Customer Relationship Management Systems Education Essay

Sing that the companys concern schemes turn out to be more clients based with the alteration and personalize inspection and repair, the ( IT ) information engineering are make usage of non merely to supply services and merchandises within and concern, but besides to provide end-users of the organisations points for ingestion and services. Specially, the use of IT adjoins as a new facet to relationship selling, recognized as Customer Relationship Management ( CRM ) and at its inside, is about obtaining client, supplying services, cognizing them good, and looks frontward to their demands ( L.Ryals and A. Payne.2001 ) . Conventional selling concentrated on the four Ps ( monetary value, topographic point, merchandise and publicity ) for intensifying market portion from side to side addition in the measure of minutess among the purchasers and Sellerss. Although client relationship direction converge on utilizing schemes, tolls and engineering for encouragement the relationship among the m arketer and client focussing on increasing gross revenues net incomes, processs, client satisfaction and profitableness. However, to reply the nucleus inquiry I will cover up the undermentioned stairss:The Main CRM SystemsDefinition of CRM ( Customer Relationship Management )Advantage and Disadvantages of CRM with illustrationAnd DecisionThe Main CRM Systems:Finnegan, ( 2007 ) defined CRM system as â€Å" A CRM system is an information system that is used to be after, agenda and command the presales and post-sales activities in an organisations † . CRM comprise all portion of covering with bing and possible clients: Gross saless, selling and service or proficient support etc. sometimes its call ‘back office and front office systems ‘ because they are the border with the client. CRM systems are collected of analytical and operational parts. Operational CRM The bellow diagram ( figure-1 ) are shown based on the three basic parts of the CRM which contains SFA ( gross revenues force mechanization ) Gross saless CRM entail appraisal about telephone gross revenues, web gross revenues, reta il shop canvass, and field gross revenues ; CSS ( client service and support ) Service CRM entail client conventional applications related to name Centre informations, web self-service informations, and radio informations ; And EMA ( endeavor selling mechanization ) selling CRM involves run informations, content informations and informations analysis. Definition of Customer Relationship Management ( CRM ) :Harmonizing to nucleus demand and as an indispensable constituent of CRM we should do clear about what dose digital house mean is. Keneth C. Laudon and Jane P. Laudon ( 2007 ) defined digital house as â€Å" A digital house is one where about all of the organisations important concern relationships with clients, providers and employees are digitally enables † . However it is an interior concern process are achieved in the class of digital webs across the whole organisation or linking legion organisations. There are many definitions of CRM have been explicated and illuminate by different writers in different position. Pancucci ( 2002 ) observes that ‘there are a figure of definitions of CRM, even taking the ordinance into the domain of societal scientific discipline where the psychological science, behavior forms of group of people, and socio-economic position are seen as critical use of purchasing finding ‘ . Some are shown bellow:Gronroos, ( 1999 ) defined â€Å" CRM is a direct branch of the selling Concept: he explained as ; CRM is a committedness to at the same time hike client satisfaction and stockholders value by supplying consistent, seamless, high-quality experiences for valued client † .Christopher, Payne and Ballantyne, ( 1991 ) defined CRM as â€Å" it is the integrating of client service quality and selling, which has as its concern the double focal point of acquiring and maintaining client † .Strauss and Frost, ( 2001 ) defined CRM as â€Å" it is a holistic procedure of identifying, pulling, distinguishing and retaining client † .Grtner Group, ( 1999 ) â€Å" CRM is a subject – a doctrine even – that requires concern to recognize and foster their relationship with clients. With CRM, an single client ‘s demands and penchants are available to anyone in the concern working at the client interface, irrespective of channel. Each client is treated as an person in a relationship that feels like one-to-one † . However, thought behind the CRM is set up single association with clients, pleasuring different clients in a different manner based on the information acquired on their front-runners, first picks, and disbursement designs ; activates a concern executes to place, develop, get, and retain progressively profitable and loyal clients by presenting the exact merchandise or service, to the exact clients at the right clip, through the precise channel, and the right cost in the shop planning and supply concatenation functions through concern process mechanization, engineering solution and information ownerships to do the most every client contact. Advantages of Customer Relationship Management ( CRM ) :Customer relationship direction helps the concern houses which have determined to implement CRM scheme can ease with Numberss of following advantages: Construct up client keeping and trueness:Customer trueness can be defined harmonizing to Mcllroy and Barnet ( 2000 ) as â€Å" client ‘s committedness to make concern with a peculiar administration, buying their goods and services repeatedly, and urging the services and merchandises to friends and associated † . Therefore, the nucleus benefits of the client keeping and trueness are construct up long term relationship and steer finally to hike net incomes and gross revenues, doing mind of belonging, in the sentiment of Uncles ( 1994 ) harmonizing to consumer trueness programmes apprehensiveness is willing to introduce on behalf of clients, a feeling that the seller is acquire ready to listen, is caring and concerned and consideration methods. The consequence we can acknowledge as a keeping and trueness is an of import facet for client relationship direction ; harmonizing to Byrom ( 2001 ) there are more than 150 trueness strategies and about 40 million trueness cards in t he UK. For illustration Tesco trueness Club-card, introduce 1995 was to offer as â€Å" benefits to regular shoppers whilst assisting the company discover more about its client demands † ( Tesco, 2004 ) . The accomplishment of Tesco Club-card had been successful and celebrated in the food market universe as Smith, ( 2004 ) harmonizing to Club-card accomplishment evaluation â€Å" a 3rd of UK places use the plan † . Improved Customer acquisition Ratess:Customer acquisition is an parlance used to explicate the tactics and systems to pull off client point of view and enquiry typically allocate to the organisations to recite the effectivity of effect to pick of promotional activities through out the client lifecycle. However, client geting rate helps to the organisations with follow up client relationship direction ( CRM ) chance for cross-selling, repetition buying, up-selling and bring forthing advanced gross growing. For illustration Tesco Personal Finance ( TPF ) reached acquisition rates December 2008 for hard currency consideration of around 950m lb and get 6m Tesco Finance Customer histories with successfully followed by client relationship direction. ( Andrew Higginson, 2008 ) Improve Cross Selling and up-selling:Cross selling refers to selling things that are correlated or can be included with the points being sold. And up merchandising is the techniques of offering clients a merchandise in addendum to the merchandise are soon buying. For illustration if they sell digital Mobile, it makes sense to suggest linked merchandises to their client: more long life battery, screen, charger etc. or if they are up sell to their client they can offer about anything in addendum to the points clients are antecedently paying attending. However, it is encourage to client to come once more in the shop with purchasing purpose to clip, and enhance to doing long term relationship as a portion of client relationship direction activity. Hike the contract or Name centre effectivity:Taylor and Bain ( 1999 ) has been defined call Centre as â€Å" it is a dedicated operation with employees focused wholly on client service maps, employees are utilizing telephone and computing machine at the same time, and where call procedure controlled and processed by an automatic distribution system † . There has been consistent recent enlargement in call Centre inspection and repair world-wide, with the call Centre of the modern-day expected to progress into the client entree Centre of the hereafter, and supplying a new economical footing for assorted organisations. The activity and effectivity of a call Centre are deriving client orientation, service precedence, growing of turnover, and contribute wholly on the client service map. For illustration UK largest Mobile networking company o2 has given responsibly to keep client service activity through assorted call Centres such as: Active Business Communication call Centre, Active Digital call Centre, Aerial call Centre and so on ( www.o2.co.uk [ accessed-16/01/10 ] ) . And they are determined to give first-class clients feedback on-behalf of o2 Mobile web to keep good client relation. However, client relationship direction has being bearing a great advantage for encouragement the contract or name centre effectivity with the enterpriser and standard client service. Deliver a individual, knowing position of the client:A watercourse advantages for a company conveying out by following client relationship direction system are placing and aim the greatest clients and coevals of distinction of excellence directed for the gross revenues force, create direction of gross revenues and marketing campaigns more effective by puting precise ends, established features relationships with the clients with the vision to do the most house ‘s net incomes and advancement client satisfaction, Understanding the desires of employees and continue a sound co-relationship with them. Disadvantages of Customer Relationship Management System ( CRM ) :Not merely CRM system has advantages so far it can be such a restriction as follows:High Software Cost:For the most portion state of affairs insist package support for client relationship direction affair but the cost of such package is normally elevated. For illustration Wendy Close, research manager at Stamford, Conn.-based Garthner Inc. , allocated the cost for most favorite ‘SIEBAEL ‘ CRM package at $ 16000 to $ 25000 per user, a sum that includes package, preparation, services and hardware. However, this cost might non be low-cost where fewer figure of seats and non holding often economic systems of graduated table convey the monetary value down to $ 12000 for each user. ( www.searchcrm.techtarget.com ) [ Accessed-16/01/10 ] Managing Datas:It is non easy to get by with Immigration and Naturalization Services and outs of informations warehousing and informations disfiguration engineerings. It entails a batch of historical informations to scrutiny analysis and analyze the tapping of information energetic out of it. For illustration the article says on respect Tesco Data Swapping with Oil of Olay and raises a large inquiry â€Å" This is traveling to be large, and non merely in fast traveling consumer goods † . Alan Mitchell ( 2002 ) Not Easy to Process:The appraisal of CRM procedure and its operation is non an easy mission. It requires multidimensional public presentation, and multifactor client behavior which are hard to qualify. Even if they are described in some state of affairs largely score card or in metric format, which is frequently hard to rehearse and understand them. A study found that conducted by research and consultative house Gartner ( Zimmer, 2006 ) â€Å" more than half of the organisations who have implemented the CRM have troubles after execution † . Harmonizing Crowbars, C. & A ; Stone, M. ( 2004 ) Aberdeen Group CRM Spending and Satisfaction study ( February, 2003 ) identified that on a user ranged among of â€Å" somehow satisfied † and â€Å" satisfied † scope from one ( non satisfied ) and to five ( wholly satisfied ) which are depends on Area/ location. Approachs of past purchasing behavior of consumer might n't be same in the hereafter excessively! :Majority of CRM move towards with cod informations on the past buying behavior of client and set abouting it as the likely behavior in farther excessively. This could be an immoral guess in a figure of positions. Customer constrains maintain on switching and varies upon the criticalness of the intent and the degree of letdown with the bing options. For illustration, an article study says Tesco broadband dissatisfaction rate due to hapless client service and experience 2009 churn rates of around 20 % per annum. However the 20 % are used to regular client of Tesco. ( www.phone-shop.tesco.com/latest-news ) [ Accessed-17/01/10 ] Decision:However in the terminal of the study it is explicable that, In malice of that, the client relationship direction has become a maximal precedence for legion of companies. Bohling et Al. ( 2006 ) remarks on diary of CRM execution as ; â€Å" in many competitory markets, concern invest well in CRM execution recently though, companies have become progressively displeased with client relationship direction apply, as the bulk of them are falling short of the outlooks that precede them and are hence considered failures † . Conversely, though it has being first prioritized for many companies but non all companies are being success based on comparison to advantage and disadvantages of client relationship direction in digital houses. Kumar and Shah ( 2008 ) argued that â€Å" CRM offers house strategic benefits, such as greater client satisfaction, and trueness † . Anders ( 1996 ) remarks as â€Å" it is a higher response cross-selling attempts and better word-of-mouth promotion † . However, though some disadvantages and statement has been placed but it is should be remind that CRM assists a company dressed ore on the client as an assets side by side consumers are non forced to by necessity in the same organisation. Many companies waste a batch of money obtain new clients and waste it by neglecting to get to cognize and grok their client, retain and maintain in grip with them. Therefore, Company should setup CRM system based on allow to clients to manage their relationship with multiple providers instead than the other manner embracing. Bibliography:L. Ryals, and A. Payne, ( 2001 ) ‘Customer relationship direction in fiscal services: towards information enabled relationship selling, diary of strategic selling, vol.9, pp. 4-27.Anderson, Eugene W. ( 1996 ) â€Å" client satisfaction and monetary value tolerance, † selling letters, vol.7. ( July ) , pp.265-74Kumar, V. ( 2008 ) , ‘managing client for net income ‘ . Upper Saddle River, NJ: Wharton School Publishing. -and Denish Shah ( 2004 ) , â€Å" edifice and prolonging profitable client trueness for the twenty-first Century, † Journal of Retailing, 80 ( 4 ) , pp.317-30T.Bohling, D.Bowman, S.Lvalle, V.Mittal, G. Ramani et Al. ( 2006 ) , CRM execution: Effective issues and penetrations, Journal of Service Research 9 ( 2 ) , pp.184-194.Performance of Customer Relationship Management with Diagram hypertext transfer protocol: //www.kssi.ae.wroc.pl/~mowoc/Dydaktyka/MIS/Lect5.pdf [ Accessed- 09/01/10 ] Strauss, J. & A ; Frost, R. ( 2001 ) , E -marketing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.Gronroose, C. ( 1999 ) . Relationship selling: Challenges for the organisation. Journal of Business Research, vol.46, pp.327-355.Gartner Group, ( 1999 ) , specifying CRM: available at: C. Pries & A ; M. Stone ( 2004 ) ‘Managing CRM execution with consultants- CRM or alter direction? , diary of alteration direction, vol.4, No.4, ( December ) , pp.352-370Christopher, M. Payne, A. and Ballantyne, D. ( 1991 ) ‘Relationship Marketing- delivery quality, Customer Service, and selling together, Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd. , Oxford.Keneth C. Laudon and Jane P. Laudon ( 2007 ) pull offing the digital house, 9th edi. Upper saddle river, NJ: Prentice Hall.Finnegan, D & A ; Willcocks, L ( 2007 ) Implementing CRM: from engineering to knowledge, jhon willy and boies LTD. Wet Sussex, England.Mcllroy, A. , Barnett, S. ( 2000 ) , â€Å" edifice client relationships: do dismiss card plants? † pull offing the service quality, Vol. 10 n o. 6. Pp.347-55Uncles, M. ( 1994 ) â€Å" Do you or your client need a trueness strategy? â€Å" , diary of Targeting, measuring and analysis for selling, vol. 2 no.4, pp.335-50Byrom, J. ( 2001 ) â€Å" the function of trueness card informations within local selling enterprises † , international diary of Retiling & A ; Distribution Management, vol. 29 No. 7.pp.333-42Tesco, ( 2004 ) , â€Å" Corporate information † , p. 1-3 available at: www.tescocorporate.com [ accessed-17/01/2010 ]Smith, J. ( 2004 ) , â€Å" Every small aid † , The Ecologist, vol. 34 No.7, pp.1-9Higginson, A ( 2008 ) , â€Å" can Tosco truly offer the same value as my bank † , p.1-4 available at: www.tescoplc.com/annualreport09/storage/pdf/retailing_services.pdf [ accessed- 17/01/10 ]O2 Centre of first-class partner- hypertext transfer protocol: //www.o2.co.uk/sme/whyo2/o2partners/excellence-centre [ accessed-16/01/10 ]Taylor, P. and Bain, P. ( 1999 ) , â€Å" An assembly line in the caput ‘ : work and employee dealingss in the call Centre † , â€Å" Industrial Relations Journal, vol. 30 No. 2, pp. 101-17Cost of Siebel CRM package: hypertext transfer protocol: //searchcrm.techtarget.com/tip/Siebel-CRM-software-costs [ accessed- 16/01/10 ]Alan Mitchell ( 2002 ) , ‘Can company affords to portion CRM strategies? † p.1-1 available at www.marketlocation.com [ accessed-14/01/10 ]Zimmer, J. ( 2006 ) , â€Å" Be ready to take the heat † , Destination CRM, Viewpoint available at: www.destinationcrm.com [ accessed-14/01/10 ]Tesco Telecom, overseas telegram & A ; warless: ( November, 2009 ) , available at: hypertext transfer protocol: //phone-shop.tesco.com/latest-news/Tesco % 20Telecoms % 20CW % 20release % 20FINAL.pdf [ accessed: 17/01/10 ]Crowbars, C. & A ; Stone, M. ( 2004 ) , â€Å" Pull offing CRM execution with consultants- CRM or alter direction † job with CRM execution, â€Å" diary of alteration direction † vol. 4. No .4, pp.350-370.

