Organizational Diagnosis Business Self

Long-term business performance is significant for business survival as well as sustainability. Organizations always strive to adopt the best strategies to improve their management standards to enable them to achieve their core objectives better. Best practices and organizational diagnosis have often been used to maintain quality in organizations, and as an alternative to rigid legislated standards.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Organizational Diagnosis: Business Self-Assessment Model specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Bogan and English (1994) describe the best practice as an approach which has consistently shown better results as compared to other means and is therefore used to perform self-assessment or as a benchmark. Organizational diagnosis is used for documenting and charting practices and procedures for organizations. Bogan and English (1994) state that a key strategic talent needed for adopting best practi ce/organizational diagnosis is the ability to balance the organization’s unique practices which it shares with others. There are numerous organizational diagnosis models as well as best practices such as United Way Management Indicators List, Drucker Five-Question Self-Assessment Tool, and Fieldstone’s Nonprofit Life-Stage Assessment, among others. However, Business-Self-Assessment (BSA) would be the most appropriate for companies operating in the financial services industry. BSA was developed to help businesses, including global businesses to determine what they need so as to advance their management systems. Thus, its main aim is to help organization leaders achieve the capability to perform Business Self-Assessments, which would enable them to improve their long-term business performance. Companies operating in the financial sector have numerous common qualities which are unique to the industry and shared standard practices which make BSA the most suitable organizat ional diagnosis for the industry. Ichikawa (2003) of Dow Chemical Company says that BSA processes can always be examined against business excellence criteria such as the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) and the US Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More BSA can be applied in both domestic and international companies, which means that it would be suitable for regional financial service companies such as Umpqua Bank and international financial companies like Barclays Bank. Ichikawa (2003) states that consistent use of BSA could enable a global business on a downward trend to become vibrant. Adoption of BSA has several benefits. BSA provides a clear diagnosis of financial organizations’ numerous business activities and is valuable for planning as it allows financial companies to connect their practices to the results of t heir practices, thus, highlighting areas which need to be improved. It can help guide organizational change by enabling a deeper understanding of all aspects of an organization’s performance, motivation level, capability, as well as the environment (Cawsey Deszca, 2007). As such, the organization is able to fully understand its areas of weaknesses allowing its leadership to focus on the priority items which can generate the highest impact. This means that it gives an organization’s leadership a clear picture of the capability deficiencies impeding the organization’s performance. The whole process helps generate important data on the organization’s strengths and weaknesses, which can be used in strategic planning exercise so as to improve its performance. Dow Chemical Company President and Chief Executive, Ichikawa, believes that BSA ensures disciplined examination of how the organization operates as well as the results of those efforts (Ichikawa, 2003). Thus, it helps test an organization’s largely held beliefs against those of business excellence criteria.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Organizational Diagnosis: Business Self-Assessment Model specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More BSA model also allows an organization’s leadership team and the organization as a whole to have a common understanding of the business as well as the priorities which help drive the business towards greater levels of performance. Besides, it is flexible; thus, it can be used at corporate, business or branch level. BSA model can be designed to suit the needs of every business in the financial sector operated by any financial organization. It provides a comprehensive review for all of the company’s business activities and practices over several months or even a year. As a result, this will enable financial organizations to develop a culture of continuous improvement (Ca wsey Deszca, 2007). The model also emphasizes the importance of consensus during the assessment of an organization’s strengths as well as areas that need to be improved. This makes the implementation of the identified practices to be easier and inclusive. Finally, the BSA model stresses on external validation of the organization’s practices against standard excellence models like EFQM, Baldrige, and many others (Ichikawa, 2003). This will allow financial organizations to score their practices against best practices adopted by other financial organizations. Financial organizations’ adopting BSA for the first time as their organizational diagnosis model have to be guided to start, and taken through a BSA workshop. The workshop encourages the organization’s leadership and teams to progress to a written document as well as an assessment. During the initial stages of adoption of BSA, 6-12 person leadership team members of each of the financial company’ s business sector or functional department is given a few hours of training (Ichikawa, 2003). Thereafter, they are given 2-3 days of pre-work. Next, a one-day workshop is conducted to help the leadership teams review the strengths as well as areas of improvement which each sub-team records during their organization’s assessment â€Å"against the nine criteria of the EFQM model† (Ichikawa, 2003).Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The results of the workshop should include a list of the organization’s strengths, potential practices, and procedures that it needs to put an end to, as well as, prioritized list of practices and procedures that it has to implement to improve its business performance as well as a management system. Following successful completion of the workshop, every business or functional department of the financial company initiates actions aimed at improving their performance. This can take about six months to one year as each business or the organization monitors the progress of the best practices adopted (Ichikawa, 2003). After the end of the set period, probably a year, each of the leadership teams are encouraged to write a document, which can be as long as more than fifty pages, describing their business approaches as well as results in relation to the criteria for business excellence (Ichikawa, 2003). Ichikawa (2003) asserts that the written document is very useful as it helps the organization’s leaders conduct self-assessment of the organization’s strengths as well as areas of improvement. The findings regarding the organization’s procedures and practices are then compared to the findings of an assessment team, which consists of consultants and members of the organization from other branches of the financial company. The employees involved in the assessment of any of the organization’s branch or ‘store’ as applied by Umpqua Bank, are those who do not work for the business being assessed. Senior members of EFQM or Baldrige examiners have to be retained as consultants during the first assessment processes (Ichikawa, 2003). Thereafter, the organization can always conduct its assessments in-house. The financial organization with many branches and businesses both locally and internationally can, therefore, extend BSA to all its businesses and functional departments by initiating BSA workshop in those branches and businesse s. Leaders of these branches and business functions in these branches have to be trained to assess their practices and procedures, implement the best alternatives and write documents as regards their performance in accordance to the organization’s business excellence criteria (Ichikawa, 2003). They are then allowed time to implement their proposed best practices so as to write documents after the end of the stipulated time of the program Cawsey Deszca, 2007). Although it is only the organization’s leadership teams who participate in the BSA workshops, they have to consult with other members of staff when considering the organization’s strengths as well as areas of improvement (Ichikawa, 2003). The writing of the document should take every business or branch two-ten months, depending on the size and business process of each business or branch. The organization or its branch has to involve its key executives and middle management leaders or members of staff with lots of experience as well as seniority. There are two alternatives available for writing the document. One, the organization can use proformas (templates) as an alternative to prose. This option will help save time while noting down all the required data. The other alternative is the shortened version of BSA, normally referred to as the Results Targeted BSA Workshop, which focuses on the single result that holds more importance to the business (Ichikawa, 2003). It evaluates this result against the EFQM criteria for results as well as the corresponding approaches. This approach takes the organization’s key leaders just two days and one day for the leadership teams. The Results Targeted BSA Workshop can be appropriate to business leaders in financial service companies due to their busy schedules, which involve face-to-face meetings with clients, monitoring and guiding the performance of the subordinate staff. The organization has to set adequate time (of about two months) for the assessment of the documents so as to be able to understand fully the organization’s strengths as well as areas of improvement in relation to the best practices adopted after the workshop (Ichikawa, 2003). The assessment of the written documents should involve a team of assessors who comprise middle-level management leaders or directors who have to take one week to conduct individual assessments of the written document. They then take another two days to seek consensus on their feedback report. After that, they take one week to conduct site interviews of the organization’s branch or business or functional department; and finally, they document the report. Throughout the site visit interviews, the document’s assessors contact as many staff as possible, and the staff interviewed must come from different levels within the department or organization. Ichikawa (2003) states that depending on the size of the branch/department or organization, about 5-40% of the sta ff should be interviewed. The assessment process must be communicated to the organization’s staff to achieve a corporation during the process. Finally, the results of the assessment have to be communicated to all employees of the organization. To make the implementation of BSA practice effective in any financial service organization, financial companies have to set up a BSA expertise center to help them â€Å"strategize at the corporate level and coach at the business level† (Ichikawa, 2003). Again, the company has to hire consultants who could be senior Baldrige examiners, EQFM senior examiners or senior British Quality Foundation examiners who have previously led their organizations through BSA processes as well as through in-house and external award processes (Ichikawa, 2003). The organization’s management has to involve internal business excellence leaders, training specialists, as well as external consultants to work together in developing training courses tailored to meet the organization’s goals and needs. Consultants play a vital role in helping the organization develop its practices and in providing individualized coaching to the organization’s businesses (Ichikawa, 2003). They also lead and provide back-up to lead assessors (Ichikawa, 2003). This will help the financial service organization build internal assessment