Natural Language Processing Scope English Language Essay

Natural Language Processing Scope English Language Essay Abstract: The challenging sphere of natural language processing has been a major concern in the field of computer science and artificial intelligence since the late 40s. It encompasses the next strive forward in artificial intelligence to make computers and human interface more flexible and human understandable. Various methods were adopted since its inscription like machine translation, speech recognition, e-teaching, auto tutor etc. Researchers saw it as a likely bridge between human spoken language and computers which used programming languages and binary codes. As mentioned earlier, it is still a challenging task of making a computer to understand human natural language as such. Hence, further enhancements and techniques will foster the demanding yet fruitful and futuristic computational trends. Keywords: NLP Natural Language Processing, Semantic, Syntactic, Lexical, Phonology, MT Machine Translation Introduction: The computational scheme has evolved from basic set of instructions in the form of binary codes to mnemonic instruction codes to programming languages that have prevailed intensively during the later part of twentieth century. Along that evolution came the inspirational research on making the computer understand natural human language and interact with the humans in short applying natural language processing to normal computer usage and beyond. Natural language processing can be defined as a theoretical approach enclosing analysis and manipulation of natural language texts usually spoken by humans. This is done at various levels of linguistic analysis in order to attain a human-like approach to processing of tasks and other problems. It must be noted that NLP is not a single defined standard system but a collection of numerous language processing techniques and methods. Also, in view of facilitating the user and standing true to the name, texts must be of natural language usage and not a set of selected texts that could be used for processing. Because, the later approach would certainly forgo the real meaning of natural language processing. In any NLP system, various levels of linguistic analysis of the text are performed. This is done because humans usually breakup linguistic texts into various levels and then process or understand the language. Human-like approach and processing in the NLP systems are considered as an integral part of AI. The applications of NLP are versatile and are currently being researched and implemented in fields like military science, security systems, virtual reality simulation, medicine and regular computer science and artificial intelligence. The techniques and approaches that have been used or researched so far form the basic platform of NLP. Some of them are based on classification of natural linguistic phonology, morphology, lexical variations, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic levels. Some of the notable works done in this field are: Machine Translation Weaver and Booth (1946) Syntactic Structures Chomsky (1957) Case grammar Fillmore Semantic Networks Quillain Conceptual Dependency Schank Augmented Transition Networks Woods Functional Grammar Kay Also that there have been famous prototypes developed to highlight the impact of particular techniques and principles. They are: ELIZA Weizenbaum SHRDLU Winograd PARRY LUNAR Woods The scope of the article revolves around the evolution of NLP and its implementation in security systems. Methods: Strata of natural language processing: The optimal descriptive way of putting forward the actions that are going on in natural language processing system is through the strata of natural language processing. During the early days of natural language processing, it was held that the different data of natural language processing followed a sequential pattern. But current Psycholinguistic researches have revealed that the system follows rather a synchronic pattern. This is because humans use all of the strata of language processing and they dont follow a sequential pattern. For this reason, in order to achieve high efficiency of NLP system more strata of language processing must be adopted. This stratum deals with the interpretation of speech sounds within and across words. There are three types of rules that are typically used: 1) Phonetic rules for sounds within words 2) Phonemic rules for variations of pronunciation when words are spoken together 3) Prosodic rules for fluctuation in stress and intonation across a sentence. Morphology This strata deal with the componential nature of words, which are composed of morphemes the smallest units of meaning. For example, the word postproduction can be morphologically analyzed into three separate morphemes: the prefix post, the root product and the suffix tion. Since the meaning of each morpheme remains the same across words, humans break down an unknown word into its constituent morphemes in order to understand its meaning. In the same way, an NLP system recognizes the meaning given by each morpheme in order to achieve and interpret meaning. Lexical Both the humans and NLP systems at this stratum, interpret the meaning of individual words. Several types of processing contribute to word-level understanding the first of these being assignment of a single part-of-speech tag to each word. In this processing, words that can function as more than one part-of-speech are assigned the most probable part-of speech tag based on the context in which they occur. Moreover at the lexical stratum, those words that have only one possible sense or meaning can be replaced by a semantic representation of that meaning. The nature of the representation varies according to the semantic theory utilized in the NLP system. One can notice that, a single lexical unit is split into its more basic properties. If there is a set of semantic primitives used across all words, these simplified lexical representations make it possible to unify meaning across words and to produce complex interpretations, much the same as humans do. Syntactic The concept of analysing the sentence by looking into the grammatical composition of a sentence and its dependency is used here. This needs both grammar and a parser. The output achieved here is a representation of the sentence that gives the structural dependency relationships between the words. The efficiency of a parser depends on the different grammars used. Not all NLP applications require a full parse of sentences, therefore the remaining challenges in parsing of prepositional phrase attachment and conjunction scoping no longer stymie those applications for which phrasal and clausal dependencies are sufficient. Syntax conveys meaning in most languages because order and dependency contribute to meaning. For