Comparing Social Welfare Systems: UK and Germany

Comparing cordial Welf be Systems UK and Ger many another(prenominal) another(prenominal)This base bequeath seek to comp be the societal eudaimonia administrations of England and Germany with regard to how they cater for the venerable. The make-up will approach the distinguish by firstly discussing the theoretical underpinnings of the social welfare recite in both England and Germany. This initial theoretical depth psychology is important because it sets the existence to understand the personal manner in which social welfare policy in both countries approach deal of the immemorial. The paper will then provide a comparative abstr work on of the welfare issues affecting the ancient such as national insurance, elderly care, pension provisions, health care and other pertinent variables. This simile will then seek to establish defining characteristics of each model towards elderly care.One of the around prolific scholarly expositions on welfare systems and their id eologic frameworks come from Epsing-Anderson1 who postulated that there are three distinct regimes of welfare systems. These he identified as Liberal, Corporatist and Social Democratic. Within this model, he located Germany as a Corporatist- Conservative regime and the United Kingdom as a Liberal welfare regime. Nevertheless, despite arguing how welfare tell aparts progress to developed and can be characterized under these three trajectories, Epsing-Anderson maintains that the welfare deposit cannot be regarded as the sum total of social policies, it is more than a numerical cumulation of discrete programmes.2 With this in mind, the paper will now bring the theoretical underpinnings of Germany as a Corporatist-Conservative regime.Germany maintains a welfare system that is usually classified as the classical Bismarckian welfare res publica. This intimates that the welfare system in Germany is structured among class and occupational lines and subsequently a high degree of stratif ication, a foresighted the lines of market participation exists. The state, rather than the market, is the most important agency in the delivery of welfare and benefits are provided through and through a ne twork of public, quasi public, orphic and voluntary organisations.3 The German welfare state is characterized by a dominance of mandatory social insurance schemes such as health, un occupyment, pensions, disability and long care. These schemes are predominantly contribution based benefits with the state partly contributing to public pension schemes, unemployment insurance and social assistance.Another feature of the German cautious welfare system is that it ascribes the male breadwinner model with world-shaking corrections. It is steeped in the social policy dictates of Catholicism and this is demonstrated by a commitment to the preservation of status divers(prenominal)ials4 by emphasising self-help and to the preservation of a traditional family model. Womens benefits are in extricably linked to their spouse, which in modern day hunting lodge, places women at a disadvantage because they may ware exhausted years caring for elderly relatives, or childrearing and widows pensions are inherently small(a).5However, the German welfare state has had to adapt to the modern realties of modern society where more women are remaining single, divorce judge are higher and individuals spend a penny to work for much longer. The oft practiced early retirement feature of the German welfare state has also seen adjustments as families, especially women now need to reconcile salaried work commitments along with duties towards their loved singles in invest to ensure a right standard of nutrition in todays market led economy.6 These changes come had an effect on how elderly care is administered and ordered within the German welfare sate. beforehand the issue of care for the elderly with the German welfare state model is explored, the paper will now examine the cha racteristics of the UK welfare state.Converse to the German corporatist-conservative welfare state model, the United Kingdom is largely been historically characterized as an example of a s leave out welfare model. However as Epsing-Anderson stated earlier, no one regime is a pure typology, instead they are usually a hybrid form albeit with an overarching ideology. Modern day societies demand that so called welfare regimes afford pragmatic shifts to adjust to social, political and stinting shifts. In light of these changes the UK welfare system is figureed as a liberal socialist welfare system.Firstly, the welfare system in the UK places a distinct emphasis on market-based social insurance and it uses of bureau-testing for the fair distribution of benefits. It regards as fair the distribution of more benefits to the poor or undefendable who are viewed as more deserving. In this regard, welfare is oriented towards a class of the poor dependent or what is called the residual welfa re state. The consequence of this is that, there is a low degree of de-commodification, meaning, benefits are limited and stigmatised by the general populace as the model assumes that high levels of benefit will reduce incentives to work. A high degree of stratification exists within the UK welfare state, wherein, the state plays an active role in social relations.One of the factors impacting the classification of the UK as a liberal social democratic welfare state regime is the existence of in-kind services such as free health care which is delivered through the National health Service (NHS) and the prevalence of subsidised social lodgement to vulnerable groups, such as the elderly, single parents and the septless.One of the most impacting changes within the liberal social democratic social welfare regime of the UK was pension reform in the 1980s. These reforms saw the government cutting back on contributions that were earnings appetite to retirement incomes and the heightened get onment of private schemes as a necessary supplement. Many employers took advantage of the new low regulations on pension schemes and did not offer commensurate coverage sufficient for a decent retirement standard of living and quality of life.7 Subsequently, the UK government has not been able to negotiate adequate pension conditions with private employers on behalf of workers. All these changes within the liberal oriented UK welfare state model necessitates the discussion on how the elderly is affected.The aforementioned discussion on the typology of the welfare state in both Germany and the UK was necessary to this paper, as it sets the stage to understand how the elderly are treated within these two ideological frameworks. It also allows for an analysis on how modern day society has altered or shifted these ideological welfare state positions. To this end, the paper will now consider the comparative analysis with a focus on the heterogeneous modes of care and policies to wards the elderly in both Germany and the UK.One of the most important modes of care for the elderly is the provision of good health care. In societies where younger children engender had to buy into active participation in a market based economy, the elderly becomes a particularly vulnerable group. Wegner explains this aptly when he statesThe absence of supportive health and social services contributes to some(prenominal) important problems (1) the quality of care may fall short of adequate standards, resulting in instances neglect or abuse (2) the strain of care giving places caregivers themselves at risk for many health problems and (3) the heavy burden falling on a single caregiver eventually results in a wideer reliance on institutional care than may be necessary.8Germanys historically conservative welfare state ideology, dictated that the family should be the main care-giver and support system for the elderly. However, with the elderly population living alone in Germany is the highest in the OECD and the European Union. Sensing that this tend would have been inevitable, Germany launched a long term care insurance scheme in 1994 which targeted the elderly. This scheme functions on a pay as you go priming coat and is strictly aimed at those in need of social assistance.9 It is financed through earmarked social insurance contributions and organized as a separate break up of social insurance.10 Some features of the scheme are company based care, payment to caregivers and nursing homes, home modifications, personal assistance and general household assistance. In some instance, the elderly are also covered under the states accident and pension insurance schemes.Interestingly, Taylor-Gooby11 notes that space was still made to forbear conservative values with the introduction of the long-term care assistance as legislation such as cash reimbursement with expose any form of monitoring to encourage family supported care giving practices.In contrast, the eld erly in the UK receive completely free health care under the statutory National Health Service which is free to all citizens post World War II. However, as previously discussed, the UK underwent serious cutbacks in pension provisions in the 1980s and this has place a significant number of retirement age pensioners at risk of poverty. Furthermore, the government also cut back in the number of public beds purchasable for care in