Positive relationship between the current best practices of nonprofits Dissertation

Positive relationship between the current best practices of nonprofits and the Eclectic Paradigm - Dissertation Example The research questionnaire therefore contained questions that asked the respondents to give their opinion on the importance of OLI factors and to elaborate if their organization used these factors for developing a sustainable business model of non-profit. 4.2.1 Ownership (O): Brand Awareness, Proprietary Relationships and Exclusive Relationships The ownership factors include the capacity of the organization to develop a powerful brand, and its ability to replicate its best practices intra-organizationally across different departments or business units. The replication of the best practices is studied through proprietary and exclusive relationships. Table 1a: Regression Statistics Ownership (O) SUMMARY OUTPUT Regression Statistics Multiple R 1 R Square 1 Adjusted R Square 65535 Standard Error 0 Observations 3 Table 1b: ANOVA Ownership Attributes    df SS MS Significance F Regression 4 16.7086 4.17715 3.3 Residual 0 0 65535 Total 4 16.7086          Coefficients Standard Error t Stat Lower 95% Upper 95% Lower 95.0% Upper 95.0% Intercept 0 X Variable 1 0.2375 0 65535 0.2375 0.2375 0.2375 0.2375 X Variable 2 0.3825 0 65535 0.3825 0.3825 0.3825 0.3825 X Variable 3 0.5225 0 65535 0.5225 0.5225 0.5225 0.5225 X Variable 4 0 0 65535 0 0 0 0 Figure 1a: Importance of Brand Awareness, Proprietary Relationship and Exclusive Relationships The above presented regression analysis and the scatter plot in the figure highlight the fact that to become a successful organization, Brand Awareness & Proprietary Relationship must be higher as attribute of the company. The results being from 70 respondents from the sample of 25 non-profit organizations indicate that there is a consensus on building non-profit organization on the basis of sound marketing strategies that involve developing a brand name that is recognizable and has credibility. As was seen in the literature review, there is an enhanced competition between non-profit and charitable organizations to obtain both corpor ate and governmental funding and to attract human resources (Buckley and Casson, 200). Having a brand image and recall among the community as well as having a reputation of excellence lead the non-profit organizations creating a distinct identity and recall for the people (Madhok and Phene, 2001). The need to have a powerful brand is found to have increased in the past few years especially post the global financial crisis. The global crisis led to budgetary cuts for corporates and adversely impacted on their funding of non-profit organizations cut back their initiatives related to corporate social responsibility (Cole, Lee and McCullough, 2007). On the other hand, the tightening of public spending also led to a general attitude of saving and insecurity, making less funds available from individual or private donations (De Rosa, 2009). Under these conditions it became even more challenging for non-profit organizations to remain sustainable and viable and to keep their operations intac t. An eclectic paradigm was therefore the most viable option which including building brand awareness and developing exclusive long term relationships that can sustain the non-profit organizations over similar periods of economic slowdown (Franklin, 2011). The research questionnaire also requested the respondents to elaborate on their answers regarding why they think that brand awareness, proprietary relationships and exclusive relationships is or is not important for their non-profit organizations. However, as seen by the following chart, a very small number of the respondents took the initiative to give detailed information regarding

Why only Thailand had not been under colonial rules Research Paper

Why only Thailand had not been under colonial rules - Research Paper Example European aspiration for trade and consumption, creation empires and exploitation of the slave labour has produced an immense impact on many regions of the world. Whereas Spain was a pioneer in conquest and colonial expansion forcing American aboriginal population out in order to take their place and plant the new religion, other European empires took up the baton in this direction of development. The most powerful colonial empires were the Netherlands, Russian Empire, France and Great Britain. Seeking to gain control over as many beneficial territories as possible, the empires kept on spreading their influence across the New World, Africa and Asia. As the world had seen the first wave of decolonization at the turn of the 19th century when the territories of the New World won their independence weakening Spain as the colonial empire, other colonists set their eyes on the countries of the Old World, territories of South Africa, India and Southeast Asia in particular. The history of the Southeast Asian region was marked by the colonial rule and forced interaction between regional governors and the foreign powers that came to conquer and exploit the territories economically. Naturally, the origins of the colonialism policy lay in the cradle of Western civilization, in Europe. Whereas the main colonists of the region were France and Great Britain, the Southeastern colonies included Burma, Singapore, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia and East Timor (Ingkhaninan). The beginning if expansion took place in the 16th century when Spain began invasive war against the Philippines conquering the islands and maintaining control over them until 1898. Indochina, in its turn, became an arena for French aggressive expansion with Vietnam and Cambodia being colonized and turned into the so-called Indochinese Union. Later, in 1893, French colonists conquered Laos. Therefore, almost the