Claude Mckay, a Dialectical Analysis Essay

In Claude McKay’s, â€Å"Old England† and â€Å"Quashie to Buccra† McKay uses dialect as a way to give poems multiple meanings. What may be seen as a simplistic or naive poem about Jamaican life may actually be full of double meanings that only a select audience would be able to identify. In his poem’s, McKay ultimately gives Negros who work under white colonists the underlying message of black resistance by revolution. Perhaps what makes this interpretation so convincing is the background of the author. McKay was born Sunny Ville Jamaica as the youngest of 11 sons. While in Jamaica, McKay wrote â€Å"Songs of Jamaica†, which is where â€Å"Quashie to Buccra† is derived from. In this time, he also became a self proclaimed socialist, â€Å" As a socialist, McKay eventually became an editor at The Liberator, in addition to writing various articles for a number of left-wing publications† (Giles 1). During this period, McKay wrote â€Å"If We Must Die†, another poem charged with angst against the oppressed Negro society. Notably this poem was read aloud by Winston Churchill during World War II, however left unattributed to McKay himself. This can be seen as a reflection on society of the time, and how they weren’t ready to see a poem like that as a black revolutionary poem, and that the issues of the black Negro were quietly swept under the rug or ignored entirely. This is perhaps why the reading of an Englishman would differ so greatly from an African Negro reading â€Å"Quashie to Buccra†, as the Englishmen of the time were out of touch with the strife these workers were experiencing. McKay’s communist background may very well be a bi-product of the cultural discrepancies of the time, and a way for the workingman to get back at the bourgeoisie, or white, upper social class. To address the double meanings of Claude McKay’s work, the reader must first look at the surface layer. As we discussed in class, the poems were done on the condition they were completed in Jamaican dialect, not necessarily because of Claude McKay’s own choice. To a white, European society reading the poem, it comes across as a poem about a simple agriculturalist that is telling the white plantation owner about the fruits of his labor, and how they may not be fully appreciated. In actuality, the poem can be seen by Negros as a way to criticize the white plantation owner and in fact plant the seeds of rebellion. Indeed, the title of the work itself leads credence to it being veiled in double meaning. While a white, European in the high rungs of the social ladder may read the poem as a simple address of worker to plantation owner. However, a Negro experiencing the strife of Quashie, the black peasant worker who produces sweet potatoes in the poem, may relate to the unfairness of they experience from the Buccra, which is the white man being addressed in the poem. Indeed, McKay points out in the poem, â€Å"You taste the potato, and you say it’s sweet, but you don’t know how hard we work for it† (McKay 2). Buccra even attempts to haggle for a lower price, further showing he doesn’t understand the work that goes into farming the sweet potatoes, â€Å"You want a basketful fe quattiewut† (McKay 3). Not only does this demonstrate the Buccra’s insensitivity to the work that goes into the harvest, but it shows he’s greedy and milking the natives for every last sixpence. A white reader may look at the reading as Quashie simply complaining about his hard work, â€Å"The sun is hot like when fire catches a town† (McKay 9). In reality, Quashie would do this work even if he weren’t required to because he has a sense of pride, â€Å"Although the shade tree looks tempting, we wouldn’t lie down even if we could† (McKay 10-11). Someone working these fields could relate to the pride and craftsmanship that takes to plow in a straight line, or work through the rough Earth. This reading can be taken another step further. It’s not common for a fire to simply catch a town, and for a Negro reading the poem, they may see it as a call to rebel and actually set a town ablaze as vengeance against white society. A rebellion such as setting a rich town ablaze would not be unheard of in a communist state, and it might be a call to arms for Jamaican Negros reading the poems in â€Å"Songs of Jamaica†. Undeniably, there appears to be a lexicon for violence in the poem that may be entirely glossed over by a white, European reader. â€Å"Although the vine is little, it can bear. It wishes for nothing but a little care. You see potato tearing up the ground, you run. You laughing, you must think it’s fun† (McKay 16-20). As stated earlier, a European audience may feel this is simply Quashie denouncing that his work is difficult, and that he’s just announcing his woes in a silly way, and that the whole thing just merrily amuses the white plantation owner. However, if you choose to look at this through the perspective of a Negro who is craving to break free of their oppressors, it can have an entirely different reading. Quashie planting seeds can be seen as planting the seeds of an uprising. The imagery of potatoes coming up from the ground seems comical at first, but if you’re an oppressed worker, you might see this as the crops being metaphorical for the workers rising forth to take revenge against the plantation owners. Even as Quashie explains to Buccra that he’s serious, Buccra seems to completely blow him off as if he’s â€Å"making a fun†, or a funny joke, as if the work isn’t taking a serious toll on the Jamaicans. This kind of sentiment can be seen in the final stanza, wherein Claude McKay seemingly dismisses everything he’s talked about earlier, â€Å"Yet still the hardships always melt away, whenever it comes around to reaping day† (McKay 25-26). A white, European reader may look at Quashie’s dismissal of all his earlier complaining, as if to say, â€Å"Oh well, it may have been back breaking labor, but at least the potatoes are good for eating! In reality, there may be a darker reading here that a Jamaican potato farmer would be more apt to catch onto. The imagery of â€Å"reaping day† seems to also imply that if the Buccra doesn’t start taking him seriously, the Grim Reaper, or in this case, the workers that are being taken advantage of, may make their troubles melt away by simply rising up and doing some reaping of their own that has nothing to do with crops. This does not mean, however, that McKay necessarily wanted a revolution. It may have been more of a last resort. Indeed, he makes is clear in â€Å"Old England† that he has great respect for British culture. â€Å"McKay still expressed admiration for the British. He believed that the Jamaicans had acquired their democratic spirit and respect for law and order from the British† (Tillery 14). Indeed, in â€Å"Old England†, McKay expresses great desires to visit what he calls his homeland. He refers to Queen Victoria as â€Å"Queen Victoria the Good†, and longs to visit the place where poets and kings alike are buried. Again, however, there appears to be a discrepancy in what different readers may interpret. While it may all appear reverent, he makes it clear that in death, the poets and kings is all alike, and that in their graves, the kings and queens find a place to hang up their crowns. This may symbolize McKay’s gripe with the wealthy class, and how they appear to have a disconnect with the working class Jamaican’s, despite his own love for Britain, and may not deserve a spot next to say the poets that inspired McKay’s writing. In conclusion, Claude McKay uses dialectical tools to draw different readers to different readings. What one person may see as a happy go lucky poem about a potato farmer may really represent a call to arms. His use of manipulating the dialect to create multiple readings causes the reader to question what exactly his true audience is what he’s trying to tell them through word choice and double meaning.

