Thursday, October 31, 2019

SOCIOLOGY - Intellectuals and Revolutionary Politics Term Paper

SOCIOLOGY - Intellectuals and Revolutionary Politics - Term Paper Example Adam Smith in the Wealth of Nations describes this phenomenon in the following way: â€Å"proclaimed the principle of the ‘invisible Hand’; every individual, in pursuing only his own selfish good, [is] led as if by an invisible hand, to achieve the best good for all...† (Buchholz, 1999). Thus Smith underlines that in the first place of the modern Western society is selfish interests of every individual. Everybody thinks that the more money he earns the less problems he would have. Of course, some contemporaries think that in case they had a lot of money they would share it with poor people. In reality, even if a person succeeds and gains lots of money there are only a few who share it with the poor. It also can be argued that the modern world is being developed at full speed and it is necessary to earn money to keep pace with this progress. Moreover, world’s economics is being developed following the main principle: to make the greatest profits. From this p erspective, a root of monetary obsession of the modern Westerners is involuntarily dictated by external conditions. Furthermore, from the perspective of economics it may be claimed that â€Å"Money ...provides the measuring rod of values† (Buchholz, 1999). ... In order to define values, intellectuals claimed that there was an â€Å"interior need to penetrate beyond the screen of immediate concrete experience† (Shils 1972, p. 3). In such a way, money as a value is argued by Shils for sure. This value is relevant to modern society, but ‘beyond the screen of immediate concrete experience’ it is not a value. The members of the Western society hardly realize that a deep-rooted system of values is good, but it’s not the system to be deeply rooted. For example, in the earlier society the one of the basic values and an honor was to die for one’s country. This value could hardly exist in the ‘monetized’ society nowadays. Therefore if to discuss the deep rooted system of values of the Western society it can be metaphorically explained what this really means: â€Å"Everyone has a god, but not everyone is aware of who or what that god is†Ã‚  (Buchholz, 1999). Q 2 Romantic German nationalism as a tr igger of Nazi politics The upheaval of national consciousness is triggered by intervention of aliens in the territory of a certain nation. Romanticism and ‘wars of liberation’ of different classes in Germany triggered Nazi politics. From one perspective it may seem that there is nothing in common between Romanticism and Nazism. There is a perfect explanation of German nationalism that occurred under influence of Romanticism: â€Å"When, later, the last hopes which the German patriots had rested on liberation from the foreign yoke had burst like over-blown bubbles, their spirits sought refuge in the moonlit magic night and the fairy world of dreamy longing conjured up for them by romanticism, in order to forget the gray reality of life and its shameful disappointments† (Romanticism and Nationalism). Partially, German

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Cost Accounting and Cost Accounting System Assignment

Cost Accounting and Cost Accounting System - Assignment Example 2008). The most important feature of a cost accounting system is the regularity with which relevant cost information is provided to users. There are two types of cost accounting systems the job order cost and process order systems. Job order cost system operates by provides I cost information in regard to each quantity of product/ service in batches. It is mostly applicable in factories with wide variety of product/service lines e.g. accounting firms and apparel manufacturing industry. Secondly, process order cost system refers to the process of accumulating costs by department or process in a factory. It is applicable mostly in cases of continuous productions such as oil refineries and food processing industries. Several companies use both types of cost accounting systems due to the diversity of their product/services pressing and the need for a cost system that provides relevant decision making information. In addition, it enhances flexibility and accuracy contributing to a more effective operational and strategic

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Hrm Practices In Hotel Industry In Australia Management Essay