hospitals. This has in some ways encouraged caregiving from family members for the elderly, but like Germany, may younger family members have to reconcile paid employment with their desire to care for their loved ones. This has placed considerable strain on the NHS as the elderly suffer many injuries from largely having to care for themselves. The strain on the NHS reached such a crescendo that some doctors even recommended not treating the very old.12 The NHS has come under great criticism for its treatment of the elderly,13 consequently the government, is trying to achieve the finiss of its 10 year plan to reform care of the elderly in the UK which is documented in the National Service Framework for Older People. The inspection report funding come up into Later Life14 recommended that the NHS needed to do more to encourage intimatelybeing and active ageing among the elderly. Specifically, while the NHS system is fraught with irregularities, vulnerable persons such as the elderly are increasingly being condition more attention within the UK welfare state, with appeals for more state intervention, as opposed to the unsympathetic family oriented model of Germany.Housing is another important issue for the elderly. In Germany, the tradition of home care has affected the number of elderly persons who leave the home environment for care. Only 4% of the over 65 year old age group live in a nursing home or other forms of institutional care, despite the high number of elderly Germans living alone.15 Much of these attitudes towards institu tional care are grounded in German legislation as the constitution is based on the principle of subsidiarity whereby responsibility for welfare needs rests squarely with families, then local or federal authorities, that order.16The German long term care insurance pays for personal care, medical help and social care17 in a nursing institution for the elderly only when familial help is no longer possible. It avoids paying for accommodation and subsistence costs and the total payment does not exceed 75 percent of the total cost.. Dallinger maintains that housing for the elderly in Germany is usually determined along social class lines.18 She makes this assertion because the higher and middle class are usually financially able to employ paid care or help for their elderly family members and therefore institutional care is usually only sought by those who cannot afford such care. Nonetheless, Dallinger points out that the extend of German women entering the labour market has necessitate d a greater demand on the need for the elderly to rely on the welfare state for care assistance, since younger women were the traditional caregivers.Housing for the elderly in the UK suffers similar challenges as younger family members do not have the time to care for their elderly relatives because of the gradual individualization of the society. This places the elderly at risk of social exclusion and being marginalized within modern day Britain. Consequently, the government has reduced the cost of housing council tax income for the elderly and has provided them additionally benefits such as free transportation to encourage them to remain at home, while fostering active lives. Additionally, the Living Well into Later Life inspection report found a renewed push by the government to encourage older persons to stay in their avouch homes by providing them with paid personal caregivers. Furthermore an outreach group called Supporting People was actively advocating for the building of m ore sheltered housing facilities for the elderly.19 However, it is appropriate to mount that the issue of elderly housing in the UK receives more state intervention and welfare services than it does in Germany.This paper previously discussed how state cutbacks on pensions in the UK have placed the elderly in a particularly vulnerable retirement position. The UK now sees a pension scenario where those who are better off financially are able to buy into private pension schemes, and those who cannot afford have to rely on what is now a diminishing pension returns at retirement via the state. Furthermore, many individuals who were advised by pension salesmen, bought into private schemes yet saw their entire pension investments diminish in the mid to late 90s when many private companies went bust because of being unregulated.20Taylor-Gooby asserts that in Germany, retirement income which traditionally came from public pensions, has seen a shift since a 2001 pension reform initiative in the state.21 The German state has moved towards provision of a mixture of public-private pension scheme, along with great encouragement to citizens that public pensions will not suffice pre-retirement standard of living, therefrom plugging supplementary private schemes. Noting the failure of such schemes in the UK in the 90s, Germany has sought to have stricter regulations on private pension providers. Furthermore, in line with its conservative ideology, women are given pension credits under the German welfare scheme for time taken off work for childrearing.It is therefore conclusive to say that while the UK and Germany have ideologically different perspectives on how their welfare state is structured, both countries have had to adapt to socio-economic changes within their societies and aim to provide better care for the elderly. The pressures of a rapidly aging population, the individualization of both societies has caused the elderly population to become increasingly isolated an d at risk of being severely socially excluded and marginalized. Consequently social policies that inform traditional welfare states have become more pragmatic in their approaches while still trying to retain their ideological perspectives.BibliographyAlber, J. (1996) The Debate just about Long Term Care Reform in Germany, in OECD (ed.) Caring for Frail Elderly People Policies in Evolution. Social polity Studies, No. 19, pp. 261-278.Dallinger, U. (2002) Elderly Care in the Family in Germany. Paper contributed to COST 13A Meeting in Copenhagen, Friday 19. April 2002. Accessed on October 20, 2008 at http//www.socsci.auc.dk/cost/gender/Workingpapers/UrsulaDallinger.pdfDonnelly, L., (September. 26, 2008) Dont Treat the Old and Unhealthy says Doctors. The Telegraph. London. Accessed on October 21, 2008 at http//www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1576704/Dont-treat-the-old-and-unhealthy,-say-doctors.htmlEsping-Andersen, G. (1994) benefit States and the Economy, in N. J. Smelser and R. Swed berg (eds) The Handbook of Economic Sociology, pp. 71132. New York Princeton University PressEsping-Andersen, G. (1990) The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Oxford Polity Press.Goode perpetration (1994) Pensions Law Reform. Cm 2342-1, HMSO.Laurance, J. (March 27, 2006) The Great Betrayal How the NHS Fails the Elderly. The Independent. London. Accessed on October 21, 2008 at http//www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/the-great-betrayal-how-the-nhs-fails-the-elderly-471635.htmlLiving Well into Later Life A revaluation of Progress Against the National Service Framework for Older People. Audit Commission. Audit Commission. UK. Accessed on October 21, 2008 at http//www.audit-commission.gov.uk/Products/NATIONAL-REPORT/4C4C40BE-6383-40E0-8B26-48D7FAF39A56/HCC_older%20PeopleREP.pdfSolsten, E. ed. (1995) Germany A Country Study. Washington GPO for the Library of Congress. Accessed on October 19, 2008 at http//countrystudies.us/germany/111.htmTaylor-Gooby, P. (2004) New Risks, New Welfare The Transformation of the European Welfare State. Oxford Oxford University Press.Wegner, E. (2001) Restructuring Care for the Elderly in Germany. Current Sociology. Vol. 49(3) pp. 175-1881Footnotes1 Epsing-Anderson, G. (1990)2 Epsing-Anderson, G. (1994) pp. 711-323 Solsten, E. (1995) Accessed at http//countrystudies.us/germany/111.htm4 Epsing-Anderson, G. (1990)5 Solsten, E. (1995) Accessed at http//countrystudies.us/germany/111.htm6 Taylor-Gooby, P. (2004) p. 317 Goode Committee (1994)8 Wegner, Eldon. (2001) p.29 Ibid.10 Taylor-Gooby, P. (2004) p. 4211 Ibid., p.4012 Donelly, The Telegraph (Sept 26, 2008) Accessed at http//www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1576704/Dont-treat-the-old-and-unhealthy,-say-doctors.html13 Laurance, J. The Independent (March 27, 2006) Accessed at http//www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/the-great-betrayal-how-the-nhs-fails-the-elderly-471635.html14 Living Well Into Later Life. Accessed at http//ww w.audit-commission.gov.uk/Products/NATIONAL-REPORT/4C4C40BE-6383-40E0-8B26-48D7FAF39A56/HCC_older%20PeopleREP.pdf15 Dallinger, U. (2002) p.216 Alber. J (1996) p.26417 Wegner, E. (2001) p. 18018 Dallinger, U. (2002) p. 319 Living Well Into Later Life. Op. cit. p. 6820 Taylor-Gooby, P. (2004) p. 6121 Ibid. p.35Social responsibility, maximising remunerations?Social responsibility, maximising profits?In his article The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits (1970), Milton Friedman, the Nobel laureate in economics, argued for what was summed up in the title of his article the social responsibility of craftes is simply and solely to tap profitsIn the following, different arguments for and against Milton Friedmans statement will be presented and criticized. The inherent theories and principles will be