For developing nations, tourism has been seen as the road to Essay

For developing nations, tourism has been seen as the road to development. Choose one area and identify the specific benefits and cost of tourism to the area. Th - Essay Example The income generated from these tourists, in turn, facilitates the countries to meet the conservation costs of these cultural assets. However, an accelerated development in the tourism leads a country to pay great costs associated with the sustainability of its national heritage. Therefore, tourism brings both benefits and costs to a country. Singapore is one of those developing countries that are benefiting a lot from the growth of tourism industry. This paper sheds light on various costs and benefits associated with the cultural tourism in the country, in particular, the costs that the country is paying for its quest to commercialise the industry in the competitive tourism market. Cultural tourism is one of the rapidly growing fields of tourism that are becoming more and more attractive for travellers across the globe. Tourists’ destinations in the developing world such as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, India etc are especially known for their cultural attractions for the visitors coming from the developed world. The profound importance of culture in the tourism lies in the innate quest of human beings to inquire into cultural assets and values of different countries, in particular, those that serve to be the remnants of historical traditions. There happen to two general categories associated with cultural attractions at a tourist’s destination. The first one refers to ‘tangible heritage’ that includes landscapes, physical assets and properties, whereas the other one falls into the category of ‘intangible heritage’ constituting norms, values and mixes that various cultures shares (Saunders, 2004). Developing countries, in particular the Asian region is richly endowed with cultural heritage that attracts tourists from different corners of the world to these places. This has particularly led to the enormous development of countries in the East Asian region. However, as tourism leads to modernisation, this development is