example the two sentences: I smoked a cigarette. and The cigarette smoked me. differ only in terms of syntax, but convey contrasting meanings. Semantic This is the strata at which most people think meaning is determined, however, as we can see in the above defining of the stratum, it is all the levels that contribute to meaning. Semantic processing determines the possible meanings of a sentence by focusing on the interactions among word-level meanings in the sentence. This level of processing can include the semantic disambiguation of words with multiple senses; in an analogous way to how syntactic disambiguation of words that can function as multiple parts-of-speech is accomplished at the syntactic level. Semantic disambiguation permits one and only one sense of polysemous words to be selected and included in the semantic representation of the sentence. For example, amongst other meanings, file as a noun can mean either a folder for storing papers, or a tool to shape ones fingernails, or a line of individuals in a queue. If information from the rest of the sentence were required for the disambiguation, the semantic, not the lexical level, would do the disambiguation. A wide range of methods can be implemented to accomplish the disambiguation, some which require information as to the frequency with which each sense occurs in a particular corpus of interest, or in general usage, some which require consideration of the local context, and others which utilize pragmatic knowledge of the domain of the document. Discourse While syntax and semantics work with sentence-length units, the discourse level of NLP works with units of text longer than a sentence. That is, it does not interpret multisentence texts as just concatenated sentences, each of which can be interpreted singly. Rather, discourse focuses on the properties of the text as a whole that convey meaning by making connections between component sentences. Several types of discourse processing can occur at this level, two of the most common being anaphora resolution and discourse/text structure recognition. Anaphora resolution is the replacing of words such as pronouns, which are semantically vacant, with the appropriate entity to which they refer (30). Discourse/text structure recognition determines the functions of sentences in the text, which, in turn, adds to the meaningful representation of the text. For example, newspaper articles can be deconstructed into discourse components such as: Lead, Main Story, Previous Events, Evaluation, Attributed Quotes, and Expectation. Pragmatic This level is concerned with the purposeful use of language in situations and utilizes context over and above the contents of the text for understanding The goal is to explain how extra meaning is read into texts without actually being encoded in them. This requires much world knowledge, including the understanding of intentions, plans, and goals. Some NLP applications may utilize knowledge bases and inferencing modules. For example, the following two sentences require resolution of the anaphoric term they, but this resolution requires pragmatic or world knowledge. Natural Language processing in textual information retrieval As the reader has probably already deduced, the complexity associated with natural language is especially key when retrieving textual information [Baeza-Yates, 1999] to satisfy a users information needs. This is why in Textual Information Retrieval, NLP techniques are often used [Allan, 2000] both for facilitating descriptions of document content and for presenting the users query, all with the aim of comparing both descriptions and presenting the user the documents that best satisfy their information needs. In other words, a textual information retrieval system carries out the following tasks in response to a users query: Indexing the collection of documents: in this phase, NLP techniques are applied to generate an index containing document descriptions. Normally each document is described through a set of terms that, in theory, best represents its content. When a user formulates a query, the system analyses it, and if necessary, transforms it with the hope of representing the users information needs in the same way as the document content is represented. The system compares the description of each document with that of the query, and presents the user with those documents whose descriptions are closest to the query description. The results are usually listed in order of relevancy, that is, by the level of similarity between the document and query descriptions. C:UsershpDesktopUntitled.bmp The architecture of an information retrieval system As of now there are no NLP techniques that allow us to extract a documents or querys meaning without any mistakes. In fact, the scientific community is divided on the procedure to follow in reaching this goal. In the following section we will explain the functions and peculiarities of the two key approaches to natural language processing: a statistical approach and a linguistic focus. Both proposals differ considerably, even though in practice natural language processing systems use a mixed approach, combining techniques from both focuses. CONCLUSION: Despite the useful universal aspect of programming languages, these languages are still understood only by very few people, unlike the natural languages which are understood by all. The ability to turn natural into programming languages will eventually decrease the gap between very few and all, and open the benefits of computer programming to a larger number of users. In this paper, we showed how current state of-the-art techniques in natural language processing can allow us to devise a system for natural language programming that addresses both the descriptive and procedural programming paradigms. The output of the system consists of automatically generated program skeletons, which were shown to help non-expert programmers in their task of describing algorithms in a programmatic way. As it turns out, advances in natural language processing helped the task of natural language programming. But we believe that natural language processing could also benefit from natural language programming. The process of deriving computer programs starting with a natural language text implies a plethora of sophisticated language processing tools such as syntactic parsers, clause detectors, argument structure identifiers, semantic analyzers, methods for co reference resolution, and so forth which can be effectively put at work and evaluated within the framework of natural language programming. We thus see natural language programming as a potential large scale end-user (or rather, end computer) application of text processing tools, which puts forward challenges for the natural language processing community and could eventually trigger advances in this field.

