Research Proposal on Organizational Culture Essay Example

Research Proposal on Organizational Culture Essay Organizational culture is the system of values, views and types of behaviour which are shared between the employees of a firm and define the character of the functioning of the firm. Organizational culture is also the means of the creation of the organization which develops itself. The aim of organizational culture is to increase the profit of the firm with the help of the employee’s loyalty and total support of the firm, the appropriate human resource management and approach towards production. The right strategy of organizational culture is able to develop the employee’s spirit and credit towards the firm and it will improve the quality of their work. It is useful to develop the employee’s attitude towards the firm like to their own home. As a result, they would appreciate their workplace and work hard for its improvement. Finally, the organizational culture is aimed at the creation of the right behavioral norms which would avoid conflicts or at least solve them in the peaceful way. We will write a custom essay sample on Research Proposal on Organizational Culture specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Research Proposal on Organizational Culture specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Research Proposal on Organizational Culture specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The term â€Å"organizational culture† appeared in the middle of the 19th century, when the first big businesses started to develop. The employers wanted to make their employees the part of their business and won their loyalty and respect. The employees began to be differentiated into the â€Å"friends† and â€Å"enemies† (enemies are the ones who belong to other firm). The core elements of organizational culture are: the right way of communication; cooperation; understanding the role of the individual for the organization; dress code; schedule; the right food consumption; healthy employee relations; norms and values of the organization; motivation; credit; symbols of the organization (rituals, emblems, taboos). Organizational culture is the interesting topic for discussion, because one should understand how a common firm is organized and what elements influence the development of the team spirit and loyalty towards the company. The student is able to make the research deeper and focus on the problem from all sides and answer to the questions which bother him. The research proposal is the assignment which is aimed to persuade the professor in the quality of the topic chosen for the research. One should prove that organizational culture and its structure, methods and elements are worth attention and share his expectations concerning the results of the research. It is quite complicated to prepare a good research proposal if the student does not have the writing experience which would be able to impress the professor. If one requires a quality hint about the manner and tone of the convincing writing, a free example research proposal on organizational structure of Google will be quite helpful. With the assistance of a free sample research proposal on organizational culture change the student is able to write a quality well-formatted informative paper. At EssayLib.com writing service you can order a custom research proposal on Organizational Culture topics. Your proposal will be written from scratch. We hire top-rated PhD and Master’s writers only to provide students with professional research proposal help at affordable rates. Each customer will get a non-plagiarized paper with timely delivery. Just visit our website and fill in the order form with all proposal details: Enjoy our professional research proposal writing service!

Effects of Welfare Reform On The Acquistion of Education for Women essays

Effects of Welfare Reform On The Acquistion of Education for Women essays This entire research centers around identifying the influence and impact of the benefits, or lack thereof, welfare reforms on the educational attainment of adult women, in particular those identified as at risk, which also included the dropout rates of female students. In August of 1996, President Bill Clinton signed into law the most extensive welfare reform legislation ever enacted since Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) was revised in the 1960s. With the signing of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, the federal government implemented a "work- first" policy that imposed strict time limitations and work requirements for parents receiving aid. Even though the "work- first"legislation was praised by federal policy-makers as being the answer to welfare dependency, this legislation has, in fact, become an obstacle to financial independence for many low income parents who see education and training, rather than immediate low-wage employment as the ticket out of poverty. The new law imposed work requirements that make it unfeasible if not impossible for parents receiving aid to complete a degree program. Under the new federal law, the guaranteed JOBS program was eliminated and replaced by Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF) specific The new welfare policy was created with the idea that education is a luxury which is helpful, but not necessary. According to the new federal system of beliefs (at that time), job experience is seen as an adequate and less costly alternative to education, therefore it took precedence over education programs. In order to ensure that recipients engaged in work activities, the new law imposed monetary sanctions. The authors felt that the adjustments on education in adult women have been abandoned by researchers, therefore creating a huge knowledge gap that this study attempts to address...

