Retail and Channel Management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Retail and Channel Management - Assignment Example Typical channel marketing methods used include direct selling or selling through a reseller. The act of retailing comes in when a producer delivers goods to consumers through a reseller. Delivery of goods from the production premises to the market goes through some stages involving different parties. The typical steps of a supply chain start with the delivery of goods from the producer to a wholesaler. A wholesaler buys goods from the producer in large quantities only to sell them to the retailers. A retailer comes in at the end of a supply chain where it sells goods to consumers in small quantities. A retail store may be involved is some channeling activities, which may include delivery of goods from their main store to other small outlets or to consumer environments. In the modern business arena, retail industry is growing at a tremendous pace. Recent commerce statistics shows that the retail industry will hit a $13 206 billion by the year 2015. Just like any other business and marketing concepts, the acts of retailing and channeling require management services. This brings us to the context of retail and channel management. All management activities involve the process of planning, organizing, leading, directing and controlling the involved processes. According to Neelesh (2008), the process of retail and channel management entails the acts of planning, organizing and directing the delivery and supply of goods from the retail stores to the end users. Retail management refers to all the integrated processes which facilitate procurement of the desired goods and services by a consumer. Retail management incorporates the management and marketing concepts in achieving the goal of effective provision and delivery of goods to the end users. An efficient retail management exercises accomplish the result of making customers’ shopping experience exciting. According to Nicholas (2005) & Gary (2005), channel

Conventional And Holistic Health Approaches Health And Social Care Essay

Conventional And Holistic Health Approaches Health And Social Care Essay This assignment outlines the conventional and holistic approaches towards health. In addition it identifies, compares and evaluates the differences between these two approaches. According to Linda Ewles and Ina Simnett holistic approache can be defined as an approach to health that is concerned with the body as a whole, as opposed to traditional health, which concentrates on illnesses and wellness in specific areas of the body as a whole. Hence enabling a person to understand and focus on the necessity of whole being and how each part affects individually. Subscribers to the holistic approach to health believe that maximum health is obtained when the mind, body and soul are all functioning in the best way possible and are in sync with the environment. Nevertheless a Holistic approach is seen as physical health, mental health, emotional health, social health, spiritual health and societal health. This will enable them to identify, analysis and evaluate individual parts (not just symptoms) in order to manage, control and tread them as a whole picture. Therefore the beneficial use of a holistic approach, attempts to bring balance and harmony approach to patients. It also looks at the problems and solutions by identifying and underlying causes of symptoms, instead of covering up the symptoms and problems (as conventional medicine) with drugs or alternative medicine. Conventional medicine is the act of using modern Technologies and approved modern medicines to treat a illness. For example, a child or adult who has an attention deficit disorder and attention, deficit hyperactivity disorder will be put on a form of medication that is used to control the bodys behaviour. Nevertheless some people do not believe that the disorder exists and do not want to use prescribed medication to treat the problem and may rely on alternative medicine to help them. Alternative medicine includes many forms of help such as Natural Herbal Medicines, Therapies. Additionally alternative health is seen as holistic concept of health, therefore medicine is merely the act of using natural and non-medicinal measures to treat a problem. Some forms of alternative medicine include diet change, taking herbal supplements, acupuncture, prayer and behavioural therapy. The conventional treatment of cancer is chemotherapy. However alternative medicine involves using vitamins and acupuncture to help their cancer, in order to help ones to have a better Healthy life style. A Holistic approach and Conventional medicine, has many fundamental similarities, beliefs and distinguish characters between them. A holistic approach enables a person to truly evaluate and empower patients to take care of themselves and how to go about towards a better healthy lifestyle as a whole such as physical therapies. Whereas a conventional medicine is very similar but it deals more with stress management, surgery, physical therapy through regulates diet and excises. In addition a Conventional medicine is more based on drugs, allophonic medicine which mainly also focuses on eliminating cure and mitigate diseases. While Conventional medicine identifies and manage life by threading diseases, illness and injuries which in this case is highly recommended especially with therapeutic both acute cases effectively and productively. However one of the main advantages of having a Holistic Approach is that it deals with patients as a whole, in order to identifies and eliminates therapeutic from occurring and treading chronic diseases and to have optimal health towards a better life as individually. A Conventional medicine and Holistic