presented as far as needed in order to discuss the extent to which this statement is true.Milton Freidman starts his famous article by describing the claim for a soci al responsibility of patronage by a pure and real socialism. For him, stating that job has a responsibility is looseness and lacks rigour. A company is only an artificial person and can not have responsibilities like an individual can.In this regard, only people in an organization, which means only the individual proprietors or the corporate executives, can have any social or moral responsibility.The managers of a company have a legal responsibility to manage the company in the best interests of the stockholders. As those shareholders first interest in investing their bullion in a business is to increase their wealth, then the managers sole responsibility is to maximize the profits for their shareholders. It is the legal and moral obligation of the managers to abbreviate solely on serving their employers best interest, which means increasing profit.If the managers or the shareholders feel the need to fulfil any moral, social or ethical duties, they may very well devote some of their incomes or time to such activities. They are in doing so acting as a principal, not an agent. They are blow overing their avow money and time, not those of the corporation they are working for and those of its shareholders.If an executive or a manager is fulfilling any social responsibility, this means that he will act in a way that is not in the direct interest of his employer, or worse, that is violating his duty of maximizing the profit.Any money or time that is spent by an executive in any kind of social action will not be spent to increase the shareholders wealth, to reduce prices or to increase wages. Therefore, this executive is spending someone elses money, the shareholders, the customers or the employees.Furthermore, in doing so, the manager is actually imposing a tax to the shareholders, the customers and the employees. He is also deciding on how those tax proceeds are to be spent.This is for Freidman a governmental function.In doing so, executives are, as per Fre idman, simultaneously legislators, executives and, jurists. They become what Freidman calls public employees, civil servants even though they are employees of a private corporation.It is therefore the governments responsibility to impose taxes and determine the expenditures to be spent by any and all businesses in social activities.Freidman also recognizes that some businesses expertness act socially, contribute to charities or provide amenities. This can be described hypocritically by social responsibility or social actions. The real and hidden curtilage for businesses in doing so is to gain a long-term profit from such actions, like attracting desirable employees, reducing wage bill or tax proceeds.To resume his thoughts and in his tribute to an ideal free-market, Freidman believes that no individual can coerce any other, all cooperation is voluntary, all parties to such cooperation benefit or they need not participate. There are no values, no social responsibilities in any sen se other than the shared values and responsibilities of individuals. Society is a collection of individuals and of the various groups they voluntarily form. Some others do believe, all the same way, that the sole responsibility of a company is to compete to maximize profit. Adam Smith (As reported by The Economist, 2005) believes that benevolence is not necessary to say the public interest. Rather, self-interest and profit-seeking is what brings humans to accomplish things, produce goods and services and thus benefit each others. It is false to view that profit-seeking fails to serve and advance the public interest, and that something else needs to be given back to the society to compensate for this profit-seeking.Keith Davis (1973) advances several arguments against the so called Corporate Social Responsibility. First of all, as per Freidman, the business function is an economic one, and the manager is the agent of the stockholders and has thus to maximize their profits.The secon d argument given by Davis is the costs of the social involvement. Indeed, many social goals do not have any economic outcome. Any business must spend with great caution its scarce resources, although sometimes very substantial, or it will sooner or later cause financial distress. Indeed, scarce resources will never self-renew, and must thus be spent in a way that guarantees at the minimum their recovery, if not gaining some premium.The author here cites some example metal foundries which could not meet the high costs of new pollution equipment and closed their doors.Another argument advanced by Davis is the lack of social skills of many businessmen. The author questions whether those businessmen, who are experts at generating profit, are well sufficient to deal with social and public interests.Keith Davis also presents the argument of the dilution of the business primary purpose. A business involvement in social activities king dilute its primary focus on economic productivity, di vide the interests of its leaders, and weaken business in the market place, with the results that it would accomplish poorly both its economic and its social roles.Furthermore, if a business spends resources in social programs, then these resources must be recovered, generally by increasing prices to the final consumer. In the same manner, if spending in social activities reduces the business productivity, this leads to higher production costs. If the business is operating in international markets with other firms that do not have to support such additional costs, the socially trusty ones will have a competitive disadvantage.Another argument is that the businesses that would support social activities will have additional social power. Davis states that business is one of the two or three most powerful institutions in society at the present time, giving extra social responsibilities to the business would result in an lush concentration of power which will reduce the viability of ou r free society.In addition, Davis believes that although some people want businesses to be more liable and socially involved, some dont. This lack of agreement among the public may result in a lack of broad support for the businesses and thus social frictions and disagreements.Finally, one of the most relevant arguments given by Keith Davis is probably the fact that businessmen are not accountable to people, but only to their stockholders. It should therefore be unwise to give them responsibility in areas where they are not accountableThis idea of non-accountability of businessmen and managers is also used by Michael C. Jensen (2002). Jensen criticizes the stakeholder theory as stated by Freeman (1984), Clarkson Principles (1999) and others because it contains no constructual specification of how to make the tradeoffs among stakeholders that must be made. This makes the theory damaging to firms and to social welfare. According to Freedman, as stated by Jensen (p. 254), The definit ion of stakeholder is any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of an organizations purpose. This includes shareholders, customers, employees, suppliers, but also the people who might be affected directly or indirectly by the companys business, through for example the damages to the environment, the layoffs, the corruption etc. Adopting the stakeholder theory brings businesses to be socially responsible.Jensen states that the managers who adopt this stakeholder theory will do what they want, spend the business money in social or other activities which are of no interest to the business or to the stakeholders, and will not be accountable for that.He thinks that the stakeholder theory must be inline with the long-term objective of value maximization. Only by keeping in mind that the value needs to be maximized that managers will find the good trade-offs between the different stakeholders.In a less extreme position than Freidman and the other authors cite d above, Patrick Primeaux and John Stieber (1994), as well as Josie Fisher (2004) believe that social responsibility and long-term profit are not incompatible, and that being socially responsible could be converted into business opportunities. Orlitzky (2003), Russo and Fouts (1997) and Waddock and grave (1997) (as cited by Husted and Salazar, 2006, p. 75) even found that corporate social performance has a positive impact on the firms financial performanceHowever, several different researches busy a variety of theories and methodologies to study the potential relationship between corporate social responsibility activities and other traditional measures of a firms success (Mahoney and Roberts, 2007). The results are confusing. run for along Makni, Claude Francoeur and Franois Bellavance (2009) found in their study that socially responsible firms experience lower profits and reduced shareholder wealth, which in turn limits the socially responsible investments.Bryan W. Husted and Jo s de rescuer Salazar (2006) state on their side, that a business can not make maximum profit while investing in social responsibility activities. Rather, great overall social and financial output can be achieved only when businesses adopt a strategic approach, than an altruistic approach.Kant