Jewish text Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Jewish text - Coursework Example This story reflects how Judaism responds to disability with respect to the influence of the overall view by the community. In Jewish societies the collective public, apparently, possesses the power to classify the position or status of an individual with disability. Since the resulting behavior is believed to have no strings attached to any law or decree found in Judaism, then, Rabbis like Simeon are unconsciously liberated to act as such according to the overly scrupulous nature of Jewish community which the rabbi himself occurs to have not fully overcome despite length of dutiful studies with the ‘Torah’. (2) Why was it important in the Talmud to have physical descriptions of the Rabbis? Bearing the central text of conventional Judaism which highly accounts for rabbinic discourse of Jewish law, philosophy, and ethics comprising the heart of its religious customs, the ‘Talmud’ necessitates how the rabbinic substance is translated from principle at thought a nd study into actualization.

Eassy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Eassy - Essay Example According to Bardhan and Dwight, several factors can endear a company to outsource its business operations. Off shore labor laws, wage laws and tax laws favor the idea of outsourcing as there is almost a certainty of maximizing profits through low cost labor. Workers abroad are often willing to work longer hours for less pay than those in the United States where there could also be a lack of expertise in certain areas of business process. In addition to this, the company is offered a great diversity of skill and kept abreast with emerging technology from various ends of the globe that go a long way in improving service delivery and quality of service. Further still, the company that off shores acquires global status and recognition in the world market which is a huge plus in its operations. This in addition to the fact that off shoring some business operations actually enables a company to shift focus to other crucial areas of the business is of unparallel value to the company growth and development (Bardhan and Dwight, 22). However endearing these advantages of outsourcing may be, several negative implications and concerns also lie in wait, both to the company and the United States economy. The good that may result from the endeavors of outsourcing almost always serves the interest of the top brass of the company only. Little or nothing at all of the entire benefits actually trickles down to the middle level workers or the public in general. Quality concerns arise as a result of outsourcing. As long as the outsourcing contracts are honored, the outsourcing company may tend to be motivated by profit to decrease expenses and condone shoddy work. The employees of the company may not also have the loyalty to the business, a trait that is often priceless in ensuring success of the operations. Workers may change jobs or move to greener pastures whenever they please or sense danger leaving the company in turmoil and incurring further costs as such with hiring and rec ruitment as cited by Cromie (54). There are also numerous hidden costs that arise from off shoring business functions. For instance, the process requires the hiring of a lawyer(s) and signing of contracts. Major budgetary loopholes appear for exploitation to the detriment of the company and anything not covered in the contract will be basis for the company to pay the additional charges. Other regulations regarding this exploit also seem to secretly add to costs of operations. Failure to pay wages strictly as stipulated can result in several implications like fines, back pay awards or even disqualification from filing any further H1B1 visa petitions for future workers. There is the risk of a company exposing some of its important and confidential operation information to third parties as a result of off shoring. This may render the company weak in the face of any arising or already established competition. The company also loses management control of outsourced business functions lea ving several critical decision makings out of their hands. Some of these outside decisions may at times lead to bankruptcy. Language barrier and other cultural issues often come to play a negative role during outsourcing, majorly resulting in breakdowns in communication and even rejection of certain company products and services on cultural and religious grounds. Other problems include inappropriate categorization of responsibilities causing mayhem and a complete eyesore (Bergsten,

Super Leadership Is A New Form Of Leadership Education Essay

Super Leadership Is A New Form Of Leadership Education Essay INTRODUCTION Super Leadership is a new form of leadership for the era of knowledge-based enterprises distinguished by flat organizational structures and employee empowerment. A super-leader is one who leads others to lead themselves through designing and implementing the system that allows and teaches employees to be self-leaders. Super-leaders help each of their followers to develop into an effective self-leader by providing them with the behavioral and cognitive skills necessary to exercise self-leadership. Super-leaders establish values, model, encourage, reward, and in many other ways foster self-leadership in individuals, teams, and wider organizational cultures. The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a model of super leadership and creativity. This paper will practically contribute to the literature on super leadership and creativity by examining the relationships between them. This study is in continuation to the study conducted by DiLiello and Houghton (2006) in which a model was suggested that the employees having strong super leadership qualities will have more creative and innovative potential. Moreover, they will also practice a high level of innovation and creativity, when they feel a strong support from their supporting workplace. In a broader perspective, super-leadership is an effective mean of developing a shared and pervasive environment that support idea generation and creative problem solving. Succinctly, it is believed that an organization that encourages super leadership is likely to experience higher levels of creative and innovative processes among its employees which can flourish useful ideas and ultimately enhance organizational effectiveness. Significance and Rationale of the Study The question arises that why super leadership phenomenon is important? The answer is that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers. Employee self-leadership is the key to success in the new economy. So, having super-leadership, followers are treated in a proper way and thus turn into super leaders. If super leaders are successful in providing strategic alignment and coaching people, they develop followers who are productive, work independently, and need only minimal attention from the super leader. The rationale of this paper is to test and present results based upon a hypothesized model about the relationships between