Roles of Culture in Organizations Essay Example for Free

Roles of Culture in Organizations Essay Whats the role of culture in modern corporations and how can it be managed effectively? People in every workplace talk about organizational culture and that mysterious word that characterizes a work environment. One of the key questions and assessments, when employers interview a prospective employee, explores whether the candidate is a good cultural fit. Culture is difficult to define, but you generally know when you have found an employee who appears to fit your culture. He just feels right. Culture is the environment that surrounds you at work all of the time. Culture is a powerful element that shapes your work enjoyment, your work relationships, and your work processes. But, culture is something that you cannot actually see, except through its physical manifestations in your work place. There are so many different definitions of culture in the past by many scholars in the past. The variety of meaning is so diverse that it is impossible to offer any value as a research topic. Culture seeks to describe those facets of human experience that contribute the differences and similarities in how people perceive and engage with their world. We define organizational culture as a set of shared, often implicit assumptions, beliefs, values and sense-making procedures that influences and guides the behavior and thinking of organizational members, and continuously enacted and in turn reinforced –or changed- by the behavior of organizational members. Our definitions is fully compatible three characteristics universally seen as central to the concept of culture: (a) it emerges during the adaptive interaction between people and their environment, and therefore it will change when these interactions change; (b) it is by necessity constituted only of shared, intersubjective elements; and (c) it is transmitted to members across time periods and changing member cohorts or generations. In many ways, culture is like personality. In a person, the personality is made up of the values, beliefs, underlying assumptions, interests, experiences, upbringing, and habits that create a person’s behavior. Culture is made up of the values, beliefs, underlying assumptions, attitudes, and behaviors shared by a group of people. Culture is the behavior that results when a group arrives at a set of rules (generally unspoken and unwritten) for working together. An organization’s culture is made up of all of the life experiences each employee brings to the organization. Culture is especially influenced by the organization’s founder, executives, and other managerial staff because of their role in decision making and strategic direction. Edger Schein’s (1985) three levels of culture: artifacts, values and assumptions. For Schein, the essence of culture is located at the level of basic assumptions which reflect how members of culture experience reality, how they perceive the physical and social world, and how they think and feel. These assumptions are taken for granted, and rarely questioned. A culture’s assumptions provide the basis for and interact with values –Schein’s next level of culture. Values are the social norms, principles, standards and objectives that are valued by cultural members for their intrinsic worth. Values are accessible because they are revealed by behavior and priorities. Cultural values often indicate what is seen as morally right and wrong in a particular context. Even though values remain subconscious, members are more aware of them than of their underlying cultural assumptions. In particular, members become aware of their values when they are challenged during times of change or when someone violates conventions. Values are linked to artifacts, Schein’s third cultural level, in that values-congruous behaviors express and manifest the cultural values and assumptions located at the other levels. This can happen through deliberate expressive actions, through unintended expressive actions, or through other actions that manifest cultural assumptions and values. Anything observable linked to behavior can be seen as artifacts including objects, verbal expressions and activities. But how culture effect on organizations? The culture of a country or region in which the organizations function influences the way of motivating employees. In some countries, such as Japan, giving an individual reward to an employee could embarrass the recipient and so be de-motivating. In high-context collective cultures, there are often expected norms of behavior for particular situations. Offering rewards for individual behavior that runs counter to group norms is unlikely to have a positive influence on motivation. In some countries, the perception of material items is as gifts rather than as rewards for performance. In China, for example, organizations often distribute food to all employees as holiday gifts. People in higher position positions get more or better quality items, but employees make no connection between their performance and the gifts. People in different cultures communicate among themselves differently. The major differences in how people from different cultures communicate with each other are language usage, verbal style, and nonverbal communication. Two people may speak the same language but speak it quite differently. Verbal communication styles are another way for cultures to vary in their communication patterns. In cultures employing a direct style, the speaker tries to convey his true feelings through the choice of words. In the indirect style, the speaker selects words to hide his real feelings. The direct style is common in individualistic, low-context cultures, and the indirect style in collective, high-context cultures. The direct style allows the individualist to express his own ideas clearly. The collective orientation is to maintain group harmony and concern for the feelings of others. There is a number of effects of culture on organization and making a diverse multi-cultural organization must be a great challenge to the managers, but there are also advantages of managing organizational culture. There are seven characteristics of culture which can help managers to manage the culture more effectively. (www.about.com ) †¢ Culture = Behavior. Culture is a word used to describe the behaviors that represent the general operating norms in your environment. Culture is not usually defined as good or bad, although aspects of your culture likely support your progress and success and other aspects impede your progress. A norm of accountability will help make your organization successful. A norm of spectacular customer service will sell your products and engage your employees. Tolerating poor performance or exhibiting a lack of discipline to maintain established processes and systems will interrupt your success. †¢ Culture is learned. People learn to perform certain behaviors through either the rewards or negative consequences that follow their behavior. When a behavior is rewarded, it is repeated and the association eventually becomes part of the culture. A simple praise from an executive for work performed in a particular manner molds the culture. †¢ Culture is learned Through Interaction. Employees learn culture by interacting with other employees. Most behaviors and rewards in organizations involve other employees. An applicant experiences a sense of your culture, and his or her fit within your culture, during the interview process. An initial opinion of your culture can be formed as early as the first phone call from the Human Resources department. †¢ Sub-cultures Form through Rewards. Employees have many different wants and needs. Sometimes employees value rewards that are not associated with the behaviors desired by managers for the overall company. This is often how subcultures are formed, as people get social rewards from coworkers or have their most important needs met in their departments or project teams. †¢ People Shape the Culture. Personalities and experiences of employees create the culture of an organization. For example, if most of the people in an organization are very outgoing, the culture is likely to be open and sociable. If many artifacts showing the company’s history and values are in evidence throughout the company, people value their history and culture. If negativity about supervision and the company is widespread and complained about by employees, a culture of negativity, that is difficult to overcome, will take hold. †¢ Culture is negotiated. One person cannot create a culture alone. Employees must try to change the direction, the work environment, the way of work is performed, or the manner in which decisions are made within the general norms of the workplace. Culture change is a process of give and take by all members of an organization. Formalizing strategic direction, systems development, and establishing measurements must be owned by the group responsible for them. Otherwise, employees will not own them. †¢ Culture is Difficult to Change. Culture change requires people to change their behaviors. It is often difficult for people to unlearn their old way of doing things, and to start performing the new behaviors consistently. Persistence, discipline, employee involvement, kindness and understanding, organization development work, and training can assist you to change a culture. Your work culture is often interpreted differently by diverse employees. Other events in people’s lives affect how they act and interact at work too. Although an organization has a common culture, each person may see that culture from a different perspective. Additionally, your employees’ individual work experiences, departments, and teams may view the culture differently. Your culture may be strong or weak. When your work culture is strong, most people in the group agree on the culture. When your work culture is weak, people do not agree on the culture. Sometimes a weak organizational culture can be the result of many subcultures, or the shared values, assumptions, and behaviors of a subset of the organization. For example, the culture of your company as a whole might be weak and very difficult to characterize because there are so many subcultures. Each department or work cell may have its own culture. Within departments, the staff and managers may each have their own culture. Ideally, organizational culture supports a positive, productive environment. Happy employees are not necessarily productive employees. Productive employees are not necessarily happy employees. It is important to find aspects of the culture that will support each of these qualities for your employees. Managers must know well how to manage the organization’s culture and have to explore many aspects of organizational culture and cultural change to make organization more effective and productive. The concept of culture will become useful for the managers to make successful and productive organization by managing culture effectively. Managing culture is very much concerned with leadership of a manager. Culture is a difficult to define concept and is capable of being misinterpreted by managers who must attempt to make use of it in their work activities. A range of definitions were explored, as were number of facets of both organizational and national culture relevant to the human experience of work. New employees must be effectively integrated into the organization if they are to become productive members. It is not possible to manage every person all the time that they are at work. Internalization of responsibility and knowledge of requirements must be delegated if effective management is to be achieved. Culture is able to offer a meaningful way of accounting for many related phenomena. However, the notion of culture, particularly a strong culture, however attractive, provides a conflict-free way for managers to ensure harmony and the achievement of objectives, is simplistic and does not reflect experience. Culture is a problematic concept because it is difficult to define in precise terms. It is an easy term to recognize in that it is relatively obvious how organizations differ. When visiting an organization, a ‘feeling’ becomes apparent which provides a general indication of the culture. For example, one organization might feel busy with a buzz of activity and a feeling of purpose; while another might feel relaxed with a feeling of calmness in the approach to work. It is important for managers to study other cultures also because their competitors, suppliers, shareholders, or employees may come from other cultures. In developed countries there is also an increasing number of immigrants and workers bringing their own cultures into their new homes. Managers have to be able to integrate them into the new work environment. Hence, it is necessary for managers to know their culture as well as to understand their way of life. References i. â€Å"Organizational behavior management, by John Martin fellenz.† Publisher â€Å"South- Western† ii. â€Å"Organizational behavior-an experiential approach, by Joyce S, David A, Irwin M, and Marlene E.† Publisher â€Å"Pearson† iii. www.about.com iv. www.biomedcentral.com v. www.attractorconsulting.com vi. www.academia.edu

