Critical Book Review of No Shame in My Game by Katherine Newman Essay

Critical Book Review of No Shame in My Game by Katherine Newman When someone thinks of the poor they instantly imagine a homeless man sleeping in a cardboard box or the nearest garbage can, but the working poor especially in the inner-city is commonly overlooked by society. However the working poor, in this case the working poor in the inner-city, are people advancing to try and make their lives better. They are taking minimum wage jobs so that they can barely afford a roof over their heads. Within Katherine Newman?s novel No Shame In My Game, she studies the working poor in the inner-city to draw conclusions about how to help them and dispute common stereotypes and the images people commonly view. Newman?s conclusions along with the way she had conducted her case study will be evaluated for her positive and negative points while searching for any biases she may have portrayed within her novel.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Even before I started reading Katherine Newman?s novel No Shame In My Game I had learned a little about Newman?s background, which may cause her to have a bias towards her case study. Newman is clearly within the middle class even perhaps towards the upper end. She is a Harvard anthropologist that would seem to have never experienced such situations as her subjects. Like most of the middle class she could simply have thought that the poor were only the few men in cardboard boxes in rough neighborhoods and not truly consider the working poor in the inner-city until the case study was started and her thesis written. This could greatly affect her procedures in observing data with her hundreds of subjects over the span of a few years. The thinking of someone who is not within the working class may flaw the order and process at which the case study was conducted. There may be variables that Newman did not consider and did not research that could change her data and con clusions. Using the social scientific method to collect data and revise her hypothesis involves knowing all the angles and variables that are applied, but if an extra variable were to present itself it would call for a change in the hypothesis. This one change could alter all of Newman?s conclusions and data she presents. Newman presents her supporting evidence largely with statistics although I do not believe many of her statistics are real world numbers for her exact case study but her observ... ... values as the middle class does. The working class has to first follow the same cultural values as the middle class if they hope to one day become part of the middle class. This thinking is not entirely flawed but unfortunately it is not enough to raise ones ranking in society.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Newman had set out to answer a question: ?What might be done to reverse this scenario [the working poor being subjected to a worse lifestyle than the unemployed on welfare] (and what can be done) to build upon the advantages that a life on the job offers? (Newman, xv). I believe she had answered her question in a manner that proves useful and insightful. The conclusions that Newman had drawn where evaluated to being positive on some aspects while neutral on others. However I do not agree with some methods she used and data she used within her case study but nonetheless it still grants the audience a clear view of the working poor in the inner-city. Her slight bias could have caused her to conduct the research and study in a less accurate manner but she has proceeded to explain her train of thought well through the novel. As a whole Newman?s case study grants a view into the ?true? poor of America.

How Did You Respond to a Challenge of Your Values? :: MBA College Admissions Essays

How Did You Respond to a Challenge of Your Values?    One has to understand sub-continental culture regarding marriage in order to understand this particular crisis. Marriages are classified into two groups: 'settled' marriage and 'affair' marriage. In a 'settled' marriage, the groom's family chooses the bride, and if bride's family accepts the groom, the two families get together and fix the marriage. The bride and the groom may or may not meet each other before the marriage. In an 'affair' marriage, two persons fall in love and get married, with or without the permission of their families. This is considered a social crime, and the newlyweds are forced to leave their families.    After I came back from the US, I met my sweetheart who was attending medical school. We courted each other for years, and when she graduated we figured it was time to marry. I asked my family to select the woman of my choice so as to marry the woman I love without upsetting social norms. When my mother proposed my fiancà ©e's family, her mother wanted to see me personally. I assumed she would consider me a suitable candidate for her daughter's husband since I come from a good family and since I am qualified to maintain a family. However, rather than looking for qualities in me that might make her daughter happy, she demanded that I posses an MBA degree before I marry her daughter. Apparently, all of her relatives' and friends' daughters got married to either MBAs or Ph.D.'s.    I was dumbfounded. I would have gladly given the moon to her daughter, but I was not about to earn an MBA to satisfy this woman's irrational craving.

