The truth cookie by Fiona Dunbar Essays - Operas, Free Essays

The truth cookie by Fiona Dunbar Essays - Operas, Free Essays The truth cookie by Fiona Dunbar Imagine a magical, unusual recipe to make all your dreams come true! First imagine at the age of 5 you lost your mum and your dad decides to marry an evil girlfriend who has an evil son and becomes your stepmother? Well the first thing that comes to your mind is Cinderella. But this book will absolutely surprise you! This book isnt like Cinderella; its more unusual and magical! Losing her mum at the age of 5 Lulu Baker is now 12 years old. She lived 7 years without her mum but with her dad and housekeeper, Aileen and her wodge of stuff (a tin where she keeps all her pictures and cards from her mum) Lulu is happy until her dad decides to hook up with an ex-model, author of How To Be As Thin As Me!, Varaminta Le Bone, who is 2-faced and is more like a hard boiled and twisted cough candy and she has a son, Torquil who is more a fish mouth and hot cinnamon flavoured jellybean, once eaten it will burn the roof top of your mouth. Lulus dad and Varaminta decided to marry in a few weeks. Lulu doesnt want this and she wants to show her dad that Varaminta is using him but how can she show him who Varaminta really is? For Lulu, seriously there is no way for that. Lulu has experienced varamintas 2-faced actions when shes around Lulu and when shes around Lulus dad. Lulu finds it hard to live with Varaminta and Torquil in the house alone after her dad is on a long trip and when Aileen suddenly disappears. Until the day, after Lulu runs away from the beauty salon Varaminta forced her to go, as a birthday gift, Lulu steps inside a strange looking book store and meets Mister O. Lulu accidentally knocks over a tower of books. Frustrated, she begins to stack them up again until a golden coloured book caught Lulus eyes, in faded handwriting it says For my lovely Lulu Happy birthday! Lots of love, Mum Then Mister O says It found you! Confused Lulu goes back home and secretly reads the book called the The Apple Star by Ambrosia May, a book filled with unusual recipes, with very strange ingredients, used to solve problems. This book deals in with fixing bodily problems, problems of the character and matters of the heart, but the recipes can only be used once, and in the wrong hands it may be harmful. In this book Lulu finds a recipe she was waiting for The Truth Cookie but Lulu struggles on the ingredients for the recipe but as she searches for the ingredients, Lulu meets Cassandra, a very mysterious woman who just might have the answers for her problem Lulu only has one chance, will Lulu get the cookies perfectly done before her dad and Varaminta marry? And will she get Varaminta and Torquil reveal their true inner selves to her dad? With a little bit of help from her friends might just do the trick I highly recommend this book to people, especially girls, who are interested in magic and cooking and fairy-tales. I like to give it a 5-star rate! Once you start reading you cant stop!!

