English 11B 2 Flashcard

English 11B 2

Review Example

Review Example Review – Coursework Example 2 May Review A review of information technology evolution identifies developments into convenient knowledge creation. Some of the steps to research are no longer necessary because of such applications as Big Data. Similarly, social media has expanded information source and improved availability of data. However, reliability of data from the sources and results from such data remains questionable. The case of Twiter maps is an example and notes lack of information on some aspects such as geographical areas as well as inaccuracies in available data. CAI system supports this by demonstrating unreliability of data from the contemporary state of technology. Even though the system offers multiple services such as infrastructure mapping, data collection, and data analysis, its unreliability can be costly to professions in which resources are expensive and time is scarce. Such a challenge remains a valid concern because of the dynamic environment while testing reliability of a system may req uire time and the system may have undergone numerous changes before testing is complete. Land (166) shares in the unreliability concern that is significant to the medical sector and the significance can be inferred to other sectors. In addition, growing reliance on data and research for industrial decisions establishes significance of technology in data collection and usage and supports significance of unreliability of systems. In order to use the systems, their reliability must be ascertained or at least be estimated in order to inform corrective measures and ensure confidence in ultimate decisions. Measures for ensuring reliability of technologies, and by extension validity, are therefore necessary and inform the following question.How can reliability and validity of technologies be ascertained and improved? Works citedLand, E. Information technology in health science education. New York, NY: Springer Science & Business Media, 2013. Print.

Causes of the decline of the Devirme System Term Paper

Causes of the decline of the Devirme System - Term Paper Example The non-Muslim population in the empire and outside the empire therefore bore the blunt of the Ottoman rule, since they were targeted by the Sultan as well as other traders who used to offer them as slaves instead of paying taxes to the Sultan, or either as a gift to the Sultan. The youth offered for enslavement could either become military personnel in the kingdom, while others could be educated and trained to joining the janissaries in the Harem. This was the Sultan’s home or center of governing where all the activities of the Sultan occupied. The Devshirme system however collapsed later, due to many external influences, such as the modernization from the external world that crept into the Ottoman Empire before its collapse, and due to the inclusion of many foreigners in the Palace and in the empire as a whole. One factor that led to the collapse of the Devshirme system could be the conversion of many of the non-Muslims in the kingdom, into Islamic religion. Duiker and Spielvogel (337) explained that as a result of hostilities that was directed to the non Muslim inhabitants of the empire, many parents saw it necessary to convert to Islamic religion to save their families from being abducted by the powerful men who could afterwards offer them as gifts to the Sultan. Many of such youths had died in the wars, since they were trained and used for military purposes by the Sultan. It was therefore very disheartening and painful for parents to learn of their children’s death in the military activities. To avoid this, a good number of non Muslims as Duiker and Spielvogel (339) explained converted into Islamic religion. Since it was cultural not abduct the Islam professing inhabitants in the Devshirme practices, it therefore translated into declining of the possible abductees in the kingdom. The practice therefore faded gradually as the people converted into Islam, until it ended by the collapse of the Ottoman rule. In the

Idealized Architecture + Public Implications Essay

Idealized Architecture + Public Implications - Essay Example On the contrary, the project failed due to institutional racism and the post war population changes that occurred in the industrial cities. Despite the various claims that have been put forward as the causes of the project failure in this, it is revealed that architects face very big challenge when it come to designing major public buildings. The first problem is normally the size of the project. The Pruitt Igoe project was oversized consisting of 33 buildings on 57 acres of land (The Pruitt-Igoe Myth). This was a major challenge for the project architects. The second problem is the difficultly in understanding the clients that they are serving and their needs due to the high number of users of the buildings. The film reveals that had the architects understood the clients that they were serving, the failure could not have occurred. The final problem is the constant design changes. The project that was initially designed by Yamasaki was a less massive development project .However, various aspects of the complex were value engineered hence making it unresponsive to the needs of the