ACC 290 Financial Statements Essay

Financial statements are a means of communicating numbers within a business. Without proper numbers your business could be a success or a big failure. â€Å"You will rely on them to make decisions, and managers will use them to evaluate your performance. That is true whether your job involves marketing, production, management, or information systems† (Kimmel, 2009). The financial statements shows the business financial standpoint at a given time period, and it also helps the business to understand what they need to do to improve. A company’s livelihood depends greatly on their financial statement because it determines if the business is successful, can it hire new employees, or can it receive any more additional loans. A financial standpoint of the company is monitored by its financial statements. The four basic financial statements are retained earnings statement, balance sheet, income statement, and statement of cash flow. During a certain time period presenting a snapshot of what your business owns (its assets) and what it owes (its liabilities), you prepare a balance sheet. â€Å"To show how successfully your business performed during a period of time, you report its revenues and expenses in an income statement† (Kimmel, 2009). Specifying how much of prior income was dispersed to you and the other owners of your business in the form of dividends and how much was reserved in the business to allow for future growth a retained earnings statement is presented. Showing where your business obtained cash during period of time you would prompt a statement of cash flow. The purpose of balance sheet it to show the amount of assets a company has obtained by evaluating the claims of creditors and the claims of owners. This type of relationship can be shown in an equation assets equal liabilities plus stockholders equity. A company success or failure is monitored by its income statement because it shows a company’s revenue monitored by its expenses. The net income is obtained through the income statement by deducting its expenses from its revenues. The retained earnings statements are different because retained earnings are the net income retained in the corporation. Dividend payment practices are assessed because the amount of the retained earnings statements is deducted or added by the company’s dividends. The statement of cash flow shows the company operating, investing, and financing doings. It shows the company cash position and what is happening to its most important source. Managers use financial statements for several purposes. If a company needs to meet labor demands and need to hire new employees the financial statements helps in knowing how many employees they can afford to hire. On the income statement, management compares sales and expenses of a period of time with recent events to notice if there is a big change. They can identify likely problems and investigate the cause; however, they can regulate if they can afford new equipment, merchandise, and other operating expenses. Using the balance sheet managers can determine if a change applied helped the company or delayed it. Employees look at financial statements to know if the company is managing their money well and can meet payroll obligations. Employees also can gain knowledge of potential bonuses or layoffs based of the net income that is reported on the income statement. Financial statements are useful to investors and creditors because it shows the company’s financial position and allows them to make better decisions concerning the company. For the investors and creditors financial statements helps to evaluate the risks related to the possible investment or loans issued as well as estimate returns from the money invested. Investors and creditors analyzes company’s financial position, operational results, cash generated by different activities before making investment decisions. If the company owes more than it owns than creditors may not allow that company to receive additional loans. To investors it shows if the company is operating profitably. Financial statements are vital to the success of a business. They can be used as a roadmap to direct you in the correct direction and help you avoid costly failures. Maintaining financial statements for a company can only help a company. Improper financial statements put a company in jeopardy. The different statements show if a company can afford to hire new employees or if they need to do some lay-offs. To determine if a company can be approved for additional loans or if it is expected to fail you must rely on the financial statements. In general financial shows the financial standpoint of a company and decisions a company has to make cannot be made if there are no financial statements.