Argumentative Speech on Human Cloning

Argumentative Speech on Human Cloning Argumentative Speech on Human Cloning Human Cloning speech: Human cloning involves the creation of a generically identical copy of a human. It does not usually refer to the reproduction of human tissues or cells or to the monozygotic multiple births. The ethics of cloning is usually a controversial issue. The term cloning is normally used to refer to artificial human cloning (Almeder 1). Human cloning practices normally raise concerns that are related to ethics. There are those individuals who argue that the practices are not whereas there are also those who are for the practices (Pinon 507). Ethical views against Human Cloning There are those individuals who argue that human cloning destroys the unity of parenthood and marriage. Issues like divorce, contraception, vitro fertilization, and extramarital sex ends up affecting the unity of families. Human cloning can create another problem to the unity that normally exists in Christian marriages. This is because the clone with be denied the chance to feel the love of parents (Sherlock and John 573). There are also those people who argue that cloning human beings will turn them into commodities (Sherlock and John 573). This is because the cloning subjects are referred to as things. A cloning child is a technological project. The child is normally subject to quality control. Treating a person as a thing has become common in our societies. This practice is destructive and immoral. Cloning a child will lead the child being treated as someone’s asset or commodity and not a human being. This is because the child will be perceived as made and not born hence the child might not be treated with respect (Pinon 507). The cloning of human beings is also dangerous. There has only been one success in sheep cloning. This was after failing for 276 times. Cloned human embryos have been killed in research laboratories (Pinon 507). Consequently, genetic screenings are normally undertaken together with cloned tissues from human. Any embryo that does not pass is normally killed. Due to this, many people argues that cloning has negative aspects to human beings (Sherlock and John 576). Another ethical issue with regards to human cloning is that, it is an assault to human procreation (Pinon 506). Assisted reproductive technologies are affronts to human dignity. This is because cloning leaves does not prove human procreation. It is a completely artificial reproductive technology (Pinon 506). Cloning is also a violation of the conjugal union dignity (Sherlock and John 576). In normal circumstances, a child is a sure proof of love the parents bestows on it. The influence and the indication of God’s love is destroyed when a child’s life is created in the laboratory (Pinon 506). Those who are involved in cloning human beings may also be played God. This is because it is only God, and only Him who is our maker (Sherlock and John 576). Those who are engaged in researches to find ways so as to clown human beings will be practicing God’s work. Religious leaders do not agree with cloning as they believe that a human being can only be made by God and not fellow human beings (Sherlock and John 576). Arguments for Human Cloning There are also those individuals who argue that human cloning is not unethical or a bad practice. They argue that cloning can be used to counter infertility and/or genetic diseases. They argue that human cloning can be a solution for those individuals who have infertility problems because they can be able to get children through the process. Those who are infertile can be able to get preferable donors eggs. They also argue that the process is a little different from the birth of identical twins. Cloning has also been argued that it meets deep human desire to reproduce. Those who advocate for cloning of human being also argue that what matters is how the child is treated after birth (Pinon 510). If you need a 100% original argumentative speech essay written by professional writers contact and buy a speech online on any topic you need!

Tesla Motors Annual Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Tesla Motors Annual Analysis - Essay Example Extraordinary events are able to affect the financial standing of any given company because they are unforeseen and unplanned expenses. Natural disasters or things outside the company’s control can cost the company without it being able to plan or cater for the expenses. In the 2013 annual report, Tesla Motors did not report any extraordinary events that affected their financial standing. However, in the notes to financial statements, the company indicated that it has subsequent events, law suits as a result of environmental liabilities and assertion of intellectual property infringement claims by third parties against them in the form of letters. This may have adverse material effects and impacts on their brand, operations, cash flows, prospects and financial standing or position.The two years presented indicates a continued growth and expansion for Tesla Motors over the period. These expansions are both globally as well as nationally as shown by the trends in the companyâ₠¬â„¢s assets and liabilities. Despite the economic hardships experienced in the past ten years, the company increase has been steady. Due to the company’s global expansion and acquisition of new-retail locations, there has been a steady increase in its assets. As the assets increases, liabilities also increase, however, the company’s assets are larger that its liabilities are hence making it to be in good financial standing. The company is therefore capable of meeting their bills and to continue in this trend.