Radio Frequency Identification Essay examples -- Technology, Communica

I. INTRODUCTION RADIO frequency identification (RFID) technology is gaining attention both from academicians and from practitioners. RFID has the potential to serve as a fundamental technology for ubiquitous services where both objects and people can be identified automatically via attached RFID tags [35]. However, with the promise of RFID technology come issues that need to be addressed for its widespread acceptance by consumers. For example, the use of RFID technology by retailers and government agencies raises questions about potential violation of personal information privacy [35], and potential security threats to personal information [40]. Motivated by such issues, this study proposes and validates a theoretical model of consumer acceptance of RFID technology. The proposed model is developed based on the extant literature and provides a theoretical framework of the critical factors that determine the consumer’s acceptance of RFID technology. A contribution of this paper involves reviewing the technology acceptance model (TAM) Manuscript received September 1, 2006; revised June 27, 2007. Review of this manuscript was arranged by Department Editor A. Chakrabarti. The authors are with the Information Technology and Decision Sciences Department, College of Business Administration, University of North Texas, Denton, TX 76201 USA (e-mail: hossainm@unt.edu; prybutok@unt.edu). Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TEM.2008.919728 and contextualizing it to the RFID technology. This contextualization is done with the intent of extending the TAM to the acceptance of a specific technology—RFID technology. This study is the first in the RFID literature to utilize and contextualize the TAM for explaining consumer a... ...chnology. Perceived usefulness is defined as the extent that individuals believe their job performance is enhanced by using a particular technology. Perceived ease of use is defined as the extent to which an individual believes that using a particular system is free of effort. TAM also postulates that perceived ease of use is a predictor of perceived usefulness. Researchers have utilized and validated TAM for use with numerous types of technology [51]. Some studies suggest that TAMsuccessfully predicts an individual’s acceptance of various corporate information technologies [1], [8], [12], [39]. According to Straub et al. [42], TAM may hold across technologies, people, settings, and times. Recently, TAM has its footprints in e-commerce [50], [51], and mobile service [46]. This study expands TAMto the study of consumer acceptance of the RFID technology.

