Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Carpe Diem in Poetry :: Poem Poetry

The Latin term carpe diem is a descriptive word for literature that presses readers to "seize the moment." It mainly tries to pursue a woman or women that they have true physical beauty and should take advantage of their good looks now before time will take a toll on them. The word carpe diem puts impact on examples of both poems of, "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time" by Robert Herrick, and "To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell. Herrick's poem, "To The Virgins, to Make Much of Time," portrays carpe diem by citing the shortness of life and persuading young women to marry and enjoy the life of youth at its advantage before death takes its turn. In the poem "To His Coy Mistress", Marvell consist more traits of carpe diem by persuading a certain woman in being his wife. He uses examples of time and age diminishing her beauty and youth and will leave her with nothing left. They both compare to each other by making the most of each moment before old age and beauty disappears. Herrick's "To The Virgins, to Make Much of Time" fits the meaning of carpe diem by encouraging the beauty of youth and life itself. His calm and moralizing detachment from the personal environment pursues his own view of time and life. Then not be coy but use your time, And, while ye may, go marry: For having lost but once your prime You may forever tarry.

Monday, August 19, 2019

Sexual Dancers, Slang, and Cheap Junk Food Essay -- Gender Discriminat

In 2009, Burger King unleashed a new commercial for its collection of bizarre fast food advertisements. Before this one, most of their sexually appealing takes were intended for an older audience. The â€Å"Spongebob Got Back† commercial, however, advertised the 99 cent kids’ meal. The commercial aired on television has a longer version on YouTube. It begins with the screen centered on the burger king, with three females behind him in brown shorts, a white shirt, and socks to match Spongebob’s attire. They break into a remix of Sir-Mix-a-Lot’s â€Å"Baby got Back,† that begins, â€Å"I like square butts and I cannot lie.† Soon enough, the three female dancers have their backs to the camera with what looks like phonebooks in their pants, wiggling their behinds. A female in a red short dress appears and her hindquarters are quickly measured, as are those of the other females in later scenes. The rest of the commercial consists of the females da ncing in a sexual manner, and even bending down with their behinds to the camera. Meanwhile, the king walks around mimicking a rapper and attempting different dance moves and Spongebob and his underwater characters dance inside a television in the background. In several cases, he pokes at a female’s rear end or points at it. At the end of the satire, the king holds up a paper bag with smiling Spongebob and Patrick on it, and the 99 cent kids’ meal is announced. Although the short version of the commercial was debuted in a men’s basketball game, it later sneaked its way in between cartoon shows on Nickelodeon. The â€Å"Spongebob got Back† commercial objectifies women by promoting sexual behavior, which leads to desensitizing youth to physicality and street slang. The commercial taps into men’s need for dominanc... ...g junk food with dancing women is inappropriate enough, and advertising a kids’ meal in a sexist manner that evokes sexual behavior is the main reason this commercial was banned, yet it is still available for view by anyone on the internet. Although inappropriate, this commercial says a lot about how society views women as objects, by overturning the image of a children’s cartoon. Works Cited "Urban Dictionary: Rumpleforeskin." Urban Dictionary. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. . "SpongeBob Got Back with Burger King + Sir Mix-a-Lot - YouTube." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. "Square Butts Burger King Music Video with SpongeBob Square Pants - YouTube."YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. .

