Example of a Reflective Writing

Examples of reflective writing An example of good reflective writing – integration of theory with personal experience; justification and explanation of person experience using relevant theory as support; provides insight into the author’s observations of the theory; appropriate use of language; analysis of theory within the context of own experience. Organisational change and development theory suggests that models are a good way of providing change practitioners with strategies to plan, implement and move through various stages of change (Waddell, Cummings & Worley, 2007).While it is arguable that models are useful in providing guidelines for change practitioners, I feel that they are not necessarily an accurate representation of how change is actually experienced in organisations. I have worked in an organisation that has been through repeated change throughout the duration of my employment. My experience of change has been somewhat different from how it is reflected in change models.For example, as an employee I have not been involved in the initial planning stages of change, nor have I been involved in diagnosis at an individual level, therefore I am unclear as to what happens during these stages. From an individual perspective, it feels as though change is planned and implemented in my organisation at the senior levels of management without adequate input or information to and from staff. Further, from my perspective, change is not experienced in a smooth manner as suggested by change models.I have experienced change that has not appeared to move beyond the unfreezing stages (Lewin, 1947), and I have also experienced change that has regressed at different stages rather than move forward. If I were to work with employees as a change practitioner, I would highlight the realities of change so that employees are aware that there are multiple experiences in addition to ‘the prominent way of viewing this process’ (McShane & Travaglione , 2007, p. 02) within academic references. An example of poor reflective writing – colloquial/non-academic writing style; opinion-based without justification or explanation; lack of engagement with theory; links to references not made; generalisation of opinion. In my job I have been though a lot of change and there is no way that what the change models say is right. My experiences of change have all been bad and there is no way that anybody could have had a good experience of change.I don’t think change models are useful as they pretend that change is an easy process which is different from my opinion that no change is easy. I think I can speak for everyone when I say that managers don’t manage change properly as I have never seen the stages of any models within my organisation. This might be because my manager is a poor communicator which is what all the staff think. In my opinion, change models shouldn’t be taught to students as they can only teach stu dents to think about change in the wrong way which doesn’t help employees who have to go through it.