Vodafone international marketing strategy Case Study

Vodafone international marketing strategy - Case Study Example The fourth chapter will describe the research process i.e. how the research will be conducted and fundamental description about findings. The fifth chapter will describe the analysis of data gathered by literature review and secondary method. This chapter will show if the research findings match with the literature review or not. In the final chapter the ultimate conclusion will be drawn and discussed based on the research problem. The case study is based on the research objective i.e. to understand the international marketing strategies of Vodafone and its impact. Literature Review Vodafone is a telecommunication company which operates their business worldwide. It is a UK based company which serves around 359 million people internationally and operates in over 30 countries in the world [2] (Vodafone Limited, 2010). International Marketing Strategy The principal approach to development of international marketing strategy can be done by three steps. First is the recognition of differe nt marketing segments within the industry, second is clarifying the target customer segment and third is the improvement of products and services according to the needs and requirements of the particular segment. In order to be competitive in the international environment, Michael Porter had proposed three strategies which are cost leadership, focus and differentiation. Vodafone had implemented Porter’s generic strategies in the international business environment to remain competitive. Vodafone had focused on decreasing the cost of their services. In certain particular countries, Vodafone had implemented unique offers to dominate in the market segment. The Porter’s Generic Strategies of Vodafone Strategic...Their cost program helps to balance the cost inflation and facilitate them to increase the revenue [3] (Vodafone Limited, 2010). Vodafone had implemented ‘Siemens top’ plan to employ cost optimisation and reduce the cost of various operations. This plan had successfully reduced cost by 10% per year. Through this plan, Vodafone had involved 500 procedures and freed over 4000 servers and 1000 Tera Byte storage space. Their maintenance cost was saved by 10% and consolidation services cost was saved by 25% (Siemens IT Solutions and Services GmbH, 2011). In the year 2007, Vodafone had selected Sony Ericsson to supply and allocate the spare equipments for their network service in European countries such as Portugal, Spain and Germany. According to the deal with Sony Ericsson, the supply of spare parts included 2G, 3G and transmissions tools in Europe. This is a part of cost reduction strategy of Vodafone which could enable the company to minimise the average cost of management procedure of supply and develop the service level. Through this agreement, Vodafone can harmonise the spare component supply, provide better cost transparency for the provision of services and eliminate the extra investment for spare component inventory. This agreement is beneficial for Vodafone in the sense that it can save the cost by channelizing purchases in all countries by a single supplier (Vodafone Limited, 2007).