Sunday, August 18, 2019

Fiber-optic Communications :: Fiber-optic essays

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 1987, both Eli Yablonvitch and Sajeev John got together to discuss research that both had previously discovered. Eli Yablonvitch was an electrical engineer at Bell Communications Research in Red Bank, New Jersey. Yablonvitch was known for refining a laser that would become a mainstay of fiber-optic communications. Sajeev John is a Harvard graduate student who worked on a thesis inspired by Philip Anderson of Princeton.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The two agreed that the name of their idea should be called a photonic band gap. Phontonic crystals have the regular lattice structure of natural crystals. Their purpose is to try and trap light without destroying it. The trick is to not kill the photons but to tame them, by allowing light out when you want. Microchips are made of semiconductors and a semiconductor is a band gap. A band gap makes is possible to control the flow of electricity in a chip. In order to make light chips, you need the photonic equivalent of silicon: a material that can trap light. â€Å"You need a way of trapping the light so there are no escape channels,† says John.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It was until 1997, when European investigators succeed in trapping light in a random material. Diederik Wiersma and his colleagues used a powder of gallium arsenide. The laser could not penetrate a layer of powder even when the layer was less than a hundredth of an inch thick. It was indeed the very first time that anyone had trapped light, but as they knew, microchips cannot be made out of powder.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Yablonovitch was in his office on day in October 1986, â€Å"I started drawing crisscrossing lines, and everywhere the lines crossed I put a heavier mark. Before I knew it I had drawn a checkerboard. And then I said, ‘Well, I might as well do it in three dimensions.’† This later became known as Yablonovitch’s â€Å"eureka moment.† He realized that what he had drawn was a crystal structure that might trap light through interference. Interference happens when two light waves of the same wavelength meet.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Bragg reflection is when light waves pass through one plane but is reflected back by the next plan. All waves that interfere constructively intensify the reflected light. Yablonovitch found that if you could design a crystal that Bragg-reflected light now which direction is was coming from, you would have built a trap.

Saturday, August 17, 2019

Drug Abuse in Adolescents

Adolescence is a critical stage of change and confusion, full of promises and challenges for youngsters and parents alike. They undergo significant changes in biology, cognitive capacity and self-image. When they exhibit complex problems such as abuse of alcohol and other drug substance, delinquent behavior, serious depression or symptoms of psychosis would definitely need family support and guidance more than ever (Snyder, 1998).The causes of drug abuse and addiction were sought in qualities of the individual and historically have included such things as moral failure, psychological distress, and genetic disposition. Methamphetamine, for example, can cause psychotic delusions including homicidal or suicidal thoughts. Long-term use of the drug can lead to brain damage, similar with Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, or epilepsy.Cocaine, on the other hand, could cause complications to heart, lungs, gastrointestinal and nervous system. This would further lead to delinquent behaviors, school dropouts and engagement to premarital sex that would affect not just the teen him/herself but his family, friends and the society as well.Excessive family conflicts, marital discord, verbal, physical and sexual abuse, early insecure attachment, poor parent/child relationships, lack of parental bonding, poor family management, lack of parenting skills and dysfunctional care giving put stress on teens which makes them vulnerable that could lead to drug abuse.The media, internets, peer pressure are also significant factors that could influence teens getting involve in drug abuse (Ashery, et al, 2000).Family-Centered treatment is offered in many outpatient settings in drug abuse treatment fields. These include public-private partnership with private programs delivering services under grants or contracts with Federal, State, or local governments. In these outpatient settings, families are often included in educational programs and individual and multifamily group therapy.In inpati ent settings, adolescents have historically been isolated from their families, often only being allowed to see them during brief visiting hours. Once the adolescent is admitted to an inpatient facility, the family is involved in many treatment activities such as educational presentation and individual and multifamily group therapy.Other settings are day treatment or partial hospitalization programs and variety of community-based self-help groups that target the families of troubled adolescents (Snyder, 1998).Drug abuse of adolescents can be prevented through strong economic base, achievement orientation, role adoptability, spirituality, extended family bonds, racial pride, respect and love, resourcefulness, community involvement and family unity (Ashery, et al, 2000).Reference:Rebecca S. Ashery, Elizabeth B. Robertson, Karol L. Kumpfer (2000). Drug Abuse Prevention Through Interventions. DIANE PublishingSnyder, Wendy (1998). Empowering Families, Helping Adolescents: Family-Centered Treatment of Adolescents with Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Problems  DIANE Publishing