The Violence In Movies

The Violence In Movies Do violent movies cause people to be violent? Violence is a very delicate topic and it raises the attention of producers, because they are affecting lives around the world, the movie producers see this as an opportunity to bump up their ratings by making violence more popular. Aiming to keep profits high, they target young adults through advertisements and keeping them informed with previews about what movies are coming up next. Research has shown different aspects of violence in creation by media sources, news, publishers, and even books written specifically based on the effects of violent behavior in movies affecting peoples lives. There are diverse ways in which to consider the rating for violent movies, and different laws are passed in every country regarding the age that people are able to watch a specific violent movie. At a young age children are more vulnerable to practicing what is filmed on the big screen. Arguments are seen in the public eye, as a way to stop the creation of violent movies and create or recreate stories which are suitable for the public eye to view without endangering their way of living in a normal society. This subject also answers to what is the cause for gun violence, drugs, gangs, attempted murders, and a large variety of vicious attacks in society. It is known that the mind acts as a triggering device which takes actions based on what images or information it has received. Negative information or images are processed through and give out a harmful response to the collector or to the people around him. Harmful, downbeat or depressing movies can change a characters view on things or can change their personality. It might bring back depressing moments in someones living or make them feel insecure about things in life, making them choose wrong options, doing drugs, mistreating their family, breaking laws etc. These are some examples of how people react to a violent movie, by identifying the argument based on reality. FACTS On Children and Teenagers. According to research that is dated not only in present, but also in long passed years, violent movies tend to affect mostly children and young adults. Watching violent movies does not only affect the youngsters behavior and tendencies to violence, but it also causes lower grades in classrooms. In the article Adolescents who watch violent films get poorer grades in the classroom written by Richard Gray Science Correspondent for Telegraph.co.uk, Dr. James Sargent, a pediatrician at Dartmouth Medical Center and the scientist who led an investigation concerning effects of violent movies on children, says: These are young adolescents who really should not be watching this type of adult material. Watching a lot of violent material seems to crank up their rebelliousness. Violent movies disrupt sleep and leave children not so eager for hard work and concentration in classrooms, which automatically leads to a considerable drop in grades and accumulation and assimil ation of knowledge. The same research also proved that students with excellent scholastic results dropped from 50% to 25% in grades. Other studies, though few of them, have compared various types of TV violence in United States, Japan, and Spain. Japanese television illustrates fewer physical of fatal injuries that the U.S. or Spain. Another study has shown that increasing violent expression of teenagers is directly linked to the violence on TV and movies in other countries. A child who is exposed to raging shows at ages 6 or 8 predicted aggression 2 years later among many boys and girls in the United States, Finland, Poland, and Israel. A new question rises: Why and how do children have access to headstrong programs? Who should be considered guilty for it? On Psychcentral.com, in an article entitled Movie Violence Can Overwhelm Children, by Rick Nauert PHD Senior News Editor, Keilah Worth, the leader of the study says: In Britain, no adolescent would be admitted to these movies unless they were 18. The R rating in this country is clearly not preventing our young people from seeing them . . . We know so much about the harmful effects of exposure to violent media content, but how much exposure children actually get has been largely ignored. Now, were learning more about the large numbers of kids seeing this material and who they are . . . We should re-think the current movie rating system, which has been in place for 40 years, and was designed when kids could only see movies in theaters. Ratings need to be more prominent on all movies, whether they are seen in theaters or purchased in the store, and we need clearer messages to parents. Pediatricians and child advocates should instruct parents to strictly abide by the movie-age guidelines and to closely monitor movie viewing. Is the rating system responsible for it? Is it the governments fault for not setting stricter laws? Or the parents are guilty for a not so strict supervision of their children? This question is yet to be answered. On one hand, the government is responsible for what is aired on TV and for the ratings in theaters. Movies rated-R, such as Scary Movie, which show a high number of extremely violent acts, should not be at hand for young adolescents. Although it is contraindicated for a person aged between 10 14 years to be able to attend such shows, according to Extension.iastate.edu, an average of 12.5 percent of an estimated 22 million children age 10-14 watched at least one movie that is rated-R, but has a higher level of brutality. Scary Movie was watched by an estimated 10 million children (48% of 10-14 year olds). As a fact, cartoons are 5 