Martin luther the priest Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Martin luther the priest - Essay Example Martin went to University of Wittenberg in 1508 to teach dialectics and philosophy. His stay there was short-lived as he was sent to do other assignments, one of which was spending some time in Rome. He returned to the University of Wittenberg in 1512 and after receiving a doctorate in Theology was appointed as lecturer on the Bible shortly afterwards. He studied a lot. It was during this period in his life that he came to realize that one receives justice through the grace of God and not from doing good works. This new doctrine justification by faith started to develop. Luther also became dissatisfied with other aspects of religious life. He realized that the parishioners of the Wittenberg church of which he was priest would habitually buy indulgences. He made his uneasiness public with the posting of his 95 Theses on the church door. This started confusion. Luther was accused of being a heresy and was denounced as a heretic by Emperor Maximilian. They even threatened to burn him at the stake. In 1520 he was handed the Papal Bull of excommunication and he was asked to retract his conflicting statements. He responded by burning the Papal Bull. He later married and had six children .He died on 18 February

Integrated Policy versus Integrated Science Essay

Integrated Policy versus Integrated Science - Essay Example Integrated Policy versus Integrated Science Whether crime is defined as the breaking of a relevant law or a more generalized type of deviant behavior does not inhibit the fundamental positivist inquiry; more specifically, the positivist school of thought seeks to explain crime and deviance as phenomena that result from certain forces that are beyond an individual's control. This essay will compare and contrast two types of positivism, psychological and sociological, and argue that an attempt to create an integrated theory of criminology would do more harm than good. This may allow for the articulation of integrated social policies. Policies, however, must be kept separate from the underlying scientific theories and methods used to more clearly understand crime and deviance. This is because, in certain ways, the two strains of positivism, while concerned with similar issues in the larger picture, are not truly compatible as scientific methods of inquiry. As a preliminary matter, both psychological positivists and sociological positivists are generally concerned with the same issues in a criminological context. These scholars are interested in determining, through application of the scientific method, the causes and the consequences of crime and deviance. Significantly, both schools of thought agree that these issues are not the fault of the individual; quite the contrary, they postulate that crime and deviance are caused by factors over which the individual has little or no control. This, however, is where the two theories begin to diverge. It is this focus, outside or uncontrollable forces, that characterize the respective types of positivism. The psychological positivists, for instance, argue that there are particular kinds of human personalities that are more likely to behave in a deviant manner or to produce criminal acts. The focus is thus the mind and it is therein that the uncontrollable forces reside. The sociological positiv ists, on the other hand, argue that there are particular types of social conditions and factors that are likely or more likely to influence individuals to behave in a deviant manner or to commit criminal acts. Both schools of thought agree that they are dealing with forces beyond the individual's control; the key theoretical difference is that the psychological positivists concentrate on the mind whereas the social positivists concentrate on society. For a psychological positivist, it is the condition of the mind that is of the greatest importance. The larger social context, for purposes of scientific analysis, is temporarily ignored. The question is how different individuals, different personalities, process information in different settings. How a person behaves is dependent on personality and psychological positivists tend to treat personalities as being rather stable and predictable. The implications, in the field of criminology, are important. By understanding different types of personalities, such as variations of an anti-social personality, psychological positivists believe that that they can predict which individuals will behave in certain deviant ways or commit certain types of criminal acts. It is this mode of scientific inquiry that has given rise to certain popularly known designations as the sociopath, the psychopath, and the sexual predator. In addition to identifying and classifying these types of personalities th at are predisposed to certain types of behavior, the psychological

