Saturday, October 12, 2019
About My Home Town Ooty :: social issues
About My Home Town Ooty The name Ooty is derived from Ootacamund, also popularly known as â€Å"Udhagamandalam or Udhagai†in the regional language. India is a growing Tourist destination. The southern most part of India lies the State of Tamil Nadu, the cradle of the Dravidian Culture, founded over 5000 years ago. This state is the home to some of the most ancient architectural beauties, sculptures and the natural beauties of which Ooty is one among them. In 1821 a batch of British soldiers discovered Ooty. The gusty evenings, the cold nights, the grassy downs, the hills and dales gripped the imagination of the British. They surveyed and mapped the hills and started filling in what they felt as missing parts of the landscape. Thus spacious Victorian houses, country-style churches and spruced gardens came into being. They even brought the English vegetation like cabbages, cauliflower, strawberries, raspberries and flowers like buttercups and rhododendrons. They built the first railway line in this area and made Ooty the summer capital of the then Madras Presidency. Before the arrival of the British Ooty was inhabited by Todas the tribal people who still inhabit the area, but only around 3000 remain. The picturesque and green Ooty, is located in the Western Ghats at an altitude of 2240meters above the Mean Sea Level (MSL). Ooty is the headquarters of the Nilgiri District. The temperature varies from 25 °c to 10 °c during summer and between 21 °c and 0 °c during winter. The best time to visit Ooty is between April to June and September to November. This hill station can be reached by rail and road. The nearest air port is at Coimbatore which is about 100kms from Ooty. The main tourist attraction in Ooty is The Government Botanical Gardens. The Government Botanical Gardens laid out in 1847, is the most beautiful jewel on the crown of the "Queen of Hill Stations". Well over 650 species of plants are in the garden and the fossil of a tree trunk believed to be 20 million years old is preserved here. The garden spreads over 22 hectares has lush green lawns, six sections comprising varieties of tree species, variety of ferns, fashioned beds, an Italian formal garden, flowering plants, house ferns, orchids and nurseries. It is indeed a great pleasure for me to reside very close to the Botanical Gardens. Visiting the Botanical Gardens was always a great pleasure and refreshment.
Friday, October 11, 2019
A Defense Of Ethical Relativism Essay
Ethical Relativism Introduction            Ethical relativism is the stance that there are no moral codes, no moral wrongs or right. Right or wrong is based on social customs. Ethical relativism implies that people’s morals are dynamic, subject to times and environment. Ethical relativism accommodates and enables the presence of many different cultures and practices. It offers people the freedom to adapt and practice their socialized ethics and cultures. This means that there is no static culture or ethics. Morals are dependent on the society preferences, technology, logic, emotions, experience and rules among other factors. Morality is very vital since it holds the society together. The rationale of this paper is to explain the effect of ethical relativism on the morality bond that brings the society together.            In ethics, the notion that nothing is objectively wrong or right and that the definition of right or wrong relies on the existing perception of culture, an individual or history. The existence of morality is not relative to individuality. Thus some of the relativists’ arguments are invalid. Ethical relativism is a knotty theory since there are various differences within cultures. People’s preferences may not for all time be ethically correct choices. Thus what is culturally acceptable might not always be morally right. Ethical relativism by definition is a premise that maintains that there are no generally accepted ethical codes. Ethical relativism is usually affected the disagreement between right and wrong due to social and personal ethical relativism as well as the natural law premise (Lukes, 2008).            Personal ethical relativism holds that different people have diverse moral beliefs. Social ethical relativism holds that different societies have distinct code of ethics. On the other hand, the natural law presumes that there is a general set of moral values that opposes ethical relativism, however it is faulty. Ruth Benedict believes that morals are defined by culture. Benedict also proposes that normal is a variant of the concept of good. According to Benedict, behavior will depend on what the general culture that is accepted by the society. On contrary, Christina Hoff Sommers proposes that there are some human qualities that are not relative to place, time, situation or circumstance. Ruth and Sommers have different propositions on ethics. Descriptive ethical relativism states that ethical beliefs and judgments are the expressions of the moral attitudes and outlook of individual persons (Lukes, 2008).            I faintly agree with Christina Sommers since people have their own personal set of moral values. For example, an individual may belief that it is morally wrong to have sex on the first date. Another person might not have any issue with sex in any context. Someone else might not believe in sex before marriage, or maybe not at all. In order to judge these views as right or wrong, moral standards are very crucial. However, there is no general set of ethical codes which can be used to judge the views. This example proves differences in ethical virtues between people and hence signifies ethical relativism. There are flaws in ethical relativism because it does not mean that everyone accept to a notion simply because one group in the society find a given action to be acceptable. What is publicly acceptable is extensively variable. If moral standards do not go beyond social principles, no action would be regarded as right or wrong (Arrington, 1983 ).            