The Process of Growing Up

â€Å"The process of growing up is when you discover the strength within you survives all the hurt†. It was that last hot summer day of sixth grade, walking home from school as usual being so excited to finally move on and become a seventh grader. While walking home I still remember I had that feeling of joy and happiness to think wow moving up to seventh grade next school year and the enjoyment of growing up a little bit more. Seeing how it was going to be summer break. It was a normal and more than perfect day to actually go home from school without a care in the world. When walking up to my house, I saw the green Ford truck all packed up with our belongings; I thought well, â€Å"when we decided to move†? I was analyzing and questioning all the possibilities of why that truck was loaded up with things that both belonged to my mom and stepdad. As soon as I stepped in the house I knew there was something terribly wrong. I walked throughout my house seeing everything turned upside down, smashed, thrown around everywhere and destroyed all to pieces. As a sixth grade little girl I didn’t know how to react or even know what to think. All I really knew was someone obviously wasn’t happy and that same person was moving out. At this point my mom was basically the â€Å"house wife† that cooked, cleaned and did all the motherly things. While my stepdad worked and made the money. They both had their hands full with four kids and still being able to maintain their marriage and relationship. But as you can see their marriage wasn’t at all perfect, everything down fell from there. My stepdad left us with nothing; took just about everything that was in our house. The only thing we had left was our toys and rooms. Coming home and seeing my house destroyed in every way is when I knew at that point nothing is going to be the same and knowing my stepdad was moving out was not one of the best things for any of my family’s lives. Since my mom didn’t work she had to get a job in order to support four kids including a roof over our heads, food and clothing on our backs. This was the turning point of many emotions, anger, disgust and hatred but at the same time this one thing helped me grow in strength, maturity and even responsibility towards myself, making me who I am today. Devastated as I was, my mom had to work nights as a bartender meaning she was never home with me at night and me being the oldest resulted in me having to watch my brothers and sister. Emotions were running high in my family, but from then on watching my little brothers and sister was my job, didn’t really have a huge social life, I found my world spiraling. All of these effects that took place when my stepdad decided to move out really had this huge impact on my life. While trying to take care of my brother and sister, I found myself having to grow up more and more every day. The responsibilities that were involved were more than I could ever handle at that time. Working hard to help out my mom and getting through the emotions of my stepdad leaving was the most life learned experience I’ve ever had to go through. The hardest time in my life by far. As a result of that time, I can say now it really made me a better person in every way imaginable. As time went on it eventually resolved itself, making me more responsible than ever; my maturity enlarged immensely and just that experience alone makes me a grateful person now. Seeing how people can destruct something they once loved including their family really made me realize how lucky our family was without him. Although this experience was at rock bottom at the beginning it ended up working out for the better. In a way that I got a chance to realize something’s on my own and not to only depend on my parents. Just of the simple fact that I learned to have responsibilities. Which in the end really helps me now and for in my future. Having to grow up too fast was the most challenging thing in my life. My family and I survived all the heartbreak that came from my stepdad leaving but now actually being eighteen, I can say it was really worth him leaving. With that being said; â€Å"The process of growing up is when you discover the strength within you survives all the hurt†.

Leadership Principles for Effective Change

â€Å"Change only happens when each person makes a decision to implement the change.† It is very easy to talk about dreams and talk about plans. But without the commitment to follow through and implement what needs to be done, such talk is merely wishful thinking. Every person involved in the process should implement change because everyone involved should do his part. Otherwise, the change will be incomplete. In order to manage change, the tasks that each person needs to do should be written down for implementation and monitoring. This may seem difficult and out of culture but it can do a lot in making people accountable and willing to implement the changes discussed by the organization. â€Å"A clearly defined vision of the end result enables all the people to define the most efficient path for accomplishing the results.† A vision is a powerful thing. It helps refine and enhance the direction of the organization. When a vision is clearly stated and understood by the members of the organization, they can formulate their strategies and align their activities toward the vision of the organization. Out of the vision, the strategies of the organization can be formulated. Some strategies, however, may appear not to support the end result as stated in the vision. To ensure that the strategies are aligned with the vision, an organization needs to promote its vision and its mission to its employees and to its management team. During the sessions of strategic planning, the vision should be inculcated into the minds and practices of the organization so that the strategies formulated support the fulfillment of the vision. With a clearly defined vision, the people know what they are working for. When they know what they are working for, they can search for the best approach there is. Select the two principles you believe are the most important to follow when managing change and describe why you feel these are essential. Describe some specific techniques that can be used to manage change in an organization. Explain how these techniques are consistent with the principles you selected. 1.Thought processes and relationship dynamics are fundamental if change is to be successful. 2.Change only happens when each person makes a decision to implement the change. 3.People fear change it â€Å"happens† to them. 4.Given the freedom to do so, people will build quality into their work as a matter of personal pride. 5.Traditional organizational systems treat people like children and expect them to act like adults. 6.†Truth† is more important during periods of change and uncertainty than â€Å"good news.† 7.Trust is earned by those who demonstrate consistent behavior and clearly defined values. 8.People who work are capable of doing much more than they are doing. 9.The intrinsic rewards of a project are often more important than the material rewards and recognition. 10. A clearly defined vision of the end result enables all the people to define the most efficient path for accomplishing the results. 11. The more input people have into defining the changes that will affect their work, the more they will take ownership for the results. 12. To change the individual, change the system.   

