Acquaintance with the mass of opinion reports surviving...

Acquaintance with the mass of opinion reports surviving from the Nazi state, complex and difficult though these sources are, allows little scope for sweeping generalisations about attitudes and behaviour of the German people during the Third Reich. There is too much evidence of daily dissent and even manifestations of limited, opposition and protest – limited in significance, certainly, but noteworthy just the same - to support notions of a society terrorised by a totalitarian state into meek submission and automaton-like obedience and compliance. The opposite generalisation, of a consensus holding to the end, of a society which never seriously deviated from its backing for Hitler and the regime, seems equally flawed. A survey of the†¦show more content†¦This ‘underlying consensus’ existed at the intersection of the social expectations of national ‘salvation’ which accompanied Hitler’s rise to power, and the constantly propagated utopi an vistas of the regime’s long-term goals of a dominant, prosperous and united Germany. The representative figure of this future vision was Hitler, and the expectations placed in ‘heroic’ leadership, and constantly pumped-up by a propaganda machine in overdrive when it came to the manufacture of the Fà ¼hrer cult, meant the personalisation of this consensus in the Leader’s ‘great achievements’. Beneath this veneer of consensus, however, the everyday realities of the Third Reich revealed a society which belied the propaganda image of a united ‘national community’. The ways in which Nazism impinged upon everyday life were divisive rather than unifying. Areas of consent might be discerned; a general consensus cannot. Propaganda slogans about putting the community before the individual, and sacrifice today for prosperity and happiness tomorrow had a hollow ring for the millions low down the social ladder who saw their own working con ditions deteriorate while the rampant corruption and arrogance of power above them were all too evident. The disappointments and disillusionment of daily life could, however, find compensation – though not on a lasting basis – by the affective

Types of Organization Free Essays

string(155) " performance of their company and of its various units, assess the opportunities and threats, and develop strategic directions for the company’s future\." LESSON 2: ORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS An introductory topic on Management Information System Organizations are formal social units devoted to the attainment of specific goals. The success of any organizations is premise on the efficient use and management of resources which traditionally comprises human, financial, and material resources. Information is now recognized as a crucial resource of an organization. We will write a custom essay sample on Types of Organization or any similar topic only for you Order Now Examples of organizations are business firms, banks, government agencies, hospitals, educational institutions, insurance companies, airlines, and utilities. Organizations and information systems have a mutual influence on each other. The information needs of an organization affect the design of information systems and an organization must be open itself to the influences of information systems in order to more fully benefit from new technologies. [pic] This complex two-way relationship is mediated by many factors, not the least of which are the decisions made—or not made—by managers. Other factors mediating the relationship are the organizational culture, bureaucracy, politics, business fashion, and pure chance. 1. Organizations and environments Organizations reside in environments from which they draw resources and to which they supply goods and services. Organizations and environments have a reciprocal relationship. †¢ Organizations are open to, and dependent on, the social and physical environment that surrounds them. Without financial and human resources—people willing to work reliably and consistently for a set wage or revenue from customers—organizations could not exist. †¢ Organizations must respond to legislative and other requirements imposed by government, as well as the actions of customers and competitors. On the other hand, organizations can influence their environments. Organizations form alliances with others to influence the political process; they advertise to influence customer acceptance of their products. Information systems are key instruments for environmental scanning, helping managers identify external changes that might require an organizational response. New technologies, new products, and changing public tastes and values (many of which result in new government regulations) put strains on any organization’s culture, politics, and people. | 2. Standard operating procedures (SOPs) Precise rules, procedures, and practices developed by organizations to cope with virtually all expected situations. These standard operating procedures have a great de al to do with the efficiency that modern organizations attain. 