Bibliography of Famous Authors Essay Essay Example

Bibliography of Famous Authors Essay Essay Example Bibliography of Famous Authors Essay Essay Bibliography of Famous Authors Essay Essay In this article by Robert Scholes. it talks about the hope and memory in My Antonia. He says the characters find themselves by looking back at the yesteryear. He said â€Å"we are reminded of this past constantly: by the Bohemian imposts and culinary patterns of the Shimerdas ; by the observations of Otto Fuch on the relationship of Austrians and Bohemians I the old state ; and particularly by the Catholic faith of the Bohemians. which is their strongest nexus with the yesteryear. and which serves to adhere them together and to divide them from the Protestant society of their adopted and†¦Antonia cherishes her connexion with the past† it talks about the characters and their yesteryear and how it has impacted their lives. I will utilize this to bind back into my thesis because this is fundamentally what my whole paper is approximately. My paper based on the character’s yesteryear and how it impacts them subsequently in life. The article talks a batch of the past memories that I can utilize in my research paper. Lucenti. Lisa Marie. â€Å"Willa Cathers My Antonia: Haunting the Houses of Memory. † Twentieth Century Literature 46 ( 2000 ) : Literary Reference Center. Galileo. MPHS Library. 18 April 2011 ( # 33 a work from an on-line service to which your library subscribes ) This article analyzes My Antonia and it’s subject of memory and how it haunts some of the characters. It talks about the narrative of the wolves and how its haunted Peter and Pavel and how that brings Gothic to the narrative. It besides tells why Cather included some of the memories that she did in the novel. It tells the importance of those memories to the characters. I will speak about the memories it references and how they are of import to the narrative and to the characters lives. Their yesteryear is what makes them who they are and it is of import to advert why they are so of import to them. This article analyzes the subject and I can utilize some of that information to assist with my statement. Meeker. Joseph W. â€Å"Willa Cather: The Plow and The Pen† Willa Cather’s Ecological Imagination. Ed. Susan Rosowski. Volume 5. Lincoln: Uracil of Nebraska. 1986. ( # 18 a choice from an anthropology ) In this article. Meeker negotiations about the symbols mentioned in Cather’s novels. It talks about the plough and the landscape in My Antonia. It besides talks about how some of the symbols represent the yesteryear. The article mentioned imagination throughout the novel and how the Nebraska fields had an impact on Jim. It besides mentioned some of the imagination in O Pioneers! and other novels by Cather. I will utilize the information to assist back up my thesis on the symbols and subject and how it impacts the characters in the novel. In the article when it talks about the land and how it ties back to the yesteryear. I will utilize that to assist my thesis. It has really good item on everything represented in the novel and it will assist me develop my paragraphs on symbolism. Gross. Jonathan D. â€Å"Recollecting Emotion in Tranquility: Wordsworth and Byron in Cather’s My Antonia and Lucy Gayheart† Cather Studies 7 ( 2007 ) : Literary Reference Center. Galileo. MPHS Library 18 April 2011 ( # 33 a work from an on-line service to which your library subscribes ) This article compares My Antonia with novels from Wordsworth and Byron. They all portion similar qualities in their Hagiographas. In this article it talks about subject and symbols in My Antonia. In both My Antonia and in â€Å"Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey† . they talk about the subject of nature and how it impacts the characters. This whole article compares My Antonia to other plants by Cather. Wordsworth. and Byron. I will utilize the information about the subject of nature and symbols mentioned in the article. There’s non a whole batch I can utilize on My Antonia but it has good information about subject and symbols throughout out the novel. It talks about how Cather focused on landscape and sensitiveness of the reader to associate the yesteryear. Hallgarth. Susan A. â€Å"Archetypal Patterns in Shadows on the Rock† . Colby Quarterly 24 ( 1988 ) : 2-4. ( # 22 An article in a diary with uninterrupted folio throughout the one-year volume ) In this article. it talks about symbols and how they represent something in the novel. It talks about how shadows are a perennial form in My Antonia and how Antonia interrupting off from her female parent is a symbol of her traveling through a new beginning. It compared symbols in My Antonia to some in Death Comes for the Archbishop and how they relate to one another. In the article it says â€Å" Burden’s find of pastness in the present allows him to see Antonia as all the ‘image’ which do non melt and herself. a ‘battered woman’ ( MA. 352. 353 ) . So I will utilize that in the paragraph I will hold speaking about how the yesteryear still reminds him of Antonia because his childhood is fundamentally Antonia. All of his memories remind Jim of her because she is a large portion in his yesteryear.

