Drug Legalization Essays (782 words) - Drug Control Law,

Drug Legalization Will the legalization of certain drugs reduce the crime rate in the United States? This question has baffled United States lawmakers, reformists, and citizens alike for so long that many people probably consider it a rhetorical question. With this in mind, I think that the only solution would be to go to the research and see what studies would say about the dilemma. For this particular paper, I found some research that looked at the legalization of marijuana in the United States, and I think for all intensive purposes, it is the best drug to discuss in respect to legalization anyway. To be completely honest, I think that marijuana should be legalized in our country. That is just a personal opinion, that I'm sure is shared by the majority of kids that are my age as well. But, personally I do not use marijuana for medical or medicinal purposes, but at least fifty percent of the people that I associate with do use it so I am familiar with it. One of the reasons that I think it should be legalized is the fact that alcohol is legal. In all of my experiences with the two drugs, I believe that the effects of alcohol definitely outweigh those of marijuana. Let's just say that I would much rather be on the highway with someone who is stoned on pot than to be on the highway with someone that is really drunk. I also think that legalizing marijuana would cause the supply and demand to shift and the price would plummet, alleviating the need of some to rob and kill for enough money to support their habit. I could argue my point for paragraphs, but instead, I will see what research says about it, and who knows, I may change my mind. The article that I used for this paper came from the June 1998 issue of The Journal of Legal Medicine. It is entitled "Is the debate a Smoke Screen for Movement Toward Legalization." The author cites in the article an episode of the sitcom Murphy brown, where actress Candice Bergen smokes a joint on national television for medicinal purposes while suffering from breast cancer. The author believes that the nationally televised sitcom endorsed a drug that has not been accepted by the FDA yet and that the event may be a foreshadowing of the future of the drug in our country. In the article, the author posed the same question that we are faced with in this essay? The author believes that before the US legalizes the drug, that they should look at another country's experiences with crime where the drug is legal. In this particular case, he uses Holland as a comparison. The statistics that he found were very shocking to me. The author of the article found that: "between 1984 and 1992, marijuana use among males between the ages of 12 and 18 increased by 277 percent." During this particular time; "shootings increased 40 percent, car thefts increased 62 percent, and hold-ups increased 69 percent." Whether or not these statistics can be proven to be due to the legalization of marijuana is hard to prove, but they definitely make one think about it. Also in the article, the author reveals that: "75 percent of criminal offenders in the United States believe that they were under some influence of marijuana at the time of the crime, and 7 percent of those who committed homicides believe their actions were directly related to their use of marijuana." Although there are flaws on both sides of the dispute, one of the strongest points to the anti-legalization movement is the argument that marijuana is a gateway drug which leads to the use of harder, more addictive drugs. In this particular article, the author cites a study in which out of all of the persons studied, "20 percent of persons who use marijuana were three to ten times more likely to go on to use cocaine, and 75 percent of persons who used marijuana 100 or more times later used cocaine." Another strong argument is that if the US legalizes the drug for medicinal purposes, then it will precipitate the legalization of marijuana on a higher scale, a more recreational scale. So, the only thing that I can conclude is that the legalization of marijuana is a very problematic dilemma that the United States has been faced with for many years. Both sides have considerable arguments, but there is still so much controversy and gray area that follows

Edward R. Murrow essays

Edward R. Murrow essays If Edward R. Murrow and Fred Friendly sat down to watch the evening news in 2007, they would probably be very sorry to see what has become of their lead as newscasters. Except for a scanty few news magazines, such as 60 Minutes developed by See It Now alumni Don Hewitt, and political talk shows as Bill Moyers and Face the Nation, most of the TV news consists of sound bites, canned formats with bantering newscasters and rehashes of the same information ad nausea. In fact, the news often sounds like a soap opera, where people tune in to find out the next saga in someones life (or death). Many (most?) of todays TV viewers want to be entertained. Just look at all the reality shows that have become so popular. Instead, Murrow thoroughly covered a topic. This provided the viewers with a strong foundation on the subject. His viewpoint may have differed from some of the people watching the show, but he had the conviction to say what he believed. This raises another concern with todays news. The news media are now under greater constraints. For example, they do not have the ability to film the war in Iraq, as the Vietnam War was filmed. They do not have access to visualize imprisoned foreign nationals. He took responsibility for making sure that the public were shown what was happening in their country or by their country. No one can eliminate prejudices - just recognize them, Murrow said. (Ironically, today more of this recognition of prejudices comes from the comedians, such as Jon Stewart). Murrow would run through the different headlines for the day and then talk with the various reporters in the United States and overseas. These were professionally trained journalists, not men who just read the words put up in front of them. Then Murrow would do his closing essay and comment on some vital issue, continually being purposely controversial, so that the audience wou...

