to use words that confidently convey a point e.g.:Really horrible Repulsive Really good Awesome Very nice Gorgeous Very big EnormousEven if it is the case you decide to leave very and really out before adjectives, remember it is better to tell readers what a given thing is rather that what it is not. For example:It is not very much fun It is tedious He is not weak He is strong Writing is not easy Writing is difficultEssentially, strong and highly-descriptive adjectives are vital in certain types of writing. Verbs Should be High-Impact and Strong Be vigilant about words that reduce the impact of what you are trying to say. Where possible, replace words and phrases like these with verbs that are concise and powerful. Here are some examples: She went to many countries She travelled to many countries They handed out complimentary gifts They complimentary gifts He came up with a good idea He devised a good idea. Remove Excess Words from Phrases Nowadays, people read quite fast. In many cases, they just skim without actually reading every single word. So, keep sentences short and concise to make this easier. Read the following sentences and envisage them without the underlined words. Then consider how much better they are.Everysingle individual should be taught to blog. However,the real point here isthat people like talking. There is no doubt he willhave todelete the excess words.Do Not Make Commas Over-Complicated Although the English language is versatile, it does have a lot of punctuation rules. The comma alone even has numerous rules. Here is a tip from one expert: Be sparing in your use of commas, but if you omit one and it causes the reader to cease reading, then you should add another one! Read sentences aloud. Include a comma for clarification if something sounds odd. If you do not, words will all run on together and your readers may have to reread sentences. Use Modifiers with Nouns Where two noun words are combined so that the first one modifies the next one, this means a modifier is being used. These are helpful because they make sentences shorter. Look at these examples:Expert advice on writing Expert writing advice Excellent tips on how to enhance concentration Excellent concentration-enhancing tips Adviceregardingyour scholarship Scholarship advice.Nominalization Should be Avoided Essentially, nominalization occurs when a feeble noun is used in place of a stronger adjective or verb. These sentences usually contain numerous other padding words. Here are some examples:Give your texts a thorough editing Edit your texts. Disruptions are often the cause of poor work performance Disruptions cause poor work performance. She shows an amazing level of energy She is energetic.A Few Last Thoughts Editing is a process that is easy to become engrossed in or to neglect, but it is essential to present your best efforts at all times. If you have any useful tips, please share them!

Word Families - a Quick Reference for Teachers

Word Families - a Quick Reference for Teachers Word Families are sometimes referred to as groups, chunks or rimes. A word family has something in common with each other, have it be the prefix, suffix or root word. For example, green, grass, grow all have the gr sound in the beginning of the word. What are the Benefits? Word families are important because they help young children recognize and analyze word patterns when they are learning to read. When teaching analytic phonics, teachers use word families to help children understand these patterns and that certain words have the same letter combinations and sounds. Most Common Word Families According to researchers Wylie and Durrel, there are 37 common word families: ack, ain, ake, ale, all, ame, an, ank, ap, ash, at, ate, aw, ay, eat, ell, est, ice, ick, ide, ight, ill, in, ine, ing, ink, ip, it, ock, oke, op, ore, ot, uck ,ug, ump, unk. ack- back, hack, pack, rackain - brain, chain, main, plainake - awake, bake, cake, fakeale - ale, bale, sale, taleall - all, ball, call, hallame - blame, came, game, samean - an, ban, can, panank - bank, drank, sank, tankap - cap, map, rap, tapash - bash, dash, rash, sashat - bat, cat, fat, matate - fate, gate, late, rateaw - claw, draw, paw, saway - day, hay, may, sayeat - beat, feat, meat, seatell - bell, fell, tell, wellest - best, rest, vest, westice - dice, mice, nice, riceick - brick, kick, pick, sickide - bride, hide, ride, sideight - bright, fight, light, nightill - bill, hill, pill, stillin - bin, chin, grin, tinine - dine, fine, mine, vineing - bring, king, sing, wingink - drink, link, pink, sinkip - chip, dip, lip, sipit - bit, fit, hit, sitock - block, clock, rock, sockop - cop, hop, mop, topore - bore, more, sore, toreot - got, hot, not, rotuck - buck, duck luck, tuckug - bug, hug, mug, rugump - bump, dump, jump, pumpunk - bunk, dunk, junk,sunk Source: Richard E. Wylie and Donald D. Durrell, 1970. Teaching Vowels Through Phonograms. Elementary English 47, 787-791.