Super-leadership and idea generation/creative potential. In short, our model will test the hypothesis as if strong Super-leaders are more likely to have higher levels of idea generation/creativity potential than weak Super-leaders are. Such a model may be of great benefit to organizations that are looking forward to change due to market dynamism through the creativity and innovation of human resources of Super-leaders. As argued by Neck and Manz (1996), pragmatic Super-leadership research studies advocates that employees having Super-leadership line of action, enhances their individual performance and, at large, organizational performance, than an employee who does not practice Super-leadership approaches. In current era of rapid globalization, Super-leadership strategies enhance organizational capacity to flourish in the face of the challenges of the twenty-first century. Research Objectives The bulk of the literature on management and leadership tends to focus primarily on the dynamics of the common organization. This study will be a welcome addition to the abundant literature on Leadership Studies in organizational settings. At some level, one of the minor intentions of this study is to trigger an impetus that will prompt other academics and scholars to take on the topic of leadership and management at a wider range and with more comprehensive objectives. The main focus would be to explore the link between super leadership behavior and creative potential through idea generation for a innovative and creative culture within organization. Research Questions The research questions in this case are presented as follows: What is the relationship between super leadership and creativity potential? How super leadership provoke an employee to perform at its best level? REVIEW OF LITERATURE Why to shift from traditional leadership to Super-Leadership? Super-leadership, sometimes also called as Self-Leadership, may be defined as the way to lead others is by leading oneself (Manz and Sims, 2001). The main difference between traditional leadership management concept and Super-Leadership is the main focus on followers rather than leader itself, and especially the belief of improving followers capacity to lead who are effective self-leaders. Therefore, concisely, super-leadership is the way of leading others to lead themselves. As argued by Sims Manz (1996), for super leadership behavior to be implemented, a leader has to adopt 10 most significant shifts from traditional approach of leadership in order to move towards super leadership approach. First thing first, the leader helps out the team members/group to switch from external observation to self-observation. Secondly, the focus is on moving from designated goals to goals that are self developed. Thirdly, organic control is exercised by team/group members i.e. external reinforcement for task performance changes in to internal reinforcement with an addition of external reinforcement for self-leadership behaviors. Fourthly, leadership prefer to motivation techniques not only based on external compensation but also based on the natural rewards associated with work. Another step is that the leader shifts the group to focus on self criticism rather than external criticism from the organization, which often creates bad impact upon team/group members. Sixthly, there is a move from external problem solving towards self-problem solving techniques. Seventhly, there is a shift from external job assignments to self-job assignments. Also, leadership moves from external planning to self planning and from external task design to self-design of tasks at step eight. Ninth step focuses that any problem or issue arises should be treated as an opportunity instead of threat by the group/team members. Finally, commitment to organizations vision rather than its compliance only is more important that leadership needs to help the employee to create. Having focused to improve employees effectiveness, self-leadership phenomenon attempts to concentrate on various issues that an organization might come across in this era of rapid globalization. Supervisors and work conditions can have some sort of control mechanism in a work place (Manz and Sims, 1980) but the inner drive that initiate organic control, or intrinsic motivation to work, take place from within the person (Herzberg et al., 2003; Manz and Sims, 1980; Sergiovanni, 1992). It is always stressed that true leadership comes from within and at the end, achievement streams from follower self-leadership (Sims Manz, 1996). It is asserted that one can lead in a better way if able to develop and use individuals skills and capabilities at workplace (Manz and Sims, 1980). As advocated by Manz (1986) and Manz and Neck (2004) as organizational members are trained and permitted to utilize self-leadership strategies, a candid control mechanism is put in action. Finally, the Super-Leader must develop an environment where employees are free to fail and improve after taking risky decisions and can learn in a true sense. However, risk must be calculated enough and apposite autonomy to fail is of vital importance. We can say that the Super-Leader should promote learning, if the mistake took place in team/group members. Yet again, the Super-Leader must exercise a balance approach in terms of risk taking behaviors i.e. to become aware when one can let mistakes occur or otherwise (Sims Manz, 1996). Intrinsic Motivation The key to stimulate creativity in organization is to foster individuals creativity, for which the easiest human element is to alter an individuals motivation. Majority of empirical research findings in line with this statement are reported from the field of social psychology of creativity and are referred to in the literature as the intrinsic motivation principle. According to Amabile (1988), an intrinsic motivation of individuals towards a task/job has two sides. First, the persons natural preference towards such type of activities. Secondly, the way individual perceive and know the reasons to undertake that task, which is dependent upon external social as well as environmental factors. This second element is the simplest way to affect creativity of an individual and by using motivation i.e. intrinsic one, is one of the easiest approaches to do so as motivation needs less amount of time/money to boost up a creative individual. Moreover, the task or assignments that more complex and challenging with a freedom to decide on how to carry out assigned tasks are expected to foster intrinsic motivation that, sequentially, increases creativity (Amabile, 1988). Amabile (1996, 1997) comments that intrinsic motivation is one of the perspiration phases of the creative process that individuals may seek to bypass, moving too quickly to the more intrinsically motivating idea generation phase. On the other hand, rigid adherence to rules and regulation has a tendency to negatively affect creativity. For case in point, Amabile (1998) pointed out that rigid rules and centralized decision making reduces creativity as intrinsic motivation to do task reduces creativity. Due to centralized decision-making and rigid