Self Evaluation Essay Example for Free

Self Evaluation Essay I believe that self evaluation is a very important factor that can show you or to the English mediator the level o performance of a medical student in the first or 2nd year ,and this can have advantages and disadvantages because each and every student has a potential in writing reading or listening to English. First of all, for example in the first semester we did a lot of communication during the English classes debating the Dax Cowart case and other interactional classes, but not all the students participated at a constant level each class. Many of them didn’t reached their potential at this oral debates because they are shy or they didn’t want to attract attention from the students, But in opposition with American classes were all the students are free to express their ideas and concerns. Second of all I find it very interesting the way our English classes managed to attract our attention in a very good way even though not all of us were fully within the lessons but we tried our best scoring a lot of yellow cards for bonus and encouraging ideas. This system is very appreciated in England and has a lot of success now in Europe. In this way you can evaluate the creativity the ideas and how well are them structured and explained in a way to impress the mediator. From my point of view I think that a very good way to evaluate a person is to make him show the potential that he has In order to open the Pandora’s box. Every method must be tried and I think that your methods were very good indeed and you are doing a perfect job in each and every aspect of your job. Those exercises with the pictures showed in front of the class were very good and imaginative, or placing in the right order the small sized fragments of the text ,or even when we had to write our thoughts in the dreams wall. These were very interesting and in the same time very useful for us. In conclusion self evaluation is very important for the English  mediator and the students because you can reach the top by being evaluated correctly including all the aspects on knowing medical English. Here at our English class I believe that our knowledge was fully recognized and marked with very good grades in the first semester being appreciated for our efforts. The atmosphere was great we all participated in a high number in all the classes making English class a way to relax to express your feelings and to make a family along the students. We relaxed from our anatomy and biochemistry classes and we were concentrated to more active and interesting debates from English.

Nascot and Park Essay Example for Free

Nascot and Park Essay How do the land use, housing and environmental quality in Tudor, Callowland, Nascot and Park wards of Watford affect the relative desirability of the wards? I will now discuss primary data regarding the four wards, and not to include any secondary data, including census data or researched data from the Internet. A colour coded map will provide an easy visual report of the distribution and separation of various housing types, as well a where forests and parks are laid out, and link that to the environmental quality of each of the four wards. I will discus each ward separately and then conclude it in a final paragraph at the end of this section. The concluding paragraph will contain graphs and charts to help enhance the comparisons. Of course when discussing the desirability of somewhere, you have to take into account who it is for. For example, a student would not live in a 5 bedroom detached house. PARK WARD This was the first ward visited and due to the fact that this was the first time I had visited these wards, this ward has left an indentation in my mind of my first impression of Watford. We commenced north up Hempstead road and took a left into Stratford way, where our fieldwork began. Small detached housing covered this area. The field sketch below shows you how close the houses boundaries are, as well as the style and age of the houses. When we were at the junction of Stratford Way and Parkside Drive, the first environmental quality survey was taken. The results have been tabulated within the comparison and concluding paragraph at the end of this section. We then took a right, and headed up Parkside Drive, taking into account that we were on the boundary of detached housing and the Cassiobury Park. As we continued up Parkside Drive, we were confronted with semi-detached housing immediately after Richmond Drive on the right hand side. Semi-Detached housing could now be seen on either side of the road. We were due to take the next turning on the right which led us into Langley Way. On the junction of Langley Way and Parkside Drive, the second environmental quality survey was taken. As we turned up into Langley Way, we noticed semi-detached housing on either side of the road until Richmond road on the right, and until Bellmount Wood Avenue on the left. The stream of detached housing continued from there onwards. We carried on up Langley Way, until we met a roundabout which split Langley Way and Cassiobury Drive. Our first sighting of local shops were seen on the opposite side of the roundabout, this is coloured in RED on the colour-coded map. Besides these few shops and a pub on the left hand side, detached housing was all around us. We contined up Langley Way until Devereux Drive was seen at a 90 angle to Langley Way. We proceeded left and were still surrounded by detached housing. At the top of Devereux Drive, we could see that the further up we went, the more trees and greenery were to be seen behind the houses, and at the top of the road, we took a footpath left which led us into Rough Wood. We followed the footpath round until we came into Glen Way, which was where we came across our