ACT Percentiles and Score Rankings

ACT Percentiles and Score Rankings SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips What’s the difference between a good ACT score and a great ACT score? One way colleges make that distinction is by looking at ACT score percentiles. ACT score percentiles help colleges compare students with one another, rather than just looking at everyone’s individual score. Learn more about your ACT score percentile so you can maximize both your study time and admission chances. Then, find out your current score percentile using our detailed charts. What’s an ACT Percentile Ranking? Your percentile ranking is a comparison of your ACT score with everyone else who took the test. Specifically, your percentile tells you how many people you scored higher than. The ACT will give you a percentile ranking for your composite score as well as for your four subject-area scores. (For more on how the ACT is scored and how your composite is calculated, check out our guide.) Your ACT score percentile is not like a grade out of 100;rather, it’s a comparison between you and other students. For example, if you get in the 70th percentile, this means you scored higher than 70% of test takers. It doesn’t mean you got exactly 70% of the test questions correct. (In fact, the ACT is tricky enough that if you got about 70% of the questions right, your ranking would be closer to the 75th percentile.) What Are the Current ACT Score Percentiles? Now that you know about percentile rankings, it’s helpful to know what the ACT percentiles actually are, both for composite scores and individual section scores. You can use the following chart to find percentile rankings for your overall ACT composite score and for each section (English, Math, Reading, and Science). To find your percentile, first find your score between 1 and 36 on the left-hand side, and then slide over to the correct subject area or composite to see your percentile ranking. For example, a composite score of 30 has a 93rdpercentile ranking, but a Reading section score of 30 has an 87thpercentile ranking. Here's the most recent ACT percentile data from 2018: Score English Math Reading Science Composite Score 36 100 100 100 100 100 36 35 99 99 99 99 99 35 34 96 99 97 98 99 34 33 94 98 94 97 98 33 32 93 97 92 96 96 32 31 91 96 89 95 95 31 30 90 95 87 94 93 30 29 88 93 94 92 91 29 28 86 91 82 90 88 28 27 84 88 80 88 85 27 26 82 83 77 86 82 26 25 79 78 74 82 78 25 24 75 73 70 77 74 24 23 70 68 66 71 69 23 22 64 63 60 64 64 22 21 59 59 54 57 58 21 20 53 55 49 50 52 20 19 48 51 43 44 46 19 18 44 46 38 37 40 18 17 40 38 33 30 34 17 16 36 29 28 25 27 16 15 30 18 22 18 21 15 14 24 8 18 14 15 14 13 18 3 13 10 9 13 12 14 1 9 6 4 12 1 5 4 1 10 6 1 3 2 1 10 9 3 1 1 1 1 9 8 1 1 1 1 1 8 7 1 1 1 1 1 7 6 1 1 1 1 1 6 5 1 1 1 1 1 5 4 1 1 1 1 1 4 3 1 1 1 1 1 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Source:ACT.org Did you know an improvement of 4 points on the ACT will revolutionize your chances of getting into your dream school? Download our free guide to the top 5 strategies you need in your prep to improve your ACT score dramatically. One important thing to note is thatthere's really no difference in percentiles at the highest and lowest score ranges. At the upper end, anything higher than a 34 composite score is in the 99th-100thpercentiles. Similarly, at the lower end, any composite score between 1 and 8 is in the 1stpercentile. However, things change quickly in the middle. For example, a 3-point jump from 17 to 20 raises your percentile from the 34th to the 52nd- or, from below average to average. To take another example, a 3-point jump from 26 to 29 takes you from the 82ndpercentile to the 91stpercentile. Getting into the 91st percentile is fantastic because it puts you in the top 10% of all test takers. What all of this means is that if you get a lower or middle-range composite score, raising it by just a few points can have a dramatic effect on your percentile ranking and thus your college admission chances. In addition, unless you're shooting for the most elite schools, if you get a 34 composite or higher, you probably shouldn't worry about having toretake the ACT. What About ACT Subscore Percentiles? ACT subscores give you more detail about your performance on the ACT and what specific areas you can improve on. However, as of late 2016,ACT, Inc.,no longer releases public information about percentile ranks for ACT subscores,so the only place you can get information about your performance on subscores compared with other test takers is your own ACT score report. If you haven't taken the ACT and are curious, you can take a look at this sample score reportfor the 2017-18 testing year. Note thatcolleges likely will not look too closely (if at all) at your subscores. When it comes to the ACT, your overall composite score is most important.It's the number most colleges use when reporting admitted student score ranges, and the scoremost often used to determine scholarship recipients. Ultimately, subscores can be used to give more context about your performance, but they're not be-all and end-all numbers. Does My ACT Percentile Actually Matter? Percentile rankings are important because they help colleges compare your ACT performance with those of other test takers. But the ACT score ranges for the colleges you're applying to are far more important than your overall percentile ranking. Colleges have average ACT score ranges for admitted students that usually don’t change drastically from year to year, and they rely on these ranges when making admissions decisions. This range is the middle 50%, or the 25th and 75th percentile scores,of admitted applicants. To find ACT