Review of Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

Review of 'Blink' by Malcolm Gladwell To over-generalize, there are two types of nonfiction books worth reading: those written by an eminent specialist summarizing the current state of his or her field, often focusing on the singular idea that defines the authors career; and those written by a journalist without special knowledge about the field, tracking a particular idea, crossing the boundaries of disciplines when required by the pursuit. Malcolm Gladwells Blink is a bravura example of the latter sort of book: he ranges through art museums, emergency rooms, police cars, and psychology laboratories following a skill he terms rapid cognition. Rapid Cognition Rapid cognition is the sort of snap decision-making performed without thinking about how one is thinking, faster and often more correctly than the logical part of the brain can manage. Gladwell sets himself three tasks: to convince the reader that these snap judgments can be as good or better than reasoned conclusions, to discover where and when rapid cognition proves a poor strategy, and to examine how the rapid cognitions results can be improved. Achieving three tasks, Gladwell marshals anecdotes, statistics, and a little bit of theory to persuasively argue his case. Gladwells discussion of thin slicing is arresting: In a psychological experiment, normal people given fifteen minutes to examine a students college dormitory can describe the subjects personality more accurately than his or her own friends. A cardiologist named Lee Goldman developed a decision tree that, using only four factors, evaluates the likelihood of heart attacks better than trained cardiologists in the Cook County Hospital emergency room in Chicago: For two years, data were collected, and in the end, the result wasnt even close. Goldmans rule won hands down in two directions: it was a whopping 70 percent better than the old method at recognizing patients who werent actually having a heart attack. At the same time, it was safer. The whole point of chest pain prediction is to make sure that patients who end up having major complications are assigned right away to the coronary and intermediate units. Left to their own devices, the doctors guessed right on the most serious patients somewhere between 75 and 89 percent of the time. The algorithm guessed right more than 95 percent of the time. (pp. 135-136) The secret is knowing which information to discard and which to keep. Our brains are able to perform that work unconsciously; when rapid cognition breaks down, the brain has seized upon a more obvious but less correct predictor. Gladwell examines how race and gender affect car dealers sales strategy, the effect of height on salary and promotion to top corporate positions, and unjustified police shootings of civilians to demonstrate that our unconscious biases have genuine and sometimes tragic consequences. He also examines how the wrong thin slice, in focus groups or in a single-sip test of soft drinks, can lead businesses to mistake consumer preferences. There are things that can be done to redirect our mind along lines more conducive to accurate thin-slicing: we can alter our unconscious biases; we can change products packaging to something that tests better with consumers; we can analyze numerical evidence and make decision trees; we can analyze all possible facial expressions and their shared meanings, then watch for them on videotape; and we can evade our biases by blind screening, hiding the evidence that will lead us to incorrect conclusions. Takeaway Points This whirlwind tour of rapid cognition, its be, efits and pitfalls, has only a few pitfalls of its own. Written in a forthright and conversational style, Gladwell makes friends with his readers but rarely challenges them. This is science writing for the broadest possible audience; people with scientific training may chafe at the substitution of anecdote for study results, and may wish that the author had gone into greater depth with any or all of his examples; others may wonder how they can broaden the reach of their own attempts at rapid cognition. Gladwell may whet their appetites but will not fully satisfy those readers. His focus is narrow, and this helps him meet his goals; perhaps this is appropriate for a book titled Blink.

