My Baptism Essay

The Sacrament of Baptism is often called â€Å"The door of the Church,† because it is the first of the seven sacraments not only in time (since most Catholics receive it as infants) but in priority, since the reception of the other sacraments depends on it. It is the first of the three Sacraments of Initiation, the other two being the Sacrament of Confirmation and the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Once baptized, a person becomes a member of the Church. Traditionally, the rite (or ceremony) of baptism was held outside the doors of the main part of the church, to signify this fact. The Necessity of Baptism: Christ Himself ordered His disciples to preach the Gospel to all nations and to baptize those who accept the message of the Gospel. In His encounter with Nicodemus (John 3:1-21), Christ made it clear that baptism was necessary for salvation: â€Å"Amen, amen I say to thee, unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. † For Catholics, the sacrament is not a mere formality; it is the very mark of a Christian, because it brings us into new life in Christ. Baptism of Desire: That doesn’t mean that only those who have been formally baptized can be saved. From very early on, the Church recognized that there are two other types of baptism besides the baptism of water. The baptism of desire applies both to those who, while wishing to be baptized, die before receiving the sacrament and â€Å"Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do His will as they know it through the dictates of conscience† (Constitution on the Church, Second Vatican Council). Baptism of Blood: The baptism of blood is similar to the baptism of desire. It refers to the martyrdom of those believers who were killed for the faith before they had a chance to be baptized. This was a common occurrence in the early centuries of the Church, but also in later times in missionary lands. The baptism of blood has the same effects as the baptism of water. The Form of the Sacrament of Baptism: While the Church has an extended rite of Baptism which is normally celebrated, which includes roles for both parents and godparents, the essentials of that rite are two: the pouring of water over the head of the person to be baptized (or the immersion of the person in water); and the words â€Å"I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. † The Minister of the Sacrament of Baptism: Since the form of baptism requires just the water and the words, the sacrament, like the Sacrament of Marriage, does not require a priest; any baptized person can baptize another. In fact, when the life of a person is in danger, even a non-baptized person—including someone who does not himself believe in Christ—can baptize, provided that the person performing the baptism follows the form of baptism and intends, by the baptism, to do what the Church does—in other words, to bring the person being baptized into the fullness of the Church. Infant Baptism: In the Catholic Church today, baptism is most commonly administered to infants. While some other Christians strenuously object to infant baptism, believing that baptism requires assent on the part of the person being baptized, the Eastern Orthodox, Anglicans, Lutherans, and other mainline Protestants also practice infant baptism, and there is evidence that it was practiced from the earliest days of the Church. Since baptism removes both the guilt and the punishment due to Original Sin, delaying baptism until a child can understand the sacrament may put the child’s salvation in danger, should he die un-baptized. Adult Baptism: Adult converts to Catholicism also receive the sacrament, unless they have already received a Christian baptism. (If there is any doubt about whether an adult has already been baptized, the priest will perform a conditional baptism. ) A person can only be baptized once as a Christian—if, say, he was baptized as a Lutheran, he cannot be rebaptized when he converts to Catholicism. While an adult can be baptized after proper instruction in the Faith, adult baptism normally occurs today as part of the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) and is immediately followed by Confirmation and Communion. The Effects of the Sacrament of Baptism: Baptism has six primary effects, which are all supernatural graces: 1. The removal of the guilt of both Original Sin (the sin imparted to all mankind by the Fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden) and personal sin (the sins that we have committed ourselves). 2. The remission of all punishment that we owe because of sin, both temporal (in this world and in Purgatory) and eternal (the punishment that we would suffer in hell). 3. The infusion of grace in the form of sanctifying grace (the life of God within us); the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit; and the three theological virtues. 4. Becoming a part of Christ. 5. Becoming a part of the Church, which is the Mystical Body of Christ on earth. 6. Enabling participation in the sacraments, the priesthood of all believers, and the growth in grace. Question: What is Baptism? Christian denominations differ widely on their teachings about baptism. Some believe baptism accomplishes the washing away of sin. Others consider baptism a form of exorcism from evil spirits. Still others teach that baptism is an important step of obedience in the believer’s life, yet only an acknowledgment of the salvation experience already accomplished – baptism itself has no power to cleanse or save from sin. The following takes a look at the latter perspective called â€Å"Believer’s Baptism:† Answer: A general definition for the word baptism is â€Å"a rite of washing with water as a sign of religious purification and consecration. † This rite was practiced frequently in the Old Testament. It signified purity or cleansing from sin and devotion to God. Since baptism was first instituted in the Old Testament many have practiced it as a tradition yet have not fully understood its significance and meaning. In the New Testament, the significance of baptism is seen more clearly. John the Baptist was sent by God to spread the news of the coming Messiah—Jesus Christ. John was directed by God (John 1:33) to baptize those who accepted his message. John’s baptizing is called â€Å"a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. † Mark 1:4 (NIV). Those baptized by John acknowledged their sins and professed their faith that through the coming Messiah they would be forgiven. Baptism then is significant in that it represents the forgiveness and cleansing from sin that comes through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Purpose of Baptism: Water Baptism identifies the believer with the Godhead – Father, Son & Holy Spirit. â€Å"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. † Matthew 28:19 (NIV) †¢Water Baptism identifies the believer with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. â€Å"When you came to Christ, you were â€Å"circumcised,â €  but not by a physical procedure. It was a spiritual procedure–the cutting away of your sinful nature. For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to a new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead. † Colossians 2:11-12 (NLT) â€Å"We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. † Romans 6:4 (NIV) †¢Water Baptism is an act of obedience for the believer. It should be preceded by repentance, which simply means â€Å"change. † It is turning from our sin and selfishness to serve the Lord. It means placing our pride, our past and all of our possessions before the Lord. It is giving the control of our lives over to Him. â€Å"Peter replied, ‘Each of you must turn from your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ‘ Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church–about three thousand in all. † Acts 2:38, 41 (NLT) †¢Water Baptism is a public testimony – the outward confession of an inward experience. In baptism, we stand before witnesses confessing our identification with the Lord. †¢Water Baptism is a picture representing profound spiritual truth: Death – â€Å"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. † Galatians 2:20 (NIV) Resurrection – â€Å"We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection. † Romans 6:4-5 (NIV) â€Å"He died once to defeat sin, and now he lives for the glory of God. So you should consider yourselves dead to sin and able to live for the glory of God through Christ Jesus. Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to its lustful desires. Do not let any part of your body become a tool of wickedness, to be used for sinning. Instead, give yourselves completely to God since you have been given new life. And use your whole body as a tool to do what is right for the glory of God. † Romans 6:10-13 (NLT) Cleansing – â€Å"And this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also – not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. † I Peter 3:21 (NIV) â€Å"But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. † I Corinthians 6:11 (NIV) Questions On Baptism Friday, October 10, 2003 Home Greetings! Initiation of a non-Christian into the Roman Catholic Church is celebrated in a Rite called â€Å"baptism†. In this rite, a person is either immersed in water, or sprinkled with water by another Christian who says, â€Å"I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. What makes a baptism valid? Baptism is valid so long as water was used with the Trinitarian formula (See Mt 28:19 for the Trinitarian formula, and John 3:5 for the necessity of water). In an emergency, even tears or saliva could be used where running water is not present. Catholics believe that all people who have received water baptism in the Trinitarian formula are mysteriousl y united to the Church, and indwelt with the grace of Jesus Christ. What is grace? Grace is God’s favor, and more than this, it is the very life of God within a person through the Holy Spirit. With grace, three dispositions, or virtues are infused in the soul: faith, hope and love. God cannot co-exist with sin, and when we turn away from God, we can sin so badly as to cut off this flow of divine life within us. Catholics call this â€Å"mortal sin†, referring to the notion of deadly sin we find in 1 John 5:17. Yet, even when we sin mortally, the Council of Trent states that faith lingers in the soul to draw us back to Christ. Only blasphemy of the Holy Spirit – an ongoing and deliberate rejection of the free gift of grace – can damn us. We can trust teh one who started the work of salvation in us through baptism to bring it to completion. Is Baptism necessary for salvation? The Second Vatican Council affirms that the grace of baptism is necessary for salvation. Yet, the Council speaks of salvation outside, but not apart from the Church. Catholics believe that the grace of baptism is given through the rite itself, but is also provided to those who, through no fault of their own, have either never heard the Gospel, or heard the Gospel in a distorted manner so that they were unable to accept it. Many theologians (myself included) argue that anyone who has not actively rejected the Gospel as properly understood may be under the saving grace of baptismal grace. The Church has always maintained that the Old Testament prophets are counted among the saints in heaven. The Council of Trent affirmed that even prior to baptism, a grace called prevenient grace draws a person to baptism. Furthermore, the Church always taught that there is such a thing as baptism by desire. Traditionally, baptism of desire was used to refer to martyrs who were murdered while preparing for the rite of baptism. These various doctrines have lead theologians to the conclusion that there is saving grace available without strictly receiving water baptism. Yet, for a believer in Jesus Christ, it would make no sense to reject water baptism, since Christ himself was baptized and taught his disciples to baptize. In the early church, baptism was a public witness to becoming a Christian, and often a person was placing their life on the line by receiving the sacrament. To reject water baptism and claim to believe in Jesus is a contradiction, and in this sense, baptism is necessary for all believers. However, knowing that prevenient grace draws the sinner to the sacrament, many theologians today argue that there are two types of saving faith, and one depends on the other. Primordial faith is a trust in a vague and fuzzy awareness of divine holy mystery and openess to transcendant experience that goes beyond language. This faith is what begins the salvation process in us, and it is this grace that is spoken of when we say the grace of baptism is necessary for salvation. Many theologians since Karl Rahner argue that we are all born with the gift of such grace, even as we are all effected by original sin. If we respond to this grace, we seek language to describe the experience, and primordial faith is then translated into fiducial faith, which is the belief in a particular creed, doctrine, and set of religious practices. For the Catholic Christian, fiducial faith expresses itself and becomes actualized in cooperation with Christ through the sacraments. However, the