score ranges for a college, search "[School Name] ACT scores PrepScholar." By doing this for all of the colleges you want to apply to, you can come up with a target ACT score. Your goal score will then be equal to the highest 75th percentile score for your schools. The goal is to get a higher than average ACT score for your dream college. Though your target score is most important, ACT percentiles can help you interpret your own scores better. For example, say you got a 30 on Math (95thpercentile) and a 24 on English (75thpercentile). Without percentile data, it would be hard to say exactly how much better you did on Math than on English.But with rankings, you can see that your Math score is excellent and your English score, while strong, could be improved- a 3-point jump to 27 could net you an 84th percentile score. To sum up, percentiles are a very helpful tool, both for college admissions officers looking at your application and for you in your own studying. But rather than obsessing over your ranking, aim for a score that is competitive for the colleges you want to go- this willgive you your best shot at getting into your dream school! What’s Next? Now that you know about the importance of percentiles, learn more about the average ACT score and come up with your own personal target score. Dreaming big? Find out what ACT scores you need to get into the Ivy League. And if you’re aiming for perfection, check out our guide to a perfect 36, writtenby our resident full scorer. Want to improve your ACT score by 4+ points? Download our free guide to the top 5 strategies you need in your prep to improve your ACT score dramatically. Have friends who also need help with test prep? Share this article! Tweet Halle Edwards About the Author Halle Edwards graduated from Stanford University with honors. In high school, she earned 99th percentile ACT scores as well as 99th percentile scores on SAT subject tests. She also took nine AP classes, earning a perfect score of 5 on seven AP tests. As a graduate of a large public high school who tackled the college admission process largely on her own, she is passionate about helping high school students from different backgrounds get the knowledge they need to be successful in the college admissions process. Get Free Guides to Boost Your SAT/ACT Get FREE EXCLUSIVE insider tips on how to ACE THE SAT/ACT. 100% Privacy. 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Research paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 28

Research Paper Example Ms. Skeeter’s has brought up by black women all her childhood. She yearns to find out where her beloved maiden, Constantine- a black maiden, went. Later on, Ms. Skitter learns of what became of Constantine. Her maiden gave birth out of wedlock, to Lulabelle whose skin color was indistinguishable from the whites although both parents were of Black origin. Because of this, neither the white nor the black community would readily accept Lulabelle. To avoid a lot of dual segregation, Constantine gave up her child for adoption when she was four years old. When she grows up, she is reunited with her mother. (AmySharps 15). While Skeeter’s was in college, Lulabelle visited her along with her mother in Jackson. Later on, she came for the party being held at Skeeter’s house. However, soon Charlotte Phelan fired Constantine after discovering who Lulabelle was to her. Having nowhere to turn to, Constantine moved to Chicago. This is the last time Skeeter’s saw Constantine. The Help refers to a community of black people who spent their lives caring for children of the upper class white households (Council and others 2012 pg. 5). The children of these black people were in the custody of other people who are not even their relatives; they were isolated at an early age to pave way for their parents to serve the white families. The help spent most of their time dressing, feeding and playing with white children. However, these children grew up not better than their parents did; they assumed the oppressive role just like their folks oppressing the blacks, the very people who raised them up. Aibileen spends her lifetime taking care of Mae Mobley, Miss Elizabeth Leefolt’s child. Aibileen lost her son and it is ironical that she spends time caring for a child who is not her own, she takes time to heal the wound and accept the gap created by the demise of her only child while serving Leefolt’s family (AmySharps 21). The conditions here

In what ways do cognitive biases affect decision-making Assignment

In what ways do cognitive biases affect decision-making - Assignment Example Cognitive biases affect decision-making when one wants to simplify complex decision situations (Das & Teng, 1999, pg. 760). Severe and systematic errors in decision-making result from the applications of ‘rule of thumb’ and adoption of heuristics. The contemporary ever-changing society does not allow long-term strategies, and in most cases, a quick decision saves company resources and determines their success in the business environment. There is often a need to evolve with the changing times and at times one has to make short-term and quick decision to address immediate needs. Cognitive biases result in temporal orientations in which one uses past happenings to predict the future impact of a decision. ‘Availability’ is a major heuristic that triggers cognitive biases, which eventually affect decision-making. It provides the bias of imagining in which decisions are about recent experiences. Decision makers often use their beliefs and previous experiences in current decision-making situations. This is common in organizations that focus on selected targets rather than broad-minded solutions. In