times more violent than most TV programs. On the other hand, the technology today is so easy to use, anyone can do it. Illegal downloads take pla ce everywhere, so it would be easy for a youngster to get anything digital. Everything is as close as the push of a button. Although punishments for piracy are severe, children are irresponsible and easily impressed by others who do it. Internet downloads fall under the jurisdiction of the parents. Strict supervision of the child when using a computer is absolutely necessary, until the child reaches a proper age for him to know what is good and what is wrong for himself. Culture, religion, and the way a child was educated in the family are also important, but in a lesser manner. Why do children do it? Why are they so desperate about watching violent movies? Some think that this is a ritual, some king of passage from a child to a teenager or from a teenager to an adult. Others believe that it is pure rebellion against parents and society, which is caused by violent movies (this explanation tends to be circular so some doubt its validity). In any case, what we know is that we must not encourage and we should prevent (if possible) children from watching high-ranked in violence movies, letting them lead a normal childhood and develop themselves as beautiful, well-rounded individuals. There are several problems that have draw questions upon themselves. For example: at what age should be children allowed to start watching violent movies, rating brutality in movies, which movie would be suitable for what age or the existence of good violence,. The term good violence appeared in 1960s, when TV channels broadcasted racist violence against African Americans. Some peop le believe that this is not violence, because it was released under the title of news. Others believe that no matter why is out there, is still violence. The topic is still argued by the two sides, and it would probably be debated a long time from now. But there has been reached a compromise concerning film ratings: YMaterial is suitable for all audiences, no violence; Y7Material is suitable for older children, may contain fantasy violence; GMaterial is suitable for general audiences, very little or no violence; PG Parental guidance is suggested, may contain some violence; 14 Parents are strongly cautioned, could contain moderate amounts of violence; MA Mature audiences only, contains material not suitable for children; In addition to this rating system, all of the television shows have sub-ratings. The sub-ratings include V for violence, S for sexual situations, L for explicit language, FV for fantasy violence, and D for suggestive dialog. These ratings help parents limit what their children watch. (suite101.com pg2) How parents can help. There are many and different ways which a parent can use to get to his child, and control, in one way or another, what the kid is watching without letting it seem like a total control, which most teens and young children hate. Some examples would be: media-free bedrooms for the children, common TV areas and family TV time, lack of free and unsupervised Internet access, suggesting a change of channel when the scenes become violent, discussions concerning the subject et cetera. A parent can also use Internet to research movies and their ratings so they will know what to let their young ones watch and what not. A different approach may be needed for different persons but the key is perseverance. As a parent, you should not give up when your daughter or your son finds new ways to watch whatever they want without you knowing. There is always a solution for these problems. On adults. Any differences based on sex or race? The effects that violent movies have on adults are not as researched as those on children and teenagers, probably because as the time passes by and a person already formed his or hers personality, it is hard to change that personality through an exposition of violent moving pictures. Recent studies have shown that the impact on adults does not differ from one person to another based on race or cultural provenience, proving equality and offering a good starting point for any race, but also removing myths that said some cultures are more violent than others. On the other hand, there is, or better said, was a difference between genres. Since women began being treated as being equal to men, aggressive behavior had increased in female society. In recent years, violent female characters appeared in movies, and it became more acceptable for a women to act freely and violent. However, compulsion will increase in both genres as long as brutal m odels are shown and promoted by the media. Even though this kind of movies affect adults too, it is hard to deny ones access to them. For example, a patient in a mental institute is suing United States because of the desire to view movies that contain violence, suicide and nudity. The patient, Larry Filliung, has strangled his girlfriend and was found not guilty by reason of insanity is requesting a change in rules, because the institute controls which movies can be viewed in groups and which not. Filliungs lawyer, Mark J. Heyrman, says that people like his client will one day be released and that sheltering him from controversial topics does not help him reintegrate into society. CRITICS AND CRITICISM Movie critics have a compared a multitude of movies to real life incidents, or better said tragic events. By drawing parallels between those two, critics have reached the conclusion that many terrorist attacks have their roots and draw their ideas from violent American movies, such as Independence Day or The Siege.

