Assessment Equality and Diversity Essay

1. What is meant by diversity? It’s meant that every individual is unique and recognizing our individual differences (race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other ideologies). It’s about understanding each other, understanding and appreciating interdependence of humanity, cultures, and the natural environment, practicing mutual respect for qualities and experiences that are different from our own, understanding that diversity includes not only ways of being but also ways of knowing, recognizing that personal, cultural and institutionalized discrimination creates and sustains privileges for some while creating and sustaining disadvantages for others, building alliances across differences so that we can work together to eradicate all forms of discrimination . Diversity is a reality created by individuals and groups from a broad spectrum of demographic and philosophical differences. It includes knowing how to relate to those qualities and conditions that are different from our own and outside the groups to which we belong. 2. Describe the community you live in. Highlight some of the variations you may observe in terms of: †¢Interests †¢Beliefs †¢Ages †¢Lifestyles †¢Personal, social and cultural identities. I live in very diverse community. People who surround me – my friends, co-workers, neighbours are different age, they’ve got different lifestyles, interests, beliefs, personal, social and cultural identities. For example: there are many different race and ethnic background people in my community. I live with Lithuanians, one of my neighbours is black, other ones white English. The English ones are pensioners and the black one is young mother, who spend a lot of time in her garden, looking after her plants. My housemates love sports, they go to the gym almost every day. The English couple most of their time spend at home, I often see their children visiting them. They are Catholics. There also are some Muslims living somewhere close to me, I often see them passing by my house. 3. Explain how the variations in question 2 contribute to the diversity of the community. The mixture of tolerant people who are different age, have got different nationalities, interests, beliefs, lifestyle create a diverse community. Different religions contribute into many different kinds of churches and temples, ethnic groups contribute to continental food shops and restaurants, because of different interests there are many different places to spend time – gyms, cinema, theatre, spa centre, etc. and better variety of goods and shops. 4. Give some examples to explain how diversity: †¢Enhances your life †¢Enhances the local community †¢Enhances this country. Just because of the diversity I’ve tried many different kinds of food, learnt to cook continental food. I also know more about different cultures and traditions. The diversity improves tolerance in the community as there are many different people and you have to be kind and tolerate each other if you want to live peacefully. There is a very big diversity in this country and it’s a good thing for its economy: different people have got different needs so there are good conditions for many kinds of businesses. 5. Describe what it means to respect people’s differences and why it is important to respect differences. Respect people’s differences means that we have to tolerate people who are different gender, age, ethnic background, etc. This is important, because we live in a very diverse society and we have to prevent discrimination and ensure equal abilities.