first sightings of terraced houses. The third and final environmental quality survey for this ward was taken here. We followed Glen Way round to the right and hit the main road called Hempstead Road where we crossed onto the other side and took a left until we came across Rosecroft Drive on the right hand side. Where we left Glen Way and entered Hempstead Road, was the border between the two wards, Park and Nascot. So in summary, Park ward contains small detached houses in a calm atmosphere and well kept away from the busy Hempstead Road. Even though Cassiobury Drive, Parkside Drive and Woodland Drive are the three main roads of Park ward, they do not encounter problems of traffic which leaves Park ward as a calm and family-friendly area. The large park within the ward will indefinitely contribute to the property prices as property prices are strongly based on location, location, location, and due to the fact that they are detached, this leaves a good image in my mind of my first impression of Watford. Nascot Ward As we commenced our journey down Hempstead Road and into Rosecroft Drive, we noticed that although Hempstead Road is very busy, the houses within Rosecroft Drive and the surrounding road were fairly large detached houses. At the junction of The Ridgeway, and Rosecroft Drive, the first environmental quality survey of this ward was taken, which received high marks when taking into account its location next to an extremely busy road. We then took a right down The Ridgeway, and noticed how the houses were in good keep and fairly big. The road we were in (The Ridgeway) was fairly quiet and in good condition due to the fact that off road/private parking was available. The field sketch below, shows a typical house within Nascot ward.

Politics and government

Politics and government ‘Politics is synonymous with government and government alone. Discuss. Political analysts have long since been obsessed with the analysis of government in order to understand politics and even that government is politics. Hay admits, â€Å"political science is the rigorous and dispassionate science of government.† (Hay, 2005) I believe that although there is obviously a strong connection between politics and government they have been pushed far too close together in their understanding, to the extent that some declare them as one and the same, or synonymous. As Leftwich and Held put it, â€Å"By focusing on governmental institutions, the discipline of Politics marginalizes and provides little basis for understanding the very stuff of politics, that is, those deep-rooted problems that actually face us all daily as citizens.† (Leftwich and Held, 1984) There are an enormous number of definitions and variations on those definitions for the terms ‘politics and ‘government. Depending on which are taken there can be arguments for and against politics being synonymous with government. For example Leftwich says that politics can be seen as, â€Å"the process of governing† (Leftwich, 2004) and Heywood says, â€Å"It is possible to have governance without government.† (Heywood, 2000) In light of this I feel it is necessary to start the discussion by pinning down a relevant definition for both terms and investigating how these terms interact with each other. Following with a look at how politics can exist in the public and private spheres as well as within civil society whereas government is confined to the public sphere and banished from civil society. I shall then turn my attention to the claim that politics is synonymous with government ‘alone. I will explore the idea that a government can exist without po litics, that politics can exist outside the reach of a government and even that politics is the seed from which government grows. From here I will move on to analyse the use of the word ‘synonymous in the given statement. I will argue that to pronounce politics as synonymous with government, which is to say it is interchangeable or even one and the same as government, is to use the wrong terminology. I will use the global issue of the environment to support why the word synonymous is inappropriate and suggest more appropriate language to describe the relationship between the two concepts. In order to analyse the connection between politics and government it is first vital to have an agreed definition of both concepts. Starting with the concept of government Crick offers us a broad definition, â€Å"Government The organization of a group of men in a given community for survival.† (Crick, 2005) We find a more explicit definition from Heywood, â€Å"Government is commonly understood to refer to the formal and institutional processes which operate at the national level to maintain order and facilitate collective action. The core functions of government are thus to make law (legislation), implement law (execution) and interpret law (adjudication).† (Heywood, 2000) From this we can take that there are some central elements that a government requires such as, a governing body; some source of income (taxation); a currency, i.e. a treasury and banking system; courts and a legal system to see that the laws are applied; a method of enforcing laws (police); and a m ilitary force to defend the interests of the government. If we apply these fundamental criteria of ‘government to ‘politics we can see that none of them are crucial for the existence of politics, therefore ‘politics cannot be synonymous with, or one and the same as, ‘government. Following on from this the question arises, if politics doesnt need these criteria to exist then what does it encompass? In its broadest sense Heywood describes politics as, â€Å"The activity through which people make, preserve and amend the general rules under which they live.