capability at a relatively lower cost. By adopting the BSA organizational diagnosis model, financial service organizations learn the best ways of collecting information regarding their strengths as well as their weaknesses that need to be improved to enhance their performance. BSA process involves getting the views of staff at various levels/positions within every department of the business. This means that financial organizations will be able to adopt a more consultative process in reviewing their procedures and practices as well as in implementing new practices and procedures. Financial organizations w ill also learn to develop their own training courses which best meet their needs as well as the goals of every business process. Companies in the financial service sector, especially banks, usually have wide-ranging businesses such as banking services, insurance policies, mortgage services, investment services, retail brokerage services, among others. Thus, by adopting BSA model, financial companies will learn to tailor their training as well as how to go about shared learning to provide their managers and other staff with skills which help them best meet the needs and the business processes of their departments. They will also learn to continually monitor and review the perceived values of their practices and approaches to their businesses. Perhaps the most important part of the BSA model that financial organizations will learn is how to align their internal business excellence to the EFQM Excellence Model. EFQM criteria majorly focus on how the organization conducts itself, how it reviews and monitors its core processes as well as how it manages its resources and employees. Financial companies will be able to conduct better need identification, design their values which will allow them to incorporate their goals and employees targeted since they will be able to adopt practices applied by EQFM, Baldrige and many others (Ichikawa, 2003). They will also learn how to align their practices with the performance identified. This means that they will be able to continually take corrective actions as they constantly evaluate their strategies so as to allow them to be consistent with the best practices observed in other organizations in the financial services sector. They will also learn how to evaluate their results best as they continually seek to improve their practices to meet both short-term and long-term results. Business Self-Assessment model would evidently be the best organizational diagnosis as it provides a framework for assessing the strengths as well as a reas for improvement for financial organizations. It provides a framework which can allow financial organizations to comprehensively appraise their strengths and weaknesses which need to be improved to enable the organizations better meet the goals of all their stakeholders. BSA also provides an assessment framework which can be used by financial organizations to inculcate the culture of continuous improvement. Reference List Bogan, C.E. English, M.J. (1994). Benchmarking for best practices: Winning through innovative adaptation. New York: McGraw-Hill. Cawsey, T. Deszca, G. (2007). Toolkit for organizational change. London: Sage Publishers. Ichikawa, A. (2003). 2003 excellence in practice citation: Organizational learning. Midland, Michigan: Dow Chemical Company. Web. This essay on Organizational Diagnosis: Business Self-Assessment Model was written and submitted by user Cayden Nolan to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Lord of the Flies Analysis of Chapter 1 Essay Example

Lord of the Flies Analysis of Chapter 1 Essay Example Lord of the Flies Analysis of Chapter 1 Paper Lord of the Flies Analysis of Chapter 1 Paper Essay Topic: The Beast in the Jungle Lord of the Flies analysis of chapter 1 The opening character is important and effective because it sets the scene for that character, and their situation. You can almost predict what that character will be like in the rest of the book by the few sentences that the author gives you. The opening character is also a vital piece of information, because it will make the reader want to read on. The first character that was introduced was Ralph. We can predict that he will become important in the rest of the book because he is the first on the island, and he removes his clothes, which is the first symbol of rebellion. Ralph is introduced as being the boy with fair hair (pg 7). One of the first things Ralph does is pull up his sock which symbolizes the idea that Ralph is still civilized and acts like he is still in a sophisticated society. Ralphs father was in the army, and made it a point to say that his father was going to rescue them. When Ralph was elected as chief, it was because he was oldest, and was said to have the physique of a boxer ‘he may make a boxer, as far as width and heaviness of shoulders went, but there was a mildness about his mouth and eyes that proclaimed no devil’ (pg 10). Piggy was more of an adequate chief because he was the main idealist who spotted the conch, and the one who did most of the work. Piggy was also the democrat of the boys, he thought things through, he was equal, rational, and had a mindset of being rescued, and not wanting to be stuck on the island. Ralph is overjoyed that there are no grownups on the island, but Piggy can envision the consequences of the pilots death, and the fact that nobody was a mature adult, and they couldn’t make mature decisions. Piggy was not elected chief because of his look and probably because of his name. ‘he was shorter than the fair boy and very fat’ (pg 7). Next to be introduced is Jack and his choir boys. They are introduced as aliens or beastie that appears later on in the book. ‘something dark was fumbling along†¦.. Then the creature stepped from the mirage’ (pg 19). This sends an eerie feeling to the readers. Later on in the paragraph it talks about them ‘stepped from the mirage on to clear sand, and they saw that the darkness was†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦mostly clothing’ (pg 19). The boys were in ‘two parallel lines’ (pg 19) and dressed in black cloaks that covered them