Articles Of Confederation Essays - United States, Government

Articles of Confederation The Articles of Confederation was the first constitution of the United States of America. The Articles of Confederation were first drafted by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia Pennsylvania in 1777. This first draft was prepared by a man named John Dickinson in 1776. The Articles were then ratified in 1781. The cause for the changes to be made was due to state jealousies and widespread distrust of the central authority. This jealousy then led to the emasculation of the document. As adopted, the articles provided only for a "firm league of friendship" in which each of the 13 states expressly held "its sovereignty, freedom, and independence." The People of each state were given equal privileges and rights, freedom of movement was guaranteed, and procedures for the trials of accused criminals were outlined. The articles established a national legislature called the Congress, consisting of two to seven delegates from each state; each state had one vote, according to its size or population. No executive or judicial branches were provided for. Congress was charged with responsibility for conducting foreign relations, declaring war or peace, maintaining an army and navy, settling boundary disputes, establishing and maintaining a postal service, and various lesser functions. Some of these responsibilities were shared with the states, and in one way or another Congress was dependent upon the cooperation of the states for carrying out any of them. Four visible weaknesses of the articles, apart from those of organization, made it impossible for Congress to execute its constitutional duties. These were analyzed in numbers 15-22 of The FEDERALIST, the political essays in which Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay argued the case for the U.S. CONSTITUTION of 1787. The first weakness was that Congress could legislate only for states, not for individuals; because of this it could not enforce legislation. Second, Congress had no power to tax. Instead, it was to assess its expenses and divide those among the states on the basis of the value of land. States were then to tax their own citizens to raise the money for these expenses and turn the proceeds over to Congress. They could not be forced to do so, and in practice they rarely met their obligations. Third, Congress lacked the power to control commerce--without its power to conduct foreign relations was not necessary, since most treaties except those of peace were concerned mainly with trade. The fourth weakness ensured the demise of the Confederation by making it too difficult to correct the first three. Amendments could have corrected any of the weaknesses, but amendments required approval by all 13 state legislatures. None of the several amendments that were proposed met that requirement. On the days from September 11, 1786 to September 14, 1786, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Virginia had a meeting of there delegates at the Annapolis Convention. Too few states were represented to carry out the original purpose of the meeting--to discuss the regulation of interstate commerce--but there was a larger topic at question, specifically, the weakness of the Articles of Confederation. Alexander Hamilton successfully proposed that the states be invited to send delegates to Philadelphia to render the constitution of the Federal Government adequate to the exigencies of the Union." As a result, the Constitutional Convention was held in May 1787. The Constitutional Convention, which wrote the Constitution of the United States, was held in Philadelphia on May 25, 1787. It was called by the Continental Congress and several states in response to the expected bankruptcy of Congress and a sense of panic arising from an armed revolt--Shays's Rebellion--in New England. The convention's assigned job, following proposals made at the Annapolis Convention the previous September, was to create amendments to the Articles of Confederation. The delegates, however, immediately started writing a new constitution. Fifty-five delegates representing 12 states attended at least part of the sessions. Thirty-four of them were lawyers; most of the others were planters or merchants. Although George Washington, who presided, was 55, and John Dickinson was 54, Benjamin Franklin 81, and Roger Shermen 66, most of the delegates were young men in their 20s and 30s. Noticeable absent were the revolutionary leaders of the effort for independence in 1775-76, such as John Adams, Patrick Henry, and Thomas Jefferson.

