Essay on Religion in Walt Whitmans Literature - 976 Words

Religion in Walt Whitmans Literature Why should I pray? Why should I venerate and be ceremonious?#8230;#8230;I find no sweeter fat than sticks to my own bones. (pg 40)Nature and all of her wondrous facets, especially the human body, was Whitmans religion. Walt Whitman was indeed an intensely spiritual man in his own unconventional way. His epic classic Song of Myself demonstrates these attitudes of his, and in his view how the proverbial poet of his America should believe. Humanity yearns for spiritual fulfillment and Whitman believed that everything around us and even ourselves were walking testaments to what true ethereal life is. One of the reasons that Walt Whitman was so popular, was his lax treatment of such†¦show more content†¦Smile O voluptuous cool-breathd earth, Earth of the slumbering and liquid tress, earth of the departed sunset- earth of the mountainous misty-topt, earth of the vitreous pour of the full moon just tinged with blue#8230; (pg. 42) Whitman celebrates his love for the earth as one who has a conventional religion celebrates their love for what they believe in. All aspects are sacred of mother earth in the eyes of the poet, as are all facets of belief in the heart of a conventional religious person. Whitman express how great this love is that he feels for his planet by expressing himself unworthy of such greatness. Prodigal, you have given me love- therefore I to you give love, O unspeakable passionate love. (pg. 42) Whitman blatantly expresses himself almost to the point of being stale on how much the earth means to him. Looking past the almost cornieness of this statement, some very powerful messages can be derived from it. Mother earth to the poet, is loved more then words themselves can even express. This is such a powerful statement in this epic poem, because it expresses the reader that no matter how much the American poet should right he can never truly say what he wants to. Again, another blatant example of one of the many contradictions in the poetry of Whitman. He calls out everyone to express themselves on their true unequivocal loves, yet here he admits that no one is reallyShow MoreRelated Individuality in Whitmans Song of Myself Essay1260 Words   |  6 PagesIndividuality in Whitmans Song of Myself During a lecture in 1907, William James said the philosophy which is so important in each of us is not a technical matter; it is our more or less dumb sense of what life honestly means. It is only partly got from books; it is our individual way of just seeing and feeling the total push and pressure of the cosmos (Bartlett 546) Individuality has been a prevalent theme in every type of literature for quite some time. Whether it is a character discoveringRead MoreWalt Whitmans Influences1411 Words   |  6 PagesWalt Whitman’s influence to American Literary History After the Civil War, Walt Whitman realized that the American people were in need of their own identity. Therefore, he wrote the book â€Å"Leaves of Grass† with the goal of creating a literature piece that was authentic and organic to the United States in every sense. Whitman introduced to literature the idea of the â€Å"American Dream† and highlighted how important it was for the American people to develop their own identity. Consequently, he rejectedRead MoreWalt Whitman s Song Of Myself1191 Words   |  5 Pages Walt Whitman’s â€Å"Song of Myself† Walt Whitman was an American poet born in May 31, 1819 in New York, and he died in March 26, 1892 in New Jersey. He grew up going to school in separate facilities from people of color, so he was growing up along with the nation. He was self-taught by exploring things for himself, for example, going to the museums when he could. Whitman as a young boy alternated from being in the city to being in the countryside with his grandparents. He was exposed to be beingRead MoreAnalysis Of Song Of Myself By Walt Whitman1451 Words   |  6 Pagesphilosophy of transcendentalism. Addressing the primary focus of transcendentalism - the search for self-wisdom, discovery and betterment – is the ground-breaking poet, Walt Whitman. In his poetry, Whitman explores the surreal and cosmic, relating the supernatural to the mundane .With an emphasis on oneness with nature, Whitman’s celebratory attitude of the human soul in all of its complexity, beauty, and contradictions is most noted i n his extensive poem titled â€Å"Song of Myself†, and is developedRead MoreEzra Pound, Whitman, And Crudity1081 Words   |  5 Pages Pound, Whitman, and Crudity Walt Whitman was born in 1819 in Long Island but moved to live in New Jersey where he spent most of his life. He was known as an American poet and journalist. He expressed himself in poetry by describing his life and American lives as a poem. His first published poem was Leaves of Grass in 1855, which later became known as Song of Myself. Ezra Pound was born in 1885 and died in Venice Italy, 1972. He was an American poet that criticized other poems and worked with otherRead MoreWalt Whitman: An Omnisexual Poet2586 Words   |  11 Pages The homosexual themes displayed in Walt Whitman’s works, especially in his most famous collection of poems Leaves of Grass, raise the question of his own sexuality. Many of his poems depicted affection and sexuality in a simple, personal manner, causing nineteenth century Americans to view them as pornographic and obscene. Based on this poetry, Whitman is usually assumed to be homosexual, or at least bisexual. However, this assumption does not account for major influences of his writing suchRead MoreWhitman s Influence On Society And The Lives Of Authors And Artists Who Came After Him Essay2202 Words   |  9 PagesAfter studying American author, Walt Whitman, it is clear that he has had a long lasting impact on society and the lives of authors and artists who came after him. Through works like Democratic Vistas and Song of Myself, Whitman gave American society tools to promote creative expression and the essence of democracy. However, Whitman’s methods had to be ad opted over time to touch/bring attention to different social issues. Two authors who were able to branch off of Whitman’s works and ideas were IsadoraRead MoreWalt Whitman s Life That Changed The Way Of Life1690 Words   |  7 Pages Corey Haldiman Goulette Research Paper Walt Whitman Walt used creativity, personal experiences and different ideas in his writing. He moved various times through his childhood, and that may have moved his personality to become slightly neurotic. He has done a lot of things in his life that has changed the way that future poets will write. Walt Whitman entered this world on May thirty-first, eighteen-nineteen in West Hills, New York. He was the second son among nine other children inRead MoreThe Teaching Style Of Walt Whitman1676 Words   |  7 Pagesamazing American wit or poetic, Walt Whitman who lived from May 31st, 1819 until March 26, 1892, this writer was once recognized by Ralph Waldo Emerson for his piece, Leaves of Grass, Emerson himself said, â€Å"The most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom written by an American.† Whitman was a great teacher in more ways than one and we all know this as Walt Whitman’s pedagogy, which is a piece of information that needs to be thoroughly looked at. To be able to critiqu e Whitman’s pedagogy properly, we mustRead MoreEmily Dickinson And Walt Whitman1218 Words   |  5 PagesOften considered the founders of modern American poetry, Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman have styles that are like none other. Although they have many individual, unique characteristics, they also are comparable in numerous ways. The lengths and tone in each of their poems may seem very different; however their similarities lie mostly in the themes and subjects that the two focus on. Their upbringing and life experiences are two aspects that made have these two, the influential poets that they are

Myers Briggs Personality Type Pros/Cons Essay - 702 Words

Assignment #4 - Myers Briggs Personality Type Pros/Cons During the power point on the Myers Briggs Type Indicator, as the instructor went through the different types of personalities, I was able to recognize which subcategories I fall into almost instantly. When my computer personality test results were returned, I was correct. As I read the type descriptions of Extroversion, Intuition, Feeling, and Judging- ENFJ- I quickly recognized myself within the descriptive words. The first subset of my personality is Extraversion, as opposed to Introversion. As an extrovert, I would describe myself as social, external and gregarious. This characteristic helps me communicate and reach out to others. However, there are cons that go along†¦show more content†¦When I have things to do, making lists is the first thing I do before going to work. I am firm and resolved in my opinions and certainly hate surprises, all of these things are characteristics of Judgers. ENFJs are described as warm, compassionate, and supportive, as well as loya l and trustworthy. These are all words that I would describe myself as, my most important characteristic being my loyalty in friendship. My type description also proclaims that I am â€Å"highly attuned to others; their empathy enables [me] to quickly understand emotional needs, motivations, and concerns.† No other description of me could be truer. My whole life, I have been quickly able to understand others, and even know that they are upset before they tell me so. Another handout describes ENFJs as having an intense caring about people. The strengths of being an ENFJ as well as a leader include a strong sense of commitment that ENFJs have. As an ENFJ, I am extremely aware of the commitments I make and the effort I put in order to follow through with them. ENFJs are incredibly skilled communicators. This could not be more true for me, as I am incredibly persuasive and able to articulate my thoughts well out loud. ENFJs are often creative people, and I fall into this category as well, as I am an extremely motivated artist and painter. As an ENFJ, I have an incredible sense of understanding others and making sure the needs of my subordinates are happy.Show MoreRelatedPersonality of an Intp1425 Words   |  6 PagesMyers Briggs personality test: The personality of an INTP Abstract An introverted intuitive thinker otherwise known as an INTP personality type is who I am. The research I have conducted explains the way I grow and think as a human being. It will give reason to my nonsocial habits and my tendencies to focus in on problems. This research not only gives understanding to the basic of my personality traits but it demonstrated my strengths and weaknesses as well. INTPs are very logical people andRead MorePsychological and Personality Assessments1677 Words   |  7 PagesPsychological Personality Assessments Used in the Workplace PSY250 Abstract Psychological and Personality Assessments are used by many small employers, Fortune 100 or even Fortune 500 companies. These companies have instilled these tests in their company policies with all new hires or promotional employees. These assessments are used to help all human resources personnel in the decision of hiring or promoting employees. These tests are used as tools to improve personal image, promote or hireRead MoreThe Myer-Briggs Type Indicator665 Words   |  3 Pagesand others, and how our thoughts and personalities are different, working together would (hopefully) be easier. Unfortunately, humans cannot do that. But it hasn’t stopped us from attempting something similar. Developed in the 1940’s and 1950’s, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator has been tested hundreds upon hundreds of times, with accurate results. Research is ongoing, and millions of people have taken the instrument since it’s conception. The Myers- Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) i s composed of fourRead MoreColl1273 Words   |  6 Pages Communicating and Collaborating Effectively This paper focuses on effective communication and collaboration methods for people with Visual, Kinesthetic, and Auditory learning styles and with NF, SF, and ST personality types from the Myers-Briggs model. Learning Styles Kinesthetic learners are those who learn through experiencing/doing things that help them learn better. We do better when we include hands-on communication and collaboration activities, such as building models, drawing diagramsRead MoreCarl Jung s Typological Theory1288 Words   |  6 Pagesclassified as meaningful or not, come from the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, or MBTI. The MBTI was created in 1944 by Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers, and is based on Carl Jung’s typological theory. The MBTI seeks to classify people into one of two groups in four different categories. The first pairing of traits attempts to measure whether a person has more of a preference towards extraversion or introversion. The second type pairing compares sensing versus intuition. PeopleRead MoreWho Is Myers Briggs Personality Test?1450 Words   |  6 Pages I have been always sceptical about personality tests, seeing them as another form of horoscope or fortune cookies, which establish a set of vague of personalities descriptions. Although I was aware that Myers Briggs personality test are used by companies all over the world, I knew that they lack scientific credibility. Despite these doubts I have approached the Module 4 Group Assignment with positive and enthusias-tic attitude. Surprisingly, my Myers Briggs result turned out to be very close toRead MoreBefore taking the Myers-Briggs Interactive Test, I didn’t really know what to expect or what kind700 Words   |  3 Pagestaking the Myers-Briggs Interactive Test, I didn’t really know what to expect or what kind of questions I would be answering in order to determine what my personality type would be. Afterwards however, I wasn’t too surprised with my results of the test. Out of the sixteen different personality types, I got the INFJ personality type which simply means dominant introverted intuition. All of those letters were pretty self-explanatory and accurate according to how my temperament and personality are. TheRead MoreSelf Reflection Paper1433 Words   |  6 Pagesit has been so much fun finding myself and really seeing how I am. During this GST course we have taken te st to find out our personalities and which jobs would best fit us and one of these test was the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. In the Myer Briggs test my results were ENFP which stands for Extraversion, Intuition, Feeling, and Perceiving. These types indicate my personality and how I express myself and act upon certain situations. Extraversion means I tend to focus on the outer world of people andRead MoreHow Does Your Personality Shape Your Workplace Effectiveness?1990 Words   |  8 PagesHow does your personality shape your workplace effectiveness? Introduction Research concerning the relationship between personality and effectiveness is highly conducted within the framework of MBTI. I think, as a management student, if I want to increase my managerial skills, first of all I must be aware about my own personality type. Personality orientation will help me to understand my behavior as well as my needs and motives. I can construct my future plan on the basis of this dynamic awarenessRead MoreDescriptive Essay : I Introvert ( 16 % )999 Words   |  4 Pagesoriented, reserved, reflective, and observant. Completing the Jung Typology Test, showed me that I am not as introverted as some people would imagine. Only 16% of my personality belongs in the category. When I first meet people or start a new task, I tend to show signs of being introverted; however, that part of my personality tends to not last long. Introverts are known to prefer to be alone over social settings, my percentage shows that my preference of being alone does not last long and or

