Total reward Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Total reward - Coursework Example Total rewards include all the things which employees perceive as valuable for building strong relationship with the company. With the change of business environment the concept of total rewards is continuously changing and becoming more advanced. TR is composed of five elements. They are benefits, compensation, performance and recognition, work-life, development, career opportunities etc. With the help of all of these elements an organization satisfies its employees. This report deals with Mitchell Bank. Various issues of the bank are discussed in this report. For motivating and retaining the employees, the bank can use Armstrong and Brown model of total rewards. This model will help the bank to improve its business condition and increase its profitability. Mitchell Bank was established in 1895 in UK. The bank operates its business functions with the help of different divisions. The organization has large number of employees. Presently with the increase of competition in banking sect or, Mitchell Bank is facing some serious problems which are discussed in this report. Therefore for making Mitchell Bank’s business activities effective and to hold its position in competitive market the company needs to improve many things. The similar organizations of Mitchell Bank are Royal bank of Scotland (RBS) and Ernst and Young (E&Y). Both of these companies are involved in performing almost same types of business activities. These companies are very much concerned about their employees. They try to satisfy their employees by various ways. Total rewards of RBS and E&Y are slightly different from each other. The elements of their total rewards in these companies are very strong and effective which help them in motivating, retaining and attracting employees (Kaplan, 2007). As a result these companies are able to delivery good performance with its satisfied workers. This is one of the important factors which help these companies to increase

Language, Culture And Thought

Language, Culture And Thought ABSTRACT Language is the basic means of communication in every culture. Language expresses cultural reality of the speakers in every society. Language is a socially acquired phenomenon and all the culturally bound languages differ dramatically from one another in terms of the description of the natural world. Language not only embodies cultural reality but it is also viewed as a symbol of social identity This assignment explores different ways in which the world is described by the speakers of different languages due to their cultural diversity and its effect on different ways of thinking about the world. The study reviews the description of spatial terms, temporal terms, substances and objects by different speakers of different languages belonging to different cultures and its effect on the ways of thinking about the world around us. Keywords: language, thought, culture, space, time, objects, substance, linguistic relativity, Whorf, Sapir LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND THOUGHT Language is a complex phenomenon for human communication. In the domain of communication each language of the world is different from the other on both lingual and cultural grounds. This diversity in world languages from linguistic standpoints ranges from the clear distinction of pronunciation and vocabulary to the more complex differences of grammar. The diversity of cultural standpoints related to different languages can be seen in the variety of cultural connotations assigned to these linguistic codes. The representation adopted by different languages to the same sentence such as, the professor delivered the lecture, is different to each culture. In English, the verb delivered marks the past tense. In Indonesian and Mandarin, the verb never changes to mark tense. In Russian, the verb is changed to mark tenses and gender, so if the subject is female instead of male, then a different verb is used from the verb that is used for the male. Similarly, in Russian, the verb is also change d to mark whether the whole lecture was delivered or only part of it was delivered by the professor. In Turkish, the verb even specifies weather the delivery of lecture was witnessed or it was a gossip. It is apparent the speakers of different languages see the different aspects of the world to use their language properly (Gumperz and Levinson: 1996) Do these features of language affect the way their speakers think about the world? The idea that thought is shaped by language is most commonly associated with the works of American linguistics Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf. According to Whorf, the categories of every human language present a way of perceiving, analyzing and acting in the world. The strong view of the Sapir Whorf Hypothesis that thought and actions are completely determined by language has been rejected in the field of linguistics. However, answering a less deterministic weaker version does language affect thought has proven to be a very difficult task for the researchers. In recent times researches have found new evidences which highlight the effects of language on thought. This assignment discusses the effect of language on peoples thinking of space time, substance, and objects. Research Question To what extent are the world views and mental activities of members of a social group shaped by, or dependent on, the language they use? LANGUAGE AND CULTURE The word culture is etymologically derived from the Latin word cultura, which means to cultivate and different philosophers such as Voltaire, Hegel, Humboldt and Kant assign different meaning to it. In antiquity, culture was referred to the opposite of nature, something that is willingly produced by man. (Dahl: 2001) In 18th century, the term was used to describe elite and high-culture concepts in continental Europe. According to Dahl, culture is a collectively held set of attributes, which is dynamic and changing over time. It is the totality of values, beliefs, basic assumptions as well as code of social behavior in a society. Individual are made by culture on one level and culture is made by individuals on the other. (Dahl: 2001) Language is the basic means for communication in a society. Language is primarily related with culture in the domain of communication. Speakers communicate their ideas, feelings and facts with language both in inter and intra societal setups. Hence, we can say that language expresses cultural reality. (Kramsch, 3: 2005) Language is not only a mean of expressing experience but it also creates experience. Speakers give meaning to such an experience through various mediums, such as, mass