St. Peter's Basillica (Designed by Bramante) Term Paper

St. Peter's Basillica (Designed by Bramante) - Term Paper Example In the early years of the fourth century, the emperor Constantine planned to build a basilica and dedicate it to Saint Peter. The building was to be located on the Vatican Hill that lies on the south part of the river. The project was a difficult one as the location was on the sloping part of the hill. The floor was projecting outside, being away from the hill. After the basilica was built, it was wonderfully adorned with marble and bronze outside and mosaics and gold inside. As the Basilica was located at an odd site, people started feeling that beneath the basilica lie the buried body of St. Peter. People felt that Emperor Constantine decided to build the basilica on that location because St Peter’s body was buried there. In the sixteenth century, Emperor Constantine’s basilica began to fall off. The basilica was therefore demolished in the year 1425. Only the floor of the basilica was preserved. Popes, kings and artists very soon designed a new plan of the basilica t o be dedicated for St. Peter. Nicholas V, in 1450, took the initiative for the gigantic task. Very soon he came up with a plan that was ten times larger than the imagination of anybody else. The new proposed Basilica would have a large dome kept above the central Greek Cross. The dome would be a great architectural achievement of the celebrated Renaissance arts. Several years after the construction Nicholas V recognized that in order to make it the best, best architects should be hired for the work. He welcomed artists to share their ideas. St. Peter’s Basilica is the perfect example of architectural beauty. Nicholas V entrusted the architectural work to Bernardo Rossellino. His plans were to add to the existing church. The idea was cancelled later. In the late years of the fifteenth century, Pope Sixtus IV began the construction of Sistine Chapel, near to the site. St Peter’s Basilica was fully rebuilt in the sixteenth Century. The building work was started in 1506, a dding to the existing building. This work was under Pope Julius II. The work got completed almost hundred years later in the year 1615. Pope Paul V was the pope in that period. The highly complex construction activity of the church was named as Fabbrica di San Pietro’. Innumerable renaissance architects were involved in the great assignment of church construction. The first chief architect of St. Peter’s Basilica construction was Donato  Bramante. Michelangelo remained as the main architect of the building for a certain period. His is credited with the role of the designer of the dome. Bernini designed the famous St. Peter’s Square. St. Peter’s Basilica  or ‘Basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano (the Italian name of the Basilica) is the holiest and most admired Christian sites. It is the largest church building, with a length of 220 meters and breadth 150 meters. The church can hold more than sixty thousand people. The marvelous architecture of the basilica got its legacy from the Renaissance and Baroque style of architecture. It was deemed as one of the biggest buildings of its period. The basilica is believed to be situation in the site where Apostle Peter was crucified and buried. Basilica is therefore considered to be over the tomb. The tomb is believed to be under the main altar. The shrine of Apostle Peter in the basilica is one of the chief focuses of the buildings. The tombs of other popes that are buried in the church are also visible. The elliptical St. Peter's

Information Management and a Business Environment Research Paper

Information Management and a Business Environment - Research Paper Example Ciena Corporation was founded in 1992, listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange (symbol CIEN) in 1997, and included in the S&P 500 market index in 2001. The company is headquartered in Linthicum, State of Maryland, USA, with offices located all over the US and Canada as well as Europe and Asia, totalling approximately 1500 employees. Ciena’s founding mission was to design, manufacture and sell optical transport and switching equipment. The company pioneered DWDM technology and became a world leader in the space. Following four acquisitions since 2003 and several key technology partnerships, Ciena deliberately augmented its portfolio to address the network applications with the most business value to its customers. My role as Human Resources Generalist for EMEA incorporates recruitment for the region as well as providing a fully supportive Human Resource/personnel function. There is a great need for effective Information Management within a business environment. The prime focus of the fieldwork was, therefore, the Travel Agent outlet, using a methodology designed to learn through interviews with counter staff what role the use of view data links to Tour Operators played in the servicing of customers (Feeny D. F., and Brownlee C. G. (2001). Subsequent interviews took place with management representatives of leading Tour Operators to elicit the role they saw for systems links to travel agents, and how it related to their overall strategy for competing in the industry. HR representatives interviewed were presented with a standard customer set and asked to explain how they would respond to each customer type.