Effects of centralized vs. decentralized free essay sample

Collective bargaining is a process that through negotiations establishes terms and conditions that are essential for employment. Collective bargaining facilitates coordination between unions and employers in wage setting and other aspects of industrial relations. Although collective bargaining has the general objective of supplementing or supplanting, the free market, it has not followed a uniform pattern of development in different national or industrial situations. Instead, a variety of institutional arrangements have evolved in implementing bargaining relationships between employers and employees organizations. These differences at the structural level of bargaining brought contrasting consequences in the labour market. The bargaining structure refers to the employers and unions that take part in these negotiations and are responsible for the final content of the collective agreement. The structure of bargaining is also important as it affects a broad range of aspects as: the bargaining outcomes, the roles of unions and management and the types of issues that are brought to the table. 2 There are two structures of collective bargaining that are often implemented: centralized and decentralized. Centralized bargaining refers to agreements made at the group level involving many plants and is aimed to protect the working class in industry and at the national level, while decentralized bargaining occurs when agreements refer to just one plant. On the one hand, centralized bargaining is usually associated with lower and less persistent levels of unemployment, less wage dispersion and fewer strikes, whereas decentralized bargaining is associated with higher and more persistent levels of unemployment, more wage dispersion and more strikes. In the essay I will highlight the effects that this two bargaining structures have on wages, inflation, strikes, the bargaining process, and the negotiation process and their influence on the industrial relations system as a whole. 1. Arnold R. Weber, The Structure of Collective Bargaining and Bargaining Power: Foreign Experiences, (Journal of Law and Economics 1963), 117-151. 2. Katz, Harry C. , Industrial and Labor Relations Review, (np: October 1, 1993), article. A phenomenon that is characteristic for many countries is the wage differentials. These wage differentials are those who can determine the degree of centralization of wage bargaining and also have influence on outcomes. In the centralized bargaining process the government has a great involvement, leading to the uniformity of wages, benefits, and other aspects of employment. The centralised wage bargaining is likely to yield real wage moderation and lower unemployment than decentralized bargaining structures because it internalises the negative external effect of bargaining outcomes on the unemployment rate. Also centralized bargaining arrangements moderate wage settlements, reduce work stoppages, labour costs and consequently reduce product pricing. Another benefit of the centralized structure is that it reduces wage dispersion. If firms trade off the losses from an increase in the wage bill against the gains that a higher relative wage yields in terms of higher individual effort, as postulated by the efficiency-wage hypothesis, centralised wage bargaining hinders effort by reducing inter-firm wage dispersion. Thus taking in consideration all these effects that centralized structure has on wages, I can state that centralization encourage wage equality between workers, without reducing their individual efficiency, and the main objectives of the unions that promote this structure is to improve the welfare and the job security of all workers. The centralized bargaining structure has also notable effects on inflation. This kind of structure is associated to yield lower levels of inflation, thereby moderating settlements. These centralized impacts influence the formation of a different political dynamic at work and lead to the achievement of many political objectives of the labour movement. 3. Giorgio Brunello, European Journal of Political Economy, (np: Volume 14, Issue 2, May 1998), 381-406. 4. Giorgio Brunello, 381-406. There is an interdependent interaction between the effects that centralized bargaining creates on wages and inflation. Greater centralization of wage bargaining causes each union in the coordinating group to internalize the tendency of the central bank to respond towage-bargaining centralization by reducing money growth, thereby reducing the incentive of unions to restrain their coordinated wage demands. 5 As a result to this restrains the labour movement may agree to lower wage settlements for getting in return pensions, a better control of prices and more employment guarantees that advantage both workers and unions. â€Å"The interaction between these effects leads to a hump-shaped relationship between the centralization of wage bargaining and inflation, with inflation initially rising with greater centralization and then declining. †6 Analysing the effects that centralized bargaining has on inflation, we can definitely say that they bring a high level of certitude in the society and increase the workers welfare. Another argument that favours the implementation of centralized bargaining is the fact that it leads to fewer strikes. This aspect is due to the existence of greater similarity of wages, benefits and other terms of employment. â€Å"Such a finding, however, seems almost axiomatic, given that such structures involve many fewer sets of negotiations at any given time than decentralized ones. †7 The negotiations in centralized bargaining are conducted by skilful negotiators that are capable to settle the interests of all parties that take part at the negotiations, thereby diminishing the probability of a conflict or a strike. In a centralized structure workers are more informed and also have an easier access to Daniels, Joseph P. , Nourzad, Farrokh, VanHoose, David D. , Openness, centralized wage bargaining, and inflation, European Journal of Political Economy,(np: Dec 2006, Vol. 22 Issue 4), 970. 6. Daniels, Joseph P. , Nourzad, Farrokh, VanHoose, David D. , 970. 7. Jon Peirce, Karen Joy Bentham, Canadian Industrial Relations, (Toronto 2007), 250. In a centralized structure workers are more informed and also have an easier access to information as demand conditions and wages, thus reducing the likelihood of conflicts, strikes or wild-cat strikes. The influence that the government holds in this structure also has evident effects on strikes, because it can prevent or end them quickly. â€Å"Thus it is not centralization itself, but the shift in the locus of conflict that often accompanies it that seems to be the main reason for reduced industrial conflicts in countries with centralized structure. †8 Concluding the above effects that centralization has on strikes, we can observe that it helps to build in society better working relations and also stimulate unions and employers to find common goals that advantage both parties. The bargaining process is another component on which centralization has influence. It makes the development of this process more smoothly because it is conducted by efficient negotiators and authoritarian managers that can keep the situation under control and achieve positive results. However the big number of unions and manager fractions that are involved in the bargaining process makes it development more slow. When having a centralized bargaining process the parties involved can obtain what they want by combining the interests of both parties. â€Å"Unions need centralized bargaining process either formally, by way of a single agreement, or informally, through pattern bargaining both to standardize labour costs in an industry and to be able to inflict economic damage on employers through strike action. †9 The bargaining process leads the parties to obtain reciprocal gain in the area where they both have interests. Through the development of the bargaining processes in centralized way the unions and the employers try to increase the stability of the industrial relations and to achieve savings. The centralization of this process creates large, heterogeneous and broadly based bargaining units that are thus harder to organize. 8. Jon Peirce, Karen Joy Bentham, Canadian Industrial Relations, (Toronto 2007), 250. 9. Lawrence Mishel, The Structural Determinants of Union Bargaining Power, Industrial and Labour Relations Review, (np: Vol. 40, No. 1, Oct. 1986), 99. In conclusion, analysing the centralized bargaining process and its effects, we denote that there are positive impacts, the process is smooth, and negative impacts, it develops slower, that interfere. So we cannot say to which extent this process is advantageous to implement. The negotiation process in centralized bargaining structure is lead on industry-wide basis. In this process the parties that take part try to influence each other for achieving their purposes. Usually in this kind of centralized process is negotiated a single collective agreement across several different workplaces by the same employer and union. This centralization leads to inefficiency because it addresses to general problems that arise between the parties. â€Å"Centralized negotiations by their nature tend to encompass issues of general importance, thereby omitting issues of local concern. †10 Centralized negotiations are often harder to achieve, mainly because of the great number of members involved in the process. The complex issues that are brought at the table require a great physical and mental implication of the members, leading to possible strikes or lockouts. â€Å"Negotiations between union and management typically address a broader range of issues than most commercial contracts and the issues themselves are often more complex than those raised in the average commercial transactions. †11 The strategies that negotiators choose to implement are influenced in a great part by the goals that they tend to achieve and thus, centralized negotiations enforce parties to decide carefully what main objectives they want to negotiate. Also they have to ensure that the chosen strategy is effective and can influence the other party that expect some sort of give and take proposals that favour the process. Taking in consideration the great responsibilities, risks and influences that centralized negotiation processes imply, there is no doubt that they have important effects on industrial relationships and only experienced people can succeed to achieve positive result for the both parties without causing conflicts and maintaining a good development at he workplace. 10. Jon Peirce, Karen Joy Bentham, Canadian Industrial Relations, (Toronto 2007), 250-251. 