Soft Thinking and Intellectual Capital

{draw:frame} University of Glamorgan MSc International Logistics and Transport Programme/Strategic Procurement Management STRATEGY AS PRACTICE Soft Systems Thinking and Intellectual Capital Assignment 1 *Student No: *08193738 Assignment Date: 5 April 2009 *Submission Date:* 15 May 2009 Module Lecturer: Paul Davis Word Count:* * *2,* 600 Critically evaluate the role that Soft Systems thinking can play in promoting organisations Intellectual Capital. To evaluate the benefits of Soft Systems Thinking (SST) in promoting an organisational intellectual capital it is necessary to understand the concept of Soft Systems Methodology and how this methodology can be used to foster teamwork, communities of practice and social learning, and whether these learning outcomes adds knowledge to employees, and leads to improved professional practice and efficacy. So what price do you put on learning – and as an intangible asset does it need to be measured to promote Intellectual Capital (IC) to support the â€Å"effective delivery of strategic goals by focusing management activities and processes†. Andriessen (2004). Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) advocated by Checkland and Scholes (1990) is a methodology based on applying systems thinking to non system situations. It is a holistic way of dealing not with the problem but the â€Å"situation† in where there are â€Å"social, political and human activities† Checkland and Scholes (1990). As opposed to â€Å"hard system methodologies, which can be quantified, measured and are technology orientated. Soft Systems takes a group of â€Å"actors† through a process of a shared â€Å"problem† appreciation. Learning about the problem, then formulating a root definition of interrelated systems, these examine the relationships of the relevant subsystem: which are the stakeholders, such as customers, employees, the worldview (weltanschauungen) and the management who are â€Å"all active in the system and take collective action to improve the situation† Checkland (1981) Senge (1990) also describes systems thinking as having five learning disciplines, personal mastery, me_ntal models, shared vision, team learning, and the overarching discipline of systems thinking. Therefore, soft systems thinking is a tool that helps in the solving of problems involving human activities where the outcome is learning. Soft systems thinking can enable subjective perceptions of problems and potential solutions. Checkland and Scholes (1990). There are a number of different issues and approaches that can be used to develop a framework for the application of systems thinking for promoting the intellectual capital of any organisation. Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) advocated by Checkland and Scholes (1990) helps to achieve a clearer understanding of organisational issues and problem â€Å"situations†, as it approaches issues holistically. â€Å"System thinking is a discipline for seeking wholes, recognizing patterns and interrelationships, and learning how to structure those relationships in a more effective and efficient way † Senge and Lannon-Kim (1991. Therefore, managers having a range of skills and knowledge can add value to any improvement initiative. Rose and Haynes (2001) developed and used the methodology in a number of settings in the NHS and Iles and Sunderland (2001) cited the potential of SSM as an aid to implementing organisational change initiatives at King’s College Hospital London. (Iles and Sunderland, 2001:35) Soft systems thinking can help organisations to develop new perspectives, as it accounts for factors that otherwise would be ignored. A human activity system, can compliment strategic frameworks, such as the â€Å"Balance Scorecard† to co-ordinate business activities and improve internal and external communications. Kaplan and Norton (1992) However, humans view problems differently because they come from different backgrounds, and have different cultural roots, experience, and education, and as a subsystem, different personalities and philosophies to life. Therefore; if a group of managers at different management levels and different departments are all involved in a complex â€Å"problem situation†, SST maybe an excellent tool to create a conceptual understanding of a problem, but it does not represent the real world, but by using system rules and principles it allows thinking to be structured, to develop some models, and the situation can be expressed as a rich picture Checkland, (1981); Checkland and Scholes (1990) Although, Checkland (1999) contrasts with the emphasis on reductionists thinking on obvious problems with definite solutions. People interpret problem situations from particular standpoints and in terms of distinctive interests. Fortune and Peters (1995) speaks about ‘complex discursive’ networks challenging the understanding of systems, problems and solutions to problems. This system of relationships between people, activities, and the world is defined by Lave and Wenger (1991), as a Community of Practice, (CoP) ‘which develops over time’ and ‘in relation to’ other central and overlapping communities of practice’ and is a fundamental condition for the existence of knowledge. The approach focuses on the â€Å"social interactive dimensions of situated learning†. As people in the group interact with each other, establishing a relationship through mutual engagement and a sense of joint enterprise. Wenger (2000) describes three modes of belonging to a social learning system, as â€Å"engagement, imagination and alignment†. These cannot be formed, but have to evolve overtime, as new members join and others leave. So how can organisations like the NHS establish communities of practice? Brown and Duguid (2001a) suggests managers can seek to structure spontaneity, structuring fragmented practice across the organisation, they can encourage alignments of changing practices between communities thereby assisting the transfer of knowledge across the organisation. (Brown and Duguid 2001a). An equally important view has emerged under the banner of ‘the knowledge-based view of the firm' (Grant 1996), emphasises the necessity of organisations to develop and increase the knowledge and learning capabilities of employees through knowledge gaining, knowledge sharing, and knowledge transfer, to achieve competitive advantage. To take it further Lave and Wenger (1991) saw the gaining of knowledge as a social process, in which people participated in communal learning, but at different levels depending on their authority in the group. It is the shared commitment that binds the members of the CoP in a single social entity, and although members of the CoP build up tangible communal resources, such as written files, procedures, processes and policies, (hard knowledge) intangible resources are also being built up such as experiences rituals and idioms (soft knowledge). Hildreth and Kimble (2002) argued that the underlying problems of managing this knowledge was that Knowledge Management (KM) failed to recognise that knowledge itself consists of both hard and soft knowledge, much like the Chinese concepts of Yin and Yan and are mutually interdependent. â€Å"Knowledge by itself produces nothing; only when it is integrated into a task does knowledge benefit society. (Drucker 1992) Hislop (2004) examined three cases studies of CoP’s in large European organisations and concluded that only one was successful in sharing knowledge between communities. The other two failed to do so because they did not share the same identity. So it could be concluded that although CoP’s are self controlled and self directed, and maybe of value to the business organisation, the actual benefit and contribution to the organisation could also be uncertain. Maybe, because group solidarity in human communities, is often at the price of hostility/non-cooperation towards non-group members. â€Å"There appears to be a natural human inclination for dividing the world into friends and enemies that is the basis of all politics. † (Fukuyama, 1995) So knowledge maybe personified tacitly in the experiences of a community of practitioners in an organisation or explicitly in the written files, but Knowledge Management (KM) is a critical task for any organisation. Reducing tacit knowledge into numbers the organisation stands to lose money, although knowledge can be safely stored on computer systems – the actual value could be lost if an employee leaves with the tacit knowledge on how to use the explicit knowledge. Employee retention/turnover is important as downsizing and retirement can cause a loss of shared knowledge and knowledge could be transferred to competitors and be damaging to an organisations competitive advantage. (Stovel and Bontis (2002). Stovel and Bontis (2002) also advocate that â€Å"productivity will drop for a time due to the learning curve involved as new employees’ gain the knowledge of the tasks involved and understands and learns from the organisational culture. Information and data can be stored but it is not until it has been processed in the minds of an individual and is communicated to others does it become knowledge (Alavi and Leidener 2001) so to make tacit knowledge explicit, there has to be knowledge transfer. Knowledge transfer within and between organisations is not a one-way activity, but a process of trial and error, feedback, and mutual adjustment of both the source and the recipient (Von Krogh, 2003: 373). There have been a number of studies which have shown that some of the benefits of knowledge sharing/transfer can help solve problems and increase performance, adaptation, collaboration and innovation. (Constant, Sproull and Kiesler, 1996; Brown and Duguid, 2000). However, there is a great deal of literature on knowledge management and innumerable definitions of knowledge and what knowledge is, Blackler (1995) describes knowledge as â€Å"multifaceted and complex, being both situated and abstract, implicit and explicit, distributed and individual, physical and mental, developing and static, verbal and encoded. † While Fowler and Pryke’s (2003) views the more human element of knowledge â€Å"as much the perception arising from information and refracted through the individual’s personal lens†. Whereas, Knowledge Management Systems refers to information systems, particularly with the use of technology, which is adopted and designed to support employees, there is an emerging awareness that there is a social element to the area of knowledge management, which focuses on a more human centred approach, as a means of managing knowledge in organisations (Hildreth et el 1999) It is now recognised that the performance of any organisation, private and public is very much dependent upon the knowledge of the employees. But, it is the social element or the concept of â€Å"social capital† and its role in knowledge management for developing and gaining competitive advantage, and more broadly intellectual capital (IC) popularised by Stewart in Fortune magazine (1994) which has relational elements and comprises of human capital, structural capital, and organisational capital (Edvinsson and Malone, 1997; Stewart, 1997; Sveiby, 1997; Guthrie and Petty, 2000) and is viewed also as being central to the sustainability of competitive advantage. Edvinson and Malone (1997) defined human_ capital_ as the value of everything that ‘leaves the company at five p. m. † That is to say that only the shared knowledge assets or the _structural _capital only remains, when employees walk out through the door. Social capital can be defined as a set of informal values or norms shared among members of a group that permits them to cooperate with one another. â€Å"If members of the group come to expect that others will behave reliably and honestly, then they will come to trust one another. Trust acts like a lubricant that makes any group or organisation run more efficiently. † (Fukuyama, 1999, p16) With trust and the co-operation in groups and the social interactions based on informal communication, the building of networks can have economic benefits, with the creation of business opportunities through networking as trust reduces the costs of contracts and legal actions and shared values can make negotiations more successful. Social capital may also create business opportunities by facilitating and exchanging semi – confidential information and mutual ncouragement. (Glaser, Edward L. , Laibson, David, and Sacerdote, Bruce 2002), Intellectual Capital is the intangible economic value of organisational capital (structures, processes and culture) and human capital (skills, behaviour and knowledge) and it is the intangible asset of knowledge that is now being added to the classical production factors of land labour and capital. Growth and innovation are now rel ying on the intellectual capital /knowledge of an organisation, and how it uses the knowledge to compete in the market (Kim and Mauborgine (1999). The field of intellectual capital stems from the need of organisations to have to quantify assets. So efficient management of intellectual capital is directly linked to measurement and valuation (Andrieseen 2004) and has necessitated the introduction of reporting and valuations models for IC (Liebowitz and Suen 2000) and as the literature suggest the most popular measure of IC is the difference between the market value and the book value of a knowledge based firm (Brennan and Connell 2000. ) According to (Tuban and Aronson 2001) Knowledge is critically important because as an asset it appreciates rather than depreciates. Knowledge increases so intellectual capital is going to improve. So by using systems thinking to promote Intellectual Capital could be a powerful approach for understanding the nature of ‘problems situations’ and the way they are dealt with and how to go about improving results. The key benefit of the system is that it involves seeing the whole picture and creates insights to problems and can nurture the way that communities of practice can co-operate and learn through shared knowledge and experiences. System thinking is not an easy approach as it requires a substantial investment of effort, and thought, though the results can be more than worth the investment. Central to these ideas is that intellectual capital is ‘embedded in both people and systems. The stock of human capital consists of humans (the knowledge skills and abilities of people) social (the valuable relationships among people) and organisational (the processes and routines within the firm)’ (Wright et al 2001:716). But there are criticisms of Soft Thinks Thinking as the system is unable to deal with conflicting nature of social systems, and that it is a conceptual methodology and does not represent the real world, and the methodology implies that actors in a situation have the freedom to instigate change and that conflict does exist but the methodology relies on compromise. Douglas and MacGregor 1960 in his book â€Å"Human side of Enterprise â€Å"maintained that there are two fundamental approaches to managing people. Many managers tend towards theory x, and generally get poor results. Enlightened managers use theory y, which produces better performance and results, and allows people to grow and develop. Which demonstrates that you can’t legislate for human behaviour and those humans also by nature can be territorial and will protect their domain, by advocating knowledge is power. Lave and Wenger (1991) fail to explore the implications of the distribution of power when discussing CoP and Marshall and Rollinson (2004) suggests that Lave and Wenger ( 1991) discussions of meaning can be misinterpreted as ‘ excessively quiescent and consensual’ while in reality such activities are plagued by misunderstanding and disagreements. Without trust the members of the community of practice may be reluctant to share knowledge, and may become static in terms of their knowledge base be resistant to change. There are limitations to the communities of practice but, its does allow the means to explore the transfer of tacit knowledge management tools focused on the codification of knowledge. But a community of practice is one of a number of knowledge management tools, and different organisations require different tools. Other tools maybe needed to be developed to manage tacit knowledge as from the critic that soft thinking systems may not always be appropriate as a knowledge management tool. References Alavi, M. and D. Leidner 2001 Knowledge Management and Knowledge Management Systems: Conceptual Foundations and Research Issues MIS Quarterly 25(1): 107-136 Andriessen, D. (2004). IC valuation and measurement: classifying the state of the art. Journal of Intellectual Capital, 5, 230-242. Blacker F (1995) Knowledge, Knowledge work and organisations: An overview and interpretation, Organisation Studies 16 (6) Bontis, N. 1998). Intellectual capital: an exploratory study that develops measures and models. Management Decision, 36, 63-76. Bontis, N. (2002). Managing organizational knowledge by diagnosing intellectual capital: Framing and advancing the state of the field. ?n Nick Bontis (? d. ), World Congress on Intellectual Capital readings (13-56). Woburn, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann. Bontis, N. , Dragonett i, N. C. , Jacobsen, K. & Roos, G. (1999). The knowledge toolbox: A review of the tools available to measure and manage intangible Resources. European Management Journal, 17, 391-402. Brennan, N. and Connell, B. (2000) â€Å"Intellectual capital: current issues and policy implications†, _Journal of Intellectual capital_, Vol. 1, No. 3, pp206-240. Brooking, A. (1996). Intellectual capital: Core asset for the third millennium enterprise. London: International Thomson Business Press. Brown J S and Duguid P (2000a) Structure and Spontaneity; knowledge and organisation – In Nonaka, I and Teece D (Eds) Managing Industrial Knowledge London Sage, 44-67. Checkland, Peter B. , 1981. Systems Thinking, Systems Practice. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. Checkland, Peter B. , and Jim Scholes, 1990. Soft Systems Methodology in Action. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons Constant, D. , Sproull L. , and Kiesler, S. (1996). The kindness of strangers: The usefulness of electronic weak ties for technical advice. Organization Science, 7(2): 119-135. Drucker P F (1992). The New Society of Organisations: 70(5):95-104 Edvinsson, L. (1997). Developing intellectual capital at Skandia. Long Range Planning, 30, 366-373. Edvinsson, L. and Malone, M. S. (1997), Intellectual Capital, Piatkus, London. Edvinsson, L. & Sullivan, P. (1996). Developing a model for managing intellectual capital. European Management Journal, 14, 356-364. Eisenhardt, K. M. and Santos, F. M. (2002) â€Å"Knowledge-based view: a new theory of strategy? in Pettigrew, A. (Ed. ), Handbook of Strategy and Management, London, Sage, pp. 138-64. Fukuyama, F (1991) The Great Disruption p16 New York Simon and Shuster Fukuyama, F (1995) Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity (New York: Free Press, 1995), chapter 9. Glaser, Edward L. , Laibson, David, and Sacerdote, Bruce (2002), An Economic Approach to Social Capital, Nov. 112, pp 437-458 Grant, R. M. 1996. Towards a knowledge-based theory of the firm. Strategic Management Journal, 17 (Winter Special Issue), 108-122. Hildreth P and Kimble C (2002) The Duality of Knowledge â€Å"Information Research 8(1) paper no 142 Hildreth P Wright P and Kimble C (1999) Knowledge management are we missing something? Information Systems – The Next Generation. Hislop D (2004) The Paradox of Communities of Practice: Knowledge Sharing between Communities. Guthrie, J. and Petty, R. (2000), â€Å"Intellectual capital: Australian annual reporting practices. † Journal of Intellectual Capital, vol. no. 3, pp. 241-251. Handy, C. B. (1989). The age of unreason. London: Arrow Books Ltd. Iles V and Sutherlandk K (2001) Organisational Change: A Review of Health Care Managers, Professionals and Researchers, National Coordination Centre for NHS Service Delivery and Organisation R and D London. Kaplan, R. S. & Norton, D. P. (1992). The Balanced Scorecard – measures that drive performance . Harvard Business Review, January-February, 71-79. Kim, W. C. & Mauborgne, R. (1999), ‘Strategy, value innovation, and the knowledge economy’, Sloan Management Review Spring, 41–53. Lave J and Wenger E (1991) Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation Cambridge University Press Liebowitz, J. & Suen, C. (2000). Developing knowledge metrics for measuring. Journal of Intellectual Capital, 1, 54-67. Rose J and Haynes M (2001) A Soft Systems Approach to the Evaluation of Complex Interventions in the Public Sector, Manchester Metropolitan University Press. Senge, P (1990) The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organisation, Doubleday New York 1990. Senge, P. & Lannon-Kim, C. (1991). Recapturing the spirit of learning through a systems approach. Stewart, T. A. (1997), _Intellectual Capital: The New Wealth of _Organizations, Doubleday/Currency, New York, NY. Sveiby, K. E. (1997), The_ New Organizational Wealth: Managing and Measuring_ Knowledge-based Assets, Berrett-Kohler, San Francisco, CA. Krogh von, G. 2003. Knowledge Sharing and the Communal Resource. In M. Easterby-Smith and M. Lyles, A. (Ed. ), Handbook of Organizational Learning and Knowledge Management: 372-392. Malden, Oxford, Melbourne, Berlin: Blackwell Publishing. Mulgan G (2002) Policy-Making in the Global Commons Connect No 5 pp 6-18 Centre for Management and Policy Studies.