I totally agree with Benedict that rules of the society serve as a standard. Ethical relativism considers how other cultures tolerate other cultures. Ethical relativism brings societies together because it allows for great variance in regard of what is seen as good or bad. Ethical relativism elaborates how one action can be regarded as correct in one culture, but wrong in the other (â€Å"Ethical Relativism†, 2014). All rudiments of the culture are put into consideration when determining whether an action is wrong or right. Ethical relativism confuses the reforms to be carried out considering what is being done currently. People are forced to tolerate some actions that might be unbearable if there are no socially accepted habits. I disagree with Sommers since human behaviors depend on the time, place, situation or circumstance. Morality, ethical standards and the position of wrong or right are based on culture and hence subject to i ndividual preferences. Social institutions are very vital since they are richly endowed with customs, norms and manner of thinking. Appropriate management of the school-community culture will ensure that it will influence the young children in the society based on the attitudes and dispositions they acquire at school. Though moral relativism have been widely criticized for being pernicious, incoherent and sophomoric, but it is a plausible doctrine and it has significant influence on how people live, interact and organize the society (Lukes, 2008).            Morals fluctuate across place and time. Children learn values when they are growing, even before they can reason efficiently. Moral relativism is linked to emotional attitudes since values are acquired through emotional conditioning. People decide the position of an action by examining their feelings. Emotions are very necessary in making moral judgments. Ethics and morality shape personality. The capacity to determine whether a practice is correct or immoral develops from life and the environment that people are exposed to. Society and family are the first exposure where moral system is created. Benedict view social institutions as communities with common virtues and practices that have become sophisticated patterns of practices and ideas. Benedict arguments reveal how diverse cultures employ different moral principles in an endeavor to survive as a culture. Benedict is more correct in her analysis regarding the differences among cultures . There are some features of cultures that are not based on any universal moral standards. There is no general rule that moral cultures must abide to a given code to survive, and that the cultures that do not follow a code are not moral (â€Å"Ethical Relativism†, 2014).            Benedict states that morality differs in all societies and is a suitable term for socially accepted habits. Opponents of ethical relativism argue that, if ethical relativism is right, there can be no general construction for resolving ethical dispute or for realizing agreement on ethical issues among affiliates of different societies. Many ethicists oppose ethical relativism since they argue that although moral practices in the community differ, the values underlying those actions remain unchanged. Societies might deviate in their application of the elementary moral ideologies, but they agree on the principles. It can be argued that some ethical beliefs are culturally relative whereas others are not. Some practices such as customs concerning dressing mode may depend on local traditions, while other practices such as political repression or slavery might be determined by general ethical standards and judged incorrect regardless the various other differences that persist among cultures (Arrington, 1983).            The notion that some cultural practices are relative does not mean that all moral practices are relative. Ethical relativism may also be criticized on the basis of its effect to personal ethical values. It may be argued that if morals entirely depend on social norms, it follows that if a certain society believes in racial practices, its members must admit to racism as morally right. Members of a given community have different opinions regarding a given practice. Ethical relativism believes that culture is the standard to examine whether a practice is right or wrong. Ethical relativism might be criticized, but it helps people to acknowledge that communities have different moral values and that these beliefs are subject to culture. Ethical relativism also encourage people to explore reasons as to why communities have differing beliefs, and also challenge people to scrutinize their reasons for the beliefs and values they support. Benedictâ₠¬â„¢s argument about how morality is relative is sound. Benedict uses an example of Kwakiutl society regarding murder. Kwakiutl practice of murder is intolerable in the modern society, but it was acceptable in Kwakiutl. Kwakiutl cannot be judged for their acts because they that was a social norm when one of their relatives died. Today such practice would be regarded as murder and is unlawful and a crime that is absolutely penalized by the society and the law (â€Å"Ethical Relativism†, 2014).            Benedict concludes that â€Å"moral relativism is the correct view of moral principles†which imply that right or wrong is determined by culture and environmental events. For instance people might accept capital punishment and oppose abortion. Capital punishment is regarded as wrong and hence punished with death. On contrary, opposing abortion is like denying women their freedom of their body. According to Benedict, regardless of the consequences behind an abortion, if the society opposes it implies that abortion is morally wrong hence it will maintain the truth worth of moral relativism. The notion that abortion is wrong is due to the fact that people’s behaviors are shaped by their history, culture and environment. Therefore the right worth of their ethics relies on what is more rational to social structures. On the other hand if people believe that capital punishment is a way of attaining justice, they will consider it mor ally right. Morals are shared amongst people and the community, and it is seen as a normalcy condition of morals (Lukes, 2008).            