approach, process differently. A Holistic approach enables ones to embrace and connect with their spiritual, mental and physical well being as a whole picture, through the beneficial use of yoga, therapy and/or treatments. A holistic a traditional approach focuses on vital medical attention. This considerate more about the patient safety as some patients, might have some illness that they are diagnosis with. Therefore the use of a Holistic approach would enable ones with the opportunity to find out the reason for their illness and eliminate their likelihood of risk occurrence such as disease, through analysing and evaluating any potential illnesses in the long term. Additionally a Holistic medicine towards health thread diseases effectively, through simply following same basic (traditional) principles which focuses on individual as a whole towards a much better healthy life style. Through beneficial use of treatments and finding out symptoms with Holistic approach towards health. Hence the use of natural healing, rejuvenating and restorative capabilities of ones body stimulating as a whole. However Conventional medicine, in contrast with people who use the medicine usually do not search for cure until they become ill, this might lead to little and serious stress on preventive treatment. Additionally the causes of the illness are measured to be pathogens bacteria, viruses or biochemical imbalances. Therefore scientific tests are often used to identify analyses and evaluate diagnosis; Drugs, Surgery, and radiation are among the key tools for dealing with these types of problems. Overall Conventional Medicine and Holistic approach both take into consideration the vital and a necessity value towards ones a healthy life style. However a conventional Medicine does not deal with individual patients as a whole picture. But instead its more about prescribed medication to control ones body in order to tread the problem. Nevertheless a Holistic approach is more suitable technique towards a healthy life style. A Holistic approach embraces and concentrates to tradition health, by looking at individual patients body as a whole picture and not separately. Hence this enables ones to identify and underline causes of the patients symptoms, instead of covering up the symptoms as Conventional medicine with drugs or alternative medicine. This enables them to identify and analysis illnesses and risk involved within specific areas of their patients body. Also it enables them to focus on patients physical, mental, emotional, social, spiritual and societal health in order to establish a balancing and harmony life style for individually as a whole productively and effectively. Lay definition Lay is defined as when a person is not expert. And does not assume they have expert knowledge. This will define lay. According to (Who, 1948). Defines lay as state of complete physical, mental, social, and well-being. According to humans health can be defined as been well as consequences of being fit and doing regular exercise. Also older people with mobility difficulties May define health in different ways compare to young person. Also health can be described in different words; your own explanation of health depends of your cultural background, physical and mental state, and situation in life. Health is holistic view that further than explanation of illness. However, this definition has boundaries, mainly in relative to measuring health outcomes (Bowling, 1991). Lay people dont believe biomedical definitions of health and illness. Instead they have a compound web of beliefs, about understanding health. According to (Cox et al. (1987) has done investigated lay view of health and ill health. And he found out that 30 per cent of people defined health as not being ill or disease-free which it means that different meaning of ill health or disease. And the only explanation to this is that certain diseases, which individual lay people cannot manage without professional help, are classified as illnesses. Most people treat their own ill health, whether it is with lay remedies or over-the-counter (OTC) medicines, with or without the advice of a pharmacist, friend or relative. http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=278217

Gilgamesh Is Gay Essay -- essays research papers

Gilgamesh is an epic that has been passed down for thousands of years. The epic narrates the legendary deeds of the main character Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh is two-thirds immortal and one-third mortal; however, he cannot accept his fate that one day he too will die. The entire epic tells the story of Gilgamesh’s life and searche for immortality. Through his many trials and tribulations, Gilgamesh proves that he has great physical strength. However, throughout the epic Gilgamesh also shows he is emotionally unstable and immature. The author created Gilgamesh with this flaw of immaturity so that he would be a more believable character. The depth of Gilgamesh's physical strength first appears to the reader in the prologue. Gilgamesh is said to be "the man to whom all things are known". The gods created him with great care giving him beauty and courage. "The great gods made his beauty perfect, surpassing all others, terrifying like a great wild bull". Furthermore, h is beauty and power were like that of no other man. The story begins by stating that Gilgamesh is an overbearing king. He never sleeps due to his over indulgence in life. Gilgamesh keeps the city in disruption involving anyone he pleases in his corrupt demands. He sleeps with all the virgins before they are married, therefore, making them impure before their husbands have a chance to sleep with them. If Gilgamesh were a mature king, he would see no reason to show he is the most powerful. He would lead ...