would have argued that even if the outcomes of such businesses actions might be beneficial to the society, the intention of those businesses is bad in the first place. As far as people are used as a means for those businesses to maximize their own profit, they are not ethical.All of the above are arguments that tend to support Freidmans theory, which in turn states that a business must concentrate on maximizing profit. The less extreme approaches suppose that it is possible to conciliate social activities and profit maximization, but the latter must remain the primary goal of any business.Keith Davis, in his call for a social responsibility of businesses, puts forward the arguments that acting socially would serve the long-run self-interest of the business, enhance the public two-baser and the viability of the business, avoid any government regulation, serve the stockholders interest and prevent any future social problems, thus before all maximizing the long-term profit for the shareholders.The whole issue of ethics and business ethics is a complex one. Companies are made up of people. Multinationals are made up of many different nationalities. Several opponents to Freidmans theory do believe that businesses are part of society and as such they should reflect society norms. Companies, especially multinational ones, do have responsibilities in the world and have to be a positive influence. If a company is not ethical, then it will not survive as a company.Marjorie Kelly believes that maximizing profit and returns to shareholders isnt a legitimate mandate. Indeed, she argues that the shareholders are in effect not financing the public corporations. The money that a shareh older invests in a public company does not go to the company itself but rather to other speculators. Such investments go to the public corporation only when new green stock is sold, which is a rare event. Actually only the founders, entrepreneurs and initial investors are bearing the risk associated with a business. 99% of the money which is invested further on in those companies goes to the original investors and not to the company. So in effect, an established business is not get any money from the shareholders, who are rather exchanging their stocks and gambling on several fields. They are thus not the legitimate owners or funders of the business which in turn does not have to care about their desires more than those of other stakeholders and the community in general.Freidman, in his argumentation, states that only individuals in a business can have moral responsibility, but every business is made up of the decisions freely taken and approved incarnately. The responsibility in such a decision process is thus not reduced to an individual, but rather it is a collective and shared responsibility among all the individuals who drive a business. As soon as the decisions are freely chosen and approved by the collection of individuals who run the business, they are all responsible for the outcomes of those decisions and are subject to moral evaluation.Furthermore, by seeking solely the profit maximization, some managers might allow or initiate actions which may be illegal but are for sure immoral, like aggressive selling techniques or untrue publicity. They are, for this, acting in an immoral way and are responsible for that.Social responsibility refers to the obligations businesses have toward society. These are obligations that ought to be fulfilled which indicates a normative use of the term (Josie Fisher, 2004). The author opposes to the classical economic view of Freidman and Levitt, the socioeconomic view that offers a broader account of social responsibi lity. Business has obligations that go beyond pursuing profits and include protecting and improving society. Boatright (2000), as cited by Fisher (2004, p.396), goes on to say that by implication businesses must be willing to forgo a certain measure of profit in order to achieve noneconomic ends. Backman, also cited by Fisher (2004, p396), identified some examples of corporate social responsibility Employment of minority groups, reduction in pollution, greater participation in programs to improve the community, improved medical care, improved industrial health and safety.The social responsibility of a business is then to comply with the behaviours and norms that society expects business to follow. This focus on the socioeconomic view is a normative discourse, as it emphasizes how society believes business ought to behave.Several studies and researches have been conducted in the last decades on the business ethics and on how companies ought to behave. Those studies concentrate on th ree main subjects inherent to todays business The globalization, the sustainability and the stakeholder theory presented earlier.Indeed, in recent times, multinational companies have pornographic rapidly and are yielding an excessive power. Those firms have also invaded multiple countries and cultures and are having an excessive economic and political power especially in small and poorer countries. They therefore are now responsible for their actions that might greatly impact such countries. Taking benefit of the poorness of local population to practice low wages or employ children is for sure a socially irresponsible action of those businesses.The second concept that has been studied in the recent ethics researches is sustainability. The sustainability is about the long-term effect of any business (or other) operation on any external factor like environment. As a matter of intergenerational equity, it is the businesses responsibility to consider the effects of their activities on the natural resources and the society and to repair any damages that can affect the future generations rights and equity. It is therefore the businesses responsibility to act sustainably.The third concept is the stakeholder theory, which has been presented earlier. The normative discourse of business ethics states that businesses ought to take into account the interests of all stakeholder groups.The different arguments presented so far range from those supporting Freidmans statement that any business social responsibility is to solely maximize the profits to the shareholders, those who support that a business can and has the duty to be socially responsible and try to advance the public good as far as this will have a beneficial impact on the long-run value and profits of the company, and finally those arguments supporting that any business ought to act socially, sustainably, invest in programmes that benefit the public interest, and be morally responsible for the outcomes of its o perations. The supporters of this last view believe that businesses have to adapt their objectives, from solely financial, to a higher level which is all of the stakeholders, the public, the environment and the future generations interest.The latter arguments are therefore normative, and do provide a view about what business ought to be. This is the aim of the business ethics philosophy.From a more practical point of view, and considering how the companies are acting in todays world, it is true that many of them are advocates and practitioners of Corporate Social Responsibility. Many CEOs, especially in Europe, are convinced that fundamental capitalism fails to serve the public interest, and are promoting moral and socially responsible actions in their companies, like treating employees well, encouraging loyalty among customers and suppliers, avoiding any investment in unethical markets or countries that pay low wages and employ children, saving goose egg and recycling.However, no one doubts that this is not a standard yet. Social responsibility is not the norm today, and although some practitioners of Corporate Social Responsibility are getting some benefit, like a good public image, many of them are disadvantaged because of such social investments that some competitors do not support.Also, in the cite of social responsibility, some multinational companies stopped their investments in poor countries where wages are very low. This is having a negative impact on those countries concerned that would have benefited from those investments.It is the aim of the business ethics discipline to study and propose what businesses ought to do and how they ought to behave. But I do think that it is the role of the governments to impose some basic moral principles and behaviours that must be respected by each and every business. Businessmen ought to behave morally but they will never all do so. A critical morality of moralities or a Metaethics has to be imposed by a highe r institution governments- in order to guarantee the basis for equity.ConclusionIn this work, different arguments for and against the 40-year old but still so famous statement of Milton Friedman that The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits have been presented and discussed. The normative discourse stating how business ought to behave is for sure morally and ethically against this statement and its arguments will sound both moral and logical for any mind.However, universe is far from the moral ideal. In my opinion, it is the governments responsibility to impose a minimum ethical code to be respected by businesses and individuals to guarantee the equity of rights and advance the public interest.