non-Catholic may very well be saved by fiducial faith expressing primordial faith in a different cultural context. Who performs a baptism? Typically, a baptism is performed by a priests, but in an emergency, any Christian who has already received baptism can perform the rite. Catholics recognize the baptisms of other Christian demonimations as valid, so long as water was used, and the Trinitarian formula was followed. Catholics consider the rite of baptism to be a sacrament. Sacraments are outward signs of internal grace instituted by Christ and preserved in the Apostolic tradition. Catholics believe that Christ, himself, acts in each sacrament, so that even if a sacramental rite is performed by the worst sinner, the sacrament is valid. How often can baptism be received? Because it is the first step of initiation, baptism is only received one time in life, and Catholics do not believe anyone who has received a valid baptism needs to repeat it, even if the rite was performed before a person was fully mature, or the rite was by an imperfect person, or in a manner that was hasty or sloppy. Indeed, Catholics see it as a lack of faith to repeat baptism. At the same time, Catholics do bless themselves with holy water as they enter a church as a constant reminder of baptism. What are the effects of baptism? Perhaps the effects of baptism are best understood by looking at the symbolic meaning of the rite. Water is a natural symbol of birth, life, and cleanliness. It symbolizes birth as a mother’s water is broken. It symbolizes life as we need it for nourishment. It symbolizes cleanliness as we bathe daily with water. Water also symbolizes death, as we can drown in water. In Judaism, ritual baths and purifications symbolized that we were making ourselves presentable to God, the most high and most holy and pure being of all. According to the New Testament, the baptism of John, who preceded Jesus was a baptism of repentance. The word for repentance in Greek means conversion, and is rooted in the notion of turning a stiff neck. John seemed to use water baptism as a symbolic action to convey the notion of the hope to one day be immersed in the Spirit to be cleansed from sin to live a new life. John’s preaching was eschatological and forward looking, and painted a picture of cosmic conflict between good and evil. John’s baptism looked for the day when the Spirit would be poured forth like a river on the people to produce a change of heart. Jesus received the baptism of John, and many Bible scholars point to this incidence as evidence of a historical person named Jesus. According to the criteria of embarrassment, the early church would have no reason to invent this encounter, since the action implies John is greater than Jesus and that Jesus needed to repent. Many believers in Christianity are raised to believe that Jesus was baptized by John in order to provide us an example. However, this oversimplifies the issue, and implies that Jesus was play acting. Even a perfect person can and would have turning points in life if that person is fully human. A conversion experience does not always involve turning from sin to virtue. Rather, like a moth becoming a butterfly, a conversion experience can be growth from one stage of human development to another. The New Testament is clear that Jesus grew as a human person (See Luke 2:40). By receiving the baptism of John, Jesus reveals that he has fully entered the human condition. Like us, in his humanity, he longed to be immersed in the Holy Spirit and to grow and change. John preached that there would be one who come after him who would baptize with fire and Spirit. Having received the baptism of John, the growth or conversion that Jesus displayed was to begin to live as though the fullness of God’s reign was breaking into our world here and now, already present, but not fully present yet! There is some evidence in the New Testament that Jesus continued the ministry of baptism after John, and may have even rivaled John for a period (See John 4:1). However, where John was an ascetic preaching hell-fire and brimstone, Jesus preached that the reign of God was breaking in through mercy upon the marignalized. It is not that Jesus made no mention of hell. However, when he does mention hell, it is always in the context of the rigidly unforgiving, or those who commit heinous sins that hurt other people. For Jesus, it appears that baptism was transformed from a symbolic act that looked forward to a day of immersion in the Spirit, to a symbolic rite that made the Spirit present. In Jesus and his disciples, baptism truly became a rite of initiation for those who choose in the here and now to live in the reign of god breaking into our reality. By accepting the baptism of Jesus, one was chosing to live here and now as though God is your only king, and to trive for perfection. After the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, baptism took on new meaning. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Saint Paul called baptism an immersion in the death and resurrection of the Lord (See Romans 6:4 and Colossians 2:12). The author of 1 Peter refers to baptism as a cleansing. With Saint Augustine int he fourth century, the emphasis on the notion of bap tism as cleansing became critical in his debates with a monk named Pelegius. Pelegius believed that Christ saved us by offerring an example of perfection that we chose to follow by our own inherent goodness. Those who rejected Christ and refuse to imitate him are simply evil. Pelegius taught a crass works righteousness. Augustine, profoundly aware of his own sinfulness, countered that he could not even want to follow Christ if God had not given him the gift to desire Christ. Augustine, relying on Saint Paul, believed that we are saved by grace, and that grace enables us to imitate Christ. Augustine developed the concept of original sin to explain what he felt Paul was saying when Paul says all people are sinners due to Adam’s sin (see Romans 5:12). Augustine argued that grace is a completely free gift given to us while we are sinners, and through the gift, we are made righteous, with baptism symbolizing cleanliness and new birth. As a demonstration that he was interpreting the Scriptures correctly, Augustine wrote to Pelegius appealing to common tradition asking if what he was saying were not true, why does the Church baptize infants? So, the effect of baptism is that we die to our sinful selves to rise with him. Grace, the very life of Christ, is infused in the soul by the one who lives today! This new life is experienced as rebirth in water and Spirit. We are immersed int eh Holy Spirit so that live as sons of daughters of the great King of the universe, whose reign of peace and justice is breaking into the world through Christ acting in us. Why do Catholics baptize infants? Acts 10 speaks of the entire family of Cornelius, and the whole household, including his servants, receiving Peter and the Apostles to eventually become baptized. Catholics believe that the episode indicates the possibility that children were baptized within the New Testament period, since it is likely that Cornelius had children. Yet, there is no direct and unquestionable proof that infants were baptized in the New Testament. Many Protestant Christians argue that the symbolism of conversion and change is lost by performing baptism on infants, and that such batisms should be considered invalid. Catholics believe that in the early church, adult baptism was the norm as the Church reached out to new members. However, we saw above that Saint Augustine argued against the works righteousness of Pelegius by appealing to the already wide-spread and ancient tradition of infant baptism. Infant baptism may or may not not perfectly allow the recipient to experience grace as conversion. Yet, Catholics accept in faith that conversion is occurring even in the infant. For many Catholics, infant baptism is a response of gratitude to God for a child, and a celebration of birth. Parents naturally want to share their faith and culture with their children. As a rite of intitiation, baptism knits a person into that web of relationships that forms the Church – the Body of Christ. What Christian parent would not seek to have their child knit into this web of relationships? On a deeper theological level, Catholics speak of a real transformation taking place in the infant where all guilt of original sin is removed, and grace is infused in the soul conforming the child to Christ. Through baptism, a person is born again, and the effects of the sacraments last eternally! By offering the rite to an infant, we are emphasizing that grace is an absolutely free gift, not even earned by our desire for conversion or our intellectual undertsanding of what we receive. This may confuse many Protestants, who believe that Catholics teach works righteousness. The Catholic Church holds as infallible, according to Scripture, the local council of Orange, and the Ecumenical Council of Trent that salvation is by grace alone. However, Catholics believe that with new birth comes growth, and that with baptism, Christ’s life life is infused inthe soul to produce faith and works. Faith without works cannot save, and works without faith cannot save. Yet, the whole process of salvation is initiated as a free gift of Christ. See my essay Justification: Protestant or Catholic for more detail on this subject. In the New Testament, Paul speaks of laying hands on people after baptism, and James speaks of annointing people. The word â€Å"Christ† literally means â€Å"annointed†. Catholics generally believe that in the sacrament of confirmation (laying on of hands and annointing), a person is confirmed in the faith. This second sacrament completes initiation in the Catholic Church and is closely connected theologically to baptism, though separated by years in time for many Catholics. Adult converts receive the two sacraments together. This is usually done in young adulthood, and provides an opportunity for a similar experience to Protestant young adult conversion at baptism. Why do Catholics use the Trinitarian formula, and not the name of Jesus Personally, I am not sure that God considers the name of Jesus alone as an invalid baptism. However, there are denominations and churches separated from Rome who baptize in the name of Jesus only because they reject the doctrine of the Trinity. We saw above that the Trinitarian formula for baptism is Scriptural in Matthew 28:19. We know from early Church writings that the Trinitarian formula was used from most ancient times, and the doctrine was accepted as the correct interpretation of scripture by the world-wide Church at several Ecumneical Councils. Thus, Catholics believe that the Trinitarian formula is revealed through Scripture and Sacred Tradition to be a if not the correct way to do baptism. Since the issue arose late historically, and was clear attempt to break the unity of the Church, Catholics do require a new baptism for those who join s from a community that did not use the Trinitarian formula. Why do Catholics sprinkle instead of immersing? Immersion is the proper way to do baptism to convey the full symbolism of the sacrament. Sprinkling in the early church was only used for emergencies, such as impending death. As the Church expanded into Northern Europe, it is highly probable that cold weather caused Christians to turn more often to sprinkling. Irish missionaries may have carried the practic e back southward. The Church defends that baptism by sprinkling is valid. At teh same time, Vatican II called for a renewal and retrieval of the meaning of sacramental gestures so that the fullness of what was conveyed in the New Testament is mediated in the signs. I have seen more and more Catholic churches building baptismal fonts large enought to immerse an adult. In the future, I expect immersion to once again become the norm. One final point When John began baptizing, he warned his Jewish siblings that God could make children of Abraham from the stones. Receiving his baptism of repentence was useless if one was not changed by it. God always respects our freedom, and we are always free to reject and act against the grace that is given us. We do this when we sin. Catholics believe that God initiates the salvation as an absolutely free and unmerited gift that can start in an infant. Catholics believe that Christ acts in the sacrament, so that we can never say that baptism does not have an effect. Christ promised to act in every valid baptism. Even Adolf Hitler (who was baptized Catholic) was changed by the sacrament. (Think how much worse he may have been if his life were never touched by grace! Yet, knowing that every baptism has an effect on the recipient, and trusting individually that the One who died for me and began a work for me in baptism wants to bring it to completion, I must respond to him! John’s warning to the children of Abraham is still true for Christians. We must, by God’s continued outpouring of grace, receive the Lordship of Christ and allow his will to shape our lives and contin ually change us. While baptism always has an effect, not everyone who has been bapized is absolutely assured slavation.

