Changing the Conflict in the Workplace into Cooperation

Human relationships are an important question nowadays, especially, if they are related to the professional relationships, â€Å"It has become almost axiomatic that women live in a web of relationships† (Heim and Murphy 22). The book by Pat Heim and Susan Murphy In the Company of Women is written for women who have difficult relationships in the workplace with other women. Pat Heim and Susan Murphy are two leading experts on gender relationships.Advertising We will write a custom critical writing sample on Changing the Conflict in the Workplace into Cooperation specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In their book, they explore the essence of women communication with their female and male colleagues and answers the question how indirect conflict (aggressive behavior) can influence on women’s career success and personal life. Thus, relationships among woman are rather difficult, especially, if these women are in conflict wit h each other. One should develop special skills and use different methods of communication with women in order to build successful relationships and friendly environment with female colleagues. So, the book consists of two parts which explore the nature of women relationships in the workplace. It is a guide which is aimed at educating women how to handle conflicts with female colleagues. The authors start with the description and exploring of women’s conflict behavior and the reasons of it. They explore the question of â€Å"hidden aggression† and the roots of it. The book also presents the differences in communication between men and woman. The second part is more analytical and critical than a first one. The second part of the book is a â€Å"guide† how to turn the conflict into successful collaboration, how to handle the conflict and how woman can become a successful female leader. In addition, the authors give an advice how to build a good team. A very impor tant and useful aspect of the book is that the target audience in not only female, men also can read it in order to be well aware of how to be a leader of the female staff and how communicate with women in order to avoid the conflict. Relationships between women have a special character and several aspects that differ greatly from men’s communication, thus one should be aware of these peculiarities and differences working with women. Woman’s behavior depends on her emotions. She greatly influenced by these emotions even in communication in the business world. A woman is sure that relationships can help her achieve a career success, â€Å"women often define career success by their ability to create affiliation with others and develop relationships in the work setting† (Heim and Murphy 22). However, the woman’s work relationships with other woman are tenser and conflict in the majority of cases. Women often gossip about each other and sabotage. On the contr ary, women’s work relationships with men are more friendly. What is the reason of this phenomenon? The thing is that women are socialized in a different way, they mix work and emotions.Advertising Looking for critical writing on gender studies? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More They cannot separate personal feelings in their communication with other people in the work place. Social communication and friendly relationships are very important for women. The authors of the book assume that the causes of it are the brain’s structure and evolution of women in the society. So, such relationships cab be the best thing in woman’s life or the worst one that greatly influences on her performance. Men are more practical and conscious, â€Å"work is work† and there should be no place for feelings in the work place. They focus their attention on professional goals while women are preoccupied with maintaining relat ionships with other workers. â€Å"The importance of social interactions in the workplace is the most significant difference between the genders† (Heim and Murphy 23). As it has already been mentioned, women’s career and professional life depend much on her emotions and feelings. If her relationships with the colleagues are good, her professional life is great. At the same time, if a woman in a conflict with another woman, both of them can reveal â€Å"indirect conflict† or â€Å"indirect aggression†, â€Å"women have been socialized to use indirect aggression to emotionally cripple those who are standing in their way† (Heim and Murphy 3) Women are great masters of it. There are several forms of â€Å"indirect conflict† women can reveal. Gossips and spreading rumors and divulging secrets are the most â€Å"popular† strategies to hurt another woman and another woman will not even know about it. These strategies are usually very effecti ve and something like â€Å"cold and hidden war† can continue for a very long time, until one of the opponents give in. The reasons of the indirect conflict can be quite various: envy, other’s success, competitiveness, etc. The authors of the book not only describe the conflict, aggression and their influence on women’s professional life, but also provide a great guide to solve the conflict and build successful relationships with female colleagues. The authors emphasize that learning to manage conflict situations is very important. Dealing with conflict and developing skills and peculiarities of communication is crucial for a successful functioning of every organization and for becoming a successful leaded. There are five ways to handle the conflict (competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding and accommodating). Each of them is useful in a certain situation. These situations are described in the book in the form of scenarios that present real life situatio ns to help the reader handling the conflict. Thus, one should develop corresponding skills. It is a hard work to handle the conflict, but it is possible. Woman should be more conscious if other woman tries to harm her interests, â€Å"that is the price we have to pay for the strong alliances we make with other women.† (Heim and Murphy 56) The authors also provide few other methods to prevent â€Å"woman-to-woman workplace conflict†. One should â€Å"find or become a mentor† (307), to start a woman’s group on the Internet or in person. By the way, starting a group is a very effective way to share personal problems, find like-minded people and gain valuable experience from other women.Advertising We will write a custom critical writing sample on Changing the Conflict in the Workplace into Cooperation specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Thus, the book is very useful guide for those who have conflict work rel ationships with the female colleagues. It also presents a number of techniques which can help you learn effective methods of handling the conflict between woman and become a successful female leader. Obviously, it is very important for one’s professional life to be able to deal with the conflict. In order to manage these skills, first of all, one should understand the principles of woman-to-woman communication and become aware of the dynamics of development of relationships between women who work together. In addition, it should be mentioned that the problem of woman-to-woman work relationships is worth developing and exploring. The idea of creation of women groups on the Internet can greatly improve the theoretical and practical premises of the researches in the field of gender relationships. Works Cited Heim, Patricia, and Susan Murphy. In the Company of Women: Turning Workplace Conflict into Powerful Alliances. New York: Putnam, 2001 This critical writing on Changing the Conflict in the Workplace into Cooperation was written and submitted by user Brock Flores 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.