Ethical To Monitor Employees Whilst In Workplace

Ethical To Monitor Employees Whilst In Workplace The development of Information Communication Technology has created new ethical dilemmas due to the out-of-date moral, legal, and social boundaries. These boundaries can be represented by rules and legislation, laws and human nature. The expansion of technology has created a new era of office work. The majority of offices around the world are now filled with newly available technological advances; from personal computers to large network servers. This access to readily available technology has led to a blurring of the boundaries and has created new issues within the workplace. Over the last decade there has been an increase among employers to monitor the actions and performance of their employees. This is due to worries about; quality of work, productivity employee theft or misuse of company property. (Johnson 2008, p.1) One of the main ethical issues of the workplace is employee privacy and surveillance. This essay will address the following ethical topic; is it ethical to monitor employees whilst they are in the workplace? This will be addressed in several different ways to make sure that is analysed and evaluated properly. This essay will be constructed in the following way; firstly the definition of Privacy and surveillance will be cross examined. This is to demonstrate the vast area that this topic covers and to supply background information on the ethical issue of employee privacy and surveillance. This will lead into further background information regarding the aspects of employee monitoring, including; the implications of the topic and the methods employed to monitor employees. Once the background research regarding employee monitoring has been analysed the ethical side of the topic will be assed and documented before being summarised and evaluated in a conclusion. The main focus of this essa y will to create an argument regarding the issues of employ monitoring and to explore if they are ethically correct or ethically wrong. Since this topic is based around privacy in the workplace, privacy is a key term to be explored. This section of the essay will analyse the definitions of the terms and look for trends and connections relating back to the essay question. An individuals privacy theoretically descends from the concern of others who may have information relating to the person or is relevant to the person. The Oxford English Dictionary was used to give a rough understanding of the term Privacy. The dictionary describes the term Privacy as the following; a state in which one is not observed or disturbed by other people: she returned to the privacy of her own home the state of being free from public attention: a law to restrict newspapers freedom to invade peoples privacy (Oxford Dictionaries, 2005) This meaning relating to the topic of employee monitoring suggest that monitoring employees would be unethical as monitoring a person stops them from being unable to be disturbed or observed. The definition above isnt relevant enough to the topic above and should only be used as a rough guide. As a starting point for the topic of Privacy Schoemans definition will be examined, as it gives a basic understanding of the word. A person has privacy to the extent that others have limited access to information about him, limited access to the intimacies of his life, or limited access to his thoughts or his body. (Schoeman, 1984, p. 3) It suggests that to achieve privacy in the workplace a persons personal information should be contained with only limited access. From the quote it suggests that employees actions at work and outside of it should be only truly known to them. From this quote is it a fair response to suggest that once the employer starts to have access to the employees private information that it could lead to distrust and animosity in the workplace. From analysing this quote it suggests that employee monitoring in the work place is un-ethical, as it would allow others to have access to information about a person. Following Shoemans ideas, allowing employers to monitor employees would stop the employee from being able to control the access of their information. Another definition of privacy is defined below: The condition of not having undocumented personal knowledge about one possessed by others Personal knowledge consists of facts about a person which most individuals in a given society at a given time do not want widely known about themselves. (Miller and Weckert, 2000, p.256) This definition raises issues as it implies that a persons privacy is only relevant to the society that they find themselves in. This could be their home, workplace or on a larger scale, their country. A person should still be entitled to their privacy regardless of the society; human nature dictates that all humans have the capacity to have secrets or hide secrets. From this a person should be able to hide information from others regardless of their society. Relating this back to the initial essay question it implies that the idea of privacy would again make monitoring employees in the workplace unethical. It would allow the employer access to the employees personal knowledge, thus being unethical. This will be explored later when the ideas of privacy are linked to ethical theses. In the following section the aspects relating to employee monitoring will be analysed and discussed. This will be done by examining the following topics; the implications of the topic and the methods employed to monitor. Bassick suggests that in Employee Surveillance: An Ethical Consideration it is new methods of employee monitoring that is causing the ethical issues. Bassick states that the need for employee monitoring is down to three main ideas, these being; to maximize worker productivity, ensure the integrity the organization, and to protect the interests of customers and fellow workers. (Bassick et al. 2007) In relation to the topic of ethics it is quite clear to see why this has been turned into an ethical dilemma. Employers feel that they need to survey their employees as can lead to a more profitable and efficient business. On the other hand this can have negative effects on the employees as they can feel more pressurised, over controlled, restricted and unmotivated. Now the types of surveillance used by employers will be examined and analysed. This will show what causes the main ethical dilemmas, if the key areas of surveillance can be identified then it will be easier to understand what causes them. American Management Association (AMA) in 2007 carried out and published detailed information regarding to the surveillance of employees in the workplace. This information will be used to identify the most used techniques, from this it will identify how the employees are affected. From AMAs finding it suggests that employers main concern is Web surfing, with 66% monitoring the employees web usage. As well as this AMA found that 65% of all participating businesses used software to block inappropriate access to websites. Again this could lead to conflict within the workplace as employees could feel that they have right to access to all websites when they are not on company time, i.e. on a lunch break or after office hours. This could lead to the ethical issue of the freedom of information act as by banning certain sites it reduces the access to publicly know information. (American Management Association 2007) AMA also explored surveillance relating to keyboard activity, the report concluded that 45% of employers track the employees keystrokes. As well as monitoring time at the computer, AMAs findings found out that 43% of the participating businesses stored their employees files and work for further review and analyse.16% of all the participating businesses also record phone conversations. Relating this back to the issue of privacy in the workplace, this is in clear violation of it. By recording employees conversations it removes all privacy with relation to calls, for example, a private call from a family member saying somebody in the family is ill, the employer could quite easily be recoding it thus breaking the employees privacy. Of the 43% of companies that monitor e-mail, 73% of them use software to monitor emails and 40% hire an individual to actual analyse and review all the employee emails. (American Management Association 2007) again this could be seen as a breach of privacy. Whilst in the workplace employees tend to receive emails daily, the majority will be work related, but some wont be. For example, if an employee receives an email about a potential new job, but actually has no intention of applying for it. It could still cause conflict in the workplace as the employer might interpret it as the employee looking for a new job, this could then give the employer the grounds for dismissal. Persson and Hansson in Privacy at Work Ethical Criteria looked at the duties of employers and their responsibility