3. Organizational Politics People in organizations occupy different positions with different specialties, concerns, and perspectives. As a result, they naturally have divergent viewpoints about how resources, rewards, and punishments should be distributed. These differences matter to both managers and employees, and they result in political struggle, competition, and conflict within every organization. Political resistance is one of the great difficulties of bringing about organizational change—especially the development of new information systems. Virtually all information systems that bring about significant changes in goals, procedures, productivity, and personnel are politically charged and elicit serious political opposition. . Organizational culture Organizational culture describes the psychology, attitudes, experiences, beliefs and values (personal and cultural values) of an organization. It has been defined as â€Å"the specific collection of values and norms that are shared by people and groups in an organization and that control the way they interact with each other and with stakeholders outside t he organization. †¢ It is the set of fundamental assumptions about what products the organization should produce, how and where it should produce them, and for whom they should be produced. It is a powerful unifying force that restrains political conflict and promotes common understanding, agreement on procedures, and common practices †¢ organizational culture is a powerful restraint on change, especially technological change. Most organizations will do almost anything to avoid making changes in basic assumptions. Any technological change that threatens commonly held cultural assumptions usually meets a great deal of resistance. However, there are times when the only sensible way for a firm to move forward is to employ a new technology that directly opposes an existing organizational culture. Types of Organizational Information systems Decision making is often a manager’s most challenging role. Information systems have helped managers communicate and distribute information and provide assistance for management decision making. No single system provides all the information needed by the different organizational levels, functions and business processes. Organizations can be divided into strategic, management, and operational levels. 1. Operational-level systems support operational managers’ needs for current, accurate and easily accessible information primarily used to keep track of the elementary activities and transactions of the organization. Decision making for operational control determines how to carry out the specific tasks set forth by strategic and middle management decisions. 2. Management-level systems are designed to serve the monitoring, controlling, decision-making, and administrative activities of middle managers. Decision making for management control focuses on efficiency and effective use of resources. It requires knowledge of operational decision making and task completion. 3. Strategic- level systems help senior managers with long-range planning needed to meet changes in the external and internal business environment. Strategic decision determines the long-term objectives, resources and policies of the organization. Decisions at every level of the organization can also be classified as unstructured, structured and semi-structured. Unstructured decisions involve judgment, evaluation, and insight into the problem definition. They are novel, important, and nonroutine. †¢ Structured decisions are routine †¢ Semi-structured decisions involve cases where only part of the problem can be answered by an accepted procedure. Modern information systems have been most successful with structured, operational and management control decisions. But now most of the exciting applications are occur ring at the management knowledge and strategic levels where problems are either semi-structured or unstructured. TYPES OF ORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATION SYSTEM Following are the different types on information systems that support the needs of the organization: Executive information systems (EIS), Decision support systems (DSS), Management Information Systems(MIS), and Transaction Processing Systems (TPS). A. Executive information systems (EIS) provide top management with ready access to a variety of summarized company data against a background of general information on the industry and the economy at large. ESS provides a generalized computing and communications environment for senior managers at the strategic level of the organization. Top management of any organization need to be able to track the performance of their company and of its various units, assess the opportunities and threats, and develop strategic directions for the company’s future. You read "Types of Organization" in category "Essay examples" Executive information systems have these characteristics: 1. EIS provide immediate and easy access to information reflecting the key success factors of the company and of its units. 2. User-seductive† interfaces, such as color graphics and video, allow the EIS user to grasp trends at a glance. Users’ time is at a high premium here. 3. EIS provide access to a variety of databases, both internal and external, through a uniform interface — the fact that the system consults multiple databases should be transparent to the users. 4. Both current status and proj ections should be available from EIS. It is frequently desirable to investigate different projections; in particular, planned projections may be compared with the projections derived from actual results. . An EIS should allow easy tailoring to the prefaces of the particular user or group of users (such as the chief executive’s cabinet or the corporate board). 