Plaza Grocery Case Study Essay

I. INTRODUCTION Mr. Brad Holden is the executive vice president of the family-owned business chain of six branches, Plaza Grocery, in the metropolitan area. Mr. Holden’s recently been swamped with problems regarding his employees, specifically the stock employees considering they are paid according to what is stated in the hourly wage rate in the Federal Law. He observed that they are not efficient and effective enough in their jobs, which resulted to empty shelves and slow service most of the time. He also had a hard time in obtaining enough applicants for Plaza Grocery and worse is his employees are doing only the menial level of effort in their jobs. He also noticed that his employees are lacking motivational drives to strive harder in performing their jobs. With all these that he is facing through, he finally decided to look for possible solutions to these problems. He came up with consulting to a local compensation expert and talking to a small group and personally asking them what can remedy their slow and poor performance. The compensation expert recommended to Mr. Holden that he resort to the more contemporary compensation system. In the small group, some suggested an increase in their hourly wage rate, the others pitched in about incentives to be given for them to be motivated and work faster, while others did not have any comment. For this case study, we will be identifying the likely issues and problems. After which, we will provide the framework or basis of argument which will relate the lack of motivation or drive of the stock employees to the various models, theories and concepts discussed in class. We will recommend and suggest certain alternative courses of actions which might help Mr. Holden to properly motivate his employees as well as his employees to improve their performance. II. ISSUE/PROBLEM Brad Holden is facing a situation in his grocery store where there is trouble obtaining enough stock clerks/carryout workers to apply for the job. And when these applicants get hired they seem to lack the motivation to carry out their job which led to inefficient service and long checkout lines. These minimum hourly wage workers have expressed a desire for additional compensation. The problem that Brad needs to solve is which of the major economic incentive system he can use to motivate his employees to become productive and also to attract other applicants to apply for the job. III. OBJECTIVES The objective of this study is to identify different theories, concepts and models under human behavior that can be applied to understand the situation Brad is facing. It will also identify and discuss what possible economic incentive system the management can use and then provide system recommendation that would lead to the best way in solving the problem. IV. FRAMEWORKS/BASIS OF ARGUMENTS The difficulties that arise in Brad Holden’s family-owned grocery stores are attributed to the lack of motivation of employees. Lack of motivation can be a result of poor rewarding of employees. In Plaza Grocery, employees are only paid the usual wage rate or the minimum federal hourly wage. This can be a factor as to why the workers lack motivation in performing an effective and efficient job. Money, as a means of rewarding employees may serve as a great help for the company. It has status value and it represents to employees what their employer thinks of them. Using money as a reward is applicable in some of the motivational models previously studied. The expectancy model can be related to the company’s situation. Employees in Plaza Grocery wanted a higher hourly wage rate which implies that money can act as a strong motivator. If an employee wants more of it (valence), he believes that putting up an effort will produce successful desired performance (expectancy) and he trusts that monetary reward will follow better performance (instrumentality). Brad Holden can also consider the concept of incentives linking pay with performance. In order to get the employees motivated, he can adopt profit sharing. For profit sharing, employees are given a portion of the business’s profits. An implementation of this would get them encouraged to work harder and do whatever it takes to increase the sales of the business since they are looking after the possible income at the end. In addition, once the issue on wage is settled, the management can also do performance appraisal. Through this, performance of the employees can be evaluated and certain information about their work and its improvement will be discussed. This will make way for the employees to be more motivated and get rewarded. The concept of performance feedback can also be related to the situation of Plaza Grocery. With proper implementation of feedback, employees will be aware of what to do and how well they are meeting their goals. Some of the guidelines in giving feedback are the following: be specific, allow room for choices, include positive factors to praise, establish priorities for change, and check for understanding to name a few. V. ALTERNATIVE COURSES OF ACTIONS Nowadays, we can find different kinds of grocery stores around us and the supermarket is being dominant than local market in terms of quickness and accessibility to people. As we mentioned, it is not wrong that quickness of the market is one of the crucial thing that has to be maintained first. To solve Plaza Grocery’s problem about its workers’ lack of motivation, we would like to recommend three alternative courses of action. First, Brad Holden should figure out why employees seem to lack motivation once he hired them because motivation can be the core of the power source that can make the work environment vivid or dull. Hence, we would like to state our first course of action, which we call â€Å"ownership project†. Brad Holden should encourage and convince the workers to think of themselves as a co-owner of the company or workplace. Before the hired applicants become permanent employees, they would undergo an assessment. Their behavior in the workplace would be examined for at least one month to evaluate their attitude toward their work. After the examination, Brad can educate the qualified employees through orientations on how to work efficiently and effectively. Second, an â€Å"incentive system† can be a good course of action for workers to work faster since money can be a good motivator and reward. If Brad Holden continues to pay the employees at the minimum wage without bonus, the employees would not exert effort to do their work harder and faster. Increasing of hourly wage rate can be a course of action, along with providing incentives. When the hourly wage rate is increased alone, all employees would benefit. This may increase the workers productivity and motivation, but not fully since the benefit applies to all. Therefore, it will be better if Brad Holden applies an incentive system or bonus system. The incentives given would be based on the employee’s performance, measured by his/her productivity. Through this, it can be more assured that the workers will be motivated in their work to earn their money more. Third, under incentive system, manager should appraise who got the highest performance result among the workers, and provide incentives like support for old parents or education of children. This alternative course of action is enough to motivate workers because these concern their families. Brad Holden will have to make records of each employee to check their performance and growth and this environment can create competition among workers. VI. RECOMMENDATION/CONCLUSION Plaza Grocery experiences problems with its employees due to low compensation and lack of incentives. Even after consulting a local expert, the same causes are pointed as the reason for the employees’ poor performance. Given this situation, we recommend the company to apply the second alternative course of action, which is to increase the wage rate and apply an incentive system. The store, having only six branches, can easily increase the wages due to the relatively small number of workers. However, once an increase is implemented in one branch, the same shall be applied in the other branches to emphasize the sense of equity among the employees of all branches. Although this may entail costs for the company, the increase in workers’ productivity may lead to higher sales, providing more revenue. In the long-run, the benefits would outweigh the costs. Although increasing the wage rate may motivate the employees to work harder, it is not enough because it would not always and ultimately lead to the satisfaction of their needs. What the company can do is to adopt an incentive system. The incentives the company can offer may be financial or non-financial in nature. Financial incentives would include performance bonuses, social security benefits, and paid absences. Non-financial incentives would include recognition and feeling of achievement, advancement opportunity, and flexible scheduling. Even though it is said that money is one of the best rewards, the non-financial rewards can also stimulate the employees’ motivation. It is not enough that employees are financially well-off. For them to stay long in the company, both the salary and the working conditions have to be satisfied. However, as we learned in class, according to Herzberg’s Two Factor Model, the pay is part of the hygiene factors, while the work itself is a motivational factor. Therefore, the employees must first be satisfied with their wage before the company can meet the motivational factors. In conclusion, Plaza Grocery has to strengthen its workforce’s motivation by providing them just wages and work incentives. This entails an investment on the part of Plaza Grocery. But once the workers are motivated and their productivity gradually increase, Plaza Grocery will see itself being better-off in the future.

