Potential ranges of consequences of a development failure Essay Example for Free

Potential ranges of consequences of a development failure Essay The concept of society and culture has a long history associated with it, similar to the most other aspects of social science. The culture has always progressively developed with time, and is an indication of â€Å"improvement†. However, there have been doubts with the quality of the progress, and how has the so-called development helped in evolving the culture into a successful social structure. There is a school of thought that believes that development of societies and culture has only resulted in failure. The failed development has had quite adverse consequences over the society too. Success or failure of a project is dependent on the policies taken towards the process of development. In today’s world where most development projects are government initiatives with political motives, the word â€Å"development† can be often associated with failure, keeping in mind the complete social structure and culture of the particular region. In the book, â€Å"Whose Development? An Ethnography of Aid† the authors Emma Crewe and Elizabeth Harrison raise the ultimate question in the very first line: â€Å"Is development a failure? † If the third world countries, especially in Asia and Africa, are considered, the development projects had been undertaken over fifty years ago, and yet there is poverty, hunger and lack of education every where. So, the question that automatically comes up is how development has affected the people in half a century? The so-called development projects have only made the rich nations richer, and the poor poorer. Crewe and Harrison also believes that the success or failure of a development depends upon the gap between the project plans, and their final outcomes. Often, the field staff has not always been able to implement the plans accordingly, resulting in the failure of the overall project. However, going deeper into the issues of field workers, Crewe and Harrison feels that it the opportunities and limitations provided by the society and the staffing organization, that influences the choices or decisions taken by the field staffs. This in turn influences the worker’s field-level activity and thus development failure can stem from the lack of attention to the field-level workers. According to them, the bureaucratic approach to implementation of the project leads to such development failures, and often results in increased power imbalances, and a predetermined section of the society will rise up to take control and would discourage any flexibility in the society. On the other hand, James Ferguson takes another approach to the development failures, where he particularly documents the failure of the Lesotho project. The project, which started off as a â€Å"livestock project† grew in magnitude with time, and soon the plan was to develop a new society out of the mountainous region, with means of arable agriculture in the mountains. Eventually, the whole â€Å"development† project failed. The author attributes this failure to the lack of a common purpose. The plans grew in stature but it diverted from the original purpose. This lack of understanding between the government and the development officials led to the failure of the project. The main aim of the project should have been to maintain the livestock without much of human intervention. However, with foreign aids coming in for the project, the evil intentions of the government surfaced, and a complete social transformation was planned. The author feels that the foreign aids led to the eventual consequence of the failed project. After ten years of commitment, the costly project did nothing to enhance the living standards of the people in the region, and it is claimed that the quality of village life has actually declined as a result of the pullout of the project. The project might not have done any good to the people, but the roads that were made during the implementation helped the Lesotho government in gaining a stronger position in the region. The case of Rwanda genocide provides an insight on the consequences of development failures. Peter Uvin, author of the book â€Å"Aiding Violence: The Development Enterprise in Rwanda† documents the reasons that led to the eventual genocide, and how it was the result of irresponsible actions of aid providing institutions. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) had kept on providing funds and aids to the government of Rwanda without any investigation of the social situation in the nation. Over the years, the aid had kept increasing, and finally resulted in the government-sponsored genocide of the Tutsi by the Hutus. The author feels that the aid given by the institutions promoted violence in the region. The basic aim was to help in the development of the African region, but the purpose was not sufficient enough, as the aiding institutions should have looked deeper into the social and cultural trends of the society. The institutions failed to implement their development plans properly, which not only led to a development failure, but also gave rise to a catastrophic disaster, which took away 500,000 lives approximately. This is also the largest genocide incident registered in the history, and it is quite alarming to see how the failure of a â€Å"development† project could lead to such a destruction of society and culture. Mary B. Anderson, in her book â€Å"Do No Harm: How Aid Can Support Peace-or War† presents a similar approach as Peter Uvin, where she provides an insight on how international assistance can become a factor in a conflict-affected area. According to her, outside help, aimed at development of a certain region, can either be helpful in resolving a conflict or prolong the conflict by helping a particular group involved in the conflict. Anderson believes that it is not possible for international assistance to remain separate from the conflict. Most assistance is given with the purpose of reducing tensions in conflict settings, and helps the region to develop. However, these development initiatives can turn into a failure, which would mean that the aid is actually reinforcing the conflict in the region. She urges to aid providers to take a step back, and look closely how the aid might have a negative effect on the conflict. The impact that is created by the aids often decides the success and failure of its developmental purpose. If the impact is destructive, the conflict increases, and leads to war instead of the desired peace. Through these four books, the authors provide a similar aspect to the cause of development failure: external aid. In spite of the fact that external aid is mostly essential for development to take place, it is also important to carry on the implementation in a proper way. While Crewe, Harrison and Anderson specify the general effects of such development failures, Ferguson and Uvin has presented similar views with the help of specific development failure cases. The instances given in all the four books maintain the importance of local aspects while planning a development project for a particular region. The social, political and economic trends are to be studied carefully before implementing a development idea. The consequences are mostly devastating, and reach out to the society and often result in power imbalance and discrimination. References Crewe, Emma Harrison, Elizabeth. Whose Development? An Ethnography of Aid. London: Zed Books Ferguson, James 1994. The Anti-Politics Machine: Development, DePoliticization, and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. Uvin, Peter 1998. Aiding Violence: The Development Enterprise in Rwanda. Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press Anderson, M. 1999. Do No Harm: How Aid Can Support Peace-or War. London: Lynne Rienner Coletta, Amy. Book review on Aiding Violence: The Development Enterprise in Rwanda. Praxis: Fletcher Journal of Development Studies A. M. Hassan, Fareed. Lesetho. African Development Bank: Operations Evaluation Department. O’Reilly, Kathleen. Responding to Intervention: Gender, Knowledge and Authority.