Change during the introduction of new system to control attendance

Change during the introduction of new system to control attendance The control of staff attendance has been a problem for Co-operative Food, a UK retail organisation, and it has been looking to improve its systems to monitor attendance of its employees. Co-operative Food wants to bring effectiveness in their work, e.g. through procedures and systems, for actively delivering their services to the consumers. That is why it is ensuring that they are efficient enough to do that. In order to pursue this, Co-operative emphasises on time management of its staff by bringing in a new system for the control of staff attendance. In the UK retail sector, Co-operative is one of the pioneers to introduce such a new generation system for control of staff attendance as compared to other big supermarkets like Asda, Tesco, Sainsburys and Morrisons. More specifically, Co-operative has introduced a biometric system which became operative in 2010, and requiring Co-operative staff to touch their finger at identification points to get verified. The new attendance recording system is a technological change to monitor employees attendance, when they start and finish their shift, by giving their finger print. If an employee leaves the premises of the company he signs out and then sign in again when he returns to the premises. This system has benefited the company to control its wastage of time and labour cost. Originally, an older system was being operated at Co-operative Food till two years ago by signing manually the attendance register. This register was usually placed near the managers office and the employees had to sign in and out before and at the end of their shift. This system was seen as a failure as employees gave little importance to this system. For example, they got paid even if they missed to sign in by requesting the manager at the next day that they forgot to sign in. This manual system was replaced in 2008 by a swipe card system to monitor staff attendance, which also had some drawbacks. In the swipe card system someone else, other than the employee, could also swipe it for him/her, without the knowledge of the supervisor. This is an important issue because such a change affects employees to a great extent if it is not planned and implemented properly. For example, due to the frustration employees could abuse the system by taking long tea or lunch breaks. Or they might waste companys time to do unnecessary activities e.g. they could go up in the canteen and sit there hiding without the knowledge of the managers or supervisors. Or if they havent accepted the change their way of work could be slackened, which will affect the performance of the organisation. It will be studied in the dissertation how this change has affected employees attitude towards their organisation. The research will look into employees perceptions of this change. Do they feel a sense of distrust from the organisation being monitored in a way that they have to give the finger prints to get recognized by the system or are they happier than before due to this innovation? 1.2 Research aim This study will focus on the effectiveness of change management practices and procedures in the organisation and will find out how these have helped in smooth implementation of this system. This research will help to understand how new staff management system was implemented in the Co-operative organisation, and if any issues like dissatisfaction or behavioural problems among employees have occurred and how these issues were dealt with. 1.3 Objectives 1: To find out at what extent has Co-operative achieved the objectives planned with the introduction of a biometric staff attendance system. 2: To analyse what issues evolved among employees. 3: To study the effectiveness of the implemented change. 1.4 Research Questions What are the issues that a new staff attendance system brings in the organisation? How can change management procedures deal with those issues? To what extent has Co-operative achieved the objectives planned with the introduction of a biometric staff attendance Chapter 2. Literature Review This chapter will review literature about change management procedures and implementation issues. 2.1 New technology and the related issues There is a major issue of human resistance attached to the introduction of new system. Gregson(1994, p. 23) gives an example of the introduction of new technologies and the human resource issues related to the implementation process. He depicts that when automatic teller machines (ATM) were launched in banks, it gave huge benefits to customers but at the same time the bank employees were discouraged by this new technology and its usage by the staff posed a threat to their job by this new technology. 2.2 Resistance to Change Skarlicki (1999, p. 36) has defined resistance to change as, employee behaviour that seeks to challenge, disrupt, or invert prevailing assumptions, discourses, and power relations. Deloitte and Touche has carried out a study of 400 companies about the resistance to change which is cited by Prochaska (2001). They found out that resistance to change causes the change process to fail or not completing. Hauschildt (1999) carried out a study of 151 companies in Germany which concludes that the resistance or opposition to innovation in these companies benefitted the organisations. This benefit includes the criticism of the new system by pointing out the defects of the system which is a way forward for organisations to improve it. Employees by pointing out defects in the new system get more involved in the organisations. Proctor and Doukakis (2002, p. 268) point out that resistance to a change could be because employees fear the new change will put their job safety at risk, or they fear of unknown, or it might be the lack of information and knowledge about the advantages attached to this change. Another example of innovation in organisations and its effects is the Bemmels and Reshef study in 1991 which is cited by Zwick (2002). Bemels and Reshef studied 206 Canadian companies which introduced innovation over a specific period, and found out that the employees generally accepted and supported the innovations, but it was resisted from personnel just because of the presence of Union and the technological advancement clauses in the employees contract. Another main concern of employees regarding innovations in organisation is that it could lead to the reduction in staff. Effective innovations could cut down the staff in the organisations. 2.3 Biometric System A biometric system is an automatic system which requires the physical characteristics of a user to recognise him/her. These physical characteristics could be finger prints, hand prints, facial expressions or iris pattern of eyes. According to Braghin (1998), the biometric system performs authentication process in two different stages. 