Understand the Behaviour of Organisations in their Market Environment Essay

Understand the Behaviour of Organisations in their Market Environment - Essay Example Understand the Behaviour of Organisations in their Market Environment This has enhances shopping for consumers making it even more convenient by providing all products under the same roof. Tesco’s has been working towards building of a sustainable business model throughout the years. This has been done through diversification into new geographical areas as well as value added retailing (Datamonitor, 2011, 7). This has enabled Tesco to reduce its business risk as well as work toward increased sales through trade in growth markets. Similarly, value added retailing encourages consumers loyalty and assist to sustain revenue growth even in times of economic difficulties. However, with increased competition in the UK market, retaining customers would be a crucial concern for Tesco. This has a risk of causing loss of the market share (Finne & Sivonen, 2009, 298). Perfect Competition This is the existence of different buyers and sellers, which implies that prices vary in response to supply as well as demand (Wood, 2008, 187). The market is characterized with substitutes where increase in price of one commodity means a change to consumption of the existing substitute. Both the buyer and the seller are seen to have equal chances of influencing the price. There are two extremes in perfect competition, which include monopoly, as well as oligopoly market. Price and output in a perfect market is determined as shown below. The profit in the firm indicates the level of price and output in three different ways. For a firm to make profits, it will produce at a level where P> ATC, while experiencing losses P< ATC and for it to break even P= ATC. Monopoly In a monopolistic market, there is only a single seller with a number of sellers. The firm is the price maker and therefore, determines the level of output as well as price (Finne & Sivonen, 2009, 298). The firms aim is to maximize profit. Oligopoly Classical theory in economics has the assumption that a producer with some market power whose aim is to maximize profit will set Marginal Cost ( MC) equals to Marginal Revenue (MR) (Finne & Sivonen, 2009, 298). This indicates that the larger the quantity sold the lower is the price. Any change in MC or MR will be indicated by the price. This, however, does not occur where a kink exists. As a result, MC in this case would change without a change in price or quantity. The advantage of this to consumers is that companies will not raise their prices in fear of losing customers (Seth & Randall, 2011, 234). However, even a fall in price will only gain a few customers. This indicates that the curve is price elastic in case of price increase and less for price decrease. In the end, competitive firms will enter the industry. Pestle Analysis Political factors Tesco is an international company with carrying out operations in 14 countries. This makes the organization susceptible to the various legislative and political environments in these countries. This necessitates the compliant to comply with these laws to avoid conflicts with the authorities. In most countries, governments encourage foreign companies to consider local candidates for various posts in the organizations, to ensure locals benefit from their investments. This, therefore, means that Tesco employs a wide pool of individuals to satisfy their labor requirements. Tesco will be compelled to follow the legislation on employment adopted in the country where its stores are located. Economic Factors Economic factors are crucial in the operation of an

Europe between Wars 1919-1939 and European Crisis Assignment

Europe between Wars 1919-1939 and European Crisis - Assignment Example The Weimar Republic had to face and go through a severe economic fall in the first years of the decade because of the debt and the reparations caused by the War and the Treaty of Versailles, which culminated in 1923 with the devaluation of the Mark (the currency). Communism attracted many followers after the October Revolution and the Russian Civil War, and so communists (Bolsheviks) adopted a policy of mixed economies in the period between 1921 and 1928. Fascist movement as a response and a solution for the prevention of the communism spread in many countries in Europe, with Germany having the leading role. This period was believed to be the third period of anxiety for Europe (the previous two that could be compared in intensity with this one being the one of the ancient world and the Reformation). Totalitarianism as a concept in political theory arose in the XX century. Although there are slight differences and variations among totalitarian regimes, the chief characteristics of totalitarianism are: a) Totalitarian regime encompasses the whole of the society, and authoritarian government, as a variation focuses only on governance. For a regime to be considered totalitarian, government and society must be closely intertwined and there is only one political party; b) Totalitarianism holds strict government control of the media which is to be used only as a means of propaganda; c) There is no personal liberty in cultural, political and artistic expression among the people; d) People must be utterly devoted to the state and must never criticize the government or any of its segments as they and their whole families may "disappear" or end up in prison as "political" prisoners. e) Nazism and Fascism are considered totalitarian regimes of the right, while Stalinism is the totalitarianism of the left.