Malampaya Project Essays

Malampaya Project Essays Malampaya Project Essay Malampaya Project Essay THE MALAMPAYA PROJECT The Malampaya project is a one of its kind project that the Philippines have developed. It is a big opportunity for the Philippines in gas development. The project aims to harvest Gas deep underwater and to use it as a source of power. It provides at least 40-45% of Luzon’s electricity since 2002. It is currently being conducted by Shell Philippines Exploration together with the joint partners Chevron Texaco Malampaya and PNOCEC. The gas was buried approximately 800 meters underwater deep in Northwest Palawan. According to Department of Energy Philippines (2002) that Malaya Gas field is to produce 146 billion cubic feet (BCF) a year. It was proven that they have at least 80 million barrels of condensate and 20-40 million barrels of oil reserves which totals 2. 5 to 3. 5 trillion cubic feet of Gas (TCF). Last December 2012 there has been a plan to expand the Malampaya Gas plant. The Keppel Subic Shipyard started â€Å"striking steel† or steel cutting as a signal for their $1 billion fabrication of an offshore rig in expansion of the Malampaya project. Keppel Subic will be a great help in developing the Malampaya project by building and installing substructure and topside modules in platforms to sustain its 2,700 megawatts production output and for the completion of the Malampaya 3. Also, it will generate at least 1,200 jobs according to Shell Philippines. It has been planned that in 2014, they will build additional two wells and in 2015, installing of new platform for additional equipment and facilities. According to the consortium, the Malampaya 3 aims to keep a steady supply to maintain their commitments in ensuring the power supply for Luzon. It has been proven that they have 3. 2 trillion cubic feet reserves and 1 trillion of it has already been consumed. Sources: http://malampaya. com/? page_id=2 doe. gov. ph/DNG/malampaya_history. pdf gmanetwork. com/news/story/284493/economy/companies/keppel-subic-to-build-fabrication-yard-for-malampaya-deep-well-platform http://manilastandardtoday. com/2012/12/08/work-starts-on-expansionary-malampaya-rig/

Candide as Atypical Enlightenment Cultural Production Essay

Candide as Atypical Enlightenment Cultural Production - Essay Example But if there was a single thing that defined the Enlightenment, it was the primacy of reason. This primacy led to all of the other changes in western thought and practice. Voltaire was in many ways the prototypical man of the enlightenment – a cross between a renaissance man and a modern scientist, Voltaire valued reason most highly in all of his philosophical works. The picaresque novel Candide, however, is in many ways atypical of Voltaire’s reputation. Probably the single most significant way it was atypical of the Enlightenment was its willingness to go to polemical extremes – often overstepping its logical argument for rhetorical purposes. One of the fundamental ways the Enlightenment separated itself from the era before it was a paucity of emphasis being placed on rhetorical technique. Rhetorical technique fundamentally relies on the manipulation of emotion, while Enlightenment thinkers would have preferred to win over their opponents through pure reason an d logical argument. Candide, however, takes an entirely different tact. One of its basic purposes was to mock the idea of optimism, an idea associated with the thinker Leibniz, and essentially argued that absolute, irrevocable evil did not exist. In some ways Voltaire counters this argument logically in Candide, by, for instance, demonstrating a great number of tragedies that seem to counter the most fundamental idea of optimism, such as ship wrecks, earth quakes, war, thievery and so on (Voltaire). This acts as a logical counter to the ideas that Voltaire is trying to counter. Yet, in an entirely un-Enlightened fashion, Voltaire also resorts to illogical tactics in order to drive his point home further. Rather than simply put the counterpoints logically and leave it at that, Voltaire finds it necessary to mock the very idea of optimism as ridiculous, in order to discredit Leibniz and his followers. Voltaire does this through the creation of the character Pangloss, who calls himself a follower of Leibniz, and indicates that he teaches what the master Leibniz argued (Voltaire 473). Voltaire makes