Good Country People Essay

In Flannery O’Connor’s short story â€Å"Good Country People,† Hulga’s arrogance, bitterness, and rebelliousness contribute to her inability to get along with others. Her superior attitude and atheist bent combine to make Hulga a person with few redeeming qualities but an easy target for deception disguised behind a simple mind. It is Hulga’s arrogance towards other less educated than she, in the end, which prevents her from seeing through the fraud of a dishonest man. Hulga’s arrogance is displayed from the beginning of â€Å"Good Country People†. Her mother’s tenant family, the Freemans, have a pair of daughters. Although Glynese and Carramae are â€Å"two of the nicest girls she knew† (page 165) according to Mrs. Hopewell, Hulga refers them to by the derogatory nicknames of Glycerin and Caramel since she clearly thinks herself intellectually superior. Hulga has a doctorate degree from a university and often reminds her mother that were it not been for her heart problems â€Å"she would be far from these red hills and good country people† (page 168) which she considers far beneath her. In fact, Hulga wants nothing to do with her humble surroundings, declaring that she doesn’t like animals or things in nature or even young men, who blatantly display their general stupidity. O’Connor sets up this description of Hulga to foreshadow the character’s reaction when she meets Manley Pointer and â€Å"thinks of it as a great joke† (page 173) upon agreeing to meet him for a picnic. Mrs. Hopewell’s physical description of her daughter as â€Å"constant outrage†¦obliterated every expression from her face† (page 166) clearly demonstrates the effect of Hulga’s bitter attitude and she constantly reminds the girl her face would be much more attractive with a smile. While her mother feels obligated to care for the girl after the unfortunate accident which took her leg, Hulga has rescinded her belief in God and does not allow Mrs. Hopewell to keep a bible in the parlor. She is unrepentant and unrelenting in her bitterness. Hulga has lost so much of her life to this quality and the threat of her medical condition that she feels compelled to lie to Manley Pointer about her age, telling him she is 17 instead of the 32 years she’s actually lived. Hulga is rebellious against the society of which she disapproves as well as her own mother. She looks down on Mrs. Hopewell and her desire to find â€Å"good country people† (page 166) with which to associate. Impressed to walk the fields with her mother, Hulga manages to make it as uncomfortable as possible with â€Å"remarks†¦so ugly and her face so glum†. Hulga smugly responds that that she is merely being herself and this is what her mother gets for asking her to come along. Hulga feels triumphant in legally changing her name into one so ugly that â€Å"her mother had not been able to turn her dust into Joy† (page 167). She continues to rebel against convention, eagerly accompanying Manley Pointer for a rare opportunity to speak with him regarding what she feels are philosophical subjects. Of course it is this rebelliousness that allows him to take advantage of her. Hulga and her mean spirit, arrogance, bitterness and rebelliousness are the perfect combination to be brought down by a simple con man who need do nothing more than show a bit of interest in the reclusive girl. Through O’Connor’s characterization the author retells the moral of the fabled tortoise and hare and reminds the reader of the pitfalls of arrogance.