Ethical-legal issues as an Advanced Practice Nurse Assignment

Ethical-legal issues as an Advanced Practice Nurse - Assignment Example Therefore, their liability and accountability levels are unmatchable with those of other nurse practitioners. Further, they act within their competence limits as well as their boundaries limits. Ethics, also referred to as moral laws are mainly concerned with fundamental principles distinguishing between right and wrong, defining what people ought to do. Ethics purposely inform our judgements, offering guidance to individual on making decisions on how to best act in any situation. Westrick & Dempski (2009) observe that accepted ethical theories, practices and frameworks offer guidance on how people ought to act in an ethical manner, and all binds advanced nurse practitioners. It is an expectation of the advanced practitioners to make their individual judgements about what they perceive as best for their individuals. While making any form of decisions, ethical theories and principles bind their actions. While ethics is broad and offer a brief summary of exactly how they purposively should undertake their actions, advanced nursing practitioners feel that their roles are ethically demanding from their very own nature. Law on the other hand is a system of rules governing a particular society with the main intention of upholding social order, justice system as well as preventing any form of either harm to individuals or public and private property. Law systems often base their principles on ethical or religious principles. It is the duty of the police as well as the criminal systems such as the courts of law to enforce law in a jurisdiction. Different laws govern the healthcare, which seek to protect the public from any harm from healthcare givers. Therefore, advanced nursing practitioners have to be more knowledgeable on the relevant legislations guiding their actions (Kelly & Tazbir,

Art and gender assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Art and gender assignment - Essay Example Women are the objects that are looked† (Finzsch). In Mulvey’s male gaze, the male’s patriarchal role is extended to the film where the male imposes a hegemonic gaze to the women as mere objects of desire. Thus, it produces an imbalance relationship as women are reduced to an object of two distinct modes of male gaze where they became Madonna’s in male perspective (voyeuristic) or whores (fetishistic). In her work, viewers tend to identify with the protagonist of the film who is typically a male and thus, the perspective conveyed by the film is that of a man and it follows that women will be looked upon as an object of desire. Another view that I would like to point out about gaze in art that breeds oppression is the binary and heterosexual nature of gender orientation of gaze which alienates sexual orientation that is not heterosexual. By defining sexual desirability to merely exist between men and women as often observed in gazes in art, it unconsciously negated the existence of other sexual orientation and sense of desirability other than heterosexual relationship and thus, the assertion itself produced another type of oppression – that is, discrimination against heterosexual orientation and their preferences. Good artworks are not only in museums. They can also be found in other places and the experience is just as exhilarating as going to a museum. Art after all are not created just be placed in museums and galleries but to be appreciated and to bring joy and uplift its audience. Thus, I would like to discuss about graffiti or murals painted on the many walls of San Francisco, California. It is painted on a brick or wooden wall by combination of spray and brushed paint. There may be people who would disagree in this in art form calling it as vandalism but for me, its art and it reflects my state of feeling. I would rather call it as urban painting rather vandalism that instead of using canvass shown in the restrictive

UK Deregulated Banking and Economic Downturn Essay

UK Deregulated Banking and Economic Downturn - Essay Example According to Economy Watch (2010), the Banking Industry was once a simple and a reliable business; but, deregulation and technology have transformed the industry considerably. Banking regulation ensures correction of market imperfections and unfair distribution of resources (Central Banks, 2011). Therefore, deregulation of financial institutions saw the domination of the industry by the selected few, and they acted according to their selfish gain. According to Lyons (1999-2011), every aspect of banking is regulated by federal or state agencies. The Thatcherism regime in its quest to deregulate the banking industry generated a chain of imperfection towards failure in the financial sector (Enqdahl, 2009). Deregulation is expected to have considerable effects on the real economy if t significant changes were placed in the structure, and efficiency of the banking industry (Strahan, 2002). Overreliance on a deregulated banking system in the United Kingdom saw the large financial instituti ons dominate the sector across a wider geographical area. This led to loss of local market concentration as they only pursued entering the market rather than consolidating within a local market. Banks play a central economic role; thus, affecting the well being of every sector in the economy (According to about.com 2011). The motivation for bankers to undermine and hinder prudent regulation is inherent in the compensation