IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES - Essay Example Moreover, the implementation plans become effective because they are based on priorities. The most important plans are executed first before considering the other plans based on a predetermined manner of ranking such priorities. Incorporation of short-term objectives to the functional tactics enhances the need of accomplishing implementation plans with urgency. Policies play a major role in the success of an enterprise. Their development aids in the protection of all the stakeholders of an organization through the principles they provide. Policy development leads to the development of an ethical structure followed by an organization for its success. The development of the policies also ensures an organization’s capacity as a going concern because they provide continuity for the organization over a long period (Blyth, 2009). Moreover, through the development of such relevant policies, an organization experiences effective management and accountability in its system. This occurs through the adoption of the principles and remaining committed to them as per the policies. Such principles are consistent and equitable, thus affecting the performance of an

Pakistan lack of energy and water leads to mass terrorist operation Research Paper - 1

Pakistan lack of energy and water leads to mass terrorist operation - Research Paper Example The textile industries, trade and other sectors are at rock bottom in terms of their performances. This is all due to the variables stated above, hence the dependent variables. These variables have a direct impact on the economy of the state and the present day economy stands in a crippled state courtesy the deviances and discrepancies that are on show. People are taking up the unwarranted professions, resorting to means other than the state sanctioned. The ultimate yield of these deprivations is the outcome in form of exploitation and terrorist activities(Malik, I). These can be expressed in form of equation with one side demonstrating the don’t haves while the other side showing the possible repercussions in form of agitation, mental agony, restless, potential popular uprisings and various other factors. Lack of political wisdom, absence of creative mindset and future policies devising are all few of the factors that can be termed as the hypothesis towards the menace that is showing up in form of terrorist operations. envirocivil (2013)Â  Climate Change, Governance and Energy Discourse in Pakistan. [Online] Available at: http://envirocivil.com/climate/climate-change-governance-and-energy-discourse-in-pakistan/ [Accessed: 10 Apr

The Garden Depot Recruitment Issues

The Garden Depot Recruitment Issues The Garden Depot originated from a family owned floral company in Barrie, Ontario expanded to a larger variety floral, gardening and lawn care products. Eventually, it ventured into landscaping business too. The current practice of the organization has made the business deteriorate. Experienced and reliable workforces were not attained in the organization as result of fluctuations in seasonal demands. The organization also faced in synchronization among departments. Family member employment in the organization also gives difficulty between employees to handle any matters with that individual. Finally is the inappropriate positioning of employee in the management position. As a recommendation, the best option to be implemented is by focusing on execution of specific departments such as management, marketing, customer service and inventory control. Individual departments will concentrate on their part of duties to develop the company. This development is attached with the employment of experienced and reliable workforce people rather than part time employees. This would create a stable business as there would not be any fluctuation in the work force. With the clear description of divisions and stable work force, Garden Depot is expected to progress in their business ventures. 2. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM The Garden Depots improper implementation of standardized staffing criterion has caused the main reason for its unsuccessfulness. The organization did not have permanent skillful employees but only seasonal ones. Another cause of this problem is pursuing an employee to perform multi- tasking without prior knowledge in the designated areas. The departments in the depot also do not have synchronization between them. Decision made in one department never known to the other departments. Another criterion is family member employment in the organization itself which causes complexity in handling matter with this individual. The organization is also facing inappropriate positioning of employee in the management position i.e. leadership problem. 3. ANALYSIS OF THE CAUSES OF THE PROBLEM The cause of the problem is the improper recruitment that was conducted in the organization. This was the primary cause of the organization mishap causing the organization to have a fluctuation in the employee of the Garden Depot. Recruitment of seasonal student employees for these tasks has caused inconsistency in the work progress. Since these inexperience employees only join for a very short period, they do not really perform in their duties as a permanent employee. Besides that, these young needs someone superior to them guide them all the time which actually causes waste of valuable time compared to an experienced employee where can perform his or her tasks without any supervision. The second problem faced by the organization is the fact that most of the employees in organization were not recruited and the existing employees were taken off during off peak season this was the problem that has cause the inconsistency of the employees. As the business is mainly based in the summer season the off peak season are a mishap for the organization where most of the employees are discarded to cut cost and replaced with students and part-time workers, this causes lack of proficiency, making the organization quality and delivery