My Personal Philosophy of Education Essay examples -- Educational Educ

Philosophy of Education Becoming a teacher is going to be one of the greatest accomplishments of my life. Teaching was never a childhood dream for me like it was with others. Some people have always known that they wanted to become some type of teacher, but I never decided to until I entered college. I’ve always loved being around children and it makes me feel great to be able to help someone, so becoming a teacher is the perfect career choice for me. I believe that the true nature of most students is that they like school and they want to learn. I also believe that the school and the teachers greatly influence their nature over the course of their schooling. I believe that this true nature changes for a lot of students because at some point they go to a school that they don’t like or they have a teacher who is mean to them and expects them to do everything on their own without any guidance or help. I’ve had teachers like his and they made me dislike school very quickly. Hopefully, if this is the case, they will eventually have a great teacher that inspires them to do well and to like school once again. I want to be that teacher. In my opinion, the nature of knowledge is relative or constructed. Every person has their own set of opinions and beliefs that determine what that person perceives as the truth. Most people believe that their ideas, opinions, and beliefs of something are the truth to them. It’s my belief that the overall purpose of education is to improve society as a whole. Everyone should be given an equal opportunity to learn as they mature. I believe that the more educated a person is then the more likely they can become successful. A society full of successful people will be a successful society. Educat... ...ts will quickly lose interest. My professional development plan is to begin my career by substitute teaching after graduation. I do not want to relocate far from my current residence but I’m not completely opposed to it if the right opportunity presents itself. I will continue to substitute until I can find a full-time position. I do want to return to school to get a master’s degree after I have received some experience in the field or I am able to secure a full-time teaching position. There are a lot of different professional groups to join in the fields of physical education, health education, and teacher education. At this time I have not decided on which groups I will join in the future but I do plan to be active in a few of them. I also plan to be very active in the community that I will be teaching in. I feel that this is very important for all teachers.