Hrm Practices In Hotel Industry In Australia Management Essay There has been widening recognition that human resource management strategies (HRM) impact organisational performance and overall effectiveness particularly in the service industry where strategic HR practices can contribute to competitive edge (Cheng Brown, 1998). The hospitality and tourism industry essentially comprises a service and production sector and with the immense emphasis on service quality, people essentially represent the entire industry. The success of the industry is dependant on the calibre of its employees and how they are managed in order to help the organisation achieve its objectives. HRM practices in smaller organisations are given comparatively a lower priority with larger hospitality organisations. (Kelliher Johnson, 1987)have recorded studies to suggest that even larger hotels have not yet developed a model for HRM but is moving away from personnel management in the past two decades. The major challenges faced by the hospitality industry and organisations w ithin this industry are that the industry is known for poor pay and employment conditions and a low take-up of HR practices. It is also generally believed that the industry has relied extensively on low-cost, numerically flexible and disposable workforce. Within the Australian context, there has been controversy regarding the extent to which organisations are moving away from a low wage, low-road approach to HRM exemplified by high levels of contingent labour towards a more systematic high commitment approach consistent with functionally flexible, enabling work practices (Angela Knox Walsh, 2005). The key issues that have central implications for strategic HRM are the casualisation of the workforce and high employee turnover within the industry and human resource managers need to utilise practices that enable them to have flexibility with respect to employment contracts and casual labour and also have strategic objectives to reduce the high employee turnover. This report attempts t o identify the key issues within the Hospitality and tourism industry like casualisation of the workforce, employee turnover and its implications for strategic human resource management. The report also discusses the case of Marriott International Inc., a large hotel chain operating within Australia and world over and attempts to identify if there are trends of best practices within its HR department which can be applicable to the entire industry. 2. HRM practices in Hotel industry in Australia (Lockyer Scholaris, 2004)conducted a survey that revealed that there was a lack of systematic selection procedures in the hotel industry particularly the small hotels and the larger hotel chains were having difficulties meeting the demands imposed by the labour market and other recruitment constraints. HR practitioners must have a tacit knowledge of a hotels local labour market and customer base to be able to make strategic selection procedures. Recruiting and selecting staff members is essential to an organisation and since the hospitality industry is largely a service industry, the employees should also be considered as assets. Hiring practices in Australia have moved from traditional methods (advertising, walk-ins, selection interviews, reference checking, etc.) to more strategic approaches like networking, internal labour market, behavioural interviewing, targeted selection, etc. Australian hospitality industry trends suggest that there is more internal recruitment within organi sations and internal recruitment is inclusive of transfers and promotions of casual and part time staff. Recruiting methods in Australia are seen to be predominantly strategic but less innovative. Australian hotels place high emphasis on the recruitment and selection process to attempt to reduce employee turnover and there is a large number of casual labour hired especially amongst the young because of the ease of entry. Consequently it can also be recognised that effective training and development practices within the service industries is imperative to providing a unique and differentiating standard of service, enabling increased profitability and bottom line results. According to the World Tourism Organisation (WTO), the hospitality and tourism industry is the largest sector and effective HR practices like training and remuneration and will benefit the organisation succinctly through their implementation (Taylor Davies, 2004). Australian hotels use a number of methods to identify the training needs of the employees by usually analysing guest comment cards, consultation sessions amongst employees etc. The industry being highly labour intensive poses a major task for the management of this labour as the product delivery is conversely based on the effectiveness and manner in which service is delivered within the industry. The hotel industry is associated with long, unsociable hours and poor working conditions highlights the poor pay, low skills and lack of career opportunities as characteristics that influence the attraction, development and retention of managers.(OLeary Deegan, 2005), (G. Martin Woldring, 2001). Therefore a high emphasis must also be laid on the development of managers. (Brophy Keily, 2002) developed a competency framework for middle level hotel managers by mapping these to the key results areas of customer care, quality and standards, managing staff, achieving profitability and growing the business. They highlight the importance of operational activities for middle managers, concurring with the finding of (Watson McCracken, 2002)and (Watson, McCracken, Hughes, 2004) Another area of importance is performance management and most hotels practice procedures like the performance development plan (PDP) which involves employee feedback and input and are integrated into the performance appraisal plan (Cheng Brown, 1998). The practices adopted in Austrlian hospitality firms are a combination of self appraisal in conjunction with supervisor subordinate evaluation. This practice has been widely adopted by a number of Australian firms because it is perceived to be a more balanced assessment of the employees but a strategic and functional practice which can be adopted is the 360 degree feedback because this is a service oriented industry and the feedback from customers and peers would certainly benefit the evaluation of an employees performance. There is also an underlying practice amongst Australian hotel industry employers regarding employment relations and they engage directly in firm-level bargaining with trade unions. The Australian hotel industry was characterised by poor union participation but in recent years, evidence from (Angie Knox Nickson, 2007) suggests that this is not the case especially in larger firms. The union representation of this industry approximates about 37 percent density according to Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey. Wages and employment conditions are regulated by legally enforceable awards and Australian hotels are regulated by a combination of federal awards and collective agreements (Angie Knox Nickson, 2007). This in turn has a cascading effect on the type of employment relationship in existence and also introduces the issues pertaining to the hiring of causal labour, part time employment of majority of the entry level service jobs and also the prominent problem of employee retention. The most significant challenge faced by HR practioners is to work effectively with other function managers within the hotel to create integrative plans that help the firms achieve their business objectives and to link the strategic goals of the Human Resource function to that of the other departments and the organisation as a whole (Tracey Charpentier, 2004). This involves intensive practices of Corporate Social Responsibility implemented by the HR function but aligned with the organisational objectives. The interest in business ethics in Australia has also increased with significant research being conducted not only on the role of the HR function but also its ethical implementation. There is a low consensus among HR managers in translating ethical principles into organisational practice and strategic HRM helps to implement these principles and minimise the deficit in transfer of knowledge. Business ethics and the role of HRM is significant here as it includes the concept of product ivity, profitability, efficiency and effectiveness in achieving the organizations basic purposes, comply with legal requirements, or, alternatively, that they succeed in avoiding legal threats and to improve quality of work life, to ensure fairness in policies, and to foster harmonious relationships between management and workers. Therefore strategic HRM is important to achieve organisational goals and therefore achieve better firm performance (A. Martin, Mactaggart, Bowden, 2006). This sort of Strategic HRM practices can be seen in the case analysed below of Marriott International Inc. which is a large international hotel chain also operating within Australia. 3. Marriott International Inc. The case of Marriott International Inc. illustrates some best practice principles which have resulted in the organisation being awarded the employer of choice awards a number of times and placed 50th in a leading newspaper as the Best Company to Work For. Marriott uses its employees as a brand differentiation strategy as revealed by their surveys with employees which was the outstanding service qualities delivered by the employees. Marriott International Inc. has an organisational culture of spirit to serve whereby they use a three stage approach to implementing these strategies. Training programs lasting five days are conducted on a periodic basis for their leaders and managers and have a map of customer expectations created and a plan to exceed those predicted expectations. Managers are given techniques to improve self motivation and that of their team through positive attitude including visualisation, writing goals down, and positive vocabulary. They are also equipped with culture change to drive their business. They also deliver 15 minute training sessions that cover major aspects of job quality and also have a daily basics training that covers on one of the basics to deliver good products. Marriott has recognised that the only way to deliver the brand is through their people (Anonymous, 2003). Marriott is committed to fair treatment of associates and to providing training and advancement opportunities to all employees. Diversity is also an important policy in Marriott. The company believes that this is the way they attract, develop and retain talent people. Such diversity is not only within group, but also applies to suppliers, customers, owners and so on. Marriott states that one of major efforts are devoted to recognize associate hard work, provide health care, and create opportunity for growth and career development. The company is trying to build an associate-centered environment. Therefore, it provides a total compensation package which include: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Medical, Dental, Life, and Disability Insurance à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Annual Salary Increases à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Continuing Education/Tuition Reimbursement à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Hotel Room and Food Beverage Discounts à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Ongoing Training and Career Development Marriott International Inc has a formal corporate culture; there are also holistically planned HR policies, although there are different emphases between those formal corporate culture and HR policies (Fu Liu, 2005). Marriott award their employees with the highest award, which is the J. Willard Marriott Award of Excellence and the selection is made from over 300,000 employees (Anonymous, 1996). The company also awards employees on their excellence towards corporate social responsibility with the Alice S. Marriott Award for Community Service which goes to show their efforts towards building an ethical and socially responsible organisation through their spirit to serve our community efforts (Anonymous, 2003). Marriott International Inc., also has programs with its low-skilled, low-wage workers to offer them opportunities with day care, English classes, and other social services for loyalty, enthusiasm, and a low turnover rate. Employee stock options are also part of the package. This is one instance where the self-interest of low-skilled, low-wage employees coincides with the self-interest of their employer (Bethesda, 2009). It can clearly be noted here that considering the levels of the casual workforce in Australia, Marriott has made arrangements to attract and retain even these types of employees. Since, Marriott, have recognised that the hospitality industry is a labour-intensive service industry, depending for its success on the social and technical skills of its personnel, their ingenuity and hard work, their commitment and attitude, they have created a conducive environment to treat their internal customers with priority and it permeates to all the HR functions. 4. Casualisation of the workforce in Australia The Australian context of the tourism and hospitality industry has been characterised by casual employment which has been permitted under labour regulation with concerns of it being precarious (Campbell Brosnan). (Wooden Warren, 2004) also emphasises that this is one of the distinctive features of the Austrlian labour market and the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data suggest that just over 27 percent of all employees were employed on a casual basis. Australian Employment law Guide reports that this percentage has been progressively increasing in the past 5 years as shown in Appendix 1 in terms of the number of labour hours worked. Milman suggests that 51.3 percent of teens are employed on a casual basis within the hospitality tourism and retail industries which is a significantly large number of casual workers. On the other hand (Angela Knox Walsh, 2005) suggests that research shows that a number of managers are employing temporary and casual workers and, to a lesser exten t, part-time employees, as well as female, ethnic minority and immigrant labour. The increased number of casual employees is largely filled by young workers especially in the Food and Beverage outlets, Banquets and Housekeeping. There is almost no qualification required for these entry level positions and employees are usually trained on the job. The employment of temporary and casual workers is shaped by fluctuations in customer demand and the size and number of extra events and functions that are scheduled during the day and tight labour cost-control practices are considered to be a key characteristic of HRM in the Australian hotel industry. These characteristics have been the primary reason for the employment of causal and temporary workers based on demand. This form of employment can be seen as employment that falls under Total Quality Management, where employment is on the basis of production, or in this case service demands. As labour regulation has developed, casual employment has come to be firmly embedded in labour regulation. Casual employment has a number of characteristics irrespective of the industry being examined and this can be further reiterated by the laws that provide for casual and temporary employment. The Australian Employment Guide says that it is important to distinguish casual contracts from continuing contracts because by definition casual contracts impose no obligation on either party to continue the relationship. Each period of hiring is distinct and severable and any continuing relationship does not mean in law a continuing contract. In casual contracts, therefore, there is a work/pay bargain that: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ provides no continuity of employment, and consequently no obligation on the employer to provide, or continue to provide, work; and à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ directly ties work, output or time spent to the rate of pay. This is so whether the nature of the payment is on a piece-work or time-rate basis. The issues here that develop as a direct consequence of this kind of employment include but are not limited to greater job insecurity, low pay, limited opportunities for career progression, unsatisfactory working hours, low levels of access to work-related training and low levels of union representation. Even though the union membership has increased significantly over the past few years within the hospitality industry, the union membership for casual employees is virtually non existent. Wooden conducted research which provides conclusive evidence that although there are negative attributes of casual employment, it is extremely misleading to characterise non-standard jobs as sub-standard jobs. It thus follows that initiatives intended to inhibit the diversity of employment options that are available to employers will often not result in changes in working arrangements that will be unambiguously preferred by employees. If Australia wishes to develop a committed, highly skilled workforce, it must offer jobs which are secure and where the employees receive benefits commensurate with their skills and experience; in other words the many holes in the legislative and administrative framework need to be tightened up so that casual work is not abused. The practices used by Marriott International Inc. as described earlier have been very useful in preserving the ethical integrity of casual employment within the hospitality industry in Australia and even hotels like Hilton offer its employees a work at home option to improve both company as well as employee growth and performance. The research findings of (Angela Knox Walsh, 2005) also suggest that a number of recent studies have challenged the notion that the hotel industry takes an unequivocally low-road approach to employment and HRM matters and this reflects insights from research studies on the hotel industry that suggest that differences in employer po licy and practice may well reflect variations in organisational size and market position. As in the case of Marriott which is a large company with 300, 000 employees and with percentage of net profit to be 14.4 percent (appendix 2), the company size and market position have allowed it to take the high road and utilise the HRM function as a source of competitive advantage and align it consistently with the business strategy, goals and objectives. 5. Staff retention and high turnover The Australian hospitality and tourism industry not unlike the rest of the world is notably a highly labour intensive industry with employees often taking on varying degrees of work load and pressure within the service construct. Employees, especially entry level, casual, part time and temporary employees are often faced with high pressure work systems where performance is given considerable importance which has direct impacts on firm performance on the whole. Most leading hotel chains even have regulations on grooming standards and codes of conduct of employees and employees can be dismissed based on those grounds. This puts added pressure on the workers which can lead to an increased percentage of staff turnovers. The prominent issue that arises from high staff turnover is naturally increased personnel costs incurred because of recruiting and training new replacements, but the turnover analysis is often ignored within the Australian hospitality industry as it is seen as a hidden cost and is considered a normality within the industry itself (Cheng Brown, 1998) (Dibble, 1999) suggests that turnover may be caused by personal or personality factors, family issues, work, team relations, as well as organisational structure and strategic human resource practices. (Cheng Brown, 1998)Cheng and brown here suggest that HR practices should pervade every HR function and the organisation itself to reduce the turnover within the industry. Organisations that employ more flexible HR practices have a greater probability to induce low employee turnover. (Davies, Taylor, Savery, 2001) conducted research in hotels in western Australia that enlightened the fact that although researchers have long spoken about the numerous HR functions like training, performance appraisal, remuneration, employee development and their effect in reducing turnover, the most prominent function that indicates an improvement in quality, productivity and reduced employee turnover is the training function. Employees feel empowered and committed to the organisation for the training re ceived by them. The kind of training within the hotel industry can be skills acquisition, performance management training, leadership and development etc. Although the current economic crisis has increased the availability of talented labour for the hospitality it is still imperative to integrate HRM functions to retain employees within the organisation. 6. Recommendations The HRM department of Australian hospitality and tourism industry although strategic in their approach towards their function, needs to adapt to the increasing demands of the industry and the high increase in casual work force. HR managers need to conduct substanstiative training and development activities to empower even their casual staff to reduce turnover and utilise employees as a source of competitive advantage for firms. They need to align their strategy with the goals and objectives of the organisation itself so as to be able to recruit and select appropriate employees whether it is causal, part time or full time employees. Increasing the benefits and compensation given to employees also reduces the turnover in the industry as clearly indicated by the Marriott case. Providing low cost benefits for casual employees and training reduces the annual turnover and increases firm performance. 7. Conclusion The Australian hotel industry is highly dynamic and has various attributes to it; most significant of those are the casualisation of the workforce and high turnover. The recommendations put to practice certainly aides organisations perform better and reduces the negative implications for the HR department within these organisations. Taking a High road approach and focussing on delivery of quality helps the HR managers to focus on training and development of the employees and to increase higher commitment from them. The areas of significant change likely within the hospitality industry are technology, power paradigms, training and development, compensation programs, employee relations and family, social and work life balance. These areas need to be facilitated by the Human resource managers by integrating their practices to ensure high firm performance and low turnover by empowering employees.