media, internet, telephonic conversations, presentations, etc. The medium with which language is used also designate meaning to experience, for example, the phonological and supra-segmented phonological features of language. Hence, we can say that language embodies a cultural reality. (Kramsch, 3: 2005) In every society the collective set of social values, beliefs, norms and mores are transmitted from one generation to another by the process of socialization. Hence, culture is a socially acquired knowledge. If we observe language from this standpoint, it is observable that language is also transmitted from one generation to another through the process of socialization. It is, therefore, evident that language is also a socially acquired knowledge. (Horton and Hunt: 2005) Finally, the speakers of one language identify themselves with a particular group through their peculiar way of using language. This characteristic of individuals in a group signify that language is viewed a symbol of social identity. Hence, we can say that language symbolized culture. (Kramsch, 3: 2005) EFFECTS OF LANGUAGE ON THOUGHT Space Languages differ from each other in the description of the setting of space. For example, In English, it is different to put something in which it is contained (the orange in the plate, the letter in envelope) and putting things onto surfaces (the orange on the table, the sticker on refrigerator door). `In Korean, putting an orange in a bowl uses a different term (nehta) from putting a letter in an envelope (kitta). Additionally, putting a letter in envelops and putting sticker on the refrigerator is both expressed by the similar term Kitta because both involves close fitting. McDonough et al. (2000) conducted a research to test whether the linguistic differences between English and Korean speaker affects the representation of spatial relations. He showed scenes containing examples of tight and loose fit to Korean and English adults. The Korean adults looked longer at the example scenes compared to English adults. After that they were shown tight fit on one screen and loose fit on another and were asked to distinguish between them. The Korean adults were quick to identify between the tight fit and lose fit, whereas, the English adults were unable to distinguish between the tight fit and the lose fit, and they took relatively longer time than the Korean adults. Further, when these speakers were given several example of tight fight and one example of lose fight (or vice versa). The Korean adults could easily pick out the odd ones, but the English adults could not. This study concluded that the distinctions of settings reinforced by the particular languages r emained central in the representation of their spatial settings. Time Languages are also different from one another because of the difference in the descriptions of time. In English language, the conception of time is represented in horizontal terms. For example, students may ask the teacher to move the test forward, or the teacher may push the test back for the students. Similarly, the speakers of Mandarin language also use terms qian (front) and hou (back) to represent time in horizontal terms. However, the speakers of Mandarin also uses vertical terms such as shang (up) and xia (down) to describe time which in English signifies last and next respecitively. The use of the vertical terms of time in Mandarin is more common in than the horizontal terms of time. In a study conducted by Borodistsky (2001), it was found that the Mandarin speakers think about time vertically even when they are thinking for English. The Mandarin speakers were quick to answer questions such as March comes before April when they were shown objects in a vertical order before questioning compared to the English speakers. Similarly, the English speakers gave quick response to this answer when they were showed objects arranged in a horizontal order before the question were asked from them for the study, compared to the Mandarin speakers. The researcher in another attempt gave English and Hebrew speaking adults sets of pictures that showed some kind of temporal progression such as, pictures of a man aging, or a plant growing, or an apple being eaten. (Boroditsky: 2002) They were asked to arrange the shuffled photos on the ground to show the correct temporal order. They were tested in two separate sittings, each time facing a different direction. The English speakers arranged the cards in a way that time progresses from left to right. The Hebrew speakers arranged the cards in a way that time progresses from right to left, showing that the direction of writing plays a role in the progression of time. Objects Language also differs in the way the names of the objects are arranged into grammatical categories. Unlike English, many languages assign gender to all the nouns. A recent set of studies suggested that grammatical gender given to objects by the language influence the mental representation of these objects by the people (Boroditsky and Schmitt: 2003). The researcher gave pictures of people (male and female) and also pictures of objects (having opposite genders in German and Spanish) to two groups of German and Spanish speakers. They were asked to rate similarities between the pictures of objects and pictures of people. Both groups rated grammatically feminine objects to be more similar to females and grammatically masculine objects more similar to males as described by their languages. This test was a complete nonlinguistic test. In Spanish, the word for key is feminine, while the German word for key is masculine. The Spanish and German speakers were asked to provide descriptive adjectives for different objects. German speakers described keys as hard, heavy, jagged, metal, and useful, while Spanish speakers described them as golden, intricate, little, lovely, and shiny. For the word bridge, which is feminine in German and masculine in Spanish, the opposite happened. Germans described bridges as beautiful, elegant, fragile, and peaceful, while Spanish speakers said they were big, dangerous, long, and strong. CONCLUSION Languages appear to influence many aspects of human cognition: evidence regarding space, time, objects, has been reviewed in this assignment. Further studies have also found effects of language on peoples understanding of numbers, colors, and shapes, events, and other minds. Considering the many ways in which languages differ, the findings reviewed here suggest that the mental lives of people who speak different languages may differ much more than previously thought Beyond showing that speakers of different languages think differently, these results suggest that linguistic processes are pervasive in most fundamental domains of thought.