Friday, August 16, 2019

Life of Pi Existentialist Examination

Is Life of Pi Existentialist? There are two views of existentialism, that of the more popular atheistic view, and that of the theistic view (Sartre Lecture). In the book Life of Pi, by Yann Martel the main theme of the book is religion, with the main character being of multiple religions: Hinduism, Christian Catholicism, and Islam. (Martel). Life of Pi is both Existentialist and non-existentialist, in both the atheistic and theistic views because of specific religious beliefs, abandonment of religion, despair, and the ultimate use of human instinct for survival.I would first like to begin by giving brief explanations of both sides of existentialism, because both do apply to this book, even though the main theme is religion. The main idea of existentialism is that of â€Å"existence before essence† (Sartre Lecture). By this, they mean that we define ourselves as what we are by our own actions and free will. We exist before our essence, or our determined character, because we de termine it for ourselves by our own doings. â€Å"In the book Life of Pi, by Yann Martel the main theme of the book is religion.The theistic view of existentialism can basically be summed up by this quote: â€Å"When we think of God as the creator, we are thinking of him, most of the time, as a supernal artisan† (Sartre Lecture). By this, they mean that theists view god as the all powerful creator. He created man with a specific idea in mind, and he knew what we would do and create. â€Å"God creates he knows precisely what he is creating† (Sartre, Lecture. ) He knows the past, present, and future, and will not allow us to be defined by our human nature.Human nature was simply a side effect, to allow us to understand possibly why and how we are, but we can’t let it define ourselves as humans. Our intellect and creations define us as who we are, not our natural instinct. Therefore, we cannot blame something on instinct and human nature, because god did not creat e us to do that. He created us to innovate. And as intellectuals, it is our job to realize what we are here for, and to fulfill god and ourselves as human and not to let petty biological needs hinder our knowledge.It is our job to differentiate ourselves from one another, because we all have the same human nature and basic needs, and if we did not use our minds to create an image for ourselves, we would all be the same. On the other hand, the atheistic view, â€Å"Atheistic existentialism, declares with greater consistency that if God does not exist there is at least one being whose existence comes before its essence, a being which exists before it can be defined by any conception of it. That being is man or the human reality† (Sartre Lecture).This is saying that there is no human nature, because there was no god to conceive humans, or the idea of human nature. Man just simply is, and there is no meaning to life or existence unless they give meaning to it. They decide who the y are and who they want to be, or if they are anything at all, and there is no god to have decided what humans will be because he does not exist himself. â€Å"Man will only attain existence when he is what he purposes to be. Not, however, what he may wish to be† (Sartre Lecture).Man does not have existence unless he creates it for himself, therefore counteraction the theistic view, and saying that essence is before existence. Your essence allows you to exist. Within Life of Pi, there are many things that point to it being possibly theistically existentialist. For example, one of the three religions he believes in is Hinduism, which the aspect of reincarnation and karma are greatly important in. Reincarnation is the belief that your soul is passed down through many physical forms, and karma determines what physical form your soul will take on in the next life.This follows with existentialism because it is the thought that you are not tied down by your physical attributes, but you are defined by what you do in life and what image you create for yourself, and gods ultimately decide what physical form you will take on. Therefore, you cannot be defined by what physical form you have or human instinctual needs. It is your job to see beyond that. Another thing that Pi does that coincides with theistic existentialism is that of when he is abandoned on the boat, he still continues to pray five times a day (Martel).Yes, other actions that he committed on the boat proved otherwise to be non-existential, but he remained hopeful by praying on the boat for quite a while, feeling that he was not yet abandoned by god and did not completely succumb to his human needs and solely focusing on survival. Moving on to ways that the book is non-existentialist, I believe that the book was far more non-existentialist from the theistic view. One of the ways was how Pi was the denomination of Catholicism (Martel), which is a denomination of Christianity that does not believe in f ree will.They believe that free will is a denial of grace, or the denial that God created humans in the image of himself, which is pretty much the exact opposite of existentialism itself. Existentialists believe that god gave man the power of free will because he knows what they will do with their free will, and there is no denial of the image of god. Another way that Life of Pi is not existentialist is when he is on the boat, and commits acts of human instinctual survival. He goes against his beliefs to survive.An example of that is when he goes against his vegetarianism and love of animals to drink the turtles blood (Martel). This is abandoning your beliefs and self image to survive, and just giving into human instinct, which brings me to another topic of atheistic existentialism: anguish, abandonment, and despair (Sartre Lecture). â€Å"Anguish† is basically describing that, when a man decides for himself, he is not only deciding something for himself, but that of all mank ind because he is representing them all as a whole because all of our decisions define us (Sartre Lecture). Abandonment† is saying that we cannot depend on god to give us moral guidance. We have to have our own moral, and not look to god and holy books to decide what we do in life (Sartre Lecture). â€Å"Despair† basically means that there should be no despair, because there is no limit as to what we can do. If there is no god, there is no all-powerful being, and then there is no one to decide our limits for us. Therefore, we cannot be in despair, for the possibilities are endless (Sartre Lecture). They all seem to counteract the belief in god, so in the atheistic sense, Life of Pi isn’t existentialist at all.He became a bit absorbed with himself, and not mankind while he was on the boat. He did not care about the animal he killed, and went with human instinct, thus only caring about himself. He depended on his multiple gods for guidance, and also expected them t o help him while keeping up with prayer five times a day (Martel). In conclusion, I believe that Life of Pi is non-existentialist as a whole. Too many things point to it being non-existentialist in the theist sense, and pretty much all things point to it being non-existentialist in the atheist view.Reincarnation and Karma seem to coincide with that of existentialism, as well of his perseverance with faith. But that same perseverance counteracts that of the atheistic view, with anguish, abandonment, and despair. He also showed true human instinct by going against his instincts to survive. I believe that the non-existentialist aspects definitely outweigh the existentialist ones. Works Cited Martel, Yann. Life of Pi. Orlando: Harcourt, Inc. , 2001. Print. Sartre, Jean Paul. Philip Mairet, trans. â€Å"Existentialism is a Humanism. † Lecture given in 1946. Web. 11 December 2012.