A basic study of pricing to market The WritePass Journal

A basic study of pricing to market Introduction A basic study of pricing to market IntroductionDefinition and theories about PTMEmpirical evidence of PTMConclusion:ReferenceRelated Introduction Exchange rate is always changing, which can cause different relative price of traded goods among countries. However, when firms adopt PTM (pricing to market), price of trading goods does not change with the exchange rate, That may result in deviation from purchasing power parity theory. Many aspect of economy such as consumption, welfare distribution will change according to this behavior. This paper tries to illustrate the meaning and the effect of PTM with some theory and empirical evidence. Definition and theories about PTM Pricing to market(PTM) is a new definition emerged in mid-1980s.During that period ,US dollar has experienced a strong appreciation. However, it has been noticed that the price of import commodities in the US did not decrease according to the exchange rate changes. PTM represent the phenomenon of foreign firms maintaining or even increasing their export price when the currency of the importer country rises. (Krugman,1987) .PTM can also be understand as export firms set price of trading goods in local currency instead of adjust the price according to the exchange rate. The international evidence shows that the pricing to market behavior and exchange-rate pass through is often interpreted as consistent with local currency price stability. This kind of price discrimination behavior does not only affect the price of traded goods, but also influences various kinds of price rigidities. (Alexius and Vredin,1999) Pick and Cater(1994) explain that the reasons for PTM behaviors. Firms prefer to keep stable prices in foreign markets that have fluctuating exchange rates may exercise this preference by exerting market power. It may result from the demand elasticity: As the importing countrys currency appreciates, the import price falls and demand increases. However, when the exporter does not have the ability to adjust the raised demand for its goods, the extend of currency appreciation will not completely reflect in the price of trading commodities. In addition, there is also implication that shocks to national market conditions, such as exogenous changes in the exchange rate, can generate deviations between the prices that firms charge in each market. ( Bergin,2003) At last, PTM may simply because that exporting firm want to keep competitive: many firms in these countries are said to have followed pricing policies designed to keep export prices competitive despite changes in exchange rates.(Mars ton,1990) Literatures about PTM are generally based on models. In pricing to market modelsfrom the work of Betts and Devereux(1996), they adapt a model that firms produce different products to export to different countries, besides, firms can set different exporting prices for different destinations. They learn from the result of the model that the increase in the fluctuation of exchange rate arising from PTM may be very large by doing a simple quantitative exercise based on the estimated degree of PTM in international trade. That’s to say, when firms engage in PTM, when a country face with money shocks, the effects of this shocks are quite different compare with the traditional exchange rate models in which prices are set in the currency of the exporter. What’s more, PTM plays a central role in exchange rate determination and in international macroeconomic fluctuations. It acts to limit the pass-through from exchange rate changes to prices, and reduces the traditional ‘â⠂¬Ëœexpenditure switching’’ role o exchange rate changes. (Betts and Deuereux,2000) Implications of PTM for PPP A direct implication of the PTM hypothesis is the low pass-through from the exchange rate to prices, and the resultant failure of the relative PPP to hold in the short and intermediate-runs.(Aizenman,2004) PPP(purchasing power parity) is a conception widely used in international economy. The basic idea about PPP is when consumers purchase identical products in any market worldwide, the quantity of money should be the same when measured in one currency (Hallwood and MacDonald, 2000). Applied to aggregate price data, purchasing power parity is the hypothesis that the import prices that of one country to purchase another countrys goods should move one-for-one with the producer prices for goods in those countries that are the sources of those imports when all of these prices are expressed in a common currency. (Atkeson and Burstein,2008) When firms and producers applied PTM, many aspect of the country’s economy will different from the PPP holders. From the analysis of model in Betts and Deuereux(2000),the implications of PTM to PPP can be conclude as follows: The most obvious implication of PTM is the price volatility. Actually, if