Reading reflection juvies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Reading reflection juvies - Essay Example One such advantage is that a jury takes the responsibility of administering justice to the minor. This is advantageous to the juveniles because the process will promote transparency during the trial. Members of a jury can be sympathetic to juveniles, leading to acquittals, or lighter punishments. However, the disadvantages outweigh the advantages of transferring the juveniles to an adult court system. In an adult court, chances are high that juveniles will get a harsher punishment, in comparison to the punishment they would get in a juvenile court. This is because an adult court treats them as adults; therefore, they qualify to receive the same punishments an adult will receive in the given trial. These children will suffer from stigma which emanates from a trial and a conviction under an adult court. The effect is that their self-esteem becomes low, leading to lack of confidence and self-worthiness. Marcovitz (2012) denotes that trial under an adult court exposes the crimes of these children, and this further leads to erosion of their confidence. Basing on these arguments, it is not good or ethical for a minor to be subjected to an adult court process. This will make them to be socially vulnerable, and impossible to reform them. They will suffer stigma, and their self-esteem will be undermined. At the adult prisons, these children will be vulnerable to manipulations by adult offenders. They will learn new ways of crime, coming out of the system as criminals, instead of rehabilitated offenders. However, some people would disagree with my opinion. Marcovitz (2012) denotes that a juvenile who commits a serious offense such as murder and homicide, should be treated as an adult. This will have an effect of deterring minor offenders from committing such kind of crimes. However, this argument is baseless because these offenders are always ignorant on issues that deal with law. Marcovitz (2012) denotes that children as young as 13 years who commit serious crimes shoul d be transferred to an adult court. However, in my own opinion, this age bracket is too low, because their minds are not yet fully developed to understand the justice system. This is also their age of adolescence; thus, they are vulnerable to act in ways that the society does not accept. On this note, should a waiver occur, the best age is 16 years. This is because at this age, the child is above the juvenile rehabilitation system and he can sustain the pressures that are characterized by a trial at an adult court. Marcovitz (2012) denotes that crimes commited by juveniles that ought to be taken to an adult court are murder, homicide cases, rape, carjacking, robbery with violence and criminal gang intimidations. Marcovitz (2012) denotes that during this process, there are two people who can determine whether a minor should be transferred to an adult court for trial. These are the prosecutor and the juvenile judge. A prosecutor can apply for waiver from the courts, but the judge afte r looking at the evidence presented, and the background of the child, he can decide to transfer the case to an adult court, or retain it at the juvenile court. These transfers should not be automatic upon application by the prosecutor, because prosecutors can miss out on important factors that made the child to commit such kind of a crime because of his interest in the case. On this note, an independent person is required to make the decision, and this person is the

Gender-role socilization Essay Example for Free

Gender-role socilization Essay Gender socialization is the way society shapes our sexual attitudes and behavior through various mechanisms, it defines the roles that we as males or females in society are expected to play. According to Ann Oakley, who first introduced the terms, sex refers to the biological divisions into being male or female while gender reflects the parallel and socially unequal division into being feminine or masculine (Sex, Gender and Society 1972). Sex is therefore can be seen as the biological constructed aspect of differences between men and women. As oppose to sex, gender can be seen as the socially constructed knowledge, values and practices linked to sex based differences mostly by the process of socialization. The term gender has been extended since than and not only reflects the individual identity and personality but also, at the symbolic level, to cultural ideals and stereotypes of masculinity and femininity. Gender roles are the societal expectations attached to being male and female. Through gender role socialization, a person is introduced and taught the behaviors expected to be played by them. The home often called gender factory by some sociologists, reproduces societys traditional gender roles through parental reinforcement (Appelbaum and Chambliss, 223). From birth to death, males and females are constructed to act according to societys mold of gender identity. Parents describe their newborns with adjectives pertaining to traditional gender roles. Newborn girls are described as tiny, soft, delicate, and fine-featured, while newborn boys are described as strong, alert, and well coordinate (223). Even during breast-feeding gender divides, males are treated rougher and given more milk while females are treated delicately and given less. This can best be illustrated by an experiment to show how gender stereotyping enters almost every part of an infant since the day he or she was born. The experiment better known as the Sussex experiment tried to unveil how