Friday, October 25, 2019

The Mind of a Killer Essay example -- Psychology, State of Mind

The mind of a killer is one that is not easily comprehended. The events of their lives deeply root and morph themselves into disturbed thoughts and mind sets that fuel a killer to commit murder. In Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, the case of the quadruple homicide of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas involved murderers who were two very different individuals that had teamed up to commit an important â€Å"score†. The plan was devised by Dick Hickock to rob and murder the Clutter family and he brought about his cellmate from prison, Perry Smith to assist him with the job. Each man’s past contains different events that contribute to their not-so-sound states of mind and each view the crime differently. The psychological differences between the men give a better insight into the execution of the Clutter murders and the reasoning behind them. Perry Smith’s past proves to be highly influential his psychological state of mind. He grew up in an unstable home as his mother was an alcoholic and his father remained absent for long periods during his life. His home life was very insolvent as a child until his parents divorced when he was six years old. After that, he was sent to a Catholic orphanage where he was punished by the nuns. Whenever Smith would wet the bed, the nuns would beat him. Perry states, â€Å"I had weak kidneys and wet the bed every night. I was severely beaten by the cottage mistress, who had called me names and made fun of me in front of all the boys† (275). First signs of his disturbed psychological state were brought up around this time. â€Å"She was later discharged from her job. But this never changed my mind about her and what I wish I could have done to her and all the people who made fun of me† (275). His father then came, ... ...m all while Dick collected the shells from the gun. Dick’s suffering from a character disorder is different from Perry suffering from schizophrenia because while Dick’s disorder still affects his actions and thought process, Perry’s keeps him blind to his actions and how they are wrong. While Perry and Dick were on two different sides of the psychological realm, it did not stop them from working together to execute the murders of the Clutter family. Capote’s portrayal of Perry and Dick provides an insight into the minds of the killers themselves and brings the reader a better understanding of the crime. The explanation of their past and what led them to their psychological disturbed states helps one to understand why the two men, although virtually complete different with their problems, were able to execute one of the most heinous murders in American history.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Angiomax Case Study

The healthcare industry is extremely different than any other industry in the business world. This, along with the benefits and pricing issues, make this case, on Angiomax, an interesting one to analyze. In determining pricing, positioning, and target markets, it is important to not only understand the product but also look at competition and the chain of users, or the buyers, decision makers, and users, as all are very different in this case, as opposed to many industries when all three of these roles may be portrayed by the same individual(s). Before pricing can be looked at, it is important to determine who the product should be targeted towards. There were a number of studies done by Biogen (the company that created Angiomax) of angioplasty patients which showed that the obvious target should be very high risk patients (patients who had previously had heart attacks within two weeks) due to the significant improvement those patients experienced upon taking doses of Angioplasty as opposed to Heparin, the standard medication which was much less expensive but not as effective. Angioplasty did not show as much significant improvement over Heparin for those lower risk patients. The pricing structure should be based on Angiomax’s value propositions. For the end user, or those high risk patients, Angiomax gives the benefits of (1) more predictable results than Heparin, (2) much lower risk of death, and (3) less prevalent complications and thus less time in the hospital than Heparin patients. However, clearly, the buyer or the hospitals, have more power than end users in the decision making. The value proposition for the lead users, or buyers, is as follows: (1) more predictable results than those of Heparin, (2) Fewer costs of addition complications that are standard with Heparin, (3) Fewer complications from Angiomax leads to better reputation of doctors and hospital, and (4) fewer complications leads to more open beds which means more patients can be served (and more money made). Based on these value propositions, Angiomax should clearly be priced at a premium. It is difficult to price this drug because of its high R&D costs, long development cycle, short period of patent protection, and low FDA approval rate. Furthermore, in order for Angiomax to be successful it must steal market share from the current drug on the market- Heparin, which is priced at $2 per dose versus Angiomax’s $40 per dose. However, Angiomax must educate the buyers and doctors on the enormous value that will be derived from using Angiomax over its competitor. Some rough numbers can be shown to these doctors or managers to show that the cost of complications for Heparin users if $110,252,800 versus Angiomax users at $40,185,600 resulting in savings of $70,067200, which, upon dividing by the 700 major health centers results in $100,096 savings per year. Based on this and a breakeven analysis, in which you analyze the cost of complications + number of patients in the centers and the cost of Heparin, it can be determine that at the price of $835. 4, hospitals can breakeven. Therefore, the price cap is $835. 0, but I think that Angiomax should be priced much lower, at about $400 in order to much more efficiently gain market share since the patent protection is relatively low. Furthermore, the drug can be charged at a premium due to the lack of price sensitivity from price sharing (due to patients with health insurance not having to pay the full price. ) For the future, MDCO may need to change its business model up. Due to the high R&D costs an d the short patent protection in this industry, as well as the â€Å"blockbuster† drugs, it is important that the organization consistently is innovative in the future. Because Angiomax has fewer than ten years left with its patent protection, MDCO must be developing new drugs based on the same value proposition but for other markets. Using data and information from clinical trials, as was done with Angiomax, MDCO should determine which markets will benefit significantly from lowering complications, and therefore can be charged at a premium. In terms of Angiomax, MDCO should look into low cost production processes for the drug, as well as attempting to foster a more successful version of the drug for other segments, such as low risk patients.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Junk foods Essay

