Body language Essay

I wasn’t too sure on what to wear when I performed my interaction. From previous research into communication I am aware that this can affect the quality of communication. For example dark and gloomy clothes sometimes can indicate you being in bad mood and could prevent clients approaching you. However if you were to wear bright and colourful clothes then it would give the impression that you are happy and friendly and easier to approach. I decided to go for clothes in the middle of bright and dark, however I am still unsure whether this had an effect on the communication shown. At the end of my interaction I gave a member of the group my questionnaire to fill in about the interaction (appendix 1). I wanted to make sure that I gained some feedback from interaction to see whether I was effective in achieving my purpose. I structured that questionnaire very simply, and clear so the child would have no problem in being able to fill it in. the child who I asked to complete my questionnaire filled it all in, and they ticked YES for every box. This would indicate to me that my interaction was a success on the basis of that it was fun, exciting, and there was nothing too bad that affected them in the interaction. This would show that I was successful in achieving my purpose, which to me is a great accomplishment. I got some feedback from this pupil on the questionnaire which was very interesting and useful, however I wanted to make sure that I had an assessment sheet filled in about me to look more specifically at my skills that I demonstrated, what was good about them, what was bad and also to see if I achieved my purpose. Therefore I gave Mrs Paterson, an observation sheet about me to fill in (appendix 2) you can see from the sheet that Mrs Paterson rated me highly on most of the skills. However there were a few points which she had to make. PERSONAL IMPROVEMENTS AND ACTION PLAN One of my main problems that occurred during this interaction was that I found it very hard to observe the type of communication, group layout which was going on as well as performing my own personal communication skills within the group. I think that if I was going to do the interaction again I would probably video record it therefore I could go back and see what I did wrong but also what type of communication skills and patterns occurred. This would be a very effective way in which I could evaluate myself critically in order to create a more efficient action plan. I expressed before about how I felt very nervous and intimidated by the interaction. I think that this could be improved by practice, and just making sure that I remain as calm as I possibly can. Being aware of my body language too is essential too. I also feel that to improve the quality of the interaction I would need to find out ways in which I could include other group members, which were lacking in joining in. I am not entirely sure on a method which I could choose to help me learn this other than teacher training, and obviously this is not possible. However what would be possible is to talk to some teachers, to find out information about how to make clients feel valued and belonged within the group more than what I know already. I gave the observation sheet to Mrs Paterson to write about my interaction. Mrs Paterson did rate me slightly lower on a couple of issues. These were really useful to me in aiding me to create a realistic action plan. For example she quoted: Tone of voice – at times she found it difficult to calm her voice down, due to nervousness. Â  Appropriate responsiveness and calmness – again Leanne found it hard at times to remain calm, however it did improve towards the end. I completely agree with the comments that Mrs Paterson made about my poor communication. I knew that I was finding it hard to calm down and make my voice and body language relaxed during the interaction. I did feel that I made an improvement towards the end whilst I got into the activity more. This is definitely something I need to work on and improve for further interactions such as this. I am going to make a conscious effort to improve on the poor things about my interaction, because it is vital that I can be effective whilst communicating. Im going to make sure that when I’m in an interaction such as this I am going to try and calm myself down before I enter the group interaction. There were so many things that I have become aware or further whilst doing this interaction. And again I feel that it is essential for me to be trained, or get more experience in interacting within a group. For me to improve my interaction I would need to study my assessment sheet to look at where I went wrong, and how I could improve it to make sure that a next interaction is I’m proved and that I have learnt from my poor communication. CONCLUSION This experience has been a very large learning experience for me. Before this I had learnt about all the different types of effective communication, however I never actually knew how incredibly difficult it is to put them into practice. There is so much for and health and care social worker to remember when interacting with their clients. I think that it takes a very talented person to be good at their job within this area. I enjoyed my interaction with the group so much, and I have already decided to go back in the future, to try my group interaction to perhaps try out my action plan. What made this experienced even more enjoyable is the fact that the children relished the activity as much as what I did. When I went to go after my interaction I was actually disappointed on how quickly the time had gone. The children who I was working with seemed to have formed a bond with me and were also upset to see me go too. I think that I was very successful in achieving my purpose of the interaction, and this was reflected through not only the effective communication skills I demonstrated but also that of the amount of enjoyment we all experienced. This has certainly given me a lot to contemplate on, I have learn a lot about myself, as well as how imperative effective communication is in this type of setting. Another thing, which I think has been a vital learning point, is the fact that health and social care workers give so much to their clients. Teachers need to make sure that they are demonstrating communication skills the whole time, but also to leave their own personal or emotional problems at home, because it can effective the relationships between them and the clients. This must be extremely hard to do. I would imagine that this job is very satisfying.