The Internet :: essays research papers

The Internet The Internet is a wide-open arena for public discussion and interaction that needs to be regulated; protective rules, including censorship if necessary, must be instituted to ensure that this environment is kept hospitable to all. Recently a month ago, I got hooked up to America Online (AOL). I agree that the Internet is a wide-open arena for public discussion and interaction but, I disagree that it needs to be regulated. The Internet is a place where anything can occur. It is just like talking to someone on the phone; instead you are typing to them. You can have a conversation about anything you want to talk about. It doesn't need protective rules or censorship. If it gets censorship then it will be taking away our freedom of speech. Everybody has the right to say whatever they want. That's what they are doing on the Internet. When I am logged onto AOL, I sometimes go into a chat room. In the chat room you meet people form all over the world. In there sometimes there is some profanity used. People also say stuff that might offend you right away. This has happened to me. One night, when I was in a chat room, the room went into a conversation about relationships. We were all talking about previous boyfriends and girlfriends: how many, names and ages. Some girl that I didn't even know told them, "Garrett32† (my screen name) had 100 girlfriends by the time I was 18. â€Å"Love’em and leave’em.† â€Å"He is a jerk." My immediate reaction was to curse the girl out but, I didn't. I just left the chat room. That was the best thing I could have done. If I had cursed her out he probably would have notified AOL. Nobody told me that I had to sit there and listen to what she was saying. If I had stayed and listened to her then that would have been my fault. I would have been the one staying there to get the abuse. America Online gives you the option to notify them if someone said something inappropriately or not to your liking. They check on the problem to see what really happened. If it is true that person's account is canceled. That is a good way of keeping the Internet hospitable. I think that someone should go on line only if they are able to put up with all the things that occur on it. If someone isn't then they shouldn't be online. I am not saying that everything that occurs on line it all right, but you can't get offended about everything.

Image of Faith in Islam Essay

This paper elucidates the meaning of faith in Islam and the image and branches related to it. The paper is based on the saying by Prophet Mohammad P. B. U. H regarding faith and the branches of faith. The seventy branches mentioned in the saying and the highest and lowest of these branches are discussed in this paper. The highest branch mentioned is to believe and say that there is no God but Allah and the lowest of these branches is to remove a harmful object from the path. Muslims follow this saying in various ways and this is reflected in other sayings from the Prophet and in the Quran. The meaning of faith has been depicted in various verses of the Quran and different sayings of the Holy Prophet P. B. U. H. Muslims follow this saying as an approach to carrying out the day to day functions of life. According to the saying by Prophet Mohammed P. B. U. H â€Å"Faith has over seventy branches, and modesty is a branch of faith† (Muslim, 1971). This meaning of faith for Muslims is very important as it provides them with a code of life. The number sixty or seventy does not mean an exact number of branches it just implies that in Islam the branches of faith are multiple. The highest branch is to say there is only one God frees a human being from worship to all other deities like idols, animals or any other being. This is the foundation of Islam which indicates there is no God but Allah and Muslims worship only one God. It should be noticed that modesty has been given special emphasis in the saying by the Prophet P. B. U.  H; it is mentioned because it provides protection against deeds like theft, adultery, abusive language and other such wrong doings (As-sidq. org, 2006). The Muslims lead their lives based on this very saying as the highest and lowest levels or branches of Islam are mentioned as the belief in one God and the removal of a harmful object from the path, this would mean anything between these branches is the code of life for the Muslims. This is symbolic to Islam as this provides the overall functionality of people who follow Islam. Islam is depicted as a religion of peace and harmony. If we consider the last branch which is the removal of a harmful object from the path signifies the wellbeing of other people who might use the same path at a later time. If this is the lowest branch then the higher branches would have more consideration for the well being of other people and this is the core of Islam. Islam is a religion symbolic of consideration and courtesy for others and all Muslims are regarded as brothers to each other. If all the Muslims have the same consideration for one another then Islam as a society would be an entity where people live to achieve harmony through cooperation and coordination.