such cases, cognitive biases arise because one may overlook important evidence and worthwhile objectives that may produce a different solution (Das & Teng, 1999, pg. 762). Cognitive biases limit a person to a limited number of objectives that can attain a goal. A small number of options if often favorable for most people and businesses because it saves time, energy, and money that could go to waste in brainstorming meetings. In the end, they have a list of alternative ideas that do not encompass fresh outlooks into a problem (Das & Teng, 1999, pg. 762). The assumption that ‘what has, will always be’, is dangerous, because it hinders appropriate decision-making. They serve as a as an impediment in the recognition of scientific non-intuitive knowledge. Cognitive bias develops an illusion of manageability in which a possibility of success higher than the

Effects of Plagiarism to the Students Essay Example for Free

Effects of Plagiarism to the Students Essay In life especially in any learning institutions, it is inevitable to engage oneself with other people’s ideas, stories and researches. Most of people’s knowledge is acquired from previous knowledge that is written and said. But people can also create their own idea from others’ works or through experiences. However, owning one’s thought is another story, it is considered stealing or corruption. Stealing a person is called kidnapping or abduction but stealing a person’s ideas or writing is called plagiarism. Idea is like a property, someone owns it. Plagiarism is against the law not only because it is a form of stealing but because its effects are very destructive to the morality of those who practice it and to the society as a whole. In academic world, plagiarism is a serious offense. Plagiarism is not only a personal matter between a student and a teacher but ultimately it is an issue of violating the moral code of learning, reversing the meaning of education itself (White, 1999). The continuous growth of Information Technology makes it easier for the students to copy and plagiarize. Plagiarism not only threatens the very foundation and purpose of academic system but plagiarism is a destructive activity that terrorizes the students’ sense of morality and values. Education is not only for the purpose of acquiring knowledge and information but education also allows students to discover their skills and intellectual capabilities. Education also trains and gives students opportunity to develop one’s character to become productive members of the society in the future. Committing plagiarism however is a missed opportunity for students’ self discovery, development and academic learning. Moreover, it threatens the sense of integrity and fair play to those who practiced it. When students became accustomed to plagiarism and stealing, it will soon become a way of life until it eventually becomes their comfort zone. There is a big possibility that after graduation, they will stay in that comfort zone. Acting plagiarism also hinders the teachers to truly monitor the learning development of a student, to know their ideas and to asses the things that they still have to work upon. When discovered, an atmosphere of distrust will be established between the class and the teacher. The teacher with skepticism will be having a difficulty identifying which is real and which is plagiarized, doubting student’s skill in writing, which may result to bias assessment. When students commit plagiarism, they reject the chance to learn something new, to widen their horizon in the world of knowledge and they hinder themselves to develop their own opinions, to give alternate perspective and analysis. These things may also affect the communication skills of the students. Since plagiarism hinders them to acquire more wisdom and information, they won’t be able to talk confidently in front of many people because of their limited knowledge. Act of plagiarism also threatens the concept of receiving grades. At the end, there is no sense of satisfaction. Those who practiced plagiarism eventually put their self worth in jeopardy. These effects of plagiarism in the students will affect their lives. Reference: Buranen, Lise. Roy, Alice Myers (1999). â€Å"Student Plagiarism as an Institutional and Social Issue by Edward M. White†. NewYork US. SUNY Press

Essay --

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.0 Introduction This chapter introduces the definition and importance of customer attitude toward health advertisement and followed by how determinants of health advertisement affect the customer attitude toward advertisement. This chapter also discusses the theoretical framework for the four independent variables such as credibility, informative, pleasure and good for economy that influences the customer attitude toward health advertisement. 2.1 Health Advertisement According to the American Marketing association stated that â€Å"advertising refer to any paid from of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods and service by an identified sponsor†. The advertisement is directed toward increasing the sales of the business. The one of the trait of the advertising is for communication, information and persuasion. Advertisement is non-personal communication that use mass media. Buyer can get information from the advertisement about the particular product that they want to buy. Advertisement create favorable attitude of the customer that lead to the favorable actions. Dofman, Woodruff and Wallack (1993) stated that public service advertisement used for selling good health behaviors. Personal behavior will determine their own health status. They believe that health promotion advertising has