6. EIS should offer the capability to â€Å"drill down† into the data: it should be possible to see increasingly detailed the summaries. Critical Success factors for achieving a successful EIS 1. A committed and informed executive sponsor. A top level executive, preferably the CEO, should serve as the executive sponsor of the EIS by encouraging its implementation. 2. An operating sponsor. The executive sponsor will most likely be too busy to devote much time to implementation. That task should be given to another top-level executive, such as the executive vice-president. The operating sponsor works with both the user executives and the information specialists to ensure that the work gets done. 3. Appropriate information services staff. Information specialists should be available who understand not only the information technology but also how the executive will use the system. 4. Appropriate information technology. EIS implementers should not get carried away and incorporate unnecessary hardware or software. The system must be kept as simple as possible and should give the executive exactly what him or her wants-nothing more and nothing less. 5. Data Management. It is not sufficient to simply display data or information. The executive should have some idea of how current the data is. This can be accomplished by identifying the day and ideally the time of the day the data was entered. The executive should be able to follow data analysis. . A clear link to business objectives. Most successful EISs are designed to solve specific problems or meet needs that can be addressed with information technology. 7. Management of organizational resistance. When an executive resists the EIS, efforts should be taken to gain support. A good strategy is to identify a single problem that the executive faces and then quickly implement an EIS, using prototyping to address that problem. Care must be taken to select a problem that will enable the EIS to make a good showing. . Management of the spread and evolution of the system. Experience has shown that when upper-level management begins receiving information from the EIS, lower level managers want to receive the same output. Care must be taken to add users only when they can be given the attention they need. B. Management information systems (MIS) – serve the management level of the organization, providing managers with reports and, in some cases, with online access to the organization’s current performance and historical records. Typically, they are oriented almost exclusively to internal, not environmental or external, events. MIS primarily serve the functions of planning, controlling, and decision making at the management level. Generally, they depend on underlying transaction processing systems for their data C. Decision support systems (DSS), is a type of MIS expressly developed to support the decision-making process in non-routine task. DSS assist middle managers with analytical decisions, and able to address semistructured problems drawing on both internal and external sources of data 1. It is an interactive computer-based system intended to help managers retrieve, summarize, analyze decision relevant data and make decisions. 2. DSS facilitate a dialogue between the user, who is considering alternative problem solutions, and the system, with its built-in models and access to the database. 3. DSS are interactive, and in a typical session, the manager using a DSS can evaluate a number of possible â€Å"what if† scenarios by using a model or a simulation of a real life system. Two major categories of DSS 1. Enterprise-wide DSS are linked to large, data warehouse and serve many managers in a company. Enterprise wide DSS can range from fairly simple systems to complex data intensive and analytically sophisticated executive information system. 2. Desk-top DSS such as spreadsheets, accounting and financial models can be implemented in Microsoft Excel. Another DSS tool, simulation, is usually implemented in desktop packages. D. Transaction processing systems (TPS) is the core of IT applications in business since it serves the operational level of the organization by recording the daily transactions required to conduct business. Most mission- critical information systems for both large and small organizations are essentially transaction processing systems for operational data processing that is needed, for example, to register customer orders and to produce invoices and payroll checks. This system keeps track of money paid to employees, generating employee paychecks and other reports. A symbolic representation for a payroll TPS Typical applications of TPS There are five functional categories of TPS: sales/marketing, manufacturing/production, finance/accounting, human resources, and other types of systems specific to a particular industry. Within each of these major functions are subfunctions. For each of these subfunctions (e. g. , sales management) there is a major application system. [pic] The various types of systems in the organization exchange data with one another. TPS are a major source of data for other systems, especially MIS and DSS. ESS is primarily a recipient of data from lower-level systems. Systems from a Functional Perspective There are four major functional areas in an organization: sales and marketing, manufacturing and production, finance and accounting, and human resources. . Sales and Marketing Systems The sales and marketing function is responsible for selling the organization’s product or service. Sales function is concerned with contacting customers, selling the products and services, taking orders, and following up on sales. Marketing is concerned with identifying the customers for the firm’s products or services, determining what customers need or want, planning and developing p roducts and services to meet their needs, and advertising and promoting these products and services. Sales and marketing information systems support these activities and help the firm identify customers for the firm’s products or services, develop products and services to meet customers’ needs, promote these products and services, sell the products and services, and provide ongoing customer support. Examples of Sales and Marketing information systems are Order processing, pricing Analysis and sales Trend Forecasting. 