Australia Bushfire essays

Australia Bushfire essays Australia is the world's driest continent, and drought and bushfires are regular occurrences that, sadly, are a natural part of Australia's weather cycle. Australia has a history of severe bushfires. Such tragedies as the Ash Wednesday fires of February 1983 (71 deaths in Victoria and South Australia), the Tasmanian fires of February 1967 (62 lives, more than 1400 houses and buildings lost) and the New South Wales bushfires of 1994, place bushfires high on the list of Australia's natural disasters. But for now lets look at the huge bushfire occurred in 16th February 1983 (Ash Wednesday Bushfires). It was April 1982 to January 1983 in Victoria; the weather condition through these days was severe drought conditions and little rainfall, resulting in its driest period on record. A combination of dry grasslands and forests, very hot temperatures, low humidity and high wind gusts presented Victoria with a high bushfire risk. The temperature was 43 degrees Celsius on Ash Wednesday (16 February 1983), which caused huge bushfires that damaged/destroyed 2545 Building/house and huge amount of trees throughout the regions in Victoria. Also lots of lives got lost from fire. 75 (15 lives lost from firefighter) in total lives from fires, (47 lives in Victoria and 28 in South Australia) and there were hundreds of people injured due to their skin burnt. There were many other causes for fires including, clashing of electric power lines, tree branches connecting with power lines, fires being deliberately lit, and of course the weather. The fire started in Victoria at Cudgee and Branxholme and then the fire also started around Mount Macedon, Dandenong Range Cockatoo, Upper Beaconsfield and Belgrave Heights, Monivae, Branxholme, Warburton and in the Otways. The Fires were so big that it also spread around South Australia through Adelaide Hills and in farming country in the south east of the state. ...

white coller crime essays

white coller crime essays This is the age of the white-collar crime. A time when the words thief and businessmen go hand in hand. The recent events of Enron and their accounting firm Anderson Accounting has made this type of crime come to the forefront. White-collar criminals don't get their hands dirty in their work; they use their heads to get what they want instead of using muscle. These criminals are just as dangerous as the bank robbers and murderers in my opinion. In these times, even the most seemingly respectable people are being suspected of committing white-collar crimes. White-collar crimes can vary in the type and size of the crime. There are always new scams coming out. Embezzlement, false advertising, price fixing, and consumer fraud are some of the more popular kinds. Individuals that have the power of controlling money in a business are more likely to commit embezzlement. This is one of the fastest rising crimes in the nation. According to the FBI, embezzlement rose thirty eight percent from 1984 to 1993. Consumer fraud is another growing form of white-collar crime. This is defined as the use of deceit, lies, or misrepresentations to entice customers to buy goods or services. A Unites Sates senator stated thatnearly a quarter of all the money spent by American consumers was for nothing of value.? Bogus ads, job scams, and telemarketing fraud are all examples of consumer fraud. Basically these scams ask you to send money for something that is non-existent, or will never get to where you want the money to go. After September 11, 2001 these types of scams rose all over the country. The most obvious way these crimes differ from other crimes is that they don't require anydirty work.? When people think of crimes, they think of get-away cars and bank heists. The new weapons of choice for criminals are a computer or a telephone. They are just as deadly as a man with the gun. White-collar crimes are committed out of greed; the people who usually...

Forming at corporate University Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Forming at corporate University - Article Example In my opinion, I believe that the development of the corporate university will help solve a junk of the human resource issues. At the same time as the university keeps developing and capturing the needs of the staff members, there will be increased development in talent of the employees. The university provides opportunities to employees by developing the needed curriculum that soothes its employees (Hewitt-Dundas, 2013). Funds to put up the university and get it running are a big challenge to any institution. However from the study conducted on the feasibility of the project, it indicates that the whole project is viable and affordable. Therefore, there is a need to develop an institution for the development of the employees professionally and increased job satisfaction at the workplace. Employing the workers from within in the leadership posts, plays aggregate deal in seeing the organization grow. The growth can be attributed to the fact the employees have more experience on the operations of the institution. With additional leadership knowledge, there is double fold reproductively of the employee. At the same time, this acts a motivation to the organization employees which increases the productivity by working towards getting that chance to be trained and lead a particular department. Azagra-Caro, J. M., Archontakis, F., Gutià ©rrez-Gracia, A., & Fernà ¡ndez-de-Lucio, I. (2006). Faculty support for the objectives of university-industry relations versus degree of R&D cooperation: The importance of regional absorptive capacity. Research Policy, 35,