Great Mosque of the Masjid-i-Jami Isfanhan, Iran 1088 Essay

Great Mosque of the Masjid-i-Jami Isfanhan, Iran 1088 - Essay Example The capital city was planned to be near the Friday mosque and due to Seljuks rich authoritative powers, they situated the city to the northern side of the mosque. Figure 1: The Masjid-i Jami, Isfahan According to Oleg (1990), the present mosque was rebuilt again after the destruction by earthquake and fire. It was begun by the Ghurid ruler between 1162 and1202. The mosque was constructed to bring forth the present appearance and design on how to construct mosques. This mosque has been of great concern since there has come times when the mosque was to be demolished by fire from the capture by the Tughril Beg. This capture was accompanied by riot and religious conflicts which led to the destruction of the building before it reconstruction. There were two sects in the riots which included the Hanafite and the Shafi'ite. These riots were the cause of fire which destroyed the ornamental look of the great building. During its construction the mosque was planned and the structure was to be rectangular, inner diameter of a length of 65 meters and a width of 55 meters. There are walls which are used for prayers and cover a large area with several bays. To the west are 7 bays. 4 bays are in the southern side of the mosque and 3 bays to the North West (Oleg, 1990). There are also additional four chambers to the existing bays. The mosque fits the city settings with variety of gates and entrances which allows mass entrance within a short time. The mosque covers a speculated area distinct from the city square. It fits the requirements in construction of a mosque which ensures that it should cover its special area distinct from the main city. The mosque has been the visual landmark to the city of Isfahan with large domes to the northern and the southern side of it. The other neighboring buildings are situated in a manner to show that they give space to the holy mosque. Recently, they have situated a gate to the south eastern side of the mosque. There is an inscription to the space between the building and the gate which mentions Muzaffarid sultan Mahmud who used to rule isfanhan during the year of 1358 to1374.There is another gate to the south which mentions abbas rule and this was designed in the year 1590.A northern gate which is no longer in use describes the eternal rest from Quranic Surah 76 which was constructed in 1366 (Oleg, 1990). A unique forth gate is designed which is no longer in use. It is decorated using bricks unlike the other gates which are colored and has attractive tiles. This gate explains how the mosque was reconstructed after its destruction with fire in the year 1121. The mosque court is well decorated with colored tiles of variety of colors which are; blue, yellow, white and other dark colors. This shows how the residents are united and the degree of harmonious relationships within that area. Bunce (2008) asserts that there are screens installed in the four courts on the passage way of the mosque leading to the sacred places of worship. The doomed chamber has also been constructed with an area of 15 side meters and a height of 30 meters. It was the work of architect Abul fath who did this after the fire tragedy. The southern dome carries inscription of the famous Abu Malik Shah and Nizam al-Mulk.