A Dirty Job Chapter 11

11 THE GIRLS CAN GET A LITTLE DARK AT TIMES The Great Big Book of Death, as it turned out, wasn't that big, and certainly wasn't that comprehensive. Charlie read through it a dozen times, took notes, made copies, ran searches trying to find some reference to any of the stuff covered, but all of the material in the twenty-eight lavishly illustrated pages boiled down to this: 1. Congratulations, you have been chosen to act as Death. It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it. It is your duty to retrieve soul vessels from the dead and dying and see them on to their next body. If you fail, Darkness will cover the world and Chaos will reign. 2. Some time ago, the Luminatus, or the Great Death, who kept balance between light and darkness, ceased to be. Since then, Forces of Darkness have been trying to rise from below. You are all that stands between them and destruction of the collective soul of humanity. 3. In order to hold off the Forces of Darkness, you will need a number two pencil and a calendar, preferably one without pictures of kitties on it. 4. Names and numbers will come to you. The number is how many days you have to retrieve the soul vessel. You will know the vessels by their crimson glow. 5. Don't tell anyone what you do, or dark forces, etc. etc. etc. 6. People may not see you when you are performing your Death duties, so be careful crossing the street. You are not immortal. 7. Do not seek others. Do not waver in your duties or the Forces of Darkness will destroy all that you care about. 8. You do not cause death, you do not prevent death, you are a servant of Destiny, not its agent. Get over yourself. 9. Do not, under any circumstances, let a soul vessel fall into the hands of those from below – because that would be bad. A few months passed before Charlie worked the shop again alone with Lily. She asked him, â€Å"Well, did you get a number two pencil?† â€Å"No, I got a number one pencil.† â€Å"You rogue! Asher, hello, Forces of Darkness – â€Å" â€Å"If the world without this Luminatus is so precariously balanced that my buying a pencil with one-grade-harder lead is going to cast us all into the abyss, then maybe it's time.† â€Å"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,† Lily chanted like she was trying to bring a spooked horse under control. â€Å"It's one thing for me to be all nihilistic and stuff, for me it's a fashion statement, I have the outfits for it. You can't be all horny for the grave wearing your stupid Savile Row suits.† Charlie was proud of her for recognizing that he was wearing one of his expensive secondhand Savile Rows. She was learning the trade in spite of herself. â€Å"I'm tired of being afraid,† he said. â€Å"I've dealt with the Forces of Darkness or whatever, Lily, and you know what, we're one and one.† â€Å"Should you be telling me this? I mean, the book said – â€Å" â€Å"I think I'm different than what the book says, Lily. The book says that I don't cause death, but there have been two now that have died more or less because of my actions.† â€Å"And I repeat, should you be telling me this? As you have pointed out many times, I am a kid, and wildly irresponsible. It's wildly irresponsible, right? I'm never listening that closely.† â€Å"You're the only one who knows,† Charlie said. â€Å"And you're seventeen now, not a kid, you're a young woman now.† â€Å"Don't fuck with me, Asher. If you keep talking like that I'll get another piercing, take X until I'm dehydrated like a mummy, talk on my cell phone until the battery is dead, then find some skinny, pale guy and suck him until he cries.† â€Å"So, it will be like a Friday?† Charlie said. â€Å"What I do with my weekends is my own business.† â€Å"I know!† â€Å"Well, then shut up!† â€Å"I'm tired of being afraid, Lily!† â€Å"Well, then stop being afraid, Charlie!† They both looked away, embarrassed. Lily pretended to shuffle through the day's receipts while Charlie pretended to be looking for something in what he called his walking satchel and Jane called his man purse. â€Å"Sorry,† Lily said, without looking up from the receipts. â€Å"S'okay,† Charlie said. â€Å"Me, too.† Still not looking up, Lily said, â€Å"But really, should you be telling me any of this?† â€Å"Probably not,† Charlie said. â€Å"It's sort of a big burden to carry. Sort of – â€Å" â€Å"A dirty job?† Lily looked up now and grinned. â€Å"Yeah,† Charlie smiled, relieved. â€Å"I won't bring it up again.† â€Å"That's okay. It's kind of cool.† â€Å"Really?† Charlie couldn't remember anyone ever referring to him as cool. He was touched. â€Å"Not you. The whole Death thing.† â€Å"Yeah, right,† Charlie said. Yes! Still batting a thousand on the zero-cool quotient. â€Å"But you're right, it's not safe. No more talk about my, uh, avocation.† â€Å"And I'll never call you Charlie again,† Lily said. â€Å"Ever.† â€Å"That would be fine,† Charlie said. â€Å"We'll act like this never happened. Excellent. Good talk. Resume your thinly veiled contempt.† â€Å"Fuck off, Asher.† â€Å"Atta girl.