inconsistent. With part time inexperience working handing during off and mid seasons making the routing employment cycle unstructured. With statistics, indicating 80% of the employees during the offseason are student who leave at the end of the summer to return to the school. Only the remaining 20% are the full time employees of the company which this cycle changing vice versa during peak season the quality and work process is certainly a question m ark in terms of the garden depot. As stated in the case there are not defined job responsibility for the staff its sort of like a open office process where the work is assigned as it comes to the organization and upon the employee availability. The third problem analysis was the recruitment of the family member which proved to be totally unhelpful for the business development as there was no proper qualification or business handling capabilities for the family member making the existing business more complex to handle and the fact the students were used in the real-time operation was proved to be a mishap in the organization. i.e. (Sinclair recruitment). Derek Sinclair, son-in-law of the owner, was appointed although he was not qualified for that particular position. His job scope was to organize and deploy landscapers to job sites, dealing with customers and responding to customer concern, invoicing completed landscaping and travelling to clients homes to quote jobs. This entire job was never his specialty or expertise as he was from a customers orientated background. Low knowledge on this tasks caused Sinclair facing difficulty to communicate with customers when they called, which led him to avoid answering calls. Besides that, Sinclair also faced problem quoting for a job as he was uncertain with the materials to be used. He was also not billing the finished landscaping jobs. The fourth factor is that there is no job description and a requirement criterion that was taken before the employees was recruited. Job responsibilities are not being defined at all in this organization. This causes the employees to be confused as to who is to do what and when to execute this task. Overall this confusion in the daily operation will lead to the downfall of the organizations performance. The main objective of a job description is to have a clear outline of duties and responsibilities to make the screening process as direct and focused as possible, which was certainly a lagging factor as there were no proper fixed employees to assign the job. student being the most control during the off season it certainly possess a great challenge in terms of curtaining a job description and specification that can match the organization all the year around. With job description being assigned the following could be achieved by garden depots, which are the factors it is missing curren tly. There is no cooperation of students and employees in the organization insight in existing responsibilities/roles. There is no enabling career moves within the organization, and the most critical is that there is no determination of amount of pay per function. The combination of all these creates a proper job description that is lagging in the organization currently. All these factor of the unstructured organization caused the fact that there was lack of customer satisfaction in the product base and the service provided to the consumers regarding the focus. 4. DECISION CRITERIA AND ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS The first solution would be to reevaluate all the staff and create a proper job description for the organization. Job description is to have a clear outline of duties and responsibilities to make the screening process direct and focused as possible. This will provide room for improvement in the cooperation vise by giving all members of the organization responsibilities which could increase of results by specification of responsibilities as each employee in the organizations has their own task to perform and justify. Secondly, creating departments to handle each and every division and recruit personals to partment. Each departments deployed will have their own responsibilities such as marketing department where they are to market out their services to the public. Human resource department would have the task of managing the organization where they will be involved in the employee payroll system, employee recruitment, providing trainings for employees in the organization and etc. By developing departments, job tasks can be divided evenly rather than only one departments slogging. Each department would have their superior and employees to manage themselves. Thirdly, using of experience and new staffs together to create a strong team in handling a task. In this way, they would exchange their views among each other which project a positive outcome. Older employees would exchange their views based on years of experience they have gone through. As for the new comers, they would be more advanced in the latest technologies designated fields. With the combination of experience and knowledge, the organization will tend to approach a positive progress. Since Garden depot is a service based organization, the management should deploy a customer service department. With this customer service department, they are able to analyze the customers need and requirement. Through client feedback and interaction, you can learn about what clients liked about the services provided and which areas you may need improvement in. Using customer service as a tool for continuous improvement often leads to customer satisfaction. It is the key performance indicator when measuring their success. Lastly, Garden Depot can also begin conducting formal appraisal system to monitor the employees job performance. Workplace appraisals actively involve employees understanding what is expected of them. By setting agreed objectives with your employer or line manager and then reviewing the results some weeks or months later, each employee is made responsible for their own performance. They are an opportunity to review strengths and