Basic Solutions for Bad Study Habit

†¢Balancing school and friends. This can be a challenge. Friendships are important but so is school. The best way to balance school and friends is to study together. Good friends will support your academic and future goals. You can also make friends with other people who are planning for college and taking the same classes as you. †¢Add interest to your reading assignments. To get through a long reading assignment, imagine yourself in the story. Get involved. Ask yourself, â€Å"What is important to remember about this section? † You should always take notes or underline key sections and discuss the material with others in your class.You can also create a study group and break the assignment into different sections. Each person can be responsible for closely studying one part of the text. The other parts you can skim or outline. Then get together as a group to share what you’ve learned. †¢Cramming before a test. Cramming before a test is always a bad idea . Start studying well in advance. Begin with an hour or two a day and then increase your study time as exams approach. †¢Don’t know where to start. Your challenge is to prioritize. With a big project, list all the things you have to do.Then split the project into small, manageable chunks. Ask, â€Å"Which part is due first? Which part of the assignment is worth more points? Which task will take the most time to complete? † Decide which tasks are most important and what order you’ll use to get things done. Then get started! The most important thing to remember is start early and work a little bit each day. You’ll be amazed at how much progress you make. †¢Staying up all night to study. Before a test, it is important to get enough sleep. Period. Make time to relax and unwind before each test.Be sure to eat well, sleep well and maybe get some exercise. You’re more likely to do better on the test if you take care of yourself. †¢Not enoug h time to study. The trick to solving this problem is getting organized. Bring out all of your notes and textbooks. Identify the most important information and the things you don’t understand. Focus your study time and energy on learning those things. If you need extra help, ask a teacher or tutor. If after school activities are the problem, keep a calendar with game days, meetings, assignments and practice times.Start assignments right when you get them, and use lunch hours and breaks to make extra progress. †¢Trouble remembering things. If you only have trouble sometimes, try connecting new information with your own examples and experiences. Use rhymes, poems or mental pictures to help remember important facts. Some people even make up songs to help them remember things. If you always have trouble remembering, no matter how long or hard you study, talk to your teacher or school counselor. They can talk with you about your specific problems and recommend strategies to h elp.

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Tides and Times Essay Time is like an ocean bed with each passing tides brings something new, Tides and Times is an article about the history that affected our generation, people that continue to inspire for as long as we can remember. Fernandez mentioned historical people who shape and influence his life and how any person can make big changes no matter how small his/her accomplished. He state that any person can be part of history, can pass something down to the next generation and should never be ashamed of what we did. Fernandez was saying that change is part of nature and let change be part of our life just people we met change our lives how they affect us and to it to others. Do what you do best be proud of who you are no matter what people say not matter what the situation are. We are not like the people on the books, articles and in the past maybe we can never be like them but what really matter is what we can do in our times to show our spark. The article discuss Jose Rizal about how he was one in a million how he try to avoid revolution at any cost that he was able to fulfill his dreams despite his hardship even at the cost of his life. Even people who wanted to good but ended up failing, Alfred Nobel created the dynamite so that people would fear the power of other countries and stop fighting but only ending up creating more fight between the nations and was named as the merchant of death even after all that Alfred continue to do and search what he could do for mankind. People do great things that no other would do and we record those things in spite of that why? We continue to search for better and amazing things we do it because we are not condiment is because we want to not for us but for the world. Sometimes we do even know that people made a big change in our lives we need to know what did that person do and how did it affects us thousands of people come and go their all part of us.

Child Responsibilities Essay Example for Free

Child Responsibilities Essay Many parents may be very strict on their kids when it comes to doing things like playing with fire, using power tools, having a job, or even owning a pocket knife, but I on the other hand, disagree. Although I understand that it’s very dangerous for kids to be handling such things, it also builds their character. You wouldn’t just allow any kid to be in charge of such thing, they must have maturity and responsibility up to a certain point to be able to be trusted in these situations. A speech titled â€Å"5 Dangerous Things you should let your kid do† by Gever Tulley on TED.com talks about kids who are allowed and even encouraged to do things most parents would never dare to let their kids be involved in. Tulley discusses how kids who participate in these activities build strong character. It’s good for kids to be in these kinds of environments as long as they already have responsibility up to a certain level. An issue similar to this that is thrown around in politic and economic discussions now days is child labor. Should we allow kids to have jobs? Should families who are economically struggling allow their kids to work in order to bring in enough food and necessities to the family? I don’t see a problem in child labor. Like Tulley, I agree with these ideas and think they build better personalities and make a child more understanding. Although, I do not think that a family should be able to force a kid to work, it’s also important to a kid’s childhood that they get a chance to be a kid, and not have to worry about work. The earlier a person starts working, the bigger chance they have to be successful in life. I can understand why some parent’s wouldn’t be willing to let their kids be in such environments, these environments can be very unsafe sometimes. A kid could have the possibility of cutting a finger off, or doing something that they would have to live with for the rest of their lives, but with adult supervision this is less likely to happen. Although UNICEF has stated that children are more likely to get hurt then adults because they have yet to learn what not to do, we have to understand that getting hurt can happen in any activity that a person participates in, that’s just part of life.