incentives of bankers (Gilani, 2009). With deregulation, transparency in the activities of the institutions is inhibited. Deregulation of the Banking Industry in the United Kingdom saw rapid growth in credits within the financial sector (The Turner Review, 2009). This was orchestrated by the freedom in the banking sector as banks could formulate their own policies without reliance to the state approval. On the same note, significant wholesale and overseas funding surged the economy into deep crises (Economic crisis and Market Upheavals, 2011). Investment in the mar ket was heightened in the sense that one could access investment in the UK risk-free index government bonds with a yield to maturity over 3% real and this could even surge down to1% (The Turner Review, 2009). In the UK, trading activity was underpinned by the securitized credit model, and as the home of several leading banks, it was affected greatly by the impact of the economic downturn. A number of features increased risks contributing to the credit boom in the upswing and enhancing the nature of the down swing that followed (Economic Watch, 2010). This saw losses and liquidity strains escalate in the financial market, housing problems became widespread, as the prices of houses shot down, and credit supply dwindled down and the eventual problems with funding of the UK mortgage banks intensifying (Economic crisis and Market Upheavals, 2011). Factors that were escalated by the deregulation of the banking industry included among others; massive growth, and complexity of the securitiz ed credit model, increased commercial banks involvement in trading activities, heightened leverage in multiple forms followed (Economic Watch, 2010).. Also, the expanded maturity, complexity of structured credit and derivative system and lack of adequate capital buffers contributed to the escalation of the

Comparison of Israeli and Iraqi Coalition Parliamentary Governments Research Paper

Comparison of Israeli and Iraqi Coalition Parliamentary Governments - Research Paper Example Under such circumstances, in order to avoid political stalemate, small parties may support larger parties to get majority in the parliament and to form the government. Instead of a government led by a single party as in the case of United Sates, a government led by multiple parties (Coalition government) may take charge in countries like India, Israel, Iraq etc. Unlike governments led by single party system, coalition governments cannot function independently because of the different views, opinions, ideologies and policies of the members of the different political parties in the coalition government. This paper compares the influence of ethnic groups or culture upon Israeli and Iraqi coalition governments. Analysis Methodology Iraq and Israel are the two prominent countries in Middle East which have coalition governments at present. However, Israel and Iraq are entirely different countries as far as culture is concerned; Arabs or Muslims dominate the population in Iraq whereas Israe l is the Jews’ state. It should be noted that these two countries have different ethnic groups. Each ethnic group and each region in these two countries have separate political parties which argue for the interest of the particular community or region. Israel is a Jewish country whereas Iraq is a Muslim country. However, clashes in Iraq between different ethnic groups are more than that in Israel even though both the countries have coalition governments at present. I would like to compare the functioning of these coalition governments in order to learn more about the influence of cultural differences upon the functioning of coalition governments. Influence of ethnic groups or culture upon Israeli coalition government Political parties in Israel can be classified into two broad categories; Zionist parties and non-Zionist parties. non-Zionist parties are negligible in number and strength. Labor Zionism (social democrat), Revisionist Zionism (conservative) and Religious Zionism are the major political thoughts among Zionist parties. Out of these three political philosophies, Religious Zionism is comparatively weaker than the other two which is the major reason why the influence of religion upon Israeli politics is comparatively lesser than that in Iraq. Israel’s new coalition government (created in January 2011) has become more conservative in its domestic policy position and more hawkish in its foreign policy stance. A series of events in recent months highlights this trend, including disagreements between Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama regarding an appropriate basis for peace negotiations with Palestinians, Israel’s response to the Hamas-Fatah reconciliation deal, and its response to clashes with Palestinians along its borders in recent months. In addition, the country’s changing demographic profile signals that conservative political groups are likely to exert more influence over the medium-t o-long term as well1. As in the case of many other countries in the world, conservative parties and liberal and democratic parties are more in Israel also. Conservatives normally may not give up their traditional beliefs and tougher stands on global issues easily. On the other hand liberal and democratic parties usually keep a space for accommodating changes in line with the political and economic developments in the world. One of the major curses facing by Israeli politics is the excessive number of political parties which keep extremely different views on