there is no price rigidity, the law-of one- price would be available for all kinds of products, and PPP would hold generally, even though there is still exist some extend of international market segmentation. However, if sticky local-currency prices hold, changes in the exchange rate will result in deviations from the law-of-one-price. While when complete PTM applied, the exchange rate will play a different role in the LOOP environment, relative prices of importer and exporters will not be affected by the fluctuation of exchange rate. but it has an impact on relative incomes. If export prices are set in foreign currency, when a depreciation happened in this currency. The home currency earnings of home firms will increase, at the same time, foreign firms’ foreign currency earnings will decrease at given production levels. Thus a depreciation generates a world redistribution of income towards the home coun try, which raises home consumption relative to foreign consumption. This occurs without the influence of relative price changes. (Betts and Deuereux,2000) PTM have a positive effect on promoting the real exchange rate movements: the larger of the PTM sector is, the lower effect of a money shock will the country get. Say a country faced with a money shock which will result in a depreciation of the currency, if PTM holds in a large sector, the impact on reallocation of spending away from domestic goods consumption towards foreign goods will be reduce to a large extend. The reason for this maybe the exchange rate is response to depreciation, however, this kind of currency price change would not affect the domestic market. PTM acts to limit the pass-through from exchange rate changes to prices, and reduces the traditional ‘‘expenditure switching’’ role of exchange rate changes. Nominal price stickiness associated with PTM magnifies the response of the exchange rate to shocks to fundamentals. (Betts and Deuereux,1996) The effect of monetary policies varies from cooperative firms and non-cooperative firms: at first, this need to be confirm that there is always a gain from coopperation, and secondly, that the gain reaches a maximum at the polar cases of no and full pricing to market since in these cases the movement in the terms of trade and thus the welfare spill-over is at a maximum in the non-cooperative setting. (Michaelis,2006) Empirical evidence of PTM As a common strategy of international firms, PTM behavior are widely used all over the world. By investigating data from those firms, we can get the empirical effect of pricing to market. Gil-Pareja(2002) investigated PTM behavior in European car markets during 1993 and 1998. He found that local currency price stability is a strong and pervasive phenomenon across products independent of the invoicing currency. In fact, there are large gaps among the automobile retail prices across EU Member States since the early 1980s, which is deviated from the law-of-one-price. (Gil-Paraja,2002) After analyze and compare the data of different EU countries, it can be easily conclude that the strategy tries to avoid the effect of changes in exchange rate changes is just in order to make the profits across segmented markets be maxime. Exporting firm will get the highest expected profits under exchange rate uncertainty by setting price of the importer’s currency. Since early 1980s, Japanese yen has experienced a depreciation. Marston(1990) has investigated pricing to market by Japanese firms from 1980 to 1987. He explores how Japanese firms responded to shifts in the real exchange rate by varying the prices of their exports relative to prices of products destined for the domestic market. The estimation distinguishes between inadvertent but temporary changes in these margins due to exchange rate surprises and planned changes associated with PTM behavior; He found there is overwhelming evidence that export-domestic price margins are systematically varied to help Japanese firms protect their competitive position. (Marston,1990) According to the exporter in UK, how is export pricing affected by other firm specific or contextual environmental variables such as export experience of the firm, degree of export development, type and intensity of market competition among others. The extend of PTM is based on variable of elements such as the industry le vel, the information and the like.( Tzokas et al.,2000) Conclusion: Pricing to market make the price of international trading goods free from the fluctuation of exchange rate, as a result, PPP no longer hold in those countries which applied PTM. Theories, as well as empirical evidence suggest that PTM has a strong implication of consumption and welfare distribution. It is a effective way for international co operations to avoid the negative influence of exchange rate fluctuation. But the extend of PTM is varias among different counties and industries. Reference Aizenman.J.  (2004) .