Business Analytics And Business Intelligence Business Essay

Business Analytics And Business Intelligence Business Essay Business Intelligence (BI) is all about getting usable intelligence from data. Using BI you can provide right information to right people at the right time and through right channels to make a competitive advantage by informed decision making. Almost in every organization information is available in abundance as structured data is getting accumulated over the years that is resulting from a variety of operational information systems. Traditional models of operations might not be able to fully utilize the new opportunities presented by this abundance of information. BI systems today can organize, analyze, store and retrieve huge amount of information. We can now work on new organizational models that are agile, and better adaptable to constant change in order to beat the competition and discover new business opportunities. The techniques like Business Analytics (BA) and Business Intelligence are bringing just that to our door steps. What Is Business Analytics Business Analytics deals with the methodologies employed by organizations to enhance their business by making optimized decisions with the use of statistical techniques that might involve data collection and analysis. Business analytics might require many complex techniques that need advanced statistics. Applying Business Analytics, it may be possible to find how a territory or a region reacts to certain product variations or added features. This information can be very useful in devising new product line with features that are likely to maximize sales in a particular region for a set of target audiences. A proper analysis of data might also tell about things like recurring customer support issues and thereby proactive steps can be taken before it grows out of proportion. Business Analytics is often used by marketing folks in predicting and analyzing consumer behavior. This is done by applying statistical analytical techniques on historical data of customer transactions. Without high-quality data and statistics, business analytics can have little or no meaning to any organization. The Difference Between Business Analytics and Business Intelligence Business analysis employs statistical methods and analysis on past business performance to develop new business insights and drive business planning. Business Analysis may use a combination of technologies, skills, practices and applications in its continuous and iterative investigations. Business intelligence on the other hand uses a consistent set of matrices on the past data to measure performance and drive the business planning. BI can also employ statistical techniques like BA. Business intelligence is more of reporting, querying, OLAP and alerts. BA can be used as an input for human decisions or it can fully automate the decision making process. BI can answer what happened in the past, in what numbers, the frequency of occurance, location of the problem, and what corrective actions are needed. BA can tell us why this is happening, what will happen next, what if the trend continues, and more on optimization. What You Can Do With Analytics Analytics can answer information oriented questions like what happened, say, in past two years with sales in a particular region. What is happening now in different regions? And what is likely to happen in near future? Digging dipper may take us to answer questions with more insights like how and why did this happen? Answering this question may require some mathematical modeling and/ or some experimental design. Other insightful questions that can be answered are what is the next best thing to do; and predictions like what worst or best that can happen in a particular scenario? Analytics aims to move towards more insightful answers (to the problems or questions) that an organization needs to know, in order to stay healthy and stay ahead of competition. Its all about informed decision making over intuitive. Its also about giving competitive advantage to managers and reduced risks in decision making. Today Analytics is applied almost everywhere predicting consumer behavior, what will sell, determining price range for a particular market, in supply chain and operations, logistics and finding the best routes for transportation fleet, determining what factors are really driving the financial performance in a company, risk management, investments, issuing credit cards, maximizing sales and profits are just a few examples. Caution While Using Analytics // when not is the time to apply analytics Some decisions have to be made when there is little or no time for data collection; like war or in a sports field. You need to go by your already gathered expertise, intuition and by previous experience. Analytics has a very little role to play in such situations. Some situations have never occurred before and data is simply not available for Analytics to work upon. In some cases like stock markets plenty of data is available but its misleading and cant be used to do any analysis for the future or current actions. There are times when the experience of managers is more valuable over any kind of analysis like valuating plant and machinery for insurance purposes. Off course nothing can replace intuition while selecting a life partner or selecting a gift for the spouse, for that matter.. Almost all results based on Analytics have to be used along with human wisdom. Analytics is based on models, assumptions and data. Anything can go wrong there and blindly applying results might lead to disasters. Analytic models need to be tested carefully first with a controlled set of data that has known results. When tests are successful and results are consistent under test conditions; the models can be used in real time situations. Pre-Conditions To Apply Analytics An organization might have a process orientation with some degree of perfection; be it Six Sigma, Lean, or reengineering or a combination. The key is to identify which attributes in the process are associated