11. Jon Peirce, Karen Joy Bentham, 251. Another bargaining structure that has important effects on different aspects of the industrial relations is the decentralized structure. If speaking about the effects of the decentralized structure with regard to wages, than we can observe that this structure generally leads to greater dispersion between higher and lower-paid workers and greater union, non-union wage differentials. †12 In a decentralized collective bargaining the wages are established by each firm thus, the financial decentralized wage gains lead to unemployment. This increase in unemployment creates a very difficult social situation, because finding a job for unemployed people is much harder. â€Å"Wallerstein (1999), reports that â€Å"a lasting move from highly centralized bargaining to a system of industry-level bargaining would raise the predicted wage differential by 50 percent, while a shift in the level at which wages are set from plant-level to industry-level would reduce wage differentials by 30%. †13 Also decentralization brings more wage flexibility and leads to a greater wage dispersion. The existence of this flexibility in the decentralized collective bargaining can be as well manifested through the diversity of specific goals and tactics that are embraced by the individual unions and employers. Unlike centralized structure, in the decentralized structure each union is free to establish its own goals without a great involvement of the government. In this bargaining structure the employer organizations are not usually engaged in alliances or economic blocs, being rather followers of more individual prospects. Assuming all this, we realize that the decentralized collective bargaining structure has more detrimental effects over the wages and the labour market, creating evident distinctions between different classes of workers and thus leading to social conflicts, competitiveness and reduced individual efficiency. 12. Charlotta Groth and Asa Johansson, European Economic Review (np: Volume 48, Issue 6, December 2004), 1349-1365. 13. Golden, Miriam A. and Londregan, John B. , American Journal of Political Science,(np: Vol. 50, Issue 1, Jan 2006), p208-213. The inflation in decentralized bargaining has higher levels and yields negative effects on the labour market. This consequently leads to reinforced lower outcomes and to a bad material situation of the working class. â€Å"A movement to a more decentralized collective bargaining structure would create more inflation while an increase in the weight of the national industry agreements would reduce the rate of inflation. †14 The existence of high levels of inflation will have direct impact on workers benefits, reducing them and thus depriving employees from having tax reforms, vacation benefits, higher pensions or better price control. The wage setting has important effects on the inflation level, as in decentralized bargaining there is a bigger demand of wage increase. â€Å"Inflation initially rises when an increased share of firms have wage setters that coordinate their wage setting activities but then declines with ever increasing centralization of wage bargaining. †15 Where decentralized bargaining structure exists, workers don’t have the willing to accept lower wages in exchange of more benefits, neither want to renounce in an easy manner to their goals. Assuming these effects, we denote that inflation causes big disadvantages for unions as well as for employers, and slackens the development of good relations between them. Unlike in the centralized bargaining where strikes are few, in the decentralized bargaining we have more strikes. This effect is due primarily because of great wage differentials, and dispersion. When the bargaining process takes places between single-employer, single-establishment, single-union, employees don’t have much access to information and don’t benefit of different terms of employment. The fact that government don’t have a great implication in this bargaining process, allow the employer to get rid of the union easier. 14. Jesus Ferreiro, Decentralized versus centralized collective bargaining: is the collective bargaining structure in Spain efficient? , Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, (Armonk: Vol. 26, Iss. 4, 2004), 695. 15. Daniels, Joseph P. , Nourzad, Farrokh, VanHoose, David D. , Openness, centralized wage bargaining, and inflation, European Journal of Political Economy,( np: Dec 2006, Vol. 22 Issue 4), 979. As the structure is decentralized is easy for the employer to force concessions, and the costs of strikes are not so big. â€Å"A strike is more costly to firms whose production processes are labour intensive. †16 If the production processes relies more on capital and are automated, the employers can continue at least partial production process. Making a global analysis on the effects that decentralized bargaining has on strikes, we can assert that they aggravate the relations between union and employers by making harder the finding of a common denominator that could please both parties. The strikes have a long duration and this harm the working process. The bargaining process in the decentralized structure occurs in small, community based, homogenous bargaining units that are easy to organize and to manage. Decentralized negotiations often occur between a single employer and a single union, thereby resulting in a great number of collective agreements that cover relatively few workers. 17 In such structure the parties can bargain based on their own circumstances, thus the development of the process is quicker. Unlike in centralized bargaining where the Employer has full control on the process, in the decentralized one, the employer doesn’t want to surrender control. The bargaining process implies comprehensive change, openness, professionalism and the spending of time and resources, for having finally positive achievements. Single–employer, single-union bargaining are efficient because of the little numbers of people that take part in it and have the possibility to express their desire. Even if many of them have different occupation but work in the same establishment people think that they have enough in common to bargain together. Studying the above information, we are able to say that the decentralized bargaining process is one in which employees can express themselves in a more freely way and can require from their employers more benefits that centralized worker. 16. Jon Peirce, Karen Joy Bentham, Canadian Industrial Relations, (Toronto 2007), 263. 17. Jon Peirce, Karen Joy Bentham, 245. The negotiation process that is a component of the bargaining process, is also affected by the decentralized structure. To some extent it resembles the bargaining process through the great number of collective agreements and the fact that it occurs between single-employer, single-union. A great advantage that decentralized negotiations have is the fact that they encompass not only issues of general importance but also local issues, thus leading to better internal relationships at the workplace. â€Å"Unions must negotiate contracts which cover the relevant workforce either directly, as in industry wide agreements, or indirectly through strong settlement patterns among companies. †18 This action removes the wages of the relevant work force from competition. In the negotiation process, both unions and management negotiators represent different parties involved in the labour process that share diverse opinions and are often implied in conflicts. The union-management negotiation are conducted by representatives of the parties; thus, the negotiators must emerge with a settlement acceptable not just to their bargaining team but to their principals, who were not involved in the actual negotiations but who have the ultimate say as to whether the tentative agreement is accepted or rejected. 19 So we can denote from the. Above information that the negotiation process in the decentralized structure is essential for having a benefic development of the internal as well as external relations between union, managers, employees and employers. It helps to find a consensus and also through this process the parties involved try to respect the rights of the opponent but also meet their obligations thus, we can state that in decentralized structure the negotiation process is more productive and efficient. 18. Lawrence Mishel, The Structural Determinants of Union Bargaining Power, Industrial and Labour Relations Review, (np: Vol. 40, No. 1, Oct. 1986), 94. Jon Peirce, Karen Joy Bentham, Canadian Industrial Relations, (Toronto 2007), 252. Finally, after enumerating and explaining the effects that both centralized and decentralized bargaining structures have on wages, inflation, strikes, the bargaining process and the negotiation process, we can accentuate that they are primordial elements in the domain of industrial relations. We have seen that centralized bargaining has good influences on wage dispersion and wage differentials as it reduces them and leads to equality, whereas decentralized bargaining increases them and creates inequality and competitiveness between workers. Unlike in decentralized bargaining, in centralized structures inflation and strikes they also have reduced levels thus, contributes to the development of a stable society and a good economic level in it. The bargaining and the negotiation processes have a great effectiveness in decentralized structures than in the centralized ones, because they deal with a broader range of local issues and have a quicker development. Although these two structures have different effects on society, we cannot say that they don’t interact in some circumstances, and that the implementation of only one of them can lead to total welfare in the society. Analyzing all these, we realized the great importance that collective bargaining has for unionized workers, offering them the possibility to work in good conditions and to have many employment benefits. â€Å"Unionized workers enjoy a significantly greater voice in the workplace, thanks mainly to the grievance process. †20 Even if this system is far from being perfect, at the present time it’s the best for the determination of pay and working conditions. While the adversarial nature of the process and the length and complexity of most collective agreements are regrettable, they are likely inevitable so long as management continues to resist unions fiercely, and as long as bargaining remains highly decentralized, thus forcing most conflict to be worked out at the bargaining table rather than in the political arena. 21 20. Jon Peirce, Karen Joy Bentham, Canadian Industrial Relations, (Toronto 2007), 265. 21. Jon Peirce, Karen Joy Bentham, 265.

