Friday, January 31, 2020

Achieving Personal Goals While Contributing to the Good of Humanity Essay

Achieving Personal Goals While Contributing to the Good of Humanity - Essay Example The first acquaintance with your university was as a result of inquiries that I made to my mentors about the best institution to prepare myself for my chosen career. They highly recommended this institution as a value-based organization that is committed to the development of highly qualified professionals who will not only deliver on their mandates effectively but will also contribute towards the achievement of national goals. As a nature enthusiast, I love the park-like setting of this university and would love an opportunity to call such a beautiful setting my home during my most formative years. Also, the sporting environment around the university is attractive to me because I like running. In addition, the city of Geneva is a melting pot of cultures that will provide an opportunity to appreciate the culture of other countries. I also have an interest in international affairs which staying in Geneva will enable me to explore. For example, the location of the United Nations and th e financial centre that is the city will give me an opportunity to interact with both organizations and individuals that shape global affairs. The institution has a qualified and dedicated staff that facilitates the learning process by making sure that they have all the resources that they need to learn (Webster University 1). In addition, the institution has created a culture of collaboration among both the student and teaching community. Furthermore, the institution is committed to global academic standards. This is important for me since I want to intern at an international organization.

Thursday, January 23, 2020

Blakes States of Mind in the Songs of Innocence and Experience :: Songs of Innocence and Experience

Blake's States of Mind in the Songs of Innocence and Experience "When you put two minds together, there is always a third mind, a third and superior mind, as an unseen collaborator." William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin, "The Third Mind" We are symbol-using primates in search for an ultimate Truth. No poet has understood and exploited this idea more successfully than William Blake, and this was solely due to his mysticism, the fact that his doors of perception were cleansed. What is his world like, then? In the "Songs of Innocence and Experience" we are apparently presented with two different worlds, narrated by two different narrators. A more careful reading will present several interesting correspondences between the two. For example, the meek "Lamb" becomes the fiery "Tyger". The former appears to foster a syllogistic reasoning, a format of simple questions and easy answers in the midst of it's catatonia, we are unnerved by what we as readers bring to the text, inserting our alien (to the pastoral scene) phantoms of our experience. The latter poem, although pounding us with unanswered questions and awe-inspiring images, is, curiously, a more comfortable read in that it is a better fit into our perception. It seems that the open prairie and the dark forest belong to two entirely different worlds, but it is my belief that it is not the Lamb or the Tyger per se, that make the difference but the way they are treated, that is, narrated. Both "Chimney Sweeper" poems appear to be about the same situation. What clearly changes is the narration.