Leadership theory and competency framework Essay

Introduction Leadership is always been interesting topic to be discussed. Given the theories that continue to grow and evolve. There is none of the theories that really can define what is the real meaning of leadership but we agree that the leader must have knowledge, skills on how to analyse the information in order to make appropriate decision. An effective leader is one who is able to read the situation, correct the problem, responsible, willingness to develop the followers, have integrity and good ethics. Effective leadership expected to act within the ethical framework. The ethical framework itself is about what right or wrong and good and bad. The reason why ethical decision becomes so important in the leadership is because business involves in a lot of transactions with people both within and outside the organisation. The purpose of this report is to provide better understanding about effective leadership, decision making and ethical management and how they linked each other both in theori es and practices and how the leaders ensure that every decisions are made within the ethical framework. Ethics . According to Ciulla (1998) Ethics is study about human relationships it is about the role that we play in life on what we should do and what we should be like as human being. Ethics is about right or wrong and good or devil. Ethics is the foundation of leadership. There are four theories in ethics: 1. Virtue ethics. Focused on in individual processes whether their act is expressing good character (moral virtues) or not. 2. Deontological ethics. In deontological perspective, intentions are the morally relevant aspects of an act. As long as the leader acts according to his or her duty on moral principles then the leader acts ethically, regardless of the consequences. In simple words, deontological focus on what is right based on the facts. 3. Ethical growth and learning ethics. Ethical growth and learning ethics also called as the character ethics. According to Covey (1992) the character ethics based on living effectively including things like integrity, courage, fidelity and so on. He believes that human have to go through the necessary stages in their life for their personal growth. Senge (1990), see learning process in each individual are important for the organisation learning  development. 4. Teleological. This theory locates the ethics of the action in its results. Leadership Leadership is the one of the specific type of human relations. There are a lot of thoughts behind the theory of leadership, even those theories still growing from time to time and it stills remain without satisfactory conclusion on that. According to Bolden, The theories of leadership are ranging as follow (Bolden et all.,2003): 1. Great Man theories. These theories based on the idea that leaders are those who are incredible, born with leadership qualities and destined to become a leader. 2. Trait theories. The theories based on the qualities and traits that leaders have. Trait theories often 3. Behavioural theories. These theories are opposite from great man theories. The theories believe that good leaders are made, not born. 4. Situational theories. These theories view leadership as something that is specific into the situations. For example: there are some situations that require the type of autocratic leadership, in other situation participative approach might needed. 5. Contigency theories. These theories focus on particular variables related to the environment to suit the style of the leadership. According to this, successful leadership depends on numbers of variables including leadership style, follower’s quality and the conditions. 6. Participative theories. The theories suggest that ideal leadership style is one that taking input from others. These leaders are more engaging the group members in decision making process. According to Lewin (1939) there are three leadership style in participatory, autocratic, democratic and laissez faire. 7. Management theories or transactional theories These theories focus on the role of organisation and group performance. These theories use rewards and punishment system and most used by the business organisations. 8. Relationship Theories or transformational theories. These theories focus on the connection between the leaders and followers. In this theory, beside focus on the overall performance of the groups, the leader also focusing on each member’s potential. This theory also often has high ethical and moral standards. Decision Making According to business dictionary, Decision making is process of selecting a choice from the available options. In order to make good decision, someone must be able to predict the result of each option and based on that options, take the best for the particular situation. There are two dominant decision making process models: 1. Rational model Rational model is mechanistic. The foundation of this model is quantitative discipline. It involves a cognitive process where each step follows in a logical order in order to get the best result. Disadvantage of this method is slow process in decision making 2. Bounded rationality Bounded rationality foundation is qualitative approaches. Bounded rationality model recognize that the data that available may or may not be completely valid but decision maker stills allow to make decision based on available data. 1. Toyota Toyota started in 1993 as one of Toyoda automatic divisions. Toyoda Automatic was encouraged to develop Japanese automobile production by Japanese government for supply their domestic vehicles. In 1993, Toyota motor co. became independent and separated from Toyoda automatic. Toyota started to expand in 1960 to other countries began by establishing