Mswati Iii of Swaziland free essay sample

Swaziland is the king of Swaziland, and head of the Swazi Royal Family. He succeeded his late father, Sobhuza II, in 1986. Early life He is one of many sons of King Sobhuza II (who had 70 wives and at the time of his death left over 1000 grandchildren) and the only child of Ntombi Tfwala, also known as Inkhosikati LaTfwala, one of the Kings younger wives. He was born at the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital, only four months before Swaziland attained independence from Britain, and after he and his mother were discharged from the hospital they went to live at one of King Sobhuzas residences of Etjeni near Masundwini Palace. His birth name was Makhosetive (King of Nations). As a young prince, Makhosetive attended Masundwini Primary School and Lozitha Palace School. He sat for the Swaziland Primary Certificate examination in December 1982 at Phondo Royal Residence and got a First Class with merit in Mathematics and English. We will write a custom essay sample on Mswati Iii of Swaziland or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page He developed a great interest in the royal guard, becoming the first young cadet to join the Umbutfo Swaziland Defence Force (USDF). In September 2008, Mswati III was expected to choose his 14th wife at a ceremony of bare-breasted female virgins. Regency When his father died of pneumonia in 1982, the royal council Liqoqo headed by Prince Mfanasibili chose the 14-year-old prince Makhosetive to be the next king. The special council was left with the task to do this after one of King Sobhuzas last words. For the next four years two wives of the late King Sobhuza II served as regent, Queen Dzeliwe Shongwe (1982–1983) and Queen Ntombi Tfwala (1983–1986) while he continued with his education in England, attending Sherborne School before he was called back to take over. King He was introduced as Crown Prince in September 1983 and was crowned King on April 25, 1986, aged 18 years and 6 days, and thus making him the youngest reigning monarch. The king and his mother, whose title is Indlovukazi (Great She-Elephant), rule jointly. Today he is Africas last absolute monarch in the sense that he has the power to choose the prime minister, other top government posts and top traditional posts. Even though he makes the appointments, he still has to get special advice from the queen mother and council, for example when he chooses the prime minister. When it comes to appointing the cabinet, he gets advise from the prime minister. He inherited a rule by decree, but did restore the nations Parliament, which had been dissolved by his father due to the chaos of the multiparty system, that was perceived as breaking the country apart at the time considering that the country had just got its independence. The country already has its own type of democracy called the Tinkhundla system and has a constitution which allows freedom of assembly and free speech for both the media and the public. The Swaziland media in conferences with other regional media houses (MISA) says it is free to report as it pleases. In 2001, all unmarried women were placed under the chastity rite of umcwasho between 9 September 2001 and 19 August 2005 in an attempt to curb the spread of HIV and AIDS. This rite (re-introduced after suggestion from NGOs), banned sexual relations for Swazis under 18 years of age, but in 2005, he violated this decree when he married a 17-year-old girl, who became his 13th wife. As per custom, he was fined a cow by members of her regiment, which he duly paid. Succession In Swaziland no king can appoint his successor. Only an independent special traditional Council called the Liqoqo decides which of the wives shall be Great Wife and Indlovukazi (She-Elephant / Queen Mother). The son of this Great Wife will automatically become the next king. The Great Wife must only have one son (arguably) and be of good character. Her character affects her childs chances of ascending to the kingship. According to Swazi culture, a son cannot be the heir if his mother is not of good standing. She must not bear the maiden name of Nkhosi-Dlamini and she must not be a ritual wife (i. . the eldest son is never the heir). The King currently has thirteen wives. A Swazi Kings first two wives are chosen for him by the national councillors. These two have special functions in rituals and their sons can never claim Kingship. The first wife must be a member of the Matsebula clan, the second of the Motsa clan. According to tradition, he can only marry his fiancees after they have fallen pregnant, proving they can bear heirs. U ntil then, they are termed liphovela, or brides.

Hindu and Muslim Women during the Period of Muslim Rule

buy custom Crosby Manufacturing Corporation essay

buy custom Crosby Manufacturing Corporation essay Wilfred Livingston, the president of Crosby Manufacturing Corporation convened a meeting to resolve a major problem concerning the companys management cost and control systems (MCCS). She stated that the company was having difficulties in meeting competition needs since the companys MCCS reporting procedures were outdated. Livingstone pointed that in the previous year, Crosby was considered nonresponsive to three large government contracts because it could not adhere to the customers financial reporting requirements. However, recently, the government showed renewed interest in Crosby. Therefore, Livingston wanted the company to replace its current computer systems with a more advanced model to update its MCCS reporting procedures. During the meeting, the MIS and EDP managers presented the procedures to be followed in implementation of the new computer model. However, at the end of the meeting, Livingston appointed Tim Emary as the project leader, despite the fact that he was not know ledgeable in computers. In my opinion, Livingstons decision to have Tim Emary as the leader of the proposed project was a mistake. This is because; one of the fundamental aspects of project management is use of the right personnel in managing a project (Hierarchy of Project Managers inProject Management, 2010). Studies indicate that there is a hierarchy of project managers in every project management. Depending on the size of a project, and the number of sub-projects in a given project, an organization may require several individuals to oversee implementation of the project in different stages. Generally, there are three levels of management, which are present in project management. The most senior individual in a project is a programme manager (top-level project manager) followed by a project manager, and then a project leader (Hierarchy of Project Managers inProject Management, 2010). A project leader is usually an individual who manages a specific stage in a project, or all stages in case of a small proj ect. He/she should possess particular skills or expertise, related to the project being executed. This overview of hierarchy of project managers in project management indicates that every management level in project management should be allocated to an individual who has the capacity to handle all the responsibilities involved in the specific level. It is therefore clear that Livingston made a mistake by appointing Emary to hold the position of project leader for the computer-upgrading project. In the case study, Livingston clearly stated that Emary was not knowledgeabe in computers as other individuals in the project implementation team. Based on our understanding of the requirements of a project leader, Emary was not the appropriate individual for the project leader position. In this specific project, a team leader should have been an individual with computer knowledge, specifically, MIS and MCCS. Emary belonged to the planning department and not the MIS or the EDP department. Therefore, he did not have the capacity to execute the responsibilities of a project leader in this sp ecific project. The most probable reaction of the functional employees to the appointment of Emary as the project leader would have been lack of commitment to the project. Since many of the functional employees may fear contravening the decision of the president, it is likely that they did not ask the president to reverse her decision by appointing a different person to that position. However, since they knew that Emary was not the right person for that position, they probably tended to disregard his directions or contributions in the project. This can be termed as lack of commitment to the project. Lack of commitment by the key personnel in the project may result into failure of the project (failure to achieve the desired business goals), or delayed completion of the project, thus utilizing more resources than scheduled for. This may be very expensive for an organization, especially where high-valued projects are concerned. Implementation of a project entails use of networking techniques such as critical path method and what-if analysis to generate project schedules (early and late starting and ending dates). The most common constraints in project scheduling are time and cost. These two constraints have a great impact on project scheduling. The scheduled project time may be adjusted using schedule compression techniques (Advanced scheduling techniques, 2010). Compressing a projects schedule means reducing the time taken to complete a project without interfering with its scope or objectives. Time constraint can be manipulated using a compression technique known as crashing (Advanced scheduling techniques, 2010). This involves undertaking a given project within a shorter period than the scheduled time. For instance, if a project was scheduled to take thirty weeks to complete, crashing can be applied to enable completion of the project within twenty weeks. However, crashing has a direct impact on cost. Usually, crashing is accompanied by incremental costs. This is because, for a project to be completed within the crashed duration without interfering with itss scope and objectives, it requires input of additional resources such as human resources (in case of labor-intensive projects), or machineries (in case of capital-intensive projects). Incremental resources results into incremental costs. Therefore, interference of time constraint in a project has an inverse impact on cost of a project. Time constraint can also be manipulated through fast tracking. This involves performing project activities in a parallel manner as opposed to sequential manner (Advanced scheduling techniques, 2010). For instance, in the case study, Crosby can start preparing flowcharts as it awaits receipt of bids on specs. However, fast tracking can result into rework, hence increasing the time taken to complete a project, as well as the cost involved. Generally, time constraint is very important in project scheduling. If compression techniques are applied, the cost of a project is usually impacted: reduction of project time results into increased project cost. In project implementation, time is one of the major constraints, which compromises project performance quality. During the implementation process, every activity is allocated specific time within which it should be completed. This is usually done through project schedule or work breakdown structure. Apparently, project time management has a lot to do with managing a project schedule (Evans, n.d.). This entails knowing how to utilize the allocated time to get the work done before or on the scheduled date. Lack of proper time management results into delayed completion of a given project, meaning more time is taken to complete a project. Consequently, an organization incurs more cost to complete a project if a projects completion time is delayed. Moreover, delayed completion time may result in increased competitive pressure and financial difficulties, thus affecting the quality of the project during the completion stage (Evans, n.d.). Interference of a projects quality during the completion stage has direct impact on the quality of the entire project. Moreover, lack of time management when implementing a project may affect the scope of a project (Evans, n.d.). For instance, if the completion period is delayed, the personnel involved in implementing a project may be tempted to overlook some of the aspects of the project in bid to avoid further delay. This may results into interference of the scope of a project, hence affecting the quality of a project. Moreover, interference of a projects scope means failure to achieve the goals for which the project was set to achieve. Buy custom Crosby Manufacturing Corporation essay

Substance Abuse Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Substance Abuse - Essay Example Some people argue that recreational use of drugs is not harmful, however studies show that use of recreational drugs leads to addiction and permanent usage of drugs. People who support the recreational use of drugs favor the use of Marijuana as they feel it is not harmful for people. However, recent studies show that marijuana is also harmful for human beings. According to National Institute of Drug Abuse, marijuana users become dependent on others. They find it hard to understand different aspects of life and others assistance on every aspect. It is also important to note that illegal drug is not the only thing that creates addiction in an individual. Things like medicine, alcohol, tea, coffee etc could also create addiction which may cause problems for an individual (á ¸ ²aminer, 2010). Treatment The aim of the treatment of patients for substance abuse is to take them to a point where they are free of the dependency and habit of using illegal drugs. Although, the patients may not get rid of the problem completely, but the negative effects of the use of such drugs may be negated from such treatment. Studies show that 60 out of 100 are treated with desired results, as the dependency of drug addict patients reduces with the treatment.