Light and Dark in Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad Essay -- Joseph C

     Ã‚   In the book, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, all the characters are pulled into a well of black despair. Conrad uses the darkness of the situation contrasted to the light of society to show man’s dependence on western morals, and how when these morals are challenged by the darkness, the light crumbles under its newly weakened foundation. The contrast between light and dark is most stark in the themes of setting, the changes in Europeans as they drive farther into the Congo, and the white man’s collapse under the ultimate darkness of the Innermost Congo. The setting of Heart of Darkness is a very critical part of the book, and Conrad goes to extreme lengths to highlight the evil radiating from the region in which he sets his book. First, the tale is told in a frame story pattern, Marlow is relating his experience to friends in a setting different from that of the primary tale. But the setting where Marlow tells his tale is a foreshadow of what is to come. Marlow presents his story on a boat in the dark of night, creating a sense of evil surrounding the story. The darkness is so deep where Marlow rests during the telling of his tale, that he cannot see his friends, and instead tells the story to the darkness itself. Once the narrative begins, Conrad quickly places his character in another situation which only foretells of the place to which he is going. Within a Belgian office, Marlow examines a map of the area into which he is traveling, he describes it, "...on one end a large shining map, marked with all the colours of a rainbow. There was a vast amount of red-good to see at any time, because one knows that some real work is done in there, a deuce of a lot of blue, a little green, smears of orange, and, on the... ...s us human, but we must always understand that it is only a mask, and not the truth, because one day everyone will be faced with the darkness of the true nature of our world, and we will stare into the heart of the darkness, and it will break us, as it did to Kurtz, or enlighten us, as it did to Marlow.       Works Cited and Consulted Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. New Jersey: The Ecco Press, 1992. Guerard, Albert J. Conrad the Novelist. Cambridge, MA.: Harvard U. Press, 1958. Guerard, Albert J. "Heart of Darkness". TCLC. 13:114. Karl, Fredrick R. "Heart of Darkness". TCLC. 6:121. Kimbrough, Robert, ed. Heart of Darkness: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Sources, Criticism. By Joseph Conrad. 3rd ed. Norton Critical Edition. New York: Norton, 1988.   Meyers, Jeffrey.   Joseph Conrad.   New York:   Charles Scribner's Sons, 1991.