Comparing Leadership Styles | Effect of Leadership Styles of Business

Comparing Leadership Styles Effect of Leadership Styles of BusinessAny organization can non survive without a sound circumspection system. The management and how to manage the company from an over on the all aspect is mainly established by a core soulfulness in this company and he/she is called the loss leader of this company. It is wide accepted that no company can be successfully without effective management and without a competent leader. Therefore, the leader of the company plays a critical role for the organization. Different leaders with different natures and characteristics may bring up completely different management theory to the company, which testament excessively decide the development model of the company and determine the success of failure of the company. The lead style will greatly decide the companys development for the future. It is a careful decision who to be hired or selected to be in charge of the company and guide the strategy of the company. Therefo re, in order to analyze how the role of leader plays in an organization, cardinal different leaders give way been selected in this report. The objective of this report is to analyze leadership styles by selecting ii leaders from two companies. One is Carly Fiorina with HP companionship, and the other adept is Michael T. Duke with Wal-Mart Company. These two different leaders are different in their leadership in many ways and the differences between their leadership approaches are demonsrtated in the critical analysis section. In the end the conclusion of the effectvie leadership is made based on the findings of the two cases.2.0 IntroductionAs to the development of a company, the vastness of the leader is obvious to the whole company. With reference to each successful enterprise, it is obvious that there is an outstanding leader guiding an excellent team, such as rascal Welch with GM Corporation America and Chinese Zhang Ruimin, leader of Haier Company and so on. Therefore, whether a company will be successful or not is greatly connected with who is leading the company. As the leadership topic is mentioned, this report is going to focus on the leadership in an organization. In this report, two famous leaders have been chosen and discussed from HP and Wal-Mart Companies in cost of their ways of leading the company and the major characteristics they have which may affect their ways regarding managing the team and the company. found on the findings of the case study, comparison and contrast of both leaders with respect to their managing styles and leader style will be analyzed. At last, reasonable and information-based conclusion related to to leader management will be drawn.3.0 Leader 1 Carly Fiorina with HP CompanyHewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. which is HP company for short and established in linked States in 1939, is a company specialized in developing and manufacturing computers, printers, software and other digital fields. HPs Corpora te Objectives which was written by co-founders Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard have command the company for decades. The objective is It is necessary that people work together in unison toward common objectives and avoid working at cross purposes at all levels if the ultimate in efficiency and achievement is to be obtained. HP Company has been developed very(prenominal) speedy in technology areas and expanded to the worldwide. In anyplace you can see HP logo and its products in everywhere. HPs development and success can not be real without excellent leaders. Here Carly Fiorina as one of the excellent and competent chief operating officers is selected to analyze for the purpose of explaining the relation between a leader and company success.Carly Fiorina was born in 1954 and graduated from Stanford University. In 1999, she was presented as the CEO of HP company and ended as the CEO role in 2005. Carly Fiorina is a very competent leader. Before she took the CEO beat, HP Company wa s encountering days of depressing time, especially in the years of 1997 and 1998, the company faced the unprecedented difficulties and the sales income was far behind its expectations. Fiorina started her career in business as a receptionist, but later she jumped very disruptive to the positions of management and leadership. Fiorina is also a very excellent communicator and her speech is convincing the same as the Ex-president Bill Clinton.Carly Fiorina was the low gear female CEO in HPs history (Carlys biography, 2010). During her stay with role of CEO in HP, she has developed comprehensive skills in leadership which include planning, delegating, decision making, set up and communication. She brought a lot of transfigures to HP and turned the HP ways into the Carly way (Forsyth, 2006). Carly Fiorina is characterized with board decision making and brave in taking actions. When made the unification with Compaq Company with a 25 billion USD in 2001, it was a broad step for takin g.In terms of leadership style, Carly Fiorina could be determined as bossy in controlling and regulating policy, procedures within the company. Besides this leadership feature, she should also be concluded to be equipped with democratic leadership style (Sprenger, 2010). Carly Fiorinas leadership styles are most cultivated by her ad hominemities. She is very diligent and hard working at the same time she is also good at selling. She stands very calm in any situation and is good at calculating and thinking. She is very dedicated to the rocking horse of goals that she thinks that it is well-intentioned. She is very persistent with things. In Fiorinas view, every person is capable of far more than they realize. Fiorina holds this view in her life and applies it into her management. She is capable of digging and encouraging her teams exponent. Some of her team workers feel very thankful to her, because she gave the feel to them to realize who they were and what they could do and wh ere they could reach in the future. With this characteristic, it is good to gather people and confine them work hard to achieve the goal.Fiorina likes to engage activities personally which is another element contributing to her successful leadership (Sadler, 2003). After she took the position as CEO, she started her trips to anywhere the HP covers and to investigate the problems and potentials there. She is very responsible for her position. She is persistent in doing the recompense things, for the right reasons and the right way, most of the time it will turn out all right. When she was with HP Company, she will never give up what she thinks is a right option or decision and she will lead her team to go for it.Thanks to Carly Fiorinas effective leading approach, HP Company has grown and developed very fast and achieved with the most important merger in HP history. During the period she took the leadership in HP Company, HP expanded very quickly to the world and its food market share has grown. Compared with the developing and expanding and profit making situation in the lead Fiorina as CEO, HP has made great success in terms of both self-development and its fast expansion to overseas markets. However, although Carly Fiorinas leadership has brought HP benefits in a range of areas, she was still not welcomed by all people within the company. Her leading behaviour was not