STRATEGIC REVIEW CASE ASSIGNMENT 1 THE EXCELLENT CONSULTING GROUP Essay

STRATEGIC REVIEW CASE ASSIGNMENT 1 THE EXCELLENT CONSULTING GROUP - Essay Example A thorough analysis of the external elements of the business as well as the current strategies has also been made, based on which a strong set of recommendations have been set down for the company. The next section will deal with the current situation of the company. Here we discuss the mission and vision of the company followed by the strategies that the company currently adopts. The company’s main objective is to grow to become the leaders in mobile computing. The company’s mission statement is â€Å"Our objective is to be the leader in mobile computing† (Palms Annual Report). The company’s vision statement has been noted to include a number of different areas, like, â€Å"a) Develop market-defining products that deliver a great user experience, b) Provide a choice of industry standard platforms, c) Differentiate our products through software and applications, d) Expand global presence and e) Build a brand synonymous with delightful mobile computing† (Palms Annual Report). It is evident that the company is focusing on becoming the world leaders and has taken all possible steps to ensure that they read their mission. As explained earlier, the company’s goal and objective is to become the world leaders in mobile computing. The company focuses on the providing the industry with a wide range of industry standard platforms (Palm Inc.). The company also focuses on ensuring that products and services provide a great customer experience and allow the customers gain the best of the industry. Based on the goals and objectives of the company, Palm Inc has been able to effectively develop a brand image, which has been consistent with one which provides high quality and excellent customer experience. The company has also been able to use the highest and best level of software and applications. The company’s main strength is the differentiation that the company has been able to achieve in the markets and the high choice of standard platforms that the

Hyperthyroid and Hypothyroid Disease Essay Example for Free

Hyperthyroid and Hypothyroid Disease Essay Hyperthyroid and Hypothyroid Disease Mischief just seems to follow wherever Dennis appears, but it is the product of good intentions, misdirected helpfulness, good-hearted generosity, and, possibly, an overactive thyroid The Merchant of Dennis the Menace.Hank Ketchum Additionally when comparing Hypothyroidism and Hyperthyroidism, it is useful to consider the symptoms, treatment, and life with the disease. The hidden truth about thyroid disease and what every person should know, how it affects not only the body, but also the affects that these diseases have on mental stability and memory is astounding. What everyone doesn’t know, but should know about these two diseases. Knowing more about the symptoms of thyroid disease is useful knowledge for any one person that has a family member with the disease or has concerns for them. Also thyroid disease can be hereditary, if a family member has the disease it is likely that another member in the family has it or will get it. Uncontrollable weight gain is of the most common symptoms, and most talked about for hypothyroid disease. What they don’t say is that losing the weight is next to impossible, and when the weight gain will stop. As one of the thyroid glands functions is to release hormones in the system to regulate the metabolism, if the metabolism isn’t regulated weight gain is inevitable, amongst this symptom are the uncommon symptoms of intolerance to cold, memory loss, dry skin, and hair loss, with hypothyroid disease the thyroid is no longer producing enough of this hormone for a healthy thyroid gland, compared to hyperthyroid the thyroid gland is over producing hormones, and this leads to uncontrollable weight loss even with a high caloric diet, weight loss will continue. The uncommon symptoms are depression, intolerance to heat, and again hair loss, however with both hypothyroid and hyperthyroid once treated these symptoms will start to lessen under a physician’s care. The treatment for hypothyroidism, depending on the severity of the disease, what form of hypothyroidism is diagnosed will be the deciding factor in how the disease is treated, for most the treatment is a Synthroid medication, how much medication is taken daily will depend on the TSH levels in the blood system, in order to find out what the TSH level is generally a blood test will revile the level, at the same time it will be recommended to continue having regular blood test ran as these levels can change frequently along with the amount of medication, having regular blood work done, along with regular visits to the treating physician will help with maintaining a healthy thyroid gland. However the treatment for hyperthyroid disease is completely different, still blood work will be needed to determine the over activity of the thyroids hormone release, since hyperthyroidism can be cured, furthermore this treatment will depend on the age of the person, their general health, and the condi tion of the thyroid gland. The most common treatment is an anti-hormone medication until the thyroid gland is functioning at normal hormones levels, in the same way treatment will be decided by the attending physician. Living with thyroid disease has its challenges, but is manageable as long as the individual follows the medical advice that has been given to them by their attending physician, although it is recommended to seek out a specialist in this area. Hypothyroid disease will require blood work maintence that should happen at a minimum of every six months to ensure the TSH levels are staying within the required levels, adjustments to the medication may be necessary until the right level is maintained for a minimum of six months or as recommended by the physician. During this time one will be overwhelmingly fatigued, but will get better as time goes on, and the treatment has been successful, there will be days when the body is full of energy on the other hand there will be days that more sleep is required than usual, getting out of bed will be a chore, bones and joints will be constantly sore and painful to the touch, nevertheless it is a manageable disease even though the treatment is time consuming, still it just will take perseverance and patience to make everything fall into place, also changing the daily diet, adding in super foods that can help with the thyroid function, such as eating more fresh fruits, grains, vegetables an d lean proteins in addition to changing regular cooking oil to coconut oil for all cooking that requires cooking oil. Coconut oil is better for thyroid  function, is doesn’t make food taste like coconuts, food won’t have that oil taste, is better for you, and will help elevate the thyroid in a more natural way. Cutting out white foods, such as sugar, white flour, dairy, and caffeine will also help with repairing the function of the thyroid gland. This will be a lifelong change for any individual that develops hypothyroidism since it cannot be reversed. The symptoms can change constantly; any change in the thyroid hormone will create changes in the symptoms for the better or worse, even though cutting out white foods and changing the diet, adding in super foods, medication cannot be skipped as it can have a negative effect on the system. Although living with hyperthyroidism in comparison is completely different, but changes will need to be made in the same way, such as learning to relax, take things in stride, at the same time look into taking up a meditation class, yoga class or get regular massages. Regular exercise is also recommended as doing any one of these daily regimens will help with the healing process of this disease. When the individual follows the treatment plan recommended and maintains a healthy balanced diet, hyperthyroid disease is reversible, and the thyroid will once again be thriving and healthy unlike hypothyroidism which cannot be reversed. Life is manageable with hypothyroid disease or hyperthyroid disease, once you have a clear understanding of the treatment, symptoms and how to live a healthy life with either of these chronic diseases. There is not enough getting done in the research industry to find the key to what is the cause of thyroid disease, and how we can create more viable medications to enhance the patient’s livelihood.