with satisfaction and value from the standpoint of the end customer. If you have a comprehensive measurement system for these process attributes, you can perform statistical analysis on your value tree and determine the correlations among business drivers. The classic DELTA framework captures five conditions that are must for any analytical initiative to succeed. Applied to process analytics, these are: Data: This deals with data sufficiency and data quality requirements for analytics process. Sufficient data should be there for experimenting, modeling and testing as analytics demands. This also concerns with technology and management of data used in the whole Analytics process. Enterprise: An enterprise view point is necessary to for effective Analytics. Without that Analytics initiatives may be localized and it will be very difficult to draw any significant benefits at the enterprise level. The process under any Analytics initiative should have the cross-functional or cross-boundary scope to make a difference in overall business performance. Leadership: This calls for cross functional and capable leaders that have strong executive management support. The leadership focus is much more than just one project. Leadership strives for bringing an Analytics based culture in the organization. Targets: Metrics to track these results of Analytics projects. It can be strong customer loyalty, increased performance in supply chain, hiring better matching to skill set requirements, better quantitative risk management and so on. Analysts: They must have capabilities to build the models and derive results. They also bring Analytics culture to the organization by enabling business managers to appreciate and apply it in day-to-day decision making. The readiness of processes in an organization needs to be assessed in all the areas represented by DELTA. All the gaps need to be fulfilled for any meaningful Analytics project to happen in the company. A Typical Responsibility Tree In An Analytics Project The executive management needs to create the overall strategy and choose an information strategy. Middle management and operations managers design business processes and decide how information and knowledge is to be used. Business analysts are responsible for creating reports and Analytics; they are the persons who are responsible for information and knowledge. There is a set of people, who are responsible for data warehouses, data collection. IT infrastructure people are responsible for maintaining databases and technology infrastructure. Analytics Vendors Currently prominent BI and Business Analytics tools vendors are IBM (Cognos), SAP (Business Objects), SAAS Institute (SAAS), R and SPSS (taken over by IBM). All these vendors periodically publish white papers that can be an important source of updates on latest happenings and capabilities of their respective tools. Spatial Analytics Basics of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Today, GIS is one of the fastest growing fields in Information Technology arena. It has applications in banking, natural resource management, defense, utilities, and government, and many other areas. Maps are fundamental tools used to depict spatial or geographic data. In GIS, we use digital maps for patterns, linkages, or relationships in data in either a single map or multiple maps simultaneously. In its simpler version, GIS provides an automated version of traditional map analysis. A GIS is used to access an integrated, location referenced database of maps that can be superimposed, combined, and analyzed as per user specifications. GIS has advantages over other data management systems in its ability to present geographical relationships in a digital map form where its easy to visualize and comprehend. Creating accurate data sets for a GIS system involves exploring satellite images to identify outlines geographical entities like roads, lakes, rivers, and other landmarks. It is then followed by a ground survey in order to capture names of these entries in the area of interest. There are four components of GIS: (1) data, (2) hardware, (3) software, and (4) users. These components must work in an integrated fashion for any usable inferences to be drawn from a GIS analysis. Some Applications of Spatial Analytics in Banking The GIS mapping of a bank branch involves defining a trade area around a bank branch including profiling of customers in that area. The banks can know about the particulars of the products that are being purchased by specific socio-demographic groups and plan new features/ products accordingly. GIS analysis can examine the interrelationships between land-use, infrastructure capacities, proximities of major civic amenities, and economic growth. Banks can utilize these GIS simulations to take strategic decisions like opening new branches, branch relocation or closure etc. The location dimension that is provided by GIS along with routine data used by classical asset management systems can be very useful in asset maintenance activities like location inspection and monitoring of a class of assets. GIS based solutions for the management and replenishment of ATMs, work in real time and they may provide effective ways to the cash management. GIS based application can show the ATMs on a map with their cash status. Cash requirement for each day for a Bank/ATM can be predicted with the help of historical cash transactions and other demographic data such as population density, economic status For ATM cash replenishment, GPS loaded, GIS based Fleet Management Systems can monitor the real time locations of cash vans in a very cost effective manner. Business Case: Personal Loan Customer Analytics This project involved integrating various ORACLE databases and their analysis in combination with digital maps of Bangalore. It required to plot around 40,000 loan locations and to analyze spatial spreads and correlations. This was done for an associate of a MNC bank. Some output screens from the analysis are included here. SIMS is a Spatial Analytics System developed by SPINFO.