1: Enrolling stage In this stage a specific biometrics characteristics is given to the system data base which could be located centrally or distributed. The scanning of the biometrics is performed, and then the system creates a digital representation called template, which is then recorded into the data base. This process is performed only once. 2: Identification stage In this stage the system scans the biometric characteristics and then creates an optimized digital representation, which it then matches to the template to identify the person. Biometric system is a new technology which also brings issues that are linked to this system. Braghin (1998) depicts that a biometric system is not good at handling problems. If someones template is stolen, the system cant provide any help for that. These are the characteristics of a person which is not easy to get back if lost and biometric system is not helpful in order to deal with the problem. It is not like a password which you can change. So it means if you lose it, you lose it forever. Advantages of biometrics OGorman (2003, p. 2037) highlights the advantage of the biometric as, the details are hard to get stolen of a user using the system as compared to other authentication system, like ATM. The token system which stores the identity of a user should also be a used by a user as a second option to make it more secure against stealing and thefts of the details. 2.4 Change Management Kotter and Schlesinger (2008, p. 4) have explained how to diagnose resistance (2008, p. 4) caused by the change. They point out that every change brings some human resistance to the change process. In order to deal with the resistance it is important to find out about the causes of potential resistance. By analysing the situation managers can come across the factors of resistance when the change is being introduced. 1: Parochial self interest People can be resistant to change because they feel less concerned about the organisation and see their interests coming first before the interest of the organisation. 2: Misunderstanding and lack of trust Misunderstanding can develop among employees if they dont understand the implications of the change. Or if they perceive it wrongly. It is essential for change to be effective that all employees understand the change process and its implications, and for managers or change agents to interact with employees to clear potential misunderstandings. 3: Different assessment Employees could assess the change differently than the change agent or managers due to lack of information. Because both the employees and the change agent think that the information that they have is right and they assume about each other of having the same information. So it is very important that both the change agent and employees have up to date information because otherwise this could lead to resistance. 4: Low Tolerance Sometimes it is very hard for people to give up their old habits or working style which they are used to. For example, if the implemented change requires some new skill and behaviours and employees are not catching up with those behaviours or skills it would be problematic. 5: Old beliefs People are reluctant to change because they dont want to be disturbed in their daily routine. For example an employee working 9 am to 5 pm shift, who is required to change shift from 3 pm to 11 pm two days a week will be resisting because it will disturb his/her daily routine. Kotter and Schlesinger (2008, p. 6) have suggested several ways of how to deal with resistance when it emerges as a reaction to change. 1: Communication Communicating about the desired change could really be helpful as it will make employees to embrace the change. Communication both with individuals and to a group is very essential as employees want to know about activities in the organisation. If the employees are put in dark about their organisation they feel a sense of ignorance. All sources like audio or video can be used to communicate. 2: Support Organisations can offer training about new skills or support to the employees where the managers find the employees are struggling to overcome resistance. This training can be in the organisation or out of the organisation as well. 3: Involvement Employees involvement in designing and implementation of the change process is another way to stop resisting powers being emerged. Involvement of employees will make employees feel that they are a value to the organisation. 4: Negotiation Negotiation is a way to offer benefits to resistors to accept the change. Its a process of luring the employees who are resisting. For example negotiations could involve dealing with unions as offering them pay rise in the lieu of acceptance of change. Negotiations are an expensive way of dealing with resistance as the change initiator has to give something to resistors for the acceptance of the change. The disadvantage of the negotiations is that people who take part in the negotiation process could use it as blackmailing. 5: Manipulation or Co-optation This process is also called Co-optation, when employees who are potential resistors are given an attractive role of their choice to involve them in the change process. This is not considered as participation of employees because the employee who is co-opted, his/her advice doesnt mean much to the change initiators. 6: Coercion Here the employees dont have many choices as if they dont accept the change they are threatened or warned of taking disciplinary action against them or being fired or by stopping their promotion. In this way they would worry about their job security and would show the acceptance of the new changed system. Caluwe and Vermaak (1994, p. 49) explain that the change process is a step by step process of learning. It cant be enforced on someone as it takes time and learning cant be enforced. According to Bovey and Hede (2001) change in an organisation is often implemented in a way that the whole process of planning and implementation takes all the time and the human factor who will be dealing with this change after implementation is ignored. They argued that the consideration of a new system and its rationalization for the company gets importance leaving behind the people who will be affected by this new system. Aladwani (2001, p. 268) gives a comparison of marketing and implementing an information system based change. He holds the view that both marketing and implementing change in the organization are change processes and reflect the exchange process between two parties. Therefore, as the marketing policies and procedures are developed and communicated, organizations should communicate with their employees for the required results and to overcome the resistance to change. In marketing these communications are between seller and buyer, while in an organisation it should be between employer (the person who is brining the change) and the employees who are getting affected by this change. The above literature has discussed about introduction of staff attendance measurement in organisations and related issues, biometric system and related human-resource issues, and finally change management. Kotters(1996)Change management model Create sense of urgency Create a guiding coalition Develop a vision and strategy Communicate the vision for change Empower broad-based action Generate short-term wins Consolidate gains and produce change Anchor new approaches Source: Kotter 1996 Kotters model (1996) is the 8 phase change management model which deals with the change through a systematic way. It takes the top down approach from creating a sense of urgency to anchoring change in the culture. It produces good results by dealing with the resistance issues caused by the change. Kotters model deals with the resistance in the best way for smooth implementation