this character the opposite of reasonable, and entirely comical in his idiocy. At one point, for instance, he completely inverts the ideas of cause and effect – saying that â€Å"the nose is formed for spectacles, therefore we wear spectacles† (475). This is obviously the reversal of cause and effect – spectacles are designed for a nose because we have a nose for them to sit on. But by mocking the lack of logic in his opponents, Voltaire actually demonstrates a lack of logic on his own part – this is an ad hominem argument, which is one of the most basic forms of logical fallacy. This thus goes against the fundamental ideas of the Enlightenment, and uses illogical arguments to try to convince the reader of something – in this case, the idiocy of optimism. If there is a single thing that defines the Enlightenment it is an intense attac hment to reason and rationality. If an argument cannot stand logically, it should not stand at all under Enlightenment thinking. Voltaire, however, moves away from this in his novel Candide. He seems so eager to make his points, to mock his adversaries, that he results to illogical arguments, placing rhetoric of a previous age above the rationality that was so central to the Enlightenment. Works Cited Voltaire. â€Å"Candide† in Norton Anthology of Western Literature Sarah N Lawall, Ed.

Research 3 software applications with balanced scorecard, business Term Paper

Research 3 software applications with balanced scorecard, business intelligence, business analytics and predictive analytics tha - Term Paper Example an effectively reduce a large computation work into a set of sizable computations thereby improving the speed, capability and accuracy of the applications (Winkler, 2011). Analytics applications are often regarded as a sub set of performance management because they are closely related to the analysis of various business processes such as potential risks and account payable analytics and this is critically important during the decision making processes. This paper discuses the three main business analytics applications such as SPSS analytics, SAS analytics application and Oracle analytics software as well ass their potential deployment in cloud computing. IBM’s SPSS predictive software is currently one of the widely used business applications that enable managers to effectively and accurately predict a number of business operations to enable them make smarter decisions, solve their business problems as well as improve outcomes. As predictive analytics software, SPSS provided an integrated approach to predictive analytics through a number of distinct application packages such as data collection, statistics, Modeler and decision management software. Competition in the current business world has been seen at various points and the need to focus so that to remain profitable has encouraged the use of SPSS predictive soft ware and SAS Analytics application software. These softwares have become important tools for analysis of business performance and prediction of the direction an organization takes in terms of strategies and management in order to remain profitable. It has been observed that through usage of such software it has increased the forecast into performance and enabled businesses to make informed decisions. Through such various organizations have gained insights... r of business operations to enable them make smarter decisions, solve their business problems as well as improve outcomes. As predictive analytics software, SPSS provided an integrated approach to predictive analytics through a number of distinct application packages such as data collection, statistics, Modeler and decision management software. It is currently one of the popular business application software used in business development to gather, analyze interpret and make decisions on the viability and future changes in strategy and concepts. This software have been beneficial to many businesses and organizations. Oracle business analytics is another important application with business intelligence, business analytics and predictive analytics which can be effectively deployed via cloud computing. There are a number of organizational implications of deploying business analytics applications via cloud computing. In conclusion, cloud computing is a new technology that has significan tly influenced the use of business intelligence applications.