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Title: Actions speak louder than words: comparing automatic imitation and verbal command Authors: Helge Gillmeister, Arnaud Badets and Cecilia Heyes University College London, London, UK Corresponding author: Helge Gillmeister Department of Psychology, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AP, United Kingdom Tel. : +44 207 679 5379 E-mail: h. [email  protected] ac. uk Running head: Actions speak louder than words Word count: 3904 Actions speak louder than words AbstractAutomatic imitation – copying observed actions without intention – is known to occur, not only in neurological patients and those with developmental disorders, but also in healthy, typically-developing adults and children. Previous research has shown that a variety of actions are automatically imitated, and that automatic imitation promotes social affiliation and rapport. We assessed the power of automatic imitation by comparing it with the strength of the tendency to obey verbal comma nds. In a Stroop interference paradigm, the stimuli were compatible, incompatible and neutral compounds of hand postures and verbal commands.When imitative responses were required, the impact of irrelevant action images on responding to words was greater than the effect of irrelevant words on responding to actions. Control group performance showed that this asymmetry was not due to modality effects or differential salience of action and word stimuli. These results indicate that automatic imitation was more powerful than verbal command. 1 Actions speak louder than words Introduction Even when we do not intend to imitate others, we are inclined to copy their body movements.This tendency, known as ‘mimicry’ or ‘automatic imitation’, was once thought to be confined to patients with frontal brain damage (Lhermitte, Pillon, & Serdaru, 1986), atypically-developing individuals (e. g. Charman & Baron-Cohen, 1994), ‘savages’ (Darwin, 1989) and nonhuman a nimals (Thorndike, 1898). More recent research has shown that automatic imitation is also common in healthy, typically-developing adults (e. g. Wallbott, 1991; Lakin & Chartrand, 2003; Brass, Bekkering, Wohlschlager, & Prinz, 2000) and children (Simpson & Riggs, 2007).The purpose of the present study was to estimate the strength of our tendency automatically to imitate the behavior of others by comparing it with the strength of our tendency to do what we are told; to perform actions on verbal command. Most previous research on automatic imitation has been concerned, not with the strength of this tendency, but with its pervasiveness and effects on social attitudes. Carefully controlled laboratory studies have found automatic imitation of facial expressions (e. g. Wallbott, 1991), as well as finger (e. . Brass et al. , 2000), hand (Heyes, Bird, Johnson, & Haggard, 2005) and arm movements (e. g. Kilner, Paulignan, & Blakemore, 2003). Studies investigating the ‘chameleon 2 Actions speak louder than words effect’ in semi-naturalistic social situations have shown that gestures such as eartouching and foot-wagging are automatically imitated, that this kind of mimicry can occur without the imitator’s conscious awareness, and that it promotes affiliation and rapport between social partners (e. g. Lakin & Chartrand, 2003).Indirect evidence of the pervasiveness of automatic imitation has been provided by functional imaging and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). For example, imaging has shown that the observation of hand, foot and mouth movements activates the same areas of premotor cortex active during their execution (Buccino et al. , 2001). Revealing yet further specificity, the observation of hand and arm movements selectively increases TMS-induced motor evoked potentials from the particular muscles involved in executing these movement (e. g. Strafella & Paus, 2000).In behavioral studies, stimulus-response compatibility (SRC) procedures are o ften used to detect automatic imitation. These procedures provide some indication of the strength of the automatic imitation tendency by showing that it can interfere with performance based on task instructions. For example, Kilner et al. (2003) instructed participants to make sinusoidal arm movements in a vertical plane while observing a model perform the same vertical movements (compatible condition) or sinusoidal arm movements in a horizontal plane (incompatible 3 Actions speak louder than words condition).Although participants were, presumably, equally motivated to obey instructions in the two conditions, their movements showed more, counterinstructional deviation from the vertical plane in the incompatible than in the compatible condition. Other SRC studies have shown that automatic imitation interferes, not only with the spatial properties of movement, but also with its timing. Participants instructed in a simple reaction time (RT) task to open their hand as soon as an observe d hand began to move, initiated the opening movement faster when the stimulus hand opened than when it closed (Heyes et al. 2005). Similar studies have shown that automatic imitation can influence the timing of hand and finger movements even when the observed movements are taskirrelevant, i. e. when participants are instructed to respond, not to the observed movements, but to arbitrary stimuli such as digits (Brass et al. , 2000), crosses (Bertenthal et al. , 2006) or colors (Sturmer, Aschersleben, & Prinz, 2000). As far as we are aware, only one study has explicitly compared the strength of automatic imitation with that of other response tendencies (Brass et al. , 2000).This study found that the impulse to imitate finger movements was stronger than the tendency to respond with finger movements to arbitrary symbols and to static spatial markers. The results were important in providing evidence that automatic imitation is genuinely automatic (i. e. that it occurs contrary to task ins tructions), and that it is not reducible to spatial compatibility (see also Heyes et al. , 2005; 4 Actions speak louder than words Bertenthal et al. , 2006), but Brass et al. (2000) provided only a very conservative estimate of the strength of automatic imitation.Theories of imitation assume that it is based on stimulus-response connections that are either innate (e. g. Meltzoff & Moore, 1997) or the product of long-term learning (e. g. Heyes & Ray, 2000). If this is the case, it is not surprising that the tendency to imitate is stronger than the tendency, based solely on task instructions, to respond differentially to symbolic cues. Like imitation, spatial compatibility effects depend on innate or learned response tendencies (Tagliabue, Zorzi, Umilta, & Bassignani, 2000). However, Brass et al. s study did not show that automatic imitation is generally stronger than the tendency to respond to the site of stimulation; only that automatic imitation is stronger than spatial compatibili ty when the spatial cue is smaller and less dynamic than the body movement cue. The present study provided a more stringent test of the strength of automatic imitation by comparing it with that of the tendency to obey verbal commands. Like imitation, verbal command is a common method of instruction in everyday life, and the power of words to evoke actions is a product of deeply engrained mechanisms.Indeed, one theory of imitation, the associative sequence learning (ASL) model (e. g. Heyes & Ray, 2000), suggests that the two response tendencies become engrained in the same way; that we learn to imitate through correlated 5 Actions speak louder than words experience of observing and executing action units, just as we learn the meanings of words through correlated experience of the words and their referents. We used a Stroop procedure to compare the strengths of automatic imitation and verbal command. There were four groups of participants.In the focal group (Manual-Auditory), particip ants were required in each trial to open or to close their hand in response to a compound stimulus. The compound consisted of an image of a hand in an open, closed or neutral posture, and the sound of a word: ‘open’, ‘close’ or a neutral nonword. In one condition, participants were instructed to imitate the action and to ignore the word (action-relevant task), and in the other condition they were told to obey the verbal command and to ignore the action (word-relevant task).In any given trial, the stimulus on the taskirrelevant dimension (the word in the action task, and the action in the word task) was compatible, incompatible or neutral with respect to the stimulus on the taskrelevant dimension. For example, in the action task, an image of an open hand was accompanied equally often by the word ‘open’ (compatible), the word ‘close’ (incompatible) and by a nonword (neutral). If the tendency to imitate is stronger than the tendency t o obey verbal commands, then, in this focal group, one would expect the impact on performance of action stimuli in the word task to be greater than the impact of word stimuli in Actions speak louder than words the action task. More specifically, one would expect the compatible taskirrelevant stimulus to speed responding, and /or the incompatible task-irrelevant stimulus to slow responding, more in the word task than in the action task. However, an effect of this kind would not be sufficient to show that automatic imitation is stronger than the tendency to obey verbal commands, for two reasons. First, it could be that the action images used in this experiment were more salient or easier to discriminate than the word stimuli.In this case, one would expect action images to be more potent stimuli, not only for automatic imitation, but also for nonimitative responding. To address this issue, we included a second group of participants (Vocal-Auditory) who were presented with exactly the s ame stimuli as the focal group, action images in compound with word sounds, but they were required to make vocal rather than imitative responses. For example, in the action task, this group said ‘open’ when they saw an opened hand, and ‘close’ when they saw a closed hand.Langton, O’Malley, & Bruce (1996, Experiment 5) found that irrelevant gestures affected vocal responses to words to the same extent as irrelevant words affected vocal responses to gestures. Therefore, we expected that, in contrast with the focal group, the performance of the Vocal-Auditory group would be affected equally by irrelevant actions in the word task, and by irrelevant words in the action task. 7 Actions speak louder than words The second issue concerns modality of stimulus presentation.In the focal group, actions were presented visually and words were presented in the auditory modality because those conditions are typical of everyday life. In the course of development, it i s likely that simple verbal instructions, consisting of a single word, are more often heard than seen. However, because spoken words unfold over time, whereas images are instantaneously available for processing, auditory presentation of verbal commands could put them at a disadvantage.In other words, if irrelevant actions have a greater impact than irrelevant words in the focal group, this could reflect, not the relative strengths of automatic imitation and verbal command, but faster processing of visual than auditory stimuli. To address this issue we included two further groups in which the word stimuli were written rather than spoken. One of these groups (Manual-Visual) made hand movement responses, and the other (Vocal-Visual) made vocal responses. Thus, there were four groups: Manual-Auditory, Vocal-Auditory, ManualVisual and Vocal-Visual.We predicted that in the focal Manual-Auditory group the effect of irrelevant actions on speed of responding to words would be greater than th e effect of irrelevant words on responding to actions. If this asymmetric effect indicates that the automatic tendency to imitate is stronger than the tendency to obey verbal commands, rather than an effect of nonspecific features of the stimuli or stimulus-response mapping, then it should also be present in the Manual-Visual group, but not in the Vocal-Auditory or Vocal-Visual groups. 8 Actions speak louder than words Method Participants Forty-eight right-handed volunteers (15 men, mean age: 22.  ±7. 5 years) were randomly assigned to one of four groups: Manual-Auditory, Vocal-Auditory, Manual-Visual and Vocal-Visual. All had normal or corrected-to-normal vision and normal hearing. The experiment was carried out with local ethical approval and written consent. Stimuli and Apparatus Warning and imperative stimuli were compounds of hand actions and words with coincidental onsets. Hand actions were life-sized images of postures made by a male right hand, taken from the angle at whic h one normally views one’s own hand, and presented on a laptop computer screen (60Hz, 400mm, 96DPI) in color on a black background.For the warning stimulus, the hand was in a neutral posture, with the fingers closed and pointing upwards in parallel with the thumb (visual angle: 6. 96 ° x 13. 33 °), and was shown for a variable duration between 800ms and 1520ms. For the imperative stimuli, the hand was in an opened (15. 5 ° x 13. 5 °), closed (7. 0 ° x 11. 2 °) or inverted neutral posture (see Figure 1D for examples), and was shown for 640ms. Word stimuli were either sound files presented via the laptop’s internal speaker (auditory) or superimposed in white 9 Actions speak louder than words nk on the hand stimuli in the centre of the screen (visual; 6. 5 ° to 7. 1 ° x 2. 6 ° to 3. 