An In Depth Look At Blizzard Entertainment

An In Depth Look At Blizzard Entertainment This report is a in-depth look at Blizzard Entertainment the company, to find out why Blizzard entertainment is so successful in the gaming industry. We will look at the reasons on how it could come out with best selling games over and over again and how they manage to sell 2.4 million copies of one game within the first 24 hours. Furthermore, we will understand how Blizzard entertainment runs such a big company to such efficiency using the business model SWOT and PEST in the analysis of its success. A look at the current developments and what future developments it might have or where it can go from here will be discussed as well. I. A Brief History of Blizzard Entertainment Well, Blizzard Entertainment was not always as we had known it, originally founded in 1991 February as Silicon Synapse by Chairman Allen Adham, president Michael Morhaime and vice president Frank Pearce All Graduates from UCLA. In the days of Silicon Synapse it was more on focused on making game ports for other Gaming studios. Until the Breakthrough Game The Lost Vikings, it was hailed as one of the forefathers of that Game Genre . A year after that they released Rock Roll Racing another Cult Hit that paved the way for its predecessors in the Racer Shooter Genre. In 1994 It was only then its name was reestablished as Blizzard Entertainment. The first big scale game it released by Blizzard Entertainment, was Warcraft: Orcs Humans and it was a hit with the gamers. Ever since they have made a benchmark in the game, the gaming world was at their fingertips now. After such success with Blizzard Entertainments original Warcraft game, Warcraft: Orcs Humans , was touted as one of the best strategy games of 1994, and the games epic sequel, 1995s Warcraft II : Tides Of Darkness, won numerous awards, including the companys first Game of the Year award. Warcraft III :Reign Of Chaoss, released in July 2002, has likewise won several accolades , just like Starcraft another hit Game Series released by Blizzard Entertainment, It has become a staple of professional tournament gaming, along with its expansion, the award-winnin g Warcraft III : The Frozen Throne, which was released in July 2003. II. Current Projects and a look at the rise of WOW ( World Of Warcraft) Well Blizzard has many notable achievements in its released games, None of it comes close To World Of Warcraft, more widely known as WOW. World of Warcraft stands as the greatest game in the popular Warcraft series. World of Warcraft has been an extraordinary success since its launch in November 2004. It has impressed game critics and has captivated millions of players, who adore the virtual world created by this game. It is no longer just a game but is now a genuine phenomenon, and one that shows no signs of abating. It is one of the key games of recent times, and stands as a landmark title for online gaming. World of Warcraft is the forth title in the series of Warcraft games, which has been entertaining people for over a decade To understand more about the appeal of World of Warcraft, let us recall the time when WOW was released. It was not merely some massively multiplayer online role-playing game. It created a truly engaging online world set in the heart of Azeroth, a fantastic land that is filled with heroes and monsters and many other creatures. The games strength is that it functions as an experience, as a world that exists on its own terms that you may visit and explore as you please. The game sold more than 240,000 copies in its first 24 hours on the market, more than any other PC game in history. Since then it released two other expansion sets which was a greater success then the one before. Blizzard is also making attempt to diversify beyond their original aim of just making games. Blizzard Entertainment is currently working with Legendary Pictures in making a live action Warcraft movie. III. tso The 8 Core Values are namely : Gameplay First, Blizzard Entertainments success can be attributed to the gaming experiences they provide the consumer or player. The goal of each discipline within the company regardless of job post be it art, programming or customer support, is to create games as fun as possible for as many people as possible. In order to achieve this aim, it is in Blizzard Entertainments prime belief that its workers also enjoy the process of game making. Commitment to Quality, This is the most well known core value of Blizzard Entertainment, which is not only applied in creating the best gaming experience for the consumers, but also practiced in every aspect of their job. They approach each task carefully and seriously, and seek honest feedback and use it to improve the quality of their work. Afterall, games are remembered for their high quality, and not how late they are released into the public. Play nice, Play Fair, In their business first impressions are important but lasting impressions are the ones that matter. Blizzard Entertainment strives to maintain a high level of respect and integrity in all interactions with us, players, colleagues, and business partners. The conduct of each Blizzard Entertainment employee, be it online or offline, can reflect on the entire company. Embrace your inner Geek, The employees at Blizzard are encouraged to show their geek side . Cutting-edge technology, comic books, science fiction, top-end video cards, action figures with the kung-fu gripà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. Whatever it is theyre passionate about, it matters that each employee embraces it! Their unique enthusiasm helps to shape the fun, creative culture of Blizzard Entertainment. Happy and truly passionate workers make better workers, and what Blizzard Entertainment is all about today. Every voice matters, Great ideas can come from anywhere. Blizzard Entertainment is what it is today because of the voices of our players and of each member of the company. Every employee is encouraged to speak up, listen, be respectful of other opinions, and embrace criticism as just another avenue for great ideas. All because Blizzard values its employees and listens to the different ideas. Think globally, Blizzard Entertainment is a global company and everywhere on the planet there are people who play Blizzard Entertainment games. While respecting the cultural diversity that makes people unique, we strive to grow and support our global gaming community. We also seek the most passionate, talented people in the world to enrich our company and help us forge the future vision of Blizzard Entertainment. No country is too big or too small for Blizzard to take on or think about. Lead responsibility, Blizzard Entertainment believes its products and practices can affect not only our employees and players but the industry at large. As one of the worlds leading game companies, they are committed to making ethical decisions, always keeping the players in mind, and setting a strong example of professionalism and excellence at all times and for other game companies to exemplify. Learn and Grow The games industry is ever-changing. Technology improves, techniques change, and design philosophies become outdated. Since the founding of Blizzard Entertainment, it has worked to improve through experience, teaching one another and cultivating the desire to be the best at what they do. They see this as an individual responsibility as well as the companys. Employees can count on their peers, managers, and the company itself to be supportive and help them gain the knowledge and training they need. IV. A in-depth SWOT Analysis This Analysis will help us better understand of Blizzard Entertainments Success and its weaknesses. Using The SWOT Analysis model we can see the opportunities and revaluate the strategies to cope with its weaknesses. Strengths Good market position globally One of the very best pc game developers and held in high esteem by its customers. Very large age group from its larger customer base. Takes Feedback from its players and customers quickly and seriously. Developed World Of Warcraft to huge success and acclaim. Weaknesses May lack some competitive edge in some market segments over rival companies Relies on its current game titles more than it should. Very slow to release its games, often over the stipulated release date. Opportunities Business can be further diversified into other industries, example, making a film which it is trying to do now. Acquire more gaming sectors. More varied games. Look at a brand new type of pc game to boomz everyone away. Opening up of other global markets, getting more customers worldwide further. Working together with another pc gaming company to have a co-project. Threats Other big pc game producing companies, might pose some competition with maybe more attractive graphics or different game genres, Example, FPS. The time it takes to release a game might turn some gamers off, or they might just stop waiting all together. Limited experience in other industries it might want to diversify into Piracy 3rd party clients such as Garena, lancraft blueserver and many others. Strengths Blizzard Entertainment has a good market position globally, meaning in the games market it has a huge cut of the customers and transactions that happen in it. Blizzard Is very well respected by the gamers, customers and other companies alike for their awesome games which are well designed and enjoyable for a very wide age group. When Blizzard comes out with a new game other companies will always try to better it learning from its strengths. From kids to adults, blizzard games have players every age range, making it well welcomed by all. Blizzard Entertainment leaves no gamer from the casual gamer to hardcore, professional gamer satisfied. The games Are simple enough and fast for the casual gamer to play, but also well balanced with good competitive potential. Intact, World Cyber Games (WCG) the worlds largest scale gaming competition has 2 Blizzard Entertainment games to compete in, Namely Starcraft 2, Warcraft 3 and Dota, which is a custom map made from Warcraft 3. Blizzard Entertainments World Of Warcraft easily overshadows all of its accomplishments with 12 million subscribers and increasing. Making it the most played online MMORPG, no small feat without its dedicated team of staff. If a bug is reported or game defect , blizzard will take it seriously and respond quickly to look into the problem and solve the issue. Weaknesses While Blizzard Entertainment is certainly a very successful company but it is not perfect or infallible. One of its Weaknesses is its most of its games revolve around the same genre of the real time strategy (RTS) or Role Playing Games (RPG). Some game diversity would be a fresh change and might get into a bigger cut of the market and different gamer groups. On top of that Blizzards Entertainments game graphics might be less visual compared to other games therefore might have less competitive edge in some market segments over rival companies example sports gaming or fps. Though Blizzard Entertainment has very good games it keeps expanding on the already expanded game stories, example Warcraft which has great gameplay and good storyline, however it Blizzard keep concentrating on the same story and how to make a better installment people might get bored to keep playing the same story thats over extended or stretched. While Blizzard Entertainment are showing great signs of market diversification by trying to make a movie, their experience is very little in that field and almost non-existent. Might hit many glitches and problems along the way it might hard to solve with little experience. Which Blizzard Entertainment is attempting to avoid by working with a experience movie company, Legendary Films. Everyone agrees that Blizzard Entertainment makes great games, but another thing they agree is they take a really long to do that often over the stipulated release date. An impatient customer is never a happy customer. Game Quality should never be compromised but still the releases could be faster. Opportunities No doubt Blizzard Entertainment is very successful in its games and products, it can further diversify into other game genres it might not have touched, example sports gaming or FPS. Warcraft has a very rich storyline and might be good as a comic or book, gaining more exposure for Blizzard Entertainment as well in the process. Gameplay improvements and Graphical improvements to its current games with patches or when a new game comes out because the gaming industry is always improving, and gamers demand more every time. Look at a brand new game Genre with a totally new gaming engine of which the likes were never seen before and Blizzard Entertainment is on its way to another great selling game. Working with another experienced gaming company will help expand its horizons and its pool of talent, with more ideas and more funding, Blizzard Entertainment has a great global market share and good global coverage, but there are still countries that have not even heard of it, with the expanding global market and opening of markets, it would be a great time to reach even more countries. Blizzard Entertainment is currently working with Legendary Pictures, the studio behind the feature films such as Watchmen, The Dark Knight, Batman Begins, Superman Returns, and 300, in making of a live-action Warcraft movie. Threats Blizzard Entertainment faces serious competition from other companies that have some game genres that other gamers find more fun, example FPS. On top of that though Warcraft 3 has great cinematics, its in game graphics cant be compared. So many other games out there with much better graphics. EA games has Tiberiam Wars with much better graphics but of the same RTS genre , how about Relic Gamings Company of Heros. The Time it takes for Blizzard Entertainment to release its games is a great internal threat, for it may lose many loyal customers that got sick of waiting for the usually delayed games. Customers hate to wait unnecessarily and may buy other games instead. Blizzard Entertainment move into diversifying its market by moving into the movie industry which it has little experience, and requires a lot of funding. By going into other Game Genres its not familiar with also can be a risky move that might spell disaster by spreading itself too thin. Piracy is without a doubt one of the greatest threats to Blizzard Entertainment, infact to any industry that relies on the IP law. File Sharing is now everywhere and very easily accessible, one can even get the game without going out of his home and without spending a single cent for the game. Piracy costs Blizzard Entertainment millions of dollars every year. Why would people pay if they can get it free? Along with Piracy is 3rd party clients that make it possible for the games to be played online for free without the need for a original cd-key. In the past without these programs playing online with a pirated game would be impossible, and that would be one of the reasons why original games where still popular for the fact it had a cd-key that allows it to be played online. With these programs it bypasses all these security measures and there is no longer the need to pay for the game. V. Final SWOT Evaluation It is clear enough from this evaluation that Blizzard Entertainment has a very successful business model, but at the same time has so much more that it could improve on and diversify into. The very rich storyline of Warcraft has so much potential from movies to books to comics to Television series. The move that Blizzard Entertainment decided to make by working on a Warcraft movie was a good market decision to capture the growing movie industry and movie fans. Its lack in experience in the industry is offset by doing the movie with a more experienced movie company Legendary Pictures, the studio behind the feature films such as Watchmen, The Dark Knight, Batman Begins, Superman Returns, and 300, with a proven track record. But it should be warned that yes Blizzard Entertainment can go into other industries, but it must not neglect its main market share the gamers, and some hardcore fans might be turned off by the change Blizzard Entertainment. The Strengths are many and can be further worked upon by looking at the same game with different angles. Continuing to make games based on the gamers demand would be the best bet, for that means their games will always be in demand. The threats and weaknesses are numerous as well, however with the right well thought strategies they can be avoided and countered to keep Blizzard Entertainment ahead in the gaming world. However the greatest threat is Piracy and 3rd party clients, which in the case the saying if you cant beat them , join em doing business with the 3rd party clients might help Blizzard Entertainment gain back its lost profits from the programs and piracy. VI. Conclusion Blizzard Entertainment is a great game developer, and to continue in a increasing volatile market it has to keep changing to meet the demands of the new world. But if it continues to deliver its mission statement Dedicated to creating the most epic entertainment experiencesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.ever following its 8 core values. I dont doubt and not for a second that Blizzard Entertainment will continue deliver gaming experiences that redefine gaming.

Greece Essay -- Ancient Greece Essays

Greece Greece was founded in 3000 B.C. Greece is located in Southern Europe, bordering the Aegean Sea, Ionian Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea, between Turkey and Albania. Greece’s area can be compared to the size of the state of Alabama. Between 3500 and 3000 B.C., society was becoming more complex. Villages built during this time were becoming larger. However, the population increased at a slow rate. During the second millennium B.C. two Greek civilizations evolved - the Minoan in Crete and the Mycenaean on the mainland. Sometime around 1349 B.C., the Mycenaean peoples conquered the island of Crete, and the Minoan civilization basically stopped evolving. Archeologists and historians discovered that Minoans first wrote in the Greek language and the Mycenaean’s first spoke it. There was a time called the â€Å"Dark Age†. It was from approximately 1099 B.C. to 800 B.C. This is the time when things seemed to fall apart. An example is when a revolution occurs. In this case, peasants rebelled against the military rulers. It is believed that the Mycenaean’s were very strong in their armed forces, and that probably caused their own destruction. Things became unruly. People were just trying to survive. They lived in smaller communities and farmed for themselves. The population growth slowed down to probably its lowest levels. Sometime around 800’s B.C., things began to change again. Things were starting to get better. Renaissance is another word for re-birth. That is what was happening to this country. Between 750 and 500 B.C., the Greeks had founded colonies in many parts of the Mediterranean Basin and the Black Sea. The ports of Argos and Corinth, on the eastern side of the country, grew very fast and trade with the Near East began to grow. Metals were traded with the Near East and Italy. Because things were going good and the population rose, we all know, having more people means needing more food to eat and more land to expand on. This meant more explorers were needed to settle more areas and the expansion of Greece was underway. In the eighth century B.C., (799 to 700 B.C.), the concept of â€Å"polis† began to develop with the rich people to replace the poor people. The tyrants were often related to the rich people. The success of the tyrants created a new rule. That rule was that you don’t have to be born a prince or princess to rule a territory. After abo... ...thousands died because of no food. In all more than 500,000 people lost their lives. During the Civil War that followed, 80,000 more died. The national economy went down the drain. With a lot of help from the United States, things started to turn around for the better. During the 1960s the military took control of the government. The people began feeling like they were losing their freedom. Military leaders and politicians decided to â€Å"clean house†. They agreed that the way to do that was with a new constitution and a vote of the people to get rid of the monarchy. Instead a president was given considerable powers and they were not abused. In the 1970s through the 1980s democracy was finally in place. The European Union began its presence in the 1990s. Many of the European Union’s richer countries worried about Greece’s poorer status. But all of the many countries, including the United States, are richer because of their contact with Greece and its rich history. One of the most recent events was the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Over 11,000 athletes, from around the world, came together to compete in many different sporting events. It was a huge success and fun to watch on TV.