NOrdstorm Case Analysis Essay

â€Å"Our staff is genuinely interested in seeing that all your needs are meet. They are professionals-will help you with everything from gift suggestions to wardrobe planning. They will even accompany you from department to department until you find exactly what you’re looking for† , a quote from Nordstrom directory as a benchmark for service exceptions. How is Nordstrom able to claim this unexceptional goal within retail industry? The answer lies with the great achievement of motivation produced within Nordstrom culture. The case in question is prepared by Richard D. Freedman and Jill Vohr, Stern School of Business, New york University. This case analysis is based on the experiences and background of retail giant, Nordstrom. The store started its operations with humble beginning of providing excellent customer service to constituents. Nordstrom operates almost 100 stores in 10 states. It’s a growing company with great working culture. There are approximately 35000 employees working within Nordstrom family. The focus of Nordstrom’s management is to create an ambitious and motivated team that provides customer service like no one else offers, service above and beyond the call of duty. All employees are made to feel like members of a family sharing in â€Å"the Nordstrom way†. Company has been able to create an environment where promotions are only from within the company, where employees keep a journal of customers to send thank you letters and upcoming promotions. Employees perform all operations relevant to their jobs, even unpacking items, shelving and storage responsibilities. The astonishing thing is that all these tasks are performed on off the clock. Nordstrom has been able to create an environment where employees are pushing themselves to limits. Doing chores during their lunch time or after the clock has been a Nordstrom culture for a while. Even though this practice had created some controversy with few employees and unions are trying to pursue Nordstrom to abolish these motivational techniques to have employees work off the clock to achieve better status and money. There have been various lawsuits involving Nordstrom employees and management. This analysis can provide us some insight on how Nordstrom has been able to use motivational theories to purse employees to be part of this huge enterprise. Motivation is a force that come from within a person that can help create a willful direction towards achieving some specific goals, where achievement is not due solely to ability or to environmental factors. Performance of a certain individual can be accounted using: Performance = f (Ability x Motivation) Nordstrom had created a place of business where they pick the best sales people from the given population and provide them motivation in form of promotion, excellent sales commissions and social stature of working for a prestigious retailer like Nordstrom. Nordstrom has been able to use content theories of motivation to produce current company’s culture. Using content from Hierarchy of Needs Theory by Maslow’s, Nordstrom can motivate people according to their desire to satisfy specific needs. Using physiological needs like money, Nordstrom had created an excellent base pay structure along with the opportunity to create more opportunities for sales people in form of high commissions. Nordstrom’s pay structure is more rewarding than its competitors. Using physiological paradigm as a motivation force, Nordstrom is an industry leader for harvesting the best talent within sale force. Second level of Maslow’s theory is Safety needs. Nordstrom had created a culture that resembles to an individual family boutique operating within its own means and create its own identity. Nordstrom managers are free to hire and the only rule exist is to help the customer by any way possible as long as it’s legal. This attitude towards management had created a safety net at work place thus helping Nordstrom employees achieve better motivation. Maslow’s theory also promotes social and belongingness needs. Nordstrom has a culture of creating a family within a certain store thus helping with social and belongingness needs of employees. Self Esteem is also considered an important factor of motivation used by Nordstrom. Employees of Nordstrom gladly introduce themselves to others due to the fact that Nordstrom has a certain place in society and this approach helps create more motivation for employees to be more productive. Maslow’s theory also embraces self-actualization for creating employee motivation. Nordstrom is one of the few companies that can help employees design their own business cards and schedules. The focus is to create entrepreneurial spirit among employees because Nordstrom want performance to come from ambition and motivation and not from corporate headquarters. ERG theory by Clayton Alderfed explains three categories, existence (E), relatedness needs (R) and growth needs (G). This theory can be considered one of the pillars within methodologies used by Nordstrom. Employees are motivated using growth, relatedness needs and existence needs. Using this theory as an approach for design business model, Nordstrom helped employees look for their basic goals and use Nordstrom as a vehicle to accomplish those goals. Theory of achievement, affiliation and power by David McCelland can explain the motivational force Nordstrom is using to achieve ambitious goals of sales and motivation. By creating goals to be achieve every month, quarter and year, Nordstrom can help employees create a schedule for themselves to achieve those goals. Nordstrom had created unofficial standard of excellence that can help set goals for employees. Need for affiliation is also used during the course of employment with Nordstrom. Managers acknowledge the best employees and considered as a pacemaker to others so others can follow their example of excellent customer services and sales. Need of power if another factor involved in creating motivated employees. Nordstrom use strict policy with promotions within the company, this process helps provide power to the ambitious and motivated employees in form of management and team leader positions. Even though traditional research had not supported claims by two-factor theory or dual-factor theory by Frederick Herzberg; Nordstrom has been able to use the concept of motivators like achievement, recognition, responsibility, growth and challenging work and hygiene factors like pay, working conditions , technical supervision, status , interpersonal relationship with peers and security. Nordstrom had implemented this idea to create a self-realization environment where employees create goals and motivation comes from within. Nordstrom’s focus on use of expectancy theory is another motivational factor for creating motivation. Expectancy is the subjective probability that a given amount of effort will lead to a particular level of performance. Using instrumentality and valence as an outcome, Nordstrom can increase motivational force. Another factor that Nordstrom is so successful in creating employee motivation is use of equity theory. Equity theory suggests that motivation is based on person’s assessment of the ratio of outcomes he/she receive (e.g., pay, status etc). Nordstrom had implemented these theories to create a model that help employees do things with motivation from within and increase productivity and motivation. Goal setting has been a key motivator for people working within Nordstrom. Even though, many controversial lawsuits and complaints by employees and union had surfaced in last few years, Nordstrom is still promoting its culture. Nordstrom had set aside more than $15 million for paying employee for times that has not been paid in past due to the fact it was not on clock. Nordstrom still embrace job enlargement and job enrichment policies. Job enlargement is a process of making a job more motivating by adding tasks that are similar in complexity relative to the current task. For example, Nordstrom employees work with a customer in any department to satisfy that customer’s needs. Job enrichment is a process of creating more job motivation by increasing responsibilities. For example, Nordstrom designate employees to take responsibility and act as a concierge and interact with customers using letters and photos and scrap book etc. Using these theories, Nordstrom, had increase employee motivation instead of creating a hostile work environment. I personally think that Nordstrom can alter few methods to treat with how employee time is compensated. Motivation theories applied at Nordstrom are brilliant and using those theories, Nordstrom had created a culture where employees are working hard to achieve success and reach the goals set by employees and not corporate headquarters. Some of the complaints mentioned in case seem legit but the role of motivation is a two way stream. Nordstrom should deal with these complaints in a manner where it can help employees gain more confidence and motivation. For example, Nordstrom should change the way feedback mechanism handled. Throughout the whole case, I saw a lack of feedback method that can help employees get better and increase motivation. Feedback plays and important role within company’s motivational efforts. Feedback process can clarify the goals and expectations of certain employees who seem to be abused by this culture. Nordstrom should also focus on including the time for extra circular activities to enhance sales on actual paid time. This would help employees use pay as a motivational factor to increase productivity as defined as Maslow’s, ERG and dual factor theories.