Carnatic Music: An Overview

Carnatic Music: An Overview This paper is on the essence of carnatic music. The topic of carnatic music is indeed an ocean and just a glimpse of the same is presented in a very concise format. The paper explores the difference between Hindustani style and the formers norms. The role of carnatic music in Indias branding is focused upon. The paper also deals with how this ancient form of art has helped to seed various forms of music delivery to soothe as well as energize to jump in joy and tap our feet, with vitamins. The use of music in treatments is also touched upon. The paper also explores on why the music is tapering off in the current day and its counterpart still appraised. The strategies and innovations which still helps the ocean of music to reach and help quench the thirst of the music lovers, is explained. The major lesson stressed in the paper is, Carnatic music still prevails like a diamond and to acquire the jewel is in our hands. Kausalya Suppraja is the first rendition echoed in the air in the temple capital of India when the Sun unhides itself to glow and brighten the sky. Every south Indian would certainly affirm that this is the popular rendition worldwide by our famous Carnatic musician, Bharath Ratna winner Ms.Subbalakshmi. The hymn is a classical portrayal of mantra, requesting the Divine to wake up and enlighten the world with His gracious eyes for blessings. India well known worldwide for its rich cultural and traditional values, is rich with immense treasure of music in all forms and this goes unsaid. The main unique differentiation factor is the Classical form of music and this surely helps in branding India worldwide. . Carnatic music, a branch of Classical music form, a sibling for its counterpart the Hindustani style of music form, is in itself a deep ocean to dive in and feel. The classification and differentiation can be detailed in a very lame format as follows: Carnatic music stresses on the semantic compositions decorated with various beautification factors of music like the swaras, aalapanas, etc while its counterpart aims at routing to the meditative mood of the listener. But ultimately the ambiences of music whether carnatic or Hindustani is simply amazing and breezes off all the negatives and drives the listener to the ocean of peace at least till the tenure of the rendition. Classical Music: Music is a wonderland as iterated many times, is skeleton by the main elements namely shruti(musical pitch),swaras(musical sound for single notes),raga (melodic path) and last being the tala(rhythm).Swaras are basically the alphabets in the form of mighty drops to form the sea of music. Be it carnatic or Hindustani, the skeleton remains the same but the rendition differs, the mood changes, the ambience is altogether different for both. The alphabets are only 7.But these sapthaswaras SA, RI, Ga, Ma, Pa, Da, Ni make the music finally. The tonic difference in singing each swara thus helps in creating 1000s of different ragas and spreads the aroma of emotions. There are 72 main ragas known as the melakarta ragas, which have given birth to several other wonderful ragas. A raga is branched out with the above mentioned 7 swaras(each swara in different tonal way).But to notify the fact that the tone of first and fifth swara i.e. SA and Pa remain the same and no modification can be done. The swara Ma can have two styles of rendering while the rest are flexible to be modified in 3 forms. The exact combination of different tones of each swara is weaved to make the beautiful fabric of a melakarta raga. And each Melakarta raga then seeds out various other ragas wherein certain swaras are subtracted. Shruti can be metaphored to a railway track. The pitch is designed to be on a particular track. A slip outside this track causes a mishap and flops the beauty of the music. Finally the tala to clock the rhythm. This factor is to produce a systematic flow. Distinguishing features: The aroma of Hindustani music lies in innovating or exploring the raga with hardly any lyrics. A simple tone of Aa can run for hours. A concert of Hindustani style extends for almost 3 hours wherein the singer explores and experiences the beauty of each node and each tone of every swara. The ragas are classified as evening ragas and morning ones. The classification can be concluded because each raga spurs our either of the moods specified. The experimentation with the raga and exploring the same with the innovated rendition makes the Hindustani form. The nectar of carnatic lies in melting the hearts with beautifully composed lyrics blended with emotions, due to the raga and the feel donated by the singer. It concentrates on the meaning and thus the created emotion. Carnatic style of rendition mainly pertains to the emotional art. Various rasas or emotions are poured by carnatic music. Its termed as Navarasas, i.e 9 different emotions namely anger, beauty, love, fear, wonder, compassion, valor, peace and amusement. Every raga conveys one of the mentioned emotions. The emotion to ultimately melt a heart or trigger the energy levels is totally confined to the performers ability, knowledge of the raga and also his emotional level. Ancients quote that the carnatic music is the pathway to the divine, if divinely performed, the best illustration being M.S.Subbalakshmi who is often termed as the Bhakti Idol for our nation. A demonstration of a simple raga in the pitch of the adroit triggers a divine vibration and thats the reason why her Venkatesha Suprabatham album still peaks in the market. She demonstrates the bhakti rasa. Style: Filled with rasas and the porridge of divine stories with rich values, every song is beautiful in its own way. With diverse permutations and combinations each raga thus formed and apt lyrics blended, sprouts out meanings. Vedas and scriptures essay that carnatic music is a pathway to the divine. Gone are the days when people used