always appreciated by HP board (House and Price, 2009). Carly Fiorina holds her direction was right for HPs development for ample term however, other HP board broken about the direction of HP under Fiorinas leading. And also because Fiorina is a female leader, to some(prenominal) extent, most males are not really accepted the fact of world managed or controlled by a female. Plus Fiorina is a comparatively authorized person with respect to management. Therefore, in 2005, Carly Fiorina finished her CEO life within HP Company.4.0 Leader 2 Michael T. Duke with Wal-Mart CompanyWal-Mart as one of the worlds largest retailers has developed and expanded very fast. It has now expanded to many other countries and has occupied a relatively large retail market share there. Wal-Mart has thousands of products where consumers can find their various needs. The company now is continuing to broaden and accelerate its global efforts on sustainable development and responsible sourcing and opportunities. Until April this year, Wal-Mart has established businesses in 14 countries besides its businesses in United States. There are more than 4000 stores running around the world. Compared with the finance narrative in 2009, the sales incomes in overseas markets have broken through 100 billion US dollars (Charles, 2009).microphone Duke is the president and CEO of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. As CEO, Mike leads a strong management team that is focused on keeping Walmarts mission of saving people money so they can live bust relevant to every customer, every day. Mike Duke joined Walmart in 199 5. Mike has taken various positions in Wal-Mart before he reached his current position as the leader of Wal-Mart. He has led the divisions of logistics, distribution and administration. He was capable and active in developing and executing corporate strategy.Duke is a low-key person which is very consistent with Wal-Mart style. He does not like to flaunt. The only leisure hobby of Duke is to play Golf. Duke is the fifth CEO of Wal-Mart. He is appointed by the prior CEO, Scot lee(prenominal). Lee appreciates Duke very much. Some people comment that Lee and Duke are very similar in their personalities and management. The most distinguished difference is Duke is check at complaisant relations with people. From Dukes colleagues view, he is a considerate person as loyal to friendship and helpful to others.As a senior manager of Wal-Mart, Duke is very authorise when to start a fight for Wal-Mart business growth. One retail analyst has commented that Duke is very ambitious. The develo pment strategy held by Duke is that Wal-Mart must occupy the leading position in the retail industry. Therefore, Duke made decision to withdraw Wal-Mart from Germany and South Korea where the sales are not desirable. And also he decided to hold 95.1% of stake from the previous 50.9% of its subsidiary Japanese company Seiyu Department Store. At that time, every one warned that it might be a very high-risk decision, but Duke believed that as long as Wal-Mart gets more control stake, it will make things different.As a successful leader, you must be competent in the areas you exert in. The competence areas such as envision, involving and goal-oriented. Duke is experienced in the management field. Before he joined Wal-Mart, he was an executive at Federated and May Department Stores for 23 years. And before he took CEO role, he was engaged in various sectors in Wal-Mart, which enabled him the wide knowledge about the whole operation in the Wal-Mart. And also from the variety perspective speaking, leaders should have the ability of responding to and managing the external changes. When Duke saw Wal-Marts poor sales in Germany, he made the broad step to withdraw from the Germany market. in-person characteristics and behaviors also contribute to be a successful leader or not. Duke gives his colleagues an impression of friendly and kind and easy-going, which does not mean he is not rigorous or decisive. On the contrary, Duke has the talent of gathering his employees and also has a clear direction where the company shall develop into. Duke made commitment that in order to make up the bad sales in American topical anesthetic market Wal-Mart would fasten its pace in expanding to other potential overseas markets. He verbalize to his employees that the anticipation is to attract more consumers and set up more stores world widely and accelerate Wal-Mart global expansion.For Wal-Mart, Dukes presence as the CEO is like change blood to Wal-Mart. Firstly, it was the very right time for Duke to take the position after the depressing year in 2008. Secondly, collectable the change of the political leader in United States, Wal-Mart had to choose a different CEO the represent a different Wal-Mart to the whole America Society. Because the political environment sounds not advantageous to Wal-Mart since classless Party won the election. In the previous years , Wal-Mart was supporting the Republic Party with its 85% amount of political capital went to Republican and just 15% left to Democratic Party. Duke may have to transfer its political policy within the organization for seeking a better development in its local market. Therefore, Despite Dukes leadership style will probably bring a bright future to Wal-Mart Duke will definitely meet new challenges in this position. downstairs Dukes leading, because Duke is paying highly attention to his employee staff, it will be easy to gather and establish competent team. Also due to Dukes rich experience working the stor es Company and his working experience in various sector of Wal-Mart for years, Duke has a very comprehensive view over the overall company developing. However, everything has its two sides. Although Wal-Mart may have the potential of grasping a good chance to develop and expand under Dukes leading approach, there are also potential challenges or disadvantages present to its development.5.0 Critical analysis-comparison and contrast between the two leaders with respect to their leadership styles5.1 Differences in personal characteristicsCarly Fiorinas characteristicsSomebody was born to a competitive, such as Carly. She has preposterous passion, confidence, courage and endurance. In order to achieve goals that can endure hard to imagine the enormous pressures and challenges, even troubled, still self-improvement and never give up. Carly is an insightful strategist, led by her customers and makes the management of excited and kind, but also to carry out different tactics to ensure the smooth realization of goals. Carlys distinct reputation made her very difficult to achieve harmonious, peaceful way to deal with things, so she makes many people feel hurt. While she was taking the reforms of HP Company, she also encountered difficulties in the realization of the merger plan. Carlys extraordinary will and unyielding personalities support her to become successful in her career. But at the same time, most of her colleagues do not agree with her in terms of the direction of the development etc. Thus in 2005, company board has fired her as CEO of HP.Michael T. Dukes personal characteristicsDuke is a Georgia man, in his spare time he and his wife did a lot of charity work. For example, they have been taken care of an orphan until ultimately found the orphan with an adoptive family. He is a low-key person. This moderate character is very easy to