Reinvest in R&D

To what extent is it necessary for companies to reinvest profits in research and development? In the past 20 years, intellectual property has been highly respected in the world. In other words, there has been a majority of companies that paid more and more attention with regard to the performance of department of research and development (R&D), and especially for technologic corporations that own the fast product-life-cycle. Despite the fact that some people will argue whether reinvesting more source in research and development is successful strategy or not, an important issue for management studies would be normally discussed to be to what extent companies have to reinvest in research and development. This essay will seek to discuss some solutions of a number of large technologic companies form different views and also try to find the optimum one. Firstly, there are two solutions will be discussed. Secondly , They will be compared each other. In the end, the essay could summarize that which solution is the best. One way of solving the problem would be to undoubtedly reinvest a significant amount of profits in R&D, even if it may occupy more 15% of the revenue. In fact, John Madden (2010) emphasized that â€Å"Most successful companies reinvest 3-6% of net sales into research and development† and some companies in the specific industries would arrive at 15% of revenue into R&D. In addition, according to Chesbrough, H. W. (2006: xix), â€Å"Internal R&D was viewed as a strategic asset and even barrier to competitive entry in many industries†. In particular, those enormous technologic corporations with considerable capitals and extended schemes of R&D could compete, such APPLE, IBM and HTC. Therefore, it could be said that the solution entirely agree R&D is a vital cycle and asset in developing company. Evidence indicates that most products of technologic corporations be probably own shorter product-life-cycle. As a result, R&D will allow the company to create new products continually. Following that, company makes a majority of profit form these new products. For example, ADES stated that more than 60% of revenue of Xerox earn from the new products that launched in the past two years. Moreover, investing R&D oneself will control the main techniques and put up the higher barriers to control competitor’s entrance. For instance, Apple enterprise continually devotes to discover new technology to take out enormous intellectual patents and then raise their competitiveness. On the other hand, firms need to spend huge time money and manpower to participate in the process of R&D and some companies that want to reinvest in R&D must ante up bigger risk. Unfortunately, this investment may be frequently sunk costs. A number of businesses fail and go bankrupt in the bad condition. On balance, it is not only unsuitable methods for all enterprise, but it is not unique answer. Another way to solving the problem would be to stop any investment of R&D. This is to say, the corporations do not have to reinvest any resource into R&D and also do not need to organize the department of R&D oneself. However, it does not mean that they must not acquire any new techniques and products of next generation. They just utilize some methods or strategies to gain a number of technology what they want, such as technical authorization, technical transfer, outsource R&D, hire consultants and enterprise merger and acquisition. To a certain extent, there are probably noticeable advantages in this solution. Firstly, the firms just spend lower cost to gain new technical knowledge and then finish the mission of R&D. Secondly, this should be able to compress the time of researching new technical knowledge and also shorten in the procedure of developing the coming products. Furthermore, the brilliant product could be successfully launched at the good timing. In contrast, evidence indicates that the strategy of utilizing outsource seem to be marked difficult for how to execute deeply it. There is one instance of enterprise merger and acquisition of exploring the post-acquisition integration risks. According to Chen, C. H. and Shih, H. T. (2008), Whether the mission or vision of the both company is the same or not will be a vital factor. The reason totally affects the success of an acquisition. In addition, how to find out and to purchase the primary techniques is also an obvious problem. Clearly, this method has some strengths and weaknesses, thus below two will be evaluated as follows. Both methods have probably offered most corporations to solve the R&D problem. Similarly, all of them agree that the importance of R&D and utilizing new techniques in the company. Moreover, there are also the similar risks in both ways. Tassey (1997) stated that uncertainty of R&D is â€Å" the inability to estimate the reward and risk. † On the other hand, one of their different points is the speed of exploiting new product. This would seem to be the way of cooperating other R&D institutions. The other one could be whether they can control the key techniques to persistently maintain core competitiveness of the enterprise or not. According to Porter (2004:164), â€Å"Technological change is one of the principal driver of competition. It plays a major role in industry structural. † technological As for that, organizing own R&D might be an appropriate way. Overall, how to keep the main technical knowledge is a very vital around growing energy and supporting stable profit of most firms. Despite the fact that outsourcing can help corporations acquire rapidly knowledge, reinvesting income in R&D by themselves is apparently better. Obviously, every method has different characters to solve the R&D problem. So people should understand the situation of the companies themselves before choosing the solution. All in all, it is difficult to clearly identify what extent is suitable to plow revenue in R&D related to the large technologic companies to and decide the best way to solve this problem. However, Here there are two methods to solve the problem in this essay. The best way seems to be the first one. It could be said that should do their own individual R&D seem to be one of competitive capabilities in a firm, and then it may affect the growth of a company in the future, such as launching latest production and recognizing new marking. Nevertheless, they should estimate the overall risk before deciding that. References: ADES (2008) Invest in R&D, It’s vital for your business’ survival. (school practitioner). ADESBLOG Weblog [online] 5th March. Available from: http://www. adesblog. com/2008/03/05/invest-in-research-and-development/. [Accessed 22/8/11]. CHEN, C. H. and SHIH, H. T. 2008) Mergers and Acquisitions in China: Impacts of WTO Accession. United Kingdom: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited. CHESBROUGH, H. W. (2006) Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating And Profiting from Technology. United States of America: Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. MADDEN, J. (2010) Research and Development- reinvestment in innovation [www] Airborn Electronics. Ava ilable from: http://www. airborn. com. au/spec/econ. html [Accessed 22/08/11]. PORTER, M. E. (2004) Competitive Advantage. New York: Free press. TASSEY, G. (1997) The Economics of R&D Policy. United States of America: Quorum books.