to spend hours reciting mantras and performing rituals. Indeed the global development and personal development factors prune us to abide with work for belly concept. India once known for traditional yagnas and rituals, accepts the phrase Work is worship. Any work devotedly done is worship. Music if considered is also an art of worship. You vent your anger in tune or you melt a heart with melody but in a style. The style or uniqueness differentiates and brands the singer. For instance, in bollywood industry there are so many singers who aped the stalwart Lata Mangeshkar, but hardly attained fame. But the queen of music Lata Mangeshkars sound and songs still r esonates throughout. Reason being she ventured into her own style and stuck to the same. Featuring more on carnatic, every musician triggers an ambience with his/her voice and creates a rasa as mentioned earlier. But the notification and identification matters only with an adherence to a unique style. Bombay Jayasri, carnatic musician from South is famous for her soothing and sober style of rendering. While the famous Hariharan is known for his experimental and innovative style of performance, hardly can anyone ape his singing. And this quality is mandatory to exist in the market. A marketing requirement to sustain in the competitive market is ultimately the unique feature and quality that a product possesses. Innovations and uniqueness always rocks and the same formula is utilized in the form of ragam tanam pallavi. This artistic piece in a carnatic musical concert grants the autonomy of experimenting and portraying the art of creativity with ragas, for the artists. The rhythmic sounds used in dances called tanam are followed and finally a small line in praise of divine is rendered in innumerable ways and styles. Artists enjoy this independence and audiences also enjoy the extent of creativeness in the artists by expressing their happiness with their body language. The pallavi has a rain of swaras followed which forms the spectacular moments during the concerts. Carnatic music therapy: Therapy with music as medicine sounds stunning but its true. Each raga emits a particular emotion which in turn helps in curing certain ailments. An ancient story states that once a disciple, who had resided at his teachers place one night, woke up suddenly in the midst of the dark night as he was disturbed by the hisses of venomous snakes. He was scared to see the queue of wild animals enjoying the songs rendered by his teacher. With this story as a base, research states, if wild animals can be controlled then human minds can be controlled and tamed easily. With yoga, meditation and reiki getting popular and serving as free medicines even the use of music should be optimally used. A study in Japan states that the herbs, bushes and plants grow better with music around. Music increases the metabolism rate even in humans. Carnatic music with various ragas proves to be medicines to cure various ailments without any side effects. Raga Thodi is recommended for high blood pressure patients. Thodi has a medical effect to help bring the pressure to a normal scale. It melts down all your rage and cools and brings the pressure to a balanced level. The 72 ragas as quoted previously have major effect to all the 72 nerves in human body according to various studies. The control on these nerves can be easily gained with the strong effect of these medically built ragas.Neelambari and Bageshri ragas can help insomnia. Anger and inner control can be attained by Sahana and punnagavarali. Laziness can be erased by a tune in Kapi raga. T.V.Sriram, commissioner of central excise Mumbai had penned on music therapy and his popular works are endorsed in France to help regain the clarity of speech in patients with music. Medicine in the form of music to soothe and sue the ailments and gift a life full of energy is thus amazing. Bitter facts and the truth: This is rather disheartening to quote but is the fact and has to be accepted that by and large south Indians hear the tunes of carnatic music. To rather emphasize, the westernization has tamed us to tap our feet with jazzes and hip-hops, forgetting our rich tunes. Indeed the beats and drums boost the energy in us and make us dance and rock the party, a feeling of attaining the ninth cloud is amazing. Thus energy in the western music pales off the strengths of carnatic music and hence has less attendance in carnatic concerts. The young budding generation can hardly pace with slow intensity sound cum rhythm and thats the conclusion for low attendance. Second factor can be the language problem, as most of these compositions are restricted to 4 major south Indian languages (tamil,telugu, malayalam and kannada) the other chunk of population i.e. our north Indian friends can hardly enjoy the same. Other existing problem is that, the interest in learning the same is fading off as its gettin g commercialized. After all, business rules the globe. A senior carnatic musician gets paid 3 or 4 times lesser compared to a Hindustani musician. A strange fact to be asserted here is that, carnatic concerts possess the usual flow of a varnam, keertanas(compositions),small thukadas(small pieces of songs),followed by main piece of the concert which runs for 1 hour minimum, and then small songs,thillanas and mangalam(concluding songs) plus a Hindustani piece(either in the form of bhajan or abhang).On the other hand, a Hindustani concert strict by principle is chalked to have just 3-4 songs maximum, all in hindustani style. Carnatic promotions: Marketing theories have helped the south Indians to devise or strategize innovative ways to attract audience and to an extent has gained victory also. View the south channels coming up with music reality shows. Asianet channel (Malayalam) with show called Idea Star singer has helped many tiny tots to young youths to learn music. The well learned judges like S.Chitra, M.G.Sreekumar, Music