Thursday, August 15, 2019

First Quarter Book Analysis on Great Expectations Essay

In Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, Pip, the main protagonist in the story, is very idealistic and yearns to become a gentleman. He wants to better himself and rise above his humble origins in hopes of winning over his love Estella. Pip is also a very kind man and cares about the ones who are close to him. However, he is also a very arrogant man, and he does not see what his arrogance costs him, until he learns that true happiness in life does not come from wealth or status. Pip has an idealistic desire to become a gentleman, to elevate his status in life, and to impress the beautiful girl Estella who he has fallen in love with her due to her charming appearance. He demonstrates this trait on many occasions. Such as when he tells Biddy that he is â€Å"not happy as I am†¦ I am disgusted with my calling and with my life,† and â€Å"I want to be a gentleman.† He also displays his idealism as he strives to educate himself and become â€Å"uncommon,† by having Biddy â€Å"impart all her learning to me†¦ it appeared to me that it would take time to become uncommon†¦ nevertheless: I resolved to try it.† He further exhibits this trait by continually trying to win over Estella even though she only gives him discomfort â€Å"everything in our intercourse did give me pain†¦.I could put no trust in it, and build no hope on it; and yet I went on against trust and against hope.† In his idealistic desire to become a gentleman and to win over Estella he believes he will live a much happier life once his goal is achieved. Pip’s ambitiousness, however, is replaced with contentment as experience reveals to him that happiness is not gained through being a gentleman and that the true beauty of a person lies within their heart and not in their outward appearances. Pip is also a very kind man. He displays his kindness in trying to help his friend Herbert out of debt by helping his business ventures begin â€Å"how I could best try with my resources to help Herbert to some present income†¦ and gradually buy him on to some small partnership.† Pip also displays kindness in his actions towards Magwitch as he constantly worries for his safety â€Å"Were I might go, what I might do, or when I might return, were questions utterly unknown to me; nor did I vex my mind with them, for it was wholly set on Provis’s safety.† After the failed attempt to smuggle Magwitch out of the country, Pip continues to visit him every day when he is in prison as he tells him â€Å"I will never stir from your side when I am suffered to be near you. Please God I will be true to you, as you have been true to me.† Pip was true to his promise and was faithful to Magwitch to the day of his death. Pip is also very arrogant in his actions; this is seen in his ungrateful treatment towards Joe and Biddy when he has come of great expectations. When Joe comes to visit Pip, his feeling towards this was â€Å"not with pleasure† and â€Å"if I could have kept him away by paying money, I certainly would have paid money.† He did not think there was â€Å"anything low and small in my keeping away from Joe† and he almost wants nothing to do with him even though he â€Å"was bound to him by so many ties.† He also displays his arrogance in his treatment towards Biddy. When he asked Biddy why she received him â€Å"coming down here often to see Joe† â€Å"with a marked silence† Biddy asks him if he in fact will come down often, to which Pip took insult to, as a â€Å"very bad side of human nature!† even though he knows he won’t come back â€Å"Once more the mists were rising†¦ if they disclosed to me†¦ that I should not come back†¦ all I can say is, they were quite right.† However, Pip does not remain arrogant and a change overtakes him. After his encounter with Magwitch his benefactor, he realizes the true worth of his companions and how wrong he was in his treatment towards them â€Å"my repugnance to him had melted away†¦ I only saw a man who meant to be my benefactor and who felt affectionately, gratefully, and generously towards me with a great consistency through a series of years. I only saw in him, a much better man than I had been to Joe.