Tektronix Inc Global Erp Implementation Management Essay

Tektronix Inc Global Erp Implementation Management Essay For Welti (1999), an ERP implemented in a complex international environment normally incorporates four major sequential stages (Planning, Realization, Preparation and Productive phases) that must go in parallel with a proper Change management, Risk Management, Project Control, Project Team Training and User Training. As the global implementation was done by waves with different characteristics, it can be seen that different project management strategies were adopted. In this part only the most characteristic features of the overall project are highlighted and these issues are limited to the information given by the case study (Planning and Realization stages). In the Planning stage, many issues can be mentioned. First, the selection of the ERP package was quite straightforward and relied mainly on Neun and Vance ´s judgment, experience and criterion; they decided to choose Oracle as a single vendor in order to avoid dealing with the complexity of multiple providers which, although it may cause future problems due to the dependency created to a single vendor, it was a practical decision for the implementation process. In this decision, they devoted neither too much time in costing nor resources in evaluating the alternative packages. Secondly, the steering committee clearly defined the model, guidelines and principles under which all the systems were adhered to. Also, it was defined the financial architecture that could meet the new business model: Order Management was different for each division (for customer purposes), but the rest of accounting elements were based on single definitions in order to provide worldwide control. Thirdly, th e Project Team structure offered advantages such as the cross-functional working style, which created a regional and divisional control. Then, the problems and tasks could be addressed from these two perspectives, but the disadvantage of this approach might be the conflicts of power during the implementation, as authority was given to divisional and/or regional leaders which could have created confusion to users and sub-teams. Fourth, it seems that within each wave they did not allocate carefully all the resources, people or time needed for being successful, which led to the time constraints as they devoted effort looking for skilled staff and consultants. Overall, the project was benefited from the partial feedbacks and success in each stage and in the long run the plan was framed within the general guidelines and schedule. Also, the planning stage can be said to be closer to reality as they used a mixture of emergent and statics tactics to face future events. The Implementation phase was done more or less within the plan, and it was divided mainly in regional and divisional deployments. The first stage, the implementation of the Financial and OMAR modules in the CPID was properly led by the person who best knew the IT infrastructure in USA: Gary Allen. As this division was in need of an urgent BPR and a new business model in order to improve their competitiveness, the early success of this implementation could get the buying of the next regions and divisions. However, this stage was no exempt of project management difficulties: Tektronix lacked of technical and functional skills with Oracle, and they struggled in finding the right consultants, with the resultant wasting of time. It can be mentioned that within this first part, USA was a good pilot for OMAR, as they could get an opportune feedback about business and technical issues; regarding the implementation of financial module in USA and Europe, they did not face major challenges, giv en that this module did not require BPR and also because the company highly relied on Oracle specialist Consultants (Aris Consulting). But the implementation of OMAR at MBD (second stage) met technical challenges despite of the help from Oracle consultants. The third stage, implementation at VND, was characterized by a constraint of human resources. These two last stages (two and three) went through problems from the business perspective, probably as a result of IT head divisions leading the implementations, with less involvement from the executive level. Later, once deployed the software in USA, Tektronix went to the European branches where the approach followed was more or less similar to that followed in USA: they chose the most used European distribution centre (Holland), and this pilot reduced the uncertainty and gained the buying from the rest of regional countries. Then, they decided the final roll out to some other European countries and the big-bang deployment that installe d all three divisional systems together. This strategy could lead to good results considering that European countries are culturally very different and it is really challenging to implement a vanilla version program. When introducing the ERP system into Asia, a similar plan was followed, which was wise given the language issues that could have represented a technical and cultural limitation if not addressed properly. America and Australia seemed to be easier waves in comparison with the rest of the project. Although the monitoring and feedback had a positive impact on the effectiveness of control (Mudimigh, 2001; Bancroft, et al., 1998) and the deadlines were timely met, it is clear that the weakest point of the implementation stage and partially of the planning stage