The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald - 1695 Words

To be Nick Carraway is to be an unreliable narrator. An unreliable narrator is a narrator, who, has little to no credibility and simply cannot be trusted. These narrators are often in first-person and â€Å"seem to have limited knowledge, to be mistaken in his or her understanding of people and events, or even to be deliberately misleading the reader.† (Margree par. 1). The well-known novel The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald, introduces readers to a story where everything may not be necessarily true. The beauty of this novel is that the readers actually get to decide what they want or do not want to believe. This is all due to Nick Carraway, the narrator of The Great Gatsby. Nick is prejudice and has various faults like dishonesty and being oblivious to himself. A character/narrator like this during the 1920s in New York City seems to fit in just fine, after all it was an age of â€Å"vitality, sapping out genuine emotion in favor of the artificial,† (Wolok 1). Howeve r, Nick’s faults have a major effect on the background stories and events taking place in The Great Gatsby. He picks and chooses his narrations forcing readers to not get only half the story. Along with this, Nick Carraway from The Great Gatsby is an unreliable narrator because he constantly contradicts himself, is biased towards Gatsby, and attempts to use other characters as primary sources. Nick Carraway is an unreliable narrator because he contradicts himself through what he says and what he does. Nick kicks off TheShow MoreRelatedThe Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald 1249 Words   |  5 PagesThe Great Gatsby-one of the most interesting books that describes American life and society in the 1920s.Novel was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925. Story primarily describes the young, mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his passion for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan. Novel includes themes of idealism, resistance to change, social differences, American dream, Injustice, power, betrayal, Importance of money, careless, callousness. Scott Fitzgerald sets up his novel into separate social groupsRead MoreThe Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald1280 Words   |  5 Pagesto showcase her innocence. When Nick meets Daisy in the beginning of the novel he notices her and Jordan Baker on the couch saying, â€Å"Daisy and Jordan lay upon an enormous couch, like silver idols weighing down their own white dresses†(122). While Gatsby does not represent purity because of his adulterous and illegal lifestyle, white represents purity because it is clean and unaltered. Daisy is again seen laying on the â€Å"enormous couch† waiting for something to occur. She acts like she cannot doRead More The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald. Essay1313 Words   |  6 PagesThe Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald. F. 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Jay Gatsby, Tom Buchanan, Daisy Buchanan, and Jordan Baker and never satisfied with theirRead MoreThe Character of Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald928 Words   |  4 PagesThe Character of Daisy Buchanan in the novel - The Great Gatsby - by F.Scott Fitzgerald Daisy is The Great Gatsby’s most enigmatic, and perhaps most disappointing, character. Although Fitzgerald does much to make her a character worthy of Gatsby’s unlimited devotion, in the end she reveals herself for what she really is. Despite her beauty and charm, Daisy is merely a selfish, shallow, and in fact, hurtful, woman. Gatsby loves her (or at least the idea of her) with such vitality and determinationRead MoreFailure to Achieve the American Dream in The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald1020 Words   |  4 Pages Failure to Achieve the American Dream in The Great Gatsby The American dream is the idea that was presented through American literature. 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Gatsby and Blanche are the protagonists of the texts not only due to their central role in the plots, but also that they are characters who