Billy Beane: Changing the Game Essay

1. Based on the â€Å"Billy Beane: Changing the Game† case, explain how and why the Oakland A’s economic situation after 1995 shaped its: a) Compensation Strategies In the world of major league baseball, Oaklands A’s defied the laws of baseball economics. The team spent only $34 million (the 2nd lowest payroll) had won 102 games and lost only 60 in 2001. On top of this, they finished first in their division and made the playoffs. Major baseball teams would hire high school players than college players. This made high school players costly. Oaklands A’s strategy is to hire College players to save on resources. They argued that college players have already gained substantial exposure and competition. Beane would recruit new drafts and sign them for less than the going rate. Because of budget constraints, Oaklands A’s had to trade its top pitchers in exchange with the younger, much less expensive pitchers to try to remain within budget. Another interesting case for Oaklands A’s is the recruitment of Scott Hatteberg. Hatteberg played six years with the Boston Red Sox. He got injured and lacked the prowess in throwing the ball effectively. He was, according to Boston Red Sox, a lame player and did not sign him up again. With this, Hattenberg’s monetary value diminished and that is why Oaklands A’s recruited him at a much lower salary (because there are no other takers). Unknown to the other baseball teams, Hattenberg is the missing puzzle in A’s team. Oaklands A’s noted that Hattenberg has an uncanny knack for getting on-base. b) Staffing (recruiting, selection, and retention strategies) strategies Oaklands A’s staffing strategies was based on sabermetrics. Sabermetrics is a systematic, statistical approach in evaluating teams and players. Based on this science it was found out that the basis for judging the performance of the player should on-base percentage. A’s recruitment would prioritize college players than high school players. This is due to the fact that college players have already played more games against better competition. Bean is convince with the fact that â€Å"a young player is not what he looks like, or what he might become, but what he has done. The bottomline is what the player has produced in college. Bean and DePodesta believed that they could forecast future performance of college players more effectively than high school ones.  Another staffing strategy is the case of Scott Hatteberg. Hatteberg plays with the Boston Rex Sox. He was injured and was never signed up by Sox. Oaklands A’s did not waste time and hired Hatteberged. A’s has done this because Hatterberg’s has an on-base scoring record. According to A’s, Hatteberg filled up what is missing in the team. c) Training and development strategies Batting average was the norm adopted by other baseball teams. But training for Oakland was focused on the player’s ability to obtain on-base scoring. The team relied more on selecting players by their on-base percentages. According to Sabermetrics model, teams always win with players having attained high on-base percentages. Oakland’s Training and development strategies embraced on-base percentage as a philosophy for the entire Oakland organization. This system was the star. Each minor league team in the Oakland system began to lead it league in walks, and resulted to higher on-base percentage. 2. Explain how the compensation, staffing, and training strategies were aligned or integrated with each other to create an overall HR strategy for the Oakland A’s organization. Compensation was based on the value of the player. Since most baseball teams would recruit high school players, Oakland A’s would seek out college players. The higher demand for high school players lead to lower compensation rates for college players. Oakland would then hire college players to minimize cost. Training was based on the on-base performance. These requisites are fully integrated by Oakland A’s to match meager budget with the objectives of the team. 3. Are there potential problems with the HR strategies adopted by the Oakland A’s? One potential problem is that team players get older as baseball seasons come and go. This is due to the fact that Oakland A’s strategy is to hire college player. They are much older than the high school players hire by other baseball teams. This will affect their performance in future baseball games. On-base sabermetrics technology was developed by Oakland A’s to counter the cost of hiring players and to correct the market value of players. Replicating this strategy by other teams would create another imbalance in the demand for players. Everybody would be replicating what A’s had done and the repercussion is that college players would be costly to hire. Players with low batting average but possess substantial on-base average would be in  demand and therefore hike their hiring costs. Oakland A’s could have prevented this had the idea been patented for their exclusive use.

Implications For The Future Paper Essay

Environmental problems exist everywhere in this world today; whether it is in air, the water, traffic, crowding, or noise. Dubois, Pennsylvania which is known for its lumber and coal mining has 7, 794 people living here today. When this land was founded and cleared it was sold as one acre parcels, and each land owner had to determine their own road systems; which is why most of the roads in Dubois are narrow today. Dubois was known as â€Å"The Divided City† back in the very early stages of it growth. There was the Dubois side, and Rumbarger side, and separated by a low beaver damn. As population and business grows the town becomes one and is known as Dubois today. At first way of transportation in Dubois was railroads and then street cars, it was not until 1901 when Dubois got it first car called â€Å"Steamers.† As the area grows highway 219 was introduced through Dubois. This highway also known as Corridor 21 runs from Bluefield, West Virginia thru Dubois, Pennsylvania right down the main part of town to the South of Buffalo, New York. With this highway the traffic congestion through Dubois, Pennsylvania can become very chaotic at times. We have large amounts of trucks, and cars that use this route. As we continue on we will provide two strategies for promoting positive environmental behavior, how positive and negative consequences can increase pro-environmental behavior, describe one positive and one negative example how technology advances have impacted our environment, and talk about the influence of the environmental policies. Two Strategies for Promoting Positive Environmental Behavior One strategy that would help to promote a positive environmental behavior would be Positive Cueing. Cues are elements in the environment that convey important information or trigger an affective reaction. Steg, Van Den Berg, & DeGroot, (2013) stated, â€Å"By using positive cues from the environment such  as bicycling to work the individual will have provided a positive behavior towards the environment.† (p.120) Individuals who ride a bicycle to work, and to get around town will help cut down on the traffic congestion that goes through the town. Other cues such as walking, or if you have to drive finding other routes that are not congested would also help cut down on traffic congestion through the town. Another strategy that can be used to help positive environmental behavior is an individual’s attitude. An individual’s attitude can reflect whether their behavior is going to have a negative or positive outcome. Self-perception theory argues that people’s attitudes are formed from the perceptions of their own previous behavior. (Cornelissen, Pandelaere, Luk, & DeWitte, 2008). For example, if a person recycles in the past then their attitude for recycling in the future will be the same and will show positive environmental behavior. For the town of Dubois attitudes amongst these individuals seem to be divided. There are individuals who drive, one’s who walk, and others who like to ride a bike. Ways of promoting positive cues and better attitudes for a more positive environmental behavior is by educating individuals on how their behavior can affect their environment. Positive and Negative Consequences of Traffic can Increase Pro-environmental Behavior The positive and negative consequences of traffic have the ability of increasing pro-environmental behavior in certain ways. It may seem as if negative consequences of traffic cannot increase pro-environmental behavior but it can. The negative consequences of traffic are delays, the burning of fossil fuels and amount of pollution being into the air by vehicles, and road rage. Steg, Van Den Berg, & DeGroot, (2013) stated, â€Å"High levels of traffic congestion may lead to elevated physiological stress and negative affect.† (p.33) These negative effects not only affect an individual’s health and can cause many numerous respiratory problems, but also can affect our environment as well, by causing not only traffic congestion, but also can cause air pollution, and noise pollution. These kind of negative consequences can lead to positive pro-environmental behavior in regards to raising gas prices, building alternate routes around town, keeping sidewalks clean for individuals to walk on, and putting in bike lanes. By raising gas prices individuals do not travel as much so less traffic congestion and  pollution, adding alternate routes around the town can help break up the flow of traffic, and adding bicycle lanes, and keeping sidewalks clean will help encourage individuals who live in town to ride bicycles, and walk. Positive consequences of traffic is that it encourages motorist to re-time their road trip to when the traffic is not as congested, and also by reducing speeds can cause less road accidents. One Positive and Negative Example how Technology Advances have Impacted Our Environment Technology is making distribution, processing, production, development, and exploration of natural resources and alternative resources more cost effective, and protective in regard to the environment. The Technology that we have today has given humans a way of reducing negative effects on the environment that we have caused; such as the depletion of natural resources, the burning of fossil fuels, and other behaviors which have caused negative environmental effects. One effective way for technology to have a positive impact on our environment is what they call â€Å"Smart Technology† this technology can help ease traffic congestion. This smart technology helps reduce travel delays, provides a more convenient access to transportation alternatives, it can customize routes on real-time traffic conditions, also can reduces the carbon dioxide emissions going into the air, and at the same time save individuals on the cost of fuel. Steg, Van Den Berg, & DeGroot, (2013) stated, â€Å"Despite remarkably improved car technology, the total negative environmental impact of car use has risen over the last 100 years.† (p.244) Because of such advance technology, cars are more fuel efficient so individuals go out to buy larger vehicles, and take longer trips which in the end produces more carbon dioxide emissions, causing more pollution, and with the increase of buying cars causes traffic congestion to get worse. Influence of Environmental Policies Environmental policies are put into effect at all levels in our society from individual, group, large companies, and even municipal. These policies can have a positive outcome, or a negative outcome based on the individuals or group of people. There are policies that taxe things such as fuel, electric bill, water bills, so they can encourage individuals or groups to conserve our natural resources. These policies can also encourage individuals to  change their behavior towards the environment by using energy efficient items such as; light bulbs, televisions, and computers to name a few. Also by having policies we can implement other energy sources such as solar panels, or wind turbines. For these policies to have a positive outcome on our environment the individual or group of people would have to have acceptability of the policy so it would have a strong influence on implementing these policies. Acceptability of any policies outcome is based on the attitude of the individual or group of people about the policy. If an individual does not like the policy that is being implemented, for example recycling then most likely this individual will not recycle. If individuals have a good attitude about the policy for the environment then this can influence change in their behavior towards the environment. Conclusion Traffic congestion is an environmental problem that has existed for many years, and many to come. Not only does it cause delays to where you need to be, but can also cause air pollution, noise pollution, and from that many health issues to the human race as well. Technology has improved traffic congestion by reducing delays, finding alternate routes around, reducing carbon dioxide emissions and lower fuel cost. Though, there have been many positive outcomes with technology and things that benefit our environment technology can have negative impacts on the environment as well. The negative impacts from technology could be things such cars that are more fuel efficient having individuals buying larger vehicles, taking longer trips which will eventually increase traffic congestion and cause more air pollution. With environmental policies in place we can change our behavior towards the environment by using more energy efficient items such as lights, computers, and televisions. These policies that we implement can use more natural resources such as solar or wind energy, and this type of natural resource does not hurt the environment as much as burning fossil fuels. By utilize resources provided in the environment, setting up polices, and having positive attitudes we can change our behavior towards the environment, and make traffic congestion through Dubois, Pennsylvania less stress and less hurtful to the environment. References Steg, L., Van Den Berg, A., & DeGroot, J. I.M. (2013). Environmental Psychology: In Introduction [University of Phoenix Custom Edition eBook]. West Sussex, UK: British Psychological Society and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Retrieved from University of Phoenix, PSY460 website. Cornelissen, G., Pandelaere, M., Luk, W., & DeWitte, S., (2008, February). Positive Cueing: Promoting Sustainable Consumer Behavior by Cueing Common Environmental Behaviors as Environmental. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 25(1), 46-55. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com.contentproxy.phoenix.edu/science/article/pii/S0167811607000699 Steg, L., Van Den Berg, A., & DeGroot, J. I.M. (2013). Environmental Psychology: In Introduction [University of Phoenix Custom Edition eBook]. West Sussex, UK: British Psychological Society and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Retrieved from University of Phoenix, PSY460 website. Steg, L., Van Den Berg, A., & DeGroot, J. I.M. (2013). Environmental Psychology: In Introduction [University of Phoenix Custom Edition eBook]. West Sussex, UK: British Psychological Society and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Retrieved from University of Phoenix, PSY460 website.