1 °). For the warning stimulus, the nonword clepo was presented for 650ms (auditory) or between 800 and 1520ms (visual). For the imperative stimuli, the word ‘openâ⠂¬â„¢, ‘close’ or the nonword pocle (see Figure 1C for examples) were presented for 640ms (visual) or between 600ms and 640ms (auditory). The nonwords clepo (warning stimulus) and pocle (neutral stimulus) were phonotactic amalgams of phonemes contained in the two words ‘open’ and ‘close’.Pocle contained the same syllables as clepo, presented in reverse order. For the manual response groups, response onset of opening and closing hand movements was measured by recording the electromyogram (EMG) from the first dorsal interosseus muscle of the right hand (see Heyes et al. , 2005). For the vocal response groups, onset of voice responses was measured via a free-standing electret microphone (Vivanco EM 32, Vivanco-direct. com). The RT interval began with the onset of the imperative stimulus, and ended with EMG onset (manual responses) or the activation of the microphone (vocal responses).Design and Procedure Participants sat at a viewing distance of a pproximately 700mm from the stimulus presentation screen. For the manual response groups, the participant’s right forearm lay in a horizontal position across his/her body, supported from elbow to wrist by an armrest. The wrist was rotated so that the fingers moved 10 Actions speak louder than words upwards during opening responses, and downwards when closing. Thus, the plane of response movement (up-down) was orthogonal to the plane of action stimulus movement (left-right), controlling for any effects of left-right spatial compatibility.After making each response, participants returned their hand to the neutral starting position; their fingers closed and parallel to the thumb. Each trial began with the presentation of the warning stimulus. After a variable duration it was replaced by the imperative stimulus. Participants were instructed to respond to the imperative stimulus as quickly as possible, without making errors, by opening or closing their hand (manual response groups ) or by saying ‘open’ or ‘close’ (vocal response groups) as soon as they saw an open or closed hand posture (action-relevant task), or heard or saw the word ‘open’ or ‘close’ (word-relevant task).They were instructed to ignore the irrelevant dimension. After the presentation of the imperative stimulus, the screen went black for 3000ms before the next trial. Four action-relevant and four word-relevant task blocks of 60 trials were presented in alternating order, counterbalanced between participants. Relevant and irrelevant stimulus compounds were compatible (e. g. an open hand accompanied by the word ‘open’), incompatible (e. g. an open hand accompanied by the word ‘close’) or neutral (e. . an open hand accompanied by the nonword pocle). The six trial types, defined by compatibility (compatible, neutral or 11 Actions speak louder than words incompatible) and relevant stimulus (open or close), were equiproba ble and randomly intermixed within each block. Results Mean RTs are plotted as a function of task and compatibility in Figures 1AD. Incorrect responses and RTs less than 100ms or greater than 1500ms were removed (3. 1%). Figure 1 about hereAs predicted, in the focal Manual-Auditory group (A) the impact of irrelevant actions on responding to words was greater than the impact of irrelevant words on responding to actions; there was an asymmetry favoring actions over words. This asymmetry was not observed in the Vocal-Auditory group (B), who responded to exactly the same stimuli using vocal responses rather than hand actions, suggesting that the asymmetry was not due to greater salience of the action than of the word stimuli.The asymmetry favoring actions over words was present in 12 Actions speak louder than words the Manual-Visual group (C), who saw rather than heard the word stimuli, indicating that it did not depend on faster processing of visual than auditory stimuli. Providing fur ther confirmation that this asymmetry was not due to nonspecific factors, the Vocal–Visual group (D) showed the reverse asymmetry; irrelevant actions had a lesser effect on responding to words than did irrelevant words on responding to actions.These impressions were confirmed by an initial ANOVA, in which task (action-relevant, word-relevant) and compatibility (compatible, neutral, incompatible) were within-subject factors, and response mode (manual, vocal) and word modality (auditory, visual) were between-subject factors, and by subsequent analyses in which a 2Ãâ€"3 ANOVA (task x compatibility) was applied to the RT data from each group separately. The initial analysis indicated a significant three-way interaction (task x compatibility x response mode: F(2, 94) = 35. , p < . 001), and a nonsignificant four-way interaction (task x compatibility x response mode x word modality: F(2, 94) = 1. 1, p = . 341). The separate analysis of the data from the focal Manual-Auditory group yielded a significant interaction between task and compatibility (F(2, 22) = 20. 8, p < . 001), confirming that there was an asymmetry favoring actions over words. This interaction was also significant in the Manual-Visual group (F(2, 22) = 25. 5, p < . 001), but it was 13 Actions speak louder than words bsent in the Vocal-Auditory group (F(2, 22) = 1. 5, p = . 252), and reversed in the Vocal-Visual group (F(2, 22) = 5. 5, p = . 017). In the two groups where there was an asymmetry favoring actions over words, mean RT in the action-relevant task was shorter than in the word-relevant task (Manual-Auditory: F(1, 11) = 48. 7, p < . 001; Manual-Visual: F(1, 11) = 172. 3, p < . 001). To check whether the action-dominant asymmetry was dependent on this main effect of task on RT, the data from these groups were subjected to bin analyses.For each group, RTs of each participant in each task were divided into five bins of equal size (Ratcliff, 1979). Three quintiles were selected in which, wi thin group, mean RT on neutral trials was approximately equal in action-relevant and word-relevant tasks. The data from these quintiles were subjected to 2x3x3 ANOVAs (task x compatibility x bin). These analyses showed that, in each group, although there was no main effect of task on RT (Manual-Auditory: F < 1; Manual-Visual: F(1, 11) = 1. 1, p = . 16), there was a significant task x compatibility interaction (Manual-Auditory: F(2, 22) = 11. 8, p < . 001; Manual-Visual: F(2, 22) = 11. 9, p = . 001). Thus, the action-dominant asymmetry observed in the Manual-Auditory and Manual-Visual groups did not depend on faster responding in the action task than in the word task. 14 Actions speak louder than words Discussion Previous research has shown that healthy adult humans have a pervasive and automatic tendency to imitate the actions of others, but this is the first study to provide a stringent test of the strength of this tendency.Using hand actions in a Stroop procedure, the power of act ions to elicit imitative responses was compared with the strength of our tendency to obey verbal commands. The results from the focal group, who made manual responses to simultaneously presented actions and spoken words, showed that the impact of irrelevant actions on responding to words was greater than the impact of irrelevant words on imitative responding to actions. The same asymmetry was observed when written, rather than spoken, words were presented, indicating that it was not due to faster processing in the visual modality.The same asymmetry was not observed when participants made vocal, rather than imitative, responses, indicating that the action-dominant asymmetry was not due to greater salience or discriminability of the action images than of the verbal stimuli. Therefore, these findings suggest that the human tendency to imitate is stronger than the tendency to obey verbal commands. Previous studies have indicated that irrelevant actions influence the control of movements made in response to color, spatial and symbolic cues (Sturmer et al. , 2000; Bertenthal et al. 2006; Brass et al. , 2000). The present findings show for 15 Actions speak louder than words the first time that automatic imitation effects occur, not only when the imperative stimuli bear an arbitrary or purely spatial relationship with responses, but also when they are verbal commands; that is, when the relationship between the imperative stimulus and the response is both specific and overlearned. Langton, O’Malley, & Bruce (1996, Experiment 5) used a Stroop procedure to compare the power of actions and words, but they did not examine imitative responding.Instead, they required participants to make vocal responses to directional gestures (a person pointing up, down, left and right) and to their verbal equivalents, and found symmetrical compatibility effects; irrelevant gestures affected vocal responses to words to the same extent as irrelevant words affected vocal responses to g estures. We found the same symmetrical pattern in our Vocal-Auditory group, when participants were making nonimitative responses, but a contrasting pattern, indicating action dominance, when participants were making imitative responses.Thus, comparison of the two studies i) confirms that action dominance is specific to imitation, and ii) indicates that, in the case of nonimitative vocal responding, actions and words have comparable impact both when the action stimuli are pointing gestures and when they are opening and closing hand movements. 16 Actions speak louder than words In a variant of the game ‘Simon says’, played at teatime in Victorian England, children were required to grip the tablecloth when an adult, gripping or releasing the cloth, said ‘Hold tight! ’, and to release the cloth, regardless of the adult’s action, when he said ‘Let go! . Presumably, amusement derived from the fact that, like the participants in the present experiment , children could not resist the influence of automatic imitation, and were therefore compelled flagrantly to disobey the authority of verbal command. However, the results of the present study do not merely vindicate the disobedient behavior of Victorian children. They show that automatic imitation is much more than a parlour game, or a device that experimental psychologists can use to investigate the processes involved in stimulus-response translation.These findings show that automatic imitation is not only pervasive but also powerful. Even among healthy, typicallydeveloping adults, it is more powerful than the tendency to obey verbal commands. In this context, actions do indeed speak louder than words. 17 Actions speak louder than words References Bertenthal, B. I. , Longo, M. R. , & Kosobud, A. (2006). Imitative response tendencies following observation of intransitive actions. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 32, 210–225. Brass, M. , Be kkering, H. , Wohlschlager, A. , & Prinz, W. 2000). Compatibility between observed and executed finger movements: comparing symbolic, spatial, and imitative cues. Brain and Cognition, 44, 124-43. Buccino, G. , Binkofski, F. , Fink, G. R. , Fadiga, L. , Fogassi, L. , Gallese, V. , Seitz, R. J. , Zilles, K. , Rizzolatti, G. , & Freund, H. J. (2001). Action observation activates premotor and parietal areas in a somatotopic manner: an fMRI study. European Journal of Neuroscience, 13, 400-404. Charman, T. , & Baron-Cohen, S. (1994). Another look at imitation in autism. Development and Psychopathology, 6, 403-413.Darwin, C. (1989). Voyage of the Beagle. London: Penguin Books. 18 Actions speak louder than words Heyes, C. M. , & Ray, E. D. (2000). What is the significance of imitation in animals? Advances in the Study of Behavior, 29, 215–245. Heyes, C. M. , Bird, G. , Johnson, H. , & Haggard, P. (2005). Experience modulates automatic imitation. Cognitive Brain Research, 22, 233-240. Kilner, J. M. , Paulignan, Y. , & Blakemore, S. J. (2003). An interference effect of observed biological movement on action. Current Biology, 13, 522–525. Lakin, J. L. , & Chartrand, T. L. (2003).Using nonconscious behavioral mimicry to create affiliation and rapport. Psychological Science, 14, 334-339. Langton, S. R. H. , O'Malley, C. , & Bruce, V. (1996). Actions speak louder than words: Symmetrical cross-modal interference effects in the processing of verbal and gestural information. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 22, 1357–1375. Lhermitte, F. , Pillon, B. , & Serdaru, N. (1986). Human autonomy and the frontal lobes. Part I: Imitation and utilization behavior: a neuropsychological study of 75 patients. Annals of Neurology, 19, 326-334. 19Actions speak louder than words Meltzoff, A. N. & Moore, M. K. (1997). Explaining facial imitation: A theoretical model. Early Development and Parenting, 6, 179-192. Ratcliff, R. (1979). Group reaction time distributions and an analysis of distribution statistics. Psychological Bulletin, 86, 446–461. Simpson, A. & Riggs, K. J. (2007). Under what conditions do young children have difficulty inhibiting manual actions? Developmental Psychology, 43, 417-428. Strafella, A. P. & Paus, T. (2000). Modulation of cortical excitability during action observation: a transcranial magnetic stimulation study.Neuroreport, 11, 22892292. Sturmer, B. , Aschersleben, G. , & Prinz, W. (2000). Correspondence effects with manual gestures and postures: a study of imitation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 26, 1746-1759. Tagliabue, M. , Zorzi, M. , Umilta, C. , & Bassignani, F. (2000). The role of longterm-memory and short-term-memory links in the Simon effect. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 26, 648-670. 20 Actions speak louder than words Thorndike, E. L. (1898).Animal Intelligence: An Experimental Study of the Associa tive Processes in Animals (Psychological Review, Monograph Supplements, No. 8). New York: Macmillan. Wallbott, H. G. (1991). Recognition of emotion from facial expression via imitation? Some indirect evidence for an old theory. British Journal of Social Psychology, 30, 207-219. 21 Actions speak louder than words Author note AB is now at Faculte de Psychologie et des Sciences de l'Education, Universite Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. 22 Actions speak louder than words Figure caption Figure 1.RTs in compatible, neutral and incompatible trials for word-relevant (solid line) and action-relevant (broken line) task conditions. Results are presented separately for the four different participant groups: (A) ManualAuditory, (B) Vocal-Auditory, (C) Manual-Visual and (D) Vocal-Visual. Vertical bars indicate standard error of the mean. Images show compatible, neutral and incompatible stimulus compounds in action-relevant (Panel C) and word-relevant (Panel D) task conditions fo r the visual word modality groups (C and D). For the auditory word modality groups (A and B), words were spoken. 23