Medicine Alone Cannot Stop the Spread of HIV/Aids in Sub-Saharan Africa Essay

If the world was to be made a better place to live, then only two things stand on the way to that realization: abject poverty and disease. In fact, it is not surprising that the two are some the major concerns of the 21st century in many countries. The UN, in its part, identifies fighting HIV/Aids globally and abject poverty in third world countries as the roadmap to the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (United Nations Industrial Development Organization, 2004, 46). However, the reality in the developing countries point to a glaring truth: the fight has a long way to go. Indeed, the present generation of the third world’s suffering masses inherited their misery from their predecessors, and there is a likelihood that they will pass on their woes to their children. In the fight against disease, it is apparent that HIV/Aids has claimed the priority previously given to malaria. In Africa, especially, most non-governmental organizations are involved in helping the continent grapple with its burden of Aids patients. Almost daily, the UN, The World Bank and donors from the developed west dispatch consignments of relief aid in the form of antiretroviral drugs to Africa to help Africa fight the pandemic. Regardless, it is becoming increasingly clear that in Africa, the world is collectively losing the war against HIV/Aids. Instead of decreasing, infections in most countries are increasing, while more and more people continue to die from HIV related complications. The present situation is a strong indication that the approach taken to fight the infection is not working. Much of the efforts are directed toward treating the problem, while ignoring a host of other factors which hinder successful containment of the disease. They include cultural practices, poor leadership, ignorance, grand official corruption as well as poverty. In sub-Saharan Africa, especially, these milestones undermine any efforts to fight the disease. In reference to the situation in sub-Saharan Africa, the paper argues that medicine alone cannot rid humanity of the Aids scourge. As far as HIV/Aids is concerned, all that medicine can do is treat symptoms, but not prevent its spread. In this regard, Aids continue to rampage because resources are directed towards addressing infection cases, while ignoring the factors that lead to more infections. Even if medicine was to completely cure the disease, new cases will always arise. Thus, the major weakness of a clinical approach to fighting HIV/Aids in sub-Saharan Africa is that it only tackles a fraction of the contributing factors, but attempts to help those already infected (McKee, et al, 2004, 297). Other than preventing mother-child infection during birth, medicine does little to address the Aids scourge in the wider context. While it targets victims, it doesn’t address the cultural and socio-economic factors that continue to add more victims to the fold. Surprisingly enough, most of these contributing factors have no medical dimension at all, leading to the conclusion that more than medicine alone can contain the Aids scare in sub-Saharan Africa. Poor leadership among Africa’s political class makes the fight against HIV/Aids a hopeless endeavor (Europa Publications, 2004, 25). Their lack of national vision ensures that pertinent issues related to the eradication of preventable diseases are ignored. As a result, poor policies are formulated, which are equally poorly implemented. It is strange that since 1979 when the first cases of the infection was diagnosed among gays in New York, USA, 30 years later, the scourge is hitting hardest thousands of miles away, where gay relationships are a taboo. On the contrary, the developed nations have successfully contained its spread, which had little to do with advanced medicine. The underlying fact is that medicine neither cures nor prevents one from contracting the viruses. It therefore follows that the efforts that led to the successful containment of the infection in the west had little to do with medicine. On the other hand, good governance and effective policies could be attributed to their success. In stark contrast, most sub-Sahara African countries have no clear policies on how to fight the scourge and prevent further infections. Related to poor governance is rampant corruption in government. The drive to fight Aids is largely funded by donor aid. However, management of the funds is left to the beneficiaries, whose lack of commitment to the cause makes them to divert resources meant to help victims. Over the years, corruption in Africa has evolved into a mafia-like cartel, with a wide network of connections through which finances are siphoned from public coffers. When corruption becomes a culture, as already it is in sub-Saharan Africa, resources meant for a national cause always find their way into private hands. It has been widely argued that Africa suffers not because of limited resources, but rather because those resources are misused to serve the interests of a few people. It s the same with resources meant to fight HIV/Aids. Regardless how much the World Bank and donors pump into Africa, the problem is going to persist as long as the corruption exists. The argument that Africans should be left to run their show on grounds of autonomy is guise to allow corrupt individuals in control. The hopelessness of the continent is the realization that donors must budget for the expenditure to the last coin, otherwise they