2. Manufacturing and Production Systems The manufacturing and production function is responsible for actually producing the firm’s goods and services. Manufacturing and production systems deal with the planning, development, and maintenance of production facilities; the establishment of production goals; the acquisition, storage, and availability of production materials; and the scheduling of equipment, facilities, materials, and labor required to fashion finished products. Manufacturing and production information systems support these activities, it deal with the planning, development, and production of products and services, and with controlling the flow of production. 3. Finance and Accounting Systems The finance function is responsible for managing the firm’s financial assets, such as cash, stocks, bonds, and other investments, in order to maximize the return on these financial assets. The finance function is also in charge of managing the capitalization of the firm (finding new financial assets in stocks, bonds, or other forms of debt). In order to determine whether the firm is getting the best return on its investments, the finance function must obtain a considerable amount of information from sources external to the firm. The accounting function is responsible for maintaining and managing the firm’s financial records—receipts, disbursements, depreciation, payroll—to account for the flow of funds in a firm. Finance and accounting share related problems—how to keep track of a firm’s financial assets and fund flows. They provide answers to questions such as these: What is the current inventory of financial assets? What records exist for disbursements, receipts, payroll, and other fund flows? Examples of Finance and Accounting Systems : Accounts receivable, Budgeting, Profit Planning. 4. Human Resources Systems The human resources function is responsible for attracting, developing, and maintaining the firm’s workforce. Human resources information systems support activities, such as identifying potential employees, maintaining complete records on existing employees, and creating programs to develop employees’ talents and skills Examples of Human resources information systems: training and development, compensation analysis, and Human Resources Planning. Management Challenges Businesses need different types of information systems to support decision making and work activities for various organizational levels and functions. Well-conceived systems linking the entire enterprise typically require a significant amount of organizational and management change and raise the following management challenges: 1. Integration. Although it is necessary to design different systems serving different levels and functions in the firm, more and more firms are finding advantages in integrating systems. However, integrating systems for different organizational levels and functions to freely exchange information can be technologically difficult and costly. Managers need to determine what level of system integration is required and how much it is worth in dollars. 2. Enlarging the scope of management thinking. Most managers are trained to manage a product line, a division, or an office. They are rarely trained to optimize the performance of the organization as a whole and often are not given the means to do so. But enterprise systems and industrial networks require managers to take a much larger view of their own behavior, including other products, divisions, departments, and even outside business firms. ———————- Objectives : At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to: †¢ Illustrate the relationship between organizations and information systems †¢ Explain the factors mediating the relationship between organizations and information systems †¢ Discuss the different types of information systems in the organization. †¢ Explain how information supports the dif ferent levels of an organization †¢ Give examples of the information systems that are being used to support business functional areas How to cite Types of Organization, Essay examples

Molecular Gastronomy free essay sample