In conclusion, I agree with Benedict argument of ethical relativism where she holds that people change their opinions and principles depending on the majority rule. I agree that morals vary with time, culture and environment. However, I do not agree that any practice is morally right or wrong depending on the majority. Benedict adds that the conception of the normal is accurately a variant of the notion of good. Behaviors will depend on the cultural norms. Ethical relativism allows a wide variety of practices and cultures. It will enable people to adapt morally as technology, culture and knowledge change in society. This is an excellent and a type of relativism. Ethical relativism faces the challenge because people find it hard to adapt to new morals, new ideas and their own culture. The word is increasingly becoming culturally diverse thus making people find it hard to accept something different. Culture is a standard for assessing the po sition of a practice, whether it is right or wrong. References Arrington, R. L. (1983). A Defense Of Ethical Relativism. Metaphilosophy, 14(3-4), 225-239. Ethical Relativism. (n.d.). CARM. Retrieved September 22, 2014, from http://carm.org/ethical-relativism Lukes, S. (2008). Moral relativism. New York: Picador. Source document
Thursday, October 10, 2019
Is knowledge management a fad? Essay
Abstract Knowledge management is a broad term that includes tools and theories from various fields. T.D. Wilson had been impeaching the need for knowledge management and he had come to the conclusion that knowledge management is just a fad started by consultancy companies and IT/ICT departments. This paper examines the righteousness of this proclamation and provides explanations and specifications of some conclusions that had T.D. Wilson provided in his work â€Å"The nonsense of ‘knowledge management’†. Is knowledge management a fad? 1 The need of KM in information society With the instantaneous global information sharing is arising the need of knowledge management. This is based on the evolution and transformation of society. Every year the amount of the whole human knowledge is doubled. The role of information in current organization has transferred from peripheral and incidental to central and fundamental. Management is no longer supervising their employees, but instead is prioritizing feedback from the employees and therefore the function of the manager has shifted from pure decision making to information processing (Brunet-Thorton, 2010). Information society is characterized by the interconnection of information sources, the ease of transferring categorizing and saving information with the help of applied use of data digitalization. In the definition of information society has the large importance the fact that inner telecommunication structures are more and more dependent on outer telecommunication systems. An example of this interconnectedness can be the internet, which is for our society nearly indispensable. And therefore is enabling the impressive growth of communicational and informational business organizations. With the beginning of the 21st century we can observe strong globalization tendencies – huge networks if users, which are able to communicate and share information without the presence of third persons. This way the volume and amount of knowledge information and data is astonishingly expanding. The communication infrastructure is slowly becoming the infrastructure used for knowledge sharing. The information society is indirectly enabling smaller companies and businesses to get involved in global trade market. For accomplishing their business objectives, these companies can get advantage in using new paths for trading such as on time production and delivery, online publishing, teleworking and network based virtual teams. The rapid evolution of information-globalized market is supporting the transformation to perfect market – from the economical perspective. New businesses opportunities are emerging form these technology shortcuts. Specific examples from the present can be Google or Facebook, which have so far used the information globalization most prospectively. Information society can bring new paths to advance the economy and contribute to increasing the number of highly skilled jobs, but at the expense of reducing the number of working positions with lower or no qualifications. A key factor is the role of education and retraining of unskilled workers, especially in government and public administration. This is closely related to other difficulties emerging from information society – safety and protection of information. You will need to modify the legislation together with the development and emergence of new information technologies. The fight against cyber-crimes, data protection, information privacy, i.e., to prevent fraud with the certification authorities and prevent the spread of malicious code should be a top priority in the developing information society. 2 Data, Information, Knowledge We can define data as a â€Å"crude facts relating to things and events that have not been processed or organised†(Thorton, 2010). An example can be database filled with numbers. Without knowing the context – what the abbreviations describing each column mean we cannot get any information from these data. Another example can be a text in a foreign language. Without knowing this language we are not able to transform data (characters) into any information (meaning of whole words and sentences) and consequently we are not able to obtain any knowledge from this text. Data become information, when they havebeen manipulated permitting its meaning to be understood. (Thorton, 2010) One of the tons of definitions of knowledge is: â€Å"Knowledge is directly related to understanding and is gained through the interpretation of information. Knowledge enables us to interpret information i.e. derive meaning from data. The interpretation of meaning is framed by the perceiver’s knowledge.