people perceive the way an infant either a male a female should act. Infants dressed in blue were quickly thought to be male while infants dressed in pink were treated as female. Therefore gender stereotypes can be defined as one-sided and exaggerated images of men and women which are deployed in  every day life. Similarly, in the old days and even in some societies today, womens place was regarded to be in the home while men are expected to be the bread winner for the family. But there is no permanent and definite framework on how men and women should behave. Such definitions vary from one society to another. For example the study conducted by Margaret Mead in Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies (1935). In some of the tribes in which she had visited women were place in a higher status than men. They were regarded as the bread winner, hold important positions in the tribe and even made important decisions. Contradict to this, men were placed in lower positions and even played the role as housewives. The roles and behaviors expected to be played by both sexes also change over-time. For example, the roles played by women in ancient Greek and Roman were limited. Women were portrayed as submissive and inferior. They did not hold any important positions in society. Most of them only played the roles of mother and housewife. Women nowadays are more aggressive and in some areas are more dominant than men. Women during the Victorian era, were expected to be grace and beauty was signified by having small waist. They were forced to wear corset to get the shape considered to be beautiful. Sexuality is defined as the sexual feelings and drives as well as the sexual practices common to a society. There is some debate on whether sexuality is innate or learned. To answer this question sociologists have come out with four main approaches: psychobiological, psychoanalytic, learning and sociological. Sociobiology is the study of human behaviors on the basis that they are not learned instead determined by the biological aspects. In other words, human behaviors are innate. They believed that certain sexual behavior emerge through the process of evolution. These behaviors emerged and are maintained simply because they have been chosen through evolutionary means as the most  advantageous features to maintain the survival of human being. Therefore sexual behaviors, whether they show feminity or masculinity are genetically programmed. Sociobiologys version of sexuality has been criticized for ignoring other factors that may contribute to the development sexual behavior such as surroundings, societys expectation, norms and culture. In psychoanalytic approach, human sexual behaviors are both determined biologically and culturally. Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalytic approach asserted that human sexual behavior is determined by three factors, the id, the ego and the superego. The id exist after an infant is born shapes the characteristic of the baby before he or she came into interaction with the outside world. The ego is the next stage of human development. In this stage a person will come into contact with external forces and this will influence the direction, whether he or she will adopt a feminine or masculine behavior. As the superego develops, the person will learn the norm and values of society. He/she will discover what the society expected from him/her. By learning the expected ways of society, the moral conscience of the person will develop. He/she will be able to distinguish what the society perceived as right and wrong. Freud held that sexual experiences will influence adult sexual behavior and personality. A girl, raised among boys will develop a masculine-like behavior. Though it may change overtime, the sexual experiences faced by the girl will have a deep impact on his adult behavior and personality. Freud has been criticized for his over-emphasis view on biological factor as the determinant of ones sexual behavior. Though he did say that sexual behavior may be cause by the process of socialization, Freud personally agreed that the biological factors play a greater role in determining ones behavior than culture. He has also been criticized for only conducting most part of his experiment  using mentally disturbed patients. His views stem from therapies with these patients. He has also being criticized for being bias in his work. He made an implicit assumption that women are biologically inferior. The learning approaches have a different view on how sexuality is developed. According to the advocates of these approaches much of sexuality is innate that is based on the cultural aspects rather than biologically. These approaches went further by identifying the process of self-identification and imitation. These approaches portrayed individuals as a reactor to society, neglecting the fact that he or she may also be an actor who constantly makes decisions to change society. These approaches have been criticized for treating individuals like puppet on the string. Individuals have no choice to make decisions, everything has been set up for them by the society. Their actions must be in line with the social expectation or they will be punished. In contrast with the earlier approaches, the Symbolic Interactionism based their theory on the assumption that individuals as social actors make have their own opportunity to make decision. They have the choice on which path they want to take. According to symbolic interactionism, sexual behavior is the result of individuals constantly engaging in interaction and communication with others. We