Exploring the Universality and Diversity of Human Language Essay

Chomsky (1975), a noted linguist, believes that we are â€Å"specifically designed† to learn language. As Biehler (1976) puts it, there are â€Å"striking uniformities† in languages of other cultures that follow grammatical patterns (universal grammar). Even Farrel (1978) agrees that there is â€Å"an underlying design original to all languages. † For all of them, language is simply a part of our genetic endowment, or as the evolutionist Haugen (1973) would say it, we have the â€Å"gift of language,† or the â€Å"universal gift of tongues. † Chomsky and other linguists believe that there are system of principles, conditions, and rules that are elements of all human languages. Human languages contain structure, which means they are composed of several words grouped basically by function (verbs, nouns, etc. ) and this is referred to in linguistic literatures as innate universal grammar. â€Å"The human brain is equipped with a learning algorithm, which enables us to learn certain languages. This algorithm can learn each of the existing 6,000 human languages and presumably many more, but it is impossible that algorithm could learn every computable language† (Nowak, Komarova and Niyogi, p. 615). What are the implications of all these? Regardless of cultural background, whatever language we know or use now, we are all innately predisposed to comprehend design in languages and we can easily grasp and work around grammatical rules, however complex or elaborate they are. Although of course, young children are at an advantage in using this gift, as timing in acquiring a language is important as well. Nonetheless, as a general statement, regardless of cultural or ethnic background, man’s remarkable ability to communicate through language, in itself, is already a good proof of the universality of language as a human faculty. As mentioned in the Atlas of Languages (1996), there is no known society or community in the world that is language-less. From the evolutionists’ point of view, language is essentially a human trait and this is a powerful evidence on the universality of language. While animals of the same kind have their own way of communicating, only humans had â€Å"the power of recursion to create an open-ended and limitless system of communication† Hauser, Chomsky and Fitch, 2002, p. 1578). Why and how humans acquired the faculty of language and managed to â€Å"spread from human to human and from culture to culture,† (Knezek, 1997) are often the usual subjects of discussion of scholars. Evolutionists would agree that â€Å"the faculty meditating human communication appears remarkably different from that of other living creatures†¦. that the human faculty of language appears to be organized like the genetic code with respect to its scope of expression. † Animals have been â€Å"designed on the basis of highly conserved developmental systems that read an almost universal language coded in DNA base pairs,† however, â€Å"they lack a common universal code of communication† (Hauser, Chomsky and Fitch, 2002, p. 1569). Diversity of Languages If there are over six thousand (6,ooo) documented human languages in the world while evidences, as earlier discussed, all point to what seem to be universal similarities in mankind’s gift of language, what caused the present diversity of languages? Languages differ in so many ways, and it should be interesting to explore these differences primarily from the genetic and environmental viewpoints. In the 15 August 2002 New York Times language article, Wade mentioned the remarkable theory of Dr. Richard Klein, an archaeologist at Stanford University – â€Å"that the emergence of behaviorally modern humans about 50,000 years ago was set off by a major genetic change, most probably the acquisition of language. † Could it be then, that there is a special gene linked to the innate ability of humans to acquire language? Which genetic change (s) led to changes in the biological make-up of human brain structures that would prove to be relevant for human language? A major feat in the study of cognitive genetics is the â€Å"discovery of the first human gene specifically involved in language† through the efforts of Dr. Svante Paabo and his colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. The gene named FOXP2 â€Å"is known to switch on other genes during the development of the brain† (Wade, 2002) The journal Nature journal published the report of the findings (as cited in Wade, 2002): â€Å"FOXP2 gene has remained largely unaltered during the evolution of mammals, but suddenly changed in humans after the hominid line had split off from the chimpanzee line of descent. The changes in the human gene affect the structure of the protein it specifies at two sites†¦.. One of them slightly alters the protein’s shape; the other gives it a new role in the signaling circuitry of human cells. The changes indicate that the gene has been under strong evolutionary pressure in humans. Also, the human form of the gene, †¦. seems to have become universal in the human population†¦. Humans must already have possessed some rudimentary form of language before the FOXP2 gene gained its two mutations†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦the improved gene may have swept through the population, providing the finishing touch to the acquisition of language. †