â€Å" (Mark Sharratt & Abel Usoro, 2003, p.188). The definition of knowledge management becomes more interesting then definition of knowledge, because of the various views on this term as Wilson points out (Wilson, 2002, What is ‘knowledge management’?, para. 1). Despite the recent lack of agreement on what is meant by knowledge management, the definitions of knowledge management aim at three core components of knowledge management: knowledge/information repositories, communities and networks and experts and knowers. (Chatti & Jarke & Frosch-Wilke, 2007, page 406) 3 Tacit explicit and implicit knowledge Wilson has also raised the question about explicit knowledge. He is literally asking the reader â€Å"Does it make any difference to the argument if, in the diagram, we replace â€Å"tacit knowledge†with â€Å"knowledge†and â€Å"explicit knowledge†with â€Å"information†?†He is not answering his question, so it may seem unanswered, but while reading the whole paragraph, which is quite critical to the established distinction between explicit knowledge and information, I stopped looking for the answer, because it quite evident that this question is just rhetorical. Other authors are fairly more specific about the term of explicit knowledge. One of the views is offering Stenmark: The fact that routines, procedures, rules, manuals, books, blueprints, and all the other examples given above are useful does not make it knowledge. They all need knowledge to be decoded and are therefore not knowledge but information, albeit interwoven with the knowledge required to create it. Knowledge, which remains tacit, is also needed to interpret the information. Although some argue that â€Å"knowledge†may be embedded in a text (e.g., a balance sheet where columns and totals have predefined meanings), the reader cannot appreciate it without bringing the required personal knowledge (2002, page 6). As a conclusion I think a can say that the term explicit knowledge can be used synonymously with information. 4 Knowledge in VSE courses In order to show the importance and purport of knowledge management I am presenting here the syllabuses of few courses from The University of Economics, Prague that engaged with knowledge. 4IZ210 – Information and Knowledge Processing Aims of the course: To familiarize students with basic methods for both information storage and retrieval, as well as for acquisition and processing of formalized knowledge. Furthermore, the aim is to highlight the interrelationship of these areas and outline anticipated developments. Learning outcomes and competences: Find and process information about companies and present the processed information, especially for analysis of the competitive environment. The emphasis is put on working with electronic information resources. Apply the selected method for knowledge discovery in databases on a given data and publish acquired knowledge to an expert. The emphasis is put on working with association rules. Understand the basic methods selected for processing information and knowledge within presented subjects. Course contents: The method for storing and retrieving information, methods of obtaining and processing of formalized knowledge, solving practical problems. (4IZ210 syllabus, n.d.) This course is dealing with all free levels of intelligence produced by humans: data information and knowledge. Student should be able to distinguish between these three easily and they should also be capable of transforming one to another. 3MA661 – Management of Knowledge Workers Aims of the course:Introduce students to modern tools and methods of management convenient for management of knowledge workers. Demonstrate those tools and methods in real life corporate situations. Learning outcomes and competences: distinguish between tacit and explicit dimension of knowledge, use basic tools for work with explicit and tacit knowledge, identify knowledge workers in organization and classify them to groups in relation to their importance for organization and style of work, manage and develop knowledge workers in relation to their personality type, manage personal development of knowledge workers, initiate and manage process of knowledge sharing among knowledge workers, create visions and get the support of knowledge workers for them. Aims of the course:Explain importance of knowledge for business and management. Present key concepts and processes of knowledge management and demonstrate them on case studies. Explain the term tacit knowledge and teach students to work with it. (3MA661 syllabus, n.d.) This syllabus is quite unspecific about specifying knowledge management tools used for managing knowledge workers. It seems, just from the text of this syllabus that this course is overlapping with majority of the topics with the Knowledge management course. 4SA320 Information Management Basics Aims of the course: Course offers basic theoretical background as well as practical application of information management. It presents information management as multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary science, which integrates knowledge in three areas – modern management, system approach and informatics. The content of the course accents global overview of the information society, its development and presents main topics of managerial work in conditions of actual information society. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to know the legal frame of information society in conditions of the CR, work with components of Integrated Management System, actively know how to use basics of knowledge management in the area of enterprise informatics. (4SA320 syllabus, n.d.) I absolved this course last year. From the syllabus it seems that student will have to do lots of with knowledge. So thought I, and although I wasn’t really able to tell much difference between information and knowledge, my expectations were aimed on knowledge – from my today’s point of view. But this course is purely focused on Information management. It peeks more into technological and legal fields than in management of knowledge itself. And as the last I would like to present not a course of The University of Economics, Prague but a student’s site called vseborec.cz. It’s not primarily a knowledge management tool, but rather an information sharing site. But from simple sharing site for student’s notes to lectures it has developed to a ‘database of student knowledge’. It’s quite interesting that has expanded to today’s proportions thanks to the sharing and unselfish naturel of students on a school which aim is to teach its student to compete and not to share. You can find out what will be the professor and his lectures like even before enlisting in the course. 