Entrepreneurship----Strengths and weaknesses of family businesses Essay

Entrepreneurship----Strengths and weaknesses of family businesses - Essay Example The degree of control over inter departmental affairs is relatively strongly managed in family businesses. The culture is considerably flexible, informal and occasional use of local language might be seen in practice. Long term dependencies and affiliations are another feature of family businesses. Such businesses are not total loss; rather have lots of positives to them. The first and foremost advantage being enjoyed in such cultures is that of trust, reliability and endurance. The chemistry amongst the members of the kin creates a benevolent atmosphere in itself which is very fruitful for the overall working environment. For many, the family businesses perform much better than other kinds of businesses and evidences have been seen where the throughputs have been far better compared to their non allegiance based enterprises. Weaknesses: The weak links in any family business often starts with the succession of an individual by a family member which might be compromising in context of the merit and requirements of professional operations. The resistance to change is relatively more deep routed in the company as personal biases are involved directly or indirectly. The family business environment is often termed as closed loop business atmosphere, since it in contrast to the conventional form of business environment, has relatively related faces around that are more loosely in the organization and business because of personal belonging and affiliations. The existence of obligation to transfer the power amongst family member regardless of the capabilities and professional experience, this serves as serious draw back in this concept of business world. Meritocracy is often believed to be compromised in such forms of business. Personal enmity and competition in a negative way can be another damning factor in the working environment of

The similarities and differences of the book Robinson Crusoe and other Research Paper

The similarities and differences of the book Robinson Crusoe and other stories about being stranded - Research Paper Example Just as with the other voyages, this also encounters a storm that wrecks the ship thereby leaving him destitute in an unnamed Island. The story differs from other stories that portray similar plots. Among the differences are discussed below. Setting is a fundamental feature in literature; it refers to the placement of the story. This includes the timing and location of the action. The author of the fictional story places the story in an early American society. The actions in the story take place in 1651 when Robinson Crusoe sets out for the first time. In such an early society, the main means of transport was through ships owing to the lack of the contemporary more efficient means of transportation such as airplanes. Captainship was therefore an equally reputable profession owing to the vibrancy of the transportation industry. This explains Robinson’s great passion to become a sailor. He defies his parent’s wishes and sets out in precarious industry that later threatens to claim his life (Ross 33). The placement of the story validates both the plot and the themes that the author addresses in the novel. This is a major difference with other stories addressing similar concepts key among which is Lost. Adopted into a serial television program, the story revolves around the lives of a group of survivors stranded as their airplane crushes in an inhabited Island in New Guinea. Unlike Robinson Crusoe, the setting in Lost is in a modern society. The series of actions in the story therefore portray the modern day features unlike Robinson Crusoe which portrays various unrealistic features all of which the author validates by placing the story back in time when the society believed in various superstitions. However, the authors of both the stories understand the need for conflicts in the stories. Conflicts sustains stories, the authors therefore develop a series of relative conflicts in their stories thereby authenticating their different plots. Robin son Cr usoe becomes a lone survivor of a shipwreck as he swims to the Island where he survives for several years. He adopts to the life of the jungle as the author strives to develop by portraying him as the protagonist hero. The author positions Robinson Crusoe as a sole survivor a feature that makes the story predictable since from the moment of the shipwreck, an audience understands that the story would center on the life of the sole survivor and if the story is to end on a positive tone then the sole survivor must overcome all his subsequent challenges. The author positions Robinson Crusoe as a strong and independent hero who survives a series of bad luck and unimaginable occurrences. Key among such is his ability to survive a shipwreck that claims the lives of all the people on board. The wind was so strong that it broke the ship into pieces. Robinson Crusoe survives by recovering from memory lapse following the impact of the shipwreck. He adopts a plank and sails slowly to the island hundreds of miles away. Once in the island, Robinson must survive. He therefore adopts various characters as he sets out to look for booth food and a source of warmth. He lights a fire and the story changes setting to center on the life of the sole survivor while on the Island. Unlike in lost where the story portrays various characters, Robinson Crusoe is a sole character in a backward society. The island in which