Character of “Miss Brill” Essay

In the short story, â€Å"Miss Brill† by Katherine Mansfield, the main character, Miss Brill, is developed with the use to symbols and patterns of metaphors. The story is about Miss Brill’s routine on Sundays, and how she is interpreting the world around her, and her role in it. The main metaphors that are used are her fur coat, the old people, and her seat. All these metaphors help show that Miss Brill doesn’t live life, but only views it. Miss Brill’s fur coat is introduced in the first paragraph of the story. She personifies the fur, and projects some of her own personalities and interests into it. â€Å"She had taken it out of its box that afternoon, shaken out the moth powder, given it a good brush, and rubbed the life back into the dim little eyes†(Mansfield p.357). Later, Miss Brill further characterizes the fur coat and states that is a â€Å"little rogue†, which further laments her personification of the fur. Furthermore, she feels that she is attracted to the personified fur, â€Å"She could have taken it off and laid it on her lap and stroked it† (Mansfield p.357). The fur coat is a metaphor for her, or what she sees attractive in herself. She if old, so is the fur coat â€Å"..shaken out the moth powder..†(Mansfield p.357); she likes to dress up and use makeup, just like what she does to the fur coat â€Å"..a little dab of black sealing-wax..† (Mansfield p.357). She views the world around her as it passes by, but never experiencing it for herself, similar to an inanimate object, such as her fur coat. This point is reinforced further at the end of the story, when she has been ridiculed, and is putting away her coat away; â€Å"But when she put the lid on she thought she heard something crying† (Mansfield p.361). The author tells the reader that the fur is crying, but the metaphor shows that it is Miss Brill that is crying. Similarly, â€Å"the old people sat on the bench, still as statues†, is also a metaphor for Miss Brill. She is one of the old people sitting on the benches, watching everyone else. It is ironic, because she seems to dislike these people, but at the same time, she is one of them; â€Å"They were odd, silent, nearly all old† (Mansfield p.358). Miss Brill, like the other old people, is peculiar, quiet, and old. What she sees in these people, is what  the reader sees in her. This metaphor symbolizes what she is in reality and what other people in the story see her as; â€Å"Because of that stupid old thing at the end there..† (Mansfield p.360) is what a young couple says when they see Miss Brill. The old people symbolize the old pathetic nature of Miss Brill’s routine of viewing everyone else’s experiences, but never experiencing herself. Finally, the symbol of her â€Å"special seat† is the most important and drives home the point of Miss Brill never experiencing life. The seat symbolizes her vantage point of the world. The metaphor of a play is also used, but they both symbolize the same thing; they are both her eyepieces to the rest of the world, and this is how she can experience life, instead of doing it herself. â€Å"How she enjoyed it! How she loved sitting here, watching it all! It was like a play† (Mansfield p.359). Furthermore, she feels that she is living life and experiencing everything, because Miss Brill feels that she is apart of the play â€Å"They weren’t only the audience†¦.they were acting† (Mansfield p.359). The author effectively uses the metaphor of her â€Å"special seat† and of a play to symbolize Miss Brill’s character, and how she feels that she is fully living life, but actually, she is only watching. Throughout the short story â€Å"Miss Brill†, by Katherine Mansfield, three important symbols are used to characterize Miss Brill; they are the fur, the old people, and her â€Å"special seat†. All these show that Miss Brill is a watcher, who experience life through watching.

The Constitution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The Constitution - Essay Example On this note, Attorney General Janet Reno requested the Supreme Court to review the decision on Fourth Circuit in Reno v. Condon. (Axelrod 158). According to Axelrod, Condon claimed that the act implicated states sovereignty which granted the state all the powers even those not specified in the constitution (211). Condon also claimed that enforcement of the act would be enjoying the nation and its administrators. He therefore concluded the act to be contrary to the federalism principles of power delegation, between states and federal government as stated in the constitution. Reno court on the other hand found Driver’s Privacy Protection Act to be a general law of applicability. Generally applicable laws are laws that apply to both the state and private companies. Reno court concluded that, it was constitutional for the congress to regulate the states’ activities where a generally applicable law was involved. If initially Condon had successfully won in Reno v. Condon, there would be both social and political repercussions. Socially, crime levels would increase in the society in case information such as home address or social security number falls in the wrong hands. For example, a woman whose data had been disclosed by the state to another state but ended in hand of a stalker was murdered. Exposure of personal details would also result to segregation among the individuals on the bases of financial level, race or even education levels. Politically, the politicians may use the information for their own advantage by identifying the weakness of the states at individual level eventually leading to manipulation. The other state may with time have enough data from the subject state to investigate the economic power of the state and end up taking advantage of the situation (Axelrod 245) Likewise, the Supreme Court ruled that Driver’s Privacy Protection Act was constitutional and it did not violate federalism principles under the