5 Web searches analyse To support or refuse the formulation of Wilson that knowledge management is just a fad (2001, â€Å"Conclusion†, pa. 1) I made an analyse of web searches on Google in the period of the last six years. If the term ‘knowledge management’ is in the business world used just as a synonym for the term ‘information management’ the total amount of searches for the term’ knowledge management’ should be increasing to the prejudice of the term ‘information management’. The absolute amount of web searches for both, the information and knowledge management, has been obviously decreasing in the period of the years 2004 and 2007. The drop of searches is simultaneous for both of the terms, therefore we cannot say that knowledge management is replacing information management, at least in the sphere of web searching. Among the most popular places around the world for searching the term knowledge management in the period of last 12 months is leading South Africa followed by Kenya Malaysia and India. But in the year 2004 in the top ten places for web searching ‘Knowledge management’ we can find countries such as United Kingdom, Italy and Australia. The shift of popularity from western countries to African and Asian areas is evident. (Google Insights, 2010) Graph 1 Web search worldwide (Google Insights, 2010) This is the conclusion that has T.D. Wilson come up with: â€Å"The inescapable conclusion of this analysis of the ‘knowledge management’ idea is that it is, in large part, a management fad, promulgated mainly by certain consultancy companies, and the probability is that it will fade away like previous fads.†(Wilson, 2002, â€Å"Conclusion†, para. 1). And according to my web searches analysis it really looks like that knowledge management is just a fad. The interest in knowledge management has been decreasing for the last six years. But I think that this is only due to the acceptance of knowledge management as such in western cultures and the simultaneous inception of knowledge management awareness not just in business world but also at universities and in a public sector. And due to this conclusion I presume that the growth of interest in knowledge management in South Africa, Kenya, India, Malaysia and other south Asian and African countries is because of the lack of general awareness about knowledge management and not because of the late arrival of â€Å"fashionable knowledge management†to less developed countries. 6 Reasons of knowledge management popularity rocketing Wilson presented in his paper five arguments, why he thinks that knowledge management has been experiencing such a boom in the past decade. Here are they: First, and largely because of a fixation on internal organizational data, the term ‘information’ has become almost synonymous with data in the minds of organizational heads. For example, I’ve been told that the National Electronic Library for Health uses the term ‘Knowledge’ because in the NHS information=data and a different term was needed. We have to lay this, I think, at the feet of the information systems profession whose focus for years was data and data definitions, etc. In fact, they dealt not with information systems but with data systems. (Wilson, 2001, pa. 2) This is, of course, misinterpretation of data and information. If is somebody using this terms incorrectly in one organization, that doesn’t mean that everybody else should take these terms as synonyms. Information systems are by definition â€Å"computerized tools that assist people in transforming data into information†(DiBiase, 2008) but data systems are just groups of facts presented in a specific order (pixels forming a picture, radio waves broadcasted at one frequency). Secondly, and opportunely for the software houses and IT firms, ‘km’ came along just as they were being hit by the wave of scepticism over the possibility of IT ever delivering more than problems – and certainly never likely to deliver productivity and performance. ‘Whoops, we’ve cracked it!’ cried the IBMs and MSofts of this world – ‘We should have been dealing with ‘knowledge’ all along, and now we are – Lotus Notes is no l onger groupware and personal information management, it’s KnowledgeWare!’ So they are happily marketing the same product under a new name. (Wilson, 2001, pa. 3) As I mentioned earlier, the term knowledge management is on its raise, not because of marketing strategy of IT/ICT companies, but because of its popularity increasing with the needs for better entitlement of the information society. Thirdly, the organization and management boys finally began to realise that all this text that people were creating on word-processors, etc., needed to be managed effectively and, indeed, organized, shared and disseminated more effectively, but they couldn’t use ‘information management’ because that was ‘information systems’ and data, wasn’t it? So it must be ‘knowledge’, right? If we can only get people to share their ‘knowledge’ performance must improve because it is the communication barriers that are preventing the free flow of ‘knowledge’ (i.e., information). So, now, every aspect of organization and management theory has to have a ‘knowledge’ dimension, other wise you aren’t in the game. In the literature, of course, this amounts to the token use of the term ‘knowledge management’ and the use of ‘knowledge’ as a synonym for ‘information’. (Wilson, 2001, pa. 4) Knowledge shouldn’t be used synonymously with information and I hope that this is not happening, at least at academic level. Also Wilson is not differentiating between data and information system which definitions are noted above. Fourthly, at