Temptation in the Fellowship of the Ring Essay -- literary Analysis, J

â€Å"One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them,† (55). The One Ring controls Gollum, Bilbo, Boromir, and Frodo in attempts to return to Sauron, Its Creator, the Lord of the Rings, and the utmost evil present in J.R.R. Tolkien’s novels. But the Ring never achieves Its goal because each character possesses a unique set of skills which resist the evil temptations of the Ring. Gollum is the first victim of the Ring, with no knowledge of Its powers or guidance away from Its control. Bilbo is the second ring bearer, with an almost complete knowledge of the Ring’s power still has difficulty resisting the Ring’s temptation. Gandalf guides Bilbo to constantly resist the evil of the Ring. Boromir never gets his hands on the Ring but craves Its power thinking he can use it for good, ignoring the guidance offered to him at the Council of Elrond. Frodo has the most knowledge and guidance of all the char acters but also seems to have the strongest temptations. J.R.R. Tolkien uses characterization in the Fellowship of the Ring to prove that people without a longing for power resist temptation through knowledge, good habits, and guidance. Gollum cannot resist the Ring’s temptation because he has no knowledge of the Ring and no guidance to form good habits and prevent addiction to the Ring. Gollum, originally, Smà ©agol wanted the Ring because of Its beauty but his friend, Dà ©agol found it first. After Dà ©agol refused to just give the Ring to Smà ©agol because it was his birthday, â€Å"†¦he [Smà ©agol] caught Dà ©agol by the throat and strangled him, because the gold looked so bright and beautiful. Then he put the ring on his finger,† (58). But after he found the Ring, he had no guidance to form good ... ...; and if by life or death I can save you, I will,† (194). Aragorn, also known as Strider, accompanied the hobbits from the Prancing Pony Inn all the way to the Council of Elrond. Gandalf was also a guiding path for Frodo keeping him updated on the evils of the Ring. I CAN’T FIND A QUOTE. But even with all his guidance Frodo still feels temptation from this Ring of power. â€Å"A sudden unreasoning fear of discovery laid hold of Frodo, and he thought of his Ring. He hardly dared to breathe, and yet the desire to get it out of his pocket became so strong that he began slowly to move his hand. He felt that he had only to slip it on, and then he would be safe,† (83). Frodo Baggins with knowledge and guidance was able to make good choices throughout his journey to Mordor in the Fellowship of the Ring because of his knowledge of the Ring and the guidance that surrounded him.

Indian Literature Essay

INTRODUCTION Indian Literature, literature in the languages of India, as well as those of Pakistan. For information on the literature written in the classicial language,Sanskrit,.The Indian literary tradition is primarily one of verse and is also essentially oral. The earliest works were composed to be sung or recited and were so transmitted for many generations before being written down. As a result, the earliest records of a text may be later by several centuries than the conjectured date of its composition. Furthermore, perhaps because so much Indian literature is either religious or a reworking of familiar stories from the Sanskrit epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, and the mythological writings known as Puranas, the authors often remain anonymous. Biographical details of the lives of most of the earlier Indian writers exist only in much later stories and legends, so that any history of Indian literature is bound to raise more questions than it answers. Often, much less is known about a n Indian poet who died in the early 19th century than of the English medieval poet Geoffrey Chaucer or of the Latin poet Virgil. II LINGUISTIC AND CULTURAL INFLUENCES Much traditional Indian literature is derived in theme and form not only from Sanskrit literature but from the Buddhist and Jain texts written in the Pali language and the other Prakrits (medieval dialects of Sanskrit). This applies to literature in the Dravidian languages of the south as well as to literature in the Indo-Iranian languages of the north. Successive invasions of Persians and Turks, beginning in the 14th century, resulted by about 1700 in most of India being governed by Muslim rulers. The influence of Persian and Islamic culture is strongest in literature written in Urdu, although important Islamic strands can be found in other literatures as well, especially those written in Bengali (Bangla), Gujarati, and Kashmiri. After 1817, when the British controlled nearly all of India, entirely new literary  values were established that remain dominant today. III THE TAMIL TRADITION The only Indian writings that incontestably pre-date the influence of classical Sanskrit are those in the Tamil language. Anthologies of secular lyrics on the themes of love and war, together with the grammatical-stylistic work Tolkappiyam (Old Composition), were once thought to be very ancient; they are now believed to date no earlier than from about the 1st to the 5th century ad. Later, between the 6th and 9th centuries, Tamil sectarian devotional poems were composed, often claimed as the first examples of the Indian bhakti tradition (see below). At some indeterminate date between the 2nd and 5th centuries, two long Tamil verse romances (sometimes called epics) were written: Cilappatikaram (The Jewelled Anklet) by Ilanko Atikal, which has been translated into English (1939 and 1965); and its sequel Manimekalai (The Girdle of Gems), a Buddhist work by Cattanar. IV MEDIEVAL INDIAN LITERATURE The first true works of literature in most of the main indigenous Indian languages tend to date from about 1200. Before then, any work of literature would have been composed in the literary languages: Sanskrit or one of the Prakrits in the north or Tamil in the Dravidian south. A  Sanskrit Epic Influence In this early period, which ended in about 1500, the main literary productions in all the languages of India were versions of stories from the Sanskrit epics and the Puranas. Many of the vernacular treatments of the Ramayana, Mahabharata, and Bhagavata-Purana, well known to educated Indian readers even today, were written during this period. For example, the first true Malayalam work, which is a version of the Ramayana, dates from about the 13th century. B Other Themes Other themes were also treated in medieval Indian literature. The earliest works in many of the languages were sectarian,designed to advance or to  celebrate some unorthodox regional belief. Examples are the Caryapadas, Tantric verses of the 12th century that are the earliest surviving works in Bengali, and the Lilacaritra (c. 1280), a Marathi prose account of the words and deeds of the founder of the Mahanubhava sect. In Kannada (Kanarese) from the 10th century, and later in Gujarati from the 13th century, the first truly indigenous works are Jain romances; ostensibly the lives of Jain saints, these are actually popular tales based on Sanskrit and Pali themes. Tales besides these sectarian works were composed; examples in Rajasthani are bardic tales of chivalry and heroic resistance to the first Muslim invasions—such as the 12th-century epic poem Prithiraja-raso by Chand Bardai of Lahore. Popular stories and ballads were also composed, such as those of East Bengal. Later important religious literatures developed that were associated with certain regional philosophies and sects: texts in Tamil from the 13th to the 15th century devoted to the medieval Hindu Shaiva-siddhanta sect; the works of the Lingayats (a Hindu sect devoted to the worship of Shiva) in Kannada, especially the vacanas, or â€Å"sayings†, of Basava, the mid-12th-century founder of the sect, and his disciples; and the Tantric texts, especially those from north-east India, which developed later into genres such as the mangala-kavya (poetry of an auspicious happening) of Bengal. This verse was addressed to deities such as Manasa (a snake goddess), purely local forms of the female divine principle called Devi . Most important of all for later Indian literature were the first traces in the vernacular languages of the northern Indian cults of Krishna and of Rama. The Krishna story developed in Sanskrit from the Mahabharata through the Bhagavata-Purana, to the 12th-century poem by Jaydev, called the Gitagovinda (The Cowherd’s Song); but in about 1400, a group of religious love poems written in Maithili (eastern Hindi of Bihar) by the poet Vidyapati were a seminal influence on the cult of Radha-Krishna in Bengal and the whole religio-erotic literature associated with it. C The Bhakti Tradition The full flowering of the Radha-Krishna cult, under the Hindu mystics Caitanya in Bengal and Vallabhacharya at Mathura, involved bhakti. The word bhakti implies a personal devotion to a god far different from the rituals of Brahmanism—an intense longing comparable to the desire of lovers or of a child separated from his or her mother. Indeed, bhakti may be conceived of in terms of all forms of human love. Although earlier traces of this attitude are found in the work of the Tamil Alvars (mystics who wrote ecstatic hymns to Vishnu between the 7th and 10th centuries), the enthusiasms of the Sufi mystics of Islam probably produced the surge of bhakti that flooded every channel of Indian intellectual and religious life beginning in the late 15th century. The sentiment was the same, but the recipient varied by region. Beside the writings of the devotees of Radha-Krishna, bhakti was addressed to Rama (an avatar of Vishnu), most notably in the Avadhi (eastern Hindi) works of Tulsi Das; his Ramcaritmanas (Lake of the Acts of Rama, 1574-1577; trans. 1952) has become the authoritative, repeatedly recited version of the Ramayana for the whole Hindi-speaking north. The early gurus, or founders of the Sikh religion, especially Nanak and Arjun, wrote bhakti hymns to their concepts of deity. These are the first written documents in Punjabi (Panjabi) and form part of the Adi Granth (First, or Original, Book), the sacred scripture of the Sikhs, which was first compiled by Arjun in 1604. In the 16th century, in other regions, bhakti was directed to other forms of divinity. For example, the Rajasthani princess and poet Mira Bai addressed her lyric verse to Krishna, as did the Gujarati poet Narsimh Mehta. V INDIAN LITERATURE OF THE MIDDLE PERIOD In the literature from about 1500 to 1800, the stream of reworkings of the traditional Sanskrit epics continued unabated, while at the same time the use of Urdu and of Persian literary forms arose. A Traditional Material In the 16th century, Jagannath Das wrote an Oriya version of the Bhagavata and Tuncattu Eruttacchan, the so-called father of Malayalam literature, wrote recensions of traditional literature. To these were added, particularly in the 18th century, a deliberate imitation of Sanskritic forms and metres in addition to a highly Sanskritic vocabulary by pandita, or â€Å"learned† poets, or by court poets like those of the Telugu-speaking kingdom of Vijaynagar. Historical events were recounted in 18th-century Assamese and Marathi prose chronicles, ballads, and folk drama involving much dance and  song. B Urdu Literature During this period, Indian literature was also written in Urdu, a new language. Urdu, spoken in the Delhi region, is similar to Hindi and contains many words from Arabic and Persian. The Urdu poets almost always wrote in Persian forms, using the ghazal for love poetry in addition to an Islamic form of bhakti, the masnavi for narrative verse, and the marsiya for elegies. Writing in Urdu began first in the Islamic kingdoms of the Deccan, where literary experiment was apparently easier and the prestige of the orthodox literary language, Persian, was less strong; it culminated there in the lyrics of Wali. Urdu then gained use as a literary language in Delhi and Lucknow. The ghazals of Mir and Ghalib mark the highest achievement of Urdu lyric verse. The Urdu poets were mostly sophisticated, urban artists, but some adopted the idiom of folk poetry, and this is typical of the verse written in Punjabi, Pushtu, Sindhi, or other regional languages. Poets such as Ghalib, for example, lived and worked during the British era, when a literary revolution occurred in all the Indian languages as a result of contact with Western thought, when the printing press was introduced (by Christian missionaries), and when the influence of Western educational institutions was strong. During the mid-19th century in the great ports of Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras, a prose literary tradition arose—encompassing the novel, short story, essay, and literary drama (this last incorporating both classical Sanskrit and Western models)—that gradually engulfed the customary Indian verse genres. The northern heartland of Delhi and Uttar Pradesh was the last to be affected by this new tradition; and because Muslims for the most part did not take advantage of the new education, Urdu writing preserved much of its integrity. Urdu poets remained faithful to the old forms and metres while Bengalis were imitating such English poets as Percy Bysshe Shelley in the 1840s or T. S. Eliot in the 1940s. Ghalib The celebrated Urdu poet Ghalib has often been termed a â€Å"light tower in the Urdu literature†. The Punjabi government established a Ghalib literary award in his memory, in 1998. Dinodia During the last 150 years many writers have contributed to the development of modern Indian literature, writing in any of 15 major languages (including, of course, English). In the process of Westernization, Bengali has led the way and today has one of the most extensive literatures of any Indian language. One of its greatest representatives is Rabindranath Tagore, the first Indian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature (1913). Much of his prose and verse is available in his own English translations. Anita Desai In her colourful novels and short stories portraying life in India, author Anita Desai describes the aspirations and struggles of ordinary people in her homeland. She published her first novel, Cry, the Peacock, in 1963. Globe Photos, Inc. Work by two other great 20th-century Indian leaders and writers is also widely known through translation: the verse of the Islamic leader and philosopher Sir Muhammad Iqbal, originally written in Urdu and Persian; and the autobiography of Mohandas K. Gandhi, My Experiments with Truth, originally written in Gujarati between 1927 and 1929 and now considered a classic. Although the bulk of later 20th-century Indian writing remains untranslated, several writers working in English are relatively well known to the West. They include Mulk Raj Anand, among whose many works the early affectionate Untouchable (1935) and Coolie (1936) are novels of social protest; and R. K. Narayan, writer of novels and tales of village life in southern India. The first of Narayan’s many works, Swami and Friends, appeared in 1935; among his more recent titles are The English Teacher (1980), The Vendor of Sweets (1983), and Under the Banyan Tree (1985). Among the younger authors writing of modern India with nostalgia for the past is Anita Desai—as in Clear Light of Day (1980). Her In Custody (1984) is the story of a teacher’s fatal enchantment with poetry. Ved Mehta, although long resident in the United States, recalls his Indian roots in a series of memoirs of his family and of his education at schools for the blind in India and America; among these works are Vedi (1982) and Sound Shadows of the New World (1986).