† They were waiting for him the next morning when he took his walk. He expected it, and he wasn't disappointed. He'd stopped in the shop to pick up an Italian suit he'd just taken in, as well as a cigar lighter that had languished in a curio case in the back for two years, which he stuffed in his satchel with the glowing porcelain bear that was the soul vessel of someone who had passed long ago. Then he stepped outside and stood just above the opening of the storm drain – waved at the tourists on the cable car as it clanked by. â€Å"Good morning,† he said cheerily. Anyone watching him might have thought he was greeting the day, since there was no one around. â€Å"We'll peck out her eyes like ripe plums,† hissed a female voice out of the drain. â€Å"Bring us up, Meat. Bring us up so we can lap your blood from the gaping wound we tear in your chest.† â€Å"And crunch your bones in our jaws like candy,† added a different voice, also female. â€Å"Yeah,† agreed the first voice, â€Å"like candy.† â€Å"Yeah,† said a third. Charlie felt his entire body go to gooseflesh, but he shook it off and tried to keep his voice steady. â€Å"Well, today would be a good day for it,† Charlie said. â€Å"I'm well rested from sleeping in my comfy bed with the down comforter. Not like I spent the night in a sewer or anything.† â€Å"Bastard!† A hissing female chorus. â€Å"Well, talk to you on the next block.† Strolled up the block into Chinatown, pacing out the sidewalk jauntily with his sword-cane, the suit inside a light garment bag thrown over his shoulder. He tried whistling, but thought that might be a little too clich. They were already under the next corner when he got there. â€Å"I'm going to suck the baby's soul out through her soft spot while you watch, Meat.† â€Å"Oh, nice!† Charlie said, gritting his teeth and trying not to sound as horrified as he was. â€Å"She's starting to crawl around pretty well now, so don't miss breakfast that day, because if she has her little rubber spoon, she'll probably kick your ass.† There was a screech of anger from the sewers and a harsh, hissing chatter. â€Å"He can't say that? Can he say that? Does he know who we are?† â€Å"Taking a left at the next block. See you there.† There was a young Chinese man dressed in hip-hop wear who looked at Charlie and took a quick step to the side so as not to catch whatever kind of crazy this well-dressed Lo pak[1] was carrying. Charlie tapped his ear and said, â€Å"Sorry, wireless headset.† The hip-hop guy nodded curtly, like he knew that, and despite appearances to the contrary, he had not been trippin', but had, in fact, been chillin' like a mo-fuckin' villain, so step the fuck off, wigga. He crossed against the light, limping slightly under the weight of the subtext. Charlie entered Golden Dragon Cleaners and the man at the counter, Mr. Hu, whom Charlie had known since he was eight, greeted him with an expansive and warm twitch of the left eyebrow, which was his usual greeting, and a good indicator to Charlie that the old man was still alive. A cigarette streamed at the end of a long black holder clinched in Hu's dentures. â€Å"Good morning, Mr. Hu,† Charlie said. â€Å"Beautiful day, isn't it?† â€Å"Suit?† said Mr. Hu, looking at the suit Charlie had slung over his shoulder. â€Å"Yes, just the one today,† Charlie said. Charlie brought all of his finer merchandise to Golden Dragon to be cleaned, and he'd been giving them a lot of business the last few months, with all the estate clothes he'd been taking in. He also had them do his alterations, and Mr. Hu was considered to be the best three-fingered tailor on the West Coast, and perhaps, the world. Three Fingered Hu, he was known as in Chinatown, although to be fair, he was actually possessed of eight fingers, and was only missing the two smaller fingers from his right hand. â€Å"Tailor?† Hu asked. â€Å"No, thank you,† Charlie said. â€Å"This one's for resale, not for me.† Hu snatched the suit out of Charlie's hand, tagged it, then called, â€Å"One suit for the White Devil!† in Mandarin, and one of his granddaughters came speeding out of the back, grabbed the suit, and was gone through the curtain before Charlie could see her face. â€Å"One suit for the White Devil,† she repeated for someone in the back. â€Å"Wednesday,† said Three Fingered Hu. He handed Charlie the ticket. â€Å"There's something else,† Charlie said. â€Å"Okay, Tuesday,† said Hu, â€Å"but no discount.† â€Å"No, Mr. Hu, I know it's been a long time since I needed it, but I wonder if you still have your other business?† Mr. Hu closed one eye and looked at Charlie for a full minute before he replied. When he did, he said, â€Å"Come,† then disappeared behind the curtain leaving a cloud of cigarette smoke. Charlie followed him into the back, through a noisy, steaming hell of cleaning fluids, mangle irons, and a dozen scurrying employees to a tiny plywood-walled office in the back, where Hu closed the door and locked them in as they did their business, something they'd first done over twenty years ago. The first time Three Fingered Hu had led Charlie Asher through the stygian back room of Golden Dragon Cleaners, the ten-year-old Beta Male was sure that he was going to be kidnapped and sold into dry-cleaning slavery, butchered and turned into dim sum, or forced to smoke opium and fight fifty kung fu fighters at once while still in his pj's (Charlie had a very tenuous grasp of his neighbors' culture at age ten), but despite his fear, he was driven by a passion that had been embedded in his very genes millions of years ago: a quest for fire. Yes, it was a crafty Beta Male who first discovered fire, and true, it was almost immediately taken away from him by an Alpha Male. (Alphas missed out on the discovery of fire, but