attach sexual meaning to behavior and ourselves by observing others and their reactions on certain stimuli and labels to our behavior. By interacting with each other, we learn to play specific roles and as the result of constantly involving in these roles we learn a series of scripts. These scripts help us to define sexual behavior. For example, the specific script for a woman and a doctor at a gynecological exam. The script or the roles played by the two social actors do not give any sexual meaning or sexual assault in situation in which the doctor has to check the woman breast and genitalia. Symbolic interactionism has been criticized for not being able to explain adequately spontaneous sexual behavior and sexual behavior that occurs in ambiguous situations. It has also failed to explain the situation in which two or more individuals with different sets of scripts engage and interact with each other. Differences in sexual scripts is often given as the reason for date rape where on person defines it as sexual and the other does not. Functionalism believed that the disruption is sexuality, on how male and female should behave will lead to society to fall apart and social stability unachieved. Therefore, through the norms, values, laws and beliefs sexual behavior is regulated. Functionalists study the effect of regulations on sexuality and its contribution in the maintenance of society. Functionalism has also been criticized for putting to much emphasis on the culturally aspects that determine social behavior and ignoring the fact that some sexual drives may be innate. Ann Oakley outlines how socialization in modern societies shapes the behavior of boys and girls from an early age. Basing her work on the findings of Ruth Hartley, Oakley discusses four main ways in which socialization influences gender roles. The first way is by the process of manipulation in which parents play a huge role. For example, boys are dressed in masculine clothes. The next stage is the canalization where children are given toys to build up their gender identity. Boys are given pistol and toy trucks while girls are given teddy bears, dolls and soft toys. The third is the use of verbal appellation where such sentences like you are a naughty boy will build up boys sexual identity. The fourth stage is where boys and girls are given a set of different activities. This will encourage children to perform the sexual expectation of society and enable them to identify in which gender they belong. Ann Oakley has been criticized for her emphasis on socialization in shaping  gender roles. What about boys who have a high level of estrogen. Are they likely to behave like girls or will they due to the effect of early socialization behave like normal boys? Similarly, girls who have a high level of androgen, will they behave like boys? Or can the early process of socialization shape them to become like any other ordinary females? Ethnomethodology regard the process of developing gender roles as socially constructed. Suzanne J. Kessler and Wendy Mckenna stated that individuals categorized the world around them according to their own perspective. Therefore the decision whether to regard a person as male or female is socially produced. The process of gender- role socialization begins at the early age of childhood and continues throughout life. Society still typifies males and females according to gender-role trait expectations. There are however evidences that gender attitudes are changing beginning in the 1970s towards a more egalitarian, liberal attitudes. No matter what theories have been introduced in explaining sexual behavior whether it is innate or learned, I believed that both factors contribute in the development of gender-role identity. I based this statement on the fact that biological aspects play an important role in shaping an infant in his/her early age at least until he/she reaches the age of three. After that it is up to the family and society to shape his/her sexual behavior and define appropriate gender-roles for him/her. Gender role socialization is a life-long process. Therefore, I believe that cultural aspects play a greater role in shaping one sexual behavior than the biological aspects because they influence individuals from young until old.

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MacBeth’s Transformation from "Brave Macbeth to "This dead Butcher" William Shakespeare's play "MacBeth" tells the story of Macbeth change from a brave general, to a vicious murderer. At the start of the play Macbeth is acknowledge by the king as a brave and honourable general, after he heard of Macbeth's great victory in the battlefield. He promotes Macbeth to Thane of Cawdor, which was still unknown by both Macbeth and Banquo when they came across the three weird sisters. "All Hail Macbeth, hail to thee Thane of Cawdor" (I:III:51) "All Hail Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter" (I:III:53) Macbeth was sceptical about these prophecies, however developed faith in them when Ross, following the king's orders titles him Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth does not let on to anyone about his ever-increasing desire to become king. "If chance will have me king, why chance will crown me." (I:III:154) Macbeth tells his lady about the prophecies and she is instantly enthusiastic about the prospect of Macbeth becoming king. "Great Glamis, Worthy Cawdor! Greater than both by the all-hail hereafter! Thy letters have transported me beyond this ignorant present and I feel now the future is an instant." (I:V:58) Macbeth's desire turns to an obsession and with...