Sejanus

SejanusLucius Aelius Sejanus (20 BC – October 18, AD 31), commonly known as Sejanus, was an ambitious soldier, friend and confidant of the Roman Emperor Tiberius. An equestrian by birth, Sejanus rose to power as prefect of the Roman imperial bodyguard, known as the Praetorian Guard, of which he was commander from AD 14 until his death in AD 31.While the Praetorian Guard was formally established under Emperor Augustus, Sejanus introduced a number of reforms which saw the unit evolve beyond a mere bodyguard into a powerful and influential branch of the government involved in public security, civil administration, and ultimately political intercession; changes which would have a lasting impact on the course of the Principate. During the 20s, Sejanus gradually accumulated power by consolidating his influence over Tiberius and eliminating potential political opponents, including the emperor's son, Drusus Julius Caesar.When Tiberius withdrew to Capri in 26, Sejanus was left in contr ol of the entire state mechanism as de facto ruler of the empire. For a time the most influential and feared citizen of Rome, Sejanus suddenly fell from power in 31, the year his career culminated with the consulship. Amidst suspicions of conspiracy against Tiberius, Sejanus was arrested and executed, along with his followers. | Marcus Vipsanius AgrippaMarcus Vipsanius Agrippa (23 October or November 64/63 BC – 12 BC) was a Roman statesman and general.He was a close friend, son-in-law, lieutenant and defence minister to Octavian, the future Emperor Caesar Augustus and father-in-law of the Emperor Tiberius, maternal grandfather of the Emperor Caligula, and maternal great-grandfather of the Emperor Nero. He was responsible for most of Octavian’s military victories, most notably winning the naval Battle of Actium against the forces of Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII of Egypt. | Seneca the YoungerLucius Annaeus Seneca (often known simply as Seneca; ca. BC – AD 65) was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to Emperor Nero. While he was later forced to commit suicide for alleged complicity in the Pisonian conspiracy to assassinate Nero, the last of the Julio-Claudian emperors, he may have been innocent. His father was Seneca the Elder and | Vipsania Agrippina Vipsania Agrippina (36 BC-20 AD) was the daughter of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa from his first wife Pomponia Caecilia Attica, granddaughter of Cicero's friend and knight Titus Pomponius Atticus.Her maternal grandmother was a descendant of Marcus Licinius Crassus. By marriage, she was a great-niece to Quintus Tullius Cicero. Octavian and her father betrothed her to Tiberius before her first birthday. In 20 BC or 16 BC she married Tiberius. Their son Drusus the Younger was born in 13 BC. Agrippa died in March, 12 BC. He was married to Julia the Elder, daughter of Augustus. Augustus forced Ti berius to divorce Vipsania and marry Julia. Tiberius reportedly loved Vipsania and disapproved of Julia.Vipsania was at the time pregnant, and from the shock lost the baby. | Livia (30 January 58 BC– 28 September AD 29), after her formal adoption into the Julian family in AD 14 also known as Julia Augusta, was an empress of Rome as the third wife of the emperor Augustus Caesar, as well as his adviser. She was the mother of the emperor Tiberius, paternal grandmother of the emperor Claudius, paternal great-grandmother of the emperor Caligula, and maternal great-great grandmother of the emperor Nero.She was deified by Claudius who acknowledged her title of Augusta. After Mark Antony's suicide following the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, Octavian had removed all obstacles to his power and henceforth ruled as Emperor, from 27 BC on, under the honorary title Augustus. He and Livia formed the role model for Roman households. Despite their wealth and power, Augustus's family continued to live modestly in their house on the Palatine Hill. Livia would set the pattern for the noble Roman matrona.She wore neither excessive jewelry nor pretentious costumes, she took care of the household and her husband (often making his clothes herself), always faithful and dedicated. In 35 BC Octavian gave Livia the unprecedented honour of ruling her own finances and dedicated a public statue to her. She had her own circle of clients and pushed many proteges into political offices, including the grandfathers of the later emperors Galba and Otho. |

The Exorcism of Emily Rose Essay

Although demonic possession is not an appealing subject, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, directed by Scott Derrickson, presents many Catholic teachings and is important to watch and understand the reality of the Devil. This movie, in depth, shows the true evilness of the Devil and has many themes that go along with it. So what is it that makes possessed person so scary, its only actor’s right? The reality of demonic possession is so frightening in this film; there is no doubt about the reality of the devil after watching. The reality of the devil is displayed in many ways. For example, one of the most obvious displays is when the lawyer is affected. She goes home to her apartment and the devil starts â€Å"messing† with her, opening doors and intimidating her. Another way that the reality of this exorcism creates horror in the viewers is that it is based on a true story. The girl that was possessed was named Anneliese Michel from Germany. Both of these displays of the reality of the devil show the power of evil as well as the power of the divine. Emily, or Anneliese, is possessed by the devil and her body is taken over, showing this power. These events have many effects on the audience. It makes them think about the reality of possession and challenges them to come to their own understanding about possession. Another effect on the audience is the realization that â€Å"facts† are interpretations and not always concrete. Although the prosecutors brought in doctors to prove the priests neglect, they did not have anything that truly eliminated the supernatural possibility. Another major and important theme in the Exorcism of Emily Rose is the concept of the â€Å"victim soul† and redemption is possible. With this in The Exorcism of Emily Rose, it is seen that the good always overcomes evil. Erin Bruner, the defense lawyer says â€Å"Either these things exist, or they don’t.† This means that she believes it is a fact that if there is a God, there is a devil and if there is a devil, there is a God. This was a good defense because it was an emphasized point that the prosecutor was as methodist, therefore he believes in God, leading to him HAVING to believe in the Devil. The Exorcism of Emily Rose is such a worthwhile film to watch because of its accurate interpretation of the supernatural and evil world. Scott Derrickson developed the reality and conception of the â€Å"victim soul† phemonionally in  this movie. This movie is very important in demonstrating the true evilness of the devil, and true redemption offered by God.