control, information flow within organization reduces as well. As creativity needs free access to information, this will, in turn, reduce the generation of new ideas. Similarly, in another study by Amabile (1997), intrinsic motivation arises when the task itself is a source of interest, enjoyment, self-expression, and personal challenge. Likewise, Ryan Deci (2000) pointed out that intrinsic motivation is a result of internal reinforcement to perform a task rather than in response to external reinforcement. A prior research foundation shows that formal organizational controls restrict individual freedom and thereby dampen intrinsic motivation required for creativity (Amabile, 1996; Shalley, Gilson, Blum, 2000). George and Zhou (2001) established in empirical terms that those individuals who demonstrate meticulous behavior at workplace and are particularly unremitting attitude towards workplace compulsions display low levels of creativity. In addition, intrinsic motivation is more indomitable on interesting tasks and less importunate on uninteresting tasks that require discipline and concerted effort (Gagne and Deci, 2005). Besides, creativity is improved by positive affect (Davis, 2009; Grawitch Munz, 2005) as a positive affect promote a forward move rather than evasion (Carver, 2001; Erez Isen, 2002), which ultimately improve individuals perception to perceive a task as an opportunity rather than a threat (Higgins, 1997) and to deal with issues rather than retreat (Amabile et al., 2005; Frederickson, 2001; Seo, Barrett, Bartunek, 2004). Much of the literature cited above created a foundation that intrinsic motivation is a basic ingredient for creativity, and that intrinsic motivation is hampered if the formal and rigid control in organization is simultaneously implemented. Self Efficacy According to Bandura (1998), perceived self-efficacy is defined as a firm belief about ones capability to give desired performance that ultimately affects their lives. Self-efficacy beliefs reveal that what people feel, think and how they can be motivated. A super leadership strategy augments to improve self-efficacy perceptions and refine regulation processes, having significant impact on individual task performance (Houghton Neck, 2006). According to Konradt, Andreßen and Ellwart (2009), self-leadership impact on individual performance was partially mediated by self-efficacy perception, while autonomy characteristics showed no significant effects. Neubert and Wu (2006) showed a strong positive effect on creativity and work role performance. Carmela, MÃ ©tier, and Weisberg, (2006) and DiLiello and Houghton (2006) have found that self-leadership is a strong predictor of innovation as perceived by coworkers and managers. DeRue and Morgeson (2007) posited that individuals with general self-efficacy attribute success to ability and failure to insufficient effort. Chen, Gully, and Eden (2004) indicated that general self-efficacy is a motivational belief or judgment about personal capabilities that influences personal action in a wide variety of situations. Self-efficacy beliefs develop over time and through experiences (Maddux, 2002). Self-efficacy refers to beliefs about personal capability to produce a desired effect by individual action (Bandura, 1997). Self-efficacy helps explain the behaviors people will engage, how long they will persist, and how much effort they will expend to reach their goals (Satterfield Davidson, 2000). People with high self-efficacy may be more likely to overcome difficulties through self-initiated change, more likely to be goal-directed and more persistent in the achievement of that goal (Maddux, 2002). Self Determination Individuals will be intrinsically motivated if the task increases their feelings of competency and self-determination (Deci 1975). Self-determination means having the freedom to be in charge of your own life, choosing where you live, who you spend time with, and what you do. It means having the resources you need to create a good life and to make responsible decisions. It also means choosing where, when, and how you get help for any problems you might have (Cook, Petersen, Jonikas, 2004). As far as self determination of employee is concerned, behavior focused strategies are about enhancing ones self perception of personal performance during task resolution, in order to adjust self behavior towards task achievement. Through self observation, self setting of goals and objectives; self reward administration; self punishment and self cueing; it maximizes behavior effectiveness and helps reducing negative issues related with the task (Houghton Neck, 2002; Manz Neck, 2004; Neck Houghton, 2006). Self Regulation Self-regulation refers to thoughts, feelings and actions that are planned and adapted to the attainment of personal goals (Zimmerman, 2000). As described by Schunk and Ertmer (2000), Self-regulated learning includes: Setting goals for learning Concentrating on instruction Using effective strategies to organize ideas Using resources effectively Monitoring performance Managing time effectively Holding positive beliefs about ones capabilities. Self-regulation can be improved through appropriate guidance, modeling of effective strategies and creating supportive and challenging contexts (Boekaerts and Corno, 2005; Perry and Vandekamp, 2000). Many of these strategies develop from early childhood well into adolescence (Boekaerts, 2006). Self regulation is a complex notion. It allows us to consider the interrelationships between key concepts such as self-efficacy and motivation within a single framework, rather than exploring these areas in isolation. Even though several theories suggest that employees draw from a broad repertoire of behavioral strategies to enhance their creative performance (e.g., Ford, 1996; Frese, 2000; Rank et al., 2004), there are only a handful of studies that have empirically investigated how employees behavioral strategies facilitate creative performance. In a study, Binnewies, Ohly, Sonnentag (2007) found that employees, who engage in effective communication, perform more creatively. Similarly, there is cumulating evidence that employees use proactive strategies such as feedback-seeking behavior and voice behavior to enhance their creative performance and/or make suggestions for change (e.g., De Stobbeleir, Ashford, Buyens, 2008; Van Dyne Le Pine, 1998). Such findings highlight the self-regulatory potential of employees in the creative process. We expect different proactive strategies to be crucial in the different phases of the creative process. For example, it may be that factors such as communication and feedback-seeking behavior are critical for idea generation, as feedback from other people with relevant knowledge and experience might help to improve and refine the initial idea the creative person came up with. Similarly, one could expect that proactively targeting people in the organization will be related to successful idea promotion. Existing contacts with people from top management might be used to speed up the process of acquiring resources and spreading the word in the organization might help to acquire