† Pip has become humbled by his experience and decides he will return to the forge to marry Biddy. However, in his arrogance in trying to win over Estella and casting Biddy and Joe aside, he was too late, as Biddy had married Joe. However Pip is changed by his mistakes and is now very grateful towards Joe and Biddy and sorry for his treatment towards them, â€Å"receive my humble thanks for all you have done for me, and all I have so ill repaid!†¦ and now†¦ pray tell me, both, that you f orgive me!† Through his experiences he is now a humble man and not the ungrateful arrogant person he once was. Pip was a very kind man., but he was also arrogant and vainly idealistic in thinking the way to better himself was through wealth and status. These traits, through his experiences, are transformed and he is now humble and content, as he learns a hard lesson that true happiness does not come from wealth or status, as was his idealistic view, but from a contentment that comes only from within. Pip has become a true â€Å"gentleman.† In Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, the main character of the story, Pip, struggles personally with a man vs. self-conflict as he struggles about his status in life. This conflict within him begins after a visit to the Satis house, where he meets Miss Havisham and Estella. He is greatly offended by Estella’s insults towards him â€Å"what coarse hands he has. And what thick boots!† and he begins to feel ashamed of his personal appearance, â€Å"I took the opportunity†¦ to look at my coarse hands and common boots†¦ They had never troubled me before, but they troubled me now, as vulgar appendages.† He also begins to feel ashamed of his upbringing â€Å"I wished Joe had been more genteelly brought up, and then I should have been so too.† This continues as Estella brings him food and a mug of beer and does not even look at him, much the way one would feed a stray dog, leaving Pip feeling utterly dejected, â€Å"I was so humiliated, hurt, spurned, offended, angry, sorry – I cannot hit upon the right name for the smart – God knows what the name was.† Pip hangs his head and cries in shame. This conflict intensifies over the course of one year, as Pip grows more ashamed of his home, a place that once afforded him comfort. â€Å"It’s a most miserable thing to be ashamed of home†¦ But, Joe had sanctified it, and I believed in it†¦ now it was all coarse and common.† As his status changes, the conflict continues to escalate after he has come to â€Å"great expectations.† In his rise to â€Å"property† he believed that he would live a much happier life as a gentleman â€Å"No more low wet grounds, no more dykes and sluices, no more of these grazing cattle†¦ henceforth I was for London and greatness: not for smith’s work.† However, he did not live a happy life, and his conscience plagued him â€Å"As I had grown accustomed to my expectations†¦ Their influence on my own character†¦ I knew very well that it was not at all good.† â€Å"I lived in a chronic state of uneasiness in my behavior towards Joe. M y conscience was not by any means comfortable about Biddy.† He in fact was living quite miserably â€Å"We were always more or less miserable†¦ I detested the chambers beyond expression,† â€Å"I should have been happier†¦ if I had risen to manhood content to be partners with Joe in the old honest forge.† Pip’s conflict reaches its climax and resolution when he discovers his benefactor. The climax is reached upon discovering that Magwitch, the convict he met so long ago in the marshes, is indeed his benefactor â€Å"the dread I had of him†¦ could not have been exceeded if he had been some terrible beast.† He now wishes that he had never come of his expectations and realizes what a fool he was â€Å"O, that he had never come! That he had left me at the forge – far from contented, yet, by comparison happy!† â€Å"I began to fully know how wrecked I was, and how the ship in which I sailed was gone to pieces†¦ But, sharpest and deepest pain of all – it was for the convict†¦ that I had deserted Joe.† His conflict reaches its resolution after Magwitch is arrested and his expectations have departed. However, he is able to see the good in Magwitch and began to care for him greatly as his â€Å"repugnance to him had melted away.† He finally realizes that he does not need wealth, nor does he need to elevate his status, in order to be happy. As he â€Å"lived happily†¦ and lived frugally† with his dear friend Herbert, he is no longer ashamed of his humble beginnings and is content with his place in society.

Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Why Study Organizations?

In order to answer an essay question, first of all, we need to understand what is meant by the term ‘organization’ from the sociological point of view. Then we need to understand what role organizations are playing in our life and why it is essential to study them. As we can imagine, there are different types of organizations. All of them have their own structure and purpose. In this essay I would like to focus on business organizations: how they appeared and developed; how employees’ relations were changing, etc. I would like to pay the specific attention to such department as Human Resource Management – how this term appeared and why it is so important nowadays. So, why do we actually need to study organizations? This question, from my point of view, has a very easy and obvious answer: we need to study organizations for the same reason we study the world around us. We are intelligent and curious people. We always need an explanation of what is happening, how the things are working, and what place do we take among other people. Organizations are the huge part of our modern daily life: we either study or work for them, or we are obtaining goods and services from them. We are interacting with organizations all the time, so it is not surprising, that we want to study them; and it does not matter if you are a manager or consumer – you are still involved in it and you want to be aware of what is happening around you. What is organization? In sociology term ‘organization’ has a very general meaning. This â€Å"is basically a structure for carrying out a particular social activity on a regular basis† (Fulcher and Scott, 2009; p. 542). All the organizations have such features as specific goal, defined membership, rules of behaviour, and authority relationships. This is also important to mention, that all organizations have the characteristic of continuity. This means that personnel can be changing, but the organization will still exist. There is no clear definition of what social units come into the category of organizations. Some of them are easy to define, other will bring us some difficulties. For instance, business corporations, schools, hospitals, trade unions are definitely organizations, as they all have the characteristics mentioned before. On the other hand, communities, social groups, and class are not organizations, as they do not have rules of behaviour or specific goals. The problem can occur, when we come across the term ‘institution’. The first thing we need to understand here is that organization is not an institution. Institution is â€Å"an established practice that regulate the various activities that make up social life† (Fulcher and Scott, 2009; p. 543). The most common examples of institutions in daily life are weddings and funerals. Although, these are two different terms, there is one class of organizations which is called total institution. Most of the organizations leave people with their separate private lives, but it is not the case with total institution. It is characterised by such features as disappearance of private life, planned and supervised activities, sharp division between staff and inmates, the mortification of the self. The biggest examples of the total institution are mental hospital and prison, where people are isolated from the outside world and society. Now we know what defines organizations, but we still did not get to the point why do we need to study them. From my point of view, it is essential to look at the historical background of organizations. We need to understand how they were appearing and developing trough the time, in order to understand how they are functioning nowadays. In this essay I have decided to look specifically at one type of organizations – business corporations. Weber (1914) said that modern society is distinguished from the earlier one by the appearance of the multiplicity of administrative tasks and the need to expertise and carry them. He called it â€Å"the increasing complexity of civilization†. Weber said that this phenomenon is caused by growing size of organizations, greater wealth and increasing social problems. If we would refer to the history of organizations, we can see the significant changes in structure, polices, employee relations, values, etc. The first interest in organizations appeared in the 19th century, which was driven by industrialization. Industrial revolution was caused by development of technologies, which completely changed the structure of most of the organizations, and lead to the transformation of society. The introduction of manufacturing process completely changed the employment relations. Discipline was the key feature of the new organization, as it helped to control and organize people more effectively – this lead to the process of bureaucratization. New industrialists were looking for the profitable production. In order to achieve it, they needed punctuality and uninterrupted work during fixed hours from their employees. These targets were achieved by bureaucratisation, which was central to the administrative revolution. These rganizations were highly rational, they functioned in a discipline and unemotional manner, their activities were calculated, systematic and predictable. This approach helped the manufacturers maximize the return on their capital. This new manufacturing process was the beginning of the new era of employment relations. Bureaucracy is a systematic approach; all the workers had their duties and were paid respectively. But, as many other theories, this sys tem did not work so smooth in the real life, as it seemed on paper. Employers’ main purpose was to increase the profit, in order to do so, they were underpaying their employees. At the beginning people