Friday, October 25, 2019

Another New Horizon :: Personal Narrative Writing

Another New Horizon What did Mississippi have in common with New York, Hong Kong, Boston, Australia, Vancouver, Venezuela, Montreal, the Philippines, China, and Toronto? Nothing. Those were my exact thoughts as my parents tried to explain why we had to move once again. With a missionary as a father, our family constantly moved from country to country. When we had finally settled down in Canada, I had hoped that I would, for the first time, find some stability in my life. I listened to my parents and nodded while my heart broke for the thousandth time. Though I was only nine years old, I felt like I had already lived a lifetime of good-byes. As I stumbled up the stairs, I didn’t even remember where we were moving to; all I knew was that it was my world we were now moving from. I thought of all the friends I had already left behind, and I couldn’t even bear to think of the friends I would now have to leave. On the morning we left for Mississippi, my father picked me and my brother up from our beds and gently laid us down on the back seat of our small car. He never woke us up, knowing I would cry all the way to the airport. I thought about my best friend, Tim, as we waited to board the plane. I had promised him I would never forget him. But my greatest fear every time we moved was that I would forget. I was afraid of losing mymemories—the only things I could keep with me no matter where I went. I feared that if I just looked away for a second, I would lose my most precious possessions. I wanted never to lose the memory of Tim’s face whenever he laughed at my jokes or the feeling of invincibility when I finally made my Australian school’s soccer team or even the boring French songs we sang in our Canadian classes. I worried that once the bruises from my Kung-Fu classes had healed, perhaps all of Sensei’s teachings would just fade away. I feared most of all that I would forget who I was—that once the memories had passed, the very soul of my being would slip through my fingers. I thought that perhaps with every place I left, an irreplaceable part of me would also be left behind. The passengers began boarding the plane, and my brother and I fought only half-heartedly for the window seat.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Kite Runner Film Adaption Essay

â€Å"The Kite Runner† is a movie that has been adapted from the novel written by Khaled Hosseini. According to the past, certain characters and events of the films that had been based on the novels have been left out. Unexpectedly, there are merits in this film that should be acknowledged. The movie follows the story quite closely through those points, and telling the story adequately. They are the additions to the screenplay, the sensory experience and the narration respectively. The changes made in the movie had a significant effect on the overall message of the story. One of the parts in the film that differs from the novel is the birthday gift for Hassan. When Hassan’s birthday takes place in the novel, he gets paid a surgery by Baba to get rid of his harelip. But in the film, when Hassan celebrates his birthday, he receives a kite from Baba. Apparently, the kite is more suitable in the context, because it completely relates to the title, but also a symbol of friendship. The film helps the audience to have a thoroughly understanding of the culture of Afghan. It attempts to present the cultural sights and sounds of Afghan life. By transferring the story to screen, it has taken advantage of visual elements, showing sensory experience of the kite combat and the appearance of bazaar. Moreover, Afghan’s music is added in the movie to increase the mood and realistic. The replacement of the first person narration plays an essential part in the movie. The novel is written from Admir’s point of view where his own thoughts and opinions are also included. The personal narrative of the book is what makes the story poignant. Therefore, the third person point of view in the movie would be completely different. It is more objective and immediate, and more details are included. The deletion from the novel, sensory experience, and the replacing of the narration has made a slightly difference form the novel. But still, they are essential to the movements of the story and play an important role in the film.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Justifying The State Essay

Q1 If the state is not a voluntary organisation, how can one be under any obligation to obey its commands? This is a question about justifying the state. What D. D. Raphael calls † the grounds of political obligation.1 If the state can be justified somehow then so can the commands it makes, whether it is voluntary or not. This would be a state built on individual consent; obligation to the commands of the state would flow from that consent. This essay will discuss the possibility of justifying of the state through the idea of a social contract. The state when it creates a law draws a line one cannot cross without consequences. For clarity I am talking about a serious law, specifically one that obviously has a moral base, the law against murder for example. An individualist might say ‘I have no intention of crossing that line anyway because I believe it would be morally wrong to do so’. The law in his case may as well not exist. Just by not breaking a law it can appear as though he supports it. When what he might agree with is what the law defends/upholds /represents, and that is the moral principle behind it. This is one reason why some people appear to uphold the law when in fact all they may be doing is following a personal moral code. or simply agreeing with the basic rational belief shared by most people that ‘murder is wrong or (maybe) tax for the NHS is good’ for example. I suggest this analogy can be applied when questioning many commands of the state. When I obey the state by paying taxes, I may not be doing so because I am obligated too by law but for other reasons including moral ones. Socialists (as do many others) might argue that they are happy to pay more tax in return for a wider societal benefit that includes all, i.e. as in the National Health Service. Therefore a socialist might argue that she paid her National Insurance not because the law obligates her too, but because it ‘fits her moral attitudes and outlook anyway’. The fact that she has no legal right to refuse to pay becomes relevant in this case only if she actually doesn’t. The above argument is Lockean to the extent that it â€Å"appeal[s] to the idea of individual consent.†2 It is also in part my own view, which is (I think) essentially individualist in nature, though not libertarian. The relevance of my own view to this essay is that when thinking about this question, I realised that I had no idea what my own moral position was regarding some of the most crucial problems and contradictions of political philosophy. Many of these questions require (I think) a moral stance in order to be able to make sense of them. This may seem like a non-academic approach as if I am personalising or reducing this essay to subjective notions, however the questions and issues of political philosophy are in large part moral questions and issues that therefore have as a basis, personal moral opinions. Locke’s view according to Wolff is that obligations to the institutions of the state â€Å"must be justified in terms of the will, choices or decisions of those over whom they have authority.†3 Justification of the institutions of the state that enforce obligation then is reliant on the idea that personal autonomy is of premier value. Will Kymlicka defines this as the belief that the individual is ‘morally prior’ to the community. One objection to this is the communitarian argument that the individual is not ‘morally prior’ to the community instead individuals are a ‘product of the community.’4 There are other objectors to Locke’s idea that autonomy is the primary value. Wolff writes that Bentham considered â€Å"the primary value is not autonomy but happiness †¦ whether we consent to the state is irrelevant.† 5 This utilitarian argument is that the ‘happiness’ of society, as a whole is of more value than personal autonomy or the happiness of the few or one. And that therefore one has a duty to obey the commands of the state as it pursues this goal. So if the state decides that having nuclear weapons is for the greater good (happiness) then I would be obligated to pay my share of tax for them whatever I thought. I may be against nuclear weapons or the military in general for moral reasons (pacifism for example) but my moral objection is sacrificed for the greater happiness. The problem political philosopher’s face is finding ways to solve issues like the one above. Just how does one justify the state? One theory is the idea of ‘the social contract.’ Wolff here defines the ‘project of the social contract theory.’ â€Å"The project of showing that individuals consent to the state lies behind the idea of social contract theory. If, somehow or other, it can be shown that every individual has consented to the state, or formed a contract with the state, or made a contract with each other to create a state, then the problem appears to be solved.†6 It is difficult to support the idea that the state, and thereby its commands and responding obligations, can be justified by the theory of a social contract. â€Å"The theory of a social contract tries to justify political obligation as being based on an implicit promise, like the obligation to obey the rules of a voluntary association.†7 If there were such a contract (based on the idea that the state is a voluntary organisation) the problem of individual obligation to the state would be solved. One could join (or leave) institutions of the state at will, and not be subject to state penalties. This is clearly not so. To clarify this further I can ask a different question: how much like a voluntary association is the state? The consensus among political philosophers is I think that the state is not a voluntary organisation. To be born is to be joined to it. As Raphael says â€Å"the universality of the states jurisdiction makes its compulsory character more pervasive and more evident. â€Å"8 Individuals are inextricably linked to it in many ways, for example through the financial/legal institutions. Neither of these institutions are voluntary, they both carry obligations that are enforceable by law. For a comparison I will examine what I think a voluntary organisation is. The obligations I have to the UEA regarding my degree, I agreed to honour. They were stated, I accepted. This does not mean I think the UEA is perfect. Just because I am obligated, (I agreed to the UEA rules) does not mean I cannot criticise the parking problem. What is important is that I chose to join. My obligations to the UEA are voluntary, and I can withdraw from them voluntarily and leave the university should I choose. This is not possible in the case of the state. â€Å"[I] am subject to the rules whether I like it or not.†9 As a general philosophical attitude I am ‘nervous’ or sceptical of organisations people are forced to join or have to remain joined to, this includes the idea of a state. This could be framed as, (if this sentence makes sense) ‘I do not like the idea that there is a group I am unable not to join’. These reasons might help to explain why I am ‘generally sceptical’ of some of the motives of our own state. So where does this leave us? The above contentions highlight some of the problems of the social contract theory. The central objection to it is that the state is not voluntary therefore there can be no ‘mutually agreed contract.’ Nor has there historically ever been one. As Wolff observes, if there ever was a social contract â€Å"What is the evidence? Which museum is it in?†10 The idea of a hypothetical contract is an attempt to solve this problem. It does not rely on any formal notion of â€Å"actual consent, be it historical, express, or tacit.†11 The hypothetical contract relies on hypothetical consent. If hypothetical consent were possible it would provide a moral reason for political obligation. That is the ingredient the question this essay is discussing implicitly implies is missing. The idea asks us to imagine a position from where we could successfully negotiate a social contract. Rawl’s idea is a very complex one that effects many issues. In his Theory of Justice, Rawls sets out primarily to establish â€Å"what moral principles should govern the basic structure of a just society.†12 Rawls Theory of Justice suggests a set of specific moral principles that he hopes will achieve this consensus view. It is these principles that critics of the theory in the main object to. What they are concerned with is the kind of society that would emerge from behind any veil of ignorance whatever its character. For the purpose of this essay the idea of a ‘veil of ignorance’ which is subject to many conditions, is the device Rawls uses to argue for consent. If people can agree on what would be just, (which he argues is possible using the principles he suggests) from behind a ‘veil of ignorance’ the consent reached would be a voluntary contract. Again the problem remains, what principles really constitute a ‘just society’ are not clear. Objections to Rawls ideas include the ‘libertarian critique.’ Kukathas and Pettit13 argue that for principled libertarians like Nozick the state that would emerge from Rawls’s theory â€Å"is bound to seem inherently evil.†14 Nozick’s objections are based on his libertarian view that â€Å"Individuals have rights, and there are things no person or group may do to them (without violating their rights)†15 To conclude is this essay is very difficult; the argument I have tried to demonstrate is that one cannot be under any obligation to obey the commands of the state using the social contract model. I have argued that the social contract fails because it is not consensual. I have also tried to show that the idea of hypothetical contract cannot work because the ‘veil of ignorance’ still does not produce consent because people cannot agree on what the principles of a just state are. One can only be obligated to obey the commands of the state (I think) when its principles are consensual. Bibliography Chandran Kukathas and Philip Pettit, Rawls, A Theory of Justice and its Critics, (Polity Press 1990) Kymlicka, Will, Contemporary Political philosophy. Raphael, D D, Problems of Political Philosophy, (Macmillan press 1990) Wolff, Jonathan, An Introduction to Political Philosophy, (oxford University Press 1996) Colin Dunlop His II Political Philosophy Dr Kathleen Stock 04-04-03 Q1 If the state is not a voluntary organisation, how can one be under any obligation to obey its commands? 1 Raphael, D D, Problems of Political Philosophy, p175 2 Wolff, Jonathan, An Introduction to Political Philosophy, p38 3 Ibid.p38 4 See Kymlicka, Will, Contemporary Political philosophy, Ch5 (I think) his discussion â€Å"multiculturalism and communitarianism.† 5 Ibid.p38 6 Ibid.p43 7 Raphael, D D, Problems of Political Philosophy, p182 8 Ibid.p181 9 Ibid.p181 10 Wolff, Jonathan, An Introduction to Political Philosophy, p44 11 Ibid.p44 12 Chandran Kukathas and Philip Pettit, Rawls, A Theory of Justice and its Critics, p36 13 Ibid. See chapter 5 † The Libertarian Critique† 14 Ibid.p74 15 Robert Nozick quoted by Chandran Kukathas and Philip Pettit in, Rawls, A Theory of Justice and its Critics, p76