How Organizations Can Learn from Failure Essay

Even though there is a no precise definition for failure in organizations, there is a general agreement to what failure means and could lead to. Failure is broadly defined as a condition of not meeting the intended objective or end. Failure could result in the depletion of finance, shrinking market, exit from the market, loss of market share, project failure and loss of legitimacy. We can assume that failure has negative consequences even though the final outcome may be positive, with firms learning from failure. Understanding the need for learning from failure is unquestionable; however it is tough for organizations to put this into practice. It is crucial that organizations understand failure and think about it in the right way before they can go about implementing procedures to prevent such failures from happening in the future. Learning from failure involves understanding that failure is not always bad and that learning from failure is no straightforward task. An organization cannot simply reflect on what they did wrong and expect to not make the same mistakes again. Organizations have to understand about the different degrees of failure which occur on a scale ranging from blameworthy to praiseworthy. They fall into three broad categories which are 1, failures which occur in predictable operations which could be prevented. 2, unavoidable failures which occur in complex organizations which can be managed to prevent snowballing. 3, unwanted outcomes†¦. To learn from failure, we require different strategies for each setting. It is key to detect them early, analyze failures with depth, develop hypothesis, experiments and projects to product them. In order to minimize failure employees first have to feel safe to report these failures. In the article titled strategies for learning from failure the author Amy C. Edmondson talks about http://hbr. org/2011/04/strategies-for-learning-from-failure/ar/1 First the organization has to go about understanding failure in the right way as well as all the possible side†¦ Important for managers to think about failure in the right way. Failure is not always bad. It is sometimes bad and sometimes inevitable and sometimes good. Learning from failure is not a straightforward task. The attitudes and activities required to effectively detect and analyze failures are in short supply in most companies and the need for context-specific learning strategies is underappreciated.? Organizations need new and better ways to go beyond lessons which are superficial( procedures which weren’t followed) or self serving ( The market just wasn’t ready for our great new product) That means jettisoning old cultural beliefs and stereotypical notions. The blame game? A spectrum of reasons for failure? http://www. uk. sagepub. com/upm-data/10989_Chapter_9. pdf Failing to learn from failure reasons? -Simply experiencing a negative event is not sufficient for learning. – Learning can be a complicated process, the acquisition of knowledge and the shifts in behavior must occur at all levels of a highly complex system. â€Å"Bazerman and Watkins (2004) contend that, when organizations fail to learn failures, they become susceptible to predictable surprises. What is the difference between predictable and unpredictable surprises? Predictable surprises occur when an organization leadership ignores or fails to understand clear evidence that a potentially devastating problem to occur. There are different sort of failures and not all failures are created equally. Bazerman and Watkins( 2004) identify four ways in which organizations fail to learn from failures that occur around them: Scanning Failures: failure to pay close attention to potential problems both inside and outside the organization; this failure could be due to arrogance, a lack of resources, or simple inattentions? Intergration failures: failure to understand how pieces of potentially complicated information fit together to provide lessons of how to avoid crises. 3. Incentive Failures: failure to provide sufficient rewards to people who report problems and take actions to avoid possible crises 4. Learning Failures: failure to draw important lessons from crises and preserve their memory in the organization Organizations who face these failures potentially could damage their organizational integrity. Eg Mitroff and Anagnos 2001, Managing Crises before they happen: what every manager needs to know about crisis management. 1982, Johnson and Johnson could respond to an external crisis with their product being linked to cyanide poisoning and thus the company responded quickly by pulling their stock of capsules from the shelves and having great PR work. J and J knew how to handle their PR well and their product managed to get back to the top seller. J and J however became a victim of its previous succ ess and had not done well with ‘Predictable surprises’ where crises occurred within the company. J and J had failed to do proper product scanning and had been a different sort of failure. failure of a different type? Failure of Success. Problem 1 and 4. Learning from failure: Sitkin 1996- Mittelstaedt (2005) – Failure is an essential part of learning for many organizations. Failures, should not be hidden or avoided. Making mistakes is essential to success, a company which appears to be free from disruption may be operating unrealistically and from