were happy just to have jobs, but the time passed and workers started to understand and fight for their human rights. This situation caused the appearance of the new type of organizations called ‘trade unions’. Trade union is an organization of workers, who tied together in order to achieve better working conditions. It is suggested that the origins of trade unions lay in the failure of the early Factory act to protect children and women at the work place; as a result many began to work together, forming unions to agitate for change in the law and greater respect for the workers (BBC). As we can see, relationships between employers and workers were getting more and more complicated. In order to keep company’s profitability, employers had to meet workers’ conditions – this brought the necessity of new management approach, which was called scientific or personnel management. This approach was first introduced by Frederick Winslow Taylor in the late 19th century. Personnel Management was an administrative record-keeping function; it attempted to maintain fair terms and conditions for employees. This was the beginning of the employee relations. Its main idea was to pay people for their productivity, the new reward system was introduced. In other words people were paid for the amount of time they worked and for the quantity of items they produced. This was the beginning of new era of management. Lately Personnel Management evolved into the Human Resource Management, it was again caused by the employee’s unsatisfied demands. People were paid properly, but it was not enough anymore. Workers were tired of being treated as machines, they were demanding for more personal attitude. It was the time when Human Resource Management was introduced. It was concerned with carrying out the same functional activities traditionally performed by the personnel function, such as recruitment and selection, training and development, performance management, etc. But HRM approach was looking at employees from the point of view, that they are the main organizational assets. It was seeking to achieve the competitive advantage trough the strategic development of highly committed and capable work force. In other words, employers were trying to create the comfortable and friendly working environment, in order to keep the best employees in the company. As we can see from the historical background, there were massive changes in the organizational structure; and these changes appeared in a relatively small amount of time. We are living in the world of progress, where everything is developing so fast, that it is sometimes very hard to catch up. By ‘everything’ I mean every aspect of our lives: technologies, government, countries, and of course people. People is the most important cause of all these changes: organization, on the first place, is all about its employees – without them it wouldn’t exist. Thinking about personal development, I would like to mention Maslow Hierarchy of needs: This pyramid clearly explains how workers’ needs were changing through the time: first of all they needed job to earn money for living; when they got it they needed to be secure that their income would be stable (Trade Unions appear); then they needed to feel comfortable in their working environment (Personnel Management); the top two requirements consider the personal recognition and the opportunity for development (this is what HRM is dealing with). Summarising everything said above, we can finally try to answer the question: â€Å"Why do we need to study organizations? † Organizations are imprescriptible part of our life: we are dealing with them practically in any aspect of our lives. We all study at the University at the moment, which means we are all part of this organization. In the future we are going to find the job and, most likely nowadays, going to be the part of another organization. As we can see, we cannot avoid this component of our life. As the Latin saying claims: â€Å"Forewarned, forearmed†. Studying organisations gives us an opportunity to know more about the world we live in, to know our lives and grab our chances. As we can see from the history. It was people, who changed the structure of organizations – simple workers, who was looking for better life. The world has changed a lot and it keeps on changing. Organizations nowadays have to be more flexible and open-minded, in order to attract the best ‘human assets’ and remain competitive; enormous amounts of money are spent on the Human Resource Development. There is prediction that the relationship that individuals will have with organizations will change: there were no longer be fixed working lives. People still need to earn money, but they do not want to be tied up with their jobs. Humanity is developing, we are having different demands and priorities from our predecessors. To go with the times, we need to study the society we live in, and organizations is one of its biggest and important parts nowadays. References 1. BBC/Learning zone Broad Band. Why Did the Trade Unions Come About? Available at: < http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/why-did-the-trade-unions-come-about/11082.html> Accessed: 20/03/2011 2. Bratton, J. & Gold, J. (2007) Human Resource Management: Theory & Practice (4th edition). Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke. 3. Clegg, S. and Hardy, C. (1999), Studying Organizations: Theory and Method. London: Sage. 4. Clegg, S. Kornberger, M. and Pitsis, T. (2008) Managing and Organizations: An Introduction to Theory and Practice. London: Sage. 5. Fulcher, J. and Scott, J. (2009) Sociology (OUP, 3rd edition). Oxford University Press. 6. Giddens, Anthony. (2009) Sociology (6th edition). Cambridge: Polity Press. 7. Storey, J. (1995), Human Resource Management. London: Routledge.