â€Å"Endogenous  pricing  to  market  and 1inancing costs  Ã‚  Original Research Article†.Journal of Monetary Economics,  Volume 51, Issue 4,  PP 691-712 Alexius.A,  Vredin.A.(1999).â€Å"Pricing-to-Market in Swedish Exports†.The Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Vol. 101, No. 2 pp. 223-239 Atkeson.A,  Burstein.A.(2008).â€Å"Pricing-to-Market, Trade Costs, and International Relative Prices†.The American Economic Review, Vol. 98, No. 5, pp. 1998-2031 Bergin. P. R, 1eenstra.R.C. (2001). â€Å"Pricing-to-market, staggered contracts, and real exchange rate persistence  Ã‚  Original Research Article†. Journal of International Economics,  Volume 54, Issue 2,  Ã‚  PP 333-359 Bergin. P. R.(2003).â€Å"A model of relative national price levels under  pricing  to  market  Ã‚  Original Research Article†. European Economic Review,  Volume 47, Issue 3, PP569-586 Betts.C, Devereux. M.B. (2000) .â€Å"Exchange rate dynamics in a model of  pricing-to-market  Ã‚  Original Research Article†.Journal of International Economics,  Volume 50, Issue 1,  Ã‚  PP 215-244 Betts.C, Devereux.M.B.  (1996) .â€Å"The exchange rate in a model of  pricing-to-market  Ã‚  Original Research Article†. European Economic Review,  Volume 40, Issues 3-5,  PP 1007-1021 Gil-Pareja.S. (2003).â€Å"Pricing  to  market  behaviour in European car  markets  Ã‚  Original Research Article†.European Economic Review,  Volume 47, Issue 6,  Ã‚  PP 945-962 Hallwood. P ,MacDonald. R. (2000) â€Å"International Money and Finance†, 3rd ed.Blackwell. Krugman, P. (1986), â€Å"Pricing to Markets when exchange rate changes†, In: Arndt, S.W., Richardson,J.D. (Eds.), Real-financial Linkages among Open Economies. MIT Press, Cambridge. Mark, N. (2001) â€Å"International Macroeconomics and Finance†, Blackwell. Marston. R. C. (1989) â€Å" Pricing to Market in Japanese Manufacturing†. Journal of International Economics, 29(3), PP 217-236. Michaelis. J.(2006). â€Å"Optimal monetary policy in the presence o1  pricing-to-market  Ã‚  Original Research Article†.Journal of Macroeconomics,  Volume 28, Issue 3,  Ã‚  PP 564-584 Patureau.L.(2007).â€Å"Pricing-to-market, limited participation and exchange rate dynamics  Ã‚  Original Research Article†.Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control,  Volume 31, Issue 10,  Ã‚  PP 3281-3320 Pick. D H,   Carter. C A. (1994). â€Å"Pricing to Market with Transactions Denominated in a Common Currency†.American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol. 76, No. 1, pp. 55-60 Sarno, L. Taylor, M.P. (2002), new open-economy of macroeconomics. In The economics of exchange rate, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Tzokas.N, Hart.S, Argouslidis.P ,Saren.M.  (2000), â€Å"Strategic  pricing  in export  markets: empirical evidence from the UK  Ã‚  Original Research Article†. International Business Review,  Volume 9, Issue f,  PP 95-117

Should all hacking be banned(Persuasive Paper) Research Paper

Should all hacking be banned(Persuasive ) - Research Paper Example Advancement in technology has made available new communication tools, which enable communication over long distance. The internet is regarded as a source of entertainment, information and communication with activities, which include e-mail, web surfing, shopping and reading news. Internet connections allow easy transfer of a variety of media from one location to another, thus enhancing sharing and building relations among people. It is the increased dependency on computers and internet that fuels cybercrime, which poses an enormous risk to infrastructure that, is dependent on such utilities. The United States ranks first in a list of ten countries known for hacking tendencies as indicated by the table below. Adopted from http://i.huffpost.com/gen/609514/thumbs/o-GLOBAL-HACKING-TOP-TEN-570.jpg?4 Presently, most internet crimes have led to loss of personal information, which is stolen leaving a trail of suffering people. Such heavy damages are usually attributed to hackers or hacker gr oups who derive their gains from gathered information within a short period. Adopted from http://www.csmonitor.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/media/images/0426-password-chart/7780968-1-eng-US/0426-password-chart_full_600.jpg?nav=268203-csm_article-leftColRelated It is for such reasons that software companies regularly update their products, which serves to keep the level of vulnerability at all-time low. Moreover, owing to the risks involved, the public is of the opinion that hacking should be banned forgetting the benefits derived from ethical or controlled hacking. Therefore, most people think that hacking is unconditional malicious and are of the opinion that all hacking should be banned. The benefits derived from controlled hacking are critical to national security as well as in maintaining a high standard in electronic products. It is for this reasons that some level of hacking should be permitted