AIDS, Condoms, and Carnival

AIDS has proved to be among the most serious challenges to mankind’s health in the 21st century. Given its devastating effect in Africa and the fact that a cure for AIDS is still far removed, governments across the world made the fight against the disease their priority.Innovative methods are observable in Brazilian and Indian societies where authorities act in line with or opposing cultural patterns. Thus, in India the government successfully taps local barbers to talk about AIDS to their clients, reinforcing their sense of worth and respect as folk counselors.Love of movies offers another vehicle for marketing condoms. In Brazil the anti-AIDS campaigners come to grips with machismo of the local men who leave women with little bargaining power to insist on the use of condoms.The efforts to market condoms to population have proved effective, raising awareness of AIDS dangers and role of condoms in prevention of the deadly infection.The US situation is vastly different from tha t of Brazil and India and thus requires different marketing methods. The absolute majority of Americans have no financial problem with buying condoms, and women have a lot more clout to insist on their use.At the same time, sex out of marriage is less of a sin in the liberal American culture, especially among younger generation, which makes it easier for person to have multiple partners.As for campaigning, Americans are less prone to believe things they see on the screen or hear from a counselor, since in the culture of excessive marketing people at a certain age develop a sort of immunity to public messages. For this reason, Brazilian and Indian methods would not work as well for the US.London International Group correctly focuses on its role in the prevention of AIDS. To strengthen this message, the company could launch courses at schools or colleges that would include just a few sessions, promoting the knowledge of the infection and the way condoms can fend off the danger.Alterna tively, the company can sponsor the production of documentaries about AIDS and its victims.Case 4-7. AIDS, Condoms, and Carnival.

Political Influence Essay

A person is fed information throughout their life from various outside influences; this is how one forms values, views and opinions. From this, one is able to shape their political views based on what they believe or have been taught to believe. There are many factors that come into play when these views are formed, such as historical events. Others while apparent have a latent effect, such as gender, race, socio-economic status etc. The way a person is brought up has a fairly large impact on political socialization. Children come to know their parents value systems and beliefs. The children are brought up around these beliefs and these beliefs are instilled upon them in both unconscious and conscious ways. This is the beginning. As a person is introduced to more situations and experiences their views are molded further but the foundations are always there. Most Americans do not look thorough the inner workings of our government and the general idea of politics. Instead they look at what politics has to offer for them. It is far easier to just look at politics based on your opinions rather than through the policies and procedures. With the innovations of modern technology and the mass media, people don’t have to look that hard for issues surrounding politics. All they have to do is turn on their T. V. or read the news on their favorite search engine web site. I think that this has had a negative effect on people’s political views. Instead of reading articles and forming opinions on their own, they are shown the sensationalized view of politics and a fairly biased/limited perspective. My own political views were formed the same way everyone else’s were. My parents taught me about the differences between democrats and republicans, what the president does and even about the legislative branch. These teachings were mainly based around their own views but always with quite a bit of objectivity. I grew up in a fairly free household; my parents encouraged individuality and self-reliance. This gave me the ability to learn and think about things on my own, being able figure out how I felt about them. Another interesting thing about my upbringing is that I grew up without a computer, so when I wanted to know what was going on I had to watch the news on T. V. The school that I went to was fairly progressive and the teacher that I had for Social Studies taught us a lot about both our local and federal governments, all of which have helped me from my political views. I am a very open-minded person and this carries over heavily into how I view politics. I tend to focus on the single issues at hand and not on which party is proposing them. I feel strongly on many issues, to include abortion, education, foreign/domestic policy, welfare and most recently civil unions; however I try to understand both sides; not to agree but to understand. I do feel that I could be far more educated in politics, but I believe I am off to a good start.