of change. Although this model has met with a lot of criticism as in its step 5 encourages risk taking and not traditional ideas and activities, and change in the structure of organization but Kotter explains that it is the essential part of the organizational change. As he explains that the structure which undermines the change vision by becoming a hurdle needs to be rid off. Kotters model is focused on communicating the vision to employees and provides good guidance. I like to use Kotters model for my research because it is a systematic method, a top down approach and is more effective than other models. It deals with the issues of resistance properly. Chapter 3. Conceptual Framework The literature review in Chapter 2 is a critical activity resulting in a conceptual framework. This research will use the change model of Kotter (1996) as a conceptual model. It is assumed that the eight phases proposed by Kotter are a useful model to compare the change at the case company. The following table shows in an exemplary way how the phases of change at the Co-Operative can be mapped on Kotters eight phases. Phases of Change at the Co-Operative 1 2 3 4 5 6 1. Create sense of urgency 2. Create a guiding coalition 3. Develop a vision and strategy 4. Communicate the vision for change 5. Empower broad-based action 6. Generate short-term wins 7. Consolidate gains and produce change 8. Anchor new approaches Table 1: Mapping Change at the Co-Operative on Kotters Leadership Steps Source: Kotter 1996 Each of the eight phases has its own dynamics and challenges. For example, in the first phase, organisations need to look at the competitive market, trends are traditions which need to be updated, profit margins to start the change process, if enough urgency is not established there is a risk of process to fail. The 2nd phase is appointing a team to carry out the change process together energetically. Then comes the 3rd phase which is about the development of proper vision and strategy to implement the change. It is about, where would the change lead to and how. The 4th phase is about communication of the vision to all employees by interaction. The 5th phase is to remove barriers which are obstructing the process of change. The 6th phase is about bringing more improvement in the performance, and rewarding the employees who maintain the required standards. The 7th phase is about producing more change by promoting the employees or hiring new one to carry out the change process with more determination and persistence and the final one is about to make the change permanently stick to the organisation. These phases will be tested to analyse the change process which Co-operative food has carried out by comparing the eight phases of Kotters model. Kotter (2007, p, 99). All the phases of the model from establishing a sense of urgency, Kotter 2007, p,97) to anchoring change in the culture (2007, p,103) will be compared to find out, have they been taken into the account for successful change at the case study company. Chapter 4. Research Design A deductive case study approach will be applied for this research. This case study is deductive because it uses existing concepts in the field of change management and theory about resistance caused by the introduction of new staff attendance control system. Furthermore a qualitative case study will help to attain insights and detailed viewpoints of the employees and managers. Yin (2003) suggests using a case study approach when How and why questions are being addressed and it tells about what could be extracted from a single situation. According to Bryman (2001) case study approach is used for in depth findings and to associate it with the theory. A case study approach is suitable for the interpretation of this subject because it will investigate the change management processes in the organisation by the help of existing theory of Kotters model in the case study organisation. Qualitative approach I intend to use a deductive qualitative approach for this case study. Bryman (2001) highlights the characteristics of the qualitative approach as dealing with issues by exploring them, e.g. through counter questions to understand the phenomenon. Kaplan and Maxwell (1994) give a briefing of qualitative approach that it is the study of a particular situation by exploring peoples attitude in which they react by means of interviewing, observing or documenting rather than by a data of numbers. As this research is about the perception of employees about this change, the philosophy that will be used in this research will be constructivist. This philosophy has been selected because I intend to test the Kotters model of change management in Co-operative case study. Chapter 5. Methodology For this research, the following case study organisation was chosen: the Hackney Branch, London, of the Co-Operative Food unit of Co-operative Group Limited, Manchester/UK. Furthermore employees and managers are accessible for interviews that are essential for accomplishment of the study. Data will be collected with the help of semi structured interviews by mono method. Semi structured interviews are flexible in approach, and are good in finding the insights of peoples. An understanding will be developed in the perspective of employees natural settings, about perceiving change in the organization by employees, their behaviour towards this change, and their thinking about change management practices in the organisation to minimize the effect of this change. I have talked already with the local branch managers, and they have told about their interest to take part in this research. An official letter will be written to the case company when the research starts, e.g. in September 2010. The interviews will be conducted after the work is assigned or the proposal for the research is accepted in the Hackney branch of Co-operative food. Interviews will be conducted by asking all type of questions like open question, Probing or specific questions, closed questions to cover all the aspects of the aim and objectives of the research. Employees will be asked about their point of view about change, their participation, experience and effects of the change on them. Moreover a comparison to Kotters change model will be developed by looking into eight phases of the model. Pattern matching technique will be used to analyse the data. Because I am using Kotters conceptual framework for this research, I will test the adequacy of the Kotters framework to reveal the findings. Pattern matching is the method which involves two variations, depending on the dependent and independent variables. In the first variation we relate the proposition from the relative literature to the results of data collection and analysis. If it matches to the predictions then we confirm the theory. At this moment the researcher has no pre defined variables, but when the work is assigned. If one or more outcomes that have not been predicted by the explanation, there is a need to seek an alternative one. (Yin, 2003) In the second variation the variables are independent of each other. Here we put forward a number of alternative explanations to explain the pattern of outcomes that we expect to find. When the predicted explanation matches with the pattern of outcomes it provides evidence that it is indeed an explanation of the findings. The method will be chosen when the work is assigned after the acceptance of proposal. 