weaknesses, to take an overall assessment of work content, loads and volume and to look back on what has been achieved already and to set goals and objectives for the following period. The element of an appraisal being used to ensure that the worker continues to do the job properly, there are many benefits to workplace appraisals as they are often the means by which employers review potential, and identify training and career planning to forward the career progression of the worker. Furthermore, they can also help employers to determine financial reward incen tives for a workers performance. Benefit from this appraisal is that some employees talk about work with their managers and these employers often and may not see the need for a formal appraisal system. Although regular dialogue between managers and workers should be encouraged, much will depend on the attitudes of individual managers and, if there is no formal appraisal system in place, some may neglect to keep on top of how their workers are doing. An appraisal system, therefore, can bring benefits in that it can develop a greater degree of consistency by ensuring that employers and employees meet regularly to discuss performance and potential. Experience has shown that this can encourage better performance from employees. 5. RECOMMENDED SOLUTION, IMPLEMENTATION AND JUSTIFICATION The whole organization lacks infrastructure and the complete revamp of the organization must be carried out in perspective of the employees to create the Garden Depot. The first step is creating specific departments for specific job only. This can be divided into management department, marketing department, customer service and inventory control department. The main role of the management will both address and handle the multifaceted needs of its employees through the provision of the other services, both in literal and social terms. In other words, it is responsible to ensure employees are provided for in terms of finances, health care and other related issues. Another key role of management is to listen to the concerns of employees. All issues dealt with by management at the organizational level have an effect on employees and thus must be made with their best interest in mind. It is important to let employees know via regular meetings that their needs and opinions are valued. Employees should feel as though they have the ability and right to approach management with any of the issues listed above and these statements should always be taken into account when management makes further decisions. In sun, management is the backbone of the organization as well as its eyes and ears and employees must have this stable presence to address in case of problems. As for marketing department, their main task is focusing on customers. Here they develop ways how to attract customers towards the organization. This can be done by putting up advertisements through Medias such as the internet, television and news paper about the services they are offering. They are also to find reasonable priced suppliers and vendors to reduce the expenditure faced by buying from one particular vendor. Another main role is to come out of new ideas on the landscaping concept. This innovative concept will be the key role of attracting customers to towards the organization. Customer service department is responsible to consult with customers about their service needs or their wants. They also analyze what the customer says they want and need and the last part of their task is troubleshooting services to best fit their needs and expectations. Without this department, it is complicated for the organization to know the customers need. Since this department is more focused in customer caring matter, this will help the depot to solve the Sinclairs problem where he does not answer customer calls. The third department is inventory control department. Here the inventory control employee is responsible for maintaining acceptable and accurate inventory levels. They must report shortages, overages and all inventory levels monthly for replenishment. This process ensures continued operations and avoids product or inventory shortages. The inventory control employee is responsible for classifying, labeling and warehousing all inventories for future use. They must keep accurate records of inventory levels and location for easy retrieval. This is critical in keeping the department organized and efficient. The inventory control person is responsible for communicating with all department managers and purchasing on inventory levels and locations. They must maintain a record of all transfers and disposal. The inventory section must implement and follow a control system to reduce damage, breakage and inventory obsolescence. This helps the Garden Depot issues on the stock missing prevented. Having all this departments in the organization is a must to help the business flow smoothly. In order for this departments to function, adequate amount of work force are needed which includes experienced and reliable people in the organization. No more seasonal work force should be employed which creates fluctuation in the business. With this strategic planning of deploying individual departments comprising of experienced and reliable forces, the Garden Depot should be heading towards a new business era with a strong strategies, vision and mission. This will help the organization including the bottom line have a clear mind on what they are wanting to achieve but this time with a clear pathway. 6. REFERENCES eHow (2010), Inventory Control, Job Description and Duties, online, URL: (http://www.ehow.com/about_5494754_inventory-control-job-description-duties.html) Brandxpress (2007), 9 Responsibilities of a Marketing Department, online, URL: (http://www.brandxpress.net/2007/03/9-responsibilities-of-a-marketing-department/#more-286) Article Myriad (2010), The Responsibilities and Role of Management in an Organization, online, URL: (http://www.articlemyriad.com/157.htm) Burke, W. Warner, and Bill Trahant,Traveling Through Transitions, Training Development, 1996, 50, 37 41.