the political power needed. Idea Generation and Creative Potential Idea generation to be one coherent phase of the creative process (Kanter, 1988; West Farr, 1989). Zhou (2008) substantiated the interpersonal character of idea generation as highlighted in recent literature on creativity. Furthermore, the creation of ideas instigates the interaction between the individual and its social environment. For idea generation, the broader (organizational) context needs to stimulate interpersonal contacts as much as possible. An open, helpful, somewhat informal culture, in which people can easily call on others, facilitates formal and informal social connections and idea generation. Creative Culture Everybody has a role to play as citizens and consumers, culture and creativity, at the same time, help deliver new, more sustainable ways of living and working. Creative people can assist in exploring and presenting a different world, if and only if, their skills and expertises are properly exploited and recognized as one of the major means of transformation. In todays era of rapid globalization characterized by enormous economic, social and environmental challenges, the development of a genuinely creative culture should play a part to deal with such type of challenges. So, it can rightly be said that the culture that we create, will determine our fate. As matter of fact, organizational culture has been acknowledged as an important precursor of creativity. A creative organizational culture necessitates to focus on quality, communication, work groups, cross-departmental collaboration and visible support for change and innovation (Kanter, 1988; Pillinger West, 1995). It pertinent to mention that the impact of organizational culture on the different phases of the creative process has not yet been empirically investigated. It can be assumed, however, that organizational culture with its strapping influence upon all processes in the organization (Cameron Quinn, 2005; Ekvall, 1996; Sharman Johnson, 1997) is crucial and vital during the entire creative process. THEORETICAL AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK A hypothesized model of the relationships between super leadership and idea generation and creative potential is shown in Figure 1. Research hypotheses for each of the relationships will be developed. The new hypothesized model suggests that a strong basis to build work environments that support of idea generation and creativity at the individual, group and organizational levels by practicing super leadership among the members of organizations. Theorists like (Manz and Sims, 2001) have suggested a relationship between super leadership and creativity. Based on the prior research done, a hypothesized relationship that can clearly be plotted between creativity and self-leadership is given as below: Figure 1 Research Questions/Hypotheses The research questions in this case are presented as follows: What is the relationship between super leadership and creativity potential? How super leadership provoke an employee to perform at its best level? Because a strong super leader is predicted to be a self-motivated, self-determined, self-regulated, having a broad sense of self-efficacy, the hypothetical theoretical model proposes the following relationship in terms of hypotheses as presented below: H1: High level of Intrinsic Motivation leads to super leadership behavior among employees. H2: High level of Self-Determination leads super leadership behavior among employees. H3: High level of Self-Efficacy leads to super leadership behavior among employees. H4: High level of Self-Regulation leads to super leadership behavior among employees. H5: Demographics Characteristics of employees serves as moderating variables that augments super leadership behavior among employees. H6: Super leadership behavior greatly gives rise to idea generation and creative potential of employees. H7: Idea generation and creative potential among employees stimulate and invigorate creative culture within organizational settings. METHODOLOGY The research will be approached based on an interpretivism view. Interpretivism is the necessary research philosophy for this study because it allows the search, of the details of the situation, to understand the reality or perhaps a reality working behind them. The study will be exploratory in nature because it aims to determine the present facts as well as facts that are not yet explored about the phenomenon. Exploratory research will enable the study to look at the problem in both descriptive and exploratory manner. It will look into the problem by exploring the views of different sets of respondents, as well as by exploring different literatures related with the study. This paper analyzes potential factors of super-leadership and creative culture were analyzed using LISREL 8.8 and SPSS 14.0 softwares. The study is comprised of testing certain hypotheses and overall proposed model analysis using Structure equation modeling technique. Data and Sample As the Electronic Media especially TV Channels are directly related and linked to idea generation and creativity, which leads to creativity in such organizations/firms, a representative sample from Electronic Media especially TV Channels in Pakistan, has been selected based on random sampling basis from a list of TV Channels available on web. A total of 200 respondents have been targeted as a sample for this study from different TV Channels functioning within and outside Pakistan. Measure/Instrument Development Questionnaire has been developed by the researcher for this study to be used as the survey instrument. The questionnaire developed was divided into two main parts, the first part being demographic profile of an employee such as Age, Gender, Experience, Job Position, Organizational size etc and the second part was based on super-leadership and creative culture dimensions/characteristics. The various items on Super-leadership dimensions include certain factors such as intrinsic motivation, self-determination, self-efficacy and self-regulation. The items are adapted from various creativity studies. Moreover, items for idea generation and creative potential and creative culture were developed from few creativity-based studies such as Eisenberger and Aselage (2008), Eisenberger Rhoades (2001) and McNeely Meglino (1994). Moreover, all the measure have been developed and pre-tested for its reliability and validity through face and content validity by the group field experts and professionals. Also, standard statistical test used for questionnaire reliability testing. The responses for 49 items scale, after pilot testing, were calculated on five points Likert-type scale, which ranges from 1-5 i.e. Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree. By using different scales developed by the researcher for demographic profile of an employee, which has different ranges between two-points (e.g. gender) to five points (Likert Scale), the data from respondents was collected in five weeks. Reliability and Validity of Instrument The reliability and validity analysis for the scale measures used in empirical research is of prime importance due to several reasons. This ensures the results and finding and its predictive power which means a clear prediction about the proposed hypotheses (Flynn et al., 1994). Similarly, Nunnally and Bernstein (1994) suggested that for testing unidimensionality of data, to check internal consistency and reliability of items used in the measures, Cronbachs alpha statistics is basic tool to calculate and generally, its value should be above the acceptable threshold of 0.70. Moreover, George et al. (2000) explained that Cronbachs alpha is the basic criterion for reliability issue of scales being utilized. Foregoing in view, the items of scale in each construct as mentioned below were tested using coefficient alpha value for each construct as exhibited in Table 1. Table 01: Reliability Statistics Constructs Cronbachs Alpha 1 Intrinsic Motivation Items .81 2 Self-Determination Items .76 3 Self-Regulation Items .83 4 Self-Esteem Items .88 5 Idea Generation and Creativity Items .84 6 Creativity Culture Items .82 As a mater of fact, the Cronbachs Alpha values for measure items used in this study are ranging from 0.76 to 0.88 as shown in Table 01, which exhibits reliability of measures developed. This totally in line with argument of Bagozzi and Yi (1988) that combined reliabilities measures of constructs used in particular study must exceed the 0.70 only then results can be relied. Besides, in order to check potential multicollinearity issue in the data to confirm discriminant validity of construct used, the correlations of possible related constructs were also computed. This recommended by Hair et al. (1998) by arguing that no single pair of measures should have correlations among them more than the criterion i.e. 0.9 and above. So, the computed values exhibited below portray that multicollinearity in the data construct is not reported among the study constructs that we used. The correlations values are shown in Table 02 given as follows:- Table 02: Correlations LC RATP TR EV MOS Interest Gender Education LC 1 RA TP -0.1473 1 TR EV 0.0508 0.1421 1 MOS 0.1212 0.1749 0.6144 1 Interest 0.0338 -0.0329 0.0650 0.1890 1 Gender 0.2258 0.0596 -0.0507 -0.0859 -0.0105 1 Education 0.1245 -0.0503 0.1232 0.0408 -0.0183 0.0285 1 Idea generation -0.0661 0.2992 0.5910 0.6554 0.0561 -0.0334 0.0102 As a result of the various tests performed to check the unidimensionality of data, its reliability and discriminant validity confirm internal as well as external validity of the instrument used for data collection. Procedure Survey questionnaire, interview and observation will be used in order to gather primary data from the respondents. Surveys are the most common form of research method for collection of primary data (Commonwealth of Learning, 2000). A questionnaire was used for collecting data from employees of Leading TV channels. An attempt was made to increase the likelihood of obtaining the true score on need for autonomy, general self-efficacy, and self-leadership strategies rather than scores with systematic error by reducing evaluation apprehension (Donaldson Grant-Vallone, 2002; Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Lee, Podsakoff, 2003). Respondents were assured of anonymity, and they were informed that there was no right or wrong answers (Podsakoff et al.). The questionnaires were administered in a group setting at the start of class sessions and respondents took approximately 15 minutes to complete the survey. By following sampling technique of random sample, a questionnaire with closed-ended statements was administered initially to HR Manager of the TV channels via email and a web link, where questionnaire was online available, was forwarded to them for giving responses from potential respondents. Initially, the response rate was very low i.e. 10 % of potential 200 respondents. So, in order to expedite the data collection process, the HR, marketing and creative department were contacted via phone so that to get an appointment for self administered survey. Self-report information was also gathered from respondents regarding gender, age, and tenure. In order to address issues of self-report bias, Podsakoff and Organ (1986) suggested that researchers may reorder the items on the questionnaire so the criterion variable follows the independent variables. This scale reordering procedure was intentional as an attempt to reduce self-report bias, because all the variables in the study were obtained from the same respondents using a single survey.

Process Essay - How to Recognize and Eliminate Macro Viruses

Process Essay - How to Recognize and Eliminate Macro Viruses Imagine starting up your computer only to see the image on the screen melt while eerie music plays. The hard drive crunches away. What is it doing in there? Before you turn off the machine, most of your files have been deleted. Your computer is the victim of a computer virus. But where did the virus come from? It may have been that game you borrowed or, more likely, it came from an electronic document. Most viruses infect programs, but newer viruses can infect documents as well. This is the case with macro viruses that infect Microsoft Word files. In fact, the number of these viruses has increased from 40 in 1996 to over 1,300 in 1998. Anyone who reads Word files created by others can be at risk. Infected documents spread easily and quickly, especially in environments where documents are shared. What is a macro virus? A macro virus is a program that infects documents and spreads by copying itself. When a document containing a macro virus is opened on your computer, the virus copies itself into something called the global template, which is used to save Word settings. Once this template is infected, all documents you save will contain the virus. If you distribute an infected document, the virus will spread even further. Besides making copies of themselves, viruses can have other harmful effects. They can delete or change document contents, change Word settings, set passwords on your documents so that you can’t read them, or delete all of your files the next time you start your computer. How can I tell if my computer has a macro virus? Many viruses are so good at covering their tracks that you may not even realize they are t... ...e all macros found in a document. Unless you need to use the macros in a document, you should disable them. †¢ Make the normal.dot file read-only. This file is where viruses reside in an infected system. A virus can’t copy itself into this file if it is read-only. Here is how to do this in Windows 98: - First click the Start button, then click Find, and then click Files or Folders. - Type â€Å"normal.dot† into the Named box and then click Find Now. - At the bottom of the window should be the normal.dot file with an icon next to it. Click on this file with the right mouse button and then click Properties. - Check the Read-only box and click OK. Preventing macro viruses is easy compared to the amount of time and frustration involved in removing them. For more information on macro virus prevention, read the Macro Virus FAQ at http://www.look.com/mfaq.html.