is the prevention of third parties, from having access to employees privacy. Employers can state that access to their employees information is to reduce unauthorized persons from having access to it. (Persson and Hansson 2003, p.60) This would justify the reasons for having to monitor the employees but would still require surveillance in the first place. In the Ownership, Privacy and monitoring in the Workplace, Loch Suggests that many employers have the right to monitor their employees. This is because they are being paid to do a job and not achieving this is unproductive. She goes on to suggest that the owners of the companies also own the office supplies, equipment and technology. This gives them the right to monitor how the resources get used and what they are used for. (Loch et al. 1998) Relating this back to the initial question, it makes perfect sense to agree with what loch says. For example, if a person lends a friend a laptop to help them to do coursework, that person assumes that the friend will use the laptop to do the coursework. This doesnt stop the friend from using the laptop to do other things, such as, go on Facebook, or access illegal content. The person still owns the laptop even though the friend is using it, this means that the person can ask for it back at any time. They could also monitor the friend to make sure that they keep on task and only use the laptop for the coursework. From an ethical point of view the person could be regarded as a good friend because checking up on the friend could be regarded as being a good friend to make sure that they do well. But relating this to the workplace the same scenario can apply, as the employer monitoring the employees to make sure they keep on task could be seen as good bossing. The employers could also cl aim that by monitoring employees it reduces the risk of dismissal as the employees are more focused. Following Lochs teachings it suggests that employers have a right to see what their employees are doing throughout the day. The main reason for this as it normally leads to an increase in performance levels allowing a business to perform more efficiently. Persson and Hansson suggest that many companies track individuals keystrokes, email use, web site hits and their movements throughout the building to measure an individual employees efficiency. (Persson and Hansson 2003) the ethical implications of this are that it can lead to mistrust and conflict within the workplace; this could lead to an unmotivated workforce. Through the analyse of the types of employee monitoring and the implications of this in the workplace, it appears that it can be argued by both. Employers can argue that surveillance is necessary to workplace productive and efficiency, whilst protecting employees from third party access. Whereas employees can argue that it is a breach of privacy and that employers shouldnt be allowed to survey staff as it can have a negative effect on the workplace. To further this argument employee defence must also be considered, this will be carried out by looking at the ethical implications of the topic. In the 2005 American Management Association survey it concluded that there is no official legislation that makes employee surveillance illegal. But the majority of employees regard it as unethical and an invasion of their privacy. (American Management Association 2005) This could be due to the fact that a lot of employees arent aware that they are being surveyed at work, this is then regarded as an ethical dilemma because employees feel that it is their right to know if they are being monitored or not. Firstly, Miller in Privacy, the Workplace and the Internet In addition stated that employees being monitored can suffer from; poor health, stress, and morale problems compared to other employees. Again this raises further ethical implications, is it ethical to monitor employees when it could lead to health implications. This again is a fine line, as some employers will argue that surveillance is a necessity and that the health implications are treatable. Whereas employees will argue that their health is of more importance that the profit of the company, certainly it is an issue, but many companies are happy to overlook a problem to maximise a turnover. Another ethical implication relating to ethics in the workplace relates to employer-employee trust. Trust can be important in a workplace, as employers must trust employees on a daily basis to carry out their job tasks, to meet deadlines and to cooperate with other employees in the workplace. Employees also feel that not only is surveillance a breach of their privacy but an invasion of their personal space. Miller again identifies this; There are other important things in life besides efficiency and profitability. In particular, there is the right to privacy. The existence of the right to privacy, and related rights such as confidentiality and autonomy, is sufficient to undermine extreme views such as the view that employees ought to be under surveillance every minute of the day. (Miller and Weckert, 2000) Employee surveillance is unethical because it takes away many of the rights addressed within this theory. One right stripped away from employees through surveillance is the right to make you own choices. Companies purposely adopt e-mail monitoring, website screening, and GPS tracking technology to eliminate employees rights to choose what they want to do.8 Companies do have a need to protect their organizational interests, but forcing employees to act a certain way through surveillance is not the ethical way to control behavior.7 Instead of cameras and monitoring software, an employer following the rights approach should encourage correct behavior by stating what is expected of the employees and then giving them choice to act in a way they feel is right 8. Employers often tell employees when they are being monitored. What employers often do not tell employees is the extent of the surveillance taking place.2 For example, it is common for a business to state they use e-mail surveillance software but not describe what is appropriate to include in an e-mail, whether or not they are consistently reviewing e-mails, and if they are storing the e-mails for future use. By withholding information, companies are violating the employees right to be told the truth.8 Any employer that purposely omits pertinent information is acting unethically. According to the rights approach, companies must not hide any information from an employee. If employee surveillance must be used, it is only right to let the worker know exactly what the companys policy is on using monitoring technology.8 (Bassick et al. 2007) Another ethical theory which emphasizes the process of moral character development is virtue ethics. Within this framework, morality is not guided by rules or rights but instead by the concept of character.9 Character, which consists of honesty, fairness, compassion and generosity, drives members of an organization to concern themselves with what to be, as opposed to what to do.9 Virtue based ethics seeks to produce excellent persons who both act well and serve as examples to inspire others.9 Actors, those making the ethical decisions, focus on whether rights are deserved as opposed to what the rule book implicitly states.10 Under this theory, privacy can be considered a right that employees deserve. Companies implementing this ethical guidance believe that workers know how to act and display themselves with great character. Therefore, surveillance is unnecessary because employees behaviour and decisions will be consistent with the actions of a good person 10. (Knights 2006) 9 (Everett 2006) 10 Conclusion Technology is an amazing phenomenon. Never before has the human race been so dependent on instruments and gadgets to get through their everyday life. There is no doubt that these advancements have increased the standard of living and made many of our everyday activities far more convenient. With this convenience has come a greater threat of privacy invasion. Simply because a new technology has increased our potential, does not make these new abilities ethical. As citizens of the United States, whether stated by law or a common ethical framework, deserve the right to keep certain things private. There is currently a vague line that distinguishes what is and is not considered private material, information, or knowledge. In order to give all citizens equal rights these definitions must be more clearly stated and understood by all. The ambiguity that currently exists between employer surveillance programs and employee knowledge of such monitoring must be eliminated. More than anything it is important that people know what activity is being watched and what is not. As our abilities increase, our moral and ethical thinking must accompany this growth. We must have a sense of responsibility to maintain two of the greatest natural rights that we posses; privacy and autonomy.