Essay on Character Parallels in To Kill a Mockingbird :: Kill Mockingbird essays

Character Parallels in To Kill a Mockingbird  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚      In real life there are many different types of people, some of them are similar to one another, while others can be opposite/different, just like in the book To Kill a Mocking Bird, by Harper Lee. There are many people in the book, some people are contradictory to one another (character foils), while others resemble each other (character parallels) in both good and/or bad ways. Atticus Finch and Aunt Alexander is an example of a character foil in the book. Even though they are brother and sister and grew up together, they are two people with very different views. Atticus is more easy going when he raises up Jem and Scout, for example he lets his kids call him Atticus, and let's Scout dress with the clothes that she feels comfortable in. While on the other hand Aunt Alexander is more strict, she cares a lot about family background and she wants Scout to act and dress more "lady like". Atticus views that it is his duty to do his best in the Tom Robinson trial and feels no prejudice against Tom, because he is black. While Aunt Alexander doesn't like Atticus taking the case because Tom is black, and wants Atticus to go and fire Calpurnia. Tom Robinson and Bob Ewell is another example of a character foil in the book To Kill a Mocking Bird. Bob Ewell and Tom Robinson are two completely different people in the story. They both don't have a lot of money, but Tom Robinson chooses to work hard for his money, while Bob Ewell lives off welfare and sqaunders all his money on booze and whiskey. Bob Ewell beats up on his daughter Mayella, while Tom tries to do all that he can in order to help her out. Tom says that he did not beat and rape Mayella, while Bob Ewell says that he did. Two characters that are similar to each other are Tom Robinson and Boo (Arthur) Radley. These two are similar in that there are false rumors going on about them. People accused Tom of beating and raping Mayella Ewell, and people talk about Boo, and say that he is a very violent person, when those things are both false.

Heredity Versus Environment Essay

A major debate within psychology is whether it is nature or nurture which influences people; the way people act and behave, cognitive development, and what we look for in a partner are just some aspects of the debate. Nature supporters, or Naturists, believe that our behaviour is down to genetics and is inherited from our parents. They believe that everything about a person is decided at the moment on conception. Whereas nurture supporters believe that people learn their behaviour from the environment, their upbringings and the surrounding influences; such as friends, peers and work colleagues. There is lots of research, studies and evidence to support both arguments on a variety of subjects. The nature argument is often used in court cases to describe uncharacteristic or deviant behaviour. Humans are often related to as animals as this is believed that people evolved from, Charles Darwin is a leading figure in this side of the argument. He pioneered his theory of evolution, and it is widely accepted that humans did derive from a ‘common ancestor’, therefore do have instinctive behaviour, and traits about their personality (Allaboutscience, 2014). A real life example of this would be a baby, who is unable to communicate, and has little understanding of the world; however still show signs of fear if they were to hear a loud noise. Nurture supporters believe that a person’s upbringing is a major factor which influences people in later life. A real life example of this would be serial killers, when studied, they were often subject to horrific abuse as a child and they blame this for their inabilities to conform to society’s norms and commit dreadful crimes. This is supported by a psychological study Bowlby’s 22 juvenile thieve study; people commit crimes due to what kind of upbringing they received. The lack of a secure attachment with their primary care giver (McCloud, 2007). The term gender refers to whether a person socially and culturally class  themselves as male or female, and which role they choose to live their life by in society. Rather than the term sex; which is what’s chosen biologically by genetics whilst in the womb (Who, 2014). Psychologists look at gender difference within the nature/nurture debate; to see if genetics or environment factors play a part in what makes genders behaviour and act differently. There are stereotypical gender roles in society; examples of which are that females are seen as maternal caring and loving people whereas males are seen as aggressive, dominate, and the breadwinners. Scientists know that there are biologically difference between genders; such as hormones, and chromosomes, these are scientifically proven. Also they have been shown to majorly impact a person’s behaviour, for example the male hormone testosterone is contributor to aggressive behaviour and is the reason behind why males have more muscle mass supporting the nature perspective. Whereas nurture supporters believe that gender differences come from the environment, for example, children are dressed in colours which are stereotypical for their sex; blue for a boy and pink for a girl. This is further supported by the self-fulfilling prophecy; that if a person