English Renaissance Drama Essay

A central preoccupation of English Renaissance Drama is the tension between individual free will and the workings of fate. Compare the treatment of this theme in Dr Faustus and Hamlet respectively. In the Elizabethan period in which both Dr Faustus and Hamlet were written ambition and greed was a big element of society as people tried to gain favour and power with Elizabeth and her court, often resorting to murder in order to move further up the social ladder and gain more status, or in some cases, to stay at the status they had managed to achieve for themselves. The Tudor monarchies had made some progress in controlling lawlessness but Robert Watson claims that there must have been some basis for the â€Å"persistent jokes about incompetent constables and watchers in Elizabethan comedies† (ed. McEachern, 2002, pg.160). With so many crimes committed by un-punishable criminals and many crimes against women, the poor and even different religious minorities, not even considered to be crimes there is little wonder why people developed such an appetite for revenge stories such as Hamlet which was written after Thomas Kyd had such a huge commercial success with The Spanish Tragedy around 1587, whose plot looks very similar to that of the plot in Hamlet as the main character feigns madness in order to get revenge on the people who had killed his son and were socially higher up than him. The themes of fate and freewill within the story of Hamlet are based around the idea as to whether or not he was fated to kill his uncle in revenge for his father’s death or if he is culpable for his actions and the many deaths he is responsible for within the play as he tries to gain revenge and if he was acting of his own free will or whether or not it is fate that Ophelia kills herself within the play or again she was acting of her own free will and could have changed her fate . In contrast, Dr Faustus written by Christopher Marlowe is a tragedy with an end that the main character had the chance to change as the question of fate and free will is based around whether or not he is destined to go to hell because of his pact with the devil and his actions, as well as ambition. Highly reflecting the mood in Elizabethan society ambition was seen as a â€Å"particularly alluring and dangerous sin† (ed. McEachern, 2002, pg. 160) with people reflectively ridiculing opportunists and people trying to gain more than what is rightfully theirs. However the over side of the argument, which people tend to lean more on when analysing the actions of Dr Faustus is the opinion that he was acting of his own free will and that it was because of his pride in refusing to repent and ask forgiveness and mercy from God that led him to eternal damnation. Dr Faustus as a story pokes fun and ridicules the Catholic idea of heaven and hell and tries to reflect the feelings of the state at the time as Protestantism was, if not a little shakily, the dominant religion in England in 1600 when the play was written. Within the play, Faustus, a great scholar, who is the embodiment of the Renaissance man who came from humble beginnings to become a renowned intellectual individual who is highly respected in his field. However it is because of this climb from his humble beginnings that seem to have led him to develop his excessive hubris, which is ultimately his greatest flaw when he wants to become as mighty as God, not realising he is being tricked by Lucifer’s servant, Mephastophillis and does not have the powers he thinks he has, haven agreed to only another twenty-four years on earth before eternal life in hell in return for ‘God-like’ powers. Is Faustus fated to eternity in hell because of his deal with the personified devil, Lucifer or is it is hubris and own feelings of greed and ambition that stop him from repenting to God and asking for mercy, actions of his own free will, the reason why he ends up serving Lucifer forever. Within the prologue of the play itself, Marlowe does not seem to see any question as to whether it was fate or the actions of Faustus himself that led him to eternity in hell as he states â€Å"falling to a devilish exercise, and glutted more with learning’s golden gifts, he surfeits upon cursed necromancy† (Prologue, lines 24-28) in which the use of the words ‘falling’ and also the fact that he was ‘glutted’ taken to mean greedy for riches, have led to his downfall, he could have chosen to change the ending if he had not been so blinded by greed and not fallen for the trickery of the devil. Unlike Dr Faustus, Hamlet is about a more conventional romantic hero who is Prince of Denmark and has just lost his father, who we later find out was killed by Hamlet’s uncle Claudius. Within the play we see Hamlet struggle with the burden he has had placed on his shoulders by the ghost of his father who wants him to avenge his death, something that the Elizabethan audience watching would enjoy as it mirrored society at the time of the play as people tried to get revenge on people who had wronged them but could not be punished due to their higher status within society, especially concerning crimes against the poor by the aristocracy. Although he does not call upon the ghost as Faustus does with Lucifer, he does of his own free will decide to investigate the accusations that his father puts to him concerning his brother, Hamlet’s uncle, killing him so that he could marry his wife and become King of Denmark. This murder for the rising within society is a common theme within Shakespeare’s plays as they again cleverly mirror the actions of the aristocracy at court that were continuously stabbing each other in the back and in some cases killing each other in order to ain favours with the Tudor Queen Elizabeth. Hamlet deliberately feigns madness in order to find out the truth about the death of his father and the reason why his uncle so hastily and irreverently married his mother after his brother’s death. The deliberateness of his actions forces us to question whether or not it was fate that led to Hamlet killing Claudius and many others through the play, his indecisiveness and inability to act is his greatest flaw and gives credibility to the argument that he was in complete control of his actions and therefore fate had little to do with the outcome of the actions in which most of the characters are dead on stage at the end of the play. In contrast to this it could be commented that the actions of Faustus in Christopher Marlowe’s Dr Faustus was the work of fate and that he had no control over how he was going to end up at the end of the play. If he was meant to go to Hell and serve