because they did not understand about grabbing the hot, orangey end of the stick, they are credited with inventing the third-degree burn.) Still, the original spark burns bright in every Beta's veins. When Alpha boys have long since moved on to girls and sports, Betas w ill still be pursuing pyrotechnics well into adolescence and sometimes beyond. Alpha Males may lead the armies of the world, but it's the Betas who actually get the shit blowed up. And what better testimonial for a purveyor of fireworks than to be missing critical digits? Three Fingered Hu. When Hu opened his thick, trifold case across the desk, revealing his wares, young Charlie felt he had passed through the fires of hell to arrive, at last, in paradise, and he gladly handed over his wad of crumpled, sweaty dollar bills. And even as long silver ashes from Hu's cigarette fell over the fuses like deadly snow, Charlie picked his pleasure. He was so excited he nearly peed himself. The death-dealing Charlie who walked out of Golden Dragon Cleaners that morning with a compact paper parcel tucked under his arm felt a similar excitement, for as much as it was against his nature, he was rushing, once again, into the breech. He headed to the storm sewer grate and, waving the glowing porcelain bear from his satchel at the street, shouted, â€Å"I'm going over one block and up four, bitches. Join me?† â€Å"The White Devil has finally gone around the bend,† said Three Fingered Hu's eleventh grandchild, Cindy Lou Hu, who stood at the counter next to her venerated and digitally challenged ancestor. â€Å"His money not crazy,† said Three. Charlie had noticed the alley on one of his walks to the financial district. It lay between Montgomery and Kearney Streets and had all the things a good alley should have: fire escapes, Dumpsters, various steel doors tagged with graffiti, a rat, two seagulls, assorted filth, a guy passed out under some cardboard, and a half-dozen â€Å"No Parking† signs, three with bullet holes. It was the Platonic ideal of an alley, but what distinguished it from other alleys in the area was that it had two openings into the storm-drain system, spaced not fifty yards apart, one on the street end and one in the middle, concealed between two Dumpsters. Having recently developed an eye for storm drains, Charlie couldn't help but notice. He chose the drain that was hidden from the street, crouched down about four feet away, and opened the parcel from Three Fingered Hu. He removed eight M-80s and trimmed the two-inch-long waterproof fuses to about a half inch with a pair of nail clippers he kept on his key chain. (An M-80 is a very large firecracker, purported to have the explosive power of a quarter of a stick of dynamite. Rural children use them to blow up mailboxes or school plumbing, but in the city they have largely been replaced by the 9 mm Glock pistol as the preferred instrument of mischievous fun.) â€Å"Kids!† Charlie called into the drain. â€Å"You with me? Sorry I didn't get your names.† He drew the sword from his cane, set it by his knee, then dug the porcelain bear out of his satchel and sat it by his other knee. â€Å"There you go,† he called. There was a vicious hiss from the drain, and even as he thought it was completely dark, it got even darker. He could see silver disk shapes moving in the blackness, like coins tumbling through a dark ocean, but these were paired up – eyes. â€Å"Give it, Meat. Give it,† whispered a female voice. â€Å"Come and get it,† Charlie said, trying to fight down the greatest case of the willies he'd ever felt. It was like dry ice was being applied to his spine and it was all he could do not to shiver. The shadow in the drain started to leak out across the pavement, just an inch or so, but he could see it, like the light had changed. But it hadn't. The shadow took the shape of a female hand and moved another six inches toward the glowing bear. That's when Charlie grabbed the sword and snapped it down on the shadow. It didn't hit pavement, but connected with something softer, and there was a deafening screech. â€Å"You piece of shit!† screamed the voice – now in anger, not pain. â€Å"You worthless little – you – â€Å" â€Å"Quick and the dead, ladies,† Charlie said. â€Å"Quick and the dead. C'mon, give it another shot.† A second hand-shaped shadow snaked out of the drain on the left, then another on the right. Charlie pushed the bear away from the drain as he pulled the cigar lighter from his pocket. He lit the short fuses of four of the M-80s and tossed them into the drain, even as the shadows were reaching out. â€Å"What was that?† â€Å"What did he throw?† â€Å"Move, I can't – â€Å" Charlie put his fingers in his ears. The M-80s exploded and Charlie grinned. He sheathed the sword in the cane, gathered up his stuff, and sprinted for the other drain. Inside an enclosed space the noise would be punishing, brutal even. He kept grinning. He could hear a chorus of screaming and cursing, in half a dozen dead languages, some of them running over others, like someone was spinning the dial on a shortwave radio that spanned both time and space. He dropped to his knees and listened at the drain, careful to stay an arm's length away. He could hear them coming, tracking him under the street. He hoped he was right that they couldn't come out, but even if they did, he had the sword, and the sunlight was his turf. He lit four more M-80s, these with longer fuses, and tossed them one by one into the drain. â€Å"Who's New Meat now?