is told that they are something (male or female in this case) they will eventually believe this which will affect their behaviour. Interactionism is a term used to describe genetic gender differences which are influence or modified by the environment. Mary Mead conducted an experiment supporting the nurture argument of gender differences in 1935, where she studied three different tribes; Arapesh, Mundugumor, and Tchambuli. The arapesh were non aggressive, with a caring attitude towards children. The Mundungumor were aggressive and cold towards children. The Tchambuli was the tribe were the males were submissive and passive. The results were that Mead found a slight pattern in male and female behaviour across different cultures however there were a lot more differences. Supporting the nurture argument as in Mead’s study two tribes showed role reversal; in one tribe the males were dominate and aggressive, whereas in another the females were, and the males were submissive. Also females being cold and uncaring towards children; this showed psychologists that it can’t be instinctive or genetic that women must have maternal  tendencies. This therefore shows interactionism in western society. A criticism of this study is that all three tribes where in close proximity therefore are the sample could be said to be culturally similar (Benson, 2005). Buss et al in 1990 conducted a study which found that males are more aggressive than females regardless of culture. They found cross cultural similarities between the genders; these were in how people look for a perspective reproductive partner. Buss et al found that men preferred youth and attractiveness whereas women looked for wealth and status. This study supports the nature debate as Buss et al studied a wide and varied sample of people, and some people believe that these results can still be seen today in the western world. Another psychologist credited for his work in regards to this debate is Bronislaw Malinowski; he carried out a research project in north-western Melanesia in 1929. Malinowski like Mead studied tribes however he looked at their sexual behaviour and concluded that sexual behaviour dominates every aspect of life regardless of culture, which further supports the nature debate. As with all studies, there are things which may affect the results of the research. With studying tribes there could of been a communication barrier, between the researcher and the participating tribes which would effect the results. The gender of the psychologist performing the study could influence the results as they could be said to be bias; as they may favour there own gender. Also the presence of a researcher in a person’s everyday life may alter the way that person behaves and acts around them. To conclude, there are lots of gender differences, some appear similar across the world whereas others appear to be culturally connected. In relation to the nature/nurture debate, there are arguments and studies to support both sides, and will always be a conflicting argument throughout psychology. Critically evaluate some evidence which offers support for the role of  Ã¢â‚¬Ëœnature’ in the heredity-environment debate on intelligence One disagreement people have in the topic of heredity versus environment is about the subject of intelligence; are people born an intelligent person or is this acquired over time, when information is learned and absorbed into a person brain. Intelligence is defined as a ‘manifestation of a high metal capacity’ (Dictionary, 2014). A commonly used test to assess a person’s intelligence is a series of questions called an IQ test; the higher the IQ score the more intelligent a person is believed to be. Francis Galton in 1869 studied the subject of intelligence and since then lots of psychologists have been interested in the debate and there have been many studies conducted (Malim & Birch, 1998). In support of the nature debate, there have been a lot of experiments conducted on siblings, including twins studies, and cousins. Twins can be categorised into two groups; monozygotic (MZ), and dizygotic (DZ). Monozygotic twins are ‘identical’ and share the same genetic information as they were produced from one egg, whereas dizygotic twins are produced from two separate ova and have the same genetic information as two children with the same parents (Malim & Birch, 1998). As with all studies in this debate, these have been heavily criticised by supporters of the opposing arguments, this assignment will evaluate some of these. The main criticism of the majority of IQ studies is that all the participants are children or adolescents. Newman et al in 1937 embarked on a ten year research project studying 100 pairs of twins, 19 of which were adopted MZ twins; 7 males and 9 females. These adopted twins had experienced different upbringings so Newman wanted to see how this affected their intelligence (Twin Studies, 2014). The results were that the IQ of monozygotic twins was higher than that of the dizygotic twins which Newman studied. They also showed that the IQ of twins reared together was higher that if the twins had been separated after birth. However a major criticism of this study is that Newman enrolled the twins  that he studied on similarities to ensure that the twins he studied were MZ, as at the time the technology wasn’t available to scientifically prove whether the twins were identical or not. Also the sample