integrate into the Wal-Marts way of treating its employees and Wal-Marts humane enterprise culture. Although Duke has been re garded as a good and kind person in the industry, this does not mean his is not a strict man. Actually his work style of being slimly conservative but strategic is very good and helpful for promoting the smooth development of Wal-Mart.The difference in character between these two leaders is obvious, Carly official attitude is very positive in work. Her enthusiasm for work is the key to her success in her career. However, being sometimes too tough and persistent and loathsome to be successful often cause great resistance to the development. Carly belongs to the authoritarian leadership style. For HP Company during its depressing time before Carly took the CEO position, this impassioned characteristic was very helpful for the company. Duke is moderate and communicative Duke more belongs to the emotional intelligence leader type. He is easy-going and listening to others. He is the type of leader who affects his employees by emotionally.5.2 Different in their reforming pace as leade rs of the companies.Carlys reform of the HP, focused on control of the company, focused on adjusting strategy and simplifying the companys structures. Company just needs to keep useful functional departments. She made HP into four groups, which improved work efficiency a lot. Employees felt the sense of urgency in doing their jobs. Carly emphasizes on efficiency. She firmly believed that if she could correct the mistakes of HP made in the past few years, the company will become strong and competitive again. She led HP to the pursuit of speed and passion, and meanwhile to distinguish HP from other competitors in the characters. During her remodeling process for Hewlett-Packard, other senior managers and ordinary employees did not show their disputes openly, but actually some disagreement was originated.Besides continuing implementing the past successful business strategies, Duke made several marketing strategies aiming to survive from the global financial crisis. These strategies, su ch as better consumers shopping experiences, more special products included, are attracting more and more consumers. But compared to HP Company, Wal-Mart reforming is relatively conservative.5.3 Team organization capabilityCarly has a remarkable ability to communicate. She is good at communicating with her employee personally. She always travels to visit HP worker in different places. And this communication is very essential for the establishing an effective team. However due to Carlys strict and sometimes tough personalities, it is not very easy for her to establish a loyal team. Especially in the reforming period, most of people do not like changes at the same time, gender is another unfavorable factor contributing to her difficulties in managing an effective team. Many people, especially for male workers, it is very disquieting to work under a female manager.In the Dukes eyes, the future of employees is Wal-Marts future. He emphasizes this point to his staff that Wal-Mart will continue to work to build a better life. Duke is very popular and respected by his employees. His attitude towards life and relationship with workers gains support from his employees. So for Duke, he is more capable of organizing an effective team.6.0 ConclusionIn conclusion, leader is the most important figure in an organization. When a person is hired as the leader of a company, he/she becomes the core part of the whole company. The way he/she adopts for leading the company will greatly affect the companys development. The leaders leadership approach is greatly influenced by his/her personal characteristics, her/his competencies and his/her culture set as well. Different leaders to manage a company may turn the company into a completely different one in terms of its developing direction, its company values or culture and so on. In this report, two different leaders with different companies have been introduced and analyzed regarding to their personalities, leadership styles. thr ough with(predicate) their respective contribution made to their companies, we can conclude that effective leader is very crucial for the development and direction of the company. In the comparing and contrasting part, the two leaders differences with respect to their leadership have been addressed and proper reasons have been investigated regarding the differences. The leadership styles can also affected from the organization variables. The leadership style will be affected by the external environmental changes, such as in the case of leader 2. The change of the leadership is to some extent hale by the economic times and political environment changes.

The Destructive Power of the Media Essay -- Argumentative Persuasive T

The Destructive Power of the Media I save the most adorable little cousin named Alexandra, whom I love with all my heart. One day I was very disturbed when she told me that she was expand. She was 4 years old at the time. I was stunned and had no topic what to say to her, so I just told her that she is a healthy little girl and that she needs to not to worry about that. I tried to debate of where she would come up with this thought, and after a while I remembered a conversation that her mother and I had. We were talking about how nice it was when we were younger and we did not have to work at being thin. Her mother said something about being fat and Alexandra must have been listening. This got me thinking about how I came to be self conscious about my body. I came to the conclusion that it is just something that every woman has to go through at least one time in her life. But why, what is it that makes every woman inadequacy the perfect body? I pondered this question for a whi le, but I was baffled. Later that day I began to aim the Cosmopolitan and I began paying attention to the advertisements in this very popular womans magazine I was amused at the angle the advertisers use to try to delineate women to buy their product. One advertisement was for an hard drink called Tequiza. The advertisement compared the calories and the fat content of that drink to the calories and fat content in another popular alcoholic beverage. I am under age, but I am a college student so I will not lie and say that I do not drink on occasion, but when I do drink I do not worry about how much fat or how many calories I am taking in. To me this advertisement was completely ridiculous and instead of making me want to buy the product I have now vowed... ... by showing us how happy it will make us. They shape our culture by telling us that we want to be wed because the people advertisements are and they are incredibly happy. They also shape our culture by setting the standard for the way we look. All women at one drive in their life are self-conscious because they do not look like the models in advertisements. Advertisements are the reason why women obsess about their pitch and the way they look. I do not know about most people, but I do know that I do not want to live in a world where advertisements tell me what I want or how I should look. Works Cited Super Bowl Clutter. Editor & Publisher. Vol. 127, Issue 6 (1994) 6. Signorielli, Nancy and Douglas McLeod. Gender Stereotypes in MTV Commercials The Beat Goes On. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. Vol. 38, Issue 1 (1994) 91.