from throat to ankle that was adorned with a long silver cross, and a square black cap with a silver badge. Their leader is a boy named Jack. Jack was ‘tall, thin, and bony’ (pg 20) with red hair that was hidden somewhat by the square black cap, and his face ‘was crumpled and freckled, and ugly without silliness†¦two light blue eyes’ (pg 20). Jack is very power hungry, and arrogantly assumes that he would be the chief of the boys because he was the ‘head boy’ (pg 22) of the choir, and because he could ‘sing C sharp’ (pg 22). Jack is quite upset to find that Ralph was voted to be chief of the boys ‘ the freckles on Jack’s face disappeared under a blush of mortification’ (pg 23). Ralph put the choir boys under Jacks power, and thus began Jack and Ralphs friendship ‘Jack and Ralph smiled at each other with shy liking’ (pg 23). When the boys arrive on the uninhabited island, they find themselves surrounded by beautiful shrubs, trees, and beaches. They soon discover that they are the only humans on the island, and there are no adults on the island. ‘no grownups’ (Pg 8). This shows Ralphs immaturity, and his excitement for freedom. However, when Ralph is voted chief, he knows that he needs to gather himself, and think about what they need to survive, and be rescued. The boys (Jack, Ralph, and Simon) explore the island to find out if the place they are in is in fact an island. They begin to have fun, and enjoy themselves while their sense of wanting to be rescued is dissipating. Ever since the beginning of the book, the boys have seemed to destroy the paradise of an island by the ‘long scar smashed into the jungle’ (pg 7) and they will most likely destroy it again. The island that Golding is trying to envision is not as it seems as he uses destructive imagery like ‘decaying coconuts’ (pg 12), ‘coarse grass’ (pg 12), and ‘typhoon’ (pg 12). Golding uses a lot of symbols to demonstrate themes such as friendship, relationships, and violence throughout chapter one. The island is presented as a Garden of Eden. It has all of the necessary things to survive such as, fresh water, fruit, shade, trees to make shelter, and wood to make fire. The relationships between the boys are complicated during the beginning of the chapter. In the first chapter the boys mostly want to be friends, but the relationship between Piggy and Jack is instant hatred which suggests that later on in the book Jack will probably turn on Piggy first. Jack is presented as a very violent person even when Ralph and Jack first meet ‘frustrated now and turning, or ready to turn, into anger’ (pg 20). When Jack fails at killing the pig, he slams his knife into a tree, and says that ‘next time there will be no mercy’ (pg 31). I think Golding chose to strand the boys on an island because there are no adults. There are no rules, no boundaries to what they were allowed to do, no guidance, no civilization, no society. Golding presents the island ‘roughly boat shaped’ (pg 31). I think he did this to represent the boys going into a state of savagery, and the boys civilization going backwards. I also think he said this to represent the boys decreased chances of being rescued. The boat that they should be rescued in is slowly floating farther and farther away. I believe that the first chapter of any book provides insight to what will happen in the rest of the book. The chapter one title ‘The Sound of the Shell’ foreshadows the fact that the conch is the only adult figure in the book, the fact that the sound of the conch gives everybody a sense of order and uniformity. Some of the themes that appear in chapter one, are often found in our everyday lives and it gives the reader an impression about what will happen in the rest of the book. After finishing chapter one, I am left with the sense of predicting what will happen to the boys, and if they will be rescued.

Executive Brief Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Executive Brief Assignment - Essay Example It is thus important to ensure an organization has the ability to provide the necessary training before implementing any new programs and processes to their employees. Issue The 1990s saw several forces shaping HRM’s broad field. New technologies- information technology in particular, led to communications’ decentralization and the shaking up of on hand paradigms of organizational theory and human interaction. Computers, fax machines, satellite communications, as well as networking systems were the earlier changes experienced by the business world in terms of technology. Today, systems have become more sophisticated, aimed at the efficiency and productivity of a particular organization. As the sophistication heightens, the challenges faced by these organizations when introducing these systems to employees are also on the rise. Introducing any form of technology in any organization faces many challenges, some of which include: Lacking executive support Project resources which are minimal Little employee buy-in Limited company budgets Discussion and Analysis The market environment is becoming more competitive and constantly changing the role played by the Human Resource Manager hence the recognition that Human Resource Management should play a role that is more strategic for any organization’s success. ... Within an environment such as this, the HR expert must grasp how to effectively manage through organizing, planning, controlling and leading the human resource as well as being knowledgeable of up-and-coming employee development and training trends. Discussion and Analysis One critical problem companies face is going for technology with stretched budgets. This could be a potential reason for backfiring implementations. Each organization has entirely different requirements hence cannot implement systems based on what other organizations may have done. Going fully fledged technology may not be advisable unless mandatory for an organization. Since any form of technology in an organization requires huge investment in monetary terms as well as time wise, resources spent will be justifiable only if optimally utilized. Technology depends entirely on the operation’s scope, nature of business, and like details. Infusion of required and partial functions for any system still remains a c hallenge and thus the company may seek the advice of a consultant during the planning stages. Paul Allen of Project Management Institute explains that â€Å"80 percent of new software applications and 67 percent of reengineering efforts are abandoned or fail to meet deadlines or the projected cost benefits†. To steer clear of these statistics, there is need to understand how any technology implementation affects various areas in an organization and how much planning is needed for success. A highly crucial aspect of HRM is evaluation and measuring of program results. In addition to evaluating the internal features of programs of HRM, companies must also assess the programs’ effectiveness by the impact on business success over ally. In other terms, companies need to link their HRM methods to