† he said. â€Å"What? What did he say?† said a sewer voice. â€Å"I can't hear shit.† Charlie waved the porcelain bear in front of the drain. â€Å"You want this?† He tossed in another M-80. â€Å"You like that, do you?† Charlie shouted, throwing in the third firecracker. â€Å"That'll teach you to use your beak on my arm, you fucking harpies!† â€Å"Mr. Asher,† came a voice from behind him. Charlie looked around to see Alphonse Rivera, the police inspector, standing over him. â€Å"Oh, hi,† Charlie said, then realizing that he was holding a lit M-80, he said, â€Å"Excuse me a second.† He tossed the firecracker in the drain. At that moment they all started going off. Rivera had retreated a few steps and had his hand in his jacket, presumably on his gun. Charlie put the porcelain bear in his satchel and climbed to his feet. He could hear the voices shrieking at him, cursing. â€Å"You fucking loser,† screeched one of the dark ones. â€Å"I'll weave a basket of your guts and carry your severed head in it.† â€Å"Yeah,† said another voice. â€Å"A basket.† â€Å"I think you threatened that already,† said a third. â€Å"I did not,† said the first. â€Å"Shut the fuck up!† Charlie yelled at the drain, then he looked at Rivera, who had drawn his weapon and was holding it at his side. â€Å"So,† Rivera said, â€Å"problems with, uh, someone in the drain?† Charlie grinned. â€Å"You can't hear that, can you?† The cursing was ongoing, but now in some language that sounded as if it required a lot of mucus to speak properly, Gaelic or German or something. â€Å"I can hear a distinct ringing in my ears, Mr. Asher, from the report of your distinctly illegal fireworks, but beyond that, nothing, no.† â€Å"Rats,† Charlie said, unconsciously raising an eyebrow in a so are you gonna buy that load of horseshit? way. â€Å"Hate the rats.† â€Å"Uh-huh,† Rivera said flatly. â€Å"The rats, they used their beak on your arm and evidently you feel that they have a secret desire for cheap animal curios?† â€Å"So that you heard?† Charlie asked. â€Å"Yep.† â€Å"That's gotta make you wonder, then, huh?† â€Å"Yep,† said the cop. â€Å"Nice suit, though. Armani?† â€Å"Canali, actually,† Charlie said. â€Å"But thanks.† â€Å"Not what I'd pick for bombing storm drains, but to each his own.† Rivera hadn't moved. He was standing just off the curb, about ten feet away from Charlie, his weapon still at his side. A jogger ran by them and used the opportunity to quicken his pace. Charlie and Rivera both nodded politely as he passed. â€Å"So,† Charlie said, â€Å"you're a professional, where would you go with this?† Rivera shrugged. â€Å"Not on any prescriptions you might have taken too many of, are you?† â€Å"I wish,† Charlie said. â€Å"Up all night drinking, thrown out by the wife, out of your mind with remorse?† â€Å"My wife passed away.† â€Å"I'm sorry. How long?† â€Å"Going on a year now.† â€Å"Well, that's not going to work,† said Rivera. â€Å"Do you have any history of mental illness?† â€Å"Nope.† â€Å"Well, you do now. Congratulations, Mr. Asher. You can use that next time.† â€Å"Do I have to do the perp walk?† Charlie asked, thinking about how he'd explain this to child services. Poor Sophie, her dad an ex con and Death, school was going to be tough. â€Å"This jacket is tailored, I don't think I can get it over my head for the perp walk. Am I going to jail?† â€Å"Not with me, you're not. You think this would be any easier for me to explain? I'm an inspector, I don't arrest guys for throwing firecrackers and yelling into storm drains.† â€Å"Then why do you have your weapon drawn?† â€Å"Makes me feel more secure.† â€Å"I can see that,† Charlie said. â€Å"I probably appeared a little unstable.† â€Å"Ya think?† â€Å"So where's that leave us?† â€Å"That the rest of your stash?† Rivera nodded toward the paper bag of firecrackers under Charlie's arm. Charlie nodded. â€Å"How about you toss that down the storm drain and we'll call it a day.† â€Å"No way. I have no idea what they'll do if they get their hands on fireworks.† Now it was Rivera's turn to raise an eyebrow. â€Å"The rats?† Charlie threw the bag in the storm sewer. He could hear whispering from below, but tried not to show Rivera that he was listening. Rivera holstered his weapon and shot his lapels. â€Å"So, do you take suits like that into your shop very often?† he asked. â€Å"More now than I used to. I've been doing a lot of estate work,† Charlie said. â€Å"You still have my card, give me a call if you get a forty long, anything Italian, medium-to lightweight wool, oh, or raw silk, too.† â€Å"Yeah, silk's perfect for our weather. Sure, I'll be happy to save you something. By the way, Inspector, how did you happen to be in a back alley, off a side street, in the middle of a Tuesday morning?† â€Å"I don't have to tell you that,† said Rivera with a smile. â€Å"You don't?† â€Å"No. You have a nice day, Mr. Asher.