† (Heywood, 2005) Hay (2005) gives a list, albeit non-exhaustive by his own admission, of twelve different ‘senses of the term politics. He notes that some of these define politics as narrow and some as broad; he also draws a distinction between politics as a function, process or arena. I will look at four of these definitions and apply them to the relationship between government and politics. In the first sense politics is seen as â€Å"Any and all social interaction occurring within the sphere of government.† (Hay, 2005) This is a very narrow definition and defines politics independently of content and only as the arena in which it occurs; in this sense politics and government are indeed synonymous. This has been a popular way of defining politics as it had, â€Å"the appeal of identifying unambiguously a set of political issues and a set of non-political issues.† (Hay, 2005) It also helped in defining political science as a, â€Å"field of scientific inquiry† (Hay, 2005) However ‘arena definitions of politics have become unpopular as they fail to acknowledge political issues that have yet to register on legislative agendas, Hay gives the example of, â€Å"the feminist concern with the patriarchal character of the nuclear family.† Hay, 2005) The fourth sense is, â€Å"Politics as the noble art of preserving a community of citizens (the ‘republic) through the construction, pursuit and defence of the common or public interest.† (Hay, 2005) and is an example of politics as a function in which it specifically ensures, â€Å"The common or collective interest of the community.† (Hay, 2005) It could also be said for this definition of politics that it is also narrow but again provides a close synonymity with government. The third sense provides us with a view of politics as a process, â€Å"Politics as a public and formal set of processes and rituals through which the citizens of a state may participate, often at arms lengt h, in the process of government.† (Hay, 2005) Yet again this is a narrow explanation of politics and once more runs, more or less, parallel with the idea of government. It is towards the broader end of Hays list where we finally find sufficiently broad in context, but narrow in content, definitions of politics which allow a presentation of the disparity between politics and government. â€Å"The ‘Political as an adjective to describe the motivations of participants and non-participants in a range of both formal and informal, public and private, processes where such motivations are political to the extent to which they reflect or express a view as to the legitimacy of the process.† (Hay, 2007) This brings to light how politics can exist in both the public and private spheres whereas government can only be located in the public sphere. Mnookin differentiates between what encompasses each sphere, â€Å"Activities that are presumptively outside the legitimate bounds of government coercion and regulation (the private sphere) and those where government has a legitimate role (the public sphere).† (Mnookin, 1982) And then as Hay and Marsh note when defining politics as a process, â€Å"‘The political may occur in any institutional and social environment, however mundane, however parochial.† (Hay and Marsh, 1999) This then touches on another area in which politics exists and government does not, civil society. Civil society is made up of civic and social organizations and institutions, Grugel cites Walzer as defining civil society as referring, â€Å"to the space between the individual and the state.† (Grugel, 2002) and furthers this by adding, â€Å"Civil society is crucial for democracy because it is the space between the public and private spheres where civic action takes place.† (Grugel, 2002) The main role of civil society is to hold the state, or government, accountable and to promote individual interest which may be seen as apolitical, pre-political or just totally overlooked by the state. Here we find our first indication that although intrinsically linked politics and government are also very much separate. Perhaps it can be said that if not synonymous with government politics could be synonymous with something else. The most likely candidate may well be that of power, which can be broadly defined as, â€Å"The ability to achieve a desired outcome.† (Heywood, 2000) This, it could be said, is the end goal of politics, as Leftwich and Held say, â€Å"politics is about power; about the forces which influence and reflect its distribution and use; and about the effect of this on resource use and distribution; it is about the ‘transformative capacity of social agents, agencies and institutions: it is not about Government or government alone.† (Leftwich and Held, 1984) If we look now at how politics can exist exclusively of government we first turn to Heywoods fourth notion of politics in which â€Å"politics is about power: the ability to achieve a desired outcome, through whatever means.† (Heywood, 2005) From this we can identify that there are certain activities in the world that can lend themselves to the debate on the relationship between government and politics. On the contemporary world stage, especially since the terror attacks in 2001 and 2005 in the U.S, and U.K. respectively, there has been a great focus on terrorism and its related activities. Terrorism can be identified as a political tactic and in recent times has become a tool used by political groups all over the world. Many acts of terrorism have a political purpose, for example the attacks on the World Trade Centre in both 1993 and 2001 were political attacks on the part of the terrorist organization al-Qaeda. This has particular relevance to the relationship between politi cs and government as al-Qaeda openly have a political agenda yet crucially are not connected to any government. This would indicate that politics and political activity can, and do, exist outside of government. Consequently if politics exists separately outside of government then logically it cannot be synonymous with government. There can also be evidence for the existence of government without politics. As Crick writes, Aristotle believes that when a polis, which can be defined in modern terms as a community, becomes unified it ceases to be a political community. Crick supports this by stating, â€Å"Politics arises from accepting the fact of the simultaneous existence of different groups, hence different interests and different traditions.