Research has revealed that the increase in the junk foods industry is interrelated with the rapid increase in the obesity pandemic. Junk foods contain high calories and fats and are therefore the sole ingredient in the spread of overweight and obesity. The cause for alarm is that the targeted lots are the pre-school, school going children and adolescents. Over the years, the number of school going children becoming overweight and obese has increased two fold because they easily access the fast foods and junk foods outlets. Overweight is a condition responsible for so many other diseases: these are like: heart diseases, type 2 diabetes, high pertension, the gallbladder disease, infertility and weakened immune system, just to mention but a few. The illnesses aside, obese people face social stigma: the society discriminates the victims because people normally believe that they are to blame for their conditions. As such, they do not freely intermingle with the rest for fear of such stigmatization (Cassell, D. 000). Junk foods should therefore not be encouraged in schools because of the health effects that follow and because basically ‘prevention is better than cure’. The junk food culture today has become a social custom and so many school going children therefore just take these foodstuffs to conform to what other people-especially their peers- are doing to identify with them. Such environments that are conducive to weight gain make school going children more vulnerable to obesity. In most cases, non-healthy foods are more affordable than the healthy alternatives: junk food manufactures make the foods more attractive because of the labeling that is more appealing. When children grow up not knowing how to prepare healthy foods, they resort to cheaper and less time consuming –in preparation-foods which are obviously more energy giving and have high percentages of calories. Apart from school going children, even adults are not spared in then spread of the obesity pandemic, and this is a cause for alarm in the society (Jefferies, R.  B 2005). To perfectly understand the correlation between increased consumption of junk foods and the increase in prevalence of obesity, the role of junk foods in nutrition related disorders should be analyzed. Junk foods and fast foods consumption coupled with little or no healthy exercise is the sole reason for the abrupt increase in overweight and obesity especially in urbanized regions. In such regions, the quality of the diets is questionable; this has led to the increase in obesity which in severe cases leads to death. The probability of overweight children becoming overweight way into adulthood is very high, and chances of such a person dying prematurely are high too. Obesity caused by excess consumption of junk foods has dire economic effects: since obesity leads to other diseases like high blood pressure, the costs of treating these ailments are far above the ground. A country’s healthcare system is hard-pressed: this is a financial weigh down since the biggest percentage of the healthcare costs are taken care of by the tax payers. The costs divided into direct and indirect costs: direct costs are those that are injected into the direct treatment of the disease, prevention and diagnosis and research. Expenditure that is not direct are those of the employment asset value of employees lost due to the people who are sick and the employment benefits lost due to passing away of the employees. Hospital bills are very costly since these funds run into billions that could be injected into other projects, this means that overall, the economy of a country strains due to this pandemic (Hernell,O 2005). The psychological effects are among other things, negative body image or low self esteem, unease, dejection and more often than not, obese individuals carry out themselves in a way that is not socially healthy. Social stigmatization can be eliminated by increase in education about obesity matters. The position that the sale of junk food promotes school activities-as held by many- holds no water; this is because the students’ health and the society’s’ health in general is more important than that financial aspect of it. To say that the society is going to make money at the expense of children’s health is unreasonable; this explains why junk food sales should not be encouraged in schools at any cost. Thanks to excessive consumption of junk foods, tooth decay and disorders have increased to epidemic levels and dental care is needed, this is very costly given that the economy is not forthcoming. Osteoporosis is an even major fear and the overall treatment of these diseases is very costly, all said and done, prevention of these diseases by discouraging the consumption of junk foods is less costly (Cataldo, R. 000). Another reason why junk foods should be discouraged in schools is because these foodstuffs create a ‘bliss point’: this is a point where a person eating them feels hungrier and wants more and more. The ingredients used to make junk foods like sugar and fats are addictive; the worst party of it is that the foods are always available and therefore the temptation of taking more and more is hard to resist. These modern foods are hyper appetizing and the end results of most of such foods is to create and or arouse a mind-set of pleasure. Research