Heathrow Terminal-5

Heathrow Terminal-5 Heathrow Terminal-5 Case Study Executive Summary: Heathrow airport has been in operation since 1946 and is the UKs largest airport and the worlds busiest international airport, carrying over 60 million passengers and 1.3 million tons of cargo each year. Terminal 5 when constructed will be able to handle 30 million passengers per year, taking Heathrows total number of passengers to around 90 million. Heathrow Terminal 5 is the most multifaceted construction projects in Europe with good procurement and Supply Chain Management strategies in place. It is a multidisciplinary project consisting of civil, mechanical, electrical systems, communications and technology contractors over the entire phase of the project. The project is aimed at making Heathrow maintain its competitive position within Europe, retain its passenger capacity and also increase it by 30% over the next 10 years; this project when carried out will make Heathrow one the worlds busiest airport and a major source of income for the UK economy. It is estimated that the project will cost  £4.2B and have a payback period of 8 years. Since construction projects are prone to risks related to Environmental, legal and Supply Chain issues, the main aim is to maintain a synergistic relationship amongst all the stakeholders of the project with an effective communication strategy in place and to hire external consultants having expertise related to environmental (material risk, waste management, air quality, dust, noise and others) and legal aspects of the project. This helps in a smooth flow of the project coping with Environmental and legal standards set by the UK (Europe). This also favours in preserving the interests of local communities during the construction of this Terminal (Execution Phase). Some of the main multifarious challenges which are involved in the project phases would be: * Exhaustive Planning activities * Earthworks (Archaeology) * State of the Art design of the infrastructure (Buildings) * Twin river diversion * Rail and Road infrastructure projects. The main elements under T5 project includes construction of the Main Terminal building, two Satellite Terminals, Aircraft stands, an Air Traffic Control Tower, connections to Public Transport, Road works, Rails and Tunnels. The success of this project also depends on the lessons learnt from the following two stages: * Lessons learnt prior to this project from other major construction projects * Lessons learnt during the execution (construction) stage of the project. Therefore the project should be focussed on the first point than the second one and strive towards having minimal lessons learnt during the execution stage of the project. The main aim is to complete this project on time, within budget and with exceeding expectations of the quality from the customer. 1. Introduction: BAA is the worlds leading International airport group, responsible for managing the multifaceted Airport environment including safety and security, operation of air bridges, runways, environmental issues, shops and commercial facilities, airport systems which includes IT, information/ help desks and others. It owns, develop and manage 9 International Airports in total including Budapest (Hungary) and Naples (Italy). BAA serves more than 150 million passengers at its seven UK airports, including the worlds busiest international airport, Heathrow. It is involved with management contracts/ stakes in ten airports outside the UK and also has got retail management contracts at two Airports in the USA. BAA established airport privatisation and retailing, and is recognised for its efficient airport operations. BAAs achievements have been emphasized by its sustained effort towards managing environment and other impacts of aviation. It is also successful in maintaining a synergistic relationship amongst customers, employees and business partners in an efficient way. It constantly benchmarks itself against the demanding prolific standards of corporate roles and responsibilities. 1.1 Project Rationale: As Project Rationale describes about the basic reason for the accomplishment of the project, the major issues which Heathrow airport is facing are the escalation in the number of passengers and this is causing an increase in the congestion at the current terminals of Heathrow, due to increase in congestion it is difficult to provide the world class customer support/services effectively to the passengers and the airlines. An increasing global competition from other International Airports in the European region like inParis,AmsterdamandGermany proposed a threat to Heathrows revenues and position in aviation industry. There is a need to accommodate bigger planes like Airbus A380 and the effective air traffic monitoring system with the help of new Air traffic control tower. The above factor generates a need to expand the Heathrow airport for British Airport Authority (BAA) in the form of a new terminal named â€Å"TERMINAL-5†. 2. Definition British Airport Authority is one among the leading airport operator in the aviation industry, to provide the best customer service was one among the objective. To know the required improvement at Heathrow Feedbacks were collected by conducting a survey among the 70,000 passenger a year. The need of spectacular Heathrow Terminal-5 is to accommodate the increment of passengers without any congestion, better customer service and infrastructure (Modes of transportation to be developed for both Rail and Road, Sixty new aircraft stands which can adapt advanced and future aircraft like A380, Air traffic control tower to monitor it). 2.1 Scope The Scope of the project is to provide the best customer service and quality to the passengers at Heathrow by creation of state of art new terminal building which help toaccommodate30million passengers equipped with the modern modes of transportation without any congestion. Also to provide very good infrastructure facilities to the airlines operating from Heathrow by building sixty new aircraft stands and a state to art control tower (87m high air control tower) with all modern technologies. Scope Inclusion: *Main Terminal building *Two satellite building *87m high Air Control Tower *Sixty Aircraft Stands *Multi Storey car park *Twin river diversion *Road infrastructures *Rail infrastructures Scope exclusion:  ·Construction of a Runway at the Terminal  ·Maintenance of the Terminal after handing over to BAA 2.2 Objectives †¢ To Increase the capacity of passengers flying per year by 30 million. †¢ To construct a Terminal-5 building, inherits all modern facilities while meeting the Environmental standards. †¢ To construct sixty new aircraft stands inclusive of stands designed for the most advanced aircrafts like Airbus A380. †¢ To develop the Rail infrastructure by extension of Heathrow express, London underground Piccadilly Line and creating six platform Rail station. †¢ To construct a state of the art Control Tower, designed to meet the demands of Air traffic control at Heathrow in the future. †¢ To improve the road infrastructure, new spur road to the M25 linking the terminal to the national road network. †¢ To divert the two rivers around the airport by incorporating many ecological enhancements. 2.3 Deliverables †¢ Environmental friendly terminal-5 building with better quality and services. †¢ Sixty aircraft stands which can adopt most advanced aircrafts and runway connections †¢ Passenger capacity enhancement. †¢ Modern Air Traffic Control tower, new rail station and links to the central London with Heathrow express and Piccadilly line extension. †¢ The new spur road links to M25 motorway and its widening to reduce the traffic congestion. 3 Summary The concept of sustainability is one among the major considerations which is been identified and addressed for the proposed Heathrow Terminal-5. If any issue with respect to sustainability, the designed and approved sustainable frame work as to be applied at regular intervals. This is the proactive approach applied for sustainable issue. To overcome the communication T5 agreement Considerations * Sustainability of the Project in terms of environmental, social and economic factors. * Meeting the airline company Requirements and Standards, British Airways being the only airline operating from the Terminal at initial stages * Risk factors involved in the project (Economical, Political, Social, Environmental). * The effect of the T5 Project on the operations of the other terminals. 3.1 Assumptions * Terminal 5 has the potential to become a major Surface Access interchange or substitution by providing an important role in the South East transportation system of U.K. * Resource availability throughout the Life cycle of the Project. * Its assumed the derived T5 agreement will effectively work between BAA and suppliers, team work can be effectively achieved. 3.2 Constraints * The estimated Cost of the project may increase because of the macro economical factors like exchange rate, cost of the materials and workforce. * Estimated Schedule of the project can increase due to intense public enquiries and the political influence. * To meet the environmental standards and compensating the local residents plus the effect on the other four terminals. * The competition from the other contemporary rivals like Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris and * Frankfurt airport and Schiphol airport of Amsterdam. 4 Business Case A business case is required form of document, supporting an argument for a proposal of the desired Project like (Project Rationale, Scope, Objective, Deliverables, Assumptions, Considerations and Constraints, Financial Analysis, Critical Success factor, Option Appraisal). The business case is used as decision making tool for the Proposed project, whether the Project is feasible or not â€Å"Go/No-Go decisions†. Also acts as an approval document for the proposed Project. Please find the proposed business case for Heathrow Terminal-5 in the Appendix: 5 Project Structure The need of a Project Structure is to define standards to the team, which will be used during the Project life cycle. The standards include Communication, Documentation, Change control Procedure. Project structure includes both Organization structure and management structure. Traditional tree structure approach is implemented for Heathrow Terminal-5, find the organization breakdown structure in the Appendix 123245 5.1 Roles and Responsibilities Title Role Board of Director: Responsibilities †¢ Ensure the companies prosperity and Keeps the organizations mission, values, and vision. †¢ Deals with challenges and issues with regard to Corporate Governance, Corporate social responsibilities and corporate ethics. †¢ Reviews and approves the annual budget, Program plans and organizational policies. †¢ Attend monthly board and committee meetings, Annual General Meeting. †¢ Ensure the adequate resources (Financial, Expertise, Technology) are available to the organization. Title Role Chief Operating Officer: Responsibilities †¢ Managing day to day activities of the Organization and Operations Management ( HR, Admn, Finance and Purchase). †¢ Strategic Decisions maker, Ensures the ideas of the Team are understood, Implemented, Monitored, coordinated and Managed throughout the life cycle Title Role Project Head: Responsibilities †¢ Since its a mega project, the coordination Title Role Programme Manager: Responsibilities †¢ Overall management and co-ordination of the projects. †¢ Contributing to strategy, policy and procedure. †¢ Management of supplier/contractual relationships. †¢ Budgetary control of the projects. †¢ Monitoring of issues and responding at the programme level. Title Role Project Manager: Responsibilities †¢ Recruiting skill full Employees, Identifying the stakeholders, expertise as per the Project requirement. †¢ Managing the Stakeholders, Project deliverables, Develop and maintaining detailed Project Planning, leading the project team. †¢ Handling (Resolving, Escalating) the Project issues if encountered any during the Project life cycle, Updating to the action log as part of Lessons Learnt. †¢ Ensure the Scope of the project is achieved, if any variation order occurs proper planning to be done to overcome it. †¢ Monitoring the project progress and performance, Status report to the Stakeholders in the form of Newsletter/Email/PPT †¢ Make sure milestones and deliverables to be achieved as per schedule. †¢ Inputs from all the stakeholders to be considered and implement it when required record it. †¢ Defines the Project structure for the organization. †¢ Should encapsulate the roles of Contractors, Cost controllers, Schedulers, Risk manager, Operations and Control as an when required during the Project life cycle Title Role Project Leader: Responsibilities †¢ Act as Team leader Title Role Project Team Members: Responsibilities †¢ Level of participation as designed by Project Leader †¢ Executing Tasks and Deliverables Responsibility matrix for Heathrow Terminal in the Appendix 5.2 Methodology To communicate effectively with better understanding of the project among the Stakeholders, Project managers, Project team members there shall be standard procedures to be followed in a Project management context. The proposed standard form for Heathrow Terminal-5 â€Å"Association of Project Management†, which is been agreed and approved by the stakeholders for successfully achieving the Project. For example â€Å"The tools and techniques required for the respective phases† To have Heathrow Terminal-5 to be delivered successfully, British Airport Authority had come up with the introduction of T5 Agreement which is based on the commitment and involvement of both BAA and Stakeholders in achieving the deliverables while overcoming the occurrence of risk. By this agreement the BAA concentrates on the below:  § Focus on the managing the cause of problem not the effects from them.  § Work in integrated team irrespective of their different organizations.  § Focus on proactively managing the risk instead of avoiding the litigation. Effective agreement for HT-5 was achieved by using the Contract type â€Å" NEC3† 5.3 Control To overcome the uncertainty in a Project, flow of information should be addressed among the team members and respective authorities for controlling and monitoring. Find the proposed structure for Heathrow Terminal-5, Organization Breakdown structure, Work Breakdown Structure, Project Hierarchy structure, Gantt Chart in the appendix 1234456. Minutes of meeting played an vital role to monitor if any issues occurred. 