the forefront of all this were the management consultancies – why? Because BPR and Organizational Learning were running out of steam. Amusingly, all organizational learning work appears to come under the heading of ‘km’ – more search and replace marketing. So, the consultancies grabbed at km in order to have something to sell at the end of the 90s. (Wilson, 2001, pa. 5) The consultancies are always looking for the needs of business market and therefore they should be reflecting the needs of this market, at least to some point, so this point might be valid on a small extent of a scale. Finally, most (or at least many) departments of information management or information science, and departments of information systems in academia, are somewhat low on the totem pole in most of their institutions, and each needs to differentiate itself from the other in order to try to work its way up that greasy pole, so both have seized on km as an aid in the struggle. I foresee turf-wars over which department, where there is one of each, has the right to run degrees in km. Where only one of the kind exists, it will seek to make km all-embracing of management, computer science, information systems, etc., etc. – because the logic leads nowhere else 🙂 ‘If we deal with knowledge – then how can anyone else presume to do so?’ (Wilson, 2001, pa. 6) The logic of Wilson leads nowhere else, because that is exactly what knowledge management is about: people, culture, technology, processes. The knowledge management is closer with its aim to the management and organization and the departments of information management are rising from IT/ICT fields so the need to go up should be also emerging from management places and not from information management departments. 7 Conclusion With the development of new technologies in information and communication sector the new term ‘knowledge management’ has begun to be used in business sector. The term as such is not useless and meaning less as suggested by Wilson in his research. Wilson is asking the readers in the conclusion of his paper:†If getting promotion, or holding your job, or finding a new one is based on the knowledge you possess – what incentive is there to reveal that knowledge and share it?†(2002, â€Å"Conclusion†, pa. 2). And my answer to this probably rhetorical question is: Your working experience, your social and cultural background and most importantly your education. From all of these you can predict the amount of knowledge one possesses. Although it cannot be evaluated by any empirical measures, the existing society is surviving without these accurate measurements and surprisingly she is doing quite well. This is not to say that enabling people to contribute effectively to the management of organizations is impossible and that sharing knowledge and enabling people to use their creativity in innovative ways in organizations is impossible – simply that it is very difficult, and that it does not reduce to some simplistic concept of ‘knowledge management’! It demands a change in business culture, from the macho Harvard Business School model, to something more thoughtful and understanding of what motivates human beings. Organizations need to learn to think about problems, rather than grab at proffered ‘solutions’ – which often turn out to be expensive side-tracks away from the main issues (Wilson, 2002, â€Å"Conclusion†, pa. 3). And that’s why knowledge management isn’t just a simplistic concept. It includes tools from various fields such as and uses them for improvement of knowledge culture within the organization. The slight decrease in popularity of knowledge management in the last six years shows not the recess of knowledge management as a fad, but it rather shows the wide acceptance of knowledge management in the western society. The views presented by Wilson are shocking and very easy to understand and that’s why I find this view presented by Wilson too simplistic and demagogic to some extent. References 3MA661 – Management of Knowledge Workers FPH – WS 2010/2011 course syllabus, (n.d.), The University of Economics, Prague, Retrieved from: https://isis.vse.cz/auth/katalog/syllabus.pl?predmet=68577 4SA320 – Information Management – Basic FIS – WS 2010/2011 course syllabus, (n.d.), The University of Economics, Prague, Retrieved from: https://isis.vse.cz/auth/katalog/syllabus.pl?predmet=68886 4IZ210 – Information and Knowledge Processing FIS WS 2010/2011 course syllabus, (n.d.), The University of Economics, Prague, Retrieved from: https://isis.vse.cz/auth/katalog/syllabus.pl?predmet=69183 Brunet-Thorton, R. (2010) Knowledge management. Presented at The University of Economics, Prague 3MA624 Knowledge Mangement lecture. 11th November Chatti, M.A. and Jarke, M. and Frosch-Wilke, D (2007) The future of e-learning: a shift to knowledge networking and social software. Int. J. Knowledge and Learning, Vol. 3, Nos. 4/5, 2007 Retrieved from: http://cites eerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.141.3202&rep=rep1&type=pdf DiBiase, D. (2008) Pennsylvania Spatial Data Access Glossary. Retrieved from: http://www.pasda.psu.edu/tutorials%5Coutreachglossary.asp Google Insights (2010) Retrieved from: http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=knowledge%20management%2Cinformation%20management&cmpt=q Sharratt, M and Usoro, A. (2003). Understanding Knowledge-Sharing in Online communities of Practice. Page 188. Retrieved from: http://www.thestep.gr/trainmor/dat/%7B7a8f15e0-b7eb-404e-864a-ef0eb1403751%7D/article.pdf Stenmark, D. (2002), Information vs. Knowledge: The Role of intranets in Knowledge Management, Proceedings of the 35th Hawaii
Wednesday, October 9, 2019
Evaluation of incredible India in UK market Essay