should be willing to keep a constant cash-flow to sustain the greed of embezzlers. Cultural practices are the greatest obstacle in the war against the spread of HIV/Aids (Baxen and Breidlid, 2009, 33). In some parts of sub-Sahara African countries such as Kenya and Uganda, female circumcision is a common practice in most communities. In Kenya, for instance, genital mutilation is the pre-requisite to marriage, and as such, all girls must face the knife to get a husband. The practice is deeply rooted in the Maasai community, where girls are snatched from school to be circumcised before they are hurriedly married off. However, the greatest danger is not marriage, but rather the circumcision itself. It is not conducted by a doctor, but by a local midwife or herbalist, who knows little about sterilization and hygienic handling of incision instruments. Consequently, the initiates share one knife, thereby increasing chances of infection. Similarly, polygamy and wife inheritance practices is a great danger. Among the Luo tribe of Kenya, widows are inherited by their husband’s brothers, regardless the cause of death. It is through such practices that the pandemic spread rapidly in the community, wiping out whole families in quick successions. In Swaziland, the king himself is the trendsetter of polygamy. He holds the annual Dance of the Reeds, whose sole purpose is for King Mswati to choose an additional wife from among the virgin dancers. The political system of the country is monarchial, and the king has repeatedly managed to defeat dissenters and activists opposed to his excesses. Thus, if the very leaders who are supposed to give direction are lost in cultural practices that promote the spread of the virus, then no medicine will stop it from claiming the masses who look up to such leaders. Like in a battle, the folly of a general is the doom of a whole platoon. Now, Swaziland is a tiny country surrounded by S. Africa, whose president recently raised eyebrows (and nods of agreement among polygamists) when he took his fourth wife, who until then, properly speaking, was his concubine. Earlier on, he had surprised many when he agreed that he had lavished his sexual prowess on an HIV positive female friend, but calmed people’s fears that he had taken a shower immediately afterwards- to prevent infection. When such hogwash comes from a head of state, it reflects the pathetic situation of the whole nation. How can such a leader implement any effective policy, when he believes in myths and superstitious convictions? Therefore, the cure for Aids, ironically, is not medicine: it is changing the beliefs and attitudes of the people. There is nothing that blinds like ignorance. The West is free from the tentacles of the Aids scourge largely because their populations are literate, and aware of effective prevention measures. On the contrary, high illiteracy in sub-Saharan Africa has made many sufferers victims of ignorance (Coriat, 2008, 147). In fact, literacy levels reflect the socio-economic status of a population. The living conditions of most Africans is largely pegged on their level of education. In relation to HIV/Aids, lack of information due to the inability to read or write, exposes many people to situations where they could contract the virus without their knowledge. For instance, people share cutting objects such as razors, knives and needles; oblivious of the dangers to which they expose themselves. In addition, information about HIV/Aids is mostly available in foreign languages, which only a few, the educated ones, could understand. Thus, those who are illiterate, and who comprises the majority in sub-Saharan Africa, are denied access to information that could save their lives. Lastly, sub-Saharan Africa is staggering in abject poverty (United Nations Industrial Development Organization, 2004, 87). Poverty contributes to the spread of the infection as many young women engage in commercial sex to make ends meet. In most towns, the mushrooming of slums is attributed to the influx of jobseekers who come to make a living (Brower and Chalk, 2003, 40). However, Africa is generally characterized by high unemployment rates. Consequently, failure to secure a job leads many to slum life, and for most ladies, prostitution (Zichichi, et al, 2001, 627). The danger of prostitution is due to the fact that commercial sex workers do not choose their clients. As it were, they are picked, laid and paid, period. Even if their customers were infected, they can do little to protect themselves, since the ‘terms of engagement’ are determined by the amount the customer is willing to pay. If one decides not to use a condom, then the price is bigger to account for the risk involved. However, it is common knowledge that those who are aware of their positive status willingly infect others, and therefore could pay as much as they can afford to derive pleasure and, as a bonus, recruit one more victim into their society of the infected. In conclusion, the nature of the spread of HIV/Aids is much overwhelming, requiring more than medical intervention for its prevention. Many socio-cultural, political and economic factors contribute to its spread, which must be addressed to effectively contain the pandemic. In sub-Saharan Africa, poverty, corruption in government, cultural practices such female circumcision, polygamy and wife inheritance, as well as poor leadership are responsible for the persistence of HIV/Aids. Thus, concentrating on medicine alone could is not going to save the masses from the incurable virus.