has proven that half the populations of people who are obese and overweight are more likely to be restless or, better said, over-active than their normal counterparts. Once these people are electrified, the neurons in the brain trigger more action making their systems to demand more food to eat-more often than not, this means yearning for more junk foods. The bliss point is the peak of wanting more salt, sugar and fats: these are the ingredients for desserts and other junk foods and at the best possible level, ones appetite is excited to want more of such foods (Hollander, T 2004). The evil of junk foods is that they make us to desire less of healthy foods and therefore discourage healthy eating: this fact explains why junk foods should no be encouraged in schools. Healthy eating is one thing that constitutes discipline; when people do not eat healthy, they are considered not to be morally well-mannered and this is one of the contributory factors to social stigma experienced by people who are overweight. Healthy eating ensures fine health and therefore one is not at risk of getting diseases. When young adults eat healthy, this is a way of ensuring that they are responsible and that they need not wait for adults to instill good manners. Junk foods make students inactive (that is once they become overweight), this means a people of lazy character who can not get involved in much activity. Inactivity is disastrous in the work place and even in schools: this means that even the performance of students in class reduces abruptly and this is not impressive for the schools image. Should these people grow into adults and get to the employment fields, they become sluggish at work and this in turn leads to poor performance. Overweight people are more often than not discriminated at work and in extreme cases, they even could be paid at lower rates than their counterparts and this is not just. Inactivity or a country of inactive people is costly to the overall economic growth because this causes it to be low (Corrine B 1999). Junk foods by reducing activity lead to health issues that in the long run lead to disabilities, diabetes and arthritis are just some of the effects of eating these foods in excessive amounts and soon, people are eating themselves to premature death. Levels of cholesterol rise due to the same and insulin resistance thrives. Thanks to fast foods and unhealthy eating, breathing problems in men increase and in women, fertility rates decrease. The ingredients used to make junk foods are of very poor quality and are less rich in nutrients. The question is not the quantity of the food, rather, it is the quality, and this explains why the body does not get the right nutrients in the right proportions when someone eats junk food. On this note therefore, the individual eats more and more but does not get enough of the food, or rather, gets hungry too fast. Indeed, eating junk foods in excess is an act that triggers a health time bomb (Dare, C. 1999). These foodstuffs reduce the desire to want very much of foods rich in calcium: calcium is very important in bone structure construction and once we do not have enough of it, the effects are out of the ordinary. Young adults therefore suffer from poor bone structure at very tender ages hence reducing their life spans. Highly processes foods (as junk foods are) contain a lot of chemicals in their additives; we may not get obese but we could get other sicknesses. One may not even suffer when they are young but the side effects catch up with us as we age, so the solution is to stop eating these foods in the first place. It is not a small truth therefore to say that by eating these highly artificial foods, our systems get intoxicated with poisons. Some of the old age effects of these foods are early menopause: in spite of having poor fertility, menopause also catches up with us and this means women are at a greater risk (Escott, S. 1996) Since overweight and obesity are major concerns in the world at large and are caused by excessive consumption of junk foods, it is important to devise ways of preventing the disease in view of the fact, it is a health time bomb in waiting. Obesity slows down the metabolic rates (hence slowing down the process of breaking down of food) of the victims hence leading to inactivity and putting one at a risk of adding more weight. To curb this problem therefore, the solution is to eat healthy coupled with taking exercises. The rationale behind this argument is straight forward, when one exercises, the metabolic process or better said, the process of breaking down of fats is increased and therefore, the fats are emulsified or broken down into a more normal digestive process. One may either employ the services of a qualified nutritionist or adopt a healthier eating pattern: just enough body giving foods and more of the other essential nutrients in the right proportions. Eating healthy will have to be coupled with having the right attitude and great discipline. Again, one need to go on an exercising program, long brisk walks although not strenuous, jogging and probably going to the gym, reduction of average screen time and instead focusing on body fitness would just make a huge difference in health (Franseen, L. 1999). Another way out is to change ones lifestyle in a positive way: more often than not, the