Andy Warhol Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Andy Warhol - Research Paper Example Brief Biographical Profile Andy Warhol has been regarded as a pop artist and cultural icon of the 20th century (The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts). Born on the 6th of August, 1928 in Oakland, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Andy’s full name was actually Andrew Warhola. He was the youngest of three children and was diagnosed of being afflicted with a rare neurological disorder (The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts par. 3). The disorder provided the impetus for Andy’s orientation to DC comic books and the celebrity magazines that proliferate during his time. He pursued a degree in Pictorial Design from the Carnegie Institute of Technology and graduated in 1949 (The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts par. 3). His official website revealed that â€Å"building on the emerging movement of Pop Art, wherein artists used everyday consumer objects as subjects, Warhol started painting readily found, mass-produced objects, drawing on his extensive advertising background† (The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts par. 5). In Open Culture, it was disclosed that Warhol decided to abruptly quit painting and delve into both music and film making. In this regard, the essay aims to describe contents and aesthetics of the Andy Warhol's work, particularly focusing on the controversial â€Å"anti-films†: Sleep, Eat and Kiss, with the ultimate objective of responding to the question :"why it is art?". Sleep As the title depicts, Warhol’s first film, Sleep, shot a man in deep slumber with the shot taken from different views, initially from the foot as the person taking the film with only the face in clear perspective.

Principles of learning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Principles of learning - Essay Example Before one successfully complete the course, he is given practical teaching lesson where he is supervised as he teaches a class at least four times. At the end of each practical teaching assessment is done, the student teacher is given feedback and areas that he needs to be improved are highlighted. One is allowed to go ahead and complete stage 3 at the institute of education after completing the stage 2. While studying stage 2 however, assessment is continuously done throughout the course to ensure that the students' performance is monitored. While studying principles of education, a teacher is able to understand his students and for this case, he is able to teach them in the best way possible to enhance their understanding. The teacher is also able to understand his students' abilities, potential and learning need for the sake of achieving their objectives of transferring knowledge to them. At the end of the course, the teacher should be in a position to apply various methods and techniques for learning, teaching, assessment and evaluation. For this case, the teacher will be in a better position to use his/her skill in his teaching profession for the sake of achieving the already laid down teaching objectives. ... s case, he is able to ensure that all the content that is required to be cover in a particular period of time is covered and the learning objectives are achieved at the end of a term or a course. The teacher is also able to apply his own innovative ways of teaching by use of information technology in order to facilitate him to achieve his teaching goals and objectives. He is able to brainstorm against various teaching methods that can be used in class in order to achieve his objective. These can be done by collecting various teaching techniques that he can use for teaching and this in turn help him to land on the best technique to use in the class. This ensures that his teaching objectives are achieved at the end of the course. After a teacher undergoes the stage 2 principle of learning, he is able to know his potential for the sake of developing it and eventually be able to achieve his teaching objectives. He reflects on his own experience and this enable him/her to be able to achieve his teaching objectives. Still at the end of the course, the teacher develops his own interpersonal and communication skills. This is achieved as a result of the teaching practical sessions that are compulsory for them to undergo before they complete the course. Due to this, the teachers are in a position of handling their duties in professional way with a lot of confidence. 2 During the course, the teacher are made aware of their professional roles as teachers and this enable them to handle students in the recommended ways according to the laid down rules and regulations. The teachers are taught on how to handle students so that they achieve their teaching objectives. They are taught on how they are able to prepare for their lessons in a professional ways so that when they are in

Psychology Myth Buster Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Psychology Myth Buster - Research Paper Example They did not win; in fact, their numbers did not even figure in the lottery. Therefore, the superstition is false. Psychology Myth Buster Superstitions and myths are beliefs that are widely held but prove to be irrational most of the time (Merriam-Webster’s). They are usually beliefs that are passed down from generation to generation, often explain various phenomena, but is most commonly held for luck and for problem solving purposes. The myth that was picked for this paper was the myth that â€Å"wearing your birthstone can bring you good luck†, which is common according to the site of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (http://www.csicop.org/superstition/library/common_superstitions/). To operationally define the construct, the researcher devised a task. The task is entering a lottery while the participants were wearing their birthstones (ruby and opal, respectively). The lottery is a complete test of luck, as it does not depend on IQ, skill or any person’s ab ilities. Luck, according to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, is a favoring chance, with chance meaning â€Å"something caused by luck† (Merriam-Webster’s). Also, chance also meant a raffle lottery ticket, which is something significant to the experimental setup. Apart from having the lottery task, self-report is another way of operationally defining the constructs.