Lucifer for eternity, as what happens at the end of the play, then Faustus repenting and asking for mercy and forgiveness from God would have no impact whatsoever on his impending death. Within the epilogue of the play it is observed â€Å"Faustus is gone. Regard his hellish fall† (line 4) which could be interpreted by the audience who have watched the play to mean that he was tricked by the devil and by God and he fell for their tricks and failed to repent for something which never actually materialised in terms of gaining the powers of God and becoming his equal. The fall of Faustus is interpretedb y Marxists to be his punishment for trying to rise above his station in life as they believe the position you are born into is he position you should hold for the rest of your life and people should be punished for trying to change the natural order of things. This belief was also upheld within Elizabethan society as England had been through turmoil with the changing of the official religion for the last twenty years because of the current queen’s father King Henry VIII who created the Church of England so that he could marry his mistress, Elizabeth’s mother, who’s uncle and father, the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, became very important men in the English court as they were the relatives of the King Henry’s wife, for the limited time she held the title and rose above their natural stations in life, only to be exiled and executed when they made a fatal error and crossed the King. Dr Faustus quite cleverly mirrors society and their feelings of ambition and greed and so Marlowe has made his ending fit into the climate that his play would be performed in. The element of fate with Dr Faustus does not seem to be as prevalent as it does in some other plays as free will has more control and it is ultimately his actions that condemn him. Within Hamlet, as a contrast to Dr Faustus there are many elements that can be questioned as to whether Hamlet was asking of his own free will or whether or not the events that occur were apart of fate and her plan for Hamlet. Was he destined to die at the hands of his uncle Claudius due to his failure to act on numerous occasions to gain revenge for the murder of his father. In addition there is also the question of the deaths of both Gertrude and Ophelia as they are both extremely close to Hamlet, the former being his mother and the latter being his love interest within the play. Gertrude dies at the end of the play when she drinks from the up containing the poison that Claudius has placed in it meant to kill Hamlet, was she destined to die because of her ‘unfaithfulness’ in the eyes of her son by marrying so soon after the death of her husband, or is it because she chose of her own free will to save her son as she knew of the plot that Claudius had to murder his nephe w, just as he had his brother. The incident in which Ophelia is found in the fountain shows her death to be suicide after she fails to cope after being rejected by Hamlet and also the death of her father, unknowing to her killed by Hamlet himself when he thought he was stabbing his uncle Claudius. Did she commit suicide after being unable to cope emotionally or is it more of a matter of fate that she was meant to die and that the fact that she is found in a fountain is a smoke screen as fate was never going to let her live and see the end of the play as she could have cottoned n to what Hamlet was doing and ruined the ending that fate had planned for the characters within the play. The themes of fate and free will are prevalent within both Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Christopher Marlowe’s Dr Faustus which means that the actions of both protagonists are greatly debated by scholars today and in the past centuries since they were first written. Both plays are very reflective of the society in which they were written and first performed, with the antagonists being killed for trying to change the social order within their society. As discussed within this essay the author as come to some sort decision that in the play of Dr Faustus the theme of fate, while apparent, did not have a big contributing factor to the outcome of the play and it was mainly through actions and decisions that Faustus made with his own free will that led him to spending eternity in Hell and serving Lucifer. In contradiction, in Hamlet, the author has come to the decision that is almost impossible to determine whether or not the protagonist was acting of his own free will or was just acting as fate decided and the deaths that Hamlet directly or indirectly causes were nothing other than collateral damage as fate tries to right the order and balance out the in-balance that Claudius created when he killed his brother, with the tension between both fate and free will being so strong that any other move could create more instability than anyone could predict.

“Let me hear it from the beginning,” said Inspector Dulles

â€Å"Let me hear it from the beginning,† said Inspector Dulles, as he scanned the forensic evidence before him: a Glock 17, with one bullet fired; fingerprints on the handgun showing those of the victim, Robert Green, 52; the medico-legal report showing the victim had succumbed to irreversible shock due to gunshot wound on the frontal region.   On the other seat was the victim’s widow, Laura Green, 32. She wore a black dress and high-heeled shoes.   But her eyes were like a hawk’s, cold and piercing and fathomless.â€Å"My husband arrived on the usual hour,† she said, as if dictating to a stenographer.   â€Å"He took a shower, changed clothes, and settled down before the TV set with a glass of Jack Daniels. He refused to eat when I told him dinner was set.   At about eight he went inside his study and I followed.   He was incoherent, like he was angry with himself or something.   Finally he took out his pistol from a drawer and shot himself. †Ã‚   Mrs. Green stopped as if collecting her thoughts, but she was motionless as a statue. â€Å"I called   911.   Then you came.†Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Pardon me for being blunt,† Dulles said, sipping from a glass of cold water, â€Å"but I gather Mr. Green has been seen around with another woman,† Dulles said.Mrs. Green assumed a pained expression, but said nothing.   â€Å"Do you quarrel about such things?† pursued the detective.   Ã¢â‚¬Å"No,† said the woman. â€Å"He knew I would disapprove, so he had tried to keep it a secret.   But I have ways of knowing.†Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Did you spy on him?