5.4 Communication According to Lock (2007) the compliment of good management communications is the provision of adequate feedback paths through and across the organization. These will facilitate cooperation and coordination. Communication can also be defined as transfer of valid information from an entity to another, Purpose of a communication plan is to transfer of required information to the audience, associated with respect to those issue/updates/scenarios. Find the below communication flow among the Project team members for Heathrow Terminal-5, also find communication plan for find in the appendix Communication Plan: An effective communication strategy as to be plotted by project manager to have a better understanding and coordination among the team members and good Communication strategy plays a vital role among the Team members/Stakeholders/Customers/Clients. The purpose of communication plan is to overcome the communication breakdown among the project team members and also helps in monitoring the Progress and Difficulties of the Project. Hence the need of communication plan for Heathrow terminal-5 was determined on the basis of the activitys occurring and a definite completion of the task during the respective phases. The derived communication plan for Heathrow Termina-5 was structured on the basis of the below activities: Phase Who Type Purpose How When Whom Deliverables Phase: Indicates in which phase the meeting is going to occur. Who: who is going to conduct the meeting? Type: Indicates the subject of the meeting. Purpose: Indicates the topics to be discussed. How: Mode of medium used for the meeting. When: How frequently would the team members meet? Whom: who are the participants involved during the meet? Deliverables: The outcome during the discussion for that meeting. Please find the communication Plan in the appendix 12345 6 Risk Management Risk management is the act or practice of dealing with risk. It includesplanningfor risk,identifyingrisks,analyzingrisks, developingrisk responsestrategies, andmonitoring and controlling risks to determine how they have changed ( Kerzner 2009) The objective of risk management is to identify the potential problems which may occur during the project life cycle, so that risk can be Controlled and Monitored throughout the Project life cycle. Risk management is a constant process which as to be carried out throughout the project life cycle and its conducted in the planning phase. The combination of below process constitutes risk management: * Risk Identification * Risk assessment * Risk Mitigation Risk Identification: This process involves in identifying potential risk which affects the project, its further classified into Internal and External risk which affect the project in achieving the scope. Internal risks are the uncertainty which occurs by the organization or within the organization like communication and resources; these can be controlled and monitored by the project manager. External risks are the uncertainty which affects the organization/project by the external factors like environmental and downfall in the economy; these risks are uncontrollable by the organization which impacts the Scope. Keeping the above factors for Heathrow terminal-5 the below are identified and classified as Risk Assessment: They are requested to evaluate the magnitude of risk factors and influencing factors that appear in the risk mode, also assist in classifying the risk. Considering these the risk assessment is done for Heathrow Terminal-5:  § Adverse Publicity: Awareness of the Project to both the customers and stakeholders.  § Economic: Funding Issue throughout the Project Life Cycle, Uncertainty of the market (eg: Market Fluctuation, Inflation), Insufficient revenues to repay the debts after the Project Completion.  § Environmental: Diversion of two rivers round the west of the airport incorporating many ecological enhancements( eg: Water Quality), Failure to compliance the standards for environmental act (Misunderstanding of process and pathways of the environment), Failure to meet the standard of air quality which defined before the execution of the project, Failure to meet the standards defines in â€Å"Control of Pollution Act Section 61 agreement†, Improper waste management will increase the estimated budget( eg: use of recycled product)  § Local Community: Making sure the social activity of the people surrounding the construction site will not affect (eg: transportation, Traffic)  § Political: Failure to compliance the policies of the government (will affect the progress of Project), Change in Government could lead to change in foreign policies and affect the project  § Procurement: Delay of the services/materials from the Suppliers. Breaching the contract terms and conditions, due to illegal activity from Suppliers (Eg: Information leakage)  § Technology: Failure of techniques/technologies used in the project ( Eg: IT System, Design, Data Management)  § Airport Security: HT-5 being developed on such a large scale, proactive measures to be taken if any form of threat like Terrorist attack.  § Corporate Governance: Failure of align in meeting the interests of individuals and corporations. Failure to meet the relationship between the participants (chief executive officer, management, shareholders, employees) of the project in determining the direction and performance of project.  § Communication Plan: Delivering the required information to authorized people, also make sure there is no breakdown of communication between the two interface  § Contractual: Updation of the latest clauses if any during the review meetings, poorly written/executed contracts there is a risk to the organizations assets, property and reputation. Unauthorized employees signing the contracts, due to non-compliance of contract by suppliers and other contractors. Approving the contracts that are unfavourable to the organization, creating and/or signing contracts without advice/review by legal counsel. Misplacing the approved contracts, having inefficient and inconsistent contract policies and process across the organization. Confidentiality to be maintained by the respective authorities who manage the contract  § Resources: Ensuring proper flow of cash from the stakeholders throughout the life cycle, Risk of migration of skilful, resourceful, expertise employee of company to competitive organization, improper usage of limited resources by unskilled employee.  § Schedule: Risk of overrun of the budget due to improper scheduling, Risk of Schedule Slip. This can cause a change in scope of project.  § Cultural: Risk of differences in opinion. This leads to difficulty in negotiation between supplier and client, Risk of differences in business ethics leads to difficulty in decision making.  § Design: Risk of overseeing the specification, assumptions and requirement of the product during starting phase of design, Risk of including the extra cost due to complex design.  § Organizational Issues: Any issues with organization impact the progress and decrease in efficiency towards the project. Risk of losing the formed trust and good will from the client point, due to the organisational issues within the company. Risk Mitigation: The purpose of risk mitigation is to specify the criticality and priority of risk, what are the effects of the risks, occurrence of the risks and impact of the risk to the organization/people/environment. Acts as tool to Control the risks, like action taken towards a particular risk by choosing the appropriate â€Å"Avoid, Accept and Mitigate†, also provides that who is responsible for resolving the occurrence of the risk. A systematic reduction approach is being used for identifying the occurrence and/or exposure to a risk.On the above approach the Risk Mitigation has been plotted for Heathrow terminal-5, please find it in the Appendix 1234 Risk Matrix: The purpose of risk matrix is to determine the level of risk (High, Medium and Low), resulting provides information to both Stakeholders/Organization to concentrate and mitigate the identified risk. The rating for the below is derived on the occurrence of â€Å"probability and impact†. A contingency plan is also derived to mitigate the risk, below is the proposed Probability-Impact matrix for Heathrow Terminal-5: IMPACT RATING 4,5 3 1,2 HIGH MEDIUM LOW 4,5 HIGH Schedule, Communication Plan PROBABILITY 3 MEDIUM Economic Procurement Environmental Resources Organizational Issues, Airport Security 1,2 LOW Contractual Legal Issues, Technology, Corporate Governance Design Political, Cultural, Adverse Publicity 7 Work breakdown Structure As per PMBOK 3rd Edition work breakdown structure is defined as A deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the project team to accomplish the project objectives and create the required deliverables. The Purpose of Work breakdown structure in Heathrow Terminal-5, firstly it helps the project manager accurately in defining and organise the scope of the Project. This can be obtained by following the traditional method â€Å"Hierarchical tree structure†. At each level of tree structure breaks the Project deliverables and objectives to more specific and measurable packages/work packages. Secondly it helps in assigning roles and responsibilities, resource allocation to the Project. Also helps in monitoring and controlling the project throughout the Life Cycle, it helps in estimating the cost, schedule and risk involved in the project for each work packages. Finally, make sure that the deliverables are specific has per the stakeholders and helps in identifying whether the deliverables are repetitive and overlapping. Please find the proposed work breakdown structure of Heathrow Terminal-5 which mainly focuses on Execution phase with a budget of  £3120 million and  £300 millio n Kept apart for the contingency which may occur during the Execution Phase, please find the Work Breakdown structure in the Appendix 1.23 7.1 Gantt chart: The founder of Gantt chart â€Å"Henry Lawrence Gantt† used this tool to show the actual schedule and progress of the project was invented on 1920s and used on large projects from 1931. Gantt chart key feature is that it focuses on Systematic approach rather than algorithm approach, Gantt chart is most effective form of graphical representation hence for Heathrow Trminal-5 such an tool helps you out in sorting your. Gantt charts provide quick and easily understood means for describing the project activities, while network activities can also be determined like Critical Path and PERT. The activities/task may be listed in order of entry of Start date, Finish date, duration and Slack and appropriate to their graphical bars we can find the Start, Finish, duration and slack as well. Gantt chart are also used as project status report, it helps in the project manager in gathering the information have the deliverables met as per the baseline plan. The baseline plan includes both sched ule and resources, whether project is schedule overrun, resource allocation and budget status. The purpose of Gantt chart for Heathrow Terminal-5 is to provide a visibility of estimated schedule and project status for the assigned deliverables/tasks throughout the project life cycle. Also find the derived Gantt chart for execution phase by the team in the appendix 1.24, which includes Critical path method and Milestones. Critical Path Method: Critical path can be defined as the chain of events whose flat is equal up to zero, those events which occur in this path are critical to the successful achievement of the project within its earliest possible time. The activities lying on the critical path must to be given Priority by the management and supply resources if required. Heathrow Terminal-5-Landside civil- Site preparation-Pipelines for heat and power- Structure-Shops and commercial facilities- Safety and security-Testing of runways and building-Landscaping Mile stones: As per Dobie (2007), project must be divided into measurable a package, that is actions which will contribute to the achievement of objectives. The project phase as combined related project activities to achieve a logical outcome like major deliverables; these deliverables form the milestone throughout the lifecycle. Milestones are essential tools frequently used by project manager to control the progress of the project and manage the scope of the project. Also compare the actual costs and progress experienced with the costs and progress planned. The identified four major Milestones for Heathrow terminal-5 during the scheduling of execution phase Ø Milestone 1: Completion of landside civil process. Ø Milestone 2: Completion of Terminal 5 building. Ø Milestone 3: Completion of Airfield and runway. Ø Milestone 4: Completion of Rail and Road Infrastructure and Testing and Land scrapping phase. The deliverables identified in the Gantt chart are for Execution phase as below: 1) Landslide civil process 2) Terminal-5 building 3) Airfield and Runway 4) Air traffic Control tower 5) Rail Infrastructure 6) Road Infrastructure 7) Testing and landscaping 8) Site and logistics The detailed descriptions of the deliverables are as follows: Task Deliverables Targets Controls Dependency Schedule (Days) Resources Authorities 1 Landside civil Site preparation, Pipelines for heat and power stations, Twin river diversion (Construction of two channels, Maundering flow pattern, Maintaining eco balance) Piles method, Water quality, Waste Management 377 Programme manager, Project Manager, Site Engineer, Consultants, Designers, Manager, Team leaders, Labourers Programme Manager 2 Terminal-5 Building a) Exteriors (Structure, Bus station, Taxi Stands, Drop Off, Multi story car park) b) Interiors (Shop and Commercial Facilities, Elevators and Escalators, Conveyor belt for Handling baggage, Safety and Security, Tracked transit system) c) Satellite building, Energy centre and hotels Waste management and use of advance technology 1 853 Programme manager, Project manager, Architects, Software developers, Manager, Team leaders, Labourers Programme Manager 3 Airfields and runway 60 aircraft stands, Runway and earthworks Air Quality, Noise reduction 1