Job Analysis Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Job Analysis - Assignment Example Other overlapping duties I perform include office logistics, which should be handled by the logistics manager but often overflow into my job description. Work standards have been established. They include set durations timelines for activities like cleaning, error margins, and cost effectiveness. For example, the office and all office items should be cleaned between 1800 and 2000 hours daily so that by the time employees arrive in the morning they work in a clean and conducive environment. Questions concerning employee contracts and remuneration, questions concerning employee attitudes and performances, questions concerning reviews and appraisals, and questions concerning staffing (Quible, 2014). I am responsible for keeping employee information confidential. I ensure that each employee’s personal and work information is accessible only by me and senior management, not other employees (Quible, 2014). Ability to identify problems and weaknesses and come up with effective solutions, awareness and understanding of work requirements, and ability to provide logical justifications for actions (Quible, 2014) High level of safety is required, especially since the office is a habitable environment. Standard safety requirements are supplemented with personal responsibility and keenness (Quible, 2014). For equipment, all operating procedures and manuals must be followed. The office manager position is a critical position that requires a lot of skills, knowledge, and acuity to execute effectively (Quible, 2014). The office manager is an important member of the organization and the duties involved demand the highest level of

The Impact Of Implicit Followership

The Impact Of Implicit Followership Gap on Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) Quality: A Followership Approach We are often enamoured with heroic leadership, attracted to individuals known for their character, who meet challenges and overcome adversity with their charisma (1-SAF article). But we often forget, without followersà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Napolean would have been just a man with grandiose ambitions (Lee, 1991, p. 2). While leadership has been viewed as a reciprocal relationship between leaders and followers rather than purely leader-centric, (Hollander, xxxx or 12-SAF article), the huge academic literature on leadership has focused mainly on the leaders characteristics, selection, development, and their contributions to organisational success (for review, see Avolio, Walumbwa Weber, 2009). In the words of Lord, Brown and Freiberg, the follower remains an under-explored source of variance in understanding leadership processes(p. 167, 11, -SAF article). Followers are integral to the leadership process (Marion Uhl-Bien, 2001). Yet, their influence is often either downplayed or neglected. The emphasis on leaders over followers has resulted in companies spending 80 percent of their time and research efforts focusing on the 20 percent within organizations, while spending barely 20 percent of their time and energy with the other 80 percent (Uken, in Riggio et al., 2008 book). Consider the huge resources allocated for leadership development that stand in stark contrast to the absence of plans for followership training. The 2003 United States Training Industry Study revealed 85% of U.S. companies offer leadership training to their employees (Gavin, 2003). The financial costs of leadership training alone is approximately US$6,000 to US$7,500 per participant annually (Delahoussaye, 2001). For large corporations, the amount can add up to millions of dollars (Brown, Eager, Lawrence, 2005). In addition, most training budgets support only 20 percent (leaders) in the organization, overlooking the training needs of the other 80 percent (followers). Moreover, many leaders in organizations have followership roles too. Managers at different points in their careers à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ play both roles, though seldom equally well (Kelley, 1988, p. 142). Organizations must recognise a good leader or a good follower requires both leadership and followership, and should aim to develop both in its employees. Research objectives This study aims to examine LMX quality from a followership approach. This study would be the first to examine the followership expectation gap in LMX quality. How do Implicit Followership Theories (IFTs) impacts the leader-member exchange (LMX) quality in a dyadic relationship? How does the followership expectation gap, or the gap between leaders IFT and the actual followers behaviour, affect the leader-member exchange (LMX) quality? The Followership Approach Follower-centric approaches to leadership (Meindl, 1995, p. 330) considers how followers view their leaders and their leaders behaviours. Nonetheless, they are still primarily leader-centric (Shamir, Pillai, Bligh, Uhl-Bien, 2007). On the other hand, followership approach or follower-based approach (Graen Uhl-Bien, 1995, p. 223) considers how followers view their own behaviours and roles when engaging with leaders (Uhl-Bien Pillai, 2007). Followership explores how followers behaviours are related to organizational outcomes, e.g. leadership, and the follower becomes the primary focus. Thus, with its focus on the less celebrated role of followers, the followership approach helps reverse the lens (Shamir, 2007) in leadership research. The traditional perspective of the passive follower, characterised by the attributes of conformity and docility, has been increasingly replaced by the active follower, who is courageous to shape the outcome of leadership in todays organizational