In order to develop a thorough understanding of the science of molecular gastronomy, it needs to be examined not only in the context of the restaurant (as most media commentary do), but also in the other locations in which it is practiced: the scientific laboratory, where it originated, and the home, where it has been taken up recently by amateur ‘foodies’. Expert systems are coming to dominate more areas of the everyday life, such as food and cooking. It shifts from the hands of professional scientific ‘experts’ in the laboratories into another type of ‘expert’, the professional chef in the kitchen, and from there to amateur foodies at home. In each location it is tied to a different goal. In the laboratory, molecular gastronomy is harnessed to the professional scientist’s goal of ‘culinary enlightenment’; in the restaurant, it is tied to the professional chef’s goal of ‘culinary creativity’; and in the home, it is tied to the amateur foodie’s goal of ‘gastronomic education’. . From the laboratory The Scientifics, Kurti and This, integrated science form the industrial food production (food science) into the small-scale culinary realms of the restaurant and home.Therefore they developed molecular gastronomy – originally called ‘molecular and physical gastronomy’ and bringing bringing scientific enlightenment to the kitchen, â€Å"culinary enlightenment†. The main reason for the Kurti and This, is that they feel that people have been cooking the same way already from the Middle Ages, using the same methods. The entire word has been experiencing innovation and therefore also the gastronomy should experience this. It is a foundation for future culinary progress. The main aim of molecular gastronomy is to use scientific experiments to test culinary recipes and to prove them either true or false.This will be the construction of (culinary) facts which is the main work of the scientific laboratory. Molecular gastronomy aims to remove all ‘false’ traditions from cookbooks, leaving only scientifically proven universal culinary truths. Herve This feels like people are hold back by traditions which do not bring any innovation. The founders define dishes as ‘complex disperse systems’ (CDS), and have developed a scientific language called ‘CDS formalism’, which aims to provide a global description of the physical microstructure of a dish by translating its recipe into a scientific formula.This involves deconstructing a dish into its ingredients to examine their properties and determine how culinary transformations occur. This translation of recipes into formulas is called ‘modeling dishes’. In addition, molecular gastronomy has drawn on science to develop new methods of cooking, such as ‘coction’ or ‘cooking without thermal treatment’. Moreover, it looks to the laboratory for new ingredients for home and restaurant cooking, such as the ‘aromatic preparations’ (synthetic molecular solutions) often used by the food industry, which This suggests could enhance natural flavours and enlarge the overall palette of flavours.Herve This concludes that only the universalizing projects of molecular gastronomy, establishing culinary truths and recipe-formulas, are actually ‘pure’ science, because the product of science is knowledge. In contrast, finding new ingredients, methods, tools and dishes is applied science or technology. Cooking, he argues, ‘is a craft, an art and not a science †¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ Overall, it can be said that science can be used to determine whether traditional recipes were false or true. However, the actual matching and cooking of ingredients is not possible without the gift of taste and creativity. Into the kitchen The culinary knowledge and practice of chefs in the kitchen is transformed into an abstract system of scientific expertise. Nevertheless, the combination of ingredients in order to create unique flavors will not change. However, Food is judged not merely as a technical product but also as an aesthetic, sensory one. The molecular gastronomy chef transforms the everyday knowledge and practice of cooking into an expert abstract system in the pursuit of culinary progress. This expert knowledge also has its own specialist language.A ‘technique’ is a process of cooking or transforming an ingredient, such as boiling or grilling. Adria, chef of El Bulli, his molecular gastronomy looks to scientific equipment and ingredients to develop new techniques such as freeze-drying, siphoning, and spherification. These techniques have led to new ‘concepts’ which are different ways of presenting ingredients in a particular form. Yet science is not the only sphere of expertise that Adria draws on to construct his theory of culinary creativity: he also draws on the expert system of cultural theory, in particular, structuralism.Adria argues that ‘cooking is a language’, and that a dish is a dialogue between the chef and the diner. Unlike the scientists, Adria is concerned with the meanings of dishes. At home Amateurs examine the same activities as their professional counterparts, but as a hobby during their leisure time, not a task during their work time. Nevertheless, they engage in ‘serious leisure’. The goal of amateurs is the acquisition and expression of special skills and knowledge in the activity. Consequently, in gastronomy this involves knowledge and skills related to food.However, with the upcoming trend of molecular gastronomy, the more practical challenges of producing similar dishes at home occur. Many of the necessary scientific ingredients and equipment are not commonly found in the domestic kitchen. It is difficulties as an amateur to find a retailer willing to supply small quantities of culinary chemicals and a hazard of transporting these liquids. Overall, amateurs engage in the same practices of research, experimentation and knowledge production as the professional scientists and chefs in his domestic laboratory.They also practice the ‘science’ of molecular gastronomy. â€Å"Molecular Gastronomy is a form of art† In conclusion, molecular gastronomy has been fascinating different people in different areas in different ways. It has triggered people to look for innovation and recognition. Overall, it brings a new dimension to the techniques of creating unique art works. Scientifics can now validate ages old tradition, chefs can create unique e aesthetic art work and finally amateurs can trigger themselves to learn more about the gastronomy. All by all, every creation is an artwork. However, art is always subjective