was the poor Change Management, Project Team training and Risk Management (they are not mentioned in the case). For example, the complete absence of a proper Change Management project led to the resistance found when implementing OMAR at MBD. Also, the absence of attention from the managerial and business level in the allocation of the initial resources (staff, training, and consultants) led the waste of time when selecting consultants, when doing testing, incorporating technical changes, language customizations and new business processes. One of the good points of the project was the training given to Power users and Sub-Teams across the global enterprise. Overall, the conservative approach (waves of roll out and big-bang ) followed by Tektronix really helped in mitigating many of the characteristic risks for a global ERP implementation. 2.- IDENTIFYING TEKTRONIX ´S PROJECT RISKS In terms of risk, it can be said that Tektronix had tolerance for risk (Hirsch and Ezingeard, 2008) as managers were willing to accept variations during the project in order to obtain high returns (time and efficiency).This attitude towards risk might have an explanation: by using the Willcocks and Griffiths (1994) framework, we can see that due to some key managers ´ previous experience with ERP technology, considering the project as a large one and regarding project structure as medium or low, then the risk can be classified as Low or Medium. Then, it can be said that leaders of the implementation drove the project without a highly structured plan because their knowledge about ERP implementations gave them enough confidence to improvise tactics in order to obtain successful results. Keil et. al (1998) proposed a risk categorization framework that can be used here to classify the risks that Tektronix faced. Furthermore, this model gives the opportunity of clearly locate those events that could have happened and that could be prevented if addressing the events on time. Complementing this framework, specific risk factors (Sumner M., 2000) for enterprise-wide ERP projects are included within the four quadrants. Quadrant 1: Customer Mandate In this quadrant there are risks associated with the commitment obtained or lack of buying from senior management, users and other stakeholders. The first concern noticed in the case studied was that the project clearly had the financial support from the Board of Directors; and also the CFO and CIO were willing to introduce changes and improvements for the company, all which reduced the risks related with funding or assistance needed during the implementation. Secondly, the commitment from the company HQ and divisions was quickly gained because the high rate company growth and Tektronix ´s inability to cope with the market pressures had created a sense of dissatisfaction among managers and top employees who found in this project the opportunity to improve. Thirdly, there was a highly motivated champion of the project (Carl Neun) who was supported in his idea by the CIO and CPID ´s president. Furthermore, some other leaders were designated across the different regions and business units in order to expand the champion ´s directives. Fourth, the management structure of the project was built upon a number of key roles with business and technical expertise; this structure consisted of a central project leader (CFO with unlimited authority from the CEO) and strong business divisional or regional leaders supporting the champion ´s authority. The clear roles allocated at different levels reduced the efforts done along the top-down structure, but the lack of involvement of the CEO and other senior managers in Change management can be considered a risky attitude which ended up in occasional resistance from some users. Lastly, it seems that end-users ´ expectations were not considered at all: firstly, because the CFO relied mainly on his experience and intuition and did not spend time in doing a proper project analysis; second, the vanilla approach proposed by Neun implied adapting users ´ operations and routines to software and not vice versa. An instance of this weakness arose when doing BPR at MBD, where there was users ´ resistance and time was wasted explaining to users the reasons behind the new processes. Quadrant 2: Scope and Requirements In general, there were no major misunderstandings in requirements or disruptive changes in requirements: the scope was clearly defined as global, the elements implemented were limited to the Financial and OMAR systems, and the company followed the best practices embedded in the system and recommended by the vendor. Furthermore, as a vanilla implementation approach was deployed as a global solution, only in cases of extreme need modifications took place, which clearly reduced the risks involved when doing local or national customizations (Sheu, et al., 2004). Quadrant 3: Execution In this Quadrant, it can be assessed risk factors and many of the traditional pitfalls associated with poor project management. The pitfalls can fall into the business or technical field. As examples of first mistakes done by Tektronix, it can be mentioned an inadequate change management, project management and risk control: They never did any feasibility analysis and risk analysis before embarking in this huge project, and this neglect prevented them from seeing the reality in some subsidiaries. As a consequence, customization of the ERP for business processes-that were unique for some competitive local branches- had to be