The Main Principles Of Learning And The Action Theory Essay

The Main Principles Of Learning And The Action Theory - Essay Example Principles of learning are derived from the following learning theories: action, cognitive-gestalt, experiential, facilitation, holistic, reinforcement, sensory stimulation learning theory. In this respect, we shall analyze them according to the theories they are most tightly interwoven with. The main principles of learning based on the action theory state that no effective learning can be presented without proper action-application experience. In most cases small 'action learning sets'** are created in order to give the learners an opportunity of applying their knowledge on practice, making mistakes and learn from them without having to deal with unwanted consequences of their decisions. Cognitive-gestalt learning is based on insights and problem-solving. However, unlike the first theory, it puts stress on the learner’s individual ways of interpreting problem situations. Experiential theory speaks of a four-stage process of learning material (concrete experience, active experimentation, abstract conceptualization, observation, and reflection). A great benefit of this theory is that despite all of the stages are being necessary, an individual can choose (consciously or subconsciously) the most suitable one to contribute more efforts to it. Besides, stages can be repeated one by one as many times as it takes to exclude all of the mistakes. Principles of learning used in a facilitation theory are based on the acknowledgment of the fact that a human being is naturally eager to learn and perfect oneself. Thus, here learning process includes polemics with a teacher in an attempt to find as many answers as possible and, what is more important, to research a topic instead of simply remembering the facts given. Such an approach is commonly used in humanitarian education.

Relationship With God And With Your Family Religion Essay

Relationship With God And With Your Family Religion Essay As we begin our worship pilgrimage together, perhaps it will be best to try to get at the core meaning of worship. The word worship itself is fascinating. It is a shortened English version of the old Anglo-Saxon word weorthscipe, which is transliterated Worth-ship. It simply means worthiness. Thus to worship someone means to recognize and to declare that persons worth (Basen 1999:17). Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord (Colossians 3:16:2193, LASB). There have been a great many definitions of worship, some of quite recent origin, yet, it is my main purpose to analyse the different forms of worship. To worship, finally implies to do or to work, so let us reflect on each worship experience and give ideas on how our churches should facilitate worship. ASSIGNMENT 1 1. Experience of a liturgical worship service. a. Briefly describe the service event by event. On Sunday 15 August 2010 I went to the Lutheran Church with one of my colleagues. He is the Reverend of that specific Lutheran Church. The service began with opening sentences from Psalm 124: If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, let Israel now say. The Reverend then followed by saying The Lord be with you. This was followed by a prayer of confession and then by a biblical word of comfort and an absolution. The absolution is confession that you are a sinner, humbling yourself before God. Thereafter followed the singing of the Ten Commandments, sometimes done in two segments with a prayer in between. Up to this point, the service had been led from the Communion table. Now, either during the singing of the second hymn, the Reverend took his place in the pulpit. First he would offer a prayer for illumination, read the lesson for the day and preached the sermon. Then the collection of Alms takes place. Following the sermon, the R everend offered a lengthy prayer of intercession, which concluded with the Lords Prayer. The Apostles Creed was said or sung at the conclusion of the prayer. Psalm 138 was sung and there followed a prayer of thanksgiving. The people were dismissed with the benediction. b. Discuss how it facilitated worship as revelation and response. Revelation and response for the Lutheran Church entails the following: Although the liturgical worship is structured very formal, the people are called to worship with sentences taken from Scripture. They use the Scripture of Isaiah 6:1-9, where Isaiah sees a vision of the Holy God, and confesses his sin and finds forgiveness when an angel burns his lips with a burning coal from the altar. The aim for the Lutheran Church is that the people may bow before the transcendent glory of God, that is, to praise Gods greatness and power. When you have experienced Contemporary worship, by comparison, the closeness of God receives much less emphasis. In this worship, they see it appropriate to feel Gods greatness more than His nearness. They observe God from a distance, not up close. In Liturgical worship the service moves from adoration to confession to absolution to commission. They do everything in a fitting and orderly way. H ymns of praise and adoration are used to highlight the greatness and glory of God, not the worshipers thoughts or feelings about God. They do the corporate confession of sin by reading Scripture passages, the call to worship and the benediction also do the same. In the Lutheran Church, the congregation performs the Lords Prayer or repeats the Apostels Creed as a confession of faith. 