while maintaining surveillance on hackers or hacker groups that are deemed ma licious. This paper seeks to highlight positive aspects associated with hacking and how they serve the society. Common beliefs about hacking illustrate hacking as simple operations that involve a sequence of commands, which on the contrary, is a skill. The United States legal definition describes computer hacking as the deliberate access of computer systems without authority or exceeding authorised access. Hacking is the practice of manipulating computer systems and software to perform contrary to what they were initially created for. As such, a hacker presents as a skilful computer programmer or user who uses his ability to gain unauthorised access to data and information. On the other hand, cracking relates to the modifying software with the aim of removing features they deem as limitations to the software’s potential. The targeted features of the software usually include copy protection, date checks, serial numbers and product keys (Negi, 2011).In essence, crackers seek to disable or remove safety measures that often compel computer users to buy original software and products. Crackers often prey on all computer packages ranging from operating systems to games. The crackers then distribute the modified products as pirated versions without charge, which proves to be a headache for software companies due to losses incurred. It is for this reason that software cracking is illegal owing to its malicious nature of their activities. The terms hacker and cracker are often used interchangeably,

Thesis driven paper on an aspect of the vietnam war Essay

Thesis driven paper on an aspect of the vietnam war - Essay Example The victims, soldiers, commanders, and political leaders who were directly involved obviously have their say. In the same way those who were at the opposite end of the spectrum- the dissenters, the war protestors, draft dodgers as well as the super-patriots - do have their own readings on the war and its outcomes. There are many who really believe that United States’ intervention in to the war was quite unnecessary and that the incompetent foreign policy of the US has adversely affected the lives of many ordinary Vietnamese, caused them poverty, misery, and anguish. The U.S did have its own political motives and ideological stand- that of preservation of human rights, liberty, democracy and the spread of capitalism. Thus, in a wider perspective the Vietnam War can be read as the battle of ideas – communism of North Vietnamese supported by the Soviet Union and its allies versus the capitalism of South Vietnamese supported by the U.S and its allies. The essay attempts to make a probe not so as to who won this battle of ideas –whether the triumphant North communist or the well-thought Americans who finally retreated from the battlefield; rather it focuses on who lost the battle with a special reference to the foreign policies of America during the various stages of the war- the reaction of American citizens in particular to the whole issue, how the international community viewed the foreign policy of America in the Vietnam war, how it affected the political atmosphere of the country , and up to what extent the motives of the American Government can be justified. For ages, America’s foreign policy has been one of intervention and domination; it has always tried to assert its supremacy over other nations politically, economically and ideologically. One always tends to seek the ultimate result of such a step and one comes to realize that the great nation has faltered in its treatment of the Vietnam people. Even though, Americas

Indian Creation Stories Essay Example for Free

Indian Creation Stories Essay After reading the Iroquois and Pima creation myths in the book, I have been very intrigued by the Native American beliefs of the creation of the earth. It seems that nearly every tribe has a different belief of how it happened, though some are very similar. The Huron tribe, originally from the St. Lawrence Valley, have a very similar belief of creation as the Iroquois, where the Cherokee tribe had a totally different view than the Pima. The Iroquois and the Huron myths are both in the Earth-Diver category. In this type of myth, animals swim deep to the bottom of the water and bring up dirt in their mouth, forming the earth. Just like the Iroquois, in the Huron myth, a divine woman falls out the sky and is swept up just before hitting water by a hawk. The hawk then calls down in the water for help, for she is too heavy for it to hold by itself. First, a turtle comes out the sea for her to sit on, and then he instructs other animals such as ducks, beavers, and even a muskrat. After the earth is built, the woman gives birth to twins, but soon dies after giving birth to her two sons. The sons in both myths represent good and evil on earth. They were to prepare the earth so