been used to benefit the advertisers and industry. The mass media provide the solution of health problem. The public health professionals need to take the risk to use the advertising to change the attention from the personal to social. Health advertisement helps the company to sell their health product such as product that can lose weight, increase antibody, and multivitamin product. The health –rela... ...ponse produce the behavior. The behavior was created by three factors which is pleasure, arousal and dominance. Pleasure refers to a person feel happy in a certain situation. Arousal means that feeling that vary from person to person in different situation such as bored and excitement. While dominance refer to the individual feeling which are control in particular situation. When the consumer watches an advertisement thus develop the feeling of like the product then the willingness to buy it. The advertisement was consider as successful advertisement when the consumer has the ability to recall the brand in the advertisement. A firm can have the competitive advantage if the consumer can recall their brand through the advertisement. The positive attitude of a consumer can easily recall the advertisement than those who has negative attitude toward the advertisement. Essay -- CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.0 Introduction This chapter introduces the definition and importance of customer attitude toward health advertisement and followed by how determinants of health advertisement affect the customer attitude toward advertisement. This chapter also discusses the theoretical framework for the four independent variables such as credibility, informative, pleasure and good for economy that influences the customer attitude toward health advertisement. 2.1 Health Advertisement According to the American Marketing association stated that â€Å"advertising refer to any paid from of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods and service by an identified sponsor†. The advertisement is directed toward increasing the sales of the business. The one of the trait of the advertising is for communication, information and persuasion. Advertisement is non-personal communication that use mass media. Buyer can get information from the advertisement about the particular product that they want to buy. Advertisement create favorable attitude of the customer that lead to the favorable actions. Dofman, Woodruff and Wallack (1993) stated that public service advertisement used for selling good health behaviors. Personal behavior will determine their own health status. They believe that health promotion advertising has been used to benefit the advertisers and industry. The mass media provide the solution of health problem. The public health professionals need to take the risk to use the advertising to change the attention from the personal to social. Health advertisement helps the company to sell their health product such as product that can lose weight, increase antibody, and multivitamin product. The health –rela... ...ponse produce the behavior. The behavior was created by three factors which is pleasure, arousal and dominance. Pleasure refers to a person feel happy in a certain situation. Arousal means that feeling that vary from person to person in different situation such as bored and excitement. While dominance refer to the individual feeling which are control in particular situation. When the consumer watches an advertisement thus develop the feeling of like the product then the willingness to buy it. The advertisement was consider as successful advertisement when the consumer has the ability to recall the brand in the advertisement. A firm can have the competitive advantage if the consumer can recall their brand through the advertisement. The positive attitude of a consumer can easily recall the advertisement than those who has negative attitude toward the advertisement.

Learning Organizations Essay

1. 1 Executive summary/ L. O! In times of uncertainty and change, organizations need new and effective managerial tools in order to cope with the rising competitiveness of markets. In this context, the concept of organizational learning is receiving growing attention among both managerial and academic surroundings in the last two decades. Among many possible definitions of a Learning Organization, David A. Garvin, a leading scholar in this field, suggests the following: â€Å"an organization made up of employees skilled at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge. These people could help their firms cultivate tolerance, foster open discussion, and think holistically and systemically. Such learning organizations would be able to adapt to the unpredictable more quickly than their competitors could. †. A learning organization is aimed at increasing the flexibility and effectiveness of a company, making it react faster to changes in a competitive environment. This is achieved in cultures who constantly foster knowledge inside their organizations. Although this general idea of organizational learning may appear rather simplistic at first glance, it’s practical integration into day-to-day operations proves to require a more refined, systematic approach: â€Å"Generative learning cannot be sustained in an organization where event thinking predominates. It requires a conceptual framework of â€Å"structural† or systematical thinking, the ability to discover structural causes of behaviorâ€Å". This paper provides a deeper insight into the implementation and performance assessment of learning organizations (L. O. ’s), mainly using the Three Building Blocks Model outlined by Garvin, Edmondson & Gino. To better understand this concept, the work will rely on Xerox as an example to highlight how L. O. ’s can provide competitive advantages to corporations. In the last section, the paper will also breakdown the effect that learning organizations have on major stakeholders (leaders, employees and organization itself). 