5.1 Limitations This research will set its limits by contacting Co-operative Food employees in the case study organisation, Co-operative Food which is a supermarket or a retail industry in the Hackney branch London. The employees contacted will belong to the Co-operative. Therefore the findings of this research can not be generalised outside the case study organisation. 5.2 Ethics The ethical issues involved in this research could be the fear of employees about their names being used in this research. If the employees dont understand the purpose and aim of the research, it is also an ethical issue. Employees could also have discomfort or stress in answering the questions. Employees will be provided the information about the purpose of this research, and its aims, and the issue of anonymity that that their names will be kept anonymous if they wish. The data collected will be used by the consent of the employees. I will inform the employees by speaking to them about their right to withdraw from the interviews and also about withdrawing their permission to use this data before I finish the interview. The collected data will be analysed by the researcher and the dissertation will be submitted by honest means. 5.3 Resources The resources that will be used to conduct semi structured interviews are audio and video equipment. Before conducting the interviews I will get the consent of employees. Should there be any rejections about being recorded, then I will make notes of the interviews. 5.4 Transcription I will document the interviews in text processing files with interview numbers, like 01ME, and 02FE, and so on, where 01 represents 1st interview and M is for male, F is for female and E is for employee. RQ1, and RQ2 will be used for myself representing the first and second of the researchers questions and MEA1 or FEA 2 would be used for male employee answer 1 and female employee answer 2 respectively. 6 Appendix 6.1 Time Table Gantt chart for a research project Activity September October November December January week number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Review Literature Meeting with supervisor Read Methodology Literature Data Collection Analysing data Enter data in computer Update literature reading Complete the remaining part Submit to supervisor Revise the work Holidays Print, bind Submit

Why Did the South Secede In 1860? :: American America History

Why Did the South Secede In 1860? The seeds of secession had been sown early in American history; quite literally with the fundamental differences in agriculture and resultant adoption of slavery in the South. From early days, the thirteen states had grown up separately, and each had their own culture and beliefs, which were often incompatible with those held in other states. The geographical and cultural differences between north and south would manifest themselves at regular and alarming intervals throughout the hundred years following the drafting of the constitution. Tension reached a peak during the 1850s, over the right to hold slaves in new territories. The Wilmot Proviso of 1846, roused bitter hostilities, and vehement debate turned to physical violence during the period of 'Bleeding Kansas'. The election of Lincoln, who the South perceived to be an abolitionist, in 1860 was the final straw, and the secession of seven Southern states followed soon after. Geographically, North and South were very different places. The pastures of New England were similar to those found in England, suitable for a variety of uses. Hot Southern prairie lands were perfect for cotton growing, a lucrative business at this time. Following the invention of Eli Whitney's Cotton Gin, the South became increasingly dependent on this crop, and an entire society grew out of it. The society was one of wealthy planters, who led a life similar to the landed gentry of England, controlling politics and society of the day. In the fields laboured Negro slaves, usually only a handful per plantation, though larger farms were occasionally seen. In addition, there lived poor whites, tenant farmers or smallholders, who eked out a living from the land. This contrasted sharply with Northern society, where industrialisation flourished, creating wealthy entrepreneurs and employing cheap immigrant labour. Given the localised nature of media, and difficulties of transport two cultur es grew up in the same nation, remarkably different and often suspicious of one another. Crisis struck in 1820, when the North/South balance in the Senate was threatened by the application of Missouri to join the Union as a slave state. Southerners, aware of their numerical inferiority in the House of Representatives, were keen to maintain their political sway, in the Senate. The North feared that if Southerners were to take control of the Senate, political deadlock would ensue. Compromise was found in 1820 when Maine applied to join as a free state, maintaining the balance.

Social and Spiritual Energy in Middlemarch :: Eliot Middlemarch Essays

Social and Spiritual Energy in Middlemarch  Ã‚   I do not believe that it is sufficient to say that Middlemarch explores the ways in which social and spiritual energy can be frustrated; it would be more appropriate to say that Middlemarch explores the ways in which social and spiritual energies (ideals if you will) are completely destroyed and perverted. One need only look to Lydgate to see an example of idealism being destroyed by the environment in which it is found. At the start of the novel, we are introduced to the "young, poor and ambitious" and most of all idealistic Doctor Lydgate, who has great plans for the fever hospital in Middlemarch. Throughout the novel, however, we see his plans frustrated by the designs of others, though primarily the hypocritical desires of Nicholas Bulstrode. The second example of the idealism of the young being destroyed by the old is that of Dorothea. This can be seen by her continuing desire to "bear a larger part of the world's misery" or to learn Latin and Greek, both of which are continuall y thwarted by Casaubon, though this ends after his death, with her discovery of his selfish and suspicious nature, by way of the codicil. The character who has their ambitions and ideals brought most obviously low is Lydgate. The earliest example is when he has to make the choice between Fairbrother and Tyke. Both of these characters are rather poor examples of the clergy (Fairbrother because of his gambling, and Tyke because of his rather lazy attitude). Our sympathies are clearly with Fairbrother for a number of reasons; he doesn't gamble because he wants to, but because the wage he receives from running his parish alone is too small to support him and the various members of his family that rely on him. Lydgate has to make the choice between some one he likes as a person (Fairbrother) and someone who he needs help from (Bulstrode). It is clear that Lydgate is very similar to Fairbrother in a number of ways; both are scientists, and both have great hopes for the future. It would therefore seem to be the case that Lydgate would automatically support Fairbrother. However, Bulstrode uses his money and his influence to en sure Tyke's success. Bulstrode is another example of a character that has had his idealism and destroyed, though not by Middlemarch.