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Mannerismâ€Art After the High Renaissance

Mannerism- Art After the High Renaissance After the High Renaissance in Italy, many wondered just where art was heading next. The answer? Mannerism. The new style first popped up in Florence and Rome, then the rest of Italy and, eventually, all over Europe. Mannerism, a phrase coined in the 20th century, is what happened artistically during the Late Renaissance (otherwise known as the years between Raphaels death and the beginning of the Baroque phase in 1600). Mannerism also represents Renaissance art going out, as they say, not with a bang but, rather, a (relative) whimper. The High Renaissance was, of course, astonishing. It represented a peak, a height, a veritable zenith (if you will) of artistic genius that surely must have owed something to a favorable zodiac. In fact, the only downside to the whole business was, with the Big Three Names diminished to one (Michelangelo) after 1520, where was art to go? It almost seemed as if art itself said Oh, what the hey. We could never top the High Renaissance, so why bother? Hence, Mannerism. Its not fair, though, to completely blame art for its loss of momentum after the High Renaissance. There were, as there always are, mitigating factors. For example, Rome was sacked in 1527, taken over by the armies of Charles V. Charles (who had previously just been Charles I, King of Spain) had himself crowned as Holy Roman Emperor and got to control things in most of Europe and the New World. By all accounts, he was not particularly interested in sponsoring art or artists- especially not Italian artists. Neither was he enamored with the idea of the independent city-states of Italy, and most of them lost their independent status. Additionally, a troublemaker named Martin Luther had been stirring things up in Germany, and the spread of his radical preaching was causing many to question the authority of the Church. The Church, of course, found this absolutely intolerable. Its response to the Reformation was to launch the Counter Reformation, a joyless, restrictive authoritative movement which had a zero-tolerance policy toward Renaissance innovations (among many, many other things). So here was poor art, deprived of most of its genius, patrons, and freedom. If Mannerism seems a bit half-posteriored to us now, it was honestly about the best that could be expected under the circumstances. Characteristics of Mannerism On the plus side, artists had gained lots of technical knowledge during the Renaissance (such as the use of oil paints and perspective) which would never again be lost to a dark age. Another new development at this time was rudimentary archaeology. The Mannerist artists now had actual works, from antiquity, to study. No longer did they need to use their respective imagination when it came to Classical stylization. That said, they (the Mannerist artists) almost seemed determined to use their powers for evil. Where High Renaissance art was natural, graceful, balanced and harmonious, the art of Mannerism was quite different. While technically masterful, Mannerist compositions were full of clashing colors, disquieting figures with abnormally elongated limbs (often torturous-looking), emotion and bizarre themes that combined Classicism, Christianity, and mythology. The nude, which had been rediscovered during the Early Renaissance, was still present during the Late but, heavens- the poses in which it found itself! Leaving compositional instability out of the picture (pun intended), no human could have maintained positions such as those depicted- clothed or otherwise. Landscapes suffered a similar fate. If the sky in any given scene wasnt a menacing color, it was filled with flying animals, malevolent putti, Grecian columns, or some other unnecessary busy-ness. Or all of the above. Whatever Happened to Michelangelo? Michelangelo, as things turned out, segued nicely into Mannerism. He was flexible, making transitions with his art that dovetailed with the transitions in all of those successive Popes who commissioned his work. Michelangelo had always had a tendency toward the dramatic and emotive in his art, as well as a sort of carelessness toward the human element in his human figures. It probably shouldnt have been surprising, then, to find that restorations of his works in the Sistine Chapel (the ceiling and Last Judgement frescoes) uncovered his use of a rather loud palette of colors. How Long Did the Late Renaissance Last? Depending on whos doing the figuring, Mannerism was en vogue around 80 years (give or take a decade or two). Though it lasted at least twice as long as the High Renaissance, the Late Renaissance got shoved aside, by the Baroque period, fairly quickly (as history goes). Which was a good thing, indeed, for those who are not great lovers of Mannerism- even though it was so distinct from High Renaissance art that it deserves its own name.

Monday, October 21, 2019

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Controversy Essay

Controversy Essay Controversy Essay Controversy Essay: Choosing Controversy Essay Topics To write a good controversy essay worthy of attention, you need to start the process of writing with a careful choice of a good topic. The first and the most important issue to keep in mind is that such topics as abortions, gay adoption, or animal experimentation are no longer interesting to explore. Your instructor wants to see fresh topics and fresh ideas. Therefore, start your research and be creative: One of the important elements of controversy essay writing is the value of being indifferent to the topic. While it is hardly possible to have no opinion on the issue, avoid choosing the topics that make you too passionate. For example, if are strongly against smoking in public places, you will fail writing a good controversy essay at least because you have to present both sides of the argument. The second critical aspect of successful controversy essay writing is organization of your ideas. The most recommended structure is the following: introduction, your strongest point, second strongest point, opposing point, refutation, third strongest point, and conclusion that restates your key points. Of course, you will not succeed in writing strong controversy essay if you do not include specific examples to support your points. Therefore, devote enough time to read different articles, look through books, and surf the Internet. Do not forget about citing all borrowed information! You do not want to get F for plagiarizing, do you? Use Custom Essay Writing Services for Your Benefits If writing a controversy essay is a real headache for you, we offer an opportunity to take advantage of our professional custom essay writing services. We will help you with the choice of the topic, outline, research, writing, and editing. Therefore, you do not have to spend endless hours in painful search of the topic and drafting of your controversy essay. Of course, you should never commit yourself to the service that raises concerns about legitimacy. We are among the few sites that fulfill their promises. We meet deadlines and we do not work with ESL writers. Working with our professional team, you get the best results within the shortest deadline. Yes, we can deliver a 5-page controversy essay in 24 hours! It should be noted that we do not resell delivered essays. In other words, your essay is original and written from scratch. Moreover, no client will ever be able to get access to your controversy essay. We treasure the trust of our clients, and try our best to meet requirements of every customer. Read more: Science Research Paper Research Papers Proposal Research Paper Thesis Research Paper Ideas Research Paper Format