Condom Disrtibution In High Schools Research Proposal

Condom Disrtibution In High Schools - Research Proposal Example It was however, a woman by the name of Ella Flagg Young, who pioneered the notion of sexual education on a public school level by converging the appeal of Science with the taboo subject of sex in general. Young capably introduced her ideals in the â€Å"Chicago Experiment† of 1913, â€Å"During the Progressive Era, Dr. Ella Flagg Young instituted the first sexual education program in U.S. public schools. She garnered support for her "Chicago Experiment" by integrating scientific appeals about sexual education into popular discourses on modern research methods†(Jensen, 2007, p. 2). Nearly a century later, sexual education in public schools is still somewhat of a debate issue between those who wish to preserve sexual education as the right of the parent or legal guardian of a child and those who feel that circumventing sexual education such that every child is guaranteed a certain and realistic education on the matter; remains a common topic at PTA meetings around the country. The issue of condom availability is certainly not immune to controversy but never the less, has become relatively common and appropriate. Sexual education in general, has matured from a topic shrouded in shame and social taboo to one of centrifugal interest, â€Å"The extreme anxiety about sex expressed itself partly through the proliferation of advice manuals. Works such as John Todd’s 1837 Student’s Manual were well within the tradition of Ben Franklin’s Improving Literature† (Moran, 2000, p. 4). The dichotomy surrounding condom availability in public schools is whether or not it condones promiscuity, even though it is an essential means of preventing teen pregnancy and the spread of HIV. What many of those who embrace the idea that passing out condoms promotes promiscuity do not realize, is that teens do not need permission from society or from authority figures to engage in sexual activity. (Moran,

How music is evolving through the generations Essay

How music is evolving through the generations - Essay Example Undeniably, the contemporary technological and environmental changes have positively impacted on evolution of music to fit the 21st century. No wonder children are finding it difficult to cope up with pop music, which definitely belong to a different generations. Such children try to look for music that can satisfy their interest, tastes, preferences, and fashions but in no avail (Benzon). Evidently, contemporary children are looking for catchy songs in addition to flashy images. Unfortunately, watching artistes perform today on stage is far much different from how they would perform many years back. The idea behind such changes is changing times that call for newer and more exhilarating shows that will meet the interests, tastes, and preferences of the contemporary audiences (Benzon). Anyway there is cause of alarm since the moment the contemporary children will get over their current tastes, the coming generation will be rocking in the world of music. Evidently, with the changing needs, wants, and preferences of different and prevailing generations, music like any other global sector has had to significantly change in a bid to rising into the occasion in order to meet specific needs, wants, and preferences. Therefore, technological and developmental dynamisms and turbulences have been the epicenter of evolution of

EDU 626 Discussion Board 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

EDU 626 Discussion Board 1 - Essay Example The definition of the objects association with each other and sequencing them in the right way enables the authors to create attractive and reliable graphic applications. Most of the web authorizing tools supports a language scripting for more complex applications (Webopedia, 2011). The E-learning authoring system consists of a suite software tools that perform various functions that support the production of modules. They hold content for processing, combine the content with templates for web design, create a flexible and consistent navigation system, and control technical functionality by rendering of the special tags. These design templates are produced using the HTML, XML and the customized markup tags (Aust and Meyen, 2005). The rendering tools normally interpret the custom markup tags and apply processes that enable installation of items that include the navigation elements, assessments of items and interactive glossary. Each exclusive tag represents a content marker that marries with the design templates so as to produce a completed module (Aust and Meyen, 2005). The learning management systems (LMS) are frequently viewed as the starting point (critical components) of e-learning (or a blended learning program) hence it handles the delivery of e-learning courses that are self paced. The learning management systems offer their supreme values to the organization.

There is no set topic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

There is no set topic - Essay Example It is in this third letter that he strove to enlighten the public in his influence during the 18th century of how his humble career as a farmer created for him a paradigm shift that significantly changed his overall perspective of Europe with a renewed heart toward America and the naturalized citizenship which it endowed him without much exertion. The words in ‘What is an American?’ may be noted for both its simple and complex constructions which occur to liberate a tone of replenishing spirit after pertinent details had been brought across by critical yet sensible mode of reasoning. Instead of getting the reader to anticipate a more straightforward answer at its opening, the author seemed to have diverted the audience to a historically inclined creative introduction. Crevecoeur opted for the presence of an Englishman in the beginning to witness how the land of America, in which several Caucasians melted, alleviates a man to a level of acquiring both identity and prosper ity which he was deprived of while dwelling in the nation of his origins where social classes make a huge matter of concern.