2. Experience of a traditional worship service. a. Briefly describe the service event by event. On Sunday 22 August 2010 I went to the Reformed Church with my Mother in Mokopane (Potgietersrus). First it is interesting to note that in the Reformed Church the organ plays the most important part before the service commences. The organ is the only instrument used to create worship and praise. Also very interesting is the pulpit in the middle front of the church with the elderly and the deacons sitting on each side of the pulpit. The deacons come in first, then the elderly together with the Reverend. Before he gets onto the pulpit, he first prays at the foot of the pulpit. The service begins with one of the elderly blessing the Reverend. The Reverend then follows by giving the Opening Prayer. This was followed by a song from their hymn books, consisting of Psalms and Songs. Then everybody says out loud the Apostles Creed and the Ten Commandments. Then the collection of Alms takes place. Before the Reverend starts his sermon, he gives a lesson on the Scripture that he is going to us e for the day. The Reformed Church uses the Old Testament more than the New Testament. Again he then prays before he commences with the sermon and then a prayer. After the sermon they sing a song again from the Psalms and Songs hymn book and then everybody stands to receive the blessing or grace from God. b. Discuss how it facilitated worship as revelation and response. Although less formal than the Liturgical style, traditional worship still follows a planned and structured order. Gratitude and preaching dominate traditional worship. The overall purpose is to lead the congregation to thank God for His goodness and to hear God speak through His Word. The Reformed Church demands that Psalms, not hymns, were to be sung and the organ were to be played in the service. Their preaching includes exegetical preaching for the week to insure that every worshiper was confronted every week with the promises and demands of God. In this way heartfelt worship can occur. 3. Experience of a contemporary worship service. a. Briefly describe the service event by event. On Sunday 29 August 2010 I attended my own Church (Living Word Church) in Brummeria. Our Church starts with the Pastor welcoming everybody in the building. Then the praise and worship starts with a band and a lead worshipper. Our music is gospel and contemporary Christian songs that stirs the emotions and prepares the heart for the sermon. We sing first the praise songs and then the worship songs. Usually the praise songs speaks about revival and renewal, stressing the need for God to visit His people in power, such as Lord, Send a Revival or Nothing but the Blood of Jesus. There is singing, clapping, and shouting praises to God. Then we go over to the worship songs that prepare us for a connection with Jesus and the Holy Spirit. During the worship people might lie on their faces or bow down seeking the face of God. Others will dance before God seeking to have a personal relationship with God, getting into the Holy of Holiest. We all kn ow that praise and worship is very important, but the sermon is actually the main event for the day. The congregation then hears an evangelistic message calling everyone present to get saved or sin and redemption. After the sermon the Pastor will pray and then start with the call for unbelievers in the worship service to make a personal decision to follow Jesus Christ. The invitation is sometimes lengthy in order to allow unbelievers to recognize their need of Jesus Christ. b. Discuss how it facilitated worship as revelation and response. Our Church uses informal methods that speak about exuberance, zeal and sometimes aggressive preaching, but it is still generally planned and structured. This style of worship seeks to turn lost sinners towards a merciful God. The informal mood of the service directly impacts the emotions, so that we will feel Gods presence during worship. Our worship also motivates us as believers to live godly lives in an ungodly world and to share our witness with unbelievers. Worship in our Church incorporates both revelation and response. As God reveals His power, we respond in wonder. As God reveals His grace, we respond in humility and prayer. 4. Personal reflection on the three experiences. a. Discuss how Parretts teachings and the three experiences have impacted your own understanding of worship. Let us first look at the style of worship: Parrett (Parrett 2008:22) says the following: There is no such thing as the correct style, whether traditional, contemporary, mystical, or liturgical. All our styles of worship must be submitted to the test of substance is God plainly revealed through the elements of worship, and are the worshippers assisted in response to Him? Our worship must be God-focused and Christ-centred! It must include elements of revelation and response that are Biblically informed and Biblically faithful (Parrett 2008:23). The liturgical worship service for me has got many strong points. The formal structure takes the congregation to God because He is worthy to be praised in majesty and honour. Magnifying Gods transcendence brings to mind in the worshiper a sense of amazement. Their Scripture reading enfolds the liturgical service more than it does any other worship style. The only thing that bothers me is the fact that the God who is worshipped in the liturgical service seems unapproachable. Although I grew up in The Reformed Church, the traditional worship service for me is somewhat predictable and boring, but it will always hold a special place in my heart. Why do I say that it is predictable and boring? The service is formal and for that reason you sometimes struggle to warm your heart for whats to come. But yes, they worship God who is Great and Good, Holy and Helpful. The problem with traditional worship service is the fact that the young believers think this style is boring. Contemporary