Introduction to Myth

Introduction to Myth: Mythos – Greek word for story (not necessarily true or false) Mythology – the study of myths Primitive people needed to make stories/myths in an effort to understand what was going on in their world. Humans are the only beings with a need to understand things; a dog doesn’t think â€Å"why me †. Primitive people, when scared, hurt, depressed, created myths to explain their pain or discomfort. All cultures make myths in their early development. Around 1200 B. C. , ancient Greeks began to take written history and to make rational and logical stories. Myth-making came to an end once this began.Myths â€Å"illustrate† the truth, much as Jesus did in his parables. He did not give an exact point, but told a story that showed what he meant. Myths may not tell the literal truth, but they illustrate human nature and human experience. Theories: Max Muller – concluded that all ancient myths are about nature and natural phenomenon. Carl Jung – noted that same kinds of myths turn up in all different cultures, such as each culture having their own version of the Great Flood. He developed his theory of the Collective Unconscious – that all humans are born with these same ideas in their brains, lying deep and unconscious.He said that myths explore these deep ideas of the collective unconscious. Claude Levi-Strauss – research on human brain, that different sides were responsible for different functions. Noted that the body is binary (2 arms, 2 ears, 2 legs†¦) and says that we think in pairs with ideas (on & off, right & wrong, good & evil, yes & no). They are pairs of opposites in conflict with each other. Levi-Strauss says that man’s entire experience is based on conflict, and that myths present the conflicts, then resolve them within the story. The 20th century was in ways spent examining and interpreting the ideas of the 19th century.Despite technological strides, it has been sai d that no ideas came from the 20th century. For example, 20th century scholars spent their lives working on the 19th century ideas of Darwin, Marx and Freud. Sigmund Freud – all human nature is driven by sex. Freud started psychotherapy. He turned his focus to myths and concluded that all myths are about sex and are a way of revealing sexual fears and desires without having to confront them every day. Characters: Zeus, Semele, Hera Zeus – lord and king of the gods. Constantly making love to females of all kinds. In this story, Zeus is making love to Semele.But Zeus is married to his sister, Hera, who always finds out about his infidelities. Hera disguises herself as an old human woman and visits Semele, who confesses that not only is she making time with Zeus, but that he love her more than his own wife! Hera says that no, he doesn’t, because with his own wife, he appears to her as he really is – as an almighty god. Usually, Zeus appears as a human â€⠀œ tall, strong, distinguished, a little bit of gray. So the next time Zeus comes around, Semele asks him to appear as he really is. Zeus denies her, saying that she doesn’t want to see that.So she bitches and moans until he gives in, makes love to her, and appears to her as the god that he is – at which point she is immediately destroyed by a bolt of lightning. That story can be analyzed by the four theories listed above. Is any single theory correct? Are none of them correct? 1. Muller’s Nature Theory – because primitive people are in constant contact and conflict with nature. Zeus is the ultimate god, even over the god of thunder, and they find thunder frightening. Lightning is Zeus’ weapon, and experiencing a lightning bolt is the closest that they could get to Zeus. So to them, a lightning bolt IS Zeus.Getting struck by lightning is getting hit by Zeus. That’s where nature comes in. Zeus is frequently depicted with a lightning bolt. 2. Jung’s Collective Unconscious – two of his ideas – Anima and Animus. Anima is the male idea of the ideal woman, the universal woman, who makes men crazy and keeps them off balance by nagging and manipulating. Animus is the idea that all women have of men – violent, destructive, aggressive, rapists. So myths provide an expression for these ideas, which lie deep in the unconscious. Both appear in this Zeus story – she nags him like crazy and he destroys her. 3.Levi-Strauss – humans are obsessed with conflict and resolution. Each of the three characters in this story are in conflict with every other conflict. But as soon as you get rid of Semele, all conflicts are resolved. 4. Freud – it’s all about sex; Castration Anxiety – a boy has one, a girl doesn’t. The boy thinks she must have cut hers off and worries that she’ll cut his off. Penis Envy – the girl looks, he has something she doesn’t, she k nows she’s never had one, and she wants one. In this myth, Semele insists to see Zeus â€Å"as he really is†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦or naked. She’s obsessed about it (penis envy).But when he stands there naked, he has to kill her (castration anxiety). Creation Know that myths conflict and contradict each other, and the Greeks did not have them in a logical order. One does, through, give a story of creation, which we compare to Genesis from the Bible. Genesis – God is already in existence at the beginning of Genesis, then he creates the universe; the creation order matches the evolutionary order. The climax of the story is when god creates the first man. But then, man complains that he needs a companion, so woman is created. Greek – starts with chaos, which in Greek means â€Å"emptiness† or â€Å"nothing†.So you start with nothing. Then five beings come into existence: * Ge – (pro. ‘gay’) – the earth (feminine; any word that ends in ‘e’ in Greek is feminine) * Tartarus – dark terrible prison located beneath the earth * Eros – passionate love * Erebus – darkness * Night – night Of the five, three are frightening and dark. It’s scary because 90% of human animal information comes from sight, and human animal has poor night vision. So night was scary for primitive humans, because their predators had either excellent night vision or great sense of smell. Night is a time when we’re defenseless.Only one of the five was imagined by Greeks to be in human form. Eros was an adolescent boy. They knew a 16-year-old boy could impregnate more women at that age than at any other time in his life. When Romans took over Eros, they turned him into the five-year-old boy we know as Cupid. Next, Ge gives birth, with no help from a man, to Mountains, Seas and Heavens: Ge does this without the help of any male. It was assumed for a long time that women made babies all on their own, with no help from men. This gave them a position of importance and prominence in society, while the men were unimportant.After all, sex was just for fun, and there was no immediate effect. No one put it together until man learned how to count – that was a bad day for women. They figured out the solar year, then the months, then that 9 months after sex, the baby came along. So it was the man involved after all. And eggs were inside and invisible, while the male secretion was obvious. So it was the man that actually parented the child, the woman was just a carrier. So now men were the most important. So later, Ge needed a husband, since men were necessary after all.She married her son Heaven, or Uranus (Ouranos). Since Uranus was the man and Ge was the woman, Uranus got all the credit. After a long dry spell when the rains came and the land became green again, it was Uranus up in the heavens that fertilized his wife Ge and gave them crops. Also, heaven must be male b ecause he’s on top and above Mother Earth. Primitive people, like children, saw the world in terms of themselves – they thought rain from the sky was male sperm impregnating the earth. Anthropomorphism – the process by which we give human form to things that are not really human.His current example was Barney, but the Greek gods had the same range of emotions (hatred, jealousy) that Greek humans had. This is man making god in man’s image, since it was the only form they knew well. (i. e. marriage of heaven and earth – putting a human occurrence to the supernatural) (True of Greek gods) So we’ve got Ge and Uranus. But Uranus hated his children – he thought they were ugly. So he stuffed each one of them back into the body of Ge (earth). Ge was in pain so she asked the kids inside of her for help, but only Cronus (youngest child) would help her.She got some iron from inside herself and formed a sickle (common instrument with curved blade to cut grain), and gave it to Cronus. Cronus hid in the evening until Uranus came back to sleep with his wife, then Cronus jumped out, grabbed Uranus’ genitals, chopped them off, and threw them into the sea, where they floated. A foam formed around the genitals, and out of that foam came Aphrodite, the goddess of passionate love. (Remember: god of love is Eros) How does Cronus get out? Does he stand on his mother Ge, since she is the earth? Is Uranus the heavens or is he a man with genitals?The Greeks weren’t concerned with realistic details (didn’t think that way) – the more bizarre, irrational and violent the story, the older and more primitive it is. Now, the male is the only real parent, since he provides the visible sperm and the woman is just a carrier. So the male is the head of the family, and a male king rules over all families. So since baby-making was the important part, a castrated male could not be in charge. So Uranus was no longer chief â €“ Cronus, his defeater, became the chief god Once, he became the chief god, Cronus let all of his siblings out of Ge.And he needed to marry so he could make babies. So he married his sister Rhea. They had kids, but Cronus knew from his own experience that kids could endanger his power. So he swallowed each child whole. Rhea was distressed, him swallowing the kids and all, and went to Ge and Uranus for advice. They said to give him a rock wrapped in baby clothes next time, that he’d never know the difference. So she hid the next child, Zeus, and Cronus swallowed a rock instead. Rhea took Zeus to Crete and hid him in a cave to grow up safely away from Cronus.Once grown, Zeus tricked Cronus into spitting up all of his brothers and sisters, and there was a war between Cronus and Rhea’s generation and Zeus’ generation. Cronus’ generation (his brothers and sisters) were called the Titans. Zeus’ people chose Mt. Olympus as their war base, and after w inning, he and his siblings lived on Mt. Olympus (a mountaintop, where primitive Greeks would expect their gods to live). Zeus and crew were called the Olympians. Zeus used lightning bolts as his weapon to lead the Olympians to victory over the Titans, and Zeus took over as god of the universe until the end of mythology.Zeus hurled most of the Titans (his aunts and uncles) down to Tartarus (the deep prison) so that they could never challenge his power. But he couldn’t bring himself to do that to Cronus, his father. Cronus was sent west into exile (traveled west because it was the direction of death), never to return to Greece. Cronus went to Italy and hid there, where he used the Latin name Saturn, which â€Å"Saturday† was named after. (Hiding place of Cronus: Lateo, Latium, Latini). Cronus was still a god and presided over a golden age in Italy.Then we went further west , but the Italians recalled the golden age with a mid-winter festival called Saturnalia, in which the high point was December 25th. On that day, no one worked or went to school, and families exchanged gifts with each other. When the Catholic church took over Rome, the took over existing festival days (smoother transition), and Saturnalia was changed to celebrate the Mass of Christ (Christmas). Generations: Ge & Uranus Cronus & Rhea Zeus & Hera Creating People: The creation of the first man (male) was very unimportant.Myth is not even clear as to who did it. Some versions say Zeus created man out of dirt. Others say Zeus’ cousin Prometheus (son of one of the Titians) created man and had sympathy for humans. But male human life was pathetic and weak and helpless and inferior to animals – humans can only walk better. So Prometheus went to heaven and stole fire and gave it to man. Now, every human had fire for warmth, light and protection. When Zeus found out, he was so angry that he wanted to offset the gift of fire, so he gave man something very terrible – wom an. The creation of woman was a big deal.Hephaestus, the craftsman, constructed the first woman and handed her over to Aphrodite, the goddess of passionate love and the most beautiful. Aphrodite gave woman irresistible beauty and charm, then handed her over to Athena, goddess of wisdom. Athena taught woman important and useful skills, then handed her over to the god Hermes, who among other things is god of the practical joke. Hermes gave woman the character of a thief and the mind of a bitch. Then all of these gods – Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Athena, and Hermes – brought woman before Zeus, who named her â€Å"all gifts†, or Pandora. Zeus had a gift for Pandora – a big jar (not a box!! , ceramic, 4 or 5 feet tall. She asked what was in it, but Zeus refused to answer – just take it with you, he said. Zeus took her and her jar down to earth and the society of men. Prometheus had an earthly brother, Epimetheus. Prometheus means â€Å"forethought†, and thinking before speaking or acting. His brother Epimetheus†¦well, not so much. Afterthought. Prometheus had warned his brother not to accept any gifts from gods, but he took one look at Pandora, she of irresistible beauty and charm, and took her and her jar in. Life was good for a while, but Pandora was so curious about the jar.She’d go and listen to it, shake it, smell it. Finally, one day she opened the seal, and out came all of the ills that we face – sickness, death, disease, pain, famine, drought – only hope was left in the jar, and it remained there when she finally got the lid back on. So, hope was left in the jar – what was â€Å"hope† doing in a jar full of evils? The Greeks were deeply pessimistic and felt that life was hard and cruel, with no â€Å"happy ending†. Note that most myths end unhappily and violent. So to them, hope was the greatest evil of all – hope makes you think none of the evils would happen to you .But the certain future is that we’re all going to die, so the Greek pessimism is based in reality. But hope makes us think that none of that will happen to us. Second Creation – The Great Flood: In the Old Testament, God wipes out horrible man and saves only Noah’s family. God tells him to build an ark, and despite sure ridicule, Noah does. He puts a male and female of each animal on the ark with his family, and survive when the rains come and flood the land. He sends out doves until one returns with an olive branch – a sign of dry land. The ark sets down on Mt. Ararat and Noah and his family reproductively recreate the human race.Every culture has a flood story. Were the Biblical stories made up as the myths were to make sense of the world around them? But there are flood stories all over the world – proof of a great flood? The earth goes through warming and cooling periods – did a warmth come through and melt the glaciers, flooding all in habitable land? Many ancient cities were built in river valleys – at some point or another, every river will challenge its banks and flood, which would create a version of the same story all over the world. So some myths may well be based in reality. The Greek Flood version:Zeus went down to earth disguised as a human to check out human society and found it disgusting, corrupt, evil and treacherous. So Zeus returned to Mt. Olympus and told the other gods that he was going to flood the earth to get rid of the evil human race. The other gods provided an answer to the question â€Å"why does man exist? † If Zeus destroyed all humans, there would be no one left to worship the gods. That are how humans were perceived in greek myth; they were only there to worship the gods. So Zeus goes back and finds a husband/wife worth saving, Deucalion and Pyrrha.They were pious and just – they had the right relationship with the gods and they had right in their dealings with othe r humans. (This parallels Jesus’ two great commandments – love only one god and love thy neighbor). Usually, Greek myth is not concerned with human morality, but here it mattered to Zeus. So Zeus puts Deucalion and Pyrrha in a boat and flooded the land. After the waters subsided, Deucalion and Pyrrha saw that they were the only people left, and they were terrified. Being pious, they prayed to the gods for advice. They were told â€Å"Take the bones of your mother and throw them over your shoulder. You often see strange answers when people talk to gods. This was even weirder because the Greeks prioritized proper burial, so digging up bones didn’t sound appropriate. So Deucalion and Pyrrha tried to figure it out, and came up with ‘mother’ was Ge, Mother Earth. So they threw rocks and stones over their shoulders, and where they landed, the new human race formed. But why did they have to throw it over their shoulder? That parallels Lot and his wife lea ving Sodom and Gomorrah. She looks back over her shoulder after being warned not to, and is turned to a pillar of salt.She wasn’t supposed to see the supernatural. So that’s why they threw ‘bones’ over their shoulders – so they couldn’t see the supernatural event. You can’t watch – you’ll destroy yourself (Zeus destroying Semele) or you cancel out the event. Greek religion was not a monotheism (one god), or a polytheism (many gods), but a form of polytheism, henotheism – belief in one god most powerful, but other gods exist. Zeus is the powerful one here, over other gods and humans. Now, Zeus was sleeping with any woman he could get his hands on – human, goddess, nymph – because his power came from baby-making.Unsentimentally, â€Å"father† is like a dog that sires, just a baby-maker. Morality didn’t matter, Zeus was the great father god up in heaven, a carouser (but that’s due to anthropomorphism as well). So Zeus marries his sister Hera and appoints two of his brothers to control parts of the universe, under his command and authority. Poseidon, god of the sea, and Hades, god of the world of the dead. Zeus has control over heavens and the earth Hera