Critically evaluate the strengths and limitations of using customer Essay

Critically evaluate the strengths and limitations of using customer focused interactions as a basis to standardise and improve business operations - Essay Example Focusing on precision and customer service accelerates the transformation process. British Telecom chose not to rely on such systems to solve its immediate problem. British Telecom saw a dramatic expansion in the number of services offered to its customers. Additional revenues from these services and related ventures have been sufficient to justify further investments of more than five billion dollars in second-generation packet switching, terminal technology, and support systems. (Johnson and Clark, 2001, 115-120) While new business units may become the principal vehicles for growth, the existing core business can also be redefined from within. New capabilities cannot only alter how the original business is conducted, but can alter the nature of the business itself. British Telecoms business focus a decade ago was voice transmission (Fraser, Shobrys & Kruse, 2003, 10-13); today it has a much broader scope of activities and services. Not all companies choose to spawn new businesses (Johnson and Clark, 2001, 115-120). New information processing capabilities can be viewed as central to the success of a traditional business and treated as a proprietary asset to be kept closely guarded in the inner sanctum of the enterprise. Yet even in such cases, those new core competencies will drive redefinition and transformation of the traditional business from within. In this way, successful customer interaction efforts ultimately lead to business transformation. (Slack, 2001, 1100-1121) â€Å"Quality management approaches can be categorized broadly into three stages according to the evolution of management control. Management can implement control before an activity commences, while the activity occurs, or after the activity has been completed.† (Hsieh, Chang & Lu, 2000, 191–201) For example, British Telecom might have chosen to address its directory services crisis with a limited solution that automated operator database access and audio response--the type

Handwriting a letter versus sending an e-mail message Essay

Handwriting a letter versus sending an e-mail message - Essay Example By studying the handwriting one can judge the mood of the person. E-mails are cold and do not convey the warmth-they just convey the messages as a matter of duty! Handwritten letters on important occasions like marriage, birthday, success-events like passing examinations, can be preserved for ever in a file and they are good collection items. No so with the e-mail. One can read the handwritten letters again and again, without having to open the computer often. One practical problem as well! For sending e-mails, one needs to be computer-literate. For handwritten letters, one needs to be just literate! For mails, one has to own a computer or specially reach the cafe for making the mail. As for quickness and convenience, e-mail, the product of internet revolution, has no match. The message reaches any corner of the world, within seconds. Competitive business, the share quotations etc. can never think of sending the communications by handwritten letters , where decisions on rates are taken in split seconds! For official dealings, e-mail communications are the best and one can not think of applying the handwritten letter procedure in this area. Voluminous files and documents can be uploaded/downloaded through e-mail procedure, whereas to copy a document of say, of 100 pages will take some days. This procedure is neither practical nor feasible. One can forward a message, documents, story or news items, to thousands of individuals merely by clicking the forward button and the message is instantly received by that vast majority. Sending handwritten letters to them involves lots of expenditure on stationary, postage, apart from the time and labor devolved. Here is a wonde rful observation on the handwritten letter vs. the e-mail, the essence of which is worth noting. â€Å"The "art" of letter writing was only art in the hands of a few who wrote well. The rest of the worlds written correspondence is barely worth the paper it is written on. E-mail has