Two topics to choose from Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Two topics to choose from - Research Paper Example However, although each of these factors are salient and must be considered, the fact of the matter is that the degree and extent to which media consolidation has taken place within the past several decades is, at least within the mind of this author, the greater threat. Moreover, media consolidation cannot be understood merely through the lens of but a few news organizations representing the news to the citizen; rather, it must be understood as but a handful of media moguls controlling any and all information concerning global and/or regional politics. Such a situation is necessarily dangerous and diminishes the degree and extent to which the citizen is able to make an informed decision concerning the events that are taking place in the world around them. Further, it is the belief of this author that the narrowing of the media and the consolidation that has taken place within this past several decades has created situation by which but a few media conglomerates control upwards of 85% of newsprint and television media within the nation. When one considers the case of radio, the percentage is somewhat smaller; however, massive media firms such as Clear Channel are not far behind this troubling figure. Beyond merely creating a situation in which corporate interests are directly translated to the viewer by powerful companies, this narrowing and consolidation of the media also presents a situation by which the government could potentially find it quite easy to influence upon the way that a particular story and/or stories are related to the viewer/listener/reader (Stoll, 2006). Due to the fact that powerful corporations operate in close cooperation with the government (seeking to leverage tax breaks, contracts, and further competitiveness), the ease by which the government could offer a particular benefit to one of these firms and present the news in a particular way is profound and troubling. Evidence of this has recently been noted by the way in which the New York Times has reported on a litany of different stories and oftentimes briefs the administration prior to printing any of these scoops (Kawashima, 2011). Although it is unfair to target the New York Times alone, such a practice is not constrained to this media entity. Naturally, the call of national security is oftentimes leveraged as a means of stating why the press should confer with the administration and/or government prior to reporting on a particular story, a situation by which the press and the media operates in direct conjunction and cooperation with the government is the complete inverse of what the founding fathers initially prescribed within the First Amendment. A host of recent studies indicates that the American populace is becoming less and less informed with regards to global issues. Although it is not fair to blame been narrowing of media and/or the consolidation that is been experienced over the past several decades, it is fair to state that these realities have not hel ped to broaden the understanding that Americans have with regards to a particular news story or item of importance. In short, what can be understood by the reader is the fact that a free press

The Prediction Of Company Failure Using Financial And Non-Financial Essay

The Prediction Of Company Failure Using Financial And Non-Financial Information - Essay Example Studies have shown that financial difficulty arise mainly due to as a result of series of errors and misjudgment on the part of management. Moreover, interrelated weakness can also be attributed to management. Ratio analysis can be used to predict whether a firm will go bankrupt or not, because the sign of potential financial distress are generally evident in a ratio analysis long before the firm actually fails. How often businesses fail in United States? A good number of businesses fail each year. One thing is very important to note here that the failure rate per 1,000 businesses fluctuates depending upon the economy, but the average liability tended to increase over time. Though business failure is more common among smaller firms, large firms are not immune to it. But, some firms are too important or too big to be allowed to fail. So governmental intervention or mergers are often used as methods to avoid failure. For example, the US government gave aid to Chrysler in the 1980s to avoid its failure. Another example is that of merger of Goodbody company with Merril Lynch to avoid the former’s bankruptcy which would have frozen the accounts of 2, 25,000 customers while bankruptcy settlement was being worked out. WorldCom, Enron, Kmart, Global Crossing, Arthur Andersen, Polaroid, Qwest and Xerox are a few of the reputed companies which failed. Some of the above mentioned companies are fortune 500 companies that were not supposed to collapse. The question to be answered is â€Å"why companies fail?† Market turbulence, bad economy, a weak dollar, competitive subterfuge forces etc are some of the readymade answers which a CEO of the failed company would generally offer. A company can fail due to both financial and non financial reasons. Some of the financial reasons for company failure are low liquidity, low profitability, lower value of shares, inability to meet current debts, high ratio of loan capital compared to equity