of twins which Newman et al studied has been said to be biased, due to the expense of conducting the experiment; Newman had to pay for the sample to travel and stay in lodgings in Chicago. The results could then be flawed as twins may have acted in a certain way to be chosen for the study in order to go on an all-expenses paid holiday during a time of great depression across America. It has also been proven that a pair of twins from Newman’s sample group were raised in the same town and even attended the same school (Benson, 2005). A more recent twin study was conducted by James Shields in 1962; Shields took a sample of 44 pairs of identical twins who had been brought up apart from each other. Shields enlisted these twins by a television advertisement and wanted to find out the correlation between their IQ results. The findings were that the correlation of identical twins reared apart was higher than the non-identical twins reared together; who Shields also studied. This study is often criticised due to the method the participants were enrolled onto the study; twins were put forward to the study as they looked alike, they may not have necessarily of been proven to be monozygotic or identical. Another flaw is that although Shield’s claims that the twins were brought up separately, they were often raised by members of the same family, lived locally, and went to the same schools. It is reported that one pair of twins, lived next door to each other. Despite the flaws this study is often seen as one of the st rongest twin studies in psychology in relation to IQ again supporting nature (Firth, 2009). Other than twin studies, some psychologist studied intelligence and how it correlates with differently between different ethnic groups and races in society. Arthur Jensen was one of these, in 1969 he analysed the differences in IQ results between different races, and published his results, which sparked outrage across america. Jensen’s devised an intelligence test for children, and his pupils to sit the test from the school which he was a professor at.  The test comprised of two parts; level one abilities or associative learning and level two abilities or conceptual learning. The results were that the ‘white american’ students performed better at the task two abilities than students of other races (Telegraph, 2013). Jensen concluded that intelligence was 80% inherited, as he believed this from his results that a child’s ancestry was the reason that some children scored poorly on the test. This leading to him to believing that intelligence is a factor of genetics and is passed on through generations. However there is an opposing argument, that this study also supports the nurture debate, as it shows how differ ent cultures are effected differently. For example, the caucasian children would of come from a higher social class than the ethnic minorities; therefore it was the environment and peers which affected their mental ability. The ethical issues involved with this study are evident as Jensen incited racism by publishing these figures. This could of also led to violence, and sparked hatred within the community and across american. Also some students could of been favoured over others, as they would be seen as clever, therefore received priority treatment, as proven in Rosenthal & Jacobson’s study in 1968. Jensen completed his test in 1960’s america, which was a hostile time, in particular within regards to race segregation, with the speech and assassination of Matin Luther King. Hans Eysenck was a German psychologist who is also credited for his work in relation to intelligence and race (Cherry, 2014). He wrote a book called: The IQ argument: race, intelligence and education, based on these studies and summarised the results. This book claims that ’80% of variability is inborn’ (Benson, 2005). Hans was also criticised as his views also focused on the differences between IQ results of blacks and whites, rather than treating people as equally as individuals. Eysenck believed it to be fact that white people had a higher IQ and set about telling the world. Some people didn’t agree with his views which involved him being attacked on numerous occasions and becoming a hated public figure. In conclusion, there are a lot of studies in psychology in regards to the  nature/nurture debate, on a whole array of topics. Intelligence is only one of these. Criticisms are prevalent throughout all these studies as it is a debate which people just can not agree on, and everyone has their own opinion. Reference List Allaboutscience, 2014, Darwin’s Theory Of Evolution (Online) Available at http://www.darwins-theory-of-evolution.com [Last Accessed 24-04-2014] Benson, N, 2005, Introducing Psychology, Totem Books:USA Birch, Malim, A & T, 1998, Introductory Psychology, Macmillan Press:Hampshire Cherry, 2014, Hans Eysenck Biography (Online) Available at http://psychology.about.com/od/profilesal/p/hans-eysenck.htm [Last Accessed 23-04-2014] Dictionary, 2014, Intelligence | Define Intelligence at Dictionary.com (Online) Available at http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/intelligence [Last Accessed 07-04-2014] Firth, J, 2009, Shields (1962) (Online) Available at http://mindsandmodels.