The Unexpected Journey Essay -- Literary Analysis, The Hobbit

I. Subject The Hobbit is a novel about the adventures of a hobbit as he embarks on an unexpected adventure. The story begins by describing a humble hobbit-hole located in a world filled with magic and where mysterious creatures flourished. The home belonged to the hobbit, Bilbo Baggins. Bilbo, the protagonist of the story, lived a simple, happy life and wouldn’t want to change a thing. He dreaded anything unexpected; when a wizard named Gandalf came looking for someone to go on an adventure, Bilbo tried all he could to avoid joining. Unfortunately for him he found himself traveling with thirteen dwarfs and a wizard on a quest to take back their stolen treasure from a fierce dragon. Near the beginning of their journey, Bilbo was quite vulnerable to the dangers and was frequently rescued by the others. As he progressed through the quest, he went on his own little adventures which helped him become braver and wiser. He found the One Ring of Power which made him invisible; it served a great use for the dwarfs and especially Bilbo from when they were endangered. Gandalf had to leave the party halfway through the quest and the dwarfs feared that they wouldn’t go far without him, but Bilbo was a great help to the dwarfs as they progressed through their journey. He gained respect from the others because of his courageous feats of heroism. The group finally reached the dragon’s lair on a mountain known as the Misty Mountains. They had successfully regained the treasures, but rumors of the dead dragon’s treasure attracted creatures from all over the lands to head towards the mountain. This led to a war known as the Battle of Five Armies where the dwarfs, elves, and humans fought against the goblins and Wargs. Bilbo did not participate... ...es place in a nonexistent and unreal world or concerns incredible and unreal characters†¦ or may be employed merely for whimsical delight, or it may be the medium for serious comment on reality† (Harmon 192). The Hobbit takes place in an imaginary world with events, items, and characters that are fictional, but there are things that a person can relate in reality. Bilbo is a hobbit which is obviously a fictional creature, but, however, has realistic traits that a person in reality could also have. A sub-genre for this novel is a psychological novel. â€Å"[It] usually [emphasize] on interior characterization and on the motives, circumstances, and internal action that spring from, and develop, external action† (382). Bilbo grows physically and as well as mentally throughout his adventure. Tolkien focuses on Bilbo’s journey of maturation and how he changes at the end.

Constant Critics of Monopolies

Monopolies are under constant critics from the public and other producers of being polutive, straining to competition and they are accused of worsening resource allocation. Whether this is true or not, depends on the specific company, but certain characteristics are possible to define. It is these I will describe in the following, and hence conclude if monopolies worsen or improve It is important to distinguish between competition and monopoly before describing advantages and disadvantages of both. Many monopolies are government owned. This means that the incentive to trive for more profit, better conditions etc. is gone. This is due to the fact that, if there is a loss, the government will cover it, and government owned companies seldom strive to achieve maximum profits. A lot of the characteristics are also seen in privately owned monopolizing firms. When they become so big, that competition is practically gone, the incentive to make even more profits, and In a competitive industry this is not the case. The fear of loosing your job, not being able to compete, your products becoming obsolete etc. re important factors, which stimulate productivity. It is therefor obvious that the competitive industry will try harder to allocate their resources in the most efficient way. To land, the external costs in a competitive industry will often be pollution, seeing that the firm will strive hard to diminish their costs resulting in the firm ignoring ‘unnecessary' costs. The monopoly owned by the government, would never be able to ignore such a serious matter, and they would have to pay the costs. A monopoly would also have to be careful not to damage its image, seeing that is, in many cases, already is unpopular. Capital, on the other hand, is often to the benefit of a monopoly, since they produce at a large scale. To fully utilize capital, a lot of labour is needed, labour which a monopoly is expected to have, and a smaller competitive firm may lack. For example, a blast furnace might need a crew of 24 men working night and day, to fully utilize it. The monopolizing company may be able to provide the men, but the smaller firm might not have the money to hire all the 24 men at night, seeing wages are much higher at then. The question then is if the competitive company is so much more efficient due to ard work, that they still can produce more than the monopoly. When it comes to labour, it is obvious that a competitive industry will strive to utilize the workers at a maximum level, due to the desire of minimizing costs, and workers will in general be very efficient due the reasons mentioned above. The workers in a monopoly, often loose the feeling, that their work makes a difference in the firm, making it hard for managers to fully In my opinion, the characteristics described above are not as valid any more. Companies, which enjoyed monopoly status in the eginning of the 80's, like IBM, are now realizing that nothing lasts forever, and they have be innovative, even if the competition is not a great threat. Bill Gates, owner of MicroSoft, has very admirable policies concerning this. His firm is not a monopoly, but it is definably a cutting-edge firm, which is shaping the future. One rule he has, is that every six months the bottom five percent of the company's workforce (in terms of performance) get firedo. It is his goal to make his own products obsolete, not letting others do it, and it seems he is achieving that goal.