is the goddess of marriage – she understands marriage, she’s not nice or sweet, but cunning and cruel, with sexual jealousy being the worst.Her Latin name is Juno, so June weddings are traditional and girls wanted to marry in her month to gain her blessing. Poseidon – god of the sea – Latin name Neptune, often shown as jolly, but he’s not. Poseidon was associated with horror, sea monsters, tidal waves and earthquakes. He also constantly was having affairs, one with a human girl named Scylla. Poseidon’s wife (no name given) finds out about the affair, waits for Scylla to get in the bathtub, then poisons the water. When Scylla stood up, she had a ring of wolves heads growi ng out of her waist.Poseidon came back to make love to her – no way, wolfie. She begged him to hide her, so he put her in a cave near the edge of the Mediterranean sea, where she waited for sailors to come too close, where she’d capture them and feed them to the wolf heads. Poseidon is an example of gods being more than just gods. Poseidon is god of the sea, but Poseidon also is the sea. The Mediterranean is violent, like Poseidon. Gods always have the character of what they’re god of. Hades is god of the dead. There were no temples built to Hades to honor him with statues and sacrifices.Every human makes his individual sacrifice to Hades by their own death. The earth had three layers – the top layer which Greeks walked on, the land of the dead (underworld), and Tartarus, the deep prison in which the Titans were kept. Dead people go to the underworld. The Greeks believed in immortality of the soul, and that the souls of all people go to these dark, unhapp y caverns for eternity. Odyssey – Homer – told the stories of the travels of Odysseus, who goes to the entrance of the world of the dead and looks in (the west’s oldest account of death).He saw that the ghosts of the dead were transparent, recognizable, and too weak to talk or to touch, and they shrieked like bats. Odysseus kills an animal and drains its blood, which they drink to give them the strength to talk to him. This makes sense – the body rots away when you die, leaving only bones and eventually dust. The Greeks knew to love live, because the afterlife had none of the pleasurable experiences of life in the body. To the Greeks, the afterlife had no place of reward nor punishment – all souls went to the same gloomy place, longing for physical life and the pleasures of the body.Alternatively, Christianity teaches that the pleasures of the soul are better than of the body – that the body is somehow dirty. Gymnasium literally means to tak e off close in the gym. The Greeks, though, praised nudity. They figured that God made the body, so every part of it, down to the armpits, should be considered beautiful. So the Greeks imagined gods in beautiful human forms, thinking there was no form any higher or more beautiful. Cronus & Rhea Hestia —– Hades —– Poseidon —– Demeter —– Hera —– Zeus Hestia is one of the oldest children, the goddess of hearth (fireplace).She is elusive in Greek myth. She just stayed home and kept the fire going – never married, just stayed home. The Temples to Hestia always had fire going for people who needed it. Her Roman name was Vesta, as in Vestal Virgins. No real stories about Hestia. Demeter – Zeus’s sister, goddess of Agriculture; recall that the father is the only real parent, but if the mom/female doesn’t feed and nourish the child, it dies. Therefore, the earth, which provides food to people, i s female. So Demeter is also the goddess of Motherhood. Anthropomorphic form of mother Ge.Demeter’s daughter is Persephone, whose father is unclear, maybe Zeus. The father is irreverent between the mother and child relationship. Demeter completely loved her child (an anthropomorphic transference of emotion). Hades was Persephone’s uncle, but he fell in love with her. Being god of the dead, he knew he could not persuade her to love him, so he opened up the earth, rose up in his chariot, swept her up, and took her back with him to the underworld as the earth closed. So Demeter comes back and can’t find her daughter. She goes nuts. Searched and searched.Finally, the sun, who sees all, tells her that Hades had abducted her. Now, gods cannot interfere with other gods – only Zeus has that power, so she knew there was nothing that she could do, and couldn’t get Persephone back. Demeter disguised herself as an old human woman and went to work for a family with a newborn baby. She transferred the love she had to someone else’s child. She loved the child, and wanted to give the human child a divine gift. So every night, she’d hold him in the fire to make him immortal. One night, the real mother walks in and sees her holding her baby in the fire.She screamed madly and rushed toward Demeter. Demeter became very angry and threw the child on the floor – angry because the fantasy she had built up to battle her own grief had been shattered. Now she had to face the fact that her child Persephone was gone. The family of the baby found out she was a goddess and were very frightened, and built her a temple on that very spot. Demeter walked into the temple and started to grieve. The Earth went barren and would give no fruit, responding to Demeter’s grief. Recall that the goddess of earth IS earth. Without food, people started dying in droves.Eventually, the other gods went to Zeus to get him to do something – if all the people died, there’d be no one to worship them. Zeus sent a messenger to Hades to give it up. Hades stood before Persephone and handed her a pomegranate. She took one bite and handed it back to him. He then took her in his chariot and brought her back up to earth and set her down next to Demeter’s temple. Demeter saw her and was overjoyed, and the earth bloomed and grew. But because she ate part of the pomegranate, she must go back to Hades for part of each year, and during that time, Demeter grieves for her and the earth does not give food.This fits into Muller and nature – it explains the seasons and why food does not grow during certain parts of the year. Putting the story in such human terms made it easy for the Greeks to understand that season. In some societies, a man and woman sharing a meal (the pomegranate), especially in his home, means that they’re married. This is still continued with the bride and groom sharing cake, the oldest part of the modern ceremony. New story: Orpheus was the best musician in the Greek world. â€Å"Orpheum† theatres are still named after him. He was so good that wild animals would come to listen to him, such as the lion in the statue.He played a lyre, a stringed harp-like instrument. Trees would also uproot themselves and move closer to him when he played, and rocks would roll over toward him. This shows the power of music – it has no physical benefit, yet it has a tremendous effect on us. On Orpheus’ wedding day to Eurydice, his bride stepped on a poisonous snake, was bitten, and died. So Orpheus went to Hades and pleaded for him to send his dead wife’s soul back to earth. He brought his lyre, and got ready to play to persuade Hades. Orpheus appeared before the court of Hades and began to sing about how much he missed Eurydice.It was so moving and powerful that even Hades, god of the dead, wept. So Hades allowed the soul of Eurydice to return to earth, but Or pheus was told he must walk back up to earth the way he had come and Eurydice would be sent after him. But – Orpheus could not turn around and look behind him to see if she was indeed following him. Remember, you can’t look at the supernatural, such as the dead coming back to life. So Orpheus starts walking back up the dark, gloomy corridors, excited about getting his Eurydice back. He tries to listen for her behind him – he tries to look peripherally at the walls to detect her shadow moving.He sees nothing, and begins to doubt. After all, the gods had never allowed the dead to come back to life before – maybe Hades had just told him that to get rid of him. He became convinced he would never get his Eurydice back, and grief overtook him. It seemed so simple when Hades agreed, but now he simply could not believe it was true. So he turned around – and there was Eurydice, right behind him, beautiful as ever. But as soon as Orpheus looked, she was snat ched back to the land of the dead – he had cancelled the miracle and had lost her again, but this time it was entirely his own fault!He ran back down to Hades to beg him to let her return, but Hades said he would not grant it a second time. So Orpheus had to return to earth alone. He became a hater of women – not because they had wronged him, but because Orpheus was afraid of getting hurt again. So now he became famous for two reasons – his music and his hatred of women. He was singing in the woods one day, alone he thought, when a group of women came upon him and killed him, tearing him apart. He then joined Eurydice in the underworld.The Greeks made this myth to show that, theoretically, it was possible to survive permanent death in some joy, if you did exactly what the gods or priests said. The Great Greek Gods of Olympia: Aphrodite – name means â€Å"born from the foam†, that being the foam of her father Uranus’ genitals when they were c ast into the sea. Her Roman name is â€Å"Venus†, and she is the Greek goddess of love, being the most beautiful of all gods and goddess. But it’s not hand-holding warm and fuzzy love – it’s uncontrollable sexual desire that makes you crazy and not concerned with the risks or consequences of such passion.Now the Greeks through the powers of the weather came from heaven, that the sea’s power was from the gods, and even the earth can feed or starve – they personify the powers of nature in gods. So why sex? They thought that inside you there are also powerful forces, and Greeks needed to understand why sexual wantonness was so powerful, so there’s a goddess for it. Now since gods are what they represent, Aphrodite is sex – a real slut. Humans are not instinctively monogamous – promiscuity was instinctive, and Aphrodite is the goddess of the promiscuity. She did sleep around a lot, with human and with god.But Aphrodite was m arried to Hephaestus, the god of craftsmen who crafted Pandora. Hephaestus is the only physically imperfect god, having crippled legs. So the only imperfect god is married to the most perfect goddess. The Greeks that only a disabled person would stay inside all day (outside good to Greeks! ) and make things with his hands. Manliness was defined by fighting and hunting, but Hephaestus cannot fight. Now Hephaestus had a brother, Ares (Roman – Mars), the god of war, and because war was hated, Ares was the most hated god, even among the other gods. But he was a perfect physical specimen.As soon as Hephaestus would leave for his shop, Ares would sneak in the back door for a little lovin’ from Aphrodite. Eventually, the sun, who sees all, told Hephaestus about the affair. So Hephaestus made a giant, strong net and concealed it above the bed. The next day after he left for work and Ares came in, the net came down and held them in place, so tightly that they could not even mov e out of their lovemaking position. So Hephaestus comes in, but gods cannot harm one another – so he went out and invited all the other gods and goddesses to come in and take a long look.The goddesses were too modest, but the gods came in. They laughed, pointed, measured, discussed what they would do if they were in Ares position, which many of them probably had been. So there was no physical violence, but lots of laughing and humiliation. Hephaestus freed them, and Ares never entertained Aphrodite again. So sexuality was beyond the Greeks control – that’s why they had to have a god for it. Pygmalion – a rare Greek happily-ever-after myth. Pygmalion (a guy) was a sculptor, but he was very lonely. So he carved a statue of a beautiful woman and eventually fell in love with the statue.So he went to the temple of Aphrodite, made sacrifices, and prayed for the statue to be a real woman. So he gets home, and the statue comes alive. They lived happily ever after . So how does this parallel Greek life? The man who finds the perfect woman is the man who creates her himself. This reflects the frustration that the Greek people had in finding someone to love. This myth was a fantasy – not of coping with reality, but of escaping from it. Cybele – not a Greek myth, but a Near-Eastern legend on which a Greek myth was based, but changed and adjusted, as we’ll see.Most Greek culture was adapted from ancient near east. The story is violent and bizarre. Cybele was the great mother goddess, who was both male and female. She decided that she’d be much better off just being female, so she cut off her male genitalia and threw it away. Where it landed, the first almond tree grew. Along came Nana, a nymph (Greek for â€Å"bride†) – nymphs are half-human and half-divine, they live forever and are always young and beautiful, but they have no god-like power and cannot leave the area where they’re assigned. Nana t ook a white blossom off that first almond tree and put it between her breasts.It disappeared there and she turned up pregnant. She named her son Attis, and he was a perfect example of a young man. So much so that Cybele, mother goddess, fell in love with him. But Attis loved someone else, so Cybele’s love drove him insane until finally he castrated himself and died from the wound. Cybele was so distraught that she asked the other gods to bring him back to life. They agreed, but with the condition that he’d have to be castrated and die every year. The Greek version: Myrrha – Myrrha was a human girl whose only real parent was her father, since her mother died when she was very young.She loved her father dearly and deeply – too much, because she realized that she wanted to sleep with him, even though she knew it was wrong. She eventually became physically lovesick and depressed over it. When the nanny who raised her noticed that Myrrha was sick, she asked wh y. Myrrha tried to hide it, but eventually blurted out the truth. Well, the old woman nanny was only concerned with Myrrha’s happiness, so she went to the father and told him that a young girl in town wanted to sleep with him – but the girl was shy and wanted her identity to be concealed, so there must be no lights.He agreed. So the old woman told Myrrha that she had arranged it, and Myrrha was horrified! She had wanted it, yes, but now that it was possible†¦. Eventually, she decided to go ahead with it. So she started to visit her father repeatedly in his dark room. She got pregnant. In the meantime, the father was getting curious about who his lover was, tried to recognize her around town and couldn’t, so one night he hid a lantern in the cupboard and closed the door. While his lover was in his dark room, he took out the lantern, saw his own daughter, and realized what he had done.He was furious that he had been tricked and tried to kill Myrrha, who praye d to Aphrodite. Aphrodite transformed her into a myrrh tree (which is where the name came from). Myrrh trees give off an aromatic sap that was used in embalming – the symbolism of Jesus getting a gift of myrrh signified that he would die. This myth helps explain why myrrh sap is used in embalming – death is associated with sadness, and the sap is the sad tears of Myrrha. But Aphrodite saved Myrrha’s baby – a boy child named Adonis. Adonis was a perfect young man, and Aphrodite herself fell in love with him.It was a dangerous world, and Aphrodite was concerned about Adonis, but he didn’t care, and he went boar hunting. Boar hunting was very challenging and dangerous because the boars are smart and would hunt their hunters. So boar hunting was done in groups – they’d use dogs to track and corner a boar into a cave. The hunters formed a semicircle around the cave and the dogs would drive the boar out. The plan was that when the boar came out and saw all the hunters, it would freeze for just a second – long enough for the hunters to kill it. But some boars didn’t freeze – they just charged out and killed a hunter or two in the process.Charge – bye Adonis. Aphrodite grieved and asked the gods to bring Adonis back. They agreed, but once a year Adonis would have to be killed by a boar and come back again. Both Attis and Adonis are called ‘resurrection gods’. With a woman loving both of their dead bodies, we saw a statue of how that resembles Mary holding the body of crucified Jesus. A whole religion grew out of Adonis. Now, for a god to fall in love with a human was considered disgusting to the gods, much like a human falling in love with a chicken. But Aphrodite delighted in making gods fall in love with humans for her amusement.So Zeus decreed that Aphrodite would fall in love with the next human she saw. That human was a shepherd named Anchises. It was summer, and in the summ er shepherds worked naked. So she transformed herself into a beautiful human girl and approached him – told him that she was under a spell and the only way to break the spell was for him to sleep with her. Anchises became uneasy†¦he could tell she was a god because 1) gods were tall, where Greeks were short, 2) gods were blonde, where Greeks were dark, and 3) gods smell good, not like meat-eating Greeks who stank.Anchises thought it was too good to be true, but still he agreed. Afterward, he rolled over and went to sleep. Aphrodite didn’t care about him any more – she had conquered and the novelty was gone, so she decided to tell him her real identity. She woke him up and told him and Anchises was filled with terror – thinking she had used him up and that he’d be impotent. She laughed at him and assured him it would still work. So she went back to Olympus, and he, like any other guy, went to the nearby city of Troy and bragged that he had made love to the goddess Aphrodite.Bad move, he should’ve kept quiet. Zeus was angry with him and struck him with a lightning bolt which crippled him. Aphrodite, on the other hand with it being revealed that she had slept with a human, was mocked, ridiculed and humiliated. Test 1 info: Need a sheet of paper 25 short answer questions (fill in the blank) 1 extra credit question (from book) Zeus’ generation was named from ___? Name one of â€Å"Heaven† daughters? Greek name for â€Å"heaven† was Uranus Rhea Who said that myth resolved conflict? Levi struass