Black Pepper

Characterization and Quantification of Active Compounds of Black pepper (Piper Nigrum): AbstractThe objectives of the study were to investigate the presence of phytochemical compounds from the extract of piper nigrum, using methanolic extraction. It showed the presence of alkaloid, flavanoids, carbohydrates, proteins, phenols, phytosterols, and tannins. The phytochemical compounds were also screened by GC-MS method.A total 21 bioactive compounds were identified in the methanolic extract of Piper nigrum. The identification of phytochemical compounds is based on the peak area,retention time,molecular weight.GC-MS analysis of P.nigrum revealed the existence of major compounds like caryophyllene ,delta.3-carene as well as Cinene. The results will be useful for further study in future to explore the biosynthetic activity of black pepper. Introduction:Black Pepper:Black Pepper, the tropical plant family, Piperaceae is a reliable source of diverse biologically dynamic phytochemicals (Parmar et al., 1997) and food grade spice. Black pepper (Piper nigrum L.) (Piperaceae) celebrated as â€Å"Dark Gold† and furthermore known as â€Å"Ruler of Spices† is one of the vital rural products (Ankegowda and Krishnamurthy 2012). The extracts of Pepper can be viably used as a source of biopesticide material. The most broadly perceived specie of this family is Piper Nigrum or dark pepper which apart from culinary applications is utilized as a part of various ayurvedic details because of its different curative properties (Srinivas et al., 2005). Piperine is one of the significant compounds that is extracted from Piper Nigrum. Many other unsaturated amides have since been distinguished in Piper species from every single tropical locale of the world (Parmar et al 1997). Piperine is the significant compound that causes the impactful and spicy flavor of pepper and has indicated many pharmacological exercises, for example, insecticidal, calming, pain relieving, and so forth. (Khajuria et al., 1989). The wide variety of auxiliary plant mixes found in Piper were recommended as potential leads for novel bug sprays (Miyakado et al., 1989) while numerous mixtures are utilized as a part of conventional control of insecticides that are vectors of ailment (Okorie and Ogunro 1992) and harm stored crops (Sighamony et al. 1986; Baier and Webster 1992; Mbata et al., 1995; Ke'? ¨ta et al., 2000). Early examinations with P. nigrum seed extracts showed that piperamides were in charge of the harmfulness of the extracts to the adzuki bean weevil Callosobruchuschinensis L. (Miyakado et al., 1980). For the treatment of infectious diseses on Earth pharmacologists ,microbiologists and natural products chemists are relying on plant derived dietary supplements as well as phytochemicals.(Pandey et al.,2015).The objective of this research is to identify and characterize the active compounds in crude extract of Black pepper. Key words: Piper nigrum L, Phytochemical Screening,GC-MS.Material and Method:The seeds of Black pepper were purchased from Qissa Khwani Bazar PeshawarExtract of Black Pepper: Seeds of black pepper 10gm were grounded in a blender and then covered with 100 ml of methanol. The grounds and methanol slurry was shaker in a mini orbital shaker for 30 min at 260 rppm and then passed through a Buchner funnel with Whatman No.1 filter paper for removing insoluble material. The methanol fraction was separated and air died ( Jyothiprabha, and Venkatachalam 2016). Identification of Active Compounds: Some plants have more than one chemical as an active principle responsible for their biological properties. Phytochemical tests was done to find the presence of the active chemical constituents such as alkaloid, glycosides, flavonoids, reducing sugars, triterpenes, phenolic acid and tannis. Detailed Phytochemical screening was carried out as per standard methods. (Kokate, 2000; Habone, 1999; Tiwari et al., 2011).

The Conviction of George Burroughs

The reading by Johnson starts out with a married lady by the name of Katherine Watkins complaining of rape by a black slave. Throughout the remainder of this section, depositions are given by other black slaves and people who claim to have witnessed the occurrence. Most of the accounts indicate that Mrs. Watkins seduced the slave into a sexual act and then blamed it on him in order to stay out of the trouble that her Quaker husband†s beliefs would have brought on her. The other section in this book is the sermon by John Winthrop entitled, A Model of Christianity. Two rules by which all men should abide, he says, are to show mercy and do justice. Among many other good deeds, he preaches love among Christians, performing service for the Lord, having unity and conformity in the community, and strict obedience to God†s word lest some punishment befall you. The handout given in class deals with the issue of homosexuality and the punishments for sodomy and buggery. The reading by Marcus was solely concentrated on the Salem Witch Trials. A former minister, George Burroughs, is accused of witchcraft and much of the section deals with people who claimed to have been bewitched by him. There are a couple of letters by Cotton Mather explaining the difficulty of the witchcraft trials and his defense of the conviction of George Burroughs. The rest of this reading is letters of confession by the accused and more letters relating to the trials. The role of Colonial women in society is given an in depth look in the segment by Graebner. In these days, the husband was seen as the supreme head of the family and women were basically domestic. Women were basically known only as the wife of their husbands and often helped them with their business affairs. Eventually, a minimal level of trade arose among women in the village, but nothing big enough to trigger a large outbreak of feminism at that time. A women†s role in society can basically be summed up in this quote, â€Å"The economic roles of married women were based upon two potentially conflicting values – gender specialization and identity of interest. A wife was expected to become expert in the management of a household and the care of children, but she was also asked to assist in the economic affairs of her husband, becoming his representative and even his surrogate if circumstances demanded it. Three concepts that were all tied together in Colonial America were sin, legality, and community. Their definitions of sin were taken before a jury for the proper punishment, and thus their sense of community was being broken down by the fact that so many people were being sentenced and punished for the sins that the legal system found them guilty of.