Like any other trade sector, evaluation of a brand in a specific market depends heavily on the data collected in some specific segments, and in here they are: A. Quality of infrastructure, i. e. , issues involved amenities like transport, water, rail and road links, boarding and lodging, etc. B. Travel behavior, i. e. , estimate about the appetites of the travellers. C. Effectiveness of communication: This area is self-explicit. D. Quality of product, i. e., quality and quantity of tourist sites, where quality should be interpreted as the magnitude of significance of a site in terms heritage, beauty, adventure, unique natural phenomenon, therapeutic or spiritual angles. Detailed and authenticated data on the state of these segments would be instrumental in determining the exact standing of this campaign in a specific market. For that matter this study uses the information furnished in the Report on Evaluation Study in Selected Overseas Markets (2007) created by The Gallup Organization for Market Research Division, Ministry of Tourism, and Government of India. A. Infrastructure: While the Gallup Study observes the overall growth in the infrastructure Industry is encouraging for tourism in the future, it furnishes terribly disappointing information in the next page, where it compares the state of India’s aviation industry to that of China and informs that India has 15 million seats (as on September 2006) as against 140 million seats in China (p. 13). However, the report churns out good news after a few pages by mentioning about the awards won by Incredible India campaign and the survey results that consider India amongst the top five favourite destinations (p. 17). B. Travel Behaviour: Only 32% people of United Kingdom are aware of Indian Tourism Offices, though India and UK has a direct relationship for around 300 years. The Gallup Report (p. 45) observes that the past travel record of UK citizens(46%) were only next to Australia (51%), while the current survey shows that American tourists (799, 062) have pushed the British tourists (796,191) behind them (Incredible, 2008). Gallup Report observes that in terms of future behaviour, UK shows only 5% growth rate (p. 50). Now tallying this observation with the state of communication with UK would provide the clue why the future of growth of Indian tourism in UK looks so dismal. C. Effectiveness of communication: The chart below highlights the state of communication between India and other major countries/continents in terms of travel arrangements. Booking for Travel Arrangement (% Yes) CANADA USA UK EUROPE MIDDLE EAST S. KOREA JAPAN AUS RECENT TRAVELLERS Through Phone 54 46 16 9 7 8 23 17 10 Through Internet 44 69 46 46 7 24 60 39 22. Through Travel Agents 89 63 56 60 45 76 83 74 68 In Person 76 44 18 34 72 15 33 43 15 Others 12 10 11 6 – 11 – 5 2 Gallup Report: P. 55 The above table shows that communication with UK is below expectation, if one considers the legacy of 300-year close communication between India and UK. D. Quality of product: From the perspective of the history of Indo-British relationship of over 300 years, elements like cultural heritage (colonial times) or deserves a place in the choice of the British travellers, but the survey (below) does not even include that. (%) CANADA USA UK EUROPE MIDDLE EAST S. KOREA JAPAN AUS RECENT TRAVELLERS Adventure Sports 14 18 5 18 17 13 15 12 2 Eco-tourism 54 56 35 44 65 27 25 34 16 Shopping 51 46 44 33 87 15 27 54 38 Sight-seeing 98 99 79 88 89 79 94 93 87 Pilgrimages 27 20 8 21 2 35 10 23 7 Visiting friends / relatives 35 25 23 12 8 – 6 19 17 Medical treatment 9 13 13 10 38 8 6 4 1 Cultural Events 61 75 31 67 22 52 46 67 – Others 34 52 14 44 4 – 8 17 2 Business purposes – 4 3 11 – – – – 26 Adapted from Gallup Study: P.57. Here also it is seen that UK is lagging behind USA and Japan, in spite of their close contact with India for more than three centuries. Another notable factor is that there is not much response in the medical tourism sector, though thee is a recent surge in Medical Tourism in India due to reasons like state-of-the-art medical facilities at far cheaper rates and high medical insurance cost in UK. A brief analysis of the online campaign of Incredible India would corroborate that too. III. 1. Analysis of online campaign: 1. Statement of Purpose (â€Å"About Us†page): While it boasts about its network of 20 offices within India and 13 offices abroad, it fails to mention about its central policy. 2. Topics covered: It contains three major topic domains distributed under heads like Trip Planner, Experience India and Holiday Ideas, where the first one deals with trip arrangements, second attempts to brief India thematically and the third one provides ideas about tourist activities. None of them contains any clue to the prospective medical tourists. Omission of this important issue looks is even more surprising, as the Tourism Department of India itself has launched a medical tourism campaign separately, where it clearly expresses its views like medical tourism or health tourism in India is fast gaining grounds and tries to gain competitive advantage by citing examples of quality infrastructure and cheap costs as against skyrocketing healthcare costs in the country like UK. It even goes on describing at length about the availability of various types of medical treatments and other facilities (Why India, 2007). 3. Apart from that, this campaign hasn’t properly tapped the potential of ancient Indian techniques of well being and healing, like Yoga, Vaastu Shastra, or other spiritual practices, which are now integral part of the global New Age movement along with their Buddhist or Mongoloid counterparts like Feng-Shui, Tai-chi, etc. These facts are already known in the medical fraternity of UK, as it is evident from the various other news like UK doctor setting shop in Goa for medical tourists due to the rising flow of medical tourists in India (UK Indian, 2007), or the news that health tourism in India have flourished to a huge extent, as the Indian hospitals currently estimated to deal with 150,000 foreigners each year (India’s rise, 2007). Yet, Incredible India, the flagship project of positioning Brand India continues to neglect this huge and constantly increasing segment of tourism. In other words, it can be said that the impact of campaign like Incredible India on UK doesn’t prove to be effective as it was expected to be. The above data facilitates the introduction of SWOT analysis on Incredible India Campaign from the perspective of UK market.