† (Crick, 2005) If we scan for a ‘unified community that has a ‘government we can find examples in dictatorships; a dictator makes the decisions and everyone else ‘agrees or is made to ‘agree. As U.S. General George Patton once said, â€Å"When everyone agrees, someone is not thinking.† So in a dictatorship there is no politics, as there is no need for conciliation between groups, but a government does exist. This adds more evidence to the case that politics is not synonymous with government otherwise politics would have to exist with in a dictatorship where it simply does not. So if it cannot be said that politics is totally synonymous with government yet there is clearly a high degree of interconnectedness between them, what is the best way to conceptualise their relationship? I suggest that the connection they share is that of ‘logical progression. We have seen, with the example of terrorism, how politics can exist without government, we have also seen how government can exist without politics using dictatorships as an example and we can take it as read that they can exist together given the numerous examples worldwide such as the U.K. or U.S. It is this cohabitation though that I will use to show that the term synonymous is an inaccurate way to describe the relationship between politics and government. In most, if not all, cases of politics and government existing in the same state or community, it seems that politics came first and laid the seeds for government to follow and not vice versa . I will take the issues of the environment to look close r at this claim. The heavily amplified focus on all things environmental e.g. carbon footprints and global warming, over the past few years has been clear for everyone to see. One of the interesting things this has thrown into the political arena is global communities lobbying around political issues and the resulting effects on governance around the world. Some, including Clark et al (1998), say that a global civil society is slowly emerging through the increasing size, diversity and networking of international non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) â€Å"We do find evidence that the construction of a global society is under way but is far from complete.† (Clark et al (1998). The most recent boom of environmental lobbying, it can be said, has come about due to the effects of globalization, as Eigen states, â€Å"Thinking in historic dimensions, civil society is a fairly new force on the global landscape.† (Eigen, 1998) Issues that were previously thought of as local are becoming far more easily identifiable as spanning regions, countries and even the globe. The size, cause and effect of these environmental issues is also far more transparent than ever before, this has come through the increase in technologies, not least the internet, and their power to shrink the world. More people can interact with a larger number of people and have more access to a greater amount of information than ever before. Now that small groups of people can be members of political communities or NGOs that span countries, continents and the globe, there became a requirement for some sort of increased governance above the state in reaction to the pressure of the lobbyists. O ne of the main organizations to deal with international governance is the United Nations (U.N.) and so it is them who have been at much of the forefront of interaction with, and the progression of, international NGOs. Along with governmental changes at the international level, such as, â€Å"New rules facilitating NGO access and participation [at U.N. conferences]† (Clark et al 1998) international NGOs have affected changes at a domestic level also. In October 2008 the U.K. government created a new department entitled ‘The Department of Energy and Climate Change in order to address the energy and environmental issues being raised by the global community. One of their three overall objectives is to, â€Å"achieve an international agreement on climate change at Copenhagen in December 2009.† This refers to the U.N. Copenhagen Climate Conference at which world leaders will gather to discuss and, hopefully, come to some decisions on the actions that can realistically be taken to combat global climate change. This shows that international NGOs and international communities have caused a rise in the level of governance and government activity on the domestic and world stage. Thus an increase in ‘politics has led to the growing and even emergence of ‘government activity. This supports the theory that politics comes before, or at least progresses, government when they co-exist in a community. Government is the logical progression of politics. As I have tried to show it can be claimed that politics is synonymous with government, but only if particular definitions are used, definitions that many would argue to be out of date and largely unattached to the contemporary way of thinking about real world politics. After this I very briefly touched on the concept of power and how it is possibly a more suitable candidate to be described as synonymous with politics. I have also demonstrated how politics can exist separately to government using the example of terrorism and specifically