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Capstone Analysis Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Capstone Analysis - Assignment Example The jury is bound to offer a sentencing that complies with the policies of the legal system. Sentencing may range from probation, compensating the victim, suspended sentences, community service, and incarceration. Life imprisonment and death penalties are extreme sentences spared for cases involving capital murder. The legal aspects of sentencing aim to mitigate crime by offering guidelines on how the state deals with criminal cases (Schmalleger, 2011). Criminal law analysts argue that the legal aspects achieve the objectives of sentencing by deterring potential crime on the part of the convict and the public. In addition, the analysts praise the legal factors of sentencing because legal action is taken on criminals. It is viewed that sentencing achieves the objective of maintaining a crime-free state. However, the jury may refer to leniency because it has the discretion to assess the criminal background of the defendant. The legal factors of sentencing aim to achieve both a crime free environment and societal protection. It is important to note that every state has specific state sentencing guidelines that are in line with the legal framework for sentencing criminals. The legal aspects of sentencing allows for some flexibility on how the jury handles criminal cases. However, altering or eliminating the legal factors may mean the end of fairness and justice. Such a move may lead to bias and discrimination that overlook the objectives of

Friday, October 18, 2019

Explore one IT topic that interests you Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Explore one IT topic that interests you - Essay Example The GPS receiver in the bus calculates its exact location depending on the time that the signal from the satellite takes to reach it. The GPS tracking device in the vehicle can send back the same information to the person tracking the bus or to online tracking system in order to conduct mapping (Sobey 13). The increasingly number of vehicles in the cities has led violation of traffic rules. This reckless driving has caused countless accidents. In order to monitor the driver and ensure that he follows traffic rules, it is essential to use a tracking device (Gillen & David 53). A transport company in Chicago known as Transit Authority has allowed customers to view their websites due to the increased disloyalty between the between businesses and the customers. It allows them to track the location of the bus so that they can prepare themselves for the journey by judging the distance left to reach the station. The act has increased customer’s loyalty in the company (Gillen & David

Consider how a currency appreciation might affect national income Essay - 2

Consider how a currency appreciation might affect national income - Essay Example If an economy of a nation presents a favorable environment for investments that are relatively better than other nations, then the nation will experience inflow of capital. With flexible foreign exchange rates, this capital inflow will tend to increase the value of the country’s currency. Factors such as relative product prices, monetary policy, inflation rate differences and income changes influence the appreciation of a country’s currency (LIPSEY & CHRYSTAL, 2011 p 167). The effects of these factors are discussed below: Suppose that the income of major trading of a country increase to a greater margin, there will be greater increase in domestic income which is associated with increased consumption of the imported goods. The nation’s trading partner demand for the local goods will increase; thereby the demand for local currency will exceed quantity supplied hence appreciation. Deflation is always associated with appreciation. Suppose the price levels of a nation’s commodities decreases while that of its trading partner remains the relatively stable. The local goods will seem cheap to foreigners hence increasing the demand for local goods. This will increase the demand for money hence appreciation of the local currency. Countries that implement restrictive monetary policies will be decreasing the supply of their currency hence currency appreciation. The appreciation of a country’s currency is relative to the currencies of its trading partner. Higher rates of interest make it more attractive to save in a nation. This is because there is a better rate of return on saving accounts. Therefore there will be inflow of money in country hence appreciation of the currency. Stronger economic growth tends to cause an appreciation in the forex market. This is so due to the fact that with higher economic growth, there is likelihood that the nation might experience increase in interest rates (DAÃŒ ¨BROWSKI 2001, p 10).

Entry into Foreign Market Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Entry into Foreign Market - Essay Example ays emphasis on four important areas: a) The question of value: Whether the resource of the company is sufficient to exploit an environmental opportunity or be able to neutralize an environmental threat (Chapman, 2011). b) Question of Rarity: Are the resources of the company presently controlled by other small competing companies (Chapman, 2011). c) Question of Imitability: Do the companies face difficulties in cost advantage in developing or obtaining it (Chapman, 2011). d) Question of organization: Have the policies and procedures of the company organized systematically to support the exploitation of valuable, rare and expensive to imitate the resources (Management Mania, 2013). The evaluation of various resources of CIC would be as follows: Tangible Financial CIC is one of the most profitable drilling equipment manufacturers which have successfully completed various drilling projects for the renowned companies of varied nations. Physical CIC has made a strong presence with the man ufacturing of 80 brands in more than 300 locations around the world. Technological The company has installed state of the art machineries and control equipments meant for oil drilling, control instrumentation and various other process operations. Organizational The company has developed in built effective strategies meant for its various onshore activities in ultra deepwater discoveries (Cameron, 2013a). Intangible Resources Human Presently, CIC boasts of a diverse workforce with more than 27000 employees globally. Innovation & Creativity One of the major objectives of the company is to design leveraging tools which lessens the burden of extracting crude oil onshore and offshore. Reputation The company has been successful in drilling and compressing activities without hampering the... Presently, Myanmar is facing various kinds of social and economic tensions, which have hampered the national unity of the country. This has led to a major downfall in the economic development and decrease in various economic opportunities. 90 percent of the population follows Buddhism and the cultural and social values are based on Theravada Buddhism. Gender biasedness is also prevalent to a large extent in the Myanmar society (BEWG, 2011). The country has been facing severe challenges because initially, it was under the control of the military regime, which has compelled the people to adapt to a particular lifestyle. Firstly, the management of CIC should understand and analyze the cultural variations in Myanmar which will help the company in studying the attitude and behavior of the common people. Secondly, the company should adopt several techniques which will help in understanding marketing dynamics and also adjust to it accordingly. Modeling techniques like Delphi methods will he lp in assessing the market requirement and developing strategies accordingly. Finally, the company should adopt a clear communication model which would help the employees to understand the importance of work ties over cultural ties and also provide clear instruction process. After assessing the current scenario in Myanmar it is advisable for CIC to opt for subcontracting techniques (WiseGeek, 2011).The subcontracting technique is a type of job contract, which will help in outsourcing certain type of work to other companies (WiseGeek, 2011).

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Money and banking(Information asymmetries and information cost) Essay

Money and banking(Information asymmetries and information cost) - Essay Example ndividual or organization spends in order to ascertain that a particular activity or investment is prudent and viable to invest in due to the provisions of profitability (North, 2007, p. 06). It is necessary for companies to do enough research before engaging or entering into a business activity. This will help reduce the risks involved in starting a new business venture. Information asymmetry refers to situations where relevant information is partially conveyed to the relevant parties in line with the business on a particular product. For instance, when considering decision makers on a specified product, it is adept to enlighten all the participants in the marketing chain (both sellers and buyers), equal information in regard to a product (Eyler, 2009, p. 18). The financial crisis experienced between 2007- 2009 necessitated exploration of the ‘RCR’ regulatory capital requirements weaknesses by the financial firms to take undercapitalized risks between $dollars 2- 3 trillion in a way that compromised the US economy resulting into consolidation of the mortgage market by residential and commercial real estates. However, other explorers like commercial credits also suffered from the same (Das, 2006, p. 39). The first case was that the banks devolved funds to their risk loan portfolios through a process referred to as off- balance- sheet vehicles referred to as structured investment conduits and vehicles. However, this provided facts on remarkable asset based growth in commercial papers prior to the crisis period (Das, 2006, p. 42). The second case involved the buying of underpriced protection obtained from IAG explain this and monocline insurers due to the perception that banks would pocket the difference between the monocline and the spread of the AAA instruments of securitization tranches; since both the IAG and AAA had enough capital to back the insurance as well as insufficiency in systemic crisis. This led to effective recourse back to the institutions of

Managing Human Resources Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words - 1

Managing Human Resources - Essay Example For the last two decade they had achieved 20% growth annually, whereas similar types of organization had failed to continue their business. According to the higher management of the Container Store their success is due to the unique recruitment and training policy of the organization. It also spends 18% of the sales revenue on their employees. The performance review system for employees of the organization is also unique in nature. This paper will enable us to appraise the contribution of Human Resource Management in the organizational development, strengthening the employee-employer bond and increase in productivity within the organization. It will also enable us to know the importance of human resource management in an organization. This paper will impart knowledge about the dynamic nature of the HRM and how it helps to increase productivity within an organization. This paper will mostly deal with relevant industrial facts and analysis revolving around the mentioned case. It will h elp us to understand and evaluate whether the HCM model adopted by the Human Resource Management is best fit for the Container Store outlets or not. Moreover, this paper will also help to analyze the problems of a manager during the performance evaluation of the employees in the best practice model of HRM. Human Resource Management in an organization T The current corporate and business culture has been marked by â€Å"The elimination of many middle-management positions, the vertical and horizontal compression of job assignments, and self managed work teams draws attention to ‘strong’ leadership and corporate culture, and the critical role of HRM.† (Bratton & Gold, 2000, p.56) In simpler words, HRM is a process of managing the employees of an organization. It is also an innovative process of managing the workplace. It includes organizational, personnel administration, manpower and industrial management. It is a complex interlinked process between activities which are considerably affected by external factors like legal, economic, political, geographical, social, technological and global environment. The HR activities are managed, designed and changed in respect to these earlier mentioned different external factors. The important HR activities comprises of Strategic HRM, equal employment opportunity, staffing, talent management and development, total rewards, risk management and worker protection, as well as employee and labor relationship. Through these activities HRM plays its part and helps to give a competitive edge to the organization by properly managing the workforce as well as the workplace. Organizational strategies are mostly based on the areas of strength of the organization. So, core competency is a unique capability of organization which helps to create differentiation and high value from its rivals. Value creation is also a very important thing which is now being performed by the HRM. This helps to give a competitive edge to th e firm over its competitors and also helps to focus on the firm’s core competencies (Han, n.d., p.3). Several roles fulfilled by HR Department are administrative, operational and employee advocate, as well as the strategic role. High degree of alteration in role is also noted in the process of HRM. Now-a-days HRM is divided into traditional HRM and Strategic HRM. This new form SHRM creates a value generation to the organization. Between the two different processes HRM and SHRM,