context (SAF article). Good followership involves subordinates who can think independently, send supervisors honest and truthful massages, and implement difficult decisions (Lundin, Lancaster, Gardner, 1990). In the contemporary context where team work, knowledge workers, and shared leadership is emphasized, good followership skills have never been more important. Indeed, having exemplary, courageous, and star followers is regarded as a precondition for organizational success (Chaleff, 2003; Kelley, 1992). Leader-Member Exchange Unlike leadership theories that contend that leaders have a predominant leadership style and tend to treat all their followers in a similar fashion, the leader-member exchange (LMX) theory (Dansereau, Graen, Haga, 1975) states that leaders form unique exchange relationships of different quality with each of their followers. Here, the dyadic relationship is seen as reciprocal.The role of the follower is informally negotiated between followers and their leaders over time (Graen Uhl-Bien, 1995). Regarding the development of the relationship, leader-follower relationships are thought to be initiated through an initial offer from the leader, which then is potentially reciprocated by the follower (Graen, 2003). After this initial phase, in which the follower can prove him- or herself, the relationship continues with a reciprocation of contributions, that is, a reciprocation of positive actions that foster the relationship by fulfilling the other partys needs. Put differently, depending on the leaders perception of the followers contribution, the leader will feel more or less indebted to reciprocate with an own contribution until he or she perceives an equilibrium of contributions. At this stage, the follower perceives the contribution of the leader and has to decide whether he or she needs to adjust his or her own contribution, etc. As long as either of the parties still perceives that an equilibrium of contributions is not reached, the relationship is still dynamic, that is, i t can either deteriorate (when a party perceives the other to contribute less than him- or herself and thus also lowers his or her own contributions), or it can thrive (when a party perceives the other to contribute more than him- or herself and thus also increases his or her own contributions). Indeed, relationships are found to be more satisfying and thus stable when a party perceives the contributions to be almost equal or the other party to contribute more (Buunk, Doosje, Jans, Hopstaken, 1993). Contrary, a lack of reciprocation by the other party will lead people to experience negative feelings, especially when they feel that they themselves have contributed a lot to the relationship (Walster, Walster, Berscheid, 1978). Summarizing, the stability of a relationship depends on perceived reciprocation of ones own contributions by the other (Blau, 1964; Burgess Huston, 1979) and the relationship can be considered stable when both parties perceive each other as contributing an ap proximately equal amount. Leadership effectiveness is related to the quality of the dyadic relationship between the leader and follower (van Breukelen, Schyns, LeBlanc, 2006). A high quality exchange relationship is characterized by mutual trust, respect, and liking (Dansereau et al., 1975). The quality of dyadic relationship has been found to be positively related to organizational outcomes (Ilies, Nahrgang, Morgeson, 2007). Specifically, followers in high quality LMX relationships work harder (Basu Green, 1997), perform better (Vecchio Norris, 1996), experience more satisfaction with the leader (Schriesheim Gardiner, 1992), experience more job satisfaction (Scandura Graen, 1984), and are less motivated to leave the team or organization (Vecchio Norris, 1996). Implicit Followership Theories Leaders and followers alike rely on implicit theories to process social information and make social judgements (Lord and Maher, 1991). Implicit Follower Theories (IFTs) help to advance our understanding of leadership by placing the focus on followers and examining leaders cognitions (Avolio et al., 2009). IFTs are cognitive schemas which represent the traits and behaviors that characterize followers (Rosenberg Jones, 1972). Just like Implicit Leadership Theories (ILTs) are used to understand how leaders are viewed, IFTs can be used to understand how followers are perceived. IFTs are most accurately represented by Followership Prototype and Antiprototype (Sy, 2010). Followership Prototype is defined as industry, enthusiasm, and good citizen, while Followership Antiprototype is defined as conformity, insubordination, and incompetence. It is noteworthy to mention Engle and Lord (1997) proposed leaders develop prototypes of effective followers, called Implicit Performance Theories, and then compare follower performance to this prototype (cf. Borman, 1987; Sanders, 1999; Wernimont, 1971). Thes comparison process leads to the labelling of followers as either effectively or ineffectively contributing to relationship. However, IPTs are restricted to followers performance, whereas the cognitive schemata for IFTs include a diverse set of attributes that would reflect on the overall quality of the relationship (e.g., being honest, enthusiastic, or trustworthy). IFTs are broader than Implicit Performance Theories and therefore better capture the range of behaviours and characteristics that followers may be expected to contribute to the LMX relationship. IFT and LMX IFTs serve as benchmarks from which individuals interpret, understand, and respond to followers, and predispose individuals to judge and respond to followers in a particular way (Engle Lord, 1997). Indeed, leaders have different follower-schemas that