Gary Stanley Becker

{draw:frame} THIS ASSIGNMENT IS WRITTEN FOR: PROF. ABDULLA LECTURER’S NAME VAISHNAVI GOPALAKRISHNAN STUDENTS NAME STUDENT ID 00114 MODULE * * : MANAGING ENVIRONMENT TITLE * * : INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT *HAND-OUT-DATE : 06th* SEPTEMBER 2009 LECTURER * * : PROF. ABDULLA HAND-IN-DATE : 09*th* NOVEMBER 2009 MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION COHORT 14 SEM 1 ASSIGNMENT DECLARATION FORM I hereby declare that the attached assignment is my own work and understand that if I am suspected of plagiarism or another form of cheating; my work will be referred to the programmed director who may as a result recommend to the Faculty of business that my enrolment in the programmed be discontinued. SIGNATURE: _ NAME : VAISHNAVI GOPALAKRISHNAN STUDENT NO : 00114 ADDRESS : S1-12-19, SUTRAMAS APARTMENT, PUCHONG. TEL NO : 010- 2740280 SUBJECT : MANAGING ENVIRONMENT DUE DATE : 06th NOVEMBER 2009 LECTURER : PROF. ABDULLA ASSIGNMENT TITLE : INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT DATE SUBMITTED : 09th NOVEMBER 2009 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS* * * I would like to begin this undertaking by thanking GOD, the most glorified, for providing me with all the strength and courage to complete this report successfully and on time. I am also extremely grateful to my ‘Managing Environment’ lecturer, PROF. ABDULLA for his time, patience and guidance throughout the making of this report. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. 0 BIOGR APHY OF GARY STANLEY BECKER-ECONOMIC NOBLE LAUREATE: {draw:frame} BIRTH OF GARY STANLEY AND HIS EARLY STAGES IN LIFE: Gary Stanley Becker is an American economist and a Nobel laureate. He was born on December 2, 1930 in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. He did his elementary school and high school in Brooklyn. Until age sixteen he was more interested in sports than intellectual activities, but he had to choose one among them and finally decided to choose education, although he was better at sports. BECKER’S FAMILY: His father is a business man. His father had left school in Montreal after the 8th grade because he was eager to make money. His mother also left after the 8th grade because girls were not expected to get much education. He has two sisters, Wendy and Natalie, and one brother, Marvin. He married for the first time in 1954, and has two daughters from that marriage, Judy and Catherine He married for the second time in 1980 to Guity Nashat as his first wife died in 1970. This gave him two stepsons, Michael and Cyrus, to go with two daughters. Guity is the one who overcame his reluctance to do the Business Week columns. She is an historian of the Middle East with professional interests that overlap his own: on the role of women in economic and social life, and the causes of economic growth. The personal and professional compatibility she provided has made his life so much better. ROOT CAUSE OF THE REASON WHY BECKER ENTERED INTO THE ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT: His father encouraged him with political and financial news. After his father lost most of his sight, he had the task of reading him stock quotations and other reports on financial developments. Perhaps that stimulated his interest in economics, although he was rather bored by it. He had many lively discussions in the house about politics and justice. This explains why by the time he finished high school, his interest in mathematics was beginning to compete with a desire to do something useful for society. These two interests came together during his freshman year at Princeton, when he accidentally took a course in economics, and was greatly attracted by the mathematical rigor of a subject that dealt with social organization. HIS ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE: Becker completed his B. A in economics at Princeton University in the year 1953. He took a few extra courses during degree, and he chose reading courses in modern algebra and differential equations. He completed a Ph. D. at The University of Chicago in 1955. HOW THE INVOLVEMENT IN MATHEMETHICS HELPED IN HIS PROFESSION: Till now, his heavy investment in mathematics at Princeton prepared him well for the increasing use of mathematics in economics. He began to lose interest in economics during his senior (third) year because it did not seem to deal with important social problems. He contemplated transferring to sociology, but found that subject too difficult. Fortunately, he decided to go to the University of Chicago for graduate work in economics. HIS WORK WITH MILTON FRIEDMAN: He worked with Milton Friedman in 1951 on microeconomics which was the root cause of the excitement about economics. He came to know that economic theory was not a game played by clever academicians, but was a powerful tool to analyze the real world. His course was filled with insights both into the structure of economic theory and its application to practical and significant questions. That course and subsequent contacts with Friedman had a profound effect on the direction taken by his research. He used many of the economist’s theories in his various branch of research work. BECKER’S ACHIEVEMENTS: He published two articles in 1952, based on his research at Princeton. He published an article in 1957, which was written along with Friedman and a book based on his Ph. D. dissertation. He wrote a book on human capital which was his first research project for the National Bureau of Economic Research. He also wrote frequently cited articles on the allocation of time, crime and punishment, and irrational behavior. He began a workshop at Columbia on labor economics and related subjects. Becker along with George Stigler wrote two influential papers together: a controversial one on the stability of tastes, and an early treatment of the principle-agent problem. He had published a short paper on economics of politics in 1958. In the 1980s he published two articles that developed a theoretical model of the role of special interest groups in the political process. A series of articles in the 1970s culminated in 1981 in A Treatise on the Family, and a greatly expanded edition was published in 1991. Until 1985, he had published only technical books and technical articles in professional journals. He was asked to write a monthly column for Business Week magazine in about 800 words per column without using any technical jargons which interested the business and professional readers of the magazine. BECKER’S HONOURS: He has won the Seidman Award from presidency of the American Economic Association. He has won the first social science Award of Merit from the National Institute of Health. Becker won the John Bates Clark Award of the American Economic Association in 1967 and was president of that association in 1987. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1992 He received the United States' Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007. HOW DID HE APPLY ECONOMICS TO THE SOCIAL ISSUES? The book which was published in 1957 contains the first systematic effort to use economic theory to analyze the effects of prejudice on the earnings, employment and occupations of minorities. It started him the path of applying economics to social issues, a path that he has continued to follow. The book was very favorably reviewed in a few major journals, but for several years it had no visible impact on anything. Most economists did not think racial discrimination was economics, and sociologists and psychologists generally did not believe he was contributing to their fields. However, Friedman, Lewis, Schultz, and others at Chicago were confident that he had written an important book. The reason for him to continue in economics was the people who supported him with willingness. HIS FIRST STEP IN TO THE PROFESSIONAL LIFE: After his third year of graduate study he became an Assistant Professor at Chicago. He had only few classes of teaching, so he could concentrate mainly on research. However, he felt that he would become more independent if he left the institution and concentrate only on the research. After three years in that position, he withdrew much larger salary from Chicago to take a similar appointment at Columbia combined with one at the National Bureau of Economic Research. For twelve years he divided his time between teaching at Columbia and doing research at the Bureau. HIS EXPERIENCE DURING THE DOCTORATE DEGREE IN CHICAGO UNIVERSITY: The workshop on labor economics and related subjects involved transplanting the workshop system of supervising doctoral research from Chicago – where it originated. After a few years, Jacob Mincer joined the Columbia department and became co-director of the workshop. They had a very exciting atmosphere and attracted most of the best students at Columbia. Both Mincer and Becker were doing research on human capital before this subject was adequately appreciated in the profession at large, and the students found it fascinating. They were also working on the allocation of time, and other subjects in the forefront of research. HIS FOCOUSED AREA OF WORK: Mainly he worked on the family after returning to Chicago. He had much earlier used economic theory to try to understand birth rates and family size. He now began to consider the whole range of family issues: marriage, divorce, altruism toward other members, investments by parents in children, and long term changes in what families do. He has tried not only to understand the determinants of divorce, family size, and the like, but also the effects of changes in family composition and structure on inequality and economic growth. Most of his research on the family, and that by students and faculty at Chicago and elsewhere was presented at the Workshop in Applications of Economics that Sherwin Rosen and Becker run. WAS HIS WORK BEEN RECOGNISED BY OTHER ECONOMISTS? For a long time his type of work was either ignored or strongly disliked by most of the leading economists. He was considered way out and perhaps not really an economist. But younger economists were more sympathetic. They may disagree with his analysis, but accept the kind of problems, studied as perfectly legitimate. HIS SECOND STEP IN TO THE PROFESSIONAL LIFE: In 1983, the Sociology Department at Chicago offered him a joint appointment. He was happy to accept because this was an outstanding department. James Coleman and Becker shortly thereafter began an interdisciplinary faculty seminar on rational choice in the social sciences that has been far more successful than they anticipated. 2. 0 * *BECKER’S CONTRIBUTION TO ECONOMICS: MAJOR APPLICATION OF BECKER’S MODEL TO DIFFERENR TYPES OF HUMAN BEHAVIOUR: Investments in human capital; Behavior of the family (or household), including distribution of work and allocation of time in the family; Crime and punishment; and Discrimination on the markets for labor and goods. INVESTMENTS IN HUMAN CAPITAL: Gary Becker's most noteworthy contribution is perhaps to be found in the area of human capital, i. e. , human competence, and the consequences of investments in human competence. The theory of human capital is considerably older than Becker's work in this field. His foremost achievement is to have formulated and formalized the microeconomic foundations of the theory. In doing so, he has developed the human-capital approach into a general theory for determining the distribution of labor income. The predictions of the theory with respect to the wage structure have been formulated in so-called human-capital- earnings functions, which specify the relation between earnings and human capital. These contributions were first presented in some articles in the early 1960s and were developed further, both theoretically and empirically, in his book, Human Capital, written in 1964. The theory of human capital has created a uniform and generally applicable analytical framework for studying not only the return on education and on-the-job training, but also wages differentials and wage profiles over time. Other important applications, pursued by various economists, include a breakdown into components of the factors underlying economic growth, migration, as well as investments and earnings in the health sector. The human-capital approach also helps explain trade patterns across countries; in fact, differences in the supply of human capital among countries have been shown to have more explanatory power than differences in the supply of real capital. HOUSEHOLD AND FAMILY: Gary Becker has carried out an even more radical extension of the applicability of economic theory in his analysis of relations among individuals outside of the market system. The most notable example is his analysis of the functions of the family. These studies are summarized in his book, A Treatise on the Family, written in 1981. A basic idea in Becker's analysis is that a household can be regarded as a â€Å"small factory† which produces what he calls basic goods, such as meals, a residence, entertainment, etc. , using time and input of ordinary market goods, â€Å"semi-manufactures†, which the household purchases on the market. In this type of analysis, prices of basic goods have two components. st is comprised of the direct costs of purchasing intermediate goods on the market. 2nd is the time expenditure for production and consumption of the good in question for a specific good, Time expenditure ? wages ? time spent per unit of the good produced in the household. This implies that an increase in the wage of one member of the household gives rise not only to changed incentives for work on the market, but also to a shift from more to less time-intensive product on and consumption of goods produced by the household, i. e. , basic goods. Instead of an analysis in terms of the traditional dichotomy between work and leisure, Becker's model provides a general theory for the household's allocation of time, as exemplified in the essay, A Theory of the Allocation of Time, from 1965. This approach has turned out to be a highly useful foundation for examining many different issues associated with household behavior. Becker has gone even further. He has formulated a general theory for behavior of the family – including not only the distribution of work and the allocation of time in the family, but also decisions regarding marriage, divorce and children. As real wages increase, along with the possibilities of substituting capital for labor in housework, labor is released in the household, so that it becomes more and more uneconomical to let one member of the household specialize wholly in household production (for instance, child care). As a result, some of the family's previous social and economic functions are shifted to other institutions such as firms, schools and other public agencies. Becker has argued that these processes explain not only the increase in married women's job participation outside the home, but also the rising tendency toward divorce. Alongside Becker's analysis of the distribution of labor and allocation of time in the household, his most influential contribution in the context of the household and the family is probably his studies on fertility, which were initiated in an essay entitled, An Economic Analysis of Fertility, 1960. Parents are assumed to have preferences regarding both the number and educational level of their children, where the educational level is affected by the amount of time and other resources that parents spend on their children. Investments in children's human capital may then be derived as a function of income and prices. As wages rise, parents increase their investments in human capital, combined with a decrease in the number of children. Becker uses this theory to explain, for example, the historical decline in fertility in industrialized countries, as well as the variations in fertility among different countries and between urban and rural areas. In particular, the highly extensive family policy in Sweden, to which Becker often refers, suggests the merits of an economic approach to the analysis of these issues. Gary Becker's ideas have dominated research in the economics of the family, shaping the tools we use, the questions we ask, and the answers we give. The foundational assumptions of Becker's economic approach to the family — maximizing behavior and equilibrium — as well as such primary auxiliary assumptions as household production and interdependent preferences, are now widely accepted not only by economists but also by family sociologists, demographers, and others who study the family. Yet the interesting and provocative implications of Becker's economic approach to the family do not follow from the foundational assumptions or from the primary auxiliary assumptions. Instead they depend on contested auxiliary assumptions to which neoclassical economics has no commitment and which lack empirical support. CRIME AND PUNISHMENT: The third area where Gary Becker has applied the theory of rational behavior and human capital is â€Å"crime and punishment†. A criminal, with the exception of a limited number of psychopaths, is assumed to react to different stimuli in a predictable (â€Å"rational†) way, both with respect to returns and costs, such as in the form of expected punishment. Instead of regarding criminal activity as irrational behavior associated with the specific psychological and social status of an offender, criminality is analyzed as rational behavior under uncertainty. These ideas are set forth, for example, in Becker's essay, Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach, 1968, and in Essays in the Economics of Crime and Punishment, 1974. Empirical studies related to this approach indicate that the type of crime committed by a certain group of individuals may to a large extent be explained by an individual's human capital (and hence, education). These empirical studies have also shown that the probability of getting caught has a more deterrent effect on criminality than the term of the punishment. Becker's analysis of time allocation is by no means confined to legal activities; it includes various forms of crime. In a seminal paper (Becker, 1968) it was argued that crime is not an aberration outside the scope of rational analysis, but rather the predictable outcome of opportunities for gain. He argues that a decision to engage in illegal activity is the outcome of an individualistic calculus; benefits and costs (both monetary and non-monetary) are weighed up, and the individual makes a decision which reflects the expected balance of them. One way to conceptualize decisions of this kind is as a rather special kind of investment activity. Many of the crucial decision variables-probability of apprehension and conviction, likely punishment, alternative earnings possibilities in legitimate occupations – are empirically observable, and hence their effect on observed crime rates can in principle be tested. As usual Becker's contribution has mainly been to analyze and suggest possibilities for hypothesis testing, but his graduate students and other interested economists have been quick to pick up the challenge. In the last decade a good deal of evidence has been accumulated to support the plausibility of Becker's contention that criminal behavior responds to changes in costs and benefits. Unusually for Becker, the argument is couched throughout in normative terms. The model of criminal behavior put forward is devised to be used in conjunction with cost functions for law enforcement and a simple social welfare function in order to generate conclusions about the optimal levels of policy variables such as the extent of enforcement, type of punishment and perhaps even what should e a crime. Becker is not, however, arguing for major policy changes. Given the behavioral responses to legal and illegal incentives which he discerns, and given the costs and benefits of enforcement and punishment programs, he suspects that the authorities, at least in the USA, get things roughly right – perhaps a surprising conclusion, given