made; also, Multilanguage settings were programmed at last minute. The lack of skills in project management resulted in assigning this responsibility to inexperienced consultants, with the corresponding wasted money and delays when choosing a new consultancy firm. Tektronix also faced resistance that was not expected; for instance, when doing the implementation at the VND division, they found difficulties that only could be overcome by increasing the working pressure and the level of resources (order entry people, item maintenance people). With reg ard to the transfer of knowledge, the company relied mainly on a combination of large and small consulting firms (particularly with Aris Consulting) as well as independent consultants, but it is not clear whether a correct program for transfer of skills was in place. The Change Control team actually worked as a communication or monitoring team and no Change management team or program was ever mentioned. Regarding the technical realization, there are some points to highlight. First, the risk of Oracle versions being obsolete before the roll out completes was diminished with the concept of waves; and each time a new version was released the company used updated versions of the software. However, in CPID, Tektronix wrongly decided to install a beta version of the software which resulted in much time of debugging, instead of waiting for the final version that was later released or for a more tested version. Secondly, the lack of technical expertise made the firm to rely mainly on external consultants as Tektronix ´s employees did not have proper training in the technical area. Furthermore, this lack of expertise resulted in much time and resources wasted, such as the excessive training and testing done in the MBD division when implementing OMAR. Thirdly, there was also the risk of integration with the manufacturing legacy system that was kept in place; and even when an interface was i nstalled between the two systems, there might be a possibility of future failure. Finally, in spite of the fact that the implementation included building a data ware housing functionality, it seems there were no plans or considerations of the high risks involved in data migration. If the new software did not work properly with the existing infrastructure or database, the only outcome would be adding the software to the collection of obsolete legacy systems. Quadrant 4: Environment Tektronix never considered the risks associated with changes in scope/objectives due to changes in the senior management hierarchy or political problems within the firm itself. Hopefully, the project did not miss their key team or management members and it could finally reach the end with a constant objective. It helped the fact that the global objectives were met in less than 3 years, a period of time relatively short that avoided the risks associated with managers moving and changing plans or directives. With regard to internal problems, it was not considered that potential conflicts between the business units or departments could erode the performance of the plan. However, the leadership and corporate culture seems to have helped subsidiaries to strictly follow the HQ guidelines, which in turn streamlined the implementation process. 3.-CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS AND GLOBAL CHALLENGES For Tektronix, some of the following critical factors and challenges (Plant and Willcocks, 2007; Sheu, et al., 2004; Hoffman, T., 2007; Bingi, et al., 1999) permitted to reach a fairly successful implementation: Communicating and persuading project goals to constituents from different cultures (Hoffman, T., 2007) The vision and project goals were adequately communicated and reached thanks to two factors: The strong leadership of Carl Neun, who was given the whole support from the CEO, and the steering committee whose main activity was to develop and ensure that enterprise-wide implementation guidelines and principles were followed. Also, the presidents of each division were key contributors because they made tough decisions in order to meet the deadlines imposed and reduce the cultural problems. Change, Customization and Business Process Reengineering (Plant and Willcocks, 2007) The implementation approach followed by Tektronix was probably the best risk management initiative itself because the global deployment was done in a logical order to reduce disruptive changes and to increase the learning and feedback. Also, the vanilla model suggested as the standard for the entire organisation helped in diminish the level of customization, although some minor changes were necessarily made. The implementation of the financial model did not require BPR, but the OMAR module was modified and customized in order to support both the corporate functionalities and the best practices embedded within the system. Then, BPR was done to the extent of preserving the competitive and core capabilities of the regional business units. Internal Technical Personnel/Resource/Labor Skills (Sheu, et al., 2004) Although Tektronix did not have trained personnel in project management or in technical knowledge, they opted for buying consultant ´s know-how, which could give them the capabilities to go forward with the implementation. At some points they were able to find enough human resources to back critical stages. Overall, the company did not have economical limitations for easily obtain the adequate staff and for keeping the plan within the deadlines. Selection of ERP Vendors (Bingi, et al., 1999) Global ERP rollout requires that the software is designed to work in different countries and that the ERP vendor has the same package version available in the countries or regions where the system is being implemented (Bingi, et al., 1999).In the Tektronix case, Neun and Vance both had already experience with ERP solutions offered by Oracle, and this let them move quickly and take a justified fast selection of the ERP vendor. 