† â€Å"You, too,† said Charlie. So now he was being followed both above and below the street? Why else would a homicide detective be here? Neither the Great Big Book nor Minty Fresh had said a word about the cops. How were you supposed to keep this whole death-dealing thing a secret when a cop was watching you? His elation at having taken the battle to the enemy, something that was deeply against his nature, evaporated. He wasn't sure why, but something was telling him that he had just fucked up. Below the street the Morrigan looked at one another in amazement. â€Å"He doesn't know,† said Macha, examining her claws, which shone like brushed stainless steel in the dim light coming from above. Her body was beginning to show the gunmetal-blue relief of feathers, and her eyes were no longer just silver disks, but now had the full awareness of a predatory bird's. She had once flown over the battlefields of the North, landing on those soldiers who were dying of their wounds, pecking out their souls in her bird form of a hooded crow. The Celts had called the severed heads of their enemies Macha's Acorn Crop, but they had no idea that she cared nothing for their tributes or their tribes, only for their blood and their souls. It had been a thousand years since she had seen her woman claws like this. â€Å"I still can't hear,† said her sister Nemain, who groomed the blue-black feather shapes on her own body, hissing with the pleasure as she ran the dagger points over her breasts. She was showing fangs as well, which dented her delicate jet lips. It had been her lot to drip venom on those she would mark for death. There was no fiercer warrior than one who had been touched by the venom of Nemain, for with nothing to lose, he took the field without fear, in a frenzy that gave him the strength of ten, and dragged others to their doom with him. Babd raked her rediscovered claws across the side of the culvert, cutting deep gouges into the concrete. â€Å"I love these. I forgot I even had these. I'll bet we can go Above. Want to go Above? I feel like I could go Above. Tonight we can go Above. We could tear his legs off and watch him drag himself around in his own blood, that would be fun.† Babd was the screamer – her shriek on the battlefield said to send armies into retreat – ranks of soldiers a hundred deep would die of fright. She was all that was fierce, furious, and not particularly bright. â€Å"The Meat doesn't know,† repeated Macha. â€Å"Why would we give away our advantage in an early attack.† â€Å"Because it would be fun,† said Babd. â€Å"Above? Fun? I know, instead of a basket, you can weave a hat from his entrails.† Nemain slung some venom off her claws and it hissed in a steaming line across the concrete. â€Å"We should tell Orcus. He'll have a plan.† â€Å"About the hat?† asked Babd. â€Å"You have to tell him it was my idea. He loves hats.† â€Å"We have to tell him that New Meat doesn't know.† The three moved like smoke down the pipes toward the great ship, to share the news that their newest enemy, among other things, did not know what he was, or what he had wrought on the world.

Introductory to Organisational Behaviour Principles

Essay Title:Introductory to organisational behaviour principles Books, journals and articles on organisational behaviour (OB) can be found anywhere nowadays. Experts and professionals in this area have done a lot of research, coming up with theories, models, concepts, explanations and views on how a person will behave in an organisation. This paper argues that there are other resources to help us understand OB better. This paper will firstly define what OB is and discuss the similarities and differences found from other resources to our main textbook, ‘Organisational Behaviour on the Pacific Rim’ written by Steven Mcshane and Tony Travaglione. It will then analyse the relevance and usefulness of information to people working in organisations and students of OB. So what does OB actually mean? Robbins and Judge (2007, P. ) defined that ‘OB is a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behaviour within organisations, for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organisation’s effectiveness. ’ While, Nahavandi and Malekzadeh (1999, P. 3) points out that ‘OB is the study of how people behave in organisations as individuals, teams and how the organisations structure human resources to achieve goals. ’ Comparing these two long definitions on OB, I would rather go along with the statement by Mcshane and Travaglione (2007, P. ), where it says that OB is the study of what people think, feel and do in and around organisations. It’s so much easier to grasp and understand the gist of OB especially to students like me. What all these experts are trying to say is actually the same and what they had done is only putting their own thoughts into words. This signifies that we humans have a lot of views on one issue, it can be either the same or different, there’s no right or wrong either, it’s just a matter of how we perceive things. Thus we need to look into other resources to tap into other peoples’ views and concepts to learn more about OB. So why do we study OB? As Mcshane and Travaglione (2007) had put it, we need to understand, predict and influence the behaviour of people, by doing so it will benefit the individual and the organisation. However, Tosi, Mero and Rizzo have a slightly different kind of say, they say that we study OB to understand, predict and improve the performance of people and ultimately to the organisation which they work (2000, P. 2). The latter statement seems to be more appropriate. Organisations are always trying to improve their employee’s performance, communication and decisions making ability by sending their employees for courses like team building. Mcshane and