Two topics to choose from Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Two topics to choose from - Research Paper Example However, although each of these factors are salient and must be considered, the fact of the matter is that the degree and extent to which media consolidation has taken place within the past several decades is, at least within the mind of this author, the greater threat. Moreover, media consolidation cannot be understood merely through the lens of but a few news organizations representing the news to the citizen; rather, it must be understood as but a handful of media moguls controlling any and all information concerning global and/or regional politics. Such a situation is necessarily dangerous and diminishes the degree and extent to which the citizen is able to make an informed decision concerning the events that are taking place in the world around them. Further, it is the belief of this author that the narrowing of the media and the consolidation that has taken place within this past several decades has created situation by which but a few media conglomerates control upwards of 85% of newsprint and television media within the nation. When one considers the case of radio, the percentage is somewhat smaller; however, massive media firms such as Clear Channel are not far behind this troubling figure. Beyond merely creating a situation in which corporate interests are directly translated to the viewer by powerful companies, this narrowing and consolidation of the media also presents a situation by which the government could potentially find it quite easy to influence upon the way that a particular story and/or stories are related to the viewer/listener/reader (Stoll, 2006). Due to the fact that powerful corporations operate in close cooperation with the government (seeking to leverage tax breaks, contracts, and further competitiveness), the ease by which the government could offer a particular benefit to one of these firms and present the news in a particular way is profound and troubling. Evidence of this has recently been noted by the way in which the New York Times has reported on a litany of different stories and oftentimes briefs the administration prior to printing any of these scoops (Kawashima, 2011). Although it is unfair to target the New York Times alone, such a practice is not constrained to this media entity. Naturally, the call of national security is oftentimes leveraged as a means of stating why the press should confer with the administration and/or government prior to reporting on a particular story, a situation by which the press and the media operates in direct conjunction and cooperation with the government is the complete inverse of what the founding fathers initially prescribed within the First Amendment. A host of recent studies indicates that the American populace is becoming less and less informed with regards to global issues. Although it is not fair to blame been narrowing of media and/or the consolidation that is been experienced over the past several decades, it is fair to state that these realities have not hel ped to broaden the understanding that Americans have with regards to a particular news story or item of importance. In short, what can be understood by the reader is the fact that a free press

God has Ontological Existence Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

God has Ontological Existence - Term Paper Example The religious philosophers, over the centuries have tried to establish the existence of God and have come up with numerous arguments .Major arguments about His existence are Cosmological, Ontological, Teleological and the Moral Law Argument. The Cosmological Argument comes from the Greek word ‘cosmos’, which means the world. The Cosmological argument states that the universe could not have existed by its own, there must have been some cause that would have made the universe and that cause is God. The Teleological argument is from the word ‘teleo’ that means design or purpose. As the universe evidences great complexity of design, the great designer, the God must have designed it. The Moral law argument proposes that the moral Law and Order in this world is alive and exists because of God who has bestowed human beings with this understanding of morality. According to the Ontological Argument, the God is the greatest being, imaginable, one of the aspects of greatness and perfection is his existence or in other words as God can be conceived that means he exists. Twelfth century theologian and philosopher Anslem developed this argument about God’s existence. This argument proves about the existence of God through abstract reasoning. Descartes in his Meditation 3 proposes about the Ontological existence of God .His Meditation 3 questions about the existence of God and his analysis is devoid of any scientific proof and religious arguments.