1. 2. Introduction: Background to Xerox Xerox is a US-based multinational, founded in 1906, which produces and sales printers and photocopiers and provides related services. Throughout it’s history, Xerox has faced several crisis periods which ended up pushing the company to become a Learning Organization. Around 1980, the company was hit hard by the emergence of new japanese players on the market and lost its almost 100% market share. As a response Xerox introduced the â€Å"leadership through quality initiative† with the objective of training every employee in tools for generating ideas and collecting information, solving problems in a systematical way, reaching consensus etc. â€Å"Xerox became a case study — the first American group to win back market share from the Japanese†. More recently, in the year of 2000, with the announcement of Anne M. Mulcahy as CEO of the company, XEROX’s was able to overcome another serious crisis. Mulcahy’s leadership style, which mirrors many of the strategies suggested by the LO literature, managed to turn around this †sinking ship†, which had 19 billion in debt, a falling stock and double-digit negative growth. In 5 years time, Xerox would be profitable again. Ursula Burns has continued Mulcahy’s work, since becoming the new CEO in 2009, even acquiring new companies such as the 2010 $6. 4 bln. takeover of ACS. Xerox continues to stay on the list of companies frequently cited as learning organizations. The 3 Building Blocks of a Learning Organization The concept of the three building blocks of a learning organizations is introduced by David A. Garvin, Amy C. Edmondson, and Francesca Gino as an assessment tool to determine areas where organizations need to improve their learning methodologies. Below we provide a deeper explanation of each of the three building blocks and how Xerox fits each one of them. Building Block 1: XEROX, a supportive learning organization? There are four distinct characteristics of an organization that determine whether it is or not a Supportive Learning Organization. Firstly, how psychologically safe its employees feel. This is common in organizations where employees don’t feel pressured or marginalized when presenting their own ideas even if these go against what the majority of the organization thinks. Similarly, subordinates at this organization are encouraged to disagree with their coworkers and superiors and present new and bold opinions, meaning that this organization is opened to new ideas. In a supportive learning organization, employees also become aware of the different inputs and opinions each member of a team brings to the table and learns how to accommodate and value those differences. Lastly, a supportive learning organization needs to provide its employees with some time for reflexion, when they will to go over the company’s procedures and analyse past performances in order to assess what can be changed and/or improved. Tolerance and diversity at Xerox Xerox’s openness to new ideas can be partly linked to its high diversity of employee backgrounds, which ultimately reinforces the acceptance and inclusion of different solutions, making employees feel more comfortable in taking risks. This diversity has also enabled Ursula Burns, the current CEO, to climb up the ranks of Xerox and become the first female black CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Besides being â€Å"a proof† to other employees that effort at Xerox pays back, Burns herself stresses this idea of a supportive learning organization when she mentions that she â€Å"wants [XEROX’s] 130,000 employees to get over the past, take more initiative, become more fearless and be more frank and impatient with one another to ratchet up performance†. Burns refers to the all Xerox community as the â€Å"XEROX family†- â€Å"When we’re in the family, you don’t have to be as nice as when you’re outside of the family,(†¦ ) I want us to stay civil and kind, but we have to be frank — and the reason we can be frank is because we are all in the same family. † Building Block 2: Does Xerox implement concrete learning processes and practices? Because â€Å"a learning organization is not cultivated effortlessly†, organizational entities must put explicit processes in place to ensure that knowledge is constantly generated and collected inside the organization. The information must then be interpreted and infused into the organization to be always accessible in a way that will support problem-solving tasks and benefit its constant transformational processes. Moreover, this will also help to develop new products or services, as well as closely monitor competitors, clients and technological developments, using benchmarking techniques. Lastly, the company has to invest in training measures for its employees. MAIN Education and problem-solving at Xerox: The Six Sigma Method In the case of Xerox, measures to implement LO practices started as early as 1983 when executive management inaugurated Xerox’s â€Å" leadership through quality initiative†. The initiatives goal was â€Å"improving business processes to create higher levels of customer satisfaction, quality and productivity† by providing workshops to Xerox employees. These workshops were refined in the late 90’s, reorienting around the Six Sigma method, which had previously been successfully applied in other companies. Although these efforts proved successful in improving