Dont Kill the Rooster Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words
Dont Kill the Rooster - Essay Example The story gives an overview of two generations that have conflicting interests. The society expectations are kept under the test as the conversation between Sedaris and his brother. The writer uses a family set up to develop his comedy. Most people may consider his work as offensive due to the nature of language being used. The abusive words may limit the number of audiences willing to listen to the joke. It describes the manner in which a single vocabulary may mean differently across the age. The manner of presentation by the author may call for viewer discretion. On the other hand, those who are familiar with the terms may find the work funny taking less offense from the entire work. Nature provides room for divided opinions. A decision is made at different levels. The laughter that will be experienced after reading the piece may indicate the levels of acceptance. The target audience expects a unique characteristic of what the piece being presented with the delivery of the work bei ng left for them to judge whether it meets the desired standards. The offensive part of the comedy may be a temporary aspect as many may choose to adapt to the comedy. The title of the comedy makes the story to be comic. The title is ironic in nature hence the funny aspect appears in the title. The expectation of the reader may be lowered while reading the entire story where the structure changes to give room for a more complex approach the author. The storyline provides the writer to read along with his thought but differences may occur when a reader consider words used by his brother to be offensive. The writer’s choice to use offensive words is acceptable. Shannon describes the class of comedy to insult humor. The tool according to him plays part in gaining a larger number of audiences.
Monday, October 7, 2019
Read the powerpoint, then answer the question Assignment
Read the powerpoint, then answer the question - Assignment Example Due to this perception, negotiators do not prepare hard to gain a larger reward or benefit. 8. Various problems can occur while determining the target, including cultural problems which may result as a negotiators failure to identify the background of the target negotiators, failure of the negotiator to respect the other party’s interest and recognizing their BATNA (Thompson 17). 9. Target point is the actual party with which negotiations are taking place and reservation point is the reserved party who negotiators might approach as a result of negotiations with the target point. Both points should not be confused as target point has better benefits to offer. 10. Different issues in a negotiation should be treated separately as managing single issue is much easier than managing the whole. Secondly, there may be issues on which the negotiator might have to compromise and in certain issues; the negotiator might be able to win completely. 11. It is essential to perform a self, situation and counterparty assessment in order to identify one’s own and counter party’s strengths and weaknesses as well as the environment in which negotiations are taking place. These strengths and weaknesses will help a negotiator take advantage of the counterparty and change their techniques with the environment. Several questions pertaining to the situation need to be asked including, the importance, form, time as well as cost and benefits of the negotiation. 12. Pressure of limited time may not allow the negotiator to be well prepared and plan properly before negotiations. Time related costs at times may be too high for both the negotiation parties. Due to this one party may be in a hurry and other party can take advantage. 13. Bargaining zone is the situation or the bargaining area where both the buyer’s and seller’s range overlap each other. Positive bargaining zone can result in a win-win situation for both, while negative bargaining zone can result
Sunday, October 6, 2019
Personal Development Portfolio Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words
Personal Development Portfolio - Essay Example Under the broad topic of organizational change, a presentation was assigned to each group. The presentation discussed the issues of internal and external changes and their influence on organizational change. Our group firstly distributed the work among them and started at an early phase in order to ensure work quality (Anglia Ruskin University, 2013). The major task during the entire preparation of presentation was a collection of the appropriate literature review. In general, the presentation was based on a collection of past evidence in numerous industries, which resulted in organizational change. The first analysis was made on the packaging industry across South East Asia. The market of an aluminum can is extremely competitive and hence, firms operating in this industry, such as Westcan Aluminium, have to keep their prices low as the threat is from both branded and unbranded local firms (Ridgman, 1996). During initial stages of the literature review process, various difficulties arise. A major difficulty was in term of sourcing statistical data for the required industries. PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) is a small fragment of the packaging industry. Consequently, it was difficult to find appropriate information on its usage, share among different firms as well as a total number of unidentified or local companies selling the material (Cameron and Mitchell, 1993). The next problem occurred in terms of group management. I realized that some of the team members were less participative compared to others. As such, issues and conflicts began to arise between group members. However, I was able to clear the misunderstandings by assigning each member with the particular task with a fixed deadline. As I took on the most difficult task, I was applauded and immediately positioned as the leader of the group. The next issue that occurred was that of assigning parts during the presentation speec h. Conflicts of interest occurred as two or more members wanted to present on similar topics (Ghaye, 2000).
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