a uniformed perspective. â€Å"learning to identify mistakes analytically and timely is the difference between failure and success. † Too often employees and managers are unwilling to admit small failures for fear of reprisal. The unwillingness to recognize and embrace failure is also a failure to recognize and respond to potential crises. The longer these small crises build up the higher likelihood it could escalate into a major crisis. In successful organizations, failure creates recognition of risk and a motivation for change that would not exist otherwise. Describes this recognition as a â€Å"learning readiness† without failure, very difficult to produce in most organizations. Sitkin cautions that not all failures are equally effective in fostering good risk management. Organizations learn best from intelligent failures, which have these characteristics, result from planned actions, uncertain outcomes, modest in scale, and take place in domains that are familiar enough to permit effective learning. Organizations need to recognize risks by accepting and acting on failures. Learn the best when failure results from competent actions, not major crises. Still within the comfort zone and employees are eager and experienced enough to respond. These opportunities arise: Vicarious Learning – learning that occurs as a function of observing, retaining and replicating behavior observed in others. Organizations need not fail as an entity in order to learn. Successful organizations engage in vicarious learning in order to recognize risk, organizational leaders observe the failures or crises experienced by similar organizations and take action to avoid making the same mistakes. Examples of Vicarious Learning- Give!!! Organizational memory: Without learning from their own and other’s mistakes organizations stagnate and fail to respond to potential threats in an ever-changing world. Learning has no use if the knowledge is not retained. An example of failure in organizational memory is the Union carbide plant in Bhopal, India in 1984. Early in December morning, the plant leaked a deadly cloud of gas that settled over part of the sleeping city of a million residents. Within two hours 2000 of them were dead with thousands left injured? Part of the reason for the disaster was a loss in organizational memory. The plant had been slated for closure and many experienced staff had been transferred out, leaving minimal crew with little work experience, with the training for remaining crew at a minimum. The crisis was traced to staff reductions and oversight failures. Much of the blame for the tragedy rests with a rapid reduction in experienced staff that took with them a large share of organizational memory. Organizational memory comprises of, a) Acquiring knowledge, done by recognizing failures within the organization and by observing failures of similar organizations. b) Distributing knowledge is the key to organizational memory. Highly experienced employees will leave the organization and these people should be given an opportunity to share their knowledge around or those departing personnel will go along with their experience. ) Acting upon knowledge, is important for organizational memory to serve an organization. New employees need to learn from those departing ones.! New employees cannot do things their own way or else it will lead to repeat failures†¦.!!!! Employees have many opportunities to discard the hard-earned knowledge. Because organizational memory depends on exchanging information from one person to another perception change , mistreatment and stubbornness to learn can disrupt preserving organizational memory. Organizations need to learn and build from previous experiences. Unlearning: Effective organizational learning depends on an organizations ability to unlearn practices and policies that have become outdated by environmental changes. Example of Unlearning 1. Expanding Options: When organizations are unwilling to forego routine procedures during crisis or potential crisis situations, they lose the capacity to react to unique circumstances. Unlearning enables the organization to expand its options. 2. Contracting Options: In some cases, organizations may respond to a crisis with a strategy that has worked well in the past. In the current situation, however, the strategy from the past may actually make matters worse. In such cases, organizations must be willing to reject some strategies in favor of others. 3. Grafting: In the previous section, we discussed the need for organizations to hand down existing knowledge to new employees. If the socialization of new employees is so intense that they cannot bring new knowledge to the organization, however, the organization is doing itself a disservice. Although organizational memory is essential, some degree of unlearning Opportunity 1: Organizations should treat failure as an opportunity to recognize a potential crisis or to prevent a similar crisis in the future. Opportunity 2: Organizations can avoid crises by learning from the failures and crises of other organizations. Opportunity 3: Organizational training and planning should emphasize the preservation of previous learning in order to make organizational memory a priority. Opportunity 4: Organizations must be willing to unlearn outdated or ineffective procedures if they are to learn better crisis management strategies Bazerman, M. H. & Watkins, M. D. (2004). Predictable surprises: The disasters you should have seen coming and how to prevent them. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Huber, G. P. (1996). Organizational learning: The contributing processes and the literatures. In M. D. Cohen & L. S. Sproull (Eds. ), Organizational learning (pp. 124-162). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Mitroff, I. I. , & Anagnos, G. (2001). Managing crises before they happen: What every executive and manager needs to know about crisis management. New York: AMACOM. Mittelstaedt, R. E. (2005). Will your next mistake be fatal? Avoiding the chain of mistakes that can destroy. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Wharton. Sitkin, S. B. (1996). Learning through failure: The strategy of small losses. In M. D. Cohen & L. S. Sproull (Eds. ), Organizational learning (pp. 541-578). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Tompkins, P. K. (2005). Apollo, Challenger, Columbia: The decline of the space program. Los Angeles: Roxbury. Organizations who face these failures potentially could damage their organizational integrity. It is important for an organization to identify these failures and act on them while the company is still in operation. Having a crisis management team to prepare, respond and recover from a crisis is paramount in ensuring that the organization recovers and continues. Preparation must happen before a crisis occurs. In times of crisis, organizations need to systematically analyze its errors, acknowledge the errors and limits of the organization as well as address the issue with a level of sophistication. When an organization continually fails to differentiate and neglect crisis and failures it could lead to detrimental problems for the organization. Failure/ Crisis Management Case Study 1 A hypothetical example would be the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (BP oil spill) that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico from 20 April 2010 to 15 July 2010. The estimated 185 million barrels of oil first made landfall in Louisiana. By June 2010, the tar balls and oil mousse had reached the shores of Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. By August, it had smeared tourist beaches, washed onto the shorelines of sleepy coastal communities, oozed into the marshy bays that fishermen have worked for generations as well as killed millions of wildlife in the process. Instead of dealing with the failure in a professional way, BP inadvertently created a PR situation synonymous with herding cats. It’s had to fight to clear up two quagmires – its oil mess and its tarnished image. (Please Refer to Appendix- New York Times, Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill) In times of crisis or failure, it is important for an organization to understand the need for a comprehensive risk analysis. Should the failure be environmentally or socially threatening, impressions demonstrations of empathy and competence are vital. BP was not prepared to successfully deal with such a catastrophe. To minimize the damage, BP should have immediately accomplished five tasks: 1. Issue regular, frequent progress reports 2. Control the pictures (even some on the Web site appeared to be canned or generic) 3. Transparency 4. Display empathy as a concerned corporate entity comprised of authentic people diligently making a good-faith effort to solve the problem Failure/ Crisis Management Case Study 2 Failure, if properly attended to and rectified is a great plus. It gives the much needed confidence to the public, client or stakeholders in the product and organization. Furthermore, with proper management, the organization will be able to assess its capacity to deal with the systemic and circumstantial deficiencies leading to failures and work out a way forward. A great example would be the Johnson and Johnson Tylenol poisoning crisis in 1982. When the Tylenol scare occurred, Johnson and Johnson responded immediately and positively, taking the analgesic off the shelves, keeping the public apprised of the investigation, and their instituting new tamper-proof seals to make their product more secure. An organization needs to be upfront and out front with their communication about the situation and what they are doing to correct it and protect the public. The organization has to keep the public’s best interests at heart when communicating the issue effectively, clearly, accurately, and promptly upon discovering the problem. Having a crisis management plan in place before a crisis occurs puts an organization in a solid position to handle it more effectively and responsibly. Detecting failure, analyising failure, promoting experiementation? Deviance Inattention Lack of Ability Process Inadequacy Task Challenge Process Complexity Uncertainty Hypothesis Testing Exploratory Testing Blameworthy Praiseworthy Violating a prescribed practice or process by choice Straying away from specifications Does not possess the necessary qualifications or skills for the task Adhering to a prescribed but faulty or incomplete task Task too difficult to be executed reliably each time Process comprises of element breaks when encountering interactions Lack of clarity causes actions which seem reasonable but produces undesired results An experiment to prove and idea, fails Experiment to increase knowledge and understand possibilities leads to an unwanted result