his scepticism of the efficacy of the government action in other spher es. There seem to be two main weaknesses to Becker's arguments. The first is the assumption of social homogeneity implicit in the notion of a social welfare function, when it is widely held (not least among economists) that some groups of the population have greater political power than others, leading to legislation and enforcement patterns which reflect the influence of sectional interests. Secondly, it is difficult not to feel that Becker's enthusiasm for the economic approach does tend at times to run away with him. Although differences in incomes and assets, alternative earnings possibilities, probabilities of conviction and so forth are much more important in determining behavior than they are often given credit for, there are surely variations in attitudes and degrees of honesty which affect the propensity to commit crimes even among individuals facing similar economic circumstances. While Becker would accept this, by implication he regards them as not particularly significant, possibly assuming that such variations in ‘tastes' are randomly distributed. ECONOMIC DISCRIMINATION: Another example of Becker's unconventional application of the theory of rational, optimizing behavior is his analysis of discrimination on the basis of race, sex, etc. This was Becker's first significant research contribution, published in his book entitled, The Economics of Discrimination, 1957. Discrimination is defined as a situation where an economic agent is prepared to incur a cost in order to refrain from an economic transaction, or from entering into an economic contract, with someone who is characterized by traits other than his/her own with respect to race or sex. Becker demonstrates that such behavior, in purely analytical terms, acts as a â€Å"tax wedge† between social and private economic rates of return. The explanation is that the discriminating agent behaves as if the price of the good or service purchased from the discriminated agent were higher than the price actually paid, and the selling price to the discriminated agent is lower than the price actually obtained. Discrimination thus tends to be economically detrimental not only to those who are discriminated against, but also to those who practice discrimination. Although Becker's writings range far and wide; we can trace a logical development and a methodological consistency in his work. The signs are there in his first major publication, The Economics of Discrimination (Becker, 1957, 1971). This monograph, based on his doctoral thesis, appeared when Becker was 27. By his own account, it was ‘greeted with indifference or hostility' by fellow economists. Given the intellectual atmosphere of the mid-1950s this is probably explicable. The book starts from the position that economic inequality between two groups – blacks and whites, women and men or whatever -is not of itself evidence of discrimination in a market economy. In such an economy, variations in earnings, for instance, can be expected to occur between individuals or groups on a systematic basis, reflecting variations in marginal productivity and hours worked. What is needed is to separate out differentials due to variations in such factors as education, skills and job experience, in order to leave a residual due to ‘pure' discrimination, Becker's primary concern. To this end, Becker defines a ‘market discrimination coefficient', Which in principle would measure the extent of this residual? What Becker is attempting to show is that ‘pure' discrimination is simply a special kind of taste which, like the taste for apples or (Becker's pre-Women's Lib example) Hollywood actresses, can be analyzed in economic terms. As with these other commodities, ‘pure' discrimination's consumption is conditional upon variables such as income and price. The – highly controversial – point that Becker is making is that discrimination in this sense is not, as is usually assumed, a means of raising the discriminator's money income, but actually imposes costs on the discriminator as well as the party discriminated against. Where discrimination exists, then, the discriminator is evidently willing to pay these costs in exchange for the benefit of indulging a taste. The argument rests on a clever analogy with international trade. Suppose there are two economies, Whiteland and Backland, which initially do not engage in trade. Within each country, however, perfect competition is the rule. This means, as the neoclassical textbooks tell us, that the incomes of owners of factors of production will reflect relative factor scarcities. Thus in Whiteland, where labor is assumed to be scarce and capital abundant, wages will be relatively high and rates of profit will be relatively low. By contrast, Backland (where labor is abundant and capital scarce) is characterized by low wages and high rates of profit. If trade and factor mobility are now permitted, theory predicts that labor and capital movements will occur, so that the long-run result is that profit rates and wage rates will each be equalized in the two economies. As a result of resources moving from areas where their marginal productivity is low to those where it is high, total ‘world’ output is increased. The analogy is obvious, and the conclusion important: just as both of these ‘countries' can in principle gain from trade and mobility, so can both blacks and whites in an economy gain from the absence of discrimination, which in this context seems equivalent to some form of trade barrier, 3 or, to put it differently, both blacks and white can lose from discrimination. Lack of space precludes the detailed examination of the implications of Becker's argument, and indeed of the many objections which have been raised to it. Most of these objections have centered on the assumption of perfect competition in his model: if such a condition is dropped, optimal tariff theory suggests that in some cases discrimination (while reducing total output) could increase the income of the discriminating group, which would undermine Becker's whole analysis. Becker, however, is clearly aware of this criticism, and it is instructive to see why he must reject it. He believes that so pervasive a phenomenon as discrimination cannot be adequately explained by market imperfections – for market imperfections, most Chicago economists agree, disappear in the long run. In Becker's first important publication, two central features of his work: the insistence on using given preferences, costs and incomes to define a situation where individuals make decisions, and the concern with long-run equilibrium. THE ECONOMIST AS EMPIRE-BUILDER: Few contemporary economists have done as much to extend the generality and range of economic theorizing as Professor Gary S. Becker of the University of Chicago. With the exception of one or two papers written as a graduate student, all Becker's publications have applied economic reasoning to aspects of human behavior which have usually been classified as outside the scope of economics, at least since the discipline started to give itself scientific airs in the latter years of the nineteenth century. These scientific pretensions were associated with the introduction of mathematical techniques from the fields of physics and mechanics, often by professionals trained in those disciplines; many economists then, and not a few since, resented the intrusion of these alien elements. Similarly, Becker's intrepid expeditions into the jealously-guarded territories of sociology, political science, demography, criminology and biology have encountered considerable resistance. While it is too early to forecast the ultimate outcome of these imperialistic excursions, the increasing numbers of economists eager to join Becker in search of plunder have already forced some of the initially-scandalized natives to come to a modus Vivendi with the intruding barbarians. Areas for co-operation rather than conflict are earnestly being sought, as we shall note later. FERTILITY: Becker's next important foray into sociological country was to be a paper on the economics of fertility written for the National Bureau of Economic Research (1960b). Although political economy was once closely involved with demography (witness Malthus's famous essay), for much of this century the study of population was firmly in the hands of sociologists and un-theoretical number-crunchers. A few tentative attempts had been made to relate birth rates to economic variables, but Becker's paper went way beyond this. Here the decision to have children is firmly incorporated within the familiar framework of neoclassical economics. More particularly, Becker adopts the startling and controversial position that children are in important respects analogous to consumer durables such as automobiles, TV sets and dishwashers; thus the economic theory which has proved fruitful in relation to these commodities can be applied equally to human beings. He argues that, at least under modern conditions, the raising of children involves a net cost to their parents. Yet people do continue to have children, despite the availability of effective contraception. Thus if people choose to have children it is because they obtain sufficient utility to compensate for the costs involved. These costs include such obvious things as food, clothing and schooling. Perhaps more importantly, however, they also include costs in terms of parental time, a scarce commodity which has alternative uses. Indeed, if one alternative is to use this time in the labor market, a value (its ‘opportunity cost' in the jargon) can be put on it which will indicate that a very large proportion of the total costs of childrearing is accounted for by parental time. The existence of these net costs indicates that children are some form of consumer good; their spread over time indicates we are dealing with a consumer durable. They therefore have to compete with other consumer durables for a limited share of the household budget: more children means less hi-fi equipment or a smaller car. Once this rather bizarre comparison is admitted, it opens up the likelihood that decisions to have children will be affected by such variables as their ‘price' (in terms of alternatives foregone) and the size of the household budget. As we have indicated, Becker accepts Friedman's view that the usefulness of a hypothesis depends on its ability to explain or predict. So how does Becker's approach fare in this respect? Straightaway we are confronted with a problem. Broadly speaking, the demand for consumer durables tends to rise with income; on Becker's reasoning we might expect the demand for children to follow a similar pattern. Yet there is much evidence to suggest that family size declines with income. How does Becker handle this apparent refutation of his approach? Are babies’ inferior goods? One argument Becker offers in order to resolve this difficulty is interesting in the light of his later work. This is the argument that the cost of rearing children tends to rise with family income, largely as a result of the higher opportunity cost of parental time. At any particular moment better-off families tend to be better educated and thus to have greater earning power; over time, all earnings tend to rise as income rises. The argument can be illustrated diagrammatically. In Figure 1, an increase in income-illustrated by a parallel outward shift of the budget constraint -leads to increases in the ‘consumption' of both competing consumer durables and babies, if the relative price of these commodities remains constant. At the point of tangency between a new (higher) indifference curve and the new budget constraint, more babies (B2) are chosen. If, however, the increased income results largely from higher wages paid to family members (a highly plausible assumption), this will raise the opportunity cost of time spent on rearing children, and thus increase their relative price. The budget constraint pivots, as in Figure 2, and the new preferred combination of babies and other consumer durables may involve a smaller desired family size. draw:frame} It is ingenious, if not altogether convincing There is a suspicion that evidence Becker uses to support his arguments is highly selective, and moreover some of the generalizations he makes are amenable to alternative interpretations: for instance the observed inverse relation between education and family size could have nothing to do with the opportunity cost of parental time, but a lot to do with the different values and attitudes education might be expecte d to inculcate. However Becker's approach is more plausible in relation to short-term variations in fertility; economic factors seem far more significant here than ad hoc changes of tastes. In his approach empirical generalizations are linked to a broader theoretical framework; this is why, like it or not, it has stimulated so much further work in this field. THE ALLOCATION OF TIME: We have seen something of the emphasis which Becker places on the value of time in his analysis of economic behavior. This concern led to an important article which generalized the question of time allocation and simultaneously provided a basis for the reformulation of standard Consumer theory (Becker 1965). Before Becker, the established way to deal with time in the context of consumer theory was to concentrate on a simple dichotomy between work and leisure. Work meant paid work in the labor market, by means of which individuals were able to obtain market-produced goods and services, which were the objectives of economic activity. In this context, leisure clearly has an opportunity cost, the goods and services foregone by not working. If individuals choose not to work all the hours they could, this must be because leisure itself is a ‘good', some of which is consumed in preference to other goods. Thus leisure can be incorporated into standard analysis very easily, and from the time spent on leisure, we can deduce its complement, the time spent working. Thus the supply of labor is linked to the demand for goods. Becker however takes the view that time has more than two uses. Certainly, as in the traditional approach, time can be used in the labor market. It can also, however, be used in many types of non-paid work (housework, do-it-yourself etc. . Furthermore all consumption takes time too. He suggests therefore that we abandon leisure as a separate category: all ‘leisure' involves some ‘consumption' and all ‘consumption' involves some ‘leisure'. Instead of a choice between consumer goods and leisure, the relevant choice is taken to be that between various ‘consumption activities ' which use different combinations of market-produced goods and services (which have to be purchased with funds largely acquired through the sale of labor time in the market) and time spent in â€Å"household production†. Becker argues that instead of a choice between paid work and leisure we should analyze a choice between ‘high time' activities (like a home-prepared meal) and ‘low time' activities (like the purchase and consumption of a hamburger). The choice set is ultimately constrained by the limited time we have available, and the productivity of this time in its various uses. If all our available time were to be allocated to paid work, the value of the time in this use is termed (on Friedman's suggestion) ‘full income'. Some of the ‘full income', however, will normally be used for consumption and domestic production, using as complementary inputs in the domestic production process goods which are purchased with the proceeds of paid work. All the predictions obtained from the standard theory can be obtained in this framework as well; for instance changes in the wage rate alter the slope of the full income budget constraint, while increases in non-work income shift the constraint outwards – in each case we would expect the allocation of time to be affected whether we apply the Becker analysis or the traditional approach. But in addition Becker's method allows further influences to be incorporated. Thus a change in the technology of household production – the development of labor-saving gadgets -economizes on time spent in domestic work. People buy more gadgets and ‘spend' less time on housework; the gadgets can of course be purchased by ‘spending' some of the time saved working in the labor market. The relevance of this analysis to such phenomena as the rising labor-force participation of married women should be clear. Similarly transport improvements economize on time and can be expected to affect labor supply. The approach also has the incidental benefit of providing a theoretical basis for the classification of goods as substitutes or complements: when goods are no longer seen as the final sources of utility but rather as inputs in a household production process, it is rather easier to see why the consumption of certain commodities is linked. {draw:frame} Figure 2: The ends-means spectrum reflected by Becker’s work Becker’s theory of time and consumption does establish new theory, in that it proposes an alternate model to the then-accepted economic model of consumption (Becker proposes consumption be treated as a form of production). In this regard, Becker breaks the ground for new theory. MARRIAGE: Another of Becker's path breaking ventures is his development of an economic theory of marriage (1973, 1974), part of a growing literature on the economics of the family stimulated by his work and that of Theodore Schultz-on fertility and human capital. Once Becker's method is understood, the relevance of his approach to the institution of marriage becomes apparent. Here is a major and persistent phenomenon with ramifications in every economy. Whatever the precise legal arrangements, the majority of adult humans have ‘married' throughout recorded history. Individuals (or their parents in some cultures) choose amongst competing potential spouses in an attempt to maximize utility, measured in Becker's terms by the consumption of household-produced commodities of the kind discussed earlier. The ubiquity of marriage suggests to Becker that male and female labor is complementary in certain types of household production, notably the rearing of the partners’ own children. An individual marries when the expected gain from a partnership exceeds the expected cost of marriage in terms of the alternatives foregone (staying single or marrying the next best alternative spouse). Because of imperfect information, individuals engage in search. This is costly, and therefore individuals may eventually settle for spouses with less than ideal characteristics. Or they may engage in bargaining to achieve compensatory concessions; these may include sums of money (dowries etc. ) or behavioral commitments (promises to give up fishing). In Becker's view, however, there is sufficient freedom of choice and sufficient information to ensure an equilibrium where there is a Pareto-optimal sorting of partners (any rearrangement of couples could only increase some individuals' utility at the cost of reducing that of other individuals). The use of the household production approach as an analytical framework may seem simply an economist's joke, an intellectual game; certainly some of its conclusions seem banal. But it does throw up interesting predictions which other methodologies do not. For instance the approach predicts that gains from marriage-and therefore, presumably, the probability of marriage -will be greater for couples between whom there is a considerable variation in earning power, basically because there are greater ‘gains from trade' within such a marriage if one partner specializes in paid work and the other in household production. The analysis is developed further to incorporate non-selfish motives for entering marriage. ‘Caring' for the partner is introduced: in the model this means that the individual's utility function includes the partner's consumption as well as his or her own. This is shown to affect the allocation of output produced by the marriage and