predispose them to interpret events differently, which results different behaviors toward the followers (Goodwin et al., 2000). This is expected as implicit theories affect judgments and behaviors as they operate on the levels of conscious and unconscious information processing (van Gils et al., 2010). Leaders who have more positive IFTs may behave differently towards followers than leaders who have more negative IFTs (McGregor, 1960). Differences in leaders behaviors towards followers, as a function of their IFTs should impact leader-follower interpersonal outcomes such as liking for leaders and followers, relationship quality, etc. Individuals engage in a matching process of comparing their IFTs with a follower and based on the degree of congruence, individuals form an impression of followers that subsequently shapes their behaviors towards followers. Leaders with proactive constructions of followership may become very frustrated by followers who act consistent with passive constructions; leaders with passive constructions may view proactive followers as pushy, insubordinate and disrespectful Passive followers may find it difficult to work with leaders who have a proactive construction of followership; proactive followers may find authoritarian leaders old school and highly ineffective IFT and Followership Expectation Gap If the process of comparison between actual behaviour and implicit leadership theory exists for leaders, it thus seems only plausible to assume that there is an equivalent implicit theory for the follower. Indeed, Van Gil posits, from the leaders perspective, a match between perceived follower behaviour and leaders IFTs will lead the leader to evaluate the LMX quality more favourably. From the followers perspective, a match between own behaviour and IFT will lead to the perception of higher own contribution to the relationship. The followership expectation gap is the difference between IFT and actual follower behavior. According to Saltz (2004), When a followers behavior match the leaders IFT, the leader is likely to be satisfied with the follower. This minimizes the leadership expectation gap. t is expected that leaders are likely to develop commitment to the organization the leader represents. However, if the followers characteristics contradict the leaders expectations, the leaders are likely to experience dissatisfaction and this will undermine commitment to the organization (Saltz, 2004). Sy (2010) found leaders Followership Prototype was positively related to follower outcomes, namely liking for leaders, relationship quality with leaders, trust in leaders, and job satisfaction, while leaders Followership Antiprototype was negatively related to all follower outcomes. Hypotheses Leaders Followership Prototype would be expected to be positively related to LMX quality. Conversely, leaders Followership Antiprototype would be expected to be negatively related to LMX quality. In addition, the followership expectation gap would be expected to be negatively related to the LMX quality. Measures Participants would consist of middle Implicit Followership Theories would be assessed using Sys IFT scale. The IFT scale consists of 18 items measures six dimensions of Followership Prototype and Antiprototype. Followership Prototype consists of Industry, Enthusiasm, and Good Citizen, while Followership Antiprototype consist of Conformity, Insubordination, and Incompetence. Each dimension consists of three items. Leaders would be asked to rate how characteristic each item was for a follower. Responses would be measured with a five-point Likert scale, ranging from not at all characteristic to extremely characteristic. The scale has a Cronbachs ÃŽÂ ± of .70. To measure the quality of relationship between leaders and their subordinates, the Liden and Maslyns (1998) multi-dimensional model of leader-member exchange (LMX-MDM) scale was used. The LMX-MDM scale comprises of 12 items, and incorporates the dimensions of affect, loyalty, contribution and professional respect, with each dimension consisting of three items. Responses were measured using a five-point Likert scale, ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The Cronbachs ÃŽÂ ± for the scale was .90. The actual followers behaviour (AB) would be measured using the same scale for IFT. Leaders would be asked to rate the extent the items in the IFT scale truly describe the behaviour they see in their followers. Responses would be measured with a five-point Likert scale, ranging from not at all true to very true. Information on gender, age, work experience (in years), duration of leader-follower relationship (in years), job position and highest academic qualification would be obtained. To ensure response to the items measuring IFT does not affect the response to the items measuring the actual behaviour, the order of the questionnaires would be IFT, LMX then AB. Followership expectation gap would be obtained by computing the squared difference between the IFT score and actual follower behaviour score. LMX quality would be obtained by adding up all the LMX dimensions. The association between leadership expectation gap and LMX quality would be examined using Simple Regression Analysis. The effect of duration of leader-follower relationship would be controlled all analysis, as it is known to have a moderating effect on LMX (Graen Uhl-Bien, 1995). Reflections IFTs may advance our understanding of Leader Member Exchange (LMX) theory by illuminating how congruence in leaders and followers ILTs and IFTs may account for relationship quality, i.e., leaders and followers both have ILTs and IFTs that function as interpretation frameworks from which relationship quality is judged (van Gils et al., 2010).