Ortho Tri-Cyclen and Acne Essay -- Medicine Medical Birth Control Pape

Ortho Tri-Cyclen and Acne What does Ortho Tri-Cyclen do for the intercession of acne and how does it work? In 1960, the medical world of the United States was revolutionized by the introduction of The chit. For the past forty years, The Pill has been the most popular form of reversible birth control. But beside the stellar contraceptive effectiveness rate ranging from 97-99.9% (when taken as directed), many other non-contraceptive benefits live in conjunction with this method of birth control. Studies have proven that a womens incidence of ovarian and endometrial cancers, benign cysts of the ovaries and breasts, and pelvic inflammatory disease, any decrease with pill use. Heavy bleeding and severe cramps are as well minimized (www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/CONSUMER/CON00027.html). Recent claims state that birth control may also effectively treat some types of acne. Though, back in 1966, The Rocky Mountain Medical Journal published an article illustrating the effectiveness o f estrogen-progestin combination in the treatment of stubborn acne, and maintaining that the cyclic administration of oral contraception is a useful measure for many women. It was not until January 2, 1997 that marked another big step in the world of the birth control pill when, for the first time, an oral contraceptive was approved for marketing by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an effective treatment for acne. Ortho Tri-Cyclen, originally introduced in 1992 by the Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical Corporation, is the first low dose birth control pill approved for a noncontraceptive indication. (www.pslgroup.com/dg/fa6a/htm.) Ortho Tri-Cyclen is the only birth control pill that has been clinically proven for the treatment of mo... ... acne vulgaris. Journal of American Acad Dermatology, 37(5Pt1), 746-54 Olson WH, Lippman JS, Robisch DM, (1998). The duration of response to norgestimate and ethinyl estradiol in the treatment of acne vulgaris. knowledgeable Journa l of Fertil Womens Med, 43(6), 286-90 Redmond GP, (1998). Effectiveness of oral contraceptives in the treatment of acne, Contraception, 58(3 Suppl), 29S-33S Redmond GP, Olson WH, Lippman JS, Kafrissen ME, Jones TM, Jorizzo JL, (1997). Norgestimate and ethinyl estradiol in the treatment of acne vulgaris a radomized, placebo controlled trial. Obstetrics and Gynecology, 89(4), 615-22 Van Hoff MH, Hirasing RA, Kaptein MB, Koppenaal C, Voorhorst FJ, Schoemaker J, (1998). The use of oral contraceptives by adolescents for contraception, menstrual cycle problems or acne. Acta Obstetrics and Gynecol Scand, 77(9), 898-904

Reward Management Essay -- Reward Systems RM

Reward Management (RM) has been defined as the distribution of monetary and non-monetary gets to employees in an effort to align the interests of the employees, the organisation, and its shareholders (ONeil, 1998). In addition ONeil (1998) also suggests that a RM system can serve the purpose of attracting prospective job applicants, retaining valuable employees, motivation employees, ensuring legal requirements relating to direct and indirect rewards are not violated, assisting the company in achieving human resource and business objectives, and ultimately assisting the organisation in obtaining a competitive advantage.Various conflicts in the RM system can affect the benefits that can be obtained. It has been argued that performance management systems only provide superficial motivations and have little heart and soul on underlying behaviours and attitudes. Although the RM system can have some limitations, there is strong argument for the benefits, and logic also deems it as a cr edible strategy to assist in improving employee performance.The implementation and application of RM within the subject organisation has provided many a(prenominal) opportunities for increased performance. Limitations and inequities have been recognised in the system employed, in general due to the lack of assessment and changes to the system in order to align it with organisational objectives. Reward Management TheoryReward management involves defining, facilitating, and encouraging performance. The positive cause a successful RM system can provide to employee performance and in turn organisational success and competitive advantage are clear. This appeal has driven many organisations to take up RM as part of their performance management stratagem.The RM system falls into the broader process of the performance management model within the organisation, as utter by Clark (as cited in Human Resource Management, 2000). This involves the continual process of setting performance obje ctives, measuring outcomes, providing feedback on the results, providing rewards which are linked to desired outcomes and finally evaluating and make amendments to objectives and activities of the system.When developing an effective RM procedure as part of organisational strategy many considerations must be addressed. ONeil (1998) suggests the following key methods of linking pay to performance ascerta... ...e The reward system of the organisation guides the actions that generally have the greatest impact on the motivation and performance of individual employees. Similarly, Wah (2000) argues that companies which treat their high-performing employees significantly better than those that dont are the best-performing companies virtually and they reside in the upper quartile of shareholder returns. In addition Lawler (as cited in, Readings In Contemporary Employment Relations, 1998) states that if all the psychological rewards are removed employees will grudgingly await at work, ho wever if all the financial rewards are removed they would most likely leave.As most of the literature suggests, employee performance is a zippy element in organisational survival and success. The systems developed and applied to facilitate the management of employee performance are therefore major contributors to the overall success of performance management. To remain effective the RM process should not be isolated from other HRM functions, in addition the process must be dynamic and constantly aligned to organisational strategy. In these instances long term benefits for all stakeholders can be realised.

herody Free Essays: Heroes in the Poem Women and Homers Odyssey :: comparison compare contrast essays

Heroes in the Poem Women and Homers Odyssey         A adept is a gallant and strong person, who is also very human.  A hero feels fear and every other emotion that we do.  A true hero is a person who does something bulky and does not expect to be given any thing in return.  A hero does something that effects a large number of  people.  A hero thinks more of others than he or she thinks of him or her self.         The characters in the poem, Women, and The Odyssey are both epic heroes. Odysseus is a strong and brazen man, but I think he lacks one of the major characteristics of a hero.  I think he thinks of himself more than of others.  I think the characters in the poem, Women, are better heroes because they can be related to to easier.         I dont think the poem characters are like an epic hero because they are less into them selves than an epic hero.  They also come along to have done lesser things, I mean epic heroes always do something so great, like take twenty men on, or lead an army to victory. Everyday heroes seem to be more realistic and do something thats great, but its not written up in every news paper in the country.         Odysseus is a brave man that did great things.  In The Odyssey he conquers a monster using smarts and strength.  He also looks out for his crew mates.  He is faithful to his wife, well, in his read/write head he is.  He kills many men on his own in a battle at his home.  He cries a couple of times in the story, showing sensitivity.  Overall, Odysseus is a brave and caring human that is a little too conceited  He is also very smart, like in the phonograph recording when Odysseus said, He thought hed find out, but I saw through him.(on page 750 line723.) Also like most epic heroes Odysseus is physically strong, like when Odysseus said, I rammed it deep in his eye.(on page 751 line 843.)  Odysseus rammed a large spike into the beasts eye.         The poem Women was a great description of black women in the mid

Christmas - An Extraordinary Holiday Essays -- Personal Narrative Writ

Christmas - An Extraordinary Holiday As I grow older, Christmas is the greatest pass for my family and me. The powerful feeling of family is never any stronger than on Christmas Day. The stress of the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve all seeps away as our children come cut into our bedroom to see if we atomic number 18 awake yet. Even though our children are teenagers, the tradition doesnt change Santa is real if you believe in him.Ive seen our children wake up as early as 500 a.m. As our children awake us, my husband tries to draw out the anticipation by telling them he needs to take a shower first. After much begging and grumbling, they agree and the three of us make our way into the kitchen to bake cinnamon rolls. While my husband is showering, we are in the kitchen preparing the cinnamon rolls. By the time he is done, the smell of the gooey sweet cinnamon rolls is drifting through the house.As I pull the rolls out of the oven, my daughters are tearing into the stock ings Santa filled while visiting the night before. Santa always remembers Mom and Dad, too. W...