the terrorist group al-Qaeda. Along side this I explained how, in certain situations such as dictatorships, government can be present without politics by its side. This was followed closely by a look at how the term synonymous fails to wholly capture the type of relationship that exists between the concepts of government and politics. There was then a suggestion of an alternative term, ‘logical progression, which attempts to unravel the complica ted links between politics and government. I think it would be detrimental to politics to couple it so closely with government that they become all but interchangeable terms. This is not a slight on all things governmental but rather recognition that the disillusioned public can only become more disenchanted and cynical towards politics if a clear distinction is not made between it and the seemingly ever more ‘untrustworthy and ‘elite world of ‘The Government. Bibliography Clark, A.M. et al (1998) The Sovereign Limits of Global Civil Society: A Comparison of NGO Participation in UN World Conferences on the Environment, Human Rights, and Women, World Politics, Vol. 51, No. 1, 1-35. Crick, B. (2005) In Defence of Politics (Fifth Edition), Continuum. Department of Energy and Climate Change (2008) About Us [online] Available: http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/about/about.aspx [accessed 14 November 2009] Eigen, P. (1998) The Role of Civil Society, in UNDP, Corruption and Integrity Improvement Initiatives in Developing Countries, 83-89. Gamble, A. (1990) Theories of British Politics, Political Studies, Vol. 38, 404-420. Gibbs, J. (1989) Conceptualization of Terrorism, American Sociological Review, Vol. 54, No. 3, 329-340. Grugel, J. (2002) Democratization: A Critical Introduction, Palgrave Macmillan. Hay, C. (2002) Political analysis: A Critical Introduction, Palgrave. Hay, C. (2007) Politics, Participation and Politicization, Why We Hate Politics, 61-85, 165-166, Polity Press. Hay, C. and Marsh, D. (1999) Introduction: Towards a new (international) political economy? New Political Economy, Vol. 4, No. 1, 5 22. Heywood, A. (2000) Key Concepts in Politics, Palgrave Macmillan. Leftwich, A (2004) Thinking Politically: On the Politics of Politics, What is politics? : The activity and its study, 1-22, Polity Press. Leftwich, A. and Held, D. (1984) A discipline of politics? What is Politics?: the Activity and its Study, 139-159, W. Heffer Sons. Mnookin, R. (1982) The Public/Private Dichotomy: Political Disagreement and Academic Repudiation, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Vol. 130, No. 6, 1429-1440. Saurin, J. (1996) International relations, social ecology and the globalisation of environmental change, The environment and international relations, Vogler, J. Imber, M. (eds.), 77-98, Routledge Steinberger, P. (1999) Public and Private, Political Studies, Vol. 47, 292-313. von Bà ¼low, M. (2009) World leaders: Legally binding treaty out of reach in Copenhagen [online] Available: http://en.cop15.dk/news/view+news?newsid=2599 [accessed 16 November 2009] von Bà ¼low, M. (2009) The essentials in Copenhagen [online] Available: http://en.cop15.dk/news/view+news?newsid=876 [accessed 16 November 2009]

Ethan Frome Essays -- essays papers

Ethan Frome ‘He was but the ruin of a man’. What factors have contributed to Ethan’s tragic fate? The first factor which adds to Ethan’s tragic fate is time. The book is mainly set in the nineteenth century and in those times things like divorce and adultery were less acceptable. Ethan would have felt morally wrong to leave this wife working on a poor farm or just leaving her money. Ethan’s birth into a poor family and in the time he was born, meant that he couldn’t really do anything so he was left unhappy. There was no welfare state in the nineteenth century America so again Ethan had to accept the burden of looking after his parents and wife, paying all of Zeena’s medical ’needs’ with no help. Ethan must have found these times hard because he received no help, he was the one who had to help everyone else. Ethan Frome’s wife Zeena is quite a hypochondriac, as we hear in the prologue that the post-master at ‘intervals’ would hand him medicine packages. Again we hear of this at page forty seven that Zeenaâ€⠄¢s last visit to the doctor cost Ethan twenty dollars, money he can’t afford to be wasted. We are also told about Ethan’s desire to learn about science but with no university grants at that time and Ethan being part of a poor health stricken family he had to stop studying and go back to ’caring’ just like he does for the rest of his days. He runs a farm which seems to be run down and again because of the time there were no farm subsides to help Ethan out so the farm worries add to his plight. Mattie’s ‘coming to [the] house’ was due to her having no work to do or anywhere to stay. After her father’s death she was ’left on her own to make her way on fifty dollars’. There were fewer job... ...up’. Ethan and Mattie realise that because they can’t be with each other because of these factors I have discussed they discide to end it together. Both Mattie and Ethan express their love for each other on the top of the slope, the first time that they actually kissed and expressed love for one another. They sooner realised ’what’s the good of either of [them] going anywheres without the other one now?’ ‘Some erratic impulse’ and their love drove them to try and commit suicide. Ethan suffered after the ’smash up’. He became ’the ruin of a man’ through his ’warped right side’ and ’red gash’ across Frome’s forehead. The accident scared both Mattie and Ethan for life and changed their life forever and with the mental factors for example the economic problems along with the last physical factor, the ’smash up’ has contributed to his tragic fate.