productivity, they were only limited to a local supply chain level and were not conducted regularly. In 2002 the management of Xerox then decided to implement the Six Sigma strategy across the whole organization, an effort which Xerox is continuing today. This is shown by the fact that the method has become part of the everyday communication process inside the company. The Six Sigma strategy is a tool, which empowers employees to become more efficient and proactive in daily problem-solving situations, for example by using the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) approach. Six Sigma also requires the employees to closely monitor market trends and to apply benchmarking appropriately. Xerox particularly emphasizes the fact that they see the efforts to implement the Six Sigma method (see attachment 1) as a long-term project. This idea is aligned with the academic literature on LO’s stating that â€Å"becoming a LO is a long process and small setbacks should be expected†. This is because employees and the management have to â€Å"unlearn† old modes of thinking. Information distribution at Xerox Xerox provides employees with access to a large intranet consisting of e. g. reference knowledge, material on best practices, and answers to frequently asked questions. This helps the stakeholders inside the company to share information. It also supports the efforts to keep employees informed on what the priorities are for the overall company. Building Block 3: Are Xerox leaders reinforcing learning? Leaders in a L. O. promote constant learning by raising difficult questions and listening to the answers and concerns of their employees. While doing so, leaders also communicate openness to these new ideas and take them into consideration in their actions. Additionally, leaders have to encourage employees to invest their time in reflecting on both how to solve current problems and what can be learned from past performance. The ultimate goal is for leaders to motivate employees to question the underlying assumptions of current modes of thinking, and therefore initiate efficiency and innovation inside company processes. Promoting Initiative at Xerox For the past two decades, Xerox has engaged their employees to participate in the Earth Awards Program. The goal of this yearly event is to come up with solutions for saving company resources by increasing its efficiency, therefore making it a â€Å"greener† company. With this challenging program, Xerox motivates their employees to generate new ideas that, for instance, in 2010, resulted in company savings of $10. 2 Million. In that year, thirteen winners were announced, corporate wide and among different teams. This is an example of how leaders take their employees’ input seriously and how the generation of new initiatives at Xerox arises from both top and bottom levels of hierarchies. Encouraging employees to invest their time in reflecting by example Senior management at Xerox demonstrates the behaviors, which they in turn expect from employees. A clear example of this â€Å"policy† was when, in 1993, the executive management put together the Presidential Review process. The objective of this process was to review the overall progress of the company collectively through Presidential Review process in 1993. Interviews were organized with more than 30 senior managers answering questions like â€Å"What has changed? Where are the largest gaps between what was intended and what is currently true? If you were to outline barriers that need to be dealt with, what comes to mind? What would you have done differently? †. After the interviews, 45 seniors got together for one day meeting to identify trouble spots and develop recommendations. Action plan was the result . 3. The Effect on Leaders, â€Å"Followers† and Organizations Becoming a successful learning organization can provide a company with significant competitive advantages in the long-run, as it also can largely benefit its major stakeholders (employees and leaders). However, it also requires some behavioral changes from them. In order to achieve the goal of a L. O. (foster knowledge creation and sharing to gain competitive advantage), it is important that leaders infuse a common goal inside the organization. This implies, that leaders should have an effective communication in delivering the company ethos to their subordinates. Once employees identify with the company and its goal, people on all levels of the company would naturally start thinking and discussing promising new ways to achieve these goals. On the other hand, learning processes require time among other resources, and eventually leaders will have to find efficient ways to maximize the time of their employees. It is crucial to determine a balance between time spent going over problem-solvings tasks and past performance analysis (required for learning processes) with regular work. Additionally, leaders will have to define the line between â€Å"acceptable mistakes†- those that arrive from risk taking attitudes, and â€Å"unacceptable mistakes† – those originated by irresponsibility and lack of accountability. This is not always clear and, therefore, leaders might face some obstacles in implementing a learning culture as their workers’ â€Å"fear of punishment† can result in the limitation of creativity. Probably the most effective tool to boost innovation is to empower workers. But if the empowerment process provides employees the feeling that they are contributing and helping to define the company processes, then a new attitude is also required from them. Employees will have to remember that they are expected to show initiative, propose new ideas and act. And they should not always