Media studies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Media studies - Essay Example For instance, in Brazil, Samba is seen as music of the young working class, but in Europe and North America, it represents an exotic form of ‘world music’ popular with the educate elite. This explicitly reveals that relationship between culture and social class seems to differ broadly in the world. Thus, ‘class culture’ is a concept created by the debates about the changing structure of class (Kirby 1997: 676). Working Class Culture In the 1950s, affluent group of workers was emerging due to the escalating standards of living in the 1950s and changing working class culture nature, which created a change in political attitudes and middle class lifestyle. According to Kirby, â€Å"Sections of the working class enjoyed access to a range of cultural goods and commodities for the first time, including family cars, washing machines, televisions and holidays abroad† (1997: 676). Kirby further suggests that mass society was created by the emergence of America n cultural products including rock and roll, American movies, and juke boxes and so on, which led to gradual erosion of the working class culture. ... It also emphasized on commitment of one to political involvement and a sense of decency, which, knows right from wrong. The arrival of mass entertainment designed to appeal to all classes slowly eroded the traditional working class culture. The introduction of radio, for example, alienated the need for working-class people to meet and sing their own songs (Kirby, 1997: 677). Stereotypes of the Working Class Culture Stereotypes are based on â€Å"oversimplified and pre-conceived ideas of the characteristics of a particular, situation or group† as displayed in Oxford Dictionary, 1989, â€Å"Stereotype†. In many studies of the working class culture and stereotypes, there has been the dominance of gender. According to Dunk, stereotypes relating to gender are changing. Nonetheless, structures of patriarchy and ideology still have root in the society (Dunk, 2003: 18). Central stereotypes reflect the world concepts of dominant classes who are in a quest for self-actualization at the expense of others below their class. For example, many have stereotyped Blacks as ‘Jezebels whereby women were all perceived as promiscuous (Mankiller, 1998: 565). Alongside racial and ethnic stereotypes, gender and social class are among the most prominent features where people fall. In the society, a complex interplay exists among racial-ethnic, gender and class stereotypes (Andersen, Taylor 2008: 276). Andersen and Taylor further notes that there are gender stereotypes. This refers to stereotypes that focus on a person’s gender. According to these authors, women stereotypes tend to be more negative compared to those of men. The typical woman has been traditionally stereotyped as subservient, flighty, overly emotional, overly talkative

Current Events in Public Health Leadership - Servant Leadership Assignment

Current Events in Public Health Leadership - Servant Leadership - Assignment Example A lady suffering from lung cancer attended hospital for three weeks to receive her chemotherapy. During her time in the hospital, she received attendance from a chief nurse and junior nurses who worked under her. In the course of treatment, the chief nurse would come and assist the junior nurses to perform their duties. The head nurse was kind and did not mind showing her subjects what to do, and she consistently engaged in offering her assistance to the junior nurses. She also provided them with advice and offered each of the opportunity to consult and get the right instructions. A nurse servant leader often looks at the needs of the staff members and makes inquires of them on the best ways to promote and solve their personal problems. The instance described above depicts the true qualities of a servant leader who continuously engaged in assisting the junior nurses at the hospital. The leadership techniques used in the case above were effective since it enabled the junior nurses to develop the character of servant leader (Anonson et al. 2009). Through the actions of the manager nurse, the junior nurses developed important skills that were effective in their career. Some of the leadership characteristics portrayed by the nurse manager include the ability to listen, in which case she kept listening to the needs of the junior nurses. After listening and understanding their needs, she empathizes with them and offers them their support (Ayman, Chemers, & Fiedler, 1995). They also promote awareness and healing among the junior servants by attempting to resolve their problems and use a high degree of emotional intelligence to help them find a solution to their problems. In the above instance, the servant leadership enabled the junior nurses to observe and understand what was needed to be done to enable attainment of perfect results.

Summary and Impact Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Summary and Impact - Essay Example tudy shows that brain activity visibly increases in the process of nondirective meditation; however, it remains almost the same during concentrative meditation. Researchers explain these results by the fact that nondirective meditation allows more space for different thoughts and feelings in it which concentrative meditation is restricting them. Only 3 researchers involved in this study practice meditation to cope with daily stress. Stress follows people everywhere and they need to cope with it somehow. Since this article proves that meditation works, I can try to practice it in my daily life to come down during critical moments. I find this article useful because I often suffer from own inability to deal with stressful events effectively. As a result, I experience problems with falling asleep or feel nervous during the day. Out of two types of meditation described in the article, I would like to practice concentrative meditation first because it seems to be more understandable for me. Perhaps, meditation or simple concentration on breathing will improve my coping