Business & Society ( Ethics & Stakeholder management) Essay

Business & Society ( Ethics & Stakeholder management) - Essay Example A.2: A CEO has to lead by example and John Mackey must be aware of this basic ethical tenet. Else, he would neither have taken the trouble to hide his identity nor chosen the Yahoo! Finance Stock Forum, to air his messages. Yet he persisted with this deception in spite of knowing the implications of his activity. The loss of prestige in the event of his being found out probably did not bother him too much. I would qualify his attitude as being ‘indifferent’ in setting high ethical standards for his company. A.3: A firm’s image is the sum total of its products and social responsibilities. Firms go to great lengths to reinforce their positive images in fields such as corporate governance, social responsibility, environmental compliance etc., in order to attract various stakeholders – employees, suppliers, consumers, investors and regulatory authorities. John Mackey’s activities are definitely harmful for the future of Whole Foods. The specific example of the difficulties faced in its attempts to acquire Wild Oats can be seen A.1: The reality of the situation (or, ‘what is’) is that my boss used official resources for his personal purpose, however insignificant it may be. This was not a one time, inadvertent practice, but indulged periodically with the full knowledge of himself and his subordinates. The normative (or, ‘what ought to be’) behavior demands that personal works are not carried out at the expense of the business. A.2: The boss’s practice is not ethical. He is trying to justify his action by rationalizing. Neither his length of service with the company nor the limit put by himself on the maximum postage at 60 cents, offer any justification for his conduct. If this issue is ignored, one has to answer the logical ends up to which such behavior can be accepted as ethical, in an infinite number of situations. A.3: If his argument of low pay being compensated by his unauthorized use of company resources

Platonic Philosophy in Contemporary Culture Essay

Platonic Philosophy in Contemporary Culture - Essay Example As a philosopher, Socrates was afraid that subjectivity and skeptic beliefs that were prevalent in the society would undermine the ethical construct of young people (Plato 161). As a response, Socrates differed with the ruling class, and independently portrayed his vision of ethics. In Plato’s dialogue, detailed elaboration of Socrates’ philosophical education is portrayed through contextual analogies, specifically in the analogy of warrior guardians. Observably, Socrates separates motivation and desires into three distinct groups; appetitive desires like sex and money, spiritual desires like honor, and rational desires like objective knowledge and truth. In practical contexts, independent pursuit for these three desires often overlaps with each other (Lindsey and Wyse 70). In the context of philosophical education, Socrates mentioned that an overlap occurs when the pursuit for objective knowledge overlap with that of appetitive desires and lusts like sex. In his warrior guardians’ analogy, Socrates discredits that erotic attraction and relationship between a boy and a man. According to Socrates, â€Å"A mutual attraction and love between a boy and a man is necessary for objective education to materialize† (Plato 206). Apparently, heightened senses of love motivate a young learner to pursue knowledge with the help of his older teacher. However, sexual desires occasionally infiltrates into the boy-man relationship in philosophical education. Plato mentioned that when pure love is transformed into an erotic love, the intended purpose of an educational relationship fails. This is more so when erotic love is homosexual in nature. In this context, it emerged that erotic homosexual desires are not only selfish but also unethical. According to Socrates, erotic heterosexual desires are ethical and natural because they lead to procreation. However, Socrates mentioned that homosexual acts are purely useless

Identity Thesis Essay Example for Free

Identity Thesis Essay Over the course of history, different theories have been formulated to help explain the complex relationship between the mind and the body. One of the theories elucidating the mind-body relation is dualism—the view that mental states are independent from physical states. Mental states are ones of thinking, feeling, and believing whereas physical states are those outlined by physical and biological sciences. In contrast to dualism, physicalism insists that mental states are somehow physical states. The most straightforward version of physicalism is the identity thesis—the theory that every type of mental state is identical to some type of physical state (Reasons and Responsibility, 285-286). Dualists and physicalists have disputed over the validity of the identity thesis; dualists denying its claim and physicalists defending it. The biggest problem facing physicalists and the identity thesis is the concept of qualia, the phenomenal quality of a mental state (Reasons and Responsibility, 281). Philosopher Frank Jackson offers what he calls the â€Å"Knowledge Argument† for qualia. Jackson’s knowledge argument presents that nonphysical facts can be devised from facts about phenomenal quality. Through the concept of qualia, Jackson’s knowledge argument shows that the identity thesis is false. The identity thesis holds that mental events are simply identical with brain processes—identical in the same manner that sounds are identical with density waves in the air. The thesis bases on the idea that mental states of thought, sensation, and awareness are alike those of physical states (such as those of the brain and central nervous system). An example of identity thesis is that lightning and an electric charge are two of the same thing. In other words, lightning is an electric charge. An advocate of the identity thesis is materialist Peter Carruthers. Carruthers argues that everything (including mental states) exists through physical causes. Carruthers’ argument for the identity thesis can be summarized from the beliefs that some conscious states and events are casually necessary for the occurrence of some physical ones, and that there will be no need to advert to anything other than physical-physical causality in a completed neuro-physiological science. Thus, some conscious states and events are identical with physical brain states and events (Reason and Responsibility, 301-302). However, the concept of qualia refutes the idea of physicalism, and is the foundation of Jackson’s knowledge argument against identity thesis. As a believer of dualism, Jackson uses the concept of qualia to support that the mind and matter are distinct and independent substances capable of existing without the other. Qualia are the subjective, felt qualities of experiences. For example, one may know all the physical properties of the color red and the physics behind why some things are red; however it is qualia that allows one to experience what it is like to actually see red. Jackson constructs his knowledge argument around the ideas of dualism and qualia. To further illustrate Jackson’s argument for qualia (and dualism), the case of Fred and his unique color vision will be presented (Reasons and Responsibility, 298-299). For some reason, Fred has the ability to see two colors where others only see one. His retina is capable of distinguishing between two wavelengths of red in which others familiarizes with only one. He tries to explain the difference between the two reds. However he fails in doing so because others do not comprehend the difference. Therefore it is concluded that Fred can visually see one more color than everyone else. Despite having all the physical information about Fred and his special trait, one cannot know what it actually feels like to see two different types of red. Thus, Jackson believes that the physicalist left something out in the theory of physicalism—the qualia or what it feels like to actually experience something. Consequently, quale explains how dualism is valid and physicalism is incomplete. The existence of knowledge through qualia (mental state) and that of physical facts (physical state) demonstrates the idea of dualism—the view that two fundamental concepts exist. Jackson’s knowledge argument derives mainly from his thought experiment of Mary; the brilliant scientist who has spent her life confined within a black-and-white room and has never seen colors. Mary learns all the physical facts relevant to the mind. She becomes an expert on the neurophysiology of vision and knows all there is to know about color. When Mary is released from her room, she experiences color for the first time. One would think intuitively that her color experiences provide her with knowledge she previously lacked, and that what she learns includes certain facts about what color experiences are like. The facts she learns upon her release cannot be physical facts because she already knew all physical facts before leaving the room. Therefore, the new knowledge comes from the concept of qualia, which indicates that not all facts are physical facts (Reason and Responsibility, 298-299). Thus physicalism is false. Jackson reaches his conclusion that the identity thesis is false by proving that mental states are not physical states. According to the identity thesis, states and processes of the mind are identical to states and processes of the brain. The concept of qualia refutes the validity of the identity thesis by presenting subjective forms of experiences. The knowledge acquired from subjective forms of experiences differs from those of physical knowledge about experiences. Since physicalism requires that all aspects of knowledge are the same, physicalism cannot be sound. Thus the identity thesis must be false. The cases of Fred and Mary show that physicalism doesn’t amount to all knowledge. The summation of Jackson’s knowledge argument can be illustrated by the following: before Mary leaves the room, she knows all the physical facts about color experiences. When Mary leaves the room, she learns new facts about color experiences—facts about what it’s like to see in color. Therefore, there are nonphysical facts about color experiences. Furthermore, the identity thesis is false because Jackson’s knowledge argument reveals that there is something about the experience of color (in Mary’s case) that cannot be captured by the physicalist view. So, physicalism is incomplete. Physicalism lacks the phenomenal quality of the mental state—the ability to experience something regardless of physical knowledge. Qualia and the mental experience can never be achieved from the premises of physicalism and the identity thesis. Thus, the phenomenal quality of experiences cannot be accounted for through physical properties of the brain. In conclusion, the identity thesis is false because nonphysical properties, like phenomenal properties, exist.