expect directions to do so. This can be particularly hard for workers who are risk-averse and who need clear instructions about their work role. Learning organizations can bring significant benefits to employees. Being part of the company processes transformation and being aligned with its goals are expected to make employees more motivated and dynamic. In this way, many of the aspects of the L. O. raise the levels of enjoying the work process. The job satisfaction in turn is expected to raise productivity levels. Also, because employees are more exposed to those in higher positions in the company, new career opportunities might arise together with monetary rewards. RISKS FOR COMPANY â€Å"No learning organization is built overnight. Success comes from carefully cultivated attitudes, commitments, and management processes that accrue slowly and steadily. The first step is to foster an environment conducive to learning. Analog Devices, Chaparral Steel, Xerox, GE, and other companies provide enlightened examples. † (http://w3. ualg. pt/~mzacaria/gic/HBR-Building-a-Leaning-Organization. pdf) 2. Organizations should be careful in applying new principles ensuring buy-in from most influential employees and checking progress not to fall into the trap of unfeasable change which could seriously hurt current business (see http://knowledge. wharton. upenn. edu/article. cfm? articleid=268) 4. Final considerations: As illustrated by the above analysis, as well by its overall economic performance in the last 11 years, it has become clear that XEROX has largely succeeded in becoming a LO. Arguably, Xerox has become so successful in it’s LO efforts that this has resulted in providing learning services to other companies through subsidiary spin offs, such as Xerox Learning Services. Concerning the evaluation of the theory proposed by Garvin, Gino and Edmondson, it has to be noted that the building blocks have to be seen as interdependent. Without effective leadership and learning environment, the learning process implementation will likely fail. Therefore, each of the above building blocks needs to be tackled by taylormade strategies, not least because companies do not perform consistently in each department. Similarly, organizations have to pay especial attention to comparing the extent of the learning process with other organizations, since only then you will have a solid benchmarking (in contrast to looking only at individual company performance over time). Attachment 1 ——————————————– [ 1 ]. O’Keeffe, T. 2002. Organizational Learning: a new perspective. Journal of European Industrial Training, 26 (2), pp. 130-141. [ 2 ]. Peter Senge (1990), â€Å"The Fifth Discipline† [ 3 ]. â€Å"Is yours a learning organization? † [ 4 ]. One good source on Xerox crisis times http://knowledge. wharton. upenn. edu/article. cfm? articleid=268 [ 5 ]. Building a L. O. [ 6 ]. http://www. economist. com/node/387740 [ 7 ]. http://www. economist. com/node/387740 [ 8 ]. http://mitleadership. mit. edu/r-mulcahy. php [ 9 ]. The following work will assume that the stance of the management towards encouraging the LO inside Xerox has remained constant. Since Mulcahy had been working with Burns for more than 9 years, Burns is expected to â€Å"put her own stamp on the company in a way that was deferential to the work of Ms. Mulcahy, who remains chairwoman. † See: http://www. nytimes. com/2010/02/21/business/21xerox. html? pagewanted=all&_r=1& [ 10 ]. http://www. freepatentsonline. com/article/SAM-Advanced-Management-Journal/20982068. html [ 11 ]. http://www. businesswire. com/news/home/20041027005036/en/Diversity-Practices-Organization-Recognizes-Xerox-Diversity-Leadership [ 12 ]. Farmer, Paula (August). â€Å"The First African American To Head A Fortune 500 Company, Franklin D. Raines Takes Over Fannie Mae†. The Black Collegian. Retrieved November 7, 2008. [ 13 ]. Bryant, A. (February 20, 2010) Xerox’s New Chief Tries to Redefine Its Culture, The New York Times [ 14 ]. Bryant, A. (February 20, 2010) Xerox’s New Chief Tries to Redefine Its Culture, The New York Times [ 15 ]. Garvin, Edmondson & Gino (2008), p. 4 [ 16 ]. Page 11: http://www. xerox. com/downloads/usa/en/n/nr_SixSigmaForumMag_2004_Aug. pdf It could be argued that these efforts were a spillover-effect from Xerox ground-breaking benchmarking efforts in its production process areas in billing, warehousing, and automated manufacturing. [ 17 ]. Page 13: http://www. xerox. com/downloads/usa/en/n/nr_SixSigmaForumMag_2004_Aug. pdf [ 18 ]. Slide 68:http://www. moyak. com/papers/learning-organization-presentation. pdf [ 19 ]. Easterby-Smith, M. , Crossan, M. , and Nicolini, D. 2000. Organizational learning: debates past, present and future. Journal of Management Studies. 37 (6) pp 783-796. See also Senge’s definition of â€Å"mental models†, which refer to how workers need to time to overcome old modes of thinking: Senge, P. M. 1990. The Fifth Discipline. London: Century Business. [ 20 ]. http://www. xerox. com/downloads/usa/en/n/nr_SixSigmaForumMag_2004_Aug. pdf [ 21 ]. Kaye, L. (November 15, 2010) Xerox’s Green Ideas Save Company $10. 2 Million, http://www. triplepundit. com/ [ 22 ]. Garvin, D. A. (2000), Learning in Action: a guide to putting the learning organization to work, Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data – p. 105 [ 23 ]. Garvin, D. A. (2000), Learning in Action: a guide to putting the learning organization to work, Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data – p. 105 [ 24 ]. Emerald Group Publishing Limited. : ImageXerox lean six sigma framework. Figure 3Xerox lean six sigma framework. emeraldinsight. com http://www. emeraldinsight. com/journals. htm? articleid=1628232&show=html.