The Blitz and St Pauls Cathedral Essay example -- England Religion Pa

The Blitz and St Paul's Cathedral When the Blitz began over Britain in the fall of 1940, Londoners were frightened and unsure of what the Nazis had in store for them. However, their uneasy emotions would later change into feelings of nationalistic pride and perseverance, as London became a city full of active resistors to the Nazi forces. This change would be prompted from a variety of sources, including Winston Churchill, the media, as well as the emergence of inspirational symbols. St. Paul's Cathedral is undoubtedly the most powerful of these symbols, becoming a timeless image associated with the Blitz, encapsulating sentiments of hope and courage. LONDON THROUGH THE BLITZ The Campaign The Blitz on London started on September 7, 1940 and continued until May 1941, lasting a total of eight months. The goals of the Blitz were to "pound Britain into submission by bombing economic and civilian targets," and primarily to soften up the morale of the British people (Ray 9). However, "unlike other campaigns this was a contest mainly between Luftwaffe aircrews and British civilians, the one group skilled and the other untrained in killing" (Ray 9). Although the first bombs fell in August, the first mass attack, concentrated on the docklands area, occurred on September 7. Throughout the afternoon, 300 bombers, escorted by 600 fighters, dropped 300 tons of bombs on the docks downstream from Tower Bridge. These bombs ravaged the East End, creating a two-mile high wall of smoke that would serve as a landmark for the night raid. When the sun set, another 330 tons of high explosives and 440 canisters of incendiary bombs were dropped. The bombing rapidly escalated and continued for the next 57 consecutive nights, increasing in str... ...monument that is St. Paul's, the testament to the courage and pride of London, 1939-1945. However, while the size of St. Paul's dwarfs the memorial to the victims, for the people whose attention is caught by the unimposing memorial, the memorial and its message stand as the remembrance of the Blitz. The message of St. Paul's being an unintended monument to the London spirit during the Blitz is no longer heard. Works Cited Fitzgibbon, Constantine. The Blitz. London: Allan Wingate, 1957. Matthews, W. R. and W. M. Atkins. A History of St. Paul's Cathedral. London: Phoenix House, 1957. Neville, John. The Blitz: London Then and Now. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1990. Ray, John. The Night Blitz 1940-1941. London: Arms and Armour Press, 1996. "The London Blitz, 1940," EyeWitness - history through the eyes of those who lived it, www.ibiscom.com (2001).