Texas Women University

Texas Women University was formed with broad objective of appreciating faculty input towards attaining preset university goals. The university also ensures that members from all faculties are treated equally throughout the university especially on the basis of tenure and rank.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Texas Women University specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More However, all of them are expected to meet set standards of the university largely due to the fact that these standards are used as benchmarks under which tenure and promotions are determined (Karran, 2009). The academic freedom and tenure provided by the university enables creation, discovery and dissemination of knowledge to society. In the process, rights of all members are put into consideration. However, before one is given any promotion or extension of tenure, academic qualifications are put into consideration (Russell, 1993). In addition there are different tenure and standards for appointment of members in different positions. Furthermore, the university requires that every faculty member should meet certain requirements set up by the institution before being considered eligible for tenure. The faculty has also put in place criteria for tenure evaluation which includes a careful review of records, academic qualifications, future potentials as well as the current and posterior needs of the university as a whole. Annual reviews of these tenures are supported by available documentation on members’ achievement. The same should be supported with evaluations from staff and students in addition to existing accounts of scholarly materials, creativity and professional development (Metzger, 1955). The annual reviews further comprise of annual statements which indicate whether a given faculty member can be considered for future appointments based on achievements record.Advertising Looking for essay on education? Let's see i f we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Tenured faculty members enjoy myriad of rights, responsibilities and privileges. Unlike their untenured counterparts, tenured faculty members have the right to decide on who should teach or not teach at all. In addition, they also play key role in designing the syllabus and the learning outcomes of a given course (Cary, 2010). The rights and privileges that faculty members further enjoy include equitable compensation and fringe benefits, getting involved in academic mission and goals of the university, continued employment as either full professor or associate professors until resignation or retirement. These members also enjoy continuous university support on scholarship and teaching opportunities. Furthermore, the tenure offers faculty members the right and freedom to speak, associate and write without any hindrance (Byrne, 2007). Consequently, when a faculty member gets the tenure, he or she cannot be fired without any proof or cause. According to American association of university professors, tenure is a means to certain ends which untenured members cannot enjoy. Hence, tenure protects the academic rights of faculty members by limiting the authority of the university to take action or fire members at will. They are also in a position to enjoy academic freedom whereby they can perform their academic responsibilities without any hindrance from the university or members of the public (Texas Women University, 2011). It is also within the free will of faculty members to air their opinions especially on matters regarding to policies governing education in these institutions. This has been found to be important since each member can independently participate in well being of such institutions without being influenced negatively form external sources. As for nurse educators, academic freedom is of great significance bearing in mind that they are capable of advancing their skills and knowledge within their chosen field of study. In other words, this form of freedom allows them to exercise their nursing potential in the best way possible. References Byrne, P. (1997). Academic Freedom without Tenure? American Association for Higher Education: Working Paper Series.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Texas Women University specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Cary, N. (2010). No University Is an Island: Saving Academic Freedom. New York; New York University Press. Karran, T. (2009). Academic Freedom: A Research Bibliography. New York; New York University Press. Metzger. W, (1955). Academic Freedom in the Age of the University. Columbia: Columbia University Press. Russell, C. (1993). Academic freedom. Oxford: Routledge. Texas Women University (2011). Board of regents: Regent’s policies. Retrieved from file:///C:/DOCUME~1/ADMINI~1/LOCALS~1/Temp/TWU%20%20Board%20of%2 0Regents%20-%20Regents%20Policies%281%29 -1.htm This essay on Texas Women University was written and submitted by user Sonia Sutton to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.