Capital Punishment Must be Abolished :: The Case Against the Death Penalty

"Crimes against children are the most heinous crime. That, for me, would be a reason for capital punishment..." -- Clint Eastwood "I could not become an American citizen. I would not like to become a citizen of a country that has capital punishment." -- Werner Herzog In most of the industrialized world, capital punishment is not used to punish criminals. However, it is still used in the United States. The capital punishment debate in the United States has raged for almost four hundred years. Supporters of capital punishment often cite its roles as deterrent and retribution as reasons for their support of the death penalty. Opponents of capital punishment cite its arbitrariness and finality as reasons for their opposition against the death penalty. Because capital punishment can lead to an unequal application of justice, sometimes to the point of executing innocent persons, no amount of argument from its supporters should prevent it from being abolished. The Arguments of Those Who Favor Capital Punishment Supporters of capital punishment begin by arguing that capital punishment deters murder. This view has been held for thousands of years. In his book The Penalty of Death, Thorsten Sellin notes what the famous 18th century English law commentator William Blackstone wrote in his Commentaries on the Laws of England: As to the end or final cause of punishment, this is not by way of atonement...but as a prevention against future offenses of the same kind. This is effected three ways, either by the amendment of the offender...or by deterring others...or lastly by depriving the party injuring of the power to do future mischief. (Sellin 77) This sentiment was expressed by Socrates (in Gorgias) and by his antagonist Demosthenes some 2,000 years before Blackstone (Sellin 3-5). But what evidence is there to support the idea that the death penalty deters potential murderers better than any other form of punishment? Until Professor Isaac Ehrlich released his study on this subject, only anecdotal evidence existed, and that had been provided by people in the law enforcement, judicial, and corrections fields. By 1953, the Royal Commission on Capital Punishment in England noted: ...capital punishment has obviously failed as a deterrent when a murder is committed. We can number its failures. But we cannot number its successes. No one can ever know how many people have refrained from murder because of the fear of being hanged.