Travaglione (2007) have clearly identified and explained the five anchors on which OB is based on, which are the multidisciplinary anchor, systematic research anchor, contingency anchor, multiple levels of analysis anchor and lastly the open systems anchor. It appears that this is the only book that includes all five anchors in one book. These clearly explained concepts would help students to understand OB with ease and clarity than any other resources researched. With regards to the multidisciplinary anchor, Robbins and Judge (2007) only talks about the contributions to OB field from four behavioural disciplines which are psychology, social psychology, sociology and anthropology. Mcshane and Travaglione talks more than that, they even listed and discussed how emerging disciplines like communications and marketing contribute to the study of OB. Mcshane and Travaglione (2007) say that scholars have been depending on systematic research to form research questions, and apply test hypotheses against collected data. Mcshane and Travaglione also suggest that researchers are adopting grounded theory to understand the working environment. It’s a qualitative method whereby concepts and theories are formed by data collections like observations and interviews. For example, the Department for transport in the United Kingdom did a project to find out what factors affect the choice of transport of their citizens (Department for transport 2003). Maybe the Land Transport Authority in Singapore can refer to this article and find out the reason for the increasing number of people owning cars in Singapore. Mcshane and Travaglione (2007, P. 17) state that ‘no single solution is best in all circumstances. ’ What works in one situation may not be successful in a different situation (12Manage, 2008). This is a view shared by Nahavandi and Malekzadeh (1999) where they say for each situation a different kind of respond is required. An example can be money; money can be a motivator for some people but may not be that effective on others, it all depends on the person’s financial needs and status (Vries 2007). Therefore, OB experts and managers in organisations learn to understand factors of different situations in order to respond more appropriately and effectively (Nahavandi and Malekzadeh (1999). Similarly to our main text, Robbins and Judge (2007) states that there are three levels of analysis on OB, the micro which studies the individual, middle level which covers the small group and the macro level which looks into organisations. However, the latter book had included a model for visualisation, creating an image of importance on this classification will help students to understand topics area of concern later in the book. Now let’s look at the last anchor, the open system anchor. Similarly to our main text, Thomas (2005) points out that organisations are open systems that will receive input of information and resources from the environment and in turn transform them into goods or service before returning them back into the environment. Organisations are always restructuring and strategising to survive in the corporate world (Taplin 2005). This information will definitely be useful to top managements of organisations. They can apply this knowledge to strengthen their market share and strengthen their company image. This paper has argued that in order to understand OB principles more, a lot of reading and research had to be done. We have looked at what OB exactly is and due to the ever changing environment, peoples view and perceptions change, so we need to understand, predict and influence the changing needs of people. By using the five anchors we will be able to do that. Even though some information researched is the same, it still increases my knowledge on OB through the constant readings, some information may be irrelevant, but it is still useful even if only one percent of new knowledge is gained. Total word count (1060) References Cummings, TG 2005, ‘open systems’, Blackwell Encyclopedic Dictionary of Organizational Behavior, viewed 2 August 2008, < http://web. ebscohost. com. libproxy. sim. edu. sg/ehost/detail? id=4&hid=120&sid=add89e44-3e79-4bf6-ac4d-7c90f405c030%40sessionmgr103&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=lmh&AN=20986772> Department for Transport 2003, ‘Psychological Factors Affecting Transport Mode Choice’, viewed 2 August 2008, . Mcshane, S. & Travaglione, T. 2007, ‘Organisational Behaviour on the Pacific Rim’, 2nd edn, McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd, NSW. Nahavandi, A. & Malekzadeh, A. R. 1999, ‘Organizational Behavior, The person-or ganization fit’, Prentice –Hall Inc, New Jersey. Robbins, S. P. & Judge, T. A. 2007, ‘Organizational Behavior’, 12th edn, Pearson education Inc, USA. Taplin, I. M. 2005, ‘Strategic change and organisational restructuring: How managers negotiate change initiatives’, Journal of international management, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 284-301, viewed 4 August 2008, Science Direct. Tosi, H. L. , Mero, N. P. & Rizzo, J. R. 2000, ‘Managing Organizational Behavior’, 4th edn, Blackwell Publishers Inc, USA. Vries, M. K. D. 2007, ‘Money, Money, Money’, Organizational Dynamics, vol. 36, no. 3, pp. 231–243, viewed 29 July 2008, Science Direct. 12 Manage 2008, ‘Contingency Theory’, Bilthoven, viewed 2 August 2008,