new research and development facility in Thailand and in 1963, the first Toyota built outside Japan located in Melbourne, Australia. During that decade, Toyota had  exported one million units which had their presence established worldwide. In 2010 Toyota facing the most critical crisis on their history as one of the biggest car manufacturers in the world. At least 8 million cars were recalled from the market regarding to floor mats and gas peddles that causing uncontrollable acceleration that reported become the cause of accidents and death. This incident costing the company of millions dollars in repair expenses lost in sales and destroy ed the company image for its reputation and of course undermining its credibility. The company also faced some of expensive lawsuits because it accused that Toyota leaders knew about the problems but they held back the information to held recall and in this case the Toyota leaders using ethical growth and learning approach. A lot of organisation experienced crisis incidents that need them to make audience public messages in explanation, apologies, and other efforts to fix their image. The unethical things that resulting in public accusation often can result in harm to shareholders and stakeholders of the organisation and will have negative impact in organisation’s sustainability. Toyota confront by some very clear situational limitation in trying to respond effectively in responding to the allegations and fixing its bad image. The allegations including the causes of the problem is not all clear yet ranging from engineering issue to human’s error. In reality, some reports suggest that the company do to repair the product are not solving the problems. The toyota also accused on having slow decision making process because they didnt respond to that that problem quickly and decisively. Ideally, the organisation expected to have quickly responsive actions to make positive image in the society because it is indicate that the organisation primary interest is to solving the problems rather that avoid legal problems. Such organisations are likely to be seen as ethical, responsible and decisive. However, the most difficult part that the company confront regarding their CEO. Akio Toyoda, the grandson of the founder. He facing the culture conflict associated with his multinational company’s nature. In general, Japanese corporate cultures encouraging harmony and try to avoid addressing the problems in public and prefer to manage behind the scenes and the process of their decision making is using consensus model. Consensus model is time consuming process and it will slow organisation in  their respond to the crisis. For some countries this can be seen that company is not decisive. Also in the Japanese organisation culture, they more focus on their leader’s opinion than public’s opinion. 2. Trafigura Trafigura is a private company established in 1993 by six partners, Claude Dauphin, Eric de Turckheim, Graham Sharp, Antonio Cometti, Daniel Posen and Mark Crandall. They are focusing on three regional markets, South America for oil and mineral industry, Eastern Europe for metals industry and Africa for oil industry. Currently, the group has 81 offices in 56 countries. The story of ethical issues that faced by Trafigura begun in early 2006 when Trafigura’s oil trader decided to buy Coker naphtha, a refinery by product from Mexico. They did this to make a quick profit. In between March and June 2006, three loads of 28.000 tonned was received in Texas and transferred to chartered cargo ship, Probo Koala. Dangerous chemicals were used to clean the Coker naphtha and then Trafigura realised that they facing the problem on how to dispose the toxic material safely. In July 2006, Probo Koala arrived in Amsterdam where one of the branch corporate offices is located. The Amsterdam Port Service, a Dutch waste management company agreed to treat and dispose the waste but in the higher price than it was agreed because APS discovered that the slop was much more polluted and requiring special treatment. As the consequences of that problem, the Probo Koala back to the sea and in August 2006, it arrived in Ivory Coast to deliver the waste to local company called Compagnie Tommy. Tommy then was illegally dumped the waste without treating it across Abidjan. The weeks after, thousands were sick and at least 10 death reported. Trafigura reached out of court agreement with Ivorian government by paying $ 198 million for cleaning up and helping the victims. Here we can see that the company using teleological approach in handling the problem. However, they denied that what they did is wrong and refused to accept any legal liabilities for that incident. The way Trafigura handled the crisis criticized by corporate responsibility observer. They said it was clearly messed up because when facing the problem, company ideally needs to find the facts quickly,  disclose them quickly and involve those who can reduce the problem and work with affected community in order to clean up the damage. In contrast, Trafigura, held everything privately and in the company like this they don’t have the same transparency and ethical requirements that a publicly company has. By looking for those examples, we realised that the need for ethics in leadership become obvious. Ethics influenced the leader in their leadership and decision making. Understandings of ethics begin with the analysis of values, both individual and organisational. Effective leaders must aware of their values, and system of ethics and ethical decision making. Good character and integrity are what we want to see from the leader. Somehow there is always the connection between a value system and the ability of the leader to use these values in their decision