Organizational Culture Essay Example for Free

Organizational Culture Essay This essay/assignment is a solution paper on Organizational Culture. It reviews the Hofstede Model and Schein Model as well as tries to understand the the dynamics which influences the occupational cultures. This is a sample paper. The definition of culture remains quite ambiguous with researchers assessing it utilising different methodologies. The common understanding of culture is a way of doing things, or the norm by which a society organizes its tasks. However, the terminology tends to be classified more distinctly when looked upon in the aspect of organizations and their systems of performing actions. Two of the most prominent researchers on this aspect of organizational behaviour are Geert Hofstede and Edgar Schein. Each has presented the concept of organizational culture using a paradigm based on the values and thinking exhibited by the workers of an organization, but has assessed different levels of adaptation and integration that bind this aspect of culture. According to Hofstede, ‘culture is the collective programming of the human mind that distinguishes the members of one group from another. Culture in this sense is a system of collectively held values’. On the other hand, Schein has taken a slightly different approach and states ‘culture is the deeper level of basic assumptions and beliefs that are shared by members of an organization that operate unconsciously and define in a basic â€Å"taken for granted† fashion an organization’s view of its self and its environment’. The common notion among researchers is that every organization exhibits certain values and norms in the business environment and a company will likely end up portraying two things; organizational culture and corporate culture. The former is based on what the company ‘is’, while the latter principle is an embodiment of the vision and character of the company, making up what a company ‘has’. Both Schein and Hofstede showed similarities in their presentation of the concept of organizational culture by applying a focus on the mental assumptions that shape the ideology of culture and give rise to the norms and values that end up being regarded as the primary character of an organization. However, the anthropological approach adopted by them towards organizational culture varied greatly. Hofstede favoured the ‘etic’ or dimensional approach, where the description of behaviour is very neutral and can be applied to various cultures. A key reasoning for this is the linkage he presented between the national culture  prevalent in the business environment that an organization operates in, and its resulting effects on the shaping of the norms that are applied by the organization itself. On the other hand, Schein looked upon organizational behaviour with an ‘emic’ approach, describing the dimensions that affected companies by viewing it from the aspect of a person within the culture. Hofstede undertook an extensive research process within IBM, to understand the behaviour it and its employees exhibited across the many offices it had in the world. His ideology was that organizational behaviour was greatly influenced by national and regional cultural groupings. The conclusion from the research conducted allowed Hofstede to present five characteristics of culture that he believed were exhibited by organizations in one way or form across the world. These included power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity vs. femininity, long vs. short term orientation, and individualism vs. collectivism. Schein’s organizational model looked at culture from the standpoint of an observer and presented three levels to describe the complex workings involved in a company. At the first level were the observable artefacts, pointing to those attributes which could be seen, heard or felt by the observer. The second level was the exposed values, which referred to the professed culture of the organization by its members. At the third level lie tacit assumptions, which are made up of the unseen elements of culture of an organization that become the unspoken rules of the company. While Hofstede’s model of organization culture relies on the tried and tested ideology of cultural theorists by underlying the determination of culture in an organization from core values and assumptions of a given national culture, Schein’s model brings about more functionality to the subject area by delving into a deeper understanding of the factors that influenced the exhibited culture in the organization. Hofstede’s IBM study developed linkages between personality and culture, by relating to individuals as components of societies, and organizations a resultant of both. Schein presented the notion of learning as a part of the organizational culture, and one of the building blocks that courted different operators in its assimilation and establishment. In both models, the common factor remains the individuals who form the organization, and in many ways are responsible for providing the behavioural traits to the company in order to portray a sense of belonging. The divergence in its  initiation relates to the variance held by Hofstede and Schein, with the former attributing the national culture being the driving force, while the latter focuses on the various actors who play a role in the creation of the organizational entity as the contributors to the culture of that establishment. While personality will play a part in the integration between the original and acquired culture, the need for understanding the dynamics which influence the occupational cultures is important in order to become aware of the human factor and its role in the process. References Hofstede, G. McCrae, R. (2004) ‘Personality and Culture Revisited: Linking Traits and Dimensions of Culture’, Cross-Cultural Research, Volume 38, No. 1, pp. 52 – 88 Schein, E. (1996) ‘Culture: The Missing Concept in Organization Studies’, Administrative Science Quarterly, Volume 41, Issue 2, pp. 229 – 240

Social Issues Essay -- essays research papers

Is Mcdonaldization Inevitable? George Ritzer’s, Mcdonaldization of Society, is a critical analysis of the impact on social structural change on human interaction and identity. According to Ritzer, Mcdonaldization â€Å"is the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as rest of the world† (Ritzer, 1). Ritzer focuses on four foundations of Mcdonaldization: efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control. These are the commandments of any rationalized corporation. However, they are not carried out from the point of view of the consumer. Efficiency, for example, may entail the placing of great inconveniences upon a consumer for the sake of efficient management. Calculability may involve hiding certain information from the consumer. Predictability and control may involve a company's ability to predict and control consumer behavior, not the consumer's ability to predict what kin d of product or control what kind of service he gets. Ritzer calls such breakdowns "the irrationality of rationalization." Ritzer points out the irrationality of rationality, as all of the supposed benefits of Mcdonaldized systems backfire: waiting in long lines, suspect quality, little or no customer service, little or no customer service, the illusion of large quantities for low prices, and severely limited selection of choice. Throughout Mcdonaldization of Society, Ritzer describes Mcdonaldization as largely negative and often destructive. While Mcdonaldization is rapidly taking over American society and spreading to the rest of the globe, it is not something unjustly imposed on the American people. The consumerist culture of America has groomed the public to seek efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control. These principles grow in importance and value in contemporary America. Even when given the choice to avoid a Mcdonaldized establishment or product, peopl e will flock to it. I agree with Ritzer’s analysis of a Mcdonaldized society, but I feel that Ritzer has failed to provide any real solutions to the Mcdonaldization process. I will support Ritzer’s analysis of the Mcdonaldization process, but also show that it is inevitable and essential in the American society to have a rationalized system. Ritzer stresses that â€Å"Mcdonaldization† does not just refer to robotlike assemb... ...ety, companies are looking to maximize profits and managers are looking to maximize sales. Employers want efficiency and predictability from their workers. They want to be able to control their employees. With so much of the day spent at work and commuting, the only way people can get everything done everyday is to rely on time saving methods. With increasing productivity and development comes an increasingly rationalized system. Regardless of who benefits or to what extent, the universal result is homogenization. Rationalized systems have a pronounced tendency to squash individual tastes, niche markets, small-scale enterprise and personalized customer service. Differences are leveled, wrinkles smoothed, knots cut off -- convenience at the expense of character. An overwhelming sameness develops, along with a decrease in responsiveness. The system that seeks to mimic a machine becomes a machine, incapable of making exceptions or taking risks. I believe that the greatest loss is th at most people know of no other society than the rationalized society and therefore cannot even hope to deviate from it. For good or for bad, our social destiny is to live in such prepackaged settings.