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

Intuition and Decision-Making Essay

This paper basically talks about intuition and leadership and takes into account the intuitive decision making that the leaders take into account while making decisions where adequate knowledge is not available or where there are time constraints. There are a lot of arguments regarding this intuitive decision making by leaders where some people argue that it should not be like that as they may turn out to be wrong and others hold to the fact that at times intuitions lead to the right decision as leaders have this ability to analyze all the available information and make the decision on it along with using their past experience and expertise. The paper will first start by defining what actually intuition is and what makes leaders to promote or prevent decision making using intuitions. Then the paper will take a leaders point of view regarding decision making and how they bring in account all the available information to come up with a decision. In the end, the report will compare decisions made on intuitions with the decisions made upon logical reasoning in order to give a better knowledge to the readers regarding the two concepts and terminologies. Defining Intuition Starting with the report, we all know what decision making is, however, it will be helpful for us to know what exactly intuitions are on which leaders tend to make their decisions on. Intuitions are basically the ability of a person to actually judge or perceive an appropriate outcome without using reasoning and adequate information for that. The word is actually derived from a Latin word that means to â€Å"look inside† and that is exactly what we are talking about in this report. While using intuitions, leaders are able to look into the matters, problems or situations without even making an effort to gather or probe into the matter or its complexities (Aqor, 1986). With intuition, leaders actually tend to break into the thickness of the surface reality through their gutt-feeling, a feeling from inside that may be based on their past experience, a fear based interpretation or the actual leadership quality in their personality. What promotes or prevent leaders from using intuitions Moving on, as we have realized that intuitions are feelings, emotions or responses that are based on your own abilities, thus, it is not always true that they are right, they can also be wrong. A leader may be good in doing so in a lot number of instances but still, he is not sure whether his next intuitive decision will actually lead to the same positive results. Every important matter has its own requirements to mitigate risks and probing into complexities, thus for that purpose leaders do need appropriate information in order to come up with their decisions. However, many leaders fear this because of the fact that there personal bias in shape of their previous good or bad experience to a similar problem can actually influence their decision to a great extent. This personal bias or personal judgment that we are talking about is basically based on personal abilities or past experiences and has very less to do with analyzing the current information that is available (Williams, 2001). Thus, leaders do fear with their intuitive decision making that it can actually make them make a wrong decision. On the other hand, there are instances, where leaders have to take charge of the matter and make decisions on just a small amount of information or at times no information. These are situations where there time and resource constraints and decisions have to be taken. There, the best thing a leader can do to save time and resources in gathering all the relevant information and risk factors is to use intuitive decision making approach. A leader is a qualified team member who is chosen because of his ability to look at things with a broader and a next level thought process, thus team members also tend to conform with their this ability and promote them to take such decision. An example of such decisions can be taken as sales predictions after a natural calamity or a sudden fall in the stock market. Although, the demand would fall due to these circumstances, but it might be the other way round for a leader who is looking at the matter with a different approach using his intuitive decision making ability. Role of decision-making to a leader’s position Moreover, a leader is the person who is actually held responsible for all the actions of his team. His team basically conforms to his decisions and relies on his orders and directions because they also accept him as more capable in decision making and his abilities to solve problems and handle situations. Thus, with all this responsibility, a leader has to make sure that his decisions are correct and the best interest of the project and the team he is looking after. Any false decision can cost him and his team a failure of project. When we talk in management terms, we see that one thing that is always argued is the fact that decisions made upon inadequate information are mostly wrong. However, when we look into the practical world of leaders, can we say that leaders always have the right amount of information at the right time and at the right place? Obviously not is the answer to this question because of the fact that if all information would have been made available to the team, then there was no need of a leader to make decisions. In that case just a checker or manager would have done the job of a leader (Aqor, 1986). But, when we look at the decision making role of a leader, he has to make a large number of decisions everyday for which he might not have all the information and which won’t allow him much time to think upon them otherwise he will have to compromise all other important things that he and his team has to complete. A leader, as we have already discussed is chosen because of his special abilities, and this intuitive decision making skills is a part of them. Although on the surface we might say that while intuitively making decisions, a leader does not takes into account all the information, but he is actually thinking with a different angle and approach using his abilities that other team members cannot(Bealer,1998). Difference between decisions made with logical reasoning and decisions made with intuition In the last part of this report we will now discuss the difference between logical decision making and intuitive decision making. Logical decision making involves a high level of reasoning and data that is analyzed in order to come up with a decision. this approach is mostly advocated by most of the critics because of the fact that through this type of decision making, a leader tends to take into account and mitigate a large number of threats and risks which he might not through intuitive decision making. However, this type of a decision making approach may require more time and resources to come up with the decision (Williams, 2001). Also these decisions are mostly based on the theoretical knowledge and proven facts. For example, as we have seen in a number of stock markets that when people with logical reasoning were un-holding their stocks with losses, there were some others as well who were actually earning by using their intuitive knowledge. On the other hand, as we have discussed above that while making intuitive decisions, a leader might not take much time to make those decisions as they are usually made in circumstances where there are time constraints. Moreover, a leader uses his abilities to reconcile his past experiences and trends to come up with the decision rather than core number, figures and theoretical knowledge only.  Another major difference between the two is that both the types of decisions can actually go in the opposite directions as well as we have already discussed above in the stock market example(Giannini & Rhodes,1978). Conclusion Thus, the report will conclude the discussion with an argument that no one can actually say whether intuitive decision making is good or bad. It all depends on the situation. Yes, it is true that when there is adequate time and resources, the leader should also take into account the other approaches as well but in constraints of time, a leader may take these decisions depending on his abilities. Also we cannot also say which one of the two types of decision making is good or bad for the project because it again depends on the situation that the organization is in. however, as we know that intuitive decision making involves personal bias of leaders as well and may also reflect their personality traits such as risk taker or risk averse, it is recommended that whenever possible, a leader should take into account the logical reasoning approach and compare it with his intuitive perspective before taking any decision as it might make him realize a number of risks that he may have ignored in the first thought.