Contribution Of Robert Owen In The 19th Century Commerce Essay

Contribution Of Robert Owen In The 19th Century Commerce Essay Though Owen is considered to be paternalistic in his view, his contribution is of a considerable significance in the theories of Motivation. During the early years of the nineteenth century, Owens textile mill at New Lanark in Scotland was the scene of some novel ways of treating people. His view was that people were similar to machines. A machine that is looked after properly, cared for and maintained well, performs efficiently, reliably and lastingly, similarly people are likely to be more efficient if they are taken care of. Robert Owen practiced what he preached and introduced such things as employee housing and company shop. His ideas on this and other matters were considered to be too revolutionary for that time. 2) Jeremy Benthams The Carrot and the Stick Approach : Possibly the essence of the traditional view of people at work can be best appreciated by a brief look at the work of this English philosopher, whose ideas were also developed in the early years of the Industrial Revolution, around 1800. Benthams view was that all people are self-interested and are motivated by the desire to avoid pain and find pleasure. Any worker will work only if the reward is big enough, or the punishment sufficiently unpleasant. This view the carrot and stick approach was built into the philosophies of the age and is still to be found, especially in the older, more traditional sectors of industry. The various leading theories of motivation and motivators seldom make reference to the carrot and the stick. This metaphor relates, of course, to the use of rewards and penalties in order to induce desired behavior. It comes from the old story that to make a donkey move, one must put a carrot in front of him or dab him with a stick from behind. Despite all the research on the theories of motivation, reward and punishment are still considered strong motivators. For centuries, however, they were too often thought of as the only forces that could motivate people. At the same time, in all theories of motivation, the inducements of some kind of carrot are recognized. Often this is money in the form of pay or bonuses. Even though money is not the only motivating force, it has been and will continue to be an important one. The trouble with the money carrot approach is that too often everyone gets a carrot, regardless of performance through such practices as salary increase and promotion by seniority, automatic merit increases, and executive bonuses not based on individual manager performance. It is as simple as this : If a person put a donkey in a pen full of carrots and then stood outside with a carrot, would the donkey be encouraged to come out of the pen ? The stick, in the form of fear-fear of loss of job, loss of income, reduction of bonus, demotion, or some other penalty-has been and continues to be a strong motivator. Yet it is admittedly not the best kind. It often gives rise to defensive or retaliatory behavior, such as union organization, poor-quality work, executive indifference, failure of a manager to take any risks in decision making or even dishonesty. But fear of penalty cannot be overlooked. Whether managers are first-level supervisors or chief executives, the power of their position to give or with hold rewards or impose penalties of various kinds gives them an ability to control, to a very great extent, the economic and social well-being of their subordinates. 3) Abraham Maslows Need Hierarchy Theory : One of the most widely mentioned theories of motivation is the hierarchy of needs theory put forth by psychologist Abraham Maslow. Maslow saw human needs in the form of a hierarchy, ascending from the lowest to the highest, and he concluded that when one set of needs is satisfied, this kind of need ceases to be a motivator. As per his theory this needs are : (i) Physiological needs : These are important needs for sustaining the human life. Food, water, warmth, shelter, sleep, medicine and education are the basic physiological needs which fall in the primary list of need satisfaction. Maslow was of an opinion that until these needs were satisfied to a degree to maintain life, no other motivating factors can work. (ii) Security or Safety needs : These are the needs to be free of physical danger and of the fear of losing a job, property, food or shelter. It also includes protection against any emotional harm. (iii) Social needs : Since people are social beings, they need to belong and be accepted by others. People try to satisfy their need for affection, acceptance and friendship. (iv) Esteem needs : According to Maslow, once people begin to satisfy their need to belong, they tend to want to be held in esteem both by themselves and by others. This kind of need produces such satisfaction as power, prestige status and self-confidence. It includes both internal esteem factors like self-respect, autonomy and achievements and external esteem factors such as states, recognition and attention. (v) Need for self-actualization : Maslow regards this as the highest need in his hierarchy. It is the drive to become what one is capable of becoming, it includes growth, achieving ones potential and self-fulfillment. It is to maximize ones potential and to accomplish something. Motivation2 As each of these needs are substantially satisfied, the next need becomes dominant. From the standpoint of motivation, the theory would say that although no need is ever fully gratified, a substantially satisfied need no longer motivates. So if you want to motivate someone, you need to understand what level of the hierarchy that person is on and focus on satisfying those needs or needs above that level. Maslows need theory has received wide recognition, particularly among practicing managers. This can be attributed to the theorys intuitive logic and ease of understanding. However, research does not validate these theory. Maslow provided no empirical evidence and other several studies that sought to validate the theory found no support for it. TOP 4) Theory X and Theory Y of Douglas McGregor : McGregor, in his book The Human side of Enterprise states that people inside the organization can be managed in two ways. The first is basically negative, which falls under the category X and the other is basically positive, which falls under the category Y. After viewing the way in which the manager dealt with employees, McGregor concluded that a managers view of the nature of human beings is based on a certain grouping of assumptions and that he or she tends to mold his or her behavior towards subordinates according to these assumptions. Under the assumptions of theory X : Employees inherently do not like work and whenever possible, will attempt to avoid it. Because employees dislike work, they have to be forced, coerced or threatened with punishment to achieve goals. Employees avoid responsibilities and do not work fill formal directions are issued. Most workers place a greater importance on security over all other factors and display little ambition. In contrast under the assumptions of theory Y : Physical and mental effort at work is as natural as rest or play. People do exercise self-control and self-direction and if they are committed to those goals. Average human beings are willing to take responsibility and exercise imagination, ingenuity and creativity in solving the problems of the organization. That the way the things are organized, the average human beings brainpower is only partly used. On analysis of the assumptions it can be detected that theory X assumes that lower-order needs dominate individuals and theory Y assumes that higher-order needs dominate individuals. An organization that is run on Theory X lines tends to be authoritarian in nature, the word authoritarian suggests such ideas as the power to enforce obedience and the right to command. In contrast Theory Y organizations can be described as participative, where the aims of the organization and of the individuals in it are integrated; individuals can achieve their own goals best by directing their efforts towards the success of the organization. However, this theory has been criticized widely for generalization of work and human behavior. 