The Moon :: essays research papers

The moon   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The moon is the only natural satellite of Earth. The moon orbits the Earth from 384,400 km and has an average speed of 3700 km per hour. It has a diameter of 3476 km, which is about  ¼ that of the Earth and has a mass of 7.35e22 kg. The moon is the second brightest object in the sky after the sun. The gravitational forces between the Earth and the moon cause some interesting effects; tides are the most obvious. The moon has no atmosphere, but there is evidence by the United States Department of Defense Clementine spacecraft shows that there maybe water ice in some deep craters near the moon's North and South Pole that are permanently shaded. Most of the moon's surface is covered with regolith, which is a mixture of fine dust and rocky debris produced by meteor impact. There are two types of terrain on the moon. One is the heavily cratered and very old highlands. The other is the relatively smooth and younger craters that were flooded with molten lava. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, visual exploration through powerful telescopes has yielded a fairly comprehensive picture of the visible side of the moon. The hitherto unseen far side of the moon was first revealed to the world in October 1959 through photographs made by the Soviet Lunik III spacecraft. These photographs showed that the far side of the moon is similar to the near side except that large lunar maria are absent. Craters are now known to cover the entire moon, ranging in size from huge, ringed maria to those of microscopic size. The entire moon has about 3 trillion craters larger than about 1 m in diameter. The moon shows different phases as it moves along its orbit around the earth. Half the moon is always in sunlight, just as half the earth has day while the other half has night. The phases of the moon depend on how much of the sunlit half can be seen at any one time. In the new moon, the face is completely in shadow. About a week later, the moon is in first quarter, resembling a half-circle; another week later, the full moon shows its fully lighted surface; a week afterward, in its last quarter, the moon appears as a half-circle again. The entire cycle is repeated each lunar month, which is approximately 29.

Two Levels of Control: Strategic and Operational

Two Levels of Control: Strategic and Operational Imagine that you are the captain of a ship. The strategic controls make sure that your ship is going in the right direction; management and operating controls make sure that the ship is in good condition before, during, and after the voyage. With that analogy in mind, strategic controlstrategic controlThe process by which an organization tracks the strategy as it is being implemented, detecting any problem areas or potential problem areas that might suggest that the strategy is incorrect, and making any necessary adjustments. s concerned with tracking the strategy as it is being implemented, detecting any problem areas or potential problem areas suggesting that the strategy is incorrect, and making any necessary adjustments. [716] Strategic controls allow you to step back and look at the big picture and make sure all the pieces of the picture are correctly aligned. Operational control : A process concerned with executing the strategy. , in contrast to strategic control, is concerned with executing the strategy. Where operational controls are imposed, they function within the framework established by the strategy.Normally these goals, objectives, and standards are established for major subsystems within the organization, such as business units, projects, products, functions, and responsibility centers. [717] Typical operational control measures include return on investment, net profit, cost, and product quality. These control measures are essentially summations of finer-grained control measures. Corrective action based on operating controls may have implications for strategic controls when they involve changes in the strategy.Types of Control It is also valuable to understand that, within the strategic and operational levels of control, there are several types of control. The first two types can be mapped across two dimensions: level of proactivity and outcome versus behavioral. The following table summarizes thes e along with examples of what such controls might look like. Proactivity Proactivity can be defined as the monitoring of problems in a way that provides their timely prevention, rather than after the fact reaction.In management, this is known as feedforward controlfeedforward controlsThe active monitoring of problems in a way that provides their timely prevention, rather than after-the-fact reaction. ; it addresses what can we do ahead of time to help our plan succeed. The essence of feedforward control is to see the problems coming in time to do something about them. For instance, feedforward controls include preventive maintenance on machinery and equipment and due diligence on investments. Table  15. 1. Types and Examples of Control Control Proactivity |Behavioral control |Outcome control | |Feedforward control |Organizational culture |Market demand or economic forecasts | |Concurrent control |Hands-on management supervision during a project |The real-time speed of a production line | |Feedback control |Qualitative measures of customer satisfaction |Financial measures such as profitability, sales | | | |growth | Concurrent Controls The process of monitoring and adjusting ongoing activities and processes is known as concurrent controlconcurrent controlsProcesses that entail monitoring and adjusting ongoing activities..Such controls are not necessarily proactive, but they can prevent problems from becoming worse. For this reason, we often describe concurrent control as real-time control because it deals with the present. An example of concurrent control might be adjusting the water temperature of the water while taking a shower. Feedback Controls Finally, feedback controlsfeedback controlsProcesses that involve the gathering of information about a completed activity, evaluating that information, and taking steps to improve the similar activities in the future. involve gathering information about a completed activity, evaluating that information, and taking steps to improve the similar activities in the future.This is the least proactive of controls and is generally a basis for reactions. Feedback controls permit managers to use information on past performance to bring future performance in line with planned objectives. Control as a Feedback Loop In this latter sense, all these types of control function as a feedback mechanism to help leaders and managers make adjustments in the strategy, as perhaps is reflected by changes in the planning, organizing, and leading components. This feedback loop is characterized in the following figure. Figure  15. 