worship service makes it almost impossible to sit still. The music excites you and you just want to worship God. Everything is excellent, the only problem that I experience is that Christians begin to think that the only way to please God is to be saved and baptized, even if they have already done so before. So often people also feel guilty of not serving God every minute of the day. It impacted my understanding of worship in the following way: Diverse cultural backgrounds and personality types make it highly unlikely that one worship style will fit all people. What seems genuine and meaningful to some strikes others as false and blasphemous. Worship styles isnt really the primary issue, it is absolute essential that the Church keep God as the subject of worship since to be Christian means to believe that God revealed in Jesus Christ is everything to us, Creator, Provider and Sustainer. We must always remember that God has called us to be His people and that our ability to respond to that call in worship is totally the gift of Gods grace. I think the only aim is to please God, whether by adoration and praise, prayer and proclamation, confessions and offerings, thanksgivings and commitment, or all these actions combined. b. Indicate how you believe your church could broaden its understanding and practice of worship. Dawn (1995:124) gives the following on what people want and need: My point is that people want worship to be more meaningful, but they often need careful instruction to make it so. Children, teenagers, young adults, senior citizens all will gladly receive more depth, especially because so much is our world is superficial and trival or else deep in a way that is painful and tragic. Here are a few ideas on how the Church should broaden its understanding and practice of worship: First of all, there can be no worship if we dont deal with our inner self. All Christians are supposed to be faithful, however, some do have a continuous struggle with doubt. The Churches must remember, good worship heals a sinful, selfish congregation and enables it to assume the burden of discipleship. Worship fosters the attitudes and convictions that enable people to worship. The churchs calling is to bring people to an awareness of the true nature of the things that steals our spiritual energy and to provide them with appropriate nourishment (food for the soul). Worship leaders facilitate worship by guiding people in the use of their senses and thoughts, they must also clear away the obstacles and distractions that hinder focused prayer and meditation. We should remember that services of worship are constructed by human beings, and like all things, they deteriorate and need renewal from time to time. Before Christians set about renewing their Churches and reforming their worship , they need to over think the implications of the fact that they have no power to save themselves, only God has that power. A congregation that fails to insist on the very highest standards in its worship is demonstrating not charity, but blasphemy. No Christian community should ever even think of offering God anything but the best of which it is capable (Frankforter 2001:146). CONCLUSION I have reflected on three worship services, discussed how it facilitated worship as revelation and response and tried to broaden my understanding and practice of worship. We should always remember, the success of worship is not measured by its entertainment values, nor is its success the sole responsibility of the leaders. We the Church should never sit passively waiting for worship to happen, we must practice the discipline of prayer and meditation. There should always be the willingness to make personal sacrifices to serve God.

Glass Menagerie and Streetcar Named Desire - Comparing Amanda Wingfield and Blanche Dubois :: comparison compare contrast essays

A Comparison of Amanda Wingfield And Blanche Dubois In today's rough and tough world, there seems to be no room for failure. The pressure to succeed in life sometimes seems unreasonable. Others often set expectations for people too high. This forces that person to develop ways to take the stress and tension out of their lives in their own individual ways. In the plays "The Glass Menagerie" and " A Streetcar Named Desire" written by Tennessee Williams, none of the characters are capable of living in the present and facing reality. Two of the characters are Amanda Wingfield and Blache Dubios. In order for these characters to deal with the problems and hardships in their lives they retreat into their own separate worlds of illusion and lies. Amanda Wingfield is mother of Tom and Laura. She is a middle-aged southern belle whose husband has abandoned her. She spends her time reminiscing about the past and nagging her children. Amanda is completely dependent on her son Tom for finical security and holds him fully responsible for her daughter Laura's future. Amanda is obsessed with her past as she constantly reminds Tom and Laura of that " one Sunday afternoon in Blue Mountain when she once received seventeen gentlemen callers" (pg.32). The reader cannot even be sure that this actually happened. However, it is clear that despite its possible falsity, Amanda has come to believe it. Amanda also refuses to acknowledge that her daughter Laura is crippled and refers to her handicap as " a little defect-hardly noticeable" (pg.45). Only for brief moments does she ever admit that her daughter is crippled and then she resorts back into to her world of denial and delusion. Amanda puts the weight of Laura's success in life on her son T om's shoulders. When Tom finally finds a man to come over to the house for diner and meet Laura, Amanda blows the situation way out of proportion. She believes that this gentlemen caller, Jim, is going to be the man to rescue Laura. When in fact neither herself nor Laura has even met this man Jim yet. She tries to explain to Laura how to entertain a gentleman caller; she says-talking about her past " They knew how to entertain their gentlemen callers. It wasn't enough for a girl to be possessed of a pretty face and a graceful figure although I wasn't slighted in either respect.