Test Bank Ch8 3616 Butler

PART IV Managing the Risks of Multinational Operations Chapter 9 The Rationale for Hedging Currency Risk True/False 1. In a perfect financial market, financial contracts are zero-NPV investments. ANS: True. 2. If hedging currency risk is to add value to the stakeholders of the firm, then hedging must impact either expected future cash flows or the cost of capital or both. ANS: True. 3. If financial markets are informationally efficient, then corporate financial policy is irrelevant. ANS: False. Don’t confuse informational efficiency with a perfect market.Although the perfect market conditions ensure informational efficiency, informationally efficient markets can be imperfect. 4. Perfect financial markets are a necessary condition for corporate risk hedging to have value. ANS: False. Market imperfections are necessary conditions. 5. In perfect financial markets, corporate financial policy is irrelevant. ANS: True. 6. In a perfect financial market, the law of one price holds. AN S: True. 7. Equal access to perfect financial markets ensures that individual investors can replicate any financial action that the firm can take. ANS: True. 8.In perfect financial markets, corporate hedging policy has no value. ANS: True. 9. In perfect financial markets, corporate investment policy is irrelevant. ANS: False. Firm value depends entirely on the firm’s investments in a perfect financial market. 10. If corporate financial policy is to have value, then at least one of the perfect market assumptions cannot hold. ANS: True. 11. Real-world financial markets are perfect markets. ANS: False. Perfect markets are a theoretical ideal and not a practical reality. 12. Market imperfections are greater across national boundaries than within national boundaries.ANS: True. 13. In perfect financial markets, multinational corporations have an advantage over domestic firms in financing their investments. ANS: False. The law of one price holds in perfect financial markets. 14. Mul tinationals have a comparative advantage over domestic firms in exploiting cross-border differences in financial markets. ANS: True. 15. Progressive taxation is a system in which larger taxable incomes receive a higher tax rate. ANS: True. 16. Tax preference items are goods that are sold on a tax-free basis. ANS: False.Tax preference items are items such as tax loss carryforwards and carrybacks and investment tax credits that are used to shield corporate taxable income from taxes. 17. A call option is an option to buy an underlying asset at a predetermined price. ANS: True. 18. A call option is an option to â€Å"call in† or demand payment on a loan. ANS: False. A call option is an option to buy an underlying asset at a predetermined price. 19. Indirect financial distress costs are relatively unimportant for firms selling products for which quality and after-sale service are important.ANS: False. Reputation is easily eroded in these instances. 20. Managerial gamesmanship is l east prevalent during financial distress. ANS: False. Gamesmanship is more prevalent during hard times. 21. Option values increase with an increase in the volatility of the underlying asset. ANS: True. 22. A decrease in the variability of firm value is good news for debt and bad news for the equity call option, other things held constant. ANS: True. 23. Corporate hedging of business risk unambiguously increases shareholder wealth when the firm is in financial distress. ANS: False.Because debtholders have first claim on corporate assets, corporate hedging of business risk helps debtholders first and may or may not help equityholders. 24. In the real world, corporate hedging policy can change expected future cash flows but is unlikely to reduce the cost of debt. ANS: False. Hedging policy can decrease the variability of firm value and can thus reduce the risk of debt and the required return charged by debtholders. 25. Direct costs of financial distress are far more important to corpor ate hedging decisions than are indirect costs. ANS: False.The indirect costs of financial distress influence the activities of firms not just in bankruptcy but prior to bankruptcy as well. 26. Underinvestment occurs when debtholders refuse to invest additional capital into the firm during financial distress. ANS: False. Underinvestment occurs when equity foregoes positive-NPV investments. 27. In financial distress, equity has an incentive to take on large risks in order to increase the value of the equity call option. ANS: True. 28. In Miller-Modigliani’s perfect world, the firm’s optimal investment criterion is â€Å"Accept all positive-NPV projects. ANS: True. 29. In practice, management’s objective is to maximize shareholder wealth. ANS: False. Managers act nominally as equity’s agents but, in actuality, in their own best interests. 30. Managers have little incentive to hedge company-specific risks. ANS: False. As undiversified stakeholders, managers are concerned with both systematic and unsystematic risk. 31. Managers have an incentive to hedge their unit’s transaction exposure to currency risk. ANS: True. 32. Hedging can increase firm value by reducing the costs of agency conflicts between managers and shareholders.ANS: True. 33. Exchange-traded options and futures contracts have a fixed cost per contract so that costs are proportional to the number of contracts traded. ANS: True. 34. The costs of hedging through operations are likely to be less burdensome for a large multinational corporation with diversified operations than for a small, less-diversified firm. ANS: True. Multiple Choice 1. The perfect market assumptions include each of the following except ____. a. equal access to market prices b. equal access to costless information c. frictionless markets d. rational investors e. table governments ANS: E 2. Frictionless financial markets could have which of the following? a. agency costs b. bid-ask spreads c. broker age fees d. government intervention e. irrational investors ANS: E 3. Which risk management guidelines in a) through d) is not recommended by the Group of Thirty Global Derivatives Study Group? a. assess the credit risk arising from derivatives activities b. combine authority over trading and bookkeeping functions into a single department c. quantify market risk under adverse market conditions and perform stress tests d. alue derivatives positions at market e. all of the above are recommended ANS: B 4. Which of a) through d) is unlikely to result in a decision to hedge currency risk? a. bid-ask spreads on foreign exchange b. costs of financial distress c. differential taxes on income from different tax jurisdictions d. stakeholder game-playing e. all of the above are incentives to hedge ANS:A 5. Which of the following factors does not contribute to tax schedule convexity? a. Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) rules in the United States b. progressive taxation c. sales taxes d. ax prefere nce items e. all of the above contribute to tax schedule convexity ANS: C 6. Indirect costs of financial distress impact the firm in each of the following ways except ____. a. higher financial costs b. higher legal costs in bankruptcy c. higher operating costs d. lower revenues e. stakeholder gamesmanship ANS: B 7. Which of statements a) through c) regarding costs of financial distress is false? a. Both debt and equity unambiguously benefit from corporate risk hedging. b. Hedging can increase expected cash flows by reducing the costs of financial distress. c.Hedging can reduce debtholders’ required return and hence the cost of capital to the firm. d. All of the above are ANS: True. e. None of the above are ANS: True. ANS: A 8. Which of the following was most responsible for the collapse of Barings Bank? a. bankruptcy proceedings b. failure to monitor the activities of its traders c. index arbitrage d. index futures and options trading e. the 1991 fall in share prices on the T okyo stock exchange ANS: B 9. Management has an incentive to hedge which of the following exposures? a. operating exposure b. transaction exposure c. ranslation (accounting) exposure d. all of the above e. none of the above ANS: D 10. Tax schedules are said to be progressive when ____. a. the effective tax rate is greater at high levels of taxable income than at low levels b. the effective tax rate is greater at low levels of taxable income than at high levels c. they do not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, or color d. when tax rates vary by the age of the taxpayer e. none of the above ANS: A Problems 1. In what way is equity a call option on firm value? Tax schedule convexity: progressive taxation 2.Suppose corporate income up to $250,000 is taxed at a rate of 25 percent. Income over $250,000 is taxed at 40 percent. The taxable income of Quack Poultry will be either $200,000 or $300,000 with equal probability. Quack’s income variability arises entirely from an expos ure to currency risk. a. Draw a graph like Figure 9. 2 depicting tax schedule convexity in the United States. b. What is Quack’s expected tax liability if it does not hedge its currency risk? c. What is Quack’s expected tax liability if it is able to completely hedge its currency risk exposure and lock in taxable income of $250,000 with certainty? . In what way does hedging have value for Quack Poultry? Direct and indirect costs of financial distress 3. A firm based in the United Kingdom has promised to pay bondholders ? 10,000 in one year. The firm will be worth either ? 9,000 or ? 19,000 with equal probability at that time depending on the value of the dollar. The firm will be worth ? 14,000 if it hedges against currency risk. a. Identify the values of debt and equity under unhedged and hedged scenarios assuming there are no costs of financial distress. b. Suppose the firm will incur direct bankruptcy costs of ? ,000 in bankruptcy. Identify the value of debt and of e quity under both unhedged and hedged scenarios. c. In addition to the ? 1,000 direct bankruptcy cost, suppose indirect costs reduce the asset value of the firm to either ? 6,000 or ? 18,000 (before the ? 1,000 direct bankruptcy cost) with equal probability. Hedging results in firm value of ? 12,000 with certainty. Identify the value of debt and of equity under both unhedged and hedged scenarios. d. Can hedging add value to shareholders in this problem? Problem Solutions 1.If the firm’s assets are worth more than that promised to debtholders, equity will exercise its option to buy the assets of the firm from the debtholders at the exercise price. If firm assets are worth less than the promised claim, equity will not exercise its option and debt assumes control of the firm. Tax schedule convexity: progressive taxation 2. a. [pic] b. Expected taxes with no hedging: (? )[($200,000)(0. 25)] + (? )[($250,000)(0. 25)+($50,000)(0. 40)] = (? )($50,000) + (? )($82,500) = $66,250. c. Ex pected taxes with hedging: ($250,000)(0. 5) = $62,500 < $66,250. d. Hedging allows Quack to minimize its expected tax liability. This increase in expected future cash flows to equity results in an increase in equity value. 3. a. If firm value is ? 9,000, equity will not exercise its option to buy the firm at a price of ? 10,000. In this case, equity receives nothing and debt receives ? 9,000. If the firm is worth ? 19,000, equity pays the bondholders ? 10,000 and retains the residual ? 9,000. Firm value can be broken down into E[VFIRM] = E[VBONDS] + E[STOCK] = [(? )(? 9,000)+(? )(? 10,000)] + [(? )(? 0)+(? (? 9,000)] = ? 9,500 + ? 4,500 = ? 14,000. Hedged, firm value can be broken down into VFIRM = VBONDS + VSTOCK = ? 10,000 + ? 14,000 = ? 14,000. In the absence of costs of financial distress, the reduction in the variability of firm value results in a reduction in call option value and a ?500 shift in value from equity to debt. b. Unhedged, firm value is decomposed as: E[VFIRM] = E [VBONDS] + E[STOCK] = [(? )(? 9,000 1,000)+(? )(? 10,000)] + [(? )(? 0)+(? )(? 9,000)] = ? 9,000 + ? 4,500 = ? 13,500. With hedging, VFIRM = VBONDS + VSTOCK = ? 10,000 + ? 4,000 = ? 14,000.As in the previous example, the reduction in the variability of firm value is accompanied by a ? 500 transfer of wealth from equity to debt. Hedging also avoids the deadweight ? 1,000 bankruptcy cost and yields an expected gain of (? )(? 1,000) = ? 500. In this example, debt captures the expected gain of ? 500. Equity will capture some of the gain if hedging results in lower interest payments on the next round of debt. c. Unhedged, firm value is E[VFIRM] = E[VBONDS] + E[STOCK] = [(? )(? 6,000 1,000) + (? )(? 10,000)] + [(? )(? 0)+(? )(? 8,000)] = ? 7,500 + ? 4,000 = ? 11,500.If the firm hedges, then VFIRM = VBONDS + VSTOCK = ? 10,000 + ? 2,000 = ? 12,000. This is the same as b) after including indirect costs of financial distress with an expected value of [(? )(? 9,000 6,000)+(? )(? 19,000 18,000) ] = ? 1,500+? 500 = ? 2,000. d. Hedging can add value to shareholders if they can negotiate lower interest payments on debt because of their hedging policies. Even in financial distress, equity could offer to renegotiate the bond contract to more evenly share the gain in firm value from hedging. In this way, they can share in any gain from reducing the probability and costs of financial distress.