Director Sharath (disciple of famous Dr.Balamuralikrishna) and pop idol Usha Uthup always vouch on the positives of learning the carnatic music and have shaped the contestants to wonderful singers with comments and trainings.Jaya TV had come up with Carnatic Idol contest, another reality show which aimed at providing a platform for proving the talent in Carnatic music for children. Again learned artists like Soumya(carnatic musician),Kumerasan and Ganeshan(famous violin brothers) and Neyyvellai Santhanagopalan(noted carnatic singer in south).The show aimed at giving the comments for improvement to th e young budding singers by judges and helping them groom for better renditions. These shows though commercial are still promoting the rich carnatic music. The brand of Carnatism still shines in low intensity because of these strategies. Every December Jaya TV airs Margazhi Maha Utsavam with renowned artists like Dr.Balamuralikrishna,Sudha Raghunathan,Nityashree Mahadevan,Aruna Sairam and many others. Even if its 1 hour show tamilians still stick to their seats and enjoy the tunes. But Jaya TV could target the 50+ audience only, to the maximum. Movies, surely are promoting to preserve our treasure by making films like Marghazhi Ragam by P.C Sreeram starred by T.M.Krishna and Bombay Jayasri. The stars in the film do not narrate any dialogues but just render lovely tunes with different shades of lights generating different moods. It was a new concept of airing the concert in the form of movie and Chennai theatres flocked with ladies in kancheevaram sarees and white or bald headed mamas. The movie played by Shabana Azmi named Morning Raga essayed on the fusion world and popularized the concept. The world of fusion surely gives a stratum for carnatic jewel which still shines brightly in its own spectrum. The famous old Balachander movie which won national award for Suhasini(Kamal Hasans niece) also revolves on the carnatic subject. The entire content mentioned above is beautifully directed into a play by Balachander. Various movies in Malayalam also devote on carnatic subjects and give the carnatic lovers a smile with a message that Carnatic music still stays and shines brightly in its own reach. To add on, sabhas or associations like Keraleeya Samaj, Tamil Sangam, Shanmukhananda fine arts, etc. aim at granting knowledge to the interested students and develop them. They also help the students to gain additional knowledge by conducting competitions and arranging a platform to perform before the stalwarts. Shanmukhananda fine arts in Mumbai conducts a particular competition and the winner is awarded the Thambura (instrument used to generate the shruti is recognized as a boon). Bombay Jayasri (singing fame of Zara Zara), a Thambura award winner herself had quoted that she still possesses that treasure and is grateful to be gifted with the same. All the above mentioned encouragements would surely give impetus to many carnatic gems which would certainly glow the beauty of the same. Conclusion The classical music which has granted immensely to Indians has to be graciously acquired to gain the optimal happiness from the same nectar. Great pioneers of carnatic music have devised and helped the younger generations learn this art of music in varied formats and with the technological developments online trainings on carnatic music has really granted us audio gurus. Lets not forget the culture and tradition of Indian land of Lords and sages and their works and learn or help learn the art of carnatic music along with the western beats. International Financial Reporting Standards: Pros and Cons International Financial Reporting Standards: Pros and Cons The joint project between the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) in developing a common accounting language for the world has gained much attention after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in United States (U.S.) announced its plans to adopt the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). As investments by U.S. investors in foreign public corporations have grown drastically, it is timely for the U.S. to adopt a uniform set of accounting standards to facilitate comparative analyses of foreign and U.S. corporate financial statements. Pros and Cons of U.S.-GAAP and IFRS The broad conceptual difference between GAAP and IFRS is that GAAP is rules-based and IFRS is principles-based. As such, the IFRS is considered more thoughtful, transparent and reflective of the true nature of each transaction. Pros IFRS is less detailed than U.S. GAAP  [i]  , thus reducing complexity that masks economic reality IFRS is easier to use (principles-based) and will result in better reporting (substance over legal form) IFRS is a global approach;comparability to financial statements from other countries that have already adopted IFRS  [ii]   Reduce costs for companies and smooth cross-border investing for investors Cons Management is given more discretion in the interpretation of economic events due to the lack of specific rules Enforcement and cultural interpretations vary (risk of comparability) when individual countries added their own exceptions to the rules, defeating the purpose of a global standard Accounting under IFRS tends to lead to higher earnings  [iii]  , thus inflating earnings of U.S. companies and misleading investors More extensive audit procedures are required to test the reasonableness of financial reporting determinations made by management IFRS on relevance, reliability and decision usefulness IFRS places more emphasis on relevance than reliability. Reliability is associated with accuracy but faithful representation simply means to capture the economic substance, thus giving management the opportunity to reflect the true economic phenomena that the transaction purports to represent rather than be constrained by its accuracy of information. The adoption of fair value accounting in IFRS will