biggest barrier to change at times is the mind set. Often, one believes that they can not take up a challenge and change; this is normally when one believes that they can not achieve a certain goal. People are often caught up in busy schedules and do not have time to get involved in exercising programs. Another barrier to change is normally the environment in which one lives; people tend to conform to the lifestyles that other people lead in their surrounding. In this case the pointers to these lifestyles are trends in food and status. One needs to beat the barriers by evaluating the current lifestyle, identifying the flaws in the said lifestyle and making out the areas that need amendments. Information acquisition is important in this process and helps one learn healthy ways to lose weight (Garfinkel, P. E 1997). Support system helps one to lose a large mass of weight and doing it single-handedly. Friends can act like a source of enthusiasm in spite of the fact that they may not want to achieve the same objectives as you, they provide support just in case you may want to draw back. In a weight loss program, setting practical goals is one of the ways of achieving the goals of weight loss and management. Objectives that are short term and that are practical help one to gain the driving force towards their realization. In the same breath, an individual does an assessment to see where they have reached against how far they want to go and what they have so far achieved. In the instance that short term objectives are set, they prove helpful in achieving and the realization of the final objective (Rosenbloom, C. 999). As a point of concern, learning institutions should be made healthy places to learn: the quality of food served should therefore be of great importance both to the administration and to the society in general in order to guarantee security to our children. For students to learn at their full potentials, the feeding programs should ensure that the foods served are of high nutritional value and that they are fresh and attractive to the scholars and that the food service supports the learning institutions educational mission. School meals should meet the health standards of the regulatory authorities and these should also be met by the learning institutions’ feeding programs: these standards if imposed, the students will not be left at risk of feeding on junk and fast foods throughout the day. The regulatory authorities together with the learning institutions administration should ensure that the meals served in school grounds should offer a wide assortment of cultural cuisines to offer students with a variety to choose from (Woolsey, M. 2002). There should not be an incongruity between what the children are taught in learning institutions on nourishment and good eating habits and the reality on the ground, whether students are eating unhealthy foodstuffs or what is easily available is junk food. Against this background therefore, food and nutrition should be incorporated into the schools learning syllabus and the students should also learn about food preparation. At the grass roots levels, there should be established an advice-giving board that should comprise of the educators, parents and the community at large to come up with courses of action that govern school feeding programs. The advice-giving board should instill disciplinary action against the learning institutions that do not follow the resolutions passed, time and again; the board members should make impromptu visits and inspect the food service amenities and the set of choices of foodstuffs available for students. Such an arrangement would ensure good discipline on standards of hygiene and food quality especially if there is a feedback mechanism provided to monitor the implementation (Smith, A. F 2006). Medics say that eating of beans help in burning up calories: beans are low in fats and calories content and when one takes beans; they feel satisfied for as long as four hours. Often, one does not feel like eating when they are fully satisfied and as such, there is no temptation to eat junk foods. Exercises should also be done after meals so that the process of emulsification of fats is complete, aerobic classes are ideal in this case because as a matter of fact, stored fats are naturally turned into fats and stored in this form. Breakfast should be the largest meal in the entire and normal day; it should also be the meal that contains the largest amount of calories. Since there is a lot of activities during the mid-morning and the entire day, calories are burnt down easily and more rapidly. Biologically, eating food with very little calorie content is no the solution to weight loss, this is because when the body is at very low metabolism, it is considered famished. When the body lacks adequate nutrients, it becomes difficult to achieve loss of weight. Lifting weights is also Okayed as a way of loosing weight, this is because lifting weight increases muscles and this in turn increases the rate of burning down calories and fats. Drinking a lot of water is very healthy a method of reducing weight: the higher the amount one takes the higher the likelihood of loosing weight, when one feels hungry, it helps one to eat less. When one drinks water before eating, they do not eat much (Carolyn, C. 2004).