Culture and Identity Essay -- Cultural Identity Essays

Culture and Identity Culture and identity could have many different definitions. Culture to me is what made you the person that you are today. The background and history of a person that is the reason of who they are and what they stand for. Identity to me is the certain characteristics that belong to a person that makes them different from everyone else on this planet. The world with no culture or a lack of identity would be a rather boring place. Identity and culture are what makes this world an interesting place, there is a distinct relationship between identity and culture and one without the other they could not exists. In the essay "Real Indians Eat Jell-O" by Laurie Carlson, it seems that she has trouble finding her own identity and culture. Carlson a native american living in a trailer park in Montana wants to know more of her culture to try to give herself an identity. Carlson states "Indian kids are supposed to live in wide open spaces, in deserts or forests. They have horses and coyotes and wise grandparents" (Carlson par. 2). Instead of making her own identity and learning about her culture now, she wants have the identity of someone else, she wants the identity of Indians from hundreds and hundreds of years ago. She looks to her grandmother for culture and does not like what her grandmother has to say, Carlson wants to hear stories of beadwork and tales of coyotes while her grandmother while her grandmother taps her "primrose passion" colored nails to the song on the radio and tells her "Honey, be yourself"(Carlson par. 7). Personally that is the best answer anyone could give a child who is looking to make an identity for themselves, because an identity is who you are and who you are is everything. Also Carls... ...more successful than my parents just like they were more successful then my grandparents and like my grandparents were more successful then my great-grandparents. My community culture growing up has given me the hardworking, go getting attitude that I need in life to grow up to be a successful person in this world. Culture and identity have a very close knit relationship between them. A persons culture helps them to determine their identity in life. Without knowing your own culture, weather it be a poor indian growing up in a trailer park or a rich white boy growing up in a huge house, your identity would be very hard to determine. A persons culture is the main part of a persons identity, and without knowing your culture it would be hard to figure out ones identity. Works Cited Carlson, Laurie. "Real Indians Eat Jell-O". Northern Lights. (Spring 1993).

Analysis of Troy Maxson Essay

The play â€Å"Fences† by Lloyd Richards is mostly the story of Troy Maxson. A man of many words, some of which although may not be particularly nice. He is an elderly, large black man who used to be a home run hitter in the Negro league, but by the time of the integration of professional Baseball, Troy was too old to benefit from it. This caused Troy to become the man he is today. Throughout the play the reader sees in depth of what kind of man Troy Maxson really is. Yes, he is far from a perfect man, but he has an inner strength that can inspire, which makes him, above all, memorable. As a result of having his dreams ultimately shattered Troy is vulnerable. Not just vulnerable to others, but by believing in the self-created illusions he has created to cope with his drastic fall from living his dream to working at a dead end job. While being so susceptible to his own created world Troy is more than comfortable with living in his fictitious fantasy. This is seen when Troy tries to convince his friend Bono that is relationship with a women called Alberta was nothing consensual, when in reality it is obvious he was having an affair with the lady (page 1703). Throughout the whole play the readers get an idea of where the Title â€Å"Fences† come from. Troy Maxson’s character causes conflicts with everyone else, and in doing so placing metaphorical â€Å"fences† around him and the ones that care about him. With these fences up all around him he rejects and puts down the dreams and desires of others because they differ from his own philosophy. There are many examples of this throughout the play, but the one that seems to stand out the most would be when he tries to completely tear down his son’s dream of playing professional football (page 1716-1717). Troy Maxson’s charter although represents more than just a man who is bitter from past experiences; he represents human nature’s unwillingness to adjust to social change. Just like how the white men viewed black people, even after segregation was in full swing, they still viewed them as inferior beings. The same concept can be seen in Troy. Troy constantly uses baseball to describe his actions as if baseball was still a major role in his day to day life. When he talks about facing death, he uses baseball terminology, comparing a face-off with the grim reaper to a duel between a pitcher and a  batter (1706). When he bullies his son Cory, he warns him: â€Å"You swung the bat and didn’t hit it. That’s strike one.† (1726). So with this Troy becomes the perfect example for a tragic hero. Doing what he sees fit through his own eyes even though the people around him tell him that his actions will have drastic side effects, but he still stubbornly stride s on pursuing his own course of action. As terrible as it may seem the experiences Troy went through were not uncommon. In fact drones of skilled African American players could not experience playing on the professional level. Sadly they were bound to the Negro leagues due to the color of their skin, thus for having their stats lost to legend. And according to Frank Deford only after about fifty years of the Negro leagues existence are the skills and talent of these Negro League players beginning honored by modern day baseball (Deford). References Deford, Frank. â€Å"Negro League Baseball.† Smithsonian 41.7 (2013): 73-76. Academic Search Complete. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. Richards, Lloyd. â€Å"Fences.† Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts and Robert Sweig. 10th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2012, 945-946. Print