City and Urbanization

Urbanization is a socio-economic process by which an increasing proportion of the population of an area becomes concentrated into the towns and cities. The term is also defined as the level of population concentration in urban areas. The proc ess of urbanization increases both the number and size of towns and cities. Urbanization is the most significant phenomenon of the 20th century which has almost affected all aspects of the national life in India. Being the second most populous country in the world after China India's fast growing urbaniza tion has a regional as well as world- ide impact.India's urban population constitutes a sizeable pro portion of the world's urban population. This can be well corroborated from the fact that every 12th city dweller of the world and every 7th of the developing countries is the Indian. India has as many small towns (population 20,000-49,999) as in the United States as many as medium towns (population 50,000 – 99,999) as in the former Sovie t Union; as many cities (population 100,000-499,999) as in the United States; and as many metropolises (population+500,OOO) as in Australia, France and Brazil combined.India has a long radition of urbanization which has continued since the days of the Indus Valley civilization. According to an estimate the percentage share of urban population to total popu lation was higher in the last part of the 17th century in comparison to the last part of the 19th century. The development of cottage industries and tertiary ac tivities during the medieval period helped in the evolution of about 3,200 towns and 120 cities in the country around 1586 A. D. (Raza, M, 1985, p. 60).The damage to this indigenous industrial structure during the colonialism gave a serious blow to the process of urbanization. The roots of the existing process of urbanization lie in Western model of factory industries which started developing in the country during the early part of the 20th century. Urbanization, in India, can be studied through Census data provided at a regular interval of 10 years since 1881 onwards. These data help us in analyzing the trends of growth in the urban popula tion, decennial increase, and urbanization and number towns during the 20th century.At the time of the reliable Census taken in 1881 the urban population contributed 9. 3 per cent of the total population of the country. The growth-trend was sluggish and even negative in some decades (1911-21) due to outbreak of epidemic (plague) and natural calamities, trend of slow growth in urbanization continued unto 1931. The decade 1931-41 observed about 32 cent growth in the urban population which increase' its share in total population to 14. 1 percent. The growth trend was further accelerated during the following decade which witnessed a decennial growth of 41. 2 per cent (Table 28. II) Raising the percentage share to 14. 1 . Here rehabilitation of refugees from Pakistan into cities played a significant role. During 1951-6 1 the growth trend as slowed down (26. 4 per cent) which contributed marginal increase (percent) in the urbanization ratio. It was due to change in the definition of urban places and declassification of 803 towns in 1961 Census. Since 1961 onward there has been steep rise in the urban population and urbanization ratio so as to reach its highest point during 1971-81 (decadal growth being 46. 2 percent and addition of record number of 900 new towns). This was the peak point in the urban growth of the country during the 20th century. The trend ot growth nas been slightly slowed down during 1981-91 (39. 32 per cent) and 1991-2001 (31. 8 per cent) which is a matter of serious study by urban geographers and urban sociologists. Causes may be many folds including increasing pollution, decreasing opportunities of employment and liveli hood in urban areas and development of new sources of livelihood in rural areas to reduce the flow of rural migrants.Above description leads us to conclude tha t during the last 90 years of the 20th century the number of towns has increased by 144. 6 per cent? urban population by 140,23 per cent, and urbaniza tion ratio by 133,6 per cent. Industrialization con comitant with economic development and rural o urban migration has made significant contribution towards this phenomenal growth. But compared with developed countries this rate of urbanisation is still slower. Wulker has rightly observed that while in Western countries urbanization is expanding towards rural areas but in India rural life is influencing the urban areas.