making. According to the Josephone Institute’s (1999), there are six pillars of character that might easily be applied to business setting. They are: Trustworthiness – honesty, integrity, reliability, loyalty, keeping promises and not deceiving others. Respect – using the golden rule or treating others as you wish be treated, in addition to being courteous, listening to others, and accepting individual differences Responsibility – accountability, self-control, the pursuit of excellence and considering consequences of our actions prior to making them Fairness – playing the rule, not taking advantage of others, making informed judgments without favoritism or prejudice, and not blaming others Caring – Kindness, compassion, and altruism, acting to minimize hardship and to help others whenever possible Citizenship – working to make one’s community better, protecting the environment, making our democratic institution work, and operating withi n the law How the leaders ensure that all decisions are made ethically? The foundation of ethical decision making involves choice and balance. As we discuss before ethics is the study of human relationship about right and wrong. To ensure that all decisions made ethically, leaders have to do ethic checks. There are varies on ethic checks but to make it simple, we can define ethic checks into three parts. The most common questions when we questioning about ethics are whether it is legal?, whether it is fair?, and if we do this, how it  will affect ourselves as human being s a member’s of society. The first part of ethic check is bout legality. Legal here means not only within legal system but also whether it is legal within the organisation policies. After we get the answer for the first part the next question will it be fair? One of the traits that effective leadership must have is putting the organisation’s interest above their personal interest. Hence to ensure the decision has made ethically here the leader should check whether the decision will be fair for all stakeholders. Lastly, after those two questions answered, the leaders must ask themselves how they want to be view by the society because whatever it is, regardless the power that the leaders have, they are still a member’s of society. Conclusion Ethics is the heart of leadership. In understanding the leadership it is important for us to understand about the ethics. Ethics is the study of human relationship. It is about what we should do and what we should be like in the society. The ethics can be different from one and another because ethics influenced by other factors such as family influence, religious belief, culture, experience and personal reflection. Leadership on the other hand is the particular type of human relationship that involving power. The effective leader has to have good ethics as one of their traits because in effective leadership, leader should put the group interest above his or her personal interest. Nowadays, many organisations in the world have been damage by their unethical decision making and most cases because they put self- interest above group or society interest which destroys the society trust to the organisations. Regarding to that we can see that ethics and leadership should go hand in hand and the effective leadership should have good ethics that stick to the moral values on the society and oppose all the unethical conduct. Like other things in the world nothing is perfect, but it is very good for the leader to ensure that the decisions are made ethically through questioning their decision whether it is legal or fair for them and for the community and the leader also consider their decision as their personal reflection. References Bolden, R., Gosling, J., Marturani, A. and Dennison, P. (2003). A review of leadership theory and competency framework. Centre for Leadership studies, UK : University of Exeter Linstead, S., Fulop, L., Lilley, S. (2009). Management & Organization A critical text. New York, NY: Palgrave Ciulla, J.B. (ED). (1998). Ethics, the heart of leadership. Westport, CT:Praeger. Driscoll, D. M. & Hoffman, W.M. (2000). Ethics matters: How to implement values-driven management. Waltham, MA Hitt, W.D. (1990). Ethics and Leadership. Columbus, OH: batelle Johnson, C.E. (2001). Meeting the ethical challenges of leaderhip. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publishers. The six pillars of Character. (2009). Retrieved from http://charatercounts.org/six pillars.html Leadership Theories and styles. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.etsu.edu/ahsc/documents/Leadership_Theories.pdf History of Toyota. (n.d). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Toyota Seeger, M. (2010) Image restoration and Toyota recall. In communication currents. Retrieved from https://www.natcom.org/CommCurrentsArticle.aspx?id=967 Trafigura corporate history. (n.d). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trafigura Chhabara, R. (2009) Trafigura –Toxic ethics. In communication reporting. Retrieved from http://www.ethicalcorp.com/communications-reporting/trafigura-%E2%80%93-toxic- ethics 10 of most unethical business practices in business (n.d). Retrieved from http://www.businesspundit.com/10-most-unethical-business-practices/

Bioethics Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 10000 words