Management Simulation Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

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Fundamentals of the property law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

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Chinese Students Enrolled in Hospitality and Tourism-Related Essay

Chinese Students Enrolled in Hospitality and Tourism-Related Programmes in the UK - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that there is a huge contribution of international students in the income and prestige of individual universities of U.K. and other Western countries. Despite the developments, there is little research done on the progress and achievements of international students. It has been observed that students mostly migrate from countries like China, India, and U.A.E etc. to Western countries like U.K. and U.S.A. in search of higher studies and better career objectives. Studying abroad is very challenging and exciting during college years. Students get the opportunity to learn different languages and experience the different type of cultures. Students can enhance their knowledge and clarify their career directions by studying abroad. The developing countries like China and India follow the traditional method of education, which does not emphasize on the student’s career perspective appropriately. The educational system in U.K. is distinct bec ause the universities not only emphasize on theoretical subjects, they also focus on practical implications of the theories, which helps students to enhance their future endeavors. In 2010, AGCAS received funding for several pilot projects that allowed better links with U.K. along with alumni’s and employers in order to build successful employment relationships with international students. Universities of the Western countries majorly focus on the career and entrepreneurial ambitions of students. It is essential for colleges to have a proper understanding of the existing job market and prepare students accordingly. With the help of abroad studies, students can gain international experiences and develop their career aspirations. This research interviews Chinese students, who are currently enrolled in hospitality and tourism-related programmes in the U.K. The essay discusses the future career planning of Chinese students at a higher education facility in the U.K. and the respon sibility of the institution towards the management of employability. Studying in a different country is an extremely rewarding and exciting experience. According to famous theorists Archer and Davidson, the value of international experience is not just limited to learning of foreign language; the value of the experience is mainly determined from the ability of a person to distinguish the personal issues and business between his own country and the foreign country.

Vocational Education and Training Needs Analysis Essay Example for Free

Vocational Education and Training Needs Analysis Essay Training methods used to stimulate learning can be classified in three ways, one of which is †¢ CONFERENCES †¢ LECTURES †¢ ON-THE-JOB TRAINING †¢ INTELLIGENT TUTORING 2. In evaluating training programs, it is important to distinguish _____ from data-collection methods. †¢ ORGANIZATIONAL PAYOFFS †¢ COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS †¢ INDIVIDUAL PARTICIPATION †¢ TARGETS OF EVALUATION 3. The evaluation phase is one phase of the process for effective training to occur. Which of the following IS NOT A PART OF THE EVALUATION PHASE? †¢ SELECT TRAINING MEDIA †¢ DEVELOP CRITERIA †¢ PRETEST TRAINEES †¢ MONITOR TRAINING 4. _____ analysis is helpful in determining the special needs of a particular group, such as older workers, WOMEN, OR MANAGERS AT DIFFERENT LEVELS. †¢ INDIVIDUAL †¢ ORGANIZATION †¢ DEMOGRAPHIC †¢ OPERATIONS 5. Which of the following is an example of an on-the-job training method? †¢ UNDERSTUDY ASSIGNMENTS †¢ ROLE PLAYING †¢ INTELLIGENT TUTORING †¢ CASE METHOD 6. Which of the following is an example of the simulation method of training? †¢ JOB ROTATION †¢ ORIENTATION †¢ CORRESPONDENCE COURSES †¢ IN-BASKET 7. The level of training needs analysis that attempts to identify the content of the training is _____ ANALYSIS. †¢ ENVIRONMENTAL †¢ OPERATIONS †¢ ORGANIZATIONAL †¢ INDIVIDUAL 8. _____ refers to the material that is rich in association for the trainees and is therefore easily UNDERSTOOD BY THEM. †¢ PYGMALION EFFECT †¢ TRAINING PARADOX †¢ ORIENTATION †¢ MEANINGFULNESS 9. Which theory is founded on the premise that an individual’s intentions regulate his or her behavior? †¢ CORRESPONDENT INFERENCE THEORY †¢ GOAL THEORY †¢ GROUNDED THEORY †¢ ATTRIBUTION THEORY 10. The impact of training on _____ is the most significant, but it is the most difficult effect to DEMONSTRATE. †¢ ORGANIZATIONAL RESULTS †¢ DEMOGRAPHICS †¢ ACTION LEARNING †¢ TRAINEE SELF-ESTEEM 11. When trainees are given the opportunity to practice far beyond the point where they have performed a TASK CORRECTLY SEVERAL TIMES, THE TASK BECOMES SECOND NATURE AND IS †¢ OVERLEARNED †¢ IRRELEVANT †¢ REPETITIVE †¢ BORING 12. The level of training needs analysis that focuses on identifying whether training supports the COMPANY’S STRATEGIC DIRECTION IS CALLED _____ ANALYSIS. †¢ OPERATIONS †¢ INDIVIDUAL †¢ ENVIRONMENTAL †¢ ORGANIZATION View as multi-pages TOPICS IN THIS DOCUMENT Vocational education, Training, Practice, Skill RELATED DOCUMENTS Vocational Education and Training THERE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN VOCATIONAL ASPECTS TO SCHOOLING IN AUSTRALIA. HOWEVER, IN RECENT TIMES THERE HAS BEEN AN INCREASED EMPHASIS ON THIS ASPECT OF SCHOOLING WITHIN BOTH THE GENERAL CURRICULUM AND THOSE AREAS THAT HAVE A PARTICULAR VOCATIONAL FLAVOUR. IN WHAT WAYS DOES THIS EMPHASIS PROVIDE A BROADER OR NARROWER CONCEPTION OF EDUCTION FOR SCHOOL STUDENTS? YOUR RESPONSE NEEDS TO REFER TO: (I) THE AIMS OF THE ? NEW VOCATIONALISM AND HOW IT IS 297   Words | 7   Pages READ FULL DOCUMENT TRAINING NEED ANALYSIS ? Training Needs Analysis and Skills Audit Easy seven step plan – covers: Who received training in your organisation last year? Does anyoneneed a refresher course? What about your staff’s career aspirations – do you know their capabilities? Step 1 How should I consult? It is recommended that employers consult with all staff on an annual basis to assess organisational training and development 297   Words | 6   Pages READ FULL DOCUMENT Training Needs Analysis Library Get Custom Help eBook Library About BrainMass Expert Profiles Blog Free Quizzes Videos Business  » Management  » Problem #416292 sample solutions faq Case Study: Training Needs Analysis Case ALL IT TAKES IS FOR GOOD MEN TO DO NOTHING In 1987, Ms. Dillman was hired by IMP to work in Hangar 3 at North American International Airport as a seamstress in their fabric shop. 297   Words | 4   Pages READ FULL DOCUMENT Training Development Need Analysis