Columbias internal Conflicts essays

Columbia's internal Conflicts essays Columbia is located in the Northwest of South America with one coast along the Pacific and the other along the Caribbean Sea. While the population is very diversified, more than half of the people are of Spanish-Indian decent. European ancestry makes up the next biggest percentage, along with the blacks, mulattos, and zambos (black-Indian mix). Instability in politics and the people began in the beginning when the people won their land over the Spanish royalists. After the defeat of the Spanish army, the republic consisted of all of the formerly Spanish owned land. Simon Bolivar was elected its first President and Francisco de Paula Santander, Vice President. Two political parties that grew out of conflicts between the followers of Bolivar and Santander, the Conservatives and the Liberals, have dominated Colombian politics. The conflicts stemmed from ideas of the Conservatives who wanted a centralized government that ruled in affiliation with the Roman Catholic Church. The lib erals, Santanders followers, were in favor of a de-centralized government, where the church did not have power over educational and civil issues. Both parties held office throughout history almost an equal number of times. Despite the constant instability, the government was able to maintain its democratic way of electing a different leader every four years. Notwithstanding the country's commitment to democratic institutions, Colombia's history has been characterized by periods of widespread, violent conflict. Two civil wars resulted from bitter rivalry between the Conservative and Liberal Parties. The War of a Thousand Days (1899-1902) cost an estimated 100,000 lives, and up to 300,000 people perished during "La violencia" (The Violence) of the late 1940s and 1950s. Although Columbia started with the grounds of a growing economy, it flourished as a battle zone for those producing and trafficking drugs. ...

Writing for a Cause Supplementing Income with Grant Writing

Writing for a Cause Supplementing Income with Grant Writing As far back as I can remember, I have wanted to be a writer in some capacity. In the 90s, when I graduated from college and before the internet of things, I had no idea how to make that happen. I became a social worker. Working for  Big Brothers Big Sisters  was very rewarding, but the pay was low and the hours were long. To supplement my income, I presented at seminars and wrote occasional grants. I had no formal grant writing experience, and I’m not even sure that we won any of the grants, but I made extra cash. Twenty years later, content writing comprises a little more than half my income. Although I was aware of  grants available to writers, I had not touched a grant since the 90s. One morning, I received a phone call. A one-year-old, local non-profit agency needed a grant writer, and a friend recommended me. Regardless of my limited experience with grant writing, I was hired. Apparently local grant writers are difficult to find, especially for a new agency. I believed in the organization and wanted to help, but I had no idea how lucrative it would become. How It Works Initially, I agreed to a â€Å"per project† fee, to ensure a good fit for everyone. We were awarded the very first grant I wrote, and my fee was $500. The grant took me about four hours to write, so I was very excited for the next proposal. After a month, the Board of Directors approved me as a permanent grant writer and the agreement looks like this: A retainer  of $500/month for one year, subject to an increase with a 50 percent award rate. Bonuses paid for awarded grants equal to five percent of the award amount. Researching and recommending grants each month is part of the job. Over the past few months, I have tracked hours spent researching and writing grants, as well as time spent on planning calls with the Executive Director. On average, I spend twelve hours per month on this job. My average monthly income to date is $1200, or $83/hour. This amount will increase, as I am on track to write nearly one million dollars in grants this year. My monthly hours will increase as I write larger, more complex grant proposals. If my award average is 50 percent or higher, my estimated income will be $37,000 for the year, equating to well over $100/hour, even with increased hours. A Few Words About Ethics Most  grantwriter associations  have determined that commissions based on percentages of awarded grants is unethical. And, more importantly, grants rarely allow funds to be used to pay a grantwriter. Agencies must fundraise to cover operations expenses, such as grantwriting. In my case, the agency budget includes my retainer, which compensates me for hours spent, even if a grant is not awarded. The budget also includes bonus money to be paid out for awarded grants. The percentage is used as a bonus guideline; however, my grantwriting fees are never paid directly from a grant. When I dreamed of being a writer, I did not dream of blog and grant proposal writing. Writing opportunities can pop up everywhere. Even though my writing career hasn’t included bestselling novels and coast to coast book tours, I am influencing the world with words. The income has been great and it feels good to know that my writing skills are helping to fund an important cause.