4. Controls as Part of a Feedback Loop [pic] Why might it be helpful for you to think of controls as part of a feedback loop in the P-O-L-C process?Well, if you are the entrepreneur who is writing the business plan for a completely new business, then you would likely start with the planning component and work your way to controlling—that is, spell out how you are going to tell whethe r the new venture is on track. However, more often, you will be stepping into an organization that is already operating, and this means that a plan is already in place. With the plan in place, it may be then up to you to figure out the organizing, leading, or control challenges facing the organization. Outcome and Behavioral Controls Controls also differ depending on what is monitored, outcomes or behaviors. Outcome controlsoutcome controlsProcesses that are generally preferable when just one or two performance measures (say, return on investment or return on assets) are good gauges of a business’s health. re generally preferable when just one or two performance measures (say, return on investment or return on assets) are good gauges of a business’s health. Outcome controls are effective when there’s little external interference between managerial decision making on the one hand and business performance on the other. It also helps if little or no coordination wi th other business units exists. Behavioral controlsbehavioral controlsThe direct evaluation of managerial and employee decision making, not of the results of managerial decisions. involve the direct evaluation of managerial and employee decision making, not of the results of managerial decisions. Behavioral controls tie rewards to a broader range of criteria, such as those identified in the Balanced Scorecard.Behavioral controls and commensurate rewards are typically more appropriate when there are many external and internal factors that can affect the relationship between a manager’s decisions and organizational performance. They’re also appropriate when managers must coordinate resources and capabilities across different business units. Financial and Nonfinancial Controls Finally, across the different types of controls in terms of level of proactivity and outcome versus behavioral, it is important to recognize that controls can take on one of two predominant forms: f inancial and nonfinancial controls. Financial controlfinancial controlThe management of a firm’s costs and expenses to control them in relation to budgeted amounts. nvolves the management of a firm’s costs and expenses to control them in relation to budgeted amounts. Thus, management determines which aspects of its financial condition, such as assets, sales, or profitability, are most important, tries to forecast them through budgets, and then compares actual performance to budgeted performance. At a strategic level, total sales and indicators of profitability would be relevant strategic controls. Without effective financial controls, the firm’s performance can deteriorate. PSINet, for example, grew rapidly into a global network providing Internet services to 100,000 business accounts in 27 countries. However, expensive debt instruments such as junk bonds were used to fuel the firm’s rapid expansion.According to a member of the firm’s board of dire ctors, PSINet spent most of its borrowed money â€Å"without the financial controls that should have been in place. †[718] With a capital structure unable to support its rapidly growing and financially uncontrolled operations, PSINet and 24 of its U. S. subsidiaries eventually filed for bankruptcy. [719] While we often think of financial controls as a form of outcome control, they can also be used as a behavioral control. For instance, if managers must request approval for expenditures over a budgeted amount, then the financial control also provides a behavioral control mechanism as well. Increasing numbers of organizations have been measuring customer loyalty, referrals, employee satisfaction, and other such performance areas that are not financial.In contrast to financial controls, nonfinancial controlsnonfinancial controlsProcesses that track aspects of the organization that aren’t immediately financial in nature but are expected to lead to positive financial perfor mance outcomes. track aspects of the organization that aren’t immediately financial in nature but are expected to lead to positive performance outcomes. The theory behind such nonfinancial controls is that they should provide managers with a glimpse of the organization’s progress well before financial outcomes can be measured. [720] And this theory does have some practical support. For instance, GE has found that highly satisfied customers are the best predictor of future sales in many of its businesses, so it regularly tracks customer satisfaction. Key Takeaway Organizational controls can take many forms.Strategic controls help managers know whether a chosen strategy is working, while operating controls contribute to successful execution of the current strategy. Within these types of strategy, controls can vary in terms of proactivity, where feedback controls were the least proactive. Outcome controls are judged by the result of the organization’s activities, w hile behavioral controls involve monitoring how the organization’s members behave on a daily basis. Financial controls are executed by monitoring costs and expenditure in relation to the organization’s budget, and nonfinancial controls complement financial controls by monitoring intangibles like customer satisfaction and employee morale.