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/shields-1962.html [Last Accessed 24-04-2014] Joesph, J, 2008 Separated Twins and the Genetics of Personality Differences: A Critique, (Online) Available at http://jayjoseph.net/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/AJP_MISTRA_PDF.157214425.pdf [Last Accessed 12-.4-2014] McCloud, S, 2007, John Bowlby | Maternal Deprivation Theory | Simply Psychology (Online) Available at http://www.simplypsychology.org/bowlby.html [Last Accessed 24-04-2014] McCloud, S, 2007, Nature / Nurture in Psychology, (Online) Available at http://www.simplypsychology.org/naturevsnurture.html [Last Accessed 07-04-2014] Telegraph, 2013, Arthur Jensen (Online) Available at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/9774459/Arthur-Jensen.html [Last Accessed 23-04-2014] Twin Studies, 2014, Twin Studies, (Online) Available at http://genepi.qimr.edu.au/staff/davidD/asthma11.html [Last Accessed 08-04-2014] Who, 2014, WHO | What do we mean by â€Å"sex† and â€Å"gender†? (Online) Available at http://www.who.int/gender/whatisgender/en/ [Last Accessed 24-04-2014]

Qing China and the consequences of the golden age Essay

The â€Å"Prosperous Age† was a period where Qing China experienced a drastic increase in population, flourishing trade and commerce, and a remarkable level of social and political stability during the reign of Emperor Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong. However, its brilliance was overshadowed by its subsequent consequences and China was soon at its breaking point in the 19th century. This essay would then evaluate on the implications of the â€Å"Prosperous Age† and how the long-term consequences proved to be more negative in the 19th century due to a string of crisis, and subsequent problems that continued even in modern China of the 20th century. Negative Unanticipated Long Term Consequences Reversal of Trade Fortunes with Britain During the 18th century, there was mounting European demand for Chinese goods (Hung, 2011). Britain in particular, had strong liking and demand for Chinese goods especially tea. Hence, it led to the outflow of British silver into China, but little inflow of silver back into the British economy resulted in China enjoying a trade surplus (City University HK, 2007) while Britain suffered from a trade deficit. To redress this deficit, Britain began to smuggle and sell opium in China (City University HK, 2007). China’s attempt to prohibit opium then resulted in the Opium Wars and suffered a tragic defeat. The defeat in the Opium War led to the signings of unequal treaties . Upon signing of the unequal treaties, much Chinese marked it as the beginning of a century of shame and humiliation. Although China was never formally colonized, the lack of ability to defend its basic sovereign rights and ability to govern its own country made it look like a like semi-colonized state of Britain. Consequently, the Qing government was seen as weak and inefficient to combat against the foreigners and much Chinese lost faith in the Manchurian Qing government. As a result, this gave rise to the Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901) where violent revolts and attacks were targeted against foreigners as a sign to resist their influence. Boxers, supported by China, suffered a yet another defeat and were forced to sign yet another unequal treaty: Boxer Protocol, where the reparations drastically crippled the Chinese economy till the mid 20th century (Zheng, 2009). Thus, we can see that the initial trade surplus, a sign of â€Å"Prosperous Age† resulted in British to redress the situation by selling opium to the Chinese led to the Opium Wars and the unequal treaties which greatly weakened Qing China internally and externally in the 19th century. China’s failure to counter foreign influence led to their continued defeat in the Boxer Rebellion at the end of 19th century, where another unequal treaty continued to cripple her till mid 20th century , thereby demonstrating the long term consequence of the â€Å"Prosperous Age† was indeed negative in the long run, especially since the consequences did not confine just to the 19th century but even stretched to the 20th century. Reforms did not keep up with population boom During the â€Å"Prosperous Age†, China’s population tripled from less than 150 million to over 400 million (Perkins, 1969). Civil Service Exam however continued its strict quota for passing (Bentley & Ziegler, 2003) and that meant a lower ratio of scholar to population passes. The frustration of students led to the rise of influential leaders like Hong Xiuquan who sought for reforms which led to the Taiping Rebellion . Coincidentally, the backbone of his rebels were the poor peasants who were forced out of arable lands and were socially upset and frustrated, which was also due to the consequence of the population boom. The consequence of the Taiping Rebellion led to a weakened Qing as they were forced to decentralize power to provincial elites to deal with the crisis and this power was never fully recovered even after the rebellion was suppressed (Sng, 2011). Provincial elites who did not return the power were a growing sign of defiance and could have the possibility of rising up against the imperial court. The unneeded civil unrest caused by Taiping Rebellion also served to exacerbate subsequent crisis like the Northern Chinese Famine (1876-1879) where the government was severely blamed for not providing sufficient aid. The excess unrest and loss of power proved to be detrimental in the 19th century as it crippled China and the country with no official