The Bombing of Hiroshima – source related study

Source A is a picture source, which shows the mass devastation caused by the atomic bomb at Hiroshima. The source is an Ariel photograph, which was taken at the heart of Hiroshima, it was taken a day after the bomb was dropped. Source B is an eyewitness account of the bombs consequences and describes the people around him. Source A focuses on the geographical consequence of the bomb. From the source we can see mass destruction and devastation, there seems to be no signs of life what so ever. There is absolute destruction shown and there is only really one house visible, which is crumbling down into pieces. We see a large area (we can even see the mountains in the background, showing the extent of the damage) as the picture is quite wide and the picture is visually powerful, it shows the viewer a lot, as a picture paints a thousand words. It shows much more than any text would describe. It shows exactly what the Americans wanted to see, destruction to force the Japanese to surrender. It shows the power of the atomic bomb, approximately equivalent to the power of 100 million tons of TNT. The source may be taken for propaganda. It shows annihilation and this represents power. This may have been used to show the American people that the country was still powerful and get their moral up after losing hundreds of thousands of American lives. It may also have been used to show the rest of the world Americas supremacy. It does this very well. The source is extremely useful as it is a clear Ariel photograph which displays a wide area of land in which we can see the physical effects, which ultimately is high devastation. But the source can be unhelpful in some respects as it is only one area of Hiroshima and so there may not have been that much devastation overall. It may be the not be as bad as other parts and could be exaggerated. But ultimately the bomb had a large radius and would have destroyed a large area quite easily. Source B is an account by Mr Kazuo, it is an eyewitness account and so the source should be quite reliable. The source focuses more on the human aspect. He describes the gruesome deaths and mutations of various, innocent Japanese men, women and children. It gruesomely describes how people's eyes hung out, how they had holes instead of noses and how the skin hung like seaweed. The descriptions are extremely effective and gruesome and make people fell angry as innocent people went through such horrific pain. The source however is not as useful as it doesn't really focus on the physical side, although we learn bridges were still standing. It focuses much more on human aspects. It may not be as reliable as we think because the effects of the bomb may have tainted him, and naturally he would exaggerate the disaster to some degree, as the experience was shocking. He would have hated the Americans for what they did so would naturally exaggerate. Overall source A is a much more useful source as evidence of the physical effects of the Hiroshima bomb. The source is an actual photograph, which focuses on the land, and so we can gather much information about the physical effects. Source B is very useful in dealing with the human aspect of the bomb, but the visually powerful picture in source A is much more useful for the physical effects and paints a thousand words. There is so much mire we can learn and conclude from source A. it shows the true devastation to the land and shows the bomb and Americans left nothing standing in there way.

Power in Animal Farm

Animal Farm One of America’s most famous presidents, Abraham Lincoln, once said, â€Å"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. † This statement stands through all of history as countless world leaders have abused their power constantly. This also shows in the novel by George Orwell, Animal Farm. The pigs in power, and especially Napoleon, tend to constantly abuse their power and be corrupted by it. Three ways power affects the novel are the corruption of power with Napoleon, the pigs taking advantage of their power, and the eventual outcome of the book.As soon as Napoleon had some power he began to scheme to fully take it. â€Å"Nine enormous dogs wearing brass-studded collars came bounding into the barn. † Napoleon had raised dogs since they were little and readied them so he can one day take over the farm. Napoleon then used these dogs to ensure his power multiple times, especially when an uprising was boun d to happen. Napoleon became corrupted with power and used it to do his biddings. It is also seen that the dogs wagged their tail in a similar manner as they used to for Jones.Along with Napoleon, all the other pigs, who were regarded as the most intelligent of animals, soon began to corrupt their power too. â€Å"The pigs did not actually work, but directed and supervised the others. With their superior knowledge it was natural that they should assume the leadership. † The pigs seemed to have the greatest amount of food and all sorts of luxuries. The pigs would even break the Seven Commandments when they wanted to and used Squealer, Napoleon’s right hand man(pig), to explain to the animals what has happened and take advantage of them. The pigs began to sleep in beds and become more and more humanlike as well.The final outcome of the book is also influenced by the pigs corruption of power. â€Å"Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No questio n, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which. † The pigs began to abuse their power so much they started becoming almost completely humans. They drank alcohol, slept in beds, and walked on their hind feet. With this final transformation into humans, the fate of Animal Farm has been destined for destruction.The pigs will continue fighting for power and then once a rebellion occurs the next animals shall too. Power is certainly a force to be reckoned with. Once obtained the individual or party grows to become more attached to this power and eventually corrupted with it. â€Å"Power Corrupts. Absolute Power corrupts absolutely. † (Lord Acton. ) The animals on Animal Farm felt the effect of corruption in power when the pigs started to constantly abuse it. It is truly hard to find a good leader when power does these horrid effects to most people in control. â€Å"Power Corrupts. Absolute Power corrupts absolutely. †