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

King Alfred the Great essays

King Alfred the Great essays King Alfred the Great (871-899) was one of the best kings ever to rule. He defended his kingdom from Viking raids, enacted a code of laws, and helped to give rebirth to religious and scholarly activity. During Alfreds reign, he demonstrated military and strategic skills, sound authority and the capability to inspire men and plan for the future, great devotion to the support of religion, personal scholarship and the promotion of education. King Alfred was born in 849 AD at Wantage, Berkshire. Aethelwulf, the King of Wessex and Alfreds father, had four sons and one daughter. Alfred was the youngest of the four other children. At the age of four, Alfred had the desire to become a monk. As a result, his father sends him to accompany Pope Leo IV in Rome. Alfred would go to Rome again with his father in 855 on a pilgrimage. In 858, Aethelwulf dies, leaving Wessex to be governed by his three other brothers, Ethelbald, Ethelbert, and Elthred. (Alfred the Great) In 865 a "great heathen army" (Alfred the Great) arrived in England seizing a dispute in Northumbria in order to control the divided kingdom. By 870, the army had built multiple roads into Mercia, subdued East Anglia, and killed its king Edmund. By 871, the heathens joined forces with another army from overseas, and began to attack Wessex. In return, the West-Saxons and the Mercians combine forces and attack the Danes. The only way for Alfred to get the Danes to submit to peace was to pay them a large sum of money. In 868, Alfred marries Ealhswith, the daughter of Aelthelred Mucill. Ealhswith was the granddaughter of a past King of Mercia. Alfred would not ascend to the throne until the death of his brother Elthred, in Easter of 871. (Alfred the Great) Now that Alfred is King of Wessex, he must protect his insecure kingdom from invasion. The Danes would attack the West-Saxons again in 875. But this time Alfred did not pay them for ...