Case Study in Abnormal Psychology Essay

The study of any case in Abnormal Psychology views multiple aspects of self-concept and various behaviors and is the foundation of defining normal and abnormal behaviors. In the complex process of defining and exploring the vast concepts of behavior multi faceted information must be incorporated. Individual behaviors, perspectives, attitudes, and personal identity reveal the internal workings of how specific aspects of life coincide to determine ones concept of normal and abnormal behavior. Throughout history individuals have sought to find out the difference between normal and abnormal perspectives and the purpose for ones existence thus it is only through self realization that society and the people within can find this answer. The exploration of behavior and the many areas that humans search to find a deeper understanding of exactly what the concept of normal behavior leads to a profound investigation of internal and external aspect of life which shapes every angle of one’s self definition. As previous generations have sought to find the answers to this important life question it is the purpose of this paper to continue that great quest into the most definitive goal of society, which is the comprehension of the many, interlinked experiences that define self. The various aspects of behavior and attitudes such as personality traits, abilities, physical characteristics, beliefs, values, goals, and roles help psychologist define normal and abnormal behavior. During the early stages of life children develop an organized and multilevel perspective of information about themselves in the process of acquiring the ability to understand the relation between self and the behavior. Behavior is present in children and centered on many levels of concrete cognitive characteristics, such as physical characteristics and skills. While the focus and perspectives of behavior change from childhood  to middle childhood, behavioral concepts become more integrated and differ as the child engages in social comparison and more clearly perceives the self as consisting of internal, external, and psychological characteristics (Self Concept, 2010). The process of understanding behavior becomes more defined as individuals reach adolescence. It is during this developm ental stage of adolescence that individuals become increasingly aware of the presence and influence of the definition of behavioral characteristic through acquiring a broader perspective of new concepts such as abstract views of the world around them, new experiences with complex issues of cognitive mental representations or self-schemas, which direct the processing of self-relevant information. Social interaction is a key element of behavioral development in which individuals learn foundational skills that aid in the comprehension of self. Through interaction with peers individuals explore or investigate new aspects of self and social interaction by recognizing like interest with peers, social behaviors, emotional responses, and social learning and problem solving skills. These developmental building blocks teach individuals vital insights of self that can be incorporated throughout life such as the development of cooperation, social exchange, demonstrating and understanding empathy as well as experimenting with different roles with behavioral settings. Interaction with society is a defining factor in ones understanding of behavior and is the building block for future and present relationships and definition. Through these various interactions with society integral relationships shape the individuals connection to the world around them and in turn lead to stability within t he internal processes which determine the individual’s perspective of behavioral concept, self esteem, and self efficiency and aids the psychologist in treating an individual with behavioral problems. Definitive concepts that an individual must comprehend in addition to understanding in relation to the hierarchy of normal and abnormal behavior concept in order to understand the complexity of self and the role that individual plays within society. Behavior is by definition the positive or negative reactions to individuals’ society and towards oneself and is viewed as the internal evaluation of one’s self worth and value. It is clear that behavior is one of the fundamental aspects of development and self, a healthy perspective of one’s life must reflect positive values and  definitions of self in order for an individual to develop a healthy mental state. The totality of an individual’s comprehension regarding behavior is a valid developmental concept that must reflect all thoughts and feelings in relation to self and society (Paterson, 2010). Self efficiency describes an individual with confidence in his or her ability to think, understand information, self control, and a defined sense of self worth. It is an important aspect of development of perception to thoroughly understand the impact that these concepts of behavior have on an individual’s life and should be valued as priority (Paterson, 2010). Two distinct experiences that affect personal development are the values of personal beliefs and social factors. In a case study of children’s behavior parents instill values that have shaped the children’s’ perspective of many social and self perspectives. In this case the behaviors displayed by a child growing up in a lower middle class family in rural America was viewed by the parents as abnormal or normal, the child’s behavior in many factors are defined by what he or she has accomplish, and the belief or worth came from validation that he or she needed and that all other aspects of life were just reflections of what society viewed as normality. Over the years many the individuals’ behavior felt as if he or she did not really know that the displayed perspectives of behavior were being viewed as abnormal. Growing up the individual gained a new perspective of exactly what normality was and realized that many of the behaviors displayed were abnormal it was this behavioral awareness that lead to psychological help. When the individual entered high school more abnormal behaviors were displayed and societal definitions determined many of the treatments used by the psychologist. There is no other concept within psychology that shapes individuals as much as behavior. It is in understanding how one’s life is changed based on the situation and experiences, the behaviors and attitudes, and the internal sense of self worth that motivates individuals to step into a deep understanding of life. Reference Self Concept. (2010). Self Concept. Retrieved March, 2011 from: http://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/cd/re/itf09socemodev.asp Paterson, C. (2010). Measuring Changes in Self-Concept. Retrieved March 7, 2011 from: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6882/6/7