Critical Thinking and Decision Making Research Paper

Critical Thinking and Decision Making - Research Paper Example I am not the kind of person who just goes with a decision because it feels right; I have to be able to justify it through facts and evidence. The downside to this approach is that some times I can take too long to make decisions and by that time it is too late to change anything. Other people can become frustrated by my decision-making efforts because I don’t appear to know what I am doing, but actually I am sometimes guilty of over thinking things. If I am to speed up my thought processes, then I will need to set time boundaries that force me to make a decision by. I will also take to heart the words of Andrew Jackson: â€Å"†¦when the time for action has come, stop thinking and act† (Clark, 2012). If I can find a balance between strategizing and acting, then I should become a better decision maker. It is important to have a variety of approaches to management and decision making because there are some variables that can change at a moment’s notice. In order to be prepared for sudden changes, it is best to have a couple of backup plans that can be implemented if things don’t exactly turn out as planned. Part of being a successful manager is considering all the options on the table and then sticking with one but keeping some options in reserve. That way, the research and planning stages would have already been carried out and the new strategy can be integrated seamlessly. In Critical Thinking: Concepts and Tools, the authors state, "Excellence in thought, however, must be systematically cultivated" (Elder & Paul, 2009, p. 2). What will you do to improve your level of critical thinking? How will this improve your abilities as a manager and as a graduate student? I will improve my level of critical thinking by sticking to the point. I have a bad habit of getting sidetracked from an issue, and this slows down my critical thinking. In order to change this, I will need to be â€Å"on the lookout for fragmented thinking,

Cause effect essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Cause effect - Essay Example in Effects of Poverty 1). To join a school like fellow children may just remain as a dream for many children as their families do not have favorable financial positions. Struggling becomes common to those families in every corner of life. This can make their children grow up under continuous mental stress and inferiority complex as comparisons are inevitable while competing with others who are better privileged. Also, inability to afford nutritious food coupled with poor living standards creates a dampening effect on children’s physical well-being. They become prone to various infections and growth problems. Apart from these, poverty can make a person develop hatred towards society which may influence his/her attitudes towards others. Unfortunately, innocent people are often affected as a consequence of such attitudes. Various observations also suggest a strong correlation between increase in poverty and crime rates (Effects of Poverty 1). To conclude, poverty can severely impact the well-being of individuals. Lack of adequate financial resources make those people suffer from poor living standards, diseases, and distress which may collectively influence their behavior towards society in a dangerous

The Pro & Cons of Affirmative Action Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The Pro & Cons of Affirmative Action - Essay Example imizing diversity in the society, it is easier for organizations and firms to serve a wide range of customers and consumers to achieve instantaneous success, just like Startbucks etc. Similarly, it also helps the society to redress the disadvantage of discrimination by having a quota of diversified workforces in firms. This will move the society towards anti-discriminatory policies and will make sure that equal opportunities prevail in the society for all communities, races and gender. The disadvantages of affirmative actions are that it leads to quota system which is against the norms of efficiency and performance oriented selection. This will discourage people to work hard as they will know that quota system will take lead over their performance. Another disadvantage of quota system is that people will have to learn how to manage diversified workforce. This will involve managerial training and it will add up additional expenses for the firms who are struggling really hard to fight the ongoing