Monday, October 21, 2019

High-stepping Stepchildren

High-stepping Stepchildren High-stepping Stepchildren High-stepping Stepchildren By Maeve Maddox English has several idioms that employ the words step and stepping. As a verb, step means to lift the foot and set it down again on the ground in a new position. As a noun, step is the act of stepping. baby steps and giant steps A â€Å"baby step† is a step that covers a very narrow distance: Still, a year after Mr. Shumlin’s call to arms, progress can be measured only in baby steps. A â€Å"giant step† is one that covers a wide distance, either forward or backward: One of those amendments would address Citizens United which, [Stevens] wrote, was a giant step in the wrong direction. goose-stepping To goose step is to march in such a way that the legs swing sharply from the hips, and the knees are locked. Soldiers marching in this way resemble mechanical toys. Because this type of marching was a feature of Nazi military display, it is associated with fascist power. Goose-stepping in unison may have been used by the Nazis to help brainwash people into following their cause, a new study suggests. India and Pakistans aggressive border closing ceremony has been stopped after soldiers complained the high goose-stepping was wrecking their knee joints and causing foot injuries. Confess that guns hold absolutely no interest or appeal for you, and youre a leftist, a radical who wont be happy until the jackbooted thugs of The New World Order are goose-stepping down Main Street, trampling Our Sacred Freedoms. â€Å"Goose-stepping† always has a negative connotation, but another idiom, â€Å"high-stepping,† can be positive or negative. Literally, â€Å"high-stepping† describes the act of lifting the legs high while walking. Because horse fanciers admired the gait of a high-stepping horse, a fashionable or attractive person came to be known as â€Å"a high-stepper.† Sometimes the term is used in a negative sense to refer to someone who lives extravagantly, or who aspires to a higher social status: Dona had come to town as a schoolteacher.   She was pretty, vivacious, and in the parlance of the time, a â€Å"high-stepper.† Leo Donnelly, always at his peak in silk-lined, low-comedy, high-stepping crook roles, is here at his best. The following sentence spoken by an NPR regular seems to confuse high-stepping and goose-stepping: Nazi soldiers’ high stepping casts a fog over the event. Note: The word fog is also jarring; perhaps the announcer was reaching for pall. Two more idioms that have literal and figurative meanings are â€Å"to sidestep† and â€Å"to step up to the plate.† The literal meaning of sidestep is to step aside, as if to avoid some physical obstacle: Climbing from the carriage, she held her bag against her chest and  tried to sidestep  a puddle  the size of a small lake. Figuratively, â€Å"to sidestep† is to avoid involvement or responsibility: Jefferson Township Sewer Authority  hopes to sidestep  big expense with grant money. â€Å"Step up to the plate† comes from the game of baseball. Note: Home plate is a 5-sided rubber slab at one corner of a baseball diamond at which a batter stands when batting and which must be touched by a base runner in order to score. When it’s a player’s turn to bat, he â€Å"steps up to the plate.† Figuratively, the expression means to come forward and accept responsibility for something that must be done: Community members stepped up to the plate and raised more than $2,700 for the Harmon Killebrew Miracle Field at a recent fundraiser. Unrelated to the verb step in the sense of moving the feet is the affix step- as in stepchild. This step derives from an ancient Germanic word element that was placed before the word for a family member â€Å"to form designations for the degrees of affinity resulting from the remarriage of a widowed parent.† For example, a widow who married a widower would become the stepmother of the widower’s children. They in turn would be her stepchildren. Stepmothers in all the fairy tales I’ve read are notorious for their ill treatment of their stepchildren. Consider, for example, the stories of Cinderella and Hansel and Gretel. Because of the stereotype of the wicked stepmother, the word stepchild has acquired the figurative meaning of â€Å"someone or something that is neglected, undervalued, or abused.† Here are some examples: â€Å"Its a sad fact that P.E. is  educations  ugly  stepchild,† said Goldstein. Rarely is open space seen as more than an afterthought. It truly is a stepchild of planning when it should be a catalyst and spatial organizer for development.   A fairly recent embellishment of stepchild in the sense of an object of abuse and neglect is the expression â€Å"redheaded stepchild.† The earliest evidence of the phrase in the Ngram Viewer is dated 1923. An article at World Wide Words references an example from 1910. Like stepmothers, redheaded people do not fare well in folklore. If a stepchild is undervalued, then a redheaded stepchild is the object of special negative attention: We then learned that Waukegan is apparently  the North  Shores  red headed stepchild.   The South is the  red-headed stepchild  in the American story.   Note: The adjective is hyphenated in the OED, but spelled as one word in Merriam-Webster. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:35 Synonyms for â€Å"Look†Driver License vs. Driver’s LicenseTypes of Ignorance

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Benefits of a Healthy Workforce Essay Example for Free