increase the potential gains from it. The analysis is also linked to earlier work Becker produced on charity and social interaction. Again the model is not tested in a systematic way and we occasionally get the impression that the anecdotal ‘evidence' adduced is of slight value. However Becker has produced another paper which tests some of the ancillary predictions of the theory with reference to data on marital instability. For instance, the approach suggests that major changes in the variables on which potential spouses make their decisions to marry will make them reconsider their decisions; if divorce is cheap, marital dissolution may follow. This appears to be the case. For example, where earnings are unexpectedly higher or lower than originally anticipated, the probability of divorce increases. The amount of time spent in search is also related to marital instability; those marrying young, on the basis of limited information about the characteristics of their partner and available alternatives are particularly liable to divorce. There is, then, something to be said for the approach. While it cannot explain all aspects of marriage, it does at least suggest that human mating behavior is less tightly constrained by biological and institutional factors than is often suggested. THE METHODOLOGY: From the material surveyed so far it is possible to infer the common elements of Becker's methodological program. He has however provided us with an essay (Becker, 1976b) which spells out his approach and offers a vigorous defense of it. In his view, his method is applicable to all human behavior; its core is ‘the combined assumptions of maximizing behavior, market equilibrium and stable preferences, used relentlessly and unflinchingly' (Becker, 1976b, p. 5). Consider these assumptions in turn. MAXIMISATION: The individual, we have seen, is assumed to maximize utility subject to a budget constraint which, although taking a different form to the traditional one, is nevertheless closely related to it -indeed, subsumes it as a special case. It is important to note that this is not necessarily ‘rationality' in the everyday sense of the term: it is not necessarily self-interest, nor are the sources of utility necessarily market goods and services. Becker has suggested that social distinction can be a source of utility, and he has gone so far as to claim (Becker, 1962) that even apparently random behavior by individuals can lead to the basic prediction of downward-sloping demand curve which is at the heart of economic reasoning. Behind the maximizing impulse, Becker has suggested, there ultimately lies the principle of natural selection. In a paper (Becker, 1976a) concerned with the origins of altruism he has expressed approval of the new science of sociobiology, arguing that a synthesis of economic reasoning and natural selection can explain the dominance of maximizing behavior. He also suggests that the basic tastes which determine preference patterns can be attributed to natural selection. The principle of maximization must be maintained as a central analytical device. ‘When an apparently profitable opportunity †¦ is not exploited' we should not ‘take refuge in assertions about irrationality, contentment †¦ r convenient ad hoc shifts in values' (Becker, 1976b, p. 7). Instead we should look for hidden costs -such as transaction costs, or costs of acquiring information-which render such opportunities unprofitable. This seems dangerously close to tautology, but the test, as good Chicago economists always tell us, is the predictive power of the hypotheses generated and Becker is optimistic on thi s score. _MARKET EQUILIBIRIUM: _we have already seen the importance of this in Becker's approach. Even where explicit markets do not exist-as in the case of marriage – Becker insists that we operate on Chicago ‘as if principles. Note that Becker's approach throughout is to use partial equilibrium analysis. He has written with approval of Marshall's development of this apparatus for taking one problem at a time for analysis. This is revealing when we consider his usual reluctance to enter the arena of normative economics. The tradition of general equilibrium analysis instigated by Walras is associated with the normative position that unfettered competitive capitalism tends to produce an optimal allocation of resources. To do this it paints a grossly oversimplified picture of an economy without any of the subtleties of Becker's approach. Once we admit Becker's contention that preferences are based on home-produced commodities which are not sold in a market of the normal kind, it is less obvious that the traditional prescription of generalized laissez-faire is the appropriate one. The implications of Becker's approach for general equilibrium remain to be determined. STABLE-PREFERENCES: We have seen how fixed ‘tastes' play an important role in Becker's analysis. Such tastes are tastes for consumption activities rather than goods themselves, however, and this is a considerable step forward from the traditional view. Becker has, though, gone further than this, and in a paper written with George Stigler (Becker and Stigler, 1977) has tentatively sketched a theory of taste formation. As already suggested, some basic ‘tastes' are probably biologically determined, but the behavioral form they take in a complex society needs further explanation. Becker and Stigler introduce an interesting model where tastes are learnt by exposure to new xperiences – a special form of ‘learning by doing'. Individuals repeatedly exposed to a stimulus acquire, as it were, ‘consumption capital', a body of knowledge and attitudes which raises the ‘marginal productivity' of consumption of the good in question, thus increasing demand for it. Within this framework the success of advertising can be rationalized and some kind of explanation can be offered for the increasing stability of tastes as people get older -they are ‘locked into' their accumulated consumption capital, and their reduced ‘pay-off period' (life expectancy) discourages further ‘investment'. Again, this is all rather fanciful, but it illustrates once more the tenacity of Becker's commitment to the economic approach and his refusal to concede that economics might not have anything to say about some social phenomenon. ROTTEN KID THEOREM: Gary Becker’s rotten kid theorem suggests that family members, even if they are selfish, will act to help one another if their financial incentives are properly linked. Gary Stanley Becker (born December 2, 1930) is an American economist. †¦ Becker creates a hypothetical situation in which children will receive gifts of money income from a wealthy, altruistic parent in order to make them happy. One of the kids is a selfish, â€Å"rotten† kid who would take pleasure in harming his sibling. The theorem posits that the rotten kid has an incentive to avoid hurting his sibling, and will in fact behave in such a way as to increase her happiness, because her happiness has a direct effect on the amount of money he will receive. Without creating any formal incentive structure, the altruistic parent can induce the rotten child to behave benevolently by making his welfare contingent upon the welfare of his sibling. Altruism is alternately a belief, a practice, a habit, or an ethical doctrine. †¦ The theorem suggests that parents should delay gifts of money to their children until they are older, or possibly until after they die. If parents plan to will their children money in accordance with their needs, each child will have an incentive to help his siblings maximize their income, because higher earnings by the other siblings will mean that more of the money will be given to the rotten sibling. ORGAN MARKETS: An article by Gary Becker and Julio Elias on â€Å"Introducing Incentives in the market for Live and Cadaveric Organ Donations† said that a free market could help solve the problem of a scarcity in organ transplants. Their economic modeling was able to estimate the price tag for human kidneys ($15,000) and human livers ($32,000). It is argued by critics, that this particular market would exploit the underprivileged donors from the developing world. This view was endorsed by the National Kidney Foundation in a testimony to the US Congress where Dr Francis Delmonico argued that â€Å"†¦ a US congressional endorsement for payment would propel other countries to sanction unethical and unjust standards†¦ Another concern is that, if a market for organ donations were introduced, then organs would oftentimes go to the patients most able to afford them, rather than patients who may have more need for them medically. POLITICAL VIEWS: Successful social economy organizations can play an important role in helping deliver many key governmental policy objectives by: helping to drive up productivity and competitiveness; contributing to socially inclusive wealth creation; enabling individuals and commu nities to work towards regenerating their local neighborhoods; showing new ways to deliver public services; and Helping to develop an inclusive society and active citizenship. CONTROVERSY: The horizontal axis: On the horizontal axis each enterprise / organization is categorized by its ownership. On the left side the ownership lies with the public authorities whereas on the right side the ownership lies with private people. So the distinctive feature is the ownership of the enterprise. Is it private? Def. : The term â€Å"private industry† contains all economic activity that deals with the capital of one or many private owners with a view to making profits. The capital owners bear the risk. Or is it public? Def. The term â€Å"public authorities† contains all economic activity where the public authorities possess the capital on either European, federal, regional or local level. That includes all nationalized and public industries. The vertical axis On the vertical axis, each enterprise / organization is categorized by the primary objective of the enterprise. The dimensions range b etween social purpose on the top and commercial purpose at the bottom of the axis. On the vertical axis an organization reaches the top, i. e. the social purpose is the primary objective of the enterprise, if you fulfill the following criteria: A Ethical concept** core definition for enterprises / organizations of the social economy) This core definition is the ideal of an enterprise / organization. Only these enterprises / organizations belong to the social economy whose ideal is a clearly defined ethical concept. B Mission The primary objective of the enterprise is the improvement of the life situation and the chances of disadvantaged people as well as social cohesion and support. C Social economic creation of value and appropriation of earnings the profits and the resources are verifiably reinvested for the benefit of disadvantaged people. If the criteria A, B and C are totally fulfilled, an organization can locate itself on top of the vertical axis. There is one last criterion which is not definitional but a describing feature: D Intermediary function Social economical enterprises / organizations have an intermediary function between public and private. If none of the criteria above is fulfilled or the primary object of the enterprise is the commercial purpose then an enterprise / organization is located on the bottom of the vertical axis. Location between social and commercial purpose If the criteria above are only partly fulfilled the enterprise is located between the top and the bottom of the vertical axis according to its self-definition. 3. 0 EFFECT OF GARY BECKER’S CONTRIBUTION TO THE PAST AND CURRENT WORLD ECONOMY: An important step in extending the traditional analysis of individual rational choice is to incorporate into the theory a much richer class of attitudes, preferences, and calculations. This step is prominent in all the examples that Gary Becker consider. The analysis of discrimination includes in preferences a dislike of – prejudice against – members of particular groups, such as blacks or women. In deciding whether to engage in illegal activities, potential criminals are assumed to act as if they consider both the gains and the risks – including the likelihood they will be caught and severity of punishments. In human capital theory, people rationally evaluate the benefits and costs of activities, such as education, training, and expenditures on health, migration, and formation of habits that radically alter the way they are. The economic approach to the family assumes that even intimate decisions like marriage, divorce, and family size are reached through weighing the advantages and disadvantages of alternative actions. The weights are determined by preferences that critically depend on the altruism and feelings of duty and obligation toward family members. Since the economic, or rational choice, approach to behavior builds on a theory of individual decisions, criticisms of this theory usually concentrate on particular assumptions about how these decisions are made. Among other things, critics deny that individuals act consistently over time and question whether behavior is forward-looking, particularly in situations that 52 Economic Sciences 1992 differ significantly from those usually considered by economists – such as those involving criminal, addictive, family, or political behavior. This is not the place to go into a detailed response to the criticisms, so Gary Becker simply assert that no approach of comparable generality has yet been developed that offers serious competition to rational choice theory. While the economic approach to behavior builds on a theory of individual choice, it is not mainly concerned with individuals. It uses theory at the micro level as a powerful tool to derive implications at the group or macro level. Rational individual choice is combined with assumptions about technologies and other determinants of opportunities, equilibrium in market and nonmarket situations, and laws, norms, and traditions to obtain results concerning the behavior of groups. It is mainly because the theory derives implications at the macro level that it is of interest to policymakers and those studying differences among countries and cultures. None of the theories considered in Gary Becker’s lecture aims for the greatest generality; instead, each tries to derive concrete mplications about behavior that can be tested with survey and other data. Disputes over whether punishments deter crime, whether the lower earnings of women compared to men are mainly due to discrimination or lesser human capital, or whether no-fault divorce laws increase divorce rates all raise questions about the empirical relevance of predictions derived from a theory based on individual rationality. A close relation between theory a nd empirical testing helps prevent both the theoretical analysis and the empirical research from becoming sterile. Empirically oriented theories encourage the development of new sources and types of data, the way human capital theory stimulated the use of survey data, especially panels. At the same time, puzzling empirical results force changes in theory, as models of altruism and family preferences have been enriched to cope with the finding that parents in Western countries tend to bequeath equal amounts to different children. Gary Becker has been impressed by how many economists want to work on social issues rather than issues forming the traditional core of economics. At the same time, specialists from fields that do consider social questions are often attracted to the economic way of modeling behavior because of the analytical power provided by the assumption of individual rationality. Thriving schools of rational choice theorists and empirical researchers are active in sociology, law, political science, history, anthropology, and psychology. The rational choice model provides the most promising basis presently available for a unified approach to the analysis of the social world by scholars from the social sciences. Becker's economic approach to the family is often believed to imply that certain types of targeted government policies cannot affect allocation within families because they will be fully neutralized by individuals' responses. For example, the altruist model and the Rotten Kid Theorem imply that which parent receives the child benefit must be irrelevant. But I would like to argue earlier that the interesting implications of the economic approach to the family do not follow from maximizing behavior and equilibrium, the foundational assumptions of the economic approach, but depend on contested auxiliary assumptions. For example, the conclusion that parents will neutralize the child benefit depends on the assumption that family collective choice is determined by the altruist model and that preferences exhibit transferrable utility. Whether these auxiliary assumptions are described as primary, secondary, or tertiary, is a matter of taste. Becker's influence on welfare reform and other specific policies is difficult to assess. In the final paragraph of the General Theory, Keynes famously asserted that, in the long run, ideas are more important than vested interests in public policy: †¦ he ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and When they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed, the World is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt From any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist? Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from s ome academic scribbler of a few years back. Becker's influence on the economics of the family has been pervasive. His ideas have dominated research in the economics of the family, shaping the tools we use, the questions we ask, and the answers we give. I can testify to their influence on my own thinking, work, and career. The foundational assumptions of the economic approach –maximizing behavior and equilibrium — as well as such primary auxiliary assumptions as household production and interdependent preferences are now widely accepted not only by economists but also by family sociologists, demographers, and others who study the family. Some of the differences between Becker's original vision and the current state of the economics of the family reflect the evolution of Becker's ideas, sometimes in response to his critics. Other differences reflect ongoing and often vigorous debate. For example, Becker jettisoned stable preferences, which he originally presented as a foundational assumption and dropped his insistence on deferential preferences (â€Å"altruism†), acknowledging the importance of merit goods. With household production, the basic concept is now generally accepted but the secondary and tertiary auxiliary assumptions about household technology are contested. More specifically, Becker's formulation of the household production model assumes the absence of joint production, and some of his most striking conclusions depend on this assumption, yet joint production is present whenever individuals care how they spend their time. No one can predict with confidence the irection the economics of the family will take over the next twenty-five or fifty years. After all, economists took nearly two centuries to unpack Adam Smith's contributions and establish the conditions under which the conclusions of the invisible hand theorem hold. Perhaps economists unpacking Becker's contributions will move more quickly. Those who complete the task will surely honor Gary Becker for laying the foundations of the economic approach to the family. Organ market view was endorsed by the National Kidney Foundation in a testimony to the US Congress where Dr Francis Delmonico argued that â€Å"†¦ a US congressional endorsement for payment would propel other countries to sanction unethical and unjust standards†¦ † Another concern is that, if a market for organ donations were introduced, then organs would oftentimes go to the patients most able to afford them, rather than patients who may have more need for them medically. 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