Features and Types of Organisational Structures

Features and Types of Organisational Structures Organisational Structure The organisational structure in any business is important. To survive, all organisations have to be able to accomplish tasks and this requires carrying out certain duties. Structure splits the tasks of the whole organisation into smaller and more practical chunks, and allocates them to sections of the organisation that are held responsible for its completion. It also ensures that all the different sections are coordinated and controlled in a way which it has to achieve something. For example, to distinguish the structure of Jaguar an organisation chart could be used; however this is a very crude representation of the organisation and does not show how the organisation communicates or the flow of work, which may be crucially necessary for it to succeed. I believe that Jaguar’s structure is a Product grouping; mainly because a Product grouping is most often established where an organisation has a number of specific product lines (in this case the different models/makes of vehicles). Usually in this sort of structure each individual section is operated separately giving it a number of advantages. For instance, everything in a certain product line is brought together in the one central area making it easier for communication and coordination. Due to Jaguar’s product development nature, such an advantage is especially relevant as it allows for a specific team to be able to convey information between each other much faster. It is, therefore, easier to understand the information as it is easier to understand the information as it is directly being talked about directly, rather than in a document where visualisation may be required. However a Product grouping also has disadvantages, for example, team members can become to foc used on their own product and lose sight of advances made in other product groups. Again this could pose a problem in an organisation like Jaguar as it could potentially cause disillusionment between product groups by group members choosing to use their own way to achieve objects instead of listening to information from group members out with their product group which could aid them. Centralisation is another key feature in the structure of an organisation. This underlines the locality of decision making in an organisation and through this develops an understanding of the authority and responsibility in the organisation. Everybody in an organisation has responsibility, but when it is used in terms of the structure it refers to those who have a larger effect on the overall managerial aspect. In Jaguar, for instance, it is assumed that the CEO (Commanding Executive Officer) is responsible for the performance of the company; at the next level down would be the marketing director, who would be held responsible for achieving marketing objectives and so on. In centralised structures decision making tends to be retained in the hands of a small number of people at the top of an organisation, while those that are decentralised, decision making authority is delegated. From my point of view I think that Jaguar is a decentralised, as decisions are made at a point closer to operational levels. By being able to make these important decisions closer to the operational aspect of the product groups it makes a decision on the problem at hand quicker to solve, and also develops leadership skills of those lower down in the organisation. It also frees up the top management to devote its attention to long term strategies, which a company like Jaguar has to take into account due to the constant changing market direction and the type of customer who is attracted to its products. Formalisation reflects the extent to which the formal rules and procedures govern activities in an organisation and, in particular whether the nature of the work is prescribed in rules that specify what shall be done and often how it will be done, rules and procedures can be implicit as well as explicit, and can be used to either prescribe what should be done or proscribe what is forbidden. To some extent increased formalisation is a function of organisational size. Once an organisation grows beyond a certain point it becomes almost impossible to rely on interactions used to control and coordinate a smaller company. For a larger company, such as Jaguar, there tends to be more specialists higher up in the hierarchy allowing it to focus more on the long term strategic issues. Thus procedures and rules become the main way of controlling activities and introducing a degree of predictability into the organisation (Mintzberg 1979). This is a large disadvantage for the smaller product group s within Jaguar as it means there is a larger degree of predictability into their activities as well as a large distance between the groups and the management level. Organisational culture is used to try and describe the experiences of people within the organisation. It usually describes their beliefs, habits, manners, self-image and they way tasks are undertaken. To current employees the culture within their organisation will go unnoticed. The culture within the organisation is important as it key to the company functioning at its best as well as developing leadership throughout the company. A key role for the culture of an organisation is to differentiate its own specialised culture from another organisation. From my point of view, I think that Jaguar has a Task culture. This is because the management could be seen as having a series of problems to be solved. For example, Jaguar may have to make new car models to keep up with new advances in car safety and new legal regulations, which would require a team to be formed and to deal with the problem. However this has a slight disadvantage in that the teams can become easily bored with predictability and repetitive tasks. To be successful a business must continually modify to its competitive background. There are certain central ideals which stay steady and provide a sense of direction in the decision making process. These unchanging ideals form the company vision and help in identifying the company’s mission. The mission conveys the belief s and objectives (vision for future), which is made up of three main elements: Values Purpose Objectives (Vision) The values and purpose together create the beliefs of the company and usually remain the same in the long term. The values central to a company are limited to a small number (usually no more than five). They reflect the principles of the organisation as a whole. One way to identify a value would be to see if it would stay the same if the organisations situation changed. It would be counted as a value if it did stay the same. Also, if the organisation changed into a different industry, the values that were carried over would be the central values. For instance, a central value that I believe Jaguar employs is innovation. Now, as unlikely as it may seem, if Jaguar was to change its market area and this key value was no longer an advantageous aspect of the company then it would be detrimental to the company. But if Jaguar were to change its market then I should change to one where its value of innovation would aid in Jaguar’s success. The purpose is the reason that the company exists. It is shown through the company’s mission. Similar to the company values, the purpose of the company is relatively unchanging and lasts for long periods of time. This purpose is what sets the organisation apart from similar organisations. Since the main priority of a company is to turn over a profit, however this should not be part of the company’s main mission as it does not offer a suitable path for employees to follow. For example, one of Jaguar’s purposes would be to provide excellent customer service when dealing with potential clients. This would be especially important to the management of the company as it would show how the whole company treats individuals and would also influence employees on how to treat others – not just with clients. Both the purpose and values are not directly selected but are exposed. The beliefs of the company should not be goal orientated but instead, it should reveal the company as it is The objectives (or vision) are what the higher management (such as the CEO of the company) decide to try and achieve. The vision dictates an objective that the company will set as a long term goal. This contradicts the central beliefs of the company as the vision is directly chosen. Due to the vision being long term goals, they are much more demanding than other goals. The organisation has to realise that there is a reduced chance of successfully achieving the vision, but to initially begin to compete these goals the company must believe the vision can be achieved. The goals should be challenging enough that it motivates staff into increasing efforts to reach them. The majority of visionary goals come under four main categories: Target – e.g. sales targets Common Enemy – e.g. overtaking rival companies in the market Role Model – e.g. to emulate companies of a similar type Internal Transformation – e.g. becoming number one company in the market Even though a company’s vision may take a large amount of effort to achieve, most companies that have employed a long term vision have become very successful. But once the goal has been achieved, a company which would like to continue its success usually employs a new vision to keep the organisation motivated. For instance, a long term vision that could be employed, especially for a car company such as Jaguar, would be to reduce the carbon footprint of the company. This would be seen as a long term goal as it would take a long amount of time to successfully convert from fossil fuels to renewable energy as well as to research new way in which to power cars cost effectively.

Etisalat and Total Quality Management (TQM)