ABC, Inc. Case Study Analysis Essay

Carl Robins, a junior recruiter for ABC, Inc, with only a limited amount of experience, commendably retained 15 new employees in April. The newer employees were hired to work for Monica Carrolls, the Operations Supervisor. Carl Robins set up new recruit’s orientation to begin 06- 15 with the objective of having the new employees working by July. On 15 of May. Monica Carrolls called Carl about fixing several issues for the new employees, such as policies, drug tests, and manuals. He stated to Monica that everything would be in place and it would all be completed by the deadline. When Carl started reviewing June, the new employee file, He found numerous of issues. Some applications were unfinished, drug screenings were not done, and orientation manuals were not completed and missing pages, while the room for training had been held in reserve for technology services. Issues When Carl’s had his first recruitment training, he encountered many difficulties that need to be brought to the senior recruiters to resolve these issues. Incomplete employee applications Mandatory drug screening was not arranged Employee transcripts were not on file Inadequate orientation manuals Shortage of orientation manuals, Resource scheduling conflicts. Carl has to address the issues at hand in order to have the new recruit’s working by July, so he must move expeditiously. He must move swiftly in order to inform the new employees and make it stat that they finish their employment applications and confirm his or her transcripts on file. Subsequently, Carl has to arrange appointments through the clinic for all  the new recruits for the obligatory drug screen and have the results sent over right away. At this point, Carl must evaluate the orientation manuals to its entirety and make sure there are a substantial amount of copies for all the recent recruits. Carl has to harmonize with technology services to come up with a solution to share the training room. If that is not feasible, Carl must find another fitting location for the new hire training class. These issues seem like simple problems with quick and easy solutions, but clearly show problems with the current hiring process that need to be addressed to keep similar issues from arising in the future. An entry level recruiter should work directly with more experienced recruiters during the first recruitment process. Skill, putting forth the effort, and practicing will go a long way in overcoming these types of issues. ABC, Inc must develop a helpful to do list or procedure to follow for hiring new employees. It must be explained to the employee and the recruiter exactly what must be completed before and after the hiring process. The checklist should cover not only hiring procedures, but also in-processing and merging into the company. ABC, Inc also needs to develop a training center; with company policies, orientation manuals, and other training materials should be complete and readily available at all times. In the intent of saving money and breathing space, it is suggested that at least one physical copy of each reference should be available, while digital copies are kept on file and can be easily apprehended when necessary. Company management solution should be established to p revent spare reservations for the same resources. This can be a simple database or reservation system that is easily accessible by all employees who will be responsible for scheduling resources. Findings/ Considerations ABC, Inc’s efforts to hire new employees, handling and attempting to solve these problems could raise more problems. Foremost, easy solutions could entail a significant financial investment to get the new employees hired on time. For instance, the clinic may charge extra for last minute drug screens or for expediting the results. If the orientation manuals cannot be reproduced internally or the training cannot be conducted on company  property, the cost of out-sourcing would be much higher than normal. Proper implementation of the long-term solutions may also incur some initial expense; however the increased efficiency will be a great benefit to ABC, Inc in the long run. It is also important to note that an inefficient and complicated hiring process may eventually detract from the company’s image and ability to attract worthy employees Conclusion As stated previously, this was a relatively easy problem to fix, however it exposed deeper issues and could present a significant expense to ABC, Inc to resolve all the problems in time to meet the July goal. It is recommended that Carl Robins and ABC, Inc take the initiative to implement all of the short and long-term goals. In doing so ABC, Inc will insure that this problem will be eliminated in the future. References Case study www.Studymode.com Case study analysis Comm215 www.writework.com Writing a Case study Analysis http://college.cengage.com/business/resources/casestudies/students/writing.ht