Benefits of a Healthy Workforce Essay Organisational health programmes are essential to the survival of companies. Undoubtedly, a healthy workforce would work wonders for any business by reducing absenteeism and turnover, and increasing employee motivation, productivity and revenues. Lowe (2004) writes that hundreds of studies have already documented the direct as well as indirect advantages of â€Å"healthy work environments† to employees in addition to their organisations (p. 7). Indeed, healthy workplaces as well as jobs contribute to the well-being of employees. These benefits may be realized by the whole organisation through lower absenteeism, lower turnover, higher job satisfaction, improved performance on the job, lower rates of accident, in addition to â€Å"reduced health benefit and worker compensation costs (Lowe, p. 7). † Moreover, research has revealed that the largest gains in productivity may be realized by the organisation that changes the entire work environment to make it healthier for all employees (Lowe). Research has also revealed that the impact of poor health is keenly felt in the work environment, so therefore managers require an improved understanding of the dangers of allowing minor symptoms to escalate. Four in ten managers who participated in a recently conducted survey related to workplace health complained that they often become angry with others and feel humorless due to pressure. More than fifty percent of the managers complained of physical pain, at the same time as forty four percent reported experiencing frequent headaches. Moreover, fifty five percent complained of constant tiredness, fifty seven percent complained of insomnia, while twenty percent simply stated that they found it difficult to make decisions because of ill health (Poor Health 2006). Unsurprisingly, these results demand organisations to put effective health programmes in place for all employees. Sick employees are not likely to be highly productive in any case. In the United States, businesses are known to spend at least U. S. $450 billion every year on direct health care. Poor health costs around U. S. $225. 8 billion to American businesses each year through absenteeism as well as productivity losses that are related to the health problems of employees and their families. Hence, insurers as well as employers have started to create a large number of health promotion and prevention programmes that have already started to pay handsome dividends. According to a study, American employers may â€Å"reap the average of [U. S. ] $3. 48 in reduced health care costs and [U. S. ] $5. 82 in lower absenteeism costs for every dollar invested in employee wellness (Toomey 2006, p. 13). † Of course, these benefits can be realized anywhere in the world. In the United Kingdom, three quarters of a million workers are known to take time off work each year due to work-related illnesses (Firman 2006). These illnesses are further known to cost businesses as much as ten percent of their total payroll costs. Indeed, by promoting health in the workplace and preventing illnesses through effective health programmes in the organisation, absenteeism and costs related to the same may be drastically lowered. The money that is saved thus may be used by the organisation to update its equipment; on marketing; as well for the provision of training to employees. Organisations may also be able to increase the number of employees with the cost savings realized through effective health programmes (Jim 2006). Indeed, the benefits of health management programmes in the organisation are aplenty. Healthy employees add value to the organisation. The care shown by employers can boost the morale of the workers. The entire organisation benefits from this, as it becomes more efficient with a healthy and therefore productive workforce. REFERENCES Firman, C. 16. 11. 2006 â€Å"Health Matters. † Motor Transport available at EBSCO Host database. Jim, N. 9. 6. 2006 â€Å"Health and Safety Assessments Cut Costs and Boost Productivity. † Electronics Weekly 2256 available at EBSCO Host database. Lowe, G. S. 2004 â€Å"Healthy Workplace Strategies: Creating Change and Achieving Results. † The Graham Lowe Group available at http://www. grahamlowe. ca/documents/93/Hlthy%20wkpl%20strategies%20report. pdf. Poor Health 2006: â€Å"Poor Health Leads to a Humorless, Angrier Workforce† article in Occupational Health (Jun 2006), 58(6) available at EBSCO Host database. Toomey, D. 18. 12. 2006 â€Å"Wellness and Prevention Programs Generate Healthy Outcomes. † Executive Health & Wellness Guide available at EBSCO Host database. Benefits of a Healthy Workforce. (2016, Jul 29). We have essays on the following topics that may be of interest to you

Saturday, October 19, 2019

What is commonly understood by the term organisational citizenship Essay

What is commonly understood by the term organisational citizenship What does research suggest may be some of the reasons why some employees do not engage in organisational citizenship - Essay Example This essay is an attempt to analyse the term and its connotation along with the reasons why some employees deliberately do not exhibit this behaviour. Organisation Citizenship is a form of behaviour exhibited by employees who work in an organisation and identify themselves with that particular organisation. The feeling of organisational citizenship develops among the employees with time as the work in the organisation and it contributes to the effective performance of the employees. In other words the employees develop a sense of belongingness or citizenship with the organisation they work for and would lead to various voluntary activities for the benefit of the organisation which otherwise would not have been undertaken by them. The sense of belonging in turn would also lead to higher expectations of the employees in the sense that they would like to know that the organisation has succeeded because of their hard work and dedication towards the company. Thus in short the voluntary support of the employees and the positive behaviour of employees towards the organisation and its success can be referred to as organisation citizenship behaviour (Lee and Allen, 2002, p. 132). In other words, when the employees deliver beyond the job role that they have been assigned by the organisation and which would contribute to the facilitation of the performance of the organisation, such behaviour is found to be existing (Lambert, 2006, pp. 503-525). Most of the researchers are of the opinion that the deviation of the employees from standard organisation citizenship behaviour cannot be attributed to their personality traits solely. Apart from the personality trait the organisation culture and the environment in which the person is working have an effect on the citizenship behaviour of employees. A number of cases of gender discrimination have been noticed in case of the OCB. Extensive research on