5) Contribution of Rensis Likert : Likert developed a refined classification, breaking down organizations into four management systems. 1st System Primitive authoritarian 2nd System Benevolent authoritarian 3rd System Consultative 4th System Participative As per the opinion of Likert, the 4th system is the best, not only for profit organizations, but also for non-profit firms. 6) Frederick Herzbergs motivation-hygiene theory : Frederick has tried to modify Maslows need Hierarchy theory. His theory is also known as two-factor theory or Hygiene theory. He stated that there are certain satisfiers and dissatisfiers for employees at work. In- trinsic factors are related to job satisfaction, while extrinsic factors are associated with dissatisfaction. He devised his theory on the question : What do people want from their jobs ? He asked people to describe in detail, such situations when they felt exceptionally good or exceptionally bad. From the responses that he received, he concluded that opposite of satisfaction is not dissatisfaction. Removing dissatisfying characteristics from a job does not necessarily make the job satisfying. He states that presence of certain factors in the organization is natural and the presence of the same does not lead to motivation. However, their nonpresence leads to demotivation. In similar manner there are certain factors, the absence of which causes no dissatisfaction, but their presence has motivational impact. Motivation3 Examples of Hygiene factors are : Security, status, relationship with subordinates, personal life, salary, work conditions, relationship with supervisor and company policy and administration. Examples of Motivational factors are : Growth prospectus job advancement, responsibility, challenges, recognition and achievements. TOP 7) Contributions of Elton Mayo : The work of Elton Mayo is famously known as Hawthorne Experiments. He conducted behavioral experiments at the Hawthorne Works of the American Western Electric Company in Chicago. He made some illumination experiments, introduced breaks in between the work performance and also introduced refreshments during the pauses. On the basis of this he drew the conclusions that motivation was a very complex subject. It was not only about pay, work condition and morale but also included psychological and social factors. Although this research has been criticized from many angles, the central conclusions drawn were : People are motivated by more than pay and conditions. The need for recognition and a sense of belonging are very important. Attitudes towards work are strongly influenced by the group. 8) Vrooms Valence x Expectancy theory : The most widely accepted explanations of motivation has been propounded by Victor Vroom. His theory is commonly known as expectancy theory. The theory argues that the strength of a tendency to act in a specific way depends on the strength of an expectation that the act will be followed by a given outcome and on the attractiveness of that outcome to the individual to make this simple, expectancy theory says that an employee can be motivated to perform better when their is a belief that the better performance will lead to good performance appraisal and that this shall result into realization of personal goal in form of some reward. Therefore an employee is : Motivation = Valence x Expectancy. The theory focuses on three things : Efforts and performance relationship Performance and reward relationship Rewards and personal goal relationship This leads us to a conclusion that : Motivation4 9) The Porter and Lawler Model : Lyman W. Porter and Edward E. Lawler developed a more complete version of motivation depending upon expectancy theory. Motivation5 Actual performance in a job is primarily determined by the effort spent. But it is also affected by the persons ability to do the job and also by individuals perception of what the required task is. So performance is the responsible factor that leads to intrinsic as well as extrinsic rewards. These rewards, along with the equity of individual leads to satisfaction. Hence, satisfaction of the individual depends upon the fairness of the reward. 10) Clayton Alderfers ERG Theory : Alderfer has tried to rebuild the hierarchy of needs of Maslow into another model named ERG i.e. Existence Relatedness Growth. According to him there are 3 groups of core needs as mentioned above. The existence group is concerned mainly with providing basic material existence. The second group is the individuals need to maintain interpersonal relationship with other members in the group. The final group is the intrinsic desire to grow and develop personally. The major conclusions of this theory are : In an individual, more than one need may be operative at the same time. If a higher need goes unsatisfied than the desire to satisfy a lower need intensifies. It also contains the frustration-regression dimension. 11) McClellands Theory of Needs : David McClelland has developed a theory on three types of motivating needs : Need for Power Need for Affiliation Need for Achievement Basically people for high need for power are inclined towards influence and control. They like to be at the center and are good orators. They are demanding in nature, forceful in manners and ambitious in life. They can be motivated to perform if they are given key positions or power positions. In the second category are the people who are social in nature. They try to affiliate themselves with individuals and groups. They are driven by love and faith. They like to build a friendly environment around themselves. Social recognition and affiliation with others provides them motivation. People in the third area are driven by the challenge of success and the fear of failure. Their need for achievement is moderate and they set for themselves moderately difficult tasks. They are analytical in nature and take calculated risks. Such people are motivated to perform when they see atleast some chances of success. McClelland observed that with the advancement in hierarchy the need for power and achievement increased rather than Affiliation. He also observed that people who were at the top, later ceased to be motivated by this drives.