Strategic Leadership - Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Strategic Leadership - - Case Study Example Routines Creation of the Central Research Laboratory enabled 3M to learn outside its defined domain by looking on opportunities generated by both external demand and internal capacity (Bartlett & Mohammed 3). Substantial organizational slack manifested through the policy encouraging researchers to spend up to 15% of their time pursuing projects of interest to them (Bartlett & Mohammed 4). Identifying and developing innovations arising from projects even when no large market potential was evident (Bartlett & Mohammed 4) Continued organic growth and spurning off of new groups, divisions and products strengthened 3M through increased product variation. Culture Creativity was encouraged via institutionalized individual entrepreneurship (Bartlett & Mohammed 2) Informal recognition given to maverick employees through semi-legend stories that were circulated in the company to encourage individual persistence and commitment to innovation (Bartlett & Mohammed 5). Tolerance for what McKnight referred to as â€Å"well-intentioned failure† and risk taking was encouraged as shown by management supporting those who were involved in failed projects quickly move on to something new (Bartlett & Mohammed 5). 3M has been able to retain its market leadership through technological innovation, market responsiveness and institutionalized entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship by its very nature is characterized by high risk and possibility of failure. Therefore it is necessary to have a management that encourages employees to innovate through incentives, and giving them time to actually pursue these innovative projects. Innovation requires research, which is resource intensive, therefore the company needed to ensure that these resources are available by making huge investments in R&D such as in the development of the Central Research Laboratory. However, we must note that this is a business where the ultimate goal is to maximize on shareholder return. Thus giving each of these innovative divisions a clear set of corporate financial performance targets ensures that they self-monitor themselves, by investing only in those products that show promise of a return. If say, 3M lacked this form of financial targets for each of its divisions we would probably see some divisions becoming less accountable than others. Is 3M an â€Å"innovation factory,† or does it work by a different model? And are those at 3M â€Å"T-shaped†? 3M is an innovation factory because we can identify within it the four intertwined work practices that characterize such a factory namely: capturing good ideas (3M spans multiple markets with multiple business units), keeping ideas alive (3M has a database containing over 25 years of information on hundreds of projects), imagining new uses for old ideas (3M encourages cross-functional interaction among all its divisions) and putting promising concepts to the test (3M encourages development of innovations from projects ev en when no large market potential is evident) (Hargadon & Sutton 324). The staff at 3M is T-shaped. This is so because we can identify several of the approaches highlighted by Hansen and von Oetinger as necessary for an organization to have so that its staff can effectivel be T-shaped. Firstly, we see that 3M constructed a facility at Austin, Texas whose specific purpose was to facilitate cross-functional interaction and encourage teamwork (Bartlett & Mohammed 12) which is line with the formalization of cross-unit

Legal Transplants Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Legal Transplants - Essay Example The establishment of a market economy and the introduction of an ‘open door’ policy in China have necessitated the need for internationalising Chinese law and there is an increased stress on legal assimilation or transplant, which is to be based on market-associated legal mechanisms. There is a fear in some corners that legal transplantation may end up westernising Chinese law, but to be an economic super power, there is a necessity for China to modernise its law. Much Chinese literature has stressed the need for harmonising or assimilating China’s law with that of international conventions and practices and transplanting into China western laws on market-associated mechanisms. The main objectives of economic and structural reforms and the freedom of productive forces are the main criteria for internationalisation of Chinese law6. Legal transfusions have been carried out around the globe. The rest of Asia has benefitted from the import of laws from China and many South–East Asian nations have imported Islamic laws into their legal systems. There exists corroborative evidence that East African nations have benefited from the transplantation of Indian legal rules. The latest legal developments in Mozambique and Namibia have an influence from South African laws. And today, the close relationship between Africa and China could trigger a new transmission of legal models to support business transactions7. Laws that are consistent with the pre-existing social order or with the local atmosphere are more probable to be successfully transplanted and implemented. A nation is likely to derive economic advantage from a successful legal transplant, but this does not depend the legal rule’s country of origin but whether it is the most apt to resolve a given... This paper stresses that the PRC government does not refer the international human rights accords as an instant legal source but rather as a reference point of legislation. This connotes that PRC does not want to imitate the exact treaty provisions in its national human rights law but may prefer to fine-tune the substance of international human rights provisions to suit with the Chinese or local scenarios. The author of the paper talks that other human rights deficiencies include, as discussed above, included coerced confessions, restriction of the right to be promptly charged or released and lack of client-lawyer privilege. Freedom to assemble and establish trade unions falls short of ICESCR provisions. It is suggested that a radical change within the Chinese political system is needed to introduce the Human Rights Law in tune with international human rights treaties. Legal adoption of international human rights laws in China should be tailored to the needs of the Chinese one-party system with enhanced safeguards for the ordinary citizen within an authoritarian rule-of-law government is the current need. This report makes a conclusion that if China really wants a total legal transplant of the international human treaty provisions into its HRL, it should endeavour to implement the following: it should fine tune some chosen laws to the prerequisites of the ICCPR; produce a reliable understanding of the Constitution that is unfailing with the ICCPR; introduce a constitutional amendment to include the norms of the ICCPR; and insert a rule in its ordinary statutes or in its Constitution that requires a prior application of the ICCPR.