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Money and banking(Information asymmetries and information cost) Essay

Money and banking(Information asymmetries and information cost) - Essay Example ndividual or organization spends in order to ascertain that a particular activity or investment is prudent and viable to invest in due to the provisions of profitability (North, 2007, p. 06). It is necessary for companies to do enough research before engaging or entering into a business activity. This will help reduce the risks involved in starting a new business venture. Information asymmetry refers to situations where relevant information is partially conveyed to the relevant parties in line with the business on a particular product. For instance, when considering decision makers on a specified product, it is adept to enlighten all the participants in the marketing chain (both sellers and buyers), equal information in regard to a product (Eyler, 2009, p. 18). The financial crisis experienced between 2007- 2009 necessitated exploration of the ‘RCR’ regulatory capital requirements weaknesses by the financial firms to take undercapitalized risks between $dollars 2- 3 trillion in a way that compromised the US economy resulting into consolidation of the mortgage market by residential and commercial real estates. However, other explorers like commercial credits also suffered from the same (Das, 2006, p. 39). The first case was that the banks devolved funds to their risk loan portfolios through a process referred to as off- balance- sheet vehicles referred to as structured investment conduits and vehicles. However, this provided facts on remarkable asset based growth in commercial papers prior to the crisis period (Das, 2006, p. 42). The second case involved the buying of underpriced protection obtained from IAG explain this and monocline insurers due to the perception that banks would pocket the difference between the monocline and the spread of the AAA instruments of securitization tranches; since both the IAG and AAA had enough capital to back the insurance as well as insufficiency in systemic crisis. This led to effective recourse back to the institutions of

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurty Essay Example for Free

The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurty Essay The Last Picture Show is a story of isolation and dysfunction. Death is also a prevailing theme – death of a town, of friendships, of marriages and of friends. It is a story full of characters that can seem larger than life one moment and inconsequential the next moment. As different as they all appear to be, they all share traits in common and these are that they all feel separated from the rest of the world, they all seem to want more out of life than they currently have, and most feel an emptiness that loneliness and desire do not quite give full explanation or understanding of. The story covers a time span of one year in the town of small Thalia, Texas in the 1950s, a dusty and desolate place where everybody knows not only everybody else in town, but everybody knows everybody else’s business and secrets may not always be exposed, but also they are almost always known. Thalia is a place where the undersized population appears to have settled into their unsatisfactory existences even while they often make blundering mistakes in efforts to burst out of their current lives. McMurty’s story has an unusually large cast. Sonny Crawford, a high school senior and football player, is the story’s protagonist. An all-American genuinely nice young man full of deep sadness and quiet thoughts, Sonny lives in a rooming house with his best friend Dwayne, also a high school senior and football player. Duane, a main character, is a little rougher around the edges than Sonny. He is quicker to lose his temper and though he appears as unsatisfied as other characters he does not acknowledge his feelings as profoundly as others. Jacy Farrow is another main character. The beautiful rich girl of Thalia, Jacy is a young woman whose unhappiness with her life, her family, and her fear of the future feeds the fuel of her wild side and unleashes her inhibitions.   The town of Thalia itself is also main character and an absolutely vital part of the story. Thalia, which in the beginning of the story is an old town clinging to life with its unchanging reliability, undergoes metamorphosis’s which parallel and oppose the lives of the characters within it. As the story progresses The Last Picture Show highlights Thalia’s own slow death with the changes it must face. There are many lesser characters, which the story relies on to bring it depth and reinforce and are intricate to the themes of McMurty’s tale. These additional characters also allow the author to show very personal aspects of the main characters as they intermingle with each other. The story centers on these three young adults as they search for something beyond their own existence. The reader follows them through their ordinary lives as they date, dream, and push against internal and external barriers. The story exposes these characters weaknesses as they journey through monotonous days of loneliness where they end up betraying each other and themselves to varying degrees. The story also shows human strength in continuing on during the bleakest of times. Family dysfunction is a constant theme of this story. Sonny’s mother is dead and his relationship with is father is strained and shallow. His real family is Sam, a local businessman who runs the pool hall that is Sonny’s second home, and a handicapped boy, Billy, with no family of his own. Sonny lives in a rooming house with his best friend while his father lives in a hotel in town. Sonny does not like his own girlfriend and he covets his best friend’s girl. Without planning, Sonny because the lover of his coaches’ wife. The coach is hinted to be a closet homosexual with a mean streak a mile wide. Ruth, his wife, has almost given up of finding any happiness in life. Sonny feels sorry for Ruth and their relationship develops into more than Sonny can handle. Duane has no family and his father figure is a callous roughneck, Abilene, who sleeps with Duane’s girlfriend and his boss’s wife who happens to also be the love of his best friends’ life. Jacy is showered with material items from her family but is neglected by her parents emotionally and is filled with unfeeling and despondent advise from her mother. Jacy uses her body to get what she wants and uses people with as little thought as well. Her mother is an unsatisfied woman that cheats on her husband whose focus in life is on making money in a town on its last legs. The family dysfunction is critical to the story because it emphasizes the frailty of the characters and explains the needs they face as well as the choices they make. The town and the characters are supposed to inspired by the real life experiences of the author. How close to accurate portrayals The Last Picture Show is to his reality is unknown to this reader, but McMurty was able to create a life within his pages, which felt like it could have been real. He created visual images that really give off one of the main themes of the story, which is isolation. The town is isolated and seem as far removed from the rest of the world even though it is only a short distance to the much larger Fort Worth. Most of the characters are isolated because the dysfunction of their family situations does not easily lead them to trust others or openly show their true feelings. The characters are isolated too because as much as they want change, especially the younger characters, they are fearful of as well. There are some humorous moments in the story and these brief moments provide necessary alleviation of the overall melancholy, but the most memorable moments in the story are the poignant ones. One instance is when the boys return from Mexico, thrilled to be able to boast about their great adventure, but even more excited to be back in Thalia. They were grateful then, for the same things that often despised, the sameness of the town – they were happy then for the monotony of their Thalia. But that happiness was too brief because it is only minutes after their return that that they learn Sam has died during their time away. Another very moving section is at the very end of the book. After Billy’s death Sonny is numb and in a great deal of pain. Duane has left town, Sam is dead, he feels guilty about Billy, and he knows Jacy is not an option for him. Instinctually, Sonny heads to Ruth.   Her own pain is all too obvious as well. And in their pain they are able to comfort each other in a very touching way. The Last Picture Show is a cheerless story. There is no pat happy ending to be had for any of the characters. But, this book is one I would certainly recommend to others because it is an American story which carries a ring of truth to it; life is not always perfect, happy, or fulfilling and fairytale endings are not realist and would not have fit the tone of this story. The realist qualities and the powerfully accurate believability McMurty is able to generate enable the characters to come to life and produces profound feelings in the reader. The reader has become so involved in the lives of the characters that for those characters left at the end of the story the reader possesses intense hope for their future. When an author can bring into being these qualities they present a book incredibly worth reading.