Edward Snowden Essay

Does anybody like to be watched? At face value, nobody wants other people to know their secrets and possibly use those secrets against them and surely nobody want all their online information recorded and their phone call wired. So why is the National Security Agency (NSA) carefully taking down everything we do with their giant yeottabyte-computers deep in the Utah Desert? We know about this NSA scheme because of the leaker Edward Snowden who has been recently granted a one-year temporary asylum by the Russian government. Why Russia granted the asylum and why Snowden is even there can be tied to three basic concepts of intercultural communication, those of culture & social group, perspective, and cultural relativism. Edward Snowden was a â€Å"security contractor at the NSA for the last four year, employed by several private contractors† (Economist 8840, 23). After announcing that he leaked the information that the NSA is using a program code-named PRISM, which collects an unknown quantity of e-mails, internet phone-calls, photos, videos, file transfer, and social-networking data from the technology giants such as Google and Facebook, Snowden boarded a plane flight to Hong Kong. According to his followers, Snowden first fled into the arms of the Chinese and then the Russian because of the harsh treatments Private Bradley Manning, the leaker of military secrets to WikiLeaks, received. On August 1, Snowden â€Å"finally managed to break free of his confinement at the transit zone of Moscow’s international airport† after he received his asylum on Thursday. In theory, this event is deeply connected to three concepts of communication: culture & social group, perspective, and cultural relativism. The three concepts are all concepts that are based on an intercultural point of view, because they all represent our culture and the dif ferences it has with other cultures. Our culture is as distinct from other cultures as two different people, they think differently, and interpret and act in accordance only to their own maxims and perspectives. The government’s perspective is very different from Snowden’s perspective, without their perspective being different, Snowden would not have done what he did, or the U.S. would not be chasing him around the globe. In addition, if the Russian Government did not recognize cultural relativism, Snowden could never dream of getting an asylum from Russia. Our culture is a key factor of why the Snowden affair even began. Because our culture can be considered quite a zealous security culture, we impose such rules that social communities and  other culture may not approve. After â€Å"September 11th 2001, George Bush tipped the balance too far from liberty toward security† and the balance stayed off ever since (Economist 8847, 11). Due to the common American way of life, people prefer a way of living in which they receive the most amount of comfort. If you walk up to an American and ask him what he thinks is important in life, one of his many answers will be the enjoyment of life. Snowden is no exception, and thought that doing something that would potentially stop the government from watching us and make himself feel more comfortable when he use a phone is totally acceptable. While the government is thinking about tracking down potential criminals, Snowden is thinking about why he is being watched and record and wired every second of his life except when he is asleep. Snowden’s perspective is the same as the government in that they both want the best for the people, but they differ widely on how that is to be achieved. Snowden believes that in order for the people to be free and genuinely happy, they must be given the right of doing what they want without certain constrains such as having their telephone record collected when they are not suspected of crimes. On the other hand, the government believed that the more America knows, the better it is at defending itself. Due to the fact that Snowden had a different perspective from the government, he â€Å"handed over ‘thousands’ of classified documents† and showed Americans what the government is doing behind their backs and in front of their faces (Economist 8840, 23). Even though there has been questions regarding why Russia granted Snowden the asylum, it can be explained easily by the communication concept of cultural relativism. Cultural relativism recognizes that cultures vary in how they think and behave as well as in what they believe and value. This clarified the point that Russians do not think as Americans and their gover nment functions differently. If Russia were to think like the American government, it would have never looked for â€Å"trouble† with Snowden. Americans consider their own welfare above all other things; due to that, when the American government grants asylums to â€Å"criminals† desperately wanted elsewhere, the government rarely think about how it is affecting the other countries. Now, when the American government is put in this situation, it automatically assumes that all action done for Snowden’s benefit is for American’s detriment. On the Russian point of view, what they are doing may actually be a way to keep the  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Security-Prioritized Americans† from going to war with others for no good reason. It is posisble that Russia thinks that it is wrong for a country to be a hypocrite, and that the American government should â€Å"learn a little lesson† from Russia’s asylum grant. Edward Snowden would not have done what he did without his culture, his social group, and his perspective. On the other hand, Russia would not grant an asylum if they did not recognize cultural relativism. Over all, the Snowden affair has been a controversy between the people and the government. The people have to apply all the communication concepts to use in order to make the future of America the best possible, and the government has to make its best judgments based on the people’s decisions. Therefore, people should all learn be better communicators, thus become better citizens, and help their country at such times of need as this.