that humans could live on it, but they found out that they could not live together. So, they separated, with each one taking their own portion of the earth to prepare. Once older, the good son creates a sun and moon out of the remains of its mother’s body. It continues to create the world, forming vegetation and other useful tools to help humans survive. Meanwhile, the evil brother made outrageous animals, violent and disturbing. He made wolves, bears, venomous snakes, and panthers of giant size. He made massive mosquitos, the size of wild turkeys, and he made an enormous toad, it drank up the fresh water that was on the earth. The good brother then had to kill the toad to bring water back to the land. In the end, the good brother defeated the evil brother in a fight, sending the evil brother’s soul to the center of the earth. Pima creation myth is similar to the Iroquois and Huron myths in that there are both animals that help build the earth, except in the Pima myth, they are land animals instead of sea animals. Also, there are two main characters that represent good and evil. The Cherokee creation myth starts as the world being completely covered in water and earth merely being an island floating bove the seas suspended by four rawhide ropes. There were no people, and the animals lived above the rainbow. The animals sent the water beetle under the seas to search for more room, and it brought up mud that spread quickly, turning into land. Although at first the land was to soft and flat, Godfather buzzard went to check on the land and the wind from his wings created mountains and valleys, thus why the Cherokee territory has many mountains. As the new ground stiffened, the pulled the sun from behind the rainbow and raised it higher in the sky. The next thing created was the plants, and view animals were given the privilege to see at night. People were created last, with the women being able to have babies every seven days, the Creator feared that the world would soon become crowed and made it so women could only have one child a year. The Native American creation stories of the Iroquois and Huron are almost identical where the Pima and Cherokee are completely opposite of each other. This goes to show just how different the beliefs of different Indian tribes are, and how this holds true to how there are different beliefs across the United States still today.

Drugs And Alcoholism: Why Are Teenagers Involved? :: essays research papers

Adolescence is much like a midpoint in ones life; when a person is neither a kid nor an adult. At this period, teens have passed the age when they were called kids but are not yet qualified to be adults. Teenagers want to think like adults, behave like adults and also start to view themselves as independent beings in decision making. All this hormonal changes also come with the negativity of maturity such as drugs and alcohol. The statistics below show that the percentage of teenagers using drugs and alcohol in the last decade has increased. Why is this? The answer is that teenagers are under pressure by their peers, mass media and also the influence of parents. 8th-Graders10th-Graders12th-Graders Marijuana22.2%40.9%49.7% Cocaine4.77.79.8 Inhalants15.417.019.7 LSD4.18.512.2 Heroin2.02.32.3 Alcohol52.170.680.0 Cigarettes44.157.664.6 Peer pressure plays a major role in the harmful behavior of teens. Teens who want to fit in among their friends are most especially prone to this. They try to make friends and they get friends as much as possible. Of these friends there are the good ones who give them the knowledge and information you want need or inquire and there are the ones who give them information about not too good things like drug, alcohol, parties, e.t.c. This influential communication between a teen and his/her peer may be directly or indirectly. Directly such as conversations with their friends or indirectly such as listening to classmates discussing of a party which occurred a night before. Then they begin to mention alcohol, drugs and violence obviously from what have experienced they talk about it in a way possible. Then you would like to see how good it is the next weekend you go to that kind of party. If you can not resist such as a temptation you will begin to do harmful deeds that will definitely ha ve adverse results in the future. Let’s not put all the blame on teens and their peers alone. The mass media is also responsible in an understandable way. The media has proven to be a lot damaging than useful in the type of information meant for mature audience but end up with the immature audience. Soap operas and frivolous shows shown on TV contain immoral and untrue images of the world as it is more of the writer’s imagination or the way directors direct them to act. Most teenagers are probably old enough to watch this shows but not mature enough to comprehend with the fictitious nature of movies and soap operas.