Monday, October 14, 2019

What Is Enterprise Application Integration Information Technology Essay

What Is Enterprise Application Integration Information Technology Essay We are living in a world of rapid technological change. Organizations are demanding more functionality from integrated applications; new computing techniques to reuse and repurpose legacy data, and quicker deployment of technology to suit rapidly changing structures and business focus. And some of these drivers actually contain contradictions which must be simpler, but it has to be compliant with a raft of complex requirements; organizations want it quickly. They want it designed to meet the future to be competitive in the market, but with taking into consideration valuable data that have been accumulated in the past. Some fundamentally new ways of thinking about technology are emerging to manage this complex set of requirements using existing technologies but putting them together quite differently. There is a high competition between organizations worldwide, technology and business process together must be integrated so as to compete in such a market. (Thomas Gulledge, 2006) This paper will discuss the difference between Enterprise Application Integration and Service Oriented Architecture. And will clarify many misconceptions between them. This paper is compromised of three main sections. The first section gives an overview of enterprise application integration. The second section gives an overview on service oriented architecture and web-services. Finally the last section discussing the relationship between enterprise application integration and service oriented architecture. Enterprise Application Integration (EAI): What is EAI? Supply chain management applications (for managing inventory and shipping), customer relationship management applications (for managing current and potential customers), business intelligence applications (for finding patterns from existing data from operations), and other types of applications (for managing data such as human resources data, health care, internal communications, etc) typically cannot communicate with one another in order to share data or business rules throughout a company. Enterprise application integration (EAI) is the process of linking such applications within a single organization together in order to simplify and automate business processes to the greatest extent possible, while at the same time avoiding having to make sweeping changes to the existing applications or data structures (Wilfried Limahieu, et al., 2003). Enterprise application integration (EAI) is defined by Linthicum (1999) EAI is the unrestricted sharing of data and business processes among any connected applications and data source in the enterprise, However researchers have different perspective on defining it as some suggested inter-organizational Application Integration as the highest level of EAI and others suggested it as a part of external and internal Application Integration, so It can be considered as two types intra and inter-organizational AI. It is considered as a framework that is formed of a collection of technologies and services forming a middleware allowing the integration of different systems across the enterprise such as legacy systems, enterprise resource planning systems, and best-of-breed business. It is considered as a business computing term for the plans, methods, and tools aimed at modernizing, consolidating, and coordinating the computer applications in an enterprise (Bouchaib Bahli and Fei Ji, 2007). It usually comes in the form of middleware connecting such kind of applications that are usually running on different systems and databases making a difficulty of communicating and sharing information within the enterprise. One large challenge of EAI is that the various systems that need to be linked together often reside on different operating systems, use different database solutions and different computer languages, and in some cases are legacy systems that are no longer supported by the vendor who originally created them (Mrinos Themistocleous, et al., 2001) EAI uses and purposes: EAI serves different purposes throughout an enterprise that allows organizations to be more flexible and responsive to market demands improving their efficiency, some of these uses are data integration, vendor independence and common facade. (Mrinos Themistocleous, et al., 2001) 2.2.1. Data integration: Data Integration is also well known as Enterprise Information Integration (EII) which is considered as the integration of information used for viewing all the data within the organization and representing them. Its goal is to get data from various data sources to appear to a system user as a single unified data source. It ensures that information in multiple systems is kept consistent. It works by providing homogenous data representations to a range of wide data sources, By providing a front end tool by which users can access data from many different databases, the software can greatly increase the efficiency of business processes that rely on these disparate databases. 2.2.2. Process Integration: Full benefit will be extracted from computer systems, only by making resources available to every single process and user within an enterprise. Unfortunately, the development of department specific systems has encouraged applications becoming more isolated and available only to a small portion of the enterprise; this kind of isolation is called islands of automation. EAI software offers the opportunity to make a connection and removing the gap between these applications. Whereas data integration standardizes data across an enterprise, process integration standardizes access to the technology and resources. It is finally considered as the linking of business processes across applications. 2.2.3 Vendor independence: As mentioned EAI software is designed for allowing integration of new applications. By extracting rules and business policies from current data and applications and implementing them in the EAI system, it becomes possible to apply these rules to new applications added in the future with little disruption, that even if one of the business applications is replaced with a different vendors application, the business rules do not have to be re-implemented. 2.2.4 Common facade: An EAI system offers a complete front-end solution, a front-end for a cluster of applications, providing a single consistent access interface to these applications. Single interface helps in reducing the complexity of many business processes throughout and enterprise, Moreover will remove the necessity of training users to operate a range of different applications, so a small basic training can be sufficient for allowing users to operate the EAI interface in a professional manner. Barriers to effective EAI and implementation pitfalls: EAI projects suffers from a nearly 70% of failure. These failures was not due to a software problem nor a technical one, however almost were due to management issues. According to EAI Industry Consortium workshop there are seven main pitfalls that were taken by companies using EAI systems explaining solutions to each problem.( Gian Trotta, ebizQ, 2003; Marinos Themistocleous, 2004) Change is constant: EAI require changes frequently in different components, spreading across value chains into companies as an integrated business process. Budgeting in the end of a particular project gets companies into trouble when service level and many requirements increase after deployment, thats the reason companies should create a post project investment that allows more than for basic maintenance. EAI skills are rare: The market suffers from a lack in persons that have skills considering EAI complex parallel processing and data combinations which can distract programmers and other staff who are used to a straight line approach. Moreover organizations that prefer the third party vendor route must be aware of its drawbacks. In addition, local language, Knowledge transfer and issue contingencies should be considered. Standards are never universal: Sometimes vendors deviate from inconsistent specifications and from different standards bodies such as those for Web services. On top of that, these standards bodies often have quite a heavy involvement from vendors, and vendors might be deciding to pursue their own agendas. Since standards cant guarantee interoperability, companies should budget for testing and validation, though relying on standards. Thinking of EAI as a tool as opposed to a system: Other critical organizational issue which was not realized till companies experienced it was a failure to realize that EAI can sometimes be difficult to control and sometimes affects other projects and service levels throughout and beyond the enterprise. It requires a set of tools and some procedures to deal with things such as security, capacity, change management and monitoring. Here comes roles and responsibilities, in which business analysts are responsible for defining the flows, IT people are the ones responsible for the actual execution and EAI administrators who interface with both business and IT staff, and finally Competence Centers are highly recommended. Treating interfaces as a science as opposed to an art: IT staff prefers solving problems using analytic solutions and inaccurate definitions to solve business unit requirements; however EAI is about linking those business components together while maintaining the value of business data. Thats the reason why building some kind of negotiation process that everybody agrees with would be a plus. That will help in resolving issues with the business departments. Without taking that into account time will be lost, deadlines will be exceeded and finally the service delivered will lack in quality considering business needs. Discarding details along the way: Within an organization as its EAI system expands, information that may seem unimportant today may become important. As an example operational requirements often differ beyond the project development stage. Keeping a record of definitions, structures, interfaces and flows, and gathering statistics would decrease lots of effort later on when it is needed. Companies must look at such kind of information at a much higher level, that one day they might need it. EAI implementation should be extensible and modular to be flexible for future changes. Unclear accountability and protectionism: Lots of companies suffers from unclear accountability as business driven integration has a need to cross corporate boundaries, engage partners, and even touch customers. As an example when there is a run time issue, it has to be addressed in some kind of coordinated fashion combining both business and IT skills. Moreover applications whose data is being integrated sometimes belong to different departments that have cultural, technical and political reasons for preventing their data to be shared with other departments. It makes it so difficult considering internal corporate politics which could take months trying to resolve simple questions like Where does the help desk report? Benefits and advantages of EAI: Imagine a company having many systems each serving a certain department and not connected nor integrated together, such a company will fall apart and will not be able to compete in the business any more as lack of communication leads to inefficiencies, EAI is the soluble glue needed for modular relationships that allow organizations to be flexible and responsive to market demands, thats the reason an integration is required (Thomas Pushmann and Rainer Alt, 2004). EAI benefits can be categorized into four groups operational, managerial, strategic, and technical. The operational benefit is that it increases productivity, improves planning in supply chain management and quick response to change. Shifting to the managerial benefit it results into more organized business process, increases the performance, improves data quality, and supports decision making. EAI strategic benefit would be that it increases collaboration between partners, achieves return on investment (ROI) and customer satisfaction. And finally the forth and last category which is the technical benefits in which it reduces the redundancy of tasks and data, having an integrated process, increases flexibility, and reduces development risks. It also allows organizations to do business more effectively. (Marinos Themistocleous, 2004) It allows diverse systems to connect with one another quickly to share data, communicate, and processes the information silos that plague many businesses. EAI solutions provide a way to connect the systems of collaborators, partners, and others for as long as necessary, decoupling when the relationship ends. EAI is the soluble glue for the modular corporation. It not only integrate various enterprise applications it also provides better customers and supplier services applications, and aid in promoting organizational goals. There are many cited advantages of implementing EAI, including an increased operational performance, a higher customer satisfaction. Moreover, EAI is not only about an ad hoc response to business needs, but also about gaining competitive advantage and strategic use of information technology (Themistocleous and Irani, 2002). Finally EAI is the unrestricted sharing of data and business processes throughout the networked applications or data sources in an organization. It provides real time information access among systems, helps raise organizational efficiency, and maintains information integrity across multiple systems. It is facilitates the integration problems that ERP systems failed to solve and facilitates market and economical growth.(Bouchaib Bahli and Fei Ji, 2007) Drawbacks and disadvantages of EAI: However, given all the benefits of EAI, many companies hesitate to adopt EAI technology. High initial development costs, especially for small and mid-sized businesses, require a fair amount of up front business design, which many managers are not able to envision or not willing to invest in. One drawback of EAI is that the various systems that need to be linked together often reside on different operating systems, use different database solutions and different computer languages, and sometimes there are legacy systems that are outdated and no longer supported by the vendor. In some cases, such systems are dubbed because they consist of components that have been jammed together in a way that makes it very hard to modify them in any way. In addition that EAI costs a lot, it introduces changes to organizations and the way of doing their business. Moreover it is more likely to be implemented in large organizations than in companies. Finally most EAI projects usually start off as point to point efforts, quickly becoming unmanageable as the number of applications increase. .