4.-LESSONS LEARNED AND RECOMMENDATIONS 1.-The first learning from this global ERP implementation is the deployment strategy used: a snowball approach (Ogundipe, O., 2010) in which the project is broken into manageable chunks, beginning with appropriate locations in order to cope with business or technological challenges, running parallel implementations and then doing the big-bang stage at the end, when there is enough confidence (more learning and feedback). At the same time it can be said that an emergent strategy (Nandhakumar, et al., 2005) was used for every wave introduced. Perhaps the same methodology can be used in the future for IT infrastructure projects or any other disruptive project. 2.-It is clear that the ERP brought many benefits, but Tektronix can still leverage IT as a strategic advantage. They could incorporate Procurement, HR, SCM modules and CRM packages in order to make a customer-centric organization. 3.-In the final part, there is no evidence of estimation of ROI or real financial analysis that can show the tangible financial benefits of the investment. Of course, it is mentioned improvements in terms of time or efficiency, but it would have been essential to have an initial budget beforehand, especially considering that the company was toward the financial recovery. 4.-Tektronix faced many difficulties because of the lack of Oracle in-house specialists, so they had to rely on external consultants (Aris Consulting); however, it seems that the transfer of knowledge was not properly organized. In a next project, there must be a plan that can ensure that employees and users can gain the best learning experience from the Consultants. It is vital that in-house staff can get the skills, otherwise even when the ERP implementation is successful, the performance and use can be poor if there is not trained staff. For a future implementation, if there is lack of trained staff, Tektronix can also consider the option of IT outsourcing, which is a solutions that have worked perfectly for some other big companies. 5.-In order to obtain the best benefits from the IT incorporated capabilities and make them sustainable in the medium and long term, the company should have followed the Strategic Alignment Model presented in Cooper, et al. (2001) which was adapted from Henderson and Venkatram (1993). By following this model, Tektronix can benefit from holistic technical and organizational changes that are properly aligned to the firm ´s business strategies.

music in education and health :: essays research papers

MUSIC AS A TEACHING AND HEALING TOOL Music is a remarkable tool to be used to dramatically increase learning and healing in the classroom. Its successful role has been documented throughout the academic community, yet, its use has not been widely utilized by teachers. Since Aristotle, music has been considered one of the forces used to teach. Moreover, for more than half a century the psychiatric and the educational communities have studied, analyzed and implemented the use of music as a healing tool and as a way to enhance the mental capacities of their respective group of studies. It has been discovered in controlled settings that certain type of classical music would enhance the student’s concentration time. The specific issues addressed by the study and practice of music has been divided into specific areas of the mental process. For example, learning a musical instrument helps the students the skill of repetition as a method to learn and to recollect information. Creativity and imagination also are improved when the student or the patient is taught basic concepts of musical composition. It is believed that music unleashes creative forces within a human being that are only accessed with artistic endeavors. Even abstract traits like sensibility are retrieved with music studies and the practice of a musical instrument. There is a perceptible connection between learning and music that teachers should exploit in the learning environment, regardless of the age of the student. Music could be used effectively from the time the child is in the womb and right through the formative years. While addressing the healing benefits of music it is noted the array of uses for this art. Every body in all aspects of life, to enhance moods, to depress moods, to pacify, or to reminisce, uses music. Clinicians have experimented with this art for various decades. Psychiatric patience are administered a dose of soothing music to lower the anxiety levels. Office managers utilize it to energize the work place. Learning centers use baroque music to enhance memory skills. Health experts praise the rewards of music in the digestive and central nervous systems, the enhancement of attention spans of patients of HDD and in addition promote interaction in persons who struggle with their self-esteem. Some specialists even use the term music therapy when using it to treat certain cognitive or emotional problems. Music as a therapeutic tool is not only restricted the use of recorded material or the playing of musical instruments.