Authors Reflection on their learning experiences

Authors Reflection on their learning experiences This text is a reflection of the learning experiences of the author, particularly with regard to the learning experience of the MBA full time programme. The primary objective is to reflect on the learning experiences and to identify how the Knowledge levels, skills, attitudes, perceptions and values were altered during the process. In an essence it is an attempt to capture the learning experience in to a formal structure, which at times has been informal, at sub-conscious levels and haphazard. The reflections of the learning experiences will lead to an evaluation of the individuals current status in all aspects relating managerial effectiveness, which will in-turn, facilitate the identification and prioritisation of personal development needs. The end result is a concise, specific, and measurable and time bound personal development plan. Initially the theory and importance of reflection in personal development is reviewed, which is followed by the reflections on several key learning experiences. The next phase of the report is a critical evaluation of the different leadership styles, which will include an exploration of the historical origins and evolution of different leadership styles. The third phase is an attempt to bridge the reflections on learning experiences and evaluation of leadership styles, deriving a personal development plan to enhance managerial effectiveness. 2.0 Importance of reflection A laymans definition of reflection would be to ponder about a past activity or series of activities, for an example a mother might think about how she does the weekly shopping for her family. As far as the academic context is concerned, the approach towards reflection is based on commonsense, Moon (2006 p37) provides a commonsense view on reflection as Reflection is a form of mental processing-like a form of thinking-that we use to fulfil a purpose or to achieve some anticipated outcome or we may be simply be reflective and then an outcome can be unexpected. However reflection has a deeper meaning in an educational context than the mundane activity that the commonsense based view suggests. In the education and academic context reflection has an overriding purpose and directed towards a specific outcome. Moon (2006 P37) extends the commonsense based view as Reflection/reflective learning or reflective writing in the academic context is also likely to involve a conscious and stated purpose for the reflection, with an outcome specified in terms of learning action or clarification. In this case the outcome is the personal development plan. The benefits of reflections are clear; it provides a structure for the haphazard process of learning facilitates the evaluation and provides directions for further development. Reflections aides the uncovering and dispelling of deep lying misconceptions and helps the transfer of skills, for example the reflecting on the activity of doing the weekly shopping may help in maintaining stocks in small grocery or restaurants. 3.0 MBA Learning Journey The MBA programme provides a wider spectrum of learning experiences, from class room sessions to enhance theoretical knowledge to real consultancy opportunities, aimed at enhancing the managerial effectiveness. The journey so far has taken me through many different learning experiences. However it seems that the ideal starting point for the reflection process is the self, or the exploration of self awareness. 3.1 Self Awareness-Know Thyself In laymans definition for self awareness is knowing ones self, however Williams points out that self-awareness includes many aspects Key areas of self-awareness include our personality traits, personal values, habits, emotions and psychological needs that drive our behaviours (Self-awareness and personal development: Online) . Self awareness is the foundation of personal development and managerial effectiveness. I considered myself to be very self-aware. I strongly believed that I had an accurate picture of myself, being very clear on my strengths, considered myself to be an analytical, logical, emotionally mature and prided on my communication and presentation skills. I never considered myself to be creative, a part from that I always struggled to identify my weaknesses. The only other weakness that propped out in my head time and time again was the poor time management. I believe in equality and fairness, strongly favour meritocracy and have non-negotiable key values. However it was at the applied learning experiences (ALEs) of the MBA programme that I first had the opportunity to test my level of self awareness through several models and practice. 3.2 The Applied Learning Experience (ALE) The first applied learning experience of the MBA programme was held in a location in Ware, Hertfordshire. The first activity of the programme was to fill a questionnaire designed to identify the each participants role in Belbins Theory. 3.2.1 Belbins Team Roles- the Monitor Evaluator Meredith Belbins team role provides a framework to analyses ones position within a team. The results of the questionnaire stated that I will be a Monitor Evaluator in a team. Belbin (1981 cited in Mullins, 2007, p332) states that the monitor evaluators are Sober strategic and discerning, sees all options, judges accurately, the allowable weaknesses are lacks drive and ability to inspire others (Belbin, 1981 cited in Mullins, 2007, p332). Initially this evaluation seemed to fit well with my sense of self-awareness and I was eager to play my role within the teams maximising my strength and being conscious about my weaknesses. The programme consisted of five main activities, out which in one my team was very successful, partly success full in one and failed miserably in three activities. Each activity was followed by a feedback session allowing the participants to reflect on the successes and failures of each activity. The initial reflections seemed to validate my understanding of my role as a monitor evaluator, I played my strengths well and failed to mitigate my weakness, or thats how it seemed. I tried to learn from the mistakes in one activity and play a better role in the next. However the next activity demanded an entirely different mindset and I couldnt help feeling frustrated, cheated and even stupid at times. In the final feedback session I was shocked to be perceived by the other team members as Creative, comes out with out of the box solutions, not clear in communication and at times unenthusiastic. This was somewhat a bitter pill to swallow, particularly because I prided in my communication skills. However I delivered the final presentation on behalf of our team. Using Obama style rapid question and answer techniques (fired up? ready to go?) managed to energize the audience and end with emphasising the importance of self awareness. Though the feedback seemed misconceived at that point, reflection helped me to deduce the pieces of the puzzle. Im good in articulating a point to a willing and listening audience, however fails and loose enthusiasm when challenged or when it seems the others are uninterested in my opinion. For an example one of the tasks demand a high sense of mathematical temperament usually found among physics students and software code writers, I had a plan which included the delegation of specific tasks to particular members whom I thought had the required skills, however I failed to persuade others and the task ended up in failure. The reflections on ALEs helped me to gain a more accurate understanding of myself, and propelled persuading skills and time management on to the top of my development need. 3.3 MBTI Model Myers -Briggs Type indicator (MBTI) is another model which I used during the learning journey of MBA. It is developed by Katherine Briggs and Isabel Myers in 1920s, its used as a self -report instrument that guides individuals in knowing about themselves (Handout, Nov 2009). My MBTI position was ENFP which indicates that the person is extrovert, daring and development oriented, a position common among entrepreneurs. The corresponding role in Belbins nine team roles is the Plant. This was a shocking revelation for me since I thought I was the complete opposite of an entrepreneur. However in retrospect it made me think deeper on creativity, and altered my view on my own creativity. 3.4 Creativity- Myths Dispelled During the learning journey of the MBA, I had the opportunity to analyse my own creativity through several questionnaire designed to assess an individuals creativity and compare the logical and creative aspects of ones thinking. Though I always seemed to be more of a logical person I scored above my own expectations on creativity. This led me to reflect deeply on my own level of creativity, and helped me to uncover and dispel a misconception which was deeply rooted in me. I primarily considered creativity, as artistic creativity, this narrow view created a mental block and I perceived myself as less creative. However Mullins (2007 P192) states that creativity is the application of imaginative thought which results in innovative solutions to many problems. The video on IDEO Company, an American firm specialising in new product development altered my view on creativity; on reflection the company seems to have a fairly logical and structured approach towards creativity, though at first it may not be very apparent. These experiences broaden my horizons on creativity and thereby my development needs. 3.5 Learning Styles- Reflector As far as the learning styles are concerned Im a reflector, however reflecting on learning styles lead to a clearer understanding of experimental learning. I developed IT skills primarily through experimental learning. The reflection and understanding helped me to overcome many mental barriers like fear of failure, which prevents us from experimenting with things and learning from the experience. 3.6 MBA- Alumni Evenings I view these events as an opportunity for networking. After every such event I reflect on the event to gather the learning or other benefits gained. However the list rarely goes beyond inspiration with hardly any progress in the networking aspect, which has the potential to facilitate mentoring. Thus enhancing networking skills is a personal development priority. 3.7 Life and Career Planning Naylor (2004 cited in Mullins, 2007, P720) explains life and career planning as people are encouraged to develop and express personal goals with strategies for integrating goals with those of the organisation. The life and career planning is referred to as a technique, in the wider context of organizational development. I always wanted to be a knowledge worker or a specialist, my ideal career was to be a market researcher specialising in qualitative research. However the due to circumstances I embarked on a career in totally different sector. At first the prospects seemed promising, but my career and life priorities were in conflict with my role, thus what once seemed as a career gradually evolved to a job. Thus integrating personal goals with the career didnt seem to be an option. Hence the route to career life planning or career life congruence seems to be to enhance skills and knowledge through education and to re-align the career with life priorities. The MBA learning journey has broadened my horizons and the personal development activities are ultimately directed at the career-life priorities. 4.0 Leadership The list of definitions of leadership is very long, however Mullins (2007 P363) captures the essence of leadership is a relationship through which one person influence the behaviour of other people. The emphasis on relationship and influence is important. This means that the leadership is inseparably linked to the group or team concerned. The leadership may occur at different contexts for example in organizational, national or global contexts. It may occur at different levels not necessarily at the top of a hierarchy thus Belbin (1997, cited in Mullins, 2007, P363) states there is clear implication that leadership is not part of the job but a quality that can be brought to a job Useems(2001 ed, Pickford. J, Cited in Mullins, 2007, P363) view of leadership is Leadership is at its best when the vision is strategic, the voice persuasive and the results tangible Useem (2001 ed, Pickford. J, Cited in Mullins, 2007, P363) sees leadership as primarily a matter of making a difference. As Military strategy influenced the early thoughts on business strategy, historically leadership was influenced by the command and control structure of the military. However many leadership styles have evolved since, the following table captures the key characteristics of the three main styles of leadership. Leadership Style Characteristics Autocratic Style Power and the decision making authority lies with the manager, thus every aspect of the relationships with subordinates centres around the manger Democratic Style A shared leadership style, Manager is part of the group or team; subordinates can influence the decision making. Laissez-Faire(Genuine) Style Subordinates have complete freedom; The manager intervenes only on a necessary basis. This shouldnt be mistaken with poor leadership, where managers simply dont care The appropriateness of each leadership style depends on many factors. The leadership style adopted may depend on the situation. For instance in a crisis situation an experienced leader with autocratic style may be more suitable over a democratic style of leadership, in order to facilitate better and quicker decision making. On the other hand democratic style is more common among project teams and professionals, while autocratic leadership is more prevalent where there is a wide gap between the knowledge, skills and experience of superior and subordinates. The leadership style adopted is highly influenced by the nature of the business and the organizational culture, for instance militaries around the world adopts autocratic leadership style due to special nature of such institutions. 4.1 Leadership and Management Modern view on leadership is moved away from command and control and emphasis more on inspiring others. This has resulted in the blurring of lines of division between leadership and management. Mullins supports this view (2007,p 363). If leadership is more about inspiring others, it demands a specific set of skills, which enhances the ability to inspire and is an essential ingredient in a development plan aimed at increasing managerial effectiveness. My experiences in the MBA learning journey, particularly with relation to group work and previous work experiences make me believe that sound communication and listening skills are of paramount importance. Listening skills are important to link the disconnected pieces of information or opinions brought in by different members of a team. 5.0 Personal Development Plan The reflections on the MBA learning journey and exploration on different leadership styles was an attempt to identify my own development needs to enhance managerial effectiveness thereby influence the development of others. As part of the human enterprise module of the MBA, I had the opportunity to carry out a skills audit on myself. The skills audit itself a tool for identifying development needs, by grading ones perceived level in variety of skills. The skills audit, reflections on MBA Learning journey and the review of leadership styles have presented me with a wide array of development areas. However it is practically concentrate on a large number of skills, without compromising on the quality and depth. Thus I have used Brian Mclvors Priority Grid to prioritise my development needs. Brian Mclvors Priority Grid provides a framework to compare the importance of ten different skills (or development needs) against each other. The skills are compared on a grid against each other and the more important one is circled, finally the skills are ranked according to the score (or number of circles) (Please refer Appendix 1 for the part A and B of the format) When comparing the skills I have considered the relevance of each skill to my career targets and the opportunities for improvement during the MBA Programme. The following table depicts my immediate development needs and the way forward. Skill/ Development area Current State Desired State Way Forward Communication Good when unchallenged More persuasive, Good under all conditions Practise before presentations Paraphrasing, in verbal communication Learning from good communicators Analytical Takes time to understand the core issue To be in a position to understand key elements of an issue quickly Doing more case studies, Focused thinking Listening Lose interest, sometimes hears only what wants to be heard Effective listening, hearing what people really say, Try to prevent from being distracted Giving undivided attention Providing feedback, and refraining from interrupting Planning Unrealistic planning, poor implementation Realistic plans, better implementation Revisiting plans to drop unimportant elements, to make it more realistic Moving on to implementation at appropriate time Frequent evaluation Time management Just on Time, struggle with deadlines, source of stress Procrastinate things More effective time management Minimise procrastination Activity log to identify situations of ineffective time management Detailed to do lists Understanding reasons for postponing, Personal targets, and rewarding for achievement Networking Rarely goes beyond the initial superficial stage Networking as a effective personal learning tool Participating in more networking events Being more prepared, background study Learning to build rapport quicker, The learning journey of MBA taught me that personal development isnt an isolated process, its journey that relies on feedback from other. Feedbacks lead to reflections which help to continuously improve the journey. Though formal feedback from all angles (like in a 360 degree feedback process) isnt practical in this case, I would make efforts to receive informal feedbacks, at minimum on the progress. 6.0 Conclusion I have critically reflected on my MBA learning Journey, focusing more on weaknesses that needs improvements. Being ones own harshest critic is infinitely beneficial than being the biggest fan. The outcome of the process is the development plan aimed at enhancing management effectiveness. The success of the plan depends on the implementation and feedback from others.