†Ã‚  The woman shrugged and pursed her lips.Dulles silently put down his glass. He liked interrogating suspects who flinched and cowered, but he could not penetrate this one.   He has to try harder. â€Å"So you found out, one way or another, and plotted your revenge.† (No response).   But you made sure all his insurance policies were good and to your name just in case something happened (still no response).   And you kept nagging at him, humiliating him in the eyes of people, making his life miserable, until he thought of filing for divorce (Dulles thought he saw a gleam in the widow’s eyes).But you threatened to shame him by revealing all about all his philandering and kinky affairs if he persisted, and he became desperate and mad. (Here, the widow’s eyes slowly shifted from gazing into emptiness, like a machine gun turning on its swivels to aim at a new target: the eyes of Inspector Dulles.   He found it disturbing to look at it squarely, but he could not now stop). â€Å"Then you pestered him no end until he could take no more and so he took his own life.†Ã¢â‚¬Å"No!†Inspector Dulles dodged as if to ward off a blow; at the same time he heard the sound of shattering glass.   Turning to look, he saw tiny shards of what remained of his glass of water on the floor.   He turned to look at the window, and was surprised to see it wide open. Faces appeared suddenly at the door, puzzled.   He waved them off.   â€Å"Some vandal threw a stone from the street.†He turned to look at Mrs. Green.   But the malignant gleam he saw for one fleeting second was gone.   She just sat there and stared at nothing.   Dulles knew when a case led to nowhere: this was a case of plain suicide.   â€Å"I’m sorry, Madam,† he said, touching her hand, â€Å"I didn’t mean to be rude or something.   You can go.†The widow rose from her chair, like alighting from a throne, a queen about to address her admiring subjects.   Dulles could not help noting her sensuousness, though little of her skin, ivory white and flawless, is revealed by the black satin dress.   She had looked insignificant, but now he found herself admiring the delicate curve of her neck, her slender limbs, her wicked inviting lips. He felt her attractive; he was like moth drawn to a flame.   Like a wraith, she walked gracefully to the door and vanished.Two weeks later, Dulles found himself knocking at the door of her mansion.At 48, he was unmarried.   He loved hearing old Fagin’s song in the musical Oliver! as he deliberated whether to take himself a wife: â€Å"The finger she will wag at me, the money she will take from me, the misery she’ll make for me: I guess I have to think of it again!†Ã‚   But this evening he felt himself like a moth drawn to a flame.   He had postponed this trip and scorned himself for being like a junior on his prom date.   He had left the office early while Dave, his assistant, hunched low over the computer.   Although embarrassed, he mentioned to Dave he was going to see the widow.   He waited for Dave to laugh but was surprised to find the other in a sombre mood.â€Å"Tell you what,† Dave said.   â€Å"I found something about her.   She’s not so pretty, but she has a wa y with men.   You won’t believe it, but she’d been previously married to three men.†Ã‚  Dulles chuckled.   â€Å"Well, I’m not the marrying type.†Ã‚  Dave continued. â€Å"All her husbands had died, violently.   One leaped off a cliff during a camping trip with the wife.   Another drowned in a swimming pool for kids.   And the last, as we know it, shot himself on the head.†Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Was there foul play?† Dulles asked.â€Å"There was no evidence to incriminate her, although she was always present in the scene of the tragedy.   It was like she was always there to witness the unhappy end of a partner.   I’m not superstitious, man,† Dave said, â€Å"but I won’t try meddling with that woman.†Ã‚  Dulles was thoughtful as he pressed the door bell.   He waited for a few minutes until the door opened.   Laura was in black as usual, looking young and tempting and mysterious.   She invited him insid e.   â€Å"I have been expecting you,† she said.â€Å"Indeed?† Dulles said.   She did not look surprised after all.   She asked for leave to fetch a drink for them.   Left alone, Dulles stood up and surveyed the room.   His gaze focused on the books on the shelf.   She returned and gave him his drink.   They engaged in small talk.   Dulles had found the woman unattractive this time, and he berated himself for having fallen easily for her charm.   Then he turned to gaze at her eyes and once more he felt drawn to her.â€Å"I see you’re a witch,† Dulles said.Laura’s eyes were cold but no change came in them. Dulles went on: â€Å"I can see you’re into voodoo and the like, telekinesis and that stuff.   You know, I remember that stunt of yours in the office.   No vandal ever threw a stone inside the office.   I knew the windows were closed, had been closed for years.   Nobody had opened them.   The glass shattered by themselves. You did it by your mind, didn’t you?†Ã‚  Laura was silent.   â€Å"All your husbands, they died by your will, the power of your mind over matter.   I’ve looked into your husband’s records and nothing showed they were into some trouble.   I suspect you did them in when they found out all about your witching stuff.†Their eyes locked.   Laura’s were expressionless, then tears came into them.   She cupped her hands on her face and wept inconsolably.  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Hahahahahaha! Hehehehehe! Harharharhar† Dulles was convulsed with laughter.   He embraced the weeping widow.   Ã¢â‚¬Å"I got you that time, didn’t I?†Ã‚  Laura looked up to the gay detective.   â€Å"What do you mean?†Ã¢â‚¬Å"It’s all a joke.   I made that up.†Ã‚  Laura was crying and laughing at the same time. â€Å"You brute,† she said.Two hours later, Inspector Dulles was at the wheel of his orange Mustang, happily relishing his intimate moments with the young widow.   But as he made a turn in the twisting mountain road, he felt sick, not knowing why.   Then he saw a car zooming up in the rear: it was Laura on her convertible.   Dulles slowed down.  Ã‚   Dulles waited for her to come alongside and waved, but she did not smile.She just stared at him, their cars racing into the winding skyway, the drone of their cars engines like a throbbing drum.   Then Dulles felt the Mustang going airborne, heaved by an unseen power.   He panics and grabs the wheel, but it would not budge, and he turns to look   at Laura, the roar of the Mustang like thunder in his ears, and saw her eyes widen, fierce and commanding and terrible, and as the car leaped out to space, Dulles opened his mouth to scream.