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Poetry from Lusophone Africa - Essay Example The writers of Lusophone poetry were persecuted, exiled, or imprisoned. Moreover, they were rejected by Portuguese because of their portrayal of Portuguese rule and the existing war situation. This poetry agitated Africans to rise up for their rights and aimed to eliminate the suffering and supported the rise of reactionary forces (da Silva, 1999). Most writers wrote in their native languages. In the poem Lisbon-1971 by Armenio Vieira, the writer starts off by taking the reader to Portugal. Lisbon is the capital city of Portugal, as well as an alpha city, and the largest airport is Portela. Armenio uses imagery to vividly depict the air that was around the airport that day. During colonial times, Cape Verde was a major trading centre for African slaves. The writer creates an image of the heavy police presence and planes at the airport. His group was the most miserable among all the groups from Africa. He uses symbolism as he refers to the slaves as cattle. Cattle live in poor conditions as they sleep with their dung. Their colour betrayed their racial background and they had been shipped as slaves from Cape Verde. The use a truck and crates symbolize the dirty environment in which the slaves were subjected to and the poor conditions they had to live in (Moser, 33). Moreover, the cold weather added to their suffering, and the inhabitants of Portela were not sympathetic to

Organizational Behavior Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Organizational Behavior - Essay Example This is a particularly interesting subject to discuss due to the fact that it allows the reader and the analyst to see that regardless of the size, scope, or recognizability of the firm in question, key organizational challenges continue to rear their heads and cause problematic situations for the individuals that make up these organizations. It is the hope of this author that such an analysis will be able to identify some of the key moments at which a different outcome could have been realized than the one which the student has already related within their analysis of the organizational issues that transpired. Key Questions: Firstly, with regards to the implementation of the new data management and inventory system, the student did not make any mention of prior training that went into effect prior to the beta test version being release for widespread use within the department. Although this may have merely been an oversight, the fact of the matter is that seeking to implement such a broad and overarching organizational change without first seeking to integrate this with the shareholders in the form of trainings and integration with the knowledge management leadership, such an approach almost guarantees the organizational difficulties that the student has defined within the first sections of the report. Moreover, a secondary issue that springs to mind from a review of the report that the student submitted is the lack of interest that the other employees within the unit expressed with regards to attempting to integrate with and learn the system prior to being led to attend trainings on the topic. Although it is understandable that these employees might not all be proactive in seeking to acquire knowledge that would ultimately make their jobs easier in the long run, the fact that there was no mention of the desire by any of the individuals within the inventory control department to seek to learn the program that ultimately has such a powerful impact upon the efficiency of their primary tasks. The third and final aspect of organizational strategy and management that was of interest within the piece had to do with the fact that the shareholders within upper management within Nokia allowed for the issues to be exhibited for a long period of time (approximately one month) prior to seeking to provide an amelioration to them. This is curious due to the fact that the student notes that the component areas of the firm relied heavily upon the inventory management and control aspects in order to track and fulfill current needs (Wen et al, 2011). One is left to wonder why, if the organization re lied so heavily upon such an aspect of the process, it was left to chance to determine the means whereby the new system would be integrated and understood by the individuals in question. Recommendations: Finally, the reader should attempt to engage an understanding of the different approaches that could have allowed for a more smooth and effortless integration of the new system into the workflow and lives of the individual shareholders in question. With respect to the first one that has been discussed, it is painfully obvious that the organization and the shareholders could have taken a more active role in seeking to integrate with the software package prior to it being forced upon them (Lindberg & Foss, 2011). The discussion that has been integrated within regards to the case of Nokia brings to mind several of the theories of organizational that have been discussed thus far in the course work. Firstly, the butterfly effect theory is fully integrated due to the fact