(Marinos Themistocleous, 2004). Service Oriented Architecture (SOA): .What is SOA?: Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) can be decomposed as follows; an architecture style as a combination of distinctive features in which architecture is performed, supporting service orientation which is a way of thinking in terms of services and its outcomes. In which a service in SOA is a reusable component for using in a business process, it is a logical representation of a repeatable business activity that has a specified outcome and may be composed of other services. (Mark Colan, 2004; Barbara Reed, 2008) SOA is defined differently, however the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) an IT industry standards body defined as follows: A paradigm for organizing and utilizing distributed capabilities that may be under the control of different ownership domains. It provides a uniform means to offer, discover, interact with and use capabilities to produce desired effects consistent with measurable preconditions and expectations. Others defined SOA as An architectural design principle that describes a set of guidelines, principles and techniques by which business processes, information and technology assets can be effectively (re) organized and (re) deployed to support and enable strategic plans and productivity levels that are required by competitive business environments. (Rense M. Balk, 2006,2008). It is a set of design principles used during the phases of systems development and integration in computing. A system that is a SOA based will be integrated and can be used within multiple systems across many business domains. It is considered as a type of architecture that integrates different disparate applications for a web based environment using multiple implementation platforms. Service-orientation requires loose coupling of services with operating systems, and other technologies that underlie applications. SOA separates functions into distinct units, or services, which developers make accessible over a network in order to allow users to combine and reuse them in the production of applications. It is an architectural concept in which all functions, or services, are defined using a description language usually Extensible Markup Language (XML) and where their interfaces are discoverable over a network. The interface is defined in a neutral manner that is independent of the hardwa re platform, the operating system, and the programming language in which the service is implemented. These services communicate together using loose coupling without effecting other ones. (Jean-Louis Marà ©chaux,2006) Properties and principles of a Service Oriented Architecture: A Service Oriented Architecture is a style of architecture that embodies the following principles and elements: Services loose coupling: Services should be able to interact without the need for tight dependencies, in which a service requester should be loosely coupled to a service provider. This means that the service requester has no knowledge of the technical details of the providers implementation, such as the programming language and deployment platform. The service requester operates by sending a request message and a response one. The loose coupling allows the internal structure of requester or provider components to change, without impacting the other, provided that the message schema stays the same. (Sefan Linders, 2008; Mark Colan 2004; Rense M. Balk, 2006-2008) Services are autonomous: Services have control over the logic they encapsulate and do not depend on other services. Allowing the service to take care of its processing making it independent from other ones. Service autonomy is a primary consideration when deciding how application logic should be divided up into services (Rense M. Balk, 2006-2008; Sefan Linders, 2008) . Standardized and well-defined Service Contract: Services adhere to a communications agreement, as defined collectively by one or more service-description documents it provides information on the service end point, the operations of the service, and the messages supported by each operation. This information is needed for a service requester to connect to a service provider and invoke the service. A service should have a well-defined interface that is mentioned and described in a service contract or its service definition. (Sefan Linders, 2008; Rense M. Balk, 2006-2008) Services internal structure is hidden: The only part of a service that is visible to the users is what is only needed. The underlying logic of the service is invisible and irrelevant to service requesters. Components using the service should not know or care about the implementation logic of a service, but just want the expected result to be returned. (Sefan Linders, 2008) SOA Requirements: In order to efficiently use a Service Oriented Architecture and to overcome problems, the architecture must meet the following requirements: (Edward Tuggle, Jr.,et al ,2003) Analyzing and considering the existing assets. Some times the existing systems are totally neglected; however it still has a great value. Existing system must be integrated and taken into consideration, in which overtime they will be replaced Support all required types of integration including User Interaction providing a single and interactive user experience, Application Connectivity facilitating communications, Information Integration for sharing enterprise data, being able to add new applications and services, and Process Integration. Interoperability among different systems and programming languages that provides the basis for integration between applications on different platforms through a communication protocol. Allowing the implementation of new computing models such as Grid computing and on-demand computing. Allowing the migration of assets and incremental implementations for the production of incremental ROI. Lots of integration projects have failed due to cost and unmanageable implementation schedules. Include a development environment that will be built around a standard component framework, promote better reuse of modules and systems, allow legacy assets to be migrated to the framework, and allow for the timely implementation of new technologies. Understanding web services: A misconception is that web services is a synonym of SOA; however web services are based on open standards that are independent from any implementation platform, it is a set of technologies including The Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), The Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) and Extensible Markup Language (XML) (Mark Colan, 2004). A suitable technology is needed for the implementation of a SOA that can support the principles of service-orientation and there is no technology has been more suitable and successful in implementing SOA than web services. Other technologies can be employed as well for implementing an SOA, All major vendor platforms currently support the creation of service-oriented solutions with the understanding that the SOA support provided is based on the use of web services. The web services framework consists of a collection of technologies that apply to the use of services. (A.D. Phippen, et al.,2004; Sefan Linders, 2008). SOA presents the big picture of what can be made with Web services. Web services specifications define the details needed to implement services and interact with them (Mark Colan, 2004) . In a web service approach, each SOA block can play one or both of two rules a service provider which creates a web service and possibly publishes its interface and access information to the service registry. Secondly a service consumer or web service client which locates entries in the broker registry using various find operations and then binds to the service provider in order to invoke one of its web services (Edward Tuggle, Jr. et al., 2003) SOA Benefits: A question may arise for the reason of using SOA? Some of the key benefits are as follows: 3.5.1. Reusability: The principles that were discussed drive the opportunities for reuse of services. As an example autonomy and loose coupling of services results in independency of services, this broadens the applicability of its reusable functionality; hiding underlying logic adapts reusability, because service requesters are presented a generic public interface; A well-defined service promotes reuse also, because it allows service requestors to search and discover reusable services .Service orientation promotes the design of reusable services; Creating a library of services that support reuse, provides increased opportunities for leveraging existing application logic. When new application logic is built, the time for designing, developing, testing, and deploying the application can be reduced when the required logic is available in existing services, enabling composition of services, rather than developing all application logic from scratch (Sefan Linders, 2008). Efficient integration: Using communication standards such as web services on the design of services it can result in the creation of solutions that consist of inherently interoperable services in which the functionality of services becomes independent of the implementation platform. Meaning that services can communicate using the same protocol even though it resides on different platforms. Theoretically, when all services are designed according to the same standards, an access to any service is applicable from a service requester from any device, using any operating system, in any programming language. When application logic is represented by standardized services, creating interaction between them requires less effort since the communication proceeds using the same protocol. SOA can therefore significantly reduce the efforts of application integration over other methods. The benefit of interoperability does not only apply to services that are built from scratch, but also applies to legacy systems (Apostol os Malatras, et al. 2008; Sefan Linders, 2008). Agility and adaptability: Agility of an organization is the speed to which an organization copes to changes in an environment. Through the opportunities for both reusability and integration, SOA can increase the ability of the organization to cope with changes. Agility of an organization depends in part on the agility of the application logic that supports the business processes of the organization. An IT environment that is standardized, interoperable and reusable services establishes a more adaptive organization, in which automation solutions can be delivered faster, with less effort involved (Sefan Linders, 2008). EAI and SOA Relationship: 4.1. Evolution or revolution: Some misbelieves is that EAI is a thing of past and SOA is the new thing that is replacing it, this is just like if a person says transportation is a thing of past now road is here. SOA is more like EAI than a lot of software vendors would have believe. In fact, in many vendors offerings, especially the ones labeled ESB (Enterprise Service Bus) have changed very little from their EAI roots. Simply adding web services support to a product that already supports multiple protocols is not a radical improvement. SOA most likely includes messaging particularly for legacy integration. EAI also implements loose coupling though message queues and or publish subscribe messaging (Greg Deller, 2008). Many of the best practices of EAI apply directly to SOA. EAI concept of interfaces is a message publisher and subscriber. There are four types of EAI where integration projects fall; information portals, data replication, shared business function and service-oriented architecture; in which when there are enough useful services available in a company, new applications can be built by reusing already existing services only (Robert Thullner, 2008; P. Joshi, H.Singh and A.D. Phippen 2004). Companies that were doing a good job with EAI will have an easier time with SOA. They have untangled the spaghetti bowl of interfaces and now service enabling them will be much simpler. Those who struggled or failed with EAI now have another chance with our newly relabeled technology. But simply slapping a web service in front of a tangle of interfaces and decades worth of dirty data will not realize the promise of SOA. There is still a lot of heavy lifting to do and a need for a well defined approach and a set of best practices. (Robert Thullner, 2008) A SOA web services and EAI: An assumption that web services are the tools for building EAI could be made.. Integration can be done with web services, but it is a very heavyweight approach. There are many standards that is developed which should build the fundament for a widespread acceptance and usage of web services. The standards are UDDI for the registry component, WSDL for describing interfaces of services, and SOAP protocol communication between services. Many other standards have been developed around these principles supporting web services growth, they are usually referred as WS- standards. A WS- standard could be messaging (SOAP, WS-Addressing), description and discovery (UDDI, WSDL), reliability (WSReliable Messaging), transactions (WS Coordination), security (WS-Security), business processes (BPEL) and management (WSManageability) . Those WS-* standards would cover all topics which are needed for an EAI solution, BPEL can be used to build business processes and for management of the EAI solution mana gement standards can be used. SOAP can be used for messaging and can be extended by WS-Reliably Messaging to ensure that a message gets delivered. Web services standards are all based on XML and when implementing an EAI solution a lot of XML configuration files have to be written to get a working solution. The three main standards SOAP, WSDL and UDDI have been accepted by all vendors. All other standards have been developed to solve a specific problem in the web services domain. As soon as standards are broadly accepted by all major vendors of EAI solutions the web service technology can be a reasonable and effective approach for EAI solutions (Greg Deller, 2008; Robert Thullner, 2008). Research Gap: While going through the literature there are to many limitations and gaps. This is mainly because researches do not focus on EAI and SOA, in which there are lots of misconceptions present due to the lack of research on them. Some of the limitations are that SOA is a confusing term to managers, because technologists do not share a common understanding of service-oriented concepts. If technologists present the concepts from different perspectives, then confusion persists. In fact, SOA is not well understood by managers, and the business benefits are even less understood. For that reason, companies are slowly investing in SOA mitigating risk through pilot projects and being very cautious. Moreover experience in SOA and EAI is rare and as a result the academic research on them. Moreover according to Sefan Linders (2008), none of the identified benefits of SOA were based on empirical findings. Conclusion: In this paper, we examined the difference between enterprise application integration and service oriented architecture. In the first section of the paper, Enterprise application integration is generally discussed with its benefits, drawbacks to an organization, and its barriers including the rare skills and thinking of EAI as a tool opposed to a system. In the second section service oriented architecture was examined discussing its principles and requirements for preventing future problems. Afterwards the concept of web services was explained followed by SOA benefits. Finally the relationship between both EAI and SOA was discussed explaining how can both work together.