Remeber the Titans Application Paper

Remember the Titans is a movie that reflects several areas of organizational behavior. Communication, organizational culture, teamwork, diversity, motivation and ethics all play a key role in leadership how an organization functions. Communication The first obstacle that the new head coach faces is taking over an organization where he is the replacement for a very well respected coach with a reputation for winning. In one of scenes, Coach Boone sits down with his new assistant coach, Yost, to talk about the current situation. Boone acknowledges the problems and the challenges that lay ahead but assures Coach Yost that he is committed to producing a winning team and that all decisions will reflect performance rather than race. Coach Boone shows respect to Coach Yost and displays the openness to deal with the issues. Leaders may have a tendency to avoid this confrontation only making matters worse for the long term. It is a great lesson in dealing with problems upfront and resolving the issues to minimize more potential conflicts in the future. Communication is one of the basic functions of management in any organization and its importance can hardly be overemphasized. It is a process of transmitting information, ideas, thoughts, opinions, and plans between various parts of an organization. It is not possible to have human relations without communication. However, good and effective communication is required not only for good human relations but also for good and successful business (Thomson, 2007). Organizational Culture From an organizational structure standpoint, Coach Boone realizes he cannot do everything by himself. On a football team, several coaches are required to work with each specialized part of the team just like in any business. Throughout the movie the offense, defense, and special teams must work together to achieve victory on the field. However, each sub group on the team must trust and rely on the others to perform to execute the game plan well. In one of the final scenes, Coach Boone gets input from Coach Yost to come up with a new offensive play to win the game. Sometimes in larger organizations, silos exist among the departments and there is a resistance to cooperating. It is important in any business that all departments listen to their people for new ideas to improve process that can turn into profitable results. Organizational structure is the hierarchical levels of a company; this structure provides guidelines on subordination and employee responsibilities, and affects the workplace culture. An organization's culture is an informal, collectively held grouping of ideas and values, as well as the types of workplace relationships and ways of doing things within the organization. It affects workplace culture through controlling, coordinating and motivating employees to work together to accomplish company goals and objectives. Both organizational structure and culture affect employee behavior, motivation, performance, dedication, satisfaction, cooperation, and relationships (Thornton, 2011) Teamwork and Diversity Working together as a team is crucial to any organization’s success. Two players in particular believe that at the beginning of merging the two schools, their perceptions of each other’s values make it appear almost impossible to work to together as a team. They both come to realize that they want to win as much as the other person does and eventually become the best of friends. In fact, later in the movie Gary, the white player recommends to Coach Boone that one of his white friends leave the team because of a missed blocking assignment. This is the true transformation of Gary putting the team’s goals before his personal feelings. It is one of the cornerstones of any teamwork’s success. People in any organization bring their own set of values and beliefs to the table when they accept a position in the company. It is up the company’s leadership to instill the vision and culture from the top down. The summer practice camp that they attend is similar to the socialization process that any organization has into bringing new people in. Similar to the Marine’s boot camp, the football players eat, sleep, and practice together to bond and foster a sense of teamwork for Coach Boone. Most companies achieve this socialization process through employee orientation and continuous training. By the end of the camp the players have put aside their difference and are committed to carrying out the team’s goal of winning. The biggest issue that faces the team is the racial tension between the blacks and whites. The movie is set in the early seventies when integration of school began. The socialization process of the summer practice camp helped resolved many of these issues while the players where in seclusion at camp. Upon coming back from camp and attending school, they face the true reality of the racial issues. Still to this day, diversity is a hot topic in corporations across the country. Any company has to battle the preconceived ideas about other races, religions, genders, and sexual orientation to focus on the company’s vision. The movie shows how when people put aside their differences and focus on the organization’s mission that anything is achievable. This is a timeless lesson for any organization in today’s environment. According to the textbook, one of the pervasive challenges with teams is that while diversity may