Reasons of the Present World's Explosive State Essay

Reasons of the Present World's Explosive State - Essay Example As the paper outlines, Huntington argues that after the cold war the world, which was divided along the ideological and economic status of states, has changed. The old dividing lines of ideological orientation and economic status are to be replaced by the fresh lines of â€Å"culture and civilization†. With these new demarcations, Huntington divided the world in â€Å"Western, Confucian, Japanese, Islamic, Hindu, Slavic-Orthodox, Latin American and possibly African civilization†. Therefore, he asserts that the conflicts in future got to be along these fault lines. He reinforces his argument by giving four reasons: Firstly, the differences in civilization are â€Å"basic and real† thus are rigid and will cause conflict, which necessarily does not mean â€Å"violence†. Secondly, because of technological advancements, the world has become more interactive and so does civilizations, resultantly the emergence of â€Å"civilization consciousness† and â₠¬Å"animosities†. Third the process of â€Å"economic modernization and social change† has brought new identities in focus. Fourth, the dual role of the West. Finally, the uncompromising nature of cultural characteristics as compared to political or economic interests. The â€Å"centuries-old military interaction† between Arabs (Islam in particular) and West is a testimony to the existence of civilization fault line between these two, which will widen in the absence of other ideology i.e. Communism. Amy Chua, on the other hand, indicates that the unrest in the world is because of three factors: free markets, democracy, and ethnic hatred.  

People, Groups, and their Leaders Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

People, Groups, and their Leaders - Essay Example Following Lamberton and Minor-Evans (2009, p. 179), group dynamics is the important aspect of development in every organization as it improves growth and productivity issues. Multi-skilling and task rotation can vary according to individual preferences and their current level of competence, allowing group members to find suitable niches. Perceptual barriers mean that all people see the world differently. In order to understand each other, employees should pay a special attention to individual differences and different communication strategies. Perceptual barriers lead to poor performance and lack of cooperation between employees and departments. In order to rely on internal flexibility to deal with personnel fluctuations due to absences or changing output requirements, adequate personnel resources and sufficient time for planning are needed in addition to a certain degree of multiskilling of group members. Then the group will be able to balance the variances on its own. Daft (2006, p. 81) admits that human relations aim to create trust and credibility among employees and motivate them. In this case, individualists view their team as an entity in and of itself rather than one that is connected to the external context and are therefore even less apt to use external sources of information to make corrections in their behavior and improve their performance. Particularly in individualistic cultures, team-based organizations need to have systems that help teams set realistic expectations. Similar ideas are explained by Topping (2002, p. 78) and Smith (1982, p. 51) who admit that positive human relations allow employees to stay motivated while at the same time remaining open to learning from feedback and mistakes. Doing so often requires extending team members' task skills. Task skills and effective performance is impossible without effective communication and positive climate. (Segriovanni and Glickman 2006, p. 52). Communication Pitfalls and Strategies for Success Segriovanni and Glickman (2006, p. 88) state that positive and friendly human relations can encourage sharing practices within and between organizations, observe and adapt to organizational environmental trends, and maintain awareness of cultural convergence. Elton Mayo underlines that HR professionals who can change their assumptions and are adept at modifying basic HR practices will be better poised to face future trends in the use of teams that are just on the horizon (Segriovanni and Glickman 200, p. 55). The effective communication is a critical tool for increasing employees' awareness of the value of their contribution to the organization's success and for creating a dialogue with their managers that can enhance the contributions that employees can make. Indeed, change and organizational transformation are unlikely to occur without new values being introduced into the performance management system. Dr. Irving Janis introduced such term as "groupthink". It means