Explain The ethical Issues when the board of directors must approve Essay

Explain The ethical Issues when the board of directors must approve plans for moving a company production facilities from a stateside location to an overseas location - Essay Example The utilitarian theory manifests its truest self here by discussing the happiness or the lack thereof, with concerns to the people who will lose out on their jobs and finances once the company decides to move its production facilities from a stateside location to an overseas one. The utilitarian theory will judge the exact amount of ethical considerations in line with the undertakings of the organization once it decides to change locations (Cornman, 1992). The utilitarian theory thus emphasizes a great deal on the workers’ understanding of the situation at hand and how they will cope up with the future implications of moving production facilities to an overseas location. The company’s leadership should balance the needs of the workers in line with the organizational goals, mission and vision. No one can take preference over the other and it is the duty of the organizational top management to comprehend how it can mesh the two factors to have a win-win situation at the very end. This will ensure success at all levels, as well as manifest growth and development at all possible levels and towards all workers who seem to miss out on the premise of working for this organization in the

Difficulties and Challenges of Nokia Company Essay

Difficulties and Challenges of Nokia Company - Essay Example From this study it is clear that net cash and value of liquid assets declined by $2 billion year-on-year, while it decreased by $9 billion as compared to the same quarter last year. Moreover, Microsoft assisted Nokia with $250m for "platform support payments", it implies that Nokia's operations have consumed $1.15 billion. According to Henry Blodget, if the situation remains same, Nokia is estimated to go bankrupt within two years. Henry's idea is a bit too extreme because Nokia can convert its assets into cash for recovery. However, once market losses confidence on a company's future, vendors demand payments and customers become hesitant that leads to nothing but crisis. Source: Jean-Louis Gassee, 2012. Huge volume of mobile phone is decreased by 16 percent. Even worse, average selling price (ASP) also declined by 18 percent to $44. In developing countries, Nokia is overtaken by Huawei and ZTE which are marketing smartphoens and feature phones at a very low price. According to the c hart above, Nokia's smartphone ship is also sinking. The volume is -51 percent as compared to the volume in same quarter last year. With $189 ASP, it cannot make give any financial boost since this is the production cost of one unit. However, Nokia is planning to counter them through Asha family of mobiles. Another hope for Nokia is the new Window Phone "smart device". Nokia's latest smatphone, Lumia's performance is also unidentified. This essay declares that another rumor, though well-supported by Mary Jo Foley, an authority on Microsoft, and The Verge, a credible blog, is that existing Lumia phone will not be upgraded to the next OS version, Windows Phone 8.The existing Windows Phone OS is based on the venerable Windows CE kernel. Regardless of veneration, Microsoft would have gone for a modern alternative for Windows Phone 8.It's better be rumor for Nokia because they have already convinced their customers that Symbian-based phones are useless in future. If they deal with Lumia in the same way, future would be even bleak (Gassee, 2012). Considering the rise of Android and iOS, an ex-Microsoft executive said that Nokia is not in the competition for devices but in a battle of ecosystems. Stephen Elop also announced that Nokia is moving from Symbian and Meego software platforms to Microsoft Windows Phone ecosystem. Gruber's source is Jean-Louis Gassee, he points out that Nokia's current devices are using old Symbian S60 stacks, comparatively new Symbian^3 and Symbian^4 engines, and Meego. He criticises Nokia and says how Nokia expects to stay in competition with the likes of Apple, Google, and HP when playing such a disorganized game. This paper outlines that on the other hand, Kotch finds that prevalaing perception that Nokia cannot handle two OS is unrealistic since other companies do it very successfully. The only problem with Nokia is that it is not an American company. He identifies that Nokia has more than two operating systems, for instance, S40 and so me others for cheap features and basic phones. According to Kotch Nokia's problem is not with the OS, but with the execution. While stating that Symbian is a feature, not a bug, Kotch   confirms that it is useless,

Service concept Service concept profiling The SERVQUAL model Essay

Service concept Service concept profiling The SERVQUAL model - Essay Example Global economic developments have transformed traditional relationship between the customer’s clients and suppliers. Emergence of new technologies and communication as well as the establishment of open trading global regimes has resulted in wide customer choice, and creation of alternative supply that is more transparent. Business Enterprises should tailor their products to suit the needs of the customers due to the fact that technology has evolved leading to low cost dissemination of information and customer solutions (Lee, Lee and Yoo, 2000, p.218). These transformations have forced business enterprises to carry out evaluation of the value they present to their clients. The new business environment has also emphasized the need to capture the value for provision of services and new products and in the process ensuring that the need of the customers are adequately met. A well developed business model will ensure the growth of the business enterprise and the absence of a busine ss model will result in the failure of the business, and failed innovation. This aspect is clearly evident in the internet market due to the fact that revenue creation is more perplexing due to customer expectations of free services (Lee, Lee and Yoo, 2000, p.228). Service concept is fundamental in business management. Service concept provides an opportunity for both the client and the supplier to identify their expectation as well as what not to expect from a product or a service. Services that are clearly defined provides the customer with a clear understanding of what the service offers with inclusion of what each service does not offer , for example, service limitations, eligibility, how to make a request for a service, cost and how to get assistance. An elaborate service defines internal procedures that are relevant in the provision and support of the service. So as to conceptualize a service, five key questions must be answered. These include questions on service description ( the type of service and where it can be found), questions that deals with self service and help (how to use the service being provided or how to get assistance), questions that touch on pricing and service cost (what is the price of the service), and finally questions that deals with service support and service delivery. The concept of service ensures that there is an overall accountability in the process of ensuring delivery of services is in accordance to the management life cycle and agreed enterprise requirements. Service profiling concept in business provides data and articulates logic and other proves that illustrates how a business delivers and creates value for its clients. It also describes revenue, profit and costs architecture that is associated with the enterprise that delivers the stated value. Factors related to a good service concept design are interrelated and is fundamental to business strategists questions (how does business enterprise create a sustainable competit ive merit and realize supernormal profits). In summary, service profiling concept in business entails creation and delivery of value and the process of converting value payments into profits. So as to realize innovational profits, business entrepreneurs need to ensure excellence in

Strain Gauges Experiment Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Strain Gauges Experiment - Lab Report Example Wheatstone bridge and amplifier method It must be noted at first that the 3rd method is a recommended on and no actual experiments have been done on it. It has nevertheless been included here because a combination of the Wheatstone bridge and an amplifier is a very efficient method for measuring voltages as the amplifier maximizes it and makes measurement easier. Also occurrence of electrical noise and fluctuations in instrument resolutions can be better revealed by it.Theory & Apparatus In this section of the report the justifications for the three measurement methods as well as circuit diagrams of the three measurement apparatus are provided. Basic current and voltage measurement method: The experimental rig shown in Figure 1 has a cantilever beam with a pair of 120 strain gauges attached one on the upper and one on the lower beam surfaces. The strain-setting device is a bolt with a metric thread. The strain produced at the surface of a deflected cantilever beam varies along its length. Close to the gripping point (where the strain gauges are mounted) it has a maximum value of: (Eq.1) where: - deflection of the end of the beam (max of 45 mm), d - beam thickness (0.8mm in the rig) and L - beam length (250 mm in the rig). Figure 1: The experimental rig. Wheatstone bridge measurement method: The purpose of this experiment is to improve the results obtained in experiment 1 by the previous measurement method by using a Wheatstone bridge (Figure 2) that comprises of four nominally identical 120 strain gauges. Figure 2: Wheatstone bridge Ideally, if the bridge resistors are identical no voltage will be registered at the meter but this is not...It is envisaged that this would be the most efficient method of all. It must be noted at first that the 3rd method is a recommended on and no actual experiments have been done on it. It has nevertheless been included here because a combination of the Wheatstone bridge and an amplifier is a very efficient method for measuring voltages as the amplifier maximizes it and makes measurement easier. Also occurrence of electrical noise and fluctuations in instrument resolutions can be better revealed by it. The experimental rig shown in Figure 1 has a cantilever beam with a pair of 120 strain gauges attached one on the upper and one on the lower beam surfaces. The strain-setting device is a bolt with a metric thread. The purpose of this experiment is to improve the results obtained in experiment 1 by the previous measurement method by using a Wheatstone bridge (Figure 2) that comprises of four nominally identical 120 strain gauges. Ideally, if the bridge resistors are identical no voltage will be registered at the meter but this is not so practically and a small voltage of about 2 mV is detectable. This is because the resistors are not exactly identical. The amplifier needs to be able to amplify differential signals of up to about 3mV and produce an output in the range of about 1V to 5V.

Pericles Funeral Oration (after 490 BCE) from Thucydides, The Essay

Pericles Funeral Oration (after 490 BCE) from Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War - Essay Example Historians and scholarly readers may find this oration packed with clues and information on the culture, government and economy of Athens in Pericles’ era yet its validity raises speculations among others. The eloquence of Pericles’ testimonies, as recorded by the Greek historian Thucydides, could indeed make a reader believe his description of Athens as the real Athens. Pericles described Athenians as people with a sense of pride and a hint of arrogance as he restated their glories through every battle and the gratifying courage and character of each Athenian. He praised their ability to live their life as they wanted both in time of peace and war, and noted that they can still have pleasure and relaxations even in the time of difficulty. Athenians, as he described, acquired homes satiated with beauty and goods from their lands and from other country (Brians par.6). He further boosted the morale of the soldiers and their families as he sang in praises that â€Å"Our enemies have never yet felt our united strength† (Brians, par.7) claiming their military force to be as invincible once fought in union. This strength sterms from education and training instituted from the early ages of the Athenians therefore making them audacious and confident at every peril they may come across. Power, versatility and grace are the forces that embrace each Ath enian’s personality making them a country envied by their neighbors. He further described their government as democratic â€Å"for the administration is in the hands of the many and not of the few† – a picture of a perfect nation in the hands of the people (Brians par.7). It can be noticed that only a few words were dedicated to confer the flaws of Athens such as presence of poverty in their economy and unequal treatment for the women (Brians par.12). Instead it was soaked in positivity and praise. This speech can be a basis for