The Theme of Identity in Poetry :: Identity Digging Still I Rise The Barn Essays

The Theme of Identity in Poetry These three poems are all to do with the theme identity although I specifically choose three that contrasted with each other. Digging is portraying the identity of the three generations of digging, his father, grandfather and himself. ‘Explain how three poems concerned with developing personality, develop their themes’ For this essay I will be choosing three poems, which will help me compare and contrast how each develop their themes of identity. The three I will be choosing are: 1. Digging Between my finger and my thumb the squat pen rests: snug as a gun. Under my window, a clean rasping sound when the spade sinks into gravely ground: My father, digging. I look down till his straining rump among the flowerbeds Bends low, comes up twenty years away Stooping in rhythm through potato drills where he was digging. The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft against the inside knee was levered firmly. He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep to scatter new potatoes that we picked Loving their cool hardness in our hands. By God the old man could handle a spade. Just like his old man. My grandfather cut more turf in a day than any other man on Toner's bog. Once I carried him milk in a bottle Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up To drink it, then fell to right away Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods Over his shoulder, going down and down For the good turf. Digging. The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge through living roots awaken in my head. But I've no spade to follow men like them. Between my finger and my thumb the squat pen rests. I'll dig with it. 2. Still I rise You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lies, you may tread me in the very dirt but still, like dust, I'll rise. Does my sassiness upset you? Why are you beset with gloom? 'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells pumping in my living room. Just like moons and like suns, with the certainty of tides, just like hopes springing high, still I'll rise. Did you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes? Shoulders falling down like teardrops. Weakened by my soulful cries. Does my haughtiness offend you? Don't you take it awful hard 'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines Digging' in my own back yard. You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I'll rise. Does my sexiness upset you? Does it come as a surprise that I dance like I've got diamonds

Audio Format Wars :: essays research papers fc

Audio Format Wars Before buying a new car, getting married, or adopting a new audio format it is wise to ask a few questions, peer under the hood, and ask the advice of someone you trust. Will the new format satisfy your needs not only now but, also in the future? Will it look (and sound) as good on all the mornings after you first met? The analogue cassette is an old and trusted versatile friend that went with you on those morning jogs and cruised in the car with you on Friday nights. However, the powers that be, have declared our trusted friend to be in the last phase of the life cycle. It's successor must sound better, work better, and have new features such as a digital display for song titles. There are currently two formats competing to be the consumers next choice for sound on the go. They are Philips' Digital Compact Cassette (DCC) and Sony's Mini Disc (MD). What exactly is digital recording? The definition is, "An electronic format that is designed to duplicate sound, while affording extremely accurate control over any changes you might wish to make in the recording" (Mclan & Wichman,1988). In simple terms it means that the digital circuitry samples the signal and then reproduces what it has seen. The quality of the recording depends on the sampling rate of the machine. The sampled signal is then encoded to the tape or disc in 1's and 0's, just like a computer disk drive would encode information. However, the biggest advantage of digital recording is the fact that it eliminates tape "hiss" that is usually found present in analogue recordings. In the Eighties, a Philips invention captured the limelight. The Compact Disc introduced us to a new era of digital sound, or "perfect sound." In the nineties another Philips invention has taken centre-stage, the Digital Compact Cassette (DCC). DCC is the marriage of the analogue cassette to Digital Audio. Together they form a union that combines perfect sound, high convince and greater versatility. " DCC is a medium on which audio information is digitally encoded and which reproduces CD quality sound" (Philips Electronics, Sound & Vision, 1995). A number of features have been incorporated into DCC tapes and decks to achieve CD like sound and convince. DCC decks can locate a chosen track on either side of the tape because track and time codes are recorded on the tape. This combined with autoreverse, which is standard on all DCC decks, makes track access effortless but, not as fast as a CD. Another attractive feature of DCC is the text mode.