incorporate more timely information about economic gains and losses. Incorporating more information in the financial statements will typically make them more informative and improve decision usefulness for users. However, for fair value accounting to be relevant, there must be an active market with observable market prices where managers cannot materially influence. When an active market is not available, fair value accounting becomes mark to model  [iv]  accounting and firms report estimates of market prices, which may not be a faithful representation  [v]  of the underlying asset or liability. In my view, reliability is a necessary precondition that must be met for information to be relevant. Fair value measures can be considered reliable only if the variability in the range of reasonable fair value estimates is not significant. Therefore, there is the risk that speculative future income may be used to justify reporting the asset at a higher carrying amount, which, in turn, would result in reporting a speculative gain. It also means that a significant proportion of a companys reported income could well be represented by calculated net present value growth, not the results of real transactions. In addition, powerful local economic and political forces will lead to an uneven implementation of the IFRS, thereby leading to increased information processing costs, by burying accounting inconsistencies at a deeper and less transparent level than more readily observable differences in standards. Hence, investors may be misled into believing that there is more uniformity in practice than it actually is. Therefore, only when there is balance between relevance and reliability, decision usefulness of financial statements to report on stewardship and provide useful information to present and potential investors can be achieved. Improvement in accounting quality and valuation of firms Although the adoption of the IFRS in the U.S. will inevitably impose hefty transition costs  [vi]  , the move will presumably improve accounting quality and the valuation of firms as it: reflects economic gains and losses in a more timely fashion than U.S. GAAP, makes earnings more informative and provides more useful balance sheets (with fair value accounting) With improved financial statement information, this should lead to more-informed valuation in the equity markets and consequently, lower risk to investors. Small investors are less likely than institutional investors to be able to anticipate financial statement information from other sources so improved financial reporting quality allows them to compete better with professionals and reduces the risk of adverse selection  [vii]  . Reducing the cost of processing financial information will also increase the efficiency in which the stock market incorporates it in prices and thus, with better firm valuation, investors can be expected to gain from increased market efficiency. Corporations might also benefit from a reduction of its cost of capital with increased market depth  [viii]  and lower bid-ask spread  [ix]  . With fair value accounting, reported earnings are less noisy and hence, accounting information are more accurate and more value relevant. However, investors in the U.S. will need to be more discerning in distinguishing between objective andsubjective figures, between realised gains and losses, and gains and losses based on hypothetical calculations. With the adoption of IFRS, the balance sheet becomes the primary vehicle for conveying financial information to investors. As all assets and liabilities are recorded at fair value on balance sheet date, the Price/Book ratio will be equal to 1.0. Consequently, accounting quality is improved as the balance sheet satisfies the valuation objective while the income statement provides information about the risk exposure  [x]  and managements performance.

Early Seventeenth Century Literature Essay

The earlier seventeenth century is famous for such writers as William Shakespeare, Lope de Vega, Miguel de Cervantes, Francis Bacon etc. Literature is always depends on political situation in the world and, surely, art trends. Seventeenth century – is the bloom of reformation and struggle against Catholicity and this fact has its reflection in the literature and art of that period also. The beginning of the seventeen century was a complicated period in the world history. It was the reformation in its full swing, old dogmata which seemed immutable, were overthrown without any respect. The process of reformation divided not only European countries, it divided layers of society in each country, and, sometimes, it divided people in the same family. The reformation was not only a clergy process, it reflected also a natural people’s striving for spiritual and mind renewal. Early Seventeenth Century Literature The most remarkable trends in points of view of the prominent writers in the beginning of the seventeenth century are critical opinions as to the human environment. For example, Lope de Vega, in his dramas â€Å"Fuente Ovehuna†, â€Å"The star of Sevilla† showed a broad panorama of the Spanish society in the seventeenth century. The authors tried to outline in their works the most problem points of their contemporary society. The beginning of the seventeenth century is the reformation time, so a lot of writers firstly after a long time had an opportunity to have a point of view in their writings and to write about real events in their countries. That’s why the literature of that period is full of critical opinions as to the human environment, heroic dramas and reformation sense. Saying about trends in the use of symbolism in the literature of the beginning of the seventeen century, it is possible to mention Robert Hall, who was was really interested in the question of using symbolism in the literature. Appearance of any symbol is not accidental. â€Å"To what extent can it be maintained that the two