Hunting and dave Essay Example for Free

Hunting and dave Essay Kutchers Sporting Camp was built in 2009, In Sebec Maine. Dave Kutcher, and his father took hunting trips to Maine traditionally for several years. David , and his father decided they liked it so much that they wanted to build there own hunting camp. Thus, the founding of Kutchers Hunting Camp. The hunting camp provide a guided hunt for each seasonal hunting. This includes: Bear, dear, Duck, Moose, and muzzle loading. The camp ground has 400 acres of private land to hunt on, and 300 accessible acres. There are five cabins. Each cabin could sleep eight people; equipped with it’s own bathroom, and kitchen. Each meal was provided by the staff in the dining area. Breakfast was served at 4:00am, lunch at 11:00am, and dinner or â€Å"supper† at 6:00 pm. Kutchers Sporting Camp’s, was designed in a way to ensure that each person had a comfortable and enjoyable stay. Dave Kutcher ran into some trust issues with his original manager. When the hunting season was over, he went back to his home in New Hampshire. He left the responsibilities of his place into the hand of the wrong person. When he returned he found sixty pot plants growing a mile into his hunting grounds. The building also needed several repairs, from parties that were thrown there. Devastated , and enraged he fired his manager. I was bartending at Wildwoods, when I met Dave and his wife Lorraine. Completely oblivious to whom they were, I treated them with kindness and respect, as I would any costumer. I brought them everything they needed , and engaged in friendly conversation. Wildwoods was packed that night. Chatter, music and just all together noise filled the air. I have , and always had a strong work ethic; So it was normal to me, to pick up the slack on a busy night. Even though I was assigned to just bartend, I was taking out food, taking orders, bussing tables, and cooking. With all this going on, I would still manage to be attentive to my costumers at the bar. When things slowed down, I brought Dave and his wife Lorraine their bill. Lorraine looked up at me as if she was watching a really interesting YouTube video, then she said â€Å"holy cow women, I get tired watching you work†. Then Dave added â€Å"where do you get your work ethic? † feeling comfortable enough with them, after a few hours of serving them drinks, and exchanging jokes, I playfully responded â€Å" oh you know, I do lots of coke†. They instantly laughed then Dave said â€Å"would you like to work for me? † â€Å"Doing what? † , I asked. Then Dave began to tell me -in detail- about his business and the disaster with his pervious manager. what he was looking for in a worker, and the position. When Dave was done explaining, I responded by saying , â€Å"I don’t know, I’ve never held a position with that many responsibilities before†. when I was done explaining all the reasons why I was not fit for the job, Dave smiled and said â€Å"trust me you could handle yourself just fine. † â€Å"plus you’ll make about 1,300 a week† â€Å"were talking green. † He added. Still hesitant, but intrigued greatly by the comment on my weekly earnings there I said â€Å"maybe , that’s sound like a great opportunity , but I just wouldn’t want to mess up. † Lorraine cut in by saying â€Å"why don’t you come by the lodge and just watch for a day, see if you like it then let us know†. We exchanged numbers, and they gave me directions to the lodge. I got back to work, and on they’re way out they shouted to me at the bar, and said† we better see you tomorrow and bring some of that coke, you’ll need it. â€Å" I laughed and told them to have a good night. The next day I got in my car, and drove over Sebec. Sebec is about thirty minutes form where I lived. When I got to Kutchers’, Dave and Lorraine were out side surrounded by about ten or fifteen hunters in bright orange and camouflage outfits. Each of the hunters were equipped with their own riffle. To me looked like a tiny militia gearing up for battle with nature. As I got out of my car, Lorraine separated herself from the group and came up to me and said, â€Å" hey girlie, were glad you came, trust me you’ll do just fine here. † She then yelled to Dave and told him she would be taking me inside for a â€Å"briefing†. She lead me up the stairs to the lodge ,and all I can remember thinking was†¦ wow, if MTV did a north words expose’, this place would be featured. Everything in the lodge was beautiful. Cherry wood finishing all around , all the light fixtures were in different variety’s of antlers. , several genuine leather black seats –which would eventually be know as the fancy chairs- were carefully placed in a square formation, in the foyer. The smell of fire wood and pine filled the air. Lorraine and I made our way to the foyer by the fire. This must be what the other side  looks like. Lorraine Informed me that Dave would be joining us shortly. He had to take the hunters to there quadrants- designated hunting ground- for their afternoon hunt. Lorraine then began to tell me the specifics of my job, or â€Å"jobs† to be correct. I would be in charge of : setting up the cabin rotation chart, incoming client’s , out going client’s, meal coordination, cleaning, inventory, answering phones, payroll for my assistant, hiring an assistant, cooking, costumers needs, and â€Å"most importantly keeping Dave on track† Lorraine added with a laugh. Lorraine was the stand in manager for the time being , but she had to leave to go back to New Hampshire . Dave is as ex-military man, however, he maintained a business savvy facade. He was a very intellectually gifted man, but not self sufficient by any means. His wife Loraine’s’ main concern was leaving him alone. Dave could not cook, clean, or organize well what-so-ever. My boss Dave Kutcher was defiantly my definition of a â€Å"classical male†. He believe women belonged in the kitchen and Men belonged at work. So he could never find these duties â€Å"fitting† for a male. After casual conversation I found myself committing to the job. When Lorraine left everything was up to me, and my assistant. I hired my best friend- Alyssa Gray- to work with me there. Working at Kutcher’s involved staying at the lodge at all times. Literally, I had to live in the staff room. It was a 24/7 job. I woke up at four every morning and worked myself to the last minute of the day. At first everything seemed like a jumble. I had a very long list of things to do each day, and there never seemed to be enough time. My days consisted of the following: Have breakfast cooked and set on table by 4:30 am. Clean up breakfast, check with Dave on the coordinates of each hunter, recorded each hunters locations on the board , re charge dead hand-held communication devices lodge detail-vacuum, dust mop, windows, bathrooms, laundry. Clean: Dave’s room , staff room, kitchen walk way, man cave. check inventory, go shopping for groceries , at 11:00 am cook lunch/clean lunch. cabin rotation- Clean cabin, and restock them. Cook dinner/clean dinner. Briefing with dave, Sleep then wake up and do it again. It was a long three months, but I managed. At one point it became second nature and I was ahead of my own game. I never thought I had the organization skills, or the professionalism to run a place like Kutchers Sporting Camps. This place taught me so much about myself, that I never knew. I have never exposed to this type of demand In a work place. If I never experienced Kutchers’ sporting camp, I would never know just how efficient I can be. This was the culture experience of a life time. Not only did I get to learn management skills or what people did when they hunted, I got to learn how to adapt to what a situation demands. Being able to adapt to what a situation demands a skill that I believe will be useful in many different aspects of my life.

Purpose of a Job Description Essay Example for Free

Purpose of a Job Description Essay The primary purpose of a job description is to identify the duties, essential functions and requirements of the position. Job descriptions also serve several other important functions. A good job description can assess work flow and eliminate duplication of effort and also help to assist in the evaluation of the employees’ job performance. It should be a statement of what duties and responsibilities the employee is expected to complete and a means for achieving them. Job descriptions can also be used as recruitment tools, compensation surveys and other benchmarks tools. Job descriptions are used for different purposes by the employee and the Human Resources Department. Human Resource managers, can use job descriptions for employee training and development and establishing and updating performance standards. In general, a job description includes the title, a description of the tasks performed, and information on working conditions. It can also include any other attributes that the employer requires for that position such as: education, knowledge, skills and personality suitability. (Verma, 2007) Many business challenges such as the introduction of new technology, or increased business competition, can be more easily met when employees are well prepared and trained to have the required skills. The company I work for, for example, informs all the employees with the latest updates within the company by sending a letter. With detailed job descriptions, you can compare the actual tasks of employees to what needs to be done within the organization. This helps you easily identify critical areas that need to be addressed, ensuring you have a global view of your organizations strengths and weaknesses and, at the same time, a detailed view of each employees areas of strengths and areas for improvement or change. In the recruitment process, a job description gives potential employees comprehensive information about the job for which they are applying. An accurate and effective job description filters applicants who are being evaluated for the opening helping generate a higher-quality pool of applicants. It also serves as a resource to the supervisor who is filling a position by helping determine the types of selection tools that should be used when hiring. The Sim-Industries HR department has been in place for 1, 5 years now and they still have not made time to develop job descriptions, because the management did not see this as a priority. The company was in its initial fase and all the employees were expected to be flexible during that period. For example, the finance manager worked in the finance department but was also involved in the human resource department and he was furthermore acting as the PA of the CEO. Currently we have two hundred employees and I believe that it is time to start setting up job descriptions. We need structure and the different kind of functions within the company should be defined. It must be clear what duties a colleague has and what he or she is responsible for within the organization. It will be a lot clearer for new employees to have a job description as they will then have a better understanding what the organization is expecting from them. As I can see now in the organization, many employees do not exactly know what their duties are and who is responsible for what. Therefore I think that we should consider the introduction of another type of management. With for example performance management, we will reach more personal involvement between employees and managers due the fact that the system is based on managing the strategy of the organization. The goals in the organization will be more specific when the managers constantly ask themselves: ‘How are we going to reach that? ’ and ‘Who is responsible for that? ’ When they start using the new system, the strategy will become clearer.