political bloc stepping up to assist with the problems and crisis. In short, China was in a total disarray and chaotic. Lack of technological advancement Qing China favoured political and social stability over technological innovation which they feared would lead to unsettling changes. Furthermore, the vast population available to firms was a cheaper alternative to increase output, rather than investment of new technologies which was costly (Bentley & Ziegler, 2003). This proved to be adverse in the 19th century when China engaged in wars. In the Opium Wars, the Qing military was no match against the British who utilized better technology to triumph (Tanner, 2010). The first defeat resulted in Treaty of Nanjing which ceded Hong Kong to Britain. Subsequent wars like the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1985) had China suffering a crushing defeat against a more superior and modernized Japanese army. China then ceded Taiwan, Penghu and the Liaodong peninsular to the Japanese. It clearly implied that China could not defend its own sovereign ground and indicated how backward the Chinese army. It questions the right of China to even claim rights over those territories if she could not even defend it properly. The problem gets exemplified into the 20th century when China continued to suffer several defeats to the Japanese in the Second Sino-Japanese War . Even with the Self-Strengthening Movement (1861-1895) which was embraced to modernize China was insufficient. The subsequent defeats to Allied forces in the Boxer Rebellion and Japanese in the Sino-Japanese Wars marred the success of the movement. Especially significant was the defeat in First Sino-Japanese war as for the first time in over 2000 years of history, regional dominance in East Asia shifted from China to Japan (Johnson, 2010). Coupled with the defeat, China’s international and regional standings were challenged and staged subsequent revolutions that led to other problems and the eventual demise of Qing. Positive Long Term Unanticipated Consequences Building a new foundation based on common people The end of Taiping Rebellion inspired nationalists (Del Testa & Lemoine & Strickland, 2001) to fight for the betterment of Chinese. It was because of the consequence of the â€Å"Prosperous Age† that led to the decisive rise of nationalist to seek for reforms. An example would be the decentralizing of power, which meant many parties would be involved in decision-making process, rather than just the monarch government. This would ensure that concerns are taken into deliberation before decision-making that will benefit majority of the Chinese, rather than the imperial court only. The nationalist dream then culminated in the 1911 Revolution in the early 20th century, where the Qing was overthrown and the Republic of China was established. Nevertheless, the dream of the nationalist was short-lived due to a power struggle within. Even though election was scheduled for 1913, but it soon became clear than Yuan Shikai wanted to establish his own power base. Sun Yat Sen was then forced into exile after he stepped down as head of the newly formed Kuomintang (Foster, 2007). The new government was then monopolized by Yuan and led to decades of political division and warlordism, including monarchy restoration (Blecher, 2010). Therefore we can see that the perceived benefits from the consequence of â€Å"Prosperous Age† in the 19th century did not fully materialize in the 20th century. Monarchy restoration was attempted and defeats the purpose of the promised sharing of power with the people initially. Political and social unrest persisted even with the new government which culminated in the May Fourth Movement (1919). Hence, we can see that China did not become better even with the end of Qing. It would be judgmental to argue that the initial rise of nationalists had resulted in a better China. It would be fairer to argue that the initial rise of nationalists led to more power struggle and dissident movements like the Chinese Warlord Era (1916-1928) as there were no strong political forces to enforce stability and order until the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) came in 1949. Conclusion Hence, we can see that the consequences of the â€Å"Prosperous Age† proved to be more negative. The severity of the negative consequences shed light on the crises in the 19th century which crippled China internally and externally. The impact of the consequences was so overwhelming that it even snowballed to the 20th century and further crippled modern China. In contrast, the perceived positive consequences was that it built the foundation but the problem was that the foundation was weak and unstable which in turn led to more problems which culminated in more movements and revolutions. Furthermore, problems like sovereign issues were not solved by reforms or China’s surge in military strength but rather treaties that returned territories to her under imminent conditions . Thus, we can see that the long term consequences were more negative in the 19th century as it continued the crippling of China economically, socially and militarily and as well as set the stage for the movements and revolutions in the 20th century which did not necessary bring about stability and communal power amongst its people until the CCP came into power in 1949. References – Hung, H.F. 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