Bioethics - Dissertation Example The main debate centres on whether and how bioethics should influence public policies to influence the some of the recent researches taking place in the arena of biotechnological sciences. Various groups see risks in these new scientific processes, their perceptions varying depending on their cultural, religious, and scientific background, governmental policies, and various other factors. The human genome project is one such area of study that has caused great concerns amongst the various social, religious, and scientific circles. The various social, legal, and ethical, implications of the new researches on the subject of human genetics have raised questions on the appropriateness of continuing in the future with such researches. This paper will explore the links between bioethics and the human genome project, and will study to find the appropriateness of this project in terms of ethical, moral, and religious values. Bioethics and the appropriateness of the human genome project 1 Met hodology All forms of undertaken research work consist of a fixed procedure, made up of a series of varying queries on the selected theme, that are systematic in nature. These systematic enquires enable the research scholar, to imbibe new knowledge on that particular theme. This thesis paper will comprise of both primary and secondary work, though the primary nature of the research work carried out in this paper is secondary research. Secondary research work generally tends to create a broader perspective for the concerned researcher to study and collect a large number of required data from various resources. The research process methodology as followed for this paper is based on the outline given by Graziano & Raulin, in their paper. Personal experience other’s research Initial idea procedures design study analysis Communication Interpretation Stimulating Others Research Fig: 3- Research process methodology by Graziano & Raulin, 2009, 40. The research paper is qualitative in nature and also uses an inductive and analytical method, which would make it easier for the researcher to come to a conclusion from various collected pieces of facts and evidences Summarily, this research process will consist of first locating all the relevant data and then studying and analyzing all the available data on this topic; then critical assumptions will be made from the gathered data; while, further supporting material will be collected to provide supporting evidence for all the opinions expressed and conclusions derived. 2 Discussion/analysis â€Å"It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material† ~ Watson & Crick (1953) The advancement in medical sciences, biology, and technology, has brought about new procedures and developments that potentially have the capability of being both beneficial and harmful, to the living world. Bioethics as a subject is primarily con cerned with the various debates and controversies

Personal statement for applying to the University for a masters

For applying to the University for a masters program - Personal Statement Example Business, despite being about give and take, when you trim away all the extra bits, follows certain rules of conduct. This may be dictated by social, cultural, political or geographical influences, or by the nature and type of business itself. My first and foremost priority is to familiarize myself with the different ways of conducting business around the globe. My application to the Masters in International Business program, here at Hult University, is me putting that plan into action. I enjoy interacting with people from diverse cultural backgrounds as well as learning about their customs and practices. I have observed that good people skills alone cannot open the doors to financial success for my business. There is a need for a solid educational foundation alongside a good repertoire with people for a business to be run successfully. The knowledge gained from Hult University, coupled with my people skills, should equip me with the tools needed to excel at international business. O nce the program is over I wish to gain a couple of years’ experience to put into practice what I have learned. The practical experience is probably what my family lacked in expanding and diversifying our business. With the practical experience I gain after the program, I shall be able to increase my insight as to how businesses are run effectively and successfully.

Case Effective law office solutions, INC Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Case Effective law office solutions, INC - Essay Example Given the threat of existing rivals, the company ought to strategize and change customer relations which have been marked as the key cause of the deterioration. The current strategy of ELOS embraces more on advertising and sales promotion. The management has overlooked quality assurance and customer satisfaction and thus the failure. Note that the management has already noticed an increase in the number of complains. Markedly, lack of precise mode of receiving customer feedback has worsened the situation. As a counter measure, ELOS can consider instilling Customer relationship management (CRM) harmonizes sales, marketing and customer service (Goldenberg, 2008). Customers differ, have different tastes and expectations and thus the only way to satisfy them equally is to give them an opportunity to actively participate in decision making. It’s to my opinion that, an online platform that is managed from the main head-quarters can build a strong customer rapport. Essentially, the customer buyer interface should set standard that ensure high quality communication skills as well as accuracy and consistency of information. ELOS, marketing has been marked as successful and thus the management needs to shift some effort towards quality assurance. Legal offices need quality as most of their printings are official documents forwarded to their seniors. The clients need to maintain their reputation and a thus will put off any less quality printing regardless of the previous experience with the company. Therefore, ELOS ought to capture each client’s experience with immediate effect and correct if need be. Notably, a fault spreads more than a good doing (Johnston, & Marshall, 2013). Therefore, ELOS services should be focused on the customer needs rather than the organizations objectives. Quality should never be compromised with cost. Poor customer relation and quality deterioration has been marked as the cause of sales