Etisalat and Total Quality Management (TQM) Etisalat is one of the worlds largest telecommunication companies. It is the largest service provider of mobile facilities in United Arab Emirates. Etisalat claims to have almost a 100 million customers. The company is providing service in UAE, in Africa and now also in Asia. Etisalat has a profit of almost 8 billion dollars. Etisalat has also diverged into being on of United Arab Emirates largest internet providers. It is not only providing internet accessibility to customers but also to other companies who are in the same business. It is United Arab Emirates largest voice carrier and it is also Africas largest voice carrier.  Etisalat has roaming facilities in at least 186 countries around the world. Etisalat was founded in 1976. In 1983 , 60% of the share was bought over by the United Arab Emirates government and 40% share was sold in the open market. In 1991 it got the permission to provide wired and unwired telecommunication services within United Arab Emirates and also in other countries. During this time itself, the company got the license to produce, import or export tele-communication equipments. This step made Etisalat the monopoly over tele communication business in the United Arab Emirates. This not only started fetching the government huge revenues but it also developed the mobile sector of tele-communication and other tele-communication sectors in United Arab Emirates. It was a major achievement in this sector for the country. The companys profit grew to more than 80% and almost 700000 phone lines in the country are now owned by Etisalat. In 2001 Etisalat opened up its international ventures and it started business in Islamabad. Etisalat is the 6th largest company of United Arab Emirates and is the worlds 40th largest enterprise. It is United Arab Emirates largest revenue earner after the oil and gas industry. TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT- AN INTRODUCTION: W. Edwards Deming was the person who invented the TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT concept. Total quality management refers to maximising customer satisfaction by minimising the errors. It involves optimal utilisation of resources. It involves training of employees to the maximum possible level. The most important aspect of Total Quality management is that it involves that the errors in production are removed completely. It involves giving the best to the customer. To give the best to the customer everything should be perfect in an organisation. The organisations functioning should be 100% so that the customer can as an end result get 100%. TQM is basically a set of functions which if performed shall ensure that all the customers expectations are exceeded or met. ETISALAT AND TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT APPROACH: Total quality management approach has become very important in todays world. All customers want better than the best for their money. Todays customer is not easily satisfied. Etisalat has been wise enough to recognise this new emerging trend. Etisalat believes that quality is the key to overcome competition in todays modern market. More and more organisations all around the world are looking up to quality production for overcoming competition. The total quality management field is a new field. It is still developing. Etisalat has developed its own ways of quality measurement with passage of time. Etisalat believes that quality improvement is a continuous process. You can never stop improving the quality of the product or service that you are providing. Quality is the essence of any product or service. Total quality management has become very important for Etisalat over the past few years. There has to be a continuous flow of improvements in the services being provided if proper benef its of total quality management are to be realised. Although it must be noted here that Etisalat does not depend on total quality management for satisfying the needs of its customers and for achieving its target. Total quality management does not solve any managerial issues. (hashmi) Total quality management only seems to cater to the problem of customer satisfaction. Etisalat has customised its total quality management approach in such a way that it gives a purpose to the company to move ahead and develop its product more not only for the satisfaction of the customer but also for the overall development of the company including the increase in profits agenda. Although at the beginning Etisalat had some problems in adopting this new total quality management approach but then it realised that the economic conditions everywhere are changing and sooner or later the company had to make itself more customer oriented. Etisalats internet providing services were the first to adopt the total quality management approach. Soon the company started seeing positive changes. The actual number of new connections also got increased. After realising the positive affect of Total quality management the same was applied to the mobile service providing sector also. Etisalat also realised that one way to successfully apply the total quality management approach was to improve the quality of equipments being used to provide the services. Earlier the marketing agenda of the company was that it was providing services at the lowest possible cost. Now the agenda is providing the best quality at the lowest price. And this approach has shown tremendous positive results. Moreover the problems should be sorted out as soon as they are found. One should not wait for meetings and discussions to get over them get over the problems as soon as they are found. This is also a relatively new concept which has emerged from total quality management. (hashmi) Proper training of employees is the essence of the total quality management approach. The best possible training needs to be given to the employees for the best possible results. Training enhances the capacity to work. It allows the employees to work on a level which is higher than what they can work on. (stark) The training should be given with regards to the requirements of the job that the employee has to do. Etisalat is using the latest technology available in the market to provide to the market the mobile services. Although it increases the capital requirements and cost of the company, but the customers get the best possible services and moreover running cost or cost of providing services is reduced substantially. Etisalat has picked up a new theory from total quality management, this theory involves that the company shouldnt function on the basis of increasing the number of customers, it should work on improving the quality of the services it is providing, and the customers wil l be attracted on their own if the services being provided are of the best quality. The company should hire only the best educated for properly applying the total quality method. Moreover the company in return should arrange for proper education facilities to the community. This will ultimately help the company itself in the long run. The truth is that Total quality management does not create the quality but it creates the process. Total quality management involves a complete change in the working culture of the people. (stark) It emphasises only and only on quality. The employees at Etisalat had some problem in adopting this new method of working, but as soon as they realised that this was the correct way ahead and it would be giving great rewards in the future they readily accepted it. Etisalats management decided that not only the basic product should be of quality the extra add-ons should also be of the best possible quality. Etisalats management decided that total quality manag ement should be so well adopted by the company that there should be no margin for error at all. Whatever the company is giving to its customers it should be of the best quality, no one else in the market should be giving something or anything better than what Etisalat could provide for. PROBLEMS OF TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT APPROACH: Since total quality management is comparatively a new approach people are still working on it. All the firms who are trying to adopt this approach face problems while applying this approach. (stark) Each and every firm tries to explore with this new approach. The management at Etisalat has also introduced its own variations in this approach. One of the major problems which were faced by the mangers at Etisalat was the problem of measurement. There is no proper way which has been developed as of now that can measure the change in quality. It has been hard to measure the proper affects of change due to quality. Managers found it hard to measure whether the changes made in the working of the firm due to the total quality management approach were bringing positive or negative results; they ultimately had to refer to the number game to find the effects of total quality approach. Total quality approach on the other hand emphasises the attention of people away from the numbers to quality. T otal quality management is next to useless if it cannot be measured. The change in results must be measured if total quality management approach has to become successful. Moreover it was being realised that it was easier for the middle management and lower working class employees to adjust to the total quality management approach but the upper management at Etisalat found it hard to do so. This was so because upper management was used to working with numbers. It was hard for the top managers and the owners of the company to shift the very approach towards business. They had to change their very beliefs in business. Although total quality management is supposed to decrease costs, but in reality the management at Etisalat found that implementing this approach had infact increased the cost of providing services. Moreover it was found that businesses who are well established like Etisalat and they do not want to innovate a lot also face problems in applying the total quality approach me thod. Total quality management approach also increased the companys capital expenditure as it involved getting the best in line equipments. This involves investing huge amounts of money and maybe some smaller companies may not be able to do so. Moreover after applying the total quality management approach the company had to spend hugely on advertisement to let the world know of its change in approach towards business. The cost of the final service provided was also increased after applying the total quality management approach. The management tried very hard to avoid increase in price but as we all know that the best comes at a price so this increase in price was unavoidable for the people at Etisalat, and many customers did not approve of the change in costs. RESULTS AND METHOD OF IMPLEMENTING TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT BY ETISALAT: Etisalat was able to identify a lot of things after implementing total quality management approach. It realised that the approach like all other approaches had both positive and negative effects on the functioning of the company, and also it had double effects on the final figures of the company, although surprisingly this approach had many more positive effects than it had negative ones. It was found that this approach affected everyone who worked for the company. Total quality management approach was completely based on team work. Team work was the essence of total quality management. It was although hard to implement because in such a large corporation as Etisalat it was hard to make everyone co-operate with everyone else. Moreover the management realised that it was actually hard for them to remove their attention from the number game and completely focus it on quality management. It was hard to find on the basis of quality that the firm was underperforming or was doing better th an before. It was later found out after a few months of application if total quality management approach that there was a significant increase in the actual numbers of customers. Also there was less number of complaints now. Application of total quality management approach is a hard job; moreover it challenges the very foundation of principles of management of business. Business success before and up till very recently was completely based on numbers, the higher the numbers the better it was. The quality hardly mattered. Whatever sold was considered to be of the best quality. With the application of total quality management everything changed. It did not matter anymore to the management at Etisalat whether the numbers increased or decreased they had to concentrate completely on the quality of services that they were employed to provide. This quality had to be the best. It was a heavy task as it had two aspects attached to it. The first was to actually start providing the best servic es to the people. This included changing various technological equipments, it involved changing the basic equipments used as raw materials, everything every equipment that the company used should be of the best quality, until and unless this happens it would be hard to give the best possible end result. Secondly the customers needed to be informed in the change of policies of the company. This in itself was a humungous task. The management at Etisalat was unsure that whether the customers would take this approach in a positive manner or not. It had to be conveyed to the public that there was a major change which would take place in the way the company functioned. This was very hard because Etisalat has almost 1 billion customers all around the world. But the top management of Etisalat was able to carry out this task properly. Company is now successfully providing the best possible services to its 1 billion customers whether in the tele-communication sector or in the internet service providing sector. CONCLUSION: Total quality management is more of a discipline than anything else. It is concluded that quality is the end product of all the activities undertaken in the total quality management approach. It involves a complete change in the outlook of producers and service providers. It changes their emphasis from mass selling to quality selling. Followers of total quality management believe that providing quality product or service will automatically lead to increased sales. It is important to understand here that providing quality products should not mean that the price of such product can be sky high, the approach should be such that the best quality product should be provided at the best possible price. The pricing should be correct because even if the product is the best in the market but it is overpriced it will not sell. Therefore this involves the working of financial analysts with total quality management approach experts. A balance between the two approaches must be struck. Etisalat ha s understood the importance of total quality management approach. The management of Etisalat are working more and more towards this approach now. They are also trying to communicate this change in their policies in the best possible ways to their customers. The customers have become very demanding all over the world these days and total quality management approach seems to be the only possible way to satisfy the needs of the modern customer.

Major Problems in Mexican American History by Zaragosa Vargas :: American Citizenship Equality History Essays

Major Problems in Mexican American History by Zaragosa Vargas Vendidos or the sold out ones by Luis Valdez is an enlightening film about the Mexican struggle for survival in the United States. It is thought provoking and challenges the viewer to question some of the history and values that American education has engrained into our lifestyle. Although, the film is only about twenty-five minutes long, it is packed with symbolism and information about the Mexican history in the US. In particular, the film explores the Mexican identity issue. The film opens with Amano Sancho who invites us to look at his shop when Ms. Jiminez walks into the door looking for the perfect Mexican model to take to a governor’s dinner. Sancho is excited to see a Chicana in his store but when he pronounces her name in Spanish she is quick to correct him. Ms. Jiminez she responds in an English accent. This scene has a lot of meaning because we gather that she was assimilated to the Anglo culture. She does not want to associate with her Mexican roots. She insists on being a proper American representative, but she is looking for a Mexican model during her lunch break. She presents Sancho with some stipulations he must be a Mexican she states, "But this one is too dark. I’m looking for a beige one." This is yet another indicator of the detachment Ms. Jimenez has from her culture. I believe she wants a light Mexican so that he can he can be versatile and mix in with the crowds. In Major Problems in Mexican American History by Zaragosa Vargas, we learn that Mexicans struggled to be considered American citizens. Even with the seizure of their lands and the Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo Mexicans were still mistreated and abused simply because of the color of their skin. Mexicans learned that it was in their best interest to try to adapt to a new environment. As a result many tried to marry Spanish men or marry men of a higher social-economic status. There is a belief that white means money, so if you can’t marry a well-off man than you must lighten the race. Ms. Jimenez in Los Vendidos, was a light woman herself and made the transition into the white world a lot easier than one of her darker ancestors perhaps. When Sancho states that she likes a little milk in her coffee he is not only referring to the lightening of the race, but he also talks about her admiration of the American culture.

Cross Analysis Of The Shambaa Tribe :: essays research papers

I gained a personal interest in the Shambaa Tribe when one if its members Mufika Badu came and spoke to our high school peer-group. I learned a lot of very interesting things about the people of the Shambaa tribe and the different aspects of their culture, and how they differ from the every day culture that I am exposed to.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Shambaa, also referred to as the Shambala, are a Bantu people found mainly on the West Usambara mountain range in Tanzania. Their language is Shambala. The homeland of the Shambaa is called Shambaai.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Kings and queens rule the Shambaa people. The Shambaa kingdom is made up of several descant groups with a common origin, but a single descent group governs the kingdom. The survival of the whole descent and its steady increase in size is crucial, because the Shambaa people take great pride in the culture and they don’t wont their clan to die out. The king rules over several chiefdoms. The chiefs were appointed by he king and received tribute from their chiefdoms as representatives of the king. All the wealth of the land is regarded as the king’s. This gives him control of his subjects and the right to demand tribute from them. The king, in return, is expected to bring rain and food to his territory. Maulid is a popular holiday celebrated by the Shambaa people in which the people gather with family members and give thanks to the king in hope that he will bring good fortune to their family in the upcoming year (â€Å"Life In The Shambaa Nation†) .   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Peasants and slaves are the king’s subjects. Peasants live in village groups under a patriarchal system. Badu described the life of a peasant as being very difficult with work days lasting from sun up until sunset, laboring in the scorching heat with only a few breaks (Mufika Buda). The peasants are free to go about their daily work on the farm and the homestead. They pay their tribute to the king in the form of food, life stock and labor.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The gender role of the Shambaa is very different then than that of the United States in that children start to play an active role in the work place at an early age. If a child is not of capable of working in the field he must stay home and tend to the younger children (Garson,W.