Kansas City Board of Trade :: essays papers

Kansas City Board of Trade The Kansas City Board of Trade is where buyers and sellers have the opportunity to trade commodities, this is commonly known as a Commodity Exchange. The Kansas City Board of Trade deals primarily with wheat but also deals with such commodities as natural gas. Many traders participate in what is known as hedging. Hedging is a process where traders can lock in a purchase or a sell price for the commodities in advance. The process is helps reduce the risks resulting from volatile pricing, The prices of the contracts are determined by supply and demand. The exchange provides a place where sellers try to optimize profits and buyers try to optimize utility(which will probably be profits for a finished good instead of the raw material). As a result of this the exchange does not set prices but instead gives a place for price negotiations. As a result of supply and demand; if there is more buyers than sellers the price of a commodity goes up. The opposite is also true if there are more sellers than buyers the price of the commodity goes down. The Kansas City Board of Trade affects everybody in an economic part of their life. Wheat, as the primary commodity, is used on almost every dinner table for almost every night, If the price of wheat goes up then the price to purchase the finished product also goes up. This will affect the purchasers' ability to rationalize and choose substitutes and replacements for the products. If the price of the commodity goes down, the result is the finished good is also cheaper to purchase. Families will then attempt to incorporate more bread and such into their diets possibly affecting demand for other products. The Kansas City Board of Trade is beneficial to the economy because it gives a starting point for price in the economy, My visit to the Kansas City Board of Trade proved very interesting. Although I personally saw no order of any kind to the chaos below, people ensured me there was a code.

Martha McCaskey

Introduction Martha Mackey had arrived at an Impasse In her career requiring her to confront a decision which put her Integrity and possible career advancement In opposition. Mackey's choice came down to how she handled Phil Devon, an ex- employee with knowledge of proprietary information Mackey needed for a client. Obtaining the information through Devon would earn Mackey a significant promotion and salary increase. However, doing so under the false pretenses she had constructed challenged her ethics, Jeopardized her Integrity, and was potentially illegal.On the other hand, failure to obtain the Information would derail Mackey's career and undermine her efforts toward advancement. Diagnosis Mackey was a highly intelligent individual, as made evident by her success in her undergraduate and graduate career. Her decision to return to school in pursuit of her MBA demonstrates her high ambition and level of investment in her career. In the eighteen months that Mackey had been with Seller s Associates' Industry Analysis Dillon (AID) she had proven her ability as a consultant on multiple projects. Her performance had garnered the attention of key leadership personnel,Tom Malone and TTY Richardson, and raised the bar for expectations at AID. Mackey accomplished this through hard work and long hours, refusing to take the easy way out, and maintaining a high moral standard despite knowing that high morals were not necessarily upheld by all of her coworkers in the Division. Knowing Mackey's dedication and investment In her career It Is easy to understand why the decision around how to handle the Silicon 6 situation was so troubling. The future of Mackey's career with ‘AD would be heavily Influenced by her decision and the success or failure of the project.This was especially true considering the importance of the project's client, a semiconductor manufacturer who supplied twenty percent of Dad's business. The outcome of the Silicon 6 project was of great consequence to Dad's leadership and the Division as a whole: success promised continued and Increased business from their primary client; failure would result In the loss of the client and one fifth of the Dad's business. Mackey faced several challenges exerting pressures on her decision, one of which was time. A meeting had been arranged with the senior management on theSilicon 6 project which only gave Mackey a month to obtain the necessary information and complete the project. Adding to the challenge was the inherent culture within the industry of accepting unethical behaviors which, to Mackey and others In the new guard, was becoming more apparent. In the past Mackey had felt pressure from Malone and Richardson to engage In the ‘standard' unethical practices of the industry, particularly following one project Malone and Richardson felt, â€Å"could have been completed with less time and effort† (p. ). Malone was the one to bring up Mackey's possibly source of information, refe rring to Devon, in conversations with the client for Silicon 6; moreover, Malone was the one to suggest a willingness to use the source. Mackey also needs to consider the Impact her decision and the continuation misalignment developed between Sellers and ‘AD as a function of the distance and independence of ‘AD and its leaders from headquarters. Mackey is aware that corporate policies are not clearly communicated and represented at the Division.The publicity that would result from legal action against the unethical practices within AD would surely impact Sellers as a whole, with consequential impacts reaching well beyond Just the small group at the Division. Leaders at Sellers could turn out to be allies for Mackey in addressing this challenge as they are invested in what is best for the entire company, not Just ‘AD. Another challenge contributing to the problem is the ambiguity surrounding Phil Devotes motivations, intentions, and awareness of the situation. Macke y does not know where Devon stands or how he will react to various situations.Mackey is unsure whether Devon is a disgruntled former employee seeking vengeance against his former employer and is, therefore, willing to share proprietary information, or if the information she is seeking is even proprietary to begin with. There is also a possibility that Devon could alert leadership at the competing company or even the authorities if he discovers Mackey's true identity and intentions. To this point Mackey's decisions and actions have been merely to avoid engaging in behaviors she deemed too unethical rather than to address the behaviors encouraged and practiced within the ‘AD.This has forced her into a corner here she has few options to address the issue without compromising the success of a major project and Jeopardizing her career. Furthermore, her decision to enter into discussions with Devon under the false pretenses she created constrains her to maintaining the lie or risk d amaging relations with Devon by revealing her true identity and motivations. The result of the relationship with Devon has many potential consequences which are unpredictable given how little is known about Devotes interests.Action Plan The objective of the approach to addressing the problem at hand is to prevent rather encroachment beyond Mackey's ethical comfort level while doing as little damage as possible to her career prospects. Mackey first needs to confront Malone and Richardson with her concerns regarding the ethical nature and legal ramifications of paying Devon for potentially proprietary information. In all likelihood Malone and Richardson will dismiss her concerns because it is simply business as usual for the ‘AD.At that point simply handing the project off to Kaufmann would not address the ethical dilemma; it would merely be a means of problem avoidance for Mackey, which is all she has done to this point. Her next step would be to contact the top leadership at S ellers to confirm corporate policies regarding the procurement of proprietary information. Mackey will likely find that company policy prohibits payoffs to obtain proprietary information belonging to other companies in order to protect the greater interests of Sellers.Assuming that this is the case, to protect her integrity, and that of Sellers, Mackey will have to disclose the truth about her identity and motivations to Devon. Subsequently, Mackey will be able to find out whether the information Devon has is proprietary, assuming Devon is still willing to operate. Her actions from that point should be guided by Sellers company policy; the information she obtains should be strictly non-proprietary. Regardless of long term she will still need to address the unethical behaviors that pervade the ‘AD.Her choice then becomes to alert leadership at Sellers of the unethical behaviors of Richardson, Malone, Kaufmann, and others throughout ‘AD, or leave Sellers. Either course ris ks the career Mackey has created for herself; however, it is necessary if Mackey hopes to maintain her integrity. Likely her best option is to notify Sclerosis dervish team of the conditions at ‘AD. In doing so Mackey will help protect Sellers and all employees working in the other branches of the company. It also may reveal other opportunities for Mackey in Sellers and the ‘AD.Failure of this approach would simply leave her where she would have otherwise been, with her integrity intact looking for a new Job as a consultant with ‘AD on her resume. Overall Learning From this case I learned that not all decisions are as simple as right versus wrong, some of the most difficult decisions will be between right and right. It is also often hose right versus right decisions that force us to reflect on our own values and what is most important to ourselves. Right versus right decisions create opportunities for explicitly defining our values.In Mackey's case it would have be en better for her to address the ethical dilemmas she encountered earlier in her career so that she would have been able to operate without a major deadline looming and pressure from the client and her managers. Furthermore, Mackey experienced discomfort while facing her right versus right decision which called into question her deeply ingrained values. This is directly in line with Abductor's theory surrounding defining moments for individuals. It is these feelings and intuitions which translate core values in a time of conflict.The prevailing values, according to Obduracy, will be those that are the most deeply rooted in one's life. Obduracy reasons that, â€Å"a combination of expediency and shrewdness, coupled with imagination and boldness, will help [one] implement [his] personal understanding of what is right. † I would argue that his is not only true, but that, â€Å"a combination of expediency and shrewdness, coupled with imagination and boldness, ill help,† pr eserve the most of one's values when confronted by such a situation.I feel that, in a right versus right defining moment, it is not necessary to abandon one set of values in favor of another assuming an adroit approach is taken to address the situation. Creativity will allow someone to get the most out of a situation. After analyzing this case and the associated material I mostly feel compelled to be more conscious of right versus right cases that may be developing. I also feel that when faced with these types of decisions I will need to be more aware of the message my actions send to those around me.