Immigration policy in the USA Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Immigration policy in the USA - Term Paper Example Such tactics often result in increased competition for employment by the locals with their immigrant counterparts which will create dissatisfaction among the locals. Earlier, America welcomed all the people from the world irrespective of their ethnic or educational backgrounds. In 1980’s and 1990’s, America experienced enormous growth of small-scale industries, mainly because of the contributions of the immigrants. However, at present America implemented many restrictions upon immigration because of the increased threats of terrorism and violence from both legal and illegal immigrants. 9/11 incident resulted in the strengthening of the immigration policies in America. This paper discusses how immigration policy about whom and how many to let in has changed over time and what this change reveals about a society’s quest for national identity Changes in American immigration policies The immediate reasons for drastic changes in immigration policies are the threats fr om terrorists. 9/11 incident was a lesson for America’s immigration and naturalization department. Terrorists can enter America through legal and illegal channels. The war on terror and the disputes with the Islamic world made America vulnerable to terrorist attacks at any time. It should be noted that many of the Americans watching the Muslims in America with suspicious eyes after the 9/11 incident. It is difficult for the Muslim people to get American visa at present unless they have enough reasons to convince the authorities about their purpose of visit. Moreover, in many of the American airports, body screening is implemented especially for the Muslim people. All these policies reveal that America is not much interested in allowing Muslim immigration after the 9/11 incident. Another important issue which forced America to strengthen their immigration policies is the social problems associated with immigration. Uncontrolled Immigration can result in the identity crisis. Th e Middle East is facing such problems at present. In most of the Middle Eastern countries or the Gulf countries, the number of immigrants is more than the number of locals which created a lot of identity problems. No country would like to see more immigrants in its territory than the number of locals. The excessive number of immigrant people seen in the streets, workplaces and other public gathering places may create the sense of unhappiness among the locals. Moreover, Americans cannot keep a friendly attitude towards immigrants especially when they are struggling to get out of the recession problems. Many of the Americans lost their employment because of the recession problems and the subsequent collapse of big organizations. At the same time, they are witnessing the survival of the immigrant community in America. Immigrant community mostly has their own small-scale businesses and the recession has not affected their businesses very much. All ethnicities are not equal; all are not symbolic, costless and voluntary. When white Americans equate their own symbolic ethnicities with the socially enforced identities of non white Americans, they obscure the fact the experiences of the whites and non whites have been qualitatively different in the United States and that the current identities of individuals partly reflect that unequal history (Waters, n. d., p.201-202) Even though racism is prohibited by law in America, it can be observed in many other forms in American social life.  

The Hiring Process Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The Hiring Process - Essay Example Over time, employers will recognize that people are more likely to reveal their true self on social media while they mask themselves during interviews. A critical analysis of social media profiles of potential employees can help the employers create a link between the information presented during the interview and the facts surrounding the individual. Despite these advantages, employers will need to be cautious when using the social media in the hiring process so that they do not violate the established Communications Act (Segal 70). The only disadvantage of using social media during the recruiting process is that employers and human resource managers can easily find themselves violating laws that protect individuals. 2. Select one of the suggestions from the article and write a paragraph to convince top management where you work that the benefits of the remodel will outweigh the costs in terms of attracting potential employees. In my view, it will be beneficial if the top management ditches the cubicles that are small offices designated for each employee. Research reveals that employees prefer open spaces that allow them to interact freely. Many new employees will not feel comfortable if they are compelled to be confined in a small office without any form of direct interaction with their workmates. Introducing open spaces will benefit the organization, as employees will have an opportunity to share ideas. Moreover, open spaces will facilitate two-way communication channels a factor that will benefit the organization (Redbeacon.com 1). Contrary to the small cubicles, employees are more likely to feel free if they are working in non-congested areas with the free flow of air and the possibility to move around. Such environments are more conducive to creativity and