Correlation Between Student S Grades and-Social Networks Essay

Abstract Social networking sites (SNS) have created a new social dimension where individuals can develop increased levels of their social awareness and getting information in many more aspects of everyday lives. SNS help people to enhance their knowledge, which is very beneficial especially for students. However, some argue the use of SNS also entails negative effects that overrule the gains. This may be reflected on students’ grades. The main objective of this research is to analyse the relationship between student’s academic performance and use of SNS. The research was conducted through the use of online questionnaires. Excel and SPSS software were used to analyse the data collected. Findings from this study showed that there is a weak, negative relationship between these two variables. Chapter 1: Introduction There is no doubt that the global revolution of SNS has brought great changes to many aspects of everyday life. People use them to keep in touch with distant friends and relatives or to make new social and professional acquaintances. Whatever the reason behind this increased use, SNS have for many become a way of life. Especially for young people, SNS are the most innovative tools that enable them not only to contact other individuals, but most importantly to create a positive ‘self-image’ (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). At the same time, however, there is an increasing concern about the threats arising from the excessive use of SNS. Although there is prior research on how SNS affect people’s relationships, the literature on how they affect students’ academic performance is still in its infancy. The main objective of this research is to fill this gap in literature and examine how the use of SNS affects academic performance. Paper Structure This paper commences with a short review of prior literature on the topic where some information about the various SNS will be given. It will then continue to Chapter 3 where the methodology followed to approach the objective and gather the necessary data will be explained. Chapter 4 follows, where the collected data will be analysed using statistical analysis tests and findings will be reported. The paper will then finalise with some conclusions and recommendations given in Chapter 5. Chapter 2: Literature Review The section of literature review has a purpose to put this study into context with previous research on SNS providing some examples of such sites and students use of SNS. Finally, prior research on the relationship of SNS and academic performance will be examined. Definition and Examples of SNS Social networking sites have been defined as â€Å"an online community of Internet users who want to communicate with other users about areas of mutual interest† (William, 2009). Globally there are many SNS, but the most popular ones are the Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn. Facebook is the most widely used SNS with currently more than 1.2 billion users. It was created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, with the initial intention for students in a certain college to keep in touch with each other. According to recent statistics, the average time a user spends on Facebook per month is 15 hours and 33 minutes. Twitter is a real-time communication platform where users are able to interact and build relationships with their network of contacts by posting and receiving messages. It started in 2006 as an experiment of short online announcements and it now has more than 555 million users. Google+ is a social networking platform created by the search engine giant, Google, in an attempt to outperform Facebook. It was launched in 2011 and it currently has around 500 million users. Google+ enables targeted sharing of information within certain subgroups of users’ contacts and the viewing, managing and editing of multimedia. LinkedIn is the professional social network launched in 2003. People join this network mainly to make professional connections and use them to build a career. Companies that are in search of qualified employees and job-hunters also use LinkedIn. The profile created by users is like a resume but with the option to include extensive information in each field. Use of SNS Statistics reveal that 98% of people aged between 18-24 are using some form of SNS. Apart from socialising and staying in touch with friends, people in those ages use SNS for a variety of other reasons. As in the age of 18 most people are going to be in higher education, there is evidence showing that students use those sites to research colleges and assist their decision on where to enrol (Tisley, 2012). They also use them during their university life to enable their communication with other students or even staff. According to Oradini and Saunders (2007), students can use SNS to initiate a discussion and decide what information they would like to share and with whom. Many universities have recently recognised this increased use of SNS and their ability to act as a platform of online learning and have therefore taken steps to incorporate them into their strategy. SNS and Academic Performance The term academic performance is used to measure the ‘success’ of a student in terms of their achievements and their ability to meet certain standards defined by the institution they are attending. Reference? It can be assumed that by having access to the latest information available, either through visiting companies’ and broadcasting profiles or through the exchange of useful information, students increase their awareness towards a better achievement of results. However, there is a contradiction of views relating to the use of SNS and their effect on students’ grades. While some studies show that there is no link between SNS and academic performance (Truong, 2010) others provide evidence that there is an adverse effect of SNS on students’ grades mainly due to the fact that too much time is spent on them, leaving limited time for studying. Chapter 3: Research Methodology In this chapter, a methodology for collecting the necessary information for the research will be defined. This will include a description of the method for collecting information and an explanation of why the methods chosen were the most suitable, providing reliability to the report. Research Approach Selecting the right research approach is fundamental in order to answer the questions that were presented successfully. In this study, the researchers carried out scientific research and aimed to develop a hypothesis, which was then tested and examined to establish a theory. Therefore, a deductive research approach was considered to be most suitable (Hussey and Hussey, 1997). According to Robson (2002), the researchers had to deduct hypotheses from theory and then express them in operational terms, proposing a relationship between two variables. The objectives this research had led to the following hypothesis: Hypothesis: There is a relationship between the use of SNS and students’ academic performance. Therefore the Null Hypothesis is: There is no relationship between the use of SNS and students’ academic performance. This hypothesis was chosen as prior literature focused exclusively on the effect of the use of Facebook on academic performance and not the use of SNS in general. Time horizon This research is cross-sectional study, as the data collection methods were designed to â€Å"gather data at a particular point in time with the intention of describing the nature of existing conditions† (Cohen, Manion and Morrison, 1994). This approach was a suitable method to use given the limited time that was available to undertake the research. Data collection Methods The research was conducted through the use of online questionnaires. They were distributed to students via email from December 2012 to January 2013, a research period that is â€Å"distinct and discrete phase of the investigation† (Johnson, 2004). Respondents were informed that all material they provided would remain confidential while anonymity was promised. A briefing statement (See Appendix I) informed participants as to the purpose of the research and the extent of confidentiality. The full list of questions can be found in Appendix II. Data analysis methods Quantitative data was analysed using the SPSS analysis software, where correlation was used to examine the existence of a relationship between the variables and regression analysis to assess the strength of those relationships. In order to carry out regression statistics, it was essential to distinguish the factors between the dependent variable (y) and the independent variables (x). Since the purpose of this analysis was to discover the extent to which academic performance is dependent on changes in the variables investigated, academic performance was identified as the dependent variable while hours spent on homework, social networking sites, playing games and surfing on the internet were defined as the independent variables. It should be noted here that academic performance is defined using the latest available grades of the participants. This led to the following model being developed: Academic Performance = b0 + b1Hours spent studying + b2Hours spent on social networks +b3Hours spent on other activities The data was analysed by bivariate correlation and linear regression. Once this technique was completed, each variable was analysed explicitly in order to assess individual relationships and test the hypothesis by stressing the most noteworthy relationship between independent and dependent variable. Validity & Reliability In order for the research to be useful, actions had to be taken to safeguard the validity and reliability of results. According to Joppe (2000), the extent to which results are reliable depends on how consistent they are over time and whether identical results can be acquired if the investigation is repeated. Validity is concerned with whether the findings are what they appear to be and whether a relationship between two variables is merely a coincidence. There are many threats to reliability and validity. The subject error and participant bias are threats to reliability (Saunders et al., 2009) that can be tackled by carefully selecting the right research population. Mortality is a threat to validity, since it would result to a very small sample size that would be unable to determine whether relationships between variables were simply casual. In enhancing the validity and reliability, the research was conducted at the University of Southampton and the questionnaires were handed both to undergraduate and postgraduate students in various programs. Also, a pilot questionnaire was conducted with 10 students to complete that provided feedback. Chapter 4: Results & Analysis The purpose of this section is to present the findings of this study, which will be critically evaluated to identify their reliability. Implications will be acknowledged. Descriptive Statistics In total 303 responses were collected by students of the University of Southampton. Out of the total number of participants, 8 abandoned the survey without saving it so only 275 responses were used. The demographics of the sample are summarized in the figures below. The sample consisted of 149 males and 126 females (See Figure 1) and most participants (n= 193) aged between 21-24 (See Figure 2). Figure [ 1 ] – Participants’ Gender Figure [ 2 ] – Participants Age Out of the total sample, only 5 participants were not part of a SNS where as the rest 270 participants had a profile on either one or multiple SNS. Out of those who were part of an SNS, the majority of participants (n= 273) had a profile on Facebook (See Figure 3). Also, most of the participants (n=234) have been using SNS for more than 3 years (See Figure 4). Figure 3 – Number of Participants; profiles on SNS Figure 4 – Time period participants use SNS When asked about the reasons participants use SNS, many corresponded to keep in touch with their family and friends (n=108) whereas a significant amount of them (n=70) replied to keep updated on current affairs (See Figure 5). Figure 5 – Reasons for using SNS In relation to the academic performance of participants, most of them (n=76) study between 1-4 hours (See Figure 6) with 50 of them managing to get grades between 70-100 (See Figure 7). The average grade the participants received is 68. Figure 6 – Participants’ Time allocation on an Average Day Figure 7 – Participants’ Grades Data Analysis It is now necessary to relate these findings back to the initial hypothesis. We use correlation analysis in order to examine the relationship between two variables. Pearson’s r statistic is the one, which will determine if there is any relationship between our variables. As it can be seen from the table above, the Pearson’s r for the correlation between the ‘Hours spent on doing homework’ and the ‘Hours spent using SNS’ is -0.117, which is relatively close to 0. This means that there is a negative relationship between those variables, indicated by the negative sign, and as the one variable increases in value, the second variable decreases in value. However, since this valued is very close to 0, this is a week relationship and it is unlikely that changes in one variable are correlated with changes in the other. Observing the Sig. (2-tailed) value we can determine the significance of the relationship. If that value is less or equal to 0.05, we can conclude that there is statistically significant correlation between the hours spent on homework and the social network use. Here the value (0.052) is extremely close to the benchmark so the relationship is statistically significant.