The Emh, the Financial Crisis and the Behavioral Finance

The EMH, the Financial Crisis and the Behavioral Finance 1. Introduction The Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) that was first proposed by Fama (1965, 1970) is the cornerstone of the modern financial economic theory. The EMH argues that the market is efficient and asset price reflects all the relevant information concerned about its return. The genius insight provided by the EMH has changed the way we look at the financial crisis thoroughly. However, the confidence in the EMH is eroded by the recent financial crisis.People can not help to ask: if the market is efficient and the price of assets is always correct as suggested by the EMH, why there exists such a great bubble in the financial market during the recent financial crisis? Apart from that, the EMH has even been criticized as the culprit of the recent financial crisis. (See Nocera, 2009 and Fox, 2009) Actually after the EMH was proposed, many anomalies have been found in the financial market and financial economists have develo ped many theories in order to explaining these anomalies.Among these the most influential one is the so called behavioral finance, which argues that the complex human behavior plays an important part in determining asset prices. The rest of the essay is arranged as follows. Section 2 explains what the EMH implies and its limitations. Section 3 emphasizes on explaining the usefulness of the EMH in the context of the recent financial crisis. Section 4 focuses on interpreting the behavioral finance. Section 5 concludes the essay. 2. The implications of the EMH According to Ball (2009), the implication of the EMH can be summarized as follows.The implication of the EMH can be decomposed into two parts. The first insight of the EMH is related to the most profound insights of classical economics, that is, there is no excess profit in a complete market, which is due to the fierce competition in the market. If there exists excess profit in such a market, then the entry of new producers will eventually eliminate it. The second insight is that information is symmetric dissemination, which implies that information can flow freely in the market without cost and time lag.Putting these two parts of insights together, the EMH implies that the market is efficient and asset prices reflect all the relevant information concerned about its return, and that investors can only get commensurate return with the cost of exploiting information due to the competition in the market. According to the EMH, people can only expect to get average return in the stock market and it is impossible to beat the market continuously. Note that it is futile to exploit information in order to get abnormal return does not mean that no one should act to exploit information.As a matter of fact, the EMH is a natural result of the fierce competition in the market—if there is no competition in the market, the market can not be efficient. In other words, asset price can not reach its equilibrium level a utomatically. Ice-cream producers face fierce competition from other producers in the market and it is impossible for them to get abnormal profit, but it is foolish for ice-cream producers to stop making ice-cream because they will get nothing if they do not work.Fama (1970) classifies the market into three categories: the weak form efficiency, the semi-strong form efficiency and the strong form efficiency. In the weak form efficiency market, asset prices reflect all the historical information, so it is impossible to obtain abnormal return using historical data and technological analysis is useless. In the semi-strong form efficiency market, asset prices reflect all the information that is publicly available, and thus it is impossible to get abnormal return using publicly available information.In the strong form efficiency market, asset prices reflect all the relevant information, including all publicly available information and inside information, so investors can only get average return and it is impossible to beat the market. 3. The performance of the EMH in explaining the recent financial crisis During the recent financial market, the stock market fell sharply, banks went bankrupt and the financial system was damaged seriously. This financial crisis has eroded the confidence in the EMH.The validity of the EMH and the existence of the efficient market are questioned broadly. If asset prices are always correct and reflect all the relevant information concerning about its return just as the EMH has suggested, why there exists such a great bubble in the financial market during the recent financial crisis? If the market is efficient, why the market fails to predict the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Bear Stern and other large financial institutions? Overall, the EMH fails to answer such questions.Moreover, the EMH also performs poor in explaining other financial crisis. One example is the Tulipmania that occurred in the 17th century. The prices of the tulip bulbs reached extremely high level which seriously deviates from its fundamental value that was suggested by the EMH. This apparent bubble is contradicted with the prediction of the EMH. In fact, the explaining power of the EMH becomes pale when confronting financial crisis. The EMH does not assume that investors are rational, but the EMH does assume that the market is efficient. But the reality may not be that simple.Investors may exhibit a lot of irrational behaviors in the real life, such as overconfident in their ability, following others readily, making wrong decisions when in exuberant state, and so forth. These irrational behaviors of investors without doubt will weaken the explaining power of the EMH. Apart from that, the EMH assumes that information is symmetric dissemination and can flow freely without cost and time lag, but information in the reality may not be symmetric disseminated, information may not be able to flow freely, this will also affect the validity of the EMH in explaining asset prices in the real life.Besides, factors such as sociological factors also play a part in determining asset prices. In author’s opinion, asset price is just like a glass of beer. At the lower part of the glass is the real beer, representing the intrinsic value of the asset that can be explained by the EMH. At the upper part of the glass is the foam, representing values that can not be explained by the EMH. In other word, the EMH can not explain bubbles, which is the systematic deviation of asset prices from their fundamental value.The EMH has even been criticized as the culprit of the financial crisis. In Nocera (2009) and Fox (2009), both of them believe that the notion of efficiency was responsible for the financial crisis. They argue that since the market is efficient and asset prices reflect all relevant information, the investors and supervisors feel it is unnecessary to look into the intrinsic value of assets, and so fail to be aware of the asset price bubbles, thus the financial crisis occurs.Actually, not soon after the EMH was first proposed, scholars have found many anomalies that contradict with the prediction of EMH. De Bondt and Thaler (1985, 1987) found that investors tend to overreact to unexpected news and events and such irrational behavior affects stock prices; Jegadeesh and Titman (1993) found that investors using trading strategies that buying past winners and selling past losers can get abnormal returns during the period 1965 to 1989. De Long, Shleifer, Summers and Waldman (1990) argue hat some anomalies such as the excess volatility of asset prices, the mean reversion in stock prices, and so forth, can be explained by the notion of noise trader risk. These studies have challenged the validity of the EMH. 4. The behavioral finance As has been described before, there are many anomalies that can not be explained by the EMH. Objectively speaking, these anomalies give impetus to the development and breakthrough of finan cial economic theories. Scholars so far have developed many models so as to explaining there anomalies, among which the most influential one is the behavioral finance.The behavioral finance takes psychological factors into account when determining asset price. According to Fuller (2000), the behavioral finance can be described in three ways. In the first way, he thinks that the behavioral finance is the integration of psychology and decision making science with the classical financial economic theory. In the second way, he views the behavioral finance as an attempt to explain the anomalies that have been observed and reported among current literatures in the financial market.In the third way, he thinks that the behavioral finance is a discipline that studies how investors make ‘mental mistakes’ in investment decision making process. The traditional asset pricing theories are developed under the assumption that investors are rational and thus can make right decisions, th at is, investors will not hurt themselves when making decisions. But the behavioral finance theory is developed under the assumption that investors are not always rational and human behavior is irrational at some time and that the financial market is sometimes inefficient.This assumption is much more reasonable than that of the traditional asset pricing theories. Ritter (2003) summarizes some irrational behavior of human beings, such as people tend to follow ‘heuristics’ or rules of thumb, which sometimes lead to biases, people are overconfident about their abilities, people act slowly to adjust to changes, people sometimes separate decisions which should be combined together in principle, and so forth. He argues that these irrational behaviors of investors will lead to misevaluation.Another important assumption made by the behavioral finance is the limits to arbitrage. In a market where arbitrage can be carried out without limitation, mispricing of asset will be elimin ated quickly. But if there are limits to arbitrage, for instance, short sale is not allowed in the financial market, the misprcing of asset may not be eliminated. Under the circumstance that the mispricing of asset is seriously, arbitrager will even choose to give up arbitrage due to the huge risk involved in the arbitrage.This assumption implies that the market is inefficient when there are limits to arbitrage. De Long, Shleifer, Summers and Waldman (1990) maintain that in an economy where rational and irrational traders are mixed, the behavior of noise traders can have huge continuous impact on asset prices, because the huge risk arbitragers confront made arbitrage less attractive. The first scholar who stresses the importance of psychological factors in investment decision making is Keynes.Keynes argues that the ‘animal spirits’ of investors is the psychological foundation of irrational exuberance and crash. Kahneman and Tversky’s (1973, 1979) description on t he belief and preference of investors under uncertainty lays the theoretical foundation for the behavioral finance. After that, the behavioral finance develops rapidly and gradually become the most important branch of financial economics.By economic intuition, since that the behavioral finance takes psychological factors into account when determining asset prices and that these factors do have important impact on the decision-making behaviors of investors, we can say that in the short run the behavioral finance provides a better for the behavior of investors and the financial markets than the EMH. But in the long run, investors will eventually realize and correct their irrational behavior, and the EMH will perform better than the behavioral finance. . Conclusion Under certain assumptions, the EMH maintains that asset prices reflect all the relevant information about the asset, thus it is impossible for investors to get abnormal return and beat the market. The EMH implies that there is no unexploited profitable opportunity in the financial market. Although the EMH provides a useful insight through which we look at the financial market, the EMH fails to explain the more and more anomalies in the financial market.The EMH provides little useful explanation about the recent financial crisis. The validity of the EMH is questioned and the confidence in the EMH declines. Moreover, the EMH has even been criticized as the culprit of this financial crisis. Given the criticism the EMH suffers, scholars have developed varieties of theories so as to explain the anomalies in the financial market. Among these the most influential one is the behavioral finance.The behavioral finance studies how the behavior of human beings affects asset prices and the financial market. Based on the assumption that investors are sometimes irrational and the market is inefficient and that there are limits to arbitrage, the behavioral finance overall gives better explanations concerning the anoma lies in the financial market than the EMH. The behavioral finance is a rapidly developing field in the financial economics. Reference Ball, R. 2009) ‘The global financial crisis and the efficient market hypothesis: What have we learned? ’, forthcoming in Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn. com/abstract=1502815 (Accessed: 10 March 2010) De Bondt and Thaler (1985) ‘Does the stock market overreact? ’, Journal of Finance, Vol. 40, No. 3, pp. 793-805 De Long, Shleifer, A. , Summers, A. S. and Waldman, R. J. (1990) ‘Noise trader risk in financial market’, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 98, No. 4, pp. 703-738 Fama, E.F. (1965) ‘Random walk in stock market prices’, Financial Analyst Journal, Vol. 21, No. 5, pp. 55-59 Fama, E. F. (1970) ‘Efficient market hypothesis: A review of theory and empirical work’, Journal of Finance, Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 383-417 Fuller, R. J. (2000) Ã¢â‚¬Ë œBehavioral Finance and Sources of Alpha’, forthcoming in Journal of Pension Plan Investing, Vol. 2, No. 3 Fox, J. (2009) ‘The Myth of the Rational Market: A History of Risk, Reward and Delusion on Wall Street’, New York: HarperCollins Jegadeesh, N. and Titman, S. 1993) ‘Returns to buying winners and selling losers: Implications for stock market efficiency’, Journal of Finance, Vol. 48, No. 1, pp. 65-91 Kahneman, D. and Tversky, A. (1973) ‘On the psychology of prediction’, Psychological Review, Vol. 80, pp. 237-251 Kahneman, D. and Tversky, A. (1979) ‘Prospect theory: An analysis of decision under risk’, Econometrica, Vol. 47, pp. 263-291 Nocera, R. (2009) ‘Poking holes in a theory on markets’, New York Times, June 5, 2009 Ritter, J. R. (2003) ‘Behavioral finance’ ,Pacific-Basin Financial Journal, Vol. 11, pp. 429-437