Antisocial Personality Disorder: Causes, Effects, Treatment

Antisocial Personality Disorder: Causes, Effects, Treatment Antisocial Personality Disorder Crystal Fulp Antisocial Personality Disorder Personality disorders affect many people in society, but are understood by few. Personality disorders are defined as a deeply ingrained, maladaptive and specific problem behavior or pattern. Such problem patterns typically manifest themselves by early adolescence and have an impairing impact on the person’s functioning in life with a particular emphasis on the impact that such disorders have on their relationships and quality of life (Comer, 2014). There are a total of ten personality disorders that have been categorized into three distinct clusters. Disorders under the first cluster (cluster A) are said to be odd personality disorders because they cause people to exhibit behaviors that can be seen as â€Å"odd† or â€Å"eccentric†. Disorders listed under the second cluster (cluster B) are said to be dramatic personality disorders because they cause people to exhibit overly dramatic, emotional, or aggressive behaviors. Disorders listed under the final cluster (cl uster C) are said to be anxious personality disorders because they cause people to behave in overly anxious or fearful ways (Comer, 2014). All ten of the personality disorders can be devastating, but the dramatic personality disorders are marked by behaviors that are overly dramatic, emotional, and/or aggressive. The dramatic personality disorders are more commonly diagnosed than any other personality disorder. However, the antisocial personality and borderline personality disorders have gained more attention from researchers because the actions of those diagnosed tend to effect more people (Comer, 2014). The remainder of this discussion will cover the Antisocial Personality Disorder in detail. The disorder will be defined along with the most common symptom configurations, which will lead to a discussion about the historical and current etiological causes of the disorder. The final portion of the discussion will cover treatment modalities. Definition of Disorder Symptom Configuration Antisocial personality disorder is defined as exhibiting a pervasive pattern of behavior where someone disregards and violates the rights of others (APA 2013). This disorder can only be diagnosed if the patient/client exhibits behaviors that satisfy certain criterion. The criterion used to diagnose this disorder is as follows: Source: (APA, 2013) The essential feature of Antisocial Personality Disorder is exhibiting a complete disregard for the rights of others that lead to a violation of the aforementioned rights (APA, 2013). People with Antisocial personality disorder are very deceitful and manipulative. They will go to extravagant lengths in order to control others or get them to do what it is they want them to do. These people also exhibit an inability to plan ahead and a lack a moral conscience. Simply put, these people do not feel remorse if their actions cause any harm or discomfort to other people. They tend to rationalize their behaviors by saying, â€Å"They were stupid for doing that, so they deserved what they got† or something similar (Comer, 2014). People with this disorder may also exhibit consistent irresponsible behaviors such as failing to obtain and keep employment, paying child support, paying off debts, or even appropriately caring for themselves or others (including their own children or spouses). It’s important to note that these behaviors must not be confused with the antisocial behaviors exclusive to schizophrenia or bipolar disorder (APA, 2014). It’s also common for people who suffer from this disorder to be more likely to exhibit criminal behavior than others. In fact, a study found that at least thirty percent of incarcerated individuals exhibit symptoms consistent with Antisocial Personality Disorder (Comer, 2014). They are also much more likely to abuse alcohol or other controlled substances. In fact, people with Antisocial Personality Disorder are much more likely to participate in risky behaviors than the average population (Comer, 2014) Antisocial Personality Disorder: A Case Example It can be hard to imagine what this disorder would look like in the real world. Imagine a twenty-two year old man named Jacob. Jacob is currently serving a five year sentence in a minimum security penitentiary for assault and felony larceny. Jacob has a long disciplinary record both inside and outside of the prison. Since he’s been incarcerated he’s been involved in numerous physical altercations and is known to be irritable and prone to exhibiting aggressive behavior when it’s not appropriate. He’s also been cited for possessing drugs and alcohol inside the prison (Black, 1999; Comer, 2014; Oliviera-Souz et al., 2008). Jacob is being referred to the prison psychologist because of his most recent offense. In the past month he has been found guilty of an assault during which he beat a fellow inmate with a lunch tray. When the psychologist asked Jacob why he reacted that way he said, â€Å"He shouldn’t have been in my way. He got what he deserved.† Jacob didn’t exhibit any guilt or remorse for what he had done. Fallowing this discussion Jacob told the psychologist about his actions as a teenager. Jacob admitted to being involved in criminal activities and consuming alcohol while underage. He also admitted to breaking into places and selling controlled substances. He went on to talk about how he used to hurt animals. When asked if he felt bad about it he responded that he didn’t and viewed it as more of a game than anything else (Black, 1999; Comer, 2014; Oliviera-Souz et al., 2008). Over the next few months, the psychologist notices that Jacob often acts without thinking of the consequences and treats his criminality as a game of wit. He’s also highly irresponsible and lacks a moral conscience as indicated by his past and present crimes. The psychologist concludes that Jacob is exhibiting behaviors consistent with Antisocial Personality Disorder and refers to him to the prison’s treatment program (Black, 1999; Comer, 2014; Oliviera-Souz et al., 2008). Causes of Antisocial Personality Disorder General Information about Causes There doesn’t seem to be a single cause of Antisocial Personality Disorder. In fact, there seem to be many different possibilities presented from many different angles, especially in relations to genetics and certain environmental factors. For the sake of time, this discussion will focus on the behavioral/cognitive and biological perspectives on this disorder. However, it seems important to note that lower socioeconomic status has been correlated with the development of this disorder (APA, 2013). Common Biological Perspectives Genetics plays an important role in the development of Antisocial Personal Disorder. People who had parents who were diagnosed with Antisocial Personality Disorder are much more likely to develop the disorder themselves (APA, 2013). Researchers have also found serotonin levels to be correlated with Antisocial Personality Disorder (Black, 2014). However, this finding really isn’t that surprising when one considers that significantly lower serotonin levels have been found in regards to other psychological disorders such as depression (Comer, 2014). Behavior/Cognitive Causes of Antisocial Personality Disorder There are many possible behavioral causes of Antisocial Personality disorder. However, behavioral researchers believe that there is a correlation between antisocial personality behaviors and modeling. Simply put, these researchers believe that children can learn antisocial behaviors from their parents (Comer, 2014). After all, children learn from watching the people around them and then imitating that behavior (as indicated by Bandura’s Social Learning Theory). Furthermore, researchers have also found a correlation between antisocial behaviors and people who had lived in violent households. It has been found that children who lived in households where violence and aggression was a common occurrence are more likely to exhibit antisocial behaviors than children who didn’t grow up in violent and/aggressive households. Children who lived with parents who abused alcohol and/or controlled substances have also been found to be more likely to exhibit antisocial behaviors (Black , 2014). It’s also important to note that child abuse has been correlated with the development of antisocial personality disorder. Simply put, children who are abused are much more likely to exhibit antisocial behaviors than children who weren’t abused (Black, 2014). This research indicates that parental modeling and disturbed or volatile environments could be connected with the development of Antisocial Personality Disorder. Cognitive theorists point to society’s individualism and egocentrism as a possible cause. People with Antisocial Personality Disorder have attitudes that continually trivialize the needs of others (Elwood et al., 2004). There is an argument among cognitive researchers that these attitudes are much more prevalent in society than people believe them to be (Comer, 2014). Differential Diagnosis Considerations for Antisocial Personality Disorder Personality Traits People with Antisocial Personality Disorder exhibit very specific personality traits. These personality traits serve to help them achieve their ends at whatever cost as they are only concerned with their own wants/needs. People with this disorder have been known to exhibit a complete lack of empathy (APA, 2013). They may also be callous and cynical. People with this disorder may also have an inflated or arrogant self appraisal along with being cocky and opinionated. These people tend to have a superficial charm that draws people and can appear to be very intelligent and informed to others (APA, 2013) Ages and Populations Effected In order to be diagnosed with Antisocial Personality Disorder one must be at least eighteen years of age, however, antisocial behaviors consistent with conduct disorders must be present prior to fifteen years of age. Antisocial behaviors consistent with conducts disorders include aggression towards people or animals, theft, deceitfulness, destruction of property, or rule violations (APA, 2013). These behaviors violate the social norms of adolescence’s aged fifteen and under and as such a history of such behaviors is required to diagnose someone with Antisocial Personality Disorder. This disorder typically develops by late adolescence or early adulthood. One interesting phenomena related to this disorder is that the symptoms usually even out by forty years of age. That would mean that this disorder begins to develop in one’s adolescence, peek in their mid-twenties and thirties, and decrease in intensity by age forty. It’s also important to note that men are much m ore likely to be diagnosed with this disorder than women (APA, 2013). Dual Diagnosis Patterns Diagnosing Antisocial Personality Disorder can be very tricky under the best circumstances. A diagnosis is only given to someone who is at least eighteen years of age and has a history of behaviors indicative of conduct disorders. In the event that an adult doesn’t meet the criteria to be diagnosed with Antisocial Personality Disorder they may be diagnosed with a conduct disorder (APA, 2013). Diagnosing this disorder is made even more difficult when substance abuse is involved. In these cases, a diagnosis is only given if there is a history of antisocial behaviors in the client/patient’s adolescence and childhood. If both the substance abuse and the antisocial personality behaviors existed together in childhood then it’s necessary to evaluate the client/patient for both substance abuse disorder and antisocial personality disorder (APA, 2013). Clinicians should also keep in mind that the features of Antisocial Personality Disorder are similar to that of Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder. This diagnosis can only be given if the antisocial behaviors aren’t exclusive to either schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. To that end, the criterion for this disorder can be easily confused with other disorders, so it’s important to pay close attention to the patient’s history (or lack thereof) of antisocial behaviors (APA, 2013). Treatment Modalities for Antisocial Personality Disorder Treating personality disorders can be very difficult to do. In relation to Antisocial Personality Disorder the available treatments range from being completely ineffective to only moderately effective, this doesn’t result in an overly positive prognosis (Comer, 2014). There are currently three treatments available for this disorder. One form of treatment is medications. Certain therapies have also been shown to be somewhat effective in treating this disorder, specifically cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) and psychotherapy (Comer, 2014). Using medications to treat any psychological disorder is a trial and error process at best. Using psychotropic drugs to treat Antisocial Personality Disorder is no different. At this point, the Food and Drug Administration (ADA) has not approved any drug to be used to treat this disorder specifically (Mayo Clinic, 2013). However, psychiatrists have found that some drugs can help alleviate the symptoms of this disorder. These drugs tend to be the atypical (newer) antipsychotic drugs. These drugs have been found to be moderately effective in some clients/patients (Comer, 2014). Psychotherapy, otherwise known as talk therapy can also be used to help treat this disorder; however, this treatment approach isn’t effective in all situation and patients/clients. In fact, this treatment approach will only be effective if the patient/client realizes and/or admits that they contribute to their own problems. This type of therapy can be administered in a clinical one-on-one setting or in a group setting (Mayo Clinic, 2013). Cognitive-Behavior Therapy (CBT) has been shown to be moderately effective in the treatment of Antisocial Personality Disorder (Hoermann, Zupannick, Dombeck, 2014). Cognitive/behavior theorists argue that the only way to change dysfunctional behavior is to change the dysfunctional thought behind it. After all, according to cognitive-behavior theories one’s cognitions lead to their behaviors be them good or bad. CBT not only focuses on changing dysfunctional thoughts, but it also seeks to challenge the dysfunctional core beliefs underlying their dysfunctional thought patterns (Hoermann, Zupannick, Dombeck, 2014). CBT therapists work with people on accurately interpreting the world around them and then changing or redirecting dysfunctional thought patterns (Hoermann, Zupannick, Dombeck, 2014). For people with Antisocial Personality Disorder, CBT would involve trying to help these patients/clients develop impulse control and a moral conscience (Comer, 2014). The problem with treating this disorder is that the people who have it aren’t very likely to seek treatment out for themselves because they don’t see their behavior as a problem (Comer, 2014). In fact, most people with this disorder that are in treatment originally went to see a mental health professional for a different reason entirely. There are also a large number of people with this disorder who don’t receive treatment until forced to by the criminal justice system as a part of their probation/parole or incarceration programs (Comer, 2014). Antisocial Personality Disorder Construct Antisocial Personality Disorder is one of the most commonly researched personality disorders, but there is still much to be discovered (Comer, 2014). For instance, the DSM-V states that the symptoms of this disorder tend to level out by forty years of age (APA, 2013). Why does that occur? Do certain neurochemicals, such as serotonin behave differently by age forty? The DSM-V also states that the criminality present in those with this disorder can sometimes be confused with â€Å"normal† criminal behavior (criminal behavior not associated with this disorder specifically). Other than the criterion listed, what criterion can clinicians use to help differentiate the two? This may be my own point of view only, but the criterion used to diagnose this disorder seems convoluted and easily confused with the criterion for other mental disorders (APA, 2013). Conclusion Antisocial Personality Disorder is a very serious personality disorder that can have devastating consequences for those who have it. This disorder makes it hard to do basic things, such as form and maintain healthy relationships and stay within the boundaries of both society and the law (APA, 2014). Unfortunately, most people don’t realize that it’s a problem until they are either incarcerated or forced into treatment by judges. Even then most people don’t consider it to be a problem and the disorder in general is made difficult to treat because of the personality traits and attitudes of the people who have it (Comer, 2014). What is clear is that more research needs to be done in the hope that further research can uncover a more suitable treatment method that will greatly increase the quality of life for people who have this disorder. References American Psychiatric Association, American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-5. Washington, D.C: American Psychiatric Association. Black,D.W., Larson,C.L. (1999). Bad boys, bad men: Confronting antisocial personality disorder. New York: Oxford University Press. Black,D. (2014). What Causes Antisocial Personality Disorder? RetrievedApril15, 2014, from http://psychcentral.com/lib/what-causes-antisocial-personality-disorder/000652 Comer,R.J. (2014). Abnormal psychology. New York, NY: Worth Pub. Elwood,C.E., Poythress,N.G., Douglas,K.S. (2004). Evaluation of the Hare P-SCAN in a non-clinical population. Personality and Individual Differences. doi:10.1016/S0191-8869(03)00156-9 Hoermann,S., Zupannick,C., Dombeck,M. (2005). Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Personality Disorders (CBT). RetrievedApril15, 2014, from http://sevencounties.org/poc/view_doc.php?type=docid=41578cn=8 Mayo Clinic (2013, April 12). Antisocial personality disorder Treatments and drugs. RetrievedApril15, 2014, from http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/antisocial-personality-disorder/basics/treatment/con-20027920 Oliveira-Souza,R.D., Moll,J., Ignà ¡cio,F.A., Hare,R.D. (2008). Psychopathy in a Civil Psychiatric Outpatient Sample. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 35(4). doi:10.1177/0093854807310853