have real potential benefits, a team deeply focuses on commonly held information. To realize their creative potential, diverse teams need to focus not on their similarities but on their differences. The key is for members of diverse teams to communicate what they uniquely know in addition to what they do not know (Judge, Robbins, 2011). Whether in the workplace or on the football field, or even amongst members of a community, effective teamwork can produce incredible results. However, working successfully as a team is not as easy as it may seem. Effective teamwork does not happen automatically; it takes a great deal of hard work and compromise (Woloch, 2008). There are a number of factors that must be in place to cohere together as a team: * Good leadership: Effective leadership is one of the most important components of good teamwork. The team’s leader should possess the skills to create and maintain a positive working environment, motivate, and inspire the team members to take a positive approach to work and be highly committed. An effective team leader will promote a high level of morale and make them feel supported and valued. * Clear communication: Communication is a vital factor of all interpersonal interaction and especially that of a team. Team members must be able to articulate their feelings, express plans and goals, share ideas, and see each other’s viewpoints. Establishing roles: It is necessary for team members to understand their role and responsibilities. The team leader can enable this by defining the purpose in a clear-cut manner in the beginning of the formation of the team. * Conflict Resolution: Conflicts will arise no matter how well a team functions together. The best way to counter conflict is to have structured methods of conflict resolution. Team members should be able to voice their concerns without fear of offending others. Instead of avoiding conflict issues, a hands-on approach that resolves them quickly is much better. Set a good example: The team leader must set a good example for good teamwork to come about. In order to keep team members positive, committed and motivated, the team leader must exhibit these qualities. The team looks to the leader for support and guidance therefore any negativity on the leader’s part can be disastrous (Woloch, 2008). Motivation Coach Boone does a good job of demonstrating motivation throughout the movie. In several scenes, Coach Boone tells his organization that he demands perfection from them and nothing less is acceptable. He communicates clearly with the staff and the players what the team’s goal is from the beginning. Everyone knows their role on their respective teams and expectations. We can see that successful companies have similar success when everyone in the organization knows how their role affects the company’s ability to serve the customer. Coach Boone uses the Equity theory of motivation in that he treats everyone on the team fairly and shows no favoritism. He asks the players to work very hard in practice, but see the results in their victories on the football field. Coach Boone also displays the Hawthorne effect in the movie. He makes an effort to know all of his players and his coaching staff. The Hawthorne effect is a motivation theory that people perform better, when they feel their leader pay attention to them. In today’s work environment, this is more of challenge because it is becoming more popular to have employees work from remote locations or home with the increased technological advances we have seen over the last twenty years in the work place (Ghillyer, 2009). Ethics. Ethical behavior is the last characteristic that can either tear apart any team or propel it to a higher level of success. Coach Yost is under the impression by several influential school board members that the championship game is going to be in favor of the all white school they are playing. They will use this as an excuse to fire Coach Boone and reinstate Coach Yost as the head coach the next school year. During the championship game, Coach Yost faces this internal struggle and dilemma as he sees many unfavorable calls by the referees. He eventually makes the right decision for the player’s chance to win the game. The important lesson is that when temptation is great to make the wrong decision, the long-term benefits of being ethical outweigh the benefits. Managers and their organizations are responding to the problem of unethical behavior in a number of ways. They are writing and distributing codes of ethics to guide employees through ethical dilemmas. They are offering seminars, workshops, and other training programs to try to improve ethical behaviors. They are providing in house advisors and creating protection mechanisms for employees who revel internal unethical practices. Today’s manager must create an ethically healthy climate for his or her employees, where they can do their work productivity with little ambiguity about what right and wrong behaviors are (Judge, Robbins, 2011). In conclusion, the movie demonstrates that leadership must be able to face multiple challenges at the same time. It is hard enough to manage a football team with structure that is in place of three different sub groups performing to win games. When combined with the challenges of diversity and ethics, it remarkable the results the team achieved. These are some valuable lessons that any organization in today’s business world could use. Â