Compare and contrast traditional Marxist approaches to international Essay

Compare and contrast traditional Marxist approaches to international relations with EITHER Neo-Gramscian OR Frankfurt School vie - Essay Example The essay will be structured as follows. In the first section, the basic assumption and specific views of orthodox Marxist theorists of the IR will be examined. It will be argued that orthodox Marxism proceeds from the notion of primacy of international economic relations over political processes in the world system of states, neglecting ideological dimensions of international system. The second section will be devoted to analysis of neo-Gramscian approach to the IR. The questions of neo-Gramscian view on interrelation between economic and social factors of the IR will be given due attention. Finally, in the third section which will represent a conclusion to the essay, the direct comparison between orthodox Marxism and neo-Gramscianism will be presented, with a view to proving the difference between these two schools of international political thought. 1. Orthodox Marxism as a Theory of International Relations Basic Assumptions of Orthodox Marxism The crux of orthodox Marxist approac h to the study of the IR lies in its assumption of primacy of economic and technological development over purely political processes, and of predominance of the struggle between different social classes over conflicts between political states (Linklater, 2005, p. 110). Unlike idealist and realist perspectives that centre on assumption of basically unchanging process of competition between self-interested individuals/political entities, a Marxian political analysis rests on the idea of historical specificity of social processes and of organic nature of social relations (Rupert, 2007b, p. 150). The Marxist theory implies the interconnection between productive forces as material bases for social production, and relations of production, which refer to the social relations between individuals, usually organized into classes, over the issues of production and distribution of social product. A Marxist perspective on the social processes proceeds from the idea of dialectic of â€Å"relatio ns in process† (Rupert, 2007b, p. 151), where the social subjects, or agents, are both dependent on social structures that set the framework for their actions and effect their maintenance and further development. In that way, social structures simultaneously determine the actions of social agents and are continuously altered by them (Rupert, 2007a, p. 36). In class society the nature of social agents is determined by their class nature, with capitalist social relations being preconditioned by the struggle between two socio-economic classes: the bourgeoisie (capitalist entrepreneurs) and the proletariat (propertyless wage workers). The View of International Relations in Orthodox Marxism Just as Marx and Engels viewed economic structure of specific societies as the factor defining the whole variety of its political, juridical and ideological forms (the former was regarded as â€Å"basis† of society, the latter as its â€Å"superstructure†), so they regarded the pro blems of the IR as the result of interactions of different economies controlled by national dominant classes, whose interests are represented politically by their state. According to Marx and Engels, as the existence of bourgeoisie as a class in capitalist society was predicated on

Can Sinkers claim demurrage against the cricket clubs Essay

Can Sinkers claim demurrage against the cricket clubs - Essay Example Vessel will be losing her time and the connected payment. In the present case, reaching the berth and unloading the goods took longer time than expected and the vessel has gone onto demurrage. The popular rule is 'once on demurrage, always on demurrage'. As an exception, demurrage would not occur if the delay was purely due to ship owner's fault and as the repercussion of actions taken by him suitable for his convenience and benefit. "The freighter of a ship is bound not to detain it, beyond the stipulated or usual time, to load or deliver the cargo, or to sail. The extra days beyond the lay days (being the days allowed to load and unload the cargo) are called the days of demurrage. The term is likewise applied to the payment for such delay, and it may become due, either by the ship's detention, for the purpose of loading or unloading the cargo, either before, during or after the voyage, or in waiting for convoy2." A shipowner will be entitled to unliquidated damages for being detained while loading or unloading, or delivering a consignment, within the stipulated time, if the delay happens for no fault of his or his representatives. In some transactions, to be safe, there could be an agreement to pay demurrage, which is usually for preventing the shipowner from demanding an enormous sum if an unfortunate delay occurs. As a result of this written understanding and agreement, if the demurrage is fixed at a certain rate per hour, the shipowner would be unable to demand more money as demurrage. According to John Wilson, "Liability for the payment of demurrage accrues immediately on the expiration of the lay days and runs continuously through Sundays, holidays and other periods normally excluded from laytime, e.g. bad weather working days3." Demurrage or the dead freight can occur at any point of affreightment. It is actually a fixed sum per hour or per day that charterer has to pay the vessel owner for the delays while loading and unloading of his consignments, and the time lost (beyond the stipulated time) and these days are called lay days. "If no demurrage is provided for by the charter-party, and the vessel is not loading or discharging beyond the lay days, the shipowner is entitled to claim damages in respect of the loss which he has suffered by the detention of his ship4" This is mainly to force the charterers to load and unload within the time fixed. If the time is not fixed, then it might be difficult for the shipowner to prove that the ship has run onto demurrage. There are difficult circumstances, honouring difficult judgements too. "Where time under a limitation clause runs from completion of discharge of the cargo, but there was no cargo to discharge, the judge held that the limitation clause does not apply. He refused to imply additional words into the clause that would have allowed time to run from when the cargo should have been discharged since, if the parties had wanted to provide for such a circumstance, they could easily have done so. The judge also held that, in addition to damages for repudiation, the shipowners could claim demurrage that had accrued before the charterparty was repudiated5". http://www.onlinedmc.co.uk/odfjell_seachem_v__continentale.htm As both the clubs are named as consignees in the receipts, even though they did not do the transactions personally through