processes are compatible, and that the individual writer can be assumed to be reflecting such non-individual phenomena as cultural patterns and problems? † (Hall, 1963, p. 161). In the middle of sixteen-beginning of seventeen century the objects of latent fears and diseased imagination became to appear in the literature. For example, â€Å"Don Kihot† (1605) – the main symbol of Servantes cognominal writing, who has spent his life for nothing but reading novels about knights’ gests and struggling for windmills. The literature of seventeen century could show this because of some liberty from the Church mind. Trends in a central theme of the most writings were depended on the fact that the literature of the first half of the seventeenth century belonged mostly to humanism. Therefore, the main theme of the most works was the man, as the individual, who opposed to the inertness and the sluggishness of the masses. It is not occasionally, that almost simultaneously two great works of humanistic literature arose , – â€Å"Hamlet† by William Shakespeare (1601) and the first volume of the â€Å"Don Kihot† (1605). Both heroes, Don Kihot and Hamlet have much in common. They both look at the world around differently compared to their environment, they both are regarded crazy by other people. The theme of loneliness of the man in the world was begun for future development exactly at that period of time. Also, some changes and characters had writer’s style of that epoch. The global reformation impacted to the writer’s style in the beginning of the seventeen century. Global liberty and heroic climate which was born in numerous military conflicts had its reflection in the literature in heroic dramas and other similar writings. The bright example of reformation literature could be such writing as â€Å"Henry IV† by William Shakespeare. Also, the beginning of the seventeen century – is the time of staggering popularity of theater. That time theater was more popular then books and people preferred to see rather to read. Surely, this fact had a really great impact on the literature and writer’s style of that period as the most of writers began to write plays instead of habitual novels. To my point of view, the work that best exemplifies the beginning of the 17th Century is â€Å"Hamlet† by William Shakespeare. This tragedy reflects the main idea of the epoch – idea of disunity and incomprehension between people from one side, and the idea of the nobility and the grandeur of the man, of the human. â€Å"He was a man, take him for all in all† (Shakespeare, 1603, Act 1, Scene 2) – the main hero of the tragedy says. These words show new vision, new parameters of the ideal man for that time. The Hamlet’s speech shows the ideal of the man, that was inherent to the epoch of Humanism, Reformation and New Age. The late king was a harmonic thought incarnation in Hamlet’s eyes. Therefore Shakespeare demonstrates the main demand for the Hero of the Time – to think, to contemplate. Surely, it is difficult to find out what exactly has the most impact each to other – literature on the environment or vice versa. But literature is always like a mirror that shows the climate in society and country. The literature of the beginning of the seventeenth century was a base for humanism trends in the world literature. It was courageous for that time and free from past pressure of violent morality and Catholicity. Later, those humanism ideas has proceed and expanded and found their reflection in such events like English revolution in 1640 and French revolution in 1789. References Hall, Robert A. , Jr. (1963). Cultural Symbolism in Literature (169 pgs). Ithaca, N. Y. , Linguistica. Goncalves, H. (1985). Character, Ideology and Symbolism in the Plays of Wedekind, Sternheim Kaiser, Toller and Brecht (145 pgs). London the modern humanities research association.

Food habits and globalization Essay

Traditions has been changed since the western food had reached to the GCC, according to Topics-mag.com (2007) â€Å"Many people feel fast food plays a big role in changing the traditional diets of cultures worldwide†. The obesity is a global problem, that it impacted by the bad influence from the globalization. After this, the health became one of the most important issues, because changing habits can destroy the health, also it destroys the traditions, because children nowadays will not be able to eat and have the same healthy food that their parents had. In fact, Food in the UAE has negatively impacted by globalization. The first issue is health, years ago or maybe more our parents had accustomed to eat certain type of food, and by changing it this fast it would be dangerous. Globalization effected many countries by spreading the different types of food restaurants. America as an example spread many junk food restaurants in the UAE, like Macdonald’s, KFC, and pizza hut. Children and adults nowadays eat too many junk food, because its faster, and easy to find. Our parents used to eat healthy food and their bodies does not include junk food, by changing patterns in this generation health has been effected. Obesity and chronic diseases is caused by the changing diet pattern (Neuhouser, Thomson, Coronado, & Solomon, 2004). It seems like the junk food is spreading in the GCC very fast, and the demand of the fast food increased. The reason why health was effected is the new food pattern and if we looked at what this food included we would be surprised. Most of the junk food includes vegetables, meet, and sauces, if we looked gently to the ingredients we will find many of genetically modified organism. This GMO is harmful for the health, because it’s not natural (Emanuelle Landais, 2007). According to sid candid, the fast food can be done fast and taste better but in spite of this advantages â€Å"they are low on the nutritional elements and hardly provide any benefits to the body.† Junk food is full of oil and the person can get fats easily.